Quote of the Day (Joseph Addison, on Beauty)

“There is nothing that makes its way more directly to the Soul than Beauty, which immediately diffuses a secret satisfaction and complacency through the imagination, and gives a finishing to any thing that is Great or Uncommon.” —English essayist and playwright Joseph Addison (1672-1719), Spectator 412, June 23, 1712

Quote of the Day (Ken Burns, on Leadership)

“Leadership is humility and generosity squared.”—American documentarian Ken Burns, “Keynote Address to Brandeis University's 2024 Graduates,” May 20, 2024

Spiritual Quote of the Day (St. John Climacus, on Repentance, ‘The Daughter of Hope’)

“Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility. Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is self condemning reflection, and carefree self-care. Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair. A penitent is an undisgraced convict. Repentance is reconciliation with the Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins. Repentance is purification of conscience.”— Christian monk St. John Climacus (?-649 AD), The Ladder of Divine Ascent (ca. 600 AD), translated by Archimandrite Lazarus Moore (1959)

The image accompanying this post, The Return of the Prodigal Son, was created by Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt (1606-1669) from 1661 to 1668. That parable is one of the greatest biblical stories of repentance, and a useful one to keep in mind in this Lenten season.

Rembrandt's painting is one of the finest of his career. Interestingly, we never see the face of the prodigal, but of the forgiving father--and, off to the side, the son who never went away and is glowering now with resentment over his parent's perceived favoritism.

Quote of the Day (Janet Malcolm, on Biographies)

“The narratives called biographies pale and shrink in the face of the disorderly actuality that is a life."—Czech-born American journalist Janet Malcolm (1934-2021), The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes (1994)

The image accompanying this post of Janet Malcolm was taken Mar. 18, 2013, at the Kelly Writers House in the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.  

Joke of the Day (Paula Poundstone, on Kids Being Asked What They Want to be When They Grow Up)

“The reason adults are always asking children what they want to be when they grow up is that they're looking for ideas.”—American stand-up comic Paula Poundstone quoted by Deborah Stea, “Off the Shelf: How to Get a Job, Even One That Suits Your Psyche,” The New York Times, Dec. 3, 1995

Quote of the Day (Steven Yeun, on ‘Compassion and Grace’)

“Judgment and shame is a lonely place, but compassion and grace is where we can all meet.”—American actor Steven Yeun quoted by Jonathan Abrams, “Steven Yeun Wins His First Emmy,” The New York Times, Jan. 15, 2024

The image accompanying this post, of Steven Yeun speaking on The Walking Dead, at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International in that city’s convention center, was taken July 10, 2015, by Gage Skidmore of Peoria, AZ.

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Margery Kempe, Speaking Truth to Clerical and Temporal Power)

“Sir, I also hear it said that you are a wicked man. And if you are as wicked as people say, you will never get to heaven, unless you amend while you are here.”—English medieval housewife, businesswoman, pilgrim and visionary Margery Kempe (c. 1373 – after 1438), answering the Archbishop of York (who had just told her “I hear it said that you are a very wicked woman”), in The Book of Margery Kempe (ca. 1436), translated by B. A. Windeatt (1985)

The climax of the Oscar-nominated movie Conclave occurs when Sister Agnes (played by Isabella Rossellini) makes a crucial revelation before the College of Cardinals. “Although we sisters are supposed to be invisible, God has nevertheless given us eyes and ears,” she says.

The scene, like the larger movie, is a challenge to the patriarchy that has dominated the Roman Catholic Church for centuries—and, in its way, an echo of the above earlier pointed rebuke by Margery Kempe, who wrote (in the third person) what is believed to be the earliest surviving autobiography in English.

The current century has found the Church in a rolling crisis, its most tumultuous since the Reformation—its religious orders depopulating, its churches emptying, its coffers drained by clerical abuse settlements, and its counsels often unheeded. 

Even aside from a failure to take women into its hierarchy, the Church is finally paying the price for the alternating carping and obliviousness that its worst male leaders have displayed toward the females in their pews, even as they covered up the worst offenses of each other.

At the next papal conclave, however soon that occurs, the assembled cardinals will do far more than pick their next leader. They will also choose the fundamental direction of the Church, which, for its own survival, must be a belated attempt to do what Margery Kempe urged centuries ago: “amend while you are here.”

