Quote of the Day (Henry David Thoreau, on What ‘All Men Want’)

“All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be."— American essayist, naturalist and poet Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Walden (1854)

TV Quote of the Day (‘Frasier,’ As Niles Lists His Wife Maris’s Food Restrictions)

Niles Crane [played by David Hyde Pierce]: “Just remember that she can't have shellfish... poultry, red meat, saturated fats, nitrates, wheat, starch, sulfites, MSG, or dairy. Did I say nuts?”

Frasier Crane [played by Kelsey Grammer] [smirking]: “Oh, I think that's implied.” —Frasier, Season 1, Episode 17, “A Mid-Winter Night's Dream,” original air date Feb. 10, 1994, teleplay by Chuck Ranberg and Anne Flett-Giordano, directed by David Lee

Quote of the Day (Adam Garfinkle, on How American Politics Became Dysfunctional)

“Changes in the underlying ratio of labor and capital inputs in the American political economy, thanks to globalization and automation, have advantaged the political power of capital—especially finance capital even as they have disrupted the foundation of our politics and made all but obsolete our inherited ideological/explanatory templates.  This has happened at the same time that our political institutions have ossified from within, especially on the bureaucratic/administrative level, a development abetted in no small part by the accumulated distortions of interest-group, rentier politics in an increasingly top-heavy, unbalanced Federal system. That dysfunction, mightily exacerbated by the organized lobbying power of corporate interests, has given shape to the present wave of plutocracy washing over us. The depredations of plutocracy, in turn, double back in such a way as to render us unable to properly understand or deal with the structural economic changes we face, or to repair our political institutions. In a nutshell, that—all that together—is what’s wrong.”—American historian, political scientist, and editor Adam Garfinkle, “Broken: A Primer on American Political Disorder,” The American Interest, Winter (January/February) 2013

Quote of the Day (Anne Applebaum, on How a Good History Book ‘Defeats Expectations’)

"As a historian, you're often at war with clichés, which are something similar to expectations. People have stereotyped images of the past; I seek to make them more complicated. In that sense, any good history book defeats expectations because it offers a richer tapestry, a more complicated version of what most people think happened. History can also alter how we think about the future. Although history does not provide a road map of what to expect in the future, it does tell you what kinds of situations should cause concern.”—Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist Anne Applebaum quoted in “Soapbox: The Columnists; WSJ. Asks Six Luminaries To Weigh in on Single Topic; This Month: Expectations,” WSJ. Magazine, Nov. 27, 2017

The image of Anne Applebaum that accompanies this post was taken on Oct. 15, 2024, by Mateusz Skwarczek.

Quote of the Day (Michael Kinsley, on Washington-Style ‘Branding’ and ‘Rebranding’)

“ ‘Branding’ as a general term for the way you present yourself to the world has become a popular usage. It implies that, if people see you for what you really are, that’s a failure on your part. Success is when people see you as what you wish you were. Or as what you need to be, or seem to be, or need to seem to be, to suit the exigencies of the moment. Of course Washington and the media didn't invent branding or rebranding. The term is imported from the commercial world. [In Washington], rebranding itself is widely tolerated, but the word ‘rebranding’ is still something a politician would not choose to have attached to his name. Bad for the brand.”— American political commentator and editor Michael Kinsley, “How Top Politicians Rebrand Themselves,” Vanity Fair, June 2014

Kinsley was correct: The notion of branding did indeed derive from the commercial world, and there were portions even there where it took a while to take root. (It was considered quite novel three decades ago when I worked for a not-for-profit organization that served the real estate industry when several developers who had just gone public began to brand their properties in an effort to increase their value.)

In mid-2014, Kinsley's peg to consider this idea was Eric Cantor, a House Majority Whip running into turbulence in his campaign to retain his Congressional seat. The Republican congressman’s attempts to brand his primary challenger a liberal—and to soften the views of constituents who felt he himself had become arrogant and was taking them for granted—both failed, in what was called one of the most stunning electoral upsets in memory.

Wouldn’t you know that it took someone from the “commercial world" to show Capitol Hill grandees the right way to “brand.” A journalist friend of mine recounted how, during an interview with Donald Trump, the then-New York developer, asked for how he had become so successful, responded, “It’s the Trump brand.” That phrase ended up repeated so often in the interview, my friend said, that he was sick of it by the time the talk was over.

Much to the astonishment of local journalists who had been following Trump’s career from its early days, he followed the path to the White House through the creation of a spurious “brand” on his “reality” show The Apprentice: a businessman so phenomenally rich that he would never be tempted to steal or grift.

Little could these non-New York voters have imagined that, once re-elected to the White House, Trump would try to rebrand several capital institutions after himself. This renaming and construction phase is so manic that he is beginning to resemble some of the more debauched, egocentric Roman emperors.

Simultaneously, Trump began to target GOP candidates, large and small, as part of his brand. What voters face now, like it or not, is an organization committed not to conservative principles as such, but to Trump.

The question that scares the GOP now, a couple of weeks before the midterm elections, is whether the President has pushed his branding campaign too aggressively: too fast, and on too many fronts.

They wonder if too many of these races have become unnecessary toss-ups, with voters resembling a work colleague of mine who said he was delighted that a property of one developer had added that company’s moniker to its own: “Great! Now I’ll know to avoid it from now on.”

Now eighty years old, Trump should not by rights be able to “rebrand” himself to skeptical voters. But like some combination of Rasputin and Count Dracula, he’s come back from the dead (or undead) too many times before to be counted out now. Democrats would be making a colossal mistake if they become overconfident of their chances.

Quote of the Day (Mike Ditka, on God, Human Anatomy, and Sports)

“If God had wanted man to play soccer, he wouldn't have given us arms.”—National Football League Hall of Fame player, coach, commercial pitchman, and Chicago hero Mike Ditka (1939-2026), quoted by Jason Gay, “Mike Ditka: Da Farewell to Da Coach,” The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 10-11, 2026

(The image accompanying this post, of Ditka catching a pass as an end for the University of Pittsburgh football team in 1960, was originally printed in The Owl, the 1961 student yearbook of the University of Pittsburgh.)

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Dr. Michael Chan, on Our ‘Strange and Dangerous Age’)

“We are in a strange and dangerous age. It is an age of certainty, and we have two myths we have to choose from — triumph or transgression, glory or shame, a grand tree or a weed to be plucked out. We are told we have to pledge to one side or the other or this election will be a Flight 93 election — the plane will go down.”—Dr. Michael Chan, executive director for faith and learning at Concordia College, address at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York, July 12, 2026, quoted by Mary Lee Talbot, “Quality of Our Future Depends on the Quality of Our Memory, Says Michael Chan,” The Chautauquan Daily, July 13, 2026