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A weekly show where knowledge junkies get their fix of trivia-tastic information. HAPPY NEW YEAR! This week John takes a look at some of the bizarre items dropped in recognition of the new year.
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----
Website: http://www.mentalfloss.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mental_floss
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mentalflossmagazine
Store: http://store.mentalfloss.com/ (enter promo code: "YoutubeFlossers" for 15% off!)
Hi, I'm John Green, welcome to my salon, this is mental_floss on YouTube, and this is Hello Kitty in a jar, which we ceremoniously drop at midnight every New Year's Eve. I'm kidding. We don't do that; that would be horrible. But it would be less horrible that some actual dropping-things-out-of-the-sky-on-New-Year's-Eve traditions, which we'll be talking about today.
(intro music)
1. It's not New Year's Eve to the residents of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, until a giant Peep falls from the sky. That's because Just Born, the company that makes the anthropomorphic marshmallows, calls the eastern Pennsylvania town home. While Peeps now come in shapes to suit every holiday - except for Arbor Day! - the New Year's drop is done with traditional yellow peeps.
2. Residents of Eastover, North Carolina, drop a 3-foot-tall, 30-pound flea to ring in the New Year. Why? Because the town was called Flea Hill until the 1920's, a fact that the residents of Eastover are apparently proud of!
3. A 350-pound electronic moon pie is dropped at Mobile, Alabama, which reminds me that I would enjoy a 350-pound actual moon pie.
4. Every year, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin makes Lucky the Carp the center of attention, when he's lowered onto a throne to celebrate the New Year. In fact, it's the culmination of a week-long carp-filled festival.
5. In Key West, Florida, residents lower a drag queen named Sushi in a large red high heel. If that's not your cup of tea, you have other options in Key West:
6. They also drop a 6-foot conch shell,
7. and a pirate wench.
8. In Bartlesville, Oklahoma, an olive descends from the top of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Price Tower, and falls neatly into a martini glass, which must be awesome to see, until you sober up and realize that you are in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I'm just kidding, residents of Bartlesville, it's a lovely town!
9. I've never actually been there. Panama City Beach, Florida, which I have been to, and cannot in good faith recommend, pays homage to the tourist industry that keeps the town hopping, by dropping an 800-pound beach ball at midnight Those who prefer the kind of beach balls that can't kill you can attend the children's drop at 8:30, when hundreds of inflatables are released from overhead nests.That sounds fun! And perfect for me, because the last time I saw midnight on New Year's Eve was like 2004.
10. Perhaps you thought Washington, DC was the cherry blossom hotspot of the United States, but you are incorrect! It's Macon, Georgia, which boasts way more cherry trees than DC does, to the tune of about 300,000 of them in all, and on New Year's Eve, they drop a cherry blossom to make sure you don't forget.
11. The Eastport, Maine, area has sardine fishing and canning roots, which is why the town drops a sardine to ring in the New Year.
12. Eastport also drops a maple leaf as a friendly gesture to their Canadian neighbors across the Bay, who of course do not celebrate New Year's, because in Canada, at least to judge from their fashion decisions, it is always 1988. I'm trying to offend everybody in this video!
13. In Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, they drop a wrench. You know, because Mechanicsburg.
14. Atlanta drops an 800-pound giant peach to ring in the New Year - James is not included.
15. And in Flagstaff, Arizona, which sits in one of the largest ponderosa pine forests in the world, they drop a glowing pine cone on New Year's Eve. And if you think that sounds weird, at least they've come a long way from the garbage can with pine cones glued onto it that was used during the first drop ion 1999.
16,. Paying homage to their "little apple" nickname, Manhattan, Kansas, drops a brightly lit Red Delicious. Apple, to be clear.
17. Plymouth, Wisconsin rings in the New Year with an 80-pound chunk of cheese. Sadly, it is not actual cheese, but merely a brick of yellow Styrofoam. What is up with all of this fake food being dropped from the sky?!
18. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, home of Lebanon bologna, uses a 150-pound bologna and a real one, not some fake Styrofoam crap like Plymouth, and donates it to a local shelter afterward.
19. As a coal-mining town proud of its heritage, Shamokin, Pennsylvania drops a big chunk of coal, made out of cardboard, because nothing is real in the world, except for bologna!
20. Another town proud of its main industry - the onion-exporting city of St. George's, Bermuda, which drops a bulb big enough to make the whole world cry... if only it were real, which it is not.
