Thursday, February 19, 2015

In which David encounters some forks.

Back in 2009 I posted this picture on Mixed Messages


I called the picture Fork in the Road.  Indeed it shows a fork, a very large sculptural fork located on a traffic island.  And there is a road.  However, the road does not fork.  The Robert Frost poem does not apply here.  Drivers have no choice about choosing the road more or less travelled by.  This is merely a spot where two one-way streets merge to form one two-way street.

Anyway, back in 2009 the fork appeared mysteriously and received considerable notice.  The local paper even wrote an article about it:  Pasadena's fork in the road is guerilla art installation.   I was under the impression that it was to be removed pending approval from CalTrans.   I hadn't noticed it for a long time.

Until last week.

On one of my recent walks I was surprised to encounter the fork.  It's been moved away from traffic and more securely mounted.  I stopped to take some pictures.  I saw no plaque explaining the origin of this culinary geographical sculptural pun.  People are left to wonder why it is there.  It's just there because ... well, why not?  Art.  Fork Art.

Google Street View confirms that the fork was not there in 2011.  The story of its reappearance is here.  Also here.  Old news.  Liability Insurance was needed.  This being America, nothing happens until the financial responsibilities are sorted.

Here's what it looks like now.




I know of another big fork in Pasadena.  It's on Holly Street, outside a restaurant.  Which restaurant?  (I don't remember the name.)


Finally, here are two pictures of an actual fork in the road, one with no artistic pretensions and no liability insurance.  You could eat with this fork, not that you'd want to.



You can click on the pictures to embiggen them.

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