Doomsday – Hello Rapture!
Posted in rantings and ravings on October 28th, 2025 by skeeterSome say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. Robert Frost
The End Times might very well be on the calendar this year. The problem, of course, is whether it’s ice or fire, nuclear war or robot apocalypse, global warming or test tube viruses, Artificial Intelligence or Donald Trump. It is, after all, part 1984 and part Brave New World. Take your pick, we all have a favorite. Half of us are doomscrolling … and half are bingeing cute kitty videos on Tik Tok.
I guess we’re already living in a dystopian future imagining a post-apocalyptic nightmare, living with constant Dread, kissing our asses goodbye. Plenty of us have stopped having children, no point procreating for a phony future, better to spare the progeny a stunted existence. Some of us are spending down our retirement savings, no doubt figuring we can’t take it with us. Plenty of us are hopelessly addicted to internet Doomsday sites, like watching a football game we already know our team was clobbered mercilessly.
This last week was another predicted Rapture. I’m assuming the True Believers are still earthbound, gravely disappointed, wondering if the Ascension to Heaven passed without them because … well, they weren’t Chosen for reasons unclear maybe, evidently destined for Hell or at least a few more years here to endure the madness with the rest of us sinners and heathens. Welcome back!
For them and my pals who see catastrophe looming imminently, let me offer some unwanted advice. Take a deep breath. Stop the doomscrolling. Read a good book. Take a walk in the woods. Hopefully get yourself lost for awhile. The world will wait for you to find your way home.
Doomsday Clocks on the South End
Posted in rantings and ravings on August 1st, 2017 by skeeterLittle Jimmy was off on another of his Paul Revere speeches while the denizens of the Downrigger Lounge at the Yacht Club were hauling up the Happy Hour specials before the 6 p.m. cut-off. Little Jimmy believed, based on extensive reading, that the world economy was headed for fiscal apocalypse. The Great Recession was only the first pealing of the doomsday bell about to toll.
“Get out of the stock market now,” he advised, bolstered by two gin and tonics. “Get gold and silver. Credit cards are a joke. Banks won’t open, nothing’s good but cold hard cash.”
Little Jimmy most likely had a stash buried someplace. “God help him if Alzheimers hits first,”Ralph said loud enough for Jimmy to hear. “Go ahead and laugh. It’ll be dog eat dog when the Crash comes.”
I got neighbors who believe – who hope, actually – Armageddon is coming. I got some who stockpile guns and ammo. In case Anything is coming. I got friends who keep pantries full of food and water. For the Pandemic. Or the earthquake. Or the attack of the zombies. Hell, I don’t know what to make of this spreading anxiety, but it’s floating up from the swamps down here. Jimmy says that’s one of the Signs, public unease.
When I was 10 years old a friend of the family built a fallout shelter in his basement. For after the Atomic War, he told me. Radiation everywhere, chaos, panic —- only those who planned ahead would survive. “Can we stay with you, Malcolm,” I asked, figuring, sure…. “Your dad didn’t plan for this,” he said sternly. “You see that rifle in the corner?” I noticed the gun propped next to a 55 gallon drum of water. “That’s to keep folks OUT. They’ll realize too late what’s what and I have to take care of my own. See?”
“You’d shoot us?” I asked incredulously. He said he’d have no choice. That night I mentioned this to my father, the father who hadn’t done much planning for the end of the world. His face darkened. All he said was, “Malcolm’s got too big a mouth. You have to learn not to listen to him.”
“What if he’s right?” I asked. My old man shook his head. “That would be a world you and me wouldn’t care much to live in. Malcolm would be welcome to it. Now go to bed and don’t listen to damn fools anymore.”
Little Jimmy was on to the collapse of the E.U. Then all the dominoes would go next, world wide panic. The North Koreans had just launched an ICBM missile. Fallout shelters will be back in vogue soon. I left a tip for Cindy, our waitress, and a half finished beer. I wonder sometimes if Malcolm was disappointed nuclear war never came. Little Jimmy sure would be.