We love time capsules. But sometimes those thousands of capsules that people have created over the years get lost or stolen. Such is the case with a time capsule in Chicago that was buried by the comedian-magicians (comicians?) Penn and Teller.
Back in 1989, Penn and Teller hid a time capsule underneath some concrete outside Ed Debevic’s, a 1950s-themed restaurant in Chicago. The schtick at Ed Debevic’s was that every server was incredibly rude, which sometimes confused tourists who weren’t in on the joke. It was kind of like a Twitter troll account come to life.
The restaurant closed in October to make room for a new apartment complex, but during the recent demolition of the building crews searched futilely for the 1989 capsule. Sadly, nobody can seem to find it. One thing they did find? Part of a urinal.
The slab of concrete with Penn and Teller’s names drawn in it has been waiting for nearly three decades. And crews did find a few random items like a lone shoe, a glass bottle, a coffee carafe, and a “hunk of a urinal”, but it’s unclear if those items were actually inside the time capsule. For all we know, they could have just been garbage at the construction site sometime before the restaurant opened in 1984.
Yep, that’s the “urinal hunk” on the far left there. Though I must confess it looks like part of a bear skull to me.
For now, we’ll have to assume that the Penn and Teller capsule is lost to history. But Ed Debevic’s has hinted at the possibility that it may reopen at a different location in the future.
In honour of the urinal hunk found at the old site, here’s hoping they’re not like the cheapskates of 1989 and actually bury an entire urinal at the new restaurant. It’s the only proper thing to do, really. And maybe they should find a different duo to help with the burial. Penn and Teller are known, after all, for making things disappear.
Images via Facebook, NBC Chicago