Quote of the Day (Bob Seger, on How ‘Jungleland’ Influenced ‘Night Moves’)

“I had the first two verses [of ‘Night Moves’] forever. It took me six months to write it. I just kept coming back to it and was like, ‘Nah, that's not it.’ Then I heard ‘Jungleland’ [with its two bridges]. I remember calling [Don] Henley and saying, ‘Have you heard 'Jungleland'?’ He said he didn’t know if he was into Bruce. I read him the line: ‘They'll meet 'neath that giant Exxon sign that brings this fair city light.’ It's still one of my favorite records.”—Veteran rock ‘n’ roller Bob Seger, on the impact of Bruce Springsteen’s “Jungleland” on his own “Night Moves,” quoted in “Q&A: Bob Seger” (interview with Andy Greene), Rolling Stone, Jan. 11-25, 2018

TV Quote of the Day (‘Batman,’ in Which the Dynamic Duo Opine on Our ‘Terrible’ Political Mess)

Robin [played by Burt Ward]: “Don't you think we should make these election posters a little bigger, Batman?

Batman [played by Adam West]: “I think these are quite large enough, Robin. After all, the voters are interested in issues, not window-dressing.”

Robin: “Sure, Batman, but a little showmanship wouldn't hurt us any.”

Batman: “No, Robin, I want to conduct a campaign that deals with the issues. I'm convinced the American electorate is too mature to be taken in by cheap, vaudeville trickery. After all, if our national leaders were elected on the basis of tricky slogans, brass bands and pretty girls, our country would be in a terrible mess, wouldn't it?”—Batman, Season 2, Episode 17, “Hizzonner the Penguin,” original air date Nov. 2, 1966,  teleplay by Stanford Sherman, directed by Oscar Rudolph

Holy corruption, foreign interference and gridlock, Batman! Say it didn’t happen!

Quote of the Day (Elie Wiesel, on Adam and How It Is ‘Given to Man to Begin Again’)

“It is not given to man to begin; that privilege is God's alone. But it is given to man to begin again—and he does so every time he chooses to defy death and side with the living.  Thus he justifies the ancient plan of the most ancient of men, Adam, to whom we are bound both by the anguish that oppressed him and the defiance that elevated him above the paradise we shall never enter.”—Romanian-born American Jewish Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Holocaust survivor and human-rights activist Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), Messengers of God: Biblical Portraits and Legends (1976)

Quote of the Day (Jacques Barzun, on Life and the ‘Speechless Real’)

"If it were possible to talk to the unborn, one could never explain to them how it feels to be alive, for life is washed in the speechless real."— French-American cultural historian and educator Jacques Barzun (1907-2012), The House of Intellect (1959)

TV Quote of the Day (‘Frasier,’ on His Youthful ‘Rug of Love’)

[Dr. Frasier Crane storms in with a copy of "Slow Tango in South Seattle."]

Frasier [played by Kelsey Grammer]: “I can't believe this!  I simply can't believe this!”

Martin Crane [played by John Mahoney]: “What are you bappin' about?”

Frasier: “This, this book!  It's written by a man I knew.  He's taken an incident from my own life, something I shared with him in confidence one night; he's turned it into this trash!"

Daphne Moon [played by Jane Leeves] [notices]: " ‘Slow Tango’? Well, I just started reading that. You mean to tell me that young man is based on you, Dr. Crane?”

Frasier: “Yes, he is.  But did Thomas Jay Fallow have the grace to thank me? No! My name isn't even listed in his acknowledgements.”

Martin: “What's it about anyway?”

Frasier: “That is not important.”

Daphne: “It's about his first time.”

Frasier [sarcastically]: “Thank you, Daphne.”

Niles Crane [played by David Hyde-Pierce]: [innocent] “Your first time doing what?”

Frasier: [sarcastically again] “Changing a flat tire!"

Niles: [realizes]: “Oh!”

Martin [chuckling]: “So this whole book is about the night you conceived Frederick.”

Frasier: “Very funny, dad.  I'll have you know that wasn't my first time.”

Martin: “Hey, I'm happy to know it wasn't your only time!”

Niles: “Just who was this charitable lass?”

Frasier: “That is not important!”

Daphne: “His piano teacher.”

Martin [startled.sitting up]: “His piano teacher?”

Frasier: “Thank you again, Daphne!”

Daphne: “It's not like it's a secret, it's all right there in black and white.  About your awkward ‘teenage lunging’ and how you used to call your chest hair your ‘Rug of Love.’"—Frasier, Season 2, Episode 1, “Slow Tango in South Seattle,” original air date Sept. 20, 1994, teleplay by Martin Weiss, directed by James Burrows