Play Nice Random Chat Thread VI

[spongebucket]

That's why I only observe Festivus these days.

 

[see see]

 

[koshari]

Yesterday was an eventful day at work

I was with one of the Team Leaders (managers) wheeling a rail full of clothes into the change rooms and half way there a big bloke comes up to us and is like

“don’t take this the wrong way but do any of you guys give a single fu** about your job?”

my jaw DROPPED. My manager was so calm with him and he was like “what can I help you with but please don’t swear at us” so apparently he went to a concession brand worker to ask if another brand had a size in shorts, she can’t help him because she can only work within her brand so she told him to ask a worker at the registers, he proceeds to brag about how he is a millionaire (like why are you shopping at reserve if your a millionaire LOL) and then he says to her “your just a retail worker”

I had another customer just throw gift cards at me after he used them, like how hard is it to just place them on the table.

I was a millionaire at 28. That's when I first went to Turkey and at that time they hadn't divided the Turkish lira yet. It was trading round 100,000 to one to the Aud. So my 1000 Aussie dollars at the time spat out an account balance at an ATM of 1 mill.

 

[big_e]

That's why I only observe Festivus these days.

‘Seinfeld’ Writer Reveals the Origins of Festivus Are Really F*cking Dark

“All the craziness of my dad ranting about politics of the Reader’s Digest C-suite and forcing my crying brother to sing a song in German.”

www.thedailybeast.com

 

[see see]

‘Seinfeld’ Writer Reveals the Origins of Festivus Are Really F*cking Dark

“All the craziness of my dad ranting about politics of the Reader’s Digest C-suite and forcing my crying brother to sing a song in German.”

www.thedailybeast.com

Unfortunately it's paywalled.

 

[big_e]

Unfortunately it's paywalled.

The Seinfeld writer who gave the world Festivus reveals the origins of the holiday—invented by his father, not Frank Costanza, and featuring clocks and wailing children rather than the famous pole—which are pretty dark indeed.

Dan O’Keefe, who also worked on iconic shows such as Silicon Valley and Veep, joined The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast to talk about satire in the post-Trump age. But first, he gave hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng a surrealist tour through how Festivus came to be.

“I mean this in the nicest way possible: My father was an undiagnosed bipolar, severe alcoholic who nonetheless was extremely high-functioning and held down a job as an editor at the Reader’s Digest and had an advanced degree and was extremely erudite,” O’Keefe explains, noting he “came from an extremely working-class background, which he was constantly trying to make sure no one knew about—and in so doing, he reminded everyone of it constantly. I think the phrase is, ‘came up from nothing and brought it with him.’” O’Keefe’s father invented the holiday: “At one point he said it was an anniversary for his first date with my mom, but he also said a lot of crazy shit... so who knows?

“It was a holiday that was unique to our family. That was ostensibly a strength. And it didn’t have a set date.. in real life it could just happen whenever the **** he felt like it, or was extremely hung over and wanted to jump-start his synapses. In one year, there were two for some reason; one year, there were none. You never knew when it was coming.”

And unlike the fictional Festivus—which featured an unadorned aluminum pole as its centerpiece (Frank Costanza found tinsel distracting)—“in real life, there was no pole. There was a nail that he hammered into the wall in the early ’70s. And every year he put a clock into a bag and hung it on the wall. And the symbol of the holiday was a ****ing clock in a bag for some reason... [and there] was a poem that referred to ‘clock and bag’. And it was rhymed—four-line stanzas with a very complicated rhyme scheme. And I don’t have a copy of it somewhere and I will burn it before I share it with anyone, let alone you. It was very peculiar.”

One real-life feature of the holiday that did make it into Seinfeld lore was the legendary Airing of Grievances. “It was just a very formalized setting for yelling at us,” O’Keefe notes. “Yeah, growing up, myself and my two brothers were in a form of child abuse that yet wasn’t recognized as such by the state of New York, induced to perform seasonal rituals.”

“Every time we asked him about [the clock and bag], he literally screamed at us—‘That’s not for you to know,’ for some reason, that was what he said. So we celebrated this thing and my brothers and I quickly realized you don’t talk about this at school or you get more beatings than you’re already getting.”

O’Keefe had long buried his memories of Festivus—which was “patterned after the Roman Saturnalia and some of the other holidays of antiquity … I think it was to show that he knew who the Romans were”—when he was at a party in L.A. with one of his brothers, “and my loud-mouth younger brother opens his yap and mentions this weird family holiday called Festivus. And I’m on Seinfeld at the time, and a couple of my co-workers are there and they’re instantly all around me, like flies on shit: ‘Wait, excuse me, what is this?’ And I tried to explain it as calmly as I can, and then turn the topic away.”

