Hell Gears up for 666 Party

[Brad]

HELL, Mich. (AP) - They're planning a hot time in Hell on Tuesday. The day bears the date of 6-6-06, or abbreviated as 666 - a number that carries hellish significance. And there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that the day will go unnoticed in the unincorporated hamlet 60 miles west of Detroit.

Nobody is more fired up than John Colone, the town's self-styled mayor and owner of a souvenir shop.

"I've got '666' T-shirts and mugs. I'm only ordering 666 (of the items) so once they're gone, that's it," said Colone, also known as Odum Plenty. "Everyone who comes will get a letter of authenticity saying you've celebrated June 6, 2006, in Hell."

Most of Colone's wares will sell for $6.66, including deeds to one square inch of Hell.
Live entertainment and a costume contest are planned. The Gates of Hell should be installed at a children's play area in time for the festivities.

"They're 8 feet tall and 5 foot wide and each gate looks like flames, and when they're closed, it's a devil's head," Colone told The Detroit News for a Saturday story.

Mike "Smitty" Hickey, owner of the Dam Site Inn, wasn't sure what kind of clientele would show up Tuesday.

"We're all about having fun here. I don't think we're going to get the cult crowd, the devil worshippers or anything like that," said Hickey, whose bar's signature concoction is the Bloody Devil, a variant of the Bloody Mary.

Colone, meanwhile, has been in touch with radio stations as far away as San Diego and Seattle that are raffling off trips to Hell in honor of 6-6-6.

The 666 revelry is just the latest chapter in the town's storied history of publicity stunts, said Jason LeTeff, one of its 72 year-round residents - or, as the mayor calls them, Hellions or Hell-billies. But LeTeff wasn't particularly enthused.

"Now, here I am living in Hell, taking my kids to church and trying to teach them the right things and the town where we live is having a 6-6-6 party," he said.

According to the town's semiofficial Web site, there are two leading theories about how Hell got its name.

The first holds that a pair of German travelers stepped out of a stagecoach one sunny afternoon in the 1830s, and one said to the other, "So schoene hell" - roughly translated as, "So bright and beautiful." Their comments were overheard by some locals and the name stuck. The second holds that George Reeves was asked after Michigan gained statehood what he thought the town he helped settle should be called, and reportedly replied, "I don't care, you can name it Hell if you want to." The name became official on Oct. 13, 1841.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060604/D8I1BSP00.html

[AngelBear]

sounds like a helluva good time to me..

[USMCRET6391]

I wonder if they are going to do something similar out here in Hell, CA? Considering that it's out in the Mojave, the temp might be more appropriate

[AmericanGirl]

Hey, I've been there! Hell Michigan that is!

[Brad]

6-Foot, 6-Inch Grandfather Turns 66 On 6/6/06
(CBS) MANCHESTER, N.H. Paul Porter was born on June 6. He was always good with numbers. He just didn't realize how good.

"A couple of weeks ago, I happened to think about the irony of 6-6-06. And I'll be 66 and I'm 6 feet, 6 inches."

Porter is not superstitious but his friends can't help playing up the notorius number associated with the devil, reports WBZ-TV's Pauline Chiou.

"The exit up Route 93 from Boston, if I'm coming home is exit 6. So we have a lot of coincidences."

Potter is well known at Manchester City Hall. He was the tax assessor and an alderman at one point.

What ward did he represent? Ward 6.

Standing tall at 6-feet, 6-inches, he dismisses all the Doomsday theories.

"I don't believe the world is going to end because I have 12 years left on my mortgage," he said. "I don't think the bank would allow it."

An Army veteran, Porter has his birthday on his Veterans license plate. It is a reminder of one of the most important days in American history: the allied invasion of Normandy in World War II.

"I often think of the significance of D-Day more than anything else."

But this year, he's just having fun with the numbers.

By the way, did we tell you he has six grandchildren?