Martha Stewart discovers Darwin's twine ball

Article by: BOB VON STERNBERG , Star Tribune
Updated: August 5, 2009 - 11:52 PM

Martha Stewart discovers Darwin's big twine ball

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Darwin's giant ball of twine.

Photo: Darwin Twine Ball Museum,

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The humongous ball of twine in Darwin, Minn., is now officially a Good Thing. Assistants for Martha Stewart, who hawks her trademark "good things" on TV, radio and in print, tracked down the curator of the Darwin Twine Ball Museum on Wednesday morning to talk about -- what else? -- things a person can do with twine.

"They're doing a segment on 50 things you can do with twine and that gave me a chance to talk about the twine ball," said Roger Werner, shortly after his 15-minute phone interview with one of Stewart's producers. "They knew all about it, so you could tell they did their research."

The twine ball is ensconced in a Plexiglas-clad gazebo in downtown Darwin, 60 miles west of the Twin Cities. The 17,400-pound specimen is called the "largest Twine Ball in the World made by one man" to differentiate it from other spheres of sisal wrapped by more than one person.

Werner said the producer told him the interview would be aired in the next few days, but couldn't be more specific.

Asked for his preferred uses for twine, Werner said he mentioned baling hay and "helping my great-grandchildren tying it to a washtub so they can drag it around the yard."

Twine apparently isn't a new topic for the homemaking maven: The archive of her TV show lists 618 segments devoted to the stuff.

For Werner, the timing of the call is fortuitous, coming as it did just before Darwin's annual Twine Ball Day, which will be held Saturday.

"That's a big day for Darwin -- it's like anyone who's ever lived here shows up," he said. "They gave me plenty of opportunity to talk about it, and I appreciate that. Any publicity we get always helps."

Bob von Sternberg • 612-673-7184

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