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Is WHITE CHRISTMAS really about climate change?

posted 12 years ago by wrfarley
8 replies | jump to latest

It seems scenarists Norman Panama and Norman Krasna were prescient in 1954 to offer up the first screen story to deal with climate change. These Hollywood liberal writers saw what no else did until at least twenty years later: that the weather was changing and the time for government action was NOW (well, maybe a half century later).

It's not just that there's no snow on the ground on Christmas Eve in Vermont, it's that everybody's walking around in light clothing and complaining about it. I'm sure Gen. Waverly and Bob's dialogue before final editing went more like this:

BOB: Those look like snow clouds to me.

GEN. WAVERLY: Those are cummulus clouds, elevation seven thousand feet.

BOB: That's pretty unusual for this time of year, isn't it, General?

GENERAL: Could be. I'd say we're about 30 degrees above what's normal temperature for this late in December.

BOB: You don't suppose the carbon we're putting into the atmosphere is affecting the weather, do you?

GEN. WAVERLY: Not sure, son, but we have been involved in heavy polluting industries for the past 100 years. Who's to say?

BOB: Well, let's just hope we don't see this same warm weather pattern in Christmas seasons to come.

GEN. WAVERLY: Oh, it'll take several years to determine any trends in the change of weather. We'll get a better grasp of this when we develop satellite technology. Say, Bob, I still don't know too much about guinea pigs, but...

[–] jackboot 12 years ago

Farley! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you, you old rascal, you!

Not so sure about your dialogue you submitted here. I think it needs to be punched up a little with a few more Der Bingle slang-isms! Maybe something along the lines of "That Yule-tide clambake sure pumped a lot of See-Oh-Two in the atmosphere of this old world, didn't it, General?"

I met Catherine Wyler recently and told her what a big fan I was of her father and his work. She was lovely and very gracious. She said that they (meaning she and the rest of the family) were very pleased with the biography, "Talent For Trouble"!

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] wrfarley 9 years ago

Had to bring this back by un-popular demand. Yes, "Talent For Trouble" is a fascinating biography, mostly about Wyler's work. His personal life was remarkable for its ordinariness.

[–] jackboot 9 years ago

Happy Holidays, Farley me man, and Tidings of Great Joy to You!

This is hardly related, except for the Der Bingle-ism, but just last night, when me sweetheart and I were browsing the Minute Maid juices section, I started in my best crooning, Bing-like tone, "boo-b-boo-boo.... nothing like pancakes on the griddle and Minute Maid orange juice," which she doesn't remember except that I always say that every time we look at the Minute Maid section at our friendly grocer's.

[–] wrfarley 9 years ago

Hey, jackboot, sure do remember those laid-back 1970's Der Bingle commercials for Minute Maid orange juice. Here's a funny aside about those commercials. In an (I think) ABC interview circa 1975, Bing was asked about his financial interest in Minute Maid Corp. He claimed he had none. The interviewer was flabbergasted, "But according to my notes, Minute Maid, itself, claims you have substantial shares in its company." Without missing a beat, Crosby folds his arms and says, "Not me. You must have me confused with Hope."

As the public found out after his death, Crosby WAS deeply invested in Minute Maid - and I believe the Pittsburgh Pirates, too. Boo-boo-b-boo.

[–] mark-sniat 9 years ago

It's not true now, so why should it be true then. The winter of 1944 was one of the most brutal ever. Farmers in Vermont will tell you that they would "green winters" since the turn of the century.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] liscarkat (16576) 3 years ago

If you do some research in vintage newspapers going back hundreds of years, as far back as newspapers go, you will see a record of seasonally anomalous temperatures, extreme weather events, heat waves, droughts, floods, and every other type of weird and destructive climatological phenomena equaling or exceeding anything we are experiencing today. There have been countless climate changes in the 4.6 billion years the earth has existed, and at least six major climate shifts, much more severe than anything taking place now, in the past 12,000 years. It's all just routine.