• Video of the end of the Apple Ugly eating contest (the trophy was a mounted toilet seat)
• Ian Hickman beats Elizabeth Canady in overtime at Bowie burger contest
• Detailed review of MLE game by Platform Nation
• Skinnyboy eats 8/9 of Big Texan 72 ounce steak
• Gallery of 2008 Philadelphia Nathan’s qualifier
• Picture of Samantha Brown at Italian sausage contest
• MissBusyLady describes her start in competitive eating fandom
• Juris Shibayama sends a letter to the editor about last week’s column (from Crawfish comment)
• Boston hot wing eating contest Thursday
• Donut eating contest in Pittsburgh Friday
• Full results for the Singapore qualifiers on MLE.asia
• Vietnamese sub eating contest in Ho Chi Minh City

Peter Smith, who encountered Dale Boone on a trip to India, has returned to Seattle and reports on his myspace page that he is now the West Coast representative for Boone’s World League of Competitive Eating.

In other WLOCE news, Keatin Shelton, runner-up to Boone in the Apple Ugly eating contest, is now listed in the WLOCE rankings.

The Salisbury Post has an article about controversy over Dale Boone’s use of hot tea at the July 4 Apple Ugly eating contest:

After friends pointed that out, [contest runner-up Keatin] Shelton e-mailed the Apple Baking Co., which organized the competition, to say that he didn’t think Boone’s record should count.

“I believe the tea may have given him an advantage,” Shelton wrote. “Anyway your rules were broken.”

The rules say that contestants can have cups of water. The rules also say contestants can’t use condiments on Uglies — which are “delicious enough on their own.”

The contest organizers say that Boone’s victory will stand.

There has been previous controversy over hot beverages in pastry eating competitions. Some competitors objected to the use of hot coffee in the 2003 San Gennaro Cannoli Eating Championship

From the Elizabethton Star:

1. Dale Boone 21 hot dogs in 12 minutes, $250
2. James Wilson, 15 (last year’s winner)

SalisburyPost.com has an article about the July 4 Apple Ugly eating contest. The top 3:

1. Dale Boone, 17 Apple Uglies
2. Keatin “Thunder” Shelton, 14
3T Timothy “Ace” Cameron, 10
3T Kristy Spurlock, 10

Dale Boone describes his techniques in the article:

“I came Monday night with these big cups,” Boone said. “I get here tonight, every single one of them’s got a big cup.

“They’re paying attention to me. That’s what’s scary.”

Boone one-upped them again though: They brought bigger cups of water this time but Boone dipped each of his Uglies in a cup of hot tea.

The article reports that Boone ate 21 hot dogs at an Elizabethton, TN hot dog contest earlier that day. It does not say how he placed.

Augusta.com reports that Dale Boone won $1000 recently by being the first person to eat a 28 inch cheese pizza from Roma’s Pizza in under 90 minutes.

WLOCE.com reports that Dale Boone also won the Apple Ugly eating contest in North Carolina yesterday and competed in the Elizabethton, TN hot dog contest.

Dale Boone appears on a poster promoting tomorrow’s contest on TheNathansRematch.com even though he will not compete (and was exiled from the IFOCE before qualifying started)

A commenter noted yesterday that the competitors on the landing page on IFOCE.com are all from the 2007 Nathan’s finals. Dale Boone does not appear, but Chip Simpson remains.

A comment by Crawfish contained a link about Dale Boone’s victory in the corndog eating contest at Corndogorama. In the pictures, Dale Boone is wearing a World League of Competitive Eating baseball cap and has a shirt with a .com address. Trying WLOCE.com reveals that a website has been set up at that address. The site has a standings list which Dale Boone leads. P.Thayagarajan, mentioned as an Indian giant and a possible entrant in last year’s Nathan’s finals on IFOCE.com, is #6. Most of the links on the page are inoperable, but a contact page and safety guidelines are available.

update The Salisbury Post has a report about Dale Boone’s victory in the Apple Ugly qualifier last night

The Salisbury (NC) Post has an article about the “Apple Ugly” eating contest that will be held on July 4. A qualifier will be held on June 30. Dale Boone is an expected entrant. Boone says that he will also compete in the Elizabethton, TN hot dog eating contest on July 4 and that he is a member of a another competitive eating organization:

He allowed his contract to run out with the International Federation of Competitive Eating and now belongs to the World League of Competitive Eating, which he considers a step up because of all the international competition.

A video and gallery of the wing eating contest held at the Wing-n-Rock Fest in Marietta, GA on Saturday reveal that Dale Boone competed in that event. It appears (but is not explicitly stated in the video or gallery) that an unnamed Asian won that contest.

update video link fixed - thanks anon

A Creative Loafing blog entry from February 2007 has a picture of Dale Boone at a pizza eating contest with the following caption:

On Saturday, Atlanta’s best competitive eater, Dale Boone, won a pizza-eating contest at Nancy’s Pizza in Buckhead. Boone tried to conceal his identity with a mask and pseudonym, an effort that might have succeeded had he: a) kept his mask on, and b) not answered to Dale.

Dale Boone’s picture shares the page with a picture of a group called FTP, which does not stand for File Transfer Protocol.

There are also pictures of Dale Boone in this gallery of the dumpling contest held at the 2007 Dragon Boat Festival in Queens.

A myspace page for Beautiful Brian’s CD project has been set up at http://www.myspace.com/theonlybandintown The band name is “The Pickles”. “Black and White”, a song apparently about the explusion of Dale Boone (who is not mentioned by name) from the IFOCE and AICE can be heard in its entirety. The entire album will be available on the myspace page for 24 hours after all tracks are completed.

Tim Brown answers 10 questions on IFOCE com
Indian traveler will spend a week in Chennai to see if Dale Boone can help him get started in “Kollywood” film industry, Dale Boone advises him to watch out for poisonous frogs
Don Lerman hires 25 people to handle his fan mail
Article about March 7 Lake Tahoe sushi / extreme food contest
Video footage from 2006 NYC grilled cheese eating contest
More on Canada’s tallest man 18 pound burger attempt
Request for videos of diners eating 4 HDB in less than 2 minutes
Kana Kanisawa & friend purchase a lot of food from Seibu Department store then eat it (Part 1, Part 2)
Pictures of Tomoko Miyake’s convenience store meals from yama3 (See above)
Japanese pancake eating contest for women only - first prize is a million yen and a trip to Hawaii

Peter Smith is currently traveling in India and maintaining a blog about his trip. His January 22 entry describes meeting Dale Boone in Chennai.

And when I say this guy can pull strings, you know how India has corrupt police? Well Dale not only seems to know them all, but it was blatantly obvious that he does what he wants in that city, and the police let it happen. For example we were on a beach late at night talking about the intricacies of India and Chennai, and there were a bunch of other locals strewn about the beach road… the police stopped by each group to tell them to go home, and when he came to us, he saw Dale, smiled, said a few friendly things in Tamil, and moved on to the next group, letting us stay there. This kind of thing was happening right and left all night, and it wasn’t just the police who knew him, it was like everyone knew him. It was honestly amazing, as I didn’t know a Caucasian, no matter what they did for a living, could get that kind of “status” in India. So I’ll update this story again in about three weeks, or whenever we meet him in Bangalore. And also, Dale’s side gig is being a professional eater… like you see on TV… like going up against that Japanese kid Kobayashi. Just look up Dale Boone on youtube.com, and maybe throw in the word “eating” or “contest”, and you should find videos of him.

Boone offered Peter Smith some advice about breaking into Indian film production. The movie industry in Chennai is called “Kollywood”.

Gonzo: Well, I want to go to Bombay, India to become a movie star.
Fozzie: You don’t go to Bombay to become a movie star. You go where we’re going, Hollywood.
Gonzo: Well, sure, if you want to do it the *easy* way.
The Muppet Movie

Beautiful Brian announces that the first 2008 episode of his TV show will have four guests: Jill Stoler, Mike DeVito and Ed Krachie, both Nathan’s winners from the 1990s, and someone resembling Dale Boone with long hair. If Mike Devito, the former commisioner of the IFOCE, still has connections with the management of that organization, perhaps he can provide some insight on the recent dearth of contests.

BeautifulBrian.com also 6 songs from the holiday album remixed for your listening pleasure

update the full album (10 songs) is now available.

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

A comment said that Dale Boone recently died in India. The last login date for Dale Boone’s new myspace page is today, so that most likely dispels that rumor. Despite the login date, the page is labeled “The Late Dale Boone”.

The page makes the claim that Dale Boone is a graduate of Georgia Tech, which also appears in the Harper’s Magazine profile.

