Ebenezer Scrooge

Here we are at the start of the holiday shopping season. Santa Claus has arrived at the malls, and Ebenezer Scrooge, the skinflint of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," soon will be along to sing and dance at two Annapolis-area theaters.One version of Dickens' 155-year-old story, with original music by Doug Yetter and Michael Hulett, opens Saturday at Chesapeake Music Hall on U.S. 50, east of Annapolis. This is the production's fourth year, which is how long Yetter and Sherry Kay have owned the theater.

On Christmas Day, a letter from a reader in Reisterstown ( "Somebody tell the unions: We're out of money," Dec. 25) decries the "ridiculous public benefits public service employees enjoy. " Merry Christmas to you, too. I am a civil servant. I am the Maryland State Trooper sitting in my cruiser on I-695 waiting for the snow to begin and for you to spin out into the guardrail. I am the Maryland State Highway Administration worker who will be spending this weekend putting in 16 hour days to salt the roads and clear the snow off 695 so you won't spin out into the guardrail.

With the headlines dominated by news that the governor of Illinois was apparently looking to sell off the state's U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, maybe it's time for all of us to sit down and watch Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (12:15 p.m., TCM) for a reminder of what American politics could (dare one suggest, should?) be all about. James Stewart, in a role that should have won him an Oscar as the Best Actor of 1939, is Jefferson Smith, a rube from the backwoods, picked by political bosses to fill the seat of a deceased U.S. senator.

movies Meet Arnold Schwarzenegger, the actor. The man who began as a mass of muscles proves in ''Kindergarten Cop'' he can do a role that calls for both comedy and drama. And the film is as good as he is. In it, Schwarzenegger, right, plays an undercover cop who poses as a kindergarten teacher to persuade a woman to act as a witness against a murderer. Penelope Anne Miller co-stars. Violence, language, sex. Rating: PG-13. *** Baltimore actor Wil Love is reprising his superb performance -- for the fourth year -- as Ebenezer Scrooge in a stunning production of "A Christmas Carol" staged by Thunderbird Limited at The Center in Chambersburg, Pa. Directed by noted Baltimore actor Carl Schurr, the play features snow, music, a splendid pop-up-book setting of Victorian England and local actors Susan Duvall, Christopher Tickner and Sandra Sorenson.

Yuletide without Dickens would be unthinkable, so luckily there's a dinner theater this month -- when we need one most.The Chesapeake Music Hall's version of the saga of Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol" features clever lyrics by Michael Hulett and a tuneful score by Doug Yetter, the Music Hall's co-owner.Not only do you get Christmas ham and turkey from the ample buffet, you get the funniest, "shtickiest" Ebenezer Scrooge you're ever to meet, courtesy of the hilarious Duncan Hood. Some Scrooges merely let their spiritual dyspepsia do the talking, but Mr. Hood is a born prankster who can't resist physical comedy.

In the original version of "A Christmas Carol," Tiny Tim didn't exclaim, "God bless us every one" -- Little Fred said it. But the name of the most memorable character in this beloved Christmas story was changed from Little Fred to Tiny Tim by author Charles Dickens just before "A Christmas Carol" was published in 1843.That's just one of the little-known but intriguing facts about the holiday novella. While we continue to enjoy numerous movie and TV productions of "A Christmas Carol," equally fascinating is the story behind the story and why Dickens was moved to write the classic.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court signaled yesterday that it regards money in politics the same way that many Americans do: troubled that big donors might have too much influence but unsure what to do about it.The difference is that the justices must make up their minds. They have before them the most significant test case in 23 years on the constitutionality of campaign finance restrictions, and politicians and contributors everywhere are awaiting an answer.Yesterday, with all nine justices joining energetically in a lively hearing, they debated the power of states -- and, by implication, Congress -- to continue to limit how much money people can give to candidates.

ARLINGTON, Va. - In Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is surrounded by merriment and acts of charity. None of it, not even the long-suffering kindness of his nephew, has the slightest influence on his hard heart. It is only when the angel prototypes - the "ghosts" of Christmas Past, Present and Future - confront him with what might be called his "sin" that Scrooge comes to his senses, repents and is "converted." That message of conversion - indeed, the "original intent" of the Christmas message - is obscured in the boisterous celebration of something that has nothing to do with the "reason for the season" and now also involves lawyers and complaining liberal and conservative ministers who either demand that people not celebrate Christmas or want everyone to celebrate it as they do. The battles of Christmas 2004 include protesters in Denver who marched and sang carols along an official parade route because they had been denied entry by "Parade of Lights" sponsors.

Young actors dressed in 19th-century garb marched to the stage, singing traditional carols. Beggars and bankers, peasants and nobles all mixed in a crowd. Several of the characters were familiar, present in multiple incarnations: Tiny Tim Cratchet as the child with a crutch, and as a mischievous young man; Ebenezer Scrooge as a youth and as an elderly man. It's the opening scene of Remembering Uncle Scrooge, a two-act musical that debuts this week in downtown Bel Air. The actors, in character and costume, hope to mingle with the audience at the dinner theater, the first event in the refurbished Lt. Gen. Milton A. Reckord Armory on North Main Street.

Orson Welles and William Shakespeare made an unbeatable team, as can be seen on AMC tonight. As for seasonal fare, tune to Channel 13 at 8 p.m."High Incident" (8 p.m.-9 p.m. and 9 p.m.-10 p.m., WJLA, Channel 7; and 9 p.m.-10 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) -- ABC tries to bump up its anemic Thursday ratings by pre-empting "Murder One," a great show that earns consistently low ratings, and offering instead back-to-back reruns of "High Incident"? Whatever. In Episode 1, the cops discover an illegal immigrant smuggling ring while investigating a traffic accident, and Marsh (David Keith)