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By Dave Schafer and John Perry

Some people will do anything for fame. Midland’s Michael Lloyd kicked himself in the head 42 times in a minute to get his name in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The city of Houston is mentioned three times in the Guinness book. A Houston entrepreneur sold the most expensive Internet domain name – business.com. Tom Brady completed 32 passes during Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston. And Destiny’s Child, from Houston, owns the record for “girl band holding the No. 1 spot on U.S. Singles chart the longest.”

Houston has plenty of award-worthy people, and we can prove it without kicking ourselves in the head. We just have to look at records a little differently. Take the winners of the 24 categories in the 2006 Employee Un-Guinness Book of Records, a list of offbeat, wacky and unique records held by our fellow city employees. Winners were chosen from your entries and the judges’ subjectivity.

Most places visited
Gilbert Keery, Houston Emergency Center, visited 49 countries. Then he visited Marriagedom, which merged with the land of Fatherhood, and he stayed home.

Longest name
Geovanni Johnathan Fuentes Mahecha, Public Works & Engineering. We know and love him as Geo.

Most unusual hobby
Some people use money to buy flowers. Cheryl Jackson, PWE, uses money to make flower arrangements. Gotta be cheaper than buying them from a florist, right?

Famous autograph
This one was close. You all collect more signatures than a Kinky Freidman-for-governor petition. But the winner was Bob Nowak, Information Technology, who has two John F. Kennedy autographs. JFK helped free Nowak’s mother from Poland in January 1960. The signatures are on letters then-Sen. Kennedy sent to Nowak’s father.

Weirdest pet
Alex Garcia, Planning & Development, has a sugar glider named Lasik. Garcia’s family loves all pets, from rats to snakes, so getting a sugar glider seemed natural. The glider is five to seven inches long and weighs three or four ounces. It may be strange to you, but Garcia thinks it’s cute.

Nickname
When Shari “Gooder” Ingram, Aviation, was talking to some co-workers three years ago about the bad weather, she said, “It’s going to get gooder at the end of the week.” It still haunts her. And now, it’s been immortalized in print, and it doesn’t get any gooder than that.

Brush with fame
A twin peaks winner: Both Roger Smith, Aviation, and Amanda Booren, Mayor’s Office, had run-ins with Joe Montana. Smith interviewed the 49ers great while a TV sports reporter in El Paso. Six-year-old Booren slapped Montana’s hand away when he tried to push the button on an elevator in Cincinnati, Ohio. Booren thought it was her job to press elevator buttons. His teammates in the elevator teased Montana about getting rejected by a 6-year-old.

Most unusual vehicle traveled in
Two employees, Nancy Heuitt, Police, and Jerrel Geisler, PWE, rode in the Goodyear blimp when it was stationed in Houston. Geisler rode while researching a story for the college newspaper and magazine. Heuitt rode in 1981 when someone gave her two passes. It was a fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime experience, Heuitt said. No word on whether either was listening to Led Zeppelin when they were up in the air.

Longest commute
Tracy Tuckerson, Aviation, could use a blimp for her daily commute. Each day, she drives from Beaumont to Bush Intercontinental Airport, 1 hour and 40 minutes each way.

Weirdest food eaten
Thomas Nunnery, Fire, ate monkey brains and elephant trunk. We’re guessing it wasn’t in the HFD breakroom. And no, he insists, they didn’t taste like chicken.

Most famous living relative
Lettie Preston, HEC, is related to Billy Preston, a musician and entertainer who was once back-up organist for The Beatles, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton and others. Yeah, but can he play the spoons?

Oldest living relative
PWE’s Greg Bennett’s great-grandmother is 107 years old and still telling them about the first automobile, the great depression, when Americans landed on the moon, and 2005’s outlandish gas prices. She’s the mother of two children, 16 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren. And she still owns the 160-acre farm in Oklahoma where she was raised.

Oldest employee
Gladys Hagan, PWE, also remembers the great depression. She’ll turn 84 in February. She’s been married for 57 years and retired from Crown Zellerbach Corp. before joining the city in December 1981.

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