Wtf in Balston?

Always wondered what this thing at the corner of Glebe and Carlin Springs is. It looks like a glistening Wintery Fairy Snow-Turd, delicately balanced on its crytal-studded tip, as though loosed there from some giant bowel in the sky. Maybe as a symbol that the yuppies who infest the area think even their fecal lumps are glittering beauties, special and worthy of memorialization.