The twilight language explores hidden meanings and synchromystic connections via onomatology (study of names) and toponymy (study of place names). This blog further investigates "name games" and "number coincidences" found in news and history. Examinations are also found in my book The Copycat Effect (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004).
Solstice was at 4:43 PM (4 + 4 + 3 = 11) Central Time in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, June 20, 2020.
A mass shooting, among other shootings, occurred afterward.
One "237" Shooting
Minneapolis police reported they received 911 calls at 12:37 a.m. on June 21, 2020, reporting several people shot on the 2900 block of Hennepin Avenue South, just north of Lake Street. It’s the commercial center of the Uptown neighborhood, lined with bars, restaurants and retailers.
"Preliminary investigation reveals that individuals on foot started shooting in the mid-2900 block of Hennepin Avenue South and proceeded north. People scattered and suspects fled," police said in a news release issued shortly after 4 a.m.
Photographs posted to social media showed windows at the Landmark Uptown Theatre and another storefront shot out.
Screams were audible on a live video posted to Facebook that showed the aftermath at the scene. Small crowds of people gathered, with some crouched over victims lying on the pavement before police officers on bicycles showed up to attend to them.
There has been a rash of gun violence in Minneapolis in recent days. Police said at least seven other people were wounded by gunfire in the city in five incidents from Saturday afternoon, June 20, 2020, through early Sunday morning, June 21, 2020.
A man was killed in CHOP-Seattle, on Friday, June 19, 2020.
Three people were stabbed to death in a "terrorist incident" at a park in a town just outside London on Saturday, June 20, 2020, police said. Three others were left seriously injured in the attack.
The attack took place in Forbury Gardens, a public park in Reading, a large town around 40 miles west of London, at around 7 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET), Thames Valley Police said in a statement shortly after the incident.
Enki King mentions to me that, "The park, which features a lion statue and a cross memorializing Henry I, had hosted a BLM protest earlier in the day."
History of Uptown
Uptown is a commercial district in southwestern Minneapolis, Minnesota, centered at the Uptown Theater (the former Lagoon) at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and Lagoon Avenue. It has traditionally spanned the corners of four neighborhoods, Lowry Hill East, ECCO, South Uptown and East Isles neighborhoods, within the Calhoun Isles community. Historically, the boundaries of Uptown are Bde Maka Ska to the west, Dupont Avenue to the east, 31st Street to the south, and 28th Street to the north.
Uptown has proven to be a popular destination for those seeking retail, nightlife, and cultural events, and the district was famously written about by recording artist Prince.
Uptown is a youthful fusion of global cuisine, local retail, and lively nightlife with nature rooted just beyond the bustling main intersection. Block by block you'll find multitudes of restaurants, bars and shop there.
As Minneapolis expanded south, housing construction boomed through the 1920s. A commercial district began forming just east of the Lakes Area. At the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and Lagoon Avenue, the Lagoon Theatre was built, a multi-function vaudeville theater. When the Lagoon burnt down in 1939, owners sought to rebuild and the business community took the opportunity to rebrand the area. Following the success of Chicago's Uptown District, the Minneapolis Tribune announced the new Uptown District of Minneapolis centered on the newly renamed Uptown Theatre.
Charlestown and Old Town
I detailed how "Charlestown" and "Charles Town" (= Charleston") are part of the history of June 17th. (See here.)
June 17, 1775.
Lafayette lays the cornerstone at the Bunker Hill Monument, Charlestown, Massachusetts.
June 17, 1825.
Crews in historic Old Town Alexandria quickly removed a bronze statue of a Confederate soldier named "Appomattox" on Tuesday morning, June 2, 2020. The memorial was erected in 1889 to honor Confederate soldiers from the Virginia city and stands with its arms crossed and back to the north. It is one of many controversial Confederate monuments nationwide that have faced repeated demands for removal. (Note the "Prince Street" sign.)
Enki King shared on June 16, 2020, why we might wish to look to "Old Town."
