Data Point - March 1998

The "Old Navy" mystery deepens.

After Richard Hoagland identified his suspicion that the Old Navy line of clothing stores might have some involvement in the "Masonic/NASA" conspiracy, some strange things happened. There was the famous 1-800-OLD-NAVY advertisement, concerning "Scotch plaid" shirts on sale from their regular price, $19.50. This was alleged to be a reference to the Scottish Rite temple of the Masons and the tetrahedral "Hyperdimensional physics" of Cydonia. There were reports to the Art Bell radio program of odd messages on the 800 number, referring to "Majic" (or Majestic 12) and numerous other bizarre events in and around the stores on the day of the supposed sale. A visit to the stores would have revealed that despite the message on the 800 number, there were no "Scotch Plaid" shirts on sale. The whole thing was taken as just another odd occurrence in this roller coaster pursuit of the truth and mostly written off, until last May.

I'm a racing fan, Indycar's (the CART variety) and F-1 mostly, and as I was taking a break at the office before last Memorial day weekend I glanced through the Friday USA Today. It had extensive previews of the biggest racing weekend of the year, including a big section on the Indianapolis 500, the most watched race of the bunch. Now I was vaguely aware of the fact that Andy Evans (a close personal friend of Bill Gates) had found some sponsorship for his IRL team from Old Navy. For some reason, I hadn't cared. Mostly it's because Indy has become a joke the last few years and I really resented what the megalomaniac owner of the speedway had done to the race.

At any rate, the preview contained a list of drivers, sponsors, and photo's of the cars. That's when I noticed the Old Navy car's number - 33. I wondered what the odds of one of the Old Navy cars coming up with the sacred top degree of Freemasonry as it's entry number were. I figured very small. But, any hope that this was just a coincidence melted away when I later discovered how many of the 200 laps the Old Navy car number 33 had run that day.

195, or 19.5, if you're keeping track.

So much for coincidences.   ----- M. B.