Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics, attended the Nathan’s finals and has a short blog entry about that event with a picture of post-contest hot dog debris.

Kobayashi says he dined with an unnamed author who is probably Dubner before the Nathan’s finals and has a blog entry about meeting him .

Dubner says that competitive eating might be a topic of SuperFreakonomics. Will the IFOCE have Ryan Nerz write another book to counter that project?

Kobayashi has written two blog entries containing English about the recent Nathan’s finals. One thanks fans for their support, the other contains Kobayashi’s thoughts on the overtime format (not automatically translated):

In this case, I think the correct approach is to look at the situation as this: we decided the winner through a different event (rather than that we decided the winner in an extension of the 10-minute battle).

So for me, deciding the champion in a five hot dog challenge is no different to deciding the champion by playing “rock, scissors, paper”.

Kobayashi also has a blog entry comparing winning qualifier totals with the amounts eaten in the finals.

Kobayashi’s blog announces that his online store has been set up at http://www.merchdirect.net/Kobayashi/. Six T shirt designs are available, including the “Kobayashi eats Chestnuts for breakfast” shirt he wore to the weigh in.

amNY has an article and gallery from this afternoon’s weigh in. The finals have been officially shortened to 10 minutes. The listed weights in the article:

Joey Chestnut, 210 lb.
Takeru Kobayashi, 128 lb.
Juliet Lee 110 lb.

Gersh Kuntzman has a new column disparaging Kobayashi’s chances at reclaiming the belt.

The Big Lead sport blog has a preview of the Nathan’s finals

Sarah DiGregorio, who wrote the Village Voice article about Conti & Janus, will appear on the Ron Kuby show on Air America this evening at 5:45

update

Gothamist has a blog entry about the weigh in

NY1 has an article and video

Articles about Nathan’s finalists

• Pat Philbin - NJ.com
• Hall Hunt - Orlando Sentinel
• Nate Biller - MySanAntonio.com
• Pete Davekos - Boston Herald
• Takeru Kobayashi - NY Daily News

• The Wall Street Journal’s health blog on competitive eating
• Will Millender and Sal Carbone expected at Peggy O’Neil’s hamburger eating contest
• IFOCE BBQ sandwich eating contest near Tulsa July 26 - registration opens Monday (from Crawfish)
• The Sporting News blog thinks Nathan’s hype is down in 2008

Kobayashi was interviewed by the local cable news channel NY1 in Central Park today. An article and video are available

Gersh Kuntzman has a new column in the Brooklyn Paper about the Nathan’s finals. The first half is about Kobayashi receiving a sponsor’s exemption. The second half is an encomium to George Shea which closes with the following statement:

So, sure, Joey Chestnut may down 60 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes on Friday, but without Shea, he’d just be a disgusting spectacle.

ABCNews also has a new interview with Kobayashi.

ifiy has a link to MajorLeagueEating.asia, which announces that Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi will face off in an eating contest in Singapore July 27. Three qualifiers to select local entrants will be held and the purse is $3,000 (it is not stated if that is in US or Singapore dollars) Five different types of foods will be used in the contest, including fishballs, premium otah and sotong head.

Earthtimes has an article about the contest.

The contest might result in a schedule conflict for Joey Chestnut, who has been announced as the co-star for Nacho Mountain. Principal photography for that movie has been scheduled for July 20 through July 27.

Kobayashi’s latest blog entry is about qualification for Nathan’s (automatically translated):

Thus the final closeup, I can play in qualifying and has been limited.

Today is the last chance tournament will be held in Long Island.

I like playing as soon as physically.

Chances are slim.

Eric is likely to play, I want my best! ！ !

The “Eric is likely to play” statement means that he will probably appear at Eric “Badlands” Booker and “Hungry” Charles Hardy’s promo contest this afternoon.

Sponichi has an article

• Jill Stoler has a belated birthday tribute to Pat Bertoletti
• Poll about biggest eating baseball players: (1st Babe Ruth 2nd John Kruk 3rd Tommy LaSorda)
• Sonya has a commentary about the Nathan’s finals
• Furious Pete is seeking a dining partner for his attempt at the Zeus Burger at the Clinton Station Diner July 5.
• Kobyashi reports he is now in New York City
• Tomoko Miyake has an autograph signing session for her new book
  

Kobayashi’s latest blog entry is about changing his hair color. His hairdresser’s blog has a picture of the new hair style and says that the red / yellow combination was chosen to represent ketchup and mustard.

Kobayashi has posted an entry about the upcoming Nathan’s finals on his blog. It is not 100% clear from the automatic translation, but he appears to commit to competing in the July 4 contest. (The comments seem to think he will attempt to win his seventh title) From the automatic translation:

NEISANZU 2008 world championships

Play! ！ !

I said you left the tournament career makeover?

Where to play sports or another kind of feeling.

So I thought at the goal and still HAKKIRI MITSUKARANAKU I have no choice.

First of all, I aimed to win it from the start,

Thank you cheer! ！ !