More widely, Kempe's rejoinder applies to the patriarchy that exists in governments around the world. Substitute "nasty woman" for "wicked woman" and the archbishop's fit of pique will sound all too familiar to citizens of the United States these last eight years.

Quote of the Day (Demi Moore, on Her Oscar-Nominated Role in ‘The Substance’)

“Why it was easy for me to do this is because I don’t feel I am her. This is a woman who has no family — she’s dedicated her entire life to her career, and when that’s taken, what does she have? And so, in a way, I had enough separation from her, and at the same time, a deep, internal connection to the pain that she was experiencing, the rejection that she felt. I knew it would be challenging, but potentially a really important exploration of the issue.”—American actress Demi Moore, on her role in the film The Substance, quoted by Lulu Garcia-Navarro, “The Interview: Demi Moore Is Done With the Male Gaze,” The New York Times Magazine, Sept. 22, 2024

With recent Critics Choice, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards, Demi Moore seems well-positioned to take home a Best Actress statuette at tomorrow night’s Oscar ceremony. It’s a far cry from her career from the Eighties through the early aughts, when her scant critical acclaim was signaled by the five “Razzies” “honoring” the worst in contemporary cinema in the prior year.

The Substance is by no stretch of the imagination cheerful, and, after seeing the movie a few weeks ago, I found a bit of trivia disclosed before the movie (36,000 gallons of fake blood for just one scene) a severe understatement of its grossness and goriness.

But give Moore props for taking on such a risky role—one that requires her, at age 62, not only to disrobe even more than she did, onscreen and on a Vanity Fair cover, three decades ago, but also to channel a career’s worth of frustration and rage over the male gaze.

The Substance itself has been far better received than another dystopian horror film that it resembles in several fascinating ways, Seconds. Moreover, the star of that 1966 sci-fi shocker, Rock Hudson, didn’t win anything like Ms. Moore’s plaudits. The relative reception of these two deeply downbeat dramas says much about the changing expectations of audiences and critics.

The resemblances between the two movies are multiple and, at times, uncanny, including:

*an aging middle-aged protagonist at a crossroads, profoundly dissatisfied and at a dead end in life;

*a mysterious stranger who tells the protagonist about the possibility of being a younger self;

*the stranger follows up on the stranger’s tip by going to a secretive organization that warns that, though the rewards of the new life are amazing, certain instructions must be followed—or else;

*the bodily transformation that follows is as bloody and disgusting as the big screen permits;

*despite the rewards reaped from the new life, the protagonist still feels empty inside—in fact, worse;

*the protagonist tries to end this experiment in the fountain of youth;

*that attempt is—well, no spoilers!

The greater success enjoyed by The Substance might have something to do with its specific application to Hollywood. Many actresses—and, I suspect, even some male matinee idols—surely identify with Moore’s “Elisabeth,” a former box-office star who loses her most recent gig as a TV fitness guru because of the crime of turning 50.

Comic relief, such as it is, comes from the caricature of the agist, sexist TV exec (played by Dennis Quaid) who fires Elisabeth and, after a much-hyped search, hires as her replacement her second, transformed self, “Sue” (played by Margaret Qualley).

No such opportunity for laughs exists in Seconds, and its put-upon central character, Arthur Hamilton, a Scarsdale banking executive who laments his lost youth and dream of an artistic life, hits squarely at mainstream suburban life in mid-Sixties America.

Hudson, believing he could not realistically play both Arthur and the younger self he becomes through plastic surgery, Tony Wilson, lobbied director John Frankenheimer to split the parts among himself and an older actor (who ended up being John Randolph).

Even so, Hudson regarded his part as complex and challenging enough that he could pivot away from the Douglas Sirk melodramas and Doris Day rom-coms that had boosted him to the upper echelon of Hollywood leading men.

The role was a career changer, all right—almost a career ender. Moviegoers stayed away from this film with such grim subject matter. It was even greeted with hostility by European critics at the Cannes Film Festival, who were more open to unusual subject content than their American counterparts.

It was bad enough that Hudson fell off his box-office perch and that he would have to resort to TV (McMillan and Wife) to revive his career. But, unlike Ms. Moore, he was unable to distance himself sufficiently from his character.

At one point, perhaps as a gay man, finding the role of a character filled with buried emotions to be too close to home, he went into an unplanned crying jag in one scene. Frankenheimer had to close the set to allow Hudson to regain his composure.

