well above Times Square. At precisely scheduled moments, they showered
the celebrants below with a heavenly assortment that ranged from paper
boomerangs and cherry blossoms for Australia and Japan at midmorning in
New York, to three-foot balloon replicas of the Earth and tons of
confetti at midnight in Times Square.
The nuts-and-bolts of this operation are fascinating even to a technical
illiterate like me. Treb showed me a book that seemed to be a foot thick
containing the various scenarios as they emerged over the year of
planning that preceded the event.
But it was Treb's reaction to his part in the Times Square celebration
that intrigues me enough to resurrect the millennium a month after we
have gratefully buried it.
Conversation around a serious poker table is generally minimal, and
philosophical reflections are considered bad form. It was not
well-received when I asked Treb between deals what the defining moment of
that long night in New York was. So a few days later, I sat at his
breakfast bar and asked the same question. His response was immediate.
"It happened at seven o'clock," he said, "when we celebrated midnight in
London. We dropped 700 pounds of foil confetti that picked up and
reflected the lights in Times Square and took on a kind of magical
effect. At that moment, the loudspeakers carried the first music that the
people below us recognized: the Beatles' 'All You Need Is Love.' And
suddenly a million-and-a-half people were singing at the top of their
lungs that all we need is love -- and there wasn't a dry eye in my crew."
And just as suddenly as he told this story in his Santa Ana Heights home,
Treb Heining was once again the 15-year-old kid who got a job blowing up
balloons at Disneyland and became the best balloon blower in the whole
world on his way to being called on by the people who plan political
conventions and Super Bowls to Saudi Arabian princes to contribute his
skills to their celebrations.
Along the way he's acquired the business smarts and sophistication to
