Oases of Swallowing and Shopping

Why do I have to learn about this from ferriners, I ask?

1) If not your home for competetive eating stories, I'd like at least to be considered an oasis. So, here's a comprehensive book on the subject by Jason Fagone, Insatiable, as it was called in the UK and reviewed here by the Telegraph. I believe in this country, the name is the catchier Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream. In looking up Fagone's book, I was shocked to discover Ryan Nerz's book, also of earlier this year, entitled Eat This Book. If some publisher/publicist/author were crafty, I'd be contacted to receive copies for review and discussion, as a simple Technorati search of the last couple years will show I'm no gurgitator-come-lately.

2) If you thought increased salmon and reindeer populations were the only pluses of global warming near the arctic, the purest beer in the world is now made from melting glaciers.

3) Via apostropher: If you take a drunken competitive eating bet, make sure it's for food. Neither knife, nails, or clothespins apply. See link for full story and bonus x-ray.

4) The WaPo covers Filene's annual Running of the Brides, a no-holds-barred frenzy of grabbing swapping, and stripping. But the participants seemed elated. Are they any more or less insane than El Wingador, the chicken wing champ?