If you've been down in the dumps lately because there is no enormous catastrophy that will destroy humanity on the horizon, take heart. According to an e-mail I received yesterday the planet Hercolubus is coming to get us. Of course it will probably be like all those other catastrophies that were going to do us all in, like the May 5, 2000 planetary alignment that was going to make the Earth's axis tip over. Or Planet X as promoted a few years ago by Nancy Lieder. Fortunately such supposed events are so big that the kooks can't claim when they don't happen that the government is covering them up. Instead they have to go slink off in embarrassment.

Another of these concepts that will likely be with us for a while yet is the supposed prophecy of the Last Pope, Peter the Roman. The claim goes that St. Malachy, while visting Rome in 1139, was granted a vision where he saw all the popes to come, including the last pope who would be known as Peter the Roman. The prophecy has been interpreted to indicate that after John Paul II only two more popes will be selected before the Second Coming, or the destruction of the Roman Catholic Church, depending on whose interpretation you believe. So when JPII dies expect to hear a lot of talk about this stuff. Of course it should be noted that Malachy's supposed prophecy has an annoying little problem, namely was only revealed some 400 years after he supposedly made it, leading many to suspect he made no such prophecy. And as is so often the case with such so called prophecies the actual details are vague enough that you can fit the popes since 1139 to the prophecy with a bit of careful interpretation.