Merry New Year!!

Three thoughts to welcome in 2007: 1) It’s good to be near the focal point. New Year’s has never been high up there on my holiday list, but I always enjoyed it less when I wasn’t in the Eastern time zone when Auld Lang Syne was sung. I have to conclude that this is because ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the author of The Ideas Industry.

Three thoughts to welcome in 2007: 1) It's good to be near the focal point. New Year's has never been high up there on my holiday list, but I always enjoyed it less when I wasn't in the Eastern time zone when Auld Lang Syne was sung. I have to conclude that this is because the dropping of the ball in Times Square means something more when I'm in the same time as New York. Why this is true is beyond me. 2) The young people today will never believe their elders when we tell them that for the longest time, Dick Clark did not age. Tonight he was half a beat behind countting down, but back in the day, Fortunately, Wikipedia will tell them too, and because it is on that newfangled information superhighway, they will accept it as gospel. 3) A question to readers -- is there a movie that does a better job with New Year's Eve than Trading Places?

Three thoughts to welcome in 2007:

1) It’s good to be near the focal point. New Year’s has never been high up there on my holiday list, but I always enjoyed it less when I wasn’t in the Eastern time zone when Auld Lang Syne was sung. I have to conclude that this is because the dropping of the ball in Times Square means something more when I’m in the same time as New York. Why this is true is beyond me. 2) The young people today will never believe their elders when we tell them that for the longest time, Dick Clark did not age. Tonight he was half a beat behind countting down, but back in the day, Fortunately, Wikipedia will tell them too, and because it is on that newfangled information superhighway, they will accept it as gospel. 3) A question to readers — is there a movie that does a better job with New Year’s Eve than Trading Places?

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and the author of The Ideas Industry. Twitter: @dandrezner

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