• Video of bacon eating contest from Super Paul Barlow
• Video of a recent Pat Bertoletti practice session
• amNY article about Badlands Booker
• Video promoting upcoming “Hungry & Focused” apparel from Badlands Booker
• Synopsis of upcoming “Hurl” episodes on G4
• Crazy Legs and Eater X make the cover of the current Village Voice (from Liz K) – a gallery from their article
• MSNBC on extreme July 4 meals
• 2 for the price of 1 Nathan’s online coupon
• Slideshow of Henderson, MN sauerkraut competition
• Fox News article about Nathan’s
• Krystalist announces Krystal Square Off V
• Megamunch emails the following request for an upcoming Baltimore Examiner story:
  

  Are there any long-term health effects of competitive eating? What about just short-term effects? Should people take certain precautions if they are competitively eating? Are there warning signs someone should look out for if they compete frequently? Contact: Sara Michael, smichael@baltimoreexaminer.com

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Badlands Booker has emailed the following information about his performance tonight

July, 2 2008

Hungry & Focused 4 Fork Knife & Mic Concert Live @ Rehab

25 Ave B, Lower East Side (Formerly Club Midway), New York, New York
Cost : $5. More Info: www.clubmidway.com

Don’t even think about Sleeping on July 4th Week Because Badlands will be burning the midnight oil performing songs off the critically acclaimed CE Themed-Hip hop Album Hungry & Focused 4_Fork knife & Mic. I will also be performing hits from the previous H&F albums in anticipation of the upcoming 92nd. Annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. so come by Club Rehab The Day B4 the big show, Wednesday night at 11:33 PM. to experience Hungry & Focused Live Midnight Show. Don’t miss it and we’ll See u There!

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Pat Philbin commented that Joey Chestnut was interviewed on 660 WFAN this morning. If you missed that appearance, a podcast is available. Eater X also did an interview yesterday.

WFAN will hold an on air hot dog eating contest tomorrow morning. First prize is NY Jets tickets. Second prize is more Jets tickets hot dogs.

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Gersh Kuntzman has a new column in the Brooklyn Paper about the Nathan’s finals. The first half is about Kobayashi receiving a sponsor’s exemption. The second half is an encomium to George Shea which closes with the following statement:

So, sure, Joey Chestnut may down 60 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes on Friday, but without Shea, he’d just be a disgusting spectacle.

ABCNews also has a new interview with Kobayashi.

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Does anyone know if the traditional July 3 weigh in for Nathan’s finalists will take place tomorrow? I have not been able to find any coverage online about that event. The IFOCE.com websites have yet to be updated with any information about the upcoming Nathan’s finals (or Kevin Ross’ qualifier victory).

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The Chicago Tribune has an article in which Tim “Gravy” Brown’s describes his techniques for hot dog eating. The article also appears on the Chicago Tribune’s blog.

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ifiy has a link to MajorLeagueEating.asia, which announces that Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi will face off in an eating contest in Singapore July 27. Three qualifiers to select local entrants will be held and the purse is $3,000 (it is not stated if that is in US or Singapore dollars) Five different types of foods will be used in the contest, including fishballs, premium otah and sotong head.

Earthtimes has an article about the contest.

The contest might result in a schedule conflict for Joey Chestnut, who has been announced as the co-star for Nacho Mountain. Principal photography for that movie has been scheduled for July 20 through July 27.

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DelmarvaNow.com reports that Fish Tales restaurant at the Bahia Marina in Ocean City, MD will host a hot dog eating contest on July 4 that will award $1000 in prizes. Entrants will qualify at the restaurant by eating five hot dogs (cost $5).

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• Video of 2002 Nathan’s finals
• 2002 article by Gersh Kuntzman
• Evening magazine segment about 2005 Chinook Winds ribs contest. Ray Meduna appears.
• USA Today column suggesting Tiger Woods and Joey Chestnut switch sports
• Rich Shea podcast
• Furious Pete does 100 wings in 9:15 to prepare for Coney burgers

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According to the official history, the Nathan’s record before Frank Dellarossa ate 21 HDB in 1991 was 18.5 HDB by one armed carnival worker Peter Washburn in 1959. This mark is not mentioned in any article in the Google News archive about a pre-1991 contest.

• 1986 Record holder is listed as Walter Paul, who ate 17 in 1978. Walter Paul is the reported winner of a 1967 contest.
• 1986 title match – Record is mentioned as 13.5, set several years before
• 1982 – record is mentioned as 14 by Jim Mattner, who served as contest judge. (No article about a contest won by Mattner is present in the news archive)

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Steve Penhollow of The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has emailed the following request:

We have a hot dog eating contest coming up as part of our Three Rivers Fest. I think it’s the first competitive eating event we’ve had in the area.

What is the dominant strategy for eating the most hot dogs?

I’d love to quote someone in my article.

Thanks.

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The new issue of The Village Voice has a long article about Crazy Legs Conti and Tim “Eater X” Janus. The roommates will also be profiled in an upcoming issue of Italian Vogue

updated removed sentence about 33 gram bun

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EDave.com has a page about the bacon eating contest between “Super” Paul Barlow and Loren “Bubba” Yarbrough tomorrow morning on the Zakk Tyler show.

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The producer of the promotional contest that took place in Westbury, NY yesterday between Eric “Badlands” Booker and “Hungry” Charles Hardy has a blog entry and gallery of the event. Kobayashi does not appear in the pictures.

update (from Sean Gordon) Kobayashi’s most recent blog entry says he was too fatigued to appear at the Long Island event.

update #2 The news video clip is now available

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• “Humble” Bob article in Philly.com in which he says that Krystal Square Off V is his priority for 2008
• Beet eating contest in “The Office Games” in Scranton, PA July 19
• Micah “Wing Kong” Collins on his second place finish at QVC
• Blog entry about winner of Austin veggie dog contest
• Bodybuilding.com water drinking contest final results
• Bristol, RI hot dog contest
• Radio bacon eating contest between Paul Barlow and Bubba Yarbrough July 2 (details from Super Paul after the jump)

Read the rest of this entry »

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A comment by Crawfish contained a link about Dale Boone’s victory in the corndog eating contest at Corndogorama. In the pictures, Dale Boone is wearing a World League of Competitive Eating baseball cap and has a shirt with a .com address. Trying WLOCE.com reveals that a website has been set up at that address. The site has a standings list which Dale Boone leads. P.Thayagarajan, mentioned as an Indian giant and a possible entrant in last year’s Nathan’s finals on IFOCE.com, is #6. Most of the links on the page are inoperable, but a contact page and safety guidelines are available.

update The Salisbury Post has a report about Dale Boone’s victory in the Apple Ugly qualifier last night

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A listing of Nathan’s winners obtained from online news archives follows.

Some notes about the contests:

• 1986 title match, Hiroaki Tominaga was the first reported Japanese competitor in a Nathan’s contest. At 6 feet, 6 inches and 264 pounds, he is considerably larger than Nobuyuki “the Giant” Shirota. While in New York City, he competed in the Empire State Building staircase race and finished last.
• 1984 Birgit Felden is the only reported female winner of a July 4 contest. She is now a business professor unless there are multiple Birgit Feldens from Cologne.
• 1981 It was not clear from the contest report if the duration was 5 minutes or the winner stopped eating after that time and had a large enough margin to win.
• 1978 Co-champion Kevin Sinclair was 10 years old
• 1974 Atlantic City – this is the first reported contest outside Coney Island. The runner-up, Carmen Cordero, might be the winner of the first two Wing Bowls.
• 1972 Labor Day – After her victory, Melody Andorfer said “I’m determined not to let those male chauvinist pigs dominate us any longer.” She would model swimsuits in articles about Coney Island in 1973 and 1974.
• 1967 – this contest was held to commemorate the centennial of the hot dog. It is difficult to believe that Walter Paul ate 127 hot dogs in an hour, but that is what is in the news archive.

The following contests are mentioned in the news archives, but no winners were reported for them:

The 1973 labor day weekend contest was changed to a corn on the cob contest due to a lack of meat. The unnamed winner ate 4 ears in less than 3 minutes.

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According to the IFOCE.com contest list page (along with the St. Pat’s Chowdown page), $28250 has been awarded in contests so far this year, while $51750 was the sum of the cash prizes for the first half of last year, resulting in a 45% decrease.

There were 3 contests with a 5 digit purse in the first half of 2007 ($10,000 Long Beach chili cheese fries, $15,000 St. Pat’s Chowdown, $10,000 shoo fly pie), while $5,000 is the largest purse so far this year.

The comparison does not attempt take into account the value of non-cash prizes. There were two contests with non-cash awards (not counting Wing Bowls) in the first six months of 2007 (TripRewards wings and the amateur shoo fly pie contest) while all contests so far this year have cash prizes.

The decline in the second quarter (2007:$21750 vs. 2008:$16750) was considerably less than the difference for the first three months of the year (2007:$30,000 vs 2008:11,500)

A listing of the contests and their prizes follows after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Kobayashi’s latest blog entry is about qualification for Nathan’s (automatically translated):

Thus the final closeup, I can play in qualifying and has been limited.

Today is the last chance tournament will be held in Long Island.

I like playing as soon as physically.

Chances are slim.

Eric is likely to play, I want my best! ！ !

The “Eric is likely to play” statement means that he will probably appear at Eric “Badlands” Booker and “Hungry” Charles Hardy’s promo contest this afternoon.

Sponichi has an article

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Wiiware-World.com reports that this week’s new download for the Wii will be the marble game, Magnetica Twist, making July 7 the earliest possible release date for the Major League Eating video game.

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• Jill Stoler has a belated birthday tribute to Pat Bertoletti
• Poll about biggest eating baseball players: (1st Babe Ruth 2nd John Kruk 3rd Tommy LaSorda)
• Sonya has a commentary about the Nathan’s finals
• Furious Pete is seeking a dining partner for his attempt at the Zeus Burger at the Clinton Station Diner July 5.
• Kobyashi reports he is now in New York City
• Tomoko Miyake has an autograph signing session for her new book
  

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There are two short competitive eating articles in current magazine issues. I do not believe either article is online:

1. Maxim has a mini profile of Joey Chestnut in the notes section at the start of the magazine
2. National Geographic has an article about Coney Island which mentions Nathan’s hot dog contest

update Skinnyboy has a scan of the National Geographic article

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A list of all non-winning 15+ qualifier results follows after the jump. Mike Fitzgerald was the competitor with the best total who did not qualify for the finals. There were 31 non-winning result larger than Kevin Ross’ 17.75 total at the California qualifier, including one by Kevin Ross himself.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Kobayashi’s latest blog entry is about changing his hair color. His hairdresser’s blog has a picture of the new hair style and says that the red / yellow combination was chosen to represent ketchup and mustard.

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San Bruno, CA qualifier results from InsideBayArea.com

1. Kevin Ross 17.75 HDB, awarded year’s worth of Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs
2. Roger Schlafly, Santa Cruz, 11 HDB

The only pre-contest media mention I could find was a listing in a San Francisco Chronicle calendar which mainly contains gay pride week activities.

update Runner-up Roger Schlafly has a blog entry

update #2 The San Mateo Daily Journal has a contest report. Joey Chestnut appeared and signed autographs.

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