an atheist's Christmas fix

No date with Rosemary Clooney last night.

First, Sue and her mom had already watched White Christmas in the morning. Besides that, by the time I got back from my this-IS-a-vacation-right? day at the office, supper was followed by a plumbing emergency and the experts took more than the promised hour before they showed up. When they were finally done resolving the situation, I had caught a TV ad about what at first I thought was a spoof of a DeVry Institute commercial that'd turn out to be for Geico, except that it was for real and that there is something called the Viral Learning Center. But I digress. By then, it was too late to watch anything full-length like A Christmas Carol (1). But even atheists need their Christmas fix so we popped in the tape of Star in the Night, which I think won its director Don Siegel (2) an Oscar in 1945 for best short-feature. It's about what happen at a motel in the middle of nowhere on Christmas Eve (3). It was corny, but just what I needed.

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(1) The version with Alastair Sim, and my favorite. I used to like the 1984 one, with George C.Scott, but one Christmas we watched them back to back. Scott played Scrooge like Patton and, when Marley's ghost showed up, he'd have kicked his old buddy back into the Afterlife instead of cowering in fear. Sim's Scrooge had the right theatricality and was so gleeful about his meanness.

(2) Yes, that Don siegel.

(3) One cabin, from the sound of it, was providing shelter for the Boston Pops and the whole Mormon Tabernacle Choir