Category Archives: MonSFFA Website
This category is for postings specific to the setup of the website.
Post 4 of 4: The Many Ways of Joy
This is post 4 of 4, in which we bring to a close the principal content offered in this, our 2022 Virtual Holiday Get-Together. If you’re just now joining us, scroll back to today’s Post 1 of 4 to enjoy the posted content, start to finish.
Thanks are proffered to all who put this e-gathering together, and before we sign-off, here are the answers to the quiz we put up in Post 1 of 4, followed by Josée Bellemare’s 2020 presentation “The Many Ways of Joy,” which we thought a nice close to the afternoon.
Note that while this is the final post of the afternoon, our ZOOM-chat may well continue for a little longer, at the discretion of those involved.
ANSWERS TO TRIVIA CHALLENGE
1) In the atrociously bad 1964 “Yuletide science fiction fantasy” Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, what are the names of the two Earth children kidnapped by the Martians?
ANSWER: Billy and Betty, portrayed by Victor Stiles and Donna Conforti.
2) 1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special included an animated sequence entitled “The Faithful Wookiee,” which introduced a new character to Star Wars canon, bounty hunter Boba Fett. Name the Canadian animation studio that George Lucas enlisted to produce this “Faithful Wookiee” cartoon.
ANSWER: Nelvana
Headquartered in Toronto, Nelvana Limited, now Nelvana Enterprises, was founded in 1971 and produces principally children’s programming. George Lucas was a fan of the studio and chose Nelvana to produce the 10-minute short for the Star Wars Holiday Special. The cartoon is widely considered to be the only redeeming part of an otherwise abysmal, embarrassingly unwatchable steaming coil of Bantha poodoo.
3) Rankin/Bass’ 1964 stop-motion animated Christmas classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, was filmed in Japan under the direction of animation supervisor Tadahito “Tad” Mochinaga. The voice work and songs, however, were recorded elsewhere; where was the show’s soundtrack recorded?
ANSWER: Toronto, Canada. Most of the speaking roles and songs were performed by Canadian talent, including Paul Soles as Hermey, Billie Mae Richards as Rudolph, Janis Orenstein as Clarice, and Larry Mann as Yukon Cornelius and the Abominable Snow Monster.
4) What is the clever postal code created by Canada Post for the North Pole?
ANSWER: H0H 0H0
5) The Big Heart, My Heart Tells Me, and It’s Only Human—these were working titles for which classic Christmas film?
ANSWER: Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Set during the Christmas season, the film was originally to be called Christmas Miracle on 34th Street, until its release date was moved to May by studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck, who argued that more people went to the movies in summer!
6) Name the only three Christmas movies to have been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.
ANSWER: It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Miracle on 34th Street, and The Bishop’s Wife (both 1947). None won Best Picture, but Edmund Gwenn, who played Kris Kringle/Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street, was awarded the Best Supporting Actor prize, quipping during his acceptance speech, “Now I know there’s a Santa Claus.”
7) How many ghosts appear to surly Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol?
ANSWER: Four. In addition to the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, a fourth ghost, that of Scrooge’s deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, first appears to Scrooge and foretells of the impending visits by the other three.
8) What is briefly visible on Katrina “Kate” Andrich’s wrist as she rides her father’s cab home in Last Christmas (2019)?
ANSWER: Tattoos of dragons. Actress Emilia Clarke, who played Kate, had the tattoos inked as a memento of her star-making role in Game of Thrones, that of Daenerys Targaryen, the Queen of Dragons.
9) He famously voiced an animated space hero, she made her mark as a scream queen; name these two actors, and the 2004 Christmas movie in which they star.
ANSWER: Tim “Buzz Lightyear” Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis of Halloween fame, who starred as Luther and Nora Krank in Christmas with the Kranks. The film also featured Ghostbuster and Conehead Dan Aykroyd.
10) What former “James Bond” starred as the bishop in Christmas classic The Bishop’s Wife?
