Joey Chestnutt does it again.

What would the Fourth be without Nathan's Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest? I love this sport, it doesn't get enough of a tourney season. I think ESPN would behoove itself to show more episodes of Gluttony. I want to see the championship chili eaters, oyster shooters and pie snarfers. So when Independence Day comes, I salute the flag, turn on the TV and get ready to test my gag reflex.

Participating in this competition and viewing it takes a strong constitution. Watching the discomfort of the athletes (yeah, I'll call them that) in their struggle to maintain and to compete requires the fans to have an obscene tolerance to hideous. These are the people rubbernecking up and down the freeways and lingering at the open coffin wakes. These are the people who receive emails from Ripley's and Mdme. Tussuad's museums. I'm one.

In the first ever OT tie breaker in the competition's history, the finalists had ten minutes to consume five hot dogs. It was sudden death. The air was fetid, the pressure (on all levels) huge. The chance of 'Reversal Of Fortune' becoming clearer by the bite. Joey Chestnutt does it again! The winner in sudden death, was jubilant and pretty bloated. Rival Takeru Kobayashi took the defeat amiably but seems to have had is day in the sun.

Happy Fourth, from this spataglutton, to yours. Go eat something.