Kage Baker was always particularly amused by the frequent proclamations of the world’s imminent ending.

They’re common in Southern California, where a distinct subset of the clergy is apparently only interested in the End Times, not how to get through everyday life in a righteous manner. At leas once a year, someone declares hat the End is Nigh. With the growth of social media, the news gets spread electronically faster than Amie Semple McPherson could ever have imagined. They take out billboards, too. Los Angeles loooves billboards.

Thus far, the world has declined to end. The more determined Apocalypsists just optimistically claim the first date was in error, issue a  new deadline and then slink off with the contents of the poor box before another Trumpet fails to sound. Others blame the non-believers – which, one must acknowledge, are pretty much everywhere – who have averted the great day with their lack of faith. I have always thought that was a good thing, and that perfect faith would be more likely to keep the world spinning: but no, evidently to be a good disciple (especially a Christian) one must be rooting for the world to end.

I think this attitude dates back to Paul of Tarsus. He was the first Christian to try blackmailing God with the death of the faithful.

Anyway, the End of the World gets predicted all the time, but never arrives. Of course, Kage had a totally different theory about that. She said that the world does indeed end every time it’s predicted – in fact, it ends more often. But it always comes back just the same as it was, and almost no one notices. Oh, there may some confusing new trends for good or ill (but mostly ill) that no one can explain, but that all gets ignored in the rush of daily life. I’m pretty sure she would blame the election of Donald Trump on this phenomenon.

The latest End of the World warning here in the USA is a little bit different. Its prophet is a Catholic. a layman, claims a degree in statistics, and I don’t think he lives in California. (It’s hard to tell from the paucity of personal details on him online.) But he sticks to a tried and true script. The culprit is the planet Nabiru, AKA Planet X, and I am sure his forecast is rife with Enochian prophecies and the Annunaki, giant catfish dudes reputed to be connected with this stuff since the days of Chaldea. More to the point, Meade is also already skipping around the hard details – the End was supposed to be on September 23rd, but now he says No (no explanation given, except – you know – the world did kind of conspicuously not end then) and Meade says it will now occur “sometime in October”. He’ll let everyone know when, in case you somehow miss it …

If Nabiru and the Annunaki don’t turn you on, have no fear. Half a dozen other folks of dubious provenance are also predicting the world will end sometime in 2018. Oddly, none of them are connected with the State Department. But all manner of of extraordinary and unlikely weather phenomenon are apparently on the way. None due to climate change, of course …

This is all guaranteed to put one in an odd mood, I must say. Handy for writing the disaster story, though. Tentacles and barbels and toxic seafood, oh my!

Nothing appeals like the classics, Dear Readers.