It looks like it can’t be real, but I’m going to take the people at NASA at their word.

As of this afternoon, the spinning chunk of rock we inhabit is one- to two-and-a-half days of rotation from the year 2007. If you’re on the tiny Pacific atoll of Kiritimati (Christmas Island), you’ll be among the first to welcome it.

If you’re in the US, local “blue” laws preventing the sale or consumption of alcohol on a Sunday, which New Year’s Eve is this year, could but a serious damper on your party plans.

In honor of the coming New Year, the jet-setting folks at Condé Nast Traveler have rounded up a list of how 12:00 am, January 1 will be met in nine different places around the globe.

If your idea of how to celebrate a winter festival has less to do with astronomical phenomena, religious observance or gift-giving, and more with the “airing of grievances” and “feats of strength,” well then a merry Festivus to you.

Yes, that’s right: today is the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere (I’m choosing to ignore the you dratted southerners who are basking in summer sun right now).

If you’re flying for Christmas and expect to arrive toting a Santa-like sack of wrapped gifties, think again. The TSA wants you to know that they retain the right to open all presents to get at any suspicious looking articles inside.

37.2 million people traveled over the Thanksgiving weekend last year, and experts predict more next week. If you plan to be among them, look at this week’s NY Times “Practical Traveler,” which has a survival guide on how to survive the worst of it.

I’ve never flown anywhere on Halloween, so I was surprised to learn that, despite our current state of security hassles and identity paranoia, both travelers and flight crews often show up at the airport in costume.