DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
Conductor Andres David Ascanio conducts musicians of Venezuela’s National System of Youth Orchestras and Choirs during a concert as they try to break the Guinness World Record for the largest orchestra in the world, in Caracas, Venezuela, on 13th November, 2021. REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria
• Venezuela on Saturday attempted to break the Guinness record for the world’s largest orchestra, as 12,000 musicians played a classical piece together for more than five minutes. The attempt, by the country’s National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras, known as “The System”, would beat a Russian record set two years ago and with a decision expected from Guiinness in the next week or so. “The System” counts some 350,000 children and youths among its rank, playing in a network of 180 orchestras. Saturday’s musicians, wearing white, played Piotr Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave for 10 minutes at Caracas’ military academy. “It is a pleasure to be at the official attempt via video,” Guinness expert Susana Reyes said. The current record was set in Saint Petersburg, when 8,097 musicians played together.
• The idea of churches as a place of sanctuary has gained momentum in recent years but one Michigan church found the opening day of deer hunting season brought someone unsual through their doors. Pastors at Grace Sturgis Church in the city of Sturgis found a 10-point buck inside the church auditorium on Monday trying to find its way out. The buck, who had apparently entered by jumping through a first floor window, changed his mind about staying and, after sometime struggling to find its way out, eventually did so by jumping back out the window after the pastors’ arrival. “[T]he buck left strengthened in the Lord to go face his battles,” the church wrote in a Facebook post put up with a video. The only damage was reportedly some blood on the carpet after the deer apparently cut himself on the window.
• One tree, five different fruit. Australia gardener Hussam Saraf, of the town of Shepparton in the state of Victoria, earnt himself a Guinness World Record recently when he successfully grafted five different types of fruit – including plums, apricots, almonds, peaches and cherries – onto a single tree. Saraf told The Guardian he actually grafted 10 different fruits onto the tree in his backyard, but said Guinness told him not all of them counted as different types. Saraf’s effort means he now shares the record with Luis H Carrasco, of Chile, who, having also grafted five different fruit onto a single tree, has held the record alone for two decades. Saraf said his tree sent a message of “peaceful coexistence”.
– With DEISY BUITRAGO/Reuters.
