What’s your favorite line from ‘A Christmas Carol’? Four Connecticut Scrooges tell us theirs
It’s Christmastime, and somebody has a lot to say about it. His name is Ebenezer Scrooge, and he’s ubiquitous. Scrooge is hardly a man of few words, but he’s often been reduced to just two: “Bah!” and “Humbug.” Let’s hear him out. In Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Scrooge opines on the worthlessness of charities, the plight of the poverty-stricken, and whether a visit from a ghost can be explained as a stomach ailment. Later in the story, when Scrooge has (spoiler alert!) undergone a major emotional transformation, he poetically declares “I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future! The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.”
Connecticut has no shortage of Scrooges in residence. They are all quite different. Some are Victorian. Some are modern. Some are American. Some are “meta,” like an actor playing an actor playing Scrooge. Some hew close to Dickens’ dialogue. Others make it up as