TV Quote of the Day (‘Seinfeld,’ As George Doesn’t Take Well to a Breakup)

[George’s girlfriend Gwen announces she’s breaking up with him. George suspects it’s because she saw him on TV pigging out on a hot-fudge sundae at a tennis game.]

Gwen [played by Linda Kash] [disputing his reasoning]: “It's not you. It's me.”

George Costanza [played by Jason Alexander]: “You're giving me the ‘it's not you, it’s me’ routine? I invented ‘It’s not you, it’s me.’ Nobody tells me it’s them, not me. If it’s anybody, it’s me.”

Gwen [fast tiring of this]: “All right, George, it's you.”

George: “You're damn right it's me!”—Seinfeld, Season 5, Episode 6, "The Lip Reader,” original air date Oct. 28, 1993, teleplay by Carol Leifer, directed by Tom Cherones

 

Song Lyric of the Day (Green Day, on Time and Making 'The Best of This Test’)

“Time grabs you by the wrist
Directs you where to go
So make the best of this test
And don't ask why.”— Billie Joe Armstrong, "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," performed by alternative-rock band Green Day from its album Nimrod (1997)
 
The image accompanying this post, of Green Day performing in Caracas, Venezuela in October 2010, was posted May 12, 2012, by Ed Vill.

Quote of the Day (Edna St. Vincent Millay, on Love, Lies and Loss)

“I shall forget you presently, my dear,
So make the most of this, your little day,
Your little month, your little half a year
Ere I forget, or die, or move away,
And we are done forever; by and by
I shall forget you, as I said, but now,
If you entreat me with your loveliest lie
I will protest you with my favorite vow.”—Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), “Sonnet IV,” in A Few Figs from Thistles: Poems and Sonnets (1922)

Born 130 years ago today in Rockport, Maine, Edna St. Vincent Millay did not resort to modernist experimentation. But, as seen here, her verses—particularly those of the first two decades of her career—are skillfully written and emotionally accessible. In her frankness about intimate subject matter, she opened the way for the more confessional poets of the post-WWII era.

TV Quote of the Day (‘New Girl,’ With the Prelude to Jess’ Breakup)

[First lines, facing camera]

Jessica Day [played by Zooey Deschanel]: “So you know in horror movies when the girl's like: ‘Oh, my God, there's something in the basement. Let me just run down there in my underwear and see what's going on.’ And you're like, ‘What is your problem? Call the police.’ She's like, ‘Okay,’ but it's too late because she's getting murdered? Well, my story's kind of like that.”— New Girl, Season 1, “Pilot,” original air date Sept. 20, 2011, teleplay by Elizabeth Meriwether, directed by Jake Kasdan

I never watched New Girl during its original run, but in the last couple of weeks, I have watched several episodes from its first and second seasons on DVD. I’m still not sure the direction in which the sitcom would eventually take off. 

But the scene that follows this amusing intro by the titular character, Jess Day—i.e., doing an impromptu striptease for her boyfriend, only to find he’s been fooling around with someone else—is both excruciating and hysterically funny. (Indeed, part of the reason why it’s hilarious is because it’s excruciating.) 

A scene like this, by itself, is enough to make an audience come back, even if subsequent episodes might be a bit disappointing, because of the hope that if magic can occur once, it can be summoned once again.