Sometimes I have posts planned out a week ahead. Sometimes I don’t have any plan at all. Last night after working on a post about Sigma Nu Bob Barker’s 90th birthday (the date of which I found on a “on this day in history” type site), I discovered that it happened a few weeks ago. A Happy Belated Birthday post didn’t seem that attractive to me. And although my twin sons, who are home for the holiday, challenged me to find something else to write about, I cried “Uncle” and went to sleep.
This morning I awoke, took the aging dog out (for what will be the first of many times today), grabbed some coffee, and opened the computer. Today’s post dropped in my lap.
How appropriate that today happens to be Festivus, a “holiday” popularized by a 1997 Seinfeld episode, a show which Jerry Seinfeld said was “a show about nothing.” Syracuse University professor and television historian Robert Thompson, a terrific guy for whom my daughter worked while in grad school at Syracuse (he invited us to lunch with him, an event which I like to refer to as the Becque family’s private audience with the Pope) said in an interview, ”In terms of buzz words and buzz phrases, I can’t think of a single other series that contributed that much to the culture and its time.” This post is my Festivus miracle.
First, the twitter mention:
| T.J. Sullivan@intentionalTJS |
|
What we really need is for @GLOhistory to go on QuizUp.com and create a F/S history topic for us! #newaddiction |
And what’s funny is that while I was outside with the dog, for no explained reason, I was thinking about that fact that no one seems to be playing “Words With Friends.” It was an absolutely random thought from my random brain. Maybe now everyone is playing QuizUp. And how can I (@GLOhistory on twitter) contribute F/S history questions? My brain is swimming in fairly useless trivia.
And then on to facebook, where a Sigma Sigma Sigma friend, an initiate of the chapter at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, posted these two messages:
#1 post from my Tri Sigma friend:
I am so proud of my Sigma sorority sister, Colleen Kelly Powell!
Your composure and compassion as you lent your voice in reading Brenda’s letter to her husband was touching. What a special story. Sigma love and mine!
#2 post from my Tri Sigma friend:
My sorority sister, Jasmine Jafferali-Whitehead of Healthy Jasmine, was featured on Chicago’s ABC 7’s morning news with these low-calorie holiday drink recipes Sunday morning! You’re a rock star, Jasmine!
And the other Dr. Becque, who teaches in the Department of Kinesiology at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, remembers Jafferali-Whitehead as a student in some of his exercise physiology classes.
And so this concludes our “Festivus for the rest of us” post. Happy Festivus to you and yours!
Happy Belated 90th Birthday to Sigma Nu Bob Barker (from “Come on down” television game show hosting fame), a Drury University alumnus.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.
