Celebrating the 4th of July, as usual, Nathan’s Famous July Fourth International Eating Contest took place in Coney Island where crowds of onlookers assembled at the corner of Surf and Stillwell avenues to watch hot dogs being shoved down between many contestnats within a ten-minute period. 

America’s defending champion Joey Chestnut won the Nathan’s Famous July Fourth International Eating Contest, third year in a row, by eating 68 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, 3 1/2 more than Takeru Kobayashi of Japan, his arch-rival.  By consuming all 68 dogs, Chestnut has broken the world record.

When asked why he entered the contest again Chestnut replied,

“I love to eat, I love the competition. It’s the Fourth of July, and you can get away with it on this day, push your body this hard, for something silly like this.”

Takeru Kobayashi came in second with a still-nauseatingly-high 64 and a half hot dogs. In third place was Patrick Bertoletti, who ate a mere 55 hot dogs.  Sonya Thomas, set a new women’s world record by chowing down 41 hot dogs.  Talk about “I am Woman, Hear Me Roar!”

To see the video footage of the contest watch below…

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cybertoad/Flickr

According to The New York Times, two NYC Costco locations one in Astoria, Queens, and the other in Sunset Park, Brooklyn will start to accept food stamps on a trial basis starting next month.

“If the experimental program shows there is sufficient demand by food stamp users, and if it does not harm efficiency, the company said, it will begin accepting food stamps at all of its New York City stores, including a new one that is planned for East Harlem.”

These The two stores were selected because of the high numbers of food stamp recipients in the surrounding areas.  Just recently Costco had gained criticism being one of the largest retailers to not accept food stamps.  Even Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Wal-Mart all accept food stamps.  Wow, I had no idea about those guys accepting food stamps, did you?

What do you think of this new policy in Costco?