Posted on 12/27/2021 5:38:22 AM PST by DoodleBob
Amid the sharp increase of COVID-19 cases, the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration will be scaled back, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Thursday. While the public can still attend, the capacity will be lowered and both vaccination and masking will be required.
Under the new plan, all attendees over 5 years of age will need to provide proof of full vaccination (which was received by December 17th) along with a valid photo ID, and will need to be masked while in the outdoors pens. Spectators won't be allowed to enter until 3 p.m. on December 31st, which is much later than previous years when people would start entering Times Square early in the morning to stake out spots. Further, the crowd will be limited to 15,000 people—usually there are closer to 60,000—to allow for social distancing.
"New Yorkers have stepped up tremendously over the past year—we are leading the way on vaccinations, we have reopened safely, and every day we work toward building a recovery for all of us," de Blasio said in a statement. "There is a lot to celebrate and these additional safety measures will keep the fully vaccinated crowd safe and healthy as we ring in the New Year.”
Last year's New Year's Eve celebration was closed to the public; instead, there were musical performances, with a small group of essential workers invited to watch while in socially-distanced pens.
In November, when De Blasio and the Times Square Alliance said festivities would return to Times Square this year, the plan was to allow unvaccinated attendees if they wore masks. However, the new omicron variant's transmissibility has sent COVID case counts rising exponentially, demanding a change in protocol.
Mayor-elect Eric Adams, who canceled his indoor January 1st inauguration, voiced his support of the adjustment: "New York is the best place in the world to celebrate New Year’s Eve and now it will be one of the safest against COVID as well. The Mayor has made the right move to take precautionary measures as we learn to live with COVID and fight the Omicron variant—and New Yorkers and visitors alike can now enjoy Times Square and the rest of our city as we ring in 2022."
De Blasio had expressed reluctance to completely cancel the event, saying on Tuesday, "The goal, of course, is to keep it going, because it's such an important event for New Yorkers and for the whole world."
Times Square Alliance president Tom Harris said, "We applaud the leadership of Mayor de Blasio in finding a way to welcome revelers into Times Square on New Year's Eve in an even safer way than we originally planned. This year revelers will be fully vaccinated, masked, and we will have reduced occupancy in the viewing areas. We understand that everyone will not be able to be here but welcome them to experience New Year's Eve in Times Square from our live webcast, on one of the networks or on the VNYE app.”
The event will be streaming on a number of sites, including TimesSquareNYC.org, NewYearsEve.nyc, LiveStream.com/2022 and TimesSquareBall.net.
The ball needs to be shaped and colored like the COVID-1984 spiked protein.
Instead of confetti, rain the mRNA Jim Jones Jab on the attendees.
Made for TV and social media event. Tightly controlled. Appearances are everything.
Hopefully the China Flu 19 will end this stupid rite on New Years Eve.
It is so over hyped and such a waste of time.
I’ve watched maybe twice in the last 50-60 years.
I'm kidding, but just barely. As a native West Virginian, I can tell you, New Years in the Mountaineer State involves lots of firearms. Which, as long as they're pointed in a safe direction, I don't have a problem with.
Dollars to donuts a spate of cardiac-related health emergencies mar this year’s celebration.
If one must go to this much trouble,why not just stay home & watch it on TV?
“In the 1980s me and my friends use to bar hop all over NYC and right about 1100 PM we would head to Times Square and get right up front to the ball.”
I did the same thing with my friends. Get there last and get out first.
When ya gotta go...
Another favorite story of mine was when I was in the USN back in 1978, we were on liberty in Barcelona, and after a wild night on the town, we were pretty sloshed, and had to take a launch back to the ship.
It was crazy.
The seas were so rough, there were several launches circling, all full of drunk sailors who had all been drinking, which meant there were not only full bladders, there were guys puking over the side. I think (but cannot remember clearly) that it may have been a 50-60 foot boat, two canvas covers (with the one towards the bow covered at the very front, a possibly three foot space, then the next canvas cover open fore and aft, with the Coxswain at the stern. There were 50-100 men (I don’t remember how many, but the Coast Guard would not have approved) all completely packed in like sardines, all standing nut-to-butt except for the guys who got there first and got seats.
