Dec. 23 - Visit Lauren

[Kat Kanning]

Sounds like this event should be cancelled 

[Rosie the Riveter]

Sounds like this event should be cancelled 

[Russell Kanning]

You can never tell what Lauren will do ... now she broke up our party .... by getting out of jail.

[Kat Kanning]

Link to Festivus video from Seinfeld
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGvut4zr1HI&eurl=

The Festivus celebration as described on Seinfeld includes four major components:

?The Festivus Pole: The Costanzas' tradition begins with an aluminum pole, which Frank praises for its "very high strength-to-weight ratio." During Festivus, the unadorned Festivus Pole is displayed. The pole was chosen apparently in opposition to the commercialization of highly decorated Christmas trees, because it is "very low-maintenance," and also because the holiday's patron, Frank Costanza, "find tinsel distracting."

?Festivus dinner: In "The Strike," a celebratory dinner is shown on the evening of Festivus prior to the Feats of Strength. The on-air meal appeared to be meat loaf or spaghetti in a red sauce. Drinking is encouraged with hearty beer, rum, bourbon, or wine. In the episode, no alcohol was served, but George Costanza's boss, Mr. Kreuger, drank from a flask.

?The Airing of Grievances: At the beginning of the Festivus dinner, each participant tells friends and family of all the instances where they disappointed him or her that year. As quoted from Frank Costanza: "I've got a lot of problems with you people, and now you're going to hear about it!"

?The Feats of Strength: After the dinner, the head of the family tests his or her strength against one participant of the head's choosing. Festivus is not considered over until the head of the family has been pinned to the ground. A participant is allowed to decline to attempt to pin the head of the family only if they have something better to do instead.

Oh no, now festivus is being commercialized!

'Seinfeld' spurs Festivus pole sales

By DINESH RAMDE, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 59 minutes ago

MILWAUKEE - Kevin Campanella hates buying and receiving Christmas presents that he says inevitably disappoint. This year, no such worries.
PUBLICIDAD

Campanella plans to seek "serenity now" by celebrating Festivus, a wacky holiday popularized in a 1997 "Seinfeld" episode. Billed as "Festivus for the rest of us," the holiday celebrated by the Costanza clan on Dec. 23 features an airing of grievances and feats of strength in which a guest must pin the host before the party ends.

In protest of Christmas' commercialism, character Frank Costanza puts up an unadorned aluminum pole instead of a tree. The metal, he says admiringly, has a "very high strength-to-weight ratio."

"I just always loved that episode," said Campanella, 28, a landscaper from Warwick, R.I. "But it's not so much about the show ? I think the idea of Festivus is a good idea."

So does The Wagner Companies. The Milwaukee-based maker of hand-railing components is bringing back its line of Festivus poles for the holiday season. The company had plenty of metal rails on hand already and launched the product last year on a whim.

"We did it mainly as a lark. We never looked at it as a tremendous moneymaking scheme," said Tony Leto, the firm's executive vice president of sales and marketing. "But in many ways, Festivus is taking on a life of its own."

Wagner, which made $15 million last year from products including handrail brackets and pipe elbows, earned only a few thousand dollars from Festivus pole sales. Leto said the company received some media publicity upon launch of the poles but he credits bloggers with strong "Seinfeld" loyalties for spreading the news far and wide.

Wagner sold about 250 poles in 2005, with around 100 sales coming from the firm's 120 employees. This season, it sold about 300 poles by mid-December and was on pace to sell twice that number by Saturday, said Leto, whose claim to fame is that he shared a drama class with Jerry Seinfeld at Queens College in New York.

Wagner offers a 6-foot Festivus pole for $38 and a 2-foot-8-inch tabletop model for $30. The setup is simple: a hollow pipe, 1.9 inches in diameter, inserted into a collapsible aluminum base.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, a "Seinfeld" fanatic who claims to have seen every episode eight times, proudly displayed one of the company's poles last year at the governor's mansion in Madison. But Doyle said he will donate the pole to the Wisconsin Historical Museum after reports that "Seinfeld" co-star Michael Richards used racial slurs during a standup comedy routine last month.

Leto said he hoped the Richards incident wouldn't affect his company's sales.

"Fans know it was a Costanza holiday, not a Kramer holiday," he said, referring to characters played by Jerry Stiller and Richards. "Anyway, Kramer eventually rejects the holiday at the end of the episode."

Gabriel Morales, 32, of Atlanta, said Richards' tirade didn't keep him from ordering a Festivus pole earlier this month.

"You know, people make mistakes, they say stupid things," said Morales, an information technology analyst who held his Festivus party early this year to coincide with a monthly dinner club. "No one at the party really cared about that either."

The "Seinfeld" Festivus episode developed from series writer Dan O'Keefe's childhood experiences. His father invented the holiday in the 1960s.

"As a kid, we'd come home and there'd be weird decorations," said the 30-something O'Keefe. "There was the playing of strange German and Italian pop music from the '50s. And the airing of grievances was a real thing."

Instead of a pole, his family celebration featured a clock and a bag. (O'Keefe said his father won't say what they symbolized.)

Wagner's Leto acknowledged the irony of making money off a holiday that celebrates anti-commercialism. But the company is having too much fun with the holiday to stop now, he said.

O'Keefe doesn't begrudge Wagner's commercial efforts.

"It sounds to me like they're making a good living ? good for them," O'Keefe said. "It's just this joke holiday on a TV show. If they want to make a buck on it, go for it."

Or, as Seinfeld might say, not that there's anything wrong with that.

___

On the Net:

Festivus poles: http://www.festivuspoles.com/pages/Festivuspoles.htm

"Seinfeld" "The Strike": http://www.seinfeldscripts.com/TheStrike.htm

[TackleTheWorld]

Yee ha!

This event has been transformed into the Lauren's Free Party

Place:   Porc Manor in Winchester, NH
Date:    Saturday 23 December
Time:    12 Noon till I pop from eating birthday cake

Call 239-8506 for directions

[KBCraig]

Yee ha!

We need to remove the time limit on karma, so I can give Lauren a whole bunch more!

[Russell Kanning]

You were slacking off while she was in jail.

Alright ... our party includes Lauren now .... and it is in the Free Town instead of rotten CT.

[error]

Sorry, you can't repeat a karma action without waiting 12 hours.

Well, I tried...

[David]

Man everything is happening in december.  I figured the activity would actually slow down due to the holidays.  I think I figured wrong.   
I'll be there soon. 

[Russell Kanning]

We have been purposely continuing activity during the holidays all the years I have been in NH. You can't stop a revolution for Christmas.

[KBCraig]

You were slacking off while she was in jail.

Guilty as charged. 

It never occurred to me to bump Lauren's karma while she sat in jail. My fault: I should have thought of that, but I only think of karma bumps for those who are currently posting.

Lauren (TackleTheWorld) obviously wasn't posting over the past 92 days, so I never saw a chance to applaud her.

But thanks to Russell's gentle reminder, I have made a point to seek Lauren's most recent posts, so that I can high-five her karma every 12 hours.

Now I need to do the same for Jim, who is every bit as much a hero in my eyes.

Thank you, Lauren. Thank you, Jim. I can't wait to join you at home in New Hampshire.

Kevin, Mary, and family