Politico:
“The hot-dog contest is a physical manifestation of the concept of freedom,” said George Shea, the mastermind behind the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island. “The contest has come to represent the spirit of July 4th itself. That is why people go to the event. It is kind of a pilgrimage to the center of July 4th and the center of freedom.”
More than 30,000 fans of the absurd will pack the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues to watch the annual feeding frenzy—the Super Bowl of eating contests.
I love America but I don’t understand the fascination with competitive eating in general and certainly not with this particular event. It’s actually been broadcast on ESPN. If this is the “spirit of July 4th”, I fear for that spirit.
If you don’t want to watch it yourself, check out Paul Kafasis’s coverage at One Foot Tsunami:
http://onefoottsunami.com/category/features/nathans-hot-dog-eating-contest/
“Freedom,” my Aunt Fanny. It’s a physical manifestation of the concept of public extravagance and waste. We can afford to throw away all this food for the sake of a silly contest.
I wonder whether people who were alive during the Great Depression see this contest as a reward for their survival or something antithetical to the instincts that helped them survive that time.
The contest also reminds me a bit of the potlach ceremonies I was taught about in school, practiced by some Pacific Northwest peoples (before being banned by the white invaders). Neighboring clans would attend a ceremonial feast in which, in part, they were expected to not only exchange gifts with their hosts that demonstrated their prosperity, but also publicly destroy more goods to confirm that prosperity.
I always thought blowing fingers off your hand was the weirdest July 4th tradition.