The new rally date of June 20 in Tulsa (original name Tallasi, meaning Old Town) is the summer solstice. On the previous summer solstice, Lil Nas X's first EP featuring "Old Town Road" dropped. This month, a Confederate statue was removed in the Old Town neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia; BLM protestor Oluwatoyin Salau was murdered in Tallahassee (also meaning Old Town); and a man was allegedly shot by a vigilante group member during an attempt by protestors to topple a statue in the Old Town section of Albuquerque. I recommend staying away from Tulsa, any other town or neighborhood called Old Town, and even statues on the 20th. (Per comment here.)
Meanwhile,
Johanna Lenski wondered on Facebook if another "active shooter situation" was due on June 20 or June 21, 2020.
One man was shot near the Albuquerque Museum as a protest over the “La Jornada” sculpture in front of the Albuquerque Museum erupted into violence Monday evening, June 15, 2020.
The City of Albuquerque has removed the statue of conquistador Juan de Oñate in Old Town on Tuesday morning, June 16, 2020. On Monday, June 15, a male was shot during a protest for the removal of a statue of Oñate that's located on Mountain and 19th Street. The sculpture sits outside the Albuquerque Museum.
Steven Ray Baca, 31, has been arrested in connection to a shooting of a protester near Old Town on Monday, June 15, 2020, according to Albuquerque Police. Baca has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and firearm enhancement. Baca ran for city council on a small government platform last year in District 2, where he lost to Councilor Ike Benton.
Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, center, and his teammates warm up before an NBA basketball game against the Sacramento Kings, Tuesday, December 9, 2014, in Los Angeles. Several athletes have worn “I Can’t Breathe” shirts during warm ups in support of the family of Eric Garner, who died July 17, 2014, after a police officer placed him in a chokehold when he was being arrested for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.
LeBron James (above) and Kyrie Irving (below) showed solidarity with people protesting the Staten Island Grand Jury decision not to indict the police office who killed Eric Garner with a chokehold on July 17, 2014, donning a black t-shirt with Garner's last words (on Monday, December 8, 2014).
Divided House
On June 16, 1858, Abraham Lincoln delivered an important speech to 1000 delegates at the Springfield, Illinois, statehouse for the Republican State Convention. The Republicans of that time were the party of the North, of the abolitionists, and of the "all people are created equal" point of view.
In Lincoln's speech, he uttered the memorable lines:
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
The title, "House Divided Speech," reflects part of the speech's introduction, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," a concept familiar to Lincoln's audience as a statement by Jesus recorded in all three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke). Source.
In Abe Lincoln in Illinois, John Brown, comforts his dying son at Harper's Ferry, as he is arrested by Robert E. Lee. Brown was played by John Cromwell, the director of the film.
I watched Raymond Massey's Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) in the wake of having viewed the three-night History Channel's mini-series Grant this week (May 25-27, 2020). Massey's tour-de-force performance as Lincoln shows him struggling with the decision to fight slavery. Grant does equally well demonstrating the pre-Civil War Grant grappling with the fact he finds he owns a slave he inherited because he married into a slave-owning family. "Timely" seems the least I can say about both of these docudramas based on a legacy of slavery in the USA that continues in today's events.
Grant is an active attempt to rehabilitate the historical record, positing Confederate adversary Robert E. Lee as a symbol of the intolerant, aristocratic, treasonous old guard, and Grant as an emblem of a more open, just, unified modern America. Grant’s disgust for the Confederacy and the rancidness it stood for is on full display throughout this series, which pointedly contends that—good ol’ boy revisionism be damned—it was slavery, not simply the more euphemistic “states’ rights,” which drove the South to secede and take up arms against the Union. At the same time, Grant’s compassion and levelheadedness also remains front and center, epitomized by the lenient terms of surrender he ultimately offered to the defeated Lee, which helped him secure support throughout the South in the years following the end of the war.
George Floyd is Killed
The Incident: A Summary
The death of George Floyd occurred on May 25, 2020, when Derek Chauvin, a white Minneapolis police officer, kneeled on Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, with 2 minutes and 53 seconds of that occurring after Floyd was unresponsive, according to the criminal complaint filed against Chauvin. Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on the road, while Chauvin had his knee on his neck.
