The Copiale Cipher
From the wiki: "The Copiale cipher is an encrypted manuscript consisting of 75,000 handwritten characters filling 105 pages in a bound volume.[1] Undeciphered for more than 260 years, the document was cracked in 2011 with the help of modern computer techniques."
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copiale_cipher
And, more images, translations, etc: https://cl.lingfil.uu.se/~bea/copiale/
Ancient masonic texts, initiations, rites, etc, for your reading pleasure.
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10 Million in Silver - Still Largely Missing
Via the CBC, a shipping container with more than $10 Million US in Silver goes missing from the parking lot of a warehouse in Lasalle, Quebec. Since when some ingots have been recovered in Massachusetts and - of all places - Nanaimo.
But the bulk is still out there, and somebody knows...
Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/silver-theft-millions-lawsuits-1.6652656
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Spearhead, Arrowhead, Flakes
Reading, the Nelson Star, the "Hugs and Slugs" section and someone has written in a complaint about the botched job of the ferry landing renovations. The same as my own rant previously on that theme, only shorter. But - an additional complaint that I hadn't noted, that the pipe installed to drain the parking lot was causing a lot of erosion on the beach...
And in my head I think: "Great, that'd be good for looking for flakes and arrowheads..."
A couple of days later I get a message from the owner of the restaurant there, she's found a whole pile of rocks she thinks might be arrowheads. And half of me is "Damn, why didn't I go when I had the thought". Nevermind, I'm in.
This morning finds me on the early bus to Balfour.
We visit, her finds, mostly triangular bits of schist or quartzite, nothing that shows any sign of having been worked. Except for this: (apologies for the poor quality photo, not mine)
Which is definitely knapped (detail in photo doesn't show), just not an arrowhead as you might think at first but in fact a fishing weight, the notches used to tie it onto the line or the netting.
So, visit, I'm thinking that she just threw some photos of rocks together as an excuse to socialize. Chat, catch up, then I'm down to properly investigate the wash, probably a 30 yard stretch that's been eroded. Flakes, some worked more than others, a few, a few more, then:
And this gets me excited, you can see it's been napped on opposite sides, it's been a while since I've found an arrowhead and this is a pretty good piece. Small, an inch and a quarter long. But it gets me going, and going back over the area the second time I find this:
Which is probably not even an arrowhead, I'm thinking the thickness of the haft suggests it was a spearhead. An even 2 inches in length.
And that's it for the day. I've got to get back there with my screen and shovel because if this is what's a couple of feet below the surface, why then, there's miles of beach here to be dug and I can hear the Indiana Jones Song in my head...but soon, it better be soon because the ground will be freezing and I don't want to be waiting for spring...
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The Police Call...
In other news, the weather's been turning, rain, on the windshield, through the crack in the unclosed door, running down, up early to get a coffee and get warm.
Read the internet, the elections, imminent, Alberta, political news from there always triggers that Banjo music from "Deliverance" in my head, another obituary for another of our customers, one of the golfers, only saw them once this year, they were always very generous, but one was not looking in such good health.
I had joked that the restaurant would not open in the spring, would be sold, but at this rate it's going to open to no customers...
This is the routine. Then to the thrift shop to do my sorting, unboxing, treasures a-plenty.
By Thursday I've cleared the backlog and the back wall, for the first time in 6 months, is visible. I turn my attention to the jewelry, thinking that this will be a relief from all the kitsch and kitchenware I've had to endure.
I was wrong. Unknotting chains, mostly costume, cutting apart necklaces for the beads, bad hemp jewelry, or poorly crafted pendants or beaded bits of earrings, bracelets, occasional bits of fake silver, real silver, the glint of gold plating or - much rarer - a diamond chip set into 9 karat gold...
These are not the treasures I was looking for.
Saturday, Sunday, winter's here. Overnight, the wind howling, snow drifts piling, in the middle of the night the cities black, the power is off, and I'm largely warm but getting cold, colder, my feet, there's no way to keep them warm.
Another sleeping bag, another layer.
Bloody hell.
Make my way to Oso, run into V*****, a Quebecois who sits with me and tells me about his life, the moustached squirrel that broke into his cabin and spent 3 weeks inside eating everything, shitting everywhere, pissing everywhere, all while he was away in Quebec, and now he's returned to find this mess...
...and about work, and his son and chopping wood and all the trifling local news and how he needs firewood and his truck won't make it up the hill, too slippery...
I wasn't writing anyways, so sit and just listen.
I meet J***, an acquaintance of V*****, who joins the conversation from a neighboring table, young, very handsome, fluent in English and French, by which I mean he has no accent, contrasted with V***** who has the classic accent.
I get a call from the Police, they're reporting a break in at my jeep, and - for a moment - I'm confused.
"Who should I call?..." I wonder. I head down to check it out, door flapping in the wind, only a few flashlights stolen as far as I can see, tape the door closed.
And, walking down past the commercial space I'd considered renting for the winter - didn't get around quickly enough to it, and somebody else rented, taped paper over all the windows and I have the feeling that they are doing exactly what I would be doing, using a bogus business, "Quack Medical" or some such, as a front for their living space.
Which brings us to the moment, free now, after a fashion, a million things to be done and it's time to get serious, and time as well to get moved indoors...
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