Everyone remembers the dire predictions of Y2K. Or Oakland Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping who first predicted the world would end in 1994, then changed his calculation - twice. Would it be May or Oct. 21, 2011? If you haven't yet completed your holiday shopping, this may be the perfect excuse not to.
Those with dystopian tendencies predict Friday, Dec. 21 is the end of the world. Again. While it definitely signals the end of a cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, more commonly known as the Mayan calendar, we'll leave it up to you to decide whether another page takes its place.
Now, what to do with those last precious 48 hours?
Asked about her End of Time bucket list, one Campolindo High School recreational swimmer volunteered she'd want to have an affair with Denzel Washington; another vowed to eat an entire Susie Cakes cake on her own. They wish to remain anonymous unless the world really does end Friday.
Some take a more laid-back approach to unnerving doomsday predictions. "I completely forgot about the pending end of the world, but it doesn't really matter to me because I've always planned on working until the end of time anyway," says Moraga Chief of Police Robert Priebe. Perhaps we could ask him to dismiss a speeding ticket or two.
If travel to far-off places strikes your fancy, there are many aptly named destinations. You can even save time and go straight to Hell - in Texas, Michigan, Norway or the Cayman Islands. Travel writer Nancy D. Brown says if the world ends on Dec. 21 "we'd [first] visit Norway, eat gelato in Italy, float the Rhine River in Germany and hike the Alps of Switzerland." And, she adds: "You can bet I'd quit worrying about funding the kid's college education!"
New Lafayette author Robert Anke pondered what he would do with his last 48 hours: "Probably nothing too exciting. But I'd hug my wife a little tighter, and I sure as heck wouldn't be too busy to play with my son."
Care to curl up with a good book and fritter away your final 48?
Lafayette Library and Learning Center's Vickie Sciacca suggests Gabriel Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, Phillip Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time or the classic Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
"I'll definitely be reading Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann," writes LLLC's Ann Miller.
"If I'm still around after the 21st," Miller continues, "I'll read Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games and get in a little bow and arrow practice." Let's hear it for suspended library fines, too!
Seasoned travelers must carry a good music playlist. There's still time to update your iPod songs, so be sure to include Party at the End of the World by Jimmy Buffett, The End by the Doors, or the Blue Oyster Cult classic Don't Fear the Reaper. If you intend to nest in place, rent a couple good movies-say2012, or Seeking a Friend for the End of the World- and avoid late fees forever. Sure hope you saw Lafayette Town Center's live theater production of It's a Wonderful Life before it closed Sunday.
Like to see what all the fuss is about? LLLC's Orlando Guzman has a Mayan calendar on display along with pre-Columbian ceramic replicas.
For more information about the doomsday prediction and the resulting hysteria, visit www.december212012.com. The website features articles about Americans stockpiling guns and machetes for doomsday, or purchasing one-way airline tickets to Bugarach or to the South of France. Or visit the more comforting, downright optimistic National Aeronautics and Space Administration website (www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html) which answers questions such as if the Mayan calendar actually ends, and what was the origin of this doomsday prediction.
It's been said we should all "party like there's no to-Maya." In fact, if you are planning an end of the world extravaganza, you can find multiple "No To-Maya" party supplies online.
But wait ... No one's going shopping?!
Books to Read (if you have time):
The Stand by Stephen King
How to Survive 2012 in Two Weeks by Robert Y Haddad and Jacob I Abujaber
End World by David Peters
The Survivors: Book One by Angela White
Swan Songs:
As Time Goes By (Casablanca theme)
Party at the End of the World (Jimmy Buffett)
The End (Doors)
Doomsday Clock (Smashing Pumpkins)
End of the World (Herman's Hermits)
Don't Fear the Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult)
It's the End of the World as We Know it (R.E.M.)
Movies to Watch the World go by:
2012
2012 Ice Age
2012 Supernova
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Earth's Final Hours
Nostradamos 2012 (TV documentary)
Apocalypto
Vampire Apocalypse
Apocalypse Now
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Zombie Apocalypse
Quantum Apocalypse
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Places to Visit:
Iceland
Tierra del Fuego
Hell (choose from Texas, Michigan, Norway, or Cayman Islands)
Hell's Kitchen
Death Valley
Devil's Jump
Ghost Town
Nowhere Else (Tasmania)
Zap
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA