The commenter DBOONE9TH@MSN.COM sent his comments from an eastern hemisphere location. Since Brian Seiken has been in communication with “The Mouth of the South” who told him that he will return to the United States and competitive eating those comments are most likely by the actual Dale Boone. The Atlanta Nathan’s qualifier could be an interesting scene if Boone considers fellow Georgians Bubba Yarbrough and Larry McNeil “carpetbaggers” as he did Carlene LeFevre.

I will be away from the computer for most of the day, so comment moderation will be slow.

Reminder: Badlands Booker will appear on the G4 network’s Attack of the Show! at 7pm eastern

PermalinkComments (41)

This blog entry provides an update on the efforts of the creators of the documentary Swallow Your Pride to obtain distribution for their film. The movie filmed at Wing Bowl 13 was screened last summer and received positive reviews but apparently no additional showings have taken place since that time. The film was not accepted by the Sundance Film Festival, but the documentarians sent Bill “El Winagdor” Simmons a copy that was forwarded to Mike Tollin, who is producing a fictional Wing Bowl movie starring (according to the blog) Adam Sandler . Tollin loved the movie and connected the film’s creators with the distributor of Napoleon Dynamite, Super Size Me and other independent films.

Swallow Your Pride has a domain name reserved at swallowyourpridemovie.com, but that URL is completely content-free.

PermalinkComments (3)

MTV now has a full description of its True Life episode about Tim Janus, Ian Hickman and Kobayashi on its website. There will be some footage of Rich LeFevre as well if the show commercial represents the actual episode accurately.

PermalinkComments

Cindy M of the Sugar Savvy blog attended Monday’s chocolate contest in Chicago and wrote a report with a few pictures.

PermalinkComments (3)

This article in ynet news describes how the publicity garnered by Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest inspired efforts to create the worlds largest hummus platter. A circular trampoline was modified to serve as the platform for the hummus. Unfortunately, the record snowstorm in New York City last weekend thwarted the delivery of the ingredients for the hummus.

PermalinkComments

from Erik “the Red” (not Gumby) Denmark:

Jalapeno Festival Jalapeno Eating Contest, Laredo, TX updated 2/20 7:30
1st – Getleman Joe Menchetti – 105 jalapenos (Wallingford, Connecticut), $1000
2nd – Erik “The Red” Denmark – 98 jalapenos (Seattle, WA), $500
3rd – Benjamin Navarro – 74 jalapenos (Laredo, TX), $250
4th – Jose A. Mar – 71 jalapenos (Laredo, TX)

Erik has the following comments about the contest :

Just wanted to give you the results of the Laredo Jalapeno eating contest. I finished second, I had a big lead in the beginning but slowed in the second half to allow Menchetti to catch up and pass me- though I didn’t know that the guy who strategically sat next to me was Gentleman Joe until after the contest.

Anyway, it was brutally cold in Laredo, around 35 degrees with a wind chill factor, which I think made the winning totals lower because it took a while to get the jaw warmed up.

Link to article… (article has expired as of Monday morning)

http://www.lmtonline.com/ (picture)

http://www.lmtonline.com/news/s1.php#lmt (article)

The article mistakenly claims that Mar holds the record for 141 jalapenos – the most he ever ate was 113 last year. Also, they don’t recognize Donahue as holding the record although they do say that the 141 jalapeno record was set in 1992.

PermalinkComments (32)

The Tour de Gorge Thanksgiving Invitational (from 2004), Title Rally and French Fry Contest will be rerun on the INHD high definition network several times over the next two weeks:

• Tour De Gorge: Thanksgiving Invitation
INHD, Mon Feb 20 03:30pm EST
• Tour De Gorge: Title Rally
INHD, Wed Feb 22 06:30am EST
• Tour De Gorge: Title Rally
INHD, Wed Feb 22 11:00am EST
• Tour De Gorge: Title Rally
INHD, Wed Feb 22 07:30pm EST
• Tour De Gorge: Thanksgiving Invitation
INHD, Sat Feb 25 07:30am EST
• Tour De Gorge 5: Nathan’s French Fries Eating
INHD, Sun Feb 26 02:30pm EST
• Tour De Gorge 5: Nathan’s French Fries Eating
INHD, Sun Feb 26 07:00pm EST
• Tour De Gorge 5: Nathan’s French Fries Eating
INHD, Tue Feb 28 04:00pm EST
• Tour De Gorge 5: Nathan’s French Fries Eating
INHD, Wed Mar 01 12:30am EST

PermalinkComments (4)

This article in the Austin American Statesman describes how Levi Oliver is training for a triathlon in an effort to decrease his “belt of fat” and increase his chances of repeating as tamale eating champion.

