It happens every summer. One event will finally get me out of the house, and expose me to so many ultraviolet rays, I get sunburned to a crisp, and I'm reminded yet again of why I don't like to go outside.This year, vers suggested that we go watch the Nathan's world famous hot dog eating contest. Since I'm walking distance from Coney Island, why not? And there on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Ave we basked in the hazy heat and scorching rays of a unextraordinarily summer-soaked Fourth of July. The scents of hot dogs and sweat hung in the air. And there we stood for two hours. The picture above is the evidence - no camera tricks or filters - it's my shoulder that's so red.
Being a 90 degree day, I was wearing one of my skimpier tank tops, while braver men around me wore nothing up top at all. Most noticeable was the slick, brazen, God of fast food standing extremely close to my left. I kept clear of his large belly and well oiled arms, using the random hairs poking out of his shoulder to gauge distance. The friendly Nathan's representatives were tossing out T-Shirts and novelties to the crowd. When one of exceptionally high trajectory seemed to be coming my way, this sweat soaked man leaned down to his son and said "Watch this!" I turned towards him, curious as to what was so interesting, and see a wall of flesh flying at me, creating a sizable impact against my own bare arm, thumping softly and sliding off like bacon from a frying pan. After profuse apologies, wifey handed me a couple of napkins to de-grease.
A couple of things I learned from that day:
· Wear sunscreen when I'm told to
· Kobiyashi is ripped
· Don't stand too close to shirtless men without some napkins
Since I'm sure you all know by now, due to the sheer global impact of this event, that Kobayashi won for the sixth year in a row, peaking at 53 and 3/4 hot dogs (beating his previous record of 53 and 1/2.) Joey Chestnut was a very close second, at one point beating Kobayashi by two dogs. And Sonya “Black Widow” Thomas came in a respectable third, beating out 425 pound Brooklyn local, Eric “Badlands” Booker (he's got his own homepage). More info here from ESPN, who was actually there covering the event: http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/news/story?id=2509226
