Bruce, unless I'm mistaken (which is often the case), the pendulum doesn't have to be at the pole to see that effect. I believe it was Foucault who described this. The Franklin Institue Science Museum in Philadelphia, where I spent many childhood hours, has a 3-story Foucault pendulum in a stairwell, with wooden pegs or blocks set up in a circle on the floor. The blocks are sequentially toppled by the pendulum's swing throughout the day.

Aloha,
Mark