Feliz Festivus!!

[Spiky Bugger]

So the hubster and I went to Claim Jumper to air our grievances and mentioned that to the server. As we left, our server and his buddy came up to the entry to ask if they had missed the Feats of Strength. I said that we would do that at home, but they had apparently missed the Festivus Miracle, which was that we did not order dessert.

Hostess stared at all of us. Too young. Had never heard of Seinfeld...or Festivus!

Aargh.

 

[hilary1617]

Well, I wish you a happy Festivus for the rest of us nonetheless! Our family of four is once again enjoying the holidays by cramming six guests ranging in ages 18 months to 84 years into our three bedroom home alongside of two brand new kittens... Serenity now!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Gracias!

For the uninitiated, a little Festivus history, courtesy of Seinfeld writer Dan O'Keefe, whose family created Festivus...for real!


The following is taken from a New York TImes article, based on an interview with Dan O'Keefe and his father:

"It was entirely more peculiar than on the show," the younger Mr. O'Keefe said from the set of the sitcom "Listen Up," where he is now a writer. There was never a pole, but there were airings of grievances into a tape recorder and wrestling matches between Daniel and his two brothers, among other rites."There was a clock in a bag," said Mr. O'Keefe, 36, adding that he does not know what it symbolized."Most of the Festivi had a theme," he said. "One was, `Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?' Another was, `Too easily made glad?' "His father, a former editor at Reader's Digest, said the first Festivus took place in February 1966, before any of his children were born, as a celebration of the anniversary of his first date with his wife, Deborah. The word "Festivus" just popped into his head, he said from his home in Chappaqua, N.Y.The holiday evolved during the 1970's, when the elder Mr. O'Keefe began doing research for his book "Stolen Lightning" (Vintage 1983), a work of sociology that explores the ways people use cults, astrology and the paranormal as a defense against social pressures.

New York Times - 19 December 2004

Further it should be noted that the Festivus episode nearly didn't happen. In a 2013 interview with Mother Jones Magazine, Dan O'Keefe admitted that he was originally not convinced that the Festivus storyline was a good idea, and he actually "fought against it". Fortunately, for Festivus afficinados, his fellow writers, and Jerry Seinfeld himself, backed the idea:

Sixteen years ago, O'Keefe and his family gave the world Festivus—by accident. Before Seinfeld's ninth season, it was the O'Keefe family's annual tradition, invented by his dad—a big fan of Pabst Blue Ribbon, coincidentally. "It was ******* weird, man," O'Keefe recalls. "It did not have a set date...We never knew when it was going to happen until we got off the school bus and there were weird decorations around our house and weird French '60s music playing." The pole itself, however, was an invention of the Seinfeld writers room, and the episode's other two writers Alec Berg and Jeff Schaffer. One day in 1997, one of O'Keefe's brothers let it slip to a member of the Seinfeld staff that this family holiday existed, and the crew thought thought was funny enough to write into the series. "I didn't pitch it. I fought against it," O'Keefe says. "I thought it would be embarrassing and drag the show down, but...Jerry liked it."

Mother Jones Magazine 12 December 2013

In 2013, on CNN, Dan O'Keefe spoke about the real-life origins of Festivus. O'Keefe's father, who originated some of the now-recognized Festivus traditions, used a clock and not an aluminum pole:

"The real symbol of the holiday was a clock that my dad put in a bag and nailed to the wall every year ... I don't know why, I don't know what it means, he would never tell me. He would always say, 'That's not for you to know.'"
​

 

[star0210]

I'm not too young but I never watched that show...I had to ask a friend of mine earlier today on FB what that was after he posted something about it! Lol

 

[star0210]

Well, I wish you a happy Festivus for the rest of us nonetheless! Our family of four is once again enjoying the holidays by cramming six guests ranging in ages 18 months to 84 years into our three bedroom home alongside of two brand new kittens... Serenity now!

Hilary...do you live in Nola?

 

[DianaCox]

I tried to get a Festivus block party for our block (to offset (1) the Xmas tree yard trees, and (2) our counter-display of a garishly lit Mogen David and lawn dreidels - I know we are not the only Jews (well, half of us, anyway - we have a tree in the living room and the menorah on display in the dining room) on the block, but we're the ones who flaunt it). Nobody responded - we have a dull block, which makes me sad - the next block over is MUCH more of a community and I'm jealous of that. So we left for the beach today:

And we brought our bikes! And Xmas decorations!

