A competitive eating themed screenplay (pdf format), titled “The Gurgitators”, is available. The project was submitted as a thesis for a Master of Fine Arts at Louisiana State University.

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In researching eating challenges, I discovered the database of diners who finished the 48 ounce steak at Don Shula’s Steakhouse. The website claims that over 32000 people have finished the 48 ounce steak. If all those diners are in the database, it would be much larger than eatfeats. (Eatfeats has about 3000 eaters and 6000 contest results)

The website reports that Taft Parker has consumed the 48 ounce steak over 175 times.

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Feb 23 Flan Fest / eating contest in Tampa (Flan is creamy Spanish custard)
Feb 23 Ramen eating contest at anime festival in Anchorage, AK
March 1 Boston bacon eating contest
Mudbug Madness – 5 crawfish eating contests May 22-25 in Shreveport, LA
Video of Flushing, NY dumpling eating contest conducted in Chinese language
Picture of biscuit eating contest for Chinese couples
IFOCE.com claims Ray Meduna predicts Erik Denmark will win the jalapeno contest, a pro-Bertoletti prediction is sought

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BeautifulBrian.com has samples from 4 songs on his upcoming CD. The titles of those songs:

1. Stink for yourself (parody of “Think for Yourself” by the Beatles)
2. Dont ever call me again
3. Retaliation
4. Black and White

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(From Rhonda Evans) Joey Chestnut was interviewed by Ben & Matt on KNIX Country of Phoenix on February 13 to talk about the upcoming MLE video game. Joey is unable to provide any details about that project except for the fact that the IFOCE contract signs away video game rights. He does not disclose how much he was paid, if any, for the use of his electronic likeness but does say that he is looking for a good competitive eating agent.

Joey also says that he expects to break Badlands Booker’s matzo ball record in Houston and calls Kobayashi a “little liar” for claiming he had an injury in the 2007 Nathan’s finals.

Streaming audio of interview, Direct link to MP3 file of interview (9 MB, 9 minutes)

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Don “Moses” Lerman reports that he will have his thyroid gland tested on Thursday. He believes his thyroid might be responsible for his weight gain and says his sister was recently diagnosed with an underactive thyroid.

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The Never a Dull Moment blog has a report and slideshow from a Chicken McNugget eating contest. The top two finishers were women who both exceeded 40 nuggets in 12 minutes and beat two males who have aspirations of becoming competitive eaters.

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San Diego corned beef musubi article and video
James Madison University grilled cheese eating contest, winner eats 12 sandwiches in 8 minutes
Shoo Fly Pie contest to be held June 21, $10,000 purse
“Eating Levi” does not make the South by Southwest festival, but will appear on DVD and the Yes Network
Rio Wraps (Michigan) Burrito Bowl finals report and qualifiers gallery
Princeton Oyster Bowl video
Queen Mary chili cheese fries mini documentary
Rice and Bean Pot competitors eat burritos on Fox 25 news
Brooklyn Dodger forum thread about Nathan’s redevelopment plans

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The next segment of Food Battle Club (The Speed), called “Triangle Records”, has been posted to youtube at http://youtube.com/watch?v=wdQmtAMOf0k. Kobayashi and Nobuyuki Shirota both participate in this segment, which involves eating 40 small food items.

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Beautiful Brian’s Bits & Pieces contains a report about last night’s performance of songs from his upcoming CD:

Badlands then took the mic and started rapping along with the band in what went down as one of Badlands greatest jam sessions .. Last but not least. i took the stage for the final number attempting to perform a track from my CD that hasnt even been released yet.Its a parody of the 1973 song hi hi hi with lyrics revolving around some of the bad calls that went against Sonya Thomas in past IFOCE contests. To make matters worse the volume on the mic was low and i forgot nearly all the words not to mention that the band could barely play two chords of the song. This is not the fault of the band because they are a great band . The fact of the matter is they never heard of or got a chance to practice playing the song hi hi hi which was released before the band members were born. There was a request by several people in the audience for “came in as an eater” I am embarassed to report that i forgot the words to that one as well even though i just recorded it less than a month ago. I hope its not alzheimers. Anyhow i was just happy to hang with some competitive eating pals.

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(From Andrea Fasano) PressPass.tv has a video recorded at the Pig Skin Eating Championship focusing on Pete “Pretty Boy” Davekos at http://presspass.tv/videos/?vid=7009

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Megamunch has a backstage video of Wing Bowl 16 he recorded in the corridors of the Wachovia Center.

There are over 60 youtube videos labeled with “Wing Bowl 16” This link will bring them up.

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Beautiful Brian emails me that he might perform two songs from the upcoming “Stick to Blogging” CD at Otto’s Shrunken Head in the East Village Saturday night as part of the Anti-Valentine’s Prom. Brian’s performance will probably take place after midnight.

See also Bits & Pieces

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A website about the Wing Bowl 13 documentary “Swallow Your Pride” has been set up at http://www.swallowyourpridefilm.com/ The site has a trailer and a page with “eater cards” about the six competitors featured in the film.

