Spending 41 years of one's adult life wrapping twine into a ball is absurd, preposterous, but quintessentially American. The rugged individualism required for such an undertaking, though problematic in academia, is an absolute blast in Darwin, Minnesota. Twine is the shrink-wrap of rural America, transforming the banal into the spectacular is art. Welcome to the world of twineball auteur, Francis Johnson.

Francis Johnson began his ball in 1950, wrapping the first pieces around his index finger. While Francis Johnson never dissed a sucker MC or gave props to his homies, he wrapped with no shortage of love. He wrapped 4 hours a day for 41 years with a hiatus in the early eighties. After his death in 1989, Mr.Johnson's masterpiece was moved from his farm outside Darwin, to a pagoda in downtown, Darwin. His life's work is 11' high, 11' 9" wide, 40' around and 17,400 lbs!

John, David and The Twine SignWe stopped for a bite at the Twineball Inn. There we talked twine with the locals and learned that Mr. Johnson was also a talented whittler. Legend has it he could whittle a pair of pliers from one piece of wood. An eclectic fellow, Mr. Johnson never married. Shocking. Apparently Mr. Johnson was the son of a Minnesotan State Senator. I often wonder if his eccentricity shamed his family or if they came to embrace it. Might lend itself to a stage or screen adaptation.... Get cracking you hacks! In the late 80's Weird Al immortalized Francis' accomplishments in the song "Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota"

We have only one complaint about the Darwin Ball. It is encased in a pagoda! You can't touch it. There is no tactile synergy between you and the twine. This isn't the way Francis wanted it. At first I thought this was a classic case of preservation vs. presentation. Maybe the Twine Ball is like the Mona Lisa - if we let everybody touch it - it would be destroyed. However when we went to the Largest Ball of Twine in Kansas the ball was open and exposed for touching, poking and loving.

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