September 18th, 2009
Mysterious Baroque palace flying a Templar flag?
Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol begins with a site we cover in our soon-to-be-released book: Washington DC’s “House of the Temple of the Thirty-Third and Last Degree”. Given its architect (John Russell Pope, designer of the Jefferson Memorial) and burial crypt (Albert Pike), we had naturally included it in our world tour, so to speak. [...]
September 12th, 2009
Time travel and the Last Khan of Mongolia
“Insanity is sometimes an appropriate response to reality” — or at least that’s what late cult sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick used to say, and his grim vision of the future continues to resonate with the reading and viewing public. Smash early-1980s movie hit (and popular late-night re-run) Blade Runner, after all, was based on [...]
September 7th, 2009
Help wanted: experienced symbologist needed at once
Dear Stephen: Oh dear. The precautions surrounding Dan Brown’s new book make the British Crown Jewels in the Tower of London look easily accessible. Perhaps I should reconsider my plans to store copies of our book in the garden shed. Seriously, though, I can see good commercial reasons for keeping Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol [...]
September 7th, 2009
Approach Amazon’s warehouse as you would the back gate of Area 51
Dear Gerald: As we continue our probing of things mysterious and esoteric, I am struck by the embarrassment of riches that each new day seems to provide. Who knew, for example, that Amazon’s high-tech warehouses now constitute (temporarily) an impregnable secret facility more guarded than Fort Knox? In an unprecedented open letter to the world, [...]