Will Pasadena Keep The Fork in the Road, a Project by Pranksters?

Nov. 7, 2009

Note from John Rabe:

The best line about the giant fork in the road in Pasadena, planted by pranksters last weekend, comes from the Pasadena Star-News. “It remains to be seen if the city will get the joke.” Yes, the thing was done illegally, but it was done well. It's witty, pays tribute to old Olde Pasadena, and -- as an Off-Ramp contributor put it, it shows Pasadena is not populated by fuddy-duddies ... unless of course they take it down.

Come inside for all the details. (By the way, I broke this story on my blog, which is a good reason to check it every day.)

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Also on this episode

Here's the John Rabe blog item posted Monday:

I got an email this weekend from occasional Off-Ramp contributor Donna Barnes-Roberts. She writes:

Dear John,

I don't know if you were in Pasadena when there was a building in Old Town with the legend:

"My People are People of the Dessert,” said T.E. Lawrence picking up his fork.

Well, some slightly wacky people up in the unincorporated township called Altadena felt a certain lack in their souls after that mural fell to progress oh so many years ago, and, Saturday morning at about 9:30, erected an 18-foot fork at the fork in the road where Pasadena Ave. divides into two one-way streets. If you go north on Pasadena Ave., from Glenarm, you will see it at the … fork in the road.


And see it before some bureaucrat takes it down -- though it is built sturdily and set in over 400 pounds of concrete. One of the participants was anticipating arrest, though he just turned 75, and didn't actually build it. However, he certainly had a twinkle in his eye when he mentioned “arrest".

The whole thing was a kind of birthday present for Pasadena. In fact, there was a party, and t-shirts were handed out.


This is officially the LARGEST fork in the road, according to one of the participants. Really.

-- Donna

UPDATE RECEIVED TUESDAY: "After doing some additional research, I now know that this is only the largest fork in the road west of the Mississippi. There is a 31-foot metal fork at a fork in the road in New York State. The pranksters are only mildly deflated. Even pranksters need an occasional reality check."

Donna Barnes-Roberts is a painter who teaches the delicate art of water color. She sent the photos above. I’ll post the video as soon as they send it to the YouTube.

UPDATE WEDNESDAY: Pasadena Star-News notices the fork, does some digging, reveals prankster.

Yogi
3 months ago

"If you see a fork in the road, take it"

Eric
3 months ago

Where to even start? What if every day you went in to work and some insistent co-worker distracted you from your brief chance to look out the window and enjoy the day to tell you the same dumb joke every morning expecting you to get a big kick out of it? You'd get tired of it pretty quick don't you think?

The fork in the road was funny forty years ago when Johnny Carson used it in his skit, and it was only funny then because of Carson's great delivery.

This fork is not art, it's a corny, trite, hackneyed joke put there by someone so arrogant and narcissistic as to think that we should all see it every day. Art is thought provoking, spiritually uplifting, troubling, soothing, uncomfortable, poetic, mysterious, sublime etc., not a dumb one-liner pun that was already old years ago.

I love what Cal-Trans has been doing by planting native gardens in the median and roadside, and when I drive this sometimes stressful route I find the beauty of the trees and plants relaxing and uplifting. They make me feel happy to be entering Pasadena, a place of beauty. The city of trees. The fork has spoiled the true seeds of beauty being planted in the median, and says "Welcome to corny Disneyfied Pasadena with the cultural awareness of a high-school goof-off".

Yes, we all get it. Ha Ha. Now please get it out of my face and let nature reign.

P.S. It's not even a real fork in the road for Pete's sake. A fork in the road gives you a choice between two routes. If you take the left route here, you'll end up in a head- collision. They can't even get the joke right!

Tina
3 months ago

Eric......lighten up.

Elizabeth
2 months, 4 weeks ago

What Tina said...

Elizabeth
2 months, 4 weeks ago

PS - I took a field trip to the fork last night, and it's really quite lovely and artfully constructed. I think that if they hadn't painted it silver but left the wood grain visible, even Eric would appreciate it!

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