{"id":2394,"date":"2007-06-08T10:45:54","date_gmt":"2007-06-08T18:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2007\/06\/dr_kuntzman_to_deliver_paper_at_next_competitive_eating_convention_on_the_effect_of_environmental_factors_on_competitive_eating_behaviors.html"},"modified":"2008-01-24T12:46:36","modified_gmt":"2008-01-24T17:46:36","slug":"dr_kuntzman_to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/06\/dr_kuntzman_to.html","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Kuntzman To Deliver Paper At Next Competitive Eating Convention On “The Effect Of Environmental Factors On Competitive Eating Behaviors”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Competitive eating experts suggest that Joey Chestnut’s record-breaking feat<\/a> this week in Arizona is tainted<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Like Bob Beamon’s wind-aided 1968 Olympic long jump in the thin air of Mexico City, Barry Bonds “clear”- and “cream”-aided 73 homer season in 2001, or Roger Maris’s eight-extra-game home-run season in 1961, Chestnut’s 59-1\/2 HDB record should have an asterisk — at least until he repeats the “achievement” under actual game conditions.<\/p>\n

Without air conditioning, I mean.<\/p>\n

Certainly Chestnut is one of history’s greatest eaters. But the full impact of what he did last Saturday in an air-conditioned shopping mall outside of Tempe, Arizona simply can’t be known until he does it again.<\/p>\n

In the heat of an actual competition.<\/p>\n

After all, last year at Coney Island, with the temperatures and humidity both well above 80, Chestnut finished 1-3\/4 dogs behind his nemesis, Takeru Kobayashi, who ate 53-3\/4 and captured his sixth consecutive Mustard Yellow International Belt, the world-renowned symbol of gustatory greatness.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And columnist Gersh Kuntzman knows of what he speaks:<\/p>\n

I conducted a completely scientific experiment at an indoor Nathan’s stand. With the air conditioning blowing at full bore, I was able to down two HDBs in just one minute (such a pace, if sustained over 12 minutes, would have won me the Mustard Yellow Belt only a decade ago, by the way).<\/p>\n

Then I bought two more dogs and took them outside, into the heat and mugginess of a normal New York summer day.<\/p>\n

I struggled to get even one of the dogs down my quivering gullet. My face broke out in a sweat (that’s real garlic satisfaction in there, my friends) and I got woozy from the heat.<\/p>\n

The result of my experiment was clear: Air conditioning is to competitive eating what steroids are to baseball or, more accurately, the power nail driver is to Amish barn-raising.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Competitive eating experts suggest that Joey Chestnut’s record-breaking feat this week in Arizona is tainted: Like Bob Beamon’s wind-aided 1968 Olympic long jump in the thin air of Mexico City, Barry Bonds “clear”- and “cream”-aided 73 homer season in 2001, or Roger Maris’s eight-extra-game home-run season in 1961, Chestnut’s 59-1\/2 HDB record should have an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}