★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
December 23, 2013

 ★~ Today’s Quote:  “Welcome, new comers. The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with you people! And now you’re gonna hear about it!”  ~Frank Costanza

★~ Happy Festivus:

Celebrated by Seinfeld fans everywhere, Festivus was first introduced to the world by the Costanza family on Seinfeld in 1997. In an episode titled, “The Strike”, Frank Costanza tells Cosmo Kramer that he invented the holiday in response to Christmas commercialism.

The slogan of Festivus is “A Festivus for the rest of us!” The usual holiday tradition of a tree is manifested in an unadorned aluminum pole, which is in direct contrast to normal holiday materialism. Those attending Festivus may also participate in the “Airing of Grievances” which is an opportunity to tell others how they have disappointed you in the past year, followed by a Festivus dinner, and then completed by the “Feats of Strength” where the head of the household must be pinned. All of these traditions are based upon the events in the Seinfeld episode, however, strangely enough, Festivus has roots that pre-date Seinfeld.

May we wish you all a Happy Festivus for the rest of us!

★~ Roots Day:

What better time of year than the holiday season –when you’re bombarded with family functions– to pause, look around you, and remember that your ancestral roots run deep and you are kindred in blood and spirit to the whole clan of crazy people partying in the kitchen and wearing matching sweaters.

★~ Pfeffernuesse Cookie Day:

Pfeffernusse, you say? Is a hard little cookie made with pepper, and a whole bunch of other spices.  Because of its deep “winter” flavors, it’s often associated with Christmas (kind of like gingerbread).

Pfeffernüsse are extremely hard when they are first baked. For at least a week, it is difficult to bite into them without first dunking into a warm beverage. However, they soften with age.

Here is traditional German tale about the Pfeffernüsse  “spice cookie,” but before reading practice the donkey call: EEE-AH!

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1823 – He had a broad face and a little round belly, that shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.”  These words were published for the first time in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel (now the Record). The poem we know as The Night Before Christmas or A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement C. Moore, was published anonymously under the newspaper editor’s title, Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas.

Moore’s poem, which he had written on Christmas Eve one year earlier, took a circuitous route to the Troy paper. The story has it that Moore penned the poem, inspired by the bells on the sleigh in which he was riding, the sleigh’s jolly driver, and the new fallen snow on the streets of New York City, as he was running a last minute errand for his wife. That evening, he read his now-famous words to his six children as they sat in front of their fireplace where “The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hope that St. Nicholas soon would be there.” The children were so delighted with their father’s images of “a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer,” that they saved the poem, showing it to a family friend, Harriet Butler, who was visiting from Troy. Moore allowed Miss Butler to copy the poem in her keepsake album.

Miss Butler was so taken with the charming work that she sent it in to the Troy newspaper shortly before the following Christmas, unbeknownst to Moore, who never intended to publish the poem as it was out of character for a strait-laced professor of classics.

The poem captured the imaginations of young and old alike …so Clement C. Moore finally consented to being recognized as its author when the poem appeared in The New-York Book of Poetry in 1837.

♥~ 1942 – Bob Hope agreed to entertain U.S. airmen in Alaska. It was the first of his many famous Christmas shows for American armed forces around the world. The tradition continued for more than three decades.

♥~ 1972 – The world record for consecutive sit-ups was set by Richard Knecht in Idaho Falls, Idaho. He did 25,222 — on a hard surface without pinned feet. It took the eight-year-old 11 hours and 14 minutes.

♥~ 1999 –  Saul Bellow, winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Literature, was the father of a baby girl. Bellow’s fifth wife, Janis Freedman, 41, gave birth to Naomi Rose Bellow this day. So, what’s the big deal, you ask? Bellow was 84 years old at the time.

★~  Born Today:

♥~ 1926 – Robert Bly: poet, author: What Have I Ever Lost by Dying?, Iron John: A Book About Men once said, “One day while studying a [William Butler] Yeats poem I decided to write poetry the rest of my life. I recognized that a single short poem has room for history, music, psychology, religious thought, mood, occult speculation, character, and events of one’s own life.

♥~  1946 – Susan Lucci Daytime Emmy Award-winning actress: All My Children [1999]; Dallas, French Silk, Lady Mobster, Mafia Princess, Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, Invitation to Hell, Secret Passions

★~ Good to Know: 

Here are a few things you may need to know before you break out the Festivus pole.

♥~ The Seinfeld Festivus was based on a real holiday made up by Dan O’Keefe, the father of one of the show’s writers. But don’t think that the two are the same. “The reality of this day was far more bizarre and sinister,” wrote the younger O’Keefe. “Less like something from a comedy about zany, lovable New Yorkers and more like something from The X-Files. Like if one of the Lone Gunmen had children, and they all lived under a power line.” He says that the tagline “Festivus for the Rest of Us” was made up by his father and is one of the similarities that actually made it into the show.

♥~ Rod Blagojevich inspired a Festival celebration  when a Festivus pole mysteriously appeared in the Illinois State Capitol’s rotunda. It turned out that a college student had erected the pole as his “airing of grievances” against corrupt governor Blagojevich. Imagine that.

♥~ In 2000, Ben & Jerry’s introduced Festivus, “an ice cream for the rest of us.” a base of brown sugar-cinnamon ice cream with gingerbread cookie chunks and a ginger caramel swirl.  Unfortunately, the only place you’ll find this particular Festivus is in the Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Graveyard. You can ask them to bring it back, though, if you’re so inclined.

♥~  The Baltimore Ravens also capitalized on Festivus in 2000. When it looked like the Ravens might actually make the playoffs, their coach told the team that he didn’t want to hear the word “playoff” come out of anyone’s mouth. He wanted them to concentrate on the regular season and then they could consider the playoffs. Instead, the players started referring to the playoffs as Festivus and the Super Bowl as Festivus Maximus both amongst themselves and in the media.

♥~ A Wisconsin man put his own Festivus pole up at City Hall in Green Bay amidst a raging debate over whether a government building should have a nativity scene. Some people weren’t very happy about his compromise, but another rather prominent Wisconsin resident happily displays his Festivus pole: the governor. When a Wisconsin-based company sent him a Festivus pole, he promptly displayed it in his house. It’s now in the state historical museum.

♥~ The Festivus website can help you round out your celebration and answer all your questions.

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Happy Festivus! Usually rant day is on Tuesday, but in honor of Festivus we will air our grievances today. I hope you have a wonderful day (I know, that is not very Festivus of me), but if you don’t please feel free to rant, complain and whine away.

The Beagle at the top of the page is Scooby. We did not name him and think perhaps he is part of some covert operation….he’s a sly one, our Scooby, very sly.

I did not bake yesterday, and instead decided to enjoy the fudge, cookies, and candy of other people labors….I am very appreciate of their efforts.

12/23/2000—-13 years ago today Joe and I were married. Cole always remembers. We’ll toast Joe together with the same words Joe said immediately following our wedding vows,  DONE.

Odd Loves Company!

 

Comments:  I discovered that almost every comment (including approved) was being sent directly to Odds spam folder. This is being fixed–but if you don’t immediately see your comment it has been wrongly redirected to spam. I will retrieve it promptly!  Thank you.