Tampa's famed 'Exploding Chicken' being dismantled, moved

You go away for a few days and what happens?

In the dead of night workers begin moving in and taking apart the city's greatest work of art - "The Exploding Chicken.''

It's a monumental project; local art lovers already are comparing it to taking down the Eiffel Tower for cleaning or maybe taking the faces off of Mount Rushmore.

Even as you read this, parts of the Chicken are being spirited off to a hidden location allegedly to get "cleaned up'' and readied to be reassembled at a new location in the middle of the roundabout in Channelside.

If it happens and they reassemble the pieces in the right order, that might not be all bad. Remember that the British put the great Lord Horatio Nelson in the middle of Trafalgar Square and it's likely the Chicken eventually would receive the same international recognition as the hero of the Battle of Trafalgar.

The thing is, if you're going to be a great city, you have to have something memorable for people to talk about.

New York has that statue out in the harbor and the Empire State Building. Philadelphia has the Liberty Bell and Boston celebrates the Green Monster in Fenway Park. San Francisco has the Golden Gate Bridge; New Orleans the French Quarter and Paris the Eiffel Tower.

We have The Exploding Chicken, or at least had it until this week.

I know we also have the minarets and Ybor City and even the beer can building, but they're not quite the same.

It was the mayor herself who said she wanted Tampa to be known as a "city of the arts.'' To me that means you have to have something artsy enough to attract global attention; something that says, "If you don't understand it, it must be good.''

That's the great thing about the chicken... Not everybody gets it.

When the relatives come into town from Ohio and you want to show them the town, naturally you want to impress them with what a sophisticated and artsy place this is.

If all they've seen is the Dale Mabry strip with that flying saucer nudie place or Ybor City on a Saturday night they might suspect Tampa isn't in the same league with London, Tokyo or Cleveland.

That's where the Chicken comes in. For some reason, not everyone who stands there gazing at its delicate and complex lines sees "The Exploding Chicken.'' Even its sculptor, George Sugarman, left it untitled, probably figuring it was so obvious.

I've heard all sorts of suggestions, from "Ybor Sunrise'' to "Letters to the County Commission.''

Now "The Exploding Chicken'' is scheduled to rise again, sort of like a Tampa version of the Phoenix at that roundabout near where the cruise ships come in. I figure that ought to do for the cruise tourist industry here what beach volleyball did for Cancun.

At the very least someone is going to make some money selling miniature statues of the Chicken and possibly local restaurants will come up with a special sandwich called "The Exploding Chicken.''