As a North Carolinian, I was very happy to see all the mentions in this episode. Because you know our state slogan: "First in Weird Things Dropped on New Year's Eve, 49'th in Education."
The concept of dropping things is a strange one. I keep imagining these things in uncontrolled free fall... But I guess "lowering" is a less exciting word.
yeah, i've never heard of the tradition of dropping things, how do they do it anyway? isn't it freefall? i mean how would they drop a 350 lbs electronic pie...
Because he never said that the olive is not an actual olive I am going to purposely not look it up so that I can continue to believe that both the olive and the glass are real and normal sized. NO ONE RUIN THIS FOR ME.
We only prefer Tesla because he was smarter, a better inventor, and not a massive knob like Edison. Also, he's horribly under-appreciated, everyone loves an underdog
I'm so glad my area (and hometown) got some good recognition: 7 Pennsylvania mentions here. You could probably make a whole episode about the things that are dropped/raised in the Harrisburg area.
I have lived in Bartlesville, OK for almost 20 years. It is a lovely town. My son in law got to drop the olive a few years ago. Apparently it is a huge honor in a town considered to be 20 miles from nowhere. Thanks for mentioning us.
My mind is quite blown. I had no idea dropping things on new year's eve was an actual thing. I knew there was something about a ball drop in New York but figured it was nothing but some sort of saying.
Our local major radio station, KSL Radio, played some sound bits from this episode. WOOT WOOT!!! My husband was listening to the radio on the drive home. "Hey, is that John Green on the radio?" Why yes it is!!!
American fans - Explain to this confused Brit how this dropping thing works. Do you literally drop things ? Is there a standard height they need to be dropped from ? Many thanks.
No they're usually on the tallest building in the town and 'dropped' aka lowered slowly over the course of 10 seconds to the ground/bottom of the platform/etc from a winch/platform/pole/etc.
I hope Mental Floss will do an episode featuring large statues, roadside attractions and works of art throughout the US. I'd love to see awesome statues like Big Ole in Alexandria, MN featured.
Hey there. I'm from Europe, so I've got a simple question: Where does the faszination of dropping things on New Year's Eve come from and what is its point? I've never heard of such things, but it seems to be very common in the States. I've seen the ball-thingy on Times Square, but I thought that's just a way of showing a countdown without using numbers - but this whole "let's drop things" seems to be something bigger ^^
From what I can figure out it was originally an attempt by The New York Times (like the newspaper) to gather a bigger crowd than the previous years did, which used only fireworks and the like. So they dropped a huge ball with lights on it from the top of a building. It worked.
I always learn something new from your show. I know you don't have closed captions to this video, so I went ahead and made some. Please consider syncing them to this video. It will cost you nothing, yet open up your channel to the deaf and hard of hearing community. Here's the link: www.amara.org/en/videos/T4W52iAyuShL/info/38-bizarre-items-dropped-on-new-years-eve-mental_floss-on-youtube-ep-40/ Here are clear instructions on how to manually input closed captions if you are unsure how to: support.amara.org/support/solutions/articles/10336-how-do-i-manually-add-subtitles-to-youtube- Thanks to the Mental Floss crew for all you do! I look forward to your next video.
Raleigh's acorn is in reference to the "City of Oaks" nickname. John is correct the 10 foot copper acorn is displayed the rest of the year in Moore Square, a city-block-sized park in the heart of downtown Raleigh, surrounded by restaurants and bars that hosts concerts and other events, and contains several dozen large beautiful oak trees. It's a very pleasant place and the residents are rightly proud of it.
Hey now! Dillsburg Pennsylvania (right next to mecanicsburg) also drops a pickle but ours in bigger than 3 foot and he got married at new years last year!!!!
