The Pintchik Oracle

Posted by mike as Weird People

Located on Bergen Street and Flatbush, the Pintchik Oracle is a billboard on the side of Pintchik’s Hardware. Across the street from the hardware store is a phone mounted on a wooden box with a sticker attached that says “Come With Questions… Leave With Answers.”. People are encouraged to pickup the phone and ask the oracle a question. The oracle (billboard) then displays an answer to the question.

The oracle is actually man located somewhere inside Pintchik’s Hardware, manning the answering machine. Using a laptop he types in what is displayed on the billboard. Sure, we may know how he does it, but that doesn’t explain who the oracle is. Also, what’s the point? Why would this wise oracle associate itself with a hardware store in Brooklyn?

Well, all signs point to the oracle being Jonathan Safran Foer (see here and here for more information), but no one knows for sure. That also doesn’t explain why a hardware store would be associated with an oracle who doles out wisdom to passersby. The owner of the hardware store, Mr. Pintchik, had this to say:

Mr Pintchik refuses to take any credit for the oracle’s arrival in Brooklyn. ‘You know,’ he says, deadpan, ‘we’re this crazy hardware store that’s been around for 95 years, and the oracle has been around for thousands of years, and we were just blessed that the oracle appeared on our building. We don’t know why it’s here. It’s a phenomenon. We just accept it.’

Weird. Recently the oracle went dark, so I’ll have to drive by and see if it’s back up. I hope the oracle is OK…