March 9, 1919. Work and films.

Laborers were found working on the rail footage for the Boston Navy Pear on this Sunday, March 9, 1919.

Elsewhere, in a nation that at that time largely had Sunday off, a slat of newly released films were in the offering.

Carolyn of the Corners was a typical movie drama of the time.  Young Carolyn's parents were lost at sea (or were they?) and she must now go to Main to live with her bachelor uncle.

For those in a lighter mood, "Poor Boob" was a comedy involving a man who was a poor fool, with the name obviously making use of a term whose name has changed.  According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the use of the term in this fashion may predate, maybe, the other use and dates back to around 1909 and is of American origin, although the similar term "booby" dates back to a Spanish word and has a 16th Century origin.  The other term descends likewise from a similar term, according to that source, that goes back to Latin.

E. L. Mencken, the great American satirist, was to spread, but probably not invent, the use found here into the word booboisie, combining boob with bourgeoisie, to mean  the vapid class.  That use is still kicked around by the literatie, who usually attribute it to Mencken (even though he seems to have simply picked it up and spread it) and founds use as recently as 1980 when the Washington Post used it to slam the GOP members of Congress who were in control at that time.  A book about Mencken published in the early 2000s was entitled Scourge of the Boobosie.

I can recall the singular root of that word being used by my mother fairly frequently to describe a fool, but even in my early youth I recall wincing when hearing that as the other usage prevailed.  Having said that, a lawyer a little younger than me used the term to describe fools as late as the 1990s, so I guess it may still be around.  With the general gutter direction of common language and entertainment, I'd be surprised if younger people would make the fool association at all at this time.

For those looking for drama combined with improbable plots and war, When Men Desire involved a plot featuring Americans stranded in Germany, German officers asserting libertine license, pilot boyfriends, female German spies and fortuitous bomb dropping accuracy.