December 24, 2025 • 33 mins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's that time, time, time, time, Luck and load from
Michael Very Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Where Heart is a movie about Christmas.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
And here's how I know.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
There's a fire that brightly burns, a party where everyone's
turned and Ellis's.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Drugs are kind of like the snow. Die Heart is.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
A movie about Christmas, that's my opinion. And the rooftops
at night they are full of twinkling lights from the
sub machine.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
There's a get together open that they've.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Been fighting before.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
They work out all of their differences and they're not
mad anymore, and together they.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
Kill lots of terrorists that have sea flour.
Speaker 6 (01:33):
I think it is right.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Die Heart as a movie about Charistmas. There's red and
green decre Yeah, the green is the millions of bucks.
The red is from all the blood from the punching
and the shooting and the gore. Die Hard is a
movie about Christmas.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Think about it.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
There was missile toe, there were missiles stay with me
and McLean had bear feet, get it missed?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
How are you feeling this?
Speaker 7 (02:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (02:09):
No?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And why is there eleven year old watching this?
Speaker 9 (02:11):
It's good.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Die Heart is a movie about Christmas. Because a bearded
man did fly. He was sort of like Santa Clause.
Instead his name was Hans and he flew through the
air into the sky. Die Hard is a movie about Christmas.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
All the funny tide clothes, all of.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
The sweaters that we've seen, kind of like now I
have a machine gun.
Speaker 7 (02:41):
Ho ho ho.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
There was packing tap for little surprises. The parents had
to wrap the McLean.
Speaker 7 (02:49):
It was thirty four years back. A never ending debate
has come up about this time every year. I must
confess I've never been a part of it, but other
people on our team have, and that is the enduring question.
Is die Hard a Christmas movie? It is a hotly
(03:11):
debated topic. I think partly because people don't want the
topic to die. They just like talking about the movie
and whether or not it's a Christmas movie. Either you
think it's a Christmas movie or you don't. There is
no in between.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I'm told I haven't actually seen a movie.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So no, I haven't.
Speaker 7 (03:28):
Some people say it's an action movie that takes place
at Christmas, and others say it's an action packed Christmas movie.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You're welcome to weigh in by email if you'd like Roman.
Where are you on all this?
Speaker 7 (03:38):
I forget Christmas movie all right, Apparently, if you've never
seen the film, that would be me. It stars Bruce
Willis as John McLean, a wise, cracking New York cop.
Is a strange wife moved the kids out to LA
when she took a new job, so McLean flies out
to spend Christmas with his fan family. He meets his
(04:01):
wife Holly at her office on Christmas Eve. While he's there,
Hans Gruber played by Alan Rickman and his men take
everyone hostage, but McLean manages to slip away unseen.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
He's Bruce Willis, he can do those things.
Speaker 7 (04:15):
He spends the rest of the movie as a fly
in their ointment. Screenwriter Stephen Desusa affirmed that it is
a Christmas movie. Bruce Willis says, no, it's a Bruce
Willis movie. The movie's director John McTiernan said, we hadn't
intended it to be a Christmas movie, but the joy
(04:37):
that came from it is what turned it into a
Christmas movie. Does that clear it up for anyone?
Speaker 10 (04:43):
No?
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Well.
Speaker 7 (04:45):
A new trailer was re edited by twentieth Century Studio
formerly twentieth Century Fox when they released the movie in
the new digital release on four K and here's the trailer.
Speaker 11 (05:00):
This is John. He just wants to spend Christmas with
the family.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
We'll see what Santa and Mommy can do.
Speaker 12 (05:10):
But when he gets stuck at the office party, Merry Christmas,
it'll be a holiday He'll never forget this Christmas.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
It's a time of America.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
So dear good share, only John can drive somebody that crazy.
Speaker 11 (05:32):
Get ready to jingle some bells and deck the halls
with bows of Bruce Willis. Get together, Alan Rickman, do
anything you.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Have a chance against oursimistic.
Speaker 11 (05:50):
Cowboy together in the greatest Christmas story ever told.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
You got some bad news for you. Dwane Time Booby hat.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
At Harvey starting to get a bad feeling up here.
Speaker 11 (06:10):
Harry Christmas, die hard.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
This is their idea of Christmas. I gotta be here
for New Years.
Speaker 7 (06:21):
That certainly seems to make a pretty good case that
this classic is indeed a Christmas movie? Should I watch it?
Remove But when the Hollywood reporters surveyed random people in
twenty eighteen, guess which percentage. Guess what percentage said it
was not a Christmas movie. I already started that sentence
by butt, so I've already tipped you off. Sixty two
(06:43):
percent said it was not a Christmas movie. If die
Hard is not a Christmas movie, then what about die
Hard two, which I also haven't seen. It also took
place at Christmas. One thing for sure, Von Munroe's version
of let its Know at the end of the first
film sure makes it seem like a Chris Smith's movie.
Looking back, What a smooth move that was, because the
(07:06):
chatter around the movie has kept it alive.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
All the leather outside it's rife boat, but the fire
so the light bolts and simply no place to go.
Let its know, let us know, let its know, it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Show slide stopping.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
And they brought some call for poppy.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Like to day wait un.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Let us know, let us know, let us know, every
line week is good night.
Speaker 8 (07:44):
How I hate going out in the storm?
Speaker 13 (07:47):
Blooded you really hold me time.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
All the way a mild wall anything. I'm here to
see Holly McClean stipe it in there.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Cute toy.
Speaker 7 (08:05):
Twelve, terroristic natuny placid for doing it's for eleven years.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Ten square blocks, may Day, May Days, Ganel nine eight.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Lincoln thirty two dispatch the seven members of the New Prova.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Front six with automatic weapons time of.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Imprisoned leaders of Live ath Data Quebec.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Four million dollars.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Ramon the King of Ding and this other guy, Michael Barry.
