Summing the cash purses in the IFOCE contests list (and adding the missing 2008 Krystal finals) reveals that the combined amount of the purses increased from $128,650 to $156,050 ($10,000 was not awarded due to the Kolache Factory’s contest cancellation by Hurricane Ike) The increase was mainly due due the adding of the Oklahoma BBQ ($10,000 purse) and Famous Famigia pizza ($14,000 purse) and the increase of the Krystals finals purse from $35,000 to $50,000.

Combining the first half purses of $51,750 (2007) and $28,250 (2008) from a previous blog entry produces a total purse of $180,400 for 2007 and and $184,300 for 2008 (of which $174,300 was awarded)

The 2007 purse does not include any amounts for the Las Vegas Spike TV contests since those values have never been publicized.

A list of all the contest purses is available after the jump.
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There does not appear to be any information about an upcoming Wing Championship Series on ESPN Radio 1250’s website. The first qualifier last year took place on January 9.

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Badlands Booker’s new CD, Entrees & Leftovers, the Best of Hungry & Focused is now available for purchase via paypal (click on the B above iTunes digital downloads) on Booker’s myspace page.

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The new poll asks what you think was the top competitive eating themed television program of the previous year.

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Brian Seiken has set up a website at the http://beautifulbrian.com/ URL. There is not as much content as the site had when it was hosted on hometown.aol.com, but additional material will be forthcoming.

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• Krispy Kreme eating contest at Arkansas Harley Davidson tommorow, 1st prize is a $500 Harley Davidson gift certificate
• Taco eating contest for charity in England with four qualifiers
• Jelly doughnut eating contest on January 8 at Dick’s Last Resort in Myrtle Beach, SC in honor of Elvis’ birthday
• Chip Simpson is excited for 2009 now that he no longer has a “huge weight keeping me down”
• Dale Boone’s Apple Ugly victory makes the list of strange news of 2008 in Rowan County, NC

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Several galleries of New York City IFOCE contests have been uploaded to flickr recently:

• Famous Famiglia pizza contest gallery with French captions. There are additional pictures in the slideshow embedded in the blog entry about the contest
• Gallery with pictures from both the 2005 and 2006 Nathan’s finals
• 2005 Nathan’s gallery, mainly of the TV van
• 2006 Nathan’s gallery, with no pictures of the actual contest
• The men’s record is not turned on in a picture of the Wall of Fame taken today

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• January, Eddie “Bozo” Miller – listed as the “world’s greatest trencherman” in the Guinness Book of World Records, lived to be 89 despite a daily calorie consumption that reportedly reached 25,000
• February, Adam Deely of Birmingham, UK. This was one of the BBC’s top 10 Welsh stories.
• August – unnamed Ukrainian varenik dumpling contest participant
• September – Paul Newman – his egg eating scene in Cool Hand Luke is probably the most famous eating challenge in cinematic history
• October – unnamed graduate student at Dayeh University in Taiwan
• November – Saurav Sabbarwal – solutions engineer at Nokia Siemens in Guragon, India
• December – Carson “Collard Green” Hughes – the top eater from southern Virginia in IFOCE history. The author of the 2003 New York Times article about Hughes has a blog entry from 2006 about it

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(From Megamunch email) The New York Times has an article about Gilded Age railroad tycoon “Diamond” Jim Brady’s reported gastronomical feats. A typical dinner for Brady was supposedly “Three dozen oysters (the largest Lynnhavens were saved for him), a dozen crabs, six or seven lobsters, terrapin soup,” and a steak, with a dessert of “a tray full of pastries… and two pounds of bonbons.”

The reporter has difficulty believing that Brady ate like that on an everyday basis and believes that the meals he ate at various times in his life have been fused into a giant daily superfeast. He talks to Dr. Nicholas Belitsos, a Baltimore gastroenterologist who is somewhat less skeptical and claims that a stomach capacity six times greater than average, which Brady reportedly possessed, is a possibility.

The article briefly mentions Brady’s girlfriend, actress Lillian Russell, but does not report that she was about as legendary a trencherperson as Brady was. Oscar Tschirky, creator of the Waldorf salad, served the couple on several occasions and recollected that Russell was the bigger eater of the pair. She reportedly once won a diamond ring from her boyfriend by defeating him in an eating contest after removing her corset.

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No new episode of Man V. Food will be televised tonight, but all six episodes will be rerun beginning at 5 pm eastern:

Columbus TRAV Wed 12/31 5:00 PM
Memphis TRAV Wed 12/31 5:30 PM
Chicago TRAV Wed 12/31 6:00 PM
Austin TRAV Wed 12/31 6:30 PM
Pittsburgh TRAV Wed 12/31 7:00 PM
Amarillo TRAV Wed 12/31 7:30 PM

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• Consumption has a rap video directed to Badlands Booker
• Wikipedia page about Man v. Food, has a short Adam Richman biography and episode details
• The Princeton Oyster Bowl has a new website at http://oysterbowlnj.com/
• Mike Fitzgerald attempts the 12 pound pizza challenge at Polito’s
• IFOCE review of Santa’s Slay by Tim “Gravy” Brown
• Georgia Tech beats LSU in a beef eating contest held at a Brazilian steakhouse before the Chick Fil A Bowl.
• Dale Boone is in India according to his myspace status

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The following list contains the combined cash winnings of competitive eaters in 2008 based on information in the eatfeats database. Please inform me of any inaccuracies.

All prize winners with earnings of $100 or more follows after the jump.

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• Joey Chestnut wants to drop below 200 lbs. before resuming eating contests
• Hungry Sisters look back on their 2008 competitive eating goals
• Music City Bowl rib eating contest between members of the Vanderbilt and Boston College football teams
• Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub’s 6 pound burger serves 17
• Videos from the Minnesota Chicagoland Nathan’s qualifier
• IGreggor attempts the Muddy River Smokehouse Challenge and dedicates it to Furious Pete’s charity challenge
• Hot dog eating challenge at Philadelphia Eagles game
• Furious Pete wants a big facebook group to promote his charity stunt
• Cartoon about eating as a sport from Will Millender

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The website for the Heart Attack Grill has a page announcing that customers weighing 350 pounds or more will receive free food (drinks are not included). Sharing and taking out food are not allowed and diners will have to be weighed by the restaurant’s staff to be eligible for the offer.

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The new poll asks what you think is the top competitive eating rivalry in 2008. Rivals had to compete against each other at least once in 2008 to be listed in the poll choices.

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IFOCE.com and WLOCE report that Carson “Collard Green” Hughes of Newport News, Virginia passed away on December 26 at the age of 49. DailyPress has Hughes’ obituary and information about his funeral services. “Collard Green” competed in the 2003 Nathan’s finals and was the subject of a long profile in the New York Times that year.

update The Erwin Record has a longer article about Hughes (from Rhonda Evans)

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“Furious” Pete Czerwinski has set up a website which accepts about his upcoming attempt to eat 12 Extra Value Meals on the McDonald’s website at http://furiouspete.synthasite.com/

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The episode of My Life in Food about three competitive eaters preparations for the 2008 Nathan’s is now on the schedule. The 30 minute program will be televised at 6:30 pm eastern on January 10.

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Youtube has a news video about a vareniki dumpling eating contest held in Kyiv, Ukraine. A photo gallery of the competition is also available. Anatoliy Klepach won the contest by eating 90 dumplings in 7 minutes and was presented with a trophy in the form of a giant dumpling. The contest was held outside in the snow.

The caption contains the following information about a possible upcoming contest:

The real fan of Ukrainian cuisine is Alexander Gutmakher, organizer of the event. The first time he held this championship was in New York with the support of the Mayor. Next year he is planning to hold the Championship with Ukrainian and American teams.

The New York contest mentioned might be the 2002 pelmeni eating contest. The New York Times reports that Alexander Gutmakher has promoted events in New York City.

Korrespondent.net reports that Klepach’s next opponent will be Oleg Zhornitskiy, who has not competed in an IFOCE contest since the US Open of Competitive Eating in 2005

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The New York Daily News has a report on Kobayashi’s attempt to break Sonya Thomas’ IFOCE fruitcake record at Gabriella’s Restaurant. Kobayashi fell 6 ounces short of the mark set by the “Black Widow” in a 2003 contest (and Badlands Booker’s amount in that competition as well). Kobayashi said the density of the fruitcake, which he had never eaten before, made it difficult to consume quickly.

MSNBC has a picture. Cookie Jarvis also attended the event.

NBC San Diego has video from the event. 14 pounds of fruitcake were on hand.

update NBCNewYork has two videos. Cookie Jarvis and Badlands Booker ate alongside Kobayashi at the end of his attempt to get him past the threshold. Kobayashi did not resort to dunking the fruitcake even when the record appeared in doubt.

Sonya Thomas has a comment about Kobayshi’s record attempt on her news page.

Update #2 Kobayashi’s attempt was mentioned on ESPN Sportscenter. Here is a clip (20 seconds .9 MB)

kobayashiespn2008dec27.mp4

NY1 News also has a video clip

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• Toronto Star article about “Furious” Pete Czerwinski
• Hot dog eating contest at the New Year’s Eve Sausage Drop in Elmore, Ohio – $350 purse
• Sonya Thomas wishes Takeru Kobayashi good luck in his attempt today to break her fruitcake record
• Short clip of Mike “The Hammer” Fitzgerald at the Hardee’s Thickburger contest
• Footage from Badlands Booker at a Ben’s Deli matzo ball contest
• updatedJoel Podelsky wins Red Bank, NJ latke eating contest (Thanks for the plug)

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Beautiful Brian has uploaded a holiday message video to youtube in which he announces and plays samples from Tim “Gravy” Brown’s new CD titled Santa’s Slay Beautiful Brian compares Tim “Gravy” Brown to Elvis Costello. Songs include “Go Tell it on the Mountain”, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christman”, “Deck the Halls”, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, “Take My Breath Away” and “My Heart Will Go On”.

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Merry Christmas. Fans considering attending Kobayashi’s fruitcake record attempt in New York City tomorrow should be aware that the site of that event appears to have changed. The New York Daily News reports that Kobayashi will appear at Gabriela’s Restaurant on Columbus and 93rd.

The New York Times blog reported on Monday that the record attempt would take place in the plaza of Madison Square Garden.

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Jon Basso of the Heart Attack Grill has emailed the following information

I’d like to let you know that the Travel Channel has a new series called “Extreme”. This SATURDAY THE 27th they are shooting there only restaurant segment called Extreme Restaurants. They’ve chosen just three restaurant in the world and we’re lucky enough to be one of them. They’d asked me if any competitive eaters will be present and I’ve told them that I’ll try to put the word out to get some folks to come in on Saturday.

I wonder if this is the same program that recorded at Denny’s Beer Barrel earlier this month.

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A link to Adam Richman’s appearance on Good Morning America yesterday is below.

Adam Richman on GMA Dec 23, 2008 (6 MB)

Links about tonight’s episode: commerical, clip about the appropriate stance for eating an Italian beef sandwich, slideshow (which must have been taken in early October or before note the sign)

The website for tonight’s challenge restaurant, Lucky’s Sandwich Company, is under contruction – yelp page

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