PermalinkComments (1)

If this blog entry is accurate, Kate Stelnick is no longer the only Delaware Valley female who holds an eating challenge record. kb of the phillycynics blog claims to have eaten 30 pierogies at Sugar Mom’s Church Street Lounge in Philadelphia, breaking the restaurant’s record by 5 Polish pastries. She wore a Lance Armstrong bracelet while accomplishing her feat as Ms. Stelnick did. kb received a t shirt as a prize for breaking the record. kb could be a possible contender to return the Wing Bowl crown to the Delaware Valley.

PermalinkComments

Rona Conti, the mother of Crazy Legs, has just returned from Japan and submitted a comment on the Japanese competitive eating scene (or lack thereof). I have converted that comment into this post to make sure it receives the attention it deserves. Her comment follows:

While I know a great deal more about Japanese calligraphy than the Japanese Competitive Eating scene, having just returned from three months in Japan, I have some current information. The wanko soba noodle contest is, I believe, unrelated to “contemporary” competitive eating. If you Google “wanko soba” you will find that it relates to a part of the Japanese “food culture” in a specific region. I believe that one of the many many contests in the past in which Kobayashi and the “Food Fighters” participated was indeed wanko soba, but that is the extent of its’ significance. It is comparable to pie eating contests at “local” fairs. I am, of course, always very happy to be corrected.

As far as the competitive eating scene in Japan, it is, for the most part, moribund. Several years ago a middle school student who was imitating the “Food Fighters”, choked, went into a coma for several months, and died. At that time all of the extremely popular television programs and accompanying tours, magazine articles etc. ended. Thus it was that Kobayashi-san, Arai-san, Akasaka-san and the other competitors suddenly did not have the sponsorship of Tokyo television. While the Food Fighters tried on their own to continue, the FFA is now also, I believe, defunct.

Very recently there aired a new weekly television program in Japan. The “host” was Shirota-san for a few programs followed recently by a young woman. A friend will be sending to me the tapes of the programs so more information, if you wish, will follow.

However, it is my opinion that the history of competitive eating will follow the history of art. The center of the art world was Paris until the Abstract Expressionists, those brash Americans, exploded on the art scene after World War II. Suddenly the center became New York and remains so today. So it will be with competitive eating.

For many many reasons, I do not believe that the popularity and accompanying competitive eating contests in Japan will be repeated; nor will sponsorship come from Japan to the United States. Thus, past programs and performances by Japanese are all the more important to study. The Zen method may not be the whole story, but its’ American equivalent is Hungry and Focused. Eat All You Can.

Crazy Legs Mom

many many reasons I do not believe there will be a “repeat” of the Japanese competitive eating scene.

PermalinkComments

Badlands Booker has emailed to inform me that he will appear on February 21 at 7pm eastern / 4 pm pacific on the G4 cable network‘s “Attack of the Show!”. The episode will be rerun at 3am eastern/ midnight pacific the following morning.

Competitive eaters will appear on national cable television on two consecutive days; Tim “Eater X” Janus will appear on MTV’s True Life the following day with other competitive eaters.

Badlands Booker now has a myspace site at http://www.myspace.com/badlandsbooker

PermalinkComments (1)

Donna of the andshewas blog attended Tuesday’s goldenpalace.net St. Valentine’s Day Chocolate Massacre and has a writeup, videos and a photo gallery of that event.

PermalinkComments

The Long Beachcomber has an article about last Saturday’s Wienerschnitzel World Chili Cheese Fries Eating Championship at the Queen Mary. The article gives “El Toro’s” real name and also claims that a father & son duo (which the author probably mislabeled Joey and Paul Chestnut) competed in the event.

