While Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve With Ryan Seacrest is the establishment choice for TV watching on December 31 (and Carson Daly's New Year's show on NBC is actually better than you'd think—we appreciate that Daly asked Bloomberg about Occupy Wall Street), the best New Year's TV hosts are CNN's brilliant odd couple of Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin. While some wondered if Griffin would come back after telling one heckler in 2009, "Screw you. Why don't you get a job, buddy? You know what? I don't go to your job and knock the dicks out of your mouth," her outrageousness works well with Cooper's tight-laced WASPy personality. And this year, she stripped down to her panties and bra! more ›

A last minute, New Year's Eve reminder to those of you who insist on making resolutions for the New Year: Make them achievable. We offered some suggestions on Wednesday, taking some inspiration from Woody Guthrie's list of resolutions for 1943 (as seen above), which include "Stay Glad" and "Take A Bath." more ›

Hey, the city is trying to clear Times Square for tonight's revelry (it's New Year's Eve, if you've forgotten in the blizzard-induced haze) and the NYPD announced street closures. Here's the full police press release below—remember, no backpacks and large bags and the early birds get closest to the see the ball drop...and take mass transit: more ›

If you have a wish you'd like to come true in the new year, head over to the Times Square Visitor Center's Wishing Wall, where people from all over the country have written their dreams on colorful scraps of paper. After being displayed on the wall until December 30th, the dreams will be gathered and showered on Times Square new year's revelers, where they will be ignored, trampled on and swept into the sewer like all your previous dreams. Happy New Year! more ›

A chihuahua with a death wish ran down a Brooklyn pier and dove into the frigid East River on New Year's Eve, only to be rescued by a vigilant member of the NYPD Harbor Patrol, according to 1010WINS. The brown and tan pooch hurled itself off the 62nd Street Pier on the border of Sunset Park and Bay Ridge on New Year's Eve, but an officer spotted the dog and fished him out. more ›

Last night's New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square was slightly hampered by the damp weather, but the crowds still came out. So far, estimates have the crowds in the "hundreds of thousands". Some of whom needed police escorts to go to portapotties, some of whom were prepared with Depends. The Department of Sanitation estimated to NY1 that "the crowd left more than 40 tons" of party trash and "nearly 150 sanitation workers armed with dozens of mechanical sweepers, trucks and leaf blowers helped clear everything out for New Year's Day." more ›

Happy New Year, New York City! We hope you had a fun, safe New Year's celebration and wish you a great 2010. Here are some photos from Times Square and video of the ball drop is below: more ›

If you're planning on celebrating the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010 in Times Square, you should be there by now! Reader Valerio tells us that the police have things pretty organized, as they're "sectioning off chunks of barricades at a time, frisking each person, then letting them in one by one" along Broadway and 7th Avenue. Like every year, backpacks and large bags prohibited, as are alcohol beverages—and the police will not let people who leave the area return to their original spot. (After the jump, the police notice for street closures.) more ›

As expected, CNN came out yesterday and ate crow for Kathy Griffin after a live New Year's Eve broadcast alongside Anderson Cooper featured the closest moment a major TV broadcast has come to hearing someone being told to eat a bag of dicks. A CNN spokesman told the press, "We recognize that the comment made by comedian Kathy Griffin during the live broadcast was inappropriate...She did not know she was on the air at the time and we removed [the comment] from the [West Coast] rebroadcast." That raises the question: do west coasters have to spend every new year's counting down to midnight alongside footage they all know was recorded three hours ago? In any case, CNN has little to worry about from the FCC since this all aired on cable and the network would not comment on whether Griffin was likely to be back next year. The Hollywood Reporter points out that earlier in the telecast, Griffin lampooned former CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck and asked for a pap smear given by medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. more ›

