Giant Super Bowl Numbers Seek Good Home, Gainful Employment

What do you get for the person who has everything?

The answer, as always, is a pony (you can never have too many ponies), but if your lease won’t abide an equestrian pet, consider this modern historical artifact: One of the giant 50s left over from the Super Bowl, now for sale from the fine and resourceful folks at Building RE-Sources.

San Francisco magazine reports that the urban scavengers took in the wayward numerals after they were spurned by their onetime landlords, the Super Bowl Host Committee. Yes, like a Christmas tree or a one-hit wonder on the pop charts, an iconographic Super Bowl sculpture may be the center of attention one day and rubbish heap fodder the next.

Note that this is not one of the "Superb Owl" sculptures (although the question of what happened to those now seems pertinent). Rather, this is part of the Super Bowl City set itself, one of several large items that event organizers had to dispose of after all was said and done. RE-sources took only the one piece, citing a relative dearth of practical uses.

Not to tell the RE-sources folks how to do their jobs, but this seems a little short-sighted. Notwithstanding the fact that if you live on a hill you can roll a giant zero down onto any pillaging hordes making their way toward your property, consider how many more 50th anniversaries are still to come. This year alone you can use your giant numbers to celebrate:

• The 50th anniversary of Daylight Savings Time (April 24)
• The 50th anniversary of the founding of the Church of Satan (April 30)
• The 50th anniversary of the opening of It’s a Small World at Disneyland (May 28)
• The 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Miranda Rights ruling (June 13)
• The 50th anniversary of the Beatles declaring themselves more popular than Jesus (August 11)
• The 50th anniversary of the original network premiere of "Star Trek" (September 7)
• The 50th anniversary of the federal government outlawing LSD (October 6)
• The 50th anniversary of the first airing of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (December 18)
• The 50th anniversary of Kwanzaa (December 26)

Also, Mike Tyson turns 50 in June. He may need a giant number 50. You’ll never know until you ask.

• Sale: Slightly Scuffed Symbol of City Capitulation [San Francisco Magazine]
• Super Bowl Vandal Getting Creative [Curbed SF]