I have just discovered the blog written by Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane (3rd place finisher at the Albuquerque golden.palace grilled cheese qualifier) which can be found at http://dogsarefunyes.blogspot.com/

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If you have ever wanted to respond to something that “Beautiful” Brian Seiken has written on his website, you now have the opportunity. Seiken has set up a blog at beautifulbrian.blogs.com, but he intends for it to be primarily used as a message board for commenters.

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The Eagle Tribune of Massachusetts has an article debating whether occasional holiday gorging can be justified featuring quotes from Massachusetts native “Crazy Legs” Conti and Joey Chestnut. Conti mentions that he intends to go to Japan at the end of the month to train with Kobayashi.

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Less than two weeks after their long profile of Sonya Thomas, the Washington Post has another lengthy article about competitive eating focusing on the anatomical aspects of competitive eaters. Don “Moses” Lerman, “Crazy Legs” Conti, Arnie “Chowhound” Chapman, and AICE rising star Ian Hickman are all quoted. Hickman moved to Sterling in northern Virginia to be closer to more eating contests which is interesting because the AICE schedule around the DC area does not seem full enough to justify a relocation.

Corrected 11/29 10:53 pm – Ian Hickman states in the comments his main reason for moving east was not to be closer to eating contests.

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There is a long and interesting thread from last year on a Christian message board about whether competitive eating (or eating occasional large meals) is prohibited by the Bible.

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(from speedeat.com) Thursday’s episode of CSI, “Dog Eat Dog” focuses on the case of a dead competitive eater. The eater had Prader-Willi Syndrome, a genetic disorder in which the afflicted indivdual experiences hunger regardless of the amount recently eaten. There is no word on whether IFOCE provided any assistance, but it is unlikely they did since one of the characters is a shady competitive eating promoter.

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ESPN.com’s Page 2 has a list of its top five articles for 2004-2005 which includes an article on the 2005 Wing Bowl, “The Worst Event Ever” by Jim Caple.

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An article about last Saturday’s Verizon Voicewing Buffalo wing qualifier has finally appeared in the form of an editorial in Thursday’s Oakland Tribune. The author has the right to voice whatever opinions he wants about competitive eating, but not to print incorrect facts. He claims that Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut appeared in that contest.

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If you are looking for quotes from professors about competitive eating, pro and con, this column from fortwayne.com can provide them.

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(Thanks Ken Wong) CBS news has a video clip of the Seattle Wing contest with brief interviews with Joey Chestnut and Badlands Booker at

http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2004/11/05/world/videoarchive653991.shtml

Scroll down until the contest is found

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The screen capture of the Sports Illustrated on Campus article about collegiate eaters uploaded previously is difficult to read, so I did another screen capture with larger text (and no picture) and uploaded it here.

The article mentions that Joey Chestnut found it difficult to do the Chattanooga Krystal qualifier after having competed the previous day, but does not state that the eater he lost to in that contest had done contests the preceding two days.

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(Thanks Hall Hunt) The new issue of Sports Illustrated on Campus has a (generally positive) article about collegiate competitive eaters with short profiles of Joey Chestnut, Patrick Bertoletti and Hall Hunt. The print version is only available on college campuses, but an online (flash plug-in required) edition can be viewed at:

http://mag1.olivesoftware.com/activemagazine/welcome/SI/OnCampus.htm

The article can be found on page 28. (It takes a while to scroll through the magazine.)

Some interesting facts:

• Patrick Bertoletti is a culinary arts major
• Hall Hunt has ran a 3:34 marathon

2005 could be described as the the year of the rookie undergraduate eater due to the emergence of Chestnut and Bertoletti along with Kate Stelnick’s feat.

Update Oct 1 12:19 am A screen capture of the article has been uploaded.

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QuickTime clips from the “Cheap Seats” episode covering Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest are available at http://www.cheapseats.tv/episodes.html (Click on Kobayashi in the upper right corner) The contest from 2004 is used.

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“Cheap Seats” is a show on ESPN classic which aims to be the sports equivalent of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The program stars two comedians who watch old footage of minor sports and make comments they consider humerous. The third season of “Cheap Seats” opens Monday at 10 pm eastern and will feature Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating contest. It is not stated what year’s contest will be used, but it will be either 2004 or 2005 since those are the only two years that ESPN has broadcast the event. The show is 30 minutes so probably only the actual contest will be rerun with none of the accompanying profiles. If the “Cheap Seats” comedians are having writers block thinking of witty insults about IFOCE members, AICE would probably be happy to contribute some.

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(from humblebob.com) The new IFOCE rankings have been updated. The previous rankings can be found here until Google updates its cache. Notable risers are Joey Chestnut to #3, Patrick Bertoletti to #10 and Bob Shoudt to #11. Rich LeFevre is the most significant faller who drops out of the top five at #6. Dale Boone only falls one spot despite going on a hiatus.

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Askmen.com has an informative and generally positive introduction to competitive eating.

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competitiveeaters.com has some pictures of the premier of Swallow Your Pride, but no commentary about the film besides the fact that it was well received.

Humble Bob has removed his review of that motion picture after just one day.

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• Bahrain Ice Cream Eating Contest It is surprising an Islamic country would not only have an adult women’s division, but match up the women’s and men’s winners to determine the overall champion
• Trentonian column mentioning the NJ Pizza contest
• Humble Bob’s review of the “Swallow Your Pride” competitive eating documentary. The documentary features both IFOCE and AICE eaters and focuses on the Wing Bowl, especially the rivalry between Philly and non-Philly competitors. Eaters from the Philadelphia suburbs are apparently treated as outsiders, so Kate Stelnick might experience some hostility if she ever participates in it.
• In more movie news, boxofficeprophets.com (go to the end of the page) mentions the upcoming competitive eating film. I think the film will be based on El Wingador, but I believe that the Sonya Thomas biography from her first contest to the 2004 Wing Bowl would make a better story (if a movie studio did not find it too implausible.)

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Kieran Darcy has a list of the top 10 gluttons in sports on ESPN.com’s Page 2 in which Kobayashi is ranked #1. William “Refrigerator” Perry is #6, which is probably unmerited based on his quitting the 2003 Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest after 5 minutes having just eaten four hot dogs. Darcy also has a list of the top 10 most non-gluttonous athletes. A claim could be made that Sonya Thomas belongs on that list because she eats just one meal a day, exercises 2 hours a day and weighs less than 105 pounds.

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Jason Fagone, who has an upcoming book titled Insatiable Appetites: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream has a blog at http://eating.typepad.com/ The blog is updated about once a month. The book is not scheduled to be published until 2006.

Fagone has written a preview of the 2005 Wing Bowl containing a profile of Bill “El Wingador” Simmons available at
http://www.phillymag.com/ArticleDisplay.php?id=485 El Wingador does not have very nice things to say about Sonya Thomas.

A few interesting notes from the blog:

• The Japanese competitive eating scene has all but disappeared since a school boy died imitating the eaters in 2002. Claims that Kobayashi earns a six-figure amount annually from eating in Japanese contests are almost certainly untrue.
• Japanese eaters (besided Kobayashi) would like to compete in US events other than Nathan’s .
• The 2005 Wing Bowl should have gone into a second overtime at a minimum and Sonya Thomas might have won outright in the first overtime period.

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