Archives for July 2020

“The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head.”

H.L. Mencken, “A Time to be Wary”

“Fear is like a giant fog. It sits on your brain and blocks everything—real feelings, true happiness, real joy.”

Albert Brooks, screenplay for Defending Your Life

Mikyung Sung and Jaemin Shin play Hindemith’s Double Bass Sonata:

(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)

“How come in former lifetimes everybody’s somebody famous?”

Ron Shelton, screenplay for Bull Durham

From 2010:

Somebody compared me to a Holocaust denier the other day for having spoken ill of Elie Wiesel. While I wouldn’t dream of dignifying such a remark by responding to it, I was struck by its sheer nastiness. It goes without saying that the world has always contained plenty of people who assume that you’re a contemptible idiot if you disagree with them about anything. To be sure, I doubt that such creatures are significantly more numerous today than they were a century ago, or even a quarter-century, but I incline to think that they now talk quite a bit louder than they used to–especially when they’re sitting alone at their computers….

NUKE That was great, huh?

CRASH Your fastball’s up, your curveball’s hanging. In the Show, they would’ve ripped you.

NUKE Can’t you even let me enjoy the moment?

CRASH The moment’s over.

Ron Shelton, screenplay for Bull Durham

Stan Kenton and his big band make their TV debut on Toast of the Town (later renamed The Ed Sullivan Show). The trumpet soloist is Maynard Ferguson and the drummer is Shelly Manne. This episode was originally telecast by CBS on December 3, 1950:

(This is the latest in a series of arts- and history-related videos that appear in this space each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)

“He measured all his fellow workers by the test of professionalism, and a professional is a man who can do his best work when he doesn’t feel like it.”

Alistair Cooke, Six Men