records

To celebrate National Pancake Day yesterday, IHOP was serving up flapjacks for free. The only breakfast our nation cared about, it seemed, was the short stack. But across the pond in Glasgow, Scotland, a couple of chefs were more concerned about the tallest stack of pancakes. In fact, two chefs, Sean McGinlay and Natalie King of Glasgow's Hilton Grosvenor hotel, claim to have broken the record for the steepest stack of pancakes in the world.

The tower of 672 flapjacks measured in at 29.5 inches high, tottering over the standing world record of 29.1 inches, set by a Slovenian team last August. Guinness will still need to confirm the record. In order to prepare for the challenge, the chefs mixed over 17 pints of milk, 100 eggs, 11 pounds of flour, and 6.6 pounds of butter. The key to their success? The perfect stacking technique. Said hotel general manager Stuart Nelson:

Sean McGinlay and the kitchen team have spent a great deal of time this week perfecting their pancake recipes and stacking techniques . . . It was a bit shaky towards the end, but somehow we managed to pull it off.

Judging from the height of the pancake stack, it looks like defeating this new record will be a tall order. Wouldn't you love to help clean up after the event?

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At an Arby's in Hendersonville, SC, Hannah Odom reached to grab a curly fry and came up long — two feet long, to be exact. In the footage below, captured by a local station, the 15-year-old shows off the unusually long fry, which she's keeping in the refrigerator. She has refrained from auctioning off the item on eBay or eating it, instead waiting to hear back from the Guinness Book of World Records. The last known world record was for 6.75 inches, a record that Odom has edged out by 17.25 inches. She expects to hear back from Guinness representatives in three to four weeks.

What I couldn't figure out after watching the clip below was how the record-long fry managed to go unnoticed by the person who cut and cooked the fry. How would you react if this happened to you? Would you have just eaten it?

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Designer Kenneth Brown offers this smart idea for integrating vinyl record collections into a home. Instead of bulky record shelves (which is what I currently live with), he designed pull-out, partially exposed drawers to house a family's 2,000+ records. I love the accessibility of this storage solution, and the varying shades and patterns of the record spines offer a built-in design accent.

Do you have a savvy solution for storing albums?

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Mexico's had a long love for tortas — 48 yards, to be exact.

Earlier this month, Mexico City caterers created Central America's longest-ever sandwich, coming in at 48 yards. With the help of 45 torta outlets, the oversized baguette took only five minutes to make. The 1,320 pounds finished torta was filled with over 30 ingredients, including ham, cheese, avocado, and lettuce.

The baguette — which will go down in history as one of the world's largest food feats — was part of the kickoff for a three-day torta festival in Mexico's capital.

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I came across yet another furnishing for your man's hipster dude haven and couldn't resist sharing. No true hipster dude would willingly ruin a valuable record like ELO's Time, but if it were unusable, he might hang it on the wall as a clock. The Electric Light Orchestra Vinyl Record Clock ($25) gives new life to some good tunes too scratched to enjoy, with a handsome set of white clock hands. I particularly like how the clock hands mimic the yellow and pink spotlights on the record label (and I've always had a soft spot for ELO). What do you think? Would you give this clock the time of day or is it just not your style?

It may not be in the Olympics — yet — but competitive eating has become one of the world's fastest-growing sports. Last month, as many as 1.5 million people tuned in to ESPN to watch Joey Chestnut beat Takeru Kobayashi in Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest. According to the Major League Eating spokesman Ryan Nerz:

At the big eating events you have normal guys who get up and do this thing well, beat a bunch of people, and all of a sudden they have a camera shoved in their face. They get a whole new group of friends, a blog, a MySpace page, fans. It very quickly becomes their identity, and it transcends their former identity as a waiter at a pizza restaurant, an accountant, or whatever.

The profile of a typical competitive eater has also evolved in recent years. The demographic has changed from the overweight, blue-collar male champions to trimmer, younger, white-collar competitors that include men and women. Many competitors believe in the Belt of Fat theory — that a skinny build allows the stomach to expand with less difficulty than if it were surrounded by a constricting layer of fat tissue.

Have you or would you ever try competitive eating? For some recent records in the world of competitive eating, read more

This weekend, the folks of Fargo, North Dakota, decided they wanted to be famous for something other than being the setting for a Coen Brothers' film. So this past Saturday, the folks of Fargo got themselves in the Guinness Book of World Records. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Fargo Kiwanis Club's Pancake Karnivale, the Kiwanis club members and volunteers served up 34,818 pancakes, making them the largest pancake feed in the world. This bested the former world record holder — The Lions Club of Lubbock, Texas — by more than 4,000 pancakes. Personally I think this beats those "world's largest" records, because at least it doesn't seem like a huge waste of food. On the downside, I'd hate to be there for cleanup duty. What do you guys think of this pancake feeding frenzy?

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The audio qualité that comes from the spinning grooves of a good ole vinyl record can't be denied. It just can't. But unfortunately, my record collection is of no help to me when the tone deaf dude adjacent to me on my morning public transit ride is humming incessantly, or when Chatty Cathy's cell phone conversation can be heard from yards away. That's where my Pod comes in (or "mp3 player" if you will).
So this holiday season, I suggest you put the music aficionado on your gift-giving list out of his or her morning misery with an incredible USB turntable that rips your old vinyl records into new digital, and more importantly, portable music. There's no need for this music geek to abandon his or her tried-and-true turntable that you know has been named "Phil" or "Syd"; this gift is meant to supplement other home music technologies. Below are several options at various price points which will bring your dear friend's pretentious record collection into the 21st century, and onto the bus, train, or sidewalk.

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