Story Archive

Five Finger Discount

The late Alvin “Al” Goldstein is famous for two things: his lucrative career in the adult publishing industry, and his middle finger. The finger in question is an 11-foot tall foam sculpture that Goldstein kept in the back yard of his Pompano Beach, Fla., home. “We didn’t like it much,” says neighbor and former mayor John Rayson. “Nobody did anything to try and take his right of free expression away from him but, you know, to have a gigantic finger in your backyard pointing at the Intracoastal [waterway]... it was remarkable.” Goldstein fell on hard times and had to sell his mansion to pay bills. The finger was part of seven truckloads of possessions moved into a storage facility. Later, Hurricane Charley struck and devastated the area, and the finger disappeared. The statue may have been auctioned off for overdue payments, stolen by an admirer, or destroyed by the storm. “This mysterious fickle finger of fate could be anywhere from Philadelphia to Phoenix,” says Goldstein’s friend and lawyer Norman Kent. (MS/South Florida Sun Sentinel) ...Wherever it is, it’s been flipped.