Quote of the Day (Chris Evans, on Jerks Being 'Marinated' in Entitlement)

“There’s a certain physicality of a person who is soaked in confidence, truly marinated in that kind of entitlement. And it involves minimal eye contact, a constant state of recline, whether they’re sitting or standing…an unapologetic physicality [where] they make the space their own. They’re gonna put their f—ing feet up, they’re gonna own their oxygen in a way that is not just confidence, it’s an active indifference to the people around them. Which is a real weaponized trait.”—Actor Chris Evans, on embodying a jerk in Knives Out, quoted by Clarissa Cruz, “How to Be a Jerk,” Entertainment Weekly, November 2019

Quote of the Day (Sydney J. Harris, Defining for All Time “A Jerk”)

“A jerk, then, is a man (or woman) who is utterly unable to see himself as he appears to others. He has no grace, he is tactless without meaning to be, he is a bore even to his best friends, he is an egotist without charm. All of us are egotists to some extent, but most of us—unlike the jerk—are perfectly and horribly aware of it when we make asses of ourselves. The jerk never knows.”—Chicago Daily News columnist Sydney J. Harris, Last Things First (1961)

Growing up 30 years ago, I noticed that Harris (1917-1986) was syndicated in my local paper, The Record (Bergen County, NJ), but I never paid him that much mind. Reading the delightful essay “A Jerk” in his collection Last Things First, I’m sorry I didn’t read the longtime “Strictly Personal” columnist when I had the chance during his lifetime. At least the piece has left me resolved to try to hunt down more of his work in the future, however.