Simone WilsonThe 175-pound ball of Nicorette gum recently inducted into the “Ripley's Believe it Or Not!” hall of fame really, really makes us want a cigarette.
It belongs to 50-year-old Barry Chappell, apparently bored-to-death resident of Palos Verdes Estates (a wealthy cliffside L.A. County hood experiencing a spike of weird crime this week).
“It all started on a long flight to Europe in 2006…”
… reports Art and Coin TV, when “Chappell had nowhere to throw away the piece of gum he was chewing, so he rolled it into a tiny ball. Throughout the flight the ball slowly grew, as layer after layer was carefully molded upon the last. By the time the flight landed, Chappell vowed to create the world's largest gumball!”
And that he has. Over the last half-decade, the 175-pound ball has accumulated over 95,000 pieces of already-been-chewed Nicorette gum. The giant lunar-boogar-looking atrocity has reached a girth of approximately 62 inches, according to the Los Angeles Times. (Journalism!)
Art and Coin TV has compiled a nifty step-by-step for creating a 175-pound ball of Nicorette gum, as guided by Chappell, who's clearly the expert on that subject. Click to enlarge, if you dare:
Credit: www.artandcointv.com
Wow. TGIF, right? But wait — there's video, too.
Remind us to watch Art and Coin TV more often. And stay far, far away from Palos Verdes Estates, which is shaping up to be the site of the 2012 apocalypse.
[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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