Thankfully, She Leaves the Butter and Salt Off

Sonya Thomas, 37, of Alexandria, Va., who is 5 feet 5 and weighs 99 pounds, was the winner of a popcorn-eating contest held at the Hollywood and Highland complex Wednesday.

Thomas, ranked No. 2 in the world by the International Federation of Competitive Eating, polished off 10 boxes of popcorn in 10 minutes, then edged world chili-eating champion Rich LeFevre by downing two more boxes in an eat-off.

So how did she feel afterward?

“The worst thing is the scrapes on my tongue,” she said.

In March, Thomas became the world oyster-eating champion by downing 46 dozen -- that’s 552 oysters -- in 10 minutes during a contest in New Orleans.

“The oysters went down a little smoother,” she said.

We’ll take her word for it.

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Trivia time: The Dodgers, who begin a three-game series against Minnesota on Friday night, haven’t played the Twins since beating them in seven games in the 1965 World Series. How many other American League teams have the Dodgers not played in the regular season?

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Limp humor: The Dodgers’ series with the Detroit Tigers this week gave The Times’ Bill Plaschke a chance to revisit Kirk Gibson’s home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. Gibson is now the Tigers’ bench coach.

In 1995, the L.A. Sports Council ranked the 100 greatest moments in L.A. sports history, and announced them at a function at Pauley Pavilion. Times Sports Editor Bill Dwyre was sitting with the Dodger contingent and recalls that when it became obvious Gibson’s homer was the No. 1 moment, Peter O’Malley leaned over to Gibson as he got up to walk to the podium and asked, “Are you going to limp?”

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Good question: Jeanie Buss was among those attending a KMPC promotional luncheon at the Palm restaurant in downtown L.A. on Wednesday. The radio station’s new morning host, Tony Bruno, during his time at the podium, told Buss he was done proposing to her on the air.

Fred Roggin, following Bruno to the podium, asked Buss, “Is Phil the only man in L.A. who hasn’t asked you to marry him?”

Said Buss: “Sure, laugh at my pain.”

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Spreading the credit: Honors seem to come with the territory if you’re the coach of back-to-back national football champions. USC’s Pete Carroll will be honored at the 20th Cedars-Sinai Sports Spectacular dinner Saturday night at the Century Plaza Hotel, but he’s taking it all in stride.

“These awards are really just a recognition of what we accomplished as a team,” he said.

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Looking back: On this day in 1985, the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics, 111-100, to win the NBA title in six games.

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Trivia answer: None.

And finally: Emeka Okafor, a guest on FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” on adjusting to the Charlotte Bobcats’ losing record: “You kind of get numb to it. I remember once a fan giving me a hard time and he screamed out our record of 18-64, and I thought, ‘Damn, we’ve lost 64 games?’ ”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.