Speaker 1: Hello the Internet, and welcome to season whatever, episode whatever
Speaker 1: of Daily That guys, a production of iHeartRadio. It's the
Speaker 1: podcast where we take a deep avenue America, Share Countiness.
Speaker 1: And it's Friday, December twenty ninth, twenty twenty three. That's
Speaker 1: why it's whatever, because these are like the Evergreen episodes,
Speaker 1: but holiday EPs. My name is Jack O'Brien and I'm
Speaker 1: thrilled to be joined by some of the finest to
Speaker 1: ever do it.
Speaker 2: Superproducer on A Hoseba, superproducer Beca Rumollo, and superproducer Victor Ry.
Speaker 3: Hello.
Speaker 1: Wow, thanks, thanks for the energy everyone, No, I'm just joking. Uh.
Speaker 1: Great to have you guys here. Twenty twenty three is
Speaker 1: almost out the door. We thought we would do a
Speaker 1: New Year's themed episode. Last year we looked into the
Speaker 1: origins of some holiday Chrismass traditions, and this year we're
Speaker 1: gonna look at some origins of some New Year's traditions,
Speaker 1: some myths about New Year's and of course we're gonna
Speaker 1: look for some traditions we should steal from other countries.
Speaker 1: That's some fun, everybody.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you're promoting appropriation, gone.
Speaker 1: Yes, I am always that's kind of my thing America
Speaker 1: is I don't know. I feel like our traditions are
Speaker 1: we emerge from our apocalypse bunkers on New Year's Day,
Speaker 1: watch football, you know, talk about our messianic leaders. Particular
Speaker 1: excuse for this one again not being the year the
Speaker 1: world ended, but in other countries, this is one I like.
Speaker 1: So this is from a Reddit thread, whereas like New
Speaker 1: Year's traditions from other countries, and I don't know what
Speaker 1: country this is from, and maybe it's from the United States,
Speaker 1: also just a specific region. But they say we clean
Speaker 1: every inch of the house between Christmas and New Year's
Speaker 1: start off with clean house, love it. And then they
Speaker 1: also say to get a clean start out with the
Speaker 1: old and with the new, you throw your Christmas tree
Speaker 1: in a giant bombfire. Huh, I'm on board. What's everybody think?
Speaker 5: I mean, clean house is always a nice, nice touch.
Speaker 6: Yeah, bonfire as a pyro love that, but as like
Speaker 6: an environmentalist might be dangerous.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna say, make sure your tree isn't covered in
Speaker 4: like chemicals and stuff to keep me fresh. Maybe don't
Speaker 4: like burn.
Speaker 1: In the Christmas tree life.
Speaker 4: It's beyond that because they spray chemicals onto trees to
Speaker 4: like keep them fresh and stuff like, you gotta be
Speaker 4: aware of Jack and that's why you're going to hell.
Speaker 1: Specific Wor already this recording like forty five minutes said
Speaker 1: to the conversation, that was the fifth time that I
Speaker 1: come back to that, and I'm going to hell. Uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know Victor, all right, I guess we should just,
Speaker 1: you know, talk about the elephant in the room. When
Speaker 1: we first started talking about this episode. Uh, Victor made
Speaker 1: up a lie. I don't know where. He said, Well,
Speaker 1: and of course we do the tradition of the twelve grapes,
Speaker 1: and we all pointed out that that there's no such
Speaker 1: thing as that, and he had just made that up.
Speaker 1: This motherfucking hacker went back and added references to the
Speaker 1: twelve grapes to Reddit posts, so it seems like he
Speaker 1: wasn't lying about that. No, I guess wait, I guess.
Speaker 3: This is a I don't cute back. I'm not crazy.
Speaker 5: I guess I missed that.
Speaker 6: I hopped on after Victor had said it, and I
Speaker 6: just said it because it's true.
Speaker 5: It's a Latino tradition.
Speaker 1: There we go.
Speaker 3: To get spoiled by my whiteness because I said it.
Speaker 3: I said it in the meeting, and everyone in that
Speaker 3: meeting is like, I've never heard of this any Why
Speaker 3: would you do that?
Speaker 6: You guys don't have enough brown friends, and that is
Speaker 6: showing your lack of diversity and inclusion.
Speaker 1: So what I do is I don't have brown friends.
Speaker 1: But then I go on Reddit and I read about
Speaker 1: the traditions, and then I steal them. I believe that's
Speaker 1: called I forget what the name for that is. No,
Speaker 1: but this sounds this sounds like a nice, little, I
Speaker 1: don't know, holistic, healthy tradition where instead of drinking the
Speaker 1: wine or the champagne, you get the grapes before they
Speaker 1: gone bed. You just eat twelve of them. That is that?