HOMEPAGE




The Seinfeld writer who gave the world Festivus reveals the origins of the holiday—invented by his father, not Frank Costanza, and featuring clocks and wailing children rather than the famous pole—which are pretty dark indeed.

Dan O’Keefe, who also worked on iconic shows such as Silicon Valley and Veep, joined The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast to talk about satire in the post-Trump age. But first, he gave hosts Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng a surrealist tour through how Festivus came to be.


“I mean this in the nicest way possible: My father was an undiagnosed bipolar, severe alcoholic who nonetheless was extremely high-functioning and held down a job as an editor at the Reader’s Digest and had an advanced degree and was extremely erudite,” O’Keefe explains, noting he “came from an extremely working-class background, which he was constantly trying to make sure no one knew about—and in so doing, he reminded everyone of it constantly. I think the phrase is, ‘came up from nothing and brought it with him.’” O’Keefe’s father invented the holiday: “At one point he said it was an anniversary for his first date with my mom, but he also said a lot of crazy shit... so who knows?


“It was a holiday that was unique to our family. That was ostensibly a strength. And it didn’t have a set date.. in real life it could just happen whenever the **** he felt like it, or was extremely hung over and wanted to jump-start his synapses. In one year, there were two for some reason; one year, there were none. You never knew when it was coming.”

And unlike the fictional Festivus—which featured an unadorned aluminum pole as its centerpiece (Frank Costanza found tinsel distracting)—“in real life, there was no pole. There was a nail that he hammered into the wall in the early ’70s. And every year he put a clock into a bag and hung it on the wall. And the symbol of the holiday was a ****ing clock in a bag for some reason... [and there] was a poem that referred to ‘clock and bag’. And it was rhymed—four-line stanzas with a very complicated rhyme scheme. And I don’t have a copy of it somewhere and I will burn it before I share it with anyone, let alone you. It was very peculiar.”


One real-life feature of the holiday that did make it into Seinfeld lore was the legendary Airing of Grievances. “It was just a very formalized setting for yelling at us,” O’Keefe notes. “Yeah, growing up, myself and my two brothers were in a form of child abuse that yet wasn’t recognized as such by the state of New York, induced to perform seasonal rituals.”

“They say, ‘Jerry thinks this is hilarious and we want to put it in the show.’ And I tried to dissuade them.”
“Every time we asked him about [the clock and bag], he literally screamed at us—‘That’s not for you to know,’ for some reason, that was what he said. So we celebrated this thing and my brothers and I quickly realized you don’t talk about this at school or you get more beatings than you’re already getting.”

O’Keefe had long buried his memories of Festivus—which was “patterned after the Roman Saturnalia and some of the other holidays of antiquity … I think it was to show that he knew who the Romans were”—when he was at a party in L.A. with one of his brothers, “and my loud-mouth younger brother opens his yap and mentions this weird family holiday called Festivus. And I’m on Seinfeld at the time, and a couple of my co-workers are there and they’re instantly all around me, like flies on shit: ‘Wait, excuse me, what is this?’ And I tried to explain it as calmly as I can, and then turn the topic away.”

But O’Keefe’s colleagues sensed comic gold and lured him to a diner in order to convince him to include Festivus in the show. “These are not thugs. These are like the head writers of the show. One of them sits down, so I can’t leave. And they say, ‘Jerry thinks this is hilarious and we want to put it in the show.’ And I tried to dissuade them as convincingly as I could, saying, ‘I have the greatest love and respect for the show. I don’t think you want to do that to it. It’s done nothing to deserve that.’ But they said, ‘Look, it can go in your episode or someone else’s.’ So I figure, **** it, if this has to be smeared onto the world, that I might as well be the hand doing the smearing.”

O’Keefe’s admits he downplayed the more traumatic aspects of his childhood ordeal in the writers’ room. “I tried to keep that shit on the down-low as much as possible and still do it. I don’t know why I’m telling you about it now … I certainly didn’t bring it up as much as I could. But it seems, if you take it out of context, like a very fun, quirky Frank Costanza story, which was turned into.” And that’s how a family tradition that involved “all the craziness of my dad ranting about politics of the Reader’s Digest C-suite and forcing my crying brother to sing a song in German for some reason” turned into the anti-Christmas celebration that Cosmo Kramer and Seinfeld fans love today.

Later in the podcast, O’Keefe and the Fever Dreams co-hosts also discuss how Festivus has been co-opted by Republican politics—if you Google the words “Festivus Trump” you’ll see what they mean—and debate whether social and political satire can actually address the Donald J. Trump presidency or whether it’s “just too horrible and fresh” for comedians to be able to make fun of something “so already preposterous and absurd and awful.”

