Liz K attended Love Ahoy (a live “Dating Game” parody) last night which featured a hot dog contest overseen by Crazy Legs Conti and has a writeup on her blog. Eaters were judged by style and not speed or amount.

Liz also emailed me that urban honking has a map of the country with all the upcoming IFOCE contests using the platial.com website.

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Pat Bertoletti has emailed me that Tuesday’s Teachers episode on NBC had a Teacher’s Olympics, in which one of the events was a hot dog contest won by a slender Asian-American woman. “According to Jim” and “Gray’s Anatomy” are other shows in which a Sonya Thomas based character has appeared in an episode.

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People who are waiting for a fictional competitive eating movie to be completed do not need to wait for “The El Wingador Story” to be finished. The Gloucester Daily Times reports that a short film based on the Salem Witch Trials, “Gluttonous G. Goforth”, in which the defendant is a female competitive eater was produced in under 48 hours.

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explorernews.com has a writeup of Saturday’s jalapeno popper contest in Tucson by a would be contestant (there was not a slot for him) There are some quotes from winner Joey Chestnut. The article explains why Friday’s amateur contest winner, Loppi Joe Kerschner, should have added an “s” to the start of his nickname for Saturday’s contest.

5th place finisher Erik “The Red” Denmark also has a contest writeup on his blog.

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PETA has put out a press release announcing that a protest will be held during the Nathan’s qualifier in Sunrise, Florida. The anti-animal cruelty group is also calling on Nathan’s to produce a meatless hot dog. Time will tell if PETA’s protest is more successful that Clarence Mertz’s efforts to stop the Sheboygan Bratfest contest.

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newtimespbp.com has information about this Saturday’s Nathans qualifier to be held before the Florida Panthers game in the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida. The contest will start at 6pm and there is no admission charge (there might be a fee for parking) According to the buffet message board, the following eaters are expected to attend:

Joe LaRue
Crazy Legs Conti
Hall Hunt
Erik Denmark
Loren Yarbrough
Larry McNeil

Weather for Saturday is expected to be partly cloudy with a high of 82 and a low of 71.

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Two competitive eaters have been members of their national ultimate frisbee team. Nobuyuki “The Giant” Shirota, was the tallest member of the Japanese team before he quit in 2004 to focus on competitive eating, which would pay off in a second place finish at Nathan’s. “Loppi” Joe Kershner, winner of last Friday’s amateur jalapeno popper contest, played on the US Juniors team in 2004, which went undefeated at the World Championship in Finland.

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Megamunch has done further analysis on the picture of Eric “Badlands” Booker wearing a helmet. The photograph with the helment and without the helment are exactly the same except for Booker’s head. The odds that large areas of two pictures taken at different times would be exactly the same are miniscule, but other unlikely things have happened at Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub.

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There is an Eater X page on myspace listing his home state as Alabama and his height as 6’1″, facts which are not found on myspace.com/eaterx There is also a myspace.com/joeychestnut, but this page does not appear to be impersonating the San Jose State student.

Philly.com reports that Wing Bowl creator Angelo Cataldi was also a victim of a myspace impersonator.

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Brian Seiken has a photo gallery of Saturday’s goldenpalace.net jalapeno popper eating contest held at the Tuscon Spring Fling. It is surprising that Rich LeFevre did not compete in a southwestern contest.

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Thanks Brian Seiken – Crazy Legs Conti has compiled a list of competitive eating websites written in the inimitable Crazy Legs style.

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While the official opening of futureofeating.com remains in the future, Joey Chestnut fans can make do with his myspace site.

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After narrowly defeating impressario Dick Zigun in a mini hot dog contest 92 to 87 at a Coney Island charity gala, the next public appearance for Crazy Legs Conti will be Wednesday at Love Ahoy, a synthesis of The Dating Game and The Love Boat. Conti will oversee (or should that be oversea) a hot dog eating contest. Love Ahoy will take place at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn and is free to the public. Love Ahoy is also accepting applications for contestants, so single NYC eaters might want to send those in.

