Every year around this time, there are articles about which recorded version of A Christmas Carol is "the best."  Usually it comes down to the films that starred either Alistair Sim or Reginald Owen.

But for me, it's this one.  It's not a movie, though, or a TV production.  It's, of all things, an audio version that was done in 1960 for, I believe, the BBC.  It's quite wonderful and as good an adaptation of the story as I've come across.  It stars Sir Ralph Richardson as Scrooge, and Oscar-winner Paul Scofield as Dickens, the narrator.  Casts don't get much better than that.

I first heard this on radio station WFMT in Chicago which has been playing this every Christmas Eve for many decades.  Eventually, I found it on audio tape.  I've listened to it annually since I was a kidling.  Some years I think I won't listen to it this year, but put it on for a few minutes for tradition's sake -- but after the first sentence it sucks me in.

There are four reasons why, for me, this is far and away the best version. But one reason leaps out.

First, the acting is as good as it gets.  Scofield is crisp and emphatic as the narrator, and almost every creak of his voice draws you in to the world, and Richardson as Scrooge is a Christmas pudding joy.  Second, being radio, you aren't limited by budgets to create the Dickensian world.  Your imagination fills in every lush and poverty-stricken, nook and cranny -- and ghostly spirit, aided by moody sound effects and violins.  Third, the adaptation sticks  closely to the Dickens tale, and Scrooge comes across more a realistic, rounded-person than as a Mythic Icon.  

And fourth, and most of all by far, unlike any of the other version, this includes...Dickens.  While the story of A Christmas Carol is beloved, it's Dickens' writing that makes it even more vibrant than the story alone is.  And that's all lost in the movie versions, even down even to the legendary opening line, "Marley was dead, to begin with."  Or any of the other classic narrative lines.  (Like my favorite, when Scrooge first comes in contact with a ghost and was "as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.") Or the richness of Dickens setting the mood and tone and description of the gritty and ephemeral and emotional world.  All that's gone in movies, good as the productions may be.  But all of that is here in this radio adaptation, and Scofield's reading of it is joyously wonderful and memorable.  For many, this will be A Christmas Carol unlike any other you're aware of, giving it a meaning and richness you didn't realize was there.  The ending of the tale is so much more moving and joyful here, as we listen to Dickens' own words, that begin with "Scrooge was better than his word.  He did it all, and infinitely more," and it soars from there, to perhaps my favorite extended passage about the new Scrooge and how good he is in the "good old world. Or any other good old world."

If you have the time or inclination, do give it a listen.  If only for five minutes to at least get the flavor.  You might find yourself sticking around.  Let it play in the background, if you have other things to do.  It runs about 55 minutes.

(Side note:  speaking of Dickens, if you know the original cast album of Oliver!, the actor here who plays the Ghost of Christmas Present, Willoughby Goddard, was Mr. Bumble on Broadway and also in the original London production.)

Normally I would post this later in the evening -- but given the various time zones across the country, I thought that I'd get it embedded earlier to give as many listeners as possible the chance to hear it on Christmas Eve.

This might not play immediately, since it's a large file and may have to buffer first.  But be patient, it's worth it.​

My friend Steve Fifer back in Chicago (okay, Evanston...) is a wonderful writer, with many non-fiction books to his credit -- including three books written with Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Jimmy Lee and James, about two lives and their deaths which lead to the Selma-to-Montgomery March and the Voting Rights Act.

All of Steve's books are not about the Civil Rights movement -- some are on politics, he's got a fun book on watching baseball, an excellent autobiography of his own inspiring journey overcoming a debilitating disability -- in which, okay I'm biased -- he mentions my dad, who was a doctor, twice...), and perhaps my favorite of his books is So You've Got a Great Idea, which is full of profiles of successful entrepreneurs and how they made it, along with a "case study" of Steve and his wife Sharon -- also a fine writer of the "Jane Wheel" mystery series -- coming up with an idea and seeing if they could use the lessons learned from the others to pull it off.  However, his new book is not only again about Civil Rights, but one of its major figures.

His upcoming collaboration, It's In the Action: Memories of a Nonviolent Warrior, is an autobiography of Civil Rights legend C.T. Vivian, which he wrote with Steve.  Vivian sadly died this past July at age 96, although happily the book had been completed.  You may have seen the memorial ceremony that was carried in full on C-SPAN (which you can watch here, with video tributes by Joe Biden, Oprah Winfrey, Hank Aaron, and others),  Among many things, Vivian helped organize the Freedom Rides with Rev. Martin Luther King and in 2013 was awarded the appropriately-named Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

​I mention all this because, though the book won't be published until March 9 next year, Amazon has it listed for pre-order -- and I know that publishers look at pre-orders in determining their marketing and promotion plans.  This is not a push for people to order it.  To each their own.  Mainly, I was pleased to know about Steve co-writing such a prestigious book and wanted to bring it up.  But also, given the subject matter, I thought that if anyone does, in fact, have interest in the Civil Rights Movement and C.T. Vivian's autobiography and might be considering getting it anyway, I just wanted to at least note the pre-order option here.  (Know that if the price lowers, Amazon lowers it for those who have pre-ordered it, as well.)

