There’s been a lot of End of the World speak, lately. Similar to the millennium, but a little gorier on account of the modern internet. Apparently, the Mayan calendar ends on December 21, 2012 (or the 23rd; depending on whom you ask), and some people are losing their friggin’ minds. The craze which surrounded the millennium apocalypse was slightly more palatable because it related to computer code. Planes were going to fall from the sky and your microwave was going to rape your children because each had only been given two number fields for the year instead of four. (That didn’t happen and the real millennium started in 2001, but I digress.) The Mayan End of the World is something you learned about in school, when you were studying (duh) Mayan culture. It seemed soooooo long off, when I was a kid, and now it’s here. It’s actually here! The End of the World! But what of it? How does the end of the world work? Does the End of the World know to start at the International Date Line? It’s hard for me to believe in the calculations of a people who, for some reason, could see the end of the world but not an approaching army of Spanish Conquistadors.
julie warshaw 