Via
jaylake (who got it from Making Light) a nifty piece from The Smithsonian on Apocalypses that failed. The first is my favorite:
"Every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching." Damned writers spoiling everything for the rest of the Earth.
An Assyrian clay tablet dating to around 2800 B.C. bears the inscription: “Our Earth is degenerate in these later days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching.”
"Every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching." Damned writers spoiling everything for the rest of the Earth.