If it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving, then regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog know it’s the day when I kick off my annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon in which I review several versions of A Christmas Carol. I look at movies, television shows, radio shows and books which adapt the Dickens classic. Every year I present new reviews with a few old classics mixed in since newer readers will have missed them.
EBBIE (1995) Balladeer’s Blog’s Fifteenth Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon begins with an encore review of this 1995 telefilm starring soap opera queen Susan Lucci. The eternally-sexy Lucci plays Elizabeth “Ebbie” Scrooge, our regulation “grasping and covetous” business magnate who runs the Dobson’s department store empire. This version of A Christmas Carol is kind of cute and it tries hard.
At its core Ebbie combines the Dickens tale with elements of the Diane Keaton movie Baby Boom. The dialogue self-consciously uses Big Business/ Executive Culture cliches in various exchanges. For example, where Scrooge normally says “Can’t I take them (the Ghosts) all at once and have it over with” Ebbie instead says “Can’t I just Conference Call them all in and have it over with?” Plus Marley’s Ghost refers to Scrooge “taking meetings” with the three Spirits. Sometimes these substitutions are amusing, other times just eye-rolling. Continue reading
The GEORGIA MILITARY COLLEGE BULLDOGS will host the HUTCHINSON COLLEGE BLUE DRAGONS. 
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Enjoy this holiday and the hope for peaceful coexistence represented by the possibly mythic meal that it commemorates. The kind of self-righteous killjoys who bash Thanksgiving are the type of sanctimonious idiots that are fun to laugh at since they have no identity outside of their ephemeral political concerns. 
Balladeer’s Blog presents another neglected epic myth from around the world. In this case, Liberia’s Woi Epic of the Kpelle people. 
UNTAMED FURY (1947) – A very early hicksploitation movie. This black & white movie’s stock footage is set in the swamps of the Deep South but everything else takes place on the usual cheap sets we all know and love from Producers Releasing Corporation. 
The MOUNT SAN ANTONIO COLLEGE MOUNTIES will host the EL CAMINO COLLEGE WARRIORS. 
The RIVERSIDE CITY COLLEGE TIGERS will host the SAN DIEGO MESA COLLEGE OLYMPIANS. 
THE DOMINION IN 1983 (1883) – Written by “Ralph Centennius,” the presumed pseudonym of an unknown author. 
Canadian technology leads the world, with rocketships that can fly at a mile per second and electric automobiles for ground transport. Electricity is the predominant energy source, and Electropolis, the first all-electric city, was recently completed. 
Balladeer’s Blog’s Forgotten Television feature previously provided 
GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS (1973) – From the maker of Alabama’s Ghost comes this tale of toxic gasses from beneath the Earth spawning a mutated sheep monster which walks erect and looks a little like Mr. Snuffleupagas and Joe Camel. The video cover looks nothing like the creature.
NEPTUNE BOWL – The two Independent teams clashing in this Bowl Game were the NEWPORT NEWS APPRENTICE SCHOOL BUILDERS (Shipbuilders) and the ATLANTIS UNIVERSITY ATLANTEANS. The 1st Quarter ended with the Builders up just 7-0 but they floored it from there. By Halftime the Apprentice School led 24-0 on their way to a 59-6 blowout victory. 
ROUND ONE: GAME ONE – The SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE MOUNDBUILDERS welcomed the UNIVERSITY OF ST. FRANCIS (IN) COUGARS. This tale of 2 Halves saw the Moundbuilders holding a midpoint lead of 24-10. From there the Cougars rallied but fell short as Southwestern College went on to win the game 31-24. 
The team name Sanduguan dates to the era of Filipino resistance to the Spanish colonial forces. Rebels would take an oath of blood to the cause. Sanduguan, the term for the oath ritual, has also been translated as One Blood and Blood Pact. 
SANDATA (Weapon)
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