Friday, March 22, 2013

FRIDAY FUNNY


       Did you hear the story about the judge who fined himself and gave himself a lecture about doing wrong?  Well, I have been reading old issues (from 1933) of the Van Nuys News these past few days and ran across this funny story.  According to the story, the Judge wasn't paying attention and didn't stop at a stop sign.  He was stopped by the police and given a ticket.  Since, I guess, the judge would be the one to determine the fine on such a traffic violation, he fined himself $2 (probably the going rate at the time) and then an additional $1 (because he as a judge should be a better example). On top of that, he "gave himself a lecture and warned himself never to do that again".  One of his friends verified that indeed he did give himself a lecture and it was a good one.  It was said that by paying his fine, he balanced the books but threw the lecture in "for good measure".

        I am enjoying reading these 1933 issues of the Van Nuys News (courtesy of Ancestry.com). The Van News (and at some points called The Valley News) was the local paper for Van Nuys and the surrounding San Fernando Valley. I remember as a kid reading this paper but it as been a lot of fun reading about life in 1933, the year my mother was born in Van Nuys.

I want to share a few more tidbits from the 1933 Van Nuys News --

1. They weren't big on patient confidentiality -- names were given of the patients in Valley Hospital (not only those giving birth, but those for medical reasons and those having major surgery).  Wonder what the patients thought about this?

2. When people died, the words "summoned", "called" or "answers summons" were used instead of "died" or "death".

3. It was in 1933, that sales tax was introduced in California.  Sales tax was  2 1/2% and part of the economic recovery after the Depression.

4. Reading an article about a new method of vaccinating against chicken pox, I almost fell out of my chair when I read that it was for use on "chickens" not humans"!

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