Photo of the Day: Early Voting, Richard Rodda Center, Teaneck NJ

Bergen County, where I live in New Jersey, has 10 locations where early voting is held from October 24 through November 1. I cast my ballot at Richard Rodda Center in Teaneck. No matter what your party affiliation, I hope you’ll exercise this right that others before us have advocated—and even died—for before us. 

Quote of the Day (John Steinbeck, on Good and Evil)

“We have only one story. All novels, all poetry, are built on the neverending contest in ourselves of good and evil. And it occurs to me that evil must constantly respawn, while good, while virtue, is immortal. Vice has always a new fresh young face, while virtue is venerable as nothing else in the world is.” —American novelist and Nobel Literature laureate John Steinbeck (1902-1968), East of Eden (1952)

Four years ago, I wrote this post on Steinbeck’s flawed but compulsively compelling saga of good and evil. Now comes a Netflix adaptation penned by Zoe Kazan (granddaughter of the director of the 1955 film version, Elia Kazan).

Network TV mini-series of the Seventies and Eighties tend to plunge down a rabbit hole of popular memory, and unfortunately the 1981 adaptation of the novel is no exception. I have not seen the new version starring Florence Pugh as Cathy Ames, but it is hard to think of her topping Jane Seymour (pictured) in the role.

I understand that Zoe Kazan has added a scene (not in Steinbeck’s novel) to explain Cathy’s villainy. I’m not against such changes if employed logically and sparingly. But in some cases, evil is so radical that it may be beyond the ability of a “science” like psychiatry to explain it.

 It’s what poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in remarks about Shakespeare’s villain Iago from Othello, termed “motiveless malignity”—the most chilling kind of evil.

Quote of the Day (Ellen Glasgow, on ‘The Change From Baseball to Football’)

“I mean, he notices. He can see the color in the sky, and he knows that the change from baseball to football isn’t the only way to tell when it is autumn. Some men don’t know any more than that about seasons.” —Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and feminist Ellen Glasgow (1873-1945), In This Our Life (1941)

As I write this, fans of the Tampa Bay Rays may be finally about to realize that sports transition, following a third straight loss to the Milwaukee Brewers that leaves them just one game short of elimination from the World Series. Very soon, they’ll have to start watching Tampa Bay Buccaneer contests. (With that squad at 2-5, let’s see how long they can stand watching those.)

Otherwise, the change in the seasons is not as apparent in Florida as it is up here in the Northeast. In fact, a late dear friend told me once that what she missed in her move to the Sunshine State was the turning of the leaves this time of year.

TV Quote of the Day (‘The Office,’ on PowerPoint Presentations)

Dwight Schrute [played by Rainn Wilson]: “PowerPoints are the peacock of the business world: all show, no meat.”—The Office, Season 8, Episode 14, “Special Project,” original air date Feb. 9, 2012, teleplay by Amelie Gillette, directed by David Rogers

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Erasmus of Rotterdam, on Choosing a Leader)

“Statues, gold, and gems contribute no more to state government than they do to a master in steering his ship. That one idea which should concern a prince in ruling, should likewise concern the people in selecting their prince: the public weal, free from all private interests.”—Dutch Renaissance humanist, theologian, and philosopher Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466-1536), The Education of a Christian Prince, translated by Lester K. Born (1936)

One item can be added to the list of three at the start of the above quotation: monuments erected or altered by a leader, often (re)named for himself. Hmm...who could be like that?

Quote of the Day (Sam Mendes, Differentiating Melodrama and Tragedy)

“I think to make a good tragedy you have to constantly threaten melodrama. You could say melodrama is badly written tragedy, and tragedy is well-written melodrama. It’s a very, very thin line. The difference between melodrama and tragedy is in detail and insight.”—English filmmaker and stage director Sir Sam Mendes, quoted by Heidi Julavits, “An Interview With Sam Mendes,” Believer Magazine, Issue Sixty-One, 2009

The image accompanying this post, showing Sam Mendes at during the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Musical opening night at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London UK, was taken on June 25, 2013, by Richard Goldschmidt.

TV Quote of the Day (‘The Andy Griffith Show,’ As Mayberry Drunk Otis Makes an Unexpected Visit to Jail)

Deputy Barney Fife [played by Don Knotts]: “Otis, what are you doin' here? It's only Friday afternoon!”

Otis Campbell [played by Hal Smith]: “I decided to take a long weekend because of the holiday.”

Barney: “What holiday?”

Otis: “I think it's our anniversary.”

Barney: “Why ain't you home with your wife?”

Otis: “What kind of a holiday would that be?”— The Andy Griffith Show, Season 3, Episode 15, “Barney and the Governor,” original air date Jan. 7, 1963, teleplay by Bill Freedman and Henry Sharp, directed by Bob Sweeney