The Guinness Book
Today on the reference desk, a patron asked a question that required us to use the Guinness Book of World Records. I realized that I hadn't looked at one in years and I'd forgotten how much I love it! Naturally, after spending about ten minutes looking through it, my first thought was "I should blog about this..." So, here we go:
The Guinness Book was founded in 1951 by Sir Hugh Beaver, who was the managing director of the Guinness Brewery. The book was more or less founded to settle disputes in pubs. Beaver got the idea while involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe. They alluded to this intention on an episode of The Simpsons: "Lisa... mentions that the Duff Book of Records was originally created to settle disputes in taverns, which is true of its Guinness counterpart." (from Wikipedia)
Sadly, my old Guinness Book favorites, Billy & Benny McCrary, have passed away. They were listed in the book as the world's heaviest twins. Surprisingly, there is no entry for heaviest twins in the 2008 edition.
Other awesome things I've discovered today:
* The pygmy marmoset is the world's smallest monkey!
* The largest diamond pendant is owned by rapper Lil' Jon. It contains 3,576 diamonds.
* And speaking of The Simpsons, Mr. Burns is the second highest-earning television character. Guinness assesses his wealth at $16.8 billion, since he owns a nuclear power plant and once owned an oil well. Other fictional billionaires include Jed Clampett (The Beverly Hillbillies), Bruce Wayan (Batman), and Thurston Howell III (Gilligan's Island).




