555ing Freaking Idiots

It has been mass hysteria here at the middle school because today is the end of the world. You see, today is May 5, 2005 - 5/5/05, or in other words, 555!!!!!!! Holy crap! Oh wait, the number 555 means absolutely NOTHING! Try telling that to the Spanish radio station out here who has been scaring the crap out of the people. 555, they say, is the "mark of the beast" and the world can't possibly continue after this. Of course intelligent people know that 555 is about 111 short of the real supposed "mark of the beast" but my students would have none of it. I tried to explain that we got through 111 ok, 222, 333, 444 and that 555 would probably be no different. I might have gotten through to some of them, but not most. As I speak, Desert Hot Springs is full of crazed Middle Schoolers running around and doing as much as they can before 5:00, which is of course what time the world will end.