By JOSHUA THOMAS

C-S-E Editor

Do you remember that low rumble that evolved into a growl last year, with half the world growing anxious that the world is supposed to end on Dec. 21, 2012? I honestly completely forgot until recently, and I wouldn’t have minded if it stayed that way. Like any good impending doomsday, though, it’s been hard to escape in recent weeks, thanks mostly to the fevered freak outs of strangers on my television.

Although Dec. 21 is when the Mayan calendar ends, and that gives many cause for concern, I’ve heard it said that the Mayan calendar didn’t consider leap years, and therefore the end of the world should’ve already happened by their calculations. Cue the cynical commenters stating, “the world DID already end.”

Recently, I was at a department store purchasing some items that I buy all the time — a big bag of cat food, a large pack of toilet paper, another of paper towels, groceries, including some canned items. The girl checking me out looked at me, her eyes widening, and asked “are you stocking up for the end of the world?”

“Huh?” I asked, having completely forgot we were nearing that fateful date. “No,” I replied, letting her know that I was just getting groceries as I do every week. That comment, though, made me quickly realize that the next purchase she’d scan was a movie about a nuclear apocalypse. Directly following the DVD was a scented candle. She gave me a sideways glance, as if to ask “are you sure you’re not planning for doomsday?”

“Of course, because old fashioned lemonade candles will obviously become the new currency,” I thought.

The cashier joked with me, “well, if you plan on the world ending, you don’t have to buy Christmas presents.” How comforting, and how lucky for her family. What would I tell my family in that case? It’s not like they care about the presents, but “I’m sorry loved ones. I thought we’d all be dead by now,” doesn’t exactly equal, “I love you.”

Honestly, I can find humor in all the crazy talk, as i can in most things, but I do admit that I find the carelessness of some of the comments slightly troubling. The news was going on about the impending apocalypse, in what I thought was a tone that implied that it would happen, no question, in the presence of my friend’s children. Not that they were paying attention, but kids pick up on things. How does a child process a news report stating that the world is supposed to end in the next few weeks? That could really freak out somebody not used to hyperbole, I imagine.

Instead of baseless hysteria, I wish more of the conversation surrounding this topic revolved around the fact that if the world doesn’t end on December 21, what preventative measures can be taken to stall the general obliteration of humans?

The ice caps are melting, resources are dwindling, we’re apparently about to jump off a fiscal cliff, and millions of people are most concerned by the fact that the Mayans stopped making calendars at a certain point however many centuries ago.

Despite the fact that we’re looking back on documents created by a civilization that did meet their end, it gives me hope that someday future humans read into the fact that we stopped producing Twinkies as a sure sign of their world’s end.