Several decades later, Seconds would be regarded as prophecy—a cult classic not just anticipating the counterculture that bloomed the following year, but also the false hope of spiritual and physical rejuvenation nourished by the baby boom generation (depicted so graphically in an actual rhinoplasty operation that the cameraman fainted).

Frankenheimer wryly observed that his paranoid thriller was "the only movie, really, that's ever gone from failure to classic without ever having been a success." But it remains so unrelentingly bleak that many viewers (including myself) have found the going so rough that we couldn't make it all the way through. 

In that sense, if not its box-office performance and Hollywood’s possible highest honor for Ms. Moore, The Substance shares much in common with this prior bit of disturbing cinematic fare.

Quote of the Day (Rich Cohen, on Pop Rocks and the Golden Age of ‘Weird Candy’)

“Weird candy is what we had instead of the Internet. It was a golden age, with Red Hots, Everlasting Gobstoppers, Bubblicious and Freshen Up, a gel infused gum that exploded in your mouth. Pop Rocks were akin to The Sex Pistols or The Clash: loud, industrial, meant for youth and possibly dangerous.”—American nonfiction writer and columnist Rich Cohen, “Back When: No, Pop Rocks Did Not Kill Mikey From the Life Cereal Ad,” The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 15-16, 2025

I am nearly a decade older than Rich Cohen, so I missed Pop Rocks—introduced 50 years ago—and the other candy that made such an impression on his childhood.

It’s odd, but every age cohort seems to have its own urban legend about someone who was supposed to have died but did not. Mr. Cohen had John Gilchrist, the child actor who played “Mikey” in those ubiquitous 1970s commercials for Life cereals.

My age group had to sort through false rumors that child actors Jerry Mathers and Jay North had been killed in Vietnam, and that Beatle Paul McCartney died in 1966, only to be replaced by a lookalike.

Nowadays, with social media and at least one alleged cable “news” network, urban legends spread more rapidly—and sometimes with hideous consequences. Nine years ago, Edgar Maddison Welch, after hearing Alex Jones trumpet the absurd “Pizzagate” conspiracy, traveled from North Carolina and, upon reaching the DC establishment at the center of Jones’ tales, fired shots in the Comet Ping Pong restaurant.

In any case, I’m glad I didn’t try Pop Rocks or any of the other “weird candy” Cohen recalls. Over the years, I’m sure they have been the bane of many dentists!

Quote of the Day (Frederick Douglass, on the Right of Migration)

“There are such things in the world as human rights. They rest upon no conventional foundation, but are external, universal, and indestructible. Among these, is the right of locomotion; the right of migration; the right which belongs to no particular race, but belongs alike to all and to all alike. It is the right you assert by staying here, and your fathers asserted by coming here. It is this great right that I assert for the Chinese and Japanese, and for all other varieties of men equally with yourselves, now and forever. I know of no rights of race superior to the rights of humanity, and when there is a supposed conflict between human and national rights, it is safe to go to the side of humanity. I have great respect for the blue eyed and light haired races of America. They are a mighty people. In any struggle for the good things of this world they need have no fear. They have no need to doubt that they will get their full share.

“But I reject the arrogant and scornful theory by which they would limit migratory rights, or any other essential human rights to themselves, and which would make them the owners of this great continent to the exclusion of all other races of men. I want a home here not only for the negro, the mulatto and the Latin races; but I want the Asiatic to find a home here in the United States, and feel at home here, both for his sake and for ours. Right wrongs no man…

“And here I hold that a liberal and brotherly welcome to all who are likely to come to the United states, is the only wise policy which this nation can adopt.” —African-American abolitionist, reformer, and memoirist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), “Our Composite Nation,” lecture delivered in the Parker Fraternity Course, Boston, Mass., 1867

I have been looking for the past week for an item I could use related to Black History Month. Little did I know that perhaps the greatest African-American before Martin Luther King Jr., Frederick Douglass, had something pertinent to say not just on freedmen after the Civil War, but would also denounce the arguments in favor of nativism (that “arrogant and scornful theory by which they would limit migratory rights”) that continue to be propagated to this day.

Our current President seems to have forgotten that, as John F. Kennedy noted, we are “a nation of immigrants.” His proposal for a $5 million “gold card” for wealthy buyers, like so much he has done (starting with “Trump bibles”), monetizes something sacred: an immigration system that, for all its faults, still allows the humblest newcomers to dream of something more for themselves and their children.

