The Best Fun Fact Ever

The Guinness Book of World Records was the brainchild of Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of Guinness Brewery . . . in 1951, he got into a Monty Python-esque argument while hunting (about the airborne speed of two birds: the red grouse and the golden plover) and realized that bars would benefit greatly from a book to settle absurd arguments, so he tasked the McWhirter brothers with the project, with the promise that he'd stamp the Guinness name on the product, and in 1955, a perennial bestseller was born (a bestseller which is undergoing a transformation . . . listen to this episode of Planet Money for that story).

3 comments:

zman said...

One more reason to celebrate Beaver.

Dave said...

you realize you're celebrating sir beaver? not that there's anything wrong with that . . .

https://thebenconrad.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/not-that-theres-anything-wrong-with-that-homophobia-and-seinfeld/

zman said...

I celebrate Beaver's entire catalog.

A New Sentence Every Day, Hand Crafted from the Finest Corinthian Leather.