Debbie Schlussel: America Defeats Japan to ReCapture Championship
It's not exactly the 1980 Olympic semi-final USA hockey victory over the Soviet Union. And it's not exactly the U.S. beating Japan in World War II.
But, today, America can take solace that we've retaken the Nathan's hot dog eating contest from Japan. On June 2, America's Joey Chestnut set a new world hot dog eating record of 59.5 hot dogs consumed in 12 minutes defeating Japan's Takeru Kobayashi, who held the previous world record 53.75 hot dogs in 12 minutes (last year). That's almost 5 hot dogs per minute. Kobayashi wasn't competing in this particular contest. But a record's a record. And Chestnut beat his.
U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! Thanks to reader Ari for the tip. Here's the video (you can stop watching after about a minute):
Here's a shorter, second view from CNN ("Four Horsemen of the Esophagus"):
Posted by Debbie on June 13, 2007 02:20 PM to Debbie Schlussel