A journalist's job security takes a hit after he ticks off a U.S. senator in this story based on events in the life of author-columnist H. Allen Smith. The show itself is named after Smith's 1941 book of the same name, which would also inspire Smith's own syndicated column, "The Totem Pole," published for roughly 6 months prior to the publication of his next book, Life in a Putty Factory (1943).