If Kobayashi does compete, he will most likely receive a bye since it does not appear a Japan Nathan’s qualifier will be held in 2008 even though the qualifier registration form listed the date of the Tokyo qualifier as June 24. Some commenters have speculated that Kobayashi will compete in the San Francisco qualifier on Saturday. The last time Kobayashi was not the defending champion for an IFOCE event which had qualifiers, the 2004 Krystal Square Off finals, he entered the Jacksonville qualifier the week before.

Kobayashi has a blog entry about dining at Nobuyuki Shirota’s restaurant and doing a noodle eating challenge there. Shirota also has a post about the meal on his blog.

update Sponichi.co.jp has an article about Kobayashi which makes it pretty clear he intends to compete

The new poll asks how you think Kobayashi will finish in the upcoming Nathan’s finals (his not competing is an option)

Kobayashi has a blog entry about the commercial he filmed for Western Canada Lotteries

A British documentary from 2003 about Takeru Kobayashi competing in Food Battle Club: The Speed can be viewed on youtube. The video shows Kobayashi lifting weights, practicing at a sushi buffet and training for the 1.5 liter water bottle round, which he would lose to Ken Domon.

• Article about James Howell and his performance in the New Orleans qualifier
• Jill Stoler has posted the pictures she took at the Three Brothers Pizza contest
• Video from Hartford qualifier
• Article about local Bartolini’s Meatballs qualifiers
• NY Post on Nathan’s shortening
• Kansas City hot dog contest Friday night at Tengo sed, $200 prize
• No MLE video game release this week
• Kobayashi finds Japanese hot dogs wanting
• Articles promoting Tomoko Mikaye’s book of PG rated photographs: Sanspo.com, NikkanSports

The commercial Kobayashi filmed in Vancouver last month is now available on youtube. Western Canada Lotteries’ scratch and win cards are the advertised products.

“Beautiful” Brian Seiken has uploaded a page praising Joey Chestnut for temporarily adding critical comments to his myspace page about Takeru Kobayashi and his reported injury.

Kobayashi’s latest blog entry reports that he is currently in Vancouver, British Columbia, apparently to film a commercial for an undisclosed product. Like Kobayashi’s hometown of Nagano, Vancouver is a Winter Olympics site.

In news of other Kobayashis, a Bleacher Report blog entry calls Cleveland Indians reliever Masahide Kobayashi possibly “the steal of the off season”

• Minnesota qualifier ABC News video
• Apparently no one was able to register for the Dallas Nathan’s qualifier after the food blog for D Magazine announced the contest (Nathan Biller and Jason Erb did get in)
• Video of “Furious” Pete eating 8 McD’s double cheeseburgers in 2.5 minutes for bodybuilding.com contest (thread #1, thread #2)
• Some pictures from last year’s Nathan’s finals on mosesnews
• 10 woman team attempts 15 pound Denny’s Beer Barrel Belly Buster
• Megamunch’s office cereal contest
• Mike Fitzgerald, the Apple Valley, MN 3rd place finisher, won last years amateur Sheboygan bratwurst contest
• Blog entry about Amos Wengler, the “Coney Island Songwriter”
• Wing Tut’s 5k race report
• Kobayashi leaves Japan for a while
• Cruise for Takuya Yamamoto and fans (Yama3’s event report)
• Blogger will vote for presidential candidate who will ban competitive eating

Kobayashi reports in his blog that he had a tooth extracted at the Tanaka Dental Clinic to improve the condition of his jaw.

The Totally Serious Sports News Network has an article about Cleveland Indians pitcher Masahide Kobayashi being mistaken for someone else with that surname:

Needless to say, Kobayashi is already questioning whether signing with Cleveland was the best thing for him.

“Seriously, the fact that no one knew Kobayashi is a common Japanese name is kind of offensive,” he said. “It’s amazing to me that a team called the ‘Indians’ can be so racially insensitive.”

Sports Illustrated recently made its entire archive free. Some competitive eating articles from the last 5 years follow:

• 2008 - article about Wing Bowl 16
• 2007 - Rick Reilly dines with Joey Chestnut in the LA Dodgers all you can eat section
• 2007 - Nathan’s preview about Joey Chestnut
• 2007 - list of IFOCE records
• 2006 - paragraph about planned Wing Bowl movie
• 2006 - Steve Rushin column containing the “degree of a lazy susan” metaphor
• 2004 - post-Nathan’s article

Kobayashi has a blog entry about his thirtieth birthday which took place on Saturday.

Happy 30th birthday to the world’s all time greatest competitive eater.

Kobayashi now has English versions for all the pages on his main website.

Beautiful Brian has a commentary on Chestnut vs. MLE and a CD update
Hall Hunt does eating contest at Rays Fan Festival and eats 13 hot dogs in undisclosed time (Kobayashi attended last year’s Rays Fan Festival)
Picture of Kobayashi before 2007 Nathan’s finals, used on wikipedia page
Frank Pastore mentions the breaking of the 72 oz steak record on his blog (from supersizedmeals comment)
Picture of 37 inch pizza from Big Lou’s Pizza in San Antonio
Dude a Palooza has male oriented events including eating contests
Liz K buys a house (gallery)