Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

3,000 hours playing with toothpicks

This guy has spent 3,000 hours over since 1977 (he was 17 at the time) building a whimsical sculpture tribute to San Francisco out of...toothpicks and Elmer's glue. The thing that really makes the sculpture, though, is that the angles were designed so ping pong balls would race through it. The sculpture is 9 feet tall and weighs 20 lbs, and it contains about 100,000 toothpicks. Wow. I have to admire his dedication, although I do wonder if he has just a little too much time on his hands. I have to admit, although it sounds like a silly hobby for an eccentric person (he's also a surfer and competitive freestyle Frisbee player), I'm rather impressed. And at least he knows how to have fun.

Here's a video of the sculpture with the balls rolling through it:


from Dude Totally Re-Creates San Francisco With Toothpicks

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