Festivus, an airing of grievances

December 19, 2024 by
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Festivus is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the perceived pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. Originally created by author Daniel O’Keefe, Festivus entered popular culture after it was made the focus of the 1997 Seinfeld episode “The Strike”, which O’Keefe’s son, Dan O’Keefe, co-wrote. On the Seinfeld episode there is  “airing of grievances” led off by Jerry Stiller, who played George’s dad. “I got a lot of problems with you people, now, you’re gonna hear about it,” he began.

I do not practice Festivus most particularly the “feats of strength”. I do love that episode as it makes me laugh. I believe it is beneficial for all of us to air our grievances in a good natured way no matter what time of the year it happens to be and long as you don’t hurt anyone in the process. So let me begin.

As I was cleaning up books this week (adding complete titles, page numbers, dates of publication and covers) for a certain author, I became increasingly frustrated as I noted that many of the books had the same content but with different covers, ISBNs and titles. I always check several sources to compare the books before determining they are the same.

Some publishing companies repackage a book as many as a half-dozen times or more. This is a source of frustration for several reasons. Unless revisions are made (more recipes, updates), most people do not wish to buy the same collection of recipes because it has a different cover. And, if they do buy the book and determine the book has the same content, they must go to the trouble of returning it or gifting it to someone else. If only the publishers would identify the book as a reissue of a certain title on the title/copyright page, my life would be a tiny bit better. The major reason my dander gets up is I try to make sure that reprints of a book are linked to the original (if indexed) and/or I want to easily check the number of Bookshelves a book is on to determine eligibility for indexing.

Holiday baking magazines are notorious for reissuing magazines – with a small notice on the front cover that states “back by popular demand”. I have eagle eyes when it comes to that phrase!

While I am airing my grievances, the phrase “chef’s kiss” makes me wince. Chef’s kiss is a gesture of satisfaction or approval made by kissing the fingertips of one hand and then spreading the fingers with an outward motion. I dislike both the phrase and the gesture. The chef’s kiss comes from the Italian gesture al bacio, literally “kiss” but with the sense of “excellent.” The image of a male Italian chef – often with a mustache, white chef’s hat, and apron – performing this gesture spread in US advertisements after World War 2.

I have no idea why chef’s kiss irritates me but it does. Same when someone is chewing too loudly, I feel the urge to scream or lay hands on them – the same with chef’s kiss. Stop it now.

Please don’t take umbrage at this next pet peeve of mine: When a person buys a cookbook and asks a group “What recipe should I try first?” makes me a little itchy. I always reply “Pick a recipe that you might enjoy and go from there.” Better yet browse EYB for notes from other Members to see if anyone had any issues with a particular recipe or really loved one – that is the way to go!

Dubai chocolate and pistachio bars

Lastly, I want to call out those people who buy up certain products when they sense they will go viral. For instance, the McCormick Finishing Sugars were hoarded by resellers who were flipping them in their eBay stores for many times the store price. In this vein, I went on a mad hunt to find the Dubai chocolate pistachio bars at a price that wouldn’t require a second house mortgage. I decided it would be better to make them myself using Lindt’s recipe. I ordered some pistachios as well because I read that a few chopped pistachios added to the filling were great. In case you want to try the bars yourself with the recipe linked above, here is my shopping list from Amazon: dried Kataifi, pistachio cream, and candy bar molds. I bought the Lindt bars and pistachios from the regular grocery store. Note: Lindt is releasing a limited supply of their version of the bar at various locations this month.

This airing was therapeutic! Don’t be upset with me for any of my “airings” which were made in good humor. I don’t lose sleep over any of the myriad things that annoy me. My husband says my annoyances are part of my charm. Please feel free to share your own in the comments. I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and all the best for the new year!

Category: Antipasto

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11 Comments

  • demomcook  on  December 19, 2024

    Second you loudly on the recycled – without notice – cookbooks and magazines, and also the hoarding of the Finishing Sugars!

  • KatieK1  on  December 20, 2024

    Having been a graphic designer in a previous part of my life, I find it annoying that the current crop of book designers are inclined to use typefaces that are ridiculously small or gray or have numbers that are hard to differentiate (is that a 5 or a 3?).

    And then there are the publishers that don’t include indexes in ebooks, or, if they do, don’t include live links.

    One last thing: it bothers me that libraries deaccession important books because they weren’t recently published. Maybe in the future all books will have ebook options that live forever, but we’re not there yet.

  • Suitsme  on  December 20, 2024

    Adding to KatieK1 – one of my recent cookbook acquisitions has the page numbers on the INSIDE corner so you can’t just thumb through to see where you are, and the book is very pretty but the low contrast type makes it very hard to see.

  • averythingcooks  on  December 20, 2024

    Since it’s a “Festivus for the restivus”, I’ll (once again) air my grievance with the teeny tiny format for fractions some books use (ie the entire fraction is the same size as a whole number) but as I age the issue gets worse! The magnifying/light combo on my phone is my saviour with certain books. T often hears me talking to the cat while cooking…. “Look at that! Can you read that?!?!? Who can read that??!??”

    Also, I spent a good hour or more online after reading about those finishing sugars and it turns out there were only 2 flavours (Gingerbread Spice & Salted Caramel) available in Canada under the McCormick subsidiary brand Clubhouse. Also, they did not appear to be available for online order from anywhere but finally, the Gingerbread Spice appeared on a special display in my local grocery store and I bought 1…and only one! .

  • LeilaD  on  December 20, 2024

    Always hoarders. Seriously, people. If you didn’t use it before, you’re not suddenly going to run out now- you’re just proving yourself to be greedy and selfish.

  • breakthroughc  on  December 20, 2024

    Averythingcooks, hear you on the fractions. My Festivus grievance will be against cookbooks that have photos that don’t match the recipe. A beautiful picture of mint sprinkled over roasted strawberries when you don’t add the mint to the jam recipe for another 3 steps. Or a beautifully frosted cake that can’t possibly be that color if you use the ingredients in the recipe. Grrrrrrrr…..

  • sanfrannative  on  December 20, 2024

    Chef’s kiss, ugh! Agreed

  • miggsy  on  December 20, 2024

    Aww, doesn’t look like Lindt Canada is selling the Dubai special bars.

  • miggsy  on  December 20, 2024

    Correction, only in Toronto and Montreal. 🙁

  • Fyretigger  on  December 20, 2024

    Thank you for posting the link to the Dubai Chocolate recipe. I have a teen niece who is TikTok obsessed and also has no concept at all of the value of money; she doesn’t really get how $35 is too much money to spend on a chocolate bar she “just wants to try”. But now, maybe we can make making it a little project.

  • Kinhawaii  on  December 20, 2024

    Yes on the tiny fractions & reissues! And gray or white print on top of a photo! I also get annoyed when they forget to index a recipe or it’s listed by say Aunt x’s cookie vs chocolate chip cookie.
    I really appreciate those books that give suggestions about the extra egg yolks or other ingredients & do get annoyed when it calls for a few teaspoons of something I need to buy a carton or tub of. As I bake more I am more comfortable with substitutions but I still get annoyed.

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