Five-year-old girl publishes book, earns world record

Five-year-old British girl, Bella Jay Dark, earned a Guinness World Record for youngest person to publish a book (female). Dark wrote and illustrated The Lost Cat with help from her mother, Chelsie Syme, published by Ginger Fyre Press.

The book sold more than 1,000 copies, the minimum set by the record-keeping organisation.

Syme told, “It’s about a cat that goes out getting lost and realises she should not go out without her mum. So it has got a good message to it. She has done all the drawings by herself, apart from one towards the back her older sister produced,” Syme said. “We’re sure she will continue to do with her up and coming books.”

Dark’s book was published when she was 5 years and 211 days old.

Mystery Machine from Scooby-Doo listed on Airbnb

The iconic Mystery Machine van from the 2002 live-action Scooby-Doo film is available for three overnight stays in Southern California on Airbnb.

It is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the movie’s release. The van is decked out with 2002 ‘throwbacks’, including a Sugar Ray album with a portable CD player, a lava lamp and a vintage TV for a late-night viewing of Scooby-Doo.

The stay also comes with meals and snacks, mystery games and a virtual greeting from ‘host’ Matthew Lillard, who played Shaggy in the movie and its sequel.

World’s largest chicken nugget

A TikTok cooking duo broke their second Guinness World Record by creating the world’s largest chicken nugget, which weighed in at 46 pounds and 3.34 ounces, approximately 115 times larger than an average chicken nugget.

Nick DiGiovanni and Lynn ‘Lynja’ Davis previously broke a Guinness World Record in 2021, when they created the world’s largest cake pop. For the nugget, they used 40 pounds of ground chicken, 40 eggs, 40 slices of white bread, half a gallon of whole milk, among other ingredients.

“In order to bake this chicken nugget, since it’s so large, we had to build a special contraption,” DiGiovanni said. A Guinness World Records adjudicator was on hand to confirm the new record.

The nugget was then cut into portions and shared with the chefs’ friends, family and crew members.

VHS copy of Back to the Future auctioned for $75,000

Dallas-based Heritage Auctions said a 1986 VHS tape, from the collection of Back to the Future star Tom Wilson, fetched the high bid of $75,000 from a New York-based collector. The price is believed to be the highest sum ever paid for a VHS tape.

The tape was still in its original shrink wrap and rated near-mint by experts. It was auctioned alongside other vintage VHS tapes from the collection of Wilson, who played Biff Tannen and other members of the Tannen family across time in the Back to the Future trilogy.

“This is the first box set sent out from the studio. It includes Back to the Future I and II and the documentary Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy,” Heritage Auctions quoted Wilson as saying. Each tape came with a note written by Wilson.

Published in Dawn, Young World, July 2nd, 2022