On New Year's Eve this week, 300,000 people are expected to crowd the Las Vegas Strip to party, get roaring drunk, ring in 2022 and watch what I'm sure will be a spectacular fireworks show. Every major hotel is expected to send a fortune in pyrotechnics aloft, starting at one end of The Strip and moving down until The Stratosphere will launch the final display.
I did N.Y.E. on The Strip one year. It was back before any of us heard the word "coronavirus" and it was still a horrible place to be. Adding in the possibility of catching a disease makes it even worse.
There were two good things the evening I was there to ring in 1997. One was some pretty spectacular fireworks…though what they're planning for this year will make what we saw that year look like a couple of guys with sparklers.
The other thing was a very impressive police presence. The Strip was crawling with 'em and they were nice and friendly and helpful and you'd wish that every encounter with law enforcement could be that pleasant. They were making necessary arrests and breaking up fights but it was wholly benevolent and very much appreciated by the masses. More than a few drunken ladies were running around trying to hug and/or kiss the male officers.
But other than that…
As you may know, I don't drink alcohol. I don't like being around people who do…and my date and I had to wade through an awful lot of them to get to the few places we were able to go. So I didn't like being there. The thought of being crammed in around those people in the time of COVID is extra-horrifying to me.
I just looked it up and, picking Caesars Palace as more-or-less the center of the party, my home is 285 miles away. I'm thinking of spending New Year's Eve on the West side of my house because that will put me a tiny bit farther away.