21. Gainesville, Georgia, the self-proclaimed poultry capital of the world, sends Chuck the Chicken plummeting to the Earth at midnight. But fear not, it is of course not a real chicken. Chuck the Chicken sounds like a male chicken, ergo a rooster... Oh! We can do that too!
22. Brasstown, North Carolina, however, did use a real animal - a possum in a cage... until they were sued by PETA. Last year's drop was performed with a glass contained with photos of possums taped to the outside so as to obscure its contents. Folks are speculating that this year's drop will feature a stuffed possum, or maybe even roadkill, because you know, that's the kind of thing that gets speculated about in Brasstown.
23. Speaking of dead animals, the good people of Princess Anne, Maryland, drop a stuffed muskrat named Marshall, who wears a top hat and bow tie. We don't have a stuffed muskrat, but we do have a stuffed meerkat!
24. Courtesy of the Hard Rock Cafe, a 10-foot Gibson guitar drops at midnight at Niagara, NY, which reminds me that I can play one chord. You'll note that I didn't say I could play the chord correctly!
25. Since 1999, a 3-foot-tall pickle has dropped down the flagpole at midnight, Greenwich Mean Time, at Mt. Olive, North Carolina, home to the Mt. Olive Pickle Company. That's 7 PM Eastern, in case you're making plans to attend, and I am, because it's before midnight!
26. It would take a Godzilla-like squirrel to carry away the 10-foot-tall acorn dropped in Raleigh, North Carolina. Regular-sized squirrels can still have a go at it, though; the 1250-pound copper and steel acorn lives in More Square the other 364 days of the year, where squirrels can't eat it, but they can poop on it!
27. Lower Allen Township, Pennsylvania drops a 5-fooot-tall pair of Bunyan-sized yellow breeches, in honor of the local Yellow Breeches Creek.
28. Citizens of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, drop an Edison Bulb to honor Thomas Edison for his 1883 experiment at the City Hotel, now called the Edison Hotel. Edison's experiment resulted in the installation of the first free-wire overhead electrical system installed in a commercial building anywhere in the world. We're being clear here, because we know it's the Internet, and you guys prefer Tesla.
29. Fittingly, the Seed Pines Resort in Hilton Head, South Carolina, drops an oversized golf ball from the harbor town lighthouse. Really? From the lighthouse, a golf ball? Is it a mini golf course?
30. According to the city legend of Show Low, Arizona, the town was named when two feuding men decided to draw cards to decide who had to leave town. If you show low, you win! was the game, and the winner turned over the two of clubs. This dubious history lesson is the reason that Show Low drops the 2 of clubs every New Year's Eve.
31. The residents of Twin Falls, Idaho, would have nothing to do New Year's Eve if it weren't for the engineering genius of local bar owner Dave Woodhead. Woodhead used his 1962 Ford Econoline pickup to lower a two-foot-wide metal ball 80 feet from a grain silo. Are you serious? Of all of these, that is the one I want to see!
32. So about 83 million years ago, a meteorite crashed into what is now Wetumpka, Alabama; to commemorate the occasion, citizens drop a meteorite a midnight on December 31st. But I guess the real question is, where did they get the meteorite? Oh, I-I know - it's fake!
33. And then there are the cities that shun tradition and raise random objects to the sky instead of dropping them to the ground. In Seattle, for instance, the elevator to the Space Needle starts at the bottom and climbs to the top, and it gets there, fireworks!
34. Similarly, when the illuminated glass elevator of the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio hits the top of the tower, it sets off a 10-minute fireworks display. Wait, is Grandpa Joe in it?
35. Miami raises an orange wearing sunglasses - obviously.
36. And when the watermelon ball in Vincennes, Indiana, gets to its summit, the ball opens to release 12 actual watermelons!
37. If you're looking for more processed sugar, you should head on over to Hershey, Pennsylvania, where they raise a massive Hershey's Kiss... apparently it is fake! That is so disappointing!
38. And lastly, we return to the salon so that I can tell you that Charlotte, North Carolina, aka the Queen City, is so named because Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was queen consort of Great Britain when the city was incorporated. And now you know why the city raises a crown 25 feet into the air, on New Year's Eve.
Thanks for watching mental_floss here on YouTube, which is brought to you with the help of these nice people, who want to wish you a very happy New Year. Every week, we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions. This week, Franky da Man asks, what's the difference between vanilla ice cream, French vanilla ice cream, and vanilla bean ice cream? Well, Franky da Man, regular vanilla ice cream is made with vanilla extract, while vanilla bean gets its flavor from unprocessed vanilla, which has like small black flakes. And French vanilla is made from an egg custard base, and is typically creamier than the others.