In Scotland we call New Years Eve, Hogmanay pronounced 'hog man ay' My dad came from Inverness and one of the traditions he grew up with is you don't drink any alcohol until after the bells (midnight). Also you needed someone to be your 'first foot' this is hopefully a male who's tall, dark and handsome Who brings a bottle of whisky to offer you a toast to your health, wealth and happiness for the next year.The lady of the house would have a veritable feast laid out on a table in the lounge, covered with her best tablecloth. The food would consist of Christmas cake, mince pies, bite size bits of cheese loaded onto cocktail sticks with tiny pickled onions, tiny sausage rolls, salted nuts, cut cold meats and there would also be a pot of homemade soup and chunks of warm crusty bread to go with it. Also you needed someone to be your 'first foot' this is hopefully a male who's tall, dark and handsome Who brings a bottle of whisky to offer you a toast to your health and wealth for the next year. Plus a lump of coal that brings the wish that your fire place may have fuel for the next twelve months. When I was a child, adults (anyone over the age of 18 years) could often go missing for around 3 days! because they were 'first footing' neighbours, friends and family. People would celebrate for around 3 days with non stop partying, drinking alcohol, eating and dancing! Any host would be horrified if they were asked for a drink and they did't have it! People would buy just about every alcoholic drink, beer, lager and soft drinks such as coke, lemonade and mixers. The you got your drink you could be sure it was at least 10 times stronger that you'd ever get in a bar! Times have changed, such a shame as I looked forward to growing up and taking part in the traditions.
I am confused... why drop things at New Year's at all? What is the tradition behind that? I have never heard about it before (European here) - I never thought that the "dropping" ball in NYC (?) was about the dropping, I thought it was about the flashiness of the ball... very confused
It started as a celebration of the new headquarter at time square of the newspaper New York Times, in 1907. During the years other towns have started to do a similar thing across USA. I agree that "dropping " something as a celebration seems a little silly, But for the last four years they also have someone sing the Juhn Lennon song " Imagine" , and i must give them credit for that. (European here also)
Yeah, even us Canadians don't do it. I think it was a means to gather a whole bunch of people for a new years party but no way of counting down properly, so they added the drop.
Yes, the shout-outs to Pennsylvania are great, although you missed the goat dropped in Falmouth, and the pickle in Dillsburg, among others. Like the Huckleberry in Perry County.
A good several places in this video are in MY home state of Pennsylvania! I was never more proud to be a Pennsylvania boy than while watching this video, aimed at the whole world! HAPPY NEW YEAR! :-)
"We all on the internet love Tesla"... I can bet that at least half of these viewers don't know who Tesla is, though I could also bet that most people that DO know of him like him. The only reason anyone would know about Tesla is if they did extensive research about the invention of electronics in the 1800s, because nearly all of his works were plagiarized and swindled by people such as J.P. Morgan, George Westinghouse, Marconi, and Edison among others. In a specific scenario, Tesla worked with Edison, and was promised $50,000 (worth 1 million today) if he improved his DC motor, which he did. But Edison dismissed that as "our American humor", and took all the credit of the work for himself, among the other things Tesla created. Edison was the plagiarist, the animal abuser (tested electricity on animals and radiation on humans), the imitator (he wasn't really a scientist, he purely used trial and error to invent the light bulb, THOUSANDS of tests), Edison the greedy. Tesla was the opposite of that. He was a genius, he was honest (sacrificing billions in royalties to save Westinghouse Company), he loved animals (esp. pigeons), and was one of the few true, honest scientists at that time. Want more information? Here's a good site that I used to refresh my memory blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2013/02/the-rise-and-fall-of-nikola-tesla-and-his-tower/
ArceusGPG He developed autism in his older years and sought pigeons as companions, because he thought that any human relationship would get in the way of his invention making
I think cities are mimicking the NYC tradition...that's what I've always assumed. I've seen the acorn drop in Raleigh it's pretty fun - it never occurred to me that they were dropping other weird things all over the place
That's the point! He wanted to point out how terrible the fakeness of typical items of our 51 states by stating how incredibly ridiculous it is that only bologna is real...
