WEBVTT - The Guinness Book of Records 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:14.640 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh. There's Chuck 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.919 Jerry's here too, and that makes this Stuff you Should Know, 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.400 which holds the record for the longest running podcast in 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:23.360 the history of the world as far as I know. 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:26.600 Hey, buddy, before we get going, I wanted to mention 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.880 with your permission, of course, Granted, I was recently a 0:00:30.920 --> 0:00:33.760 guest on a very awesome podcast. We don't guess on 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:37.600 a lot of shows much anymore, but actor Paul Giamatti 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:41.080 has a podcast with his buddy, who is a philosophy 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:45.040 professor named Steven Asthma. It's called Chin Wag, and I 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:49.280 saw these guys live at sketch Fest and it was great, 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:51.480 and I think Stuff you Should Know people will really 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.280 not only enjoyed my guest appearance, but really love Chin Wag. 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.120 Yeah, from what you told me, it sounds pretty awesome. 0:00:58.160 --> 0:00:59.800 I haven't listened quite yet, but I think I'm going 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.720 to make my first episode your episode. 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.039 It's great. I appreciate that, and you should get on it. 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:06.760 I told you that, I'm sure they'd love to have you. 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:11.000 But Steven is super smart and mister Paul Giamatti is 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:15.119 amazingly smart and just a really well read, cool guy. 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:17.680 And the title says it all. A chin Wag is 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.960 just sort of a free flowing chat, and that's what 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.000 it is. We you know, the idea was that we're 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:26.959 going to talk about the Silurian hypothesis, which they didn't 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:28.679 know about yet, and we had just done a thing 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:32.240 on so I was like, what a great opportunity. But 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.040 we ended up talking about nuclear semiotics and the anti CAA, 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:40.720 THEEA mechanism, and ghost and religion and monkey intercourse and 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.679 it's just a really cool talk and I think stuff 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:46.399 you should know. People would really dig it. So it's 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.040 out now at the chin Wag. 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:52.200 Nice Chuck, congrats. I can't wait to listen. 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.040 All right, thanks man, And you should be on. Should 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:56.000 we get on with the show? 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:58.080 H yeah, let's. 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.320 Well, you know what we get to do now in 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:06.760 our our typical two episode percession way that is stuff 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.200 you should know, is we get to wash the stank 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:14.280 of Unit seven thirty one off of us talking about 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:16.480 a very fun thing, which is the Guinness Book of 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:21.079 World's Records or the Guinness World Records. I feel like 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:22.440 when I was a kid, it was called the Guinness 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:27.320 Book of World Records in the United States. I imagine 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.920 that we are similar and that you probably had a 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:33.280 copy of this in your house. No, oh, you didn't. 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:35.960 No, we weren't all Lotti dah. I had to get 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:37.320 from the school library. 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:39.720 We had a copy of the Guinness Book. I think 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:41.880 it probably got it as like a Christmas skipt one 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:42.960 year and. 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.680 Lifted it from his school library. He brought it. 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:49.760 Oh, he may have property of red in elementary school. 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:55.240 So I remember very distinctly, though, pouring through this thing 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:59.800 as a kid, and just like it was such a 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:01.680 big book. It was so thick, and the type was 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:06.320 so small, and the pictures weren't great, but like I 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:08.639 just like I poured over every page of this thing 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:11.880 like it was my Bible or something. I was so 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.640 into it. I thought it was so cool. Like this 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.160 may have been my uncle John's bathroom reader for you. 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.679 Uh no, I yeah, okay, I got ye both. No no, no, 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.320 Uncle John's bathroom Reader definitely trumped it, for sure, But 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:28.640 at the I was still very much a fan of 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:30.600 the Guinness Book of World Records for sure. 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:33.560 Do you remember some of those pictures from the classic edition. 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:37.360 Oh yeah, the guy with the longest fingernails also had 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.280 a really long beard if I remember correctly. Yeah. 