Comments & Curiosities:

Did you feel it? Wednesday, I mean. Incredible, wasn’t it? Magical, mystical and practically mythical. Am I serious? Of course not. But then, you already know that.

Wednesday’s date was 09/09/09, and as always happens with these occasional calendar quirks, some people were buzzed, wired and just plain tingly all over, which doesn’t happen often.

Why? Because there are those who believe in the power of numbers — it’s called “numerology” — and it’s very popular in certain cultures.

Of course, once the media get involved, it gets whipped up into a frenzy. Couples were lined up out the door at county clerks’ offices so they could say they got hitched on 09/09/09, and a county clerk in Florida offered a one-day wedding special, bouquet included, for $99.99.

Apple had originally planned to launch its new generation iPod on Tuesday but moved it to Wednesday because of the quirky date. It all reminded me of the greatest fizzle since Speedy Alka Seltzer fell into the pool — Y2K, which you remember of course. It was spooky.

Every computer was going to self-destruct, flying objects would fall out of the sky, chaos everywhere, we were doomed. And what happened exactly at the stroke of midnight 2000 when the new millennium dawned? Well, umm, nothing.

And never mind that despite the relentless hype, the new millennium didn’t start until 2001. The 09/09/09 buzz wasn’t anywhere near as over the top as Y2K, but it ended with a flourish that made my day, week and possibly, month. More on that later.

How unusual is it to have a repetitive date like 09/09/09? Unless my math fails me, and it usually does, you’re going to have similar dates in the first 12 years of every century, as long as you have 12 years, 12 months and 12 days to play with.

There’s 01/01/01, then 13 months later, 02/02/02, then 03/03/03, and so on, until you get to 12/12/12, at which point, if you just hang around another century, it will all happen again.

Another part of the number nine’s mystique is that it has some very cool properties that people have known about for thousands of years.

If you multiply 9 by any single-digit number, the two numbers in the total equal nine: 9 x 2 = 18, 1 + 8 = 9…9 x 3 = 27, 2 + 7 = 9…9 x 4 = 36, 3 + 6 = 9, and so on.

What does it all mean?

This is just a guess, but I’m pretty sure it means, well, nothing, other than that numbers can do funny things. Speaking of which, as a believer that everything that happens was meant to be, in a week with as many terrible memories as the anniversary of 9/11, I have to think that someone sent us the 09/09/09 buzz and the story that followed it to cheer us up.

One person for whom all those nine’s on Wednesday meant something was José Flores, 44, a Bolivian who is a pastor in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca — and is also seriously unhinged.

Somehow, Flores decided that 09/09/09 marks the anti-Christ’s arrival because it’s 666 upside down.

OK, it’s 06/06/06 upside down, but as you will see, Flores is not good with details. Faced with Wednesday’s numerical revelation, Flores decides to do something about it: he hijacks an Aeromexico flight from Cancun to Mexico City and makes only one demand — God has given him a message for Mexican President Felipe Calderón and he must speak to him immediately if not sooner.

The message? God says there is going to be an earthquake in Mexico. Well, OK, appreciate the heads up, but apparently God does not watch the Weather Channel much — perfectly understandable given how busy He is — but there is an earthquake in Mexico about every hour and a half. That doesn’t matter to Flores — he needs to speak to the president, ASAP.

Flores orders the crew to circle the Mexico City airport seven times then finally allows them to land. By now, everyone on the flight and in the cockpit has figured out that Flores is pretty much making this up as he goes along.

As the plane touches down and is swarmed by Mexican troops and police, it’s all caught on tape and carried live by KCAL, narrated by a Mexican reporter and translated by a KCAL reporter. Most important, none of the passengers or crew is hurt and all are safely released. But as the story unfolds before our eyes, it just gets better and better.

Incredibly — and it’s one way you can tell you’re in a somewhat less organized country — there are reporters and news crews running all over the tarmac and crawling around the plane shoulder to shoulder with the troops and police as they surround the plane then charge up the steps and overtake Flores.

How did Flores take control of the plane? He told a flight attendant he had a bomb, which he proudly showed off first to the attendant then to the co-pilot and which turned out to be a small juice can rigged with blinking Christmas lights.

As he is being dragged away, Flores explains to reporters how the “juice can with some little lights I attached” works then adds with a smile, “Christ is coming soon.” Moment please, Rev, exactly who is on which flight? We have you and the anti-Christ on this flight, Christ is coming soon and then there’s the earthquake. This is getting really confusing.

The police ask Flores if he is working alone. No, he says, there are three others in his crew, which leads the police to question the passengers and pull aside three men who they have somehow decided could be Flores’ accomplices.

When the police press Flores to name and describe his three companions he says they will know them easily because they are the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost — at which point the police uncuff the three men they’ve pulled aside and tell them to go stand with the other passengers. Not long after that, it was over.

And there you have it — a special date on the ground, a deranged pastor in the air, a major shaker, maybe, and tricks you can do with the number nine. All in all, it was a busy day south of the border. I am dying to see what happens on 10/10/10. If you already know, don’t tell me. I gotta go.

PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs Sundays. He may be reached at [email protected].