Everyone knows that on New Year's Eve, New York City drops a glittery ball over Times Square. However, there are a number of other cities around the country that also drop objects as a way to welcome the new year and, in Pennsylvania, they all seem to be food related.
In Bethlehem, a specially rigged crane lowers an enormous, illuminated Peep (Just Born, the company that makes the marshmallow confections, is located in Bethlehem) at midnight. In Lebanon, PA, the local fire department lowers a 7 and a half foot long bologna (but what do they do with it afterwards?). Pottsville raises a giant bottle of Yuengling (pronounced Ying-Ling), the city of Hershey lowers a huge, foil-wrapped Kiss and Elizabethtown drops a oversized M&M.
It certainly makes Philly's fireworks and day-long Mummer's Parade pale in comparison! Next year, I think we should drop a gargantuan cheesesteak.
[via CBS3]
12-31-2008 @4:20PM Jen said... I can't believe you left out the pickle drop in Dillsburg, PA.
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1-03-2009 @11:49AM woostery said... Even though I've never been to Lebanon, I feel I have to point out that the bologna they dropped there wasn't just bologna, but Lebanon Bologna, a cured, fermented, smoked, white-flecked (at a glance it looks more like salami than bologna), semi-dry sausage. The news reports really should have made it clear. (It would be like substituting the words "beef navel" for "pastrami.")
It's a phenomenally tasty cured meat and it appears it could be dying out, so Slashfood would do well to find some of the stuff and pump it up!
Wikipedia on Lebanon Bologna:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon_bologna
One firm that still makes lebanon bologna:
http://www.seltzerslebanonbologna.com/
And for final confirmation that Lebanon bologna is distinct, a cite for a biomedical article on the Microbiology of Lebanon Bologna
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=379833
Check out Lebanon bologna. It's fantastic.
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