July Fourth: A Bad Day for Hot Dogs

Every Fourth of July, just before the fireworks and after the flag-waving has begun, America turns its attention to a spectacle that has all the ingredients of a national ritual: the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island. There is a boardwalk, a crowd, a television broadcast, a countdown clock, sweating competitors, and the strange grandeur of watching a human being try to defeat the limits of the human body with emulsified meat and wet buns.