Christmas Carol Advent

 

Image: cover of the Bantam Classics edition of 
A Christmas Carol

Pamela has a history of innovating reading/writing/viewing projects -- beginning with Year of Books in 2009 -- and of involving James in quite a few of them. Our other most successful (and cooperative) projects have included The Complete Noni: An Incongruous Diversion and Una Nueva Receta Cada Semana. 

This season's *main idea has to do with the Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, which has been produced in hundreds of formats and versions since its 1843 publication.

As a librarian, she has already managed to track down quite a few of them. James is updating this post as a record as we watch/read/listen to the various offerings. 

Pre-gaming

Before we even started with versions of A Christmas Carol itself, we heard the backstory as part of an audiobook written and read by one of our favorite authors -- The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson. He puts the novella in the context of the broader ebbs and flows of Christmas celebrations in the United States and the United Kingdom. It turns out that 1843 was a turning point in the history of the Christmas season as we now know it. A Christmas Carol was published at just the right moment.

December 1

It is appropriate that we began our journey through the many versions of this story with a video mashup that is built from 400 of them. The full title of Heath Waterman's work is Twelve Hundred Ghosts - A Christmas Carol in Supercut (400 versions, plus extras), a labor of love that he makes freely available on YouTube.

The title raises a point of contention among fans of the work. Most of us (such as James and Mr. Waterman) tend to think of this as a story of three ghosts. Purists (such as Pamela and the creator of the meme below) recognize that Marley is the first of four ghosts in the story.

Plot twist: Pamela recalls that it had been a trivia game that first caused her to think of the story in terms of all four ghosts

December 2

Ron Oliver's 2005 film Chasing Christmas starts Tom Arnold, Andrea Roth, and the fabulous Leslie Jordan. Set in the United States of today, it is a metafictional version of the story that involves quirky plot devices around time travel and a very deliberate acknowledgement of the Dickens version by several key characters. 

December 3

 Pamela's fast take on the 2022 Netflix production Scrooge: A Christmas Carol was "it was worth watching for the trippiness." What begins as rather light and campy
musical theater becomes more complex (in a good way). It delves into certain aspects of the back story, gives Scrooge a nice dog (of all things), and builds increasingly complex entrance theatrics for the ghosts. Gremlins are somehow involved as well.

Careful viewers will notice than in his final scenes of redemption, Scrooge begins with much overdue notions of charity, but then continues to a critical examination of the ownership of the means of production. This version has expanded roles for characters of color and women, though it fails the Bechdel test, as any telling of this tale is likely to do. 

December 4 

Scrooge McDuck as Mister Scrooge is the predictable -- lazy, perhaps? -- typecasting at the center of Disney's 1983 Mickey's Christmas Carol. He has a contrived Scottish accent and relishes the role of mean-spirited bankster. The character named in the title is a perfectly nervous Bob Cratchit. Many other familiar Disney faces fill out the cast for this quick -- almost cursory -- telling of the tale. Viewers are rewarded with a few unique laugh lines and sight gags.

December 5

At 22 minutes, the 2011 opus The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol was the most extensive foray into the Smurf franchise that either of us has taken -- by a margin of at least 20 minutes. Early on, James was trying to figure out why they changed the words of "Deck the Halls" to refer to "white" apparel when Pamela pointed out that they seemed to be avoiding the word "gay."

The question of whether to count three ghosts or four is really muddied in this version, in which a spirit is concocted from a potion and quickly morphs into a spirit of the past. We counted three spirits and zero ghosts. There is also no Scrooge, just an ungrateful young Smurf named Grouchy (we assume he is just part of the usual ensemble). Many other liberties are taken with the usual plot, including a Christmas "future" that is just the day after Christmas Eve (a.k.a., Christmas of the current season).

Dickens is not mentioned in the credits, but if he were, there are enough departures from the original story to describe this as "inspired by" rather than "based upon" A Christmas Carol. We were surprised to find some rather big names in the credits, however, led by Fred Armisen and Hank Azaria. 

December 6

Jim Carey starred in the animated 2009 Disney production A Christmas Carol. The illustrators showed off their attention to detail in costumes, architecture, and facial expressions, while the writers highlighted many examples of period-specific and even Dickens-specific vocabulary.

December 7

Shofar, So Good was a 1994 episode of Northern Exposure (s6, e3), in which our hero Dr. Joel Fleischman exhibits the ungrateful and arrogant attitude that was the hallmark of his character through the first several seasons, but which come to the attention of several ghosts of Yom Kippur. Although we used to watch this show regularly, it has been quite some while, so we don't remember if his repentance was a one-off change or a turning point in the series.

December 8

Kelsey Grammer starred in the 2004 musical A Christmas Carol. Our son is rather a fan of Grammer, but declined to watch with us, saying that he could picture exactly what that would be like, and just imagining it was enough. He might have been right; it has its moments, but mostly it finds a way to make the tale much longer in the telling, with songs that are mostly quite tangential to the story.

Interlude

James sings, "On the 8th day of this advent, my true love sent to me: a listicle of fun facts about a few of the literally countless adaptations of A Christmas Carol." 

December 9

On a day that we would not have much time for viewing, we chose to watch a brief version of The Christmas Carol that was made for television in 1949. This simple version is framed by the narration of our own Vincent Price. 

December 10

After a long day of preparing and then having our annual latke feast for Hanukkah, decorating our tree, and then playing a somewhat raucous and lengthy game of Trivial Pursuit with our brilliant kid, we were ready for the shortest adaptation on the list Pamela has compiled for this project. 

The "Speakaboos" production is a rather drab, illustrated narration of the Dickens Tale that tells the basics of the story in just under 16 minutes, all in one voice. 

Lagniappe -- the other idea

We are pursuing two advents this year, the other one being an advent jigsaw puzzle -- a 1,000 piece puzzle comprising 25 smaller daily puzzles of 40 pieces each, each in its own tiny box. Several puzzles of this kind are available online. 

International Day for the Fashionably Late

Pamela and I are both fans of the National Day Calendar, which often leads us to pursue fun activities or special meals. Just yesterday, for example, was National Whipped Cream Day, which we honored with a simple after-dinner hot cocoa and of course hand-whipped cream. Regular readers of our Nueva Receta blog will find many more examples by searching national day or clicking the celebrations tag.

Little did we expect to create our own such day, but this year about midway through the Twelve Days of Christmas I had, as it were, an epiphany. Who has gotten more positive attention for arriving fashionably late than the famous Three Kings who followed the star to Bethlehem. 

When looking for an image to launch the observance on Facebook, I found this Byzantine mosaic, made about 565 years after the event. As Wikipedia notes, representations in this era "usually depicts the Magi in Persian clothing which includes breeches, capes and Phrygian caps." These are certainly fashionable!

How to observe the day? One could hold a soirée with a soft start time, or one could extend forbearance to anybody arriving a bit late to school, work, or appointments on this day. And as Pamela notes, if you are the one arriving late, you should be bearing gifts.

Note: Unlike the magi -- who had a decent excuse -- I am more likely to be late, the closer an event is to my house.

Lagniappe

Growing up as a Southern Baptist, I never thought much about the Twelve Days as an actual celebration until I started spending time somewhere in Latin America in early January of most years. Beginning with Cuba in 2003 and continuing in Nicaragua or Costa Rica most years since then, I noticed decorations in public places, gatherings at cathedrals, and little kids who were shocked to see me, because they thought I was Santa walking around in the day time.

Perry had a lump in her throat

Perry had a lump in her throat.

 Not the kind of lump that comes from deep emotion, but the kind that comes from cancer.

We thought that she had an infection and treated her with antibiotics, but the lump wouldn't go away.

She couldn't eat because she had a lump in her throat.

We watched her get thinner and thinner, and then realized the lump in her throat was getting bigger and bigger.

We made one of the hardest decisions that any pet owner has to make. 

We called our only child to let him know, and he said goodbye to his dog over Zoom.

We held Perry in her final moments.

As the poison took over her small body we told the vet about the five small animals that Perry bested: two groundhogs, a rabbit, a squirrel, and a possum.

We also told her about the five skunks that bested Perry.

As Perry was taking her last breaths we recited to her the names of all those who loved her: Ashley and Gee, Courtney and Warren, Alicia, Sullivan, Sam, and others. 

We posted our memorial on Facebook, and were touched to see that some of the others who loved her posted theirs as well.

And we were left with lumps in our throats.

Perry La Perra (2009-2021)

Many of My Mothers

I first posted this on Mother's Day, May 14, 2017; I am adding a few thoughts for 2021 below.

Grateful for all the mothers who have been in my life. 

(Oops -- this ended up being a bit long and a bit sentimental.)

Because people have married young and lived long in my family, I have known many, starting with three great-grandmothers:

Valerie Myrtle Mulligan Sledge [my father's mother's mother] had the best name; I was young when she died, but I do remember her as feisty.

Lydia Holcombe [my mother's mother's mother] lived the longest -- born in 1885 and living until I was through college and almost married. Her children and their children and their children learned about hard work and simple living. I remember her porch, which faced Cold Mountain. And I remember when she got indoor plumbing.

