Record breakers abound in 2015
As the sun sets on another year it’s tempting to look back. What accomplishments set 2015 apart? Perhaps a new job or a healthier diet. But did you scale a mountain on crutches or become a princess?
These new Guinness World Record holders did. Each year the record list gets a lot longer, a little sillier, and definitely more bizarre. Just a few of 2015’s list of new world records include:
Most princesses in one place: 537 people dressed as princesses packed into a London theater, flowing gowns galore.
Most plaid: Yes, there is a world record for the largest gathering of people wearing plaid — 1,146 of them at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Most dreidels spinning: Imagine more than 1,000 spinning at once in Tel Aviv, for 10 seconds before any of them stopped.
Most dumplings: Yum — 6,334 people cooked dumplings at once in Zhengzhou, China, at the world’s largest cooking lesson.
Most cookies iced: Pillsbury set the record for most iced in an hour with 1,169 cookies at Mall of America.
Longest pastry: Lebanon unseated Saudi Arabia as the title-holder with a 105-foot long manoucheh, a breakfast pastry.
Biggest pot of gumbo: The Louisiana community of Larose made 5,800 pounds of gumbo with shrimp, crab meat, sausage, and more than two tons of roux.
Most people playing Monopoly: 585 students at Wycombe Abbey school in U.K. played 84 games that day.
Fastest Rubik’s Cube solution: A 14-year-old boy solved a 3x3 Rubik’s Cube in less than 5 seconds at a competition in Clarksville, Md.
Heaviest vehicle pulled by hair: Really! A 28-year-old man dragged a bus, tied to his long hair, for 120 meters while on roller skates in Jodhpur, India. He applies oil to his hair to make it stronger. That explains it.
Most push-ups: A New York man was filmed doing 175 pushups in 60 seconds.
World’s first washable smartphone: A Japanese electronics company has introduced ‘Digno Rafre,’ a phone with a special touch screen which apparently works even when wet.
Oldest couple to marry: A London couple with a combined age of 194 years on their wedding day broke the record this year. They’d have to live a few more years to match the record for “oldest married couple,” set by Norwegians whose aggregate age was 210 when the wife died. The longest marriage so far was American; a North Carolina couple was married for 86 years.
Speaking of 86, you’re never too old to try something new. The oldest person to climb Mount Kilimanjaro is retired Russian teacher Angela Vorobyova, who broke the record this year hiking to the 19,341-foot summit in Tanzania, accompanied by her 62-year-old physicist daughter. If that’s not inspiring enough, how about the fastest ascent of Kilimanjaro on crutches? A British man did it in four days. The big question is why.
A very happy, determined New Year to all.
Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who will never set a world record because she’s far too lazy. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.