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Post by Nalkarj on Dec 19, 2023 0:21:47 GMT
I had a thread about this on the old board, so I thought I should start one here too. I love the old tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmastime, which this Smithsonian magazine article rightly calls “a hallowed tradition, a folk custom stretching back centuries, when families would while away the winter nights with tales of spooks and monsters.” As the magazine explains:So let’s keep the haunts a-haunting and the tradition alive. You’re more than welcome to share your ghost stories here, and I’ll chime in with my own stories and some quotes—from Dickens, M.R. James, that playwright fella from Stratford-upon-Avon, and others.
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Post by Nalkarj on Dec 19, 2023 0:23:36 GMT
Here’s a story I told back in 2019 (before the world went all awry):
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Post by Nalkarj on Dec 19, 2023 23:29:32 GMT
Tinsel, Frankincense, and Fir by Dana Gioia
Hanging old ornaments on a fresh cut tree, I take each red glass bulb and tinfoil seraph And blow away the dust. Anyone else Would throw them out. They are so scratched and shabby.
My mother had so little joy to share She kept it in a box to hide away. But on the darkest winter nights—voilà— She opened it resplendently to shine.
How carefully she hung each thread of tinsel, Or touched each dime-store bauble with delight. Blessed by the frankincense of fragrant fir, Nothing was too little to be loved.
Why do the dead insist on bringing gifts We can’t reciprocate? We wrap her hopes Around the tree crowned with a fragile star. No holiday is holy without ghosts.
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Post by politicidal1 on Dec 22, 2023 15:32:02 GMT
Nalkarj now the world *has* gone awry, you have new material.
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Post by Nalkarj on Dec 22, 2023 16:55:35 GMT
Nalkarj now the world *has* gone awry, you have new material. How so?
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Post by politicidal1 on Dec 22, 2023 17:15:33 GMT
Nalkarj now the world *has* gone awry, you have new material. How so? Oh just ya know, everything going on for the last few years. The sort of collective anxiety we all (or maybe most of us) went through.
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Post by Nalkarj on Dec 26, 2023 4:08:54 GMT
— William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale.
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Post by Nalkarj on Dec 26, 2023 18:22:29 GMT
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Post by The Herald Erjen on Dec 26, 2023 19:26:56 GMT
Oh just ya know, everything going on for the last few years. The sort of collective anxiety we all (or maybe most of us) went through. If you're going through that anxiety, it's no big deal. It just means you're reacting the way the Illuminati wants you to.
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Post by Pippen on Dec 30, 2023 16:43:23 GMT
NalkarjBrit Box has a series of Ghost Stories for Christmas I watched one by A.C. Doyle about an Egyptian Mummy ... one of the characters was talking about moving soon to Baker Street and thinking that a doctor would make a great roommate. Lot 249
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Post by Nalkarj on Dec 31, 2023 18:27:16 GMT
NalkarjBrit Box has a series of Ghost Stories for Christmas I watched one by A.C. Doyle about an Egyptian Mummy ... one of the characters was talking about moving soon to Baker Street and thinking that a doctor would make a great roommate. Lot 249 I don’t have BritBox, but I was just reading about the “Lot No. 249” adaptation the other day. Did you like it? I’ll probably check it out at some point; what gives me pause is that it’s by Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss, a very inconsistent writer whose concepts are almost always better than his executions. Gatiss has long tried to bring the Christmas ghost story back in vogue (he wrote and starred in a miniseries of M.R. James pastiches released at Christmas 15 years ago—unfortunately, it’s pretty bad), for which I’m thankful, but for me he hasn’t come up with anything as good as the original BBC Ghost Story for Christmas telefilms.
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Post by Pippen on Dec 31, 2023 18:33:40 GMT
Nalkarj Brit Box has a series of Ghost Stories for Christmas I watched one by A.C. Doyle about an Egyptian Mummy ... one of the characters was talking about moving soon to Baker Street and thinking that a doctor would make a great roommate. Lot 249 I don’t have BritBox, but I was just reading about the “Lot No. 249” adaptation the other day. Did you like it? I’ll probably check it out at some point; what gives me pause is that it’s by Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss, a very inconsistent writer whose concepts are almost always better than his executions. Gatiss has long tried to bring the Christmas ghost story back in vogue (he wrote and starred in a miniseries of M.R. James pastiches 15 years ago—unfortunately, it’s pretty bad), for which I’m thankful, but for me he hasn’t come up with anything as good as the original BBC Ghost Story for Christmas telefilms. I liked it well enough. Not being familiar with the original story may help. I have not looked too deeply into who wrote what or details of suchlike (I leave that to you ! ) Brit Box seems to have two sets of the Christmas Ghost stories ...some look newer than others going by the casts. Brit Box is one of the few $$$$ stations I subscribe to and it is worth the $$ as it is the one most watched.
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