ANSWER: David Niven, who appeared as Bond in the spy-picture spoof Casino Royale (1967).
11) What child actress was featured as a young family member in two back-to-back classic Christmas films?
ANSWER: Karolyn Grimes, who at age six, portrayed Zuzu, George and Mary Bailey’s youngest daughter in It’s a Wonderful Life, and the following year, Debby Brougham, Bishop Henry Brougham and his wife, Julia’s, daughter in The Bishop’s Wife.
12) What is notable about supporting player Alvin Greenman, who portrayed young Macy’s Department Store janitor Alfred in the original Miracle on 34th Street?
He is the only original cast member to appear in the 1994 remake of the classic, where he cameoed as a doorman, also named Alfred.
13) In the Lost in Space episode “Return From Outer Space,” against his father’s express orders, young Will Robinson employs dangerous alien technology to matter-transfer himself across the gulf of space and back to Earth, materializing in a small town at Christmastime. His plan is to alert Alpha Control at Cape Kennedy of his family’s location on a distant, barren planet so that a rescue ship might be dispatched. But no one in town believes that he’s a member of the famous First Family in Space, long missing and now presumed dead! In what U.S. state is located the small town to which Will beams himself?
ANSWER: Vermont. The fictional town of Hatfield Four Corners is located in a Quebec-bordering state less than two hours’ drive south of Montreal!
14) Who wrote the book that served as inspiration for the movie Christmas with the Kranks?
ANSWER: John Grisham, known principally for his popular legal thrillers. His comedic novel Skipping Christmas (2001) served as the film’s source material.
15) Gimmel, Nun, Hey, and Shin are the Hebrew letters traditionally inscribed on a dreidel, one on each of the four sides. A dreidel is a spinning top associated with Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. The letters stand for the phrase “Nes gadôl hayah sham,” or in English, “A great miracle happened there.” In Israel, the phrase is modified slightly to read “Nes gadôl hayah poh,” or “A great miracle happened here.” But what are Kimar, Rigna, Stobo, and Shim?
ANSWER: The names of Martian characters in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
16) Because nothing says Yuletide like math, in “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” how many presents are given altogether?
ANSWER: 364. Here’s the breakdown: partridges in a pear tree (1 × 12 = 12); turtle doves (2 × 11 = 22); French hens (3 × 10 = 30); calling birds (4 × 9 = 36); golden rings (5 × 8 = 40); geese a-laying (6 × 7 = 42); swans a-swimming (7 × 6 = 42); maids a-milking (8 × 5 = 40); ladies dancing (9 × 4 = 36); lords a-leaping (10 × 3 = 30); pipers playing (11 × 2 = 22); drummers drumming (12 × 1 = 12). Adding all those subtotals provides us with the grand total of gifts given (12 + 22 + 30 + 36 + 40 + 42 + 42 + 40 + 36 + 30 + 22 + 12 = 364)!
17) Name all of Santa’s reindeer!
ANSWER: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph
Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem, “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” or more commonly, “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” cites an original eight tiny reindeer. Owing to his bright, shiny red nose, Rudolph, the most famous reindeer of all, joined the team in 1939, bringing the total number to nine. Rudolph was born of a marketing campaign launched by the Chicago-based department store Montgomery Ward to promote the Holiday season.
While most of the team are generally perceived to be male, interestingly, male reindeer lose their antlers in early December once mating season has ended, while the females retain theirs throughout the winter. As Santa’s reindeer are always depicted sporting their antlers, scientifically therefore, one can only conclude that they are all female. Of course, it may be that this particular breed of magical flying reindeer do not adhere to the laws of nature as do their conventional woodland cousins!
