20-foot snowman in Akron, Ohio
Ohio residents build a giant snowman — article includes picture.
Ohio residents build a giant snowman — article includes picture.
If you’re here because you saw Dick Wolfsie’s report on the news this morning, thanks for thinking of me. My pictures of “Big Things” are here.
I think when I talked to Dick I mentioned some “Lost Big Things” that I took pictures of at one time or another which are no longer around. I mentioned Habig’s giant gardening trowel at 52nd and College as being one of them, but that isn’t correct. The trowel disappeared for several months, but it came back recently with a shiny new coat of paint, proudly displayed where it has always stood. I was very excited to see it.
The Giant Colgate Clock that the anchors were discussing is in Jeffersonville, Indiana, just outside of Louisville, Kentucky, and it is at the Palmolive Colgate Plant. It’s the second-largest timepiece in the world.
I’m going to be on WISH-TV’s morning news on Friday morning for my “Big Things” photographs again. I did an updated interview with Dick Wolfsie a few weeks ago, and it will air then. So check me out being all famous and stuff.
On top of that… I won first place in the (original link, no longer active – http://nuvolab.com/88#comments:Nuvolab 2005 Journalism Awards).
(original link, no longer active – http://nuvolab.com/88#comments)
My friend Bil won second place for his local group political blog, Bilerico.
Check it out; it’s cool.
From WISH-TV morning news. We’re going to do another interview about my “Big Things” photography, on June 29th. This time we’re going to film first and they’ll put it all together and broadcast it, and they’ll go grab shots of some of my favorite stuff around the city. I have to decide which Big Thing I should do the interview near, though, and it has to be in Indianapolis. Check out all the sites I have, and let me know what you think I should pick in a comment.
Back in the early nineties, I lived in the Marleigh Apartment building in the 1400 block of Delaware in downtown Indianapolis, which is in Old Northside neighborhood. Across the street was an impressive array of old Victorian houses with all the gingerbread and other bling they put on houses back in the 1800’s. I used to walk down the street and daydream about owning one of them. One day on a walk, I stumbled across something really strange.
A 750-pound, 10-foot-high, 18-foot-long and 8-foot-wide red arrow will travel around Indianapolis to major events throughout the year, to highlight arts and sporting events, building projects and other big attractions, according to Grant County’s Chronicle Tribune, which provides a list of events where the giant red arrow is scheduled to appear. There’s also a list on the Indianapolis Convention and Visitor’s Association site.
In preparation for the Nuvo article coming out this week, I’ve been working on and updating my Big Things web pages. I added photos of the big things I took in Valparaiso over the holidays, and updated and added some other photos. The only thing I haven’t added are the pictures my brother Todd gave me a while back, which had shots of Adventureland from Iowa and other stuff. I’ll try to get those in sometime soon.
A photo gallery of bad architectural store front conversions. This is great. I think there are a few of these in Indianapolis, so now I have a new photo collection hobby to take up, right after Big Things, bizarre stuff, places I’ve lived, graffiti & murals (not yet posted) and the all new Dangerous Intersections.
In Yellowwood State Forest, there’s a giant limestone boulder in a tree. Back in 2001, I went looking for this, because I had heard of it on RoadsideAmerica.com.
A refrigerator sized limestone rock, 40 feet high in a tree. This 1,000 pound wonder sways with the wind way up in an oak tree in the Yellow Wood state forest in southern Indiana. Did it rise with the tree’s growth? Artistic vandals? No one knows… A great excuse for a walk in the woods.
At that time, there wasn’t a photo of it on the site, so I was going to get one myself. I wandered around in the woods following the directions for several hours and ran across several hunters and horseback riders, but I never found the rock.
Since then, someone posted GPS directions on Roadside America, and now here’s a whole article about the mysterious boulders.
I have asked others that live there in Bloomington about this, and it turns out many have seen it. How something that large could have got there is unknown to me (my guess is a tornado). I had my GPS and recorded the location: GPS N 39*12.604, W 086*22.314.
Update: Apparently in 2006, the tree fell.
Update: Mystery author Terence Faherty published a short story called “No Mystery” based on the rock in the tree in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in April 2011 and in a short story collection called Tales of the Star Republic. In the story he gives the most plausible explanation of how the rocks got up in the tree. I won’t spoil the answer for you; you should read it for yourself.
I just heard on the news that Barney the Beagle, the longtime partner of TV personality Dick Wolfsie, from channel 8 News, died on Friday at the grand old age of 14. I’ll miss you Barney.
I got to meet Barney back in January of 2002 when I was on the news with Dick Wolfsie for my Pictures of Big Things. But sadly, I never got to introduce Barney to my best pal, my doggie Spike who came to live with me later that year.