This Day in Theater History (Odets Makes Last Broadway Splash in ‘The Country Girl’) Nov. 10, 1950—Playwright Clifford Odets —onetime hope of the American theater, more recently scorned as a Hollywood sellout—landed his last ...

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Quote of the Day (Peter De Vries, on Changing Standards for Immorality) “The standards for immorality are getting progressively steeper, for life and art both. A hundred years ago Hester Prynne of The Scarlet Let...

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Quote of the Day (Richard Wright, on ‘Lack of Self-Realization’) “Remember that men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread! And they can murder for it, too! Did...

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Spiritual Quote of the Day (Ertharin Cousin, on ‘Obstacles in the Way of Our Faith and Our Future’) “I believe that we have a God who takes care of all of us. But I also believe man can put obstacles in the way of our faith and our future. ...

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Quote of the Day (Frank Bruni, on Grievance and Humility) “While grievance blows our concerns out of proportion, humility puts them in perspective. While grievance reduces the people with whom we di...

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Theater Review: ‘Bull Durham’ the Musical, at the Paper Mill Playhouse Bull Durham , released 37 years ago, is not only one of my favorite baseball movies but one of my favorite rom-coms. The screenplay, origi...

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Quote of the Day (Flannery O’Connor, on the Direction of a Life) “Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from...

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TV Quote of the Day (‘Yes, Minister,’ on Balancing Public and Private Interests) [ To save a financially troubled soccer club, James Hacker floats the idea of selling an unpopular local art gallery, the Corn Exchange Art ...

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Quote of the Day (Ralph Waldo Emerson, on Power and Politics) “All kinds of power usually emerge at the same time; good energy and bad; power of mind with physical health; the ecstasies of devotion with...

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This Day in Film History (Death of Ward Bond, Prolific Character Actor and Wayne Sidekick) Nov. 5, 1960— Ward Bond , an actor with more than 200 credits on the big and small screen—including his starring role on the long-running TV...

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Quote of the Day (Mary Astor, on What ‘Old Moviemakers’ Gave Audiences) “Whatever we did—we old moviemakers—we gave people a lot of fun. Through depressions and wars and calamities, we gave them the sense of glor...

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Quote of the Day (Patti Smith, With Advice for Young Artists) “The most important thing is the work and the evolution of the work….So focus on the work. That is the greatest gift we have as artists, to ...

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Quote of the Day (Roger Ailes, to a Client He Masterminded to Victory) “Jesus, nobody likes you. Your own mother wouldn't vote for you. Do you even have a mother?”— American television executive and media consu...

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Photo of the Day: All Souls' Day Display, St. Cecilia Church, Englewood NJ Over the weekend, my longtime parish, St. Cecilia, decorated a back corner of the church in connection with All Souls’ Day, in recognizing t...

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Spiritual Quote of the Day (Anthony Saldarini, on Arguments Among Religious Groups) “What is at stake when religious groups and factions argue with one another? Why do Christians label each other orthodox and heretic? Why do...

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Photo of the Day: Milton A. Votee Park, Teaneck NJ A few days ago, after voting early in Teaneck, I took advantage of the newly crisp autumn temperatures to walk around the township’s Milton ...

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Theater Review: A Prescient, and Newly Relevant, Warning About Fascism For 30 years, the Mint Theater has specialized in rediscovering plays often unfairly confined to the dustbin of history. In my experience a...

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Quote of the Day (Neil Gaiman, on Characters Who ‘Break Through to Another Reality’) “People are drawn to stories in which characters do break through to another reality, because it is a universal experience to look at the wo...

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Appreciations: Ray Bradbury’s Tale of Irish Halloween Terror, ‘Banshee’ “It was one of those nights, crossing Ireland, motoring through the sleeping towns from Dublin, where you came upon mist and encountered fog...

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TV Quote of the Day (‘Mork and Mindy,’ With the Alien Considering a Feature of Urban Life) Mork [ played by Robin Williams ]: “Why do they call it ‘rush hour’ when nothing moves?”— Mork and Mindy, Season 1, Episode 4, “ Mork in Lo...

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Quote of the Day (Herman Melville, on ‘Human Madness’) “Human madness is oftentimes a cunning and most feline thing. When you think it fled, it may have but become transfigured into some still su...

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This Day in CIA History (Frank Wisner, Former Ops Head, Kills Self) Oct. 29, 1965— Frank Wisner , a workaholic former operations chief of the Central Intelligence Agency who directed multiple controversial co...

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Quote of the Day (Aldous Huxley, on the Bad and Good Sides of Technology) “It is only recently, however, that we have, as a nation, begun to see that man’s mind is no more made for technology than is his body, and ...

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Quote of the Day (Steve Hely, Imagining Ghostwriting College Essays for Rich American Teens) “They'd send you something about how Anchorman or the golf team had changed their lives. I'd polish it up, change Will Ferrell to Toni Morr...

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Quote of the Day (Fran Lebowitz, on Her Urban Instincts) “To put it bluntly, I am not the type of person who wants to go back to the land; I am the person of person who wants to go back to the hote...

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Song Lyric of the Day (Green Day, on Time and Making 'The Best of This Test’) “Time grabs you by the wrist Directs you where to go So make the best of this test And don't ask why.”— Billie Joe Armstrong, "Good Riddanc...

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Quote of the Day (William Shakespeare, Valuing Virtue Over Vengeance) “ Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th' quick, Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury Do I take part. The rarer action is In v...

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Spiritual Quote of the Day (Book of Job, on the Power of God) “How you have helped one who has no power!     How you have assisted the arm that has no strength!”— Job 26 :2 ( New Revised Standard Versio...

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Quote of the Day (Megan Marshall, on Academic Fiction) “After so many years of reading about them, fictional college professors have come to seem like family to me. I'm not…a member of their rank...

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A final reminder: I will speak about John, Walter, and Anjelica Huston in “Hollywood’s Hustons: A Celtic Odyssey of Fascination and Fun,” at the River Edge (NJ) Library on Saturday, Oct. 25, 3 PM. For further information, please contact the library at (201) 261-1663.