Oh no! Today is the sixth day of the sixth month in the year 2006 - 666! We are all doomed. The devil is coming. The end of the world is near. From
The Daily Telegraph:
Thirteen may be an unlucky number, but the Book of Revelation claims 666 is the number of the beast.
And not since the Y2K computer scare of December 31, 1999 has a date received so much attention.
Jesuit priest Richard Leonard from the Australian Catholics Bishops Conference said the furore was so great, there were reports some Australian women did not want to deliver their babies on this date.
Apparently the number 666 has scared the living daylights out of ordinary people and even corporate America and Presidents. From
Boston Herald:
“I’m flying to New York Tuesday and I’m a little freaked out,” said a Boston publicist who declined to give her name. “I don’t like the devil’s day; I don’t like it when my change is $6.66. I always make them keep the penny. Or if my purchase is $6.66, I pay $6.70. I don’t like it when my mileage is 666. I speed until it’s 667.”
Even corporate America and the U.S. government are not immune. According to business legend, when Intel introduced the 666 MHz Pentium III in 1999, the company called it Pentium III 667. U.S. Highway 666, “the Highway of the Beast,” was renumbered in 2003 after controversy over the supposed reference to You Know Who.
Presidents also have been accused of being the Antichrist. Ronald Wilson Reagan has six letters in each name and he lived at 666 St. Cloud Dr. in Los Angeles. He later changed it to No. 668.
The fear of 666 even has a name of its own - Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia. From
Wikipedia:
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is a fear found in the Western Christian world, which originates in the belief that the Biblical verse, Revelation 13:18, indicates that the number 666 is linked to Satan or the Anti-Christ. Outside the Christian faith, the phobia has been further popularized as a leitmotif in various horror films.
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobics avoid things related to the number 666, such as a building in which the number is prominently displayed. Rarer is trying to avoid the number as it relates to other numbers. For example, the fraction two-thirds has a repeating decimal of .666. (Note that in base 12, two-thirds is 0.8, and 0.666 is the fraction 6/11.) A severe hexakosioihexekontahexaphobic may avoid this as well as 5/3, 8/3, 11/3, etc. People with this phobia consider it bad luck to get 3 sixes in a hand of poker, even though this is usually quite a good hand.
For those who are really afraid of 666, just take this brilliant advice. From
Guardian:
Jack Horkheimer of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium has a piece of advice: ``If it really spooks you, you can stand on your head and it'll be 999.''