Seinfeld’s Festivus Gets Kosher Meals For Inmate

Sometimes life imitates art. Sometimes life imitates sitcoms. Orange County Register reports.

Longtime Orange County inmate Malcolm Alarmo King was able to celebrate the Seinfeld show invented Festivus religious holiday three times a day while locked up at the Theo Lacy jail in Orange. He did it so he would not have to eat salami.

King’s quest for a healthier eating option while behind bars ended with a county lawyer forced to research the origin of Festivus and its traditions and a Superior Court judge recognizing the holiday – which lodged its place in pop culture on an episode of Seinfeld – as a legitimate religion.

Wikipedia has much too much on the subject of Festivus. Apparently Festivus is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23. It was created by writer Dan O’Keefe and introduced by his son Daniel, a screenwriter for the TV show Seinfeld. The holiday’s celebration includes an unadorned aluminum “Festivus pole,” practices such as the “Airing of Grievances” and “Feats of Strength,” and the labeling of easily explainable events as “Festivus miracles”.

King is now enroute for deportation – which if this episode is indication – he can claim religious persecution and ask for asylum!

Tip of the pen to C.M.