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Home » What are you doing New Year’s Eve?

What are you doing New Year’s Eve?

The New Neo Posted on by

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I don’t usually do much of anything on New Year’s Eve, although I tend to always try to watch the ball go down on TV. Staying up late is no problem for me, since I’m a night owl and always have been.

This year, though, I’m going to a friend’s house. A few people will be there. We’ll eat, maybe play some board games and have a sip of champagne – and if previous years are any indication, the party may indeed disband before midnight.

I’m a regular party animal compared to those folks.

But even when young, I had an aversion to New Year’s Eve. The idea of a night when you were supposed to have fun or else. The reminder of the speedy passage of time. The drinking. The obligatory midnight kiss, which wasn’t a fun moment if you didn’t like your date.

Once or twice I went to Times Square to see the ball go down in person. Curiously, those were some of my better New Year’s Eves. Maybe it was the people I was with those nights. We ate at Tad’s Steaks, just for laughs, but Tad’s wasn’t bad at all.

And now I see that the very last Tad’s in New York City will be closing in just a few days. I had no idea any of them had lasted that long.

So let’s drink to Tad’s:

The cafeteria-style chophouse is known for hawking inexpensive meat-and-potato dinners on red trays — meals that cost little more than $1 each when the first one opened in 1957. A steak lunch today can be had for as little as $9.

At its height, Tad’s had eight New York locations out of 28 nationwide. But come Jan. 5, 2020, the red neon sign in the window advertising “broiled” steaks at 761 Seventh Ave. will go dark — as will the vast grill that played host to smoky “steak shows,” where dozens of cuts could be grilled at once during the thick of lunch hour.

Happy New Year, everyone! Here’s to a wonderful 2020, full of love, joy, and good health!

Comments

What are you doing New Year’s Eve? — 49 Comments

  2. I’m a night owl but I don’t see myself doing anything out of the ordinary. I suppose I’m trying trying wrap my brain around the fact that we are plunging into the freaking *Twenties*.

  3. Off to a walk around Newburyport and then a relatively early dinner. Back home for a movie – not clear yet whether we will see midnight. This will be a quiet one for us – I don’t think we’ve done New Year’s by ourselves since before we had kids (early 80’s). Looking forward to it. 2019 was a good year and we are making some big changes in 2020 to which we are looking forward.

    Happy New Year to you and all the others here.

  4. I’m staying home to hang out with the first cold of the season.

    Loved Tads. Used them for a quick tasty lunch for years. Thin steak with a rim of crisp grilled fat coupled with a somewhat medium sized baked potato in an aluminum foil jacket with a pat of Hotel Bar butter and a scoop of sour cream.

  5. New Years Eve and Fourth of July fireworks aren’t appreciated by our two poodles, so we are hoping the rainy weather will damp it down somewhat.

  6. I am a stay at home on New Years Eve, all of my life I have enjoyed a bit of Scotch Wiskey and water in the evening and over 40 years ago decided I did not want to drink and drive, I never got caught but I did some stupid driving in my younger years getting home from happy hour. Since the early 1980’s my New Years have been at home, enjoying good food, getting a little bit mellow and not taking chances with folks who are not good at drinking and driving, especially those who don’t drink too often.

    I have already seared a pork loin on my grill and it will do six hours in a slow cooker to match up with good vegetables and then while I have a bit more Scotch this evening and my wife has a couple of glasses of wine, we will sit out by our fire pit in the back yard until it gets too cold and then probably be in bed reading by 10:30 or so.

    It seems so strange to be alive in 2020 turning 75 this next year and not having a Jetson’s hover-car, just driving a Ford F-150 pickup and enjoying my retirement and spending time with my beautiful wife who is one year younger. 2019 was a great year for us and I suspect 2020 will be better.

    My old Brittany hunting dog Jessie, 13 and too old to hunt anymore likes to sit by the fire and when fireworks go off she gets excited and wants to go pick up dead birds.

    Happy New Year and blessings to all, ya all, from the Texas Hill Country.