​At the very least, I'm very happy for Steve.

I was very sorry to find out about the passing of Rafer Johnson at the age of 86, one of the country's great athletes, who won the Decathlon at the 1960 Olympics and was a great ambassador for the U.S. since.

How great?  It would be too long to go into detail, but I'll just note that when the United States hosted the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984, the person chosen to light the Olympic flame was Rafer Johnson.

I was very sorry to find out about the passing of Rafer Johnson at the age of 86, one of the country's great athletes, who won the Decathlon at the 1960 Olympics and was a great ambassador for the U.S. since.

This is a good, 4-minute video of Johnson's Gold Medal victory, in what's considered one of greatest decathlon competitions in Olympic history.  Not just because it was between the two top athletes in the world at the time, but they also were not only close friends...but teammates at UCLA, even though they were  representing different countries.

I don't really have much of a personal story to pass along about Rafer Johnson, but he has a very nice autobiography, The Best That I Can Be, which was written with the talented Philip Goldberg, who I was friends with but alas haven't seen for years since moved out of state too long ago.  The only time I cross paths with Rafer Johnson was when I went to a book-signing event.  We didn't talk long -- there was a long line -- but he was gracious and spoke wonderfully about Phil, who over the years always spoke even far-higher of Rafer.​

On his Facebook page, Phil wrote this --

"​I just got the sad news that one of the finest people I've ever known, Rafer Johnson, has passed away at 86. In the 90s I had the profound honor of working with Rafer on his autobiography, "The Best That I Can Be." It was a joy and an inspiration from start to finish, and we remained friends ever since. For those who don't know, or remember, Rafer was one of the greatest athletes in American history, and to my mind an even greater human being and citizen."

If you're interested in the book, you can find it here.

Honestly, I don't have a clue what the worst story of the day was.  Was the worst story saying on tape that you knew in early February that the coronavirus was worse than the deadly flu, something he later said publicly otherwise?  Was the worst story saying on tape that you knew the coronavirus infected people by airborne transmission, something he later said publicly otherwise, that face masks weren't necessary?  Was the worst today of the days saying on tape that you knew young people could get infected, something he later said publicly otherwise as recently as 2-3 weeks ago that you thought young people were immune of the coronavirus and that you want communities to open up schools for them?

Was the worst story saying on tape that we had a secret new nuclear weapons system?  Giving away confidential nuclear information is pretty bad.  Former CIA DIrector John Brennan said what most concerned him was that if Trump was telling a reporter top secret information, what might he be telling foreign leaders?  Telling our adversaries?  Telling...anyone?

Was the worst story laughing at a question about white privilege and then ridiculing the reporter by telling him he'd drunk the Kool-Aid?

I don't know, they're all pretty awful.  But then, it's possible that the worst story of the day might not have even been any of the revelations from Bob Woodward's book.  It might have been the story of whistleblower Brian Murphy, former acting chief of the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence branch,  He told investigators that Trump had intelligence changed about Russian threats against U.S. elections and threats by white supremacist groups and kept from law enforcement.  So, police and other agencies were kept in the dark and unable to act on those threats.  Is that story worse than the others?  It’s pretty darn bad.

And that’s just from today.  We aren’t even talking about all the terrible revelations from Michael Cohen yesterday on the release of his book.

And no, we haven’t forgotten the article from The Atlantic about Trump demeaning the military and calling the wounded and dead “losers” and “suckers.”
 
And keep in mind that “all” these revelations from Bob Woodward’s book are only from about four or five brief excerpts that got released, since the full book isn’t due to be published until next week.  Are these “the worst” stories from the book?  They’re all obviously very bad, and some may be among the worst, but any good marketing campaign will hold back other major newsworthy stories to keep making headlines between now and the book’s release.
 
And, of course, the worst story is still the pandemic – regardless of what Trump says he knew and whether he know when he knew what he knows -- and that we passed 195,000 deaths in the country, so far.
 
Among my personal favorite stories of yesterday, though, was his attempt at explaining his silence by saying he wanted to downplay the pandemic because he didn’t want people to panic.
 
First of all, as we have seen for the past 3-1/2 years, Trump seems to wake up every morning wondering how many ways he can panic people.  And going back further, we come to his cries of birtherism.  Or we can even go back to when he took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to call for the execution of the innocent Central Park Five.
 
Second, if you don’t want people to panic, you have a plan and are honest with people to keep them informed.  If a hurricane is about to hit the coast, you don’t downplay it to those living there and ignore telling them how dangerous it is, you set up shelters and explain the evacuation system.
 
