Philly.com has an interview with Jason Fagone, who has a strange response when questioned about the lack of Sonya Thomas content in his book.

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I have wondered about the identity of the woman in the lower right corner of the Nathan’s Wall of Fame in Coney Island and assumed that it was Birgit Felden, the only female champion listed, who won with a total of 9.5 hot dogs. That assumption is bolstered by the claim in “Horsemen of the Esophagus” (p. 222) that Birgit Felden was a pretty 17 year old member of the West German judo team, since that description matches the picture. Googling “Birgit Felden” produces information that Birgit Felden, born in 1967, is now a management consultant with a doctorate who has authored three books along with a current photograph that validates that this Dr. Felden is the pictured Nathan’s competitor.

1984

2006

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The Whaler captures Tim “Eater X” Janus’ thoughts as he attempts to regain his grilled cheese sandwich eating record at the Eats of Strength recording session in Long Island on Saturday.
The roster of eaters and foods for all five Eats of Strength attempts this weekend have been finalized. Cookie Jarvis and Joe LaRue will be filmed on Friday and Crazy Legs Conti will join Janus on Saturday. Hungry Charles Hardy will come out of retirement on Sunday. Free tickets are available.

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RealityTVMagazine.com has a writeup of last night’s apprentice. There were at most 30 seconds of footage from the eating contest.

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Ryan Nerz has uploaded his chapter about “Krazy” Kevin Lipsitz which was excised from the published version of “Eat This Book” by his editor. Nerz will appear at a reading at the Park Slope Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn on May 10 at 7:30 pm.

Newsday has an article on both “Eat This Book” and “Horsemen of the Esophagus.”

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IFOCE.com has posted their writeup of Saturday’s Tamale contest at the Berryhill grill in Houston won by Chip Simpson. I am curious if any notables besides Chip, Pat, Rich, Tim & Levi competed and what were the circumstances of Rich’s post-contest reversal.

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Jason Fagone will read from “Horsemen of the Esophagus” at the KGB Bar in the lower east side of Manhattan on May 9 at 7pm.

Philadelphia Weekly has an interview with Fagone.

The Washington City Paper has a long review of Horsemen and Boldtype has a shorter critique.

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According to speedeat.com, Crazy Legs Conti appeared in tonight’s episode of The Sopranos in a Cannoli Festival. This episode will be rerun at the following times this week:

Read the rest of this entry »

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In Monday’s episode of “The Apprentice” (9 pm, NBC), one of the teams of contestants will organize and promote a blooming onion eating contest at a college football game.  The episode will be rerun at 8pm and 11pm Wednesday and 9pm Sunday on CNBC.

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The Japanese sports website Sponichi Annex has an article about Natsuko “The Gal” Sone. Some facts from that article:

• Her birthday is December 4, 1985, making her 20 years old
• Her height is 154 cm – 5’4″ and she weighs 45 kg – 99 lb.
• She lives in Himeji and works part time as a clerk in a miscellaneous goods store
• Like Sonya, her dream is to run a restaurant and she hopes to get a cook’s license to pursue that goal.

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Erik “the Red” Denmark received a T shirt listing all the 2006 Nathan’s qualifiers inside and outside the United States and he wrote a blog entry with a picture of his shirt. The qualifiers outside the USA are:

June 3 London, England
June 20 Pattaya Chonburi, Thailand
June 21 Hanover, Germany
June 25 Tokyo, Japan

It will be interesting to see if the German qualifier continues in 2007 given the tensions following Bayer’s cancellation of the 2006 US Open. In any case, one European qualifier would probably suffice given that the Europeans usually finish last or near last.

If anyone is considering traveling to the Thailand qualifier, thailand.com claims that Pattaya Chonburi is known for its “riotous and intoxicating nightlife” Some Japanese eaters might try to qualify in Thailand if it is allowed.

The Tokyo qualifier will provide an opportunity to see how the new wave of Japanese competitive eaters measures up. Hopefully most of the top Japanese gurgitators will enter.

