So that’s it? Carmageddon is over?
In case you didn’t hear about it – and I don’t think that’s possible unless you had every electronic device unplugged for the past several months – the much-anticipated, overhyped closure of L.A.’s Interstate 405 freeway came and went with few problems.
It lasted for part of this weekend. It actually reopened several hours ahead of schedule.
Are you serious?
Here’s what you missed. A 10-mile stretch of one of California’s busiest freeways was closed to allow workers to demolish part of a bridge. That stretch carries about 500,000 vehicles on an average July weekend, according to the L.A. Times.
The event sounded like the end of the world. It was all anyone west of the Rockies was talking about on social media. Officials reached out to celebrities to ask them to tweet about the importance of planning an alternate route.
And the celebs didn’t disappoint:
Conan O’Brien tweeted about the event on more than one occasion, including this gem: “The LAPD asked me to warn you to avoid the 405 Fwy on July 16 & 17, or else the red light photo of me driving in a satin slip goes viral.”
Does any of this sound familiar to anyone?
If you guessed the rapture of a few months ago that didn’t materialize, that’s as good a guess as many, but it pales in comparison. It’s the second coming of Y2K.
Remember Y2K? The global event where computers, Wall Street, alarm clocks, sex toys – pretty much anything with a power button – would shut down at midnight on Jan. 1., 2000, because programmers entered code with 00 instead of 2000 and those digits would be recognized as 1900? Anyone planning a birthday in 2001 couldn’t even be sure they’d survive what was sure to be the end of the world as we know it.
And now officials are teasing about Carmageddon 2, noting that the scare tactics this time were too successful to ignore.
Sure. Right. And there probably won’t be a line to get into Next in a few months. Los Angelenos won’t heed the warnings next time. Carmageddon fizzled faster than a Cubs 3-game winning streak in September. Faster than Casey Anthony headed for a hardware store. Faster than Miley Cyrus on her way to a tattoo parlor.
You get my drift.
