Grouchogandhi - A Punch-Drunk Filter of FACTs: Kryptos Encoding Error Delays Dan Brown's The Solomon Key?

"My interest in secret societies is the product of many experiences, some I can discuss, others I cannot."
— Dan Brown

Could Thursday's annoucement by artist Jim Sanborn that he made a mistake in the encoding of the secret message on his famous Kryptos sculpture have been the cause of yesterday's press reports of the delay in publication to 2007 of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code follow-up, The Solomon Key?

Coincidence or Conspiracy?

For a while now, news publications and the like have been reporting on the speculation and rumors regarding the subject matter of Dan Brown's next book The Solomon Key. So far, we have Freemasons, Washington D.C. city planning and sacred geometry, Mormons, the Kryptos Sculpture and, naturally for the ladies, more of the Scared Feminine.

Brown hasn't missed the opportunity to make a few statements-as-marketing-hints as to the location, characters and subject of The Solomon Key. After all, when an entire pre-publication cottage industry has sprung around your yet-to-be-written best seller, well, nothing's too good for the fans. Heck, if you're lucky, maybe some Russian scientist will claim you plagiarized him, sue you and keep the media stories cranking for another round of free press!

But, when the Illuminati's involved, other strange things can happen as well.

ID BY ROWS... scratch that... LAYER TWO

Now we hear that the artist made an error in the encoding of the Kryptos sculpture, the one known to be a key hint in Brown's now-delayed novel referenced on The Da Vinci Code's hardback dust jacket.

Now instead of a phrase saying "ID ROWS", which sounds promising if you're looking for esoteric clues, the correction supplied by Sanborn now decodes to "LAYER TWO". Not bad either! Layer Two, thanks for clearing that up. But better than having the wrong "Blue Apples at Noon" kind of clue to overcome. No word from the obsessives if this helps lift any veils just yet.

But could the error in some way impact Brown's research for the plot to The Solomon Key. Could this be the unsaid reason for the publication delay? Do things need "adjusting" now? If the final secret is pried from Kryptos before Solomon Key's publication, what affect will that have for Brown and his new novel?

Better yet, maybe the real reason — whispered in many news rooms around the globe — is this is an Illuminati marketing ploy to better seed the masses for its blockbuster release.