Longest Cow-Milking Infographic

An odd record, but one that stands as a testament to what a suitably determined farmer can do.

©2014 James Mathurin 

The longest prison sentence ever received for spitting chewing gum infographic

Cautionary tales of mastication, now in infographic form.

©2013 James Mathurin

Longest cow-milking

The longest ever spent milking a cow was 7 months and 19 days, by Moldovan Artur Shmill. Interviewed after the 9^th week, Shmill explained,

“I cannot stop until I milk beer from this cow. It was a foolish bet, that I made with my cousin, but I refuse to give up.” 

Despite adapting the milking stool he sat on into a toilet, and handcuffing his hands to the cows udder to sleep, Shmill had to give up without success, when his right ring finger fell off, forcing him to go for medical attention.

Artur's cousin, Nicolae, transporting one of the752 deliveries of milk produced by Artur's epic milk. The horse, Prince Donkaevie, was eventually crippled by the excessive workload, but in order to save him from being rendered into glue and steak, the Shmill family adopted him in 2002. Photograph by sergejf.

©2012 James Mathurin

The longest prison sentence ever received for spitting chewing gum

The longest prison sentence ever received for spitting chewing gum onto a pavement was 17 years, imposed on Pierre Bonnechop by a court in Paris France, in 1976. Bonnechop had been seen spitting out 79 kilogrammes of gum on the rue de Cheveux, over 3 hours, on the morning of February 16^th that year. By the time he was arrested, the pile of gum measured 76cm high. Pleading guilty in court, Bonnechop told the Magistrate, Henri Poivre, “I don’t know what came over me, but for those 3 hours, literally all I could think was chew, spit, chew, spit, chew, spit. It may have been a reaction to my worries over the French dairy farming industry.”

After his early release in 1990, Bonnechop moved to this farm, outside of Tours. He has voluntarily taken part in several public awareness campaigns about public hygiene, including 3 videos where he appears as the anti-chewing gum mascot, "Le monstre qui mâche". Photograph by PhillipC.

©2012 James Mathurin