  9. Playing euchre with neighbors and we will probably empty 2 bottles of Veuve Clicquot. My wife and our neighbors will call it a night around 11 PM, I’ll be up until 1 or 2 AM.

    Happy New to all and may you all prosper in 2020.

  11. OldTexan

    I also live in the Texas Hill Country. I’m gonna watch the UT-Utah game on TV, which starts at 6:30 pm. Then I’m off to bed. BTW, this is also my birthday today so y’all celebrate it as well as NYEve. (My parents were excellent tax planners.)

    And OldTexan, you are a young whippersnapper compared to me…I be 82 this B’day.

  12. I used to be more or less like Neo. A lot of New Years came for me while I slept. However, that changed when I met my wife. But not because she is a party animal either. As it happens, Jan. the 1st is her birthday. So, while others are celebrating the new year, we are celebrating her birthday. I find that I enjoy creating a surprise for her each year. We are going to a hotel/casino this year with my sister and brother-in-law. What she doesn’t know is that we will have a birthday cake and Mardi Gras decorations in the room at midnight.

  13. I hit some black ice the other morning while driving I-25 north to Santa Fe. Car spun out, hit the shoulder, then flipped 360 degrees. I’m OK, aside from my left side is bruised and the muscles strained. Car was totaled.

    Funny thing was I felt the black ice a quarter-mile earlier and was slowing down and easing into the right lane to get off the highway. Next time I’ll stay in my lane until I’ve slowed way down before trying to turn.

    Anyway. I’ll be taking it easy tonight.

  14. My grandfather, an immigrant from China, told my father about this wonderful steakhouse in the New York Worlds Fair (1964). We went during a visit to the Fair and it was a Tad’s. My father and I were familiar with it already. Whenever I went, I always hoped for a larger steak, a larger baked potato, and especially a larger slice of the garlic toast. Like too many things in my youth, I’ll miss Tad’s even though I haven’t been there for decades. I always liked to peer in to see the steaks on the grill and recall childhood memories whenever I passed one.

  16. @huxley Thank God you are OK. The closest I came to that was decades ago when my car’s right wheels dropped onto the shoulder in a whiteout on the New York State Thruway. We spun a couple 360s down the center of the highway. It would have made a funny movie clip with all of us screaming. When you say “flipped 360 degrees” do you mean an actual rollover?

  17. When I worked in ER during my late 20s and early 30s I always worked nightshift Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and each year varied as to how crazy things became. Some of this mayhem was memorable. This year I just woke up at 1:15pm having electrical pain from MS and just took some medication to address this.

    I’ve been watching an interesting series about art thefts and forged paintings on Amazon prime and I may continue to binge-watch this later on. I’m trying to evaluate what I’ve been doing recently as a writer and need to decide which of two available paths to pursue in 2020. I’m wary of this coming year because of the looming election and because 2019 was so relatively quiet 2020 is probably going to be really loud.

  18. I think I’ll watch the events at US Embassy Baghdad tonight as they go on, looking to see whether Pres. Trump means what he says: i.e., will Qom go poof (as it should have done decades ago), or will we see Hajj Soleimani disappear in a flash of light (as he should have done a decade ago), or the parading/rioting mercenary militiamen and their Iranian paid leaders get the proper hosing due to them? Anything less, I believe, will give up the game being played.

    Meantime, best 2020 wishes for the defenders on the line, the aviators in the air, the sailors at sea. May your own leaders not betray you for a change.

  20. huxley,

    I am glad you escaped the accident with soreness instead of something more serious. Come January 2nd treat yourself to a massage and visit to a sauna.

  22. When you say “flipped 360 degrees” do you mean an actual rollover?

    Brian Morgan: Oh, yeah. The moon roof caved in and there was shattered glass all over the seats. I was quite fortunate. If I had been another 25 yards down the highway, I would have hit the pillars of an overpass.

    As an amusement park ride, I don’t recommend it.

    neo, parker: Thanks.

    I’m feeling better today. It was taking a painful five minutes or so to wriggle out of bed, then doing a sort of ballet plie from second position to stand up. (I actually took ballet once very briefly.) Now I can manage it in less than a minute without much pain.

