High Weirdness

[Champion Jack]

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/living/special_packages/starmagazine/6693767.htm

(snipo)
..I returned to the corner, waited for the light to turn and traffic to clear then stepped into the intersection to get a closer look at the graffiti. It said:

TOYNBEE IDEA
IN KubricK's `2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPiTER.


Yeah, I know. Weird.

It gets weirder.

The message wasn't painted. It was some kind of tile, a bit larger than a license plate, that had actually been imbedded in the street. Each letter looked to have been hand carved and inlaid in a plastic or epoxy base. I tried to push my thumbnail into the tile. It was rock hard. Harder than the asphalt itself.

Probably a "street art" project by a grad student at the Art Institute, I thought as I started back down Grand.

It was 1996. A year of many unexplained phenomena. The Macarena. Tickle-Me-Elmo. Beavis and Butthead.

Since then I've walked right over the thing dozens of times and each time made a mental note to further investigate its origins. And each time promptly mislaid the mental note.

A couple months ago, however, on my way back from Jake's, I made an actual paper note and kept it clutched in my hand all the way back to my cube here at The Star where I "googled" the wording on the strange tile.

Bingo.

More at link

[starroute]

1. Followup - mystery tiles found in Cleveland

http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_fullstory.asp?id=10456

With links to tile sightings in Cincinnatti, Columbus, and more.

[M155Y_A1CH]

2. Construction tips

Here is a document from a guy who claims to know
how they are made and applied.

http://toynbee.net/justin.txt

Just in case anyone else is suddenly getting the
overwhelming urge to make + glue their own tile.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. That has been spray painted on the sidewalks of Manhattan

for about 10 years now. Never saw the tiles here. Someone keeps re-painting them though.

I say, who cares?