The opener for the third season of Beautiful Brian’s video podcast is now available. The contents are described:

Beautifulbrian’s corner Season 3 features a tribute to Krazy Kevin’s retirement from competitive eating. Baby Huey attempts to break Joey Chestnut’s record of gallon milk in 41 seconds. El Toro phone in from Las Vegas , Phoney phone call from 1974

El Toro’s girlfriend declined participation because she thought the questions were stupid.

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Controlled Labs is sponsoring a video-based ice cream sandwich eating contest. Videos must be submitted by November 17. The first ten women who enter the contest and make a legitimate effort will receive a skull cap.

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“Gustoff Zhychick” has emailed a video (3.0 MB 40 seconds) announcing that he will not be present at the Wing Bowl.

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HungrySisters is a new blog describing its focus as: “food, especially (but not necessarily limited to): Dairy Queen, Tacos, and the fine art known as competitive eating.” The sisters traveled west from their home in North Carolina to go to the Krystal Square Off finals and wrote a trip report about it.

The next morning we were ready for the festivities to begin. We ate breakfast at this awesome cafe connected to our hotel. Sadie and I both ordered Chocolate Chip Pancakes. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel and walked to the riverside where the contest was to take place. We arrived about 2 hours early, but we didn’t have anything better to do, so we watched the Krystal People set up the area for the contest. While we were waiting, we met Crazy Legs Conti!!!! It was the coolest thing ever. It was our first encounter meeting a real-live competitive eater; one who we have seen on TV many, many times. Very exciting!!!

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Some people have said that new IFOCE rankings were released today, but the cached rankings (from November 7) and the current rankings are the same. Kobayashi was dropped to #3 after the “Wings & Wedges” broadcast in October.

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The logos on the home page of IFOCE.com have been changed and the IFOCE store graphic announces that the Major League Eating DVD can be purchased. The DVD page has a review from Robert Gilman which begins:

“Blending the historic integrity of Ken Burns with the stylistic perfection of Scorsese, Major League Eaters delights at every turn. Cookie Jarvis loves two things–celebrity and free food. Sadly he is losing both. Rich and Carlene LeFevre are a dynamic couple with epicurean leanings, but has another eater been leaning a bit too close to Carlene?

The logos for Heinz, Pizza Hut and Netflix have been dropped (cached home page)

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Short article about Juris Shibayama, no quotes or other new information.
Former NFL star Herschel Walker sponsors a hamburger eating contest to promote his line of food products.
Crystal Light eating contest video
Soft taco eating contest between teams of cheerleaders.
Another eating contest for cheerleaders, this one involving tater tots.

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Bodybuilder Isabelle Turell has uploaded a video of her describing the contents of a full grocery cart to http://youtube.com/watch?v=ai_T8DjUyCY She estimates the food will last her 2 or 3 days. Ms. Turell comments on the video in this Muscular Development thread and says she has considered entering an eating contest In this musclemayhem thread:

Now one another note… If I to a resturant like for example I went to Cheesecake Factory. I order the big sampler appetizer. i eat the whole thing myself. THe waiter will be like thats alot of food, mentally i am thinking “yeah and your piont is??” I am a paying customer, don’t question me on what I order. I must have ate that thing up in 10 minutes. I then order the big filet mignon and of course cheesecake not 1 but maybe 3 cheesecake to nibble here and there. But that once in a while.

I have ben tempted to enter these food eating contest, but I can’t see myself stuffing face like some of those people. But i would be kinda of fun to try. I would probably pass out or something

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Two promotional video clips for the “Turkey Bowl” have been uploaded to youtube: Video 1, Video 2 Embedded videos available after the jump:
Read the rest of this entry »

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Hall Hunt’s November top 25 is out. The top 5 are:

1. Joey “Jaws” Chestnut (8) (248) [1]
2. Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti (235) [2]
3. Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi (233) [3]
4. “Humble” Bob Shoudt (1) (219) [4]
5. Tim “Eater-X” Janus (191) [5]

It would be interesting to know who voted for Bob Shoudt as #1 and what they based that selection on.

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A press release announces that the third MLE special on Spike TV, the “Turkey Bowl” will be televised twice on Thanksgiving Day, November 22 at 11am and 7pm.

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The Wall Street Journal Online has a long profile of “activist” investor Nelson Peltz, who is responsible for Heinz’s co-sponsorship of the Nathan’s finals:

Mr. Peltz also believed that Heinz was paying supermarkets too much to promote its products and provide good shelf placement. He said Heinz should seek visibility in other ways, like sponsoring the hot-dog eating contest held each Independence Day at New York’s Coney Island. The activist shareholder also took issue with the 11 billion single-serve ketchup packets Heinz sold each year to fast-food chains, schools and sports venues, calling them messy. His suggestion: Sell ketchup in dip cups like those used for barbeque sauce.

…

Sales and profits at Heinz are up. This past July’s hot-dog eating contest in Coney Island was festooned with inflatable Heinz ketchup bottles. As for messy ketchup packaging, Heinz says that apparently unbeknownst to Mr. Peltz, it had already been selling tens of millions of dip cups annually. “He said, ‘Why don’t we have dip cups?’ the senior Heinz employee recalls. “We do have dip cups.” The company is currently developing larger dip cups, it says.

Heinz stock is up 10.5% since Peltz became involved with the company. Peltz has been recently been accumulating shares of Kraft Foods. Perhaps he can get a Kraft brand to sponsor another eating contest.

