Coming this Thanksgiving: The Man Who Invented Christmas

From Celestyn Wordsworth-Nil: 

I confess myself intrigued by--though hardly yet certain of--the new trailer for the Dickensian "The Man Who Invented Christmas," coming to theaters this Thanksgiving, and presumably based on the book of the same title by Les Standiford.

Certainly, one can hardly go wrong with the cast: Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, Ian McNeice, and Dickens Experts Simon Callow and Miriam Margolyes.

I will suspend judgment for the present. However, I will certainly be there on opening day, if for no other purpose but to examine the cravats.

Happy Birthday to the Immortal Boz!

...or shall I say, Happy Bozday?

The Most Estimable Mr Charles Dickens, to whom we owe a most profound debt for his having greatly added to "the stock of harmless cheerfulness" in the world, celebrates his 202nd birthday today.

Pray allow me, dear Reader, to celebrate with a reprinting of his admirable publication of the sampling of Mrs. Leo Hunter's 'Ode to an Expiring Frog' for your gratification. Such pathos, such delicacy!, is worthy of the great Boz himself:

Ode to an Expiring Frog

Can I view thee panting, lying
On thy stomach, without sighing;
Can I unmoved see thee dying
          On a log
          Expiring frog!

Say, have fiends in shape of boys,
With wild halloo, and brutal noise,
Hunted thee from marshy joys,
          With a dog,
          Expiring frog!

~from The Pickwick Papers