Good Riddance Day in Times Square

I'm not about to tell you something you don't know: 2009 was a tough year for a lot of folks. But the good news is it's about to be a thing of the past.

Many of us would like to forget this year ever happened, and the Times Square Alliance — the same group that plans the big New Year's Eve bash — helped people officially shed what sucked about this past year.

On Monday, the group sponsored Good Riddance Day, which allowed people to literally shed their bitter memories and failures from the past 365 days or so. The way it worked was simple: folks lined up near the discount theater ticket booth and tossed their bad memories into an industrial-sized shredder. A big Dumpster and a sledgehammer were available for items that couldn't be easily shredded.

What did people decide to dump? Almost everything, it seems. Ben Winnick of Simsbury, Conn., shredded a newspaper story about the New York Giants' 41-9 loss Sunday to the Carolina Panthers, which ended the Giants' playoff hopes. "Hopefully, next season will be better," he told the Associated Press.

The Alliance offered a $250 prize for the person with the most creative item shredded. Twelve-year-old Alissa Yankelevits of Los Angeles earned the prize with a rather creepy shredding: the memory of a counselor on a school trip who was later featured on the TV show "America's Most Wanted." "I just spent a week with him," Alissa said. "It was really terrifying because I just found that out."

Others shredded memories of past relationships, jobs and even writer's block. We gotta believe it felt liberating to literally rip up what made 2009 not so great.

Here's hoping the event helped wipe the slate clean for 2010 and made room for lots of memories that don't need shredding next year.

Photo courtesy of moonfire8 via stock.xchang.