Armed with Made in NY onesies, Mayor Bloomberg visited the first two NYC New Year's Babies. Grace Pak (6 pounds, 3 ounces) was born at 12:09 a.m. in New York Medical Center while Zenia Hussain (7 pounds, 13 ounces) was born at 12:10 a.m. at Flushing Hospital Center). Being full of New Year's cheer, Mayor Bloomberg had declared the first babies born in 2009, joking to reporters, “Some of the papers will find problems with the mayor abusing his authority by doing this. But, you know, that’s what leadership is all about. The City Council will hold hearings, I’m sure.” He also told both sets of proud parents their daughters could run for mayor, suggesting they could even run against each other. According to Politicker NY, Bloomberg mentioned how staffer Jason Post "saved" him by lending him earmuffs because Times Square was so frigid and that he and the Clintons went out for a drink after the ball drop, "We did not talk politics. We did not talk foreign policy. We talked about all the good things in life.” more ›

Yesterday, just after midnight, the over 160 Department of Sanitation employees headed to Times Square to clean up after the New Year's revelers. According to 1010 WINS, that crew worked until 8 a.m., and then another shift came in at 11 a.m. to further "tidy" up the area. It's believed that over 41 tons of garbage were collected, but since there were 25 mph winds, it's hard to say exactly how much detritus they picked up. Sanitation Commission John Doherty said, "It takes a while. Last night was a windy night. There's probably confetti as far as the East River." more ›

Kathy Griffin proved to be the co-host yet again for CNN's New Year's Eve countdown coverage when she yelled back at a Times Square heckler. The self-proclaimed D-List comedienne, co-hosting with Anderson Cooper, was so fed up with someone (we're not sure if it was a man or a woman, but we hope he/she emerges!) that she yelled—on air— "Screw you. Why don't you get a job, buddy? You know what? I don't go to your job and knock the dicks out of your mouth." more ›

The pair who invented those New Year's glasses with the year numerals say they are hanging up the shades after 2009. Richard Sclafani, half of the duo (and who was born in Brooklyn), said, "It doesn't look very good for 2010. You wind up with a '1' in front of one of your eyes." One reason is that it'll be costly to create a new mold—he says they only made a profit of $92,000 in their peak year, and business has fallen off since 2001. Plus, knock-offs sell for 79 cents, which is what Sclafani and Peter Cicero charge as the wholesale price of the glasses (Sclafani made 10,000 this year and only sold 2800). Still, they knew it was a great idea when they came up with it in 1990; Sclafani said, "I could picture the people in Times Square wearing them." more ›

It's New Year's Eve and the "Crossroads of the World" (at least, that's what a subway conductor calls Times Square) is ready to celebrate the close of 2008 and to welcome 2009! The New Year's Eve Ball was tested yesterday—it seems to be working just fine—and workers were getting balloons ready for the revelry. more ›

On Sunday afternoon, the fourth day of the Lunar Year, the streets and restaurants of Flushing's Chinatown were packed with families celebrating the Year of the Rat. In case you're wondering, that headline – like many of the Chinese people in Flushing – is Mandarin. It translates roughly to "Congratulations and best wishes for a prosperous New Year." more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an aircraft fire at JFK terminal 4 in Queens, a robbery on Central Park West in Manhattan, and a missing child on Pennsylvania Ave. in Brooklyn.
• Surf cams (permanently installed cameras monitoring surf conditions) are a great way to notify surfers of conditions, until one realizes that surfers don't want conditions notified for fear of crowds.
• No matter what you've ever seen in the movies, crashing the guard rails on a bridge to land on the highway below will end with your fatality.

A 22-year old Manhattan deli clerk that took the late shift on New Year's Eve lucked out when he bought himself a winning scratch-off ticket. While everyone else was welcoming 2008 with friends and family, the Yemen native's wife and baby were still living a world away, so Waleed Alsaidi bought himself a little present at his family's deli in Harlem to pass time on the lonely shift. more ›

Have you made a resolution for 2008 to eat better and healthier this year? more ›

As Gothamist recently noted, New Year's and the following week or so are a particularly festive occasion for the Japanese. Which is no doubt why Haru decided to celebrate the grand opening of its newest location on Wall Street last Wednesday. Hordes of sushi-crazed suits crowded the restaurant located in the historic Beaver Building for the gala event, which was also a benefit for the Downtown Alliance. more ›

