One of my favorite scenes from The Holy Grail is where the old guy proclaims, "I'm not dead yet!" It's 5:01 pm and I'm still here. And so is everybody else at this Christian conference. But one of the leaders of the rapture fever group says we still have an hour left, so check back at 6 pm and let me know if you're still here.

If we're all still here in another hour, I guess we can write off yesterday's post about May 21 being my final one.

And if that happens, let me suggest a few things we can learn from this failed forecast:

• if somebody is dogmatic about something that is nebulous, be careful
• kooky people can give folks an excuse to write-off normal people
• failed predictions injure credibility
• still, you don't want to sit in the seat of the scoffer
• apologies help wipe the slate clean

If you're still here after 6 pm, let me know. I'll be interested to see what people say next.