Speaker 7 (08:31):
Is that Timmy year again when we get stories of
someone dressed like a Grinch getting arrested? What was it
the bad Santa? What was the movie where all the
Santa claus is getting the fight? Or was that actually real?
I think that was real. Yeah, remember it went viral.
Somebody find that and send that to me. There's there's
(08:53):
a there's mayhem that breaks out amongst these all these
mall Santas and they getting a big fight and it's
just nothing funnier, right, It's the juxtaposition of the you know,
the mean and the happy and like Santa Claus can't
get in a fight anyway. Every year there's a story
(09:13):
and every year we get it of a new person.
This year is a fellow by the name of Tucker
Lee Davis who's dressed as a Grinch and they get arrested.
So this year's story goes like this. Tucker Lee Davis
and a coworker named Ryan Jones were in an altercation
at a work Christmas party at the Hotel Indigo in
(09:36):
Traverse City, Michigan. Davis attended the party as the Grinch
and his buddy Ryan Jones dressed as a reindeer. Now,
let me first say the idea of getting into a
fight at a Christmas party in an outfit and how
that's going to look later. I have a little experience
(09:58):
with that at the our cc our last Christmas party.
Uncle Jerry. Anyone who knows my co best friend, Uncle Jerry.
He's about sixty two sixty three and he's a big fella,
about two sixty two seventy, and he wore a rabbit suit. Now,
the rabbit suit was already awkward. Did you see it?
(10:21):
I mean it's the shoes and all. It's not over
the shoes. I mean it's a onesie, right, It's something
you'd put a little baby in. Except for here's the
late fifties, big brawnie fella and the only thing that
you can see out of it was his face.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Right.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
You know when you go to the amusement park and
they got that cardboard thing and it's all painted and
you put your face. That the only thing he is
doing his face, and he's got the rabbit ears up
and the whole thing he's got his hands inside there
and it's over his feet, So I mean he's in
a onesie, a full on onesie, right. And it was
(10:57):
the employee Christmas party, so we'd closed the place down
to everybody but our team and somebody, some dude had
brought a buddy of his. We don't know why, but
this dude was technically about to be fired anyway because
he was a problem in the workplace. And I don't
(11:19):
know if he knew it or it just he was
just one big bad decision. His buddy comes and since
we provided free food and drink for everybody, we had,
uh we had a casino party. Everybody had to play
and there were prizes and we're having a great time.
And we used to really blow it out at our
Christmas party.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Those were the good old days, ram.
Speaker 7 (11:38):
And so Uncle Jerry is there and all of a sudden, Rico,
who was our director of security, comes over and says
to Uncle Jerry, I got a problem with this guy
over here. I'm gonna have to deal with him and
escort him out. And I don't want to have I
don't have to hit somebody at the Christmas party. And
he's a guest of one of our employees. Well, the
employee and the guests were getting so drunk that at
some point the guest was fire. I mean the employee
(12:01):
was fired shortly thereafter. And that's when they knew they
had nothing to lose anymore. And so they decide they
want to get into a fight with our with Rico.
Who's pretty bad, asked dude who was our director's security.
And Uncle Jerry joins in, and they're rolling around in
the asphalt parking lot and Uncle Jerry's in his rabbit suit. Well,
(12:22):
when the Stafford Police department shows up, they understood the situation.
Jerry is stone cold, sob these two guys are drunk
out of their heads down in a headlock to keep
them from hurting anybody else. And there's Uncle Jerry in
a rabbit suit. So once the officers have ascertained that
there's nothing really wrong, they can't help but bust out
(12:45):
laugh and ask if they can have a photo of
Uncle Jerry having apprehended them while in his rabbit suit. Now,
can you imagine if that thing had gone very very
wrong and Jerry had been the purp a supposed to
the good guy in his full on rabbit suit and
when I say full on rabbit suit, let me make
(13:06):
this weird. You know the guy in the speedo on
the beach who comes up to you and he's talking
in and You're like, I can't look below your chest. Dude,
you're wearing a speed of Well, he was wearing a
slightly two tight rabbit suit. Did I mention he's about
six three two seventy The rabbit suit was designed for
(13:28):
a comfortable fit for someone who was about six two
to ten. So yeah, it was the scene. It's one
of my greatest Uncle Jerry stories of all time. Anyway,
So nobody goes to the Christmas party looking to get
into a fight, but Tucker Lee Davis came in his
Grinch outfit. And if Tucker Lee is like most men,
(13:52):
he's looking to have his heart swell, two size is
too big. Except alcohol was involved, and I guess Tucker
Lee is an angry drunk because a hotel employee said
that the Grinch was arguing with the man in a
plaid jacket. That's when a hotel employee, Jared Archibald, tried
to intervene. When that happened, the reindeer took Archibald to
(14:15):
the ground. In a quote. This is a witness account
grappling style, and that's when Tucker Lee, dressed as the Grinch,
started to pummel the hotel employee about the head and shoulders.
When the authorities arrived and asked who in the cindiloo
who was responsible for the francas, all fingers pointed to
(14:36):
the man in green, the Grinch. So the popo took
Tucker Lee to the Travers County jail and charged him
with misdemeanor assault and battery. The reindeer was not charged,
and we hear at the Michael Berry Show cannot talk
about the Grinch without pulling from the archive. One of
(14:59):
our favorite a classic about our dear dear friend, the
Congresswoman Chila Jackson Lee.
Speaker 14 (15:06):
The cello this is Congresswoman Sheilo Jackson Lee in the
eighteenth Congressional District of Texas.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
You're a mean one, Jackson Lee. You rely are a queen.
You're as quiet as a riot. You're as honest as
your weave. Jackson Lease.
Speaker 7 (15:29):
It's okay you dress.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Like every day is holloage. You're a foul one, Jackson Lee.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
I also want to get this big old gift.
Speaker 6 (15:42):
Your hall see is Jong.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Every scheme you devise, Michael Barry will debunk Jackson Lee.
The three words that best describe you are as follows,
and you quote frivolous, irresponsible, slap happy.
