Thursday, December 25, 2014

Globe Xmas Gift: Timely Christmas Card

More like a letter and we always open them last, so....

"JFK letter reassuring girl about Santa is re-released" by Evan Allen, Globe Staff  December 20, 2014

In the video, Santa Claus and his reindeer fly in silhouette across a shining white moon, and President John F. Kennedy’s soothing words to a worried little girl stream across the screen, more than 50 years after they were written.

“You must not worry about Santa Claus,” Kennedy wrote to 8-year-old Michelle Rochon of Marine City, Mich., on Oct. 28, 1961. “I talked with him yesterday and he is fine. He will be making his rounds again this Christmas.”

Kennedy wrote the letter, re-released Friday by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, in response to Michelle’s fear that Santa would be killed by Russians conducting nuclear bomb testing at the North Pole.

“I heard my parents always discussing things at the kitchen table. I heard ‘North Pole’ and ‘bombs.’ It was during the Cold War, of course,” said Michelle, who is now 61 and whose last name is now Phillips.

In a telephone interview Saturday from her Marine City home, she said that she sat right down and wrote out her letter, then dropped it in the mailbox on the corner.

“Please stop the Russians from bombing the North pole,” she wrote, according to a news article from 1961. “Because they will kill santa Claus.”

Kennedy wrote back that he shared her concern about the Soviet Union’s atmospheric testing, “not only for the North Pole but for countries throughout the world; not only for Santa Claus but for people throughout the world.”

Nuclear arms testing was a major issue in Kennedy’s presidency, said archivist Stacey Chandler. About a year after he wrote the letter to Michelle, America would face the Cuban Missile Crisis.

His letter to Michelle, Chandler said, was timely then, as a president and a child grappled with fear and innocence — and it is timely now.

Michelle said that at the time she wrote the letter, her parents often discussed current events with her. The threat of nuclear war hung heavily over the nation, she said.

Do you remember what North Korea got last year?

Maybe disarmament isn't a very good idea. 

Remember, interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter.

After her letter and the president’s response was picked up by the media in 1961, she said she was flooded with letters from around the world — including notes written by Santa Clauses from Alaska to New York — thanking her for thinking of him.

“I don’t know why it didn’t hit me that there were all these different Santa Clauses. I just figured it was all the one Santa Claus,” she said. “I had proof there was a Santa Claus. The United States told me they talked to Santa Claus, and he was fine. There had to be a Santa Claus.”

That was then.

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This is now:

"Sony broadly releases ‘The Interview’ in reversal of plans" by Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press  December 25, 2014

LOS ANGELES — Amid a swell of controversy, backlash, confusion, and threats, Sony Pictures broadly released ‘‘The Interview’’ online Wednesday — an unprecedented counterstroke against the hackers who spoiled the Christmas opening of the comedy depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

‘‘It has always been Sony’s intention to have a national platform on which to release this film,’’ Sony Pictures chief executive Michael Lynton said in a statement. ‘‘We chose the path of digital distribution first so as to reach as many people as possible on opening day, and we continue to seek other partners and platforms to further expand the release.’’

‘‘The Interview’’ became available on a variety of digital platforms early Wednesday afternoon, a day after Sony and independent theaters agreed to release it in over 300 venues. The release was to have opened on up to 3,000 screens.

Seth Rogen, who stars in the film he co-directed with Evan Goldberg, cheered the decision.

‘‘I need to say that a comedy is best viewed in a theater full of people, so if you can, I’d watch it like that,’’ he tweeted.

Oh, this was all a psych job to get you to see the movie!

A Sony executive close to the matter said that there is concern over whether the company will recoup the $40 million cost of the film and the millions more spent on marketing but that affordability and wide access were their main priorities. The executive also said more providers could sign on in the coming days and weeks and the option is still there for more theaters to show the film down the line. The executive said it remained an option for the major theater chains to show the film and Sony was working to repair the symbiotic relationship that has eroded in recent days.

Decisions by Google and Microsoft to show the movie could open their sites to hacking. Microsoft reported technical problems with its Xbox sign-in system Wednesday afternoon, though it wasn’t known whether it was the result of hacking. Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry about the problem.

Sony’s initial decision not to release the film was widely criticized, with President Obama among the critics.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Obama welcomed the news. US officials have blamed North Korea for the hacking.

‘‘We do not live in a country where a foreign dictator can start imposing censorship here in the United States. With today’s announcements, people can now make their own choices about the film, and that’s how it should be,’’ Schultz said.

Kim Song, a North Korean diplomat to the United Nations, condemned the release, calling the movie an ‘‘unpardonable mockery of our sovereignty and dignity of our supreme leader.’’ But Kim said North Korea will probably limit its response to condemnation, with no ‘‘physical reaction.’’

