We Need to Have a New Chat About CMEpalooza

My son does this thing where he pretends not to hear me when I’m trying to get him off his iPad and into the kitchen for dinner table (Wait, your kid, too? Amazing).

“Time for dinner. Turn the iPad off.” (No response)

“Time for dinner. Turn the iPad off.” (No response)

“Time for dinner. Turn the iPad off.” (No response)

(Walks over and puts hands in front of iPad screen)

“Hey, what the heck? Why’d you do that… Oh, it’s time for dinner. I didn’t hear you!”

Every. Single. Night.

Turns out, however, that it’s not just the youth of America who are experts at tuning out vital information. You, too, are to blame! Yes, you, the loyal followers of CMEpalooza! For shame, for shame!

Now before you run to mommy and daddy whining, “But I didn’t do anything!!!” allow me to explain.

First in 2017, then again in 2018, and then again just this past July, Derek tried his best to get across a very important message about CMEpalooza.

The message is simple.

It’s CMEpalooza.

Big “CME”

Little “palooza”

Now mash it together.

CMEpalooza

Sounds simple enough, but trust me, our experience tells us otherwise. All joking aside – and that’s hard for me to do – at least 50% of our friends and fans mess it up. Just this past week in my email, it’s been “CMEPalooza and “CME Palooza” and, my personal favorite “CMEPalozza.”

I know, I know. Who cares, right? As long as you get it close, that means you know who we are and that’s all that should matter. I get it. And I really don’t think people get it wrong on purpose, at least not most of the time. So we should, I suppose, agree to brush it aside like those crumbs that end up around my son’s plate because he refuses to use his fork at the dinner table (Wait, your kid, too? Amazing).

I hear you. But Derek doesn’t. And so every time we get a “CME palooza” or a “Cmepalooza” or a “CME Pepperoni Pizza” or some other combination (you’d be amazed how many different ways there are to butcher CMEpalooza), I get an email with a cringy emoji from Derek. It’s his way of telling me how he dies just a tiny bit inside every time our event is butchered in print (note from Derek: all true.)

You are probably asking yourself right now, “Isn’t this all kind of your fault? I mean, you did come up with the name knowing how weird it is?”

Again, fair point, and I’ll need to defer to Derek on this one. He came up with the name CMEpalooza. It’s his baby (I guess that makes me the cool babysitter? [note from Derek: It does not, no.]). But it’s too late now. It’s CMEpalooza.

Big CME

Little palooza

CMEpalooza

But hey, if you want to torture Derek, be my guest. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to remind someone that, “You don’t need to scream into the iPad when you are playing a game with your friends. Inside voice!”