Big Stuff, Small Children

I recently went through some of my parents' old photo albums. One in particular was just of family vacations we took. It seems that Big Stuff is just in my blood. I pulled out a handful of photos and scanned them.





These first two are of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox in Bemidji, MN circa 1984 or 1985 I believe. I'm the really little guy in the Babe photo surrounded by siblings and cousins.



This is me on the Jackalope at Wall Drug in Wall, SD in 1988.





These next two photos are from the same South Dakota trip in 1988. These are from Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, SD. I'm the guy in the Vikings shirt (front and center with the Brontosaurus and in the back with the Stegosaurus). Those other people are my siblings... except for that guy in the hat with his back to us in the first picture, I don't know him.





Same trip. My siblings and I in front of Mt. Rushmore and Mt. Rockmore, respectively (I know. I mix them up too.). The first pic also has two random women and the second pic has my dad. I'm the guy in the blue shirt.





I'm not sure what year these last two are from. I'm guessing around 1989 or 1990. The first is in front of the famous Spoonbridge and Cherry at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden (I'm in the middle with the white Valleyfair shirt.) and the second photo is Iggy the Iguana (I'm in the front.) at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The Science Museum has moved since then.

Giant Bronze Bulls

May 31, 2009 - St. Paul, MN



On the St. Paul campus of the University of Minnesota you will find these three giant bronze bulls. They are the creation of sculptor Peter Woytuk and sit across the street from Haecker Hall. They were put into place in 2001.

The bulls are rather large. The tallest one is approximately 7 or 8 feet tall and I would guess they are all about 12 feet long. The bulls are also a lot of fun to climb on. I mean... uhhh... that's what I've been told... not that we would climb all over them and take a bunch of pictures of us doing that and have them saved on my computer. We wouldn't do that.

Giant Molecules and a Tin Man

May 31, 2009 - Minneapolis, MN



We both had been itching to get out and see some more Big Stuff and this Sunday turned out to be a great day for it. We headed out to the University of Minnesota to find our latest additions to our collection.

The East Bank of the Minneapolis campus has two such Big Stuff sculptures. The first is a new addition to the university. Located on Washington Avenue in front of the Molecular & Cellular Biology building is a 30 foot tall, 10,000 pound molecule sculpture. It was created by artist Amy Toscani and installed in the fall of 2008. It's not a real molecule, but rather an artistic one based on science. There's some more info and quotes from the artist here.



The other sculpture is a large tin man looking thing by the Mechanical Engineering building and is only a couple hundred yards north of the molecules. It is apparently called Platonic Figure and was made in 2001 by Andrew Leicester. It's made out of steel with limestone bases. You can send it as an E-postcard!

Bena's Big Fish Endangered

Photo by jenniferrt66.

The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota added Bena's Big Fish, along with 9 other places, to its list of Most Endangered Historic Places last week. The fish was built in 1958 as a stand selling hamburgers and ice cream. Now it is used as a storage shed for the Big Fish Supper Club. The fish is endangered due to its deteriorating condition.

Story.

The Big Fish has received some national attention. Charles Kuralt once called it his favorite building in America. It has even made it to the big screen.

Award Winning Photography

Names have been blurred to protect the innocent.

My wife recently received an award from an organization she is involved with at school. Pretty good, huh? They actually give silly awards to all of the graduating 4th year students.

World Record Largest Rocking Chair

I received an email yesterday morning that contained a photo and press release. The press release was about The Guiness Book of World Records official designation that the rocking chair near Cuba, MO along Route 66 is indeed the World's Largest. This chair is 42' 1" tall, 20' 3" wide, and estimated to weigh about 27,500 pounds. In order to be the world's largest rocking chair, Guiness did require that the chair actually rock, so the welds that held the chair in place were cut and they got that chair a rockin'. It was then re-welded into place.

The chair was built by Dan and Carolyn Sanazaro and placed next to The Fanning Outpost General Store in an effort to draw customers to their complex of businesses. It was designed by artist and friend John Bland and fabricated by welder and friend Joe Medwick. It was lifted into place on April 1, 2008.

For more info, read the press release.

Thanks to Jane for the tip.

Popcorn Capital Reclaims Popcorn Ball Record

The town of Sac City, Iowa has set the record for the world's largest popcorn ball... again. Sac County is the self-proclaimed "Popcorn Capital of the World". Each year it produces approximately 4.8 million pounds of popcorn. And, since you can't hardly be the capital of something without having a giant thing to acknowledge that (see: The Corn Capital), Sac City built the world's largest popcorn ball back in 1995. That original record ball weighed 2,225 pounds. It was later topped by the Iowa Boy Scouts, so Sac City blew up the original ball at the Iowa State Fair and built a new record setter in 2004 weighing 3,100 pounds. In the competitive world of giant popcorn balls, you just knew that wasn't going to last. A popcorn company in Illinois bested Sac City's 2004 effort with a ball weighing just over 3,400 pounds. Well that just made Sac City angry... and you wouldn't like them when they're angry.

On February 28th, Noble Popcorn, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, built a new popcorn ball weighing 5,060 pounds. That's approximately 48% larger. It is 7.5 feet tall and 29 feet around. Later it will be kept in the display barn that the 3,100 pound ball currently is, then, if it doesn't fall apart, the old popcorn ball will go on a tour around the state.

For more:
Des Moines Register, which has video and a photo gallery.
Roadside America