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The AICE news page announces that Adam Leffler intends to compete in their upcoming contests, making official his breach with IFOCE. Adam, who announced his retirement after December’s Atlantic City meatball contest, did not leave IFOCE on the best of terms according to this page on Brian Seiken’s website. In addition to joining AICE as an eater, Leffler says that he also hopes to work in the management side of that organization.

Comments are not allowed for this post. If Brian Seiken (or anyone else) would like to comment, he can put it on his home page or blog.

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The Austin Stateman has an update about Levi Oliver’s training for the Capital of Texas Triathlon at the end of May. “The Prophet” will also attempt to defend his tamale title. A documentary is being filmed about Oliver’s efforts to transform himself.

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Supersizedmeals.com reports that Joe LaRue ate 3 burgers containing 20 ounces of precooked meat at Cheeburger Cheeburger. The total weight of all burgers was about five pounds and Joe finished them in about 40 minutes. Finishing one burger that size entitles the eater to put a picture of him/herself on the restaurant’s Wall of Fame. Joe LaRue will attempt to defend his home turf at the first Nathan’s qualifier in Sunrise Florida on Saturday.

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In a recent blog entry, Don “Moses” Lerman displays a portrait he had commissioned of himself as Moses. According to “Eat This Book”, Don also has a picture of himself as the king of Prussia. The new poll question asks what historical figure should Don Lerman next commission a portrait of himself as?

Updated 4/10 1:00 pm The picture of Don Lerman as the king of Prussia can be seen in this post.

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thanks Brian Seiken

1 Joey Chestnut 118
2 Pat Bertoletti 105
3 Tim “Eater X” Janus 96
4 Jed Donahue 63

Updated 4/9 6:40 pm Alex has an eyewitness account of the contest in his blog

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Dave Shoffner of the megamunch blog has posted rather conclusive evidence that the famous picture of Eric “Badlands” Booker eating Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 11 pound burger in a helmet decorated with a cartoon dog was modified.

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On his events calendar, Ryan Nerz says he will emcee a Nathan’s qualifier to be held at the Hot Dog Safari in Boston on June 4. Nerz says that IFOCE does not publicize this event and it does not appear on either the IFOCE or Nathan’s website.

The first qualifier for the 2007 finals, which will take place at Saratoga Springs on September 4, 2006, is another event Nerz is scheduled to emcee. The 2005 contest to be held at that location was cancelled.

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In this article about the events planned for the 2006 Illinois State Fair, it is stated that a horseshoe (something containing french fries and cheese sauce) eating contest will be held, apparently replacing last year’s goldenpalace grilled cheese qualifier. The article does not explicitly state that the grilled cheese contest is not scheduled, so it is possible that the fair could host two eating contests. If the contest does not take place at the Illinois State Fair, the 2006 goldenpalace grilled cheese circuit could either be held at other venues or be dropped completely.

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The surge in popularity for the winner of the Gluttonous Queen contest, nicknamed “The Gal”, can be tracked by searching for her name (ギャル曽根) in Japanese blogs using technorati. There were almost 200 mentions of “The Gal” in Japanese blogs the day after her victory was televised. She currently has 439 mentions in Japanese blogs which is quite impressive when you take into account that her competitive eating career only started last fall. In comparision, Kate Stelnick has 244 mentions in blogs, most coming in January 2005 (and there are more blogs in the US than in Japan).

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(From beautifulbrian.com) Ryan Nerz has set up a web site promoting his recently released book at eatthisbook.com The website has a gallery, a calendar of Nerz’s appearances, an interview with the grilled cheese sandwich slandered by Tim “Eater X” Janus and a blog where you can expound on your hypotheses about the entities producing this website. The release party for “Eat This Book” will be on April 20 at a currently undetermined time and place.

According to his calendar, Nerz will appear on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central on April 18 at 11 pm eastern.

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The University of Kansas student newspaper has a good article about competitive eating focusing on Pat Bertoletti. A gastroenterologist is also interviewed who says he would like to study the stomachs of competitive eaters in the hope of finding a treatment for dyspepsia.

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Atlantic Magazine has an excerpt of “Horsemen of the Esophagus” by Jason Fagone in its May issue about the goldenpalace grilled cheese contest from early 2005 in Venice Beach. Only the first two paragraphs can be viewed online by non-subscribers.

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