CALL ME SNAKE

I saw it on a Seinfeld episode exactly nine years ago when it aired. I laughed at the time and then promptly forgot all about. So you can imagine my surprise to read in today’s Boston Globe that Festivus, the holiday celebrated by George Costanza and his parents, is rising in popularity. Rising from what, I wonder. I never thought anyone did it. But if you check Google and type in “Festivus,” you’ll get more than 1.5 million hits. There’s even a book on the subject, if you can believe that (of course you can), written by someone who went on to become a New Yorker staff writer. So Festivus, in addition to all its other virtues–its inclusiveness, its democratic spirit–is also, it seems, a good path to career advancement.