18) In It’s a Wonderful Life, a distraught and suicidal George Bailey is certain that his family and friends would have been better off had he never been born, and in a chilling alternate-history sequence, his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody, allows him a look at just such a scenario in a bid to convince George otherwise. The two stop for a drink at a bar George finds markedly changed from the friendly watering hole he’d always known. While Clarence considers ordering a flaming rum punch, he finally settles on “a mulled wine, heavy on the cinnamon, light on the troubles!” George, on the other hand, asks fo a stiff drink more suited to his current mood; what does he order?
ANSWER: A double bourbon.
19) The rom-com Last Christmas is based on the Wham song of the same name, written and co-performed by British pop star George Michael. Though released in 2019, in what year is the film primarily set?
ANSWER: 2017, which would thus make the titular “last Christmas” December 25, 2016, eerily, the date of George Michael’s unfortunate death.
20) What Christmas song plays over the end credits of Die Hard (1988)?
ANSWER: Vaughn Monroe’s version of “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!”
THE MANY WAYS OF JOY
Merry Christmas to All, and to All, A Good Night.
Post 3 of 4: An Introduction to Chanukah (and Also to Hannukah, Hanoukka, and Hanoucca)
This is the third post of the afternoon. Joe Aspler offers again his presentation “Introduction to Chanukah,” with a few updates.
Dreidel in zero-G
The next post will be up at 4:00PM.
Post 2 of 4: MonSFFA Holidays Special
This is Post 2 of 4.
MonSFFA HOLIDAYS SPECIAL
We rerun, here, the “MonSFFA Holidays Special,” a wonderful presentation put together in 2020 by our dear departed friend and club member Sylvain St-Pierre. Where appropriate, simply advance dates by two years.
The next post will be up at 3:00PM.
Post 1 of 4: Holiday Favourites on Screen
This is Post 1 of 4 this afternoon.
We begin with wishes to all MonSFFen, their families, and the club’s friends for a very Merry Christmas, a Joyful Holiday season, and a Happy New Year!
INTRODUCTION
Note that we’ll be chatting on ZOOM for the next few hours and, with no formal programming scheduled, rerunning on this site a few of our best Holiday presentations, resurrected from MonSFFA’s very first online Christmas e-gathering of December 2020. Think of this as our take on the broadcasting of perennial Holiday specials, not on TV, but right here on the club’s Web site!
You may recall that in December 2020, with infections rising and vaccines still months away, we were about to head into lockdown, just as the Holiday season was getting underway. And worse was to come before things would begin to turn around, although we’ve been at this for almost three years, and we’re still not completely back to normal!
But let’s focus on the positive; this afternoon is about MonSFFA club members and friends-in-fandom getting together online to celebrate the season. So let’s get right to it!
JOIN THIS AFTERNOON’S ZOOM-CHAT!
Here’s how to join our ZOOM-chat today: just click here and follow the prompts: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA e-Meeting on ZOOM
If you’re not fully equipped to ZOOM by computer, you can also join in by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is: 1-438-809-7799. If you’re from out of town, find your Zoom call-in number here: International Call-In Numbers
Also, have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:
Meeting ID: 899 4439 2961Passcode: 611313
As we gather online again this Holiday season, we remind local members that the club is also hosting an in-person Christmas Luncheon next Saturday, December 10. More about that later, but this afternoon, we’ll be putting up posts every hour until 4:00PM. So we’re pretty much all ZOOM today; do pop in and join the conversation.
All posts will also be available concurrently on MonSFFA’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/MonSFFA), however, note that the interface best suited for taking in this meeting is this very Web site.
Up first, we present again club vice-president Keith Braithwaite’s list of perennial Holiday Favourites on Screen, followed by a reworked and updated Trivia Challenge for the Festive Season:
HOLIDAY FAVOURITES ON SCREEN: KEITH’S LIST OF MUST-SEE VIEWING FOR THE SEASON!
Countless Christmas movies and television specials have been produced over the decades, with fresh installments added every year. There are far too many to watch over the typical Holiday season. Anyway, most of them can be classified employing Sturgeon’s Law! But there are those few that bear repeated viewing, year after year, never ceasing to stir in one sentimental feelings entirely apt for this most wonderful time of the year. We all have our favourites, some fondly remembered from childhood, others more recent.
