So what was the biggest story of this year’s Independence Day weekend? Which fireworks display was the most spectacular? How about the racing at Daytona? Were there some awesome baseball games?
None of that seems to matter when the story of the weekend had to be the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest at Coney Island. Broadcast live on ESPN, the 95th annual event was won by reigning camp Joey Chestnut while his toughest competitor was not allowed to compete over a “contract dispute.” Gorging oneself is a profession?
International eating star, Kobayashi, was on hand and with crowds shouting his name, he attempted to jump on stage at the event’s close only to be led off by NYC police for such things as disorderly conduct, trespassing, and perhaps some other counts that amounted to exercising poor judgment.
While it’s all in good fun for the most part and the winner walks away with a $10,000 award, and yes as far as “tube steaks” go, Nathans are about as good as they come, something about a spectacle like this is a total gross out. Imagine consuming 54 hot dogs in ten minutes. Two would be plenty for most humans. Still, it’s a hot event on ESPN which posted 1.5 million viewers in 2006 with 30,000 fans present to witness the gross out.
Somewhere in this event is something that deserves commentary about the state of our society. This writer will not take a stab as such prospects but will offer this does not speak well of some aspects of the national psyche.
None of that seems to matter when the story of the weekend had to be the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest at Coney Island. Broadcast live on ESPN, the 95th annual event was won by reigning camp Joey Chestnut while his toughest competitor was not allowed to compete over a “contract dispute.” Gorging oneself is a profession?
International eating star, Kobayashi, was on hand and with crowds shouting his name, he attempted to jump on stage at the event’s close only to be led off by NYC police for such things as disorderly conduct, trespassing, and perhaps some other counts that amounted to exercising poor judgment.
While it’s all in good fun for the most part and the winner walks away with a $10,000 award, and yes as far as “tube steaks” go, Nathans are about as good as they come, something about a spectacle like this is a total gross out. Imagine consuming 54 hot dogs in ten minutes. Two would be plenty for most humans. Still, it’s a hot event on ESPN which posted 1.5 million viewers in 2006 with 30,000 fans present to witness the gross out.
Somewhere in this event is something that deserves commentary about the state of our society. This writer will not take a stab as such prospects but will offer this does not speak well of some aspects of the national psyche.
No comments:
Post a Comment