I'm a relatively new transplant to the East Coast. I grew up on the West Coast in, as some of you know, an extremely Mormon town, with a very Mormon family background.

My boyfriend has lived here much of his life. He loves to tell me about local lore as we drive around, and I love hearing about it.

This is the DC Mormon Temple:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/91499534@N00/557320270

He told me about how someone painted "SURRENDER DOROTHY" on that freeway overpass, which is positioned perfectly in the line of sight of the temple for it to work. On further investigation, I've found that this has been a regular thing for over 30 years. Someone paints it, State Police (since that FWY is still in MD) remove it. Someone paints it again.

Hilarious.

I used to live in maryland and I saw that surrender dorothy sign alot. It made me laugh even when I was mormon

Yep, that's a true story. I live in the Southeast - for years that was the only temple in this region of the U.S. Lots of people I know saw that grafitti. Funny.

;o)

I am, even still, amused by the fact that I've heard from locals that the local leaders are LESS than amused by this. My boyfriend, not knowing my entire history with Mormons when he told me about this and showed me the road and bridge in question, was in for a much longer laughfest than he expected.

But, really, a visual film representation of the Emerald City has been in the American mind since 1939. If you don't want the comparison, avoid it at all cost.

Probably not doing themselves any favors by lighting it this way:

http://www.foulgerpratt.com/images/washingtondc_temple_body.jpg

http://www.painetworks.com/photos/fb/fb0340.JPG

(I brought these up quickly via a Google Image search--did not scan the websites that host them for content.)

Funny, there's a wiki page devoted entirely to it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_Dorothy

LOL...If I knew about this back in 10-08, I would have yelled the phrase when my soon-to-be-wed brother drove my sister, mother, and I to the temple grounds. That is some funny shit.

that's how my family who live in the area refer to it.