Three different dates have been announced for the Nathan’s qualifier in New Orleans:

• May 17 - Original announcement on majorleagueeating.com
• June 4 - Sam’s Club press release
• June 7 - IFOCE.com contests page

June 7 appears to be the most likely date because June 4 is a Wednesday and there would probably be more information if the qualifier was this weekend.

107.7 FM will sponsor a hot dog eating contest and a pasta eating contest in Brunswick, GA on May 17. Both contests will have $1,000 prizes. Call the radio station starting May 12 to obtain one of the 10 slots for each contest.

(From the Hangman, who will serve as a guest judge)

Local news video broadcast March 24 on KAMR about Joey Chestnut breaking the Big Texan’s 72 ounce steak record has been posted to youtube.

Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane has a blog entry and gallery about his attempt at the Big Texan.

“Furious” Pete has started a forum thread on bodybuilding.com titled “Ask a Competitive Eater Anything” which has already reached 8 pages in about a day.

Beautiful Brian has posted a tribute video of Pat Philbin to his website which can also be seen on youtube. The video features the song, “Piggy in the Middle”, which is based on “I am the Walrus” and is sung by The Rutles, a parody of the Beatles.

The morning show of KVBC.com has a video about El Toro showing him training with watermelon. There is also a video of Rich LeFevre competing in a one minute hot dog eating contest in the sidebar.

From IFOCE.com via the Sicilian:

1) Pat Bertoletti 41 HDB in 10 minutes
2) Patrick Vandam 30
3) Mike Fitzgerald 23.5

update KARE11.com has a short article with a video

update #2 StarTribune.com also has an article

Writeups of Pat Bertoletti appearances on the May 2 and May 9 episodes of the Steve Dahl show are available at dahl.com. Pat is planning to attend next weekend’s gyro contest in Houston.

A press release on gonintendo.com announces that a watermelon eating contest between Tim Janus and Crazy Legs Conti will take place at the Nintendo World Store at Rockefeller Center in New York City on May 20.

(from MosesNews) A press release about last month’s Big “A” burger contest at Andy’s Burgers, Shakes & Fries is now available at Carolina Newswire. The top 3 finishers:

1. Joe Menchetti, 5 minutes 15 seconds, $1000 prize
2. Joshua Currier, 5:45, Lumberton, NC, $500
3. Shayne Katrigis, 7:58, Charleston, SC, $250

• York (PA) Revolution to offer all you can eat seats where you can enjoy the company of former Baltimore Orioles
• Japanese commercial featuring a ramen eating contest
• Pat Bertoletti posts a picture of a hot dog training session (see above) to a yardbarker comment (The Waffle House belt is to remind Pat that Joey can be beat)
• Kansas State Games to have a hot dog eating contest July 18
• UK hot dog eating contest May 23
• Twins closer Joe Nathan to appear (but not compete) at tomorrow’s Nathan’s qualifier
• Today is Cookie Jarvis’ birthday according to a comment
• Furious Pete has posted an article about the Collegiate Nationals to bodybuilding.com
• China and the Philippines ban conversion of rice paddies to golf courses (via Freakonomics)
• Chicago Nathan’s qualifier next weekend to take place in Matteson
  

IFOCE.com reports that after discovery of “a document that suggests the original hot dog eating contest was 10 minutes in length”:

Major League Eating has elected to conduct all qualifying rounds of the 2008 multi-city Nathan’s Famous circuit tour as 10-minute competitions and may shift to this duration permanently, making it the official contest length.

While contests in the mid-1980s were 10 minutes (that length is mentioned in the New York Times 1986 contest report), contests in the first half of the 1970s ranged from 2 minutes to 5 minutes according to a Google News archive search. The July 4, 1974 contest, the only Independence Day contest found in the archives from that time period, was 3.5 minutes.

Results from the archive search are available after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »

Results from an anonymous comment & CE News
1. Rich LeFevre 31 or 32 (10 minute contest instead of 12)
2. Ron Koch 21
3. Andrew McKirdy 14
? El Toro

update Hall Hunt made quite accurate predictions for the qualifier

update #2 The Las Vegas Review has a captioned picture of Ron Koch and El Toro (from the Hangman)

update #3 BeautifulBrian.com has a contest report with some pictures

The web site for the Hot Dog Safari announces that a hot dog eating contest between Crazy Legs Conti and two couples will take place at that event on June 1 at Suffolk Downs in suburban Boston. The entry form states that the couple must be married or engaged and that the accepted pairs will be notified by May 15. The winner will receive $1000 in gift certificates, the loser will receive $500 in gift certificates.

Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane announces in his blog that he will attempt the Big Texan’s 72 ounce steak at approximately 4:30 pm eastern, which can be viewed on the restaurant’s webcam.

update Skinnyboy reports that he had about 7 ounces of steak remaining along with the potato when an hour elapsed.

