Lifestyles of the sweet toothed and risk prone

The year is winding up fast and it’s Guinness Book of world Records time again. Next years edition would catalog all the successful and outlandish attempts at craziness and odd endeavors for the calendar year in 2007.

People of all types, in and out of organizations, solo and teamed up, have rushed to make their mark in the record books entering 2008.

The most notable and outrageous two are as follows. A New York City restaurant created an advance-order only dessert that would set any Sheik – or European or business czar or rock star – back only $25,000.

That princely ransom would get you a take-away gilded spoon and bowl, a fabulous studded bracelet, and a truly rare and exotic chocolate sundae mix. Of course, all that ‘enjoyment’ while the rest of the world starves food and resources to eke out a decent livelihood:

[…Stephen Bruce, owner of Serendipity 3, partnered with luxury jeweler Euphoria New York to create the "Frrozen Haute Chocolate," a blend of 28 cocoas, including 14 of the most expensive and exotic from around the globe.

The dessert, spelled with two Rs, is infused with 5 grams (0.2 ounces) of edible 23-karat gold and served in a goblet lined with edible gold. At the base of the goblet is an 18-karat gold bracelet with 1 carat of white diamonds.

The sundae is topped with whipped cream covered with more gold and a side of La Madeline au Truffle from Knipschildt Chocolatier, which sells for $2,600 a pound.

It is eaten with a gold spoon decorated with white and chocolate-colored diamonds, which can also be taken home.

"It took us a long time to experiment with all the ingredients and flavors, and more than three months were needed just to design the golden spoon," Bruce told Reuters….]

Makes you wonder a bit about just how much the freezer to keep the chocolate sundae on ice actually cost, doesn’t it?

Next was the news from Dublin. The Dublin in Texas is actually what I mean – not the Irish location. The legendary ‘Texas Snake Man’ simply put 12 more venomous rattlesnakes into his transparent bathtub in order to up the ante and beat his own past record of 75 snakes:

[…. The snakes crawled under his arms, between his legs and anywhere else they could slither, Bibby said. None bit him.

"They can go wherever they want as long as they don't start biting," Bibby said. "The key to not biting is for me to stay still. Rapid movement scares a rattlesnake. If you move real slow and gentle, that doesn't seem to bother them."

Bibby sat in the dry tub with a pillow behind him, wearing regular clothing. The snakes were not defanged and still contained their venom, he said.

The clear bathtub was specially made several years ago for Bibby by the Guinness folks for a televised segment. He has used it for subsequent attempts at the record for sitting in a tub with snakes.

"I have set several world records in that bathtub," Bibby said.

The record was Bibby's latest grab at glory. Last year he set a Guinness-certified record by holding 10 rattlesnakes by their tails in his mouth at once. He said he hopes to break that record Tuesday by squeezing in an 11th….]

I often think that this gift of life came very cheap to some people – like an heir to a great fortune, Bibby has the right and really can afford to toy or play around with it?