The seventh episode of Brian Seiken’s video podcast is now online, and it is the funniest show yet. Brian declares a truce in the Great Pickle Jihad (by jihad I mean the quest for the most spiritually enlightened way to eat pickles quickly and not violence or terrorism against pickles) and goes to chez Lipsitz for what he believes is a friendly dinner, only to have Kevin spring an escarole contest on him. The scenes of Kevin preparing the escarole with dubious sanitary standards should help discourage any dieter from eating. Brian also has a phone interview with Kevin’s nephew.

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On March 3, the Masticators, (Joey Chestnut & Hall Hunt) and the Space Dockers (Pat Bertoletti & Tim Janus) both finished Schiappa’s 29 inch pizza challenge for two person teams in O’Fallon, Illinois (greater East Saint Louis). This article mentions their feat and says both duos took under six minutes (the limit is 30) to finish the pizzas. In addition to being placed on the Wall of Fame, the teams won a gift certificate for another 29 inch pizza and are entered in a drawing for a trip to Cancun that will be held after two other teams have finished the challenge. (Is the Whaler’s boat equipped for tropical latitudes?) 😉

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The Nathan’s qualifiers are clustered around the finals site in Coney Island. Of the 12 qualifiers open to the general public, 5 are located between Philadelphia and Hartford. A qualifier was added in Minneapolis this year to make the geographic distribution more even. (This is the first qualifier in the central time zone I am aware of) The new poll question asks where is the optimal location for the next new qualifier site.

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Krazy Kevin Lipsitz will be Brian Seiken’s guest for the seventh episode of his television show. The episode is currently in post-production.

Brian has also made a commitment to improve his physique and health. Lets all support him in his efforts to lose weight. He intends to continue in competitive eating.

Seiken has also submitted two links:

• A show on radio station WFMU from early 2002 about competitive eating with interviews by Richard Shea, Cookie Jarvis and Andrew Goldstein can be obtained at http://www.wfmu.org/listen.php?show=2698
  (Real player required) The competitive eating segment begins at 1:04. The show occurred between the Glutton Bowl and the airing of the Gutbuster documentary (it was hoped at the time that the Glutton Bowl would be an annual event.)
• A blog entry by a Harvard Law student briefly mentions the MTV True Life competitive eating documentary. The author finds the milieu of competitive eating fascinating and hopes to write some personality sketchs of eaters on his blog.

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Liz & Krista of urbanhonking.com, who produced excellent writeups about last December’s meatball contest and last month’s grilled cheese finals are going to Boston to cover Thursday’s corned beef contest.

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(from supersizedmeals.com) After a group of diners requested that In N Out Burger construct them a burger with 100 meat patties and 100 slices of cheese, another group had to one up that and purchase a 101×101. This forum thread describes how they assembled and consumed that colossus.

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A fried chicken eating contest will be held in Kozhikode, India on Thursday in an attempt to allay fears about bird flu. The contest will last 3 minutes and has an entry fee of 25 rupees. The entry fee was imposed to limit the number of entrants. Violence broke out at a free chicken biriyani and fried chicken mela contest last week when contest organizers were unable to handle the surge of participants.

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Crazy Legs Conti: TopicMag , 2004:

I [Conti] lost in Boston to Ed “Cookie” Jarvis (360 pounds—“one pound for each degree in a Lazy Susan,” George Shea would note).

Steve Rushin: Sports Illustrated, March 6, 2006:

He [Kobayashi] dominates dinosaurs like Ed (Cookie) Jarvis, who weighs 419 pounds, or more than one pound for each degree of a Lazy Susan.

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Steakbellie, who finished in the top 10 of last month’s Wing Bowl, is considering entering Nathan’s hot dog eating contest and has apparently started practicing for it.

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IFOCE.com has a graphic for the 2006 goldenpalace.net World Series of Competitive Eating with no additional information. It is not clear if the World Series will entail new contests or if it is just a term to describe all the contests sponsored by goldenpalace. There is also a graphic for Alka Seltzer, so top eaters should probably be making travel plans for Las Vegas in July for US Open II.

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Today IFOCE put out a press release announcing Dale Boone’s return in June from India where he has been producing music videos. Brian Seiken says fans should expect anything from Boone except improved ettiquette. (Given Boone’s last experience with the “Madam of Ettiquette”, it is perhaps understandable why he has an aversion to it.)

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speedeat.com reports that Tim Janus broke the Rockford (Michigan) Corner Bar chili dog record by consuming 43.5 chili dogs in 4 hours. If correct, this is the first time in almost a quarter century that a male eater has been the chili dog champion (Sharon Scholten ate 42.5 hot dogs in 1982 and Baldina Gould consumed 43 last December). The $500 bounty for breaking that record is no longer offered.