Speaker 1: Am I getting that? Right?
Speaker 3: For each each ding dong of the New year twelve,
Speaker 3: you eat one grape. So that way I took you.
Speaker 1: Each ding dong of the New year twelve you eat
Speaker 1: one grape.
Speaker 3: Yeah exactly. So that way, by the time you gets
Speaker 3: the last one, you're on your last grape and then
Speaker 3: you have a full year of you know, health and
Speaker 3: good vibes.
Speaker 1: You've got a handful of grape stem z. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Got well, you're supposed to at least in the tradition.
Speaker 6: I knew it as and I'm sorry as I keep
Speaker 6: moving around as my dog decided to wake up just
Speaker 6: now and eat the leaves. You're supposed to eat them
Speaker 6: all under the table before the stroke of midnight, at
Speaker 6: least in my house. And if you eat them all
Speaker 6: over under the table before the stroke of midnight, which
Speaker 6: it's actually kind of hard to eat twelve grapes that fast,
Speaker 6: you are supposed to get I think prosperity for the year,
Speaker 6: or like I think good relationships and love like you're
Speaker 6: like you're supposed to like wish upon like whatever relationship
Speaker 6: goals you have, like you should win in prosperity if
Speaker 6: you can do it.
Speaker 3: There's also another aspect that I never heard about until
Speaker 3: I was researching for this, is that you're so supposed
Speaker 3: to also be wearing red underwear that was a gift
Speaker 3: to you while eating the grapes. I don't know where
Speaker 3: that came from, but it is. I found it in
Speaker 3: multiple of the sources that I was researching.
Speaker 1: Something borrowed, something new, something something something blue. Yeah, exactly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a wedding traditionally, I think.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's typically weddings.
Speaker 1: Yes, so I saw as I was doing research, I
Speaker 1: saw a lot of different countries with different colored underpants, yellow, pink, red,
Speaker 1: So shout out to various colors of underpants. I don't
Speaker 1: think I have any of those colors of underpants. Yellow.
Speaker 3: I definitely have yellow. Actually, so, but did they start
Speaker 3: out as white?
Speaker 1: They did.
Speaker 6: I wasn't gonna make that joke, but but yeah, so cleaning.
Speaker 1: The other one that I saw, there's diving into a
Speaker 1: body of water on the first to tort yourself first
Speaker 1: footing was a new one that I wasn't familiar with.
Speaker 1: According to this Reddit post, it's an old fashioned way
Speaker 1: of bringing good luck for the new year. The first
Speaker 1: person to enter a house that year should be a tall,
Speaker 1: dark haired man, preferably with whiskey, food and coal or
Speaker 1: pete something.
Speaker 5: Someone's like, what pad you know? And that's not like
Speaker 5: a fantasy.
Speaker 1: Right yeah? All yeah, with like just like a rock
Speaker 1: hard body and just like a great smile. Just should
Speaker 1: be the first person who comes through that door, not
Speaker 1: my husband. Yeah, I don't know, that's fun. Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: that was kind of my favorite. Old old tradition is
Speaker 1: like having specific things about who the first person who
Speaker 1: comes through your door can be. And like the idea
Speaker 1: of having to like turn people away because they're not
Speaker 1: to your.
Speaker 5: Spacere who I was looking for.
Speaker 1: You can come through the fucking window, pal, but you're
Speaker 1: not neither tall enough nor dark haired enough. On any
Speaker 1: traditions sounding good to you.
Speaker 4: I like grapes. I'll eat a grape crap underwear. Sure,
Speaker 4: I'm not very good at planning which underwear to wears.
Speaker 4: That would be tough for me. Yeah, the whole. Like, honestly,
Speaker 4: I'll do any tradition where.
Speaker 1: You eat, yeah, but don't come to my house.
Speaker 4: You come to my house, but I won't be there.
Speaker 1: There are also some like that are basically trigger treating,
Speaker 1: but for adults, where people like go house to house
Speaker 1: and that that is one with like scarling, yeah, kind
Speaker 1: of caroling. But it just made me realize, like, first
Speaker 1: of all, we're in desperate need of like community now
Speaker 1: as everyone's super lonely, and trigger treating's kind of wasted
Speaker 1: on children because they just like go up and do
Speaker 1: the cute thing and then leave, and like they don't
Speaker 1: have conversations with the people they're going up there with
Speaker 1: because they're fucking stupid. They're just kids. They don't have
Speaker 1: shit to offer, but like it if there was something
Speaker 1: that was a little bit more low key and you
Speaker 1: just like went from house to house and you know,
Speaker 1: got to got to know your neighbors. I feel like
Speaker 1: opened one another's houses to one another. That could be fun,
Speaker 1: assuming that they were a tall, dark haired man. Just
Speaker 1: the only only way they getting at my fucking house.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you that much.
