who can you truss? i'd walk a mile for a camel

source

EDWARD MARSH and CHRISTOPHER HASSALL, Ambrosia and Small Beer. NY: Harcourt Brace. 1965—

A soldier up for medical exam proved to have been wearing a truss for the past 6 years, and was classified as P. E. or Permanently Exempt. On his way out he gave this news to his pal, who immediately asked for the loan of the truss, which was granted. The examiner asked how long he had been wearing it, and he said “Six years," whereupon he was classified as M.E. "What's that?” he asked. "Middle East." “How can I go to the Middle East when I've been wearing a truss for 6 years?" “If you can wear a truss for 6 years upside-down, you can jolly well ride a camel for 6 months."

cockroaches in the pentagon / estimated number

Source

LEWIS H. LAPHAM, et al., The Harper’s Index Book (New York : Henry Holt, 1986)—

Percentage of Americans who never read books: 45. Estimated number of cockroaches in the Pentagon : 2,000,000. Percentage of Americans who say they don’t know how they could get along without Scotch tape: 46. Number of plastic pink flamingos sold in the US in 1985: 450,000.

Henry Mayer's WWI Pasteboard Charlemagnes

Here are two views of a single illustration, created by Hy Mayer (aka Henry Mayer) and published in Puck (19 September 1914), vol 76 no 1959, pp. 12-13. It was accompanied by a text about the outbreak of World War I, titled “The Pasteboard Charlemagnes by Benjamin De Casseres. 

Mayer’s illustration, titled “Militarism: From the Craddle to the Grave,” is an upsidedown double image. As shown here, it appears to be the image of a child when viewed upright, but turned upsidedown, it looks like a German helmet with a human skull inside.