Earlier in the year, doomsday preppers were all in a dither about the Mayan calendar’s prediction that the world would end on Dec. 21, 2012. Here it is only a couple of weeks away, and I haven’t heard much about it lately. That fear has been replaced by the “fiscal cliff” and the future of Twinkies.

I don’t buy into all that kind of hokus pokus. Yet there are a few people who are not buying Christmas gifts this year because they think it’s a moot point. And some are giving their gifts early just in case. But wouldn’t that be a moot point also? I think we could call that a moot point once removed ... you know, the way you measure cousins.

Now there are a lot of unsolved mysteries about the Mayans. While they allegedly were very barbaric in some of their practices, there is also evidence that they were very advanced in some regards. Surprisingly though, they didn’t have cell phones.

The Discovery Channel and the History Channel have given a lot of air time to speculation on the Mayans. I’ve watched a few of the programs. About all I have retained is that their pyramids are not as sharp at the top as are those in Egypt.

Earlier predictions were that the world would end in 2003, according to that calendar. When that didn’t happen, it was revised to 2012. I’m pretty sure it will be revised again.

I don’t know why people thought that because the calendar (carved into stone) had an ending date of Dec. 21, 2012, that this meant the world would end. A lot of things have ending dates. When my truck runs out of gas, that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. Of course that could depend on who might be chasing me.

I’ve had a simple explanation for that Mayan calendar thing. The people who were carving it had unionized and they went on strike and just never finished it.

Or maybe they just decided that a calendar beyond 2012 really had no practical application to an ancient civilization. That makes a lot more sense to me than a bunch of planets aligning and some kind of solar storm zapping us into oblivion.

I brought this matter up at the coffee club this morning and most of the attendees had actually forgotten about it. Indeed, the fiscal cliff and Twinkies were laying heavy on their minds.

I read where some people think that NASA is just covering up the truth about the Mayan calendar and the potential for our planet disintegrating. Really? I mean is this in the same protocol where NASA faked the moon landing?

In my opinion, this end-of-the-world stuff fits right along with the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot. And wouldn’t it be a tragedy if the world ended before they find Bigfoot, or before we install term limits in Congress?

In these discussions, I always point out that the world ends for some people every day. In fact, driving to work this morning it almost ended for a guy on one of those “crotch rockets.” He zipped around me and poorly judged the oncoming traffic. He almost became a hood ornament.

Ironically, when I got to the next traffic light, he was sitting there waiting for it to change. I just looked at him and shook my head. It had nothing to do with the Mayan calendar but the result could have been the same in his case.

I’m wondering if anyone has planned “going-out-with-a-bang” parties for the night of Dec. 20? And I wonder if those doomsday preppers I see on cable TV will hunker down in their basements that night, eating canned beans and cleaning their automatic weapons? And I wonder if that family of “Honey Boo Boo” even knows what continent the Mayans lived on?

By the way, the calendar I use ends every December 31. And then I get a new one.

Dwain Walden is editor/publisher of The Moultrie Observer.