I watched part of the July 4th Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest in HD today. It was gross seeing guys trying not to puke with such clarity on tv. I do have some questions about this event though.

For the past 5 years, this Kobayashi guy has blown away the field was of course was a heavy favorite to win this year, which he did. He broke his old record of 53 1/2 hot dogs in 12 minutes by eating 53 3/4 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Who decides if he finished 1/2 or 3/4? Why not 5/8 or 5/6? Doesn't he stuff them down his throat 2 at a time? So did he eat only 7/8 of each of the last 2 hot dogs?

Unlike previous years, someone actually came close to beating Kobayashi. It was some American kid, Joey Chestnut, and he looked really sick after hot dog number 48. At least Joey was stuffing hot dogs because he had a chance to win the contest. There were a bunch of other guys who looked wasted after 6 minutes and 12 hot dogs, but they kept trying to shove the hot dogs in their mouths even though they were 30 behind the leader. This isn't really the kind of contest that you finish out of pride like the Olympics. I'm sure most girls would not be impressed by the line 'I ate 22 hot dogs in an eating contest and finished in 8th place' (Ladies, if I'm wrong, please let me know). Even if you were homeless and had not eaten in a month, don't you think anything more than 14 dogs would make you sick of them? My only guess as to why they continued is that they want to move up the IFOCE rankings. (I'm currently ranked 64th based on a 3rd place finish in the Pepsi-Cola Consumption Contest last week, where I chugged 42 cans of Pepsi in 13 minutes. I now weigh 265 pounds, all of it sugar water.)

As with any food challenge, my offer of $50 to anyone who can consume a gallon of milk (at least 2%) in one hour still stands. Vomitting or a trip to the bathroom will result in a disqualification.