Kristi From TU Gets Dogged By GNA [Video]

Full disclosure here:  If anyone did the "dogging" on the GNA morning show, it was definitely me as Chrissy is way too much of a saint to call out Kristi Gustafson Bartlette from the Times Union.  But the truth is, Kristi deserved some good-natured ribbing as a result of something she said 3 weeks ago regarding eating hot dogs from a convenience store.  The KGB likened it to eating sushi from a gas station and said basically that the mere thought of eating it made her stomach turn.

It's super-haughty comments such as those that garner the heaviest of eye-rolls from me as well as many of our GNA listeners.  So, it's obvious that I had no choice but call her out.  When she said this on-air, I immediately took it as an opportunity to see just how grossed out she really was.  Was the thought of eating convenience store (or gas station) hot dogs so bad for Hoity-Toity Barlette that she wouldn't eat them for charity?  What if Chrissy and I gave her $100 per dog to the charity of her choice?  How would Uppity Barlette handle that?

Much to my surprise, Snooty-Gustafson Barlette not only accepted the challenge, but met it head-on inside the GNA studio on Thursday morning will cameras rolling for Capital Region GNA listeners and TU readers to see.  The charity of choice chosen by Kristi was the Maddie's Mark Foundation; a truly special local foundation that we highly recommend you take the time to read up on.

The crew at Stewart's graciously offered up the dogs and led the way by generously matching any donations up to $1000. Even Stewart's president Gary Dake got in on the action by eating 4 dogs the day before the challenge just to get the ball rolling.  For that, we thank you all very much.

On to the challenge!  When Kristi Wurst-afson Barlette was in studio, we tried to make it as hard on her as possible, at one point making her eat the hot dog with no bun or toppings to mask the flavor.  This attempt to churn her belly with nothing but boiled meat didn't slow her down.  She powered through a total of three weenies (including the red-hot Cajun dog that was saved for last) and only dry-heaved a few times in between these annoyingly dainty bites that made you think she was eating lobster tails, not street meat.

When it was all said and done, KGB did a very good job here.  To many of us, eating hot dogs is not that big of a deal, but there are some snobbish-types (eye-roll) that find them not so appealing.  The best part of this challenge - aside from the charity aspect - were the many screen-grab worthy moments that may or may not haunt her for the rest of her life. Not that I'm rooting for that to happen or anything because while she might be a little snooty, she proved she was no weenie.

Check out the video here: