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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMost of all, beware this boy.
Charles P. Pierce @CharlesPPierce 2hThis boy is ignorance. This girl is want. Beware them both. But most of all, beware this boy.

Have a Merry Christmas, y'all!
BigmanPigman
(55,150 posts)The GQP supporters, the average American citizen, people who watch Fux Noise, Manchin, the fucking moron, the MSM, or all of them? Hard to decide these days.
JHB
(38,213 posts)Joinfortmill
(21,169 posts)
SergeStorms
(20,591 posts)"The Spirit of Christmas Present" in various versions of 'A Christmas Carol' each year for different theater groups in the area. Only one theater group was allowed to perform it each year, so there was no competing for my services.
I was "type cast" as The Spirit of Christmas Present because of my size, beard, longish hair etc. plus I knew the part from memory from having played it so many times.
Those were always my favorite lines from the play, and I was always sure to admonish Scrooge to the quick with those lines. You could hear a pin drop in the theater.
I'm too old and broken up for the theater anymore, but I really miss those days, and particularly that role. It was a tie between The Spirit, and Lennie Small in 'Of Mice and Men' for favorite role of mine.
Ahhhh...those were the days. 🙂
Merry Christmas everyone! 🎅🤶
Celerity
(54,410 posts)SergeStorms
(20,591 posts)May you and yours enjoy the Holiday Season, with love, good health, and prosperity in the New Year.
Kid Berwyn
(24,395 posts)As important a message as ever given.
Thank you, big tree!
bigtree
(94,265 posts)...you're welcome for the Dickens reference.
I have a blue hardback collection of his works he had commissioned a few years before his death. It has one volume named 'Christmas Stories' including 'Christmas Carol.' The read is everything, much more intense than the films. A stark and uncompromising visit to Scrooge town, complete with etching prints like the one above.
...more:
Dickens had lost his previous illustrator to infirmity and was seeking an artist who could bring his words to life. Dickens commissioned Fildes to illustrate The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Twelve illustrations had already been completed when Dickens invited Fildes to join him at Gads Hill, Dickens home, in order to see first hand the inspiration for the book. With his bags packed and about to start his journey to visit Dickens, Fildes learned of the authors death. Dickens family invited Fildes to come and finish the work he and Dickens had started. While there, Fildes drew The Empty Chair, Gads Hill Ninth of June 1870″ showing Dickens empty desk and chair. The drawing was published in Christmas 1870 edition of The Graphic.

Thousands of prints of The Empty Chair were sold and many English homes hung the prints in their homes. Fildes would later paint a watercolor of the drawing and the drawing was republished several times to mark the passing of prominent personalities. The concept of The Empty Chair depicting the absence or loss of someone was inspiration to later artists including Vincent Van Gogh and Robert William Buss (1804-1875) who painted Dickens Dream depicting Dickens surrounded in his study by the characters of his imagination.
http://www.thefamousartists.com/luke-fildes
Kid Berwyn
(24,395 posts)We read and enjoyed A Christmas Carol as a family. I am tearing up as I write, as this year in our home we have an Empty Chair.
The book reveals details true gifts from Dickens genius difficult to translate to film, but visual in their permanence on my memory. They include the wrap around Morelys ghostly head and jaw, as well as the pure love from Bob Cratchits heart.
Thank you, my Friend. All the best to You and Yours in the New Year.