With many people trying to keep up that perennial New Year's resolution to lose weight/work out/get in shape, they're hitting their computers (or CDs!) to create the perfect soundtracks for their workouts. The other day, the NY Times chatted with a number of experts - physicians, life coaches, workout music producers - to figure out what makes a good work out song. more ›

A week and a half ago, hundreds of headstones at the Poile Zedek Cemetery in New Brunswick, NJ were toppled over, raising concerns that the Jewish cemetery had been targeted in a possible hate crime. Yesterday, when four teens, a 15-year-old, two 16-year-olds, and a 17-year-old, were arrested, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan said that the investigation so far did not suggest this "was an attempt to intimidate, target or harm the Jewish community." more ›

After Page Six alluded to The Gansevoort Hotel staff as being just a tad anti-semitic, the hotel retorted saying that the incident on New Year's Eve that led to the allegation was a misunderstanding. Their side of the story includes having to kick out a yarmulke-less (and apparently racist) "ill-behaved boyfriend of a member of Kid ['I love Jewish people'] Rock's PR team." Today Grub Street asked "which member of Kid Rock’s PR team brought in this ruffian," saying they were "not at all surprised that it involves Kid Rock." more ›

Thank goodness WCBS 880 updated its story about a stray cat who was seen in NJ with a bottle stuck on its head. Raritan Township Animal Control and ASPCA helped save the cat! more ›

Just a month after a Columbia grad student was hassled by the NYPD for photographing subways for a school project, another young man armed with camera has been taken down by the long arm of the law. more ›

Page Six has reports of some nasty antisemitism that went down at the Hotel Gansevoort’s regrettably named G-Spa lounge. A witness tells the Post that a Jewish guest – who had paid for a ticket to the festivities – was insulted by the club’s staff for wearing a yarmulke. more ›

New Year's resolutions probably started out as some sort of gym propaganda to up membership. Every new year, fitness centers worldwide bulk up their ad campaigns, promote "deals" and promise a better body in just months. With so many options, how does one choose a suitable establishment in which to "get physical"? more ›

The Time Warner on-screen guide simply said "Tila Tequila" on MTV when the clock struck midnight last Monday, leading a casual observer to assume they were blowing through a marathon of her depressing reality show. But oh no! The oddly shaped, elfish face of the network apparently gets sole, top billing over the biggest night of the year as the host of MTV's annual New Years Eve party. She was mostly responsible for stumbling through some lines on her way to introducing the lineup of bands on tap, including the likes of Good Charlotte, Kid Rock and a somehow still relevant Wyclef. While those in attendance seemed to be having a fine time, it may pain music fans to see the network has no sign of changing their tune in the new year, rolling out the same rehashed schlock they've been shoveling for most of the decade. Cobra Starship summed it up best in their post-balldrop interview: "A lot of bands are trying to be credible...we wanna be in-credible in '08!" No word yet what role Gabe Saporta will play in "Shot of Love, Season 2." (pic via MTV) more ›

Ever since we read about osechi-ryori in the Times last week we’ve become a tad obsessed with this traditional cuisine that the Japanese whip up for the New Year. Stacked jubako, a more elegant take on the bento box, are filled with delicacies deriving from an age-old taboo forbidding women from cooking during the first three days of the New Year. In addition to sweet potato and burdock root and bits of grilled meat or fish, the boxes often include kamabako, or fish cake, whose red and white color are synonymous with festivals in Japan and kuro-mame or black soybeans. Mame means "health," symbolizing a wish for health in the New Year. Although Julia Moskin’s piece included several recipes, Gothamist decided to purchase a premade jubako or go to a restaurant for this festive fare. We quickly ruled out Kai, the elegant Upper East Side kaiseki spot, which was offering a 30-item jubako for $350. Also out of the running was Hakubai's $80 brunch. more ›