"The Pyramids, of course--when were they? A thousand years earlier, I should say...and they were the greatest structure in the world until...in the 1400s, wasn't it?

"The 14th century, yes, of course."

*Fullest Mailbox

The McWhirters went to Oxford's Trinity College and then into the British Navy in the late '40s, and then opened a fact-finding business, doing research mainly for periodicals, encyclopedias, and commercial businesses. The fact-finding business still exists, but since 1954 it has fallen into the growing shadow of the Guinness Book. As the McWhirters tell it, a college teammate of theirs who had gone to work for Arthur Guinness Son & Co., Ltd. ("the largest exporter of beer, ale and stout in the world," as the book faithfully records) decided that there ought to be a recognized authority for settling disputes in pubs, and commissioned them to produce one. They sat down, consulted their accumulated lists of useless facts from newspapers and other sources, looked up other facts in reference works and libraries, wrote to various authorities for help with some more, and had a book done in a year or so.

"We were fascinated by it, of course." Ross says, "but we had no way of telling whether anyone else would be." The book began to sell almost immediately, however, and as its fame spread, so did reader response--an important source for many of the later editions' updated records. The McWhirters say they get about 10,000 letters a year, and answer all but a few--mostly American--whose authors neglect to include their addresses. "Sometimes they write a second time to demand an answer and the second letter lacks an address." Norris says firmly. "It isn't taught in the schools--that's what the trouble is!"

"There was a woman who demanded to be put in the book because she had sat on a stationary bicycle longer than anyone," Ross adds sadly, "and it turned out she had gone to a bicycle shop and sat on a bicycle with clamps and so on to hold it up. Whereas the Japanese man--Tsugunobu Mitsuishi was his name, he came from Tokyo--had balanced on a real bicycle. So I said to her, after all, you have to compare like with like! And she still kept writing letters."

*Consuming Live Ants

The McWhirters insist there is no harm in encouraging people to believe that there are records to be broken. Their book features two separate warnings that trying to break underwater endurance records is extremely dangerous. And their publisher--Guinness's lifeblood notwithstanding--flatly forbids records involving the consumption of more than two liters of liquor (except, apparently, in the case of "a hard drinker" named Vanhorn, who is said to have emptied 35,688 bottles of ruby port before succumbing in 1811) as well as "potentially dangerous categories such as consuming live ants, quantities of chewing gum or marshmallows, or raw eggs in shells."

But the McWhirters insist that such cautionary tales are all but superfluous. "As a general rule the mind packs up before the body does." Ross explains cheerfully.

* Strongest Man in the World

"There's probably only a half a dozen people in the world that do it," he adds, if he is asked whether harm might not come to people trying to break the "duration record for lying on a bed of nails (needle-sharp 6-inch nails, 2 inches apart)" which is "25 hours by Vernon E. Craig (Komar, the Indian fakir)."

"I've met Vernon Craig, you know," Ross continues. "He was on the Mike Douglas Show, Now when you torture people or cause them pain, their blood pressure goes up, and his goes down. It's driving the doctors mad."

Another acquaintance whom no one tries to imitate, Ross continues--the McWhirters have met many of the people in their book, often in connection with radio or television shows--"sauntered" over coals whose temperature was 1183 degrees Fahrenheit. "1183 or 1283--but put the lower figure," Ross says generously. "I knew Surrey quite well. I've met him three or four times, and I say to him how the hell can you do it?"

"You or I couldn't do it--we couldn't get close to it," Norris says forcefully. "He says it's hot, of course--very hot." Ross concedes.

Other record-holders worry about other kinds of heat. "You met Paul Anderson, didn't you?" Norris nods, and he and Ross are off into another of their colloquies. "I'd like to have met him." Ross says sadly. "Strongest man in the world."