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World Record

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In the weird world that is Guinness, the news this week is what was the steepest street on the planet has been overtaken. For many years, the official steepest street has been (no, nothing in San Francisco) Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand, coming at a gradient of 34.97 percent.

The upstart steepest street is Ffordd Pen Llech (say that three times quickly!) in the seafront town of Harlech in North Wales, which is about 240 miles northwest of London.  Ffordd Pen Llech has a gradient of 37.45.  Apparently there was a concerted effort by the town of Harlech to win the coveted “steepest” title; tourism is expected to rise with the influx of folks wanting to see it and have their picture taken on the street.

Dunedin City Council has already met to discuss their loss and have decided they will market themselves as having the steepest street in the southern hemisphere!

Who’s the tallest in your family?

63 thoughts on “World Record”

  1. Almost everyone in my immediate family is taller than I am. My dad was the tallest at 6’4″. The only two that I am taller than are YA (and I’m only beating her out by about three quarters of an inch) and my niece Savannah, who I think may keep the title of shortest. Even one of my tomato plants right now is taller than I am.

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  2. Is it taller than you if you step up on the hay bale it’s perched on? Whatever, it sounds like you have some healthy tomato plants. I have a cucumber plant that is going berserk, it’s threatening to take over the back yard. I harvested three seedless cukes from it yesterday, and whipped up a chilled cucumber soup with lots of herbs, yogurt and lemon juice. From the looks of it, I’m going to have to come up with a lot of recipes that require cucumber.

    Despite having shrunk a couple of inches, I remain the tallest person in my family. I topped out at 5’9 and 1/2″, I’m now 5’7″. Dad was 5’8″, mom 5’4″, and my sister reached her peak 5’2″.

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    1. No it’s not taller than I am if I stand on the bale, but I’m going to count it anyway. Three of my five tomato plants are going crazy and I’m harvesting basil this week as well. Four jars of pesto so far, more on the docket.

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      1. I love basil, and didn’t plant any this year, don’t ask me why. Especially considering that I once again planted too many tomato plants. Guess farmers’ market will have to do.

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  3. Hands down it is the oldest of my younger brothers at 6’4″. Our dad used to be that tall, but has lost many inches in the last 5 years.

    In my own house, it is now the s&h who is tallest. He did not end up with the family height I thought he would, but he seems to be fine with that as it means he has less to haul around the track :).

    The delinquents do their best to stretch as tall as they can to get the best view out the back door, and practice by stretching as long as possible in the heat, trying to not have furry bits touching other furry bits.

    I envy those of you whose garden is already serving up more than lettuce. I got a very late start, but things do seem to be moving right along.

    We set up an arch in a newly cleared corner of the yard, and the squash I have growing up it will hopefully provide a bit of shade over my head in the next month or so.

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    1. What kind of squash do you grow on a trellis, mig? We’ve planted some sort of acorn squash for the first time this year, but we’re just letting it do it’s thing on the ground. It’s has lots of yellow flowers right now.

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      1. Buttercup.
        My garden this year is mostly coming from me trying to go through the stash of old seed packets (if it grows, it grows), saved seed, and continuously rooting suckers from the 4 tomatoes plants I bought here and there.

        Tomatoes are just setting on and I am getting very impatient.

        I do not think it would be possible for me to have too many tomatoes. Just threw some basil seed in that is now coming up, so hopefully I’ll have a bunch of that in due time (I’ve never had “enough” of that either).

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      1. Thanks, Barb.
        The s&h was briefly home for a couple of days (gutter cleaning and arch assembly), but he is working on campus (custodial, I am sure he is learning a lot) for the summer and running in his beloved Arb. I’m in the proccess of trying to build my “next chapter” and getting back on the Trail seemd to me to be a good component of that.

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  4. I’m not only the runt of my immediate family but also amongst my aunts, uncles, and cousins on both sides. I peaked at 5’2″ while in college. Now I have shrunk a bit and am down to 5’1.5″. My younger sister (by 4 years and 5 grades) and I were the same height when she started Kindergarten and I was entering 6th grade. She ended up a good 5 to 6 inches taller. People who didn’t know us always figured that I was the youngest – and some still do.

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  5. Forgot to answer the question. My dad was the tallest at 5’8″. Mom came in at 5’3″ and my sisters at 5’5″ and 5’7″. One of mom’s 8 siblings was the tallest at 5’8″. Her husband was 6’4″, her daughter (my age) topped out at 5’11”, and twin sons at 6’3″. They were by far the tallest in the extended family.

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  6. Son is 6’5, Husband is 6’2, daughter is 6’0, and I am 5’7. I used to be 5’9. My mother was 5’11. Her mother was 6’0. My dad was 5’6. His family are all shorter than my mom’s family, who are all quite tall. We will be the tallest people at my father in law’s funeral in Denver next week.

    We harvested spinach last weekend and I made two spanakopitas. The raspberry harvrst has started. Peas and beans are flowering. Tomatoes and peppers are setting fruits. I need to thin the basil.

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    2. Raspberry harvest is in full swing here as well. It’s amazing to me how many raspberries I’m getting from my canes considering that they were two loan stalks when Linda gave them to me a few years back.

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        1. Good raspberries and many beetles here. Mosquitoes attacked last night, lurking in the raspberry canes. I saw one over 6 inches tall while picking berries and I am covered with itchy bites.

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  7. How is it that some of you know the heights of all the members of your family down to the inch or half inch? My Dad was about my height, give or take an inch, and I think I was about 5’ 10 1/2” at my tallest, but even that I’m not positive about. My mother was a couple of inches shorter.
    Do you all compare heights? Measure each other?

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    3. At both my grandmothers’ houses there was a wall space dedicated to measuring how tall I and all my cousins were. Every time we visited, we would put a pencil mark on the wall indicating the tops of our heads, with our names and the date.

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      1. This was also a feature of the late, lamented farmhouse, but I think you had to live there to get to make your mark.

        In this case, it was inside the door of the built in ironing board. The highest mark was made by my dad the day he left for college (first in the family to do so) and at the lowest range, there was a whole cluster of marks made by my youngest cousin. She must have been very anxious to catch up to her older brothers, as she was marking almost once a week for awhile.

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    4. I know the heights of everyone in my family because the fact that I was the runt of the family was hugely amusing to everyone except me. Both my sisters my mom and my dad taller than I, all of my cousins (as they got to be adults) taller than I, all of my nieces and nephews (except one) taller than I am. That’s why I know anyway.

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      2. Sherrilee – I know the feeling. In my immediate family only my great niece (4) and great nephews (4 & 6) are shorter than me!

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  8. Immediate family, Darling Husband is the tallest, beating out my brother by an inch or two. I had aspirations to grow to 5’10” – but the genetics had other plans and cut me off at about 5’8″ (alas). My mom and I are/were about the same height (she’s shrinking), Dad was the shortest in the family by the time I was in 8th grade.

    We were at a family wedding right before the 4th of July with cousins from my mom’s side of the family. The eldest of those cousins is the tallest of those three boys (the groom-to-be was his youngest brother) and he clocks in over 6 feet – I think somewhere in the 6’2″ range. He has triplet sons who just finished their freshman year of college. The shortest of them is 6’4″ the other two are 6’6″. Darling Daughter was less impressed by the height than the fact that there are triplets in the family (Mom! Why didn’t you tell me I’m related to triplets!!!)

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  9. Rise, then rise some more, and more after that, Shine from your lofty heights, Baboons,

    I am from two families of short people, with a few exceptions. I was, in my teen years, tall and skinny. My sweet great-aunts were always looking up at me saying, “so tall! Where did that come from?” Apparently my great grandfather, John, provided that tall gene, so Dad’s first cousin, me, and another cousin’s children shot up above everyone else.

    Now we are shrinking. I topped out at 5’9’ and recently was just over 5’7” at the Dr’s office preparing for the knee replacement. Lou was once 6’4”, now 6’2”. My son and his partner now tower over us: he is 6’5 and she is about 5’9”.

    When we visited the Netherlands 5 years ago, pre-shrinkage, we were of average height there, and we were stopped a lot by other tourists, who thought we were Dutch, to ask directions.

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      1. That’s not a phrase that gets used a lot around here. Also, it may be referring to Germans—Deutsch men—rather than Netherlanders. The corruption of Deutsch into Dutch, as in Pennsylvania Dutch, is not uncommon.

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  10. Our Hidatsa pole beans and Vermont cranberry pole beans are finally to the tops of their poles. June was cool here and everything is about 3 weeks behind.

