{"id":233954,"date":"2019-10-08T22:22:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T02:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=233954"},"modified":"2019-10-08T22:22:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T02:22:35","slug":"world-record-rack-crew-crowns-mac-the-moose-statue-with-new-antlers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/08\/world-record-rack-crew-crowns-mac-the-moose-statue-with-new-antlers\/","title":{"rendered":"‘World record rack:’ Crew crowns Mac the Moose statue with new antlers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Mac the Moose sculpture in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada (Photo By Johnnyw3 – Own work\/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MOOSE JAW, Sask. \u2014 Mac the Moose has had a boost and is once again the tallest in the land.<\/p>\n

A crew of workers perched themselves high in a cherry picker and used ropes and a truck crane to carefully attach a new set of antlers on the roadside attraction in Moose Jaw, Sask., on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The larger rack means Mac is once again the tallest moose statue in the world.<\/p>\n

The city discovered in January that Mac was a bit too short for the accolade, because a shiny silver ungulate sculpture in east-central Norway had surpassed him by 30 centimetres.<\/p>\n

The revelation resulted in a plan to dethrone the rival by building Mac a bigger rack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he looks distinguished,\u201d Tourism Moose Jaw’s executive director, Jacki L’Heureux-Mason, said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo more papier mache dog.\u201d<\/p>\n

The friendly moose feud between Moose Jaw and the Norway town of Stor-Elvdal made international headlines and provided fodder for jokes on late-night talk shows. \u201cThe Late Show\u201d host Stephen Colbert dubbed Mac the papier mache dog.<\/p>\n

Longtime Moose Jaw resident Ron Mitchell was on his way to get a haircut Tuesday when he stopped to see Mac.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s ridiculous,\u201d Mitchell said of the attention the statue has received.<\/p>\n

Rion White, a local taxidermist who volunteered to build Mac’s new antlers, along with colleagues and friends, said the work took longer than expected. Mac had been bare-headed after his original rack was removed in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re building this giant, world-record rack,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was the biggest challenge … this isn’t something people do everyday.\u201d<\/p>\n

White estimates the new rack is about two by three metres in size. He had wondered whether it would even fit Mac’s head.<\/p>\n

Once he saw that it did, he was ecstatic and relieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s like, ‘Yes, we did it.\u201d’<\/p>\n

L’Heureux-Mason said although it’s bigger, Mac’s new rack weighs less because of foam and other lightweight materials used to build it.<\/p>\n

White, who airbrushed layers of epoxy on the antlers to create depth, still has to put finishing touches on the antlers before Mac’s grand reveal on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s important to do it right,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been way more work than I wanted, but now it’s up. I’m super proud and I can drive by this highway all the time and say, `I had a part of that.\u201d’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOOSE JAW, Sask. \u2014 Mac the Moose has had a boost and is once again the tallest in the land. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":233955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-stephanie-taylor","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233956,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233954\/revisions\/233956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}