Quote of the Day (Mary McCarthy, on a Man With a ‘Gift for Being His Own Sympathizer’)

“Hen has a remarkable gift, a gift for being his own sympathizer. It’s a rare asset; it could be useful to him in politics or religion….He's capable of commanding great loyalty, because he's unswervingly loyal to himself. I'm not being sarcastic. Very few of us have that. It’s a species of self-alienation. He’s loyal to himself, objectively, as if he were another person, with that feeling of sacrifice and blind obedience that we give to a leader or a cause.” —American novelist, critic, and political activist Mary McCarthy (1912-1989), The Groves of Academe (1952)

Song Lyric of the Day (Gilbert and Sullivan, on Self-Promotion)

“If you wish in this world to advance,

Your merits you're bound to enhance;

You must stir it and stump it,

And blow your own trumpet,

Or trust me, you haven't a chance!” —English dramatist, poet, illustrator, and most of all, librettist W. S. Gilbert (1836-1911), “My Boy, You May Take It From Me," Ruddigore: or The Witch's Curse, music by Arthur Sullivan (1887)

As far as I’m concerned, these words have been taken way too much to heart—especially on the road from reality TV to Washington, DC, by a certain orange-haired vulgarian.

(Pictured: W.S. Gilbert)