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  11. My Grandfathers were both fairly tall. They just didn’t pass it along to my family.
    And on Kelly’s side; 3 of her 4 uncles were big men. But that skipped Kelly and I and went to our son who is 6′.
    I had a cousin who was probably 6’6″. And Kelly has some cousins that are right up there too. One 6’+ guy married a woman who is only about 4′ tall. In pictures you can’t tell who’s the kids and who’s the mom.

    There is a quirky movie called ‘The Englishman who went up a hill and came down a Mountain’. Kinda fun. Vaguely related to the main post about slopes.
    Here’s a Veggie-tales movie.

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  12. Husband is taller than me. When we married, almost forty years ago, he was 5’11”. He now claims to be 6″! Don’t know how that’s possible, bur apparently he’s still growing at 69 years of age.

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  13. I used to live in San Francisco on the west (and straight) end of Lombard Street, not the curvy steep end, but it’s still fun to tell people that.

    My mom’s family were all short, she was tallest at 5’4″. My sister is/was maybe 5’2, so I’m the tallest kid at (formerly) 5’6. My dad’s family was more average height, though his sisters were short – Dad was 5’10. Michael’s family is somewhat taller, and he is about 5’11, I think – Joel reached 6′..

    You just never know which questions are going to get the most comments! It’s only 9:25 and it says 25.

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  14. I think I’m still the tallest in my family. Might have one or more nephews who I haven’t seen recently who are taller. I topped out at 6′ 1 & 1/2″. Still about 6’1″. If I could get my hands on one o’ them thar fancy medieval stretching racks I’d be 6’3″ easy and wouldn’t have any more back pain. 🙂 ) {slight scoliosis]

    Chris in Owatonna

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    1. You need one of those inversion tables, Chris. My friend, Helen, has one that she lets me use. It feels great when all the weight is lifted off your spine.

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      2. I tried one at my chiropractic and got nauseated. Can’t have my head below my heart for more than a minute or so. That’s why the rack is my preferred weapon of torture. 😉

        Chris

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  15. My maternal grandparents were a real Mutt and Jeff couple. Grandpa stood over 6′ tall and Grandma was barely 5′ tall. Guess whose genes I got?

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  16. OT – Something really bizarre has been going on with me since Sunday. I was sitting quietly in my chair reading some of Edith’s posts to the trail. I suddenly became aware of a very faint bagpipe drone playing Amazing Grace. I listened for a while to see if I could determine where the sound was coming from. As you I have hearing issues, I often can’t determine where a sound is coming from, and I never did succeed in figuring it out.

    This has now happened at least two or three times a day, every day since then, and at this point I think the sound is coming from inside my own head. It’s a rather calm and quiet drone, so it really doesn’t bother me. Should I seek medical help? Any ideas what’s causing this?

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      1. Wow! Thanks, Renee. I have tinnitus, but have never heard of, or experienced, this before. Really, really strange, but as I said not really unpleasant because it’s such low volume and a calming sound. But perhaps I had better have it checked out anyway.

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    2. With experiences like this and dear ones recently departed, you just never know. I think I wrote months ago about a lovely young woman who was the Chair of a psychotherapy I am active in. Tragically she died of Ovarian Caner in March.

      My task with this organization was to get the checking account established so that we can collect dues. With the Chair person were the Tax ID number and our non-profit statement (5013c) which she had established. Her death happened sooner than expected and it appeared that she did not post it in the Dropbox account we use to share these documents because we are spread throughout MN. Her husband did not have it. Her business partner did not have it. I was about to contact the state and national offices to get the paperwork when I checked the Dropbox one more time, “Just in case,” although I knew it was not there.

      It was there. I told the group. Our theory is that she is an angel and she did it. Nuff said.

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      1. To tell you the truth, the thought had entered my mind that perhaps Edith had something to do with it, and because it wasn’t causing any discomfort and actually was quite pleasant, I just let it be. I have never experienced anything like this before. Strange. Maybe it’ll go away after her celebration of life.

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  18. The niece the elder has all the height. I think she’s 5 foot 9 or so.

    I’m 5 foot 4 1/2 if I’m measured early in the day. I lose about half an inch during the afternoon hours. My sister is about 5 foot 2. My mother was a little over 5 feet at her tallest.

    I don’t remember how tall my father was, but probably not very. I think my niece would top him. In my family we are not a tall people, generally speaking.

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