Jingle bootlegs, jingle bootlegs...

Christmas has come early for me this year, thanks to a generous gift of DVD bootlegs from... let's call her a generous benefactor. No? "Brooklyn Bootlegger"? "Bootleg Betty"? "Santa Paws"? Four movies I either wouldn't or couldn't have seen in theaters - "The Machinist," "Birth," "Saw," and "Alexander" - are now sitting on my desk, waiting to be viewed with a bowl of popcorn. Wherever you are, my DVD diva, my movie mistress, I thank you.

And I didn't even get her anything for Christmas. What a Scrooge.

The New York Times reported on this probably-not-too-recent phenomenon in Sunday's edition.