Templars, Osama, Umberto Eco, D&D and OS X. Questions?

April 1, 2004 11:03 PM

I found an American "Grand Prior Chevalier" Knight Templar challenging Osama Bin Laden to a sword duel in the sand while I was trying to find the cool Mac / Neverwinter Nights project Open Knights. The whole thing seemed so much like an outtake from the wonderful Foucault's Pendulum that I had to share.
posted by freebird (12 comments total)

here is the Google cache in case you have trouble with that first link.
posted by freebird at 11:14 PM on April 1, 2004

Here's the deal: if I win, Al Qaeda is disbanded-forever. If you win, then you can set the head of a Knight Templar on a pike outside your tent, and you can claim that you slew the chief of all Crusaders in the United States.


...that's not actually all that great of a deal, Osama. Don't take it! At least get him to agree to shut the US down for a weekend, or something!
posted by interrobang at 11:27 PM on April 1, 2004

Just want to add some lovin' for Foucault's Pendulum. Crikey, I love that book.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:38 PM on April 1, 2004

Crap, that was funny. Almost makes me like Christians again.
posted by quin at 11:44 PM on April 1, 2004

If you're gonna have quasi-religious wackos, then goshdarnit they oughta be entertaining. Which this rather is.

That's a nice little gloveslap from our Grand Prior Chevalier friend. And yeah, it's oh so Eco.
posted by chicobangs at 8:28 AM on April 2, 2004

Could the undercard be Umberto Eco beating the crap out of Dan Brown? That would be fantastic.
posted by tittergrrl at 8:34 AM on April 2, 2004

And after he finishes up Osama, he marches on Vatican City to take back what the Church plundered from the Templars back in 1314: "This is for DeMolay, you swine!"

What a great story.
posted by gsh at 8:43 AM on April 2, 2004

I thought Island of the Day Before and Name of the Rose were both better than Foucalt's Pendulum. About halfway through it, I realized that I was just reading it to be done with it.
posted by mbd1mbd1 at 9:25 AM on April 2, 2004

About halfway through it, I realized that I was just reading it to be done with it.

It's hard to not start flipping pages, I'll admit. But the end made it all oh so very worth it - and wouldn't have been as (for me) earth-shaking without the very (over) abundance of detail and baroque conspiracy to which (I suspect) you refer.

So I do hope you read the end - it changes everything.
posted by freebird at 9:49 AM on April 2, 2004

I'm not sure that the phrase "here's the deal" belongs in a formal challenge to single combat, but even so, I love the idea. (And I loved Foucault's Pendulum, too -- for me at least, it's Eco's best.)
posted by Zonker at 12:47 PM on April 2, 2004

It was King Philip of France who made the move against the Templars. The Vatican at the time was relatively powerless.
posted by monkeyman at 2:22 PM on April 2, 2004

mbd1², You liked Island of the Day Before?! I couldn't finish it. Loved, Love, will always love Foucault's Pendulum, enjoyed Name of The Rose (the movie wasn't bad, either) and am really enjoying Baudolino.

even more OT, am I the only one who felt that Foucault's Pendulum was a thinking man's Illuminatus!?

posted by Grod at 11:18 PM on April 2, 2004