Harvard Senior Munches To Victory

They said it couldn't be done.

In a dark Boston pizza parlor, before some 50 spectators, Lawrence S. Turtel '82 Thursday night took on 15 competitors, and 21 and-a-half chewy slices of pizza, and eight seemingly endless minutes later--he won.

"It was absolutely amazing," exclaimed Kevin Pedersen, manager of Ruggles restaurant, sponsor of the contest.

"I couldn't come close, and I've been eating pizza for a real long time," said an awed Joe Girolama, an employee of Regina's another area parlor.

Turtel brought home $50 and a contest record from the event, which be called an "intellectual challenge "Strategy is vital to the successful pizza muncher, he claimed "There's no place there for stupid eaters."

The Leverett House History and Science major cited his double-fisted, "alternating-pizza approach" holding a slice in each hand and alternating bites--as the deciding factor in his victory. "Other people were piling their slices, but that made them harder to swallow," he explained.

Long-term planning also contributed to the herculean feat, said Turtel, who gorged himself with tasty roast beet sandwiches at lunch Thursday in the Leverett House dining hall. "Then, in the afternoon. I went jogging, so when the thing started, I was really hungry," he added.

The self-assured Melville, Long Island resident claimed that he suffered no after effects from his gastronomical encounter but conceded that he "did get pretty tired about three hours later."

That Ain't Nothin'

Turtel weighs in at a modest 165 pounds, distributed rather evenly over a 6-foot frame. He insisted that Thursday's performance could have been more dramatic, were it not for some unexpectedly hazardous course conditions. "The last pizza was too hot," he said. "I took a big bite, and sort of had to spit some of it out."

But what slipped away Thursday, he made up for yesterday afternoon: "I met a friend for lunch. She didn't know about the contest, and she suggested that we go for pizza."

"What the heck?" shrugged the iron-stomached champion.