DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
Zhang Shuang, 29, attempts to set a new Guinness World Record for “Fastest time to pull a car 50 metres walking on hands” in Nan Chong City, Sichuan Province, China on 25th September, 2021. PICTURE: Courtesy of Guinness World Records 2021/Chen Maochao/Handout via Reuters.
• From a back-flipping gymnast to a man pulling a car while walking on his hands, this year’s Guinness World Records Day was as colourful as ever. Talent from around the world have smashed all kinds of records for the 18th annual GWR Day on Wednesday. “If you want to be a Guinness World Records title holder just go for it,” said 29-year-old Ashley Watson. The British gymnast broke his own record for the farthest backflip between two horizontal bars when he managed to propel himself six metres through the air. “Find what you are really good at, see what the record is, train for it as hard as you can and do it,” he said. Meanwhile in China – balanced on his hands – Zhang Shuang pulled a car for 50 metres in just one minute and 13.27 seconds. Pumped and cheering after his record break he revealed: “The skill is in having a very strong waist and abdomen, and good endurance in your triceps, arms and shoulders.” Other winners include American Tyler Phillips, who broke the record for the most consecutive cars jumped over on a pogo stick and Takahiro Ikeda from Japan who managed 45 BMX time machines in 30 seconds. Thirty-two-year-old Venezuelan Laura Biondo bagged a couple of certificates for her ball control skills including the most double “around the world” ball control tricks in one minute achieved by a female. Craig Glenday, editor in chief of the Guinness World Records book, said that they’ve been “blown away by the incredible talent and show of strength from our new record holders.” “Guinness World Records day is a global celebration of record breaking. It’s a chance for anyone who wants to tick off their name in the famous Guinness world record books,” he said.
Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson enjoying a ride at Peppa Pig World near Ower, England, Britain, on 21st November. PICTURE: George Edgar/Handout via Reuters
• Peppa Pig (sort of) came to Boris Johnson’s rescue earlier this week after the UK PM lost his place in his notes while giving a speech and then interrupted his talk to speak about his recent visit to a Peppa Pig theme park. Repeatedly muttering “forgive me” after trying to find his place, Johnson briefly interrupted his speech to the Confederation of British Industry in Port of Tyne, northern England to talk about a visit to Peppa Pig World, a park based on the children’s animated TV show about an exuberant pink pig and her friends and family. “Yesterday I went, as we all must, to Peppa Pig World,” Johnson told the business executives. “I loved it. Peppa Pig World is very much my kind of place: it has very safe streets, discipline in schools.” Johnson expressed surprise after asking who had visited the park and finding some had not. “Who would have believed that a pig that looks like a hairdryer or possibly a Picasso-like hairdryer, a pig that was rejected by the BBC, would now be exported to 180 countries with theme parks both in America and China?”
• US President Joe Biden pardoned two turkeys from Indiana named Peanut Butter and Jelly at the White House on Friday, carrying on a decades-old Thanksgiving tradition. The birds, perched on side-by-side hotel-style beds with crested headboards, were featured in a short video the White House tweeted out last Thursday, exactly a week before the holiday, which falls on 25th November this year. In 1947, President Harry Truman was the first recipient of a bird gifted by America’s turkey farmers, a tradition that continued. In 1963, President John Kennedy decided to send his gift back to the farm where it came from. George HW Bush was the first president to officially offer a turkey pardon at the White House in 1989. Barack Obama’s pardons featured jokes that often had his daughters rolling their eyes at his side. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump emerged from a self-imposed isolation he began after losing the November presidential election to pardon Corn, a 19 kilogram turkey.
– With SARAH MILLS, GUY FAULCONBRIDGE, and HEATHER TIMMONS/Reuters
