W.O.F. 32 Big Inflatable Hammer

Here's the story of the big inflatable hammer. I went to some seminar in Cleveland maybe eight, nine years ago. As a learning device, at the end of the day, they had this game of "Jeopardy" where we had to answer questions based on what we were supposed to have retained that day. I was the big winner. The big prize was this inflatable hammer. I got to carry the thing, inflated, through the parking garage to my car, and take it home. This was pre-9/11, so you could carry giant over-sized tool facsimiles through urban parking garages with no stares or intervention by public safety authorities.

The odd thing about this big inflatable hammer is it has survived, inflated, in a prominent location in our house. Specifically, it has been dangling from a Michael Jordan nerf basketball hoop in our kitchen. The Michael Jordan backboard is a weird object in itself. It is so old that Michael has a full head of hair in the artist's rendering, but that object can wait for another Weird Friday of its own.

Every once in a while, someone will take the hammer down from the hoop and use it to smack someone else on the head. It is pretty harmless, and it makes a funny squeaking sound upon impact. But I doubt that it has been down from the hoop in months, if not years, since the kids left the nest.

Perhaps most odd is that no one has thought to remove the hammer from our kitchen decor. I wonder what that says about our interior decorating savvy. On the other hand, perhaps an over-sized hammer bespeaks cultural awareness and artistic significance, like the giant rubber stamp in Chicago or wherever and giant objects placed in the streetscapes of other cosmopolitan cities. However, this hammer does not bear the name of a famous creator, like the rubber stamp, or those odd Calder scuptures. It was probably made in China for 23 cents.

At any rate, the hammer takes up its space in this home full of memorabilia, and I would venture that if it were removed, a kid of ours would, when visiting home, inquire as to its whereabouts. "Hey, Dad, where's that hammer?" So, after the photo shoot, it will continue to take its place gracing the hoop in the kitchen.