 

[Val Keating]

Pretty sure Jeff Bezos is evil.

 

[big_e]

Pretty sure Jeff Bezos is evil.

Bezos's "customer obsession" means that the customer comes first, and to hell with anything else.

I suspect what's happened here is: "it's two weeks before Christmas and the customers need their deliveries" and no-one has the cojones to say "stop, this is dangerous."

 

[Val Keating]

Bezos's "customer obsession" means that the customer comes first, and to hell with anything else.

I suspect what's happened here is: "it's two weeks before Christmas and the customers need their deliveries" and no-one has the cojones to say "stop, this is dangerous."

Man I listened to some of the stuff his employees have to do to make unrealistic delivery times and it’s 3rd world type stuff. Like carry a bag with them in case they need to go to the bathroom.

 

[Liam Boy]

Pretty sure Jeff Bezos is evil.

he's working within the logic of capitalism. maybe we need an economic system that incentivizes caring for your fellow human being, instead of being as much of a monster as you have to to be profitable.

 

[ferball]

he's working within the logic of capitalism. maybe we need an economic system that incentivizes caring for your fellow human being, instead of being as much of a monster as you have to to be profitable.

In a system made for monsters, its monsters who'll thrive.

 

[Tectonic]

just a quickie on Mr. Beast's "charitable nature"


(gotcha)

 

[Hojuman]

Temp.of 38dg C recorded in the arctic last year in June ☹

 

[koshari]

In a system made for monsters, its monsters who'll thrive.

might be made by monsters but its propped up on the premis that any man on the street can become wealthy. however in reality the system is stacked massively to the incumbents so much so that the uber wealthy are actually subsidised by the PAYE taxpayers. socialist policies get a bad rap but they are a likely the best balance between free enterprise and state support.

 

[koshari]

he's working within the logic of capitalism. maybe we need an economic system that incentivizes caring for your fellow human being, instead of being as much of a monster as you have to to be profitable.

it already exists, its called socialism.

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

Pretty sure Jeff Bezos is evil.

He’s not. He’s the system.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Liam Boy]

it already exists, its called socialism.

 

[Usayed Givashe]

Does anyone know why the FBI handed over the flight logs for Epsteins plane but with the names so heavily redacted?

Bill Clinton?

Donald doesn’t like real young girls.

 

[Val Keating]

Bill Clinton?

Donald doesn’t like real young girls.

Definitely protecting people. Probably under the guise of CI

 

[koshari]

Brew fridge just got a facelift.

 

[Makeshift Park]

Brew fridge just got a facelift.
View attachment 1298132

My kinda guy. I’m still working out of a free gumtree fridge attached to an STC-1000 in a DYI case.
Got some favourite recipes?

 

[koshari]

My kinda guy. I’m still working out of a free gumtree fridge attached to an STC-1000 in a DYI case.
Got some favourite recipes?

Absolutely. My 2 go to brews are a dark ale and a Pacific ale. I do a ginger beer for the good wife as well . You can just make out the stc1000 on the top in front of the pauliner keg.

The Pacific is dry hopped with 100 grams of galaxy and 50 of cascade and steeped with 500 grams of crystal malt. It's lovely

 

[Makeshift Park]

Absolutely. My 2 go to brews are a dark ale and a Pacific ale. I do a ginger beer for the good wife as well . You can just make out the stc1000 on the top in front of the pauliner keg.

The Pacific is dry hopped with 100 grams of galaxy and 50 of cascade and steeped with 500 grams of crystal malt. It's lovely

Sounds delicious.
I’ve dabbled here and there but I keep coming back to variations of an IPA (the zombie dust clone), a Bavarian hefeweizen, a rustic saison and a milk stout.
Do you brew all grain? Would love to get some new recipe inspiration for summer.

I’m also champing at the bit to get my guitar amps back out, once my toddlers can amuse themselves for like an hour at a time.

 

[koshari]

Sounds delicious.
I’ve dabbled here and there but I keep coming back to variations of an IPA (the zombie dust clone), a Bavarian hefeweizen, a rustic saison and a milk stout.
Do you brew all grain? Would love to get some new recipe inspiration for summer.

I’m also champing at the bit to get my guitar amps back out, once my toddlers can amuse themselves for like an hour at a time.

Done a few Biab full grains but don't really have the time so pretty much do partials. new world IPAs and Neipas I like but not so much the traditional double bittered IPAs.

Iam pretty partial to wheat beers and porters and stouts.

 

[Makeshift Park]

Awesome. Home brew (along with televised AFL) was a bit of a god send in this household through lockdown.