Happy (or Distracted) New Year! from First Things' PoMo Con Blog

Here's an article that decries the modern celebration of New Years; Ivan has a peculiar style in his writing: he has excellent diction.  If you try to read it as a smug group of observations rather than coming from the gingivitis'd mouth of a vindictive street corner preacher, then you might enjoy it better (thus having distanced yourself properly from the accusations it tenders).

Here's the link to the article itself.

Here's a juicy except that might pique your interest.

Simon Winchester complains the typical New Year’s celebration has reduced to little more than an excuse for unrestrained drunkenness and revelry. He lays blame for this woeful development partly on the example of the Scottish who have long treated the occasion as an opportunity for drinking themselves into a state of “catatonic incapacity”. Also, some culpability lies with the creation and popularization of modern public clocks that have allowed us to meticulously track and therefore exaggerate and fetishize the grand drama of the exact moment. The combination of chronological exactitude and Scottish bacchanalia gives us the now generally expected annual ritual of “midnight debauchery”.

post script: To Dave Chuck: Thank God the Ball dropped on New Years.