Here’s a funny little factoid from the archives.

The word “assassin” originally derives from a medieval order of Muslim fundamentalist hit men – the Assassins - whose chief object was to assassinate Christian Crusaders. Al Salih, the twelve-year old ruler of the coveted Mediterranean coastal city of Aleppo and another mysterious murder attributed to the ruthless Saladin, called upon the Assassins when he felt the Christian army breathing down his city’s neck. Though religious salvation was the uber-ultimate prize for doing Al Salih’s bidding, the hit men demanded one other, shall we say, “perk of the trade…”

“Assassin” is derived from the word “hashshashin” – literally, “eaters of hashish.” The Assassins were so gangsta’ that they absolutely refused to go into battle without getting drugged out of their skulls first.

After protecting Aleppo from seizure, the Assassins crept into the sleeping quarters of Saladin in the early hours of the morning in order to leave him a note, notifying him that it would be his blood sought by them the following day. Can’t you just imagine it? This group of Assassins, passing the hookah, stoned out of their gourds, rolling on the floor with laughter, poking at each other’s ribs, screaming, “I can’t wait to see the look on his face in the morning!”

Man, I love history.

“History is little more than the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.”
-Edward Gibbon

"Press Upon the Hop-Frog for Nauseating Wonders!"



A dear companion of mine, a certain Professor Pille at the Mount Palomine Institute of Mysteries, has just contacted me via other-worldy satellite to notify me of the recently erected "Planetary Panopticon" - a veritable log book of the inner-workings and jerkings of his most fascinating Echo World. I, as your dear friend, feel compelled to pass along this exciting discovery simply because we - here on, what his people call, "Urth" - are losing our literacy (as well as other questionable senses) in the unremitting, yet often delectable, tides of techno-media-logical stew.

This way to the Egress...

:The Portal:

But - if I am not already too late - beware Slow Children At Play! And please proceed with caution friends of all types and persuasions, for though it is natural for one to feel as a Coelacanth might feel when blinded for the first time by the fluorescence of a second millenial laboratory, one need not forget that this is, in less-than-dubious fact, an Echo World - complete with its own Autistic-Horrorists, Absurd Futility Vehicles (AFVs) and "explosive devices of astounding power." But, let this not be my final word! Marvel at their inventions! Allow their histofactoids to captivate you! Mein Gott! Take a moment to understand the worlds around you!