Trump overlooks any possibility of his idea leading to abuse or unfairness by the wealthy. In fact, he said, he would consider selling the cards to well-heeled Russians: “I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”

Why does that sound so much like what he said back in 2017: that white nationalists rioting in Charlottesville, VA, included “some very fine people”?

Quote of the Day (John Updike, on How ‘Wickedness Was Like Food’)

“Wickedness was like food: once you got started it was hard to stop; the gut expanded to take in more and more.” — American man of letters John Updike (1932-2009), The Witches of Eastwick (1984)

The image accompanying this post comes from the 1987 film adaptation of The Witches of Eastwick, with Jack Nicholson—in a supreme bit of typecasting—as Daryl Van Horne, an audacious, rascally devil.

Quote of the Day (E.B. White, on a Library, ‘A Good Place To Go When You Feel Unhappy’)

“A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people—people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book." — American essayist and children’s book author E.B. White (1899-1985), “Letter to the Children of Troy” (MI), Apr. 14, 1971, in Letters of Note blog

Quote of the Day (Franklin Foer, on Rising Anti-Semitism and Decaying ‘Democratic Habits’)

"The forces arrayed against Jews, on the right and the left, are far more powerful than they were 50 years ago. The surge of anti-Semitism is a symptom of the decay of democratic habits, a leading indicator of rising authoritarianism. When anti-Semitism takes hold, conspiracy theory hardens into conventional wisdom, embedding violence in thought and then in deadly action. A society that holds its Jews at arm's length is likely to be more intent on hunting down scapegoats than addressing underlying defects. Although it is hardly an iron law of history, such societies are prone to decline. England entered a long dark age after expelling its Jews in 1290. Czarist Russia limped toward revolution after the pogroms of the 1880s. If America persists on its current course, it would be the end of the Golden Age not just for the Jews but for the country that nurtured them.”—American journalist Franklin Foer, “The End of the Golden Age,” The Atlantic, April 2024

(The image accompanying this post, of Franklin Foer at Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington, DC, was taken Sept. 17, 2023, by Sdkb.)

Joke of the Day (Wendy Liebman, on Dating a Doctor)

“I dated a doctor once. Ear, nose, throat and ankle. I didn’t know how to break up with him, so I just ate an apple a day.” —Stand-up comic Wendy Liebman quoted by Melonie Magruder, “Comedy Review,” The Los Angeles Times, Nov. 4, 2009

Quote of the Day (Dr. J, on the Origin of His Flying Dunks)

“There's a sensation associated with flying. For me it started as a kid, in the park, jumping out of swings. Right next to my housing projects we had swings, and they were in a huge sandbox. It was white sand. So when you came home dirty, you had sand on you. There was ultimately a fence out there, and I always worried if I went too far I'd hit the fence. I always found a way to land. In the early days, when I was six, seven, eight, it was like a tuck-and-roll. I got to the point where I could jump out of the swing, land and nail it, like in the Olympics, when they do the vault. Height never bothered me. It was early training, and I didn't even know it.”—NBA Hall of Famer Julius Erving, quoted in Mark Bechtel, “Doctor, Reveal Thyself,” Sports Illustrated, June 17, 2013

At 75 years old—the age he attained yesterday—Julius Erving is a long way from that little kid on the swings. 

But, for those of us lucky enough to behold and gasp at his greatness in the Seventies and Eighties, he remains the prototype for so many electrifying players to follow, including Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Isaiah Thomas, and Dominique Wilkins.

Call him what you like—artist, acrobat, magician—but to see him once with the ball in his hand, torqueing his body midair on the way to the basket, means never forgetting what he meant to so many of us in our youth.

(For a fine summary in different moments in the career of the great small forward who so influenced pro basketball, see this 2008 post from David Friedman’s “20 Second Timeout” blog on “Great Julius Erving Stories.”)

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Book of Psalms, on How ‘Gracious is the Lord, and Righteous’)

“Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
    our God is merciful.
The Lord preserves the simple;
    when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest;
    for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
 
For thou hast delivered my soul from death,
    my eyes from tears,
    my feet from stumbling;
I walk before the Lord
    in the land of the living.
I kept my faith, even when I said,
    'I am greatly afflicted';
I said in my consternation,
    'Men are all a vain hope.'
 
