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A Very Salem Christmas

By Paula Hendrickson

Contributor

A few months ago, I mentioned that NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock, debuted a Days of Our Lives mini-series centered on a mystery about magical jewels missing from the fictitious Alamainian Peacock. (Subtlety is not the strong suit of soap opera writers.) They’ve now jumped on the Christmas movie bandwagon with Days of Our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas.

While the miniseries had plot holes galore – and Lisa Rinna – the standalone Christmas movie is happily Rinna-free and pokes fun at the Christmas movie genre.

Former cast members Elaine Davidson (only playing Kristen this time), Chandler Massey (Will), Greg Rikkart (Leo), and Blake Barris (Nick) all return. Yes, I know. Nick was killed off (twice) several years ago and recently returned as a vengeance-seeking zombie for a Halloween story arc, but most of the action occurs in a story-within-a-story.

Confused?

It’s pretty simple. Will is under a deadline to turn something in by midnight on Christmas Eve, so with the help of his husband Sonny (Zach Tinker), he somehow writes an entire Christmas script in just a couple of hours. Most writers I know would call that a Christmas miracle.

This is where I admit that I have never liked how easy the show’s writers have always made Will’s job look. A few years ago Will wrote a feature article or two for a local rag, landed a big investigative journalism assignment, and apparently became the next Ronan Farrow – at one point Will even went to Hollywood to write a failed screenplay (which his little brother is currently trying to produce on the daytime drama). It seems an article he wrote about the Alamainian Peacock adventure was turned into a miniseries, which led to an assignment to write a new screenplay, yet had no idea what to write about until a couple hours before his deadline. Of course, Sonny came up with the idea.

Will’s career trajectory may well be the least believable thing about A Very Salem Christmas.

But this alternate universe version of the Days of Our Lives world is kind of fun. Most of the characters are leading very different lives, old storylines had different conclusions – which explains why Nick is still around – and the actors are obviously having fun. Some, like Alison Sweeney (Sami) and Paul Telfer (Xander) get to play against type, and others just pop in for a couple of scenes. True to daytime dramas, there are multiple storylines playing out at once.

While A Very Salem Christmas won’t have much appeal to people unfamiliar with the long-running serial, anyone who’s watched the show in the past couple of decades should enjoy it. I even caught a mention of the Penthouse Grill, a highend restaurant that hasn’t been shown or mentioned on Days in ages.

Is A Very Salem Christmas a great work of art? No. But I found it to be more entertaining than most of the formulaic Hallmark- and Lifetime-type Christmas movies I’ve seen in the past few years. Although, as a nod to Christmas movies, there a gingerbread decorating contest.

If you’re a Days fan or even a casual viewer, have the paid version of Peacock (or get it through your cable provider), and want something different to watch over the holidays, you might want to give A Very Salem Christmas a try.

Beloit College

Beloit College celebrates 175 years

By Charles Herbst

Contributor

In 2021, Beloit College celebrated its 175th anniversary. Beloit College was founded in 1846, two years before Wisconsin became a state. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in the State of Wisconsin. The original building, Middle College, erected in 1847, is still in use!

The school was founded by the local Friends for Education, a group of seven former New Englanders who, upon arriving in Beloit, realized that a college needed to be established. Funds were raised locally, and the school was granted a charter by the territorial legislature.

Beloit College is known internationally as a strong, small, Midwestern liberal arts college, with exceptionally strong anthropology and geology departments. It has two well-regarded museums, the Logan Museum of Anthropology and Wright Museum of Art, both of which are free and open to the public. U.S. News ranks Beloit College 75th among national liberal arts colleges. About 65 percent of graduates attend graduate or professional school.

Beloit, while a small school of 1400 students, has a diverse student population from all over the world. The school welcomes local students: In fact, it is an opportunity to know a diverse group of students, without going far from home. The Beloit College Campus is also very accessible for members of the local community. Although the pandemic has dampened things a bit, the public is welcome on campus at the many lectures, activities, and performances.

Many times, local high schoolers are not aware of the academic opportunities that are available to them. In a community that stresses manufacturing, the message is often sent to high schoolers that a college education is unreachable, either because it’s too expensive or “not for them.” This is particularly true for first-generation college students. Instead of attending college, talented high school graduates end up being routed to trade schools or factory apprenticeships.

Deciding where to attend college is not easy. For students considering higher education, Beloit is a convenient, local example of a high-quality, four-year, liberal arts college. A prospective student can investigate the possibilities without traveling hundreds or thousands of miles.

Beloit College has made considerable efforts to make college affordable for qualified students. There is no application fee to apply for admission. There is no fee to apply for financial aid, either. Admissions decisions are made without regard to an applicant’s financial status.

Out of 829 colleges and universities in the United States, Beloit College has been ranked number 2 for its financial aid packages by LendEDU, a personal finance website.

“Beloit College is deeply committed to access, social mobility, and the educational benefits of a diverse community. Our financial aid strategy aligns with these values and it’s gratifying to be recognized for this,” says Vice President for Enrollment Leslie Davidson.

With the school’s Midwest Flagship Match, residents of six Midwestern states with a high school grade point average (GPA) of 3.5 or better will pay, at a maximum, the same tuition at Beloit they would have paid at the state’s flagship university. For an Illinois resident, that would be $16,866 per year, the same as the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

Asked why a qualified perspective student should consider attending Beloit as opposed to another college or university, the admissions staff cited several advantages:

At a smaller school like Beloit, faculty and staff know their students personally. Upon acceptance of the offer of admission, a student is assigned a mentor, who equips the student to land on campus “with a full tank” and ready to thrive. This mentoring continues during the student’s college career.

Beloit also has a high retention and on-time graduation rate. Often, when classes are oversubscribed, students are required to spend more than four years on campus to enroll in all the classes required for graduation. Beloit prides itself on making it possible for a student to graduate within four years. This lowers the relative cost of a Beloit College education.

In making an admissions decision, Beloit College relies heavily on high school grades, recommendations, personal essays, and the like. The average high school GPA of entering students is around 3.5. Although SAT and ACT scores are not required, admitted students who did submit them averaged between 24 and 28 on the ACT. SAT Scores were about 590-680 for evidence-based reading and writing and 610-707 for the math portion.