Speaker 7 (16:05):
You've got the Michael Berry Show. So ask our talented
show as we lurch toward the end of the year,
during this the Christmas season, in preparation for our Christmas special,
which we began back in October, to send me their
favorite Christmas movie and a clip from that movie. And
(16:28):
we have a lot to get too, so let's get
to it. I I want to make sure we get
every one of them in here. First. Up is Chad Knock,
Aishi's movie. He is the executive producer. He gets to
go first. He loves Charlie Brown Christmas. In this scene,
Charlie Brown gets increasingly disgusted with the commercialization of Christmas
and wonders whether anyone even remembers the true meaning of Christmas.
(16:49):
Linus recites his memorable meaning of Christmas. After he finishes,
he steps off stage and says, that's what Christmas is
all about, Charlie Brown.
Speaker 9 (17:00):
Is there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?
Speaker 14 (17:03):
Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is
all about life plea.
Speaker 8 (17:07):
And there were in.
Speaker 14 (17:08):
The same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch
over their flock by night.
Speaker 8 (17:13):
And lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them.
The glory of the Lord shall round about them. And
they were sore afraid. And the Angel said, unto them,
I fear not, for behold, I bring your tidings of
great joy, which will be to all people. For unto
you is born.
Speaker 14 (17:27):
This day in the City of David, a savior, just
Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign. Unto you,
he shall find the Babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying
in the anger. And suddenly there was with the Angel
a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying
glory to God in the highest and on earth peace
would will toward men. That's what Christmas has thought about,
Charlie Brown.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
It's a wonderful life. In this scene, George, played by
the awesome Jimmy Stewart, maybe my favorite Jimmy Stewart role,
is doing some courting of Donna Reed's character Mary. Let's
get this out of the way right now. We're all
friends here. We can talk openly about this, Well, Nona
Reed was a looker haul Yes, a stone cold fox,
(18:13):
as my friend Jesse Kelly says, a dime. Anyways, that's all.
George is walking Merry home when he promises to lasso
the moon for her.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
This really is a great scene.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Mary.
Speaker 15 (18:22):
I know what I'm gonna do tomorrow and the next
day and next year and the year after that.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little.
Speaker 15 (18:28):
Town off my feet, and I'm gonna see the world Italy,
grease the parthenon the Colisseum.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Then I'm coming back here and go to college and
see what they know.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
And then I'm gonna build things.
Speaker 15 (18:39):
I'm gonna build airfields, I'm gonna build skyscrapers one hundred
stories high.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I'm gonna build bridges a mile long.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
Where you're gonna throw a rock. Hey, that's pretty good.
What'd you wish?
Speaker 13 (18:51):
Man?
Speaker 10 (18:54):
Uffalo, Gals?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Can't you come out tomorrow?
Speaker 4 (18:56):
Can't you come on? Come on?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Dance by the light of the moon. What do you
wish when you threw the draw?
Speaker 1 (19:12):
If I don't might not come through.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
What is it you want, Barry? What do you want?
You want? The moon.
Speaker 15 (19:19):
Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around
and pull it down.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Hey, that's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the
moon very I'll take it.
Speaker 15 (19:27):
Then what well, then you could swallow it and it
all dissolves, see and the moon beams and shoot out
of your fingers and your toes and the ends of
your hair.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Am I talking too much?
Speaker 11 (19:39):
Yes?
Speaker 16 (19:40):
Why don't you kissers seat talking to death?
Speaker 4 (19:42):
How is that?
Speaker 16 (19:43):
Why don't you kissers start talking at.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
A death one man to kiss her?
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Huh?
Speaker 8 (19:49):
Oh?
Speaker 16 (19:49):
You just wasting on the wrong people.
Speaker 7 (19:52):
Our research director, Sandy Peterson loves a Christmas story. She
wrote in her submission as to why this was her
choice of what she wanted to be known by quote,
I think that this movie perfectly captures the aching desire
for that one gift that you know it's highly unlikely
you'll ever get. For Ralphie, it was the Red Rider
(20:13):
bb gun. For me, it was a pony. Sandy didn't
ever say if she got that pony. Maybe the story
is better if she didn't.
Speaker 16 (20:21):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 9 (20:22):
Stick my toa stupid poets dog?
Speaker 14 (20:25):
That's cause you know he stick?
Speaker 13 (20:27):
He're full of it?
Speaker 9 (20:27):
Oh yeah, like double dog dare yet I drimble dog
dare yet? All right, all right, we'll go on. Smart Julie,
I'm good. I'm going yet suck really partagay do hold
(21:12):
a go way.
Speaker 7 (21:14):
Jim Mudd's favorite Christmas movie is Christmas Vacation because he's brilliant.
I'm gonna say that's a good one. Not my favorite,
but a good one. The only sequel to National Lampoons
Vacation that holds up to the original. Fight Me. In
this film, our hero Clark Griswold is hosting the family
(21:35):
Christmas celebration at his house for the first time. It's
a huge to do and Clark wants it to be perfect.
That's the setup for all of the National Lampoons, right. Well,
nothing goes as plan, especially when cousin Eddie shows up
in an RV unannounced with his family in tow. When
Clark finds out that Eddie is broke, he offers to
(21:55):
buy gifts for Eddie's kids.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Here we go, Ellen, and I want to help you
give the kids a nice Christmas. Clark, I couldn't do that.
Speaker 10 (22:07):
No, no, insist, Oh no, I'm not one for charity.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Now I know that, Eddie.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
This is a charity. It's family.
Speaker 15 (22:18):
Now, come on, if you don't tell me what they want,
I'll go out and get it on my own.
Speaker 10 (22:26):
Boy, this is a surprise. Clark gets a real nice surprise,
Just a real nice surprise. Here's a little less alphabetical,
starting with Catherine. And if it wouldn't be too much,
(22:46):
I'd like to get something for you, Clark, something really nice.
Speaker 7 (22:51):
So Ramone's favorite submission for some reason was or is.
