20 weird records set by college students

Collegestats.org has pulled together 20 odd world records some intrepid college students have managed to achieve.

These 20 records were broken by college students who proved that all you really need is plenty of time to kill (that’s a big one) and probably a fairly strong pain tolerance. Here’s just 10 of the 20.  Check out collegestats.org to see the rest.

  1. Farthest grape toss and mouth catch:
    Trevor McDonald is the hero of everyone who ever played with their food. In April, the Bowdoin College freshman broke the world record of throwing a grape 37 feet in the air and catching it in the mouth. After a few practice runs, he successfully launched and caught a small red grape from 39 feet.
  2. Longest tongue: Chanel Tapper, a 21-year-old college student from California, currently holds the record for longest tongue in the world. Measuring in at 3.8 inches, her tongue is twice as long as average. And yes, fellas, she’s heard all the comments; get your minds out of the gutter.
  3. Longest game of ultimate Frisbee: A Montana State University sophomore was part of a 30-member group that broke the world record for the longest game of ultimate Frisbee: a staggering 80 hours, 15 minutes and 13 seconds. Players subbed in and out every six hours, putting each player’s time on the field at roughly 40 hours.
  4. Biggest cardboard box castle:
    In February, BYU students bested Harvard students’ record of building a 566-box castle. The 50-member team braved wind and rowdy kids to successfully form 734 boxes into a castle, complete with turrets and cardboard cannons.
  5. Longest marathon theater performance: The show must go on … and on, and on, and on. In 2006, 13 students at Loyola College in India performed 13 bible stories over the course of 72 hours. One student dropped out before the end, but the rest made it to curtain.
  6. Largest snowball: The University of Florida never had a shot at this one. Last winter, 10 University of Massachusetts Dartmouth students packed the world’s largest snowball, measuring 7’4″ tall, over 23 feet in circumference, and more than 6,100 pounds.
  7. Largest game of Pac-man:
    In 2004, NYU students created a real-life version of the iconic Pac-Man video game, which they called “Pac-Manhattan.” Students dressed as Pac-Man and the ghosts chased each other around downtown Manhattan city blocks. The event was a passing of the torch from Dutch students who years earlier had re-created Tetris in giant form on the side of a university building.
  8. Largest game of Twister: This is one that gets overturned fairly regularly. In September 2011, participants in an event at the Netherlands’ University of Twente put left hand red and right foot green on a Twister board measuring 170 feet by 140 feet. The previous record holders were University College Dublin students, who stole the title from students at University of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
  9. Largest toy pistol fight: We should have gone to Washington U. In 2010, students there staged a record-breaking Nerf gun battle, packing 461 students into the Commons and having them fire away at each other. They split into two sides and fired back and forth for the required five minutes needed to make the record official.
  10. Longest distance traveled on a Slip and Slide in one hour:
    Penn State students couldn’t hold on to their 2010 record for most ground covered on a slippery mat in 60 minutes. The University of Oregon now has the bragging rights, thanks to an October 2010 performance of 82,080 feet, or 15.5 miles.

Joe Paterno family issues statement on Freeh investigation report

“Joe Paterno wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes and he regretted them. He is still the only leader to step forward and say that with the benefit of hindsight he wished he had done more. To think, however, that he would have protected Jerry Sandusky to avoid bad publicity is simply not realistic. If Joe Paterno had understood what Sandusky was, a fear of bad publicity would not have factored into his actions.

“We appreciate the effort that was put into this investigation. The issue we have with some of the conclusions is that they represent a judgment on motives and intentions and we think this is impossible. We have said from the beginning that Joe Paterno did not know Jerry Sandusky was a child predator. Moreover, Joe Paterno never interfered with any investigation. He immediately and accurately reported the incident he was told about in 2001.

“It can be argued that Joe Paterno should have gone further. He should have pushed his superiors to see that they were doing their jobs. We accept this criticism. At the same time, Joe Paterno and everyone else knew that Sandusky had been repeatedly investigated by authorities who approved his multiple adoptions and foster children. Joe Paterno mistakenly believed that investigators, law enforcement officials, University leaders and others would properly and fully investigate any issue and proceed as the facts dictated.

