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Thursday, February 28, 2008
Lifestyle/Features
Feb. 27, 2008, 5:28PMPutting some teeth into eating contest
Sundays "World Championship Matzoh Ball Eating Contest" just went from being a fun, little event where No. 1-ranked eater Joey Chestnut noshes his way to the $1,000 first prize while having his nails done to a flat-out, no stone left unturned, no matzo crumb left ungobbled battle for pride, honor and world domination.
Pat Bertoletti, the world's No. 2 eater, has entered the contest.
Chestnut and Bertoletti are arch rivals. It doesn't matter what they're eating — it could be pizza or chicken wings or hot dogs or boiled eggs — they've got that lean, hungry look.
OK, maybe not the lean part.
Chestnut does the "Joey Shake" when he competes. That vein in the middle of his forehead starts bulging. He shimmies and shakes the food to the pit of his belly. Sweat pours out of him like a garden sprinkler. He rumbles worse than a bad roller coaster in a parking-lot amusement park.
Bertoletti, who sports a skyscraper Mohawk haircut and zones out with an iPod during contests, is a Messy Marvin, dunking his food in a big pitcher of mysterious strawberry punch. When he's done, he is drenched with red splotches. He looks like an explosion in the Big Red soda factory.
Last year, Chestnut ate 66 hot dogs in the Nathan's Famous contest in Coney Island, toppling world champ Takeru Kobiyashi on national television. It is considered the greatest moment in American competitive eating. Last year, Chestnut downed 56 kolaches at Minute Maid Park after an Astros game.
Bertoletti was less than one kolache behind Chestnut that fateful night in Houston. The announcement of the winner was delayed several minutes while they counted, recounted and recounted again. It remains the closest finish ever recorded in competitive eating.
In the past year, Chestnut and Bertoletti have met 12 times in eating contests.
They've gone 6-6.
Kobiyashi is so yesterday. It's all about Chestnut and Bertoletti now.
The World Championship Matzoh Ball Eating Contest will be at 2 p.m. at Kenny & Ziggy's New York Deli, 2327 Post Oak. It's in the same shopping center as the Sports Authority.
There will be 12 other contestants, including Chip Sampson, Juris Shibayama and local favorite Dave "SykoBozo" Cagle.
All the money raised from the event, dubbed Matzoh Balls for Marvin, goes to the Marvin H. Zindler Sr. Fund for Pancreatic Cancer Research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
• Today's trivia: What is the biggest money-making event ever held on pay-per-view television? Clue: It was broadcast last May, and there's a Houston connection now.
• Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band played last April 21 at Minute Maid Park. They drew 40,000 fans. The show was a spectacular success. Fans loved it. Astros management loved it. Buffett loved it. Even the Astros ground crew loved it. Not one blade of grass was damaged.
I'm noticing that the Astros are making like Willie Nelson, on the road again from April 23 to the end of the month. Buffett will be in Texas anyway, since he's playing Dallas on April 26.
Do I have to drop a bigger hint?
• The WWE Wrestlemania Fan Axxess Tour will be at Kemah Boardwalk this weekend. Fans can meet WWE superstars, play wrestling video games, get temporary tattoos and compete in a wrestling trivia contest. You can even create your own ring entrance and get a DVD that will be played at your birthday party in 20 years to screams of laughter.
Wrestler Mark "The World's Strongest Man" Henry and Smackdown lady boss Vickie Guerrero will sign autographs 4-6 p.m. Saturday. Val Venis and Lance Cade will scribble their names from 4-6 p.m. Sunday.
Everything is free at Fan Axxess.
• Friday is Go Texan Day.I am not originally from Texas, but it was on Go Texan Day about a dozen years ago that I truly became a Texan.
The Chronicle held a "Biggest Belt Buckle" contest for employees. I was determined to win it. Naturally, I don't own a buckaroo belt.
So I drove up to Humble, knocked on the door of Texas All-Star Wrestling boss Bob "Humongous" Murphy and said, "I need the TASW championship belt."
Have you ever seen the belts that wrestlers wear? They're humongous.
The contest was in the Chronicle lobby. Reporters, photographers, editors and assorted working stiffs walked past the judges with their belts and tight Wrangler jeans.
Nice try, you cowpokes and cowgirls. The Village People lookalike contest is down the street.
I waited in the back till the end of the contest.
"Anybody else?"
Yeah, me.
I strapped on the wrestling belt and walked up to the judges.
I still have the trophy in my dining room.
• The first public event in Discovery Green, the new downtown park in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center, will be Saturday.
"One for Doc" will honor Dr. Robert Morgan, director of jazz studies emeritus at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. The concert starts at 6 p.m. and will feature many of Morgan's former students, including emcee Scott Gertner and Grammy winners La Mafia and Al Jarreau.
Channel 2 songbird Dominique Sachse will host the event. Admission is free.
• Trivia answer: The boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Oscar de la Hoya had 2.4 million buys, making it the biggest, richest event ever on pay-per-view. De la Hoya recently bought a big chunk of the Houston Dynamo soccer club.
Ken.hoffman@chron.com
Listen to the Ken Hoffman Show on AM radio station 1560 "The Game" from noon to 2 p.m. weekdays.
