Why They Say Everything's Bigger in Texas

Not to be outdone by cities like Cawker City, Kansas, or Collinsville, Ill., (which are homes to the world's largest ball of twine and the world's largest catsup bottle, respectively), Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is making sure it has a place in the "world's largest" page of the record books.

This week, the Texas airport unveiled the world's largest holographic image--a three-dimensional, full-color picture that floats over the exit doors of the first-floor baggage claim area.

The 10-feet-by-4-feet image of a guitar and sheet music is the first of three images that will be unveiled between now and mid-September, each of which designers say will represent an aspect of Austin culture. "Austin is the music capital of the world, or at least Austinites like to think they are," says a spokesman for Samsung Austin Semiconductor, which underwrote the production costs for the hologram. The first image, therefore, is a guitar hanging over the sheet music to "The London Homesick Blues," a song about Austin by country-western singer Gary P. Nunn. The lyrics displayed say: "The friendliest people and the prettiest women you've ever seen." (Yes, he's talking about Austinites.)

The next two images are expected to go up this fall and will represent nature and technology. When all is said and done, the total projection size will be Texas style: 30 feet by 4 feet.

The holograms are a gift to the city from Samsung Austin Semiconductor, frog design, which created the images, and Zebra Imaging Inc., which produced the holograms.