Last night I watched my all time favorite Christmas special. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is still gold standard in my humble opinion for quality Christmas fare, and it just isn't Christmas without watching Charlie Brown discover the true meaning of the holiday.

Review first posted to Front Street Reviews

Stars: ***1/2

Summary: Charlie Bird, The Best Bird Ever is a children’s book about a small parrot named Charlie. It highlights his life with his “featherless flock” Sara, and Molly. He is a very mischievous little bird, who is constantly proding entertainment for Sara and Molly. There is another element to the book. Charlie befriends four wild birds. He and Rusty, the ring leader of the wild birds, decide to trade places. This leads to surprising adventures for both birds.

Charlie Bird, The Best Bird Ever is a children’s book about a small parrot named Charlie. It highlights his life with his “featherless flock” Sara, and Molly. He is a very mischievous little bird, who is constantlyproviding entertainment for Sara and Molly. There is another element to the book. Charlie befriends four wild birds. He and Rusty, the ring leader of the wild birds, decide to trade places. This leads to surprising adventures for both birds.

While the weekend and Monday saw rumors of "the strike's over," some caution has finally entered the dialogue. Here is the opening of Variety's main strike article today:"As the lawyers work overtime to hammer out the details, scenarios are emerging that could -- underline could -- bring an end to the WGA strike by as early as next week.
Insiders are strongly warning that many aspects remain to

Steve Levitan may embarrass his kids, but he makes writers proud in the new essay from the "Why We Write" series organized by Charlie Craig and Thania St. John. (Steve welcomes your comments on the Why We Write site.)

I want to wish all of you out there in cyberspace a Very Merry Christmas. I hope Santa Claus is good to all of you, and you are able to enjoy this holiday with all of those people you love. I will be with my family, and especially with my nieces and nephews as they tear open their gifts. It's always a treat for me.

I've included here a two-minute clip from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" of that wonderful speech that Linus gives when Charlie Brown frustratingly wants to know what Christmas is really all about. It's something none of us should forget.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Title: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Author: Roald Dahl
ISBN: 0-141-31990-9
Publisher: Puffin/2005
First published: 1964
Pages:190
Genre: Children’s Fiction (9-12)

Recently the MIT News Office asked faculty to help build a case for economic optimism by outlining potentially life-altering technologies that “lie just around the corner” the responses of which were published in the article entitled “Hope on the horizon”.

The improvements ranged from far off potentials (practical use of robots and digital fabrication) to near term technologies (embedded “wearable” electronics) to the obvious benefits of “education” and “problem solving” with one professor essentially refusing to respond as a protest of the premise of the question itself.

Even during my blogging mini-hiatus, I'm heartened to see that - according to my friends at Google Analytics at least - regular readers are still sticking around and popping back from time to time. Which is lovely.

Sorry it's been so quiet. I have two big pieces of news to share in the coming week or two that for reasons that will become apparent I'm unable to discuss now, but they both are contributing to the PFF downtime.

Normal service will be resumed very shortly. Thanks for sticking around. I look forward to boring you all again very soon ;-p

Gosh, I don't know. Do you?

I've been asked many times if the strike is going to end this week. Nikki Finke posted a very optimistic report from an insider yesterday morning, and that has set off a wave of enthusiasm. "Fire up the margarita machine!" you say.

Well, not so fast. First of all, it's November, and who drinks margaritas in November?

A week ago, I had a dream where Conan O'Brian was supervising a water slide and he was wearing a blue suit and a snazzy tie and I was at the front of the line and I caught him picking his nose and when he saw me laughing at him he ate his booger. Then, last night, I had that same dream again. I'm not really sure what to think about that, except, of course, that Conan has great comic timing, even in my brain while I'm sleeping. Just thought I'd share.

Last week a coalition of WGA members went to NYC to talk with the seven largest media buyers on Wall Street.

These ad buyers are the large corporations (like Proctor & Gamble, Johson & Johnson, etc.) who advertise on TV and pay the networks' bills.

Our WGA crew, lead by Matthew Weiner, showrunner of "Mad Men," laid out our position to the advertisers -- who for some reason might not be getting entirely accurate forecasts from their corporate customers like CBS.

The event was a success. The coalition of media buyers agreed that our demands are reasonable and that it was "irresponsible on the part of the networks not to settle this dispute immediately."