As someone who lives in Lancaster, Pa ( pronounced Lan-kister not Lan-caster) which neighbors Lebanon, Pa people actually pronounce it Lebanin not Lebanon. Also Hershey's also has a cool concert underneath the Kiss which is free and awesome. Just some mental floss for you John and internet.
Angelina Brooks Getting in on the love in this comment, too because holy shit there are people in our VERY strange area that ALSO enjoy John Green & Co.
ValekHalfHeart Either we have no life and it happens everywhere, you have no life and it only happens in 'Merica or it happens nowhere and John green is laughing at us, I think it is c
well we DO have fireworks here in Europe... But in my ol' country we dance a waltz at midnight (or at least watch the skinny people from the Ballet do it) - Donauwalzer!! now that makes me interested what traditions each country has - I never thought about that before, it was always the Walzer for me
Could someone help me? What is this 'dropping things on New Years Eve'? As a Norwegian, I've never heard of it, Are things dropped from a height? Is it something groups of people watch? How does this go...? Thanks in advance!
Ok, so these things are dropped from a considerable height. The biggest and most popular is in New York City. Their giant ball is lifted to a height of 77 feet and at one minute before midnight begins a controlled descent so that the drop will end at exactly midnight, the first second of the new year. The giant peach in Atlanta is raised to 138 feet. There are massive crowds attending these events (around 20,000 in New York) and it is a part of many Americans' traditions. The New York Ball Drop is also broadcasted on live TV along with the concert that precedes it.
Melanie Niemann Oh wow, that's so interesting and 'strange' for me! Thanks for your help!!! How's fireworks in America? Do families buy their own fireworks and go outside around 12 to fire it at 12, or are there organised events? Actually there's this cool thing they do in the Netherlands, where people use metal milk churns, calcium carbide and a little water to create pressure in the churns, then light it through a little hole the churn so the lid flies of with a VERY loud bang.
Strange Powers America is actually a really big place so many people have local city or county events, while some people prefer to just have a family and friends fireworks events. Some people prefer to actually not to in account of various factors such as location or that they don't like the noise. Really it greatly varies across the board since America is a very large and diverse place.
I'm pretty sure that's illegal to do in city limits. Not considering the potential danger of a bullet possibly clonking the unluckiest person in range.
I was just a little concerned, because in the south it is illegal to fire weapons in city limits. Like I said "Really it greatly varies across the board since America is a very large and diverse place"
Yes Mobile's moon pie made it on the list! I never thought it was weird though because everything in Mobile is about Madi Gras Pensacola's Pelican drop is interesting though
As someone who used to live in Sunbury I will admit that the Edison Hotel is actually a restaurant with extremely bad lighting. This subsequently caused the joke that they haven't revamped to lighting system since Edison built it.
Back in '96, I caught the largest walleye on record. The town nearby, Port Clinton, Ohio, has celebrated ever since by dropping a fiberglass fish that is a 1/3 scale replica of the fish I single-handedly brought in with my grandpa's old wooden fishing pole.
Oh, dang! Now I wish I had done my own little ceremony at midnight and drop something a few feet. Like a fake TARDIS I keep on a shelf. That would have been brilliant.
I loved this and find it fascinating that we would drop things like wooden fleas, or the olive ... I actually would love to see the James Bond styled martini! This video has 8 minutes of awesomeness ! I included this video in my examiner article about crazy new year's celebrations! KUDOS on great video!
Impressive list! And 7 from my home state! But I know of three more odd ones from PA. They drop a giant pickle in Dillsburg, a white rose in York, and they raise a red ros in Lancaster (home sweet home)
As a North Carolinian, I was very happy to see all the mentions in this episode. Because you know our state slogan: "First in Weird Things Dropped on New Year's Eve, 49'th in Education."
Oriental, NC drops a croaker right before the running of the dragon because those two things are somehow connected.
The concept of dropping things is a strange one. I keep imagining these things in uncontrolled free fall... But I guess "lowering" is a less exciting word.
yeah, i've never heard of the tradition of dropping things, how do they do it anyway? isn't it freefall? i mean how would they drop a 350 lbs electronic pie...