What shall I render to the Lord
    for all his bounty to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
    and call on the name of the Lord.”—Psalm 116: 5-13 (Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition)
 
The image accompanying this post, David Before Saul's Army, was created by the Italian Baroque painter Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734). (Many of the psalms are attributed to King David.)

Quote of the Day (William Shakespeare, on Will, Power, and Appetite)

“Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,
Between whose endless jar justice resides,
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, an universal wolf,
So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce an universal prey,
And last eat up himself.” —English playwright-poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Troilus and Cressida (1609)

Quote of the Day (H.L. Mencken, on ‘A New Fallacy in Politics’)

“[I]t is not the leadership that is old and decorous that fetches [the American], but the leadership that is new and extravagant. He will resist dictation out of the past, but he will follow a new messiah with almost Russian willingness, and into the wildest vagaries of economics, religion, morals and speech. A new fallacy in politics spreads faster in the United States than anywhere else on earth, and so does a new fashion in hats, or a new revelation of God, or a new means of killing time, or a new metaphor or piece of slang.”—American journalist, essayist, and philologist H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), The American Language: An Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States (1919)

Joke of the Day (Tina Fey, on How Her ‘Restless Leg Tour’ Differed From ‘SNL’)

“This really feels just like S.N.L. Except that we will be in bed by 10. And I don’t have to go to a weird Tuesday night dinner with Lorne Michaels and Rudy Giuliani.” — American actress, comedian, writer, and producer Tina Fey, on her “Restless Leg Tour” with Amy Poehler,  quoted by Jason Zinoman, “Between Friends, an Endless Barrage of Jokes,” The New York Times, Feb. 10, 2024

I wonder how late Fey and Poehler had to stay up in the week before the SNL 50^th anniversary special?

Well, at least she didn’t have to attend dinner with the one-time “America’s Mayor.” Which brings up the question: which was weirder—a dinner conversation with Giuliani or the fact that so many once did consider him “America’s Mayor”?

(The image accompanying this post, showing Amy Poehler and Tina Fey at the premiere of Baby Mama in New York City at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, was taken Apr. 23, 2008, by David Shankbone.)

Quote of the Day (Melissa Rauch, on Malls and ‘The Jersey Girl in Me’)

“The funny thing is, I have zero sense of direction. I’m terrible with maps. But drop me in a mall anywhere, and the Jersey girl in me is activated. I can find the food court, I can find an exit, I can find the Claire’s boutique, I can find the Wetzel’s Pretzels in no time.”—American comic actress Melissa Rauch quoted by Kathryn Shattuck, “That’s Melissa Rauch Crying One Seat Over,” The New York Times, Feb. 9, 2025

The image accompanying this post, of Melissa Rauch at the PaleyFest 2013 for The Big Bang Theory, was taken Mar. 13, 2013, by Dominic D.

Quote of the Day (William Leuchtenburg, on ‘A Chief Executive With This Sort of Temperament’)

“We really have no precedent for a chief executive with this sort of temperament – so careless about his statements, so quick to take offense. There is concern not just here at home but abroad, as I know from letters I’m getting from historians particularly in Europe. There is great alarm about how irresponsible the man seems.”—American Presidential historian William Leuchtenburg (1922-2025), on Donald Trump after the first two weeks of his first term, quoted by Joe Killian, “NC Political, Historical Experts Reflect on Trump Presidency,” NC Newsline, Feb. 2, 2017

It is so much worse now.

TV Quote of the Day (‘Seinfeld,’ on a Smoking Side Effect)

[Kramer barges into Jackie Chiles’ law office.]

Kramer [played by Michael Richards]: “Jackie, we gotta talk.”

Jackie Chiles [played by Phil Morris]: [pushing him out the door] “No way, Kramer. You've brought nothing but a mountain of misfortune and humiliation. Now get out.”

Kramer: “But Jackie—"

Jackie: “I said out.”

Kramer: “Jackie, I think I got a case against the tobacco companies.”

Jackie [stopping short]: “The who?”

Kramer: “The tobacco companies.”

Jackie [smiling, thinking of the possibilities]: “I've been wanting a piece of them for years….Did that cigarette warning label mention anything about damage to your appearance?”

Kramer: “No, it didn't say anything.”

Jackie: “So you're a victim. Now your face is shallow, unattractive, disgusting.”

Kramer: “So Jackie, do you think we got a case?”

