h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Anthropologists, take note. Humans are odd. Some humans are odder than others. To any PhD candidates out there - might I suggest that you use North Carolina as the subject of your dissertation? You could probably get a grant somewhere.

It all started in the 19th Century, when town halls in the US had a brass ball affixed to a spike on the roof. They lowered the ball at exactly noon, in order to facilitate the synchronisation of local watches.

Somewhere along the line, people started dropping these balls at midnight on New Year's. The one in Times Square must be watched by millions of people around the country. Right before they yawn, say, 'Happy New Year, dear', and toddle off to bed.

In North Carolina, partygoers have different ideas:

- In Raleigh, the capital of this bustling state, there is a brass acorn. The acorn gets 'dropped' at New Year's. It's not good for anything else - the thing is an unwanted eyesore that some rich person ninja-gifted to the town. It sits in a little park.

- In Eastover, there's a giant flea. In honour of an infestation of biblical proportions, of course.

- In Mount Olive, North Carolina, the Mount Olive Pickle Company - located at the corner of Cucumber and Vine Streets - has the exciting custom of lowering a 3-foot artificial pickle into a vat of vinegar, the while the crowd sings 'Auld Lang Syne'. They do this at midnight GMT. You have to be there, we suspect, and people come from miles around. In fact, somebody drove up from Birmingham, Alabama, this year. Go figure. A more local person, who lives in Cary, North Carolina, but hails from Michigan, says it's certainly different. Apparently, they have more sense than to drop odd objects in Michigan.

- The piece de resistance: in Brasstown, they stage a 'possum drop'. The possum, apparently, is not consulted, a fact which has outraged PETA. I personally would not like to annoy a) a possum (they have teeth), or b) a PETA member. (I don't know what they have, but it probably comes with Lawyers.)

The Brasstown organisers said they would most probably be dropping a stuffed opossum this year. and friends of the shop owner responsible for this ritual at the 'Opossum Capital of the World' have asked for donations to enable the gentleman to defend 'his First Amendment rights', which apparently include using possums in bizarre civic rituals. The website is here:

http://www.clayscorner.com/

Here's a video of the Pickle and the Flea in action:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/nc-town-drops-giant-flea-for-new-year/

Now you know why I spent New Year's Eve indoors, watching Hulu and drinking Coke.

Happy New Year, y'all!

I read that as "Now you know why I spent New Year's Eve with 'er indoors"

Happy New Year to you and Elektra

Tom spent New Year's at w*rk (yay graveyard shift) so PaperKid and I watched the copy of The Last Unicorn I'd just gotten at a thrift store the day before my birthday (I remember the animation being better--or at least more consistent), drank some sparkling lemonade, and then she stayed up as late as she could (she made it to 5) while I went to bed at 1:30ish instead of the 2 I'd been staying up to the last few days.

Sparkling lemonade sounds good.

By the way, click around on that possum website, it's worth it.

And if anybody 'wins' a can of opossum, we want a report for .

I refuse to experiment.

Getting pickled while the crowd sings "auld lang syne" makes sense to me

I should've gotten the usual sparkling cider, instead--the lemonade was half the price

Pickles are awesome, and I kinda wish I'd gone to the Raleigh thing...
I wonder if $18 is worth it

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/burnsnight/running_order.shtml

it's like piping in the haggis we all know haggis are deaf

I spent new years fixing something that someone broke. Mentioning no names

re 9:

That first picture is the best evidence ever for the old saying 'you are what you eat'

Shame on Pastey for mentioning that, says the culprit.

Ah, but it was an oversight in the code that allowed an error though. And the error itself was not an error at all, just an oddity in the way that XML handles html

In other words, it's not a bug - it's a feature!

" In other words, it's not a bug - it's a feature! "
Yeah, that's the ticket!

I live in north central Los Angeles, and my neighborhood broke out in illegal fireworks (and hopefully no guns!) about 11:45pm and didn't let up until 12:15am. I'm thinking some folks were so pickled they could no longer focus on their cell phones to check the time.
Whatever, it sounded like a war zone, no lie.

That sounds like Germany.

In Munich, at exactly midnight (Bavarians, OCD, you get the picture), all H broke loose.

At precisely 12:05, the fire alarms started. In the countryside, it was even worse.

Fireworks + thatched roofs = disaster.

Californians used to have shake roofs...but those slabs of wood burn really well, and I think they're even against the building codes if you live where brush fires happen.

I did heart sirens, about midnight, but the fire house is at the end of my street, so I would...

Well, I like sirens, they're useful things, but I don't "heart" them...hear was where I was aiming, even if I didn't get there.

Hi folks! That thing looks like a louse to me, not a flea.