They had a big platform at the stern of the carrier that the boats would come up to, which in calm weather was perfectly fine. In this weather, the boat would rise five feet above the platform, then fall five feet below it, repeat this several times, and then in just the right conditions, the gunwale of the launch and the platform would be at the same level for a few seconds, and zip-zip-zip-zip three or four guys would leap to the platform, then the up and down gyrations would begin again.
So...unloading the launches was extremely slow, and exceedingly dangerous given the intoxicated state of many of the men. I often wonder if they would even attempt such a thing today. Someone could have easily fallen between the platform and the heaving boat and been killed or badly injured. I shake my head thinking of it.
As a result, we circling and circling around for about 45 minutes waiting our turn at the platform. People were drunk, and the crowd of men became unruly, with a few fights breaking out. It was pouring rain too, and if you were dumb enough to stand in the gap between the canvas covers, it was a great joke to push up on the canvas from the inside to pour the water out on the hapless guys standing in the gap and right under where it ended. (you learned not to stand there after the first time some clown pushed the bulging canvas to dump the seawater or rainwater out on you)
Round and round we went, with the diesel fumes strong in our noses, pitching and rolling with the water coming in. There were a few Shore Patrol guys on the boat, and one of them was a buddy who was in my squadron, and when things began getting unruly, I distinctly heard a nasty voice shout over the din “F**K THE SHORE PATROL!” and sailors began repeating it! My buddy took the Shore Patrol armband off his arm! At one point, I looked to see a guy standing on the side peeing over the side! (my back teeth were absolutely floating, and I was in agony so I wondered if I should do that too) when one of the Shore Patrol looking at the peeing guy from his back shouted at him “YOU! GET DOWN OFF OF THERE!” In my line of sight, the guy looked directly at me, a stream of pee coming out of him, and made a show of mimicking someone being violently ill and barfing, and I saw the Shore Patrol guy decide he didn’t want to interfere with it!
Eventually, we got up to the platform and began the tedious unloading. As my brain told my screaming bladder we were getting closer to the head, the bladder only began to scream louder. I was squeezing with one hand with everything I had. Finally, I got on the platform, and there was a nearby head. In my whole life, that was the worst I ever had to go. It was agonizing, and...in that, memorable.
That is very funny - and absolutely terrifying. Thank you for sharing!
I’ve never experienced anything like that, but I do remember years ago fishing off Montauk and passing a boat with some attractive women sunbathing on it. As the winds picked up we saw them a while later and they were puking over the side of the boat - “chumming the water”, as we say (very unsexy). On larger party boats I remember when it got a little rough (again, nothing like you’ve described) holding myself steady with my head against the wall of the “head” while using both hands to open the fly/control the stream...
LOL, I learned that for most (though not all) people, being unaffected by rough seas is a highly relative classification!
Like being tortured-eventually, nearly EVERYONE (though not everyone) “spills the beans”!
I’ve been lucky in that regard; on our first saltwater trip one of my friends was telling me how sick I’d be (while we were drinking the night before) and yet he was the only one of us to get sick...
Heh, that is ALWAYS the way...ALWAYS! (It is why I NEVER say I will be unaffected by motion sickness...that is ASKING for it!)
I haven’t felt it yet, but I’ve seen seasick people up close - they look absolutely miserable. I still enjoy carnival rides as a middle-aged guy; guess I’ve been lucky!
LOL, at my age, I don’t dare try them anymore.
I used to love them, but I have found as I have gotten older, things I used to love and do with relative ease, are more likely to make me look like a fool in public!!!!!
I’m shameless; when I try once too often and end up hurling off the side of a roller coaster, I honestly don’t care (and am stupid enough to think it was just the four corn dogs disagreeing with me, not my age)...
hahahahahahahahahahahah
“Mom! This corndog just fell out of the sky!”
LOL!
It’s okay to gather if you wear a mask (that DOESN’T WORK) and you are “fully vaxxinated” except the “fully vaxxinated” are the ones SPREADING the disease!
When will they ever learn,
When will they ever learn.
Peter, Paul, and Mary
Where have all the flowers gone.
The 2020s version, Where have all the people gone.
Meet the new mayor, ... the same as the old mayor.
Only the ones that voted for Biden in 2020.... /s
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