Thelma Joyce Bohanan [my father's father's mother] was a lifelong learner who taught me a love of words -- especially crossword puzzles -- and history. She put her high-school Latin to use on a regular basis.

Sarah Pearl Shreve [my mother's mother] was known as Pearl, but had formally changed her first name to Sarah because she thought Sally was a silly name. Losing her during elementary school was my first real grief. She was a consummate gardener with a small commercial nursery. I never see an azalea without thinking of her -- we had every known variety at our house, from her stock. (2021 addendum: I should have mentioned that she was also an educator, though I do not know for how long. After attending Mars Hill Normal School for three years, she returned to teach in a one-room schoolhouse near her home in the Smoky Mountains. All I remember learning of this was that some of the boys were bigger than she was and did not wear shoes to school. During my third year of college, the same could almost be said of her grandson.)

Esther Jeannette Bohanan [my father's mother] was the grandmother I knew best, and this (2017) is my first Mother's Day without her. I am grateful that about a decade ago, I stayed with her rather than at a hotel when I had a meeting in DC. Every evening we would have a simple dinner and then talk -- mostly politics -- until our eyes could not stay open. I do not remember her reading much when I was a kid, but later in life she read a lot -- I remember seeing JK Rowling, Michael Moore, and the Washington Post regularly, and going to a Harry Potter movie with her.

I was also lucky to have known a grandmother-in-law for about the first decade of my marriage. Like my own great-grandmother, Izzy was feisty and had a terrific name: Isabella Beanblossom Lauerman [my wife's mother's mother] was never shy about her opinions, and was often witty. She refused to die until the end of her birthday, when she knew the last flowers and cards had arrived.

My own mother Jackie Bohanan is thoughtful, devoted, and proud of her small brood -- always doing whatsoever she could for all of us. From her my brother Bob and I both I learned a love of cooking. 

And I have a mother-in-law who has been nothing but a joy to know -- including me as a son from the very beginning. Judy Helbing has always treated our dogs as her own as well!

And that brings me to the best of all -- Pamela Hayes-Bohanan, the love of my life who has learned motherhood alongside me as I learn fatherhood. I could not imagine a better partner in parenting.

Mother's Day 2021 Memoriams

This mother's day -- coincidentally also our 34th wedding anniversary -- is the first without my mother, who died last July 24. My post about the music she loved is my best memorial. 

It was a very difficult summer, losing not only her but three additional mother figures I did not include above. Our daughter-in-law lost both her mother Betty and her grandmother during the summer. We had met these beautiful women only once, at Thanksgiving 2019, and had been looking forward to spending more time with them.

We also lost our dear friend Jackie Smith-Miller, the mother of a close friend of ours who included our family in her family's Easter dinners just about every year since we moved to Bridgewater. We enjoyed her wit and wisdom both at those holiday gatherings and in many other connections throughout the past two decades. We miss her greatly. 

Jackie's Playlist

When I was growing up, I thought we were somehow related to the Carter Family on my mother's side. Her mother had come from a huge family in western North Carolina, with the Great Smoky Mountains in the backyard. As we would ride around back roads in what was then rural northern Virginia, we would listen to an endless stream of real country music on the AM radio of her 1965 Ford. In general, the older the music and the closer to the Carter Family, the more important she considered it.

These memories flooded back to me as our family made arrangements for my mother, who passed away on July 24, 2020. She actually participated in the planning, mostly by choosing the music.

If you want to know something about my late mother, listen to my version of Jackie's Playlist in its entirety. It includes all of the songs she requested to accompany her viewing. On YouTube, I found that many of her favorites were performed by quite a few different musicians, with June Carter's husband Johnny Cash being a common denominator among many of them. On this playlist, I managed to include a version by the artist she specified, if not the exact rendition.

We were fortunate to be able to hold a funeral service for my mom -- many people lost loved ones in 2020 without that important opportunity. As with most funerals, not everyone who wished to remember her could be present. Because we knew this number might be higher than usual, including even some local friends and family, we were very glad that the funeral home arranged to stream the service. It is still available on the tribute page provided by the funeral home. (Mother's Day 2021 note: this is still posted.)

Covignette

Three miles walking on this sunny, Covid day is not enough
to clear the mind.

My students
My town
My kid
My world

My God.

