2008 Woodie Awards
Making the 'Book'
Achieving a World Record is the Ultimate Dream For Some
Jack Broom
Issue date: 11/20/03 Section: Feature
- Page 1 of 2 next >
You can't always see it, but it's there. Deep within the human spirit lies the passion to succeed, the desire to stand out, the overwhelming urge to:
Eat 27 meatballs in a minute;Ride backward on a motorcycle at more than 124 miles an hour; Throw a Frisbee-style disc 820 feet.
Chances are you personally haven't done any of these. But, thank Guinness, some people did. Those feats, all performed last year, are among the more than 3,000 records listed in the recently published "Guinness World Records 2004."
The 288-page book covers a wide range of scientific, natural and engineering extremes: Largest mammal to build a nest is the 385-pound European wild boar; oldest known disease, leprosy, was described as early as 1350 B.C.; and the longest floating bridge span is Washington state's 1.42-mile Evergreen Point Bridge (although the book refers to it as the second Lake Washington Bridge).
But the records that capture headlines and the public imagination most frequently are the ones in which seemingly normal individuals, alone or in groups, take on a task they hope will etch their names in global history.
Hungarian Szabolcs Borsay set a Guinness world record by reaching a speed of 124.725 mph riding backward on his motorcycle on July 2, 2002.
"What we love are ordinary people doing extraordinary things. They're wonderful people with a lot of heart," said Stuart Claxton, 32, a British-born New Yorker and a researcher for the Guinness organization.
Claxton holds no world records, but it's safe to say he has one of the world's most unusual jobs.
As a researcher for Guinness, he rode in a helicopter above a Mexico City park in October 2000 to photograph 10,004 people playing chess. Last year, he measured a 4,016-pound cherry lollipop (that's more than 6.8 million calories) in Ontario, Canada.
This year, he braved a rainstorm in New York to see 632 hearty souls come within 14 people of breaking the record for the world's largest pillow fight.
Eat 27 meatballs in a minute;Ride backward on a motorcycle at more than 124 miles an hour; Throw a Frisbee-style disc 820 feet.
Chances are you personally haven't done any of these. But, thank Guinness, some people did. Those feats, all performed last year, are among the more than 3,000 records listed in the recently published "Guinness World Records 2004."
The 288-page book covers a wide range of scientific, natural and engineering extremes: Largest mammal to build a nest is the 385-pound European wild boar; oldest known disease, leprosy, was described as early as 1350 B.C.; and the longest floating bridge span is Washington state's 1.42-mile Evergreen Point Bridge (although the book refers to it as the second Lake Washington Bridge).
But the records that capture headlines and the public imagination most frequently are the ones in which seemingly normal individuals, alone or in groups, take on a task they hope will etch their names in global history.
Hungarian Szabolcs Borsay set a Guinness world record by reaching a speed of 124.725 mph riding backward on his motorcycle on July 2, 2002.
"What we love are ordinary people doing extraordinary things. They're wonderful people with a lot of heart," said Stuart Claxton, 32, a British-born New Yorker and a researcher for the Guinness organization.
Claxton holds no world records, but it's safe to say he has one of the world's most unusual jobs.
As a researcher for Guinness, he rode in a helicopter above a Mexico City park in October 2000 to photograph 10,004 people playing chess. Last year, he measured a 4,016-pound cherry lollipop (that's more than 6.8 million calories) in Ontario, Canada.
This year, he braved a rainstorm in New York to see 632 hearty souls come within 14 people of breaking the record for the world's largest pillow fight.