Team USA!

It’s here! It’s here! The 2012 Guinness World Records is here!

I’ve written before about how much I loved the Guinness Book of World Records as a child, and I have to admit: I’m still pretty enamored. The format is much different now—instead of a thick paperback, it’s now a glossy magazine-type book with colorful pictures. And yes: while I suppose it’s interesting to read about the sports records (Rob Kish once cycled from California to Georgia in 8 days), the most expensive book sold at auction ($11.4 million for Audubon’s Birds of America), and the tallest bridge (Millau Viaduct in France is 1095 feet, four inches high), what I’m after is the gross stuff.

You know what I’m referring to: the fingernails.

Chris “The Dutchess” Walton, an American, is the proud owner/maintainer of nails that are 10 feet, 2 inches on one hand and 9 feet, 7 inches on the other. That would be 19 feet, 9 inches of fingernails. However, before The Dutchess gets too full of herself, I should point out that she doesn’t hold the all-time longest fingernails. For women, it was Lee Redmond, who had a total length of 28 feet, 4.5 inches. Here is a direct quote from the book: “Unfortunately, Lee lost her nails in an automobile accident in early 2009” (82). I will say no more. The longest fingernails on a man were on Melvin Boothe, whose nails totaled 32 feet, 3.8 inches. Both Redmond and Boothe were American.

USA! USA!

Tune in next time when I tell you who won the Longest Beard on a Living Person (Female) award.

Guinness World Records 2012. London: Guinness Word Records Limited, 2011.