Anderson Cooper: Just say no to New Year's Eve

If you ask me, New Year's celebrations are proof that we are essentially optimistic creatures.

Despite hundreds of years of pathetic parties, ridiculous resolutions and hellacious hangovers, we still cling to the notion that it's possible to have fun going out on New Year's Eve.

It isn't.

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I started a new tradition for CNN, although I'm not sure it's going to last.

In addition to the ball drop in Times Square, we had cameras covering the Drag Queen Drop in Key West, where, at the stroke of midnight more or less, a drag queen named Sushi, sitting inside a giant ladies' shoe, is lowered from the roof of a gay bar.

We'd interviewed Sushi live a couple of times throughout the night, and by midnight ... well, let's just say that Sushi was no longer too fresh.

When she started to descend, something malfunctioned, and the shoe stalled. The last we saw of Sushi, she was crawling on all fours along the roof of the bar.

I told the director to cut away. Seeing a drag queen actually drop off a roof is not how I wanted to kick off the new year.

(Anderson sort of contradicts himself in this article, starting off telling us that New Year's Eve isn't fun, but following that with several funny anecdotes that make me eager to witness the drunken comic hilarity that is NYE.)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/27/new.years.eve/index.html

I usually go to New Orleans, and plan to again this year. It is very free spirited, and certainly not as large as New York, so there are less restrictions on going where you wish.