For breakfast: food, fun and fat

At 6 a.m. Friday morning, a chicken wing-eating contest was held at the First Union Center. Some people start the day with a bowl of Cheerios, others with a stack of pancakes and many just grab a Pop Tart on the go. But on Friday at 6 a.m. in the First Union Center, chicken wings were clearly the breakfast of champions. Over 25,000 people packed into the arena for the eighth annual WIP Sports Radio Wing Bowl. The crowd cheered as monstrously large men gorged themselves on hundreds of buffalo wings, all competing to be Philadelphia's wing-eating king. Among the spectators was a brave group of sleepy-eyed Harrison House residents, who left for the event at 5:30 a.m. led by their House Dean Art Casciato. "I thought it would be a cool thing to say -- that I got up at 4:30 in the morning to see fat guys eat buffalo wings," Wharton sophomore Tristan Nery said. And eat they did. With contestant names like "el Wingador" and "War Pig," the men had to perform an amazing gastronomical feat to prove their eating power and to gain entrance into the competition. One brave man ate six ears of corn in one minute. Another consumed 12 cream-filled donuts and a quart of chocolate milk in a matter of five minutes. The eaters were flanked by scantily clad female escorts, dubbed "wingettes." This year marked the second time that third-year Dental School student and Graduate Advisor Dan Kubikian has attended the event. "If you have gone once, you have got to go again," he laughed. The contest was simultaneously broadcast live on the radio, and contestants were given but two pieces of advice by the certified physician known solely as Dr. Wing. "Eat the meat, not the bone," he advised. "And if you're gonna heave, don't hit anyone." Prior to the onset of the contest, the crowd roared in delight as a man in a boxing ring crushed 14 full beer cans on his skull to set the world record. With a forehead swollen to twice its size and a few lacerations, he was dragged out of the ring after the completion of the astounding feat. "I know that I am not in great shape," Wharton sophomore Eugene Park said. "But I know that I am in better shape than these guys." Once the contest officially began at 8 a.m., the wing-eaters sucked the meat off plates and plates of chicken wings. Separated into two periods of 14 minutes each and a final two-minute sprint to the end, the contestant Tollman Joe emerged triumphant, and ready to cluck. Joe ate 90 wings to win, just beating the runner up, who ate 87. Along the way there were a few disputes, a contestant dismissed for "fowl" play and some who just couldn't keep all those wings down. The morning's excursion was part of Casciato's "Finding Philadelphia" series, a collection of events to introduce his residents to Philadelphia culture. "We think of this as an interdisciplinary mission -- as anthropologist, sociologist and historian," Casciato said. "Meanwhile, we're just doing it for the fun of it." After the event, Casciato and the students -- opting for a more traditional breakfast -- went to the Melrose Diner, a Philly institution. On the ride home, College junior Heather Haney laughed at the thought of what her professor might say. "My professor won't believe that I spent the morning before class watching fat men eat wings," she said.