Chinatown sign post shakes, rattles and rolls
There’s a sign post in Chinatown that stands head and shoulders above the rest, when it comes to moving and grooving.
And so far, it’s a mystery why the post starts dancing like James Brown — Hardest Working Man in Show Business — whenever a heavy vehicle passes by, or somebody gives it a push.
Every so often, a note from a reader offers a welcome respite from tripping hazards, sinkholes and burned-out street lights. The best one ever led us to an abandoned truck filled with hundreds of full-sized glass heads.
But a recent note from Helen Betsy Stuart is on par with a frozen raccoon wedged into a knot hole in a tree that we once wrote about — its glazed eyes staring vacantly at the sidewalk below — in terms of novelty.
Stuart implored us to go to the Lucky Moose Food Mart, on the south side of Dundas St., just west of Beverly St., and look for a post with three signs on it beside an alley at the west side of the store, next to the sidewalk.
The post and the signs are “unremarkable,” she said. “What is remarkable is the pole itself. It is in perpetual motion, with no apparent cause.
“This could be a new tourist attraction. The Leaning Tower of Pisa would have a rival. This pole could do the same thing. The signs could come loose and imitate the guillotines in Paris, so busy during and after the French Revolution.”
Stuart said she walked past the store on Halloween and noticed “the quaking, trembling sign, with no human hand or car bumper anywhere near.
“Please try to find out if commonplace laws of physics or thermodynamics are at play, or if it is something else.”
We scurried to the Lucky Moose (who wouldn’t?) to witness the wobbling post. It was motionless when we got there, a mild disappointment. So we gave it a small push and watched it wiggle back and forth for well over a minute before it settled down.
Then a streetcar rolled past, which sent it dancing again for another minute to two minutes before it quit.
Puzzling is an understatement.
Status: Allen Pinkerton, who’s in charge of traffic signs and the posts to which they’re mounted, said he’s stumped by it.
He speculated that concrete below ground, in which it is moored, is stirred by passing traffic. He’s not all shook up about it, but Pinkerton said he’ll swing by to take a look because, “I’d like to see that for myself.” What's broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. Email jlakey@thestar.ca or follow @TOStarFixer on Twitter