Jackie [positively beaming]: “Your face is my case.”—Seinfeld, Season 8, Episode 9, “The Abstinence,” original air date Nov. 21, 1996, teleplay by Steve Koren, directed by Andy Ackerman

Quote of the Day (E. L. Doctorow, on Song Standards)

“With Tin Pan Alley, songs became a widely distributed product. The standards that emerged then released us into a flow of imagery that whirls us through our decades, our eras, our changing landscape. When a song is a standard, it can reproduce itself from one of its constituent parts. If you merely recite the words, you will hear the melody. Hum the melody and the words will articulate themselves in your mind. That is an unusual self-referential power. Standards from every period of our lives remain cross-indexed in our brains to be called up in whole, or in part, or, in fact, to come to mind unbidden. Nothing else can as suddenly and poignantly evoke the look, the feel, the smell of times past.”—American novelist and editor E. L. Doctorow (1931-2015), “Standards,” Harper’s Magazine, November 1991

Years ago, I heard a “standard” defined as a song performed by Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald. Surely, E. L. Doctorow had the likes of the Gershwins, Rodgers, Hart, Hammerstein, Mercer, Arlen, and Porter in mind—the tunes that Ms. Fitzgerald placed in her classic “Songbook” LPs—when he wrote the above.

Judging from the kinds of pop and jazz tunes that the novelist referenced in works like Ragtime and City of God, I doubt that his frame of reference for “standard” encompassed rock ‘n’ roll.

But, as I listened to the SNL 50^th anniversary show the other day, I heard two songs that would make that list—Paul Simon’s “Homeward Bound” and the “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End” medley by Paul McCartney (pictured, of course).

In the documentary Get Back, a young McCartney experiments with different lyrics for the latter tune, telling Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr, when he has it refined, that this new song for the 1969 Abbey Road LP "should be ready for a Songs For Swinging Lovers album soon."

The joke has long since been fulfilled for baby boomers like myself, with artists such as Phil Collins, Steven Tyler, Richard Sambora, Neil Diamond, Jennifer Hudson, and Dua Lipa offering cover versions.

And so, as I listened to McCartney—a slight crack now developed in one of the greatest vocalists of his generation—perform the song to help close out the SNL special (as seen in this YouTube clip), it felt unbearably poignant to me, and, I suspect, so many of the millions listening worldwide.

It summoned more than a half-century of experience, conveying a wistful hope, amid a new time of turbulence—for all we know, perhaps even more convulsive than the Sixties decade in which the Beatles recorded it—that there might yet be “a way to get back homeward.”

Quote of the Day (George Washington, on Disunity and ‘Arbitrary Power’)

“It is only in our United Character, as an Empire, that our Independance is acknowledged, that our power can be regarded or our Credit supported among foreign Nations—the Treaties of the European Powers with the United States of America will have no validity on a dissolution of the Union. We shall be left nearly in a State of Nature, or we may find by our own unhappy experience, that there is a natural and necessary progression from the extreme of Anarchy to the extreme of Tyranny, and that arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of Liberty abused to Licentiousness.”—George Washington (1732-1799), commander in chief of the Continental Army and first President of the United States, “Circular to the States,” June 8-21, 1783, on the National Archives’ “Founders Online” Website

He certainly had his faults, but George Washington has long held an honored place in this country’s history for his vision, wisdom, and integrity. 

The above quote demonstrates why, as does his example of renouncing power and returning to private life when he could easily have become a dictator.

Like many Americans, I have taken for granted that important documents like the above source from our nation’s past would not only be preserved but disseminated in digital form for all of us to ponder.

The way things are going, who knows what will be maintained anymore? Oh, you hadn’t heard that the Presidential administration that came to power in January is forcing out the top leadership at the National Archives?

This is as good a time as any to remember George Orwell’s warning about history in 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”

Quote of the Day (Shirley Chisholm, on Morality and Profit)

“When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.”—Shirley Chisholm (1924-2005), U.S. Representative (D-NY), Presidential candidate and civil-rights activist, in Unbought and Unbossed (1970)

The image accompanying this post, of Rep. Shirley Chisholm announcing her Presidential candidacy, was taken Jan. 25, 1972, by Thomas J. O'Halloran of U.S. News and World Reports.

