San Francisco residents marvel at ‘Christmas miracle’ of gingerbread monolith in park
It was Christmas morning, and nothing moved in Alexis Gallagher’s house: not his wife Ringae, not his twelve-year-old son Odysseus, and not his nine-year-old daughter Callisto.
However, the puppy was awake at 7:30 a.m. and listless to go for a walk. So Gallagher Hermes – after the ancient Greek god, not to be confused with the fashion designer – leashed the Bernadoodle and made the ten-minute hike to Corona Heights Park. There they confronted what Gallagher called a “Christmas Miracle”.
On the red gravel, overlooking the misty San Francisco skyline, stood a towering monolith made of gingerbread. Glued together with icing, the triangular structure was supported by plywood and covered with colorful gummy candies.
Woke up to be walking the dog here in San Francisco and Corona Heights Park on Christmas morning, a mysterious GINGERBREAD MONOLITE has appeared! pic.twitter.com/ykcw1LqIqN
– Sixelå! (@alexisgallagher) December 25, 2020
Gallagher gaped.
Hermes meanwhile tried to eat the gingerbread structure.
The monolith came as an unexpected surprise in a dark year that saw more than 18,900 people hospitalized with coronavirus across California as of Friday, including nearly 4,000 in intensive care and an ICU availability of 0% in Southern California.
The monolith in San Francisco was reminiscent of a metal sculpture that appeared near the summit of the Pine Mountain Trail in Atascadero, a small town in San Luis Obispo County, in early December. This was very similar to monoliths left behind in Utah and Romania in November, reminiscent of the iconic monolith from the classic science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
the gingerbread monolith is real. so real that I even watched someone lick it and then I started saying a prayer for her. With that in mind, happy monolith! pic.twitter.com/ceyGDbKPVB
– Josh Ackerman (@joshuaackerman) December 25, 2020
But while the one in Atascadero caused controversy, the one in San Francisco only seemed to please.
“How could you not call it a Christmas miracle?” Gallagher, 44, said over the phone from the security of his home. “A very well constructed and well constructed miracle at that -” He paused when the barking began in the background. “Oh, I’m sorry, that’s the dog. But yeah, I thought, ‘This city isn’t dead yet. It still has ghost.’ “
Lizzie Johnson is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LizzieJohnsonnn
