There is no grape stagnation

Setting the world record for using your mouth to catch a grape dropped from the greatest height: It was a dream years in the making, and all it took was a hot air balloon, walnut-sized fruits shipped specially from Georgia and a crew of Ph.D.-level engineers who gathered at a tiny Vermont airport before the sun rose on Monday morning.

The man with the plan was Brent Fraser, 35, who said he “just had a natural knack” for catching things in his mouth ever since his high school days in Barre, Vt., where buddies would chuck food toward him in the school parking lot.

The piece has some good sentences, such as:

Indeed, once things did get going, most of the few dozen attempts ended with a goggle-clad Fraser getting smacked in the face and chest by the large grapes — selected because they were easiest to see — that were traveling about 56 mph.

And:

“How much did they hurt?” one of the engineers, Tristan Ramey, asked at one point.

“So bad,” Fraser told her. “I felt like I was being punched in the face.”

He ended up catching one from 101 feet.  And finally:

Fraser, most of his face stained in purple grape juice, had to get to work to interview a prospective employee by 9 a.m.

Here is the full article, with video, via the excellent Mark Thorson.