Because he never said that the olive is not an actual olive I am going to purposely not look it up so that I can continue to believe that both the olive and the glass are real and normal sized. NO ONE RUIN THIS FOR ME.
Thanks for mentioning us! -Canada
I love being Canadian. He insults us. We thank him for mentioning us. :)
It's impossible to offend Canadians, we're just happy that you mentioned us! :D
Canada is the 6th fattest country.
Kryvox Second fattest by land mass!
"Nothing is real in this world except for baloney" is a quote I will take with me to my grave.
this is ironic considering how people may substitute the word bullshit with baloney meaning made up or fake
I just love how they used a picture of a "sugar glider" (AKA flying squirrel) as the fake opossum picture!!
Gotta love that random frame of bright red at 7:34
I see it to...
"Nothing is real in this world except -baloney- bologna!"
I love the irony of that statement.
***** Thanks! Silly typos...
We only prefer Tesla because he was smarter, a better inventor, and not a massive knob like Edison. Also, he's horribly under-appreciated, everyone loves an underdog
not to mention he was going to give the world free energy.
Wait... There's a tradition to drop something during New Years Eve
I was wondering the same thing, but then I realised it was entirely an American thing.
Shane Firth I'm American and I have never heard of this drop tradition thing.
Same here all I knew about was the ball in New York on tv
Yes, in the US. It started with this, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Square_Ball
I'm so glad my area (and hometown) got some good recognition: 7 Pennsylvania mentions here. You could probably make a whole episode about the things that are dropped/raised in the Harrisburg area.
I'm european and this whole video seems very weird to me.
I have always wanted to know the differences between Vanilla, French Vanilla and Vanilla bean flavored ice cream. Thank you Mental Floss.
As a Canadian, I can verify that it is still 1988.
I have lived in Bartlesville, OK for almost 20 years. It is a lovely town. My son in law got to drop the olive a few years ago. Apparently it is a huge honor in a town considered to be 20 miles from nowhere. Thanks for mentioning us.
Yay! My question was finally answered! Thanks John!
So proud to be from NC right now. I never knew that we had so many weird items dropped on New Year's Eve.
I remember being so disappointed when I found out that the ball in New York isn't actually dropped so much as lowered. Where's the fun in that?
I love watching the firework show at the space needle every year! It's so cool!
My mind is quite blown. I had no idea dropping things on new year's eve was an actual thing. I knew there was something about a ball drop in New York but figured it was nothing but some sort of saying.
Our local major radio station, KSL Radio, played some sound bits from this episode. WOOT WOOT!!!
My husband was listening to the radio on the drive home. "Hey, is that John Green on the radio?" Why yes it is!!!
I had to google what this "New Year's Drop" thing was. I have never heard of such a thing.
John, that comment on Bartlesville hit so close to home!!!!
In Ireland we just get drunk and sing songs... dropping stuff from the sky sounds cool though, we should probably try that
"Thanks for watching Menopause." at 7:53 :)
What a show!
American fans - Explain to this confused Brit how this dropping thing works. Do you literally drop things ? Is there a standard height they need to be dropped from ? Many thanks.
The objects are slowly lowered during the 10 second count down so they touch the ground when it finally hits midnight.
No they're usually on the tallest building in the town and 'dropped' aka lowered slowly over the course of 10 seconds to the ground/bottom of the platform/etc from a winch/platform/pole/etc.
Kelly B
Thank you, really appreciated.
Ody -Chan Thank you, appreciate the reply :-)
It took me a while to realise this wasn't about things lost (dropped) on NYE.
Memphis, TN also drops a Gibson guitar on new years on Beal Street.
EVERY TIME! Every time, I hear menopause. Oh, goodness.
I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE. thank goodness, I thought I was going crazy
+Amera Hassan So do I.
John Green! your book is part of our curriculum this semester!