I guess it's active today, but you submitted this a
couple of weeks ago. Ramon's favorite submission as a movie.
I don't know. You gotta tell us which version it is,
but anyway, it is Scrooge.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Hellh you that boy? Me, sir? Yes, you a good fellow.
What day is today?
Speaker 14 (23:14):
Today?
Speaker 8 (23:15):
What's Christmas Day?
Speaker 11 (23:16):
Of course Christmas Day?
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I haven't missed it. The spirits did it all in
one night. Well they can do anything they like, of
course the case. Hello, my fine fellow.
Speaker 16 (23:25):
Hello, do you know the Poulterer's in the next street,
but one on the corner.
Speaker 14 (23:30):
I should hope I did.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Intelligent boy, remarkable boy.
Speaker 16 (23:34):
Do you know if they've sold the prize turkey that
was hanging there?
Speaker 4 (23:38):
What the worst, biggest me, delightful boy, pleasure talking.
Speaker 16 (23:43):
To the one as big as you hanging there.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Now we're going by it.
Speaker 16 (23:48):
Yes, going by it and bring them round so that
I may tell them where to deliver it.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Come back with the man. I'll give you a shitting
Come back in less than five minutes.
Speaker 16 (23:56):
I'll give you half a crown. I'm stressing myself so
much to do lose anytime.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
I was like, I'm happy. It's an a.
Speaker 16 (24:15):
I was made as.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Gee? Is he drunken man?
Speaker 16 (24:25):
Merry Christmas to everybody and.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Happy New Year to the world. This is the Michael
Berry Show.
Speaker 17 (24:45):
Now it's about what Santa. It seems that we've crossed
some kind of line.
Speaker 13 (25:02):
It breins some folks holiday.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Mood to suggest that he's a white.
Speaker 17 (25:11):
Dude, even though he has been the whole time. Now
it's about a why Santa? Thank you for pointing out
(25:36):
this flaw in spirit of not feeling aft doubt. What
do you think about adding a few penguins to Kwanza? Now? Oh,
(26:01):
it's about a white Santa. Is there anything else that
you need? Because it's all always something.
Speaker 13 (26:21):
Maybe when we've got nothing, we can celebrate diversity.
Speaker 7 (26:40):
We thought we'd go out with one of our favorites,
Paul Harvey. He tells a heartfelt Christmas story about a
man who is skeptical of the Nativity tale. While his
family's at church, he finds himself faced with a flock
of birds struggling in a snowstorm, and despite his efforts
(27:02):
to help them, the birds are afraid of it. I
hope you.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Enjoy it as much as we do. The music is
from Akira the Dawn, who puts music over interesting things
like this.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
The man I'm talking about was not a scrooge.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Now.
Speaker 15 (27:37):
He was a kind a decent, mostly good man, generous
to his family, and upright in his dealings with other men.
But he just did not believe in all of that
incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
At Christmas time.
Speaker 15 (27:49):
It just did not make sense, and he was too
honest to pretend otherwise. He could not swallow the Jesus'
story about God coming to earth. As a man, he
told his wife, I'm truly sorry to distress you, but
I'm just not going with you to church this Christmas Eve.
He said he'd feel like a hypocrite, that he'd much
(28:10):
rather just stay home, but that he would wait up
for them, so he stayed and they went to the
midnight service. Now shortly after the family drove away and
the car, snow began to fall. He went to the
window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier. Then
he went back to his fireside chair began to read
(28:32):
his newspaper. Minutes later, he was startled by a thudding sound,
and then another, then yet another. At first he thought
somebody must be throwing snowballs against the living room window,
But when he went to the front door to investigate,
(28:52):
he found a flock of birds huddled out there miserably
in the snow. They had been in the storm in
a desperate search for shelter. They had tried to fly
through his large landscape window.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
That was what had been making the sound.
Speaker 15 (29:15):
Well, he couldn't let those poor creatures just lie there
and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children
stabled their pony.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
That would provide a warm shelter.
Speaker 15 (29:26):
All he would have to do is direct the birds
into that shelter.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Quickly, he put on a coat and galoshes, and.
Speaker 15 (29:34):
He trapped through the deepening snow to the barn, and
he opened the doors wide and inside the barn, he
turned on a light so the birds would know the
way in, but the birds did not come in, so
he figured that food would entice it. He went back
(29:56):
into the house and touched some breadcrumbs and sprinkled those
on the snow, making a trail of bread crumbs to
the yellow lighted, wide open doorway of the stable. But
to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs. The
birds just continued to flop around helplessly in the snow.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
He tried catching them, he could not.
Speaker 15 (30:26):
He tried showing them into the barn by walking around
them waving his arms, but instead they scattered in every direction,
every direction except into the warm lighted barn. And that's
why he realized that they were afraid of him.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
They were afraid of him.
Speaker 15 (30:44):
To him, he reasoned, I'm a strange, terrifying creature. If
only I could think of someone to let him know
that they can trust me, that I'm not trying to
hurt them, but to help them. But how any move
he mad tended to frighten them and confuse them, they
(31:05):
just would not follow. They would not be led or
showed because they feared Yeah, and he thought to himself,
if only I could be a bird. Now I could
be a bird and mingle with them, and speak their
language and tell them not to be afraid. Then I
(31:26):
could show them the way to the safe, warm barn.
But I would have to be one of.
Speaker 18 (31:37):
Them, wouldn't I, so they couldn't see.
Speaker 15 (31:51):
And hear and understand. At that moment, the church bells
began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the
sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to
the bells at de Staffy Dails, listening to the bells,
(32:17):
feeling the glad tidings of Christmas, and he sank to
his knees in the snow.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I hope for you
Speaker 15 (33:24):
And those you love, this will be a wonderfully merry
Christmas
It's that time, time, time, time, Luck and load from
Michael Very Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Where Heart is a movie about Christmas.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
And here's how I know.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
There's a fire that brightly burns, a party where everyone's
turned and Ellis's.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Drugs are kind of like the snow. Die Heart is.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
A movie about Christmas, that's my opinion. And the rooftops
at night they are full of twinkling lights from the
sub machine.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
There's a get together open that they've.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Been fighting before.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
They work out all of their differences and they're not
mad anymore, and together they.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
Kill lots of terrorists that have sea flour.