Speaker 3: If everyone's going to each other's houses, who is going
Speaker 3: to stay in the houses to greet you? Oh?
Speaker 5: Good question, that's just.
Speaker 3: A bunch of empty houses.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, question the question on every Halloween, you know,
Speaker 1: you do somebody stays home to give out the candy,
Speaker 1: somebody goes out with the kiddos, and then you uh
Speaker 1: switch at some point. By the way, it's the Netherlands
Speaker 1: who are burning their Christmas trees. The Netherlands. So I
Speaker 1: see those trees, fresh fresh ass trees. I feel like
Speaker 1: they grow on trees.
Speaker 4: They have little Dutch elves growing trees, I believe.
Speaker 1: So yeah, all right, let's take a quick break and
Speaker 1: then we're going to come back and look at some
Speaker 1: histories of some of these New Year's Eve traditions and
Speaker 1: we'll be right back. And we're back and parties, New
Speaker 1: Year's Eve parties. Have you guys heard about these? Have
Speaker 1: you seen these things? New Year's Eve parties. So people
Speaker 1: been partying on New Year's since around two thousand BC,
Speaker 1: not not always on December thirty first. Caesar made that
Speaker 1: decision and then was promptly murdered, not necessarily for it,
Speaker 1: but uh she switched to our current calendar and then
Speaker 1: got merked. So they used to do it to coincide
Speaker 1: with the vernal equinox in March, much better time to
Speaker 1: have a big outdoor party. And it was not one day.
Speaker 1: It was an eleven day festival that included rituals celebrating
Speaker 1: the victory of the sky god Marduck over the sea
Speaker 1: goddess Tiamat, and the crowning of the next king. Is
Speaker 1: there a world where this sort of like roving multi
Speaker 1: week party becomes a thing again.
Speaker 5: For New Year specifically, or like any why not.
Speaker 1: Go with New Year's?
Speaker 6: I will say in Puerto Rico, Christmas is like a
Speaker 6: three week party like Traditionally in the Highland of Puerto Rico,
Speaker 6: Christmas is from I think the week before Christmas to
Speaker 6: like January eighth or thirteen. It's whenever three Kings Day
Speaker 6: is sorry bad Catholic over here. I don't remember when
Speaker 6: three Dings days, but that is how long Christmas is
Speaker 6: celebrated in Puerto Rico, and it's usually a three week party.
Speaker 1: Amaze, go go go, like yes this shit. Have you
Speaker 1: ever talked to a European person about vacations and they're like, Oh,
Speaker 1: you don't take like four weeks holiday? What is wrong
Speaker 1: with you? Yeah, it's I feel like That's what I'm
Speaker 1: learning about our New Year celebration.
Speaker 5: Is like, actually, can we just take more vacations?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we just like have fucking four week parties. Like,
Speaker 1: what what are we doing here?
Speaker 3: I feel like if we tried introducing a four week
Speaker 3: party to America specifically turned into like the Fire Festival
Speaker 3: or something.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: So nine month cruise but.
Speaker 6: They talked about is alcoholism and gambling addict and someone's
Speaker 6: gonna get pregnant and someone's definitely gonna die on that
Speaker 6: cruise and does gluttony galore.
Speaker 1: So you happen to have both generational wealth and alcohol
Speaker 1: come to the Royal Caribbean Cruise. Yeah, nine months Jesus.
Speaker 1: It took until the eighteen hundreds for the tradition of
Speaker 1: staying up to midnight to catch on. But back then
Speaker 1: it involved going from house to house to get ship
Speaker 1: faced with your neighbors. So, like I said, there's a
Speaker 1: precedent here. Probably also because like the streets were too
Speaker 1: dark to like go very far, so you know that's
Speaker 1: pretty late. But yeah, we we lost the going house
Speaker 1: to house part of the holiday in the past century,
Speaker 1: except for Halloween, which I feel like Halloween's a blast.
Speaker 1: Like I just so to.
Speaker 6: People carol anymore. People don't don't go caroling, do you, I.
