In the early 1950s, some enterprising lads at the famed Boys Town orphanage near Omaha, Nebraska, had some extra time on their hands. The PlayStation was still 40 years in the future, so they started licking stamps. How many? Nobody knows for sure. But the insanity ended only after a 600-pound sphere was created. Frankly, that’s the best story we’ve heard philately. Leon Myers Stamp Center, 13628 Flanagan Boulevard, Boys Town, Nebraska

WORLD’S LARGEST FRYING PAN
In 1950, the Mumford Sheet Metal Works in Selbyville, Delaware, designed and built Colonel Sanders’s greatest fantasy — a 10-foot-diameter frying pan — for the Delmarva Chicken Festival. Delaware History Museum, 504 Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware

WORLD’S OLDEST WORKING LIGHTBULB
Depending on whose story you believe, the world’s oldest working lightbulb first started shining in 1901, 1902, or 1905. But, you know, after a century, does it really matter? Of course not. What matters is that Livermore (California) Fire Department Station No. 6 can brag about being in Guinness World Records and you probably can’t. 4550 East Avenue, Livermore, California; www.centennialbulb.org