The fork in the road is taken

The headlines just write themselves. A six-foot-tall fork appeared in Carlsbad, Calif., in the traffic island at the intersection of Levante Street and Anillo Way on Oct. 16. The unnamed artist is a 62-year-old retired teacher who said he was impressed by the joke in The Muppet Movie in which the characters encounter a giant silverware fork when they are looking for a fork in the road. Carlsbad residents got a kick out of the sculpture, but a city crew removed it the next day. Another resident erected a sign in its place that says Why the fork not? which the city also removed. Then residents then began taping real, normal-sized forks to a nearby sign. A spokesperson for the city said the sculpture is a code violation.