Tag Archives: Most Phallic Building contest

“It would be like the nuclear arms race, but with cock-like structures.”

By Mark | January 25, 2015

I uttered this sentence last night, and I thought that it should be recorded for posterity… Every year or two since 2003, when Cabinet magazine named Ypsilanti’s historic water tower the winner of it’s World’s Most Phallic Building contest, a website somewhere decides to post a story about the our beloved “brick dick.” Most recently, […]

Posted in History, Ideas, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged 1889, 1890, Appeal to Reason, bad ideas, brick dick, Cabinet, cocks, Kansas, limestone, Mark's art ideas, Mark's big ideas, Matt Siegfried, phallic structures, phallic things, privatization, public utilities, Roadtrippers, water, water towers, William R. Coats, Ypsilanti water tower | 5 Comments

Ypsi landmark figures prominently in Conan O’Brien gay joke

By Mark | January 13, 2011

Posted in Media, Other, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Bill Nickles, Conan O'Brien, corporate money, Five Cent Willy, gay history museum, get the money out of Washington, Jimmy Fallon, John Boehner, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, monologues, oral history, phallic structures, phallic things, the gay, water towers, Ypsilanti water tower | 9 Comments

Ypsi’s water tower, and its missing whatsit

By Mark | September 26, 2010

My friend Eric sent me a huge photo of Ypsilanti’s infamous water tower yesterday. The image, which is beautiful, was taken in 1900, when women carried parasols, and Cross Street was still a dirt road scarred by wagon tracks. It’s an amazing photo. The structure was just ten years old at the time, having been […]