In light of the impending holiday season, I want to suggest a must read.  A few years ago I went to the Sugar Bowl to see Ohio State Play Texas A&M.  On my return flight I was trapped in an airport for a day due to a snow storm.  While waiting and waiting and waiting, I was reading David Sedaris’ “Holidays on Ice,” a treatise on holidays that should be canonized like scripture.  I was laughing so hard everyone around me, ergo, on top of me in the airport lobby continually inquired, “What’s so funny?”  After the 15th comment, I simply began reading it out loud for everyone to enjoy.  To this day, it is my fondest memory of being in an airport, a feat which doesn’t require much to top the list.

   The book is a collection of short stories chronicling Sedaris’ sarcastic memories of the holidays while growing up in a New York City home that redefines dysfunction.  This reading is not for the faint at heart. David is an award-winning satirist (read: perveyor of cynicism) who is New York rude and San Francisco gay; however, his writing is so uniquely insightful, you can’t help but laugh.  The first story is by far the best.  He describes his short-lived job as a Christmas elf at Macy’s while trying to sustain himself as a struggling writer.  This story alone, catapulted David into stardom that eventually afforded him the luxury of a home in the south of France with his significant other.  By the way, according to Triumph, the insult comic dog, do you know the most frequently translatated French phrase?  “I surrender.”  Ha, I couldn’t resist.  See, even thinking about Sedaris’ book puts me in a sarcastic mood. 

   If you’re looking to buy it, and you should, go to www.half.com where you can purchase almost any book new and used for next to nothing.  This one is running around $2 right now.

    Happy Holidays.  Read this story and you’ll laugh out loud every time you see an elf in a store from here on out!