what's the big deal about a dropping ball?

Here is a summary of a phone conversation, or rather, a series of random thoughts, I had with my sister, ShaLene, on New Year's Eve...

"New Year's Eve is so overrated... especially when you have kids, you don't drink, and you'd prefer not to stay up past midnight. So, why people flock to New York City to watch a giant ball of lights fall slowly down a pole has always been a mystery to me!... it actually seems a bit backwards...a ball dropping? Really? ... I would much rather see a ball of lights shooting into the sky and exploding, triggering a full-blown fireworks show that was put to music! ... and now that I think about it, who really cares about a big ball?... what about a screeching rocket, that upon the stroke of midnight, explodes into fireworks... And better yet, they could have something parachute down.... what about penguins? yeah, and once they reach the ground, they could perform a choreographed routine similar to, but better then, their original debut on Mary Poppins!.... But that would be hard to train penguins to parachute and dance... So let's just stick to the screeching rocket exploding into a fireworks display. But then what about the rocket pieces plummeting out of the sky and hitting people in the streets? Hmmm... Well, maybe it shouldn't actually explode... Hmmm... I guess something shooting into the air does have it's down-sides.... Well, maybe instead of the ball floating slowly down, the ball should come crashing downward at an unbelievable speed and explode down at the bottom?? Ooh yeah... that would be cool... and the anticipation of waiting for the crash would be a lot better then just waiting for the ball to eventually reach the bottom after 30 seconds, and then light up. Yes, a fast-dropping ball would be much better.... But then again, if the ball crashed into a million pieces, they would have to make a new ball every year, and THAT would get expensive...and who would be paying for that??? Taxpayers.... so no, scratch the idea of the exploding-lightning speed-dropping ball.

Hmmmm.... ya know, maybe the "National New Year's Eve Committee" already thought of all this... they wanted to do something dramatic and exciting like screeching rockets, dancing penguins and fast exploding balls... but there just wasn't enough resources to do it every year. So they had to just stick to the basics.... Yes, I think a ball dropping slowly 30 seconds prior to the stroke of midnight IS a good idea. And ya know, they DO have the new year light up at the bottom... so that's pretty cool. And they drop a lot of confetti, and that's kinda fun.

So, I guess a ball dropping is pretty cool... and it's what people are used to and have grown up watching... so I guess it's a fun national tradition! I guess it would be fun to go to NYC and see it in real life someday."

Hope you all had a Happy New Year!!!