12:34:56 on 07/08/09

Like me, you probably slept through both of this morning's "once-in-a-lifetime events," namely:

1. the clock striking 12:34:56 on 07/08/09;
2. the clock striking 04:05:06 on 07/08/09.

Lest you think it was no big deal, reporters across the country scrounged up numerologists to explain the deep significance of it all.

"It's a good day to make money and have good health," said Betsy Carlson in the Palm Springs Desert Sun.

"I like to think every day is a good day to play the lottery," said "intuitive counselor" Barbara Evans in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Williams College mathemetician Edward Burger was having none of it. "It's a very silly thing," he told the San Antonio Express-News. Folks in countries like England, where today's date is 08/07/09, must have been inclined to agree.