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Mussolini and then Walt got red headed. His voice kept getting louder and louder, climaxing in a declaration that nearly the whole bar could hear that he hoped "they'll mash that god damn bastard clean off his island!" People looked around at us and Walt subsided. He said later he must have been excited because he meant to say "peninsula" instead of "island". St.L. and I laughed about that in our drawing room until we finally turned the lights off. 

Erie, Pa.,
Friday, July 12, 1940.

St.L. and I had told Walt Harris we were having breakfast early whereas Walt wanted to sleep until 8.30 - so when Walt woke us up at 9 AM he certainly had the razz on us. Then St.L told him it was because he couldn't sleep thinking of the terrible fate Walt had condemned Mussolini to the night before. Later in the day Gouldy told me he and Spike wound up in Buffalo last night, spent the night there and came in this morning on the New York Central about the same time we did! So all in all, Walt Harris had the last laugh all the way around.

Whitey informed me he wished we could get someone to build the 50 ton tank - he even tried to get Emmet to say he thought we could handle it - a complete reversal of his attitude of a month ago when I argued my head off with him to no avail. Whitey said he had talked no further with Chet Lang on the Winne statements and didn't intend to. He allowed also I had "led with my chin" when I asked Winne what our function in the picture was. According