A German novel about the 2001 Nathan’s contest was released last year. The book is titled Die Wetteser (The Competitive Eaters). The novel has the following description on amazon.de (automatically translated)

4 July 2001 was the day, which umstürzte the world of the meal: Takeru Kobayashi, schmächtiger Japanese, plugged in 12 minutes of more Hot Dogs in itself inside than ever humans before it and humiliated with it, just at the independence day, its American competitor. OD Krachie, “the animal”, a white automobile engineer, and Charles Hardy, “the hungry one”, a black improvement officer, two simply knitted Kolosse, both sunk in self-pity and hate on their Japanese opponents: Kazutoyo Arai, “the hare”, a complacent medium star, and Kobayashi, “the prince”, a good-looking Dandy. While for these four men the Hot Dog Wettessen is the most normal thing of the world, Sandra and their clique can imagine hardly something Perverseres. As radical Veganer they fight to spread their message from the animal-suffering-free life to. With the world championship of the meal before Nathan’s nearly Food restaurants hit these two worlds finally one on the other. The Wettesser tells embittered competition, of love in hostile times, of records, low impacts, of counter and other worlds, of strange alliances – and of the normality of the insanity.

LiteraturHaus also has a review

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• Short preview of New Orleans qualifier: Juris “Dr. Bigtime” Shibayama, Chris MacVicar and Steve Ulness are expected
• Final batch of bios for MLE game characters – also includes profile of bunnette and paramedic. Juliet Lee’s nickname is listed as “The Lovely”
• End of school year White Castle eating contest for Kentucky teachers. Joey Chestnut is listed as the White Castle record holder
• Pancake contest for Cincinnati area high school students – contest video
• Eating contest from Hey Arnold cartoon (Kobayashi has called Hey Arnold his favorite American TV show
• Tomoko Miyake videos on yahoo: at the department store buffet promo, wearing bikinis with friends, eating big burgers with friends

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(from Nate Biller) The latest episode of A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila had a hot dog consumption contest. Labeling eaters who do not adhere to picnic style rules “food drinkers” was not an exaggeration in this competition:

The next day, everyone is chilling poolside when TT comes out of the house with another challenge: a hot dog eating contest. But there’s a twist! Because Bo’s jaw is still recovering, he’s had to eat virtually all his food blended. Well, “what’s good enough for Bo is good enough for everyone,” according to TT, and she begins blending a disgusting concoction of bread, hot dogs, relish, ketchup, and mustard. According to Jay it looked like Tila had eaten something, thrown it up, and then said, “here! have some!”

From May in the Bay

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The blog for the Team Emerica skateboarding team reports that several team members attempted the Big Texan 72 ounce steak challenge last night. Danger Ehren from the MTV show Jackass also tried to win a free meal.

Skinnyboy caught the webcast of their attempt last night and has some video captures. He thinks the mohawked diner looks like Pat Bertoletti, but apparently does not eat like him.

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The Houston Chronicle reports that Sam Houston Race Park will hold a brownie eating contest during their telecast of the Belmont races on Saturday in honor of Big Brown’s attempt at a Triple Crown. The contest purse is listed at $500.

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(From Badlands Booker) A segment from Holiday Foods: Fourth of July: Hot Dogs which culminates in a hot dog eating contest between Eric “Badlands” Booker and Famous Fat Dave can be seen on the History Channel’s website. Ryan Nerz also makes an appearance.

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Randy Thomas and Renaldo Wynn are not the only Washington Redskins to have participated in eating contests. In a post for the Yahoo! sports blog Shutdown Corner, Chris Cooley writes about his competitive eating experience:

The Ritz Carlton in St. Louis has the most unbelievable bacon I’ve ever tasted. Not only did I love the bacon, everyone on the team was blown away by the taste. Three or four of us decided to forget all other foods and have a bacon-eating contest. I won with 39 pieces and was was sick on the floor for the next hour in the visitor locker room. We tried to keep up with the contest, but no other bacon was up to par with St. Louis.

I’m not saying that someone can go on the McDonald’s “Super Size Me” diet and be a great athlete, but so much more goes into the sport than what goes into a player’s body. Someone might assume that a healthy eater would be a much better football player, especially at any skill position, and I would almost have to agree with him or her. But, as I finish up my sixth Mountain Dew for the day, I have proved to myself that my diet has continually worked for me. I eat what makes me happy, but I put in a tremendous amount of hard work as well. I’ve thought about trying to change, but there is something to be said about four consistent and healthy seasons in the NFL (I have never missed a practice), as well as going to the Pro Bowl.

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WTKR has a preview of Saturday’s Nathan’s qualifier at the MacArthur Center in Norfolk, VA which reports that Sonya Thomas is expected to compete. No other entrants are listed. The article says that truncating the qualifier to 10 minutes could work in Sonya’s favor.

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• Charlotte qualifier to take place at Concord Mills Mall parking lot
• Singer/pianist Dr. John competes in a chile pepper eating contest
• Hall of Fame Thurman Thomas to help judge hot dog contest at Watkins Glen
• Video from 2003 Nathan’s finals
• News video of Kansas qualifier captured by Skinnyboy
• Erik Denmark’s Kansas City qualifier report
• Arena Football kicker completes Big Texan 72 ounce steak
  
• Results of Denver hot dog contest qualifier
• Nanticoke PA pierogie eating contest this weekend (date unspecified)
• Steakbellie & sons run in 5K race
• Fake inspirational poster (in the style of despair.com) using a picture of a hot dog eating contest

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The next poll will ask who you think is the top eater in the USA who is currently unlisted in the IFOCE, non-IFOCE or Hall Hunt rankings. The current choices are:

Dale Boone
Sal Carbone – Brooklyn Pizza
“Gentleman” Jerry Coughlan (top 5 Wing Bowl)
Jed Donahue
Mike Fitzgerald – 23.5 HDB, 2007 Sheboygan brats winner
Nic “The Incredible Bulk” Fry – 21 HDB
Sean Gordon
Ron Koch
Floria Lee – Queens Dumpling female winner
Bruce “The Hangman” Pobanz
Brent Ricord
Mike Springer
John “jcrue” Taylor
Frank Wach
Lori Weiss – Denny 96er finisher
Russell Witzke
Scott “Scozzy Bone” Zulkowski

Please add eaters you think should be added to the list in the comments

update The poll has been activated. Eaters who have announced retirement were not eligible.

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The episode of “Without a Trace” in which a competitive eater disappears after winning a chili eating contest will air tonight on CBS at 10 pm.

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(from HHH email) Hall Hunt’s new poll is now out. The top 10 are:

1. Joey “Jaws” Chestnut (7) (193) [1]
2. Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti (1) (188) [2]
3. “Humble” Bob Shoudt (167) [4]
4. Takeru Kobayashi (162) [3]
5. Tim “Eater-X” Janus (148) [5]
6. Hall “Hoover” Hunt (147) [7]
7. Sonya “The Blackwidow” Thomas (146) [6]
8. Rich “The Locust” LeFevre (138) [7]
9. Juliet Lee (130) [11]
10. Erik “The Red” Denmark (126) [9]

Patrick Vandam (#17), Jim Reeves (#24) and Nate Biller (#25) are the new entrants, replacing Joe LaRue, Brian Seiken and Paul Barlow.

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The Fayetteville (NC) Observer has an article about Joshua “Jabber-Jaws” Currier and his rise to prominence this year. Currier says he will compete in the pulled pork sandwich contest in Dover, Delaware and the Coney Island hamburger contest. He hopes to become a member of the team that will compete in Japan at the end of this year.

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Digital Sports has an article about the undercard for the Three Brothers Pizza contest in which four person teams from De Matha and St. Vincent Pallotti high schools faced off. The DeMatha team won the contest 24 slices to 15.75. The top individual was Nick Rivers of DeMatha who ate 7 slices in 10 minutes.

There are several interviews at the bottom of the page, including an interview with Sonya Thomas. Sonya says she has done an eating contest in Korea.

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A video and gallery of the wing eating contest held at the Wing-n-Rock Fest in Marietta, GA on Saturday reveal that Dale Boone competed in that event. It appears (but is not explicitly stated in the video or gallery) that an unnamed Asian won that contest.

update video link fixed – thanks anon

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• Podcast of Crazy Legs Conti promoting the Hot Dog Safari (Crazy Legs Conti’s appearance begins around the 32 minute mark)
• Spectator report from the Carnegie Deli pickle contest
• Gallery from the Philadelphia Nathan’s qualifier
• Joey Chestnut’s hometown, Vallejo, is bankrupt
• Jill Stoler apologizes to Beautiful Brian Nation
• MLE game not coming out this week according to joystiq
• Tomoko Miyake promotes Tobu Department Store’s new buffet (blog entry)

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(From BaseballThinkFactory) Susan Polgar, the first woman to obtain the rating of chess grandmaster in regular competition, recently dined at the Big Texan and wrote about that restaurant’s signature meal. According to the blog entry, Joey Chestnut was not the first Nathan’s champion to attempt the challenge:

Former Cincinnati Reds Pitcher Frank Pastore did it in a record time of 9 ½ minutes, and held that record for 21 years until Joey Chestnut took the title on March 24, 2008 with a time of 8 minutes and 52 seconds. Another famous person who tried this was Takeru Kobayashi, the six-time hot dog-eating world champion.

It is not clear from the blog entry if Ms. Polgar attempted the 72 ounce steak. She is currently the chess coach at Texas Tech so it was not that long a trip for her. (Picture is from chessphotography)

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The New York Daily News reports that 2005 and 2006 Brooklyn pizza champion Will Millender, who appeared on the weight loss reality show “Fat March”, will attempt to regain his title today from the 2007 winner Salvatore Carbone. Millender’s current weight is listed at 375 pounds.

update Results from WCBS

1. Salvatore Carbone just over 15 slices
2. Will Millender 12.25 slices

update #2 Jill Stoler attended the contest as a spectator and NY1 has an article with video Joel Podelsky was third.

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From El Toro comment and IFOCE.com report:

1. Tim Brown 33
2. David Cohn 13.5
3. Gus Beisel 13

update AZCentral.com has a contest report and gallery and video.

Remo DaVinci has a gallery

update #2 East Valley Tribune has a gallery

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Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane competed in today’s Nathan’s qualifier in Kansas and has a blog entry with the results:

1 Erik Denmark 24
2 Chris Abatsas 23
3 Nic “The Incredible Bulk” 21 – Great Bend, KS
4 Pat Bruss 20
? Jason Erb 12
? Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane 10

There was one DQ, but he is not sure who it was.

update KansasCity.com has a contest report

update #2 Skinnyboy has a contest travelog and a gallery This was probably not his favorite eating contest trip

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Pizza results from US Male via Steakbellie comment and IFOCE.com report:

Pat Bertoletti 20 (third straight victory in 3 brothers)
Tim Janus 16
Sonya Thomas 16
Bob Shoudt 16
Juliet Lee 13
Crazy Legs Conti 11
Pat Philbin 11
Sean Gordon 11
Dave US Male Goldstein 8.75

update Jill Stoler has a blog entry and some videos

Pat Philbin has uploaded some pictures to myspace

update #2 Beautiful Brian has a contest video and near complete results He is disappointed that some of the eaters did not pay sufficient respect to his performance of “Black and White”

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• Article about some local competitors in the Tempe qualifier: David Cohn, Adam Muñoz & Lindsay Veylupek
• Hall Hunt’s predictions for today’s qualifiers
• Article about the McKirdy brothers, which says their next contest will be the Chinook Winds rib contest on July 11
• The Brooklyn pizza contest is tomorrow
• Picture of Karen “Seedsucker” Clark on the Washington Post web site
• Pictures from “Furious” Pete’s Italian Challenge
• English article about Gal Sone’s movie debut

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Pat Bertoletti visited Steve Dahl’s radio show this morning. Pat’s appearance was recorded and will appear on the Food Network in an upcoming episode of Roker on the Road.

The two competitive eating organizations might face competition from an unlikely source:

8:05 And then last year he raised his game up and came in 3rd place, officially. He should have come in second place because Kobayashi should have been disqualified for puking.
8:06 Steve can’t believe the IFOCE didn’t step in and overrule it and give Patrick second place. They should do that if they are any sort of legislative body.
8:07 Every time Steve talks to Patrick he wants to start up his own competitive eating league. He would be much stricter about policing it and he wouldn’t allow foreigners. Let’s keep it in America where competitive eating started with the blueberry pie contest.

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HoumaToday.com has an article about James Howell preparing for the June 7 Nathan’s qualifier in New Orleans by eating hot dogs at Big Eddie’s Café. The article has the following information about the field for that contest:

The Metairie competition pits Howell against eight other Louisiana residents as well as sport eaters from Alabama, Florida, Texas, Ohio, Tennessee and New York, Reed said. The contest includes first-time sport eaters like Howell as well as experienced competitive eaters like Juris “Dr. Bigtime” Shibayama of Murfreesboro, Tenn.

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Wicked Local has an article about the pumpkin pie eating contest between Joe Menchetti and Tom “Goose” Gilbert on the Chris Tabb show. Gilbert’s victory resulted in his being named the top eater in the new independent rankings.

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