America, get excited. We have a new champion, a man who might be able to put the mustard-yellow belt back around a U.S. waist this July 4th.

Joey Chestnut ate 50 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes today. That’s only 3.5 off the world record, held by (previously believed to be completely unbeatable) Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi.

I’m on my way to Paris.

When you land in France you see French flags flying; they are red, white, and blue, the same colors as our own flag, but their flags have only three stripes and the stripes are up and down, not from side to side, and the colors are backward — blue, white, red, instead of red, white, blue. The street signs and the signs on the buildings are in a different language, the people are talking a different language, and of course the money is different too. It is called “francs.”

You have probably heard some one say, “You look like your father or mother,” but they don’t say that your father or mother looks like you. Well, up the River Seine is the capital and largest city of France, spelled “Paris,” but called “Paree” by the French people. Some call it the most beautiful city i.t.w.W. [in the whole World — tew] People often say some other very beautiful city looks “like Paris,” but they never say Paris looks like any other city.

From A Child’s Geography of the World, by V. M. Hillyer (1929).

Here in Chicago, the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival has become a tradition. Another tradition is me, comparing the current selection to that of previous years. I’ve completed my analysis.