I have to admit something that many might find too curmudgeonly: I think New Years is the stupidest holiday on the calendar.
Wahoo! We're turning the page on the calendar! Let's get drunk!
Every day of the year has a midnight. Why do we make such a big damn deal out of counting down this one of the 365?
OK, if you like to imbibe (and also, perhaps, to enjoy the fruits of others imbibing, such as post-midnight hookups with relative strangers) more power to you. Me? I've always felt as My Dad did. He considered New Years Eve to be amateur night.
Oh, well. I won't go on about the ridiculousness of the thing because without it I wouldn't have had the impetus to write my column in today's Boston Herald (nor is it likely my editor, bless her heart, would have accepted it, so there's that, too.)
You can read it by clicking onto this convenient link!
I hope it provides some value. Meanwhile, I'm going to enjoy some leftover Thai food (from Little Thai Cafe, which I strongly recommend if you're in the Watertown/Belmont area) and then watch Ohio State upset Alabama and Oregon put an end to Florida State's reign as national champion.
(No complaints will be accepted if you believe I'm a prophet and you lose betting on those two outcomes. Anyone who believes I'm a prophet is obviously drunk.)
Thanks for your kind comments and/or letters to the editor. If you have a hangover, may it be memorable in some outstanding way.
Soon, with more better stuff.
16 comments:
Happy New Year from Vienna and may the new year be filled with positive events!
I enclose a link to an article that may (or may not) explain some of the reasons for the craziness around the change of years: The Time between the Years ;-)
I can't be bothered with New Year either!
Well, I always enjoy any excuse for popping a champagne bottle. And I'm all about the post-midnight hookups. . . with my wife, of course. . .
;)
I gotta tell ya, Urban Meyer vs Nick Saban is my basic definition of 'conflicted'. . . (but an Oregon-OSU final would at least validate my Spartans to the extent that our two losses would be to the two teams playing for the championship. . .)
And, nice article, Pollyanna. . .
Some of us use it for a day of reflection and contemplation and a thinking about trying to do things better....or not.
New Year's Eve has always just been an excuse to let the kids stay up late and watch fireworks.
Happy New Years to you. I've never quite understood New Years either. Nowdays I think it is just an emphatic end to Christmas.
Timely good advice for me in your coloumn. Thanks, Pollyanna. ;)
I don't have an issue with New Years Day.
It's the night before overthetopwhambamomgwtfbbq that's nuts.
Some folks claim it's all about letting off steam so they can start over.
How about, if you think about it, you can start over any time.
It isn't arbitrary.
Life isn't golf and you can have a mulligan any time you need it.
i feel that St Patrick's Day is the truly ridiculous holiday and it is the real day for all amateur drunks to get out and drink themselves sick and either/or throw up or relieve themselves on the street .. having worked in midtown literally across from St Patrick's Cathedral i had up close and all too personal views of those attending the parade .. as for NYE ... any fool who stands in Times Sq for a full day (and some for two days) to get a spot to watch a ball drop deserves the frost bite they surely suffer and now i will step off my soap box as gracefully as i can ..
Count me as one of the 'who cares about a new year it's just a pain to try to remember to write new numbers when I write the date' person.
I do make personal changes at various times, but deliberately avoid doing anything major because it's the start of a new year. Sets me up to fail when I do.
You can't have the Pollyanna title, my friend Tami gets that. Sometimes she's so relentlessly cheerful in the face of horrendous events that I want to smack her.
Lovingly, of course. :)
Hey Pollyanna, I like the way you think!
Happy 2015.
jj
New Year? When I was a child, it was a huge treat to be allowed to stay up past midnight on that special day of the year. But now.... well, this year I went to bed early, but that's because I was sick (still am!) but I have to admit that there's a nice feeling of renewal to the ritual of waiting till midnight and greeting your loved ones with good wishes for the future.
I think the BH readers are very lucky to have your scribblings to read.... I'm sure you are getting quite a following. Nice piece, Jim lad.
Romeo said to tell you that its a celebration of a successful revolution of the earth around the sun. So, we made it! Let's all hope we can manage that again in the next 364 days ahead.
Happy New Year, Jim!
Terrific advise! Happy New year to you Jim!
I find New Year celebrations to be very silly and irritating too! But sometimes I wonder that it may be case of the legendary sour grapes. I stay quite a long way from any of my friends and no parties are held close by. May be if I was amongst people stricken with this madness then I wouldn't have been so immune.
Great article, I actually feel lighter just for having read it so thank you for that! Happy forward motion into this new calendar year and Happy Epiphany to you and YOUR WIFE tomorrow!
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