display in chronological order

[searls03]

I have info being pulled from 2 tables, I need to know how I can order by date from both table intermixing.............like table 2 has the soonest timestamp, then table 1 has the next , then table 2 has the one after that, how do I make it display info in order of table 2 info, table 1 info, table 2, info...........here is code that I been trying to use:

<?php
include 'config.php';
include 'opendb.php';

// if no id is specified, list the available articles
if(!isset($_GET['id']))
{

   $query = "SELECT * FROM messages WHERE recipient ='$name' order by date desc";
   $result = mysql_query($query) or die('Error : ' . mysql_error());

   // create the article list
   while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM))
   {
list($from1, $recipient, $title1, $content, $id, $date, $read) = $row;  
if ($read == $userid){ 
$content1 .= 
"<br /><br />
$from1</p>\r\n";
$content2 .= "<br /><br />
<a href=\"/message.php?id=$id\">$title1</a>\r\n"; 
   }else{
$content1 .= 
"<br /><br />
<strong>$from1</strong></p>\r\n";
$content2 .= "<br /><br />
<a href=\"/message.php?id=$id\">$title1</a>\r\n"; 
   }}


   }else {
   // get the article info from database
   $query = "SELECT * FROM messages WHERE recipient='$name' ORDER by date desc";
   $result = mysql_query($query) or die('Error : ' . mysql_error());
   $row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);

   $title = $row['title'];
   $content = $row['content'];
   $to = $row['recipient'];
   $from = $row['from1'];
   $id = $row['id'];
   $read = $row['read'];

}


// if no id is specified, list the available articles
if(!isset($_GET['id']))
{
   $self = $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];

   $query = "SELECT * FROM comments WHERE recipient='$name' order by date desc";
   $result = mysql_query($query) or die('Error : ' . mysql_error());

   // create the article list
   while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM))
   {
      list($com_id, $userid, $id1, $id, $recipient, $comment, $sender, $title, $date, $read) = $row;
    
 if ($read == $userid){ 
$content1 .= 
"<br /><br />
$from1</p>\r\n";
$content2 .= "<br /><br />
<a href=\"/message.php?id=$id\">$title</a>\r\n"; 
   }else {
$content1 .= 
"<br /><br />
<strong>$from1</strong></p>\r\n";
$content2 .= "<br /><br />
<a href=\"/message.php?id=$id\">$title</a>\r\n"; 
   }}

} else {
   // get the article info from database
   $query = "SELECT * FROM comments WHERE recipient='$name' order by date desc";
   $result = mysql_query($query) or die('Error : ' . mysql_error());
   $row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);

   $userid = $row['userid'];
   $id1 = $row['id1'];
   $id = $row['messageid'];
   $recipient = $row['recipient'];
   $comment = $row['comment'];
   $sender = $row['sender'];
   $title = $row['title'];
   $read = $row['read'];


}

include 'closedb.php';

?>

[searls03]

anything?

[searls03]

anyone?

[searls03]

how do I do this?