Food bets seem harmless, but they look funny.
Everybody likes the old “can’t eat four saltines in 60 seconds” bet, and it’s likely that many of these foods would never get eaten except on a bet. Then there’s the story of two guys who took a bet they could eat Ramen noodles — only Ramen noodles — for a month. It’s probably apocryphal, but they story ends with them getting scurvy and giving up.
For all the trouble they can cause, I think bets are one of the great engines of change in society — and they’ve certainly had a positive effect on the advancement of technology. Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, for instance, showed America what the future of cars might be when he set off on the first successful tans-continental road trip on a $50 bet. Sure, he had no experience, but bullheaded foolishness is all part of the game when a bet is on the table.
Update: Some say six or seven is possible, and there’s a strategy….