(From Ryan Nerz) The website for “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch” has a slideshow of the 5 highest grossing eaters in 2007 which it claims are:

1. Takeru Kobayashi – $100,000+ ($5000 according to eatfeats database)
2. Joey “Jaws” Chestnut – $70,000 ($53,000 according to eatfeats database)
3. Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti – $39,500 ($37,500 according to eatfeats database)
4. Tim “Eater X” Janus $18,150 ($16,150 according to eatfeats database)
5. Sonya Thomas $13,600 ($13,600 according to eatfeats database)

The database does not include the “Wedges & Wings” prizes.

Stephanie Florio won $25,000 in a wedding cake eating contest.

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The Michigan Daily reports that University of Michigan running back Mike Hart, considered a top 5 candidate for the Heisman trophy, competed in in a wing-eating contest at Buffalo Wild Wings to raise money for the UM Stars charity.

In the interests of balance, here’s a gallery from the “Chicks Eat Chicks” women’s only wing eating contest held at Ohio State University

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Joey Chestnut is currently doing a chat session on ESPN.com which started at noon eastern.

update The chat session was made accessible only to paid subscribers of ESPN.com

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Wing Tut has an inquiry on the first use of “table ender” in competitive eating. The first appearance of that term on this website occurred on September 20 of last year in a comment by Steakbellie.

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According to the eatfeats database, Joey and Pat are 6-6-1 in contests in 2007:

Pat’s victories: St. Pat’s donuts, St. Pat’s jalapenos, CT ribs, grits, waffles, Vegas wings

Joey’s victories: Wing Bowl, tamales, Nathan’s, NV ribs, pork BBQ, kolaches

tie: St. Pat’s corned beef

IFOCE.com claims they are 5-5 this year.

Overall, Joey is 20-8-1 against Pat. Joey was 14-1 until November 2006, with Pat’s only victory occurring at the Hot Springs corned beef contest.

A list of all of Joey’s & Pat’s results in contests they both competed follows after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

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The Saratogian reports that Peter G. Hume, a social studies teacher who played in the Canadian Football League, passed away at the age of 54 from natural causes:

He was friends with actors who got him a part in the 1979 Bill Murray comedy “Meatballs.” Hume played a character called “The Stomach” in several scenes including the famous hot-dog eating contest where he blurted his favorite line “What, no mustard?”

Another actor who competed in the “Meatballs” hot dog contest, Keith Knight, died in August from brain cancer.

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The website for the student newspaper of Texas Christian University has an anti competitive eating editorial:

Anything I can do from the comfort of my own home shouldn’t be considered a sport.

I have fat friends that sit around all day and drink untold amounts of Mountain Dew and suck on Pixie Stixs. Do I tell them to go challenge Joey Chestnut and Sonya Thomas in the glamorous world of public overeating?

No.

I tell them to hit the treadmill like Marion Jones (minus the steroids) so they can live to see 25.

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Super Paul Bonebreaker Barlow has his posted his predictions for the Krystal finals on his myspace blog. His top 5:

1. Joey Chestnut
2. Pat Bertoletti
3T. Bob Shoudt & Tim Janus
5. Sonya Thomas

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From IFOCE.com

Major League Eating and the International Federation of Competitive Eating have donated $10,000 to Second Harvest and selected organizations to kick off a campaign to raise $100,000 for hunger charities.

The initiative, which will include donations from the league, eaters, clients and fans, follows IFOCEgives, a similar effort that raised more than $50,000 for charities including Second Harvest and the American Red Cross.

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(From GoNintendo) A trailer of the eating contest section of the Simpsons video game can be viewed at http://www.gametrailers.com/player/26884.html

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Deresque has a blog entry with a lot of pictures from a lunch last month he had with 13 other competitive eating friends at the Grand Buffet Hawaiian Island in Tokyo. The fourteen eaters were grouped into 7 two person teams and each member was weighed before and after eating lunch at the buffet. The team with the highest combined weight gain was proclaimed the winner.

The top 5 single person weight gains were:
1. Takuya Yamamoto, 23.76 lb. / 10.8 kg (54.3 kg -> 65.1 kg), on #1 team
2. Mio “Sakura” Takahashi 15.2 lb. / 6.9 kg (31.3. kg -> 38.2 kg), on #2 team
3. Tomoko Miyake, 14.3 lb. / 6.5 kg (38.2 kg -> 44.7 kg) on #2 team
4. Asami “Essen” Miyanishi, 13.4 lb. / 6.1 kg (unlisted start & finish) on #3 team
5. Yamaguchi 12.32 lb. / 5.6 kg (60.6 kg -> 66.2 kg), on #1 team

Sakura Takahashi had the highest percentage weight gain, 38.2 / 31.3 = 22%, edging out Takuya Yamamoto, 65.1 / 54.3 = 20%

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FoodFan263′s youtube page has videos of the recent Whoopie Pie contest, the Taste of Hamburg-er contest and the Pros vs. Joes pizza charity event, all of which Ian Hickman competed in.

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SBTW.com reports that Sonya will be able able to attend the Krystal finals Sunday:

I didn’t want to mention this again until I was absolutely certain, but I have been able to come up with a work around regarding my full time job, so that I will be able to compete at the Krystal Finals in Chattanooga, TN this Sunday, 28 Oct 07, which will be televised live on ESPN at 2:30 PM EST. As such, I am thoroughly excited, except for the fact that the World Champ, Takeru Kobayashi, will be unable to defend his title, due to the equivalent of arthritis in his jaw. (I hope he recovers in the next few months, because that’s no fun.)