In my case, there a handful that I absolutely must watch each December. They are, in my humble opinion, unrivaled classics that help spark in me annually something that I suppose must be the Christmas spirit. They warm my heart, bring a smile, elicit joy, and get me all fired up for tree trimming and gift wrapping and Christmas baking and all the other fabulous things associated with the festive season that I so enjoy.
Here’s my list, in no particular order:
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)—A perennial favourite on TV at Christmastime, this is the story of George Bailey, a fundamentally good and decent man who has always put his own lofty ambitions aside to accommodate his family and friends, all of this outlined in flashback through the first half of the film. Then Bailey finds that his small-town building and loan business is suddenly short $8000 on Christmas Eve! Scandal, ruin, and shame vested upon his wife and children are sure to follow, he fears, and despairing, he opts for suicide, convinced that his family and friends would be better off without him. His guardian angel is dispatched from Heaven to save the man. The pacing is, perhaps, a little too relaxed for modern audiences but stick with it and you will be rewarded with a heart-warming, life-affirming, lightly comedic, part romance, part drama, and part science fiction movie. You read that right: science fiction! For in a chilling, noire-ish alternate-universe sequence, the angel seeks to show Bailey just how valuable a gift is life, allowing him to see how things would have played out for his family and friends had he never been born.
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)—Peanuts was a favourite comic strip of mine growing up, so that probably plays a part in influencing my opinion of this simple, sincere, funny, moving, and endearing cartoon. In later years I came to appreciate the unassuming yet arresting artwork paired so beautifully with Vince Guaraldi’s outstanding jazz score and his unorthodox take on traditional Christmas music. Commentary on the rampant commercialization of Christmas is deftly handled with humour so as not to come across as too preachy. And when Charlie Brown asks in exasperation if there’s anyone who knows what Christmas is all about, Linus steps up with a wisdom beyond his years, making for a marvellously memorable moment.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)—The other animated Holiday special that is an annual must-see in our house brings to life the wacky world of Dr. Suess in vibrant colour. This is the enchanting tale of the dour Grinch’s emotional journey from wretched recluse and hater of all things Christmas to epiphany and jubilant embrace of the whole thing! Like A Charlie Brown Christmas, there’s an anti-consumerist message, here, avowing that Christmas “doesn’t come from a store,” but that it “means a little bit more.”
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)— Ludicrous plots, inane dialogue, stilted acting, ridiculously amateurish sets, costumes, and special effects, all on a dollar-store budget! If you enjoy cheap, low-rent flicks like Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) or Robot Monster (1953), you’ll be thrilled to know that there exists such a so-bad-it’s-good movie for the festive season! Santa Claus and a couple of Earth children are kidnapped by Martians and brought to the red planet, whose leader seeks to bring Mars’ melancholy youth out of their doldrums. And thus does Santa Claus “conquer” his captors not with arms, but with the spirit of Christmas.
Miracle on 34th Street (1947)—The movies of my parents’ generation frequently aired on television when I was a youngster, affording me the opportunity to enjoy seasonal classics like this one, the light-hearted tale of a white-bearded old fellow named Kris Kringle, hired as a department store Santa Claus at Macy’s in New York City, who claims to be the real thing! A young Natalie Wood plays a little girl whose mother has brought her up to rebuff fanciful fairy tales of Santa Claus and the like, but over the course of the film, she comes to believe that the old man really is who he says he is, and so regains her lost childhood innocence. Her mother and the other adults at Macy’s are not quite so sure but they, too, eventually begin to come around. The centerpiece of the story is the court hearing instigated to determine if Mr. Kringle is, in fact, the one and only Santa Claus, as he claims, or is mentally ill and in need of hospitalization. His sympathetic lawyer is the mother’s romantic interest and there’s a love story playing out, here, as the principal plot unfolds. This is a feel-good film if ever there was one!
