Word: rationalizing
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...snipers, shooting Japs from the third floor of a ruined Manila building, decided to ration their occasional targets. The riflemen lined up by rank, and each man had three shots. If a gunner missed, he lost his next turn. Then an impatient sergeant, losing all restraint, fired an entire Browning automatic rifle clip of 20 shots at one Jap. His outraged mates passed sentence: no shooting at all for three days...
This rosy news left Canadians goggle-eyed. Actually, Reporter Banner's dispatch was just flapdoodle. Cigarets, in plenty, there are. But Canada's butter ration is 6 oz. a week (and there is no margarine). Liquor is severely rationed in every province. In mid-February, coal was so scarce the Government restricted deliveries, gave priorities to householders with seven days' supply or less. Because of anticipated increases in Europe's needs, the Government last week was reportedly considering resumption of meat rationing. The manufacture of evening dresses, double-breasted coats and pleated trousers is prohibited...
Step on It. In Pittsburgh, a local ration board received this letter: "Dear Ration Board: You gave me gas for which to go to work about a month ago. Now I am out of gas on account of having a baby and I want more for the same purposes...
Hard on the Communist heels pressed the Socialists. The Mouvement de Libération Nationale, No. 1 Resistance group and strongly socialist in outlook, put up notices, also addressed to women: "Sign our petition for more food!" MLN strategists thought they had a sure vote-catcher in the "more food" slogan. French daily rations-1,200 calories-were still gravely below the health minimum. Cried the Paris Combat: "On the food problem the Government has succeeded in rallying unanimity . . . against the Government." The Toulouse Patriote reported that housewives were saying, "We ate better when the Germans were here...
Black Markets. Inevitably, trade was brisk in the black markets, where the only challenge to prices was the law of supply & demand. OPA announced the seizure of 50 million red ration coupons (enough points to buy a total week's supply of beef for U.S. civilians), worth an estimated $2.5 million to the counterfeiters. This rich haul surprised no one in OPA or the meat industry. The only secret about the vast nationwide black market in meat is the exact number of millions of animals diverted to this trade each year...