Farrell conceived of the Lollapalooza festival in 1990 as a farewell tour for Jane's Addiction. The name Lollapalooza means "something outstanding or unusual"; Farrell heard the word in a Three Stooges short film and liked the sound.Ok, sure, whatever. With increasing frequency, the -palooza bit has been broken off and applied in other contexts. The meaning seems to be along the lines of "festival of ...", often meant with an ironic twist.
- Penant Palooza (Web site)
- Salsa-Palooza (Web site)
- Wrestle Palooza (Web site)
- Potty Palooza (a traveling potty to advertise Charmin. Nice.)
- "After April's repairapalooza, when I could actually hear the dollars whizzing out of my bank account, this left me comparatively giddy." (Blog entry)
- (Insert about 100 more here)
I suspect that the particle is popular also for the simple reason that it's fun to say and funny to hear.
A particularly elegant -palooza appeared this year on Josh Marshall's talkingpointsmemo.com political blog: bamboozlepalooza, for Bush's effort to promote his Social Security plan. Tricky to pronounce, but of course it is meant to be read, and the double -ooz- is nifty!
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