I’m sure these two stories reveal something profound about the vast psychological gap that separates the French from the English, but it just won’t come to me.

(h/t to Dissendat)
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Spoon Players Scoop World Record
London, England.
July 27, 2006.

The world record for the biggest ensemble of spoon players has been set in Britain, the organiser of the event announced on Tuesday.

Amateur street-theatre group Stripey-Jumper rounded up 345 people to bash out a version of pub favourite Knees Up Mother Brown before an eagle-eyed panel of adjudicators in Trowbridge, south-west England.

“It’s been my life’s ambition to enter the record books,” said thrilled caterer Sean Price (39), who organised the cutlery capers.

Frederick Palmer, a magistrate who acted as an independent adjudicator, said a letter detailing the “largest spoons ensemble” would be sent off to the Guinness World Records organisation.

The spoons are played by holding two spoons between the fingers of one hand with the bowls facing each other, and tapping them against a leg.

“Proper grip is most important for spoon playing,” according to the website Spoonplayer.com.

“Much practice is required to reduce the chance of embarrassment that can result from a spoon gone awry or horror of horrors — a spoon dropped.”
– Sapa-AFP

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French police thwart joint-rolling record attempt
Nancy, France
26 July 2006
Police in France said on Tuesday they had thwarted an attempt by a group of marijuana smokers to roll the world’s longest joint by seizing a work-in-progress measuring 80cm in length.

“At some point, these young people had wanted to craft a joint of 1,12m to beat the world record in the discipline and get it officially registered,” said a police officer in eastern France.

“We don’t know who had the idea. Sometimes ideas are created in an astonishing way,” he said.

During an investigation targeting a group of four smokers in the eastern Vosges area of France, police discovered the giant joint containing 70 grams of marijuana resin. It had not been finished because of a lack of tobacco.

One of the smokers of adult age is to appear before a court charged with drug use on October 19. Two minors will appear before a juveniles’ court on October 6.
– AFP