SCI FI CHANNEL DAY FOR FANS & WRITERS:
Jaime Paglia, co-creator of "Eureka" is inviting fans to join the writers, producers and cast members from Sci Fi Channel's BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, EUREKA, FLASH GORDON, PAINKILLER JANE, and others for a rally at NBC Studios.

12 noon - 2 pm at NBC STUDIOS, 3000 W. Alameda Ave, Burbank, CA.

SPOOKY WEDNESDAY AT WARNER BROS:
For the last two Thursdays writers

RUMOR: WGA members are starting to hire "freelance picketers" to do their strike duty.
STATUS: Unconfirmed

Universal strike captain Jan Kimbrough noticed this Craig's List posting on Day Four:Reply to: gigs-473080663@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-11-08, 3:15PM PST

I can't make it to my picket tomorrow and I need somebody to take my place. I want to go see friends in San Diego while I have time off work, and I'll pay somebody $40 to cover my four-hour shift. My strike "captain" doesn't care as long as there are people out there. I'll give you my shirt and signs and all that crap.

If this works out on Friday then let's do it next week too. I'd really rather not have to deal with it.

- Family Day! As reported by the AP. They also posted an extensive slideshow.
One correction to the article, and one that's relevant. My daughter's never seen "Snow White." She can name the Seven Dwarfs who hold up the roof of the Team Disney building thanks to a clip on YouTube. The future is here.

Lots of good stuff to share.

- Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times is a sharp and skeptical columnist. He took a few shots at writers before the strike began. But in his most recent column, he argues that the companies are dead wrong to use fear of a digital future as an excuse not to cut in content creators. "If the studios really believe they can't share a sliver of profits with the people who create what they sell, they'll be the losers. If you don't believe in the future, you shouldn't be in show business."As Patrick writes, entertainment is a business built on optimism. Writers believe in the future. CEOs only seem to when investors are listening. Which is it going to be, guys?

"Wired" Blog Network has picked up one of our favorite entries to the FairDeal4Writers Contest -- Strike Wars.

It was created by supporter Rubberpoultry from Ohio, with some pretty impressive effects work and a truly epic storytelling sense.

Enjoy the satire. We all need to be able to laugh once in a while.

- Garth Brooks Rocks
The best-selling solo music artist in US history refused to cross picket lines and appear on "The View" or "Ellen" last week to promote his album. Reports cited this quote from Brooks' publicist: "Garth is proud of the position he has taken since he hopes to be a writer in the not too distant future."
Garth, I'll bet you now have several thousand writers who will happily look at drafts for you. Thanks for your support.

Many outlets carried this story, but when one is called CountryStandardTime.com, well, that's the one getting the link.

Robert J. Elisberg, who writes the regular WGA Strike Primer columns on The Huffington Post, responds below to Michael Cieply's recent article in the New York Times entitled, Writers Strike Tests Mettle of 2 Outsiders.

Last week, Michael Cieply wrote once-again about his perception of “fissures” in the Writers Guild. It’s a theme of his. Back during the 1988 WGA strike he specialized in writing

Ali LeRoi, showrunner for "Everybody Hates Chris," coins the new slogan of the strike.

but too much sun. Went on our 2nd kayaking voyage today... it was gorgeous, perfect day, like it often seems to be lately (!) so we decided to go out with the boats. Tried to find a new place in town to put in, but couldn't find the right spots...drove around for an hour and then finally just put in at the same public landing that we did last time, right in the center of town, where all the boats (big boats) put in. I'd rather have somewhere more discreet, but it worked. Went down the cathance river, out to merrymeeting bay and ended up at little brick island, just a rock in the middle of the bay. So we stopped and stretched our legs. I laid on a rock in the sun (my most favorite thing in the world to do... actually it could be a lumber pile in the sun, a bag of mulch in the sun, a pile of dirt in the sun... you get my drift). It was awesome..gorgeous and peaceful and zenlike and flowing. Time went by and I didn't notice. J was way ahead of me. he likes to see how fast he can go while I like to stop and smell the roses, or the sea kelp or whatever. SAw my eagle! I like to believe I have an eagle who follows me everywhere, but yes, I really know it's not the same eagle, but god it was gorgeous. It was up there with an osprey and they were just flying around, spreading their wings, I guess looking for lunch. damn, man.

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