If your attention span for poetry only extends to the length of time it takes to read a limerick, you may find yourself challenged if you try to read the Mahābhārata. Advertisements
Take a Quick 6.5 Hours to Read the World’s Longest Poem
I’ll Be a Little Late For Dinner, Honey… Traffic is a Little Slow
The longest traffic jam on record happened on China National Highway 110, starting on August 14, 2010. The traffic jam slowed thousands of vehicles for more than 60 miles (100 km) and […]
A Story About Many Stories
The Burj Khalifa (Khalifa Tower) in Dubai officially opened on January 4, 2010. It currently holds the record as the tallest man-made structure. Among the records established by this building […]
Take a Deep Breath and Read This Sentence…
The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe holds the record for containing the longest printed English language sentence. The specimen is 13,955 words long. It was inspired by the Czech novel Dancing Lessons for the […]
Older Than Methuselah
The oldest living thing on earth is a bristlecone pine located in the White Mountains of California, USA. When discovered and tested in 2013, it was determined to be 5,064 years old. […]
Ministers Marry Lots of People… But Typically By Officiating, Not By Participating
Rev. Glynn “Scotty” Wolfe (1908 – 1997) holds the record for the largest number of monogamous marriages. Between 1926 and his death in 1997, Wolfe was married twenty-nine times to 26 different […]
Don’t Try to Pronounce It If You Are Wearing False Teeth
The 85-characters long Maori name for a hill in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, is the longest place name found in any English speaking country. It is, Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturipukakapikimaungah-oronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, which roughly translates as, “the […]
Cold Enough For Ya?
The coldest temperature ever recorded on earth was in August, 2010 in Antarctica. Satellites measured surface temperatures of -135.8 degrees Fahrenheit (-94.7 degrees Celsius). There is no way to disguise the fact […]
I’m Dreaming of a Best Seller
“White Christmas”, written by Irving Berlin and sung by Bing Crosby, is the best-selling single song of all time. With estimated sales in excess of 50 million for the original version and […]
Serve ‘Em Up Fast
Australian tennis player Samuel Groth holds the record for the fastest serve in a game. He smacked a ball at 163 mph (263 km/hr) in an event in Busan, South Korea in […]
Some Light Reading
The world record for the longest novel ever published goes to A la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust. It was published in 13 volumes beginning in 1912. With an estimated […]
I’ll Take My Winnings By Check, Mate
The longest tournament chess game, in terms of moves, ever to be played was Ivan Nikolic vs. Goran Arsovic in Belgrade, Serbia in 1989 The game lasted for 269 moves and took […]
Next Time, Please Show Your Work
Pierre de Fermat (1605-1665) wrote in the margin of a book, “I have discovered a truly remarkable proof of this theorem which this margin is too small to contain.” He then died. It […]
History’s Shortest War
The Anglo-Zanzibar War was fought between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar on 27 August 1896. With a duration of only 45 minutes, it holds the record of being the shortest war in […]
Land? Who Needs Land?
The swift spends almost all of its life in the air, touching down only to reproduce. They will cling to a wall or rock-face to check a potential nest hole, and they […]
