Pogo Dave Spotting

Highway driving in Rhode Island can be dreary in March. Until the forsythia arrives, and unless the hawks are hovering, there are few highlights on the major roadways. So yesterday’s trip from Barrington to South County and back was a rare treat for me, since I passed Pogo Dave coming and going.

It was my first (and second) Pogo Dave sighting. I passed him on Route 4 sometime before noon and then on I-95 heading back to Providence around 4:30. He drives an All-American red, white and blue automobile with a bull’s head and horns on the hood, various gizmos and stationary bikes mounted on the roof. The car has a sign that reads: “This car is powered with insanity.” A North Providence native, also known as Dave Clayman, Pogo Dave has been parking his car on roadsides throughout Rhode Island performing on his contraption and spreading the gospel of nonsense for 16 years. Somehow, despite driving about 33,000 miles a year in this state for the past 11 years, I’ve never seen him before…until twice in one day.

With the international holiday of pranks, hoaxes and practical jokes set for Friday,* perhaps we should consider making Pogo Dave Rhode Island’s official April Fool. (Although Love 22 might give him a run for his money. We might have to put it to a state vote, as we did during the debate over what should be the official state drink: Del’s lemonade or coffee milk?)

The tradition of April Fool’s Day hoaxes goes back centuries, but the practice seems to have really taken off in modern times. Among the best last year: Starbucks, the coffee chain that sizes its cups as “tall,” “grande” and venti” – a language I generally refer to dismissively as Starbuckian – showed it had a sense of humor by announcing two more sizes: the 128-ounce “plenta” and the two-ounce “micra.” Google changed its name to “Topeka” for the day. And England’s Guardian newspaper announced that after 188 years of printing ink on paper, it would be switching exclusively to publishing on Twitter, after management decided that any story can be told in 140 characters.

Rhode Island hasn’t been at the forefront of a good April Fool’s Day prank in a long time, at least according to the humorologist at the University of South-Central Rhode Island who is often consulted in these matters.

This week’s question: Who is Rhode Island’s April Fool?

* A partial list of tomfoolery that may also include parodies, satires, spoofs, lampoons, follies, frolics, wisecracks, gags, japes, capers, larks, farces, send ups, takeoffs, mockeries, fakes and forgeries.