A video of the pumpkin eating contest between teams consisting of Nobuyuki “the Giant” Shirota & Tomoko Miyake and “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti & Elizabeth “Rubber Gut” Canady can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-34LXhHeKs
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The cancellation of the corn eating contest at the University of Iowa has received more publicity than most eating contests which actually take place:

ESPN.com
Des Moines Register
Reason Online
KCRG

A comment from the Des Moines Register by Calvin Jones follows:

Keep in mind this is the same University that sells triple cheese burgers and french fries in the student union cafeteria not to mention the mass quantities of alcohol they allow the well healed boosters to consume on campus, in open containers, seven hours before a Hawkeye football game. Trust me nothing is scarier than watching a drunk graduate from the class of 32 try to back out their 18 foot long land yacht onto Melrose Ave. The obesity epidemic has nothing to do with binge vegetable eating and everything to do with empty calories and sugar peddled by all of those vending machines on campus. If anything binging on vegetables would both help solve this nation’s weight problem and cripple the laxative industry.

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Liz reports that she has created a video with Krista which contains some competitive eating content for the Ultimate Blogger 3 competition.

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The episode of “The Office” in which the staff competes in a hot dog eating contest will be rerun on NBC at 9pm eastern tonight.

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The new poll asks how you think the restrictions in the IFOCE contract will change over time.

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A video of Pat Bertoletti doing a jalapeno eating exhibition on local Chicago news can be seen at http://cbs2chicago.com/video/?id=35532@wbbm.dayport.com

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A Japanese poll for the favorite competitive eater (or “food fighter”) has been set up. The current top 7 are:

1. Ohashi ? (possible ballot stuffing)
2. Gal Sone
3. Giant Shirota
4. Takeru Kobayashi
5. the “Artist”
6. Tomoko Miyake
7. Takako Akasaka

Joey Chestnut is the only non-Japanese choice.

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This post is for the breakdown of the IFOCE contract by “Who Is OJ Rifkin?” which begins:

Let’s talk about the “lovely little contract” that these guys make you sign. I will be dedicating my next few postings to this issue. Of course those eaters who have sworn undying allegiance to MLE will dismiss or disregard this issue. For those of you who might care about things like ownership of your name and fair compensation may wish to read and comment on this issue. Perhaps the best way to proceed is to break it up in a few pieces and analyze what it really means. You may not like the author of this posting but realize this: I did not create this contract the Shea brothers did:

Here we go part 1 of the contract:

IFOCE
Membership Agreement

This agreement (The “Agreement”) is made and entered into this __________day of__________,
2004, by and between International Federation of Competitive Eating, Inc., with its principle offices
At 151 W. 25 street, 4th floor, New York NY 10001 (“IFOCE”), and ______________ an, individual residing at _________________(“Performer”) upon the following Terms and conditions.

1. The term of this agreement shall commence as of the date hereof and shall continue for a period of eighteen (18) months thereafter.

OK, so far so good…next part:

2. (a) Performer shall have official status of an “IFOCE Eater” during the term with eligibility to participate in IFOCE events. Performer recognizes the benefits of the eligibility and status of an IFOCE eater and in consideration of such benefits, performer agrees to participate solely and exclusively in organized competitive eating events, exhibitions and appearances of any kind in the media related to eating (collectively “Eating Events”) Which are sanctioned and approved by the IFOCE. Performer shall notify IFOCE in advance of competing or appearing in any eating events not sanctioned by the IFOCE and must obtain IFOCE’s prior in order to participate or appear. This approval maybe withheld in IFOCE’s sole judgement based on safety of such Eating Events, competition with other organizations or other conflict with the reasonable objectives of IFOCE.

LET’S TALK ABOUT THE SECTION ABOVE: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN AND IS THIS AN ETHICAL CONTRACT? If so why or why not?

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The pumpkin contest between teams from the United States and Japan was broadcast today and R Suzuki has a blog entry about the program

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(From anonymous comment) KrystalSquareOff.com reports that “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti ate 24 burgers in 2 minutes in a Krystal prequalifier in Nashville, 4 off the record held by Joey Chestnut and Bob Shoudt. The article mentions Menchetti’s estrangement from the IFOCE, but does not say if he will be allowed to compete in the 8 minute qualifier on Sunday. GJoe is in Tennessee to compete in the Backyard Burgers finals tomorrow in Memphis.