The incident occurred during Floyd's arrest in Powderhorn, a neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was recorded on cell phone video by several bystanders. The arrest was conducted after Floyd, an African-American, [shortly after 8:00 pm] attempted to use a $20 bill that a grocery store employee identified as counterfeit. Police alleged that Floyd "physically resisted" after being ordered to exit his vehicle, a claim that has been contradicted by available video recordings. The video recordings of the arrest, showing Floyd repeatedly saying "I can't breathe", were widely circulated on social media platforms and broadcast by the media.
The four officers involved were fired the next day. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is conducting a federal civil rights investigation into the incident at the request of the Minneapolis Police Department. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is also investigating possible violations of Minnesota statutes. On May 29, Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter for Floyd's death, with Hennepin County attorney Michael O. Freeman saying he anticipated charges to be brought against the other three officers at the scene of Floyd's death.
After Floyd's death, demonstrations and protests in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area were initially peaceful on May 26, but later that day turned destructive as windows were smashed at a police precinct, two stores were set on fire, and many stores were looted and damaged. Some demonstrators skirmished with law enforcement officers, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets. Source.
Videos Record Floyd's Death
Part of the arrest was recorded by a bystander and streamed to Facebook Live, which went viral.
When the video starts, Floyd is already pinned chest down to the ground, and Officer Chauvin is kneeling on his neck. Floyd repeatedly tells Chauvin "Please" and "I can't breathe", while also moaning, groaning, and sobbing. A bystander tells police, "You got him down. Let him breathe."
Another bystander says, "One of my homies died the same way", and after Floyd responds "I'm about to die the same", Chauvin tells Floyd to relax. The police ask Floyd, "What do you want?" Floyd answers, "I can't breathe." Floyd states: "Please, the knee in my neck, I can't breathe." Someone tells Floyd to "get up and get in the car" (which Agence France Presse, CBS News and WVLT-TV identify as one of the officers, while Buzzfeed News says it is "unclear" whether it was an officer speaking), to which Floyd replies, "I will ... I can't move." Floyd cries out, "Mama!" Floyd says, "My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts", and requests water. The police do not audibly respond to Floyd. Floyd begs, "Don't kill me."
One bystander points out that Floyd is bleeding from the nose. Another tells the police that Floyd is "not even resisting arrest right now". The police tell the bystanders that Floyd was "talking, he's fine"; a bystander replies that Floyd "ain't fine". The bystander protests that the police were preventing Floyd from breathing, urging them, "Get him off the ground ... You could have put him in the car by now. He's not resisting arrest or nothing. You're enjoying it. Look at you. Your body language."
Floyd goes silent and motionless, but Chauvin does not lift his knee from Floyd's neck. The bystanders protest that Floyd is "not responsive", and repeatedly ask the police to check Floyd's pulse. A bystander questions, "Did they f*cking kill him?"
An ambulance eventually arrives, and Chauvin does not move his knee until emergency medical services put Floyd's unresponsive body on a stretcher. Floyd was initially found pulseless by HCMC paramedics, but CPR was not initiated by the paramedic crew. Floyd is loaded into the ambulance and taken away to 36th Street and Park Avenue, according to an incident report by the Minneapolis Fire Department. A male bystander says that the police "just really killed" Floyd. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's neck for at least seven minutes, including around four minutes after Floyd stopped moving.
Medics in the ambulance checked Floyd's pulse several times, but found none. He was pronounced dead at the hospital. Source.
"I Can't Breathe"
Floyd's death has been compared to the 2014 death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who also repeated "I can't breathe" eleven times after being placed in a choke hold by a New York police officer during an arrest.
On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner died in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, put him in a chokehold while arresting him. Video footage of the incident generated widespread national attention and raised questions about the appropriate use of force by law enforcement.
Syncs, Coincidences, and the Name Game
As the George Floyd incident unfolded, I was sent or directed to various "twilight language" segments of the event and the people surrounding it.
George Floyd Name Game
From Greek, the meaning of the name George is from georgos meaning tiller of the soil, or farmer. Famous bearer: St George, patron saint of England, who struggled with a fire breathing dragon symbolizing the devil.
The name Floyd means gray or gray-haired, and is of English origin, from a Welsh byname, llwyd. Floyd is from Lloyd, a name originating with the Welsh adjective llwyd, most often understood as meaning "grey" but with other meanings as well.
