What, Me Worry?

Thursday is Panic Day. One dictionary defines panic as “a sudden, overpowering terror, often affecting many people at once,” so clearly this is a holiday made for Southern California. But how to observe it? You could download “Panic Song” by Green Day, fronted by Billie Joe Armstrong, at right: “There’s a plague inside of me/Eating at my disposition/Nothing’s left/ I want to jump out.” Oh. Maybe you should listen instead to longtime L.A. County lifeguard Arthur Verge Jr., whose job is to be cool: “Keep your focus, keep your head about you, go with the flow and relax. Everything’s going to turn out.” Phew.