Stuff that Weighs More than Me: The Big Suit

Here's yet another of the wonderful sculptures at the St. Louis City Garden.  This behemoth by artist Erwin Wurm is simply titled, "Big Suit".  Despite it's soft, pastel colors, (and the fact there's no dude in the suit) this bad boy is heavy.  That's probably why aluminum never really caught as a textile for garments.  Here's the stats:

Material: Painted Aluminum
Dimensions: 300 x 130 x 73 cm (118 x 51 x 29 in) 
Height: Nearly 10 feet
Shirt Size 144 Long
Estimated Weight: 1 short ton

Conclusion: The Big Suit weighs more than me. 
Want to learn more about some serious tailoring?  Click HERE.

Stuff that Weighs More than Me: Santa's List

This is a late post-Christmas entry, but I'm going to use it anyways because A) New Years is all about lists and B) I had the research done before I got sick before the holidays and I'm basically to lazy to try to keep this until next year.

Now technically Santa could store all the naughty/nice data for the children of the world on a computer or even a freaking thumb drive both of which certainly weigh less than me.  But have you ever seen a picture of Santa sidling up to a laptop?  I didn't think so.  Nope, we all know that Santa's got a book--a BIG book.

Now the latest estimates indicate that Santa's got around 2.5 billion kids (under 18) to keep track of.  Now to estimate the weight of that giant book, lets take a phone book to a major metropolitan area as a guide.  A phone book for a decent-sized city might have 1 million names in it.   A phone book like that (which is printed very small--even for Santa's reader glasses and on very thin paper which is a far cry from the leather bound parchment paged thing we see in all the movies) weighs about 2.5 pounds.

So here comes the math:
1 Million names in  a 3" thick phone book weighs about 3 pounds.
2.5 billion= 2500 phone books
Santa's Book is 7500 inches or 625 feet thick
Santa's Book weighs at least 7500 lbs or 3.75 short tons


Conclusion: Santa's list weighs more than my list (thank goodness) AND weighs more than me.


Want to learn a little more about holiday (including New Year's) lists?  Check here!

Stuff that Weighs More than Me: The Tree At Rockerfeller Center

Photo Credit: ATTRIBUTION. © by James G. Howes, 1987.

2011 Tree Stats:
Type: Norway Spruce
Height: 74 ft.
Width: Approximately 35 ft.
Lights: 30,000 LED lights on five miles of wire
Swarovski Star on Top:  9.5 feet in diameter, weighs 550 pounds
Drinks: 90 gallons of water per day

Weight: The star and the water in the tree alone weigh 1301.5 pounds.  Lights will probably add another 3,000 pounds or so.  The tree itself weighs in at over 12 tons.  Estimated total weight 15 tons.

Conclusion: The 2011 Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center weighs more than me.

Want to look at a slightly more manageable tree?  Check out THIS post on managing holiday expectations.

Stuff that Weighs More Than Me: Really Big Bed Sculpture

In honor of trying to get more sleep during the holidays, I've been thinking about beds.  And this my friends is a BIG one.  This famous sculpture, entitled "In Bed" is by artist Ron Mueck.  And however big I may feel, I'm pretty sure I'm not as big as THIS lady:

Materials:  Polyester resin, fiberglass, polyurethane, horse hair and cotton

Width: 5.5 ft.

Length: Over 20 ft.

Weight: Unknown, but I'm guessing that  a 20 ft. tall woman weighs more than me.

Conclusion: This woman "In Bed" weighs more than me.

Want to hear more about my holiday exploits in bed?  Click here!

Stuff That Weighs More than Me: Shark Tank!

This past year, we spent one night at the Golden Nugget Hotel on Fremont Street in Las Vegas.  The hotel was fairly average for 21st century Las Vegas, except for one thing.  The Shark Tank.  This thing is huge!

Animal inhabitants: Over 300
Height: Over 3 Stories
Featuring: 3 story-tall enclosed tube water slide
Capacity: Over 200,000 gallons
Weight: 1.7 million pounds (excluding the glass and the critters)

Conclusion: The Tank at the Golden Nugget weighs more than me.

Want to learn more about the Shark Tank/Thanksgiving connection?  Check out my series on surviving the holidays at Fat Chick Sings!

Things That Weigh More Than Me: Super Fun, Tons of Buns!

 

While these bunnies may look soft and fluffy, they are anything but.  These colossal cuties (by Dutch artist Tom Claassen) are on display at the Citygarden in St. Louis.  I am pictured whispering into the ear of the taller of the two.   These bunnies are cast in bronze and then covered with white enamel paint.  So while they look marshmallows, these are some seriously heavy rabbits. 

Here’s the stats:

Material: Bronze

Dimensions: Bun 1—87”x61”x55”, Bun 2--63"x68"x45"

Weight: I don’t specific weight data, but at over 7 feet tall, I think we can safely calculate over a ton of buns!

Conclusion: Tom Claassen’s fluffy bunnies weight more than me.

P.S. There's lots more info on corpulent cottontails over at Fat Chick Sings.  Go check it out!

Stuff that Weighs More Than Me: Safe!

This safe door was built in St. Louis, then installed in a bank in the “Loop Building” in Chicago and then rescued from demolition, brought back to St. Louis and installed in the unbelievably awesome City Museum.  This used to be one of my regular haunts when we had our office on Washington Avenue in downtown St. Louis.  It is totally filled with stuff kids love and stuff that makes you feel like a kid again.  If you ever make it to St. Louis, first see the City Museum, then see the arch if you have time.  It’s that good.

And this is one honey of a door!  Here’s the stats:

Height: Over 10 feet

Width: Over 10 feet

Thickness: Over 2 feet

Weight: Over 3000 pounds

Conclusion: The “safe door” entrance to the vault room at City Museum weighs more than me.

Hint: If you’d like to hear more about being “safe” check out THIS new entry in The Fat Chick Sings.