Speaker 6 (01:33):
I think it is right.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Die Heart as a movie about Charistmas. There's red and
green decre Yeah, the green is the millions of bucks.
The red is from all the blood from the punching
and the shooting and the gore. Die Hard is a
movie about Christmas.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
Think about it.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
There was missile toe, there were missiles stay with me
and McLean had bear feet, get it missed?
Speaker 3 (02:05):
What do you think?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
How are you feeling this?
Speaker 7 (02:08):
Yeah?
Speaker 8 (02:09):
No?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
And why is there eleven year old watching this?
Speaker 9 (02:11):
It's good.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Die Heart is a movie about Christmas. Because a bearded
man did fly. He was sort of like Santa Clause.
Instead his name was Hans and he flew through the
air into the sky. Die Hard is a movie about Christmas.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
All the funny tide clothes, all of.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
The sweaters that we've seen, kind of like now I
have a machine gun.
Speaker 7 (02:41):
Ho ho ho.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
There was packing tap for little surprises. The parents had
to wrap the McLean.
Speaker 7 (02:49):
It was thirty four years back. A never ending debate
has come up about this time every year. I must
confess I've never been a part of it, but other
people on our team have, and that is the enduring question.
Is die Hard a Christmas movie? It is a hotly
(03:11):
debated topic. I think partly because people don't want the
topic to die. They just like talking about the movie
and whether or not it's a Christmas movie. Either you
think it's a Christmas movie or you don't. There is
no in between.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I'm told I haven't actually seen a movie.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So no, I haven't.
Speaker 7 (03:28):
Some people say it's an action movie that takes place
at Christmas, and others say it's an action packed Christmas movie.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You're welcome to weigh in by email if you'd like Roman.
Where are you on all this?
Speaker 7 (03:38):
I forget Christmas movie all right, Apparently, if you've never
seen the film, that would be me. It stars Bruce
Willis as John McLean, a wise, cracking New York cop.
Is a strange wife moved the kids out to LA
when she took a new job, so McLean flies out
to spend Christmas with his fan family. He meets his
(04:01):
wife Holly at her office on Christmas Eve. While he's there,
Hans Gruber played by Alan Rickman and his men take
everyone hostage, but McLean manages to slip away unseen.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
He's Bruce Willis, he can do those things.
Speaker 7 (04:15):
He spends the rest of the movie as a fly
in their ointment. Screenwriter Stephen Desusa affirmed that it is
a Christmas movie. Bruce Willis says, no, it's a Bruce
Willis movie. The movie's director John McTiernan said, we hadn't
intended it to be a Christmas movie, but the joy
(04:37):
that came from it is what turned it into a
Christmas movie. Does that clear it up for anyone?
Speaker 10 (04:43):
No?
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Well.
Speaker 7 (04:45):
A new trailer was re edited by twentieth Century Studio
formerly twentieth Century Fox when they released the movie in
the new digital release on four K and here's the trailer.
Speaker 11 (05:00):
This is John. He just wants to spend Christmas with
the family.
Speaker 8 (05:07):
We'll see what Santa and Mommy can do.
Speaker 12 (05:10):
But when he gets stuck at the office party, Merry Christmas,
it'll be a holiday He'll never forget this Christmas.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
It's a time of America.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
So dear good share, only John can drive somebody that crazy.
Speaker 11 (05:32):
Get ready to jingle some bells and deck the halls
with bows of Bruce Willis. Get together, Alan Rickman, do
anything you.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Have a chance against oursimistic.
Speaker 11 (05:50):
Cowboy together in the greatest Christmas story ever told.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
You got some bad news for you. Dwane Time Booby hat.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
At Harvey starting to get a bad feeling up here.
Speaker 11 (06:10):
Harry Christmas, die hard.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
This is their idea of Christmas. I gotta be here
for New Years.
Speaker 7 (06:21):
That certainly seems to make a pretty good case that
this classic is indeed a Christmas movie? Should I watch it?
Remove But when the Hollywood reporters surveyed random people in
twenty eighteen, guess which percentage. Guess what percentage said it
was not a Christmas movie. I already started that sentence
by butt, so I've already tipped you off. Sixty two
(06:43):
percent said it was not a Christmas movie. If die
Hard is not a Christmas movie, then what about die
Hard two, which I also haven't seen. It also took
place at Christmas. One thing for sure, Von Munroe's version
of let its Know at the end of the first
film sure makes it seem like a Chris Smith's movie.
Looking back, What a smooth move that was, because the
(07:06):
chatter around the movie has kept it alive.
Speaker 5 (07:11):
All the leather outside it's rife boat, but the fire
so the light bolts and simply no place to go.
Let its know, let us know, let its know, it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Show slide stopping.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
And they brought some call for poppy.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Like to day wait un.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Let us know, let us know, let us know, every
line week is good night.
Speaker 8 (07:44):
How I hate going out in the storm?
Speaker 13 (07:47):
Blooded you really hold me time.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
All the way a mild wall anything. I'm here to
see Holly McClean stipe it in there.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Cute toy.
Speaker 7 (08:05):
Twelve, terroristic natuny placid for doing it's for eleven years.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Ten square blocks, may Day, May Days, Ganel nine eight.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Lincoln thirty two dispatch the seven members of the New Prova.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Front six with automatic weapons time of.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Imprisoned leaders of Live ath Data Quebec.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Four million dollars.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Ramon the King of Ding and this other guy, Michael Barry.
Speaker 7 (08:31):
Is that Timmy year again when we get stories of
someone dressed like a Grinch getting arrested? What was it
the bad Santa? What was the movie where all the
Santa claus is getting the fight? Or was that actually real?
