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Pasadena's Fork in the road is guerilla art installation
Pasadena Star News [as in, Pasadena, California]
By Janette Williams, Staff Writer
Posted: 11/03/2009 05:44:40 PM PST

PASADENA - Right where Pasadena and St. John avenues divide, there's a fork in the road.

It's about 18 feet tall and looks like stainless steel.

The fork's appearance a few days ago, tines firmly stuck into a little Caltrans-owned median, was a bit of a mystery at first.

"It's a guerilla installation," guessed Rochelle Branch, the city's cultural affairs manager, who oversees the public art program. "I don't know if it's through Caltrans, but it is clever."

{snip}

It turns out the fork is an elaborate - and expensive - birthday prank in honor of the 75th birthday of Bob Stane, founder of the Ice House comedy club, who now owns the Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena.

{snip}

Stane said he first mentioned the fork in the road idea 10 years ago to his friend and partner Ken Marshall.

But it wasn't until his week-long birthday celebration, starting Oct. 29, that his friends pulled the surprise, he said.

This story has personal significance for me...

"Friends" (plural) turns out to be Ken Marshall, who is also a friend of mine whom I've known for years, AND my youngest brother, Dave.

It was Ken's idea, and he consulted my brother, who is a general contractor, on how best to design and build this thing. Ken and Dave are business partners in a different venture, and while Ken owns the Coffee Gallery, Dave is the unelected unofficial "Greeter and Mayor" of Altadena. Everybody knows my brother Dave. Anyway, Dave tried to talk Ken out of it at first, but when he realized Ken was going to do it with or without him, Dave enlisted to make sure that it would be at least done right. So Dave did the "engineering" design, and Ken built it.

The night before they installed it, Ken dressed up like a Caltrans worker, went to the site and dug a 2-1/2 foot deep hole. He then put a piece of plywood down over it and raked the bark chips back over the plywood to hide it.

The next night, Ken and Dave went back to site, both dressed like Caltrans workers. They unloaded the materials, and while Dave went to park his truck, Ken mixed and poured the concrete into the hole and sunk the supporting pipes into the concrete.

Dave came back and the two of them erected the fork and bolted it into place. Then they just took off their Caltrans coveralls and reflective vests, wadded them up, and walked away.

The next day it was in the L.A. Times, the Pasadena Star News, and getting coverage on the local L.A. TV news broadcasts. Meet my brother Dave, the iconoclast.

What do you do when you come to a fork in the road? Eat, of course!

Very neat !

TAM:
Wow - that is a cool story and the fork is HUGE!!

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.
Yogi Berra

The above quote from Yogi Berra is not really all that silly when you
know the story behind it.

He lived in the New Jersey suburbs and when giving directions, there
was a place where there was a fork in the road. If you took EITHER
fork in the road, it would still get you where you were going because
both of the forks would eventually join another road, which would lead
you to your destination.

SIA

surprise_i'm_armed wrote:If you took EITHER
fork in the road, it would still get you where you were going because
both of the forks would eventually join another road, which would lead
you to your destination.

SIA

Which is typical of most of New Jersey.

When meeting someone who says they are from there, the proper way to greet them is not to ask which city they live in, but "Which Exit?"

Slightly off topic , but still amusing.

Now that there is funny, USA1.

By the way, here's the location of the fork in the road — right where S. St John Ave. and S. Pasadena Ave. converge. When you're driving north on S. Pasadena Ave., you're looking right at it.

Remember, you have to be going north... ...on South Pasadena Av.... Oh heck, now I'm confused.


BTW, the hospital that is to the right of the fork on that map is where I worked in the ER for 5-6 years back in the 1980s.