Hot Dog Eating Contest.

hot dog bun-eating contest between three circus elephants and three competitive eaters. At the end of the six minutes, Juliet Lee, Gravy Brown and Eric (Badlands) Booker collectively downed 143 buns - peanuts compared with the 505 buns scarfed up by elephants Bunny, Susie and Minnie. "Our girls train every day. They eat 150 to 200 pounds of food a day. I knew they'd do fine," said Jason Gibson, circus production manager. Although the larger-than-life ladies - who are in town for the Ringling Brothers' Boom A Ring circus this summer - cheated by starting a few seconds early, the humans didn't stand a chance.

"This was a great challenge for our species," said Major League Eating Chairman George Shea. "I expected that the humans would beat them." Bread crumbs flew as the elephants scooped up a half-dozen buns with each swift swoop of the trunk. Bread crumbs flew as the elephants scooped up a half-dozen buns with each swift swoop of the trunk. "I can't compete with that," said Booker, 39, an MTA train conductor by day. "If I had an elephant's trunk, I could also eat a dozen buns at one time." The contest was good practice for Nathan's annual hot dog eating contest today. Still, the contest may throw a monkey's wrench into Brown's main event today. "I usually have to fast for 24 hours before the competition," he said, "but eating against elephants is something I couldn't pass up."

It is a fact that Fourth of July is all about traditions. It includes traditions like Fireworks show, Barbecues, Picnics, Parades, Carnivals, Concerts, Baseball games and even a Twilight Zone marathon. But there is another tradition which stands above all for 10 minutes. It is the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest. For all the ten minutes of the contest, we can have 10,000 moments of fun and laughter. We might say that it is much easier to outrun Usain Bolt in the 100 meters or to climb K2, if we compare it risking our stomach or body. It is the toughest tradition we can among the other we celebrate on Fourth of July.