I Like Mine with Onions

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Only in America.

Joey Chestnut set the world record by eating 68 hot dogs in ten minutes. Can you imagine?

Don't get me wrong, I love hot dogs, and I can eat a bunch of them, but nearly seven dogs in a minute? How is that possible?

Back a few years ago my father entered all of us in a pasta eating contest. As we pulled up to the event I recall telling my brother that when we left everyone would be talking about me. He laughed.

I ate a full pound of pasta in the allotted ten minutes time to win by a lot. It is still one of my greatest accomplishments. I won a gift certificate for the store that was sponsoring the contest and was munching on a cannoli when the owner handed me the prize - he mentioned that I was a freaking pig.

Yet I don't believe that I could down more than ten hot dogs in ten minutes.

What gets me about these guys that win such tournaments is that they are usually little guys. That Japanese guy - who came in second yesterday - can't weight more than a hundred pounds. And what happens in the time immediately following such an eating contest?

I know what happened to me after winning the pasta eating contest - I slept the sleep of a bear for the rest of the afternoon - got up around seven and had a couple of meatballs before returning to bed.

Do these guys eat again later in the day? Could they even stand to see another hot dog for the next couple of years?

Now I know that there are bigger things happening out there, and that in the grand scheme of things stuffing hot dogs down your throat isn't such a big deal, but 68 dogs in 10 minutes?

That's right up there with DiMaggio hitting in 56 straight.

Comments

deafjeff said…
I like mine with a hot pepper and cold beer. I think maybe 10 would be about right. Those guys are freaks.
05 July, 2009
Gag said…
i can see you putting away that pound of pasta and looking for more.
06 July, 2009
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