Giant Colgate Clock endangered
One of my favorite "Big Things" – the Colgate Clock – may be endangered. The clock is the second largest in the world. Built in 1924, it sits on top of the Colgate-Palmolive plant in Clarksville, Indiana, near Louisville, Kentucky. We visited in April of 2005 and took photos of the giant clock, which can be seen for over a...
Big Things
News stories about "Big Things" like muffler men, roadside art, and giant statues. [30 entries.]
Big Things Photos - Back up and Running
My "Big Things" photo galleries are back up and running, finally, after some coding goofiness. In going through all the new photos, I realized I have hundreds of new ones to put online; I'm further behind on this project than I thought. But I have much easier ways to get them online, so that's good. I'll point new things as...
Road Trip
I'm just now realizing that in all of the concern and activity around the house, I totally failed to mention that I'm on vacation for a week so we can drive out to my cousin's wedding in Pittsburg, Kansas. We're taking 1-70 across Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri; and from there, we're taking I-44 down through Joplin, Missouri and into...
Muffler Man Deconstructed
Kyla sent me a link to this picture from the San Fransciso Gate's Day in Pictures: "Saving face: Gene Lanich normally maintains a brisker pace in Springfield, Ill., but lately he's been hampered by a large Bunyan. A weekend windstorm decapitated a statue of the legendary lumberjack at a local eatery. " So sad. Hoping that I'll be able to...
Giant Cross in Terre Haute
The Cross Tabernacle Church has erected a nearly 50 cross near U.S. 41 outside Terre Haute. If I'm not mistaken, there are a number of giant things in that area that we're planning to photograph on a weekend roadtrip already, so we'll probably grab a picture of it, too....
Giant Shoes
Cool, a new big thing for me to photograph: Giant basketball shoes being placed around Indianapolis. Update - I caught a photo of one of these; will have them up soon....
20-foot snowman in Akron, Ohio
Ohio residents build a giant snowman -- article includes picture....
I'm going to be on TV Again
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 Nuvolab 2005 Journalism Awards. My friend Bil...
Giant Pink Bunny in Italy
Lori pointed out this strange and sorta creepy big thing: A giant pink bunny constructed by artists on a mountainside in northern Italy....
Giant Six-Shooter BBQ Grill
Pictures of a barbecue grill in the shape of a giant six-shooter. Located in Texas, of course....
Cult of the Giant Teapot
A group of people in Malaysia belonging the the Sky Kingdom religion sect reported that their giant teapot, which they built to symbolize the importance of the healing purity of water, was attacked by a Muslim group who were upset at the number of converts they were losing....
GPS Tagging photos
I'm really going to have to do this with my Big Things photos... tagging pictures with GPS coordinates. Sigh. So much to do; so little time....
Big Things: Giant Barrel, mechanical puppet in France
Photos of a giant barrel at a Jules Verne celebration in France. Inside is a giant mechanical puppet, that interacts with a strange elephant with a cathedral on it's back. They parade through the streets, and eventually the puppet puts on aviator glasses and jumps in a giant barrel-like rocket and blasts off. Looks like a fun, interesting and very...
Giant Table and Chairs
In Hampstead Heath, England: 30ft sculpture of a table and chair. And if that weren't enough, Snapple attempted to create the world's largest popsicle, but were confounded by the heat and cooling system failure, which caused their creation to melt, flooding Union Square in New York with 17 tons of bright red slush. Iowans were a bit more successful, creating...
So Dick Wolfsie called me this morning...
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...
Louisville, Kentucky
It's been a couple of weeks, but I finally got my pictures edited from our Big Things photography trip to Louisville, Kentucky. I love this city! In a lot of ways it's more sophisticated that Indianapolis. Much better arts. Their historic areas are huge and much better preserved than in Indianapolis, and their downtown is in way better shape than...
Big Things Louisville Trip
Stephanie and I took a trip to Louisville this weekend to take some Big Things pictures. On Saturday, we visited the giant Colgate clock, the giant bat at Louisville Slugger Museum (another giant bat at the costume shop down the street) and a huge coffee pot at the Lynn's Paradise Cafe. We also went to the Louisville Zoo to see...
I'm going to be on the cover of Nuvo (and weekend update)
So I found out today that the article that Nuvo Newsweekly is doing on my Big Things Photo collections will be a cover article. I have to go in for an additional photo shoot this evening and the article will run in the January 5th issue. This weekend my grandparents and Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Gerald came from Iowa to...
Lazy Sunday Afternoons
Yesterday, Stephanie and I curled up in the living room under the quilt, next to the Christmas tree, and watched TV while sipping hot chocolate and eating popcorn and cookies. We watched five hours worth of Survivor (including the season finalé) and one of Joan of Arcadia. I love lazy Sundays. On Friday night, a bunch of our friends came...
Big Things Updated
I'm being interviewed by a reporter from Nuvo tonight about my "Big Things" Photo Galleries, so in honor of the occasion, I've added tons of photos to the galleries. I'd been behind in adding things for awhile, even though I've been taking photos constantly over the last year. Now all my new pics are added, with the exception of some...
Say It Ain't So!
Virginia county tries to remove giant fiberglass pig from Barbecue business because it's tacky and makes the area look bad. Sadly, story doesn't include a picture of the pig....
Thanksgiving
I drove to my grandmother's house in Brighton, Iowa on Wednesday last week. Brighton is in south eastern Iowa, an hour north and west of Burlington. My younger brother Gary went with me, and he was very cool to ride with because he's interesting and funny, despite the constant backseat driving. :) He's twenty-five, single and a Wabash graduate, BTW,...
Rock in Tree
Interesting... 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. 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...
I have a new truck
A shiny red Ford Ranger that I bought on Saturday. I can't believe that wasn't the first thing I posted, actually. It's so cool. I have photos, but I haven't downloaded them off the camera yet. I was going to do that this morning, but I forgot. So you'll have to take my word for it that it's cool. I...
If she goes, I'm going with her!
Looks like my suggestion that France might take back the Statue of Liberty is being taken seriously by some Americans who want to give the Statue back to France. There's nothing more ironic and, well symbolic of the moronic nature of the right-wing that this. I tell ya, if the statue goes to France, I'm going to put my house...
weekend update
It wasn't the best weekend I've ever had. My sister's going back to England to live, and I had to say goodbye to her Saturday. I'm happy for her that's she's going back, because she really likes it there, but I'll miss her. On Sunday, I went to Kokomo and Peru Indiana to photograph big things, which was cool, but...
Impossible Projects
Some stuff I'll have to photograph, once it gets built.......
I'm Going To Be on TV
So, yes, I'm going to be on television at 5:50 am tomorrow morning, on channel 8 Daybreak news, with Dick Wolfsie and Barney the Dog. He's interviewing me about my Big Things Photo Gallery from the Ralph's Muffler shop on 16th street where Mr. Bendo is located. Set your VCR!!!...
Me on TV!! Woo Hoo!!
My wackiness is finally paying off... I talked with Dick Wolfsie of Channel 8 news this morning about doing a news story on my "Big Things" photo galleries. Woo Hoo! It seems he's also writing a book on wierd and interesting stuff around Indiana... which is exactly the kind of stuff I like; that's a book I'll be buying....
My sister's home from England
My sister's home from England and staying with me. Cool. I took a road-trip to Muncie to take pictures of big things -- found a few. :) I started packing to move last night. I'm getting excited about the new place....

Commonplacebook.com is the personal website of 