Before you get excited about a new Morty Fineman film, let me clarify: Zach's Shack, the beloved and timeless hot dog restaurant on SE Hawthorne, is holding its annual Hot Dog Eating Contest on Sunday, August 26th, at 4pm. Here are some simple facts to put things in context, and also to make clear how much room for improvement there is this year:

Zach.
  • zachsshack.com
  • Zach, a main dude of hot dogs in this town.

In 2011, Zach's event was won by a man named Zane who consumed fourteen hot dogs in ten minutes.

Also in 2011, Japan's Takeru Kobayashi consumed sixty-nine hot dogs in twelve minutes, competing not in Nathan's famous Coney Island competition, but against it. That's right: Kobayashi didn't just win a hot dog eating contest, he beat a hot dog eating contest. Now that is plucky.

The question is: who will eat fifty-four fewer hot dogs than Kobayashi this year? Or, do us proud and eat fifty-three fewer? Numerically, such a victory seems easy, but perhaps ask the man who nearly won Zach's contest with a total of fifteen hot dogs last year, then lost by barfing out fifteen hot dogs.

The details, and some interesting photos, are at the Zach's Shack site.