"It's the End of the World As We Know It..."

"...and I feel fine."
OK, maybe you weren't listening to music in 1987 when REM's album Document came out, but I was. And maybe you're not a doomsdaying naysayer who is already looking toward the Apocalypse...me, neither; but if the Myans were anything like the astonomers they were cracked up to be, it's time to take out a 5-year A.R.M. mortgage, buy that Porsche, and kick it: we've got a little more than two years to live.
The Mayans, of course, are finished as a civilization--have been for a couple of thousand years since their heyday between 900-300 B.C. but they are revered as the "Greeks of the Northern Hemisphere" by scientists who continue to marvel at their advanced civilization (I hear you saying, "If they were so darned advanced, why are they all gone?"). Good point, I suppose, though people of Mayan ancestry still populate the earth, as evidenced by two of our children who have mixed Mayan and Indian blood. So...
The Mayan Long Count Calendar reckons that the world will end on December 21st of the year 2012: just a few short years off. This calendar has been ticking off the days metronomically,according to the Mayans, since the mythical creation of the earth in 3114 B.C. and we're just a heartbeat away from extinction (in relative terms). The 21st that year marks the beginning of the winter solstice and occurs just four scant shopping days before Christmas, so save your money on the "it" gift and blow it all on yourself!
Of course, there have been doomsday prophets around since, well, since 3114 B.C. probably, and people like Nostradamus and Oral Roberts have predicted with amazing accuracy (according to some) the events of the future...but the exact day? I'm a bit skeptical, as is Dave Gibbons.
Gibbons, the illustrator for the Watchmen graphic novel indicated that he figured it would probably happen on a "Tuesday afternoon. When no one's looking." This is as good an explanation as any, but it spooks me a bit since Dave Barry, noted seer, indicated years ago that history would be much simpler if everything happened on a TUESDAY! Yikes...that's just TOO much of a coincidence!
I'm buying a new Miata with a 60-month payment schedule.