Floyd and Coronavirus
A widely circulated photograph of George Floyd at his job as a security guard shows him next to a poster of Corona beer. Floyd was laid off due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Kobe Bryant
"I can't breathe" was a slogan that Kobe Bryant began using in 2014, due to the Garner episode. Bryant was able to convince his teammates to all wear "I can't breathe" teeshirts.
Both George Floyd and Kobe Bryant were successful basketball players in their own tiers, and about the same height. Floyd was 6 feet, 7 inches in height. Kobe Bryant was 6 feet, 6 inches tall.
Bryant died on January 26, 2020. Floyd died on May 25, 2020, almost exactly five months later, and one day after his birthday.
Kobe Bryant, 41, died with his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, in the helicopter crash. George Floyd, 46, is survived by two daughters, one is 6-year-old Gianna.
Chauvin Name Game
The police officer's name who is seen in the video with his knee on George Floyd's neck is Derek Chauvin. The roots of Chauvin are the same as for chauvinist. Chauvin's meaning is derived from the French diminutive of Chauve, a nickname for "a bald man," from Old French chauf "bald" (Latin calvus).
Derek Michael Chauvin, a 44-year-old Caucasian man, had been an officer in the Minneapolis Police Department since around 2001. Chauvin had 18 complaints on his official record, two of which ended in discipline from the department including official letters of reprimand. He had been involved in three police shootings, one of which was fatal.
Floyd and Chauvin Both Worked As Security Guards at El Nuevo Rodeo
A bizarre twist in the murder of George Floyd was reported on Thursday night, as a former club owner in south Minneapolis revealed that Floyd worked at her club as a security guard, alongside recently fired police officer Derek Chauvin, the man who killed him.
Club owner Maya Santamaria says that the two both worked the same security shift at El Nuevo Rodeo club on Lake Street, before the business was sold a few months ago.
“Chauvin was our off-duty police for almost the entirety of the 17 years that we were open. They were working together at the same time, it’s just that Chauvin worked outside and the security guards were inside,” Santamaria told KSTP.
However, Santamaria said that she can’t be certain that Chauvin and Floyd knew each other, because often over a dozen security guards working at the club on any given night.
Still, they did work overlapping shifts, and the fact that one man ended up killing the other should justify further investigation into whether or not the two had a prior relationship.
If Chauvin and Floyd were not meeting for the first time in the moments before Floyd’s death, that could potentially mean that there was a deeper motive behind the murder. Source.
Floyd and Chauvin both worked as security guards and had overlapping shifts at the Latin nightclub, El Nuevo Rodeo. Owner Maya Santamaria said Chauvin had worked there for 17 years and Floyd had worked at about a dozen events. She said it was not clear if they knew each other but that she did not believe so. Santamaria described Chauvin as using overly aggressive tactics in her club, which she had asked him to tone down. Source.
Dakota syncs?
Synchromystic Ed Lin is working on research of "Minneapolis (Longtitude W 93 Thelema) where the Floyd riots began on May 26, 2020 and the history of the Twin Cities (11), which told of the mass execution (38 / 11 lynched in one day) and expulsion of Dakota Sioux Indians who spoke Dakota dialect. Then suddenly I saw a new article about new photos surfaced around the time John Lennon met his killer Mark David Chapman in front of the Dakota Building (where Rosemary's Baby was shot). Trying to connect the current situation with the Native American curse (The Shining / Dakota oil pipeline that ends in Stanley)." Source: Kitchen Sync Facebook.
See "Dakota" here at Twilight Language, August 3, 2011.
Michael Orville Freeman (born May 7, 1948) is an American attorney and politician from the state of Minnesota. He is currently the county attorney for Hennepin County, the most populous county in the state, of which the county seat is Minneapolis, and the person in charge of investigating the police officers involved with George Floyd's death...He is the son of Orville Freeman, who was a former Minnesota governor and Secretary of Agriculture under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Source.
In July 1960, Orville Freeman (Michael's father) nominated U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts for president at the Democratic National Convention.
By coincidence, "Freeman" was a surname taken by freed slaves, before and after 1863's Emancipation Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln.
(1) The February 23, 2020 shooting of Ahmaud Arbery occurred in Brunswick, Georgia right across from... Jekyll Island -- and just north of the "Floyd's Neck" location I identified in the video.
