December 21st, 2012. About teatime.

They couldn’t say they hadn’t been warned, but just in case, a clarion trumpet call resounded across the world; a pure clean tone, that even the deaf heard. The skies darkened as the Sun blackened, and the moon turned a lurid blood red.

And then a deep voice spoke from the skies:

HARK , MORTALS, FOR THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT IS UPON YOU . PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR -

“Er, excuse me?” came a lone voice from below.

WHAT ? came the terse reply.

“Well, is this the end of the world as predicted by the Mayans?”

INDEED . THE END OF THE 13TH B ’AK’TUN CYCLE .

“Right. Only,” the small voice continued, hesitantly, “which calendar are you going by?”

CALENDAR ?

“The proleptic Gregorian calendar?” the voice persisted, “Really, you should be using a GMT -correlation based on a JDN of 54285. Which would make it the 23rd, not the 21st.”

There was a momentary pause, before the skies started to lighten.

I’LL SEE YOU IN A COUPLE OF DAYS , said the voice in the Heavens, a touch grumpily.