What Else Will Drop on New Year's Eve?

December 30, 2008 4:15 PM

This New Year's Eve you can watch the drop of the "Waterford Crystal New Year's Eve Ball" (which will now become a year-round attraction hovering above Times Square). Not interested? How about watching the dropping of a drag queen, a pirate wench, pickles and sausages (among other things) while ringing in the New Year?

TripAdvisor's Top Quirkiest New Year's Eve Events in the U.S.

Drag Queen ("Sushi") Dropped in a Ruby Shoe, Key West, FL.

Conch Shell Dropped at Sloppy Joe's, Key West, FL.

The Lowering of the Pirate Wench at Midnight, Key West, FL.

New Year's Eve Peep Drop , Bethlehem, PA.

Walleye Fish Drop, Port Clinton, OH.

New Year's Eve Pickle Drop, Mount Olive, NC.

The Great Sausage Drop, Elmore, OH.

Bologna Drop, Lebanon, PA.

Gumbo Pot Drop, New Orleans, LA.

Maryland Crab Drop, Easton, MD.

Cheese Drop, Plymouth, WI.

Acorn Drop, Raleigh, NC.

posted by ericb (18 comments total)

You can add 'inhibitions' and 'judgement' to the list, location: wherever I end up.
posted by mullingitover at 4:32 PM on December 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

And "pants".
posted by nicwolff at 4:50 PM on December 30, 2008

Man, central PA (the TMT homeland) is a hotbed of dropping things. Not only do you have the bologna in Lebanon, you have:

A strawberry in Harrisburg
A Hershey's Kiss in Hershey
An Indy car in Carlisle
An anchor in Shippensburg
A wrench in Mechanicsburg
A pickle in Dillsburg
A white rose in York
A red rose in Lancaster
A sled in Duncannon
A huckleberry in New Bloomfield
A goat (not real) in Falmouth
A lollipop in Hummelstown
A M&M in Elizabethtown
An orb in Manheim
A lion (also not real) in Red Lion
A wooden cow in Blain
A canal boat in Liverpool

For some reason, there's a BBC site describing the reasons for some of these, and the rest are here.
posted by The Michael The at 5:05 PM on December 30, 2008

The West Coast's First Ball Drop, Sacramento, CA.
posted by geekyguy at 5:37 PM on December 30, 2008

A ball made of Hula Hoops, Aluminum Foil, & Christmas Lights, Gorham, Maine

(also the Giant Sardine in Eastport)
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 6:43 PM on December 30, 2008

Will any of these be streaming on the tubes? I clicked a couple of links and didn't see any mention.
posted by fieldtrip at 7:09 PM on December 30, 2008

Drops?! What is this, the 18th century? I want to see Harrison Ford, Will Smith, and Bruce Willis running away from a carbomb that explodes right as the clock strikes 12. In slow motion. My generation's MTV and internet shortened attention span demands it.
posted by Pyry at 7:42 PM on December 30, 2008

this is just more evidence of florida being an interesting place to visit and new york becoming deathly dull - i hate to bang on about it, but there you are.
posted by sgt.serenity at 8:22 PM on December 30, 2008

Times Square has become nothing but a corporate slum. It was lots nicer and more fun when it had the sleaze.

As for dropping stuff: For whatever reason, this always seemed backwards to me. Send stuff up, not down. (Except Nicwolf has a nice idea for something to drop).
posted by Goofyy at 11:07 PM on December 30, 2008

So we're in agreement? At midnight tonight, every mefite worldwide drops their pants?
posted by mannequito at 4:49 AM on December 31, 2008

I'm planning on chucking empty gin bottles, obcenities, and my dinner off of my roof around midnight or so. Come on by, bring the kids!
posted by Pollomacho at 5:22 AM on December 31, 2008

Bologna Drop, Lebanon, PA.

That's Lebanon bologna, mind you, not that Oscar Meyer stuff.
posted by Chrysostom at 5:32 AM on December 31, 2008

The Lowering of the Pirate Wench at Midnight, Key West, FL.

Clicking on that link did not bring me to where I thought it would.
posted by thanotopsis at 5:36 AM on December 31, 2008

Holy hell, the new and improved state-of-the-art Times Square ball now weighs 17 times what the original iron one weighed 100 years ago? Way to go, progress!

How long before it drops too fast and crushes someone?
posted by caution live frogs at 6:40 AM on December 31, 2008

Stupid acorn drop. Hanging off a freaking crane in downtown Raleigh. Freaking City of Oaks, with all the concomitant-ass pollen you could hope for --and die from!

I wonder if Cary, NC drops a triple-wide stroller.
posted by Coatlicue at 1:46 PM on December 31, 2008

I've always been a bit annoyed by the phrase "Ball Drop". Not for the obvious urological reasons (although adding Dick Clark into the mix is a tad much), but because it's not a drop so much as a gentle lowering.

If I wanted to watch a gentle lowering of a glowing golden orb, I'd just watch the sunset, which, come to think of it, would make a lot more symbolic end-of-year sense.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:58 PM on December 31, 2008

I'd just watch the sunset

Tricky to align with midnight, though, unless you're in orbit.
posted by Chrysostom at 6:29 PM on December 31, 2008

I always thought the ball-drop was a stupid tradition. OMG! It's a ball! On a pole! Which symbolizes a new year, obviously.
posted by Eideteker at 8:44 PM on January 1, 2009