(2) Arbery had apparently been jogging on Holmes Road. Of course, in 2012, you extensively covered James Holmes, the man convicted of murdering 12 people and wounding 70 at the Aurora, Colorado Century 16 theater at the premier of... you'll recall... the Dark Knight Rises.
(3) And, unless my map is mistaken, Holmes Rd. is just south of the Jekyll Island Causeway, designated U.S. Route 17 -- which seems to fit into the Nicolas-Chauvin / Derek-Chauvin "17" numerical pattern.
(Possible secondary addition: U.S 17 apparently also connects up the State Route (SR) 520 just East of I-95. 520 is 6 short from the number of seconds in 8 minutes, 46 seconds, i.e., 526.)
In 2010, I wrote of the mysterious series of deaths of young children, all killed in similar ways via hangings from hooks. The deaths often occurred due to coat hooks, sometimes in closets, sometimes in bathrooms. That essay appeared on January 24, 2010, under "The Peter Pan/Hook Deaths." I followed this on February 27, 2014, with "New Hook Death." Below are some other writings on the overlap with Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.
Now there's been a new, as CNN called it, "unspeakable tragedy that happened in the most mundane of places -- a thrift store dressing room."
On Saturday the 18th of March, after St. Patrick's Day, 2017, Ryu Pena, 4, was found hanged to death in a dressing room of the Again Thrift and More store in Mankato, Minnesota.
Ryu had been with his grandmother, who was shopping in the store. She lost track of him. He was literally a "lost boy."
Police and parents told the media that they think Ryu "went into an empty changing room....apparently closed the door, climbed on a bench and got the hoodie he was wearing caught on a coat hook."
It is the same scenario we have heard before.
The meaning of the name Ryu is Dragon. The origin of the name Ryu is Japanese.
Peña or de la Peña is a Spanish habitation surname. The origin of the surname can be traced directly to the Middle Ages. The earliest public record of the surname dates to the 13th century in the Valley de Mena (Burgos) in the Kingdom of Castile. It is a topographic name for someone who lived near a crag or cliff.
"We believe that he got himself caught up on a coat hook within that dressing room area and couldn't free himself from it," Commander Jeremy Clifton with Mankato Public Safety told CNN affiliate WCCO.
Ryu's mom, Denise Gonzalez, said her son lost his life simply playing.
"That's the only way I can describe it. He was playing because he's very curious, adventurous, and it all just happened so quickly," she told WCCO.
"He was such a daredevil."
On December 26, 1862, the largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Native Americans died. It was more specifically, a mass execution of 38 Dakota at the end of the 1862 Dakota War. Let me say that again. A mass hanging.
While it may or may not be true that the city was intended to be called Mahkato, the Dakota called the river Makato Osa Watapa (meaning "the river where blue earth is gathered"). The Anglo settlers adapted that as the Blue Earth River. Source.
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The list of "hook deaths" grows longer, as shown here, chronologically, which I first began gathering in 2010. There probably are many more. Of the known named children, the some of the first names are relatively unusual - e.g. Ryu, Montana, Aquan, Imhotep. Yes, Imhotep.
1. Ethan Rider, 11 or 12. A sixth grader from St. Jean Vianney Catholic School in East Baton Rouge Parish. The student, Ethan Rider, was found unconscious in a bathroom at the school on Thursday [Feb 20, 2014] and taken to a local hospital, and died early Saturday [Feb 22, 2014] morning.
2. Montana Lance, 9 - Stewart's Creek Elementary School, The Colony, Texas; January 21, 2010; allegedly hanged himself in bathroom; deceased.
3. Unnamed youth ~ Kanpur (old English Cawnpore), India; February 20, 2009; hanged from the hook of the toilet in a train; deceased.
4. Unnamed girl ~ South Side Chicago, Illinois; February 20, 2009; hanged on a clothes hook in home closet; deceased.
5. Unnamed boy ~ Chatham, Illinois; February 4, 2009; hanged by hook; deceased.
6. Aquan Lewis ~ Evanston, Illinois; February 3, 2009; hanged on a school bathroom hook; deceased.
7. Tevin Park-Flowers (a twin) ~ Austin, Texas; January 30, 2008; hanged by a hook in a gymnasium bathroom; pants were down at his ankles; deceased.
