Patterns

"Patch and pray" will be compulsory for industry as well as for U.S. housewives, said William L. Batt, chief of the requirements committee of WPB last week. Some patterns of U.S. living now in the making:

Long Grass. After June 30, lawn mower production must stop.

Night Workers. Hartford, Conn, and Los Angeles have both ordered special flags for night war workers' homes. The flags, hung outside homes in the daytime, are supposed to insure traffic quiet for sleeping workers of the "MacArthur Shift."

Stables. St. Louis' Board of Aldermen is pondering a bill to prohibit stables within 100 feet of dwellings. Reason: complaints from people whose neighbors are converting garages into stables.

Wooden Heels. Rubber heels made with maplewood cores for 150 million men's and boys' shoes will save 5,000 tons of rubber annually, estimated B. F. Goodrich Co.

Bicycles. At a New York Police Department auction sale, 1,500 people tried to buy 88 secondhand bicycles, paid as high as $37 apiece for them. But 155 cars had no buyers, were sold for junk.

Horses. At Chicago's public auction of saddle horses fortnight ago, city farmers and suburbanites outbid horse dealers and liverymen to buy 100 horses at an average of $165 each--$35 over last year's price.

Deckle Edges. Either U.S. people have less time to play cards than they used to, or are making old cards last longer, reasoned the Treasury Department, on finding card-deck taxes (11-c- last year, 13-c- this year) in a sharp decline.

Autographs. Hollywood movie studios and stars, burdened for years by the high overhead cost of mailing out 20,000 autographed pictures a week to fans, seized on the photographic paper and chemical shortage as an excuse to discontinue the old custom.

No Mumblety-Peg. Carving sets, pocketknives and manicure implements cannot be made after this month.

Paint Brushes. To make up for missing Oriental pig bristle imports, Devoe & Raynolds Co., Inc. are conducting a national salvage campaign to reclaim old, paint-stiff paintbrushes at prices from 10-c- to $2 a brush, depending on size.

Hot Water. Since May 13, New Yorkers and apartment dwellers in other big cities have had their hot water rationed. (Weeks passed before most of them found this out.) Landlords, under orders to save fuel, have been heating water only between 6:30 and 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. On the way out was one great American institution, hot & cold running water.

Liquid Legs. As silk stockings evaporate from the nation's store counters, cosmeticians are rushing in to challenge rayon. Liquid stockings are on the way. Last week in New York, one salon opened a "Leg-Bar"; showed waterproof, streak-proof, runproof, cosmetic stockings in giant lipstick form (called "leg-sticks"), in spray guns, in cakes, in bottles. Seams are applied with an eyebrow-pencil. To many women the whole thing sounded messy.

Girl Jerks. To replace drafted male soda-fountain dispensers, a Syracuse ice-cream factory has opened a Soda & Sundae School for girls. Graduates must be able to make a "MacArthur Sundae," consisting of vanilla ice cream, blueberry and strawberry sauce, toasted coconut, whipped cream and a small American flag.

Reasonable Facsimiles. Seven honor students of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, received photographs of bronze medals at graduation exercises. After the war they expect to get the real thing.

Scorchers. Quincy, Mass, police handed out 20 warning tickets to traffic violators last week; told them a second offense would mean a court appearance. Their misdemeanor: speeding on a bicycle at more than 10 miles an hour.

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