Too much of what is labeled “Christian fantasy” is only “Christian” on the outside. But then you can say that of some churches, too. And people.
Just as it’s possible for a politician who supports and publicly funds abortion to say “I’m a good Catholic!”, any publisher can call any book a Christian novel. Sayin’ so don’t make it so.
What a creative setting for a Christmas hymn!
Requested by Lydia–See Amid the Winter’s Snow, performed, in a real snow-scape, by the kids at Fountainview Academy.
Cats Save The Planet by leaving it alone and just enjoying it. Boy, do they have fun in snow! Well, so could I, if it ever got around to snowing around here. Note the cat who’s figured out sledding. Oh, to be back on my Yankee Clipper sled!
Patty and I got all misty-eyed, as we do every Christmas, watching the Alistair Sim classic, Scrooge (aka A Christmas Carol), this afternoon. What a pair of softies! I mean, what’s the big deal? It’s only redemption!
Here’s young Scrooge at Mr. Fezziwig’s Christmas party, with one of the classic folk dances of England and Scotland–“Sir Roger de Coverley.” Published back in 1695, this dance turns up in several 19th century novels.
Have any of you out there ever danced it?
Anyway, out of all the fine movie versions of A Christmas Carol, this one is our favorite. Hankie, please!
In Chapter CCCXXXVIII of Violet Crepuscular’s epic romance, Oy, Rodney, Constable Chumley is seen walking two baboons, on leashes, up and down on Scurveyshire’s High Street.
The baboons’ names are Fritzy and Bitzy and are a gift from the constable’s long-lost millionaire cousin, Sir Henry Blithering. Sir Henry has gotten rid of them because they tend to attack people, dogs, horses, and shade trees. Constable Chumley explains, “Thim’s fair throckin’ ye timbrith.”
In no time at all Lord Jeremy Coldsore, as justice of the peace, is snowed under with frantic demands to get rid of the baboons. He is sympathetic to those demands, having been severely bitten in the leg by Fritzy and pushed into a water-trough by Bitzy.
“Really, old boy, this won’t do!” he exclaims to the now-crestfallen constable. “I don’t often get the opportunity to describe anyone as ‘crestfallen,'” Ms. Crepuscular confides to the reader. “It’s quite exhilarating! And there’s another wonderful word that’s seldom published nowadays.”
Chumley has grown quite fond of the baboons, although they have bitten him innumerable times (“You should see all the bandages!”) and he has to lock them in the pantry overnight, or they will finish him off in his sleep. “Us medderin’ gree frath,” he answers Lord Jeremy. A tear trickles from his eye.
“Can’t you donate them to the circus?” Jeremy pleads. The suggestion reduces the constable to a sobbing fit, during which the baboons tear their leashes out of his hands and race off into the sunset. For the next four years they terrorize anyone foolhardy enough to try to pass through Plaguesby Wood.
“None of this is gettin’ us hitched to Lady Margo, Germy ol’ hoss,” remarks the American adventurer, Willis Twombley. Lady Margo thinks he and Lord Jeremy are the same person.
“I will end the chapter here,” writes Ms. Crepuscular, “to heighten the suspense. But now it’s time for a cherry Coke with Frothee!”
Requested by Jeremy: Here’s another old familiar Christmas carol sung by a melody I’ve never heard before–The Holly and the Ivy, sung by the Norwich Cathedral Choir.
By the way, the carol contest is still on and the leading carol is still on top with 44 views on the day it was posted. Can you beat that?
Killer Quokkas!
Any time is a good time not to give the following videos as gifts!
Killer Quokkas, starring Chips Rafferty, Michael Caine, and Hedy LaMar. Quokkas are on the rampage, threatening to depopulate Australia. Only Hedy LaMar knows how to summon Godzilla from Monster Island–and she won’t tell, because she’s mad at Michael Caine.
(Byron the Quokka: “I resent this movie!”)
Only Slightly Better than Garbage: Join Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, washed-up football flop Colin Whatsisname, and the entire cast of The View in listing all the ways America sucks, all the ways Venezuela is better, and all their excuses for not going to live in Venezuela and bother us no more.
Eat Like a Cat! Cult documentary filmmaker Dolph Magnoon teaches you how to save money on your groceries by eating cat food in very small quantities and being hungry all the time. Special guest star: dietary expert Chelsea Clinton.
My Shameful Secret, a Swedish movie made by carpenter ants, stars a Howard Cosell look-alike whose speech is so garbled that even dubbing and subtitles can’t make him understood. To protect his life and property, his name has been removed from the credits. As to what the shameful secret is–well, we never find out, do we? You will be so sorry you paid $2.98 for this video disc!
There, you’ve been warned.
Well, gee, I hope you all are loving it, ’cause I sure am!
Maybe it’s posting all the Christmas hymns and carols that makes it come alive for me. Maybe it’s all the Christmases I’ve known, renewing their acquaintance.
So are you loving this Christmas of 2019?
True: I miss the people whom I used to share it with. On around the age of 50, you start losing people. When you’re 20 it never occurs to you. But love ’em now, because you won’t have them forever. Not until we all get to Heaven.
But even that sense of loss is a reminder of that glorious restitution that the Lord Our God has promised us. The first down payment on that promise was the birth of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord. We who believe in Him shall not die, but have everlasting life: it was for “the selfsame thing” that God created us in the first place (2 Corinthians 5:5).
So God has said.
Jon Dykstra of Reformed Perspective Magazine did a fine job of welding several of my blog posts, and my answers to his questions, into an article about Christian fantasy.
I was especially gratified when he told me how his children loved Bell Mountain as he read it to them. They called it simply “Jack and Ellayne.” I think they were five or six years old at the time–way under the age of the target audience. But I’ve heard this a lot, over the years–mostly from adults.
Anyway, it’s an interesting article and I was very pleasantly surprised to find it available online.
I’ve never heard this carol sung so beautifully as this–Mary, Did You Know?, performed by the students at Fountainview Academy. They even managed to stage it in a stable.