We’ve already mentioned our Festivus Celebration at Makor on Tuesday, November 29. The Seinfeldian holiday gathering includes feats of strength, airings of grievances, aluminum poles and other George Costanza favorites all lovingly taken from author Allen Salkin’s Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us.

Over in Mediabistro’s MBToolBox blog, Salkin explains how he got the book deal:

One piece of advice I’d give to others with book ideas is not to follow trends. Many people have asked me why I, an investigative reporter, put so much effort into something that seems as silly as Festivus. First, I am personally sick of books about the mafia, the Kennedys, royalty, and ex-presidents. There are many fine journalists who have spent their time on these things and I don’t feel that one more voice is going to contribute much. But from the word go, with Festivus, I felt like I was discovering a subculture that no one had ever written about before. It was gold. It was like I was writing in 1975 and had discovered punk rock and people with mohawks and no one had ever written about it before. This gave me a feeling, a sort of burning in the center of my ribcage, that is my personal signal that I’m onto something good. It’s that feeling that keeps me in journalism—that and the occasional free lunch bought by an editor.