Erik Denmark also notes that inconisistent dates are listed for the Tempe qualifier; the shirt says June 3 while Nathan’s website lists June 4.

The new poll question asks what city outside the United States is most deserving of a Nathan’s qualifier.

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Just as the Beatles’ performance on the Ed Sullivan Show created Beatlemania, Rich and Carlene Lefevre’s appearance on Ripley’s Believe It or Not in 2000 launched their career as the world’s greatest competitive eating couple. The episode (#109) was recorded at the Big Texan steakhouse in Amarillo, Texas and both LeFevres finished the restaurants famous 72 ounce steak (two women, Tammy Hooker and Annette Havard, also finished the steak) The SciFi channel will rerun this episode on May 12 at 4pm. The Amarillo Globe News has an article about the taping.

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Reports from last weekend’s bike rally to Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield, PA, along with some nice pictures of the PA mountains can be found in this forum thread. I don’t think any biker made a serious attempt at one of Denny’s larger burgers, but at least one group ordered a 96er which they split.

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The Gothamist blog has a short writeup of the “Eat This Book” release party Wednesday night.

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This blog was upgraded to WordPress 2.0.2 last night. The actual blog should appear exactly the same, but you will see a different screen if you login or register. Please let me know if you experience any issues.

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I would be interested if anyone could explain the logic behind the Guinness Book of World Records not recognizing eating records on the grounds that they are too dangerous, but listing a record for the longest motorcycle backflip (which was broken last night in Las Vegas)

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The Dallas Observer has an report about last year’s tamale contest that was held in suburban Dallas. The article has information on yet another competitive eating film project.

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Online registration for free tickets to all “Eats of Strength” filming sessions in Islandia, NY is now available online on the IFOCE contests page. The schedule for these sessions follows:
May 6, 1pm Don “Moses” Lerman (bologna)
May 12, 1 pm, TBD
May 12, 3 pm, “Jammin” Joe Larue
May 13, 1 pm Tim “Eater X” Janus
May 13, 3 pm Crazy Legs Conti
May 14, 1 pm Hungry Charles Hardy

Brian Seiken has additional information about the sessions and says that Sonya Thomas will be the sixth eater and might attempt to break Dale Boone’s baked bean record so the May 12 1pm session could feature Sonya.

updated 1:43 pm Brian Seiken has emailed and says that Sonya will probably not attempt an eating record for Eats of Strength and that Cookie Jarvis is a possible replacement.

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The Japanese TV show, “TV Champion”, had an eating contest that was won by someone who does not fit the stereotype of the East Asian champion eater.

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Nichelle Newsletter has pictures from last night’s “Eat This Book” release party and mini-cupcake contest results, which Eric “Badlands” Booker won by eating 29 mini-cupcakes in 2 minutes without water.

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goldenpalaceevents.com has a gallery of the Key Lime Pie eating contest at Panama City Beach held during spring break. I think most of the pictures are from the amateur contest held the day before the contest won by Pat Bertoletti because I do not recognize the majority of the contestants. Several females competed in the amateur contest and apparently did reasonably well judging by the post-contest pictures.

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The B List has a brief and positive review of last night’s party to celebrate the release of “Eat This Book.”

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The Houston Chronicle has a preview of Saturday’s tamale eating contest written by a local competitive eating judge. The article also contains an interview with “Horsemen of the Esophagus” author Jason Fagone in which Fagone claims that eating contests have been banned in Japan (???) after the competitive eating related deaths.

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Pictures from Saturday’s Phillips crabcake contest at the Baltimore Waterfront Festival can be viewed in this arstechnica.com forum thread. There are several pictures of “Eater X” and one commenter suggests that Tim ought to wear a costume.

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In this article about a hot dog contest at Princeton University, the organizer of the contest says he was inspired by MTV’s True Life episode about competitive eating. The contest raised $6,539 for charity and each competitor took pledges for donated amounts for hot dogs eaten. Ruben Pope won with 16 hot dogs in 15 minutes.

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