Thursday, November 19, 2015

Nothing To Ho Ho Ho About

What kind of message will SantaCon drunk Santas in the downtown send our children?

You would think after the downtown bar promotion that forever changed the way Amherst views St. Patrick's Day -- and dare I even breath its name? -- our illustrious downtown dens of debauchery would give up on pernicious promotions ... period!

But Nooooooo, and now they are after the most blessed holiday of all, Christmas. Where, Only In Amherst, is it celebrated with a Merry Maple tree on the town common.


Click to enlarge/read

Rather than coinciding with the last day before Spring Break for a Blowout this Christmas promotion coincides with the last day of classes, which is celebratory enough as it is.

Let's hope the Grinch has a chat with "Event Mavericks."  Soon.


UPDATE: Saturday morning
Now that the Gazette has, finally, caught up with this story it will be interesting to see if it actually happens or not. Especially since the promoter's own former place of employment -- Club Lit -- has pulled out.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Christmas is a day to get presents for kids, a day off for some and for a fleeting few, esp locally a blessed holiday.

Now one's own birthday or any day the government doesn't expect you to slave for them, that is truly blessed.

Interesting you bring up Santa, the lie that parents tell their kids because the story of Christ is even less interesting or believable.

Anonymous said...

Hey kids stop having fun!

Jackie M'Vemba said...

You don't believe in Jesus?

Anonymous said...

This IS a joke, no?

Anonymous said...

But wait, isn't this an organized and sanctioned event? It looks 100% legitimate, a set amount of tickets were sold to keep things in order, and it happens all over the country. Are you mad you didn't get a ticket? Delete this blog and don't ruin the fun!!!

Anonymous said...

You don't believe Jesus? How about His teachings? Do unto others? I bet you celebrate His birthday anyway. Less interesting though it may be to you. Lol. The Romans have a record of Him. Saint Nicholas, not exactly a secular figure, either. Liberals (i'm guessing you are one) are always so smug and smarter than the rest of us. How can you abide living in a country founded by Christians and based on the Judeo-Christian ethic? Now That's an interesting story, I'm sure.

Anonymous said...

As a community member, I hope the town closes the bars. It is not safe and it clearly promotes students getting trashed which will result in a lot of undesirable behavior not to mention the drain on local APD and AFD resources.

Anonymous said...


Larry, I was at a meeting at UMass this morning and 2 undergrads said they often learn of the best parties (including this specific post) by reading your blog. They don't have time to sort through yik-yak etc. but your blog has become the go-to source.

I'm not saying it's necessarily counterproductive, but at some point publicizing these events could backfire.

At the risk of stepping in something, I'll also say that anyone who feels the need to defend their religious beliefs - or insult someone else's - needs to take their own inventory first.

Larry Kelley said...

Funny you should mention that as I just now got off the phone with the organizer, Matt, and he did not seem to think this post was all that much to his benefit.

Anonymous said...

I just hope non of these aspiring " Uber Gifted Wunderkinden " wind up dashing someones brains out on the pavement whilst " trashed "

Anonymous said...

Thanks Old Man, good to see the details of this party, we will be crashing this one!! Get ready...Amerst..smh

Larry Kelley said...

Well they only sold 190 tickets (too many cheapskates like you holding back to crash if for free), so there may not be a party.

Anonymous said...

This blog is Larry's Blog, not the town's or otherwise. It is here for Larry's benefit or the benefit of who he wants.

It is his right to publicize the awful reputation and activities of the school, the excesses of town and the party throwers opinion of what he thinks Larry's blog does for party attendance, even if they are both wrong.

It is also his right to have the next post be about how great the school is, how the town is just right and how awful the parties he just told everyone about got, even if it was because he told everyone about them.

He can promote a specific religion or race....and/or then condemn the same.

It's just a blog, not truth, not untruth, not facts, perhaps fact, not opinion and just full of opinion. Like all speech.

Dr. Ed said...

I would agree but for one thing: Larry not only considers himself a "journalist" but the state recognizes him as such and accords him special privileges.

For example, he's allowed to take pictures in court when no one else is. That's state action, which creates a very interesting situation...

Larry Kelley said...

And don't forget my drone.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it's the first amendment in action here. Fully enjoyed by all. Even you.

Anonymous said...

They only had 199 tickets to sell in the first place. Selling 190 out of 199 sounds pretty good to me. Leave these people alone Larry.

Larry Kelley said...

Their Facebook events page shows 579 going and another 440 interested. Kind of BIG difference between 190 and over 1,000.

Dr. Ed said...

What an intrepid marketing scheme - what an ingenious way to build one's resume...

Even though you know that you can't pull it off, you make people *think* that you are going to have this wild party, knowing that they will then step in and prevent it from happening. You can then claim that, but for them, you would have been successful -- and hence should be given a chance to promote events elsewhere (which is the stated goal of the organizer(s) of this event).

You pocket the money you received -- with neither any expenses nor intent on ever having provided that which the money was paid for -- and tell disgruntled customers to complain to Enku & Company. You know that they won't/can't -- no sane UMass student would dare, and how far do you think any court proceeding would go? EVEN if a ticket holder filed a small claims suit, what do you think Judge Payne would say to someone suing for being denied a bar crawl?

It's like "Springtime for Hitler" -- a musical intended to fail (but didn't).

I suspect this is a much bigger version of something that I have seen more than a few ruthlessly ambitious young people pull off. In being prevented from doing something he never could have done in the first place, he becomes successful...

Anonymous said...

Maybe this promoter could also organize pub crawls around Easter, Yom Kippor, Martin Luther King's birthday, Eid, Diwali, etc. People could dress up and drink to offend multiple times a year. Really no holiday should be exempt.

Larry Kelley said...

Yeah, St. Patrick's Day is already covered. Unfortunately.