RIP Pat “from Moonachie” Philbin, whose passing was announced earlier today. He had suffered significant diabetes-related issues in recent years which required amputation of a foot. In addition to qualifying for Nathan’s Famous finals 5 times (2005-08, 2011), he was also a frequent guest on the Opie & Anthony radio show. His most famous moment on that program was probably the “baby bird” video from December 2006 in which he intentionally regurgitated egg nog into an intern’s mouth. updateNJ.com has an article about Pat.

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Newsday reports that Island Park Fire Department volunteer Michael Fischer passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest while attending yesterday’s clam eating contest at Peter’s Clam Bar in Island Park, NY. The article does not mention if he participated in the eating competition. This is not the first eating contest fatality associated with a New York first responder. In April 2017, Caitlin Nelson, daughter of a Port Authority policeman who perished in the 9/11 attacks, choked to death during a pancake eating contest at Sacred Heart University. update News12 reports that the incident happened while Fischer was helping set up for the contest.

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Some shocking and tragic news:

In the early morning of November 19, Aaron Osthoff forced his way into the home of Megan Breuer in Potosi (in southwest Wisconsin about 20 miles from Osthoff’s hometown of Dubuque, Iowa). She called 911 and after police arrived, Osthoff fired his gun multiple times. He severely injured Breuer and then took his own life with his firearm. She was hospitalized and was listed in stable condition as of November 22. Police said that Breuer and Osthoff knew each other, but no additional information about their relationship has been divulged.

Osthoff was a member of Major League Eating from 2011 to 2014. He competed in the 2011, 2013 and 2014 Nathan’s finals, finishing 6th in the men’s division in 2013. In 2012, Osthoff and his wife Heather both qualified for the Nathan’s July 4 championship, but they did not participate in that competition that year. In 2015, Osthoff retired from Major League Eating. He concluded his competitive eating career with a victory in the Dubuque Wing Bowl later that year.

In February 2020, Osthoff was featured in a New York Time article about his acquisition of a copy of the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment report that was autographed by former President Trump. The document was sold by Goldin Auctions for a price of $81,180.

On June 30, 2021, Osthoff’s 20 year old daughter Brielle took her own life. Her struggle with mental health was the subject of a September article by the Telegraph Herald. The Osthoffs have two other children: Brittany Murphrey and Brock Osthoff.

Osthoff’s social media offers minimal clues into what might have triggered the tragedy. His final facebook post on November 17 was an uncaptioned picture of himself in a room with no visible items other than high heeled shoes on a shelf. His twitter and instagram have not been updated for over a year.

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WCVB reports that Madie Nicpon, a defender on the Tufts University women’s lacrosse team from Suffern, NY, passed away after choking during a off campus hot dog held Sunday in Somerville, MA. The competition was part of “Play for Pink”, a breast cancer fundraiser. She is the second female student at a New England college to after choking in a charity eating contest in the past 5 years. Caitlin Nelson passed away in 2017 after choking in a pancake eating contest held at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT (WCVB news video | Lohud article)

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Daily Mail has an article about Anne Nelson, whose father, Port Authority Police Officer James Nelson, died in the World Trace Center wreckage. Another shocking fatality would strike the family 16 years later.

Tragedy stalked Anne again in 2017 when her sister Caitlin (then a 20 year old college student) died in a freak accident when she choked in a charity pancake eating contest.

‘I think that loss is what really made me process my father’s death a little more. Even though I had gone to therapy before, the enormity of it all didn’t really hit me until that happened.’

Anne Nelson’s story is proof that people can live through not one but multiple traumas and still recover. Now 31, Anne tries to honor her sister and dad in everything she does.

She currently works as a special needs teacher at an elementary school, inspired by Caitlin’s studies in social work and her father’s life-long emphasis on education. ‘I take a little bit of both of them in what I’m doing and I try to carry them with me through that.’

Nathan’s Hot Dog qualifiers, restricted to NYC civil servants, were held on top of the original World Trade Center from 1998 to 2000. “Hungry” Charles Hardy won all 3 contests. Very little information about the competitions remains on the internet. Here is a screen capture from the 2002 documentary “Footlong”

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Joey Chestnut is currently the #3 Twitter Trending Topic for the United States. The social media activity was spurred by a recent study claiming that eating one hot dog will reduce a diner’s lifespan by 35 minutes.

According to the eatfeats database, Joey Chestnut has eaten 1364.5 Nathan’s Famous hot dogs in 22 public events (17 finals, 3 qualifiers and 2 exhibitions). If the study is accurate, this would truncate Joey Chestnut’s lifespan by 47,757.5 minutes, or slightly more than 33 days. A list of all of Joey Chestnut’s Nathan’s Famous hot dog results follows.

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