DAILY DIRT: 141 hard-boiled eggs in 8 minutes?

Pass the Pepto, please … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 830 of The Daily Dirt.

1. First of all, speed eating is dangerous.

That aside, I think we’re all attracted to the accomplishments of such legendary consumers of food like Joey Chestnut, Eric “Badlands” Booker, Richard “The Locust” LeFevre, Carmen “Crazy Legs” Conti, Erik “The Red” Denmark and Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas.

Major League Eating (MLE) — yes, that’s a real thing — is only in the public’s eye each July 4 when the famous hot-dog eating contest is televised by ESPN from Coney Island, N.Y., but the MLE is a living, breathing thing year round at outposts all across the country. There are 70 major MLE-sponsored events during each calendar year.

Here is a sampling (no pun intended) of some of the most interesting MLE records at the moment:

• 7 quarter-pound sticks of salted butter in 5 minutes, Don Lerman.
• 2.438 gallons of chili in 6 minutes, Carmen “Crazy Legs” Conti.
• 76 Nathan’s hot dogs (and buns) in 10 minutes, Joey Chestnut.
• 4 bowls (32 ounces each) of mayonnaise in 8 minutes, Oleg Zhornitskiy.
• 11 pounds of cheesecake in 9 minutes, Sonia “The Black Widow” Thomas.
• 10 pounds of baked beans in 1 minute, 45 seconds, Gideon Oji.
• 141 hard-boiled eggs in 8 minutes, Joey Chesnut.
• 17.7 pounds of cow brains in 10 minutes, Takeru Kobayashi.
• 4 pounds of corned beef hash in 1 minute, 58 seconds by Eric “Badlands” Booker. (The 54-year-old Booker is also a rapper. One of his releases is “Hungry and Focused.”)
• 257 Hostess Donettes in 10 minutes, Joey Chestnut.

2. The Great Plate Debate of 2024 is now under way.

We wrapped up 2023 a week ago, declaring BE A BETH the best license plate found in West-Central Illinois and Northeast Missouri. BE A BETH held the No. 1 position for the final 26 weeks of 2023.

But it’s now a new year … and we have new rankings:

Gold medal: 2 FARR.

Silver medal: NUFSED 9

Bronze medal: BE HAP E 2

Other top sightings this week:

• BASIC
• 3 UNLOC
• TIL 68
• TAXLDY 1
• KBEAR 6
• MY JUDY 1

Special note: The plates POOL and POOL 22 were spotted in the same parking lot (but not close to one another).

3. As promised yesterday, here’s the answer to the question about which pop song contained the phrase “cerebral fitness.”

It was Murray Head’s classic, “One Night in Bankok,” which peaked at No. 3 in the U.S. in early 1985. The release topped the charts in many countries, including South Africa, The Netherlands, West Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Australia.

Here’s when it appears in the song:

“Siam’s gonna be the witness,
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness.”

“One Night in Bangkok” was ultimately featured in the musical “Chess.”

Steve Thought O’ The Day — Interestingly, Murray Head is ranked as the No. 4 “most famous Murray” by ranker.com. He trails Murray Gershenz, Murray Rose and Murray Kempton. (Yeah, I never heard of them either.)

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. No love for Murray Bannerman or Murray Baron? Must not be hockey fans.