Reporter's Note: President Obama is on vacation. So am I. And I don’t know what that means in Hawaii, but here it means lots of movies … and of course my daily letter to the White House, which in honor of the break, is a just series of little stories this week.

Tom Foreman | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

Dear Mr. President,

Went to see the movie “Nine” with the family and I must say it was absolutely wretched. I wasn’t impressed by the previews some weeks back and now I know why. The film I peeled off the screen of my new Blackberry was more entertaining. They say an infinite number of monkeys with typewriters could eventually turn out “Hamlet;” I am convinced that “nine” refers to the number it took to render this load of tripe. The only enjoyable moment came when I dozed off briefly, and dreamed that I was being crushed by paving stones as punishment for witchcraft. If we ever catch Osama Bin Laden, just lock him in a room with a DVD player and this movie. He’ll give up his entire gang before the night is out.

Forgive me. I used to be a movie critic as a sideline to my reporting and this cinematic experience brought some flashbacks of bad movies past. I suppose the disappointment with “Nine” was also heightened by the fact that I have always found Christmas to be a wonderful time for movies, whether at home or in the theaters, so my hopes were high.

All of which, reminds me of a story.

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