The weekly weird

Published November 13, 2021

17-pound potato found in a garden

A New Zealand couple were cleaning out their vegetable garden when they found a massive potato that weighed more than 17 pounds and might be a new world record.

Initially, Colin and Donna Craig-Brown weren’t even sure of what they had discovered under a few inches of dirt in their Waikato garden. It was only after Craig-Brown stabbed at it with a fork that he discovered the item was a potato.

The couple said the potato, which must have been growing in their garden for a couple years before being discovered, weighed 17.4 pounds.

The couple applied to have the potato, which they dubbed “Doug,” recognised, as the world’s largest by Guinness World Records. The current record-holder is an 11-pound spud grown by British gardener Peter Glazebrook in 2011.


Largest collection of lip balms

Six-year-old Scarlett Ashley Cheng from Hong Kong SAR, China, has a staggering collection of lip balms. She and her sister, eight-year-old Kaylyn, are keen lip balm curators and have amassed a total of 3,388 different ones.

Their assortment was confirmed as the largest collection of lip balms on 24 April 2021. The collection includes lip balms of different types, colour, texture, shape and function. They also have lip balms from all over the world and from a number of top brands. The collection started with Scarlett’s first ever lip balm, which her grandmother bought for her.

Scarlett believes that saving beautiful things is a habit that will bring her “joy and fun”.


Teen solves 300 Rubik’s cubes on a unicycle

An Alberta teenager broke a Guinness World Record when he solved 300 Rubik’s cubes while keeping his balance on a unicycle.

Jesse Bradford, 17, of Brooks, said he received word from Guinness World Records that he is the new official holder of the record for most rotating puzzle cubes solved on a unicycle.

Bradford, a senior at Brooks Composite High School, beat the previous record of 250, which was set by the US man Caleb McEvoy in March 2018. It took him about two hours and 13 minutes to solve all of the puzzles.

“I’m pretty excited. It’s really hard to believe,” he said of earning the record.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 13th, 2021

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