Consuming Mass Quantities

As Beldar Conehead used to say, "time to consume mass quantities".

And in the somewhat narrow (yet large) world of Competitive Eating, li'l Takeru Kobayashi has just claimed his sixth consecutive win at the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, gobbling down a new record of 53.75 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Takeru, from Japan, has owned this 4th of July contest easily for the last six years - in his first win, they actually had to start making up new placards on the spot as they had never had anyone eat more than 40 of the wieners. And he only weighs 160 pounds.

The event began in 1916 when Jim Mullen won the contest by eating 13 hot dogs.

The event has been aired live on ESPN for the last few years and many were expecting an California dude named Joey Chestnut who set a new record for an American, devouring 52 of Nathan's Famous dogs. But it wasn't enough to best Takeru.

Takeru also has a record of eating 17.7 pounds of pan-seared cow brains to win $25,000.

There are records aplenty among the Eaters - take Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas, who hold the female record for Nathan's at 37 dogs, the previous overall record for an American.

The International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) has a large menu of events and records to peruse, should you hunger for more information on this .... uh ... sport.

I was somewhat impressed as well with the achievement of Kate Stelnick, a 115-pound sophomore in college who, in 2005 devoured what's known as Ye Olde 96er at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in 2 hours and 54 minutes - making her the first person to ever down the burger in less than the 3-hour time limit set by Denny's Pub.

That's 8 pounds of burger, 12 slices of cheese, an onion, half a head of lettuce, copious condiments, and a special bun which brings the total weight of this puppy to 11 pounds.

So remember, you'd have a heck of a long long way to go to match these Mass Quantity Consumers no matter how much you overeat on this particular holiday.