• Parody about Kobayashi and Badlands Booker using their stomach capacity to smuggle heroin
• Pat Philbin’s head is the subject of a bodybuilding.com thread (Picture on the right is the picture originally in the thread)
• Yardbarker blog entry about Pat Bertoletti’s appearance on “The Early Show”
• Spectator report of Mattituck strawberry shortcake contest and Booker’s & BB’s musical performances.
• Blog entry by Dallas qualifier entrant Chris Floyd
• Megamunch’s report on his office “Six Pack Challenge”
• Videos of the Denver hot dog qualifier
• Paul Barlow to do on-air hot dog contest on Star 94 on Friday about 8AM

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The blog for the Dallas Observer has an interview with Marc Laureys, who says he hopes to reach the mid 20s in the Nathan’s qualifier in Plano, TX. The entry also says that the #29 (Kevin Ross) and #30 (Nate Biller) ranked IFOCE members are expected.

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MyrtleBeachOnline has a preview of Saturday’s qualifier at Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, SC listing Allen “Shredder” Goldstein and Richard Foley as expected entrants.

Another page on MyrtleBeachOnline reports that park admission (costing $50 or $39 for SC/NC residents) is required for qualifier spectators and that the finals will have a $20,000 purse like last year.

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The Dallas Observer is starting a series of blog entries about local entrants in Saturday’s Nathan’s qualifier in Plano, TX with an interview of Bryan “The Chazzer” Lipchitz whose nickname is based on the Yiddish word for pig.

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(from email) Jake’s Hamburgers will sponsor a hamburger eating contest over the next two months. The finals will take place at a Wilmington Blue Rocks game on July 25 and award $1000 to the winner. Qualifiers will be held at the following locations:

Chadds Ford, PA Rt 202 June 23, 2008
Newark, DE Rt 273 June 24, 2008
Wilmington, DE Kirkwood Hwy June 29, 2008
New Castle, DE Rt 13 June 30, 2008
Dover, DE Rt 113 July 7, 2008
Elkton, MD Rt 213 July 8, 2008
Bear, DE Rt 40 July 14, 2008
Claymont, DE Philadelphia Pike July 21, 2008

The entry form states that tickets for the qualifier must be purchased at the site and that finalists will have to pay an additional $20 to compete in the finals.

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• Interview with Jill Stoler in CheapAssFood.com
• Logo made for “Furious” Pete
• Regrets email from Crazy Legs Conti
• Austin, TX Veggie Dog contest Saturday
• French supermarket chain Carrefour sponsors eating contest for Thai children

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CBS 4 has video of yesterday’s hot dog qualifier held at Steve’s Snappin Dogs in Denver. Donavan Busta was the winner with 7 hot dogs in 3 minutes and Matt Kish was second. It also appears that Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane competed.

update Steve’s Snappin Dogs website has a contest report. Andrew Lane narrowly missed out on second place.

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• Article about James Howell and his performance in the New Orleans qualifier
• Jill Stoler has posted the pictures she took at the Three Brothers Pizza contest
• Video from Hartford qualifier
• Article about local Bartolini’s Meatballs qualifiers
• NY Post on Nathan’s shortening
• Kansas City hot dog contest Friday night at Tengo sed, $200 prize
• No MLE video game release this week
• Kobayashi finds Japanese hot dogs wanting
• Articles promoting Tomoko Mikaye’s book of PG rated photographs: Sanspo.com, NikkanSports

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Mattituck, NY strawberry shortcake results via ifoce.com & mosesnews

1st Pat Bertoleti 14.5 lbs
2nd Tim Janus 12lbs.
3rd Crazy Legs Conti 9.5 lbs
4th Eric Booker 9.25 lbs

update BeautifulBrian.com has a contest report with near complete results

update #2 A video of Beautiful Brian and Badlands Booker performing “Bonebreaker” is available on youtube

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Furious “Pete” Czerwinski has swapped positions with Ian Hickman in the rankings after he defeated “The Invader” 17 sandwiches to 12 in yesterday’s eating contest sponsored by Dickey’s Barbecue Pit held in Dover, Delaware.

Bodybuilding.com thread

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Results from IFOCE.com

1. Tim Janus, 42 HDB
2. Allen Goldstein, 24.5
3. Pat Philbin 21

Here is some video from the fastest concert sellout in the history of Shea Stadium.

update The New York Daily News has a writeup by a reporter who competed in the contest.

Jill Stoler and Beautiful Brian have qualifier reports.

update #2 Beautiful Brian has a video of the qualifier

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Charlotte / Concord results from IFOCE.com Hall Hunt repeats with a victory margin considerably larger than in 2007.

1. Hall Hunt 34.5 HDB
2. Todd Hennessey 18
3. Chris Wooten 11, UNC Charlotte student

The Salisbury Post has an article about the qualifier which says that Hall “Hoover” Hunt, Pierre “The Real Deal” Abry and C. Todd “Can’t Ya See?” Hennessey are expected entrants.

update Charlotte.com has a video and Sadie of Hungry Sisters served as Hall’s bunette.

update #2 Jeff Chapman has a contest report

update #3 Hall Hunt has a blog entry with pictures

FoxNews has an article and video clip

David Arnott of SportingNews.com competed in the qualifier and has a blog entry

BeautifulBrian.com has a page about Hall’s victory

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(From ChicagoApartmentLife) A pizza eating contest with a prize of $250 will be held next Sunday at Chicago’s Pizza Fest.

Bacci Pizza will also sponsor a Chicago pizza festival with an eating contest on July 19. No other details are provided other than that qualification will take place at all Bacci locations.

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• July 12 Fort Wayne, IN hot dog eating contest, $850 purse ($500 first place), 3 qualifiers, $10 entrance fee
• 15 second podcast about the Dover, DE BBQ sandwich contest
• Video of Crazy Legs Conti and Tim Janus playing the MLE video game
• Video from 2001 Nathan’s finals
• Video of Stevens Point, WI pizza challenge, $500 prize for finishing

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Gersh Kuntzman’s article about the reduction of Nathan’s contests by 2 minutes has been updated with an image of the document that established the original contest duration at 10 minutes according to George Shea.

The New York Times (via the Google archive) reports that the 1978 Memorial Day contest in which Kevin Sinclair, then 10 years old, tied for first was 6.5 minutes long:

[May 30, 1978] … swimming pools for the season. .fit Nathan’s Famous in Concy Island. 4-foot 9-inch 75-pound Kevin Sinc lair, of Brooklyn, 10 years old, tied an IS-. … for first place in the hot-dog-eat ing contest, a field of 28 contestants to get down 10 hot dogs, with buns, in six-and-one-half minutes. …
From Many of Holidayless New Yorkers Made Yesterday… – New York Times ($$)

update The New York Times City Room has a blog entry about the contest length

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The PJ Star reports that Todd Rawls of Vertucci’s Chicago Style Eats has high ambitions for the Independence Day hot dog eating contest he is organizing in East Peoria, IL:

“Chicago is, in my opinion, the hot dog capital of the world,” Rawls said. “Everybody knows their Chicago dog. So I’m shocked Chicago hasn’t done this. Well, they’ve had their opportunity. East Peoria’s going to do it, and we’re going to get known. I’d love to be able to see this overtake Nathan’s, and I think it can get done quickly if purse money – the money that can be won by eating – exceeds Nathan’s.”

The contest will start off with $1,000 prize money for the winner, but the eatery is looking for sponsors to increase the pot for next year.

The contest has a page on the city of East Peoria’s web page. Prospective entrants will need to qualify at Vertucci’s Chicago Style Eats by eating as many hot dogs as possible in 9 minutes. The best performances will receive entry into the contest and the qualification fee is $9.99

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Philly.com has an article about the Camden, NJ and West Chester, PA Nathan’s qualifiers with the following information about the field:

Expect other big-name, gut-throat gorgers to be in West Chester and Camden. Eric “Badlands” Booker, who has recorded hip-hop albums about his eating exploits, will exit retirement to take on the likes of Eric “Steakbellie” Livingston and Micah “Wing Kong” Collins, both of Drexel Hill, as well as Pat “from Moonachie” Philbin, who has qualified for three straight July Fourth finals.

PhillyBurbs blogs reports that Booker will compete in the Camden qualifier (which is not clear in the philly.com article)

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Like last year, the Charlotte, NC area qualifier will be held in the Concord Mills parking lot under the midday sun. While the current eastern USA heat wave will subside somewhat, the high temperature Saturday is currently predicted to reach 90, so entrants and spectators should prepare themselves for high heat and humidity.

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• David Mitolo completes the Outrageous Split at BR Frozen Custard – video, gallery
• Furious Pete finishes the Belly Buster Challenge from MT Bellie’s
• Skinnyboy catches Anthony Bourdain on the Big Texan’s webcam
• Orange County sushi bar with hot dog roll named after Kobayashi (from Liz K, link fixed)
• Beautiful Brian will not be entering the Shea Stadium qualifier (update – he will enter)
• Brooklyn stinky cheese eating contest June 22
• The New York Post reports that Dick Zigun, the “Mayor of Coney Island”, has been living rent free in a publicly financed building
• Speculation that a developer was responsible for the information about Zigun
• The New York Times on the future of Coney Island

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June 14 Tigard, Oregon (Portland area), $250 first prize with $30 entry fee. All proceeds to be donated to the Lance Armstrong foundation – craigslist listing, meetin thread

July 5, Payson, Arizona, $200 first prize with $10 entry fee, registration deadline is June 15

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(from “Crawfish” comment) The ribs eating contest held at the Chinook Winds casino on the Oregon coast has been added to the IFOCE calendar for July 13.

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(from anon comment) Gersh Kuntzman has an article for the Brooklyn Papers about the shortening of Nathan’s qualifiers by 2 minutes which states that the July 4 finals will be 10 minutes as well. An anonymous eater repeats Rhonda Evans’ conjecture that the purpose of the reduction was to minimize the chances of a reversal. The article closes with a mention of the 3.5 minute contests in the 1970s.

Gothamist and Eater.com have posts about the article

update June 11 Serious eats has a blog entry about the shortening with quotes from Ryan Nerz

The Sheas say that a 1986 article from the New York Times was responsible for the truncation.

The note said the change for the upcoming July 4 contest comes after the discovery of a trove of “numerous old items and ephemera” near the Nathan’s stand at the historic corner of Surf and Stillwell avenues in Coney Island.

“It was in the form of random notes and contest-related scribblings that were apparently unearthed at Nathan’s,” said George Shea, chairman of Major League Eating.

“We put together a team of experts to determine its validity and then, through the use of what I believe scholars call ‘a Google search,’ we discovered a New York Times article from 1986 that referred to the contest as taking 10 minutes.”

Major League Eating President Richard Shea said the Times article was particularly compelling evidence that the contest’s traditional length was actually 10 minutes, not the 12 minutes that have been the standard for at least two decades.

That link first appeared on eatfeats in March 2007

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(From The Big Lead) Yahoo’s hockey blog, Puck Daddy, has an interview with Krista Lander about her preparations for competing against two members of the Odessa Jackalopes minor league hockey team in Fuddrucker’s one pound burger challenge. Ms. Lander is the sports anchor for CBS 7 and the contest will be a part of “Krista’s Sports Challenge” segments in which she competes against local athletes in various activities. The contest is expected to be televised on Thursday.

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QSR Magazine reports that Nathan’s Famous will donate 100,000 hot dogs on July 4 to the Food Bank For New York City. The 2006 donation was 10,000 hot dogs.

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StarHQ reports that Elizabethton, Tennessee will have a hot dog eating contest in conjunction with its fourth of July festivities. $250 will be awarded to the winner, making the contest the first 2008 July 4 hot dog contest to announce a cash prize that I am aware of.

update added 2008

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