Don’t Ask For Permission

Yeah yeah, I was just reading about this Hayward Zwerling guy and I gotta say I like the way he operates. In Somerville, along what they call the Community Path, these giant wacko works of art just started showing up one day. It started with this 20-foot-high giraffe with multicolored polka dots. Ya pull a string and the ears wiggle. Then came another one that was the size of a real elephant. When you pull the yellow elephant’s trunk, his ears start flapping. How the hell did these things get there?

 

When Hayward Zwerling, a retired endocrinologist and amateur woodworker, was asked if he had permission to set up these mambo animals he said, “No, I just did it. I didn’t think anybody would say yes.” Old Hay did his handiwork under the cover of darkness. He’d rent a van and enlist a few buddies as co-conspirators and haul these props to the pathway before dawn. The police never caught him. He kept his identity secret for a long time, but eventually it came out that he was the guy responsible for this guerilla art. Luckily he hasn’t heard from the authorities.

 

People who pass by these giants are all smiles and that’s what he’s all about. Now someone’s putting up signs for the giraffe and the elephant and they’ve designated one stretch “The Yellow Elephant Road.” That makes Hayward happy. I gotta say, Hayward deserves the Triple Lindy Award.

Keep your dukes up.


 

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