The 4th of July has become synonymous with stuffing our faces with a plethora of hotdogs, burgers and maybe salad, and then chugging it down with some lemonade, iced tea or a brew.
But while you pass on your aunt’s macaroni salad this year, keep in mind that your stomach inflates like a balloon as you fill up, possibly shifting your internal organs. (Yes, thank me after to say no to that last slice of pie.)
The holiday also is home to the annual Nathan’s Dog Eating Championships, whose contestants get paid to expand their bellies with as many buns and hotdogs that their bodies can allow. Competing again this year, is eight-time champion, Joey Chestnut, who in 2013 broke the record by scarfing down a walloping 69 in under ten minutes.
This feat reverberated George Shea’s epic introduction of Chestnut saying:
“In a world of nothing, of barren hills and cracked earth and once-proud oceans drained to sand, there will still be a monument to our existence. Bleached by the sun, perhaps, and blunted by time, but everlasting. Because this man represents all that is eternal in the human experience…. Through the curtain of the aurora, a comet blazed to herald his arrival, and his victories shall be transcribed into every language known to history, including Klingon. I give you America itself, Joey Chestnut.”
Shea, noted for his lively and humorous introductions, joked Saturday that one eater “broke up with his girlfriend and euthanized his dog, so he’d have a void inside that he could fill with hot dogs.”
So while you passed on the macaroni salad, and pie, keep tucking those hot dogs away!
