Etc...

And two straws, please ...

OK, it's a warm summer evening. You've just finished supper, and you're thinking that nothing would top it off better than a frosty ice cream float. And then you find out about the publicity stunt staged in Atlanta last week by soft-drink giant Coca-Cola and you say to yourself, "Why couldn't I have been there?" Coke set out to break its own record for history's largest float in honor of the relaunch of its vanilla-flavored cola ("back by popular demand," according to a news release). So, with a Guinness Book of World Records official on hand (for confirmation purposes), employees pumped 2,850 gallons of syrup from a tanker truck into a specially made 15-ft.-high glass, where carbonation was added. Other employees then emptied buckets of premium ice cream (equivalent to 7,200 scoops) into the liquid, creating the desired froth. The previous record: 2,085 gallons, set in 1998. The ceremony took place outside Coke's new museum, which had just opened in time for Memorial Day weekend. Guinness rules required that the concoction be certified as drinkable by health inspectors, but afterward – alas – it all went into the garbage rather than being served to any of the hundreds of people who came to watch. Rather than risk a public relations nightmare by sending them away unfulfilled, however, the company offered free sample floats from a nearby kiosk.