If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

A common element to all of these documentaries is parading one or more of the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail to discuss and expand upon the hypotheses of which Dan Brown borrowed heavily for The Da Vinci Code. In particular, one of Holy Blood's authors, Henry Lincoln, is still active in searching for 'landscape geometry,' supposed evidence of Templars, or the so-called Illuminati, or masons having passed down the secret of the Holy Grail for future generations to discover.

While I find their theories intriguing, I also think they're mostly a lot of hooey. For example, Henry Lincoln believes that he's found a pentacle in the geometry of the streets in Washington D.C. And others have continued with Lincoln's work, suggesting that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington - both Freemasons - put heat on Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the architect and urban planner of Washington DC, to include Masonic symbols in his plans.

Now, if you take a rectangular grid street pattern, and you superimpose a series of circles connected by radial streets, then I challenge you not to find a pentagram pattern in the design. I think if you look closely enough, you can even find the words "Atlas Blogged" among the squares, circles, and triangles that make up the streets of D.C. I'm not sure what significance that has, other than, of course, George and Martha conceived a child whose descendant may or may not be one of the authors of this blog. But I digress...

So clearly, Lincoln has gone from amusing speculation to outright goofiness. And indeed, according to Jeremy Harwood in his book, The Freemasons, the "decisive feature in the positioning of major buildings was topography." And while there are five-pointed stars to be found in the major intersections of the U.S. capital, "it is far more likely this was coincidence rather than a Masonic conspiracy."

While I do not believe there are Masonic images hidden in the street patterns of D.C., imagine my surprise when I ran across this:

The story is different in Sandusky, Ohio, which is the only city in the world as far as is known to have been laid out according to a Masonic master plan. Hector Kilbourne, the first master of Science Lodge No. 50, was the surveyor who drew up the city plan in 1818. He took great care to position the streets so as to form a picture of the Square and Compasses. Indeed, his plan for the city as a whole has been likened to a representation of an open Bible, with the Square and Compasses in the positions they would be in at the opening meeting of a Masonic Lodge. Some of the street names honour statesmen and other prominent members of the country in the history of the United States.

Now this I find interesting. The streets have changed a bit since 1818, but when looking at Sandusky, Ohio, it's easy to make out the square and compass designs. But what amazes me most is the northernmost street - Water Street, which takes a noticeable southern dip to complete the image of masonry tools atop a bible.

In all of the Dan Brown holy grail hysteria that's swept the world, the scope of the history takes place over millennia. While our own Americana is measured by the centuries instead, this story of the Masonic streets is a little more plausible, and one that we can call our own. I'm just thankful that I don't have to drive the crazy streets of Sandusky, Ohio. What a mess.

Incidentally, I noticed the placement of the Barnes and Noble stores in Sandusky form a pentacle pattern. I wonder what Dan Brown would make of that?