What was Kim talking about?

Between Kelley's Athens flashbacks, Possumblog's shots of the rebuilding of the ass of Vulcan [the Birmingham statue that scared the beejeepers out of me as a kid (see that torch, boy? It's RED. That means somebody got slaughtered on the highway tonight, so sit down, let me drive, and shut your pie hole!)] ...

Ahh, the torch. Well, you see, it wasn't always a torch he was holding. Back when he was first built, he was holding aloft a spear point that he had just hammered out for Zeus or Mars or somebody. But then...

[...] The famous red and green torch Vulcan held from 1946 until 1999 is set to become a part of the statue's past, not his future.

The neon lights were added by the Birmingham Jaycees to give the statue an added purpose. A green torch meant no one had died in the Birmingham area in the past 24 hours in a traffic accident. A red torch signified a death.

The torch was actually a cone-shaped sheet of metal with 16 long neon bulbs that alternated red and green. A switch in the guard tower chose the color each night.

The torch apparatus covered a replacement spear point that was downright dainty in comparison to the original sculptor Giuseppe Moretti put in Vulcan's hand for the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904.

The replacement spear was made sometime in the late 1930s for Vulcan to hold when he was originally placed on the pedestal atop Red Mountain.

Historical and artistic purists have bemoaned the torch and even the wimpy spear, arguing it made Vulcan something not intended by its creator. [...]

Yep, the "electric popsicle". Of course, poor Vulcan has suffered such indignities all along--when he was finally brought back from St. Louie, they put him out at the State Fairgrounds, where his spear-holding arm was put on upside down, and where he was used to hawk Heinz pickles and Liberty overalls (a pair of which were painted on him), until he was rescued and perched up on Red Mountain.

And now, they have gotten his big old head back on! Only his spear arm remains to be placed, and he'll be alright again. They still have to finish the park and visitor center, but it's good to be able to look up and see him whole again.
posted by Terry at 11:21:00 AM