ORACLE ON FLATBUSH.(The Talk of the Town)

On a broad patch of sidewalk at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Bergen Street, across from Yummy Taco, an old-fashioned wooden box telephone materialized recently. The phone, which is mounted on a metal stand, as if it were a floor lamp, has brass ringer bells, a wooden receiver on one side, and a crank on the other. On the dial is written "The Pintchik Oracle," and, below that, a psychedelic sticker asks, "Do you have a question? Don't be afraid and speak clearly. Say your name, ask a question."

If you stop and stare at the phone for a while, some passerby is bound to start laughing at you, at which point the thing to do is to look over at Pintchik's Hardware and then turn your gaze upward. Spanning twenty feet of the store's yellow-painted brick facade is a black electronic billboard, across which red letters zoom like Space Invaders. "wassup baby?" the sign says. The Pintchik Oracle has spoken.

To get into an actual discussion with the Oracle, you need a little help from the Oracle's interpreter, Dean Olsher, the host of the public-radio show "The Next Big Thing." At Delphi, thousands of years ago, a gibbering priestess communicated the Oracle's wisdom to truth-seekers. But Olsher just reads the Oracle's words out loud as they appear. When the Oracle is on call, Olsher stands by the telephone, holding a radio microphone and urging bystanders to step on up.

One afternoon last week, a young woman with bobbed brown hair approached, walking slowly. An easy target.

Olsher: Excuse me, would you like to ask the Oracle a question?

Woman: Oracle? What oracle?

Olsher: The Oracle is this electronic sign on the wall that knows all. See?