Why Did the Sinsiter Grinch Steal Christmas?

How the Sinister Grinch Stole all the Christmases—
and a whole bunch of other stuff that went right back up the chimney
with the Christmases!—in smoke.



I sort of hate to admit this, but poking around on the internet is one of the interesting things I do with life. It smacks so much of snooping. However, I also must tell you, no matter how much I hate admitting it, that in this poking/snooping fashion, I do come across some fascinating items.

Thus it was that I came upon a Grinch who would put all other Grinches to shame. This Grinch is so sinister in nature that he makes the original Dr. Seuss Grinch look like Jolly Old Saint Nicholas himself.

Now I know we’ve all heard of Grinches, and we know what they do. But this Grinch? Well…judge for yourself.

Unlike your average, nasty Grinch, this Sinister Grinch began long before Christmas. The Sinister Grinch was not to be content with stealing a major holiday from the Whos of Whoville, as did the Dr. Seuss Grinch. Oh no!

The Sinister Grinch would steal a mother…friends—in the form of Florida’s Big Brother program…a summer camp experience… Christmas…and normal childhoods from his own two children.

I could begin most anywhere, I suppose. But we’re talking Grinch here—so let’s start with Christmas.

This past Christmas—2008—Elsa Newman #921975 at Maryland Correctional Institution for Women at Jessup applied to a program called “Angel Tree.” Angel Tree is a program which provides Christmas gifts—beautiful clothes and toys--to children of prisoners. Newman’s application was logical enough: prisoners make a mere pittance for their assigned jobs in prison; she did not have enough money to send her sons the Christmas gifts she dreamed of sending them. So she applied, and her application was accepted.

Then came the long-awaited report from Oasis Christian Church in Tampa, the organization which had taken responsibility for seeing that Newman’s children would receive presents from her. “Dear Caring Parent,” the letter began. And it continued in this vein: we are sorry to inform you that although the gifts you had requested for your sons were purchased and wrapped and we attempted delivery, the primary caregiver refused to accept the gifts, and we were unable to place them with your sons. We know this must be a disappointment to you. We will be praying for you and for your children. That is all we can do at this time.

Well…having found that bit of Sinister Grinchiness, I decided to check further, wondering if this father was depriving his young “Who” children of other things besides Christmas.

And sure enough, there is more.

Newman contacted the Big Brother League in the hope of finding older friends who would mentor her children, help with homework, take them to ball games—whatever kind of positive activities the Big Brother League has created and loves to provide for children who have only one parent available to them. Representatives from the Big Brother League actually went to the prison to interview Newman, and on behalf of her children, she signed up.

Representatives of the Big Brother League then contacted the Sinister Grinch. He hung up on them. They followed that contact by contacting Dr. Joy Silberg, because of the trouble with the Sinister Grinch. Now remember, The Big Brother League is a national organization of considerable repute. It may well have been a bit difficult for them to understand that there might be a “Who” child with a parent who would not welcome their efforts. Dr. Silberg gave the Big Brother League advice on how to approach the parent. When representatives of the Big Brother League called again on the Sinister Grinch, he informed them—rather rudely, I think—that they should “butt out” of his business. The little “Whos” were his problem, not theirs.

Yikes! When I found this one, I found it, also, hard to believe. But there was more to come.

In the State of Massachusetts, there is a non-profit organization which specializes in helping the children of political prisoners. Wondering whether she would meet their standards, Newman contacted this organization also. What she wanted from them? Scholarships to summer camp for her two sons.

The Newman family has a tradition of sending their children to camp Airy. Elsa attended the camp as a child, as did her older sister and brother. It is a camp of highest quality, one which has traditions of its own, and one worth every cent of the rather expensive fees.

This Massachusetts non-profit apparently decided that Elsa Newman does indeed qualify as a political prisoner. They offered scholarships to the camp for both her sons.

But the Sinister Grinch could hardly wait, it seems, to put a stop to this.
His “Who” children, tradition or no tradition, would not be attending Camp Airy. And his ex-wife a political prisoner? Well! She wasn’t getting away with that! Not while he had anything to say about it!

Two more items are noteworthy here: 1) It is the Sinister Grinch himself who has seen to it that the boys have only one available parent, and 2) reports back from the “Who” children—via blog or blog comments or email--are couched in the same terminology that the Sinister Grinch himself has been using for some eight or so years now, in his attempts to separate the boys from their mother or from anyone else who shows and interest in trying to help them.

Exactly how does that play out? Well…it was the Sinister Grinch who set up the prosecution case against Elsa Newman when he made the 9-1-1 call on the night he was injured. “My wife,” he said, “sent someone to try to kill me.” Had that been true, of course, there was no way the Grinch could have known it. Not only that, but this particular Grinch was one of the main prosecution witnesses, fictionalizing a story of “twisted sisters” who had somehow become so interdependent that they had conspired together and sent the one to the house to try to kill him, while Newman herself was out of the state.

You realize, of course, that if Margery Landry had, in fact, wanted to kill the Grinchly Slobodow, all she had to do was sneak into his room, put a bullet in his head, and sneak out again. She was already, undiscovered, inside the home.

And the terminology question? From the beginning, the Sinister Grinch has never expressed the possibility that he is even slightly offended by accusations that he is/has been molesting his children. Wouldn’t you think that an innocent man would have something—some tiniest thing-- to say in protest and regret concerning false accusations?

Nada!

Rather this Grinch has chosen to call his ex-wife names. He has chosen to label those who disagree with him, using most unpleasant appellations, rather than trying to reach out and touch some kind of proof of his innocence, rather than showing that he gives a damn—which, of course, he does not. This Grinch apparently believes he is right and the world is wrong.

He has called Newman’s advocates her victims, manipulated to do her will. Really? Not on your life!

The Grinch is the manipulator. He fashions his family and those around him into his own image and uses them as if they were puppets.

He has called me the “new Margie,” as if I am somehow a danger to him in Tampa, Florida, from my tiny home in SW Washington State.

He has thought of a thousand ways to sever contact between his “Who” sons and their mother. He wrote to the prison warden to insist that she not allow Newman to communicate with the school her children attend. Is there something wrong, Mr. Grinch, with your “Who” children’s schools and teachers coming to know the real Elsa Newman?

When Elsa places phone calls to her children, which she is allowed to do, although Mr. Grinch is supervises said calls and cuts them off at his whim, she may be allowed to talk to only one child, yet she hears things like this just before the call is over and they are cut off: a whispered, “Mom…it’s me…I’m hiding under the table so Dad won’t see. I love you.”

And the labels that his son, Herbie—or whoever is writing in Herbie’s name—uses today are exactly the same labels used by Stacey Blondes Talbott. Talbott was the Grinch’s attorney at the custody trial and she stood by him during the criminal trial, when the Grinch was writing material for her, so he would be certain that the mother of his children would be tucked safely away in prison, where she could not intervene between him and his children. They are the same labels used by the prosecution. They are the same labels used by guardian ad litem, Alan Town.

They are the same labels spouted from the mouth of the Sinister Grinch himself for the past eight years.

Good god! Wouldn’t you think that, given eight years to think about it, even the worst of Grinches—which this one is—could come up with something newer than “liar…liar…pants on fire!”

So you see, not only has the Sinister Grinch stolen Christmas…stolen camp experiences…stolen friends that might have been provided through the Big Brother organization, but he has stolen childhood and its rights and privileges from his own children, children who have said he is molester, abuser and exploiter of their young selves.

Sooooo...why DID this Sinister Grinch steal Christmas and all that other stuff? Could it be? Could it possibly be that he really DOES have something to hide? Hmmmmmm.