This is definitely a current event, the passing of the old year into the new. Today is one-one-twenty nineteen. Maybe it's because I live in New York that I think this, but the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration -- the ball drop -- has always seemed like the biggest and best known to me.
Last night's celebration was a wet one, apparently one of the wettest in the history of the Times Square celebration, which began over one hundred years ago. A history of the event says revelers began celebrating New Year's Eve in Times Square as early as 1904, and the ball drop debuted -- from a flagpole atop One Times Square (back then it was the New York Times Building) -- three years later on New Year's Eve 1907. The first ball weighed 700 pounds, was five feet in diameter and was lit by 100 25 watt bulbs. A Times Square New Year's Eve history blog says:
I've never attended the actual event, joining the hundreds of thousands who jam the Square in anticipation of Midnight, though I know many people who have. One sentiment they all seem to have in common is: They would never, ever do it again. Why? To get anywhere close to the ball drop you have to get there by, at the latest, six PM. If you want to get really close, you need to arrive around four-thirty. The problem is, by four-thirty or fiveish the NYPD begin arriving in large numbers and start setting up barricades. They warn those within the controlled zone, if they decide to stay within the barricaded area they will not be allowed to leave. Otherwise, it would be complete chaos. Last night it was wet but most New Year's Eves it's cold. Sometimes very cold. and there's nothing to do for hours except...stand and wait. The novelty wears off real fast, people who've done it have told me.
Below is Ryan Seacrest at last night's celebration. He's soaked!
.
Last night's celebration was a wet one, apparently one of the wettest in the history of the Times Square celebration, which began over one hundred years ago. A history of the event says revelers began celebrating New Year's Eve in Times Square as early as 1904, and the ball drop debuted -- from a flagpole atop One Times Square (back then it was the New York Times Building) -- three years later on New Year's Eve 1907. The first ball weighed 700 pounds, was five feet in diameter and was lit by 100 25 watt bulbs. A Times Square New Year's Eve history blog says:
Quote:
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As part of the 1907-1908 festivities, waiters in the fabled "lobster palaces" and other deluxe eateries in hotels surrounding Times Square were supplied with battery-powered top hats emblazoned with the numbers "1908" fashioned of tiny light bulbs. At the stroke of midnight, they all "flipped their lids" and the year on their foreheads lit up in conjunction with the numbers "1908" on the parapet of the Times Tower lighting up to signal the arrival of the new year. Link |
I've never attended the actual event, joining the hundreds of thousands who jam the Square in anticipation of Midnight, though I know many people who have. One sentiment they all seem to have in common is: They would never, ever do it again. Why? To get anywhere close to the ball drop you have to get there by, at the latest, six PM. If you want to get really close, you need to arrive around four-thirty. The problem is, by four-thirty or fiveish the NYPD begin arriving in large numbers and start setting up barricades. They warn those within the controlled zone, if they decide to stay within the barricaded area they will not be allowed to leave. Otherwise, it would be complete chaos. Last night it was wet but most New Year's Eves it's cold. Sometimes very cold. and there's nothing to do for hours except...stand and wait. The novelty wears off real fast, people who've done it have told me.
Below is Ryan Seacrest at last night's celebration. He's soaked!
.
via International Skeptics Forum http://bit.ly/2F3BMli
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