Thanks again for watching mental_floss here on YouTube - whether you're watching a giant moon pie dropped from the heavens, or doing the Times Square thing in your living room, we wish you a happy and healthy and safe New Year! See you next year.
(intro music)
1. It's not New Year's Eve to the residents of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, until a giant Peep falls from the sky. That's because Just Born, the company that makes the anthropomorphic marshmallows, calls the eastern Pennsylvania town home. While Peeps now come in shapes to suit every holiday - except for Arbor Day! - the New Year's drop is done with traditional yellow peeps.
2. Residents of Eastover, North Carolina, drop a 3-foot-tall, 30-pound flea to ring in the New Year. Why? Because the town was called Flea Hill until the 1920's, a fact that the residents of Eastover are apparently proud of!
3. A 350-pound electronic moon pie is dropped at Mobile, Alabama, which reminds me that I would enjoy a 350-pound actual moon pie.
4. Every year, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin makes Lucky the Carp the center of attention, when he's lowered onto a throne to celebrate the New Year. In fact, it's the culmination of a week-long carp-filled festival.
5. In Key West, Florida, residents lower a drag queen named Sushi in a large red high heel. If that's not your cup of tea, you have other options in Key West:
6. They also drop a 6-foot conch shell,
7. and a pirate wench.
8. In Bartlesville, Oklahoma, an olive descends from the top of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Price Tower, and falls neatly into a martini glass, which must be awesome to see, until you sober up and realize that you are in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. I'm just kidding, residents of Bartlesville, it's a lovely town!
9. I've never actually been there. Panama City Beach, Florida, which I have been to, and cannot in good faith recommend, pays homage to the tourist industry that keeps the town hopping, by dropping an 800-pound beach ball at midnight Those who prefer the kind of beach balls that can't kill you can attend the children's drop at 8:30, when hundreds of inflatables are released from overhead nests.That sounds fun! And perfect for me, because the last time I saw midnight on New Year's Eve was like 2004.
10. Perhaps you thought Washington, DC was the cherry blossom hotspot of the United States, but you are incorrect! It's Macon, Georgia, which boasts way more cherry trees than DC does, to the tune of about 300,000 of them in all, and on New Year's Eve, they drop a cherry blossom to make sure you don't forget.
11. The Eastport, Maine, area has sardine fishing and canning roots, which is why the town drops a sardine to ring in the New Year.
12. Eastport also drops a maple leaf as a friendly gesture to their Canadian neighbors across the Bay, who of course do not celebrate New Year's, because in Canada, at least to judge from their fashion decisions, it is always 1988. I'm trying to offend everybody in this video!
13. In Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, they drop a wrench. You know, because Mechanicsburg.
14. Atlanta drops an 800-pound giant peach to ring in the New Year - James is not included.
15. And in Flagstaff, Arizona, which sits in one of the largest ponderosa pine forests in the world, they drop a glowing pine cone on New Year's Eve. And if you think that sounds weird, at least they've come a long way from the garbage can with pine cones glued onto it that was used during the first drop ion 1999.
16,. Paying homage to their "little apple" nickname, Manhattan, Kansas, drops a brightly lit Red Delicious. Apple, to be clear.
17. Plymouth, Wisconsin rings in the New Year with an 80-pound chunk of cheese. Sadly, it is not actual cheese, but merely a brick of yellow Styrofoam. What is up with all of this fake food being dropped from the sky?!
18. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, home of Lebanon bologna, uses a 150-pound bologna and a real one, not some fake Styrofoam crap like Plymouth, and donates it to a local shelter afterward.
19. As a coal-mining town proud of its heritage, Shamokin, Pennsylvania drops a big chunk of coal, made out of cardboard, because nothing is real in the world, except for bologna!
20. Another town proud of its main industry - the onion-exporting city of St. George's, Bermuda, which drops a bulb big enough to make the whole world cry... if only it were real, which it is not.
21. Gainesville, Georgia, the self-proclaimed poultry capital of the world, sends Chuck the Chicken plummeting to the Earth at midnight. But fear not, it is of course not a real chicken. Chuck the Chicken sounds like a male chicken, ergo a rooster... Oh! We can do that too!