Speaker 1: Like occasionally they do. And it's not like not everyone
Speaker 1: goes caroling. It's not like you can assume that there's
Speaker 1: going to be like there might be some carollers, Like
Speaker 1: I'd say we have average over the past couple of years,
Speaker 1: like one third caroler per like holiday season, like just
Speaker 1: yeh wherever I am. So it's not like, do you
Speaker 1: guys get carolers? Do you get steady carolers coming to.
Speaker 5: In an apartment?
Speaker 4: So never in my life have I seen a caroler
Speaker 4: in person.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I love parallel though.
Speaker 6: When I was young, my mom used to make all
Speaker 6: the neighborhood kids go caroling and then we would rewrite
Speaker 6: some of the Christmas carols to like Pokemon related because
Speaker 6: all the kids were relating to Pokemon back then. So yeah,
Speaker 6: we would do like the Twelve Days of Pokemon and
Speaker 6: sing it to the neighborhood.
Speaker 1: That's cute, that's so fun. I think. I think the
Speaker 1: main thing I want here is for an excuse to
Speaker 1: close the roads, Like I just close because that's what
Speaker 1: I think, that's what everybody's craving, Like, it's so much
Speaker 1: what we want that, Like we created the post apocalyptic
Speaker 1: movie genre to just be like that's our fantasy about
Speaker 1: wh ackable cities is just is what movies are. So
Speaker 1: just like I mean, post apocalyptic movies like usually don't
Speaker 1: have cars or like there's a lot of them where
Speaker 1: you're just like walking down a road and it's like, what,
Speaker 1: why would that be how things are? Why isn't everybody
Speaker 1: like driving where they're going. It's because people fucking hate
Speaker 1: cars secretly and they want they want a world without cars.
Speaker 1: So turn that that's my tradition. Close neighbor little neighborhood roads.
Speaker 1: You can still keep the thoroughfares open. People can drive
Speaker 1: like five miles per hour if they need to, like
Speaker 1: get out of the their neighborhood to go somewhere but
Speaker 1: otherwise shut the shit down, kind of like how some
Speaker 1: places do for trigger treating. All right, So that's the
Speaker 1: history of parties and some ideas I think we should
Speaker 1: bring back. Champagne was only invented due to a colossal
Speaker 1: fuck up, like that there was a one bad year
Speaker 1: for wine, like very bad, and like the fermentation process
Speaker 1: was so bad that it like created too much carbon
Speaker 1: monoxide inside the bottles, so everyone was like, this is
Speaker 1: fucking terrible. And then they somehow used branding to trick
Speaker 1: people into thinking that it was good, and so then
Speaker 1: rich people started drinking it. It became popular, and in
Speaker 1: the eighteen eighties it was made available to the masses
Speaker 1: and marketed as an aspirational beverage, which is why it
Speaker 1: became a thing for New Year's because so much so
Speaker 1: many of the traditions are like good luck for being
Speaker 1: rich this year. It seems like is kind of the
Speaker 1: overall vibe, an attempt to manifest riches for the coming
Speaker 1: year by drinking like a rich person.
Speaker 3: And so they immediately marketed it to rich people like
Speaker 3: they're like, this is a fucked up drink, and then
Speaker 3: they just tried to get rich people to buy it
Speaker 3: as soon as possible.
Speaker 1: This is a fuck up drink. You know who'd love this?
Speaker 1: Those rich? Yeah, well, I think that's always who you
Speaker 1: start out marketing a thing too, Yeah yeah, and then
Speaker 1: if that doesn't work, you work your way down. But
Speaker 1: I think it needs to catch on with a rich
Speaker 1: for it to like get enough legs and momentum for
Speaker 1: it to then become a thing that gets well.
Speaker 6: I feel like only rich people, through history and time
Speaker 6: are the people who have disposable enough income to be like, yeah,
Speaker 6: I'll do this poofy ass thing this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, They're the only people with enough disposable income and
Speaker 1: time to be like, getting normal drunk isn't good enough.
Speaker 1: Let's get drunk on the broken wine that has bubbles
Speaker 1: in it by accident, you know. And our writer points
Speaker 1: out that like the pop of the cork became a
Speaker 1: new marker for the stroke of midnight. Before that, it
Speaker 1: was always church bells. But as society became more secular,
Speaker 1: people associated New Year's Eve more with getting fucked up
Speaker 1: and drinking champagne rather than religion.
Speaker 4: A society became more like sort of alcoholics.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: With the realization that sorry, my voice is going away. Yeah,
Speaker 4: excuse me. With the realization that everything was going downhill,
Speaker 4: we had to drink more. It's actually, you know what
Speaker 4: I'd love to really look at is like, what when
Speaker 4: did things start to fall apart in America's Day one?
Speaker 1: The day like.
Speaker 4: We all it was like a downhill from there, Isn't
Speaker 4: that funny?
Speaker 1: It was like so new, Oh my god, this is amazing.
Speaker 4: Then they were like, we must destroy and conquer immediately.
Speaker 3: Isn't that fun?
Speaker 4: Happy holidays?
Speaker 1: Are you guys? Champagne fans?
Speaker 4: You mean champagne freaks champagne.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say freaks, but I didn't want to
Speaker 1: be disparaging to the champagne freaks out there.
Speaker 4: I could be like, if I'm on a private plane, Wow,
Speaker 4: I'm just joking.
Speaker 1: You changed special.
Speaker 4: It's a special occasion sort of drink. I think I
Speaker 4: don't just go like, pop this champagne, bitches, and my
Speaker 4: partner's like, it's get to work in the morning.
Speaker 1: I think I've made it clear, like it's not a
Speaker 1: surprised to me that it's accidental as your body like
Speaker 1: immediately converts it to bile. Like the second that goes
Speaker 1: down your throat. I feel like, if you've ever if
Speaker 1: you've ever had champagne come back up on you, it's not.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I guess that's kind of true.
Speaker 6: I really will only drink champagne and I'm Mimosa vibe,
Speaker 6: you know, like that's yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: My friend bought me this really nice, expensive bottle of
Speaker 6: champagne for my birthday and I was like.
Speaker 5: Why why would you do this?
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do with this.
Speaker 5: I saw, haven't opened it.
Speaker 6: I'm like, yeah, I don't drink enough alcohol and or
Speaker 6: champagne to like feel comfortable just opening it knowing I
Speaker 6: can't reseal it, and I feel like I need a party,
Speaker 6: another party, Yeah, to open it.
Speaker 3: It is just instant headache for me back where it's
Speaker 3: just the minute it touches my lips, I get a migraine.
Speaker 3: So I usually try to stay away from champagne.
Speaker 1: The popping of the quirk that was so fun, Like
Speaker 1: that's one of one of the great little I don't know. Also,
Speaker 1: I discovered recently confetti cannons. I'd assume those were Have
Speaker 1: you ever seen those.
Speaker 5: Like the things little popper ones?
Speaker 1: Yeah for a little popper, But have you seen the
Speaker 1: ones that like really like explode the shit out, like
Speaker 1: and make a loud like gunshot noise.
Speaker 6: Yeah, like the big ones, right, people use themse for
Speaker 6: like uh, wow, why am I spacing baby shower baby
Speaker 6: gender reveal?
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, I accidentally got one of those from Target.
Speaker 1: I thought it was the kind that just like did
Speaker 1: an air blast and like blew the confetti out, but
Speaker 1: it was. It was a little explosion in there, smelled
Speaker 1: like gunpowder and just the most fun. Highly recommend that
Speaker 1: those the fun little addition to our our New Year's
Speaker 1: traditions at the O'Brien house. I feel like I wouldn't
Speaker 1: mind if they brought back bell ringing, like at the
Speaker 1: bell ring. I love when the bells start a ringing
Speaker 1: around town in movies. I don't think I've ever been
Speaker 1: in where it was happening, but like, well.
Speaker 6: If you live in the Ramos household, you'll hear a
Speaker 6: bell ring every hour every fifteen minutes technically so from
Speaker 6: the Grandfather clock.
Speaker 1: Wow in our house. Yeah, like city wide bell ringing
Speaker 1: like that, Like it's like Queen Elizabeth was just born
Speaker 1: or some shit. Like it's okay. I feel like there's
Speaker 1: something fun and quaint about that.
Speaker 5: It's giving a hallmark movie for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just not possible because nobody wants to hang
Speaker 1: out in a church that late, I guess, or like
Speaker 1: people who do hang out at churches like are in
Speaker 1: bed by nine o'clock. But that used to be the
Speaker 1: way people.
Speaker 3: People got down by ringing bells in churches, a quasi
Speaker 3: moto character just ringing the bell. That was the only
Speaker 3: way that people communicated with one another back it was
Speaker 3: just ringing, ringing church bells.
Speaker 1: And then old Lang sign the song that nobody has
Speaker 1: ever heard wells Sober was written by Scottish poet Robert Burns.
Speaker 1: But then like it wasn't initially paired with that really
Speaker 1: sad ass song, which it is like a weirdly melancholy
Speaker 1: song or a thing that's supposed to be a celebration.
Speaker 6: Of a new new dawn, a new time, a new era,
Speaker 6: you gause. I've never really listened to the lyrics. I
Speaker 6: just picture it in the movie New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember it from the movie where the Poseidon Adventure,
Speaker 1: I think, where a giant rogue wave knocks over a
Speaker 1: fucking cruise ship. But yeah, the song is so sad
Speaker 1: that It was actually banned by the Union Army during
Speaker 1: the Civil War because they were worried they would.
Speaker 5: Like, already down you, we cannot bring them down further.
Speaker 1: They thought it would invoke homesickness in their troops. They're like, look, guys,
Speaker 1: everyone's gonna fucking kill themselves if they hear this song.
Speaker 3: But let's stick with it as our New Year's Eve theme.
Speaker 3: Why why did they have to ban it? Was everyone
Speaker 3: trying to sing it, and they're like, to stop singing
Speaker 3: this fucking song.
Speaker 5: I want to know what a band like that looks like.
Speaker 5: Though you're already in the havoc of war.
Speaker 6: Yeah, how do we get out the word that we
Speaker 6: also cannot sing?
Speaker 1: They can't someone singing it out behind the outhouse and
Speaker 1: then like cut to them.
Speaker 5: Being hung because we cannot sing that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were at war, But and then there was
Speaker 1: I got It became inextricably linked to New Year's Eve
Speaker 1: and pop culture because there's a big band leader, Guy Lombardo,
Speaker 1: who can forget Guy Lombardo, who played it every year
Speaker 1: on his New Year's Eve show, which began in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty nine on the radio, eventually ended as a TV
Speaker 1: show in nineteen seventy six and that's why we have
Speaker 1: it to this day, old guy Lombardo. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: kind of appreciate it's poignancy. You know, Christmas is just
Speaker 1: all sugar, all like sweet songs. Even the sad songs
Speaker 1: are kind of like Maudlin and like sweet and like
Speaker 1: all about how I miss you, I love you. And
Speaker 1: this one's just like we're only here for a little bit. Guys,
Speaker 1: we're all gonna be dead. So that's that's the vibes
Speaker 1: I get from it.
Speaker 3: Anyways, I like how you could also, I feel like
Speaker 3: anyone could sing it too, Like in a group. It
Speaker 3: sounds decent, like if you try, if a random person
Speaker 3: tried singing oh Holy night or something, yeah, that would
Speaker 3: be a disaster. But this one, I think everyone can
Speaker 3: sing it in a group, which I appreciate quite a bit.
Speaker 1: Let's all try right now. I just I don't know
Speaker 1: the words, like that's the thing. But I always my
Speaker 1: brain always wants to turn it into keep your eye
Speaker 1: on the Grand old Flag, like it has a son,
Speaker 1: you know that song and keep your eye on the
Speaker 1: Grand all Flag. Let's take a quick break, we'll come back.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about the ball drop we'll talk about New
Speaker 1: Year's myths, all of it more, and we're back in
Speaker 1: the ball drop. We love it, don't we, folks. It
Speaker 1: is not intended as a visual metaphor for puberty. It
Speaker 1: was actually invented because fireworks were abanned nineteen oh seven
Speaker 1: after the previous year's fireworks just rained hot ash onto
Speaker 1: New York City streets and everyone was freaked out, and in.
Speaker 6: This research wasn't Is that a common notion that people
Speaker 6: think the ball drop is supposed to be in relation
Speaker 6: to male puberty.
Speaker 1: I think that was just a little I think that
Speaker 1: was our writer j McNabb a little bit fine, But
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a joke. Everybody has made it
Speaker 1: at some point.
Speaker 6: Oh I must be in the wrong sort the passage
Speaker 6: of time, you know, with only women.
Speaker 1: It's it's very abstract, like it is a weird thing
Speaker 1: that like we we all just kind of accept because
Speaker 1: it's been the thing since we were kids. But to
Speaker 1: have a ball drop it feels like something out of
Speaker 1: a modern art exhibit. But yeah, it was just because
Speaker 1: fireworks burned to people.
Speaker 3: That is the worst compromise ever, Like you can't shoot
Speaker 3: off the cool fireworks, but you could just drop this
Speaker 3: ball on New Year's Eve.
Speaker 1: And when I heard about it, I thought it was
Speaker 1: going to be like really kinetic, like the ball was
Speaker 1: going to like fall really fast and fall a great distance.
Speaker 1: And then when I saw it, it's just like kind
Speaker 1: of like goes down slowly and then nothing happens. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I feel like we could feel like we
Speaker 1: could beat it.
Speaker 3: Folks in the research, was there a reason why the
Speaker 3: ball specifically, you say that it was like the that's
Speaker 3: the only thing that they could think of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but nineteen oh seven, man people were dropping balls
Speaker 1: all over the place. I mean they were about to
Speaker 1: drop the ultimate ball. By having World War One, that's
Speaker 1: major fuck up. So I don't know, it just unsuccessful,
Speaker 1: I would say. But it's stuck around because there's nothing else.
Speaker 1: There are other things though, right, Like what don't other
Speaker 1: cities have other things. I feel like I'm always just
Speaker 1: like a little underwhelmed by what happens at various New
Speaker 1: Year's celebrations. They are like the ball rise this one
Speaker 1: the ball goes upwards, which makes about the same amount
Speaker 1: of sense, and then New Year's resolutions can mainly be
Speaker 1: traced back to early Christians who saw New Year's Days,
Speaker 1: the traditional time for thinking about one's past mistakes and
Speaker 1: resolving to do and be better in the future. Fun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and also I guess ancient Babylonians were in there, but yeah,
Speaker 1: now it's just a way for corporations to try and
Speaker 1: associate themselves with like aspirational shit like Coke Producings. Coke
Speaker 1: produced resolution themed cans in twenty twenty one that look
Speaker 1: like shit and say I promised too blank just for you.
Speaker 5: Hmmm.
Speaker 3: This one's do better in the picture, which just is
Speaker 3: so vague and confusing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it sounds like a bad boyfriend being like, I'm sorry, bib,
Speaker 1: I promise to like do better for you.
Speaker 3: I learned resolutions were bullshit when I was a freshman
Speaker 3: in college and my friend tried quitting cigarettes for his
Speaker 3: New Year's resolution, and then two weeks later I saw
Speaker 3: him like double fisting not three cigarettes, yeah, and then
Speaker 3: just throwing up in the bushes afterwards, because like his
Speaker 3: tolerance went down and then he just needed it very
Speaker 3: quickly after. So that's when I learned that resolutions became
Speaker 3: kind of bullshit. You know, got to do it.
Speaker 6: I like the idea, like I love the the aspiration
Speaker 6: of a resolution. I every year do write down a
Speaker 6: bunch of resolutions, but and I like to look back
Speaker 6: on them, like in December, Like I wrote them in January,
Speaker 6: and I would look back at them on this month
Speaker 6: and be like, oh, what did I actually accomplish? What
Speaker 6: did not actually accomplish? But I don't try to like
Speaker 6: hold myself and ran I'm so sorry for my audio
Speaker 6: right now.
Speaker 1: I don't try to hold.
Speaker 6: Myself to them so deeply, like I'm not gonna make
Speaker 6: myself feel bad if I didn't read the amount of
Speaker 6: books I said I was going to read, or like
Speaker 6: do whatever. It's more of a chance to recognize maybe
Speaker 6: how I've changed as a person, or like, you know, oh,
Speaker 6: these goals were my goals at the beginning of the year,
Speaker 6: but what about me has changed at the end of
Speaker 6: the year that like, maybe those aren't my goals anymore.
Speaker 5: And it's kind of cool to see if things did
Speaker 5: go the way I thought they would or or not.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 5: I like a good time of reflection.
Speaker 1: I mean, I admire people who are able to make
Speaker 1: near's resolutions and stick to like So there's the statistic
Speaker 1: that eighty percent of people give up on their resolutions
Speaker 1: by mid February. That's like so much longer than I
Speaker 1: would have expected, and that I would be making it,
Speaker 1: like for something that I just like made up as
Speaker 1: a goal for myself because everyone else is making up
Speaker 1: goals of that time of year. It's my hat's off,
Speaker 1: my little New Year's hat off to you for making
Speaker 1: it a month and a half with a New Year's resolution.
Speaker 1: That's that's so much further than I would have expected.
Speaker 4: Do you want to hear my resolution?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's to say less, say less.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm done talking to you fools my job.
Speaker 3: What I know.
Speaker 4: My resolution is to say less on podcasts.
Speaker 5: I wish that was Cheecha's resolution right now.
Speaker 1: I think she's making great points. So yeah, some experts
Speaker 1: think resolutions are bad for people because they aren't sustainable
Speaker 1: or realistic, creating a cycle where you become more critical
Speaker 1: of yourself. But I don't know, don't make me, don't
Speaker 1: yuck my yum on New Year's resolutions.
Speaker 3: I feel like that's because people the resolutions themselves don't
Speaker 3: make like are impossible. Like instead of oh, I want
Speaker 3: to read twenty minutes a day, people will go like,
Speaker 3: I want to read fifty books this year or something. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, so instead of like doing oh I need
Speaker 3: here's the end result, just do like a little bit
Speaker 3: every day and then that will be easier to resolve.
