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A Shocking Rumor!
We heard a shocking rumor at the RGBA barbecue last month--that Chomsky was no longer the world's largest garden gnome. We did a bit of Googling and found that this past spring a group at the University of Iowa gardens wanted to beat our record and had unveiled a cement gnome that they say is 15 feet tall--that's 18 inches taller than our gnome-boy!
So we emailed the curator at the gardens and asked if they had received official status from Guinness World Records. She replied with yet more shocking news--the Iowa group did apply to Guinness after finishing, only to find that our record had been officially broken last summer by a group in Poland, who had created a 17 foot tall gnome!
But here's another twist--the gnome in Poland is said to be made of fiberglass. Guinness's own rules say that to qualify for a record for largest or smallest object, there must be authenticity of material--i.e. the largest candle must be made of wax and wick. We transformed our original gnome to cement to comply. Shouldn't fiberglass be a disqualification, since real garden gnomes are made of cement or terracotta--or are they flesh and blood?
Either way, it looks like we lost the record, folks.
What do you think? We'd love to collect your quotes and ideas for our Official Press Release on the matter (in time for the "silly news season" of August, natch). Outrage is great, ridiculous ideas are welcomed! Email us here.
8-year-old Bella Ramirez suggests adding a flower to Chomsky's hat to make him tallest once again. What's your idea?  |
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