The website for Doc Chey’s Noodle House reports that Dale Boone won a noodle eating contest in October. The contest writeup describes Boone as a “world-ranked professional eater with 20 world records in the US and Asia”

A new book, “Short History of the American Stomach” will come out early next year. A description of its contents follows:

The extremes of American eating—our separate-but-equal urges to stuff and to starve ourselves—are easy to blame on the excesses of modern living. But Frederick Kaufman followed the winding road of the American intestine back to that cold morning when the first famished Pilgrim clambered off the Mayflower, and he discovered the alarming truth: We’ve been this way all along. With outraged wit and an incredible range of sources that includes everything from Cotton Mather’s diary to interviews with Amish black-market raw-milk dealers, Kaufman offers a highly selective, take-no-prisoners tour of American history by way of the American stomach. Travel with him as he tracks down our earliest foodies; discovers the secret history of Puritan purges; introduces diet gurus of the nineteenth century, such as William Alcott, who believed that nothing ought to be mashed before it is eaten; traces extreme feeders from Paul Bunyan to eating-contest champ Dale Boone (descended from Daniel, of course); and investigates our blithe efforts to re-create plants and animals that we’ve eaten to the point of extinction.

The author, Fredrick Kaufman, has a blog at AmericanStomach.com A profile of Dale Boone from a 2003 issue of Harper’s Magazine can be downloaded from that website. A transcript of a NPR interview in which Kaufman compared cooking shows to pornography is available. The release date is February 4, 2008, the same weekend as Wing Bowl 16.

(From Jill Stoler) A slideshow of the black and white cookie eating contest held at the Bronx can be viewed at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1930283492704953611&hl=en The eating contest pictures start about 4 minutes in.

Several articles about competive eating from the New York Times archive which previously required payment are now available for free (in reverse chronological order)
preview of 2005 NJ pizza contest, mentions Pat Philbin
2005 Review of Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating
Short article about Kate Stelnick (she claims to have drunk 14 glasses of water while eating the 96er)
Long 2003 profile of Carson “Collard Green” Hughes
Preview of 2003 Wing Bowl, focuses on Bill “El Wingador” Simmons and “Belly” Donna Villec
Report on the 2002 pelmeni contest
2002 preview of Nathan’s finals, mainly about the Sheas
2002 article about Don Lerman, Badlands Booker & Cookie Jarvis, calls George Shea a “competitive eater since 1988″
2001 profile of Kevin Lipsitz
Article on quick start controversy at 1999 Nathan’s finals
Report on 1999 Nathan’s finals
preview of 1999 Ben’s Deli’s matzoh ball contest
1998 article about Mike DeVito, also mentions start of the IFOCE, originally the International Federation of Hot Dog Eating
1997 interview with Ed Krachie
Report on December 1996 duel between Ed Krachie and Nakajima
1996 Nathan’s final report
1995 Nathan’s finals results
Report on 1995 Nathan’s New Jersey qualifier, contest was 10 minutes long
article on 1994 Nathan’s finals, mentions Curtis Sliwa’s participation
Report on 1990 Nathan’s, says Jay Green & Mike DeVito tied for first place
Preview of 1987 Nathan’s, registrations were still being accepted by phone on July 3
Report on 1984 women’s only pancake contest

The fifth episode of eatcast is available. Chip Simpson is a guest and Beautiful Brian calls in to tallk about the Dale Boone cookie controversy (Direct MP3 link) (corrected 10:45, thanks anonymous)

(From NYMag) The Norwood News has an article about Saturday’s black and white cookie eating contest in the Bronx.

“Everyone out there knows I dominated that competition,” the Mouth shouted in a surprisingly high, nasal southern twang, his lips red and chapped. “They wanted their own people to win.”

“They” are the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters (AICE), which organized the cookie battle. To promote their regular eaters (guys like Hickman) Boone claims the organizers rigged the count. The Mouth said he ate at least 15 cookies.

Boone is notorious for claiming victory and making a scene, Hickman said. It’s just what he does, like a pro wrestler’s trademark leg lock.

In the end, the Invader happily put his $500 check, plus a half dozen extra cookies, into his backpack and headed home. As for the Mouth, he eventually settled down, gave his half to his mama, and walked off to the thumping of Latin hip hop.

From AICE news Black & White Cookie Eating Championship

1. Ian “The Invader” Hickman 11.0 cookies
1. Dale Boone 11.0 banned from AICE contest following event
3. Chris “the American” Schlesinger 9.66
4. Mike “The Real Skinny” Hoffman 7.50
5. Joel “The Cannon” Podelsky 7.00
6. “Sweet” Jill Stoler 3.00

Joe Menchetti was present, but was prevented from competing by Boone’s objections.

There was also a tie in the Texas State Fair corny dog eating contest with Brent Ricord and Mike Wilkes with 12 corny dogs in 10 minutes. DallasNews has an article about the contest. Both first place finishers received the original prize amount.

TheNortheastGeorgian reports that Dale Boone won an eating contest at the Chattahoochee Mountain Fair by eating 24 chili dogs in 12 minutes.