Deconstructed mysteries: OK, so it wasn’t the...
Deconstructed mysteries: OK, so it wasn’t the toughest pop quiz. We asked readers to identify a photo in Tuesday’s column and we received 194 faxed replies--195 if you include the misaddressed one from a Venice business regarding a customer’s deposit.
Thirty-two guesses were incorrect (and, remember, we count off double for incorrect guesses), including: the Spruce Goose airplane (eight votes), a gold dredge, the abortive Port Disney resort, a Venetian blind, the Hubble telescope, Redondo Pier after a big storm, Angel’s Flight, an orbiting billboard and Santa Monica’s Gateway to Malibu.
The winning entry--a 5:36 a.m. fax--came from Don Spivack of L.A., who said it was a model of “the proposed ‘Clouds of Steel’ monument, which was to be built over the Hollywood Freeway.” After consulting our judges--the people who sit closest to us--we accepted that as close enough to “Steel Cloud.” Also known as the “West Coast Gateway Monument,” the deconstructionist work was, you’ll recall, touted as L.A.’s own Statue of Liberty. Due to its cost--an estimated $33 million--it was non-constructed.
Anyway, we’re shipping Spivack a product titled “Actual Los Angeles Freeway Rubble,” which somewhat resembles the would-be landmark.
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Steel clawed: The absence of the freeway monument hasn’t made the hearts of readers grow fonder, incidentally. Of those who commented on the design, 48 had negative comments while three were positive. A sampling of the reviews:
* “It looks better if you stand it on end.” (Lance Richter)
* “Even the recession has a silver lining.” (R. Douglas Collins)
* “If it had been built, the problem of illegal (and legal, for that matter) immigration would have been solved. After all, would you want that to be the first thing you saw in the U.S.?” (Norman Gotwetter)
* “Yuk!” (Mary Caciola)
* “I love it. Sorry we’ll never see it.” (Caroline Labiner Moser)
* “I think I saw it in a junkyard in Carson.” (Glenn Barrow)
And, finally, Rick Bowersox was not surprised that the “Steel Cloud” never got off the ground.
* “Even Bakersfield got rid of ‘Sun-Fun-Stay-Play.’ ”
Another needed improvement in spelling: Stan Dyer found a sign in West L.A. that bore a name remarkably similar to that of a City Council member.
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Pre-shocks: Here’s another earthquake clue we missed. “Did anyone notice the irony of the (Team Rideshare) TV ad? (that ran before the earthquake),” writes Jeff Simpson of La Canada.
“It showed the people walking slowly in a dreary mood on the 10 freeway with Downtown in the distance. It then cut to the same people doubling up in car-pool fashion, whistling, ‘Hi ho, hi ho. . . .’ I thought it was rather amusing, since that’s the only way we can traverse the nation’s busiest freeway now.”
miscelLAny:
Actor Jack Nicholson, who was recently charged in a golf club attack on another motorist’s car, made his directing debut in the film, “Drive He Said.”