Livedoor.co.jp reports that Nobuyuki “the Giant” Shirota made his pro wrestling debut at the event where he was also expected to compete against “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti in an eating contest. Results from the eating contest have not been released yet.

Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane has added a counter to the sidebar of his blog counting the time elapsed since the most recent IFOCE contest with open admission was announced. He believes this last occurred when the grits contest in Bossier City, LA appeared on the IFOCE schedule on September 11. The counter is currently at 110 days.

The online video site stage6.com has clips from several Japanese competitive eating programs I have not seen before. In one program, Tomoko Miyake’s buffet club goes to a restaurant and is weighed on a large group scale before they start eating. The inital weight of the five diners is 226.8 kg (499 lb). After they complete their meal, the new combined weight is 249.6 kg (549 lb), a weight gain of about 50 pounds, or 10 pounds per person.

Other videos include:

Sakura Takahashi eating more than 15 pounds of noodles

Kana Kanisawa completing several eating challenges

Tomoko Miyake defeating a pajama clad oppenent in a karaoke duel

Takuya Yamamoto finishing a large bowl of noodles.

A listing of all IFOCE contests in the eatfeats database held in November or December follows after the jump. Even though the winter is often called the IFOCE “offseason”, there has been at least three contests in the last two months of the previous four years.

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Youtube has a parody about a collegiate competitive eater called “Gertrude’s Game”: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

An English lesson (PDF) for which the reading assignment is an article about Sonya Thomas’ victory in the Baltimore crabcake contest last year can be viewed online.

A video by Dave & Dave produced for WQED, the Pittsburgh public television station, about last January’s Wing Championship Series can be viewed at http://mediathatchangeslives.com/ondemand/onq.php?id=44 Ian Hickman and Joe “Heat Miser” Menchetti make appearances along with a lot of Pittsburgh area competitive eaters.

Betsy Hunter, a writer for CNN’s Prime News, lists her most memorable moment of 2007:

July Fourth: The Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. There was no better place to watch than the Prime News Loft. Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi’s stunning “reversal” (for the uninitiated, he threw up in his mouth) and Joey “Jaws” Chestnut’s 66-dog triumph was some of the most exciting live TV I’ve ever seen. Kurt boiled us our own hot dogs on a none-too-safe-looking hot plate, and what made it on TV was absolutely priceless. I’d always been against competitive eating, but as of that day, I’m a believer. I even have a favorite pro eater now: Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, the 100-pound wonder

kentucky.scout.com reports that members of the University of Kentucky football team defeated players from Florida State University in both team and individual rib eating contests held by the Music City Bowl in Nashville. The Florida State contingent’s performance might have been hurt by a mass suspension due to a cheating scandal.

The University of Kentucky also won the event last year, defeating Clemson in a contest marred by Clemson defensive tackle Elsmore Gabriel requiring the Heimlich maneuver after getting a piece of bone lodged in his throat.

update Tallahassee.com has a gallery of the rib contest

The upcoming Wing Bowl will have a different prize structure than Wing Bowl 15:

Wing Bowl 16 prizes
Overall winner: Toyota Tundra
First round winner: Harley Davidson motorcycle
Best Entourage: trip for 10 to warm weather location and home theater system including 73 inch TV
Top Wingette: Toyota Scion

Wing Bowl 15 prizes
Overall Winner: Suzuki Grand Vitara
Top Local Finisher: Suzuki SX4
2nd place: 4 night trip to Cancun
3rd place: medallion
Top Wingette: four night vacation to either Cancun or Punta Cana

It is possible that Wing Bowl 16 will also award prizes for 2nd/3rd place. The official rules would list all prizes, but there is no link for “Official Rules for Wing Bowl 16″ on WIP’s Wing Bowl 16 page.

A news video about this year’s mince pie eating contest at Wookey Hole in England is available on youtube. Sonya Thomas’ victory in the 2006 contest makes a brief appearance. The clip contains what is probably the first documented use of a chain saw by a pirate in an eating contest.

tv.co.yahoo.jp reports that the AICE vs. Japan series of contests will be televised on Nippon Television between 3pm and 9pm (Tokyo time) on New Year’s Day. The automatically translated description for the program follows:

first-ever tournament! Japan and the United States battle against eating gal Sone vs America “pizza face” is the winner?