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:44.240 And the two guys, those two heavy twins on the motorbikes. 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:46.240 Yeah, I think the McCrary brothers. 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:51.360 Yeah, the tall guy, that big giant, tall guy tall 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:52.400 and the tall lady. 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.240 Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot about them. Yeah, that's crazy. 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:58.960 We both grew up on the same pictures and they 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:00.480 helped shape us that neat. 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:03.160 Yeah, I mean, they're just burned into my brain. I 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:04.840 don't remember some of the names. I want to say 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.960 that guy's name was Robert Wadlow, But that's just literally 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.320 digging out from my, you know, nine year old lizard brain. 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:13.880 That would be pretty impressive if you just did that. 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:15.840 Will you pull the brothers out of your keyster? 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:20.200 I looked him up. Okay, I'm not walking around with 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.760 their name in my head. Unfortunately, I'm not that good anyway. 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:26.599 That's what we're talking about, is this this great book 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:29.720 that is still going strong at about a million copies 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:32.120 a year, And we're going to talk about all about 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:33.360 the Guinness Book right now. 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:36.440 Yeah. Let's but before we do, Chuck, let's give a 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:39.760 shout out to listener Mallory Stafford, who's the one who 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:42.599 suggested that we do an episode on the Guinness Book 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:45.760 of World Records. So thanks a lot, Mallory. Yeah, okay, 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.120 So yes, let's go back, Chuck, way back to the 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:53.159 nineteen forties, technically nineteen fifty, but we'll check in in 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.279 nineteen forty five with a guy named Sir Hugh Beaver. 0:04:56.560 --> 0:05:01.320 This excuse me, Sir Hugh Beaver. Oh okay, and this 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:03.240 was before he was a knight. I believe he was knighted, 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.920 probably because of his work with the Guinness Book of 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:10.000 World Records. That has to be guessing here at this point, 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:13.200 but I think it's pretty safe bet, although completely superfluous 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:17.520 and an unnecessary one. But he ended up going to 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:22.360 work for Guinness and Son, the beer company. So if 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.599 you've ever wondered if the Guinness Book of World Records 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:29.440 is actually connected to the Guinness Beer Company, my friend, yes, 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:33.080 they absolutely are. The guy who was the managing director 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:37.239 of Guinness Son and Company Limited, the Guinness Beer Company, 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.400 was also the guy responsible for coming up with the 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:41.960 Guinness Book of World Records. 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.920 That's right, It was a Guinness product in fact, and 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:49.359 we'll get to all that. But that to me is 0:05:49.520 --> 0:05:51.400 right out of the gate. You got one of the 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:53.960 facts of the podcast. If people, next time you're in 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:55.920 a bar and someone draws up a Guinness, just say, hey, 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:58.360 you know the Guinness Book of World Record is started 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.599 out because of the Guinness beer. And if they say no, 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.800 you just smash their face on the bar, dump that 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:07.000 Guinness all over their head. 0:06:08.120 --> 0:06:09.840 Knowing me, in my luck, I would say that and 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.640 they'd be like, oh really, you won't think everybody know that? Right, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.080 That's what I would be met with, and then I'd 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:17.200 smash their face on the bar. 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:21.440 Right. So there's a pretty good story here that kind 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.360 of is the seed of this whole idea, and it 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:29.400 goes as follows. In nineteen fifty, as you promised, Sir 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:35.160 Hugh Beaver was hunting with some friends in Ireland and 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:38.440 missed a shot and boy just seemed to really get 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.599 at this guy. He missed a shot of a golden 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:46.320 plover or plover bird and was like, hey, did you 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:48.200 see that? How fast that thing was? Like, nobody could 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:50.000 shoot that thing. That's got to be the fastest game 0:06:50.040 --> 0:06:53.440 bird in Europe. And they were like, ah, you kidding me, 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:56.039 that thing's not that fast. There's no way you just 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.680 miss franquilizers. Yeah, you just missed the shot. My friend, 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:02.440 that's not the fastest game bird. And he was like, oh, 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.000 I got to find an answer to this, and he 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.680 could not find it in a reference book. So I said, 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:11.160 this really bothered the guy. And this is how I 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:15.640 know is that four years later he's still thinking about 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:20.160 missing that shot and he's like, oh, you know what 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:22.520 we need as a book that says stuff like this. 