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Coney Island slideshow (from Liz K)
Help a Hungry Sister win a scholarship by voting for her picture of Pat Bertoletti
Pat Bertoletti eats watermelon on the Mancow radio show
Delaware charity gnocchi contest report

Some upcoming independent contests
February 16, Corned Beef Musubi eating contest, San Diego
February 23, Pickled egg eating contest, Boise, ID
March 15, pancake eating contest, Harley Davidson of Anaheim-Fullerton
March 25/26, Denver/Boulder oyster eating contest

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With 4 events on its calendar, the Denver eating contest meetup group has as many scheduled events as the IFOCE upcoming contest list. Contests will generally be held on Friday night:

Fri Feb 15, 7:00 PM Chili Dawg Challenge
Fri Feb 29, 7:00 PM Slyder Slugfest
Fri Mar 7, 7:00 PM Otis Spunkmeyer Cookie Chow
Mon Mar 17, 7:00 PM St Patty’s Corned Beef & Cabbage Carnage

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The No Me Without You blog announces that a series of portraits of competitive eaters has started. A picture of Tim “Eater X” Janus eating ramen noodles in Chinatown accompanies the announcement. A picture of Crazy Legs Conti is forthcoming.

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Russ from the Ace of Spades blog is registering his dissatisfaction with the state of the world by entering the bacon eating contest to be held March 1 at the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival in Des Moines, Iowa:

I’d like to think that by attending this event for all you morons, I’ll be doing my part to reunite the Republican Party under the banner of smaller government, sensible immigration laws, strong foreign policy, and mandatory consumption of bacon and other pork products on a daily basis. I could be the Barry Goldwater of the Pork Products Wing of the New Conservative Enlightenment, helping all my fellow Americans discover a world where wrapping bacon around hot dogs is not only legal, but mandatory.

(The quoted material refers to the banning of street vendors selling bacon wrapped hot dogs in Los Angeles.)

Today Russ asked his commenters for advice about preparing for an eating contest.

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Iwanichi Online reports that Takashi Aoki won the 50th annual installment of the Hanamaki wanko soba noodle eating contest by eating 223 cups of noodles in 5 minutes. According to Kahoku, Aoki works as a hospital psychiatrist.

The contest’s 50 year duration probably makes it the world’s longest running annual eating competition. (The official Nathan’s history / apocrypha states that the 1971 Nathan’s hot dog contest was canceled as a “protest to civil unrest and the reign of free love”.)

JapanProbe and TVI both have videos of the contest. The blog for Foreign Policy magazine also mentions the contest.

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The new poll asks who you think is the leading candidate to be named the IFOCE rookie of the year at the 2008 Nathan’s finals. I am defining rookie as someone who emerged in 2007.

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Beautiful Brian announces that he has completed 6 out of a planned 11 tracks for his upcoming CD, “Stick to Blogging”, and has moved up the release date to early March. One finished track is titled “Moses is Great”, which appears to go against the critical tone of the majority of the lyrics. Brian is considering closing the CD with a “We Are the World” type of song.

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Megamunch has written a blog entry about Wing Bowl 16 and his attempts at pre-contest tailgating. He was forced to migrate between 4 different parking lots before entering the Wachovia Center to be a part of “Big” Brian Subich’s entourage. Megamunch has a captioned gallery of his trip.

“Humble” Bob Shoudt has also posted his report about his participation in Wing Bowl 16. Like other eaters, he has questions about the counting and ranking of his first round results:

At the end of the 14 minutes, I had eaten 108 wings. I was nervous that would not be enough as these wings were much faster then the cold rocks I had last year.

We waited for a while and then a guy came around and told us if we were in the 2nd round or not. I was told no, so I picked up my stuff. My judge came by and asked where I was sitting for the 2nd round. I said I wasn’t, I didn’t make it. He said “Those guys must have eaten a _ _ _ _ load of wings (refering to the other eaters). I asked him how he scored me. He said 17 and 18s on each plate (5 full plates). I was satisfied that I did not make it as that put me at 17+17+17+17+18 – worst case = 86 plus 6 on the last plate = 92 total. I assumed 92 would not be enough. When they announced that 70 was the 10th place total, I thought they they had just made a mistake. Nope. Next year…

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Tomoko Miyake is endorsing three meals sold by SaveOn, a convenience store chain. Convenience stores are called “konbini” in Japan.

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Beautiful Brian has posted his commentary for February which deals with who he thinks should rise and fall in the next installment of the IFOCE rankings. He also has some thoughts about his dispute with Pete “Philly Guy” Miernicki.

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The website for the newspaper of Providence College has an interview with Michael Springer. Springer was prohibited from competing in the finals for the “Eat The Meat” wing contest after winning a qualifier, but that ban was not mentioned in the interview.

In other news about big eating Friars, this Rhode Island Monthly article about former Providence basketball player, and current ESPN announcer, Doris Burke, reports she is the second biggest eater in women’s basketball:

She’s hungry, and as she parks in the darkness of a casino garage she hopes she isn’t too late for the crew lunch. She works out ninety minutes most days at a gym near her house, and she is as slender as she was twenty years ago when she played at PC. You wouldn’t know it from looking at her, but she can out-eat any woman on the basketball circuit but one, and she’s half Burke’s age.

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