Pretty scary pumpkin: A competitive farmer in New York State was just 600 pounds shy of making it into the Guinness Book of World Records. His 2027-pound pumpkin was a lightweight compared to the pumpkin that won the title of world’s heaviest in 2016—a 2,624.6-pound gourd that still holds the record, according to the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC]. But, Karl Haist had the satisfaction of winning $3,500 in prize money at the World Pumpkin Weigh-Off held in Clarence, NY recently. It was declared the biggest pumpkin ever grown in the state of New York.
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What a cookie: A Pennsylvania man who commutes to work in New Jersey played the lottery there after having a meal at a Chinese restaurant, at the end of which he was presented with fortune cookie that turned out to be worth, well, a fortune. The Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC] says that he used numbers contained in the witty message of an after-dinner cookie, numbers that were worth a million dollars, it turned out.
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Word play: Next time you sit down for a game of Scrabble, confuse your opponents with words like besty, ew and zomboid. You’re sure to be challenged, says the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC], but take the challenge and turn to the Merriam-Webster Scrabble Dictionary and prove these three “new words” and more have been officially added to the lexicon. A besty is, of course, a very close friend. Ew is an expression of disgust. And, a zomboid is just what you think it is—someone with a zombie like demeanor.
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Grand pianos: Piano solos can be inspiring. Piano duets can be whimsical. But, you might think that more than 600 pianists banging out a tune by Schubert [his Marche Militaire in D Major] could be a bit overwhelming. But, the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC] reports that Franz, himself, would have approved when a melodious mob – 639 pianists to be precise – took to the stage and surrounding streets in a town in China with their grand pianos. They did it for the love of the classics and to get themselves into the Guinness Book of World Records.
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Some nightcap: True aficionados of whisky are willing to pay dearly for a sip of an extraordinary scotch. Some would pay hundreds, thousands and even tens of thousands of dollars for a bottle of a rare distilled spirit. For example, a flask of Isabella’s Islay scotch once sold for more than $6 million. But, notes the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC], the bottle was made with white gold and adorned with 8,500 diamonds and 300 rubies, which probably had something to do with the price tag. But, AMAC says more recently a bottle of Macallan scotch that was distilled in 1927 sold for $27,000 in 1994 and just recently changed hands for a whopping $1.1 million.
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Equine mischief: A skittish horse at the famed French racetrack, Domaine de Chantilly, bucked and threw his jockey recently and then headed straight for a nearby bar. Customers scattered and ducked for cover as the skittish steed galloped from one end of the establishment to the other, according to the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC]. You can bet that Paris was abuzz with jokes about horses and bars. Perhaps you will recall the one about the horse that walked into a bar and was asked by the bartender: “why the long face.”
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On The Square 