I pass this bit of signage every time I walk downtown. It’s been up in the same window for years and seems to express some firmly held beliefs. Beliefs about what, I’m not sure.

So, starting from the top left and working clockwise:

(1) OK, it is a Stephen King quote. I looked it up, though the exact line reads “Any game looks straight if everyone is being cheated at once.” It comes from his novel The Long Walk, which he wrote under his Richard Bachman pseudonym. I haven’t read the book or seen the recent movie.

(2) “That old serpent” is a reference to Satan from the Book of Revelation. I don’t know what the connection to NASA is though. The T-minus is countdown to apocalypse?

(3) Your guess is as good as mine. Is that a cross or a swastika? There’s a Star of David in the middle of what seem to be an arrangement of binaries (wet and dry, material and spiritual) as well as some alchemical symbols thrown in for good measure.

(4) Some sketchy etymology. The word “scientific” comes from Latin and has the meaning of pertaining to knowledge (in Latin scientia). The suffix -fic doesn’t denote fiction but comes from the Latin facere, to make or to do.

I get the impression, taking all of this together, that the person behind the window doesn’t trust science (represented by NASA), or perhaps any kind of received knowledge or wisdom, seeing it as a crooked game. True gnosis only comes through some kind of mystical revelation.

Anyway, there’s also a letter posted on another window that goes into a bit of explanation that I might post a picture of later. I couldn’t make much sense out of it either.

You can click on the pic to make it bigger. Just try not to read too much into the reflection of the handsome fellow in the window.