A car sidles up to me
Stops
Social distance social distance social distance

I walk
They stop

They get out
Social distance social distance social distance

Is she crossing the street?
No, she walks in front of the car
No mask
Social distance social distance social distance

She bends down and I remember
A scene from 15 seconds ago

I had already forgotten
A single flip flop
Is that a flip?
With fur over the toes
For a fancy five year old
Who would be sad it was gone

Car pulls away
Unaware that I was aware
The flip and the flop restored
For a kid I cannot see a smile returns

My mind is clear again
Until it isn’t

~~ James Hayes-Bohanan
Bridgewater, Massachusetts USA

May 21, 2020

Malbeclipse Part 2: Argentina

Si no vino a beber vino ¿por qué vino?

If you did not come to drink wine, why did you come?

Mendoza Folk Wisdom
(It sounds better in Spanish, even if you don't speak Spanish.)

Part 2 of our #malbeclipse adventure took place in Argentina. We described the reasons for this journey almost two years ago in Malbeclipse 2019, and we are very grateful that we were able to follow through on this dream.  Most of the photos in this post are by Pam; see James' Malbeclipse 2019 album on Flickr for his photos, some with annotations. To read about the Chile portion of our explorations, see Malbeclipse Part 1.

Most of the wine we drink in Casa Hayes-Boh is Malbec from Mendoza. A few years ago, we realized that this grape goes with just about everything, as the many Malbec references on our recipe blog attest. From some cursory exploration online and from our experience in the aisles of local wine stores, we knew that Mendoza is home to many vineyards, and that Malbec is very important there. We had no idea just how true this would be. On arrival at our hotel the first night, the simple restaurant in the lobby turned out to have an extensive wine list, including a couple dozen Malbecs from Mendoza.

We quickly realized that the choices were overwhelming, and also that we could waste a lot of time driving aimlessly about to wineries that might not have any openings on their tours. Pam noticed that quite a few agencies in the city book winery tours, so we visited one of those agencies our first morning. We had an excellent short tour that afternoon, a longer tour with an incredible lunch the following day, and found our own way to a vineyard on our third day. Some of the highlights are below.

From one of the tour bus, Pam noticed a graffito with a dramatic take on a familiar theme --

Graffiti in Mendoza "Meat is Death"; "Dairy is Rape"

Thus our first afternoon brought us to the lovely Vistandes (get it?) winery, where we started to gain an understanding of just how much Malbec a typical operation produces in Mendoza, as well as another winery, an olive-oil factory, and an historic church. 

We visited the Trapiche winery to begin our second day of touring. Seeing this brand so often at home, we were not surprised to find that it is one of the oldest and biggest of the Mendoza wineries.

Iscay is the Incan word for two - used to name this blended wine

A canary in a coal mine
problems with the rose bushes indicate a problem
 with the soil that needs to be addressed

Looks like George Jetson lives here; compare below

The press is called a trapiche
enthusiastically shown here by our guide;
the company derives its name from the press.

Ants are as important for organic wine as they are for organic coffee;
they are honored at the entrance to the Trapiche visitors' center.

From Trapiche, we went to the Familia Zuccardi bodega, which is actually a collection of various wine projects of this extensive family. The main tasting room was quite busy -- with dozens of visitors at each tasting -- and serves as a small gallery for some very talented local art students.

It was here that we had a fantabulous lunch with countless courses and three wine glasses that were never allowed to sit empty for long. We shared a table with fellow tourists from Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil, all of whom were surprised that we could carry on a conversation in Spanish (with some Portuguese).

On the third day we drove south on our own, using old-school GPS to find our way to the Bodega Salentein in the famous Uco Valley, about an hour's drive to the south of the city. 

We hoped to have lunch there, but its restaurant was booked solid in the dead of winter. Views of the Andes were the best we had seen from any of the vineyards. It turns out the Uco and Mendoza are valleys in the sense that Tucson is -- meaning not really valleys at all.

Salentein has lovely views

Instead of a tour, we enjoyed an excellent glass each and enjoyed the views. We then visited its famous -- and free -- art galleries. They include this fun piece that tempted us to break the no-photo rule (which we had conveniently not noticed).

Having fun at Salentein Winery and Art Gallery
 Uco Valley Mendoza, Argentina

The Chilean portion of our travels had its theme songs; for this one, only the UB40 classic comes to mind. Best listened to without the official video, which is garbage.

One last thing: we did not expect to see llamas or alpacas on this trip and for the most part we did not. We saw one from a bus window, plus these on currency worth about 50 cents.

One map records the important sites for both parts of our adventure -- where we stayed, where we ate, where we toured vineyards (and the like) and where we were when we saw the sun blink out for 2-1/2 minutes.



Also see Pam's StoryMap featuring photos of our trip.

To read about the Chile portion of our explorations, see Malbeclipse Part 1.

Lagniappe

We made this entire journey without knowing about this key bit of nomenclature, courtesy of Terrible Maps: