sometimes when i am at a loss for words i am still able to make a graph

Update, short while later: I was sitting here in CGIS South writing with Sara when we were sidetracked by the distraction of websurfing the world of competitive eating. (Ralph Nader, btw, once included competitive eating along with corporate greed and political corruption as signs of societal decay--and he listed competitive eating first.) Sara is now buying me a T-Shirt for the International Confederation of Competitive Eating, I think because she thinks the slogan is particularly me: "Nothing in moderation." She asked me what size and I said to order a Large, so that if I got really fat I wouldn't be able to wear it.

Update, later: If you look at the graph up to 2001, you'd think we had basically reached the limit of human achievement where hot dog eating goes, but then Kobyashi comes along with his break-the-wiener-in-half-and-dunk-the-bun-in-water technique and we are off toward feats no one ever would have imagined possible. The guy who did 66 hot dogs today did 6 in the final minute, meaning he actually finished at a faster pace than he started.