Kobayashi vs. The American

Tomorrow morning is the Nathan's International Hot Dog Eating Championship. Held in NYC every year on the 4th of July, it's a celebration of America's tendency to overindulge, and over the last year spanning_time has become more than a little obsessed with the sport (why isn't there anything in Seattle), and its reigning champion for the last five years, Takeru Kobayashi. He holds the record for hot dog eating, working his way through 53 1/2 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Thing is, while he owns the record and has positively destroyed his competition, he hasn't always broken the 50 mark. That said, there's a new kid on the block this year. Twenty-two year old Joey Chestnut managed to finish 50 hot dogs in this year's Las Vegas qualifier, giving him the American record. This could be a close one. Given our Kobayishi worship we don't know whether to let patriotism get the best of us here. Either way, we'll be up at 9am to see what happens, and we recommend you do the same. Hmmm...think a sports bar would be open to showing this?

Oh, and have a great (safe) 4th!

Here's a video of Kobayashi at work: