Althouse: It's New Year's Eve.

December 31, 2016

It's New Year's Eve.

Maybe you can have as much fun as my parents had in 1955:

52 comments:

rcocean said...: Ha. That is so great. We're not going to have that much fun. My wife is East Asian and she doesn't care about New Years. To her, the *real* New Years occurs later on.

BTW, as a kid I always hated adults with Cigarettes between their fingers. I always thought they were going to accidentally hit me with the lit end.; 12/31/16, 6:10 PM
rhhardin said...: Dog celebrating with plain yogurt.

I notice it has the composition of a self portrait, with one eye seen but not seeing and the other eye in darkness, as if the subject were blind.; 12/31/16, 6:22 PM
rhhardin said...: I just worked Western Sahara on 40m. I turned on the radio by the mouse and there he was, S01WS, a stop on my web surfing routine.

A country I never heard of.; 12/31/16, 6:25 PM
madAsHell said...: Haven't you used this video....er, pardon me....movie in an earlier post??

If you upload a movie to YouTube, then does it become a video?; 12/31/16, 6:35 PM
Charlie Currie said...: Wait, these are my family home movies...ha...I really need to work on getting mine digitized.; 12/31/16, 6:48 PM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/31/16, 6:58 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Great family flick! America in the 50s - I love it.; 12/31/16, 7:03 PM
gspencer said...: This couldn't be an authentic Christmas or New Year's Eve party from the 1950s or the 1960s.

I didn't see one person wearing a lampshade.; 12/31/16, 7:15 PM
Mark said...: Although apparently he was dressed as Santa Claus, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the attacker who killed at least 35 people at the Istanbul nightclub was in fact . . . a radical Islamist who attacked because the nightclub is western and thus offensive to Islam.; 12/31/16, 7:15 PM
MaxedOutMama said...: Happy New Year to all!; 12/31/16, 7:16 PM
Birkel said...: Happy New Year to the House of Alt-... -House...

Hope it goes better here than it did in Istanbul, Turkey.; 12/31/16, 7:17 PM
Cath said...: I know it's better not to smoke, but there is something so elegant about how both the men and the ladies held their cigarettes back then. My parents both smoked and I loved how my mom held her cigarettes and tapped away the ashes so gracefully. My dad had a similarly mesmerizing masculine set of cigarette gestures. I was showing my daughter how just yesterday, with some candy cigarettes from the Christmas stocking.; 12/31/16, 7:23 PM
Fabi said...: That's an old school video!

Happy New Year, Ann -- and thank you for this fine blog.; 12/31/16, 7:25 PM
Wince said...: Did any children coincidentally arrive 9 months after that hootenanny?; 12/31/16, 7:39 PM
Original Mike said...: "the attacker who killed at least 35 people at the Istanbul nightclub..."

Christ. Another one?; 12/31/16, 7:59 PM
David Baker said...: I'm strapped into my Lazy-Boy, my mammoth, multi-inch flat-screen is fired up, I'm fed and ready for the fabled Times Square ball to drop.

Happy New Year, Althousians!; 12/31/16, 8:04 PM
mikee said...: Thank you, Althouse, for the entertainment of the past year.
I will comment no more forever,and will try to avoid the near occasions of your blog, delightful though it is.; 12/31/16, 8:07 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/31/16, 8:08 PM
BJM said...: Great video Althouse!

My folks had a Tiki party room with bamboo furniture, jungle floral drapes, a palm thatched roof over the bar and a pair of red & white conga drums ala Ricky Ricardo...corny as all get out now...but it was magical to an eight yr old creeping down the stairs in the dark to watch a very similar scene of merry making on New Year's Eve 1954.

Happy New Year Althousians!; 12/31/16, 8:13 PM
Original Mike said...: Got up this morning at 7am to watch the Sydney Harbour midnight fireworks, so if we can't make it to midnight in Madison I figure we've got New Year's Eve already covered.

Happy New Year everybody!; 12/31/16, 8:19 PM
dreams said...: I think the fifties were the best decade of my life.; 12/31/16, 8:19 PM
D. said...: OMG I saw a cigarette; 12/31/16, 8:29 PM
Curious George said...: Watching the Buckeyes get beat up by Clemson. Oh well, very young team. Next year!; 12/31/16, 8:51 PM
rhhardin said...: Traditionally, I just go to bed on new year's eve and the dog wakes me up at midnight when the rural gunfire starts outside.; 12/31/16, 9:23 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm sitting here reading Ann's blog. You can imagine how thrilling my evening is! ;); 12/31/16, 9:56 PM
Jon Ericson said...: I feel your pain. ;(; 12/31/16, 9:58 PM
tcrosse said...: To those who resolve to be miserable next year in Trump's Amerikka, I send the heartiest Boo-Hoo.; 12/31/16, 9:58 PM
traditionalguy said...: Oliver North's War Stories tonight was on WWII women's military Services. They did the men's jobs to free up a man to fight. And then they married men they met on the job as Army Aircorps, Marines, Coast Guard, Navy, etc..

And not a one of them acted like a victim of anything.; 12/31/16, 10:05 PM
Earnest Prole said...: If I recall from years ago, it's your mother sitting in someone's lap showing off her garter -- remind us of the story.; 12/31/16, 10:06 PM
Jon Ericson said...: But at least we won't catch anything.; 12/31/16, 10:06 PM
Big Mike said...: Happy New Year to Professor Althouse and the irrefutable Meade.; 12/31/16, 10:07 PM
robother said...: God, the memories! Even in the mid sixties, girls had garters holding up nylons, the flash of which was an instant turn-on. Pantyhose didn't off anywhere near the titillation, and presented whole different logistical issues in seduction by dashboard light.; 12/31/16, 10:08 PM
Jon Ericson said...: 'Tis true.; 12/31/16, 10:19 PM
traditionalguy said...: Anybody notice Ohio State is way overrated.

The Ball at Times Square is being dropped by the United Nations head man. They have dropped a lot of balls lately.; 12/31/16, 10:58 PM
Jon Ericson said...: Moon?
Next year Obama!; 12/31/16, 11:12 PM
Ambrose said...: What a treasure.; 12/31/16, 11:13 PM
Unknown said...: I like how everyone used to look so nice. Back when, men wore suits, ties, hats and pocket squares even while robbing a bank. People dressed up for meals. Singers and comedians dressed up. You could often discern a man's job since it came with a uniform (and hat).

Now with the 60's riff raff running things we are all under-dressed even to paint a garage.; 12/31/16, 11:32 PM
sane_voter said...: 2016 ended wonderfully with Mariah Carey's epic fail live on ABC just before the ball drop.

Somehow Trump or the Russians are to blame!; 12/31/16, 11:43 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: "The Ball at Times Square is being dropped by the United Nations head man. They have dropped a lot of balls lately."

I'd say the problem with the UN and Obama administration is the opposite. Their balls haven't dropped.; 12/31/16, 11:58 PM
Jon Ericson said...: **gentle elbow poke to the ribs**; 1/1/17, 12:06 AM
Jon Ericson said...: "Are your Implants frozen?"; 1/1/17, 12:11 AM
Comanche Voter said...: My New Year's eves are quieter these days. Had a nice dinner with another couple, some good champagne and lights out by 11:00. The stroke of midnight is going to have to roll around without me. Won't matter though--it will still be 2017 tomorrow.; 1/1/17, 12:12 AM
Darrell said...: Happy New Year--even to the losers like Chuck.; 1/1/17, 12:35 AM
Jon Ericson said...: This joint would collapse if it weren't for targets like, oh five or six 'nyms I'm thinking of. :p; 1/1/17, 12:41 AM
Jon Ericson said...: Don't quit Believin'; 1/1/17, 12:53 AM
Mark said...: 2016 ended wonderfully with Mariah Carey's epic fail live on ABC just before the ball drop

Just watched the clip and I have to say that the fail is on the crew, not her. She was telling them that she could not hear the music (in order to start singing) and even if she did not explicitly say that, everyone there could tell that something was wrong. Look -- your singer is basically the conductor and you need to follow her lead, not the other way around. Instead of continuing to go on and on and on with the music (that she could not distinctly hear) and the dancing, ignoring her, the crew should have stopped, gotten things together, and then either restarted or go on to a different song.

When you are live -- even when you are live with lip-syncing -- there is the potential for problems. So the crew needs to be flexible and not totally oblivious to problems when they arise.; 1/1/17, 2:09 AM
Jon Ericson said...: Mark, you are quite right.; 1/1/17, 2:12 AM
chickelit said...: Mariah Carey belongs to the Obama era.

Seriously, who cares about her? Where will she be in just a year? Oh, how the mighty shall fall.; 1/1/17, 2:26 AM
Jon Ericson said...: Sounds like Slim Whitman to me.; 1/1/17, 3:05 AM
Unknown said...: What is the music in that video? Fantastic!; 1/1/17, 3:07 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: 2 things worthwile un2pac.

1. Buckley, yes that old CIA guy, Catholic to his extent, much beyond me, to my detriment, is Trump's advisor's brain trust. Dead guys are easiest to brain trust upon.

2. Too much booze and you forget number 2, AND IT WAS REALLY IMPORTANT.

oh yeah, Iris Dement ZSweet isd yh melody.

Looped side by side, they go steppin' out toghether, the notes they just kj0ow to xomw eihfw doewcwe, NS DARE DO DISOVER THE NWQ ME;PDU; 1/1/17, 3:44 AM
Lowell McCormick said...: The guy at 0:13 was doing the Freddie.; 1/1/17, 7:52 AM