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107

[[red underline]] Joe Rowbottom [[/red underline]] was ribbing me again tonight about the IGE grand piano suite at the Carlton. He said "We've been invited to the IGE suite for the fourth time now but they never can find the key now they're all on their way to the penitentiary!"

Saw a ridiculous looking black, French poodle in the Mayflower lobby after dinner and soon it was escorted out to a cab by its owner, Ruth Chatterton, here playing in Noel Coward's "Private Lives" at the National. Ruth looks old - I guess she is, I'm beginning to look old myself sad to say. Pretty soon I can't pass for 28 any more.

Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, Sept. 2, '42.

[[red underline]] Tom MacLachlan [[/red underline]] in today and much happier because after seeing Maj. MacLeod he feels he'll have his order for 50 0-6-0's in a few days. Tom took us to [[red underline]] luncheon at the Willard [[/red underline]] and he and [[red underline]] Ed Harley [[/red underline]] had a great time [[red underline]] discussing [[/red underline]] the old [[red underline]] basketball racket. Tom [[/red underline]] had a team in [[red underline]] Wilkesbarre [[/red underline]] and he and Ed knew many mutual acquaintances among the players. [[red underline]] Tom also brought down the house, [[/red underline]] with a story of how in the [[red underline]] year the A's won [[/red underline]] the American League pennant, he worked up a basketball team around a [[red underline]] couple of A's including [[/red underline]] Eddie Collins and toured the coal fields cleaning up money. Tom played and was supposed to be a 3rd string A no one ever heard of. Tom also recounted several tales of the popularity of [[red underline]] wakes [[/red underline]] around the coal mines in the old days. Whenever a bunch of men got together in the evening, the first question asked was, [[red underline]] "Where's there a good wake tonight [[/red underline]] ?" They would gather in the kitchen of the deceased's house, eat, drink, tell stories etc. and the survivors