Etc...

OK, synchronize your watches

Alas, it's too late to do this in the US, but there is still time to fly to Europe to position yourself for one of the more fascinating quirks of numerology to come along in quite a while. And that would be? 01-02-03-04-05-06. Of course, that's as rendered digitally , and it will last for only one second. But presumably there are people who will want to be able to say they saw it happen. Here's the explanation: At 1:02 a.m. (and three seconds) on Thursday, May 4, it will be the first hour and second minute (and third second) of the fourth day of the fifth month of the sixth year of - well - this century . That's because, unlike the US, many other countries, especially those in Europe, put the day before the month in dates. For Americans, the moment happened two days ago. "It just happens to be a chronological oddity," Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory told the Associated Press. But he said, "You have to bend it a little ... to make it work," meaning the use of shorthand to compensate for the fact that the true '06 was 2,000 years ago. One who does not plan to be on hand for the occasion is Jack Hork-heimer, executive director of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium. "Ten years ago, I'd have had a party," he said. "Now, I will probably be deep in the arms of sleep."