Welcome back to the Lit for Christmas party, the podcast where the Christmas spirits flow all year long!
For this second episode, Amanda and Marty get lit on French martinis while they slur through a discussion of Philip Van Doren Stern's short story "The Greatest Gift," which director Frank Capra adapted into the film It's a Wonderful Life. Grab your cocktail shaker, mix yourself up the Spirit of Martini Present, and join us in the kitchen for some conversation on the gin versus vodka debate, whether Donna Reed is the perfect wife, how to get someone to pay $10,000 for a Christmas card, how to make Marty schnog, and, of course, the perennial question at all Christmas parties--how hungover we're going to be in the morning.
BONUS POINTS: Count how many dramatic pauses Amanda takes the drunker she gets!
RECIPE FOR FRENCH MARTINI:
Ingredients:
Ice
4 oz. premium gin
3 oz. fresh pineapple juice
1 oz. Chambord liqueur
Small pinch of fine grain sea salt
Directions:
Lit for Christmas Party Hosts:
Amanda got her undergrad at U of M in English, MFA from Goddard College, and JD from Wayne State University Law School. She's a writer, fleece-legging addict, private poetry hoarder, public child herder, heirloom seed collector, candle dripper, cocktail mixer, and Christmas geek.
Marty has an Master's in fiction writing, MFA in poetry writing, and teaches in the English Department at Northern Michigan University in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He served two terms at Poet Laureate of the Upper Peninsula, and has published the poetry collection The Mysteries of the Rosary from Mayapple Press. For more of Marty's thoughts and writing visit his blog Saint Marty (saintmarty-marty.blogspot.com) or listen to his other podcast Confessions of Saint Marty, alsoon Anchor.fm. Marty is a writer, blogger, wine sipper, easy drunk, and poetry obsessor who puts his Christmas tree up in mid-October and refuses to take it down until the snow starts melting.
Music for this episode:
"Jingle Bells Jazzy Style" by Julius H, used courtesy of Pixabay.
"A Christmas Treat" by Magic-828, used courtesy of Pixabay.
A Christmas Carol sound clips from:
The Campbell Theater 1939 radio production of A Christmas Carol, narrated by Orson Welles and starring Lionel Barrymore.
It's a Wonderful Life sound clip from:
It's a Wonderful Life. Directed by Frank Capra, performances by Jimmy Steward and Donna Reed, RKO Studios, 1946.
This month's Christmas lit:
Van Doren Stern, Philip. The Greatest Gift. Simon & Schuster, 2011.
