Superlative Selection

Who has the world's longest mustache? Who was the world's most productive mother? No standard reference book troubles with such trivia, but an offbeat guide called The Guinness Book of Records answers such questions with gusto. And because it does, Guinness has become a useful handbook for any newspaperman who wants to spice a story with a few superlatives. Last week the second U.S. edition was rolling off the presses with the latest answers to unlikely questions: the world's mustache champ, says the new Guinness, is Masudiya Din. a Bombay Brahman who sports 6 ft. 4 in. of lip adornment ;* the fecund female was the wife of Russia's Fedor Vassilet, who bore him 69 children--16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, four sets of quads--in the 19th century.

Guinness itself is a superlative, the world's greatest grab bag of mosts, leasts, longests, shortests, fattests, thinnests, highests, lowests, fastests and slowests--20,000 records in all. Its students can learn that the creature with the most sensitive sniffer is the male silkworm moth, which can detect a female two miles away; that the longest place name belongs to the New Zealand village of Taumatawhakatangihangakoauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhen uakitanatahu; and that Mrs. Beverly Nina Avery, a Los Angeles barmaid, holds the record for most spouses in a monogamous society, with 14 husbands, five of whom, she once alleged, broke her nose.

For those who care, Guinness also reports that the longest sword that can be swallowed after a heavy meal measures 26 in. The most extensive case of coin swallowing was reported by Sedgefield General Hospital, County Durham, England, where a man was relieved of 366 halfpennies, 26 sixpences. 17 threepences, 11 pennies and four shillings (424 coins valued at about $5).

Published for Pubs. First issued in Brit ain in 1955 by Guinness stout to settle bar bets, the book of mosts quickly became a must for pubs, libraries, schools, and school kids trying to outsmart their teachers. It now rates as Britain's bestselling reference book. Four British editions and one in the U.S. have sold 540,000 copies; soon to appear are French and German editions.

The publishing venture began with a disastrous 1954 bird shoot during which

Guinness Managing Director Sir Hugh Beaver missed everything in sight. Abashed. Sir Hugh tried to find out just how fast those elusive birds had been flying. He failed. But in his search he stumbled on a promotional opportunity: since many equally obscure points are disputed over pints of stout, why not publish a book for Britain's 73,000 pubs? It would keep the company's name, and product, on everybody's lips.

Lunatic Expert. Chosen to compile the book were Norris and Ross McWhirter, twin grandsons of Scottish Inventor William McWhirter, who built the first in dicating voltmeter and ammeter. At ten, the twins' favorite reading was Whitaker's Almanack; in the ensuing 26 years, they have added to their fund of statistics at Maryborough and Oxford, and as newsmen in London. In a scant 16 weeks, the McWhirters finished the book, and in the process they found an alibi for Sir Hugh: some game birds, they discovered, fly at a hard-to-hit 72 m.p.h.

The McWThirters now comb thousands of journals to keep their superlatives up to date, correspond with authorities in no countries, scan heaps of musty books to track down obscure points. To determine that Henry I was the leading sire of illegitimate children among British monarchs (at least 20, by six mistresses), they consulted twelve volumes of peerage records. And when all else fails, they turn to an army of volunteer assistants, including a mathematics expert lodged in Broadmoor criminal lunatic asylum.

*Even in its latest edition, Guinness is out of date. At last report, Masudiya Din had moved to Uttar Pradesh, and his mustache had grown until it stretched 8 1/2ft. from tip to tip.

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