MY FAVORITE COUNTDOWNS

Well, obviously, this would have to begin with the delightfully soothing Casey Kasem: "Now, on with the countdown!"

We took the Franklin basketball team on a road trip to play two games at Scranton University back in December 1998. As a reward for a good showing, we drove them into New York City the day after the tournament wrapped up, which happened to be December 31. Needless to say, it was starting to be a madhouse. High above the city street, I saw a clock marking the time until the year 2000. Since I'm likely not to be around for the new millenium, the clock taking us to 2009 will have to suffice.

Heck, plug your own special date in and start your own Countdown Clock!

Did you realize that the world's population very shortly is going to hit 6,666,666,666? No kidding! Nothing really dramatic happened on 6/6/06, so I'm not holding my breath on the devil taking over or anything like that. Anyway, keep hitting the refresh button and see the net gain of our population in the ten seconds since you last did so. OK, so instead of counting down we're heading the other direction, but you get my drift.

Or, on a smaller scale, how's the good ol' U.S. of A. coming along numbers wise?

Did you know that as of 8:18 pm EST on April 24, 2008, your share of the national debt was $30,747.14? Check here to see how dramatically our outstanding public debt is.

Eek! A much scarier countdown.

And, as you might guess, The Final Countdown.