Stumptown

Stumptown is one of several nicknames for Portland, Oregon. In the mid-19th century, the city's growth led residents to clear much land of trees quickly, but the tree stumps were not immediately removed. In some areas, there were so many stumps that people would jump from stump to stump in order to avoid the muddy, unpaved roads.

The nickname is used in the names of several local businesses, including Stumptown Coffee Roasters, an independent coffee roaster and retailer located in Portland; StumpTown Kilts, a maker of men's and women's modern kilts; Stumptown (comics), a creator-owned detective fiction comic book series set in Portland.

Portland-based Stumptown Coffee offers its cold-brew coffee on nitro at Stumptown Cafes and wholesale to businesses that it distributes to. It looks like a beer, has the creamy mouth feel of a stout, and is available at the bar.

Austin, Texas-based Cuvee Coffee Roastery’s Black and Blue has a cold-brewed coffee that mimics the frothiness of a Guinness the same way they do it in Dublin: with nitrogen. It is the first to make the coffee available in widget cans. When opened, these cans agitate their contents and produce a creamy texture in much the same way a can of Guinness does.

Guiness and Bar Bets

Guinness World Records was invented by the beer company to sell in bars and to settle bar bets. In 1951, the managing director of Guinness Brewery was on a bird-hunting trip in Ireland, hunting the golden plover. After failing to shoot even one, he declared that the bird must be the fastest in Europe. His friends said no, but they had no reliable source to turn to for bird speed. So he decided the public needed an official book of records that could be used to settle bar bets.

Some time later, he hired  the Norris and Ross McWhirter fact-finding agency to put together a definitive book of facts. The result was a 198-page book published in 1955 with the Guinness name on the cover that was handed out in bars as a giveaway to increase the sales of Guinness. The Guinness Book of Records was in such demand that Guinness immediately reprinted another 50,000 copies (44.7 tons) and started selling them.

In case you were wondering, according to the book, Britain's fastest game bird is the Red Grouse which, in still air, has recorded burst speeds up to 58-63 mph over very short distances. It is doubtful that the Golden Plover can exceed 55 mph, even in an emergency.

Cheeta the Chimp

Old timers who remember Tarzan from the movies will surely remember Cheeta the chimpanzee, who starred in the Tarzan films in the early 1930s. Cheeta died of kidney failure on Christmas Eve, according to the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbour, Florida where he lived. At 80, he was the oldest non-human primate alive, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. He outlived both Johnny Weissmuller, the actor who played Tarzan and owned him, and Maureen O’Sullivan, who played Jane.

Nacho World Record

Volunteers from the Northstar Church, Frisco, TX in July, 2010, made 3,556 pounds of nachos in a 48-by-4-foot trough. It is in the Guinness Book of World Records.

New Guinness World Records

Susan Boyle is in the book for the fastest selling debut album. Her debut album sold 411,820 copies in its first week in the UK. She is also listed as the oldest person to reach number one with a debut album. Other singers to make the new edition include Sir Tom Jones, the oldest artist to have a number one single, and Lady Gaga, who was crowned the most searched-for woman on the internet.

Did You Know

Richard Dawson from Family Feud is in the Guinness World Book of Records as having kissed more women than anyone else. I liked him better on Hogan's Heroes.