Holidaze

It seems 2020 will alter one final tradition before it wraps up, and there will even be a countdown for it -- New York's iconic ball drop for New Year's Eve is going virtual.

Organizers of the annual festivities in Times Square have announced that in order to say good riddance to this year and ring in 2021 ... it will have to be a "virtually enhanced celebration."

According to the Times Square Alliance, there will still be some scaled-back and COVID-cautious live events ... but the goal this year, for obvious reasons, is to pull off festivities like the ball drop safely.

The Alliance says ... "One thing that will never change is the ticking of time and the arrival of a New Year. On December 31st, the Ball will drop in Times Square."

Sadly, there just won't be anyone physically present to see it.

Alliance President Tim Tompkins is staying positive though, and says 2020 will go out with a bang of "significantly new and enhanced virtual, visual and digital offerings."

Mayor Bill de Blasio is also praising the innovation in order to keep the long tradition going, adding ... "A new year means a fresh start, and we’re excited to celebrate."

You can say that again.

It's National Voter Registration Day, and celebs are reminding folks to get out there and exercise their rights.

The civic nonpartisan holiday -- celebrated the fourth Tuesday in September -- is all about registering and mobilizing voters, while educating and unifying the country.

Some celebs -- like Chelsea Handler, Michelle Obama and Big Sean -- have been doing their part to get word out about registering. Surprisingly, 60% of eligible voters are never even asked to register.

Folks are coming up with super creative ways to have a safe and socially distanced Halloween ... like this zipline ghost that's giving out candy, and beers!!!

Ya gotta see this contraption and how it all works ... there's a homemade ghost on a hangar, attached to a zipline and powered by a little bit of gravity and some fishing equipment, and it ferries candy from the front porch to the sidewalk.

No doorbells, no knocks, and no close-quarters contact needed!

Matt Thompson at Thompson Woodworks in Garden City, MI is the man who made it all happen ... and we gotta say, his contraption is pretty ingenious.

It looks like a fun way to get those cute trick-or-treaters some candy, and special props to Matt for hooking up parents up with some light beers -- great use of the DIY Halloween tech!

Add in the rod and reel to bring the ghost back to base for a refill, and you get this reel-y good idea.

Ya Lun and Xi Lun -- the only giant panda twins in America -- got to chow down and chill out to celebrate their birthday ... so a pretty typical day for them, but with presents.

The cute and cuddly beasts were treated Thursday by Zoo Atlanta's Panda Care Team with a "special birthday enrichment" in their big dayroom area ... which included ice cakes, sugarcane "candles" with sweet potato "flames" and birthday boxes to bust open and enjoy.

Inside those boxes -- more treats ... like leaf-eater biscuits, apples, bananas, and sweet potatoes. Pretty awesome gifts for any 4-year-old panda ... sure looks that way anyhow.

The video's beyond adorable and a welcome break from the endless bad news 2020 keeps dumping on us. If you wanna see more ... the zoo's got a panda cam!!!

Roy Jones Jr. is NOT pulling the plug on his scheduled fight with Mike Tyson ... but there is some truth to rumors of tension behind the scenes.

Here's what we know ... Roy wasn't happy when Tyson's camp agreed to push back the date of the fight from Sept. 12 to Nov. 28.

Roy already had begun training and was on a strict timeline to prepare himself. So, when the date changed ... we're told he was frustrated and vented his issues to Tyson's camp and the people organizing the fight.

We're told there were other minor issues ... but it all boils down to this -- Roy wants to be treated like an equal partner in the fight and after he laid out his concerns, we're told he was happy with the way they were addressed and agreed to proceed with the fight on Nov. 28.

In fact, Roy even posted an IG video this week saying straight up, he'll be ready and looking for a real deal victory over Tyson when they clash.

One thing that's bothered both fighters is the insinuation from the California State Athletic Commission that the fight will be more of a playful show than a violent fight.

Sources from both Tyson's camp and Roy's camp tell us both men are approaching the event like they would any other fight in their respective careers.

Tyson and Roy have said to TMZ Sports on camera the goal is a knockout ... and they will be COMPETING once the bell rings.

Jeff Lowe is pissed off at PETA over a Joe Exotic Halloween costume ... and the animal rights organization is taking some major swipes back as their beef heats up!!!

Here's the deal ... PETA is hawking a "Joe Exotic Tiger Killer Costume" for $159.99 ... but Jeff isn't laughing at the funny costume and says he's owed a slice of the pie.

Jeff's lawyer fired off a cease and desist letter to PETA, obtained by TMZ, claiming he owns the rights to "Joe Exotic" and "Tiger King" and threatening a lawsuit if PETA doesn't pull the costume or come to the bargaining table to work out a licensing deal.

As you know ... Jeff now operates Joe's old zoo, The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma.

PETA fired back with a letter of their own, which we also obtained, calling Jeff's claims "absurd" and claiming that, even if Lowe owns the trademarks, the costume is an obvious parody and doesn't violate any trademark.

The animal rights org takes some jabs at Jeff ... the letter advises, "We suggest Mr. Lowe focus instead on his serious legal problems in Nevada, Oklahoma and elsewhere, including the numerous recent federal Animal Welfare Act violations perpetrated against endangered big cats at his Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park."

Nothing like Halloween costume beef in July!!!

Lizzo has a brief message for the guy who allegedly booted her and some friends from a rental property a wee bit early this weekend -- bite me, and preferably where the sun don't shine!!!

The singer was documenting her sun-filled weekend with her friends, which started at one pad they rented ... but then shifted over to another one a few days later after the landlord at the first place apparently kicked them out.

In response, Lizzo kept calm and twerked on.