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Kotaku, a video game blog in the Gawker/Deadspin family, has a blog entry about the upcoming ramen noodle contest. There is no new information in the post, but the comments are somewhat interesting.

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The new poll asks when you think Kobayashi will next compete in the United States.

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Kobayashi has a blog entry about his absence from the Krystal finals in both English and Japanese. He reports his injury caused him to drop out of the turkey contest:

Reviewing my training schedule, and decreasing the strain on my jaw by drawing out my breaks as long as possible, I managed to make it to the entry stage of the contest, but unfortunately my jaw couldn’t hold up to the consecutive battles. Injured again in action, I was forced to step down part way through the second competition.

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A wing eating contest with a $5000 first prize is being sponsored by The Rock FM . Qualifiers are being held on Sunday during football games at the Wing Shack in Whitby, Ontario. The application form has the country fixed at “Canada”, so the contest is probably restricted to Canadian citizens.

The winner of the previous contest, held during the Super Bowl, was Jade Dozentroth. A video from that event can be seen at http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q_WoRQ3ANNo She ate 60 wings (and had 20 rejected for improper cleaning)

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From breitbart.com

The city of Hanamaki in Iwate Prefecture will host the region’s famous “wanko-soba” noodle-eating competition in two U.S. cities, according to city officials.

In the competition, participants will eat as many bite-size portions of buckwheat noodles in a lacquered bowl as possible in a limited time. A champion from a February competition held in the city finished 225 bowls of noodles in five minutes.

The competition is also popular in the Iwate capital of Morioka.

The city will host the events in the Arkansas city of Hot Springs, a sister city of Hanamaki, on Wednesday, and in New York on Saturday, where the association of Iwate expatriates marked the 10th anniversary.

I have not been able to find any details online about the Arkansas or New York contests.

Hatsuyo Sugawara, the top woman in the recent “Gluttonous King” contest, won the February contest

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TimesFreePress.com reports on a change in the field of Sunday’s Krystal finals:

Three-time champion Takeru Kobayashi will not compete in this year’s Krystal Square Off IV World Hamburger Eating Championship due to persistent jaw pain.

“Takeru Kobayashi has informed us that he needs additional time for his jaw to repair and that his hiatus is indefinite but not permanent,” George Shea, chairman of Major League Eating, said in a prepared statement. “The well being of our competitors is paramount and we wish him speedy recovery.”

If Kobayashi’s slot is filled with the 5th highest wild card, Jim Reeves will receive it.

updated More links

IFOCE.com roster, Kobayashi is not present but Sonya Thomas is.
WMCTV.com article
TimesFreePress.com article from Sunday, does not mention Kobayashi’s absence
Schedule of Events on KrystalSquareOff.com
Letter about Krystal finals and hunger relief organizations
blog entry about Bo Hicks, top Alabaman in Tuscaloosa qualifier
Another Times Free Press article from Sunday gives finals location – Ross’s Landing and the Chattanooga Green at the intersection of Chestnut Street and Riverfront Parkway

update #2
Times Free Press has an article containing short interview podcasts with Joey Chestnut and Pat Bertoletti

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The sixth eatcast podcast is now available and the guests are Pat Bertoletti and Brian Seiken. Topics include the Krystal finals and “Wedges and Wings”.

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NintendoWorldReport.com has a preview of the Major League Eating ramen noodle contest which lists some of the expected competitors:

The contest will feature not merely an all-star cast of competitive eaters, but a virtual cornucopia of interesting characters to boot. The focus will be on 4th-ranked Tim “Eater X” Janus of New York City, the face-painting tiramisu champ who recently ate 20 pounds of grits in ten minutes. Nipping at Janus’ heels will be his roommate and training partner, Crazy Legs Conti, a man who once ate his way out of an 96-cubic foot box of popcorn, earning the nickname, “the Evel Knievel of the Alimentary Canal.” Arturo “Grande” Rios, the 13th-ranked pigs’ feet-eating champ from New Jersey , will be fending off best friend duo Eric “Steakbellie” Livingston and Micah “Wing Kong” Collins, as well as 18th-ranked Justin Mih, a Harvard graduate student and chopstick specialist.

update The IFOCE.com page about the contest consists of paragraphs 1, 3 and 4 of the press release, with the second paragraph listing the competitors edited out.

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From JapanProbe:

Back on October 10th, Fuji TV aired a special in which a 240cm (7 ft. 11 in.) tall man and a 70cm (2 ft. 4 in.) tall man traveled from their hometowns in China to experience life in Japan. The show billed itself as having the world’s shortest and tallest living humans, which was at least true in the case of the short guy, He Pingping of Inner Mongolia. However, I could not find much information on the tall guy, Chao (チャオ）, who is apparently not the world’s tallest living man, but it was still cool to see such a bizarre pairing.

A video of PingPing’s and Chao’s dinner with Gal Sone can be viewed at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7248401227961879709

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From megamunch

Whoopie Pie Eating Contest, Lancaster County, PA, 3 minutes
1. Ian Hickman, 60 whoopie pies, almost doubles 36 from last year
2. Sean Gordon, 46
3T Dave Shoffner, 30
3T James Hoke, 30

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“Wedges and Wings” can be viewed in its entirety on the Spike TV website. Three shorter clips are also available.

The eater profile page links from Micah Collins down do not work.

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Kobayashi has a report on the chicken wing competition in Las Vegas containing several pictures. The upcoming contest he mentions is not the Krystal Square Off finals (automatically translated)

Next, the hot dog contest, including every game in the tournament to the players involved.

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