I live in one of these places which is to not be named and I had absolutely no idea we raised that item on New Year's.
I live in Seattle, and I gotta say the fireworks show is one of the best times of the year. It's really something.
FinalNightmare36 No.
5:10 is not weird because I live in Raleigh and it is called the City of Oaks.
As a former Oklahoma resident, I have to say, HOW DARE YOU BE SO TRUTHFUL ABOUT BARTLESVILLE?!?!
I hope Mental Floss will do an episode featuring large statues, roadside attractions and works of art throughout the US. I'd love to see awesome statues like Big Ole in Alexandria, MN featured.
I live in Manhattan Beach, CA, which is slightly smaller than Manhattan, KS. Does that make my hometown the Littler Apple?
I was surprised to see Flagstaff on here.
I didn't think we were that special :,)
Hey there. I'm from Europe, so I've got a simple question: Where does the faszination of dropping things on New Year's Eve come from and what is its point? I've never heard of such things, but it seems to be very common in the States. I've seen the ball-thingy on Times Square, but I thought that's just a way of showing a countdown without using numbers - but this whole "let's drop things" seems to be something bigger ^^
From what I can figure out it was originally an attempt by The New York Times (like the newspaper) to gather a bigger crowd than the previous years did, which used only fireworks and the like. So they dropped a huge ball with lights on it from the top of a building. It worked.
I live in Gainesville, Ga and I've never heard of that but I find it hilarious and now know what I want to go watch this year
I always learn something new from your show. I know you don't have closed captions to this video, so I went ahead and made some. Please consider syncing them to this video. It will cost you nothing, yet open up your channel to the deaf and hard of hearing community. Here's the link:
www.amara.org/en/videos/T4W52iAyuShL/info/38-bizarre-items-dropped-on-new-years-eve-mental_floss-on-youtube-ep-40/
Here are clear instructions on how to manually input closed captions if you are unsure how to:
support.amara.org/support/solutions/articles/10336-how-do-i-manually-add-subtitles-to-youtube-
Thanks to the Mental Floss crew for all you do! I look forward to your next video.
Someone didn't forget to be awesome! \o/
Samantha Nicola :)
Raleigh's acorn is in reference to the "City of Oaks" nickname. John is correct the 10 foot copper acorn is displayed the rest of the year in Moore Square, a city-block-sized park in the heart of downtown Raleigh, surrounded by restaurants and bars that hosts concerts and other events, and contains several dozen large beautiful oak trees. It's a very pleasant place and the residents are rightly proud of it.
Hey now! Dillsburg Pennsylvania (right next to mecanicsburg) also drops a pickle but ours in bigger than 3 foot and he got married at new years last year!!!!
John Green talked about a town I live 10 miles from. Awesome! The fact that it was to mention the possum drop is rather less awesome.
There were so many from PA. I guess we like dropping weird things...
Looks like there were a lot from NC, too.
Not to mention Spring Grove PA which drops a goat, Harrisburg, PA which drops a strawberry, and Dillsburg, PA which drops a Pickle...
Hey, thanks for mentioning Canada! We always appreciate it
All food is fake... unless it's baloney... ironically
In Scotland we call New Years Eve, Hogmanay pronounced 'hog man ay' My dad came from Inverness and one of the traditions he grew up with is you don't drink any alcohol until after the bells (midnight). Also you needed someone to be your 'first foot' this is hopefully a male who's tall, dark and handsome Who brings a bottle of whisky to offer you a toast to your health, wealth and happiness for the next year.The lady of the house would have a veritable feast laid out on a table in the lounge, covered with her best tablecloth. The food would consist of Christmas cake, mince pies, bite size bits of cheese loaded onto cocktail sticks with tiny pickled onions, tiny sausage rolls, salted nuts, cut cold meats and there would also be a pot of homemade soup and chunks of warm crusty bread to go with it. Also you needed someone to be your 'first foot' this is hopefully a male who's tall, dark and handsome Who brings a bottle of whisky to offer you a toast to your health and wealth for the next year. Plus a lump of coal that brings the wish that your fire place may have fuel for the next twelve months. When I was a child, adults (anyone over the age of 18 years) could often go missing for around 3 days! because they were 'first footing' neighbours, friends and family. People would celebrate for around 3 days with non stop partying, drinking alcohol, eating and dancing! Any host would be horrified if they were asked for a drink and they did't have it! People would buy just about every alcoholic drink, beer, lager and soft drinks such as coke, lemonade and mixers. The you got your drink you could be sure it was at least 10 times stronger that you'd ever get in a bar! Times have changed, such a shame as I looked forward to growing up and taking part in the traditions.
