From Gallup, New Mexico to Monticello, Utah, there is a 194-mile stretch of road called Highway 666. Most of the road goes through the Navajo and Ute Mountain Indian Reservations. For the most part, the road really has nothing special about it save the quirky triple sixes. It passes through tiny towns like Tohatchi, Sheep Springs, Little Water and Shiprock. A few films like Natural Born Killers and Repo Man used Highway 666 as the setting to part of their stories. In an attempt to make life a little more safe, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation has changed U.S. 666 to U.S. 491.

Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number. It's number is 666.

I first learned that phrase by listening to the song Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden. It is, of course, a paraphrase of a verse of scripture from the Book of Revelations in the Christian's Holy Bible. Because of that simple phrase, horror and apocalyptic stories have jumped all over the number. Young Damien had the triple six birthmark on his head in the Omen series. If Gregory Peck had been one minute quicker in stabbing the boy, we would have been spared the subsequent movies. Most folks know about evil connotation associated with the number, but they easily shrug it off when it occurs in actuality. The closest Pizza Hut has the phone number 266-6666. Oh my God! That's two sets of 666's! Extra evil pepperoni pizza!

I asked a Native paraplegic passenger from Farmington who was in my cab this week if he had heard about the number change of Highway 666. He nodded and said "Is that stupid or what? You'd think they'd have better things to do with money than change the numbers of roads." I concurred. I'm not a demonic man by any means, but I did take a little guilty pleasure in knowing that U.S. 666 ran through the northwest corner of my state. It was a quirky little bit, but it's the sum of all the quirky bits in New Mexico that make this state unique.

The official reason for the change was that the negative connotation was one state officials did not want the state to be associated with because it discouraged tourism and area economic development.

To put it bluntly, what a crock of bureaucratic shit! Like I said before, 75 percent of the highway runs through the Navajo Indian Reservations. Not exactly a hot bed for economic development. The Navajos are one of the few tribes not building casinos on their land, and gambling spurs tourism and economic development much more than the number of the highway. Considering the sin and corruption that comes along with casinos, Highway 666 would have been a perfect place for a string of them.

Has anything awful ever happened on U.S. 666? Oh yeah, too many to count. Again, a lot of Indians use that road, and drinking and driving still occurs in abundance in the Gallup area. Many a body has been scraped off the asphalt. It will continue on U.S. 491.

The Highway officials should just say what it is: it's the Christians. Because of one verse in their apocalyptic finale, the number 666 scares them to church on a weekly basis. Believe or not, there was a rational reason for the 666 being given to that stretch of road. It's an offshoot of Route 66 which is known for its popularity. Hey, tourists might take a quick right at Gallup just to say they drove a stretch of the Devil's Highway. Who is going to go out of their way to cruise U.S. 491?

In the grand scheme of life, this is barely a blip on the radar. All that really happened is that instead of having a road with quirky historic character, highway officials decided to be benign and boring. The bland bureaucrats strike again, and we can all sleep better since they finally took the highway away from the devil.

Chris Jungle has lost all faith in Satan.