By Jackie Rooney jacksonville.com
ROONEY BIN: Hoping for an end to doomsday predictions
The Mayan calendar runs out this year. Some people believe that indicates doomsday will occur Friday, Dec. 21; other folks are betting that Tuesday, Nov. 6, Election Day, will be TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It).
With all the past predictions that have gone awry, it’s hard to give credence to these absurd prophecies. In 1910, the world ducked Halley’s Comet, and 90 years later, Y2K bombed; it seems like only yesterday. Radio preacher Harold Camping got out of the rapture prophecy business after first miscalculating the 2011 apocalypse for May 21 and again on Oct. 21.
On Nov. 8, Earthlings came close to a collision with asteroid 2005 YU55. It was a near miss at just 202,000 miles away, but significant because some doomsayers believe Earth will be wiped out by a rogue planet that’s aimed directly at us.
Another math-challenged prophet Nancy Lieder, who claims to be in contact with aliens from Zeta Reticuli, said the planet Nibiru would collide with Earth in May 2003, but coincidentally re-calculated the date to Dec. 21, 2012.
Last year was a rough one for the global economy, highlighted in the U.S. by a contentious upcoming presidential race. Neither is going away soon. Therefore, I’ve resolved to face 2012 with a positive attitude, and leave the Mayan calendar to the Mayans. The January message in my new 16-month calendar, Live, Love, Laugh: Happy Thoughts for Happy Hearts, reads, “Life deserves laughter.” With that in mind, on Jan. 1, my spouse, the Binmeister, and I headed for the ocean to watch stout-hearted folks jump in the Atlantic.
The annual Polar Plunge at Sawgrass Beach Club attracted 63 daring swimmers, a host of spectators and a curious kitten named Rocky. It isn’t often one encounters a cat strolling along the water’s edge, but Rocky is a most unusual feline. One of Rocky’s people, Remington Chenore, was among the crowd that took the Polar Bear pledge and subsequent dip in icy ocean waters, while older brother Ranger, mother Laura and cat pal Rocky watched from shore. Then Rocky and his adopted family stayed to play in the surf and walk in the sand.
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