At last night's 12-12-12 benefit show at Madison Square Garden, Kanye West paced around a dark, empty stage, cranking out a 20-minute medley of recent and past hits (from "Clique" to "Gold Digger"). But what made a bigger impression than his stamina was the leather skirt and leggings combo he wore onstage. The hubbub was stupid for at least two reasons:

Don't forget: today — 12/12/12 — is the last repetitive date you'll see in your life, unless you are very young and prone to longevity. Which means it's also the last time you'll see content-free fluff pieces seeking to assign some kind of meaning to the arbitrary assemblage of numbers spewed out by our latest pitiful attempt at measuring out the blank incoherence of time. New York magazine's Stefan Becket turned up the New York Times article from the last time this happened, "12-12-12: That's To-day, and It's a Long Time Till Another Strange Date Line," and it's a masterpiece of word-padding form: