10 Guinness World Records Held by Massachusetts People and Places

MASSACHUSETTS—A woman from Las Vegas, NV, lays claim to the longest fingernails in the world today. At more than eight feet, the tallest living man is currently in Turkey. And Dimitri Panciera from Italy still holds the record for balancing the most scoops on an ice cream cone at one time.

The Guinness World Records is still the yardstick by which all feats of strength, endurance, and the truly bizarre are measured.

More than 50 records are held or were broken in Massachusetts or by Massachusetts people, according to the Guinness World Records.

We're highlighting ten of them, via the Guinness World Records, here:

1. A chef at the UMass Dining Services in Amherst whipped up the largest stir-fry ever in September of 2011 - it was more than 4,000 pounds.
2. Ron Cooper at the North Shore YMCA in Marblehead managed to do the most push ups in one minute while carrying a 60-pound pack. He broke the pull up record, too.
3. The world's longest-surviving two-faced cat (known as a Janus cat) lived in Worcester and lived to be 15 years old. Frank and Louie had two functioning eyes, two noses, two mouths and one brain. Frank and Louie died of cancer.
4. Allan Ganz lays claim for having broken the records for the longest career as an ice cream man. He operated business in Everett and Malden.
5. Just this May, the largest gathering of people wearing tie dye was achieved at Fenway Park in Boston. The Business Professionals of America (USA) did it, with 1,500 wearing tie dye.
6. The first email ever sent happened in Massachusetts. Apparently Ray Tomlinson, an engineer at a Cambridge computer company, was trying to get two computers to exchange a message in 1971. Here's what the first email was: "QWERTYUIOP."
7. In Nov. 2011, the Burger King in Lancaster nabbed the record for building the largest aluminum sculpture. This sculpture, which resembled the Burger King cardboard crown, was higher than 15 feet and spanned wider than 18 feet.
8. The Cape Cod Canal is the widest canal in the world. Seventeen miles long and 540 feet wide, it was constructed between 1909 and 1916.
9. We're not sure how competitive this category is, or was, but apparently John Kelly holds the record as the fastest marathon dressed as a videogame character. He did this at the Boston Marathon in 2016.
10. From Palmer, MA, Kelly and Michael Bostwick hold the record for having the longest officially released song. It's "In the Garden," and it's three hours, one minute and 50 seconds long. That makes a Grateful Dead jam seem like a punk tune.

Find more Massachusetts, and world, records on the Guinness Book of World Records site.

Photo courtesy Guinness Book of World Records