Sympathy For The Devil



The Nick of time

Be afraid, be very afraid. It is the 6th day of the 6th month of the 6th year (ok, the 2006th year, but disregard that minor distraction) and 666 is the number of the beast. Is it a bad omen or just hype?

Significant dates have an uncanny appeal, whether they portend the apocalypse or just a big party. When it came to 1 January, 2000, it inspired hopes and fears of both.

Something similar happened on New Year's Eve 999, when a huge crowd gathered in Rome to await the end of the world, until at midnight the Pope blessed them and sent them home. Whether a smaller group of pedants turned up twelve months later is not recorded.

The date of the beast - 06/06/06 - should be irresistible then. "Let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six," says Revelation, the last and obscurest book of the Bible.