THE IMPROBABLE BOOK OF RECORDS

We're skeptical of the authors' claim that this book (published as the Puffin Book of Improbable Records in England) will be issued to all US Marines for the nutritional content of its paper and ink. We ourselves didn't find items about ""a potato bearing a striking resemblance to Queen Victoria"" or ""the largest quantity of carrot wine ever to be made in a New York basement flat"" very filling. But we concede that the cumulative effect of Pythonesque proper names (Mr. Alfred Bight. . . Mrs. Nora Kneewind of Swampscott) and Blake's scribbled nuttiness is a state of droll satiety. Particularly worthy of note are Mr. Origen Pest of Kanab who modeled ""83 life-size effigies of himself out of candle ends"" and the record for the ""largest number of hedgehogs to do a perfect forward roll in succession""--as is the expression on the face of Mr. Lemuel Potter's Caspian perch, caught in the midst of its 42nd ""partially successful"" escape attempt. Lenny Zork and Frieda yon der Piffle of Wry, Nottingham found this ""pretty dumb but we laughed a lot anyway"" . . . and that's for the record.