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:25.960 Yeah, that was the origin of the Guinness Book of 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.600 World Records. That missed shot, that golden plover that lived. 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.040 Had it not lived, maybe this whole thing would have 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:34.000 never happened. 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.000 Seriously, had he shot that bird, we may not have 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:38.480 gotten those twins on the motorbike. 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.720 No, and it's a good thing that that golden plover 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.040 lived for a couple of reasons, not the least of 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:46.680 which is that the golden plover got to live, but 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:50.800 because it stuck with Sir Hugh Beaver for so long, 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:53.800 for four years that he finally was like it morphed. 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.480 I can't imagine how many times he chewed it over 0:07:56.560 --> 0:08:00.800 before it finally became the idea for a book that 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.440 actually has facts like what's the fastest game bird in 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:08.120 all of Europe? And so he went to the people 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.280 that he worked for at Guinness as the managing director 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:12.480 is like, I got this great idea. We can put 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.120 together a book of facts that can settle the kind 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.000 of like arguments and disputes that arise at a pub, 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:22.360 and we'll give them as free Guinness giveaways at pubs. 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.480 And we're even gonna make the cover waterproof so that 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:28.160 if you still beer on it, so it'll be fine. 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:30.360 Every pub in all of England's going to have one 0:08:30.400 --> 0:08:32.920 of these things, and anytime there's an argument at a pub, 0:08:33.080 --> 0:08:35.160 they're going to pull this thing out. That was the 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.800 original idea for the Guinness Book of World Records, and 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:39.040 it's a genius. 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.480 Idea, yeah, and just fun, Like I just love the 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.920 whole spirit behind it. That very first version has a 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.520 forward that said that the hope was that it could 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.680 resolve arguments and turn heat into light. So you know, 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.599 just the very idea of the pub argument is just 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:58.520 sort of fun to think about. I think, period for sure. 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.040 And now you have an actual water proof covered book 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:03.679 that they're given out with that Guinness name on it 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:05.080 is pretty pretty brilliant. 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:10.560 Yeah. So Hugh Beaver, though, was like, Hugh Beaver, Okay, 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:15.920 there's different ways to say it. Hugh Beaver. Sure, I 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:17.920 mean I know what you're getting at. I'm just being playful. 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:21.560 I'm not getting at anything, buddy. Oh you face on 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:21.839 the bar. 0:09:23.000 --> 0:09:26.880 So Hugh Beaver, I said. Hugh Beaver, by the way, okay, 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:29.440 he was not one to go around and like make books. 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.520 He was kind of like an idea guy rather than 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:34.200 a book making guy. So he turned to two guys 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.080 who were this was just right up their alley. They 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:41.000 were identical twins named Norris and Ross McWhorter, and they 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:44.240 ran an agency that essentially was a fact checking and 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:49.920 fact providing well agency for newspapers and things like that, 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:52.040 media outlets. 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:52.880 Like fun stuff though if. 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:54.640 They yeah, but it was also I think if you 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.400 had a fact you wanted to confirm, you'd call them 0:09:57.440 --> 0:09:59.360 and they would turn to their encyclopedias and be like, 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:01.920 h yes, off the top of my head, I know 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:05.360 that that's correct, right, That's what the mcquarters did. And 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.640 so it was a great idea to reach out to 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:09.800 these guys and be like, hey, what if you take 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.040 your entire profession and make it a book, but just 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:16.120 select the most interesting stuff and put it into a book. 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.000 And that's what we're going to make. And they said, 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:18.800 let's do it. 