Multiple locations
Sunday, January 12, $2.50 (subway fare), 3:00-5:00
www.improveverywhere.com
While most sensible people have been bundling up as New York City battles the Polar Vortex, thousands of men, women, and children will bare their legs on Sunday for the annual No Pants Subway Ride. Started as a prank by seven guys in 2002, the ride — staged by Improv Everywhere, the group behind such other unusual events as Reverse Times Square, Car Alarm Symphony in Staten Island, and Carousel Horse Race in Bryant Park — hit a small bump in 2006, when 150 people participated and 8 were arrested and handcuffed, but the charges were shortly dismissed. As it turns out, it’s technically not illegal as long as the exposure doesn’t get too indecent. Participants should gather, with their clothes on, at one of seven meeting points around the city (Hoyt Playground in Astoria, the Old Stone House in Brooklyn, Foley Square in Downtown Manhattan, Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side, the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park, the Great Hill in Central Park, and Maria Hernandez Park in Bushwick); the main rule is that you must be willing to take your pants off on the subway while keeping a straight face — and hopefully having someone around to document it for social media. When it’s over at about five o’clock, you should put your pants back on and head over to the after-party at the Greenwich Village Country Club. And it should be comforting to know that the No Pants Subway Ride has spread to more than seventy cities across the globe, including Adelaide, Bangalore, Beijing, Delhi, Jerusalem, Mexico City, Sofia, and Stockholm.