Third, to this day, seven months later, Trump is still downplaying the pandemic.  He holds rallies without social distancing, he doesn’t wear a face mask or require others around him to wear one, he just ridiculed a reporter for wearing a mask, he still doesn’t have a national testing program, he says he wants testing cut back, he wants students to go back to school, he wants students and professionals to play football – where people huddle, line up inches from each other, and wrap their arms around their opponents to tackle them.  He’s ridiculed Joe Biden sheltering and wearing a face mask.  He still says the coronavirus will disappear like a miracle.  And on and on and on and on. 
 
“Panic” has nothing to do with it,  We’re well past panic, 195,000 Americans have died of the coronavirus, and Trump has never stopped downplaying it.  Concern over “panic” is not an issue, and never was to Trump.  He downplayed the coronavirus in February because he didn’t want the stock market to collapse and didn’t want the public to know about it since it would hurt his election chances.  And he continues to downplay it because he’s stuck believing his lies.
 
We’re going to turn the rest of today’s platform over the former Senator Claire McCaskill, who was on fire yesterday on MSNBC.  She appeared on a segment with host Nicolle Wallace and John Heileman, and as thoughtful and pointed as they were, she was absolutely red-hot furious at what Trump has done to America. 

But Ms. McCaskill was just getting warmed up. Later in the segment, the tropic of Trump simply doing the interviews with Trump came up -- not just the interviews, but 18 of them.  And she became near-operatic, almost Shakespearean in her bewilderment.  The treat here is not just watching her, but also Heileman and Wallace, who know better than most anyone how what she is saying is SO true.  Him, because he wrote one of the definitive books on a presidential campaign, Game Change, and her from the other perspective, as a communications director working to keep journalists away from the candidate at the end of a campaign.  I only wish the video didn’t end the clip so early, as soon as she finishes, because you only see them start to break out laughing.

And since I can't top that, I won't try.

​In the words of Edward R. Murrow -- good night, and good luck.

On this week’s Al Franken podcast, the guest is Michael Lewis (author of Moneyball, The Big Short, The Blind Side, and Liar’s Poker).  In his most-recent book, The Fifth Risk, Franken notes that that “Lewis portrayed Donald Trump as a man totally ignorant of and disinterested in the actually functioning of the federal government. The book’s title refers to the potential catastrophe that an administration fails to plan for and prevent.  Today, he talks about how Trump’s handling of COVID-19 “has proven his book tragically prophetic.  This is a follow-up, of sorts to his earlier interview with Franken when the book was released, and the two had a fascinating conversation. 

​Every year around this time, there are articles about which recorded version of A Christmas Carol is "the best."  Usually it comes down to the films that starred either Alistair Sim or Reginald Owen.

But for me, it's this one.  It's not a movie, though, or a TV production.  It's, of all things, an audio version that was done in 1960 for, I believe, the BBC.  It's quite wonderful and as good an adaptation of the story as I've come across.  It stars Sir Ralph Richardson as Scrooge, and Oscar-winner Paul Scofield as Dickens, the narrator.  Casts don't get much better than that.

I first heard this on radio station WFMT in Chicago which has been playing this every Christmas Eve for many decades.  (And still does.)  Eventually, I found it on audio tape.  I've listened to it annually since I was a kidling.  Some years I think I won't listen to it this year, but put it on for a few minutes for tradition's sake -- but after the first sentence it sucks me in.

There are four reasons why, for me, this is far and away the best version. But one reason leaps out.

First, the acting is as good as it gets.  Scofield is crisp and emphatic as the narrator,and almost every creak of his voice draws you in to the world, and Richardson as Scrooge is a Christmas pudding joy.  Second, being radio, you aren't limited by budgets to create the Dickensian world.  Your imagination fills in every lush and poverty-stricken, nook and cranny -- and ghostly spirit, aided by moody sound effects and violins.  Third, the adaptation sticks  closely to the Dickens tale, and Scrooge comes across more a realistic, rounded-person than as a Mythic Icon.  

And fourth, and most of all by far, unlike any of the other version, this includes...Dickens.  While the story of A Christmas Carol is beloved, it's Dickens' writing that makes it even more vibrant than the story alone is.  And that's all lost in the movie versions, even down even to the legendary opening line, "Marley was dead, to begin with."  Or any of the other classic narrative lines.  Or the richness of Dickens setting the mood and tone and description of the gritty and ephemeral and emotional world.  All that's gone in movies, good as the productions may be.  But all of that is here in this radio adaptation, and Scofield's reading of it is joyously wonderful and memorable.  For many, this will be A Christmas Carol unlike any other you're aware of, giving it a meaning and richness you didn't realize was there.  The ending of the tale is so much more moving and joyful here, as we listen to Dickens' own words, that begin with "Scrooge was better than his word.  He did it all, and infinitely more," and it soars from there, to perhaps my favorite passage about the new Scrooge and how good he is in the "good old world. Or any other good old world."

If you have the time or inclination, do give it a listen.  If only for five minutes to at least get the flavor.  You might find yourself sticking around.  Let it play in the background, if you have other things to do.  It runs about 55 minutes.

(Side note:  speaking of Dickens, if you know the original cast album of Oliver!, the actor here who plays the Ghost of Christmas Present, Willoughby Goddard, was Mr. Bumble on Broadway and in the original London production.)

This might not play immediately, since it's a large file and may have to buffer first.  But be patient, it's worth it.​

At the moment, I'm reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's excellent book Leadership:  Lessons from the Presidents for Turbulent Times.  Published last September, it's a look at the presidencies of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and LBJ from their beginnings to overcoming personal trials and how they become leaders in the White House during difficult periods in the nation's history.  (If you're interested, you can find it here.)

I read a passage yesterday, and it was near-impossible not to overlap with it current events.  It's a part of the section leading up to the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, and deals with how Lincoln was able to keep his cabinet together despite them being divided on what he was doing.

This is the Father of the Republican Party.  Times change.  I don't think any following comment after the passage is necessary.
​

"Time and again, Welles marveled, Lincoln 'declared that he, and not his Cabinet, was in fault for errors imputed to them.'  His refusal to let a subordinate take the blame for his decisions was never better illustrated than by his public defense after McClellan attributed the Peninsula disaster to the War Department's failure to send sufficient troops.  A vicious public assault upon Stanton ensued, with subsequent calls for his resignation.  To create a dramatic backdrop that would garner extensive newspaper coverage, Lincoln issued an order to close down all the government departments at one o'clock so everyone might attend a massive Union rally on the Capitol steps.  There, after the firing of cannon  and patriotic music from the Marine Band, Lincoln directly countered McClellan's charge.  He insisted that every possible soldier available had been sent to reinforce the general.  'The Secretary of War is not to blame for giving what he had none to give.'  Then, as the applause mounted, Lincoln continued:  'I believe [Stanton] is a brave and able man, and I stand here, as justice requires me to do, to take upon myself what has been charged on the Secretary of War.'  Lincoln's spirited defense of his beleaguered secretary skillfully extinguished the campaign against Stanton.

"In the end, it was Lincoln's character -- his consistent sensitivity, patience, prudence, and empathy -- that inspired and transformed every member of his official family.  In this paradigm of team leadership, greatness was grounded in goodness."

Now that "Captain Kangaroo" is trending, thanks yesterday to the always-egregious Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), it gives me a chance to bring up a fond memory that I actually met the Captain himself (Bob Keeshan) at a book expo several years back that I was reporting on, and even got to do him a favor with the WGA.  He was a very nice guy. And I still have the book he signed for me.

The favor was small, but still a treat.

When I was wandering the hall, I happened to spot his booth where he was promoting his new book, and made my way right over.  We got to chatting and he noted that my press badge was from the Writers Guild of America.  He mentioned that he was a Guild member in the WGA East, though because of that he wasn't able to get the Guild's Written By magazine which was quite good, and he'd always wanted to.  I said that I knew the editor and would follow-up on it.

When I returned to Los Angeles, I gave a call to the editor Richard Stayton and explained the situation.  Without a moment's hesitation (not schocking, I know, but still, hey, you never know...) he immediate said with enthusiasm that, of course, he'd be absolutely to add Captain Kangaroo to the mailing list.

It's always nice to be able to do someone a favor.  It's hard to explain how joyous it is to do a favor for Captain Kangaroo.

This week's Ron Burgundy podcast is a big treat -- at least for me.  But I also think it should be for most people, especially is they like history.  She's always a wonderful, lively interview, but far more than that Is one of my handful of favorite historians, Doris Kearns Goodwin -- who Ron describes as his ex-girlfriend...which they actually discuss at length.  She wrote the wonderful book Team of Rivals, which served as the foundation for the Spielberg film, Lincoln.  Won the Pulitzer Prize for No Ordinary Time about FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt.  And the paperback edition of her latest history, Leadership: In Turbulent Times, has recently been released.  The interview is full of wonderful stories, a great deal of charm, and much humor.

The guest contestant on the 'Not My Job' segment of this week's NPR quiz show Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me! is author Piper Kerman .Some of you may know who Ms. Kerman is, but for those who don't she wrote a memoir, Orange is the New Black, on which the Netflix TV series is based -- with (as she notes) takes a lot of liberties with the true story.  Her interview with host Peter Sagal is pretty straightforward, going over the story of her past -- and current efforts, which includes teaching writing in state prison -- but Sagal and she are able to make it quite entertaining, including her recipe on how to make a cheesecake when in prison.