  23. Staying home with the cats. I’ll have no trouble sitting up past midnight because 1) like Neo, I’m a night owl; and 2) the cats will demand (as only cats can) their late-night refill of Fancy Feast. One reason I stay off the roads is that (according to two state troopers I know) one out of every three drivers in my state is well over the legal BAC on New Year’s Eve (and the Fourth, and Memorial Day, and Labor Day . . .). I will, however, raise a mug of good German beer to the coming year, and wish good health and happiness to Neo and all her commenters. Zum Wohl!

  24. huxley,

    We had an early dinner and are expecting neighbors soon to play cards and drink champagne. I wish you a quick return to normal. Normal is not overrated.

  25. Huxley,

    Happy you’re ok. The only serious car accident I have been in was when I was 17 and fish tailed in my dads little pickup truck and went down about 50 foot slope flipping a couple times through bushes and came to rest upside down. Not wearing a seatbelt. Climbed out and went up to road with nothing but a torn jacket. Didn’t think much of it at the time but over the years I’ve realized how incredibly lucky I was.

  26. Normal is not overrated.

    parker: I *love* normal.

    I just spoke with the Geico lady who inspected my car. It was indeed totaled and I will receive more than I expected in the settlement. Yay!

    She told me it was a bad ice storm. One of the Geico people lost control that morning, hit a guard rail and totaled the car. The deputy, who picked me up after my accident and drove me to a McD’s, said that two sheriff units also spun out. So I wasn’t the only one who had a bad morning.

  27. Griffin: Man, don’t that sound like a 17 year-old’s story! Not wearing a seatbelt!

    Yep. You were lucky. I was lucky. We’re all lucky in so many ways.

    Happy New Year!

  29. Neo:

    I’m coming over to your house. New Year’s Day we can watch Creighton v. Marquette at 9 Eastern on FS1.

    Kind of like dance, but better.

  30. Hanging with my wife… if things dont improve, it will be the last new year together… may be homeless as no one is hiring hold pale programmers no matter the need..

  31. Come midnight I shall begin a 12-hour shift, huzzah! I am a sucker for overtime, alas.

    I’d never heard of Tad’s, I bet they’d have done well here.

    If I were working on Kharg Island, I’d be very worried right now.

  33. Aw-w-w-w, Gosh, Neo. Tad’s Steaks! Thanks for the memory. I didn’t realize they were still around, and now the sizzle will be gone. The old order passeth. I’ve always had the same feeling as you about New Year’s Eve — having “fun” as an obligation is seldom fun. I had a dear friend (now departed) who enjoyed parties and seldom passed up a drink, but he always stayed home on December 31st. “Amateur night,” he called it. Happy New Year, Dear Neo. God bless you for staying on the ramparts through “interesting times.” This is still the best salon on the net.

  34. I’ve just celebrated New Year’s Day in Greenland, and think I’ll probably go to bed as soon as I’ve taken my pills for the evening.
    Yesterday was chemo day, and I may be feeling the effects.

  35. Welcome to getting old. Maybe celebrate with some friends or close family. Otherwise, meh, another night alone. No big deal. Make the most of it. It’s nice to stay up until midnight to usher in a new year, but after so many the thrill is gone.

  36. huxley – glad you are in better shape than the car!

    I did a 360-degree horizontal spin one time coming across the top of Texas into Dallas. I don’t know what started it, but I just pirouetted into the ditch and back up again onto the highway like a prima ballerina, and kept on going.
    Fortunately, for no reason other than God’s grace, there were no other cars in my vicinity.

    We took the family out to see the lights in the Denver Botanical Garden – quite a show if you are ever in this area between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, and are hosting two of the grand-daughters in Frozen Princess Camp until the week-end.

    I will probably be up till midnight, because I always am.
    Martinelli’s Sparkling Apple Juice (in a variety of flavors) is our celebratory tipple.

    Since it’s already midnight on the East Coast — Happy New Year!