8. Unnamed boy ~ New Bedford, Massachusetts; January 30, 2008; found alive, hanging on a hook in a children's room of the New Bedford Public Library; man arrested, charged with child molestation and rape.
9. Unnamed child ~ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; April 27, 2005; near death, found hanging on a hook in a school coatroom closet.
10. Imhotep Lubin ~ Brooklyn, New York; 2004; found alive hanging by his belt from a hook in a school closet; teacher arrested.
11. Unnamed child ~ Chatham, Ontario; 1998; hanged from a hook in school bathroom; deceased.
12. Morgane, 3 ~ Brussels, Belgium; June 1994; hanged from a coat hook in a school restroom.
Prince Rogers Nelson has died, on April 21, 2016. Prince was born on June 7, 1958, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and created the "Minnesota Sound."
During his career, Prince was not shy about using the twilight language of the All-Seeing Eye on his album/CD covers. Some feel he felt tied to the Illuminati. Others feel he was anti-Illuminati.
The symbol below was what took the place of Prince's name when he dropped his formal moniker for awhile. It mwould soon be dubbed "The Love Symbol" and Prince would be referred to as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince," "TAFKAP," or simply "The Artist". Later, when he changed his name back to Prince again, he was sometimes called "The Artist Formerly Known as 'The Artist Formerly Known as Prince'".
Prince postponed two performances from his Piano & A Microphone Tour on April 7, 2016, at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, stating that he was "battling the flu." On April 15, the artist's private jet was forced to land in Illinois so that he could seek medical treatment for influenza-like symptoms, after performing the rescheduled Atlanta concert the day before. He was seen in public the following evening in Minneapolis, when he stopped at the Electric Fetus on Record Store Day, and made a brief appearance at a dance party at his Paisley Park Records recording studio complex in Chanhassen, Minnesota, stating that he was feeling okay. Prince died on April 21, 2016 at 10:05 a.m., at the age of 57, having been found unresponsive in an elevator that morning at his Paisley Park complex. Source.
Denise Katrina Matthews (born January 4, 1959), better known as Vanity, died on February 15, 2016. She was a Canadian singer, songwriter, dancer, actress and model, who turned away from her music and acting career to concentrate on evangelism. Her career lasted from the early–1980s until the mid–1990s. In 1980, she met Prince at the American Music Awards. Prince renamed her Vanity, as he considered her to be the female form of himself. After learning that Vanity could sing, Prince asked her to become the lead singer of the girl group Vanity 6. Due to her kidney problems which were caused by years of drug use while she worked as a performer, she had to undergo peritoneal dialysis five times a day (each session was 20 minutes long). She suffered from sclerosing encapsulating peritonitis, a rare complication of a peritoneal dialysis, and died in a Fremont, California, hospital on February 15, 2016, from renal failure. She was 57 years old.
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The origin of the name Chanhassen comes from the Dakota word chanhasen meaning "sugar-maple tree" (chan, tree; haza, a tree with sap).
The Paisley Park Studios, where Prince was found dead, was named after his song of the same name. The studio was designed by architecture firm BOTO Design Architects of Santa Monica, California, and was completed in 1988. BOTO Design Architects is an architecture, acoustic, and interior design firm with studios in Santa Monica and Colorado. It was founded in 1983 by Principal architect Bret Thoeny in Venice, California.
Paisley is a Scottish name that means "church." The name Paisley comes from a town in Scotland that made the Indian/Persian design we know today as "paisley" famous with shawls woven in their textile mills during the 1800s. Since this pattern had its roots in the cottage industries of Paisley Abbey, it is interesting to note the word "Paisley" itself is a Scottish derivation of the Greek word, "Basilica" meaning "church". Today, the link to the 1960s is a visual recognition of this distinctive intricate pattern of curved, feather-shaped figures based on a pine-cone design from India.
"Paisley Park" is a song by Prince and The Revolution. It was the first single released in some international markets from their 1985 album, Around the World in a Day. The song has a psychedelic feel, similar to some of The Beatles' later work with echoed guitar and finger cymbals. The lyrics describe a Utopian place that one can feel in their heart, despite the chaos of the world around them. "Paisley Park" was recorded before Purple Rain was completed, indicating the new direction Prince wanted to take after the success of that album and film.
On August 11, 2015, I wrote about the sites of recent shootings, and noted: "The common denominator in all of these names: trees."
I looked at incidents aligned with Hickory, Oak, Willow, and Beech. Names of trees.
I ended that quick review by writing, "Are tree-linked locations worth watching for future risks? What's next? What happens tomorrow? Or more likely, on August 19, exactly four weeks after the July 22nd Trainwreck shooting? That fits into the copycat effect pattern, specifically."
Looking for the 19th, the exact four weeks mark, I'd forgotten that sometimes the "anniversary syndrome" goes for the specific same number in one month...in this case, the 22nd of August.
And what happened on the 22nd?
Enki King alerted me to what occurred with a simple subject line: Trees Again.
Another theater-related shooting occurred at a location with four tree-linked names - Maple Grove, Arbor (= tree) Lakes, and Elm Creek Boulevard, plus the nearby Hemlock Lane. Also, there's another tree name, but more on that later.
At about 10:00 pm Central Time on Saturday, August 22, 2015, a shooting took place outside a Maple Grove movie theater, which sent two people to the hospital. The exact location was at the parking lot of the AMC Arbor Lakes 16 Theater, 12575 Elm Creek Boulevard North, Maple Grove, Minnesota theater.
I don't need to be pounded in the face with this massive "coincidence" to consider this name game worthy of my attention, needless to say.
According to Maple Grove police, the event began at the AMC theater, but the officers found the victims at a Wendy’s, 7445 71st Avenue, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota (shown below).
The Fast Food Side Trip...
The so-called infamous "Wendy's Massacre" took place on May 24, 2000, at the Wendy's Restaurant, 40-12 Main Street, Flushing, Queens, New York, leaving five customers dead and two wounded. On March 3, 2008, at a Wendy's in West Palm Beach, Florida, two were killed (including the shooter by suicide), and four injured.
On Friday, August 21, 2015, a savage killing at a McDonald's in New York City made the Big Apple's tabloids. The alleged man with the knife is named Jesus Santiago, 46. "Santiago" means Saint James. The homeless man who was killed is named Orlando Rivera, 38. Orlando = fame of the land, and Riveria = river bank, coast.
For other recent surveys of fast food mass killings and mayhem, see here, here, and here.
Meanwhile in Maple Grove, Minnesota...
"It appears, at this time, the victims left this area, fled this area, and went to another location [the Wendy's] and that's where they called 911," said Capt. Adam Lindquist of the Maple Grove Police Department.
Whoa. The name Lindquist means linden tree + twig. Yes, another tree name. (Deep appreciation to aferrismoon for sending that insight along.)
The victims were injured but will recover after hospitalization.
Police then quickly blocked off a section of the theater parking lot to gather evidence.
Lindquist said. “We’re gathering all the information. We’re going to put as many pieces of the puzzle together. It’s an open investigation and hope to bring closure and figure out exactly what happened and find who’s responsible for the shooting.”
Moviegoers didn't know a shooting had occurred, and no one inside the theater was hurt.
Police have not made any arrests and haven't given information on a potential motive.
Lindquist said the public is safe.
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Another time/tree sync. Thanks to Enki King who passes along this:
More than one Maple Grove has emerged from the twilight and into the news this week. In a strange and tragic event, a man was killed by police in a church in Maple Grove, NC on the 19th. This Maple Grove is located in Haywood County.
ABC News reported:
An Army veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder was killed in an exchange of gunfire with law enforcement at a church in the North Carolina mountains, officials and a charity said Thursday [August 20, 2015].
The shooting on Wednesday [August 19, 2015] happened after officers from multiple agencies responded to an emergency call claiming four people were shot, according to a news release from the State Bureau of Investigation.
When officers arrived at Maple Grove Baptist Church in Waynesville, the emergency call turned out to be false. The SBI said there were no shooting victims, and the only person at the church was 44-year-old Wade Allen Baker of the nearby community of Clyde.
A short standoff ensued, and Baker exchanged gunfire with officers, authorities said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. No officers were hurt....
