Happy Monday after Christmas! I hope you spent it just as you wanted, and that you had ooodles of time away from the must-do's to relax and to laugh. For the first time since leaving teaching, I came down with the Christmas crud. It wasn't all bad, though. Sure, I stayed away from people to avoid generously sharing, but I got to catch up on some holiday movies that had been stacking up.
"It's a Wonderful Life" wasn't a box office hit, but it hangs in there as a holiday classic. I hadn't watched it in years, but it served as a fine accompaniment to a box of tissue and nasal spray. For the first time, I understood the symbolism of Clarence, the angel, carrying around a copy of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." I'm just slow, I guess. I also caught on to the homage to Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" threaded through the movie. And then there's the "Sesame Street" connection. Huh? Two characters keep popping up throughout the film, adding color, and tossing around sarcastic lines. Finally, at the end we see them together and hear their names spoken in sequence. Bert and Ernie! What fun.
One things bothers me though. Unless I missed a line or two, it seems that Mr. Potter gets to keep the $8000.00 that caused George Bailey to contemplate suicide. Also, I won't rant too much here, but the Potter way of doing business appears very close to the Wal-Mart way.
If you attend Heart-A-Rama, check out the list of Sweetheart contributors. You'll find a couple "It's a Wonderful Life" characters listed, and I know that one of them is a dog. Go ahead, check out that list carefully this April. You'll find that a number of celebrities and fictional characters make yearly contributions.
For a chuckle, go to http://www.blogger.com/www.angryalien.com . You'll find a 30 second version of the movie, done by rabbits! You can't link directly from here.
My sentimental favorite for the season always has been, and always weil be "White Christmas." For me, it drives home the idea that it being a nice person isn't enough. It doesn't matter how nice, polite, honest or talented a person is...we need to use those gifts to do good for others.
The music is sweet, and the production numbers are just corny enough. But you know what, I'd put Manitowoc's Taffetas up against those Hanes sisters any day. 
*****Ironically, or coincidentally (I have trouble with the difference between those concepts) I received this ARC in the mail last week, just in time for my holiday confinement. This irony/coincidence comes in since my next HTR column is all about Alice in Wonderland. With the new 3-D movie coming out in February, I re-read the book and did a background check on Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll. He was a partially deaf preacher who didn't preach due to a sever stutter. Dodgson was a mathematician, magican, puzzler and photographer. In fact, he enjoyed photographing little girls au natural - always with the parents' permission. That's a curious concept.
Alice I have Been is a love story and literary mystery, but it is first and foremost the story of the complex and passionate famous little girl of British literature. The author blends fact and fiction as she spins the tale of Alice Liddell for whom Carroll first crafted his famous novel. Eighty-year old Alice tells her own story - the struggle of her lifetime spent trying to escape Wonderland, and to be seen for who who she really was. The book, by Melanie Benjamin, will be released in January.
Thanks for stopping by.
