I wonder if anyone is collating news stories to document the annual firework-related carnage? The worst thing about this stuff is that even the "minor" injuries tend to be to places you don't want to be injured - hands, face, eyes - and the potential for life-changing injuries is very high. And it's often kids who experience them - a 14 year-old lost a hand yesterday in Vienna and another kid lost two fingers. A couple of others experienced serious face and eye injuries. Absolute insanity.

Things are starting to get better, though - the Vienna police reported handing out 140+ citations for pyrotechnic-related violations overnight, mostly for possession of illegal fireworks. It was much quieter than the last time we were here for NYE - we'd been avoiding the city on Dec 31st for a while because the noise terrified the kids.

@m we're visiting Naples for new year with 5 year old and repeatedly drummed into her head before going out last night: don't take anything anyone tries to give you, if someone gives you something then throw it away immediately. There's apparently been a trend here for many years where idiots give little kids lit firecrackers as a "prank"

@jmtd hah, I had no idea. My wife is from Naples and we had our wedding reception in Sorrento

@fraggle Seriously? Good lord.