What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1250205
industrial sample of buckyballs and documentation," Kelly Mulhollan says. "In the tiny vial there are a billion times a billion buckyballs! So now we have BILLIONS of balls." Northwest Arkansans recognize the name "Buckyball" from Leo Villareal's sculpture at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art up the road. But what the Mulhollans were given are carbon atoms in microscopic formations that look like hollow soccer balls. Most of the potential uses for buckyballs are too complex for this story, but they pose no danger to visitors or neighbors. That was not true of another collectible. "We bought a blue metal ball just a bit larger than a golf ball at an outdoor flea market in Florida," Kelly Mulhollan remembers. "We had it for years and showed it to many friends until … until we heard a story on NPR about a worldwide effort to ban the use of cluster bombs. It seems that each cluster bomb is full of hundreds of little blue 'bomblets' that fail to detonate. Their odd blue toylike styling is irresistible to children in countries where we have dropped these things, and they continue to result in many tragic mishaps. "We realized immediately that we had one of these bomblets and called 911 right away," Kelly Mulhollan goes on. "Within minutes, we had the Springdale bomb squad, the police and the fire department at the house. Very exciting. It turns out that it was, in fact, a loaded cluster bomblet, and they took it away for disposal. It's a Kelly and Donna Mulhollan haunt flea markets and yard sales looking to expand their ball collection. (Photos by NWA Democrat-Gazette/David Gottschalk) Visitors passing by Donna and Kelly Mulhollan's Fayetteville home are welcome to stop and write down their wish for the world and place it in this globe in the front yard. MAY 24-30, 2020 WHAT'S UP! 9 A statue in the Mulhollans' front yard remembers Rita Ward, one of the founders of Terra Studios, who recently died. See Museum Page 10 GO ONLINE! Ozark Ball Museum Virtual Tour Visit the Ozark Ball Museum with Kelly and Donna Mulhollan via this video on YouTube: youtube.com/ watch?v=AFJmef Ge-YU