Paid: Aggies Festivus: Airing of Grievances

Things I Need to Get Off My Chest on This December 23rd "Seinfeld" inspired Holiday

Hello All

This is a column I have waited a whole year to write. It is tongue-in-cheek, but at the same time, we will kind of dig deep into things that come up during a normal NM State athletics season.

Plus we honor one of the most popular TV episodes of any show in History, which spawned an actual holiday that people celebrate, including myself. Festivus.

As you well know, AGGREGATOR is a column that came out of the non-stop negative press that NMSU got the last two years. A normal person would say, “Rightfully so,” but at the same time, when you admit there’s a problem, the next bit is to fix what is wrong.

AGGREGATOR has always been that. I don’t ever want to be called a “homer,” though I have. It’s more like wanting to root for your town to feel good more than living or dying by a team. I gave that all up years ago when the Cubs won the World Series. I’m good, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see NM State and this town do amazing. Nope, I see it and I want it, that’s why I do what I do.

Working in banking for 15 years taught me how to handle angry customers and angry people. Trust me, nothing bothers me customer service wise. I have been called every name and told everything under the sun. That kind of callous on your mind makes you stronger because what you learn is that the world isn’t honest, so if you just were a teensy bit, the world would be a better place.

I rarely get into back-and-forths on Twitter. Unlike Geoff Grammer, I don’t flame potential customers on Twitter. People have long memories. Acknowledge their frustration, address it, and move on. Don’t burn a reader who very well could be paying your salary because you think your Twitter view count could use the boost.

(Don’t say I don’t know what I am talking about. I wrote a book about social media optimization 21 years ago before all these sites existed in their present form!)

I’m a lot honest though, often to my detriment. If I was chipper and a yes person, I would have a job at a newspaper and pretend that everything was a-ok. It’s not, because what 15 years of banking taught me, especially when something is wrong is, “Just admit what happened,” or “Say what you mean, and don’t sugarcoat it,” and things are much better for it. People don’t like that, so I am pretty unhireable in any field I would want to work in.

I don’t lie to my wife. I don’t lie to my readers. I say things like I mean it. One person told me I am always on the fence on non-Aggies sports things. Yeah, because I don’t care to feel any way about it. I have a life beyond TV and sports.

But back to TV. I was 14 years old when the Festivus episode of “Seinfeld” aired on NBC. I watched the last 3 seasons religiously, because I always wanted to be a comedian, and there was something about that show that taught me about my own humor. My mom thought I was the weirdest person. Trust me.

The made up Holiday of Festivus is on December 23rd and it is supposed to be an alternative to “the commercial pressures and stress of Christmas.”

I don’t stress over Christmas. My wife and I bought a “together” gift, and we buy our nieces and nephews stuff throughout the year to give them a horde on the holiday. Buying stuff on Christmas is for me and my selfish needs. Only “Stress” for me is driving to my in-laws on Xmas Eve. It’s not that I don’t like them. I love them actually. It’s just 4 hours of driving in elk-infested roads is stressful.

I go there, disconnect from the phone and enjoy family.

I couldn’t do that last year because of two people. Jerry Kill quit one year ago today, and Diego Pavia put his name in the portal the same evening after Tony Sanchez was named coach. My phone was blowing up. Eli Stowers’ dad was emphatically refuting my hypothesis that his son would go in the portal too, saying that he was an “Aggie for Life.” Not long after, he was in the portal.

It was a lot to handle and I was still new at this gig.

But this year, I decided to write this and if Sanchez or Hooten left tomorrow, I’d probably wait until Thursday to write about it. JK. I am a workaholic.

Anyway, Frank Costanza, George’s dad creates the holiday, which his son and wife bristle at. Instead of a tree, it’s an aluminum pole with a good strength to weight ratio.

When Kramer finds out about the created holiday, he wants Frank to bring it back, which he does.

George uses the fake holiday to cover up a gift scam he was pulling at work… a holiday his boss doesn’t think exists. But George can prove it, and to the Constanza house we go.

We learn a lot about the holiday there.

We learn that everyone celebrates dinner at the table

We learn about the “Feats of Strength.” Although we don’t see them, Wikipedia defines it as, “final tradition observed in the celebration of Festivus, celebrated immediately following the Festivus dinner. The head of the household selects one person at the Festivus celebration and challenges them to a wrestling match. Tradition states Festivus is not over until the head of the household has been pinned.

So, you can challenge someone you have a problem with, and the person you challenge has to pin you, otherwise the holiday continues.

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If I had Festivus at my house, I am not saying it would go on for weeks, but you could not pin me :) I may not win, but you may not ever pin me.

Unless you are a student-athlete reading this, then yeah, you can beat me up probably.

But before all of that are Airing of Grievances. Again from Wikipedia:

The "airing of grievances" takes place immediately after the Festivus dinner has been served. In the television episode, Frank Costanza began it with the phrase, "I got a lotta problems with you people, and now you're going to hear about it!" It consists of each person lashing out at others and the world about how they have been disappointed in the past year.

Some mental health professionals believe that having a space for people to air some of their grievances to their families and friends could actually be good for mental health, although it is something other holidays usually avoid.

I am all about this. I would rather not be phony. Be honest. Tell your real feelings about things.

Well, as mentioned AGGREGATOR is a positive column, but all that pent up frustration may make you channel another “Seinfeld” episode:

So I decided to list a few things that upset me.. An airing of grievances if you will. I will try not to be too long-winded, because you may use that against me in your own airing of grievances.

Here we go with my Aggies Airing of Grievances:

#1 Grievance - Only 1 UNM-NMSU Game
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

After the amazing win that the NM State Aggies pulled out in the Pit this month, it boggles my mind that UNM forced the Aggies to bump it down to one game per season the next two in a “mutual agreement.”

Suuuuuure. Sources have always said that UNM was threatening to end the rivalry in full until this “trial period” was thought up. Former UNM AD Eddie Nunez, who I still have VMs from, is no longer at the school, moving on to the University of Houston, and the new AD Fernando Lovo has not been on the record about this wrinkle, which will continue next year with one game at the Pan Am, presumably when the students are gone.

We understand how this all kind of came about, but it makes schedule making that much harder for NM State and UNM was scrounging for a 31st game themselves, and while NM State gets a lot of flak for playing Non-D1s, the Lobos played WNMU in a real game, while the Aggies did not this year (only an exhibition).

So, I am airing out a grievance against UNM, Fernando Lovo their new AD and even the Aggies. Figure this out. the home and home series is not necessarily about “tradition,” but more about filling a schedule which I learned from Coach Hooten is NOT EASY, and when there is a big-time D1 school in your home state, you need to work something out.

#2 Grievance: