Joey Chestnut has shocked the world of competitive eating. The civil engineering student from San Jose ate an astonishing 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes in the annual Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating competition at Coney Island. (That’s one hot dog every 10.91 seconds, if you’re counting at home.) It’s a new world record, by 6.5 dogs.
It isn’t exactly Folsom Prison, but Paris Hilton entered a Los Angeles jail on Sunday night to serve her time for violating parole by driving with a suspended license. A few notes:
Just in time for tourist season, the latest “sighting” of the Loch Ness Monster is being reported. You don’t think that the Tourism Board of Scotland… well, let’s let that unkind thought pass.
He hasn’t formally, formally announced his candidacy, but Republican actor-politician Fred Thompson has dropped enough hints that we’ve added him to our list of Candidates 2008.USA Today says that Thompson will announce his run on July 4th. There’s something symbolic about that date, apparently.
Amazing but true: President John F. Kennedy would be 90 years old today.A few others born in 1917 who are still alive now: actor Ernest Borgnine, singer Lena Horne, and sci-fi writer Arthur C. Clarke.
You might have thought that committing suicide in disgrace was just an old cliche about Japan, but the practice seems to be alive and well. So to speak.
Apolo Anton Ohno skated to a new title last night: king of the TV ballroom dancers.
Wally Schirra, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts chosen by NASA, died Thursday of a heart attack at age 84. His family reported that he died at a hospital in La Jolla, California.
It appears that Gordon Brown is about to realize his decades-long dream and become prime mininster of the United Kingdom. Tony Blair has held the office for 10 years, but hinted strongly this week that he would step down soon.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam was killed in a car crash on Monday in Menlo Park, California. He was being driven from Berkeley to an interview with former NFL quarterback Y.A. Tittle when the crash occurred, according to the San Jose Mercury News.