Quote of the Day (Lewis Carroll, As the Cheshire Cat Opines on Directions and Sanity)

[Alice] “was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off.

“The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice. It looked good-natured, she thought: still it had VERY long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect.

“'Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. 'Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. 'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

“'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

“'I don't much care where--' said Alice.

“'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

“'--so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.

“'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.'

“Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. 'What sort of people live about here?'

“'In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, 'lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction,' waving the other paw, 'lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad.'

“'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.

“'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'

“'How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.

“'You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'”— English author, illustrator, mathematician, photographer, and teacher Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)

This past week, a writer’s group submission by a prolific and accomplished playwright, Jim, alluded to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in its own delightful satire. After guffawing all the way through, I hunted down my copy of Lewis Carroll’s classic.

Midway through the Victorian Era, Alice amused readers through its whimsical depiction of eccentric characters (including the anthropomorphic Cheshire Cat). These days, it can strike people like me as a future glimpse at an age—such as ours—when absurdity edges closer to reality.

The image accompanying this post is one of the drawings from the original edition of the book by the English illustrator, graphic humorist and political cartoonist Sir John Tenniel (1820-1914).

Quote of the Day (Manohla Dargis, on ‘Cats,’ a ‘Kitschapalooza’ With a ‘Yoda-Esque Fluff Ball’)

“It is tough to pinpoint when the kitschapalooza called ‘Cats’ reaches its zenith or its nadir, which are one and the same. The choices are legion: Judi Dench gliding in as Old Deuteronomy, a Yoda-esque fluff ball with a huge ruff who brings to mind the Cowardly Lion en route to a drag ball as Queen Elizabeth I; the tap dancing Skimbleshanks (Steven McRae), dressed, unlike most of the furries — in red pants and suspenders, no less — leading a Pied Piper parade; or Taylor Swift, as Bombalurina, executing a joyless burlesque shimmy after descending on the scene astride a crescent moon that ejaculates iridescent catnip.”— Manohla Dargis, “As the Fur Flies, Let’s Blame Eliot,” The New York Times, Dec. 20, 2019

As soon as the studio execs who green-lighted the deal for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical got a load of this first paragraph in Dargis’ review, I don’t think the ad motto “Now and Forever” sprang to their lips. Maybe it was something more like, “Oh, no—a CATastrophe!”

Quote of the Day (T.S. Eliot, on ‘Gus: The Theatre Cat’)

“His coat's very shabby, he's thin as a rake,

And he suffers from palsy that makes his paw shake.

Yet he was, in his youth, quite the smartest of Cats--

But no longer a terror to mice and to rats.

For he isn't the Cat that he was in his prime;

Though his name was quite famous, he says, in its time.

And whenever he joins his friends at their club

(Which takes place at the back of the neighbouring pub)

He loves to regale them, if someone else pays,

With anecdotes drawn from his palmiest days.

For he once was a Star of the highest degree--

He has acted with Irving, he's acted with Tree.

And he likes to relate his success on the Halls,

Where the Gallery once gave him seven cat-calls.”—American-born British poet, essayist, and playwright T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), “Gus: The Theatre Cat,” in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939)

For nearly the past four decades, theatergoers have also recognized these verses in a quite different context: as the lyrics to a song from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats. But I discovered it first in a far different source: the very fine Philip Larkin-edited anthology, The Oxford Book of 20^th-Century English Verse.

The Eliot poems that I know best are about as funny as heart attacks: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” “The Waste Land,” “Ash Wednesday,” and “Four Quartets,” not to mention the verse drama Murder in the Cathedral. So I couldn’t be more excited to discover this distinct change of pace for him.

Well, somewhat different, anyway. It's not massively somber like so many other Eliot poems, but this certainly has an element of melancholy to it. And take a look at the face in the photo. Hasn't it seen better days? He's not even feared anymore!

Photo of the Day: Broadway Goes to the Dogs—Gladly

Yesterday afternoon, with a little time to spend after an Off-Broadway matinee, I detected quite a hubbub as I approached Shubert Alley. 

Bodies were densely packed amid all the humidity on this landmark in the Broadway district, but virtually everybody was smiling and most of the spectators were looking down on the sidewalk.

Curious, I cast my eyes downward and saw dogs and cats just about everywhere. No wonder there were so many smiles. 

Elsewhere in the alley, several tables had been set up containing leaflets and sign-up sheets, promoting various animal-rights and animal adoption causes. I figured something big was going on, and when I got home I found out what it was: Broadway Barks. 

Twenty years ago, Bernadette Peters and the late Mary Tyler Moore set up this dog-and-cat adoption event that benefits New York City animal rescue groups. The promotion remains a draw because of its star-studded lineup. 

No, I don’t mean the celebrities that often come here, but instead the furry creatures being celebrated. This photo I took demonstrates how much these lovable animals were centers of attention.

Quote of the Day (Raymond Chandler, on His Cat's ‘Tyrannical’ Ways)

“Our cat is growing positively tyrannical. If she finds herself alone anywhere she emits blood curdling yells until somebody comes running. She sleeps on a table in the service porch and now demands to be lifted up and down from it. She gets warm milk about eight o’clock at night and starts yelling for it about 7.30. When she gets it she drinks a little, goes off and sits under a chair, then comes and yells all over again for someone to stand beside her while has another go at the milk. When we have company she looks them over and decides almost instantly if she likes them. If she does she strolls over and plops down on the floor far enough away to make it a chore to pet her. If she doesn’t like them, she sits in the middle of the living room, casts a contemptuous glance around, and proceeds to wash her backside.”—Mystery novelist Raymond Chandler, letter to James Sandoe, September 23, 1948, in Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler, edited by Frank MacShane (1981)

Quote of the Day (Mark Twain, on Cats)

"A cat is more intelligent than people believe, and can be taught any crime."—Mark Twain, Notebook, 1895

Well, if that’s the case, then, I’d say, we’d have to call this young male tabby cat Moriarty—short for Professor Moriarty. You remember that Moriarty, right? He was Sherlock Holmes’ archenemy, the one described by the great detective, in “The Adventure of the Final Problem,” as “The Napoleon of Crime.”

And so you see it here, in these eyes that don’t miss a trick…

“Cat burglar” is the least of what he could become…