I am confused... why drop things at New Year's at all? What is the tradition behind that? I have never heard about it before (European here) - I never thought that the "dropping" ball in NYC (?) was about the dropping, I thought it was about the flashiness of the ball... very confused
It started as a celebration of the new headquarter at time square of the newspaper New York Times, in 1907. During the years other towns have started to do a similar thing across USA. I agree that "dropping " something as a celebration seems a little silly, But for the last four years they also have someone sing the Juhn Lennon song " Imagine" , and i must give them credit for that.
(European here also)
Yeah, even us Canadians don't do it. I think it was a means to gather a whole bunch of people for a new years party but no way of counting down properly, so they added the drop.
"Nothing is real in this world, except baloney." - John Green. That needs to be on a shirt. :D
What's up with this dropping of things?
I live in Manhattan Kansas and for some reason being mentioned in this made me ridiculously happy.
Yes, the shout-outs to Pennsylvania are great, although you missed the goat dropped in Falmouth, and the pickle in Dillsburg, among others. Like the Huckleberry in Perry County.
A good several places in this video are in MY home state of Pennsylvania! I was never more proud to be a Pennsylvania boy than while watching this video, aimed at the whole world!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
:-)
I still keep hearing "Thank you for watching Menopause"
Glad I'm not the only one!
BWAHAHAHA! SPREAD THE EAR WORM! :)
I didn't know that North Carolina had so many New Years drops. I live here and I haven't seen a single one.
I'm curious. Is his rack specially built for all of the stuff or it's just a coincidence all of the stuff fit perfectly to the rack?
probably the illuminati m8
+Gabriella Marpaung 3rd possibility... they had a rack... and found stuff that fit it perfectly....
Okay, I'm Canadian so I'm just gonna say... grrrr!
Happy New Year, John!
"We all on the internet love Tesla"... I can bet that at least half of these viewers don't know who Tesla is, though I could also bet that most people that DO know of him like him. The only reason anyone would know about Tesla is if they did extensive research about the invention of electronics in the 1800s, because nearly all of his works were plagiarized and swindled by people such as J.P. Morgan, George Westinghouse, Marconi, and Edison among others. In a specific scenario, Tesla worked with Edison, and was promised $50,000 (worth 1 million today) if he improved his DC motor, which he did. But Edison dismissed that as "our American humor", and took all the credit of the work for himself, among the other things Tesla created. Edison was the plagiarist, the animal abuser (tested electricity on animals and radiation on humans), the imitator (he wasn't really a scientist, he purely used trial and error to invent the light bulb, THOUSANDS of tests), Edison the greedy. Tesla was the opposite of that. He was a genius, he was honest (sacrificing billions in royalties to save Westinghouse Company), he loved animals (esp. pigeons), and was one of the few true, honest scientists at that time. Want more information? Here's a good site that I used to refresh my memory blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2013/02/the-rise-and-fall-of-nikola-tesla-and-his-tower/
ArceusGPG
He developed autism in his older years and sought pigeons as companions, because he thought that any human relationship would get in the way of his invention making
Darticus the Great You can't develop autism, it's a constant condition that can fluctuate in it's obviousness but it is always present.
