This year, the largest American pumpkin weighed two thousand and fifty-eight pounds, while the world record is held by a 2,323.7-pound pumpkin grown by a Swiss gardener named Beni Meier, who works as an account manager at a software firm for his day job. In photos of Meier and his pumpkin, the victorious gardener raises a puny fist into the air while the monstrous greyish-orange fruit bulges and sags, as far removed from a tidy jack-o’-lantern as Claes Oldenburg’s soft sculptures are from the everyday objects they represent.Nicola Twilley, "Growing the Great Pumpkin."
