Word: festivus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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There's nothing like sweet, sweet schadenfreude to put you in the holiday spirit. Just in time for Festivus, FAIL Blog - the cult compendium of real-life blunders, pratfalls and bad moves (like a Pepsi machine selling only Coke and a toilet with a "no diving" sign) - has tallied votes from some 100,000 visitors to compile three sets of the top 10 FAILs of 2009. Let's face it: there have been plenty to choose from. (See the 25 best blogs...
...Lights extravaganzas. Sandler's critically panned animated 2002 film, Eight Crazy Nights, was a cult hit, while a cool kids' film, Chanukah on Planet Matzah Ball, targeted the 6 and under set. The beautiful teenagers of The O.C. came up with an all-inclusive holiday, much like Seinfeld's Festivus, called Chrismukkah. Jewish hipsters gathered to watch rockers like Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell toast Hanukkah at the now-annual New York City event, A Jewcy Hanukkah. The punk-pop band the LeeVees formed specifically to "spread Hanukkah cheer" and released the 2005 CD, Hanukkah Rocks! Last year...
Where is the Festivus Pole app, commemorating the holiday's traditional, simple, unadorned aluminum pole? Or what about a Grievances List app, so that one can keep track of all the things people did during the past year that disappointed? It would certainly help observers recite them during the Airing of Grievances, which typically occurs after Festivus Dinner...
Allen Salkin, who wrote the canonical Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us, and became the unofficial spokesman for the anti-holiday - popularized by a 1997 episode of Seinfeld - does not see any conspiracy here. "Fundamentally Festivus is cheap," he pointed out. "And I say this as someone who wants you to buy the new and updated paperback version of the book for $9.99 this year...
...cheapness argument is hard to buy, though, since so many iPhone apps are free. Perhaps there just aren't any Festivus-observing developers yet. That would be odd, since Salkin noted that a Grievances application is available to Festivus observers on Facebook, where a number of member groups exist for celebrants. "I don't know how active it is, though," he said. He did have one suggestion for anyone who craved Festivus for their iPhone: You can buy the audio version of his book on the iTunes Music Store...