Alec Wimmer
Alright, then it became noticable in him. Whatever, makes no difference
Or, you know, paid attention to The Oatmeal, a popular Webcomic
I'd love an episode where you go through everything on your shelves behind you, haha. You've got everything from a TARDIS to a Left 4 Dead boomer XD
great tesla shoutout =D
What is it with the US and dropping things on NYE?
I think cities are mimicking the NYC tradition...that's what I've always assumed. I've seen the acorn drop in Raleigh it's pretty fun - it never occurred to me that they were dropping other weird things all over the place
YES! GO TESLA!
I love how towns/cities in NC make a good portion of this list.
I've never understood the dropping of things...
Yes... Here in Show Low, AZ (#30) we "Drop the Deuce" on New Years Eve. Still can't believe no one got the joke before they started advertizing it.
"Nothing is real in the world except for baloney" bit of a contradiction there if you know what I mean!
Bologna* :)
That's the point! He wanted to point out how terrible the fakeness of typical items of our 51 states by stating how incredibly ridiculous it is that only bologna is real...
steven wang
...51 states?
Sorry, just wanted to prove a point, I'm just being bad at everything, sorry.
steven wang
Well geez, don't be *that* hard on yourself. You're still better than Obama. "I've been to all 58 states..."
I've seen the opossum drop in Brasstown, NC many times! Even though I live closer to Charlotte, NC I can't say I've heard of a crown being dropped.
As someone who lives in Lancaster, Pa ( pronounced Lan-kister not Lan-caster) which neighbors Lebanon, Pa people actually pronounce it Lebanin not Lebanon. Also Hershey's also has a cool concert underneath the Kiss which is free and awesome. Just some mental floss for you John and internet.
PA represent!!!! (I live like an hour from you, creepy)
Angelina Brooks Getting in on the love in this comment, too because holy shit there are people in our VERY strange area that ALSO enjoy John Green & Co.
Ryan Conner I can confirm, as someone who actually lives in Lebanon. It (sorta) rhymes with cinnamon.
I am from Show Low AZ and we call the dropping of the 2 of clubs "Dropping a deuce" This started a few years ago!
what the hell is this? i have never heard of anything being dropped in this country, crazy yanks
EU number 1!!!!
same here... what is the dropping about?
Hell, I'm american and I've never heard of this tradition! Maybe it's time to get off the internet....
ValekHalfHeart Either we have no life and it happens everywhere, you have no life and it only happens in 'Merica or it happens nowhere and John green is laughing at us, I think it is c
well we DO have fireworks here in Europe... But in my ol' country we dance a waltz at midnight (or at least watch the skinny people from the Ballet do it) - Donauwalzer!! now that makes me interested what traditions each country has - I never thought about that before, it was always the Walzer for me
As a San Antonian, yes, yes he is.
The fireworks really are amazing, I can see them from my room about 15 miles away.
Just reuse the christmas tree peeps for arbor day. BAM. Solved.
"Nothing is real in this world except for Bologna." - John Green, 2013
where is new orleans and the dropping of a king cake baby?
Yep, we have the peach! *is proud that her home was mentioned in this video*
Why don't they drop the beat?
Or the bass?
I just moved to Flagstaff and I'm super excited for New Year's now :) com'n giant pine cone!
You're damn right we prefer Tesla.
Edison was a thieving jackass, long live Tesla!
Amelia Bee
Not to mention, Tesla was quite the dapper fellow. Someone had to say it. I mean, look at that hair!
Tesla died 71 years ago yesterday impoverished and alone! He deserved better!!
:C Poor Tesla. He'll never know our love from the void.
@4:31 that is NOT a possum that is a Sugar Glider! LoL
What the fuck is all this? Before I saw this video, I had absolutely no idea that this was any sort of tradition at all.
The Chuck the Chicken drop reminds me of the WKRP in Cincinnati episode! LOL!!!
Could someone help me? What is this 'dropping things on New Years Eve'? As a Norwegian, I've never heard of it, Are things dropped from a height? Is it something groups of people watch? How does this go...? Thanks in advance!
