Tag: Christmas

Margerumalia – A Moment With Santa Ed

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – December 12, 2025

CREDIT: PHOTOFEST

Ed Asner stood at the end of my gurney and put his hand on my ankle by way of encouragement as he was talking to someone else. He moved on before I could thank him but I sure appreciated the warm assurance. 

You may remember Ed Asner from his portrayal of Santa Claus on the movie Elf. Like my daughter says, the holiday season hasn’t really started until we sit down to watch Elf. It’s a Christmas favorite in the Margerum household and I love to pull my “World’s Best Cup of Coffee” mug off the shelf to salute the holidays.

Maybe you remember Asner as the voice of the curmudgeonly Carl Fredricksen in the animated movie Up. He flew his house to South America by equipping it with balloons.

My memories of him date back much further to “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” in which he played Mary’s boss in the newsroom of WJM-TV. 

In the very first episode when she interviewed for her job, he asked inappropriate questions about her personal life and she stood up and reprimanded him for it. In response, he walked around his big desk with a half grin on his face and told her, “You know what? You got spunk.”

She modestly tried to thank him for the compliment but he interrupted her.

“I hate spunk.” 

That got a huge laugh from the live audience and the relationship was established. The series ran for nine years. 

His character, Lou Grant, was one of the few—maybe the only—to get a spin-off from a sitcom to create a drama. He was given the job of City Editor at a Los Angeles newspaper in a series that began immediately and “Lou Grant” would run for five years. Ed Asner won Emmy Awards for the same character in each series.

This was the Ed Asner I knew and loved even though, like Mary, I was a little intimidated by him. 

I was on a gurney donating blood along with many more actors in the Screen Actors Guild and Asner was there because he was the SAG President. Maybe he could sense my fear, actors are practiced at sensing the emotions in other people. I hate needles, and his hand on my ankle was just the reassurance I needed. I breathed a little easier after that. 

The only words he could’ve said to improve on the moment would’ve been: 

“You know what? You got spunk.”

TTFN

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Screenshot

Last week, a few hours after my newsletter went out, I saw a social media post from Judy Norton that an autographed CD version of her Christmas music is available through her website: judynorton.com.

I had only mentioned where I saw it downloadable.

Downloads are handy but so difficult to wrap, don’t you think?

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If you received this email because it was forwarded to you by a subscriber, welcome. You can subscribe as well by following the link on my website: ericmargerum.com. A free story awaits you there.

Margerumalia – A Christmas Story in PA

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – December 20, 2024

This year for Christmas, Debbie and I drove to the Millbrook Playhouse in Pennsylvania to see our daughter perform in The Christmas Story. She played the mother of Ralphie who desperately wants a BB gun for Christmas. You know the one: “An Official Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time.”

I think we heard that wish expressed rapid fire at least two dozen times throughout the play by the time the narrator—the grown up Ralphie—says it for the last time. That actor lingered over the words with such heart and nostalgia that it brought a lump to my throat. Oh, the things that mean so much to us at that tender age, even in the face of friends and family who repeatedly exclaim, “You’ll put your eye out!”

I remember when I bought a cassette player for my car, complete with AM/FM stereo, for the drive across country to start grad school at USC, my dad said “It’ll get stolen!” He was right, of course, but like our daughter’s performance of Mother in the play, he showed compassion and practicality when I phoned home to ask for help. Ralphie didn’t put his eye out, thankfully, but the kindness showed to the son who has to learn his own lesson felt very familiar. 

The live play performance had a lot to recommend it over and above the movie. The comedic moments played out in Ralphie’s mind by the actors in the play were spot on, with heightened drama that bordered on the absurd and drew appreciative laughter from the audience. 

Now I’m going to brag on my daughter. Indulge me, Her portrayal of Mother was honest, genuine, and, when needed, charmingly playful. She also showed us how entirely capable this woman was, and intelligent, and good-hearted. A few days later, when we took her and her fiancé back to New York we all went to see the Broadway musical Suffs, about the women who fought for the right to vote. I told my wife afterwards that women like the mother in A Christmas Story would do a much better job of running the country than The Old Man (Ralphie’s father) ever could. 

I’ll tell you more about Suffs and my mother the mayor next week. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I hope your holidays are jam-packed with wonderful experiences that you get to share with family and friends. 

TTFN 


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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles

Margerumalia – Christmas from Japan 

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – December 13, 2024

Last year I got an unexpected gift for the holidays. It was a Christmas card (pictured above) handed to me by a woman from Japan.