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Hall Hunt is profiled in an article in the Gainsville Sun. Hunt is already training for the 2006 Krystal Square Off even though the first qualifiers for it are a half a year away.

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The new poll question asks when (and if) Dale Boone should be allowed to enter IFOCE contests after his return from India.

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Toward the end of Brian Seiken’s most recent TV show, he asks Charles Hardy about the lack of African-American eaters on the IFOCE circuit following in his and Badlands Booker’s path. Hardy mentions that his son will try to help rectify that situation when he competes in the Molly Pitcher Nathan’s qualifier in June. Oscar Juma of Nairobi, Kenya is another eater of African descent who could possible have an impact in competitive eating. Juma won Lindsey Wilson College’s chicken wing contest by eating 35 wings in 3 minutes. Juma is a member of Lindsey Wilson College’s national champion soccer team.

Other African-American eaters to pay attention to include:
Jerman “Black Death” Pressley, who finished in the top five in last month’s Wing Bowl 14

Adedayo Adeniran, Duke University 2004 hot dog champion, 2005 runner-up (but with a better performance than in 2004). Adedayo could solve the problem could lack of successors to Booker and Hardy as well as Sonya Thomas and Carlene LeFevre at the same time.

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In one of the ads in Visa’s new advertising campaign, a diner completes a large burger in a restaurant’s eating challenge (the burger appears to be about a third to a fourth of the size of Kate Stelnick’s burger) The theme of that commercial is “Life takes Determination” and it can be viewed in the advertising section of the Visa web site.

This is the second time I am aware of that a giant burger has been used in an advertising campaign. A Hardee’s commercial last year alluded to Kate Stelnick’s feat by mentioning Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 4 pound Sourdough burger. The commercial claimed that no one had every been able to finish the burger. It did not state that no one could finish that sandwich regardless of his or her appetite because it is not currently on the menu.

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Here are some articles about some of Cookie Jarvis’ notable wins in his career

• 2003 Columbus Day Pasta (with video)
• 2003 Doodle Burger Record
• January 2004 Wing Title Rally vs. Sonya Thomas (Sonya would not lose to an American eater in a non-controversial contest until the 2005 Buffalo Wing Festival a year and a half later)
• 2004 St. Patrick’s Day Corned Beef (with video)
• Interview from before 2005 San Francisco Verizon wing qualifier

Cookie Jarvis’ statistics on eatfeats.com

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Brian Seiken reports that Cookie Jarvis has retired from competitive eating and will not attempt to qualify for Nathan’s in 2006. Cookie claims that his retirement is due to being unable to focus on his business ventures while pursuing an eating career. Best of luck to Cookie in his post-gurgitator phase of life.

Updated 3/8/06 9:02 Cookie Jarvis has a statement announcing his retirement on his website. Cookie is starting an advertising agency which will take all of his available time. He will continue to maintain his website which will track his progress in losing weight. (Thanks Pat Bertoletti)

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Two competitive eating books are now going to hit the shelves in April. The release date of Jason Fagone’s book has been advanced from early June to April 25, three weeks after Eat This Book by Ryan Nerz appears in bookstores. Fagone’s book has officially been retitled Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream, despite the fact that many top competitive eaters are neither fat and/or male. Two short review blurbs of Fagone’s book have been posted on amazon.com

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The Sheboygan Press reports that the Sheboygan Common Council has unanimously voted to file (which I assume means reject) Clarence Mertz’s request for the city to hold an advisory referendum asking if the bratwurst contest should continue. Mertz can apparently resubmit his referendum request in 2007.

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Carolyn Prophet of Rockport won the women’s division of the eating contest at the Fulton Oysterfest. Her mark of 118 oysters won her $200 and was 4 behind the third place finisher in Saturday’s mens division and 16 behind the men’s winner.

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George Curry of Bantam won a pizza contest in Litchfield, CT by eating a 12 inch cheese pizza in about 2 1/2 minutes. Funds raised by the contest will go to Healing the Children, a local charity that arranges for donated medical care for children.

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The Sheboygan Press has an editorial supporting Clarence Mertz’s efforts to put a referendum about the bratwurst eating contest on the ballot. The column stops short of agreeing with Mertz that the contest should be banned. A referendum in 1966 did result in the termination of the bratwurst festival due to excessive drunkenness.

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MSNBC has an article about the Volvo Ocean Race which is held every four years. The Phillips Crabcake eating contest will be held while the ships are stopped in Baltimore in late April.

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The sixth episode of Brian Seiken’s television show is now available. Commissioner Charles Hardy is Brian’s first in studio guest. Hardy describes how he became involved in competitive eating and his role in the 9/11 recovery efforts. Hardy also offers his opinion on if he would have disqualified Kobayashi in the 2001 Nathan’s contest. The most dramatic section of the show occurs when Dale Boone calls into the show from India and Hardy confronts Boone about his inflammatory statements and actions.

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