TMI NYT, TMI. Do not need to read exactly how people hold their places. Uncivilized to say the least.
4
We spent New years in Florence a few years ago and they just dropped wine and champagne bottles everywhere, tons of shattered glass - all cleaned up the next day!
Save NYC a lot of money, throw out 3000 pounds of $1 bills instead of confetti. It'll cost around $2.7 million, will stimulate the economy and no one has to sweep up!
21
Now I wish that I still didn’t know.
“Up until [1992], it had just been a drunken brawl,” said Treb Heining, who managed the confetti that first year and has been doing it ever since. “It was so seedy.”
Do the NYT's fact-checkers only check up on politicians? I was there in the 1970s and '80s, and it was no "drunken brawl."
9
isn't "why" a better interrogative in this case?
2
pollution - is the confetti biodegradable
3
@CK - Did you even read the article? "The confetti thrown at midnight is made from recycled material that would otherwise be discarded, and all of it is biodegradable."
7
@CK
Yes, as it says in the article.
6
@CK It's right in the article. Made from recycled and biodegradable.
6
So why is the dispersal “ violent” and how is it done? No mention of central action here. Do people dig into the boxes and toss arm loads of the stuff or what?
9
@Thomas F. O'Leary
Exactly. Why such arch secrecy about the dispersal technique? Some stories really raise more questions than they answer.
4
Do a web search of these words; does confetti cause pollution
1
@CK All of those results are for glitter or plastic confetti: this is paper.
4
A terrific article about a terrific group of people! Thank you to all. Happy New Year!
28
This is so cool. I appreciate the work they do.
Happy New year :-D
19
I was in the 1983 Brooklyn Bridge Centenniel parade across the Brooklyn Bridge and down to City Hall - they dropped actual pages, stacks, of regular 8 1/2X11 inch paper on us, straight out of the xeroxer, it seemed. This is a vast improvement..
9
@grace thorsen- I remember that as well. It's as if Wall Street donated tons of dot matrix printer cast-offs to be tossed off of roofs.
1
How about using bubbles or fake snow instead of sending tons of garbage to a landfill? While it might be “biodegradable” without exposure to air it will be there for decades to come. The planet doesn’t benefit from this.
11
I've always thought that the ball should rise, rather than fall. Seems like that would be a more positive message. Either way, it's all still beautiful and uplifting! Thanks to all who make it happen.
35
@Danielle M, that is a REALLY good idea!!!
11
I have lived in NYC all my life and I completely fail to understand why anyone finds our ball creep (it doesn’t drop, it creeps slowly down) exciting. The slow progress of the insanely expensive ball is the definition of going out not with a bang but a whimper. The spectacle of the glacial ball drop is just so bizarrely juxtaposed against the wild frenzy of the crowd and the confetti canons. It makes the last seconds of the year hugely anticlimactic. A much more lively and exciting event are the fireworks sat the start of the amusingly costumed race in Central Park at midnight. I really wish they would actually release the ball and let it actually drop at midnight, maybe hitting a large drum at the bottom and ending with a huge resonant bang!
15
@Alexandra Hamilton
It's so weird. As a New Yorker for my whole life also, I can think of very few things I would LESS rather do, than go to Times Square on NYE.
16
@Alexandra Hamilton- The world will never understand how disappointed I was as a kid, when I was allowed to stay up late to see the ball drop. Except, it didn't drop. I just slowly made its way down a tall pole on a nondescript rooftop. No crash. No smash. Nothing. The mystique of New Years Eve will never be the same again.
4
"Life is beautiful". We think this is the most famous celebration of all. The descending confetti invites to positive thinking. Great photographs. Have a wonderful 2019. All your collaborators deserve the best.
19
Wearing a diaper and cramming into a crowd of a million people? Sign me up.
45
@Rick
Well-played, sir.
3
How can this be allowed with the struggle of climate change?
12
@Calleen de Oliveira Because as humans, we still need something, anything to bring us together and give us some joy and hope... To inspire and give us the fuel and determination to tackle the challenges ahead.
22
Wehope: That those New Year revelers wearing diapers don't get confetti in their diapers. Colorful, perhaps. But not comfortable.
6
Being part of the "crew" was an experience of a lifetime - we both had a blast and sore arms at the end of the evening.
Happy New Year, Treb
25
So what happens if there is a rain or snow storm and/or strong winds?
6
@Bob Garcia=- The confetti still falls.
3
This article was very interesting as I had no idea how much planning and preparation goes into just this one aspect of New Year’s Eve in Times Square. I have personally never seen the ball drop or the confetti in person but now I’m intrigued. I think this years’ cleanup might be more challenging with the rain and wet confetti but I hope it goes off without a hitch.
5
The slow ball creep is anticlimactic and boring. Confetti is exciting and fun though. They should save money and skip the ball. Or actually drop it.
7
@Out There, it is a spectacle that you must see! Ignore the naysayers who say it is boring - that is just their opinion, so judge for yourself how it all makes you feel when you watch it on t.v.
3
@Alexandra Hamilton- Sadly, that darn ball is made of 192 "sparkling" Waterford crystal plates. It is lowered by a team of experts. As for me, give me a radio controlled, plastic ball that smashed to pieces at the stroke of midnight.