CHRISTMAS MOVIES

Lyrics:  We need a little Christmas/ Right this very minutes/ Candles in the window/ Carols at the spinet.

Beautiful, sunny Christmas day; lots of walkers — all stopping in front of my neighbor’s house, pointing and laughing.  I had to check it out, of course.

I digress momentarily.  There are some traditional holiday movies we almost always watched every year and most are still shown on TV: White Christmas with Bing and Danny, Christmas in Connecticut with Barbara Stanwyck, The Bishop’s Wife with Cary Grant and Loretta Young, and later came Home Alone with Macauley Culkin.  My sons had been talking on Christmas Eve about their favorites.  One son favored Christmas Story and the other son didn’t even like it that much.  I hadn’t seen it.  It was certainly a favorite of TV stations Christmas Day and I turned it on out of curiosity and got hooked because it was filmed in Cleveland, Ohio where we lived for 14 years, and where our sons grew up, and where I returned to University and picked up a degree in nursing.

Cleveland — the “mistake on the lake” as the writers on Laugh-In joked, many of them Cleveland ex-pats; where the Cuyahoga River caught on fire back in the 70’s as did the Mayor’s hair when he bent over to blow out the candles on his birthday cake, and where his wife declined a White House invitation because it conflicted with her bowling night.

It’s nice that TV keeps the old classics alive to be enjoyed again and again and discovered by new generations.  I have a new number-one favorite on my top ten list, Love Actually with Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson, followed by The Bishop’s Wife, and It Happened on 5th Avenue.  And I still choke up every time the General walks into the dining room in White Christmas.  Ten hut!

So, what were the walkers finding so amusing at the house next door?  I’m sure you’re way ahead of me.  There in the front window was a leg covered in a black net stocking and holding up a lamp shade.  (Name the movie.)

What are your favorite Christmas movies?  What is your favorite Christmas story?

Lyrics: For we need a little music/ Need a little laughter/ Need a little singing/ Ringing through the rafter. . .  From the musical Auntie Mame.  Music by Jerry Herman.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FRED

Trust and Fear

IMAGINE: Imagine no possessions/ I wonder if you can/ No need for greed or hunger/ A brotherhood of man.

A good friend recently was scammed of $20,000.  Ouch!  It’s a national scam and it preys on people’s fear.  Although several people, including myself, questioned her panic need for cash, our concerns couldn’t penetrate the layer of fear the scammers set up; she was to stay in phone contact with them at all times, wasn’t to talk to anyone, was to send the money in the way they specified and immediately OR . . .

In this case my friend was late paying her taxes and was scheduled to meet with her accountant that very week.  The scammer said they were with the IRS and unless she paid immediately (that day) she would be arrested and jailed.  Now, you and I see right through this tale of deceit but a lot of people haven’t and are being victimized.  My friend is now connected with the State Fraud department and a question that comes up is whether someone in the IRS system is feeding the scammers with inside information or have they hacked into the system?  Was it purely accidental that they called my friend at the time they did?  Sounds like a TV who-dunnit.

As you might suspect, elders are consistently targeted.  In general they tend to be more trusting and vulnerable.  When I discovered years ago that my elderly aunt was being contacted on a regular basis by scammers, I attempted to logically enlighten her to no avail.  I asked her why she believed a stranger over the phone rather than her niece who had her welfare at heart.  We had always had a good, loving relationship.  She wanted to believe the stranger who promised her riches and she was naively trusting.  I called Attorney Generals in three different states but no help was forthcoming then.  I learned that scammers networked across the country, sharing their list of hot prospects.  My aunt was hot!

In the case of my friend, retired from positions of responsible professional employment, she was certain her caller was legitimate even when this was questioned by multiple people including the banker who gave her the cash.  Not only was she trusting, she was in bondage to the fears the scammer created in her mind.  The power of fear.

That same day I received two email scams, one purportedly generated by my bank.  60 Minutes had just done a segment on credit card hackers (think Target and Home Depot) and I asked the banker about credit cards with chips.  She turned around a display on her desk with new credit cards ready to go but explained that businesses are not equipped to handle the new cards.   The only solution for now is to change your password every 3-4 months.  I think we need to do more, e.g., we need to contact our newspaper, local TV (I’ve been told that CBS did call attention to the IRS scam) and radio stations (think NPR) and AARP about running regular columns devoted to identifying current scams and inviting the reading, watching, listening audience to share their experiences.  Other ideas?

Lyrics: You may say I’m a dreamer/ but I’m not the only one/ I hope someday you’ll join us/ and the world will live as one.  (Imagine by John Lennon)