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.000 That's right. They formed their own company based in London 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:29.240 called Guinness Superlatives, and they spent about four months with 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:32.640 just the sort of sourcing of what would go in 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:34.120 the book. It took about a year to get the 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:36.640 book the first to dish out, but they spent about 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:39.680 four months just sending you know, this is nineteen fifty four, 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:43.680 so they're sending letters to experts. They're sending letters to 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:46.800 people all over the world saying, you know, what's the 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:50.000 biggest thing, what's the smallest, this, what's the fastest that? 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:55.360 Just like thousands and thousands of juries. And they were 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.800 pretty serious, you know, they wanted this to be a legitimate, 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:00.760 like factual book. So they were from the from the get. 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:04.800 They were very fastidious in their research, and they found 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.839 that even experts sometimes it would either get things wrong 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:12.480 or exaggerate stuff. What Lvia found this great thing. She 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:15.760 put together a really good bass article for this one, 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:18.080 and she said one of the things that they found 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:20.920 was one expert said that there was a fly that 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:23.400 broke the speed of sound that flew at eight hundred 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.319 and twenty miles per hour. So they were like, all right, 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:28.600 we have to do more work, even though we're getting 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:29.520 in touch with experts. 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:31.920 Yeah, that was all the way back in nineteen twenty six. 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.520 So for decades people have been walking around thinking that 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:37.200 that fly, that there was a fly that could do that. 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:41.400 Did these guys wind right? These guys were the kind 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.560 who would just come along and be like, that's not true. So, 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:46.920 like the Guinness Book of World Records, Long had and 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.120 starting out of the gate, Long had this reputation for 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:54.640 like being just accurate and correct, Like they really did 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.480 their research and they really double checked, and the people 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.520 that they were siting and polling and going to were 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:04.439 experts in their field, and not even crackpot experts in 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:04.920 their field. 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:09.680 Like the fly guy, the fly Jeff Goldlum, No. 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:11.640 The guy who said the expert who said that the 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.280 deer bot fly could fly faster than the speed of sound. 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:19.480 I was kidding, you know, Oh, I thought you'd forgotten already. 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.240 No, no, no, or maybe it was Jeff goldlum For 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.040 all we know, it could have been. So in August 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.120 August twenty seventh, in fact. Nineteen fifty five, the very 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.960 first edition came out. It was titled Guinness Book of Records, 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:34.839 close to two hundred pages, one hundred and ninety eight 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:41.160 pages that had about initially four thousand just factual entries, 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.440 and then just a collection not too many, but about 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:48.760 eighteen pages of some photographs, black and white pictures, a 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:52.040 few pen and ink drawings, and it was pretty successful. 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.079 They were like, let's print fifty thousand of these, give 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.560 them out at pubs. But they realized very very quickly. 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:00.440 I mean it came out August twenty seven. Then they 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.600 were like, we can actually sell these things. So they 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.680 started selling that fall, just a couple of months later, 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:10.280 and by Christmas had sold one hundred and eighty seven 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:11.080 thousand of these. 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.839 Yeah. Supposedly, since then it's sold about one hundred and 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:19.760 fifty million copies worldwide. Wow, which is just astronomical. That's 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.360 just such a crazy amount of books and just out 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:24.480 of the gate, like they clearly tapped into something that 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.600 people love. People love that kind of thing. They created 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:30.080 the internet and book form before anyone even thought of 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:31.439 the internet or computers. 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:32.720 Yeah, yeah, totally. 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:37.120 So they were like, well, this is great, let's start 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.800 churning out more and more of these, and they started 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:43.040 putting out the first American edition that came out the 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:47.640 next year, country specific editions and the years that followed. 