Die Hard (1988)—An office Christmas party, garlands and decorations hung about, eggnog, hostages, gunfire, anti-tank missiles, explosions, and John McClane versus Hans Gruber! Must be Christmas at Nakatomi Plaza. A solid action movie that has been adopted by fans as a modern Holiday delight. Yippee-ki-yay!
King Kong (2005)—Peter Jackson’s magnificent remake includes a scene of Kong and Ann cavorting on a frozen pond in New York City’s Central Park at Christmastime, which is enough to justify a viewing and permit me to get my Kong on!
I SAW MOMMY QUIZZING SANTA CLAUS: A REWORKED AND UPDATED TRIVIA CHALLENGE FOR THE FESTIVE SEASON
Christmas movies and television specials are not generally considered SF/F, but any story centered on a jolly old elf capable of hitting every household on the planet to deliver so many gifts in one night has got to be rocking some kind of time-altering technology, right? Sounds sci-fi to us! And magical creatures like flying reindeer and snowmen come to life by means of an old silk hat must certainly be categorized under the fantasy heading!
Many sci-fi television series have featured episodes that play on Holiday themes, from The Twilight Zone (“Night of the Meek,” “Five Characters in Search of an Exit,” among others) and animated Batman (“Christmas with the Joker,” “Holiday Knights”) to Quantum Leap (“A Little Miracle,” “Promised Land,”) and Doctor Who (“The Christmas Invasion,” “A Christmas Carol,” “Last Christmas,” to name a few)!
Test your knowledge of Christmas and Holiday films, TV specials, and things festive with this sci-fi flavoured trivia challenge, which we’ve reworked from the original we posted as part of our 2020 Holiday e-Meeting, with a number of new questions also added. Answers will be provided in our closing Post 4 of 4 at 4:00PM this afternoon. Good luck!
1) In the atrociously bad 1964 “Yuletide science fiction fantasy” Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, what are the names of the two Earth children kidnapped by the Martians?
2) 1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special included an animated sequence entitled “The Faithful Wookiee,” which introduced a new character to Star Wars canon, bounty hunter Boba Fett. Name the Canadian animation studio that George Lucas enlisted to produce this “Faithful Wookiee” cartoon.
3) Rankin/Bass’ 1964 stop-motion animated Christmas classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, was filmed in Japan under the direction of animation supervisor Tadahito “Tad” Mochinaga. The voice work and songs, however, were recorded elsewhere; where was the show’s soundtrack recorded?
4) What is the clever postal code created by Canada Post for the North Pole?
5) The Big Heart, My Heart Tells Me, and It’s Only Human—these were working titles for which classic Christmas film?
6) Name the only three Christmas movies to have been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.
7) How many ghosts appear to surly Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol?
8) What is briefly visible on Katrina “Kate” Andrich’s wrist as she rides her father’s cab home in the fantasy/rom-com Last Christmas (2019)?
9) He famously voiced an animated space hero, she made her mark as a scream queen; name these two actors, and the 2004 Christmas movie in which they star.
10) What former “James Bond” starred as the bishop in Christmas classic The Bishop’s Wife?
11) What child actress was featured as a young family member in two back-to-back classic Christmas films?
12) What is notable about supporting player Alvin Greenman, who portrayed young Macy’s Department Store janitor Alfred in the original Miracle on 34th Street?
13) In the Lost in Space episode “Return From Outer Space,” against his father’s express orders, young Will Robinson employs dangerous alien technology to matter-transfer himself across the gulf of space and back to Earth, materializing in a small town at Christmastime. His plan is to alert Alpha Control at Cape Kennedy of his family’s location on a distant, barren planet so that a rescue ship might be dispatched. But no one in town believes that he’s a member of the famous First Family in Space, long missing and now presumed dead! In what U.S. state is located the small town to which Will beams himself?
14) Who wrote the book that served as inspiration for the movie Christmas with the Kranks?