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A clip from ESPN’s Sportcenter about the results of Krystal Square Off IV can be viewed at http://broadband.espn.go.com/ivp/splash2?id=3084545

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(from Erik Denmark) The MLE page on Spike TV announces that the second segment of the MLE Chowdown, titled “Battle of the Bird”, will be televised on Thanksgiving Day. A time is not listed.

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(From bb.coms Bits & Pieces) Brian Seiken’s “Black Pearl” video is no longer the only Sonya Thomas tribute video on youtube. Duke 618 has created and uploaded a video called “Gurgitator” to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5nLKrKefhY

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Gelf magazine has a good report on the Nathan’s finals which equates Major League Eating with professional wrestling:

With its carefully scripted storylines and constructed characters, Major League Eating is becoming a marketing force. And with all the organized hoopla surrounding it, the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest straddles a thin line between sport and spectacle. In all of sports, that line has become increasingly blurred. Is the focus on Kobayashi’s jaw all that different than the attention given to Donovan McNabb’s right knee? Is Eater X’s mask any less intimidating than Rip Hamilton’s? Is Crazy Legs’ fame, thanks to his media savvy as much as his competitive accomplishments, any less deserving than James Blake’s?

The article has several mini profiles of Pat Philbin, Dale Boone and others. There is also a gallery associated with the article.

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A new book, “Short History of the American Stomach” will come out early next year. A description of its contents follows:

The extremes of American eating—our separate-but-equal urges to stuff and to starve ourselves—are easy to blame on the excesses of modern living. But Frederick Kaufman followed the winding road of the American intestine back to that cold morning when the first famished Pilgrim clambered off the Mayflower, and he discovered the alarming truth: We’ve been this way all along. With outraged wit and an incredible range of sources that includes everything from Cotton Mather’s diary to interviews with Amish black-market raw-milk dealers, Kaufman offers a highly selective, take-no-prisoners tour of American history by way of the American stomach. Travel with him as he tracks down our earliest foodies; discovers the secret history of Puritan purges; introduces diet gurus of the nineteenth century, such as William Alcott, who believed that nothing ought to be mashed before it is eaten; traces extreme feeders from Paul Bunyan to eating-contest champ Dale Boone (descended from Daniel, of course); and investigates our blithe efforts to re-create plants and animals that we’ve eaten to the point of extinction.

The author, Fredrick Kaufman, has a blog at AmericanStomach.com A profile of Dale Boone from a 2003 issue of Harper’s Magazine can be downloaded from that website. A transcript of a NPR interview in which Kaufman compared cooking shows to pornography is available. The release date is February 4, 2008, the same weekend as Wing Bowl 16.

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Youtube clip of the eating contest at Rutgers from “The Apprentice”
blog entry by runner up in the UK breakfast eating contest
North Jersey hot dog eating contest, winner ate 11 hot dogs in 5 minutes and won $250
“Mean” Gene Okerlund of the WWE opens a fast food restaurant and oversees a burger eating contest
CBS News article about the pumpkin farm where the US-Japan pumpkin eating contest took place (Joe Menchetti is not mentioned)
Howard University anti-CE (really anti-obesity) editorial
Kansas U corn dog contest video
Parody about high school eating competitive eating clubs
Branson, MO pizza contest
Evansville, Indiana donut contest video
Billy Blanks (Tae Bo) does eating contest in Japan

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NYTimes.com reports that Don Imus will take over the morning show on WABC currently hosted by Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby. The radio station says it hopes to find an alternate place in its schedule for Curtis Sliwa, a four time Carnegie Deli pickle eating champion in the 1990s.

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Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane has challenged Juris “Dr. Big Time” Shibayama to reveal his body fat percentage in order to determine who deserves the title of the most fit eater in the IFOCE.

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Megamunch has a post on the date & site of the next UEPa meeting which will probably take place on December 1 at the Niner Diner in Nanty Glo, PA. The diner offers a 3 pound burger challenge which includes 5 pounds of fries along with a pancake challenge. At $5.95, the pancake challenge is the cheapest eating challenge that will be free if eaten under a time limit I am aware of.

Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub has fallen out of favor with some UEPa members due to lack of notification about the team 15 pound burger contest and confusion on whether the Wall of Fame has been updated to include the successful challenges at the last UEPa meeting at Denny’s. DennysBeerBarrelPub.com has an online wall of fame, but it has been completely empty for at least 6 months.

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Don “Moses” Lerman reports that his nephew, Ryan Urban, has issued the following challenge:

Dr. Urban who off is the nephew and owner of record at Moses News .Com says ‘ I’m going to shut down Moses news .com says as an incentive and motivator if my uncle doesn’t lose 30lbs by Feb.1st He can say goodbye to MOSES NEWS .COM

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Emailed by Badlands Booker:

Pre-order the latest badlands booker album “Hungry & Focused 4 – Fork, Knife, and Mic” and get the new ’07 Edition Badlands Booker T Shirt free while supplies last. Offer ends on the album’s official release date: 11/21/07. Stay Hungry and focused everybody

The album can be purchased at myspace.com/badlandsbooker

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Tomoko Miyake has revamped her website and changed its URL from miyaketomoko.com to tomokomiyake.net The website has a flash introduction, but still can be accessed via HTML links, enabling translation with the Google translator. A cartoon Tomoko wearing various national costumes appears on the new site’s pages, which is appropriate for a website making its debut near Halloween.

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Liz K has posted a video of “Humble” Bob Shoudt giving Juliet Lee a wing eating lessson at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oL1v1J8T0M

update Juliet Lee has posted a Krystals finals trip report in her WriteNow page.

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