American Madness

It’s that time of year again, tomorrow is the Fourth of July, meaning it is also time for Nathan’s Famous 4th of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest. As per usual it will be at Coney Island and airing on ESPN, both at Noon.

The contestants for this year are a line up of the usual suspects including Joey Chestnut (the reigning champ), Tim ‘Eater X’ Janus, Sonya ‘The Black Widow’ Thomas, Crazy Legs Conti, and Takeru ‘The Tsunami’ Kobayashi.

Now here is the scandal that is rocking the competitive eating world right now: To qualify for the competition you must win a regional qualifier (unless you are the reigning champ, Joey Chestnut got a bye). Despite his impressive 6 first place finishes (from 2001-2006) and his second place finish last year, Kobayashi has not actually participated in a contest since October and has not competed in any of the regional qualifiers for the event. (more…)

Some of you may be asking who is Harold Hunter, others may already know. In 1995 Harold Hunter became one of the faces representing youth in New York City in the movie Kids, a few years later he ended up in the Joan Osborne video “One of Us.”

Harold was a member of the early 90’s NYC skateboarding scene and part of the Zoo York team. Harold was last scene on TLC’s Miami Ink getting a tattooed tribute to WTC with the words NYC, Sk8 or Die. By the time this episode aired in April of ‘06, Harold had been dead for almost 2 months. On Feb. 17th of 2006 Harold overdosed.

This year Zoo York is one of the sponsors of the 2nd Annual Harold Hunter Day, a day in which Harold is remembered for his amazing skateboarding skills and his general good natured presence.

This year Harold Hunter Day will be this Saturday, May 17th. Zoo York is sponsoring The Harold Hunter Skate Jam forom 12-6pm at the Manhattan Bridge Skatepark and the Harold Hunter Party at KCDC in Brooklyn from 8pm to midnight. For more information you can check out the website.

Let the outing begin. We know who Client 9 is, and thanks to the Daily News we can now put a (hideous) face on Client 6 (editor’s note, original post had him labeled as Client 5, this was found to be incorrect). Ladies and gentlemen, I present for your viewing pleasure, The Duke of Westminster:

From the New York Daily News, we learn the world’s 46th richest person was not just a member of Emperors Club, he was also a client, having paid for the services of four hookers in 2006 and early 2007.

Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor apparently was tight fisted, as he had to haggle with the girls, this according to Lithuanian prostitute Zana Brazdek.

And it would appear Sir Beefcake liked to request “dangerous” services (i.e. - forgoing the glove).

Which leads me to mention this story I found in the San Jose Mercury News:

Study: 26 percent of female teens have a sexually transmitted disease

As you may have read here before (since this is my third time mentioning it here in 3 weeks), this past weekend was the Sanyo Bussan International Lifesaving Cup held on the beach in Kanagawa, Japan.

You might be familiar with this beach from the iconic picture “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” by Katsushika Hokusai. Okay, well, there really isn’t a beach in that picture, but that would be the view from the beach we were on if the weather had been nicer and their hadn’t been a tsunami.

Anyway, I go the chance to join Team USA as they competed. At first I was a bit skeptical about the whole idea of a lifeguard competition. By the end of the day I was right there next to the coach cheering the team on.

Unfortunately my cheering was not enough. The Australians swept the competition, medaling in every event (winning mostly golds) followed closely by the South Africans and Japan’s A team (as the host nation, Japan fielded 2 teams). For the USA, both the men and women won some medals, leaving at the end of the day with three bronze and one silver if I recall correctly (it would have been four bronze, but the men’s team got disqualified in the Tube Rescue event for going the wrong way around a buoy).

Though I had been following Analisa for the Beach Flags competition she unfortunately did not medal in it. She was knocked out of the competition due to a speedy Brit and a bad lane, though, like a champ, she came out of it with a smile.

Beyond Beach Flags, she also participated as the ‘victim’ in the Women’s Tube Rescue (the U.S. placed 5th) and was the sprinter in the Taplin Relay (they placed an amazing 4th and would have done better had their not been an issue with the surf-ski).

Overall, Team USA came in 4th (I believe), but did an amazing job (especially in the Men’s Taplin Relay where Chad Carvin moved from 4th place to 1st in the swimming portion of the relay and the team ended up getting a silver).

Despite having the designation as a team member, I did not compete at all (which was a good thing for both Team USA and my out-of-shape body).

So, like many other sites, I learned today about Walk Score.

Walk Score is a sight that allows you to plug in your address (or any address for that matter) and figure out how walkable and interesting the area is. The idea behind Walk Score is to encourage folks to go walking, especially when there are other means of transportation available. Walk Score sites the benefits of walking as: (more…)

Have you ever been pissed at your mobile phone?

