Performance Indulgence

Of note as the fourth of July receded into memory, a field day for pop culture theorists and cultural anthropologists: The San Jose Mercury News provided some excellent coverage in today's paper of the 2007 Nathan's 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, although it failed to mention my favorite line from the ESPN play by play sportscasters seconds before the competition began: "Ladies and Gentlemen, start your enzymes."

Below, an excerpt from the article:

"[Joey]Chestnut made his food-eating debut in 2004 at a San Jose taqueria, downing a 5 1/4-pound burrito in 4 minutes, 14 seconds. He dismisses anyone who says the competitions are more gluttony than sport.

"There's people who don't understand ballet or don't understand drag racing cars. And those same people see competitive eating as wasteful," he said. "It's innocent fun."

On Wednesday, Chestnut got off to a strong start, cramming HDB - hot dogs and buns, in competition parlance - into his mouth chipmunk-style while spastically jumping about, a technique that reportedly helps him move the food down.

He steadily increased his lead over Kobayashi from one dog to about five. Then, about halfway through the timed 12-minute competition, Kobayashi found his rhythm, and alternated strategies from eating dogs and buns separately to shoving the whole meal into his mouth at once.

Withabout two minutes to go, the two appeared neck and neck. Then Kobayashi apparently lost it, holding his hands over his mouth as juices sprayed forth. The judges called for an instant replay and ultimately credited him with 63. Someone draped Chestnut with an American flag."

[credit|caption for attached photograph: "Defending world hot dog eating champion Takeru Kobayashi of Japan (centre), goes dog for dog with American Joey Chestnut (right), who went on to set a new world record by eating 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Photo: AP."]