What would make we want to start to blogging again after a hiatus of nearly six months?

is what you're probably wondering. 

There are a few things actually. But today it's mainly this. 

Before you ask, I don't quite know how I Googled my way to a Competitive Eating Competitions website either. It's not the most exciting example of web-design (I know at least one person who will be having kittens right now because it doesn't have any pictures) but the content more than makes up for it.

I can't decide what I love the most. First, there's the events.  Competitions like the World Peanut Butter and Banana Eating Contest, which was held in Biloxi, Mississippi a few weeks ago. Or the challenge where a girl called Betty ate one each of all 25 items available in a particular vending machine.  There are events for whole turkeys, for crawfish, oysters, sausages, spaghetti.......you name it, someone somewhere will have tried to eat it. Lots of it. And fast.

The Daddy of all competitive eating contests, though is the Philadelphia Wing Bowl.  Since the inaugaural competition  in 1993, when Carmen "The Beast From the East" Cordero won with a nice round total of 100 wings, the Wing Bowl has pitted the best of the competitive eating world against each other in a fierce competition to see who can consume the most chicken wings. Vomiting, which happens a lot less often than you might think, is known as a ‘reversal of fortune’.

Everyone knows that Bill "El Wingador" Simmons is the king of the Wing Bowl.  I mean, the clue's in the name.  He won five times between 1999 and 2005, then retired, then came out of retirement in 2008 for Wing Bowl 16, and broke the elusive 200 wing mark, which is basically the equivalent of the 4 minute mile.  Unfortunately, so did two other guys and El Wingador only came third.  This was the first year anyone had managed to eat 200 wings; Wikipedia tells me that this had something to do with a change in chicken wing providers that year, but I'm prefering to see it as a Chariots of Fire type moment of glory. 

So the events are pretty special. But then there are the contestants.  I mean, what's not to love about Arlene Kratz - 'Little Arlene' to her fans - who used to do promotional work for the Philadelphia 76ers, who are some kind of sports team.  I've been reading an old LA Times article about hernwhich talks about the time she took on 5 junk-food addicts known as (wait for it......) the Philadelphia Phill-ups.

"The Phill-ups reeled away in belching agony while Little Arlene sat there, daintily dabbing at her mouth with a napkin after inhaling 23 hot dogs, 22 large slices of pizza and 16 large Cokes. She then offered to challenge all comers to an oyster-eating contest. 

'Arlene,' Pat Williams (general manager of the 76ers) said, sighing, 'enough is enough.'

Later, the 76ers received Arlene's hotel bill, and included was a full course roast beef dinner, which she had consumed before the contest. Truly, her digestive tract belongs in the Smithsonian."

As a general rule, competititve eaters have excellent names.  At the 2009 wing bowl Hank the Tank and Da Disposal tied for third place.  Other key players on the circut include Juan "More Bite" Rodriguez, Gravy Brown, Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, Andrew "Skinnyboy" Lane, and Rich "The Locust" Lefevre.