In a recent blog entry, Don “Moses” Lerman announces the following plans:

I “m tyring to put together a few contests one which will be the prestigious Lerman cup at the Don Lerman invitational cup a date to be announced and location to be reveled at a later time . so stand by .

The new poll asks what businessperson would make the best founder of a new competitive eating organization.

Endless Simmer reports that a matzo ball eating contest returned to Ben’s Deli. The last IFOCE contest at that location occurred in 2004.

My fellow half-Jew friend Bethany and I recently attended the Beloit College Alumni Matzo Ball Eating Contest at Ben’s Deli in NY. We were both shocked be the yellow-yellow color of their balls - much more colorful than my aunt’s bullion instructions could possibly account for. When pressed, the chef admitted they added yellow food coloring for the extra effect. Why, I don’t know - I personally don’t like my Hanukkah feast to look like urine, but to each his own I guess.

Vylar Kaftan makes the following recommendation for the Nebula award:

Short Story: Black, Holly: A Reversal of Fortune (Coyote Road, Trickster Tales, Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Ed., Viking Juvenile, Jul07) After I read this, I walked into the living room where my husband was sitting. My expression was slightly dazed. “Honey,” I said, “I just read an awesome story where a girl challenges the devil to… a gummi-frog eating contest.” Without missing a beat, he said, “That’s strange and wonderful. But if Kelly Link didn’t write it, and neither did you, I don’t know who could have!” (Husband scores points. He gets fresh chocolate chip cookies today.) But seriously, Holly Black–who wrote the terrific twisted faerie tale Tithe–has turned out a delightfully clever tale about a girl who tricks the devil himself. Witty, charming, and fun. Plus, it was great to read a story which didn’t have a rocks-fall-everyone-dies ending. Even though I like that sort of thing.

(From BB bits & pieces) Dale Boone’s myspace makes the following announcement on the page visible to the general public: “Dale Big News Coming.”

The Wing Bowl myspace page has a blog entry listing and critiquing some of the first eaters attempting to qualify for Wing Bowl 16. A “Wing Tut” is listed as the winner of the first Wing Off qualifier. A picture of the eater billing himself as “Wing Tut” appears on the Wing Bowl 16 page on 610wip.com, and it does not appear to be the Pittsburgh area Wing Tut who sometimes comments on this site.

In a recent blog entry, Pat Bertoletti offers diet advice to “Sweet” Jill Stoler.

In more diet news, Don “Moses” Lerman reports that he is satisfied with his weight loss and expects to weigh between 170 lb. and 200 lb. by spring.

Jill Stoler also has uploaded some videos from the recent latke contest on her youtube page.

The current top 10 in ESPN’s All-SportsNation Team of 2007

64.7% Randy Couture
30.2% Floyd Mayweather Jr.
17.7% Tom Brady
12.9% Alex Rodriguez
12.7% Brett Favre
11.2% Tiger Woods
8.6% LeBron James
7.9% Randy Moss
5.3% Joey Chestnut
5.3% Kobe Bryant

Sponichi.co.jp reports that Nobuyuki “the Giant” Shirota defeated pro wrestler Toshiaki Kawada at a curry eating contest held at a Christmas wrestling event, 11 plates to 6.

Paul Barlow won a egg nog drinking contest held at 99x, defeating Intern Joey. A youtube video and podcast of the contest are available.

Beautiful Brian has produced an album consisting of 10 holiday classics which can be listened to on his website. The track listing is available after the jump:
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Austin360.com reports that there will be three showings of “Harold & Kumar” this week at the Alamo Drafthouse which will include all you can eat mini-burgers. Mini-burger eating contests will be held before the screenings.

(from mosesnews.com) Joey Chestnut’s victory over Takeru Kobayashi is listed as one of the best 10 sports stories of 2007 in a column by Jeff Gordon (not the NASCAR driver) on msn.foxsports.com. Other entries in the list include Brett Farve’s resurgence, the Colorado Rockies end of season run and Appalachian State’s upset over Michigan.

In another end of year accolade, George Shea has been named one of the mockingwords blog’s favorite people of 2007.

This post is not about a Las Vegas IFOCE member winning a contest while having the “munchies”. OCRegister reports that 5 high school students from Orange County won an eating contest by eating 154 chicken nuggets in three minutes.

In another chicken nugget eating contest, the blog for 850 sportsradio in North Carolina reports that a McNugget eating contest was held between two members of its sales staff.