  37. A Happy New Year to Neo and all the commenters here. May this be a positive and meaningful year for each and everyone and for our country as a whole.

    Happy New Year!

  38. Everyone but me is sleeping. My partner and I won euchre 10-2, 10-3, and 10-4. They never learn that audacity usually wins in the long run. Take risks and keep pushing. In other words, the story of DJT.

    Goodnight, good luck, good health, good whatever, and keep on trucking.

  39. We (my husband, our son and his family visiting from the Bay area) enjoyed the stuffed Cornish Game Hens we prepare every year. We set a lovely table still adorned with Christmas cheer and enjoy the fireplace and a movie (The Thin Man this year). We didn’t make it all the way through, in bed before 11 (owing to taking care of the 2 and 6 month old littles). Happy New Year to you Neo and all. Wishing you the best in 2020. So glad you were spared the worse huxley.

  40. Just woke up here in L.A., as I sometimes do, and hope to fall back asleep soon.

    Yesterday evening (i.e., New Year’s Eve) I spent with 4 friends. All of us had either grown up, or lived for a long period of time, in NYC. So, we decided to celebrate with the dropping of the Times Square Ball, and ended the evening early. So, just another “rowdy” party.

  41. Had some risotto luganega, asparagus, and white burgundy.

    Watched Eleanor Powell’s and Fred Astaire’s incredible tap-dancing in “Broadway Melody 1940”.

    Fell asleep in living room chair.

  43. A few of the benefits of living in the Pacific time zone are 1) Monday night football starts at 5:30 PM and 2) you can watch the ball drop in Times Square at 9:00 PM followed by a restful nights sleep…and for those that want to go to bed earlier, the local Hofbrauhaus restaurant celebrates “New Years in Munich” at 3 PM. Happy New Year everybody

  44. Watched the first two episodes of Vanity Fair on Netflix. Mr. Meemsie had a martini or two, and I had 2 glasses of red wine. Cleaned a section of the basement yesterday with many trips up and down the stairs, so in bed by 10:30. No fireworks in our area of Ohio (too cold and windy for revelers to be outside for long) so the 3 dogs didn’t have to hear the bangs. Happy New Year to all Neoneoconistas and thanks to our hostess for another enlightening, thought provoking blog.

  46. I used to LOVE tads steaks in Manhattan… cheap steak with a beer…
    couldn’t beat it… however the stores were always kind of run down
    especially the two, one near the port authority and the other on 34th street

    there were lots of cool places and tads was one of the last leftovers from the 1970s

  47. The top PC moments of the last decade..

    • A college diversity-training course taught that it was culturally insensitive to expect people to be on time.

    • University researchers demanded that we accept people who “identify as real vampires.”

    • A Seattle-area councilman was concerned about the city hosing poop off of its sidewalks because he thought that it might seem too racially insensitive.

    • A professor claimed that the small chairs in preschools are sexist, “disempowering,” and “problematic.”

    • A school in Seattle reportedly insisted that Easter eggs be called “spring spheres.”

    • A group of Berkeley students insisted that they could not take their in-class exam due to their lack of privilege.

    • A campus Christian club was found guilty of discrimination for requiring its leaders to be Christians.

    • Oxford University law students were told that they didn’t have to learn about rape or violence law if they found it too triggering.

  48. om: Thanks for the good wishes. Yes, it’s not well-known but Jack Kerouac was a deep, if unorthodox and often lost, Christian and he wrote from that place. “Beat” in Kerouac’s usage was short for beatific.

    Likewise — hold on to your hats — Andy Warhol. He attended mass regularly and much of his last work was overtly Christian with subjects like the Last Supper. Art critics and Warhol fans who wish to hang on to his glory days as the enigmatic NYC pop artist neglect to mention these facts.

    Ken Kesey, author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and leader of the psychedelic Merry Pranksters, never stopped recommending the Bible for its wisdom and as literature.

  49. We set a lovely table still adorned with Christmas cheer and enjoy the fireplace and a movie (The Thin Man this year).

    Sharon W: Good for you! Was there ever a screen couple with better chemistry than William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora?

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