Ham, Brush, Petting Help Cat Set Loudest Purr Record

It took slices of ham, a grooming brush and some hand petting for British domestic cat Smokey to achieve a Guinness World Record for the loudest purr.

Smokey, a grey tabby owned by Lucinda Ruth Adams, achieved a purr that pushed the needle to 67.7 dB at its home in Northampton, U.K., "where it felt relaxed and happy," Guinness said.

The record purr was measured by a Class 1 sound level meter and witnessed by a vet, a representative of a Northampton Cats Protection, a local MP and a sound engineer, Guinness said.

The loudness of Smokey's purr falls into the same ranges as normal conversation and normal piano practice, both of which are between 60 to 70 dB. The record-setting purr is quieter than both the dial tone of a telephone (80 dB) and the sound of city traffic inside a car (85 dB).

Smokey set the loudest purr record on March 25 of this year. The record was confirmed Aug. 11.

Cystomer Asked To Leave Restaurant Over Posted Tweet

The general manager of Down House restaurant in Houston is being criticized for tossing out a patron who called his bartender a “twerp” on Twitter.

Allison Matsu says she overheard the bartender “saying something derogatory about [well-known Houston restauranteur] Bobby [Heugel],” so took to Twitter to call him out on it.

Down House GM Forrest DeSpain — who at home at the time — saw the tweet and phoned the restaurant to speak with Matsu. “You need to get your ass up and leave the establishment,” DeSpain said according to Matsu. “Your time is done there.”

Matsu says DeSpain was angry that she was eavesdropping on a private conversation between employees. “If you’re in earshot of customers,” Matsu told Houston Press, “you probably shouldn’t be talking poorly about another bar.”

The restaurant’s owner, Chris Cusack, made it clear that he supported DeSpain’s decision, telling Local 2 News, “[a]ny business is allowed to set the tone of their establishment. If you go to someone’s house and start calling them names, I wouldn’t really expect to stay too much longer after that.”

For his part, Heugel responded to the controversy with a lengthy blog post, the tl;dr crux of which was “Houston Food Folks: Some of y’all need to chill.”

[houstonpress / kprc / eater.]