Upcoming Lecture in Lawrence Kansas

Join us at the Lawrence Public Library on Saturday, Sept. 6th, for a Slide Show Extravaganza!  As a part of their Read Across Lawrence program, Erika will be presenting her Humanities Council World's Largest Things lecture to a healthy throng of roadside enthusiasts.  Join us!  More info on the Lawrence Public Library site:

 

http://www.lawrence.lib.ks.us/eventscalendar/index.html

World's Largest Candle Structure at exit 145 & I-70

 

From: K.D.
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 2:54 PM

Have you ever visited Warm Glow Candle Outlet in Indiana.
It's located at exit 145 and I-70.

Thanks for the location! I saw some images of this on Flickr, but hadn't found out where, exactly, it is... Thank you for the information and image - now I can update the Indiana listing.

-Erika, Director, WLT Inc.

KSBDC - PowerPointing the way to better cash flow

From the first Small Business Development workshop last week, and we're getting ready for two more tomorrow.  Super Extra Bonus - QuickBooks Elements in our packet, and the coordinator just emailed an amazingly complex cash flow projection spreadsheet to get WLT Inc. on the right track - Thank you, Kansas Arts Commission, for the Infrastructure Grant to help us do this!

CCCC/SBDC

Just returned from the first of three Small Business Development Center programs through Cloud County Community College in Concordia Kansas. Two more next week, and we should be well on the way to developing a tighter business plan, financial plan, and marketing strategy for World's Largest Things, Inc.

And, there was a message upon return from our screenprinter - new shirt designs are in and Members will see 'em first! We also got a new batch of the Classic Design on Pebble Gray tees.

World Record Harvest in Kansas

A Record Setting Harvest was done in 2008, in Norton Kansas. 160 acres was harvested with 100 combines and several grain trucks in 10 minutes and 15 seconds.

This record will be entered into the Guinness World Record archives, and proceeds from this harvest will go to a kids camp. That's how we do it in Kansas!

Re: This is not the world's largest rocking chair

Here is a pic, they also have the best bar-b-q.  The chair is the one in the Guinness book of world records

 

 

Here is their web site.

 

http://www.texastwisted.com/attr/staroftexas/

 

From: Worlds Largest Things [mailto:info@worldslargestthings.com]
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2008 1:43 PM
To: TX Archambeaus
Subject: This is not the world's largest rocking chair

 

Great!  The folks in Fanning are planning to beat it, but it looks like they have a pretty big task - thanks for the pic!

This is not the world's largest rocking chair

From: TX Archambeaus

To: info@worldslargestthings.com

Sent: Monday, August 11, 2008 1:02 PM

Subject: This is not

I am sorry, you do not have the largest rocking chair.  The world's largest rocking chair is along US 281 in Texas.  Everything is bigger in TEXAS.

Do you have a pic?  And, the folks in Fanning Missouri are trying for a record, too, certified by Guinness.  There's a lot of competition out there!

 

thanks for the info

 

 

-Erika Nelson, Director

World's Largest Things, Inc.

Walley's hand drill, Mt. Horeb Wisconsin

 

From the Snail Mail Inbox: Crazy Creations from Wisconsin!

 

Got a few pics in the mail from Wally's Eccentric Kreations, in Mount Horeb Wisconsin (home of the Mustard Museum).  These are great!  And, may be a whole new set of World's Largest Things.  Watch out, Minnesota - the Wisconsonites are catching up!!!

Catchup

....or, more appropriately, catching up.

Tees off to California! Postcards off to Texas! NEW T-Shirt design at the printers! (Members will see 'em first - inspired by the 2005 Zippy the Pinhead strip featuring the WLCoWSVoWLT! Emails being replied to! Calls about Upcoming Appearances being made! And, sorting out the big clot o' images and postcards from the past 35 days of intensive travel and Big Things spotting.

Thanks for watching, and there's always more stuff in the pipeline - the Flickr Photo Blog is now caught up to July 27th.

-E

From the Email Inbox: Fanning MO Rocking Chair

From: GG
To: <info@WorldsLargestThings.com>
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2008 11:32 AM
Subject: worlds largest

Erika, Did you hear about the worlds largest rocking chair in Fanning, MO.? They are going for the Guinness record in a couple weeks. fanning66outpost.com


Also on your list. unfortunately they tore down Noah's Ark in St. Charles on 08-28-2007. To put up what? You guessed it, a shopping mall.

G.

Oooh, didn't hear about the Rocking Chair record - thanks for the tip! And, always sad to see another roadside attraction go, especially for a mall or parking lot or the like... Thanks for keeping me posted on Missouri Big Things!
-Erika Nelson, Director
World's Largest Things, Inc.<

Chicken crosses the road, then abandoned by thief

Why did the chicken cross the road? In the case of Jerry Sleater's 5-foot, 400-pound bright blue rooster, that's apparently as far as whoever was trying to steal it could get it.

When the 76-year-old Eastern Washington man went to get his newspaper Thursday morning, the big bird named Rudy was lying beside the road.

Sleater has kept the metal rooster perched on his property south of Kennewick for two years and says, "Rudy is a family pet. He doesn't go anywhere, but he's part of the family."

Sleater said he thinks that whoever was trying to steal Rudy got spooked after pushing the oversized rooster down a dirt embankment.

He said he purchased Rudy two years ago from a yard ornament store that was going out of business.

From the Email Inbox: world largest egg

From: Kyle Ferguson

To: info@worldslargestthings.com

Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 3:58 PM

Subject: world largest egg

 

you may call those  'world's largest egg' eggs, but they fucking are not.  don't call a fake, wire mesh pretend egg an egg, and compete it for world's largets egg, it is not a fucking egg. It's an egg representation at best, they're completely different things you fucking idiot USA hicks.

 

 

Our reply:  Oh, thanks for clearing that up!  (sarcasm, in case you don't get it)

You can send a reply, too, to our foul-mouthed, humourless friend at tool_aenima_@hotmail.com

From the Email Inbox: IMLS Bookshelf Award

From the Email Inbox as well as snail-mail, we just received notice that WLT Inc. "has been selected to receive the IMLS Connecting to Collections Bookshelf from the second round of applications. Congratulations from all of us at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)." There was an application process, and we will receive an information database, books, and other AV materials to help us plan and care for our collections.

Thanks, IMLS! And Thank You, grantwriters!

(MUCH more interesting email than the egg rant, dontcha' think? They came in together - just shows the wide wide range of our audience!)

Great KHC lecture in Pittsburg

Just back from another Kansas Humanities Council lecture about World's Largest Things as they relate to rural culture... This time, speaking to a crowd at the Kansas Housing Conference, as their breakfast keynote speaker. One of the highlights was receiving a speakers gift, which was purchased at a Kansas Products Only store (Kansas Originals in Wilson), and just happens to be made by one of my neighbors. Funny - I could have walked over there and asked for one, but instead drove 345 miles both way to get one of my own...

Home Again - for a bit!

GREAT trip to Louisville, with some additional WL Things Sightings - short list includes W.L. Baseball Bat, W.L. Bat (you'll see in the Flickr postings what I mean...), some very scary Santas from Santa Claus Indiana (where the small Art Car in the WLT fleet turned 240,000 - how appropriate), and a brand new place saving Roadside Architecture! More as I catch up on what's been happening while I've been on the road...

Thanks, WLT Fans! We handed out over 750 postcards promoting WLT Inc. and the website to get those stories out there. Embarrased to tell the last person at the truck stop (11:00 p.m. last night) that he had the last one of the ones I brought for the event... Yay!