“One day at a time” gets repurposed…

THE FAMOUS MOTTO: “One day at a time.”        Alcoholics Anonymous slogan        This is the shortened version of one of the group’s “90 TOOLS FOR SOBRIETY,” first published around 1939. The third “tool” says: “Progress is made ONE DAY AT A TIME.”

DR. CHRISTIAN TROY’S COUNTERQUOTE: “You want the wisdom to know the difference between what you can and can’t change? Here’s step 13: everything disappears. Love, trees, rocks, steel, plastic, human beings. None of us get out alive. Now you can huddle in a group and face it one day at a time, or you can be grateful that when your body rubs against somebody else’s it explodes with enough pleasure to make you forget even for a minute that you're a walking pile of ashes.”        Dr. Christian Troy (actor Julian McMahon)        In the TV series Nip/Tuck        The “Kurt Dempsey” episode (Season 1, Ep. 5)        First broadcast August 19, 2003

CRASH DAVIS WISDOM: CRASH DAVIS (Kevin Costner): “You’re gonna have to learn your clichés. You’re gonna have to study them, you’re gonna have to know them. They’re your friends. Write this down: ‘We gotta play it one day at a time.’” “NUKE” LALOOSH (Tim Robbins): “Got to play...It’s pretty boring.” CRASH: “‘Course it’s boring, that’s the point.”         In the movie Bull Durham (1988)

CHARLIE BROWN’S VARIATION: “I’ve developed a new philosophy. I only dread one day at a time.”        Charlie Brown        In the Peanuts animated cartoon A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969)

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