15) Gimmel, Nun, Hey, and Shin are the Hebrew letters traditionally inscribed on a dreidel, one on each of the four sides. A dreidel is a spinning top associated with Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. The letters stand for the phrase “Nes gadôl hayah sham,” or in English, “A great miracle happened there.” In Israel, the phrase is modified slightly to read “Nes gadôl hayah poh,” or “A great miracle happened here.” But what are Kimar, Rigna, Stobo, and Shim?
16) Because nothing says Yuletide like math, in “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” how many presents are given altogether?
17) Name all of Santa’s reindeer!
18) In It’s a Wonderful Life, a distraught and suicidal George Bailey is certain that his family and friends would have been better off had he never been born, and in a chilling alternate-history sequence, his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody, allows him a look at just such a scenario in a bid to convince George otherwise. The two stop for a drink at a bar George finds markedly changed from the friendly watering hole he’d always known. While Clarence considers ordering a flaming rum punch, he finally settles on “a mulled wine, heavy on the cinnamon, light on the troubles!” George, on the other hand, asks for a stiff drink more suited to his current mood; what does he order?
19) Last Christmas is based on the Wham song of the same name, written and co-performed by British pop star George Michael. Though released in 2019, in what year is the film primarily set?
20) What Christmas song plays over the end-credits of Die Hard (1988)?
The next post will be up at 2:00PM
VIRTUAL HOLIDAY GET-TOGETHER IS THIS AFTERNOON AT 1:00PM
CLUB’S 2022 VIRTUAL HOLIDAY GET-TOGETHER IS TOMORROW!
Join us tomorrow afternoon, December 3, at 1:00PM for our Virtual Holiday Get-Together!
This event will constitute the first part of the club’s 2022 Seasonal Celebrations! (Our in-person Christmas Luncheon, scheduled for the following Saturday, December 10, constitutes the second part; more information about that affair is to be posted next week—watch this space!)
Beginning at 1:00PM, we’ll be gathering on ZOOM to chat and share as the Holidays near. This will afford particularly our out-of-towners the opportunity to wish each other the very best of the season, and of course, to talk all things sci-fi, and beyond!
No formal programming is planned, but we welcome any ad hoc contributions of an SF/F or seasonal theme—show off your homemade SF/F Christmas tree decorations, put up photos of your miniature Christmas village, recommend favourite Holiday movies, etc.
And, akin to the perennial Christmas specials that air on TV, we’ll post on our site some of the best Holiday presentations we’ve featured these past few years of pandemic-induced e-meetings!
So join us for a few minutes, or a few hours, tomorrow, Saturday, December 3, beginning at 1:00PM for the club’s 2022 Virtual Holiday Get-Together!
ONLY THREE MORE DAYS UNTIL VIRTUAL HOLIDAY GET-TOGETHER!
Join us for a Virtual Holiday Get-Together this Saturday, December 3!
This event will constitute the first part of the club’s 2022 Seasonal Celebrations! (Our in-person Christmas Luncheon, scheduled for the following Saturday, December 10, constitutes the second part; more information about that affair is to be posted next week—watch this space!)
So, on December 3, beginning at 1:00PM, we’ll be gathering on ZOOM to chat and share as the Holidays near. This will afford particularly our out-of-towners the opportunity to wish each other the very best of the season, and of course, to talk all things sci-fi, and beyond!
No formal programming is planned, but we welcome any ad hoc contributions of an SF/F or seasonal theme—show off your homemade SF/F Christmas tree decorations, put up photos of your miniature Christmas village, recommend favourite Holiday movies, etc.
And, akin to the perennial Christmas specials that air on TV, we’ll post on our site some of the best Holiday presentations we’ve featured these past few years of pandemic-induced e-meetings!
Do join us for a few minutes, or a few hours, this Saturday, December 3, beginning at 1:00PM for the club’s 2022 Virtual Holiday Get-Together!
