Oklahoma man strives for a place in history

As you might imagine, there is not a whole lot to do in Oklahoma. It’s flat, it’s got oil and it looks like a hand pointing west. Sure, there was a musical about the state, but really Oklahoma is Texas with an inferiority complex. And you thought it couldn’t get any worse than Texas.

But Oklahoma will serve as the backdrop for one of the the greatest feats ever attempted by mankind. Here, in the megalopolis known as Muskogee, Brian Jackson, a mortal man, will try to set a world record for inflating a weather balloon by mouth. Yes, a weather balloon is rather large. It’s 8 feet in diameter, to be exact. The world record currently is 42 minutes. Jackson first made it on the scene as a hotshot in inflating things by breaking the world record for blowing up a water bottle until it burst in 2006.

Why does he try this, you ask? Why does man explore the bottom of the sea? Why did we walk on the moon? Why did Christopher Columbus set sail across the Atlantic Ocean for points unknown? It is in our very being to do what seems impossible to accomplish. It is the search for glory that keeps us moving, and it is the shouts saying it can’t be done that give us the will to prove them wrong.

Godspeed, Brian Jackson.

Family of the Week nominee

Let’s keep the theme of strange world records going. Ladies, we know you are a non-existent crucial part of SG’s readership, so allow us to introduce to you a stud, that is if you are into teenagers.

Meet Andrew Dahl, 13, of Washington state. He likes long walks on the beach, watching the sunset and the scent of a fresh balloon. We assume that last part is true, anyway, because Dahl inflated a possible world record 213 balloons with his nose. His father measured the balloons while his mother counted them.

Sorry, we do not have Dahl’s contact information, ladies. Just follow your nose.