She posted a vid of herself dancing at the new digs, and had this to say to the guy she claims cut her stay short ... "This is for the man that kicked me out of my 7-day rental 3 days early yesterday." She adds, "This is for mocking the way that I dance and for using Instagram footage of me and my 6 black homegirls to say that we could ‘hurt him’ and threaten to call the police." There's no additional footage that shows what she describes here.

Still, Lizzo says she knows the dude's watching and that he won't stop her shine, adding this for good measure ... "Thanks for kicking us out cus this house is better anyways. Xoxo 🖕🏾"

Unclear where exactly Lizzo was staying -- kinda looks like the L.A. area to us -- but just a few days earlier, she was showing off her and her girls having a good ass time at what appears to be the first spot.

Khloe Kardashian's 4th of July celebration at her baby daddy's house seems to be proof that an age-old adage holds up even today ... time heals all.

The youngest OG Kardashian sister was spotted heading into Tristan Thompson's L.A. crib Saturday, with her older sister, Kourtney, and even her mom, Kris, in tow. No sign of Kim, Kanye, Kylie or Kendall -- but still, quite the Kardashian get-together if you ask us.

While we know Khloe and Tristan have hung out a lot in recent months -- word is they've been quarantining together since the lockdown -- it's interesting to see the fam coming around to Tristan again ... this, of course, after he got caught cheating a couple years back.

Since then, though, it would appear Khloe and him are giving their relationship a second go ... as they've been super tight lately, and Tristan has more than professed his love for Khloe. Remember, they share a daughter together -- young True -- and it looks like they've been doing more than just co-parenting for a while now.

Hundreds of young people in SoCal ran for the hills on the 4th of July ... Beverly Hills that is, where they may get 2 cases of Corona -- and only 1 is the beer.

It's a crazy scene that has been repeated all over the country. Partiers packed in like sardines without face masks. There's a lot of drinking and super-close contact ... ideal for the spread of the virus.

Not that they're listening .... but California is experiencing a huge spike in coronavirus cases.  In the last 2 weeks in L.A. County, 28,130 people tested positive and 391 have died.

It's now as clear as can be ... there are lots of people who just don't care if they get the virus or just believe they are impervious to it. Wrong.

4th of July is proving many Americans don't care coronavirus cases are spiking again, which is in line with the White House's new messaging ...  just live with it.

A handful of water-based venues -- including a water park and two lakeside blowouts -- brought out droves of people this holiday weekend in Wisconsin, Missouri and Michigan ... all of which are seeing their own surges in confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses.

That didn't matter to these folks though -- they were ready to get wet and wild for Independence Day, and you can tell by how little mind they're paying to safety precautions.

At the Noah's Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells, WI, hardly anybody was 6-feet apart from each other as they packed the wave pool. And, masks were out the window, obviously -- studies say they're ineffective if they get wet, so a lost cause right off the bat here.

Elsewhere in Missouri ... the same bar adjacent to Lake of the Ozarks -- Backwater Jack's -- forged ahead with their planned Fourth of July blowout, which they dubbed No Ducks Given. Between Friday and Saturday, the place once again resembled a sardine can.

And, in Michigan, another lake shindig was well underway Saturday ... Diamond Lake in Cass County was packed to the gills along its shores with partygoers raging the day away.

We've seen this behavior all throughout the spring and early summer -- ever since America was put on high alert and states went on full-blown lockdowns. While the shelter-in-place orders seemed to flatten the curve, there has been an explosion of new cases in the wake of reopening.

And yet ... the bad and dangerous behavior continues, despite what the CDC and other health officials have to say. The question ... what's next? Welp, President Trump's administration seems to have an answer, according to a new report anyway. It's simple ... live life at your own risk. Thing is ... he's been putting people -- his own supporters -- in harm's way by holding reckless rallies with no social distancing and few masks.

NBC News reports that big wigs in Trump's cabinet are ramping up for the new messaging to the American people ... that the virus is here, and we gotta press forward regardless.

If you're an Angeleno, don't be surprised to see a massive display of Trump and Confederate pride blazing down your street any moment now, 'cause one is on the way.

A parade of lifted trucks was spotted Saturday, all departing a Smart and Final parking lot in Santa Monica ... one after another in what seemed like an endless line of diesels. They all had flags flying from their beds too -- Trump 2020 ones, Confederate battle flags and U.S.A. flags too, of course. It's clear ... these folks were making a statement -- a statement of day's past.

Eyewitnesses tell us there were at least 75 trucks packed into the lot, and we're told this seemed planned and staged. Each truck had at least two people, so the number of bodies rolling these puppies out was in the triple digits ... upwards of 300.

The good news is that right out the gate, there wasn't too much of a scene or ruckus ... unless you consider the noisy departure itself to be rowdy. It kinda is, frankly.

Here's why dogs are King of the pet world -- they just mind their business and carry float on ... literally so during the Fourth of July.

Someone filmed their pooch enjoying a nice summer day in the backyard -- perched up on a bed of pool noodles and gliding across the water without a stir or bark to ruin the serene scene. It also comes across a rubber ball, but not even that jacked its chill mood.

Now, we don't know if the owner put the pup onto the noodles, or if it found its way on there itself after a quick dip. We'd like to think the latter, but even if this was staged for the photo-op ... we still stan. The end result is just too good to poo-poo.

Unclear when this was first captured, but it circulated online right in time for the holiday ... and it's probably what a lot of us need to see right now -- namely, something peaceful.

Take a lesson from Chachi here -- yes, we've taken the liberty of naming this awesome canine -- and enjoy the Fourth for what it is. A day to kick back, be free ... and scratch the fleas off too while you're at it.