Glen Plays Siskel and Ebert

Glen Plays Siskel and Ebert



If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story

.- Orson Welles



      We must return to the merrymaking at Bear Cove in the precious few years I was able to join the Ziesings and Sheehys by the sweet  waters of Squam Lake. Center Sandwich is not exactly like Orlando, Florida so entertainment can be limited to swimming, hiking, eating and drinking. Of course, many veterans of the place might bring a book to the dock. The greatest jollification of camp is conversation and yarn spinning. However, when night falls and adults might take a bottle of wine out to sip under the stars the kids became restless for amusement. At the time one possible was to drive to Center Harbor and rent a film which the good children there (Ed, Kit, Em, Elyse) would become mesmerized by and eventually doze off to.  Good choices might be Toy Story, the Incredibles, Shrek or any of the approved classics from the Boomer adults in camp. Ed would be ready for more adult fare but parents were quite insistent on keeping the g's innocent. Since I was always looking for a way to be useful I volunteered to pick out a winner since I had been going to the movies a lot in the 90's with my own kid. Thanks to a Smith College silent auction I saw 53 movies in one year! One of the films I saw in 2003 was the delightful "Love Actually," a sweet and gentle love story that I assumed would be great for the children in camp. There was excitement as the younguns gathered in the front room at camp, a  VHS was popped into the machine and the magic of the movies began. Unfortunately, I had forgotten the one small problem with "Love Actually." Part of the plot was a nice romance between two young Britons who were earning their living acting as stand-ins in "adult films" While it is pretty innocent there are simulated sex scenes that might be hard to explain to an 8 year old. While the actors are only partially naked they are cleverly filmed to obscure their "naughty bits" to the audience. Yet, the scene when the young man works up his courage to ask her out they are pretending to have oral sex. A christian review described it as "Abhorrent …Strong pagan worldview… filled with graphic nudity and simulated sex and foul language." Secretly, I think the kids were digging it and later in life Kit-Kat professed to loving the movie. Camp mothers intervened and I believe some Rocky and Bullwinkle videos replaced Glen's smut,




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