紐約人"解脫日"粉碎煩惱迎新年
Looking forward to next year was not enough for some New Yorkers Tuesday. First, they needed to shred the bad bits of 2010.
So on annual Good Riddance Day, members of the public were invited to jot down their least favorite moments and memories, then stuff the paper into a giant shredder set up at Times Square.
Big Apple resident Melissa Altman said she shredded "a name, a person I liked for a while, a person I just want to get rid of."
"It's the guy who didn't know I existed," another woman said, throwing her piece of paper into a bin, which then dumped its cargo into the truck-sized shredder.
Two cast members from the musical "American Idiot" tore up a note inscribed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," referring to the recently overturned law that barred gays from serving openly in the military. That too went into the big shredder.
One woman said she had scribbled "California" on her paper.
Others had less grandiose grudges from 2010. "Inhibition, passive smoking and restless leg syndrome," Seth Magee, a graphic artist, wrote on his paper.
Whether the high-tech voodoo works is one thing. But the shredder certainly shreds -- and the shredded paper is recycled as toilet roll.
"You can trust me: none of these memories will ever be seen again once they enter this truck," said organizer Lori Raimondo, with the Times Square Alliance.
The crowd was much smaller than usual on Good Riddance Day on account of the snow left over from a major blizzard on Monday. But on Friday huge numbers of people are expected to greet 2011 on Times Square in relatively balmy conditions.
對於一些紐約人來說，僅僅展望來年還不夠。首先，他們需要“粉碎”2010年的那些令人不快的記憶。
週二是一年一度的“解脫日”，紐約民衆受邀在紙上寫下最令他們不快的時刻或者記憶，然後將紙扔到紐約時報廣場的一個巨大的碎紙機內。
紐約市民梅麗莎•奧爾特曼說她把一個名字“粉碎”掉了。“我一度很喜歡這個人，但現在只想忘掉他。”
“這是一個根本不知道我存在的人”，另一位女士說着將一張紙扔到一個箱子裏，之後這些物品都被倒進那個卡車般大的碎紙機裏。
音樂劇《美國白癡》中的兩位演員撕掉了一張寫着“不問不說”的紙條，丟進大碎紙機裏。“不問不說”指的是剛被廢除的禁止同性戀在軍隊公開服役的法令。
一個女人說她在紙上草草寫了“加州”這個詞。
有些人對2010年的怨恨似乎沒那麼深。一位叫賽斯•麥基的平面設計師在紙上寫的是：“拘謹、二手菸和下肢不寧綜合症。”
不管這種高科技“巫術”是否真能清除煩惱，碎紙機肯定是將所有紙張都徹底粉碎了，粉碎後的紙將會被回收，做成捲筒衛生紙。
這一活動的組織者——紐約時報廣場聯盟的洛裏•雷蒙德說：“相信我，一旦這些記憶進了碎紙機，人們就再也不會看到它們了。”
因爲週一暴風雪的積雪還沒有清理乾淨，所以今年參加“解脫日”活動的人比往年少很多。週五的時候天氣會相對暖和一些，預計到時候會有大批民衆在時報廣場迎接2011年。
Vocabulary:
shred: to cut or tear something into small pieces（切碎；撕碎）
jot down: 草草記下；匆匆記下
shredder: a machine that tears something into small pieces, especially paper, so that nobody can read what was printed on it 切碎機；（尤指）碎紙機
grandiose: seeming very impressive but too large, complicated, expensive, etc. to be practical or possible（誇張的）
voodoo: a religion that is practised especially in Haiti and involves magic and witchcraft 伏都教，巫毒教（尤指海地奉行的一種宗教，涉及魔法和巫術）
blizzard: a snowstorm with very strong winds（暴風雪；雪暴）
balmy: (of the air, weather, etc.) warm and pleasant（空氣、天氣）等溫暖愜意的
