*facepalm*

[lagilman]

So last night I went off to meet some of the Usual Publishing Suspects for the Usual Publishing Activities, and - foolishly - decided to walk from Columbus Circle where I'd been meeting someone, down to the bar on 38th street. About a mile and a half walk, all told, and the weather was nice, and ...

oh fuck me, and I'd forgotten (or managed not to hear) that last night was the Tree Lighting Ceremony at Rock Center.

Entire swathes of midtown were hemmed in by cattle chutes and cops, traffic redirected and shut off, huge crowds of locals and tourists trying to get to A forced to go by way of C and D...

It's a credit to the general good mood December brings that there weren't any fights or arrests happening (that I observed)

All so people can stand (for HOURS before the actual event) and watch a tree get all sparkly. This is a Thing? Apparently, this is a Thing.

You people are weird.

I'll grant you, it's a damned pretty tree.



(yes, it really is that big.  About eighty feet, if I recall.)


EtA: any month other than December, Rock Center is one of my favorite places in Manhattan. It scratches both my architecture kink and my citysocialspace kink perfectly, and I still mourn that this style of building fell out of favor for so many decades because it's pretty much perfect from an outsider's perspective....

Comments

[smoemeth.livejournal.com]

Oh, so THAT'S what was going on. (Me = out of it)

I was on the East Side and down in the Village, so I managed to miss it completely ... but I couldn't figure out what people were talking about, and the train was more crowded than usual coming home. All is clear now.

(Why people put themselves through standing for hours in the cold when they could be home watching it on TV in comfort is beyond me. I feel the same way about the Macy's Parade and the NYE Ball Drop.)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, because the Being There Once is worth it. And sometimes, it's so you can say you were there... once... and never have to do it again.

[lagilman]

I can accept that argument for things like, oh, a presidential inauguration *g* or a spaceflight liftoff/landing. But the lighting of a Christmas tree? There's nothing historical or rare about that....

I'm not saying people shouldn't enjoy it. I'm saying they're weird.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

If they're a New Yorker, weird.

If they're from I dunno, Idaho, being at Rockefeller could be that Just That Once off the bucket list. How many people in Times Square on NYE are New Yorkers?

[lagilman]

A lot, actually. And they're all drunk as skunks.

I actually don't feel the need to defend my opinion that people who do this are weird. had I said "stupid" or "dumb" or "crazy," but I didn't. I said weird.

And I stand by it.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Fair enough.

I am surprised about Times Square, though. You could not pay me enough to be there that night. I was startled enough to walk through it the morning after and still find people partying!