Empty Centre

The paradox of the doughnut and the pie that you raise cuts to the very heart of this case so far. The empty central space of the doughnut is the virtual centre of the object’s gravity, yet is massless, and in effect gravity-less. It is the eye of the rotating storm. Imagine a hollow planet. If you reach the exact centre, you could float in the perfect equilibrium of opposing pulls from every direction. It is like the donkey who starves to death unable to decide which of two identical bails of hay to eat from.

I feel Searly has conducted, or is conducting, or plans to conduct, the perfect crime. He has rotated the object, but as you so aptly ask, was it a doughnut or a pie?

Nb. A doughnut can be rotated in various ways without conducting larceny. I could provide diagrams. It can be spun as a coin is spun, rather than as a flying saucer spins. However this requires finding said doughnut balancing on its edge, or else possibly hung on a string. Alternately it could be rotated about a point on its edge, or about any point containing doughnut dough.

I feel it was definitely a nut that Searly was/is spinning. The coastal ring around the great lakes themselves form a doughnut ring around a central emptiness (water as the void area).

There is a definite theme of space and non-space developing – groups trying to dwell outwith normal space. The gaps in the jumper that you correctly identify – the source of its strength and power, yet an absence. It is the air in the wool, not the wool itself, that is of importance.

Donut or Pie?

Indeed you are as insightful and correct as ever. The snooker or pool hall is a breeding ground for low level hoodlums and criminal activity. Something to do with providing men too young to drink a place to hang out and smoke, I have always thought. In fact, if such premises were to keep a signing-in book, it would read as a veritable who's who of minor street criminals. Such activity, left unchecked, could easily develop into capers such as bank robberies and grand larceny.

Incidentally, the charge of larceny contains some interestingly subtle clauses, for example (this is a classic example taken from an old law book which resides in my library)

'...the thief must not only gain dominion over the property he must move it from its original position. The slightest movement, a hair's breadth, is sufficient. However, the entirety of the property must be moved. As one commentator noted critically this requirement is the difference between rotating a doughnut (larceny) and rotating a pie (not larceny), as all of the donut is moved through rotation while the pie's exact center remains in the same place when rotated.'

This leads me to ask the following metaphorical question - is Searly rotating a donut or a pie? I have been digging into his past for clues and have theorised the following: Searly grew up in the NE corner of America, most likely Milwaukee of Pennsylvania (going by teenage poetry submissions). Both of these locations border on the Great Lakes; either side, in fact. Searly probably gained knowledge of the lakeshores and surrounding areas through family picnics and camping trips during his childhood.

My guess is that his father was a military man who favoured the outdoors and tried to pass this prediliction on to his son. Military fathers are known for their strictness and desire to see their offspring suceed along pre-determined paths. My guess is that Searly went to University in line with his parents wishes, but once away from their immediate presence, he began to drift into fringe circles and most likely dropped out to pursue his own aims, but kept in contact with academic social circles. Became involved in some kind of political network and oversaw operations involving fabric experiments in some capacity, either for the government or an independent subversive group. His knowledge of the local area and the Great Lakes soon made him a great asset to, and central figure in, the group.

His role would seem to be more strategic than operational, possibly becoming so after the incident with the Buick in Maine causing a scare that he may have gone too 'overground' and was in danger of being discovered. Since then, he appears to be more or less invisible, yet is present in everything. He is like the air pockets between the fibres of a chunky home-knit.This of course, is all just my own speculation based on a re-examination of my early case notes in light of post-Boston revelations. It should also be noted here that I failed to locate the Bungalow registered to Searly on the SE edge of Boston, so am no closer to revealing what he is building in there.

Wet Run

In the back of my mind, partly due to pouring over maps of Canada in my youth (or is that ‘pawing’? – I hear the expression but not seen it written down – just what exactly do they mean?) – anyway, in the back of my mind… has been the possible involvement of the two north Canadian great lakes – great slave and great bear. I have an inkling that they may have served as ‘wet run’ practise grounds for the project. My only Canadian contact is a peacenik based between the Yukon and Quebec. (If not including my recently formed contacts A & B, now both based in the UK.)I’m going to investigate further.

Further Evidence of the SA influence in the Woolgate affair

As investigations progress across Europe, Safelight is proving to be most insightful and has now provided further corroboration (as yet untested) of South America's role in Woolgate. He recalls a discussion he had with a fellow photojournalist while waiting in a temporary military installation to be flown out of the middle east circa 2004 after completing a 7-month embed with an unnamed batallion. This photojournalist, believed to be Jacob Epps, recounted a project he undertook in 1996 to photograph the catacombs of the latin american region.

In Lima, Peru, Epps claimed to have found (and taken photographic evidence of) a strange secret room in the catacombs which boasted a large map of the united states crudely yet accurately engraved on it's wall. There were minimal details and markings on the map - no towns or cities for instance, but apparently the Great Lakes were all marked on the map, with 4 of them distinguished with large crosses.

The strangest detail of this story as Safelight recounted it, was that Epps seemed convinced the lines from which these crosses were constructed appeared to look like two knitting needles overlayed in a cross arrangement. Whether this was deliberate or an accident achieved through the crude method used to make the engravings is as yet unknown, but Safelight has agreed to make off-the-record enquiries within his press contacts to track down Epps, or at least some of the photos he claims to have taken in the underground networks of SA.

The Stitcher

Note to 'The Stitcher':

It is believed that Jose de Leon was involved in the research wing of Project 31; his reason for attending the Michigan boating trade fair being investigations into principles of buoyancy and large-scale cargo transportation. A sales rep who was present at the fair spoke to one of our investigators under condition of anonymity. He recalled a man of short stature with an out of town accent inquiring about large-scale inflation methods who referred to something possibly called the 'Michigan Flotilla'. The short man apparently displayed a physical nervousness which betrayed his calm eyes and wanted to know how to 'float something the size of a city'.

Whether he was an active member of the project or the suspected inside man working for the feds is as yet undetermined but the theory has been raised that he may have been the link between Pinsk, James Long and/or Vermott. The current leading theory is that 'Vermott' may be a codename for de Leon, who was assigned the task of silencing Pinsk by executing a staged crash in Maine for which James Long was made to look responsible. However, it could be that this theory is flawed and de Leon and Vermott are separate entities, either of which could have been an insider or an outsider with regard to Project 31.

Note from 'The Stitcher':

On 15 June 05 (before the disappearance of the soft Michigan core group), a mysterious letter was sent to a part-time Maryland woodland ranger by the name of Phipps. This letter was passed to a friend of Phipps, who herself was acquainted with the sister of a Baltimore man. This Baltimore man heard of our investigations after researching the subject of the letter online, and obtained a transcript of the letter for our researchers. It contains anonymous allegations claiming to be from a military source, that pertain to an alleged conversation between a military man and an Englishman known only as ‘Ike’. The military man, in some excitation, suggested that a city on a lake could be bettered by putting a city under a lake. He outlined a plan of individual vats which he called suspension chambers. The other man (‘Ike’) declared: ‘It is happening again…’ The military man, it is claimed, had a map on his wall of the US, with rings around 4 of the Great Lakes. A photocopied photographic image of this map accompanied the letter.