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:49.760 And even while they were doing this, even while they 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.320 were cranking these things out, the mcquorters were like, we're 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:56.920 not going to sacrifice accuracy or factualness, like that is 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.680 like the pinnacle of what we're doing has to be accurate, 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:04.920 and yeah, it can be super interesting, but also we 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.319 need to kind of keep it family friendly. And there 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:10.800 was a famous quote from Norris, who was apparently like 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.319 the heart and soul of the book Norris was. He 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:16.800 said that ours is the kind of book maiden aunts 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:20.160 give to their nieces, basically saying like, we can't have 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.520 smut in there. Probably the word that Norris would have 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:24.880 used with smut. 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.840 Yeah, like us, you know, with I mean they were 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:29.000 g rated. We're probably PG. 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:31.960 Oh yeah, sometimes PG thirteen. 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:34.160 Frankly, yeah, I mean, we are the kind of guys 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:36.480 that'll sit around and make jokes about Sir Hugh Beaver. 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:41.920 So while they're researching, they do finally, and this is 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:43.640 just a side note, they get to the bottom of 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:48.040 this fastest European game bird that plover was sixty two 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.000 miles an hour, and apparently the spur wing Goose is 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:55.040 eighty eight. But now apparently on the website there's a 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:59.600 red breasted Merganzer that can go I guess that's ninety 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:00.400 one miles hour. 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.760 No, I think that the spur wing Goose's record of 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:08.000 eighty eight is so thoroughly debated that they can't say 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.400 for certain that it's the fastest European game bird, the 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:15.520 one that Yeah, that's what I've gotten from it. Okay, 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.280 So there's like a horrible twist to all this. Yeah, 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:22.960 suddenly that happened well twenty five years after the first 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:25.680 book came out, Like they've been churning out editions every year, 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.960 multiple editions a year, and so in the midst of 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:31.760 all this, Ross and Norris are just still doing their job, 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:35.160 but they've gotten kind of wealthy along the way. And 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:40.480 apparently Ross was not very happy that the IRA was 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:45.040 bombing places in Britain, in England in particular, and he 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:47.800 offered a fifty thousand pound reward. This is back in 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:51.840 nineteen seventy five. I didn't do the conversion. So let's 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:53.280 just say I could buy you a lot of Big 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:58.520 Macs today a fifty thousand pound reward for any information 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:02.520 that would help convict IRA bombers. And I guess he 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:04.480 thought that this was going to be effective, and it 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:07.080 was not at all effective. It actually turned out to 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:08.800 be a terrible move for him. 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:13.440 Yeah. Ross was a fairly controversial political activist in addition 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:17.000 to his job, and the IRA did not cot into that. 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:22.240 So on November twenty seventh of nineteen seventy five, Harry 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:26.680 Duggan and Hugh Doherty of the Balcom Street Gang shot 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:29.480 him point blank in the head and chest with a 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:33.640 three fifty seven outside of his house and killed him dead. 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:38.760 And so Ross was what was gone, and I'm sure 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:44.640 Norris was devastated, but kept on as the editor. Norris 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.360 did until nineteen eighty six and then for another decade 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:49.520 as an advisor to the project. 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.560 Yes, eventually, Guinness the Beer Company was like, this has 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:56.400 been a pretty good run. We've been doing this for 0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.360 over half a century now, and they eventually sold the 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:04.920 Guinness World Records gw R is what it's usually referred 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:10.119 to to. Another company, a company called Gulane, which was 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:14.600 a production company for children's television shows including Thomas the 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:19.560 tank engine, and I guess the head of Gulaane sobered 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:21.239 up a couple of days later and was like, what 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:22.800 am I going to do with this? And ended up 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:27.040 selling it to the Jim Pattison Group, which is owned 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.480 by a Canadian billionaire named Jim Pattison and bears more 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:33.439 than a small resemblance to the shinehart Wig Company, and 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:37.720 that they have their hands in like everything they owned Peterbilt, 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:40.920 they owned the Great Wolf Lodges, they own Associated Grossers, 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:45.960 they own everything, including the Guinness Book of World Records 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:50.000 as well as Ripley Entertainment, and so over time they've 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.480 kind of added to what the Guinness World Records does. 