I think that was real. Yeah, remember it went viral.
Somebody find that and send that to me. There's there's
(08:53):
a there's mayhem that breaks out amongst these all these
mall Santas and they getting a big fight and it's
just nothing funnier, right, It's the juxtaposition of the you know,
the mean and the happy and like Santa Claus can't
get in a fight anyway. Every year there's a story
(09:13):
and every year we get it of a new person.
This year is a fellow by the name of Tucker
Lee Davis who's dressed as a Grinch and they get arrested.
So this year's story goes like this. Tucker Lee Davis
and a coworker named Ryan Jones were in an altercation
at a work Christmas party at the Hotel Indigo in
(09:36):
Traverse City, Michigan. Davis attended the party as the Grinch
and his buddy Ryan Jones dressed as a reindeer. Now,
let me first say the idea of getting into a
fight at a Christmas party in an outfit and how
that's going to look later. I have a little experience
(09:58):
with that at the our cc our last Christmas party.
Uncle Jerry. Anyone who knows my co best friend, Uncle Jerry.
He's about sixty two sixty three and he's a big fella,
about two sixty two seventy, and he wore a rabbit suit. Now,
the rabbit suit was already awkward. Did you see it?
(10:21):
I mean it's the shoes and all. It's not over
the shoes. I mean it's a onesie, right, It's something
you'd put a little baby in. Except for here's the
late fifties, big brawnie fella and the only thing that
you can see out of it was his face.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Right.
Speaker 7 (10:36):
You know when you go to the amusement park and
they got that cardboard thing and it's all painted and
you put your face. That the only thing he is
doing his face, and he's got the rabbit ears up
and the whole thing he's got his hands inside there
and it's over his feet, So I mean he's in
a onesie, a full on onesie, right. And it was
(10:57):
the employee Christmas party, so we'd closed the place down
to everybody but our team and somebody, some dude had
brought a buddy of his. We don't know why, but
this dude was technically about to be fired anyway because
he was a problem in the workplace. And I don't
(11:19):
know if he knew it or it just he was
just one big bad decision. His buddy comes and since
we provided free food and drink for everybody, we had,
uh we had a casino party. Everybody had to play
and there were prizes and we're having a great time.
And we used to really blow it out at our
Christmas party.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Those were the good old days, ram.
Speaker 7 (11:38):
And so Uncle Jerry is there and all of a sudden, Rico,
who was our director of security, comes over and says
to Uncle Jerry, I got a problem with this guy
over here. I'm gonna have to deal with him and
escort him out. And I don't want to have I
don't have to hit somebody at the Christmas party. And
he's a guest of one of our employees. Well, the
employee and the guests were getting so drunk that at
some point the guest was fire. I mean the employee
(12:01):
was fired shortly thereafter. And that's when they knew they
had nothing to lose anymore. And so they decide they
want to get into a fight with our with Rico.
Who's pretty bad, asked dude who was our director's security.
And Uncle Jerry joins in, and they're rolling around in
the asphalt parking lot and Uncle Jerry's in his rabbit suit. Well,
(12:22):
when the Stafford Police department shows up, they understood the situation.
Jerry is stone cold, sob these two guys are drunk
out of their heads down in a headlock to keep
them from hurting anybody else. And there's Uncle Jerry in
a rabbit suit. So once the officers have ascertained that
there's nothing really wrong, they can't help but bust out
(12:45):
laugh and ask if they can have a photo of
Uncle Jerry having apprehended them while in his rabbit suit. Now,
can you imagine if that thing had gone very very
wrong and Jerry had been the purp a supposed to
the good guy in his full on rabbit suit and
when I say full on rabbit suit, let me make
(13:06):
this weird. You know the guy in the speedo on
the beach who comes up to you and he's talking
in and You're like, I can't look below your chest. Dude,
you're wearing a speed of Well, he was wearing a
slightly two tight rabbit suit. Did I mention he's about
six three two seventy The rabbit suit was designed for
(13:28):
a comfortable fit for someone who was about six two
to ten. So yeah, it was the scene. It's one
of my greatest Uncle Jerry stories of all time. Anyway,
So nobody goes to the Christmas party looking to get
into a fight, but Tucker Lee Davis came in his
Grinch outfit. And if Tucker Lee is like most men,
(13:52):
he's looking to have his heart swell, two size is
too big. Except alcohol was involved, and I guess Tucker
Lee is an angry drunk because a hotel employee said
that the Grinch was arguing with the man in a
plaid jacket. That's when a hotel employee, Jared Archibald, tried
to intervene. When that happened, the reindeer took Archibald to
(14:15):
the ground. In a quote. This is a witness account
grappling style, and that's when Tucker Lee, dressed as the Grinch,
started to pummel the hotel employee about the head and shoulders.
When the authorities arrived and asked who in the cindiloo
who was responsible for the francas, all fingers pointed to
(14:36):
the man in green, the Grinch. So the popo took
Tucker Lee to the Travers County jail and charged him
with misdemeanor assault and battery. The reindeer was not charged,
and we hear at the Michael Berry Show cannot talk
about the Grinch without pulling from the archive. One of
(14:59):
our favorite a classic about our dear dear friend, the
Congresswoman Chila Jackson Lee.
Speaker 14 (15:06):
The cello this is Congresswoman Sheilo Jackson Lee in the
eighteenth Congressional District of Texas.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
You're a mean one, Jackson Lee. You rely are a queen.
You're as quiet as a riot. You're as honest as
your weave. Jackson Lease.
Speaker 7 (15:29):
It's okay you dress.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Like every day is holloage. You're a foul one, Jackson Lee.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
I also want to get this big old gift.
Speaker 6 (15:42):
Your hall see is Jong.
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Every scheme you devise, Michael Barry will debunk Jackson Lee.
The three words that best describe you are as follows,
and you quote frivolous, irresponsible, slap happy.
