The troll becomes even more official

There's a bit of road directly under the Aurora Avenue bridge not far from my house, which up to the last few weeks was named Aurora Place. I walked by today and saw shiny new street signs showing that those two blocks have now been named Troll Avenue North, in honor of the very large statue of a troll under the bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Troll).

I'm fond of the troll. We have a fair amount of whimsical public art in my neighborhood: the troll, Waiting for the Interurban, the giant statue of Lenin, the brontosaurus topiary, the totem pole of urban animals. I could live without the totem pole (apparently, so can most other citizens of Seattle; I Googled for a picture to show you all how unattractive it is, but I couldn't find one. It's not really a totem pole, in that it isn't in the style of northwest Native American art, but it is shaped like a tapering pole, with animals ranked by size. It has never been completed, I think because the fundraising movement ran out of steam. The lower portion is made of bronze, with the top portion concrete or some other less-expensive and also less-attractive material), and the brontosaurus topiary is just like any other brontosaurus topiary, but the troll makes me happy every time I see it.

It's a heavily used bit of public art. On my way back from the Fremont fair with a friend last summer, I was momentarily surprised to find a theater troupe performing "Twelfth Night" all around and on the troll, but it made a fine stage. We watched for a few minutes, then went on. I'm sorry we didn't stay and watch the rest of the performance, because it was a good eccentric production.