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:55.560 It's the reason one of the reasons why you don't 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:57.720 say the Guinness Book of World Records is because they've 0:17:57.760 --> 0:17:59.960 definitely expanded beyond the book. 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.080 Now, Yeah, I think Ripley sort of laid the mold, 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:06.720 as in having like a Ripley Museum of Curiosity is 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:09.240 that kind of thing. There are now Guinness Museums and 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.400 stuff like that, and it's kind of become an attraction 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:17.040 here in different cities. I don't I know, I've never 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:19.680 been to one. I'm trying to think where I've even 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.359 seen one. Maybe maybe Hollywood has one. I don't know 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:27.720 they've got they've got a ripley. But yeah, they've become 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:31.400 a part part tourist attraction as well, and maybe that's 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:32.280 a good place to break. 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:33.920 Oh yeah, let's do that. 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:35.800 Yeah, we can find out where one of these is 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:37.520 and we'll go and then we'll come back. 0:18:37.800 --> 0:19:08.480 Okay, Chuck, that was a fantastic road trip. I've never 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:10.840 drank so much coke zero in my entire life. 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.560 Oh man, I've been drinking Guinness. Glad you were driving. 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:16.879 I know I've been driving. Well anyway, getting back to 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.199 Guinness the World Records, not all the beer you've been 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:24.000 drinking on our road trip. They are even though they're 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:26.560 owned by the Jim Pattison Group, they still are their 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.240 own company doing their own thing. And they're headquartered in London, 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.960 but they also have offices in Dubai, Tokyo, New York, Beijing, 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:36.919 and there's like four hundred people that work for Guinness 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:38.639 World Records around the world. 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:43.359 Yeah, amazing on the book. Just you know, let's go 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:45.240 to the stats. You mentioned over one hundred and fifty 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:48.639 million total copies I believe I said, still about a 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:52.560 million a year. It's been translated into forty different languages. 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:56.000 When you open up one of those books, you're going 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:58.520 to find a couple of different things. Well you'll find 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.159 tons of things, but kind of a couple of different categories. 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:04.040 One is all that stuff we were talking about, like 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.800 the fastest bird, the tallest this or that, like the 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:12.480 tallest skyscraper, just sort of things that have hit a superlative. 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:16.080 You're also going to find a lot of firsts, like 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:18.840 the first person to do this, the first person to 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.720 complete this. And then you're going to find a bunch 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:25.840 of kind of goofy fun records, which is the whole 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:28.000 category where people are like, I want to get in 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.200 that book, and so I can either break a record 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:34.399 that's in there, or I can think of my own, 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:37.680 like hula hooping or well, I'm sure that's in there, 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:43.280 but you know, the longest under underwater tea party. That's 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:44.679 probably in there for all I know, but I just 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:45.960 made that up. But stuff like. 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:49.320 That, Yeah, no, that's I'm sure that's in there. I 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:53.960 know there's like the most number of magic tricks performed underwater, 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:58.080 like if it's to be done underwater, and the reason 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:01.159 that there are so many records because apparently tens of 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.480 thousands of people every single year. I think the number 0:21:04.480 --> 0:21:07.439 that I saw back in two thousand and eight on 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:11.199 a Freakonomics interview with the current editor in chief, a 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:15.399 guy named Craig Glenday, he put it at about fifty 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:20.679 thousand applicants per year, people who are like, I'm I 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:23.240 either just I think I just did break a record, 0:21:23.359 --> 0:21:26.560 or I'm going to attempt to break a record. So 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:30.960 let's go. Let's do this. Fifty thousand people a year. 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:32.199 Try to do that. 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:38.119 I would. I wonder how many morning pictures of a 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:40.400