Actress Olivia Wilde (House M. D., Tron: Legacy) relates the following tale from her childhood in the April edition of GQ:

I wanted to be on Saturday Night Live since I was ten. My father took me to a live taping on my birthday. Chris Farley was still in the cast and at the after-party he had a brownie eating contest.

…

It became, like, a very valuable, powerful moment in my childhood. Although it was the only eating contest I have ever lost.

This story is either incorrect or Olivia Wilde’s public birthday (March 10, 1984) is inaccurate. Saturday Night Live was never televised live on March 10 during Chris Farley’s tenure as a cast member, which started in fall 1990 and ended in 1995. During that time period March 10 fell on Sunday (1991), Tuesday (1992), Wednesday (1993), Thursday (1994) and Friday (1995).

If a new episode was televised live on Saturday, March 9, 1991, the last hour of the program would have taken place just after midnight on March 10 (when Olivia would have turned seven). No episode was produced on that date; the first live SNL episode of March 1991 was broadcast on March 16.

Olivia Wilde shares a March 10 birthday with Jon Hamm of Mad Men, who was recently caught in an apparent fib about playing baseball at the University of Texas with Roger Clemens.

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Today is the tenth anniversary of The Glutton Bowl, which was televised on Fox on February 21, 2002

Glutton Bowl links

• Competitors list and results from a Japanese website
• Program recap by RealityNewsOnline
• Video of final round where food was cow brains (with Korean subtitles)
• Video of egg contest round won by Badlands Booker
• Glutton Bowl preview by Buck Wolf focusing on Cookie Jarvis, Don Lerman, Kevin Lipsitz and Charles Hardy
• Recent picture of Cookie Jarvis, Don Lerman and Kevin Lipsitz on TheLermanReport.com
• IFOCE top 68 from March 2002

Of the 34 competitors, I think only 4 (Takeru Kobayashi, Eric “Badlands” Booker, “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti and Jed Donahue) remain currently active in competitive eating. Three others (Don Lerman, Bill “El Wingador” Simmons and Lester Tucker) have competed recently but announced retirement.

Factoids about Glutton Bowl competitors

• One of the two female Glutton Bowl participants, Lorraine Arrol, would marry Kevin Lipsitz
• Lester Tucker won 16 straight quail egg eating contests in Texas, but announced retirement last year.
• Jed Donahue ate one hot dog in the 2006 Nathan’s finals
• Chris Eyre would be arrested for allegedly assaulting his wife in New York City before the 2003 Nathan’s finals. He was reportedly angry at her for kissing William “The Refrigerator” Perry, who competed in the 2003 finals.
• It is almost the 20th anniversary of The Simpsons episode having 9 Major League Baseball players as guest stars (originally televised on February 20, 1992 on Fox). Jose Canseco, one of the baseball players in the epsisode, was scheduled to face off against Glutton Bowl participant Bill “El Wingador” Simmons in a celebrity boxing match in 2009, but Canseco pulled out.

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A press release announces that “Adam Richman’s Best Sandwich in America” will be Adam Richman’s new show on the Travel Channel. The status of Man vs. Food is listed as “rested”, but reruns of the program will continue to be televised on the channel. update The program will debut June 6.

(The futility in ranking a large number of subjectively judged items brings to mind the episode of The Simpsons where the parody rock band Spinal Tap guest-starred: ST – Spinal Tap, BAM – DJs Bill & Marty)

BAM: Would you mind recording some promos?
ST: Like what?
BAM: Maybe you could say: “Nobody rocks like Bill and Marty on KBBL.”
ST: We don’t know that. What if somebody rocks as good as you? Or better. We don’t want to look stupid.
BAM: We respect that. How about: “Rock-a-doodle-doo! You’re listening to Bill and Marty” ?
ST: Yeah, sure. That’s good.

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