He also scoffs at reports that his recent jaw ailment is some kind of a psych-out maneuver.

"That's not even funny," Mr. Kobayashi said. "I don't even have time to think about that."

Not EVEN funny. I'm not sure how Kobayashi's been treating his bum jaw. Most rehab and sports medicine centers do not have competitive-eating jaw-ailment specialists, but maybe he went to see Ron Jeremy. I've seen that guy successfully loosen up the jaws of hundred and hundreds of people.

Life as an underdog: Champion eater plans to compete here despite jaw ailment [Times Free Press]

In an entry on his blog entitled "Occupational hazard," Kobayashi said: "My jaw refused to fight any more." The injury occurred only a week after the slender 29-year-old started training to win his seventh straight title at the annual July 4 Nathan's Famous hot dog eating event on New York's Coney Island.

"I feel ashamed that I couldn't notice the alarm bells set off by my own body," he said. "But with the goal to win another title with a new record, I couldn't stop my training so close to the competition."

We suspect he's hearing the Joey Chestnut footsteps a little bit, or at least the gnashing of his teeth and the rumbling of stomach acid. We had initially planned on attending the contest this year; this just became considerably less likely. To quote Alvy Singer, "I think I'm starting to get some feeling back in my jaw."

Well, My July 4 Is Now Ruined [Gheorghe: The Blog]

(UPDATE: There's a chance he'll make it after all!