A press release announces that the five recently added Nathan’s qualifiers will take place at Sam’s Clubs to promote the addition of Nathan’s hot dogs to the menu of Sam’s Clubs’ in store restaurants.

May 17 Chicago
May 24 Pittsburgh
May 31 Overland Park, KS (Kansas City)
June 4 New Orleans
June 21 Dallas

In additional upcoming contest news, the IFOCE strawberry shortcake eating contest returns to Mattituck, NY on June 15. Registration opens tomorrow at noon eastern (from the Sicilian)

BeautifulBrian.com has a preview of today’s Nathan’s qualifier focusing on Ron Koch’s comeback to face his rival Rich LeFevre.

The Las Vegas Review Journal also has a short preview which says that LeFevre and Koch will compete. It says nothing about Joey Chestnut.

The meals Gal Sone endorsed for the Lawson convenience store chain debuted yesterday. Gal Sone has a blog entry about the release containing pictures of a store containing her advertisement. Gigazine has reviews of the meals. Lawson stores will sell the meals until May 19.

The New Scientist has an article about a study conducted by a research team led by Alain Dagher at McGill University in Montreal about the effects of the hormone ghrelin:

Made in the stomach, ghrelin levels rise when people are hungry and wane after a meal. People who get injections of the hormone gorge themselves, while those suffering from a rare disease that keeps ghrelin levels unusually high tend to be obese overeaters.

“I think it’s the most powerful appetite stimulant that has ever been found,” Dagher says.

The article says that drugs that block ghrelin are in the under development at pharmaceutical companies.

Hall Hunt has published his latest poll. The top 6 remain unchanged, the remainder of the top 10 follows:

7. Hall “Hoover” Hunt (182) [8]
8. Rich “The Locust” LeFevre (181) [7]
9. Erik “The Red” Denmark (160) [12]
10. Chip “The Phenom” Simpson (153) [9]

Badlands Booker and Joe LaRue are the newcomers to the rankings, replacing Justin Mih and Nate Biller. Arturo Rios (now #15) and Brian Seiken (now #21) both jump four slots.

• Beautiful Brian’s thoughts on Badlands Booker’s possible comeback. (He thinks that Tim Janus will compete in the Shea Stadium qualifier)
• Musician Dan Bern trains for and wins a hard boiled egg eating contest (he thinks that the female who ate 65 eggs is 8 years old) (via Ugly Dude Food)
• Megamunch has a blog entry about his participation in City Chase, which had a dog food eating segment
• Wing Tut to do Cleveland brownie eating contest and 5K Race for the Cure in Pittsburgh on Sunday. He is seeking donations for the Race for the Cure.
• Article about eating contests at Fitchburg State College
• 8.5 month pregnant woman competes in taco eating contest
• Videos of Scozzy Bone at the Acme Oyster Eating contest: video 1, video 2
• Dallas Nathan’s qualifier to be held at Plano Sam’s Club
• Skinnyboy competes in Denver CE meetup group burger contest
• CE: sport / not a sport debate in New Mexico State student paper

Reflector.com has a page dedicated to Kristin Day’s recent attempt at Andy’s Big “A” 50 ounce burger challenge. The page has 5 videos, a slideshow along with an article by Kristin, probably making Kristin’s meal the best documented burger challenge by a female since Kate Stelnick completed the 96er in January 2005.

The blog for Discover magazine has an entry about an artificial mouth which is the subject of an article in an upcoming issue of the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

The chewing simulator—which was maintained at 98.6 °F, sported artificial teeth, and included artificial saliva and helium flow “to reproduce the breathing phenomena”—went up against actual human mouths in a Golden Delicious apple-eating contest. These human mouths chewed apple pieces “as naturally as possible” before spitting out the chewed up mass when they would have otherwise swallowed. The resulting mush was tested for texture, color, and volatile compound release, parameters which the group will soon use to optimize the device for aroma release.

The new poll asks what you believe the sum of the prizes for the upcoming Nathan’s finals will be. Last year’s purse was $20,000.

Pat Bertoletti has uploaded a blog entry to his group blog with Joey Chestnut at yardbarker.com in which he describes the end of the asparagus contest in Stockton from his perspective:

A point came with 1 minute remaining where the margin was 1 spear. It became obvious that I could take this contest in front of Joey’s home crowd. I saw victory and let it slip through my grasp. My brain knew the necessary means to achieve this yet a disconnect between brain and body function existed. It was a point of mental and physical failure as neither would respond in the dwindling seconds. Asparagus was forced in yet my body fought every attempt to let it pass down my esophagus. It’s provides evidence that Joey is a true champion; a champion knows how to coerce every ounce of drive and performance out of their body, doesn’t make excuses, and gets the job done.

Pat says his next contest will take place at the Minneapolis Nathan’s qualifier this Saturday. Unlike previous Minnesota qualifers which were held at the Mall of America, the upcoming contest will take place at Cub Foods Grocery Store in Apple Valley.