A Festivus for the rest of us! Yes, today is Festivus, that most wonderful day of the year when we gather together around the Festivus pole, air our grievances, and wrestle each other in feats of strength.
In college, I was uniquely privileged to celebrate Festivus every year. While other dorms had egg nog and hot cider at their Christmas parties, mine had an extravagant multi-course feast that was so popular, you had to show a special token marking you as a resident of the dorm just to get in. And in answer to your next question, yes, we did have a Festivus pole out on the lawn outside the dorm and yes, it was quite literally just a giant metal pole, free of adornment* (fortunately or unfortunately, we replaced "the airing of grievances" and "the feats of strength" with "eating exotic food" and "getting seconds").
Dave's first-view reaction: Very nice! [looks at me] You have chalk on your face.**
*My favorite memory of the Festivus pole: December is a hard time for college students (exams, papers, cold) and people tended to get testy on the dorm e-mailing list, complaining about stupid things and alternately egging on more argument or sending "PLEASE STOP SPAMMING THE LIST I'M TRYING TO STUDY!!!!" emails. After someone emailed the list about how the kids playing outside were too damn loud (that would be a complaint about the sounds of children's laughter), the funniest guy in the house wrote back a William Wallace-worthy scree demanding someone take action and ended it with "I will not rest until there is a head atop the Festivus pole!" College is silly.
**Earlier he told me I had captured "the essence of George."
Nice typography!
ReplyDelete