AND NOW YOU KNOW
(In response to the Aug. 24 letter to the editor, “Disgruntled Sparky fan.”)
Like many, Bill Heatherly seems to think that the ASU pitchfork has been replaced with a trident (which he bizarrely calls a "triton"). He states that the "current logo utilizes a triton not a pitchfork. Pitchforks have tines, not barbed tritons."
A little research would serve him well: a trident is a three-pronged weapon, some versions of which have barbed tines. A pitchfork can have between two and six un-barbed tines and is an agricultural tool (Triton is a Greek god, a son of Poseidon, often depicted as a merman. Three of those — barbed or otherwise — on a trident would be a little distressing).
Sparky's implement can thus be either a trident or a pitchfork. So how is one to choose? Christian iconography associates the martial trident — not the agricultural pitchfork — with things diabolical.
Indeed, Sparky (when used as a logo, such as on the old helmets) has always carried a "fork" with a barbed middle tine and ASU has referred to it as a trident, despite rivals being told to "fear the fork" (and ASU students and alumni "flashing the fork").
I would suggest Heatherly's desire to withhold donations to ASU over this, speaks more to a lack of knowledge than to any cogent position regarding tradition.
John Lynch
Faculty
