On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 4:34 PM, Christopher Green <[email protected]> wrote:
Sometimes a dropping ball is just a dropping ball. (Yes, Keepers of the
Truth, I know.)
(Actually, it is a rip from ball that drops at 1:00 Greenwich, and has
since the 18th century sometime.)
The dropping of a ball goes back to 1907 though celebration of the New Year
at Times Square originated in 1904 after the NY Times bought the building on
"Longacre Square" and managed to get the city fathers to change Longacre to
Times. However, original celebrations included fireworks which turned out
not to be a good idea *IF* you have people underneath the fireworks display.
NYC made firework displays illegal and it was decided to mark the New Year
with a "Time Ball". For more on New Year's celebrations in Time Square past
and present see:
http://voices.yahoo.com/new-years-eve-history-york-city-times-square-5063868.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_meaning_of_dropping_the_ball_on_New_Year%27s_Eve
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/12/31/countdown-to-the-countdown-times-square-set-for-new-years-eve-celebration/
For more on the history of the Time Ball, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_ball
The first use of a Time Ball was at Portsmouth, England in 1829 while the
first use
in the U.S. was at the U.S. Navel Observatory in 1845.
NOTE: A Time Ball is usually dropped exactly on the hour (say 1pm or noon)
but the ball at Times Square deviates from this practice by starting down
one minute
before midnight.
On 2012-12-31, at 3:20 PM, michael sylvester wrote:
Is there a classical psychoanalytic interpretation of the New Year's ball
drop?
No. But there might be when they start using two balls instead of one.
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
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