We walked to the beach for sunset - the beach access is behind the Wyndom Resort, and they had chairs and even fire pits!:

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I didn't notice when I read it silently, but then I dared my husband to read it aloud without laughing. (He coukd not.). But when I HEARD it...I recognized the "too easily made glad" concept as coming from Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess," which makes it all the more weird!

In that poem, the Duke is giving someone a tour and points out a portrait of his "last duchess," a woman who smiled at things and sunsets and people other than the duke, which pissed him off because she should have been FAR more pleased with him and his gift of his family name than anything else, you see. He said, "She had A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad..."

And then...

Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive.


What kind of well-educated but warped guy was the senior O'Keefe, to theme one of his random Festivi around the idea of this sicko duke's complaint about, and murder of, his wife?!

Cracks me TF up!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

I tried to get a Festivus block party for our block (to offset (1) the Xmas tree yard trees, and (2) our counter-display of a garishly lit Mogen David and lawn dreidels - I know we are not the only Jews (well, half of us, anyway - we have a tree in the living room and the menorah on display in the dining room) on the block, but we're the ones who flaunt it). Nobody responded - we have a dull block, which makes me sad - the next block over is MUCH more of a community and I'm jealous of that. So we left for the beach today:

And we brought our bikes! And Xmas decorations!

We walked to the beach for sunset - the beach access is behind the Wyndom Resort, and they had chairs and even fire pits!:

Are those Festivus poles...on the diagonal, holding up the awning?

 

[DianaCox]

We don't need no stinkin' Festivus pole to air grievances around here ...

 

[newanatomy]

This episode was on tonight.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

This episode was on tonight.

Well, then, there's the miracle!

 

[JackieOnLine]

 

[hilary1617]

Hilary...do you live in Nola?

@star0210 , I live in Chicagoland and commute to NYC, so those are my home bases, but I travel to NOLA pretty often (at least every three months) as my cancer doctors are at Oschner. I love NOLA!!!

 

[hilary1617]

@Spiky Bugger - the history of Festivus is fascinating. Wow. Thanks for sharing. I *get* the clock in the bag bit (at least, I have my own interpretation). Sometimes I feel like time owns me and I want to nail it to a wall. Hope your holidays are going well.

@DianaCox - I'm totally jealous of your holidays. Looks lovely! Mine have been pretty darn awful. Dad is in a grumpy, bitter Alzheimers stage in which he is saying truly terrible things to my mom, husband and children, and that combined with toddler mayhem and my food-obsessed vegan, lecturing sister in my house all at once has me at my limits. I need a beach!!!!

 

[Spiky Bugger]

@Spiky Bugger - the history of Festivus is fascinating. Wow. Thanks for sharing. I *get* the clock in the bag bit (at least, I have my own interpretation). Sometimes I feel like time owns me and I want to nail it to a wall. Hope your holidays are going well.

@DianaCox - I'm totally jealous of your holidays. Looks lovely! Mine have been pretty darn awful. Dad is in a grumpy, bitter Alzheimers stage in which he is saying truly terrible things to my mom, husband and children, and that combined with toddler mayhem and my food-obsessed vegan, lecturing sister in my house all at once has me at my limits. I need a beach!!!!

My mom had dementia, not...as far as we know...Alzheimer's. That didn't keep her from PHYSICALLY attacking my sister. I mean, brutally...scratching, hitting, grabbing, tearing her clothes...that kind of thing. And as anyone with younger siblings can tell you, no one except the older sibling can do that. I was verklempt. Had she been anyone else on the planet, I'd have hit her over the head with the nearest piece of furniture. My sister forgave her far sooner than
I did...but I couldn't say anything to Mom, because she probably had no clue as to what she had done. I just remained afraid of her, and what she might do next.

That disease is evil...that's why the gods made fentanyl patches...in bulk! Sorry if that offends anyone's sensibilities--and I have no current need for this "solution" so don't be trying to "save" me as I'm not yet headed for any escape routes--but enough fentanyl, I'm told, can relieve all kinds of pain. (An extended family member has recently diagnosed ALS and has recently gone in for a sleep study! If I had ALS and could die just by "going to sleep and not waking up," that would be high on my list of things to try. From here, it sounds like "the easy way out." But, to each her own.)