Feb. 27, 2008, 5:28PMPutting some teeth into eating contest
Sundays "World Championship Matzoh Ball Eating Contest" just went from being a fun, little event where No. 1-ranked eater Joey Chestnut noshes his way to the $1,000 first prize while having his nails done to a flat-out, no stone left unturned, no matzo crumb left ungobbled battle for pride, honor and world domination.
Pat Bertoletti, the world's No. 2 eater, has entered the contest.
Chestnut and Bertoletti are arch rivals. It doesn't matter what they're eating — it could be pizza or chicken wings or hot dogs or boiled eggs — they've got that lean, hungry look.
OK, maybe not the lean part.
Chestnut does the "Joey Shake" when he competes. That vein in the middle of his forehead starts bulging. He shimmies and shakes the food to the pit of his belly. Sweat pours out of him like a garden sprinkler. He rumbles worse than a bad roller coaster in a parking-lot amusement park.
Bertoletti, who sports a skyscraper Mohawk haircut and zones out with an iPod during contests, is a Messy Marvin, dunking his food in a big pitcher of mysterious strawberry punch. When he's done, he is drenched with red splotches. He looks like an explosion in the Big Red soda factory.
Last year, Chestnut ate 66 hot dogs in the Nathan's Famous contest in Coney Island, toppling world champ Takeru Kobiyashi on national television. It is considered the greatest moment in American competitive eating. Last year, Chestnut downed 56 kolaches at Minute Maid Park after an Astros game.
Bertoletti was less than one kolache behind Chestnut that fateful night in Houston. The announcement of the winner was delayed several minutes while they counted, recounted and recounted again. It remains the closest finish ever recorded in competitive eating.
In the past year, Chestnut and Bertoletti have met 12 times in eating contests.
They've gone 6-6.
Kobiyashi is so yesterday. It's all about Chestnut and Bertoletti now.
The World Championship Matzoh Ball Eating Contest will be at 2 p.m. at Kenny & Ziggy's New York Deli, 2327 Post Oak. It's in the same shopping center as the Sports Authority.
There will be 12 other contestants, including Chip Sampson, Juris Shibayama and local favorite Dave "SykoBozo" Cagle.
All the money raised from the event, dubbed Matzoh Balls for Marvin, goes to the Marvin H. Zindler Sr. Fund for Pancreatic Cancer Research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
• Today's trivia: What is the biggest money-making event ever held on pay-per-view television? Clue: It was broadcast last May, and there's a Houston connection now.
• Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band played last April 21 at Minute Maid Park. They drew 40,000 fans. The show was a spectacular success. Fans loved it. Astros management loved it. Buffett loved it. Even the Astros ground crew loved it. Not one blade of grass was damaged.
I'm noticing that the Astros are making like Willie Nelson, on the road again from April 23 to the end of the month. Buffett will be in Texas anyway, since he's playing Dallas on April 26.
Do I have to drop a bigger hint?
• The WWE Wrestlemania Fan Axxess Tour will be at Kemah Boardwalk this weekend. Fans can meet WWE superstars, play wrestling video games, get temporary tattoos and compete in a wrestling trivia contest. You can even create your own ring entrance and get a DVD that will be played at your birthday party in 20 years to screams of laughter.
Wrestler Mark "The World's Strongest Man" Henry and Smackdown lady boss Vickie Guerrero will sign autographs 4-6 p.m. Saturday. Val Venis and Lance Cade will scribble their names from 4-6 p.m. Sunday.
Everything is free at Fan Axxess.
• Friday is Go Texan Day.I am not originally from Texas, but it was on Go Texan Day about a dozen years ago that I truly became a Texan.
The Chronicle held a "Biggest Belt Buckle" contest for employees. I was determined to win it. Naturally, I don't own a buckaroo belt.
So I drove up to Humble, knocked on the door of Texas All-Star Wrestling boss Bob "Humongous" Murphy and said, "I need the TASW championship belt."
Have you ever seen the belts that wrestlers wear? They're humongous.
The contest was in the Chronicle lobby. Reporters, photographers, editors and assorted working stiffs walked past the judges with their belts and tight Wrangler jeans.
Nice try, you cowpokes and cowgirls. The Village People lookalike contest is down the street.
I waited in the back till the end of the contest.
"Anybody else?"
Yeah, me.
I strapped on the wrestling belt and walked up to the judges.
I still have the trophy in my dining room.
• The first public event in Discovery Green, the new downtown park in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center, will be Saturday.
"One for Doc" will honor Dr. Robert Morgan, director of jazz studies emeritus at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. The concert starts at 6 p.m. and will feature many of Morgan's former students, including emcee Scott Gertner and Grammy winners La Mafia and Al Jarreau.
Channel 2 songbird Dominique Sachse will host the event. Admission is free.
• Trivia answer: The boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Oscar de la Hoya had 2.4 million buys, making it the biggest, richest event ever on pay-per-view. De la Hoya recently bought a big chunk of the Houston Dynamo soccer club.
Ken.hoffman@chron.com
Listen to the Ken Hoffman Show on AM radio station 1560 "The Game" from noon to 2 p.m. weekdays.
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