Every morning I take a walk after breakfast, enjoying nature as I wind my way through the ravines that lead to Happy Hollow Park. The abundance of trees, squirrels, deer, and humans starts off each day with joy, especially when those humans are walking their dogs because I get to indulge in some puppy love. Some of those dogs recognize me from a distance and run full tilt to greet me like a long lost friend. Because, of course, I am. 

I also greet many other morning walkers who return my smile with a shared “Good Morning!” One of those walkers in Happy Hollow was a Japanese woman named Junko. At first she was quite shy about returning my smile and she clearly didn’t speak much English. The local university has many foreign students and visiting professors so that wasn’t uncommon. After several weeks she made eye contact more readily and shared a “Good morning” each day. 

In December Junko approached me with a Christmas card that she was carrying in hopes of seeing me again. That’s when I learned her name and that she was from Kyoto. Using the translation app on her phone, we exchanged several written messages and got to know each other a bit more.

At home, Junko had spoken Japanese into her phone and copied the English translation letter by letter on her card. This is what she wrote:

I have been here for three months and will be returning to Japan this weekend.

I was happy to be able to greet you every morning. Thank you greet.

To you it may ordinary, but to me it was special.

I’m sorry for the sudden, but I would like to tell you you that.

It’s getting colder. I hope you and yourfamily have a wonderful Christmas season.

12/6 / 2023

Junko Hotta

Years ago, when I was living in Los Angeles, I would drive my VW Rabbit across the desert for eight hours to see my grandparents who had retired in Sun City. On one visit my grandfather and I talked about greeting strangers and I was pleased to discover that he and I had the same habit of wanting to bring a smile to the faces of cashiers, wait staff, and passing strangers. He had been a lawyer in Iowa, very stoic and socially cautious, and I was an actor in LA, very outgoing and creative, but we shared the same impulse to brighten someone’s day.

I think Grandpa would have nodded amiably and approved of my card from Junko. I hold it dear in my heart and hope she’s happy and healthy in Kyoto.

I wish you all the joy of the holiday season and hope you get to share a piece of it with someone you don’t know. 

TTFN

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If you received this email because it was forwarded to you by a subscriber, welcome. You can subscribe as well by following the link on my website: ericmargerum.com. A free story awaits you there.

Margerumalia – Christmas Lights and Dental Blights

Eric Margerum

Newsletter – Nov. 29,2024

Two days after draping Christmas lights across our front bushes we got the first snow of the season. I was patting myself on the back while taking this photo, but to give credit where credit is due, it was Debbie’s initiative to trim those bushes making it all possible. She’s a go-getter gardener while I’m a reluctant one.   

You know what else I’m reluctant about? Getting a tooth pulled. 

As I’ve explained to many dentists and their assistants, whatever you may be doing in my mouth, it’s far worse in my imagination. I hum tunelessly to distract myself from my own fears. Like a white noise machine, it disrupts the brainwaves that deliver images of a bloodbath like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 

So I’m lying back in the dentist chair, inhaling a mix of oxygen and nitrous oxide—laughing gas, hah, not in my experience—knowing that the dentist is running late because he got stuck in traffic. You know those stories of surgeons who accidentally amputate the wrong limb? I don’t want him to arrive in a frenzy, knowing that people are waiting. I don’t want him to be in a hurry to catch up with his schedule and pull out the wrong tooth! 

It’s not like he can put it back.

He arrives, introduces himself, and I immediately pat him on the shoulder and sympathize with the traffic situation. “I’ve lived in LA,” I tell him, “I know what it’s like. You’re gonna need a moment to take a few deep breaths.” And study the tooth chart.

There ya go, Eric, establish rapport. Let him talk about idling on the interstate, let him get it out of his system. We’re friends now. He’s not about to pull the wrong tooth out of a friend’s mouth. 

The assistant joins him and they compare plans for the weekend. She had planned to put up Christmas lights, but failed to get them out before the snowfall. 

“I did!” I slurred, the numbness starting to take a hold of my cheek. I pulled out my phone and shared the picture above which they admired. More rapport, more camaraderie. Pretty soon I’d be humming tunelessly, but at least I was a third person in the room, not just another mouth full of teeth. 

“This one will probably come out in pieces,” the dentist warned me. 

“Because it has a crown?” I asked. 

“Yes, and the root canal that was done many years ago.” 

That’s the right tooth! I was still fearful of the procedure, but at least I knew it would be the right one. 

I survived, of course, to write this harrowing account of Eric The Tuneless Hummer. 

TTFN!

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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles