The From the sublime to RIDICULOUS
HAVE you got a wacky hobby? Or do you just like doing daft things? Whatever you’re mad about, it could land you in the record books.
More than 2,000 records involve large collections and, while some are quite normal – stamps and Star Wars memorabilia – others are a little on the weird side.
Dutchman Niek Vermeulen has amassed 6,290 airline sick bags. The stomach-turning items – picked up from 1,191 different airlines in almost 200 countries – made the record books in February 2012.
Brit David Morgan loves traffic cones so much he owns more than 500. The sales director for a company that makes them started his collection in 1986 when a rival firm challenged them over a design.
He hit the record books in April 2000 thanks to his collection, which he stacks up in his garage in Fulbrook, Oxfordshire.
American Nancy Hoffman turned her home in Maine into a museum to display her collection – of 730 umbrella covers. Maybe she is saving them for a rainy day.
Plungers
DIY has also made it into the record books, even when it all went horribly wrong.
Frustrations over fixing a sink led to German Gerhard Donie to throw a record 15 plungers at people in September 2010.
Meanwhile fellow German The Huy Giang put himself in a spin while clinging to a power drill in December 2008 – and managed 148 rotations per minute.
Cookery can also get you noticed, but you’ll need to be brave to beat Japan’s Hirouyki Terada, who managed to slice up 88 carrots in July 2017 – while blindfolded.
Sushi maestro Hirouyki celebrated his record with TV chef Gordon Ramsay.
Records are also set by those with possibly too much time on their hands, like American David Rush, who wondered how far he could walk with a pool cue balanced on his chin.
The answer was 3,300 metres and he set the record in August 2017.
Animals’ crackers achievements are also celebrated by Guinness World Records.
Albert Einstein is a goldfish who has a record-breaking repertoire of six tricks, including football, limbo and basketball, thanks to trainer and owner Dean Pomerleau, of Pennsylvania.
Then there’s Bertie who became the world’s fastest tortoise in July 2014 after he reached a speed of 0.28 metres per second, spurred on by his Durham owners Marco and Janine Calzini.
Otto the skateboarding dog got into the record books in November 2015 for soaring through a tunnel made up of 30 pairs of human legs.
The bulldog from Peru now has his own Facebook page, thanks to help from owners Luciana Viale and Robert Rickards.
Then there’s money-saving pup Pepper, who holds the record for most coins deposited into a piggy bank by a dog in one minute. It’s seven – and Pepper and his German owner Claudia Neumann set it in November 2011.
Raise a glass, too, to Gordon, a Hyacinth Macaw from California, trained by owner Julie Cardoza to open 12 bottle caps in a minute.
ON BOARD: Otto shows off his skill
CHOPPER: Hirouyki with Gordon and pal
IN A SPIN: Driller The Huy Giang