Ok, so these things are dropped from a considerable height. The biggest and most popular is in New York City. Their giant ball is lifted to a height of 77 feet and at one minute before midnight begins a controlled descent so that the drop will end at exactly midnight, the first second of the new year. The giant peach in Atlanta is raised to 138 feet. There are massive crowds attending these events (around 20,000 in New York) and it is a part of many Americans' traditions. The New York Ball Drop is also broadcasted on live TV along with the concert that precedes it.
Melanie Niemann Oh wow, that's so interesting and 'strange' for me! Thanks for your help!!! How's fireworks in America? Do families buy their own fireworks and go outside around 12 to fire it at 12, or are there organised events? Actually there's this cool thing they do in the Netherlands, where people use metal milk churns, calcium carbide and a little water to create pressure in the churns, then light it through a little hole the churn so the lid flies of with a VERY loud bang.
Strange Powers America is actually a really big place so many people have local city or county events, while some people prefer to just have a family and friends fireworks events. Some people prefer to actually not to in account of various factors such as location or that they don't like the noise. Really it greatly varies across the board since America is a very large and diverse place.
I'm pretty sure that's illegal to do in city limits. Not considering the potential danger of a bullet possibly clonking the unluckiest person in range.
I was just a little concerned, because in the south it is illegal to fire weapons in city limits. Like I said "Really it greatly varies across the board since America is a very large and diverse place"
Yes Mobile's moon pie made it on the list! I never thought it was weird though because everything in Mobile is about Madi Gras
Pensacola's Pelican drop is interesting though
Really, you went on about Panama City's pedestrian beach balls, but left out Pensacola's pelican drop? I am disappoint.
I love how that lil' Creeper is just constantly staring over John's shoulder XD
I'd like to point out how many of these are in Pennsylvania. #soproud
My mom also thinks John Green is saying "menopause" not "Mental Floss."
There are even more in PA then what John mentioned
This video has me feeling overly patriotic, or whatever word means proud to be from PA!
In Temecula Ca. where I used to live they drop a cluster of grapes fake off course but don't worry they have a children drop around 8:00 pm
He's right. We do prefer Tesla.
The pine cone is amazing. they close off the whole downtown and everyone watches. it's amesome!!!!!
Why is dropping things on New Year's Eve even a thing? I'd never even heard of that before. Oh Americans, you are weird.
I'm American and i'd never heard of it.
As someone who used to live in Sunbury I will admit that the Edison Hotel is actually a restaurant with extremely bad lighting. This subsequently caused the joke that they haven't revamped to lighting system since Edison built it.
better to have a giant peep than a giant poop fall out of the sky
Back in '96, I caught the largest walleye on record. The town nearby, Port Clinton, Ohio, has celebrated ever since by dropping a fiberglass fish that is a 1/3 scale replica of the fish I single-handedly brought in with my grandpa's old wooden fishing pole.
Lebanon, PA (and it's delicious bologna) is pronounced "Lebnin"
Oh, dang! Now I wish I had done my own little ceremony at midnight and drop something a few feet. Like a fake TARDIS I keep on a shelf. That would have been brilliant.
"NOTHING IS REAL IN THIS WORLD, EXCEPT FOR BOLOGNA." -John Green
I loved this and find it fascinating that we would drop things like wooden fleas, or the olive ... I actually would love to see the James Bond styled martini! This video has 8 minutes of awesomeness ! I included this video in my examiner article about crazy new year's celebrations! KUDOS on great video!
I live in Los Alamos, NM. It would be very bad if we dropped something according to our heritage. (The atomic bomb was invented here)
And all these years I've been watching the stupid ball in NY... I've missed so much..
Why do people in the USA drop stuff for new years?? That just seems weird...
Look up "time ball" on wikipedia. It was an old way of signaling time to ships.
Impressive list! And 7 from my home state! But I know of three more odd ones from PA. They drop a giant pickle in Dillsburg, a white rose in York, and they raise a red ros in Lancaster (home sweet home)