The Dark Side of June 6

So tomorrow is June 6, 2006, and it seems that half the world is freaking out about it.

Don’t believe me? Well, then – check out these headlines:

06-06-06 - Number of the Beast?

6/6/06: A Date with the Devil?

June 6 Causes a Stir Among Superstitious

Curiosity, Humor Surround June 6, 2006

June 6, 2006 stirs superstitions

Yes, it’s June 6, 2006. Whereas under normal circumstances, it’d be just another Tuesday filled with pot roast leftovers, warm weather, lawns to be mowed, and a TV set crammed with reruns. But this year? Everyone is taking it as a sign of the apocalypse, despite the fact that it was scheduled on the calendar…oh, thousands of years ago. Do you suppose people freaked out this badly on June 6, 1966? Or June 6, 1906? Probably.

There has always been such a bad connection in people’s minds with the numbers 6 – 6 – 6. I knew a guy in Seattle who traded in his license plates because they had those numbers. The Reagans had the Post Office change their California house numbers changed from 666 to 668. When I worked for the pager service, we couldn’t give away pager numbers that ended with x666. Hell, even Intel marketed their Pentium 666 MHz processor as 667 MHz, to avoid any association to your PC having demonic possession. (Nowadays they'll blame it on Spyware and/or viruses, which we all know are programmed in Satan's dominion.)

But even if you’re not overly cautious, superstitious, worried, and/or religious, I suspect there’s probably a bit of karma risk involved here. Sure, you may scoff at the negative thoughts of living at 666 Main Street USA, but you’ll probably think twice about wanting to have a black cat for a pet. (And yes -- I’m sure there are people out there who are looking forward to celebrating this date for its purpose and intent – there’s always someone somewhere, right?)

And you really have to hand it to the people at 20th Century Fox – they’re using the date to their advantage – they’re releasing their remake of “The Omen” tomorrow. (The original was pretty scary, but add 10 points for the fact that I was about 11 when I first saw it.) One of the articles I read summed it up nicely:

“…Instead of dire warnings, a wave of skepticism is mounting over the other-worldly date that laymen and churchmen say has been hijacked by movie producers, book publishers and rock music promoters."It's marketing, marketing, marketing," said Bob Thompson, professor of pop culture at Syracuse University.”

So what was once considered “wicked” is now being used to push Hollywood’s merchandise. “Evil” does indeed come in many forms, doesn’t it? Regardless, I have to wonder how many pregnant women will keep their legs crossed extra hard tomorrow to keep their babies from being born on June 6.

So for those of us who fully expect to see the sun rise and set tomorrow as usual, I wish you a happy Tuesday. Because like my buddy Chernabog (pictured above), I think the morning light will make everything all right once again. Still, I’d suggest that you not walk underneath any ladders, and certainly don’t wear any pentagram-embossed t-shirts or black mass robes when crossing the street tomorrow.

For the rest of you who’ll be hiding in the basement…well then I’ll see you Wednesday.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, fear of the number sequence 666 is known as hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia. So now you know.