Speaker 5: You know, you got to make smart goals, you know, yeah.
Speaker 1: Exactly, so why you should download my app Smart Goals.
Speaker 1: So here are a couple myths. First of all, not
Speaker 1: true that nears is the most dangerous day to drive.
Speaker 1: Probably not the safest either, but despite all the drunkenness,
Speaker 1: Memorial Day is actually worse for car accidents, followed by
Speaker 1: Labor Day, Independence Day, Columbus Day, Father's Day, and singaday
Speaker 1: mayo Jesus, that's dark, Come on, dad, Jesus Christ. But
Speaker 1: so the reason for this, they think, is because public
Speaker 1: transit is often made free on New Year's Eve, and
Speaker 1: so it reduces the number of cars on the road.
Speaker 1: And also it's just like more transparently time for people
Speaker 1: to go out and drink. And so you're not like
Speaker 1: with Memorial Day or Labor Day. I can see like
Speaker 1: there's some like, oh, we were going to a picnic
Speaker 1: or something with the whole family, but then people are
Speaker 1: still drinking. Where it's like New Year's It's like no
Speaker 1: you're planning the whole day A lot of the times
Speaker 1: around the idea that you're not going to be able
Speaker 1: to drive home sober, or like me, you'll be home
Speaker 1: the whole time playing with your confetti cannons, the joys
Speaker 1: of sobriety.
Speaker 4: I really hope you're picking up all that confetti after
Speaker 4: you shoot it.
Speaker 1: Nah, it's still there from last year. Well, it's just
Speaker 1: on the ground, it is. So New Year's is the
Speaker 1: worst day for car thefts, huh, or the best day
Speaker 1: for car thieves, because I don't know, I'm assuming so
Speaker 1: like a lot of the articles assume that it's because
Speaker 1: car thieves are drunk and like making bad decisions. But
Speaker 1: I would assume it's because the people who are getting
Speaker 1: their cars stolen are drunk and making bad decisions, right,
Speaker 1: like and just like leaving.
Speaker 3: Their car on just leaving their keys or like that, yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, or like you went away for the holiday, so
Speaker 6: you've left your car, yeah, and it's you know, people
Speaker 6: kind of know you're not around. And so because I'm
Speaker 6: sure that happens a lot in Brooklyn, Like I live
Speaker 6: on a street that has like alternate side of parking
Speaker 6: or whatever, so people obviously leave their cars for like
Speaker 6: multiple days, and I'm sure if they're like out of town,
Speaker 6: they're leaving their cars. So yeah, Like if you just
Speaker 6: kind of are watching and you know what cars are
Speaker 6: around and how many days they've been, you could.
Speaker 1: Be like, yeah, oop, the sound of a car being
Speaker 1: sound of theft, sound of theft real quick.
Speaker 3: I am looking at the Snopes article and it is
Speaker 3: confirming what we just talked about. Of there was no
Speaker 3: specific reason they gave as to why there are, but
Speaker 3: an ICP's Frank Scaffiti.
Speaker 1: It's stating, you, mother fucker people.
Speaker 3: Get drunk on New Year's and that makes many otherwise
Speaker 3: ordinary responsible adults act like mindless morons and do things
Speaker 3: they might not do when they're sober.
Speaker 4: So yeah, that so me to like rob a car
Speaker 4: when I'm drunk, me hyperb the car.
Speaker 3: I'm such a leo.
Speaker 1: Or it could be because weirdly Christmas is like the
Speaker 1: lowest time for car theft, like a week before. It
Speaker 1: could be that people like resolved to not steal a
Speaker 1: car on Christmas. It's like your friend with the cigarettes.
Speaker 1: They're like, ah, yeah, now I'm just gonna steal all
Speaker 1: the fucking cars. Been without car theft for too long,
Speaker 1: double fisting cigarettes, double fisting car theft. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know, watch out for car thieves or keep your
Speaker 1: eye out for good cars to steal this New Year's
Speaker 1: would be my advice for everyone. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for joining for this special year end episode. This
Speaker 1: is not the last Evergreen Holiday episode that you're listening to,
Speaker 1: it is the last one we're recording. So it's been
Speaker 1: a pleasure recording with you guys. And yeah, we are
Speaker 1: back in the new year, back with more holiday episodes
Speaker 1: in the coming days. Hope everyone's having a great holiday
Speaker 1: and we will talk to y'all soon.
Speaker 3: Bye bye, bye bye