Spiritual Quote of the Day (Reinhold Niebuhr, on How Envy and Fear Produce Hatred)

“The irresponsibility which power creates corrupts judgment and accentuates the natural tendency toward selfish conduct. Meanwhile the special privileges which the powerful always claim for themselves excite the envy, as their power prompts the fear, of those who deal with them. When envy and fear are compounded they produce hatred. If this hatred in the hearts of the weak is frustrated for a time by their impotence, it usually united them into a confederacy of power in the end.”—American Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), “Perils of American Power,” originally published in The Atlantic Monthly, January 1932, reprinted in The American Idea: The Best of “The Atlantic Monthly” (2007)

Quote of the Day (Chevy Chase, on ‘SNL’ Producer Lorne Michaels)

“Frankly, I always felt back then that I was smarter than him, that I was really the guy who got the show going, not Lorne."—Chevy Chase, writer and original “Not Ready for Prime Time” cast member, on Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels (pictured, in 1985), quoted by Susan Morrison, “Profiles: Make Him Laugh,” The New Yorker, Jan. 20, 2025

A couple of weeks ago, I finally got around to watching the docucomedy Saturday Night, about the frantic 90 minutes leading up to the premiere of SNL 50 years ago this October. The film took Hollywood’s usual liberties with the facts, but it rang true in depicting the outsized personalities associated with the show in its incarnation, particularly Chevy Chase.

Now, after Susan Morrison’s profile of the variety show’s producer for most of its history, Lorne Michaels, we know for certain that Chase was not only a jerk back then, but still is one.

I’m not going to get into here how obnoxious the actor-comedian has been over the years. (For that, see how I unloaded on him in my blog post from 11 years ago, on his 70^th birthday.)

But I will say that it hasn’t occurred to Chase that, 49 years after he left the show, early in its second season, it has done just fine without him.

The lion’s share for the credit belongs rightly to Michaels, who—his numerous idiosyncrasies and unique management style notwithstanding—launched the SNL ship and, five years after it almost foundered without him, returned to the helm and put it on its current steady course (as I discussed in this post from four years ago).

For anyone who hasn’t done so yet, I highly recommend reading Ms. Morrison’s retrospective on Michaels before watching the SNL 50^th anniversary special tomorrow night.

Oh, yes—and when Chase makes his scheduled appearance among its galaxy of stars, past and present, try not to give him the raspberry for still being such a whiny, egotistical, idiot, okay?

Flashback, February 1825: Adams Victory in Disputed Presidential Race Launches ‘Corrupt Bargain’ Charge

With none of the three major candidates winning a majority of votes in the Electoral College, the 1824 Presidential election was thrown into the House of Representatives, which awarded the office to John Quincy Adams in February 1825.

I wrote 15 years ago about Adams’ first year in the White House, while surveying his prior distinguished diplomatic career and consequential post-Presidency. But the month in which he fulfilled his ambition for the nation’s highest office was so astonishing—and such an anticipation of how current thinly sourced smear campaigns can poison the electorate—that it deserves exploration in depth.

With the popular James Monroe declining to run for a third term, the stage was set for an electoral free-for-all in 1824, featuring four candidates:

*Secretary of State Adams, the son of another President, John Adams, drew strength from the Northeast, especially New England.

*Andrew Jackson, hero of the Battle of New Orleans, looked to a base mostly confined to the West and South, with residual support in the Northeast.

*Treasury Secretary William Crawford, though the favorite of the Democratic-Republican Party establishment, had suffered a debilitating stroke before the election. Though unable to campaign, he retained support in the Deep South.

*Speaker of the House Henry Clay, who earned the least votes in the Electoral College, ended up exerting the greatest influence on the vote.

The election of 1824 was the first that used the procedures outlined in the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, which called for the House of Representatives to pick among the top three candidates in the Electoral College.

Those three turned out to be Adams, Jackson, and Crawford. Although Jackson led the Electoral College count (and, most historians contend, what would have been the popular vote), he did not have a majority. Crawford’s medical condition effectively made it a two-man race between Adams and Jackson.

Four years before, it took the Missouri Compromise to avert a civil war over slavery. Many of the sectional differences barely muzzled in that agreement were coming to the fore again.

A sense of déjà vu must have particularly gripped Adams: as in the election of 1800 (lost by his father), it would take a New York Federalist to secure the outcome.

But, while Federalist leader Alexander Hamilton had persuaded his side to vote for Thomas Jefferson rather than Aaron Burr in that earlier election on the 36^th House ballot, it took only one ballot—cast by 60-year-old aristocrat Stephen Van Rensselaer III—to settle matters in 1825.

Legend holds that, while agonizing on the House floor over whom to support, Rensselaer noticed a ballot placed in front of him reading, ADAMS. Believing this to be divinely inspired, the congressman voted accordingly.

If only matters had remained that simple…

In an early attempt at creating a unifying “team of rivals” strategy that Abraham Lincoln later used, Adams asked Crawford to remain as treasury secretary and Jackson to take over the War Department. Both declined.

The selection of the third rival, Clay, sparked enormous controversy. The President-elect knew him as a fellow diplomat in the Treaty of Ghent negotiations that ended the War of 1812, and though he didn’t particularly trust the Kentuckian or care for his drinking and gambling, he knew he was able and shared common domestic policy goals.

Adams asked Clay to become Secretary of State after his House of Representatives victory, not before (contrary to what some Websites and podcasts claim to this day).

But, because Clay had swung the vote of his state’s delegation to Adams, and the State Department had served as a steppingstone to the Presidency for all occupants of the office in the prior 25 years, an anonymous letter soon appeared in Philadelphia’s Columbian Observer charging that the two men had engaged in a “corrupt bargain.”

Eventually, the “anonymous” Congressman emerged from the shadows to admit being the source of the allegation: George Kremer of Pennsylvania.

William Russ, Jr.’s article about the incident in the October 1940 issue of the academic journal Pennsylvania History noted not only that Kremer had “sunk into oblivion, even locally,” but that before and after his moment in the spotlight he was “obscure.” That difficulty in remembering him has only increased with time.

In 1825, Kremer, then completing his first term as a congressman, was hardly a disinterested observer, and certainly not a distinguished one. Successive stints as a storekeeper, lawyer, and two-year state legislator had done nothing to disabuse perceptions that he was a backbench time-server, a reputation not helped by his propensity for wearing a leopard-skin coat on the floor of the House. 

The topic that preoccupied Kremer in Congress–eliminating waste and abuse in government—frequently seemed like a pretext to contest initiatives that involved funding internal improvements—the policies that Clay and Adams supported and that Jackson opposed. Kremer, in fact, often anticipated many of the same arguments that MAGA supporters use today against government expenditures.

Challenged by Clay to testify and offer evidence before a congressional committee that would investigate the corruption allegations, however, Kremer backed down, saying at first, bizarrely, that he hadn’t intended to "to charge Mr. Clay with corruption," then refusing to testify on constitutional grounds, before finally crowing, after his three terms in Congress, how proud he was for his part in spreading the news about the scandal.

To be sure, backers of all four major candidates maneuvered furiously for advantage behind the scenes. But no documentary evidence has ever been produced substantiating the claims about Clay and Adams.

Moreover, despite friction between the two men in the past, even a shouting match, there could be little doubt that the House Speaker preferred Adams to Jackson—or, to put it another way, that Clay regarded Jackson as unsuited for the Presidency by virtue of his military background, hair-trigger temper, and distrust of banks.

None of that mattered to Jackson. He could have remembered that Adams, unlike Presidential aspirants like Crawford and Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, had come to his defense in the Monroe Administration over his overly aggressive responses to Native American raids from Florida into Georgia.

But it was easier for him to think he’d lost because of the “corrupt bargain” than because of his incompatibility with Clay. So he not only nursed a grudge against the two men, but encouraged his supporters to regard the new administration as illegitimate—not unlike how Donald Trump convinced his followers that, all evidence to the contrary, the election of 2020 had been stolen from him at the polls.

Like his father, Adams erred in believing that he could govern above the fray, without benefit of political adherents. Jackson would not make the same mistake. (The “spoils system” is one Jacksonian legacy that Trump seems especially eager to copy in his return to the White House.)

When Adams left office four years later, defeated by the man he’d beaten previously, Jackson, he was one of the unhappiest men ever to occupy the White House.

Like his father, John Quincy Adams was so peeved by what transpired in his single term in office that he didn’t stick around for the inauguration of his successor.

Historians still regard Adams as the greatest Secretary of State in our history, and, like Jimmy Carter, he earned great respect for his post-Presidential career (see my prior blog post about his fight against the Jacksonian “gag rule” meant to squelch any opposition to slavery in Congress).

But his term in the White House was virtually unrelieved misery for him and his family, because of the stark mismatch between his lofty policy goals and miniscule political instincts.