I thought their leader was nut

Related: New Study Adds to Skepticism Among Security Experts That North Korea Was Behind Sony Hack 

Then who could have done it?

Among the early viewers was 11-year-old Marco Squitieri of Washington, D.C. Squitieri had wanted to see ‘‘The Interview’’ since seeing a preview earlier this year and had followed the news about Sony pulling the movie, then permitting its release. Squitieri’s family purchased ‘‘The Interview’’ from Xbox for $14.99.

‘‘It’s pretty funny,’’ said Squitieri, laughing as he praised the chemistry of Rogen and Franco and adding that he could understand why the North Korean government wouldn’t like it. ‘‘They make fun of North Korea a lot.’’

Amy Hurley, an executive assistant who lives in Detroit, paid $5.99 to rent the movie on YouTube Movies and was disappointed. A fan of Rogen and Franco, she found Franco’s character ‘‘way over the top’’ and thought the jokes ‘‘were old and kept going on and on.’’

‘‘It was kind of a mess overall,’’ said Hurley, 42. ‘‘I was a little bummed because I was looking forward to seeing it.’’

Other reviews:

Dopey and gory, ‘The Interview’ was bound to disappoint

‘Interview’ directors Rogen, Goldberg say they were just looking for laughs

Didn't get them.

The move to make the film available for rental and purchase before its theatrical release had never before been done with a mainstream film. Studios have released smaller indie and foreign movies simultaneously in theaters and on digital platforms, but analysts said the situation with ‘‘The Interview’’ left Sony little choice.

In the Boston area, Apple Cinemas in Cambridge has agreed to show it, starting Thursday.

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Yes, freedom prevails!

Also seeDoes Ben Affleck make too much money?

What a laugh. 

Do bankers or Warren Buffett? 

So what other movies did the Globe leave under the tree? 

NEXT DAY UPDATES: 

Viewers shun fears in favor of seeing ‘The Interview’

By Thursday, it had become something more than a flick with middling reviews. It was a celebration of American freedom of speech and a “constitutional right.”

This whole propaganda campaign has also turned into a farce, and did you see jwho the Globe talked to? I mean, I understand. It's written of, by, and for a certain cho$en few in more ways than one.

"Hundreds of theaters across US screen ‘The Interview’" by Hillel Italie, Associated press  December 25, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) — Russia on Thursday offered sympathy to North Korea amid the Sony hacking scandal, saying the movie that sparked the dispute was so scandalous that Pyongyang's anger was "quite understandable." 

How come Russia is friends with, like, everyone while no one likes the U.S. much past the lip service (Israel excepted, of cour$e)?

Washington failed to offer any proof to back its claims of Pyongyang's involvement in the hacking, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said at a briefing, adding that the U.S. threats of retaliation were "counterproductive." 

Again, and the retaliation already happened. Down the ma$$ media memory hole now.

Russia's ties with the communist North soured after the 1991 Soviet collapse, but have improved under President Vladimir PutinLast week, the Kremlin said that it had invited Kim to Moscow in May to attend festivities marking the 70th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.

Yeah, Putin and Russia ba.... d. Right?

The back story of ‘‘The Interview’’ has itself played out like a Hollywood satire, in which a cartoonish farce distracts from some of the holiday season’s most prestigious films: ‘‘Selma,’’ the drama about the 1965 civil rights march; Angelina Jolie’s adaptation of the best-selling World War II story ‘‘Unbroken”; and the all-star, big-screen version of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘‘Into the Woods.’’

I'm starting to think it was a script from the start.

Security was light at many theaters, with the occasional police officer on handThe possibility of violence was taken more seriously by the movie industry than by government officials.

What?

Darrell Foxworth, a special agent for the FBI in San Diego, said Wednesday the agency was sharing information with independent movie theater owners showing ‘‘The Interview’’ out of ‘‘an abundance of caution’’ and to educate them about cyber threats and what help the FBI can offer.

See: Hacker Helped FBI 

Hey, they reported it.

Members of an Arkansas family who say they otherwise would have never seen "The Interview" were among the first patrons at the Riverdale 10 theater in Little Rock. Kay Trice and her husband drove an hour from Stuttgart, Arkansas, to see the movie with their daughter and appreciated "the freedom to see it." 

If you see the print you are a better person than I:

Critics and early viewers agree that ‘‘The Interview’’ is less than a masterpiece. But thanks to threats from hackers that nearly derailed its release, it has become an event. Meanwhile... My worst suspicions confirmed.

This was all a publicity stunt, with the side benefit of another slow encroachment of elevated tyranny and a call to regulate the web -- even though the biggest hackers in the world work for government. How timely.

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They are ‘‘taking a stand for freedom.’’