While you're waiting

In London, the court case about whether Dan Brown has to pay damages to those other guys is all over bar the wincing and the whingeing. The Judge hopes to make a decision 'before Easter', which means sometime in the next three or four weeks.

Meanwhile, to keep your mind occupied, you might like to nip over to About.com, where you can find all kinds of interesting theories about Leonardo da Vinci and codes and such. And (thanks to Dwayne for the tipoff) there is a whole section of altreligion which explains that Leonardo's symbolism was Hermetic, his preference being Johannite Gnosticism.

Well quite, quite. That's what I always thought. As I sat there reading Dan Brown, and again when I was reading Javier Sierra's The Secret Supper, I found myself murmuring, Don't know what all the fuss is about really. Perfectly obvious, surely? Hermetic symbolism with a preference for Johannite Gnosticism. QED.

Philip K. Dick was a Gnostic, by the way. Not many people know that. Although you might perhaps have guessed if you've seen the movie Blade Runner. And if you want to find a nice easy telling of the story of Philip K. Dick's anamnesis, Robert Crumb has done one. Oh yes.