22. Brasstown, North Carolina, however, did use a real animal - a possum in a cage... until they were sued by PETA. Last year's drop was performed with a glass contained with photos of possums taped to the outside so as to obscure its contents. Folks are speculating that this year's drop will feature a stuffed possum, or maybe even roadkill, because you know, that's the kind of thing that gets speculated about in Brasstown.
23. Speaking of dead animals, the good people of Princess Anne, Maryland, drop a stuffed muskrat named Marshall, who wears a top hat and bow tie. We don't have a stuffed muskrat, but we do have a stuffed meerkat!
24. Courtesy of the Hard Rock Cafe, a 10-foot Gibson guitar drops at midnight at Niagara, NY, which reminds me that I can play one chord. You'll note that I didn't say I could play the chord correctly!
25. Since 1999, a 3-foot-tall pickle has dropped down the flagpole at midnight, Greenwich Mean Time, at Mt. Olive, North Carolina, home to the Mt. Olive Pickle Company. That's 7 PM Eastern, in case you're making plans to attend, and I am, because it's before midnight!
26. It would take a Godzilla-like squirrel to carry away the 10-foot-tall acorn dropped in Raleigh, North Carolina. Regular-sized squirrels can still have a go at it, though; the 1250-pound copper and steel acorn lives in More Square the other 364 days of the year, where squirrels can't eat it, but they can poop on it!
27. Lower Allen Township, Pennsylvania drops a 5-fooot-tall pair of Bunyan-sized yellow breeches, in honor of the local Yellow Breeches Creek.
28. Citizens of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, drop an Edison Bulb to honor Thomas Edison for his 1883 experiment at the City Hotel, now called the Edison Hotel. Edison's experiment resulted in the installation of the first free-wire overhead electrical system installed in a commercial building anywhere in the world. We're being clear here, because we know it's the Internet, and you guys prefer Tesla.
29. Fittingly, the Seed Pines Resort in Hilton Head, South Carolina, drops an oversized golf ball from the harbor town lighthouse. Really? From the lighthouse, a golf ball? Is it a mini golf course?
30. According to the city legend of Show Low, Arizona, the town was named when two feuding men decided to draw cards to decide who had to leave town. If you show low, you win! was the game, and the winner turned over the two of clubs. This dubious history lesson is the reason that Show Low drops the 2 of clubs every New Year's Eve.
31. The residents of Twin Falls, Idaho, would have nothing to do New Year's Eve if it weren't for the engineering genius of local bar owner Dave Woodhead. Woodhead used his 1962 Ford Econoline pickup to lower a two-foot-wide metal ball 80 feet from a grain silo. Are you serious? Of all of these, that is the one I want to see!
32. So about 83 million years ago, a meteorite crashed into what is now Wetumpka, Alabama; to commemorate the occasion, citizens drop a meteorite a midnight on December 31st. But I guess the real question is, where did they get the meteorite? Oh, I-I know - it's fake!
33. And then there are the cities that shun tradition and raise random objects to the sky instead of dropping them to the ground. In Seattle, for instance, the elevator to the Space Needle starts at the bottom and climbs to the top, and it gets there, fireworks!
34. Similarly, when the illuminated glass elevator of the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio hits the top of the tower, it sets off a 10-minute fireworks display. Wait, is Grandpa Joe in it?
35. Miami raises an orange wearing sunglasses - obviously.
36. And when the watermelon ball in Vincennes, Indiana, gets to its summit, the ball opens to release 12 actual watermelons!
37. If you're looking for more processed sugar, you should head on over to Hershey, Pennsylvania, where they raise a massive Hershey's Kiss... apparently it is fake! That is so disappointing!
38. And lastly, we return to the salon so that I can tell you that Charlotte, North Carolina, aka the Queen City, is so named because Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was queen consort of Great Britain when the city was incorporated. And now you know why the city raises a crown 25 feet into the air, on New Year's Eve.
Thanks for watching mental_floss here on YouTube, which is brought to you with the help of these nice people, who want to wish you a very happy New Year. Every week, we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions. This week, Franky da Man asks, what's the difference between vanilla ice cream, French vanilla ice cream, and vanilla bean ice cream? Well, Franky da Man, regular vanilla ice cream is made with vanilla extract, while vanilla bean gets its flavor from unprocessed vanilla, which has like small black flakes. And French vanilla is made from an egg custard base, and is typically creamier than the others.
Thanks again for watching mental_floss here on YouTube - whether you're watching a giant moon pie dropped from the heavens, or doing the Times Square thing in your living room, we wish you a happy and healthy and safe New Year! See you next year.