Daily Dirt: 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes? 141 hard-boiled eggs in 8 minutes? 84 ounces of baked beans in 58 seconds?

Let’s eat! Well, maybe not as much as these record setters. Welcome to Vol. 219 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Some kids grow up idolizing the likes of sports heroes like Hank Aaron, Aaron Rodgers, Bobby Orr or Kobe Bryant.

Me? These were the kind of folks I idolized as a “growing” youth:

Joey Chestnut: He’s long been known for his hot dog eating exploits, but did you also know he holds about 30 eating records for such items as:– 141 hard-boiled eggs in 8 minutes.– 55 glazed doughnuts in 8 minutes.– 45 pulled-pork sandwiches in 10 minutes.– 53 soft beef tacos in 10 minutes.– 7.61 pounds of chicken wings in 12 minutes. And as far as hot dogs are concerned, he ate 76 in 10 minutes last summer, a record that still stands.– 23 6-ounce meat pies in 10 minutes.– 20 8-0ounce corned beef sandwiches in 10 minutes.– 390 shrimp wontons in 8 minutes.– 30 8-ounce gyros in 10 minutes.– 5.9 pounds of funnel cakes in 10 minutes.– 81 4-ounce mutton sandwiches in 10 minutes.– 121 Twinkies in 6 minutes.– 47 grilled-cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes.– 25.5 ice-cream sandwiches in 6 minutes.– 81 waffles in 8 minutes.– 257 Hostess Donettes in 6 minutes– 10 cups of Ramen noodles in 1 minute, 50 seconds.

Some other hearty eaters I admire include:

• Gideon Oji: 2 pounds of sliced balogna in 52 seconds.
• Patrick Bertoletti: 22-ounce Slurpee in 9 seconds; 72 cupcakes in 6 seconds.
• Bob Shoudt: 36 peanut butter and banana sandwiches in 10 minutes.
• Carmen Cincotti: 22 pounds of strawberry shortcake in 8 minutes.Mike Sudo: 16.5 pints of vanilla ice cream in 6 minutes.
• Geoffrey Esper: 19.25 9-inch pepperoni pizzas in 10 minutes.
• Sonya Thomas: 9-pound cheeseburger in 27 minutes.
• Micah Collins: 84 ounces of baked beans in 58 seconds.
• Eric “Badlands” Booker: 2 pounds of chocolate candy bars in 6 minutes; 4 pounds of corned-beef hash in 1 minute, 58 seconds.
• Takeru Kobayashi: 17.7 pounds of cow brains in 15 minutes.

2. In our continuing pursuit of the best sports names ever, here’s the latest additions to our list:

• Longar Longar: Was a standout center at OKlahoma, but never made it in the NBA.
• Samoa Samoa: He was a quarterback at Washington State in 1979-80.
• Neville Neville: Neville squared was a British League cricketer, but I imagine you already knew that.
• Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje: The Cameroon native had several cups of coffee in the NBA between 2001-04.
• Danger Fourpence: He was an honest-to-goodness Zimbabwean soccer player.
• Miroslav Satan: The former NHL player could have been the arch rival of …
• God Shammgod: … who played college basketball at Providence and in the NBA with the Washington Wizards.
• Yoshie Takashita: He was a Japabese volleyball legend, if for nothing else his name alone.
• UW Fuchs: He’s actually a German soccer legend … much like his name.

3. Here are some birthdays to mark down:

Gilbert Gottfried: One of the most annoying comedians ever will be 67 on Monday.

Ron Howard: “Opie” from Andy Griffith will be 68 on Tuesday.

Justin Bieber: The pop singer will be 28, also on Tuesday.

Daniel Craig: Yet another Tuesday birthday is the James Bond star. He’ll be 54.

Steve Thought O’ The Day — Steve would someday like to try for a world eating record involving Dairy Queen banana splits.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. He has been in training for competitive eating since 1975.