Is today a devilish day? Today’s date is the number of the beast, according to the Bible.

I half expect to read about a preacher of the Pat Robertson ilk thundering away in her pulpit about being on guard against the Antichrist to a large group of people wearing white sneakers drinking purple Kool-Aid. According to the New York Times, gamblers are betting that the world will end today. The odds are 100,000 to 1 that we’ll be seeing the 4 horsemen of Apocalypse at some point today.

There’s something that speaks to extreme desperation about gamblers betting on the end of the world. I wonder how they’re going to collect if the locusts truly come. Foxwoods in Connecticut is probably doing mad business today; however, with the draining of the earth’s black blood and the melting of the ice-caps, it’s become easier to believe that the end could be near.

This same article has a quote by a professor of religion from Barnard saying that it’s a pretty big assumption to think that there is a beginning and end to this whole she-bang. Religious people and scientists both seem to agree that the party’s over. We can’t go on the way we have been. This issue has become more acute for me the more I pay to fill up my gas tank, and the more often I find myself wearing sweaters in DC in June.

The kicker, though, is how the possibility of a storm of locusts and the Anacostia becoming a river of blood has become a marketing tool. Clubs are booking theme parties, book tours are kicking off and a re-make of a 70’s horror film was released today.

So, I guess the end of time is near and they’re all out of marketing gimmicks. I think I’ll have a party tonight and serve deviled eggs, Bloody Marys and devil dogs to celebrate.