The Egg King
Musician/author Dan Bern has posted a new short-short on his MySpace blog about intense training for an egg-eating contest.
An excerpt:
Still. Perhaps there is a natural human response, so far unknown to me, that kicks in when you are absolutely stuffing yourself. Maybe 10,000 years ago you found food sporadically, and when you did, you had to eat like you might not eat for another three weeks. Maybe gorging yourself is as much a survival skill as running fast, or throwing a spear. Maybe in the early part of the 21st century, competitive eating rightfully joins the more traditional track and field events as a test of spirit and survival. Maybe some of that is still lurking in my genetic core.
Click here to check out the whole thing.
It turns out that the Fiesta Hard-boiled Egg-Eating Contest is very much a real thing. Did Dan Bern really participate? Is his tome true? We may never know, but the reading is well worth it.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I think it’s obvious that overeating was once a skill. A more important skill, though, was being able to situate yourself in conditions where overeating was a possibility.
I think this lines up with how conceptions of physical beauty have shifted over the millennia, from fat to chubby to heroine chic.
It all has to do with what’s hard to achieve, and therefore must demonstrate some kind of skill or ability. What will cause the next shift? How much skinnier and breastier can women get before it gets boring? Is fat coming back?
I don’t pretend to know, but I do know I’ll be making a fucking bitching omelette in the morning.
May 7th, 2008 at 8:19 am
[...] Musician Dan Bern trains for and wins a hard boiled egg eating contest (he thinks that the female who ate 65 eggs is 8 years old) (via Ugly Dude Food) [...]