"It is possible to die from eating. But I think to be professional means you don't die." (Takeru Kobayashi)

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

WHO IS THIS MAN/WOMAN/MACHINE THEY CALL OJ RIFKIN?

Sometimes I think OJRifkin, the mysterious and unidentified entity behind the competitive eating news blog Eat Feats is the most powerful person in the entire competitive eating community.

For those not in the know, Eat Feats is pretty much the hub of all CE news on the internet and is where many competitive eaters and fans gather to bicker, slander, question and congratulate each other, often using aliases to disguise their true identities when leaving particularly critical comments and feedback. I'm guilty as charged, but proud to admit that I put my real (nick)name on 9 out of 10 of my comments.

What makes OJ so powerful? Not only does he/she/it decide what news we consume on a daily basis (I actually visit the site two, sometimes three times a day while at work), but by cross checking the IP address and other geographic and unique computer signatures, OJ is also the only person who knows the true identity of each and every "anonymous" commenter. At least if that commenter also weighs in from time to time under their real name. That's power. And what scares the fuck out of me is not knowing the true identity of who holds this power. Is is someone at the IFOCE? Is George Shea sitting a dark, smokey office reading my scathing IFOCE critique and thinking, "Your IFOCE days are over Mega Munch! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Actually, probably not. I'm pretty sure OJRifkin isn't someone at the IFOCE (way too much AICE coverage on Eat Feats). So who is OJRifkin? Let's assemble some clues and try to find out, shall we? I'll get us started:

CLUE: Before mid-2006, Eat Feats was known as "Trencher Women", a website dedicated to great feats of eating by women (the content eventually expanded to include all competitive eating news and thus the name change). But my point is, would a man create a web site dedicated to female eating habits? I think not. Therefore OJ could very well be a woman!

10 Comments:

Blogger gerberdaisy said...

For some reason, i have a weird gut feeling its Janus of Conti. Call me crazy but I think the Helen thing was a little too, "muh,haaaaaa" (pinky finger at my lip).

7:07 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

there's more to come here. I've had something brewing.....

10:24 PM

 
Blogger Dave S. said...

Yeah, I don't intend to unmask OJ with this post (although if that happens, so be it). I know a lot of people, myself included, like the fact that OJ's identity is a mystery. We'll see what happens.

Janus or Conti...good theories. The preoccupation with Japanese competitive eating is a clue that it could be Conti. And he works/worked at a strip club, which might explain his soft spot for female eaters.

Hmmm...

7:49 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Omg, are we starting this again? I have good reasons to believe it's not Conti, though recently there have been other arguments made that are...interesting to me. I am as convinced that OJ is a male as I am that Rhonda is a male. That is to say, 100%.

Is "Janus of Conti" the face that munched a thousand hot dogs?

11:23 AM

 
Blogger Dave S. said...

lol...no, you're thinking of "Helen (Haggerty) of Janus"

By the way, I think Rhonda Evans is OJ Rifkin. Not sure why...I just refuse to belive that OJ could put all that effort into Eat Feats and not want to chime in from time to time (aside from when OJ gets involved to settle disputes about BB's IP Address).

2:11 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Believe it or not i should be held personally responsible for bringing trencherwomen to shore . I feel like Larry Hagman on "I Dream of Jeannie" . OJ might feel his way of showing gratitude is keeping some of my alias's under cover. One day in the summer of 2005 i was surfing the web for competitive eating sites and buried on page 40 or so was trencherwomen.(no shit) . I wrote a few sentences in bits and pieces hyping it. I never dreamed it would take off the way it. My site was no longer the only game in town. Doubt its the Shea's . Small hint which i never revealed . OJ Rifkin appeared as a subscriber to a music or trivia site called Indy news. The blog was from 2002 and he or she listed their location as Indianapolis Indiana . I strongly believe OJ is of african american descent and i do agree that OJ is Rhonda Evans although Rhonda Evans and Rona Conti appear to speak the same language. Doubt its crazy legs because all he owns is a typewriter(so he says)

1:37 PM

 
Blogger Dave S. said...

Very interesting Brian. From those clues, you're suggesting that OJ could be someone completely independent from the usual clique (are any ranked eaters from Indy?).

That's who I hope OJ is. Just some random fan. Not even an eater. Someone no one knows. Someone any one of us could have walked past at a contest and not even known it.

But deep down I think OJ is someone we all know. That's the only reason I can think of for why he/she is remaining anonymous.

7:25 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The more you think about it you cant help but equate the Shea's with OJ only due to he/she has this vast knowledge of competitive eating . Then again OJ might be somewhat older because OJ appears to be an historian and does seem to take an interest in giving my 60's 70's videos a mention .When Oswald murdered kennedy it was fixated in our heads that he was the gunman and that all this conspiracy shit never held court. Same with OJ just being a plain old outsider eating fan and all these other theories just cant wash. On the other hand this is just one great big crossword puzzle that will be solved sooner or later. On a side note there are ways of concealing your IP address or so that when he checks it out it will change location and address (numbers) . Now you can let it all hang out!

8:13 PM

 
Blogger Dave S. said...

Hmmm...do you think the abundance of AICE related news rules out the Shea's involvement? Who knows. Do share those IP concealing tips though! Hit me at my email addy.

8:40 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

One of life's great mysteries. There are two ways of looking at the AICE info. One, it is a perfect cover for the Shea's. Or two, there is no way they Shea's would hype AICE (this seems like the more likely to me). However, a wise man once told me that there could be 25 eating organizations and still have plenty of restaurants available to pick from.

7:43 PM

 

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