On 5 Jul 2006 00:38:10 +0200, Wayne Boatwright
<wayneboatwright_at_gmail.com> wrote:

>Oh pshaw, on Tue 04 Jul 2006 02:29:23p, Curly Sue meant to say...
>
>> For those of you who follow the annual Coney Island Hot Dog Eating
>> Contest held every 4th of July, the results are in: Takero Kobayashi
>> of Japan won his 6th straight event.
>>
>> "Kobayashi broke his own world record by eating 53 and three quarters
>> hot dogs Tuesday, beating his record of 53 and a half hot dogs that he
>> set two years ago."
>>
>> http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index...id=1&aid=60753
>
>That's amazing! I can usually finish 2, but can't usually finish a 3rd.
>
Strangely enough, it's the tiny skinny people who win these contests.
You'd think it would be the big guys but no!

There is a whole culture of "competitive eating," including
professional societies. eg. http://www.ifoce.com/ and
http://www.competitiveeaters.com/

The Japanese guy made $150,000 on the circuit last year.

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/caple/020703.html

"Naturally, there are three obvious questions when it comes
to competitive eaters. The first is how do they do it? The second is
why would they do it? And the third is what happens after they finish
eating? "

The above article doesn't directly address the third question- simply
alludes to the answer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_eating
http://people.howstuffworks.com/competitive-eating.htm
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/c...?story_id=3523

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!