Dog Day Afternoon

In what has become a strange 4th of July ritual for me, I tuned in to ESPN for the latest Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest held earlier today on Coney Island, NY. For those not familiar with the competition, it has been absolutely dominated by the Japanese eating sensation Takeru Kobayashi, who had won the last six contests in a row dating back to 2001. I guess you might say he is the Tiger Woods or Roger Federer of hot dog eating. Well, even Tiger and Roger lose once and a while and today the king was knocked off his throne by American and perennial Nathan's bridesmaid Joey Chestnut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKqaX9HmQgw

During what the announcer called the "Greatest victory in the history of American sports" - apparently edging out the 1980 U.S Olympic hockey victory over Russia and swimmer Mark Spitz's 7 Olympic gold medals at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich - Chestnut downed a world record 66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. This topped the previous world record of 59 1/2 that he had set last month in Tempe, AZ. Kobayashi was no slouch himself, employing his trademark "Kobayashi Shake" to knock out 63 dogs. And this despite battling arthritis of the jaw related to the recent removal of a wisdom tooth. It was an epic battle between the top two eaters in the International Federation of Competitive Eating rankings, sort of an Ali/Frazier except with a lot more regurgitation.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2925803

In all, Chestnut consumed 12,540 calories and his 66 dogs is more than the average American eats in an entire year. All I can say, other than "that is one of the most disgusting things I have witnessed this year that didn't involve Paris Hilton," is that I was extra proud to be an American today. As Chestnut draped the stars and stripes around his shoulder I couldn't help but chant "U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!"