Here's something to write home about - the world's largest pencil. The 76ft long, 22,000lbs pencil features 4,000lbs of Pennsylvania graphite.
It was created by world-record holder obsessive Ashrita Furman - with the help of 20 friends - over three weeks last August at a cost of more than $20,000 USD.
The pencil was a birthday gift for his now deceased meditation teacher, Sri Chinmoy, he told US television.
But Mr Furman, 53, admitted he had failed to build the world's largest sharpener to go with it.
He said: "Meditation has given me the inner strength to do these improbable things. True, a lot of what I do is crazy, but it gives me the chance to spread the message of meditation."
He added: "We thought about making the world's largest pencil sharpener, but we ran out of money."
Previous birthday presents for Mr Chinmoy have included a cake beating 27,000 candles and another cake that was 20ft high.
A forklift truck was needed to haul the pencil from Queens, New York, to its new home at the City Museum in St Louis, Missouri. And it had to be carved in two for the trip, and will now be reattached by museum specialists.
Mr Furman claims to have set 177 Guinness records and currently holds 72 - such as juggling underwater for 48 minutes, catching 77 grapes in his mouth in one minute.
He also claims to have set the world record for world records.
His new pencil structure is longer than rival challenger, a 65ft-long one on display outside the Malaysia HQ of stationers Faber-Castell, near Kuala Lumpur.
By Gavin Wilson, Jan 29 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy
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