Once again, hot dogs steal the headlines of America’s newspapers–no, make that the WORLD’s newpapers: Joey Chestnut retained the Mustard Yellow Belt, eating 59 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, plus another 5 more in a sudden death tie-breaker against his nemesis, Takeru “Tsunami” Kobayashi. In the end, Chestnut beat Tsunami by a single dog.
Since BIG MOUTH features this event and just pubbed last month, I’d wanted to be at the contest Read More…
There’s a Mustard Rebellion in my new novel BIG MOUTH: The students of Del Heiny Junior High #13 tag their school with mustard to rebel against the school’s tomato-obsessed sponsor, Del Heiny Ketchup Company. (Hey, if your mascot were changed from the Mighty Marauders to the Proud Plum Tomatoes, you’d have angst, too. At least Del Heiny Jr 13 didn’t get the Big Burpee tomato as a mascot. Life is hard enough without being a Big Burpee.) I invented the Mustard Revolution out of thin air; it was a natural outgrowth of a scenario in which a ketchup company sponsors a school district. But in one of those fantastic “Life Is Stranger Than Fiction” moments, I’ve since learned of a real town that conducts a condiment war of its own: Buñol, Spain, host of the annual La Tomatina, a festival in which tens of thousands of people hurl tomatoes at each other in what has to be the world’s biggest food fight. Read More…
“How many can YOU eat?” In the spirit of the Fourth of July, the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Championship, and the publishing of my teen novel BIG MOUTH, I’m launching a website dedicated to BIG MOUTH and the quirkiest All-American food ever: hot dogs.
www.BigMouthTheBook.com has excerpts from the book, fun facts about competitive eating, hot dogs, ketchup, etc., and a store that ties into the theme of the book. I had a great time researching the food facts and strange eating habits of this country for the website. I hope what I’ve found will put a smile on people’s faces. Some of the stuff really made me laugh. A museum dedicated solely to mustard? A 170-foot tall ketchup bottle? Read More…
With my novel BIG MOUTH debuting in stores, the time has come to launch the “Me and My Big Mouth” behind-the-book blog series. And I figured the most appropriate way to launch this sneak-peek series would be to interrupt it with a commercial break before it even gets started. After all, BIG MOUTH is full of commercial interruptions. Jingles, ads, TV commercials…they’re all in there.
There’s a logic for this commercialization of literature, I swear. Read More…
Look out, Anne Geddes, I am now a photographer . . . of boiled tube meat. Yes, I know, you thought I was a writer. And I am. But my second novel BIG MOUTH is about competitive hot dog eating, and I’m creating a website about it that will go live in a few days, and I needed an image of a hot dog that did not exist. What to do about that? Why, do my own hot dog photo shoot, of course! Read More…
Do you prefer your radio with ketchup or mustard? I suppose it doesn’t matter, actually, as I’ll be serving up both—along with a generous helping of hot dogs and BIG MOUTH anecdotes—on ESPN 1600 AM Radio’s “Live with Lisa on The Daily Flow Show” this coming Saturday morning. (12:00 EST, 10:00 Central, 9:00 PST) The topic will be “Food, Fitness, & the Fourth of July.” How do you like that? A radio show with the very themes that fill BIG MOUTH! And after chatting briefly with the host Lisa today, I can tell it will be a lively and funny few minutes. She’s a hoot.
“Live with Lisa on The Daily Flow” is a radio show for Read More…
Eureka! I’ve just solved one of our biggest challenges for our upcoming 1-year-stay in the UK: procuring enough beds for six people. The “furnished” house we’re renting only comes with one bed, but we don’t want to shell out the dinero for five more. So, we were thinking ‘air mattress’. But which one of the dozens available is light enough to schlep over the Pond, affordable enough to buy four of, durable enough to stay inflated for long periods, easy enough to clean in case of “accidents,” and comfortable enough to sleep on for a whole year? Well, the search is over! I’ve found the perfect air mattress. What do you think?: Read More…
I’m leaving my husband. I called him last night during the intermission of George Michael’s concert to tell him. He wasn’t surprised—I’d always been up front with him about my lust love for George Michael, which started well before I throbbed for the singer from the San Diego Sports Arena’s nosebleed seats during his 1988 Faith Tour. That may have been seventeen years ago, but I vividly remember sighing at the sound of George’s voice, tingling then cheering wildly as the opening notes revealed each new song, and straining the ligaments in my eyes trying to see him shake his moneymaker just for me and the thousands of other Big Hair Eighties Girls screaming alongside me in the arena. Five minutes into George’s 25 Live concert last night, I was eighteen and throbbing for George from the nosebleeds once more. Read More…
Father’s Day at our house is just like any other day, and that’s the way Father likes it. He doesn’t want a notation on the calendar to dictate when and how and why he and the boys spend time together; he wants to spend time with them always, every day, all year round. So this Father’s Day the Halverson Men did what they do every weekend: they went for a long walk to see what adventures would unfold.
Their destination today? The watery edge of Downtown San Diego, definitely a place for adventure. But like anything, that adventure comes with a Halvey spin. Read More…
In any litter, there’s bound to be some jockeying for Top Dog status. But in our house, the Alpha Dog is undisputed…
…for now. Our boys are in the millionth percentile for height and weight, and they’re getting bigger by the day. I think Alpha Dog better start lifting weights.
Happy Father’s Day, Daddy.
Julia Butterfly Hill sat in a tree for 738 days. From December 10, 1997, to December 18, 1999, Hill, an activist in Humboldt County, California, perched in a 180-foot, 600-year-old Coast Redwood tree that she named Luna. She and other activists eventually raised money and paid Pacific Lumber Company $50,000 to spare her tree and a 200-foot buffer around it. If Hill had recruited my first-born son to sit in that tree, Pacific Lumber would have paid her $50,000, because my boy would’ve sat in that tree for eternity if he needed to. At least, that was his stand recently when he sat in Grandma S’s one-and-only car seat for half an hour rather than get out and risk a hostile take-over of the seat by one of his brothers. Sie sollen beim internet Kasino free poker online ihre Profite versteuern.
Read More…
Another book signing for BIG MOUTH! This is will be an afternoon affair, with me reading from the book and giving a talk. This one is extra special because it’s in Mira Mesa, the part of San Diego that I grew up in.
Saturday, July 12
2:00 - 3:00 pm
Barnes & Noble – Mira Mesa
10775 Westview Parkway
San Diego, CA 92126
Phone: (858) 684-3166 Read More…
Hey Bobcats! Thanks for a great visit in Mrs. Prato’s class. Even with the end of the year closing in, you were all ears and questions and great ideas. I had a great time.
As promised, here are the links to Read More…
Is storytelling genetic? I’ve wondered this now and then as my sons push their cars around the living room, jabbering a continuous narrative about who is driving where and what and why. But today it went to a new level: Today one of my boys created his first full scene, complete with characters and actual dialogue. He pushed one car nose-to-nose with another and said, Read More…
