What about this? Yes, people keep to ask how to display column number in
the mode-line, and we also have in the FAQ. Hmm, still Google tells me at
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%2Bemacs+%2Bcolumn+%2Bnumber&hl=en&sa=N&tab=wg

Results 1 - 10 of about 9,760.

--- menu-bar.el.~1.194.~	Sun Feb  3 11:06:42 2002
+++ menu-bar.el	Wed Feb  6 22:22:34 2002
@@ -572,6 +572,19 @@
 
 (defvar menu-bar-showhide-menu (make-sparse-keymap "Show/Hide"))
 
+(define-key menu-bar-showhide-menu [column-number-mode]
+  (menu-bar-make-toggle column-number-mode column-number-mode
+			"Show Column Number" "Column number mode %s"
+			"Show the current column number in the mode-line"))
+
+(define-key menu-bar-showhide-menu [line-number-mode]
+  (menu-bar-make-toggle line-number-mode line-number-mode
+			"Show Line Number" "Line number mode %s"
+			"Show the current line number in the mode-line"))
+
+(define-key menu-bar-showhide-menu [linecolumn-separator]
+  '("--"))
+
 (defun showhide-date-time ()
   "Toggle whether to show date and time in the mode-line."
   (interactive)