I mean really pissed, to the point where you just want to take it throw it across a room.

Apparently the Finnish get that way some times, in fact it occurs so much that they started the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship. The competition has been going on since 2000 and has 3 different categories in both men and women’s divisions, as well as a junior category.

In a FAQ about the competition the question is asked Why do People Throw[the phones]?:

Finland is known as the home country of the mobile phones and Finns have always been very fashion-conscious about the phones. Many Europeans wonder why the Finns buy brand new phones when the old one is still working. For the interpreters and translators who work globally the mobile phone is a common tool when working and a part of accessory in the freetime.

Mobile phone is an essential part of us that connects us to nearly anywhere in the world but when you most need it the battery runs out or your sweetheart doesn’t answer or some one doesn’t return your call. Hope, anticipation, passion and frustration concentrates on mobile phone.

So, wind up your throwing arm, get it in shape and get your ticket to the Finlan for the 2007 World Championships, held at the end of August.

So, in case you haven’t quite figured it out yet, none of us here at American Madness are huge sports fans. This is especially true with the main stream sports: Football, Hockey, Baseball. Eh, whatever.

Though when it comes to alternative sports we’ve got them covered: Competitive Eating, Soccer (okay, a bit of a low blow to the MLS, but still) and now Roller Derby. (more…)

Have you been reading some of the competitive eating articles I’ve posted and thought: “I bet I could do that. How hard can it be?”

I think that every now and then while watching competitive eaters. I know I can eat a lot if I have an appetite or not, and if they are eating the right food there are times where I think I could be a competitor, like with Buffalo Wings or Sushi. The I’ll watch something like the Glutton Bowl where the winners ate things like 7 sticks (almost 2lbs) of butter or 128 oz of mayonaisse (about 8lbs worth) and I my gag reflex is triggered just considering it.

But anyway, that is beyond the point, for those of you who think you could be a viable competitor in the world of Competitive Eating and live in the New York area (or are willing to travel to test your chops) there is the 4th Annual Dumpling Eating Contest on August 5th during the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival held in Flushing Meadows. Contestant will have 2 minutes to eat as many dumplings as the possibly can, trying to beat the record of 49 dumplings for men or 33 for women. Even if you can’t stuff that 50th dumpling into your mouth to beat the record, if you make a good showing and place in the top 3 there are cash prizes. The registration deadline is July 31st, so call to enter now!

As I have been blogging on it for the last two weeks I figured it was only fitting to follow up as well with the finally:

In an incredible competition last week Joey Chestnut downed 66 Nathan’s Hot Dogs in 12 minutes (or about 1 every 11 seconds), beating out the odds on favorite Takeru “The Tsunami” Kobayashi and breaking his own record of 59 1/2, set only last month.

Kobasyashi made a nice showing putting away a total of 63 hot dogs even with a “reversal” at the end (which ESPN has the good grace of repeating in slow motion once or twice, not counting what may have appeared on SportsCenter).

Thus ends Kobayashi’s reign, though he vowed to return for the 2008 competition.

New York Roomates Eater X and Crazy Legs Conti ate 43.5 (4th) and 23.5 (13th) hot dogs a piece.

You can watch the full competition in all it’s glory on YouTube:

First Half
Second Half

(Also, you know it was a slow sports week since ESPN showed the Hot Dog Eating Competition, followed by the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee and then on Saturday had the Rock Paper Scissors Championship*)

*Evan O’Dorney, 13, from CA won the Spelling Bee (which actually occurred on May 31st) and I couldn’t find much info on the Rock Paper Scissors Championship, but the 2007 championship will be held on Oct 13th in Ontario Canada, tickets are on sale now.

So you may have noticed that I reported yesterday that The Tsunami, Kobayashi, might not compete in this year’s Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest on July 4th.

Well, I was wrong, he is competing. According to his manager, Kobayashi will definitely be competing in the competition. He wants to honor his mother, who passed away in March. During his trip to the U.S. he will also be the draw in the Pizza Hut P’Zone Challenge, where folks get the honor of going head-to-head against The Tsunami in a pizza eating competition, as long as they can explain in 50 words or less why they feel that they should be chosen to go up against him.

Kobayashi has big plans while he is here, let’s hope that the rehab he has done with his jaw this week will be enough to make him a real competitor this year so we can see some serious records broken in the match-up between him and Joey Chestnut. There still remain the skeptics who question whether Kobayashi actually had any jaw injury or not and was just making an excuse in case he looses to Chestnut.

Seriously though, how do you become a competitive eater and still maintain six-pack abs?