While watching CNN over the Independence Day holiday weekend, I noticed that they kept repeating various stories about the annual July 4th hot dog eating contest on Coney Island.
And, in researching the event, I learned that ESPN televised it live as a sporting event, complete with a cheering crowd of spectators.
The contestants were treated like athletes, even though stuffing dozens of sausages and buns down your throat is hardly something I think of as an athletic skill. To me it looks like gluttony. And it looks wasteful and ill-conceived.
After all, today some 17 million American children -- more than one in five across the U.S. -- lack food security. To them, eating a hot dog isn't a sport, it is a rare treat. In fact, it's a rare treat when they can eat at all.
Think of how many poor children you could feed with the 54 hot dogs that Joey Chestnut inhaled to win this year's contest championship.
And wouldn't donating all those hot dogs to hungry children be a far better PR move for the Nathan's hot dog company that holds the event each year?
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