PermalinkComments

Ray “The Bison” Meduna has sent me the following suggestion:

What would competitors think about having One on One grudge matches at
each major Eating Contest simular to the Beautiful Brian vs. Krazy Kevin .This would bring extra interest to the events and also could be done as a Charity Fund Raiser.

Please post any reaction to this idea in the comments.

PermalinkComments (9)

The site’s original comment policy has been restored. Comments by registered users are usually approved automatically, comments by unregistered users require approval.

PermalinkComments (2)

I have decided to turn off unregistered comments and require approval for all registered comments for an indefinite period of time. If Brian Seiken and No Mas would like to continue their debate, I would advise them to “take it outside” to the comments of Brian Seiken’s blog beautifulbrian.blogs.com .

No Mas registered using a business email address, and that company is not located in New York or Ohio, so it is virtually certain that he is not Chapman or O’Karma

PermalinkComments

The Washington Redskins are no longer the only NFL team to have one of its members lose an eating contest to a thin woman if this live journal entry is correct. Unfortunately no details are provided about the contest or its participants besides the fact that the winner received $300.

PermalinkComments

The Clinton Station Diner has added new challenges to its original offer of a free Zeus burger (7 meat, 12.5 lb. total) to diners who can complete that sandwich in under three hours. A two person Zeus challenge is now available with a time limit of 90 minutes. The west New Jersey eatery also now offers challenges for its burger containing 3 pounds of meat with a maximum of 2 hours for one eater and 45 minutes for a team. The diner increased the team size for its 50 pound Mount Olympus burger challenge to 5 eaters from four.

PermalinkComments

Thanks to IFOCE.com for providing a full listing of chili cheese fries finishers along with amounts eaten. A prize money breakdown besides the $4,000 first place amount is still not available.

PermalinkComments (16)

The new poll question asks who should play the lead role in the upcoming Wing Bowl movie which I believe will be based on Bill “El Wingador’s” Simmons career. I can add other actors to the list of choices.

Another new poll question asking whether competitive eating should be included in the winter or summer Olympics can be found in the Whaler’s most recent blog entry. If competitive eating was added to the Winter Olympics, then eating contests could not be counterprogrammed against the Olympics, as the Glutton Bowl was aired the same time as the 2002 women’s figure skating finals (see also) I can make that question the next poll question if there are any requests for it (and the Whaler does not mind)

PermalinkComments (1)

Liz from urbanhonking’s digest has an interview with Pat Bertoletti after his victory in yesterday’s chocolate competition. February content has been restored to urbanhonking, so its article on the grilled cheese contest is now available.

PermalinkComments

The Cincinatti City Beat has an article about Kevin Carr training by eating chili which resulted in his placing third in yesterday’s chocolate contest.

PermalinkComments (4)

The Penn State student paper reports The Are U Hungry? restaurant is having a “Fat Bitch” sandwich eating contest with a $1,000 first prize. The contest will have a tournament format, so it will be inconvenient for someone living outside the Penn State area to win. Potential entrants will be timed eating a sandwich and the 64 fastest eaters will make the field.

PermalinkComments (1)

results from the goldenpalace.net Valentine’s Day Chocolate Massacre in Chicago:

1. Patrick Bertoletti $2500
2. Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough $1250
3. Kevin Carr $750
4. Jim Hamrick (Springfield, IL) $325
5. Domenico Alesi (Chicago, IL) $175

Thanks to ifoce.com for quickly posting a complete list of money-winners

Updated 2/14 9:42 NBC17.com (in North Carolina) has a video clip and photo gallery

Updated 2/14 7:28 am The sun-times has an article about the contest.

Updated 11:11 pm ABC7 has a contest report which uses “Bertolitto” more than it uses “Bertoletti” and claims that Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough was the favorite.

A press release is also available.

Someone who went to high school with Pat has a blog entry.

PermalinkComments (5)

The Chicago Sun Times has a preview of today’s goldenpalace.net Valentine’s Day Chocolate Massacre which contains a profile of Pat Bertoletti. It is difficult to see how Bertoletti has rookie status if his first contest was the Bacci Pizza contest from 2004.

PermalinkComments (3)