# No Spork at K-State Campus **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 7, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448 "2005-03-07T23:17:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Superman3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Superman3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superman3)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/1 "2005-03-07T23:17:56Z")
Great job on the article concerning sporks ([found here](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mspork.html) ) but I have to make a correction. In the article, you stated that supposedly there is a spork 25 feet high in front of the Chem-Lab building on Kansas State University campus. This is a common myth, certainly among K-State students. You can’t miss the sculpture, towering in front of King Hall, and it does look remarkably like a spork. In fact, every year, without fail, some student(s) feel the to imbed hundreds of plastic sporks in the ground at the foot of the sculpture, apparently in reverence to the spawning statue. However, in my time as a volunteer tourguide for the campus, I found the real importance for the artwork. The piece sits in front of King Hall, and is evidently _supposed_ to be an abstract king chesspiece, which certainly makes sense due to its proximity to the building bearing that name. However, through the years, and much like the Chicago Historical Society, still claiming “The Windy City” refers to politicians, nearly all K-State visitors and students believe the sculpture is a spork. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/2 "2005-03-08T06:43:26Z")
A chesspiece, eh? I don’t suppose you’d mind linking to a picture… ---
**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/3 "2005-03-08T07:26:28Z")
It took me a while, but here you go: [http://www.kstatecollegian.com/articles/1077170400/view/02.17.04.c.Fork.zl.jpg](http://www.kstatecollegian.com/articles/1077170400/view/02.17.04.c.Fork.zl.jpg) It was an illustration in this [article](http://www.kstatecollegian.com/article.php?a=613) in the Kansas State Collegian which says > [@](#): > > UNTITLED I > > Location: King Hall > > One piece created in the summer workshop included “Untitled” by James Wentz, better known as “The Fork.” > > Wentz’s sculpture is the tallest outside on campus, with its prongs 20 feet in the air. > > The name, Wentz said in a previous Collegian article, was left up to its audience. > > “I probably had an idea in mind when I designed it, but I left it untitled,” he said. “I let people decide for themselves what it is.” > > Many students have decided to name the sculpture “The Fork” for obvious reasons. > > “It’s an interesting, abstract version of a fork,” Lindsey Houltberg, freshman in interior design, said. “I wonder why we have a giant fork in the middle of the grass.” It sounds like the artist is leaving any interpretation of the sculpure up to its viewers. I don’t think we’re going to get much guidance from him on the spork vs. fork vs. chess piece debate. ---
**Author:** ![Superman3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Superman3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superman3)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/4 "2005-03-08T17:23:17Z")
Thanks for the article and the picture! I still like the chesspiece story, especially since it’s in front of King Hall…so, I guess it’s possible the artist decided to leave it untitled because he felt the sculpture ended up looking more like a fork than he wanted it to. lol But, who knows? ---
**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/5 "2005-03-09T03:03:34Z")
> [@Superman3](#): > > Thanks for the article and the picture! My pleasure. Can I ask you something, **Superman3**? Is the top of the sculpture essentially flat on both sides? After looking at that picture, I can certainly understand why it’s called a fork by some people, but I don’t think it really looks like a spork at all. Shouldn’t a spork have “the shape of your everyday spoon” as well as tines? Where’s the concavity? To me, it looks more like a cross between a fork and a spatula. (And if in the future some researcher from the OED should stumble across this thread, I hereby lay claim to having coined the word _spatulork_ to describe a small implement having a broad, flat, flexible blade with tines at the end.) ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/6 "2005-03-09T15:28:59Z")
Wow, when I was there we all thought it was a Wildcat paw. Some wags would go out every time it snowed, and put a large snowball on either side of it, to make it look like a phallic symbol. This was in the mid-80’s, FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/7 "2005-03-09T18:19:54Z")
LMAO I read the thread title and thought it was about homeland security regulations run amok. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/8 "2005-03-10T18:28:22Z")
Is it just me, or is the Titanium Spork link in the original column now defunct? ☹ Guess I’ll have to find something else for my birthday list ---
**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/9 "2005-03-10T20:14:16Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Is it just me, or is the Titanium Spork link in the original column now defunct? ☹ Yeah, it’s dead for me, too. > [@Colophon](#): > > Guess I’ll have to find something else for my birthday list Not so fast. Try [this](http://www.tripleaughtdesign.com/x-treme%20gear/snowpeak_titanium_spork.htm). > [@](#): > > GET ONE TODAY AND JOIN THE “CULT OF THE TITANIUM SPORK”, YOU WON’T BE SORRY. ---
**Author:** ![Superman3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Superman3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superman3)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/10 "2005-03-11T08:42:06Z")
Chukhung – No, there doesn’t appear to be any concavity at all, which is why I never really understood why everyone thought it was a spork…oh well. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/11 "2005-03-11T15:45:02Z")
It looks to me like a defective basketball backboard (which might explain the past several losing seasons at Silo Tech). I suspect the artist left it unnamed because even he couldn’t figure out what the heck it was. So far as sforks go, do they really work as spoons? Seems one’s soup would dribble through the grooves. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/12 "2005-03-11T16:04:01Z")
Frankly, I have no problem at all seeing the supposed chess king. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-spork-at-k-state-campus/293448/13 "2005-03-11T20:37:53Z")
> [@John W. Kennedy](#): > > Frankly, I have no problem at all seeing the supposed chess king. Where? I thought they were out of business. 😉