On the City Pattern Project: Best Manhole Cover Ever Spotted in Sugar Hill?
25Jun08
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with manhole covers.
Location: Edgecomb Avenue and 159th Street
Is this the best manhole cover ever? Perhaps it is. We could stare at this for a thousand years, on or off drugs.
Whenever anyone asks me for something to put into a time capsule, I tell them not to bother. The manhole covers will last longer and look better than anything I could give them.
–Andy Warhol
Filed under: Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Decay, Infrastructure, Landscape, Photography, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | 4 Comments
Tags: Andy Warhol, Drugs, Manhole Covers, Weiner Werkstatte
The Gay Recluse 
The reason manhole covers are almost always round is so that they cannot possibly fall into the hole, as there is no way you can turn it which will make it fit, even if you deliberately try. A square one like this, can fall in, as the diagonal of the hole is wider than the any of the edges of the cover, so there is a way it can be made to fit down the hole. So, because of this fault, it is only unusual, but it is not an improvement over round manhole covers.
Thanks for that comment, scaryreasoner. Everything you say strikes us as true, except that we still think the above manhole cover may be the best ever. How to reconcile? It’s almost like a circle in a square, n’est-ce pas?
There is no reconciliation. Beauty often entails a gamble. Ask anyone who’s spent time with a desirable man. One must take care not to turn this particular cover the wrong way — yet the exhilarating, arrow-like corners alone seem to justify the risk.
I’m with you, C! (But I still appreciate scaryreasoner’s point, because I love the debate!)