“This didn’t happen and everyone shares the responsibility.”

Read the whole statement on CNN

As CNN reports, Penn State’s most powerful leaders showed “total and consistent disregard” for victims of child sex abuse and failed to protect children, according to the findings of a long-awaited internal review over how the university handled a scandal involving its former defensive coordinator.

The report says several former officials “empowered” Jerry Sandusky to continue his abuse, and investigators say legendary head football coach Joe Paterno could have stopped the attacks had he done more.

In a statement released along with the 267-page report, Louis Freeh, the former FBI director and federal judge who spearheaded the review, blasted several top former officials at the school, accusing them of forging an agreement to conceal Sandusky’s attacks.

“There are more red flags here than you can count,” said Freeh, who added that the abuse occurred just “steps away” from where Paterno worked in the university’s Lasch Building.

“Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State,” Freeh wrote. “The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.”

Champion of marriage – Kirk Cameron

A few months ago the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) got caught in court documents blatantly trying to create resentment between the LGBT community and other minority groups.

Among all their underhanded race-baiting tactics, was the revelation that they were also seeking out “non-cognitive elites” to be celebrity spokespeople for their anti-LGBT cause.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news to all you other non-cognitive types who had applied for the “celebrity anti-gay spokesperson” job, but it looks like the position is being filled by former Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron.

“Kirk Cameron and the anti-gay activists at NOM are making a claim that Americans know to be false,” said GLAAD President Herndon Graddick.

“This rhetoric won’t work anymore. Communities across this country love and cherish their LGBT neighbors, friends and family members. This includes people in families headed by LGBT people. Their implication that LGBT couples can’t create loving and stable homes is not only outdated and irrelevant; it’s designed specifically to hurt those families.”

Earlier this year thousands spoke out against Kirk Cameron’s statement that being gay was “unnatural,” “detrimential,” and “ultimately destructive to so many of the foundations of civilization” including celebrities Kristin Chenoweth, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jesse Tyler Ferguson as well as Cameron’s former Growing Pains co-stars Tracey Gold and Alan Thicke.

Cameron’s comments also come at a time when celebrities from a diverse range of faith traditions, entertainment genres and political backgrounds including Russell Simmons, Carrie Underwood, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Alicia Keys and Dolly Parton have stated support for marriage equality.

Via LGBTQNation

Production pics from SWEET CHARITY at Lyric Theater

A few pics posted on the Facebook page of Lyric Theater for my production of SWEET CHARITY, plus snapshots from the opening night party (not such great quality, but here for the perusing…)

Ladies of the Fandango Ballroom in “Big Spender”

Milena Govich as “Charity” and Jamison Stern as “Oscar”

The company dancing “Rich Man’s Frug”
Billy Porter, me and Joel Ingram at SWEET CHARITY opening night party

Michael and I with my associate choreographer & “Nickie” Kathryn Murphy

Me with our “Charity” – Milena Govich

MAGIC MIKE sequel in the planning stages

So who wants more MAGIC MIKE?

Asked during a Twitter question and answer session for Glamour magazine, Tatum responded: “Yes, yes and yes! We’re working on the concept now. We want to flip the script and make it bigger.”

Early in the development stages, there’s no word on whether Steven Soderbergh will return to direct.
Next up for Channing Tatum is a bio pic on 1970s daredevil Evel Knievel.

Rob Gronkowski on the cover of ESPN Magazine

Love Rob Gronkowski.  Been following him for years – for his athletic achievements of course.

From Boston.com: Call it The Full Gronkowski.

The extremely scantily-clad Patriots tight end, wearing only Hulk hands and a grimace, made the cover of ESPN The Magazine’s “body issue” that will hit newsstands on Friday.

The fourth annual special issue is billed by ESPN as a “celebration of the athletic form” and will feature 27 world-class athletes. In addition to Rob Gronkowski, the issue also includes Blue Jays home run hitter Jose Bautista, US women’s national soccer team forward Abby Wambach, and New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler.