You haven’t heard from me in a few days and there is a reason for it.  Really there are two reasons for it.  The first is that I got so unreasonably sunburned at the hot dog contest that my arms actually blistered.  I spent the entire day Sunday in bed just laying next to the air conditioning suffering.  I got absolutely no work done what so ever.  It was a struggle to move.  I was slightly better today, however, when I sat down to work I took a new medicine that is supposed to help me focus on work. Unfortunately I grabbed the wrong bottle and I didn’t notice that I had taken too sleeping pills accidentally.  This is actually the SECOND time this has happened.  The pills look almost exactly the same. I ended up getting high as hell, but because I had just woken up, sleep was not an option, but neither was working on my site so I went into the city and bought a bunch of Soul and R&B records.  Supremes, Commodores, Teddy Pendergrass etc… I also picked up some Hall & Oates, Willy Nelson and some Kurtis Blow.  It was a pretty good haul and the guy gave me a pretty big discount.  I also had a picnic while I was really really messed up on these sleeping pills.  It was sort of an intense feeling just floating around.  I talked to a former heroin addict turned Jesus freak bicycle salesmen and lent a friend $150.  Then I came home so I could listen to records and talk to you about hot dogs… So let’s talk about hot dogs.

As I prayed, predicted and hoped for, Joey Chestnut took his third straight Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog title at Coney Island.  I heard him talking about trying to eat 68 hot dogs but I wasn’t sure he could really do it.  Two years ago he set the record for most hot dogs and buns eaten in 12 minutes with 66 dogs.  The problem is, last year they cut two minutes off the official eating time, and it is now down to just 10 minutes.  Last year he ‘only’ ate 59.  This year, he ate 68 dogs in 10 minutes and you got the idea if he had an extra 2 minutes he might have eaten 80.  It was amazing.  Takeru Kobayashi never stood a chance.  Also broken was the women’s record of 39 dogs.  That record was also set in 12 minutes, so it was go to see my future wife Sonya “Black Widow” Thomas beat her own record by 2 dogs in 2 less minutes.  Deep Dish and Eater X also broke the 50 dog mark which is unreasonably impressive.  You can eat 53 hot dogs in 10 minutes and not even get a third place trophy.  Amazing.

Anyway, there are a TON of photos in this gallery and I am going to post a bunch here.  I will do it in reverse order with the hot dog eating at first and then post some shots of the weirdness that goes on before the event to build the proper dog an pony show state fair atmosphere.  I mean you have 50k people in Brooklyn being filmed by ESPN you need some carnival style hokeyness to really appreciate what you are about to see.  The low budget, yet highly entertaining theatrics included dancers, trampoline artists, jugglers, an actual dog show, clergy, acrobats, dwarves, rapping eaters, dancing hot dogs, T shirt cannons, trivia contests and of course a strong man bending steel girders with his neck.  It is just not really a party until someone bends metal beams with the most defenseless and vulnerable part of their body…. and it was a party.

Also, thanks go the Shea’s.  They run Major League Eating and and the IFOCE. They are great guys.  Rich I met a few years ago and always gets me press passes and his brother George is the host of the event and he is absolutely one hell of a host.  Not many people can just grab a mic and keep people entertained for 4 hours in the hot sun.  He does it every year.  (Even if his MJ tribute was slightly lacking… The Smooth Criminal shoes were a nice touch at least…)

Click here to see all the 4th of July hot dog eating madness!

Comments (0)