June 29, 2001

4:08 PM

A Man, A Mower and a Mission.
An unknown man mowed a huge '420' sign into two hills in Peoria this week. From the article, an entertaining quote:

"That's strange that somebody would put ("420" in 20-foot-long digits) on our right-of-way," Illinois Department of Transportation engineer George Ryan said said. "I don't think there's any marijuana growing out there."

Maybe he received a shipment too? [*]
posted by DragonBoy (9 comments total)

*that would be he, the unknown mower and not he, George Ryan.
posted by DragonBoy at 4:09 PM on June 29, 2001

Isn't George Ryan also the name of the Ill. governor. I always thought he looked a little pink-eyed.
posted by rschram at 4:12 PM on June 29, 2001

I grew up near Peoria, and putting messages up on that hill has been sort of a tradition as long as i can remember. It's never gotten news coverage before, that I know of. I guess they just didn't like the message.
posted by jbelshaw at 5:44 PM on June 29, 2001

"We wanted to cut (the grass) short enough to eliminate it. But it's so short, there's no way we can cut it short enough to do that."

How sad. While I do not condone vandalism, it's sad when people try and get rid of interesting things for no real reason. Even though it was technically an act of vandalism, what is so bad about having 420 mowed into some grass?

Sure adds some variety to a usually boring place. I wish more people would go out and put their non-destructive art around the place. It'd make places more interesting (think Basquiat).
posted by wackybrit at 5:57 PM on June 29, 2001

Reminds me, it used to be that politicans would advertise similarly: rocks on the sides of hills, along with paint on the sides of barns, were a good way to grab attention. In PrairyErth, Willam Least Heat-Moon describes some of the rock-on-hill ads that are still around in Chase County, Kansas.
posted by Mo Nickels at 6:24 PM on June 29, 2001

i wish the article had a pic.....
posted by Espoo2 at 8:33 PM on June 29, 2001

Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty. ...Or just mow 420 into the grass.
posted by ZachsMind at 11:45 PM on June 29, 2001

420 lost its secret status long ago before the Role/Hemp campaign spoofs came out. The suckas are always last to know.
posted by roboto at 5:04 AM on June 30, 2001

Hey wackybrit, I totally agree with you. Here in Boston, vandals have decorated the Longfellow Bridge with colorful splashes of paint, which strike me as being quite lovely, and far more interesting than the gray, bland pillars. But local authorities are *outraged* and actively trying to find the artists ... er, perpetrators.
posted by acridrabbit at 11:53 AM on June 30, 2001