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A hot dog eating contest produced by filming lego people using stop motion photography can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeVmljjBZpc

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Megamunch has a post on the possible benefits that quick and full reporting of results would provide to a contest sponsor.

Speaking of timely results reporting, I have been unable to find any results from the Buffalo buffet bowl on IFOCE.com three days after the event. Full Jacksonville Krystal results have not been posted yet as well.

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Youtube has a video of Saturday’s Pork BBQ sandwich eating contest at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69vOEiq8LaI

This blog entry also has a video and some pictures.

The pictures below were provided by Todd Hennessey

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(From Hall Hunt) Jacksonville.com has a gallery of yesterday’s Krystal Square Off qualifier in Jacksonville.

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I had intended to liveblog the webcast of the Jacksonville Krystal qualifier, which is supposed to start at 3pm eastern, but it is currently not working.

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A video of a 30 second Krystal contest between Hall Hunt and two employees of CBS 47 can be viewed at http://www.cbs47.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=15147

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The wing eating contest to be held on September 15 at the Smoke on the Water Festival in Arkansas which AICE news reported was canceled is still listed on the festival’s website schedule.

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The calendar for Japanese channel TBS says that the pumpkin contest between teams from Japan and the United States will be broadcast on September 8 at 7 pm (Japanese time)

19:00 [yaredeki]! The worldwide [ze] it is from the worldwide large challenge ~ enormous pumpkin enormous rammer to the refrigerator of the king the [bu] to eat, exhaust special

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A video of Wednesday’s rib eating contest at the Nugget casino can be viewed at http://youtube.com/watch?v=5yvUXCOMFIc
(embedded video available after jump)
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The Kent County Times has an article about the pumpkin contest in Rhode Island between mixed gender pairs from the United States and Japan which describes the origin of the event:

Emi Umeda, who works with the production crew, said the name of the show translates to “Anything is possible,” and she said the point of the show is to take a topic, find who’s best in the world at it and challenge them to a contest against Japan.

One of the topics is a pumpkin-eating contest, she said, which will pit two professional American eaters against two professional Japanese eaters, making their way through five different pumpkin dishes.

In order to get started, the show wanted to find who held the record for growing the largest pumpkin in the world, which happened to be Coventry resident Ron Wallace, who owns a farm at 860 Plainfield Pike.

The American female made her competitive debut according to the article:

The Japanese contestants are Tomoko Miyake and Nobuyuki Shirota and the American contestants are “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti of Wallingford, Conn., and Elizabeth “Rubber Gut” Kennedy from Florida.

“This is my first time doing this,” Kennedy said. “I made some inquiries on the Internet just out of curiosity and interest and they gave me a call.”

The article verifies reports of a US victory:

Since it may be difficult for American viewers to tune into the show to see the results, St. Jean said the American team ended up easily outpacing the team from Japan.

update BigPumpkins.com has some pictures of the contest (bottom of page) One of the pictures is captioned:

At the Wallaces on August 21, 2007, Gentleman Joe, urges his teamate to down more Pumpkin Lobster and Pumpkin pizza. She ate an entire Large Pumpkin Pizza and 2 lb Pumpkin Lobster in 3 minutes. But that was just the appetizer.

update #2 The BigPumpkins.com message board has some threads about the contest: Thread 1, Thread 2, Thread 3

update #3 Dec 26, 2007 The quoted article spelled Elizabeth’s last name incorrectly. The correct spelling is Canady.

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Kobayashi has posted a blog entry on the current condition of his jaw. He says that while his right jaw has recovered, he still has issues with his left jaw. He does not make any statements on competing in the Krystal Square Off or US Open II.

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From The Hangman – Gallerys of last year’s Jacksonville Krystal Square Off qualifer can be viewed at http://photos.jacksonville.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=168132 The Hangman says that he and Hall Hunt will compete in this years qualifier.

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New York led has a good photograph of the audience at this year’s Nathan’s finals at http://www.flickr.com/photos/new-yorkled/719179402/ You can see some people wearing hot dog hats (probably Don Lerman & friends)

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A video of women attempting a dessert eating challenge from Japanese TV can be viewed at http://youtube.com/watch?v=K1R0d8fg7-0 20 desserts were on a conveyor belt and a competitor would win $10,000 if she ate all the items before they reached the end. The winning challenger (who I am not familiar with) claims she can also drink a gallon of beer.

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Juliet Lee has added a WriteNow section to her website where contest notes and other news will be posted. The page currently has information about the Ash Creek Saloon ribs contest.

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