"I have a bone to pick with Ron"

As if there wasn't already enough controversy about Chrismukkah... on December 7th the New York Board of Rabbis joined the Catholic League to issue a press release denouncing Chrismukkah. Now Josh Schwartz, creator of The O.C. has been pitted against me in the "Battle of the Matzoh Ball Snowmen." The Chrismukkah media backlash has officially begun. In the December 8th edition of the New York Daily News, columnist Lloyd Grove, in his "Lowdown Daily Dish" reports that Josh Schwartz and I are "locked in a fierce competition to market and profit from Chrismukkah holiday cards, T-Shirts, coffee mugs and otehr paraphernalia." "I have a bone to pick with Ron," Josh Schwartz, "The OC's creator, told me yesterday, tongue in cheek. "He's kind of using us to make money." I don't know if we invented the word Chrismukkah, but this guy is sure running with it". "We have Chrismukkah cards and wrapping paper, too, and our stuff is the real deal." Now we've assumed Josh Schwartz is way too busy to know or care about our little barn based micro business... so we were puzzled by Josh's comments... especially given the fact our cards preceeded the OC's "real deal" cards by months. Just look at our "Matzoh Ball Snow Man", "Candy Cane Menorah" and "Chrismukkah Man" beanie hat - all created last winter, then look at the OC versions now being sold on the www.OCinsider.com site. Notice any similarities? So why is Josh tossing hot matzoh balls at us? "In the spirit of Chrismukkah," Schwartz said, "I will try to make Ron feel guilt - and at the same time, I will turn the other cheek." Now I always feel guilty about something... so that won't be hard. But Josh knows that variations on the word Chrismukkah have been in use years before The OC put it in a script. Plus, I can count of one hand the number of people who've bought our Chrismukkah cards and mentioned "The OC" as the reason. Most of the journalists and customers I've spoken or emailed with had never seen an episode of "The O.C." The teen base that "The OC" attracts is not your typical customer for interfaith Jewish holiday cards. Seems to me the media atttention Chrismukkah.com received these past few weeks has done far more to boost awareness of the "The OC" show then "The OC" has benefited us. Josh did say it was "cool that he acknowledged that our show inspired him". And that's true. The OC did inspire us and I've let people know that when asked. Josh and his creative team at The OC have produced a very watchable series which Michelle and I TiVo every week. (Course, we relate to Sandy and Kirsten much more than Seth and Ryan.) We had hoped Josh would be proud that his show played a part in inspiring a real life interfaith family to help create a real life Chrismukkah holiday. We even sent Josh and the other exeuctives behind the show a gift of our cards back in early October... a week later WB lawyers filed the first trademark on the word Chrismukkah. Now, 2 months later O.C. greeting cards go on sale. Stay tuned till next week. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/260051p-222649c.html