Speaker 7 (16:05):
You've got the Michael Berry Show. So ask our talented
show as we lurch toward the end of the year,
during this the Christmas season, in preparation for our Christmas special,
which we began back in October, to send me their
favorite Christmas movie and a clip from that movie. And
(16:28):
we have a lot to get too, so let's get
to it. I I want to make sure we get
every one of them in here. First. Up is Chad Knock,
Aishi's movie. He is the executive producer. He gets to
go first. He loves Charlie Brown Christmas. In this scene,
Charlie Brown gets increasingly disgusted with the commercialization of Christmas
and wonders whether anyone even remembers the true meaning of Christmas.
(16:49):
Linus recites his memorable meaning of Christmas. After he finishes,
he steps off stage and says, that's what Christmas is
all about, Charlie Brown.
Speaker 9 (17:00):
Is there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?
Speaker 14 (17:03):
Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is
all about life plea.
Speaker 8 (17:07):
And there were in.
Speaker 14 (17:08):
The same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch
over their flock by night.
Speaker 8 (17:13):
And lo, the Angel of the Lord came upon them.
The glory of the Lord shall round about them. And
they were sore afraid. And the Angel said, unto them,
I fear not, for behold, I bring your tidings of
great joy, which will be to all people. For unto
you is born.
Speaker 14 (17:27):
This day in the City of David, a savior, just
Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign. Unto you,
he shall find the Babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying
in the anger. And suddenly there was with the Angel
a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying
glory to God in the highest and on earth peace
would will toward men. That's what Christmas has thought about,
Charlie Brown.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
It's a wonderful life. In this scene, George, played by
the awesome Jimmy Stewart, maybe my favorite Jimmy Stewart role,
is doing some courting of Donna Reed's character Mary. Let's
get this out of the way right now. We're all
friends here. We can talk openly about this, Well, Nona
Reed was a looker haul Yes, a stone cold fox,
(18:13):
as my friend Jesse Kelly says, a dime. Anyways, that's all.
George is walking Merry home when he promises to lasso
the moon for her.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
This really is a great scene.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Mary.
Speaker 15 (18:22):
I know what I'm gonna do tomorrow and the next
day and next year and the year after that.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little.
Speaker 15 (18:28):
Town off my feet, and I'm gonna see the world Italy,
grease the parthenon the Colisseum.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Then I'm coming back here and go to college and
see what they know.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
And then I'm gonna build things.
Speaker 15 (18:39):
I'm gonna build airfields, I'm gonna build skyscrapers one hundred
stories high.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
I'm gonna build bridges a mile long.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
Where you're gonna throw a rock. Hey, that's pretty good.
What'd you wish?
Speaker 13 (18:51):
Man?
Speaker 10 (18:54):
Uffalo, Gals?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Can't you come out tomorrow?
Speaker 4 (18:56):
Can't you come on? Come on?
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Can't you come out tonight?
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Dance by the light of the moon. What do you
wish when you threw the draw?
Speaker 1 (19:12):
If I don't might not come through.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
What is it you want, Barry? What do you want?
You want? The moon.
Speaker 15 (19:19):
Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around
and pull it down.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Hey, that's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the
moon very I'll take it.
Speaker 15 (19:27):
Then what well, then you could swallow it and it
all dissolves, see and the moon beams and shoot out
of your fingers and your toes and the ends of
your hair.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Am I talking too much?
Speaker 11 (19:39):
Yes?
Speaker 16 (19:40):
Why don't you kissers seat talking to death?
Speaker 4 (19:42):
How is that?
Speaker 16 (19:43):
Why don't you kissers start talking at.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
A death one man to kiss her?
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Huh?
Speaker 8 (19:49):
Oh?
Speaker 16 (19:49):
You just wasting on the wrong people.
Speaker 7 (19:52):
Our research director, Sandy Peterson loves a Christmas story. She
wrote in her submission as to why this was her
choice of what she wanted to be known by quote,
I think that this movie perfectly captures the aching desire
for that one gift that you know it's highly unlikely
you'll ever get. For Ralphie, it was the Red Rider
(20:13):
bb gun. For me, it was a pony. Sandy didn't
ever say if she got that pony. Maybe the story
is better if she didn't.
Speaker 16 (20:21):
Are you kidding?
Speaker 9 (20:22):
Stick my toa stupid poets dog?
Speaker 14 (20:25):
That's cause you know he stick?
Speaker 13 (20:27):
He're full of it?
Speaker 9 (20:27):
Oh yeah, like double dog dare yet I drimble dog
dare yet? All right, all right, we'll go on. Smart Julie,
I'm good. I'm going yet suck really partagay do hold
(21:12):
a go way.
Speaker 7 (21:14):
Jim Mudd's favorite Christmas movie is Christmas Vacation because he's brilliant.
I'm gonna say that's a good one. Not my favorite,
but a good one. The only sequel to National Lampoons
Vacation that holds up to the original. Fight Me. In
this film, our hero Clark Griswold is hosting the family
(21:35):
Christmas celebration at his house for the first time. It's
a huge to do and Clark wants it to be perfect.
That's the setup for all of the National Lampoons, right. Well,
nothing goes as plan, especially when cousin Eddie shows up
in an RV unannounced with his family in tow. When
Clark finds out that Eddie is broke, he offers to
(21:55):
buy gifts for Eddie's kids.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Here we go, Ellen, and I want to help you
give the kids a nice Christmas. Clark, I couldn't do that.
Speaker 10 (22:07):
No, no, insist, Oh no, I'm not one for charity.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Now I know that, Eddie.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
This is a charity. It's family.
Speaker 15 (22:18):
Now, come on, if you don't tell me what they want,
I'll go out and get it on my own.
Speaker 10 (22:26):
Boy, this is a surprise. Clark gets a real nice surprise,
Just a real nice surprise. Here's a little less alphabetical,
starting with Catherine. And if it wouldn't be too much,
(22:46):
I'd like to get something for you, Clark, something really nice.
