Maybe it's just that I'm re-reading Declare. . .

But this sentence in a Slate article

The one indisputable element in Scaramella's résumé is that for the last three years he has served as a paid consultant on a commission of the Italian parliament set up by then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in 2002 to investigate the occult influence of the KGB in Italian life.

Conjured a very different image for me than the author likely intended. Indeed, no part of the rest of the article mentioned magic, the supernatural or the Illuminati at all, which is a shame. I would have had a lot more respect for Berlusconi if he really had put together such a commission.

wenn Sie beschlieBen es anzunehmen

Spurred by Rachel's new DVDs, I really like the idea of a Castle Falkenstein based Mission Impossible game - a sort of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with its heart worn clearly on its sleeve. The Second Covenant would have a series of dinner parties at which the carefully invited participants would be given the option of aiding the cause in a short term, highly clandestine way. There's even an excuse to have the group use 'if you choose to accept it' (albeit in German, as above) as their tag line, as Tom Olam from the 20th century is clearly the one who sold King Ludwig on the idea.

One such mission would have to be 'And Never the Twain Shall Meet', in which Olam arranges for the Ambassador Clemens of the Bear Flag Republic to meet Olivia Langdon, daughter of a prominant USAn businessman, knowing that doing so will lead to true love, marriage and an avenue for diplomatic relations between the wary North American states.