The Checkup: No Birth Certificate, No Record for 100-Year-Old Marathoner

I'm convinced that Guinness World Records is just toying with my emotions now

• Here’s one for the record books—or, well, not. Remember exactly one week ago when I told you about the 100-year-old British marathoner about to be etched into the Guinness World Records for being the oldest person ever to complete 26.2? Well apparently, he doesn’t have a birth certificate, and the Guinness folks won’t accept a passport or a letter from the Queen of England (seriously!!) as proof enough. So our good friend Fauja Singh might be out of luck. Which is sad, because I was really pulling for him.

• An Ohio dentist is offering kids in his community cold hard cash for their Halloween candy—a dollar for every pound they turn in. He’ll give each kid up to $5 for their candy plus a raffle ticket for a new bike. Oh! And they’ll get a free toothbrush, too. Take that, cavities.

• Men are funnier than women, according to a new study—but just barely.

• Lots of brand-name prescription drugs are facing soon-to-expire patents, which could mean generic (read: cheaper) versions of Lipitor, Plavix and Nexium could hit shelves next year. In an effort to save money, NPR reports, some patients using brand-name drugs either stop taking them or take them less often than they should. Even more sad than that is this sentence: “The drop in drug costs because of generics is one of the few bright spots in all of American health care.” A bright spot? Sad but true, though I guess you could say we found a silver lining.