Tag: highway giants

It was a difficult decision I had to make. A couple of weeks ago, I could either complete my scheduled Weird Oklahoma research trip as I had planned, or I could cancel the whole thing and participate in a revelation of the World's Largest Beach Ball in downtown Dallas. Unfortunately, I had work to do.

The event, which has earned an official Guinness World Record, was hosted by Carnival Cruise Lines as part of their "Fun for All. All for Fun" campaign. Unleashing not one, but two, 35-foot-wide beach balls onto Elm Street on October 26, Carnival got themselves a TV commercial and Dallasites got the risk of being crushed to death by multicolored vinyl.

Carnival then took the celebration to Philadelphia, where today they unleashed the World's Largest Piñata, a donkey 62 feet tall and 55 feet long. In their effort, Carnival successfully bitch-slapped Microsoft, who held the previous record of 48 feet by 53 feet. ... Continued

Links:

Those of you with coulrophobia should jump to the next blog entry now.

A couple of weeks ago, artists Chris Hausbeck and Dawn Exton officially revealed Keeshan Delight Number 9, a giant, bobbing clown head that continuously "springs" from the top of a 40-foot grain silo at Wild Bill's Nostalgia Center in Middletown, Connecticut.

The enormous fiberglass head that was used in the project was discovered wasting away at an antique shop. It was reportedly modeled after Howdy Doody's sidekick Clarabell the Clown, originally played by Bob Keeshan, who later went on to play Captain Kangaroo.

The head was restored, a support structure was built inside the silo and the whole thing was rigged together with a mechanism that lifts the giant, grinning noodle to the top of a pole every 60 seconds. The head is counterbalanced with a 600-pound ball of antlers, whale vertebrae, mortar shells and random bits of rusted metal, which just add to the piece's overall creepiness.

See more imagery, including video of the contraption in action, at the links below.

Links:

I just found out one of my favorite stops in L.A. shut its buns late last year and vanished. If you've never heard of Tail o' the Pup, it's a hot-dog stand shaped like a giant hot dog, which has been around since 1946. I wrote about it a few years ago over at The Big Waste of Space. Back when I was living in Simi Valley for a couple of years, I'd try to hit this place whenever I could, especially when family was in town.

At the time, I think I liked Pink's better, but in retrospect I remember the Pup more fondly. The dogs were great and it didn't take 45 minutes to shuffle through a disorganized mob to place your order. Oh, and it was shaped like a giant hot dog!

Word got out about the closure from someone who overheard the owner talking to one of the Pup's patrons. The story hit the papers from there. Apparently, the Pup was on a month-to-month lease and the landlord gave the Blake family, who owns Tail o' the Pup, only 30 days' notice to vacate. The big frank was put in storage in late December. ... Continued

Tag: highway giants

Dallas's Big Balls and Philly's Giant Ass

World's Largest Jack-in-the-Box?

Tail o' the Pup Is Gone!