{"product_id":"2940012761989","title":"Going for Prime Time","description":"Bill has written and published a book on world history titled Five Epochs of Civilization. The fifth epoch is today’s computer age.  Bill coins a Latinized word “Quintepoch” to name the age.  He wants to brand his theory of history with that name.  This book is published at the turn of the millennium.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn December 31st there will be a special New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square that will attract world-wide media attention.  What better occasion could there be for announcing a major advance in our understanding of world history?  Therefore, Bill orders a clear plastic sign saying “Now comes the Quintepoch.”  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis plan is to arrive in Times Square early and position himself somewhere on the periphery of the crowd.  When midnight approaches and the festivities reach a peak, he will hold up this sign as the television cameras scan the scene.  Millions of viewers will read the word “Quintepoch”. A new brand will be born.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs luck will have it, Bill wins the drawing for a new television set sponsored by a local flower shop.  This ties him up for two hours in the morning of December 31st. Bill then drives from his parents’ house in Milford, Pennsylvania, to Jersey City, New Jersey, where he catches the PATH train to Manhattan.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is a problem.  Although Bill arrives near Times Square around 5:30 p.m., the streets are already filled with people for seven blocks up Broadway.  Bill works his way forward  from the back of the line but the closest he can come to Times Square is Broadway and 51st street. For the next six hours, he is stuck on the street in the middle of the crowd behind police barricades. No television cameras are in sight.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBill watches and waits as an electronic sign on the Times Square tower reports the arrival of the new millennium in successive time zones from western Europe to points on this side of the Atlantic.  A woman appearing in a fifth-story window of an adjoining apartment building bares her naked breast as the events-starved crowd cheers. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBill shoots some photographs and takes in the camaraderie of young men and women standing nearby.  When he starts to hoist his plastic sign, however, he is shouted down.  Bill’s main concern while standing in the crowd for several hours is whether he can hold his bladder. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMidnight arrives in New York City.  The crowd goes wild as balloons and confetti descend to the street.  After the crowds have thinned, Bill finds his way to a subway station that connects with the PATH train to Jersey City.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen comes the 80-mile drive back to Milford where, in the comfort of his parent’s home, Bill plops himself in front of a television set and watches reruns of the Times Square scene from five hours earlier.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is the third in a series of Bill Mack’s personal adventure stories.  Bill, a college-trained idealist, is someone ready to act on his ideas even if some of them are unrealistic.  In this case, Bill is hoping to gain free publicity for a book by hoisting a sign in Times Square in the New Year’s Eve celebration ushering in a new millennium.","brand":"Thistlerose Publications","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47179550687472,"sku":"2940012761989","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012761989_p0.jpg?v=1763572368","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012761989","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}