Go Kobayashi!

Here's a cell phone picture of this year's countdown board at the Nathan's Annual Hot Dog eating contest where Kobayashi and Joey Chestnut duked it out. Kobayashi won with 53.75 hot dogs in 12 minutes and immediately upchucked all the contents of his stomach as soon as the contest ended, prompting his competitors to cry foul. Instant replay showed that he managed to keep everything down until after the buzzer. Chestnut followed a close second with 52 hot dogs.



What was interesting was that the crowd made the contest into an "us versus them" event. When Kobayashi was announced, he stood on a cherry picker over the crowd. He flexed his biceps and raised his oversized shirt to flaunt his six-pack abs. The crowd booed. When Chestnut was announced and raised up in a cherry picker so he was level to Kobayashi, the crowd cheered him and chanted "USA! USA! USA!" Chestnut preened before the crowd, also flexing his biceps. The cherry picker operator then raised Chestnut so he stood above Kobayashi, and the crowd cheered.



I tried to figure out how competitive eating relates to nationality but drew a blank. The sort of athleticism exhibited by both Kobayashi and Chestnut in the realm of competitive eating is true talent no matter what language either one of them speaks, what country they call home, or what they look like. The crowd booed Kobayashi because he wasn't "American." What does that mean? Was it because he he wasn't white? Because he didn't look like them? Because he doesn't speak English? I still don't know.

It was one of the best July 4 days I've had in a long time. JS had called that morning with the brilliant idea to go to Coney Island to watch Kobayashi, and despite the three hour wait and the blistering heat, we had a lot of fun. JS is uncanny in that he always knows what I'd find interesting from random spur-of-the-moment activities to my fascination with competitive eating. Love alone wasn't enough to make things work, but at least I have memories of good times and was able to walk away with happy thoughts.