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Street-toilet floral display: spring landscaping in Baltimore!

March 29, 2012 at 12:26 pm 7

toilet bomber strikes on Guilford?

Can a potty be pure poetry?

Photo by: Mark Reutter

At first we thought this toilet spotted on Guilford Avenue today might have been left by Baltimore’s “Toilet Bomber,” Duane G. “Shorty” Davis, but it just doesn’t seem angry enough.

Davis actually is no “bomber.” A jury in September acquitted him of “leaving a fake destructive device.”

He’d been arrested on that charge last February for leaving a toilet plastered with newspaper clippings and a taped-on cellphone in front of the Baltimore County Courthouse in Towson.

Taking no chances, Baltimore County officials had dispatched police officers, a bomb-sniffing dog and a small robot to disarm the possibly lethal potty.

Think how much $ you could save by using a few of these Charles Village Benefits District! (Photo by Terra Hiltner)

Think how much $ you could save by using a few of these, Charles Village Benefits District! (Photo by Terra Hiltner)

The toilet was found to be harmless and, as Davis’ public defender explained in court, Davis’ chosen form of protest and free expression.

Turns out, Davis has left lots of message-laden toilets around the city over the years, as The Brew reported at the time.

But the unadorned white commode positioned in a bike-lane roundabout at the 32nd St. intersection with Guilford does not appear to be one of them.

It’s just got some fresh purplish-pink spring flowers protruding from the tank and, on the ground near its base, a pretty good clue to what was going on when it was left there:

An empty bottle of Moet & Chandon champagne.

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  • Marc

    Oh Duchamp, look what you’ve done! Before your notorious antics upended the angst-and-relativism-ridden art world, art relied upon artistry to cultivate talent and create real beauty. But now it’s mostly about whacking together the detritus of a mindless consumer society to make shocking “statements” and inane gestures.  Apparently you can deconstruct some “meaning” from these feeble stunts, but IMO this idle solipsism is getting us nowhere.

    What if that roundabout contained a beautiful flowerbed or statue instead? Last I checked – and despite the crackings of cynics – B’more was the Monument City, not the Bidet City.

  • Gasp107

    Just possibly it was a friend of Edgar Allan Poe. (HMMM) 

  • Gerald Neily

    These new mini-roundabouts are just BEGGING for some kind of adornment. As it stands, they’re two dimensional and a bit hard to see. Heck, even many ordinary crosswalks now have those “Stop for Pedestrians” pylons, which are great. Most motorists don’t even see flat crosswalks.

    But any valuable centerpiece is going to get smashed by a truck sooner or later, so something like this will fill the void. We live in the age of iconography.

  • Unellu

    USA 2012

    The Gods of modern men–
    the disposables–
    the addictions in bottles–
    round at the top and in the bottom–
    circles–the endless
    chasing of tails–
    the circumambulation,
    round and round-
    the not so merry-go-round–
    of work–eat-sleep–
    work–eat–
    the round about–
    way of talking–
    to be diplomatic–
    and not hurt anyone’s feelings–
    actual roundabouts
    to regulate traffic patterns,
    cars following arcs–
    waiting, watching–
    merging with other cars–
    circulating in circles–
    compasses sweeping
    the circumference
    of toilet bowls
    barely fitting enlarging bottoms–
    ensconced in the one place
    in homes–
    in offices–
    in schools–
    of transcendental meditation–
    of profound insightful ruminations,
    the round ceramic toilet bowl,
    flush pulled–the water in circles
    swishing and swirling–
    round and round–
    like the stars in their galaxies,
    spiraling further and further away–
    the water swishing further and further–
    this too is art–

    Usha Nellore

     

  • “Please don’t hit me”

    These bike traffic circles have got to be the world’s most idiotic traffic “feature” I have ever seen. They are accidents waiting to happen. I have seen cars drive over them. I have seen approaching cars not knowing whether to stop and yield, so they drive straight thru without yielding to other cars. Or, they all just stop and wait..wait..wait.

    Pedestrians? Fagettaboutit! Take my life in my own hands when trying to cross with the cars not slowing down. All this for the bikers? Thanks a lot!
     

  • other mark

    Sounds like it’s Marc’s (commenter bellow) turn for the next installation piece

  • Kflannery

    at least they had good taste in beverages….

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