Eating King Kobayashi Back On Top After Winning Pizza Hut P’zone Challenge

CULVER CITY, Calif. (AP) — In a chewy chow-lenge, Takeru Kobayashi outlasted Joey Chestnut when the eating titans faced off to see who could devour the most pizzas.

Kobayashi is ripped...does he only eat during contests?

Kobayashi, a six-time world hot dog eating champion from Japan, consumed 5 3/4 P’zones in a six-minute span of chaotic consumption Saturday to edge Chestnut. The 25-year-old from San Jose, Calif., wolfed down 5 1/2 P’zones on Stage 15 at Sony Studios.

“I’m a little bummed,” Chestnut said. “There’s nobody I like beating more than him, he pushes me harder than anybody.”

The arch rivals are best known for their annual Fourth of July hot dog eating showdowns on New York’s Coney Island. Chestnut has beaten his Japanese competitor the last two years, winning last year in a five-dog eat-off after they tied at 59 frankfurters in 10 minutes.

This time, they went cheek-to-jowl in a stomach-centric contest sponsored by Pizza Hut featuring the P’zone, a pizza weighing one pound with pepperoni and other ingredients sealed inside a crust. At nearly 12 inches long, it resembles a calzone.

Jaw strength and stomach capacity were sorely tested in consuming one of the most filling foods on the competitive eating circuit.

A serious-looking Chestnut prepped by opening his mouth wide and loosening his jaw. Kobayashi stretched his lean limbs and whispered with his interpreter.

Then it was time.

Chestnut took an early lead, squeezing a P’zone in his left fist while alternately slugging from a water bottle. Soon, liquid splashed all over Chestnut’s white jersey and dripped from his mouth.

Kobayashi took a tidier approach.

He roared back to take the lead for good on his second P’zone, tearing off bites of the golden crust, then folding it over and sipping carefully from a series of white paper cups that he refilled with water.

“The crust was very chewy so my technique was to try to drink as much water as possible to soften up the crust in my mouth,” Kobayashi said through his translator.

No dunking was allowed, and containers of marinara sauce accompanying each P’zone were tossed aside by both chowhounds.

A small crowd gathered a few feet from the elevated food fest cheered the men on, with Chestnut’s highway patrolman brother yelling inches from his face to eat faster.

Chestnut couldn’t keep up with his 31-year-old rival from Tokyo.

At the six-minute mark, Kobayashi raised his arms in triumph and lifted his red jersey to show off a set of washboard abs.

“It was tough. Kobayashi came to win,” Chestnut said. “I was raised on pizza so it was natural for me to eat it, but I was a little slow to get going and he came out fast.”

The thought of a Japanese outeating an American in a pizza contest wasn’t lost on Kobayashi, who is recovering from TMJ, a painful jaw disorder.

“I love pizza,” he said. “When I come to America, pizza is my happiness. I look forward to eating it.”

Chestnut said he wasn’t used to eating pizza that quickly.

“It’s doughy,” he said. “It takes a lot of chewing. He got off to a really good technique early on, his rhythm was drinking water and swallowing. I changed mine a couple times and never got in the right rhythm.”

Kobayashi ended a three-event losing streak to Chestnut, a 25-year-old whose weekday job is in construction management.

“I wanted to prove that I’m champion,” Kobayashi said. “A champion will stand up to any battle.”

He said he would go for another Fourth of July hot dog championship and then probably retire. Chestnut will be ready and waiting on Coney Island.

“I’ll see him in five weeks and I’m going to push him really hard there,” he vowed.

Portions of the pizza event will air on the Spike TV “Guys’ Choice” show on June 21.

B.S. Report–Kobayashi looks like an athlete…how can he eat so much and stay in such good shape?  He must be a ticking time bomb on the inside.  He says that he’ll retire after the next hot dog championship.  He’s 31 years old and he’s been a “competitive” eater for many years now–shouldn’t his massive heart attack be right around the corner?

I don’t wish the guy ill health–but it does seem kind of unfair that the rest of us are trying to watch what we eat while this guy stays in shape eating the equivalent of a medium-size village.

Charity Poker Game Raided By Police – Seized $500 that was to feed the poor

BUXTON, Maine — Buxton police raided a building where people were trying to raise money to give free food to the needy.  It happened at the Narragansett Pythian Sisters Temple on Route 22 where people were playing the card game Texas Hold’em to benefit the Buxton Community Food Co-op.

"Freeze! This is a raid!"

But state police said the game was illegal. That’s because whenever a gambling tournament is held to raise money for a group and takes place at its headquarters, a permit is needed and the co-op didn’t have one.  So, state police seized cards, poker chips and $500 in cash — money the food co-op desperately needed. A member of the co-op, Joann Groder, said she is very, very sad about what happened.”We’ve had a lot of people who come here — people who are out of work, people who have cancer. We have a lot of people,” said Groder.

"Great, you don't get a permit so I don't get to eat."

But state police are standing by what was done.”In this particular case they weren’t licensed, and they knew they weren’t and they knew they needed one,” said Lt. David Bowler of the Maine State Police. The money from the co-op’s card game is currently being held as evidence while the investigation continues.

Groder now plans to hold a pot roast dinner to raise money for the co-op.

B.S. Report–Uh oh, they’re in for more trouble–in President Obama’s over-regulated America you now need a permit to hold a pot roast dinner…

"Hey, open up, we know you have a pot roast in there--we can smell it! You need to show us your pot roast permit...

Newspaper Mistakenly Runs Ad Calling for Obama Assassination

AP: WARREN, Pa. —  A small-town newspaper is apologizing for running a classified advertisement calling for the assassination of President Barack Obama.

Warren Times Observer Publisher John Elchert says the ad appeared Thursday. It read, “May Obama follow in the steps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy!” The four presidents were all assassinated.

Elchert tells The Associated Press that the newspaper’s advertising staff didn’t make the historical connection.

He says the northwestern Pennsylvania newspaper turned information over to police and that the Secret Service is investigating the person who placed the ad.

A note in Friday’s paper says the newspaper “apologizes for the oversight.”

B.S. Report–All this proves is the inadequacy of our public school system.  The newspapers advertising staff “didn’t make the historical connection.”  I realize that the advertising staff on most newspapers isn’t populated by “geniuses,” but they weren’t able to figure out the suspicious nature of that ad.  We’re in more trouble than I thought.

You really don't have to be Einstein to figure out what that ad meant...

Man Convicted Of Trying To Sell 5-Year-Old Girl To Child Pornographers

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A federal jury in Texas has convicted a San Antonio man of trying to sell his girlfriend’s 5-year-old daughter to child pornographers in exchange for a used car and an apartment.

Forty-year-old Sean Michael Block could be sentenced to up to 30 years in prison following Friday’s verdict.

B.S.–And even 30 years would be a lenient sentence…

The San Antonio Express-News reports that girlfriend Jennifer Richards testified Block threatened her into complying with his plan to sell her daughter. The defense contended Block’s was engaging in a sting operation aimed at the 25-year-old waitress.

The girlfriend previously pleaded guilty to similar charges in return for a 20-year federal prison sentence. Investigators say the couple were in contact with a purported buyer who turned out to be an FBI informant.

B.S. Report–Here in the U.S. we don’t “own” our children.  Therefore, they are not transferable property that we can sell…

Woman dragged and killed by her own car

1995 Buick Regal...Soon to go on trial for murder...

A 56-year-old woman was run over and dragged several feet by her own car on Wednesday after she crawled underneath it to inspect the engine.

Santa Monica Police officers responded to a call of a pedestrian trapped under a vehicle at the intersection of 11th and Pearl streets around noon. When officers arrived, they found the woman and provided assistance.

Santa Monica firefighters arrived and rendered aid. She was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead, police said.

A preliminary investigation revealed that the driver was having mechanical problems with the vehicle’s starter. She crawled under the front of the car and started it by touching the starter solenoid with a screwdriver. The vehicle, which was left in drive with the emergency brake off, rolled forward and onto the woman.

She was dragged a short distance and run over by the right front wheel. Officers said the car was a 1995 Buick Regal.

Your Money – Lawmakers Bill Taxpayers For TVs, Cameras, Lexus

WASHINGTON — Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings spent $24,730 in taxpayer money last year to lease a 2008 luxury Lexus hybrid sedan. Ohio Rep. Michael Turner expensed a $1,435 digital camera. Eni Faleomavaega, the House delegate from American Samoa, bought two 46-inch Sony TVs.

The expenditures were legal, properly accounted for and drawn from allowances the U.S. government grants to lawmakers. Equipment purchased with office expense accounts must be returned to the House or the federal General Services Administration when a lawmaker leaves office.

But as British politicians come under widening scorn for spending public money on everything from candy bars to moat-dredging, an examination of U.S. lawmakers’ expense claims shows Washington’s elected officials have also used public funds for eye-catching purchases.

U.S. politicians, unlike their counterparts in Great Britain, can’t bill taxpayers for personal living expenses. The U.S. Treasury gives them an allowance to cover “official and representational expenses,” according to congressional rules, and the lawmakers enjoy a fair amount of discretion in how they use the funds.

No one spends other people's money as wisely as they spend their own.

The Senate and House release volumes of the reimbursement requests for these allowances, but do not make them available electronically. A Wall Street Journal review of thousands of pages of these records for 2008 expenses showed most lawmaker spending flowed to areas such as staff salaries, travel, office rent and supplies, and printing and mailing.

But it also turned up spending on an array of products, from the car leases and electronics to a high-end laptop computer and $22 cell phone holder. Rep. Howard Berman expensed $84,000 worth of personalized calendars, printed by the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, for his constituents. A spokeswoman for Mr. Berman, a California Democrat, didn’t return requests for comment.

The records show that some lawmakers spent heavily in the final months of the year to draw down allowances before the end of December — a time when U.S. households were paring their budgets and lawmakers were criticizing Detroit auto executives for taking private aircraft to Washington to plead their case for taxpayer funding.

Rep. Hastings, a Democrat, and Rep. Turner, a Republican, made their purchases in the third quarter. Rep. Faleomavaega, a Democrat, bought the TVs for $1,473 apiece in mid-November. Spokespeople for the three didn’t return requests for comment.

B.S. Report–Some of the political rules regarding the expenses and perks of politicians should be revised and evaluated.  It doesn’t seem proper that taxpayers should be charged for the gifts given by a politician to his constituents.

Today’s Birthday Biography: Clint Eastwood

From Wikipedia

Clinton “Clint” Eastwood, Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor, film director, film producer and composer. He has received five Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and five People’s Choice Awards—including one for Favorite All-Time Motion Picture Star.

Eastwood is primarily known for his tough guy, anti-hero acting roles in violent action films, particularly in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Following his role on the long-running television series Rawhide, he was cast as the Man with No Name in the Dollars trilogy of spaghetti westerns and as Inspector Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry police dramas, which have made him an enduring icon of masculinity. Eastwood was also known for his comedic efforts in Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980), two of his highest-grossing films without adjustment for inflation.

For his work in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director, producer of the Best Picture, and received nominations for Best Actor. These films in particular, as well as others such as Paint Your Wagon (1969), Play Misty for Me (1971), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Gran Torino (2008) have all received great critical acclaim and commercial success. He has directed many of his films, and has also found success in others in which he has not acted such as Mystic River (2003).

He also has an interest in politics, serving as Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, from 1986 to 1988. He is the only person to have starred in blockbuster films as a leading man for five consecutive decades, making him the longest-running movie star in film history.

Eastwood was born in San Francisco, California, to Clinton Eastwood, Sr., a steelworker and migrant worker, and Margaret Ruth Eastwood (née Runner), a factory worker. Clint was born a very large baby at 11 pounds (5 kgs).Eastwood has English, Scottish, Dutch, and Irish ancestry. He was raised in a “middle class Protestant home” and moved often as his father worked at a variety of jobs along the West Coast. The family settled in Piedmont, California, during Eastwood’s teens, and he graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1949. He worked at a pulp mill in Springfield, Oregon when he was 18 or 19.

Eastwood then worked as a gas station attendant, as a fireman, and played ragtime piano at a bar in Oakland. In 1950, during the Korean War, Eastwood was drafted into the U.S. Army, and was aboard a military flight that crashed into the Pacific Ocean north of San Francisco (Drake’s Bay). He escaped serious injury, but had to remain behind to testify at a hearing investigating the cause of the crash. This kept him from being shipped to Korea with the rest of his unit. During his military service, Eastwood became friends with fellow soldiers and future actors Martin Milner and David Janssen.  (Read more.)

Today’s Birthdays: May 31st

From Those Were The Days (In Part)

1819 – Walt Whitman
poet: Leaves of Grass, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d, Passage to India, O Captain! My Captain!; died Mar 26, 1892

1857 – Pope Pius XI (Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti)
259th pope of the Roman Catholic Church [1922-1939]; died Feb 10, 1939

1894 – Fred Allen (John Florence Sullivan)
comedian: radio star: Allen’s Alley, The Fred Allen Show, The Linit Bath Club Revue; died Mar 17, 1956

1898 – Dr. Norman Vincent Peale
clergyman: radio ministry; author and syndicated newspaper column: The Power of Positive Thinking; died Dec 24, 1993

1908 – Don Ameche (Dominic Felix Amici)
Academy Award-winning actor: Cocoon [1985]; Trading Places, Corinna Corinna; inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame [1992]; died Dec 6, 1993

1912 – Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson
U.S. Senator from Washington; died Sep 1, 1983

1920 – Edward Bennett Williams
attorney; owner: Baltimore Orioles; died Aug 13, 1988

1922 – Denholm Elliott
actor: A Room with a View, The Bourne Identity, The Boys from Brazil, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Voyage of the Damned, Trading Places, Scorchers; died Oct 6, 1992

1923 – Ellsworth Kelly
American hard-edge [Abstract Geometric] painter: Seine, Green Red Yellow Blue, Blue Yellow Red III, Orange Red Relief

1923 – Prince Rainer III
head of state: Monaco; married American film star, Grace Kelly; died Apr 6, 2005

1930 – Clint Eastwood
actor: see Make My Day Day

1933 – Shirley Verrett
opera singer: soprano: New York Met

1935 – Ronald Laird
National Track & Field Hall of Famer: race walker: Pan-American Games gold medalist [1967]

1938 – Peter Yarrow
singer: group: Peter, Paul and Mary: Leaving on a Jet Plane, Puff the Magic Dragon, If I Had a Hammer, Blowin’ in the Wind, I Dig Rock ’n’ Roll Music; songwriter: Torn Between Two Lovers

1939 – Terry Waite
envoy; hostage: Lebanon [1987-1991]

1940 – Augie Meyers
musician: keyboards: groups: Sir Douglas Quintet: She’s About a Mover; Texas Tornados: It was Fun While It Lasted; operates his studio north of San Antonio TX

1941 – Johnny Paycheck (Donald Eugene Lytle)
country singer: Take This Job and Shove It, The Lovin’ Machine, [Don’t Take Her] She’s All I Got, Someone to Give My Love To, Mr. Lovemaker, Song and Dance Man, For a Minute There, Slide Off Your Satin Sheets, Friend, Lover, Wife, Heartbreak Tennessee, Motel Time Again, Jukebox Charlie, The Cave; songwriter: Apartment No. 9, Touch My Heart; died Feb 18, 2003

1942 – ‘Happy’ (Harold) Hairston
basketball: Sacramento Kings, LA Lakers; died May 1, 2001

1943 – Sharon Gless
Emmy Award-winning actress: Cagney & Lacey [1985-1986, 1986-1987]; Revenge of the Stepford Wives, Tales of the Unexpected

1943 – Joe Namath
‘Broadway Joe’: Pro Football Hall of Famer: quarterback: New York Jets: AFL’s Rookie of the Year [1965], Player of the Year [1968], Super Bowl III MVP; pantyhose and ointment spokesperson

1945 – Rainer Werner Fassbinder
director: Chinese Roulette, Querelle, Veronika Voss, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Beware of a Holy Whore; died June 10, 1982

1948 – John ‘Bonzo’ Bonham
musician: drums: group: Led Zeppelin: Whole Lotta Love, Stairway to Heaven, Immigrant Song; died Sep 25, 1980

1949 – Tom Berenger (Thomas Michael Moore)
actor: One Life to Live, If Tomorrow Comes, Platoon, Sliver, The Big Chill, Eddie and the Cruisers, Gettysburg, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, A Murder of Crows, In the Company of Spies, Turbulence II: Fear of Flying

1950 – Gregory Harrison
actor: Logan’s Run, Trapper John, M.D., Family Man, Cadillac Girls, Caught in the Act

1961 – Lea Thompson
actress: The Right to Remain Silent, Dennis the Menace, The Beverly Hillbillies, Howard the Duck, Back to the Future series, Jaws 3, All the Right Moves, Caroline in the City

1965 – Brooke Shields
model: Ivory Snow baby; actress: The Blue Lagoon, Pretty Baby, Brenda Starr, The Seventh Floor, Backstreet Dreams, Stalking Laura, Suddenly Susan

1967 – Kenny Lofton
baseball: Houston Astros [AL rookie-season record: most stolen bases [66: 1992], Atlanta Braves, Cleveland Indians [record: most stolen bases]

NBA Finals Set: Orlando Knocks Out Lebron And Sets Their Sights On Kobe And The Lakers

Orlando Re-writes Script; Kobe-Lebron becomes Kobe-Dwight

There will be no Kobe-LeBron showdown in the NBA finals — and that could make things tougher for the Lakers.

Dwight Howard crashes Kobe-Lebron party...

Instead, Los Angeles will face Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic, who swept the Western Conference champions during the regular season.

The Lakers will try to prove that means nothing when the finals begin Thursday on their home floor against Orlando, which upset Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals.

The Cavaliers had the NBA’s best record, but lost both meetings with the Lakers. Had Cleveland made the finals, it would have set up a highly anticipated duel between Bryant and James, the last two NBA MVPs.

The Magic ruined that script, just as they wrecked Boston’s hopes of a repeat by ousting the defending champions in the second round. Now they look to deny Phil Jackson his 10th coaching title, which would move him past Red Auerbach for most all-time.

“To get to the finals is most definitely deserving for this team, but we feel like we still have work to go out there and do, and try to go out there and win it all,” Orlando forward Rashard Lewis said. “Getting to the finals is not enough for us.”

Can Kobe finally prove that he can win it all without Shaq?

Orlando finished off Cleveland 103-90 on Saturday behind 40 points from Howard and is in the finals for only the second time. The Magic can become the first first-time champion since another Florida team, the Miami Heat, won the 2006 title.

The Lakers clinched their 30th finals appearance, most in NBA history, by beating the Denver Nuggets 119-92 on Friday to win that series in six games. They remained stuck on 15 championships, second behind Boston, when the Celtics beat them last year in six games.

Los Angeles is in much better shape this year. Center Andrew Bynum is healthy after missing the 2008 postseason with a knee injury, and Trevor Ariza — a former Magic player — has become a key starter after missing most of last year’s playoffs with a foot injury.

It didn’t matter who the Lakers had against the Magic this season. Orlando won 106-103 at home in December despite 41 points from Bryant, then pulled out a 109-103 victory in Los Angeles about a month later behind 25 points and 20 rebounds from Howard.

Still, Jackson said he didn’t care which team the Lakers faced.

“The only thing that makes a difference is if it’s Orlando, we make one road trip in this setup,” Jackson said after Friday’s victory.

The Magic made 12 3-pointers in each game, a weapon they relied heavily on in their elimination of the Cavaliers. Los Angeles should be better equipped to deal with the matchup problems that Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu created against Cleveland by inserting Lamar Odom, who had strong performances in the final two games of the West finals after struggling through most of the series.

Looming over the series is the large shadow of Shaquille O’Neal, who led both teams to the finals. He took Orlando there in 1995, then left for Los Angeles the following year and the Magic struggled for years after.

He teamed with Bryant to lead the Lakers to three straight titles from 2000-02, but the Lakers haven’t won another since they traded him in the summer of 2004.

Game 2 will also be at Staples Center before the series shifts to Central Florida for Games 3 and 4, and if necessary, Game 5.

King's coronation still at least a year away...

Two vacationing San Jose cops subdue violent airline passenger

San Jose Police Department's Officer Manny Vasquez outside of the police department in San Jose, Calif. on Thursday, May 28, 2009.

From the San Jose Mercury News

At 40,000 feet over the Pacific, the only thing vacationing San Jose police officers Luan Nguyen and Manny Vasquez wanted was to catch some Z’s, maybe see an action movie and finally hear the announcement: “Welcome to San Francisco International Airport.”

What they heard instead was the captain: “I have a situation on board. If there are any law enforcement officers on board, please identify yourselves to a flight attendant.”

Imagining pipe bombs, Vasquez nudged his drowsy sergeant. Nguyen had popped an Ambien and thought he was dreaming what he had just heard.

“Sarge,” Vasquez said. “It’s time to go to work.”

The unarmed officers were soon battling a violent and possibly mentally ill man and holding him down for hours using seat belts, coffee cart straps and Vasquez’s black cowhide belt he got for a birthday.

“I equate it to a doctor being on board and having a passenger having a heart attack,” Vasquez, 46, said. “We don’t have a Taser. We don’t have restraints. We don’t have vests. We don’t have radios. What we are left with is what we started out with back in the day.”

The officers on Thursday described their harrowing, high-altitude bust during a May 17 EVA Air flight somewhere between Taipei and San Francisco.

"Thank you for flying the peaceful skies of EVA airlines." ...Actually, the company motto for EVA airlines is... "your home in the air."

Nguyen and Vasquez, veteran street partners in the Foothill district on the city’s East Side, were vacationing in Vietnam for two weeks. Nguyen, 44, was born there and still had some family in the country. Vasquez had a brother who had served in the country during the war.  They both figured it would be a fun way to get some exotic R&R away from the daily stress of being a street cop. They upgraded to Deluxe class and were ready for a long flight home.

Woman attacked

Hours later, they went up to the cockpit as the captain apprised them that a male passenger had attacked a sleeping woman, choking her until other passengers managed to wrestle her to safety. There were no air marshals or any other security officers on board. So attendants had cleared the last rows of 30 passengers. He was back there, alone.

What else is back there, the officers asked.

The kitchen, the captain said. Knives, both officers thought at the same time.

And two exits, the captain added.  (Read more.)

B.S. Report–One of life’s most difficult and often thankless jobs: a cop.  Overworked and underpaid…and definitely under-appreciated.  This also illustrates another reason why pilots should be allowed to carry a firearm.