Being a New Yorker for last 14 years, I know how to tell a New Yorker from a tourist on a New Year’s Eve – if someone is rushing out of the city – he’s local, if one tries to get in – he’s a (stupid) tourist. Being a New Yorker (or, flaunting aside, a child of a big city) I know to stay away from the crowds. Just once I’ve been in the crowd large and dense enough that when my ex-wife’s shoe got stuck in pavement the crowd almost stepped on us because we couldn’t move with the crowd. It was a bit scary moment, honestly. We managed to get out, safe and sound, but ever since that time if I am not alone – I am not going into the crowd. No way.

Although I do understand and support the desire to cheer with peers, to celebrate and to be in the middle of it all, I am probably too old (or too smart, he he) to go into all that. Besides, my common sense told me that.