Speaker 7 (22:51):
So Ramone's favorite submission for some reason was or is.
I guess it's active today, but you submitted this a
couple of weeks ago. Ramon's favorite submission as a movie.
I don't know. You gotta tell us which version it is,
but anyway, it is Scrooge.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Hellh you that boy? Me, sir? Yes, you a good fellow.
What day is today?
Speaker 14 (23:14):
Today?
Speaker 8 (23:15):
What's Christmas Day?
Speaker 11 (23:16):
Of course Christmas Day?
Speaker 4 (23:18):
I haven't missed it. The spirits did it all in
one night. Well they can do anything they like, of
course the case. Hello, my fine fellow.
Speaker 16 (23:25):
Hello, do you know the Poulterer's in the next street,
but one on the corner.
Speaker 14 (23:30):
I should hope I did.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
Intelligent boy, remarkable boy.
Speaker 16 (23:34):
Do you know if they've sold the prize turkey that
was hanging there?
Speaker 4 (23:38):
What the worst, biggest me, delightful boy, pleasure talking.
Speaker 16 (23:43):
To the one as big as you hanging there.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Now we're going by it.
Speaker 16 (23:48):
Yes, going by it and bring them round so that
I may tell them where to deliver it.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
Come back with the man. I'll give you a shitting
Come back in less than five minutes.
Speaker 16 (23:56):
I'll give you half a crown. I'm stressing myself so
much to do lose anytime.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
I was like, I'm happy. It's an a.
Speaker 16 (24:15):
I was made as.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Gee? Is he drunken man?
Speaker 16 (24:25):
Merry Christmas to everybody and.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
Happy New Year to the world. This is the Michael
Berry Show.
Speaker 17 (24:45):
Now it's about what Santa. It seems that we've crossed
some kind of line.
Speaker 13 (25:02):
It breins some folks holiday.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Mood to suggest that he's a white.
Speaker 17 (25:11):
Dude, even though he has been the whole time. Now
it's about a why Santa? Thank you for pointing out
(25:36):
this flaw in spirit of not feeling aft doubt. What
do you think about adding a few penguins to Kwanza? Now? Oh,
(26:01):
it's about a white Santa. Is there anything else that
you need? Because it's all always something.
Speaker 13 (26:21):
Maybe when we've got nothing, we can celebrate diversity.
Speaker 7 (26:40):
We thought we'd go out with one of our favorites,
Paul Harvey. He tells a heartfelt Christmas story about a
man who is skeptical of the Nativity tale. While his
family's at church, he finds himself faced with a flock
of birds struggling in a snowstorm, and despite his efforts
(27:02):
to help them, the birds are afraid of it. I
hope you.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Enjoy it as much as we do. The music is
from Akira the Dawn, who puts music over interesting things
like this.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
The man I'm talking about was not a scrooge.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
Now.
Speaker 15 (27:37):
He was a kind a decent, mostly good man, generous
to his family, and upright in his dealings with other men.
But he just did not believe in all of that
incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
At Christmas time.
Speaker 15 (27:49):
It just did not make sense, and he was too
honest to pretend otherwise. He could not swallow the Jesus'
story about God coming to earth. As a man, he
told his wife, I'm truly sorry to distress you, but
I'm just not going with you to church this Christmas Eve.
He said he'd feel like a hypocrite, that he'd much
(28:10):
rather just stay home, but that he would wait up
for them, so he stayed and they went to the
midnight service. Now shortly after the family drove away and
the car, snow began to fall. He went to the
window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier. Then
he went back to his fireside chair began to read
(28:32):
his newspaper. Minutes later, he was startled by a thudding sound,
and then another, then yet another. At first he thought
somebody must be throwing snowballs against the living room window,
But when he went to the front door to investigate,
(28:52):
he found a flock of birds huddled out there miserably
in the snow. They had been in the storm in
a desperate search for shelter. They had tried to fly
through his large landscape window.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
That was what had been making the sound.
Speaker 15 (29:15):
Well, he couldn't let those poor creatures just lie there
and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children
stabled their pony.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
That would provide a warm shelter.
Speaker 15 (29:26):
All he would have to do is direct the birds
into that shelter.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Quickly, he put on a coat and galoshes, and.
Speaker 15 (29:34):
He trapped through the deepening snow to the barn, and
he opened the doors wide and inside the barn, he
turned on a light so the birds would know the
way in, but the birds did not come in, so
he figured that food would entice it. He went back
(29:56):
into the house and touched some breadcrumbs and sprinkled those
on the snow, making a trail of bread crumbs to
the yellow lighted, wide open doorway of the stable. But
to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs. The
birds just continued to flop around helplessly in the snow.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
He tried catching them, he could not.
Speaker 15 (30:26):
He tried showing them into the barn by walking around
them waving his arms, but instead they scattered in every direction,
every direction except into the warm lighted barn. And that's
why he realized that they were afraid of him.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
They were afraid of him.
Speaker 15 (30:44):
To him, he reasoned, I'm a strange, terrifying creature. If
only I could think of someone to let him know
that they can trust me, that I'm not trying to
hurt them, but to help them. But how any move
he mad tended to frighten them and confuse them, they
(31:05):
just would not follow. They would not be led or
showed because they feared Yeah, and he thought to himself,
if only I could be a bird. Now I could
be a bird and mingle with them, and speak their
language and tell them not to be afraid. Then I
(31:26):
could show them the way to the safe, warm barn.
But I would have to be one of.
Speaker 18 (31:37):
Them, wouldn't I, so they couldn't see.
Speaker 15 (31:51):
And hear and understand. At that moment, the church bells
began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the
sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to
the bells at de Staffy Dails, listening to the bells,
(32:17):
feeling the glad tidings of Christmas, and he sank to
his knees in the snow.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
I hope for you
Speaker 15 (33:24):
And those you love, this will be a wonderfully merry
Christmas
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.