Balladeer’s Blog’s TENTH Annual Christmas Carol-A-Thon hurls toward its finale tomorrow! Here’s a look at yet another version of the Dickens Yuletide classic. And remember, if you have any 11 + sauce to spare in this holiday season, please donate it to the Ethan Van Sciver family.
A SESAME STREET CHRISTMAS CAROL (2006) – This 46 minute special, which presents Oscar the Grouch as the Ebenezer Scrooge substitute, opens and closes with some very Christmassy scenes of artificial snow falling on the Sesame Street set. The apartments on that street are all decorated for the holiday so everything looks very festive.
Obviously this version of A Christmas Carol is aimed at children and pretty much only children so don’t expect the broader appeal that lies in A Muppet Christmas Carol. Still, anyone with children of their own or nieces or nephews or really young siblings can take 46 minutes to hang out with the kids while they enjoy this.
The story does not follow the actual plot of A Christmas Carol but instead uses the ghostly visits as framing devices for short sketches featuring the likes of Big Bird, Tickle-Me-Elmo, Bert & Ernie, Snuffle-upagus and Mr Hooper. This is ideal for children’s shorter attention spans while the adults can enjoy long-ago clips from when Hooper and the original voice actors for those Muppets were all still alive.
We start with Oscar the Grouch trying to barricade himself in his garbage can to avoid all that mushy Christmas cheer. He is visited by Joe Marley, a Muppet who works as a delivery man for the Scaredy-Pants Delivery Service. Marley informs the annoyed Oscar that he will be receiving three packages which contain Ghost-O-Grams. Continue reading
Jingle Bombs was the real title of this holiday tale which pitted superhero Luke Cage aka Hero for Hire aka Power Man against the one-off supervillain called Marley. Like a Guest Villain from the Adam West Batman show Marley uses a campy Christmas Carol motif for his nefarious plan … yet, oddly the story is kind of quaint. 
It’s no secret that Sharyl Attkisson is one of the few actual journalists left in the United States. 
Attkisson has been compiling a list of the most egregious errors (some might call them intentional misrepresentations) committed by “reporters” in the last few years. Again, she just covers the inaccuracies from alleged “news” sites, not the ramblings of shallow, uninformed and emotionally unstable entertainers. Her list would be much longer otherwise. 
JON MALIN’S CHRISTMAS CAROL (2019) – We can all have A Very Malin Christmas with this audio play version of A Christmas Carol. Unfortunately, Cecil stars as Scrooge so with his Buddy Hackett voice he gives this Carol an annoying nails on chalkboard feel. 
Productions of A Christmas Carol are all about who plays Scrooge, naturally, and Cecil, duck-voice and all, ruins this version. But on the bright side this Carol is being done for charity, raising money for some wonderful people. No, not the Malin Militia, but the good people at Saint Jude’s Children’s Hospital. 
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The defending champions – the MORNINGSIDE COLLEGE MUSTANGS – fought it out with the MARIAN UNIVERSITY KNIGHTS for the NAIA crown last night. This was a tale of two Halves, as the Mustangs led 21-7 by Halftime and threatened to run away with the game. 
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – The UNIVERSITY OF WEST FLORIDA ARGONAUTS were not only THE story of the D2 playoffs once again but this time they sealed the deal against their opponents the MINNESOTA STATE MAVERICKS! A 14-14 1st Quarter tie turned into a 38-21 Argonauts lead by the Half. 
DARK SHADOWS: A review of the Phoenix storyline from Dark Shadows 
KILLRAVEN: WAR OF THE WORLDS – The first part of my ongoing look at the 1973-1976 Marvel Comics science fiction series about heroic rebels fighting Earth’s alien conquerors. CLICK 
GLADIATOR: AN OPERA VERSION OF THE 1930 PHILIP WYLIE NOVEL – An opera about a man granted paranormal abilities by science. CLICK 
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (2015) – This 59 minute rendition of the Dickens Yuletide classic is often referred to as “the Colin Baker version.” Too bad Baker can’t sue somebody over that, since he had nothing to do with this laughable production beyond portraying Charles Dickens and narrating the story. 
MEMOIRS FROM A JOURNEY WITH THE FLYING FISH “PROMETHEUS” (1870) – Written by Danish author Vilhelm Bergsoe. I shortened the title in the heading for this blog post. Some editions shorten it even more, to just Flying Fish Prometheus. 
William’s American colleagues send the new airship Prometheus to fetch him. The Prometheus is cigar-shaped (like so many UFOs would be described decades later) and sports wings plus propellors. Our man Stone boards the airship in Koege, along with other passengers including his love interest Anna Blue. 
Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog remains the only site on the web that criticizes BOTH Democrats AND Republicans. Just as I still believe Bill Clinton did not deserve to be impeached I still believe Donald Trump does not deserve to be impeached. 
This may be why the Democrats are now threatening to refuse to send the impeachment articles they voted on over to the Senate. This refusal takes the already disgusting kangaroo court they’ve been running and making it an absolute atrocity. Democrats are reducing impeachment to a partisan threat to hold over a sitting president’s head. 
YELLOWHAIR AND THE FORTRESS OF GOLD (1984) – A review of this movie’s attempt to cross Indiana Jones with Spaghetti Westerns. CLICK 
EVEN MORE MEDAL OF HONOR WINNERS FROM THE PHILIPPINE WAR (1899-1902) – Another installment of Medal of Honor winners from a forgotten war. CLICK 
GOLDEN AGE JUSTICE SOCIETY – Reviews and recommended revisions to the 1940-1945 run of the very first superhero team in history: The Justice Society of America. CLICK 
THE CHANCELLOR MANUSCRIPT – My review of the Robert Ludlum novel. CLICK 
