Just wanting to say hi to everybody. Today is a great day for the Cluckbucket. We got picked up by CNN/Money in one of their daily newsletters as the "Fun Site of the Day". How sweet is that? I'll have the newsletter posted on the site shortly...

This is an absolutely awesome article, Showdown: Whole Foods vs. Krispy Kreme. Isn't America great? I love the fact that we can debate over things like healthy food versus gluttonous feel good food. I find it really humorous when people shred non-healthy food institutions. Yeah, they are nasty and probably terrible for you, but as long as you eat there in moderation and keep a healthy workout routine, I say bring it on. Yes, there was a time when I was pretty stinking fat, 6'5" and 260, but now I'm 6'5" and 220, still eat pretty crappy, but really enjoy working out. I love eating good foods (healthy and non-healthy) but can get away with it because I also enjoy a work out which currently involves four days of swimming, three days of running (a total of 15 miles), one night of softball (okay, that's not really a workout), and one day of extremely competitive basketball.

The moral of the story, both establishments win because both serve a great purpose and unique target market. I say we should all eat what we want, work out (and enjoy our workouts), and live long and healthy lives...

Has anybody checked out the News Rocket? The only news source you need! This site is freakin' hysterical and run by the owner of Beatnicks (aka, www.bellevegas.com). It's hysterical and there is tons of stuff in teh archives, make sure you take a look...

Interesting article posted on the IFOCE site today. Cookie Jarvis on a Roll. It looks as if Cookie's win last weekend in Oregon is prompting some hype around his recent accomplishments. I also got an email from "Gentleman" Joe yesterday that he took the "non-sactioned" Wingstock eating championship in Buffalo this past weekend. He's also been bumped up to the #6 eater in the world. Congrats Joe and Cookie!

Portland, OR is the world's worst sports city. The front page of the sports section in today's Oregonian was focused on three articles; one on moto-cross, one on skateboarding, and one on how Ralph Nader is attempting to screw Washington DC out of a baseball team with his antics and hence Portland might get the Expos by default. Wow, how pathetic is that? I can understand the draw to Nader, but moto-cross and skateboarding? Those aren't even sports, they are events!!! The Blazers are a disgrace, nobody goes to the Beavers (Padres AAA affiliate) games which cost a measly $5 for a 10th row seat in a beatifully renovated stadium, and with fall soon approaching all I will read about for the next three months is how great the Ducks and the Beavers are going to be in football this year. YIKES. Maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, but how am I going to deal with this? No wings and no sports? And I just signed on to live and work here for the next couple of years (at the very least)? Oh my, this will be a fun ride...

Sorry to all native Oregonians, you don't know any better, nothing personal, I just had to vent. To the rest of the folks that moved here from another state, you feel my pain, lets just enjoy the good things about Portland, the summers, the view, the beer, the wine, and how stinkin beautiful and clean it is... And much more...

Here's a new article on the WingZone, one of the "Big 4" wing chains. They are suggesting huge growth of the segment over the next year or so... Pretty interesting read: Wing Zone takes off in D-FW - 2003-07-21 - Dallas Business Journal

Hey all, I'm just trying out Googles new "Blog This" feature on their google tool bar. In theory, you should see a link to the cluckbucket right here: Cluckbucket: Chicken Wings, Buffalo Wings, and Much More

I just got back from the first ever World Rib Eating Championships in Lincoln City, OR. What an unbelievable event. I took tons of pictures and got to have a great conversation with Ed 'Cookie" Jarvis, "Gentleman" Joe, and George Shea (who are all big fans of the Cluckbucket, go figure!). Here is the link and the official write-up:

http://www.cluckbucket.com/ribs.htm

On Saturday, July 19th, 2003 in scenic coastal Lincoln City, OR, some of the world's finest competitive eaters converged on the first annual World Rib-Eating Championships. The event was held in the parking lot of the Chinook Winds Casino as a part of the Smokin' at the Ocean BBQ, chili, and salsa festival. Led by the co-founder of the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE), George Shea, the contest consisted of an amateur semi-final round on Friday night with a spectacular final round at 6:00 PM on Saturday. The eaters were challenged to consume all of the pork spare ribs they could eat in twelve minutes. On hand were IFOCE heavyweights Ed "Cookie" Jarvis, "Gentleman" Joe Menchetti, Dale Boone (a direct decendent of Daniel Boone), and Ray "The Bison" Meduna.

The odds on favorite was definitely Ed 'Cookie' Jarvis, who recently ate 30 ½ hot dogs on July Fourth to finish second to Japanese sensation Takeru Kobayashi in the Nathan's Famous July Fourth Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, NY. Jarvis is also the reigning World Ice Cream Eating Champion (1 Gallon, 9 ounces in 12 minutes), World Cannoli Eating Champion (21 Cannolis, 6 minutes) and has polished off a 76-ounce steak in 20 minutes. Jarvis also won the Travel Channel's 'Battle of the Buffets' in 2002.

The other professional athletes also come with an impressive resume. 'Gentleman' Joe Menchetti is the eighth-ranked eater in the world and current World Conch Fritter Eating Champion and World Corn-on-the-Cob Eating Champion; Dale Boone is the ninth-ranked eater in the world and current World Pelemeni Eating Champion and World Reindeer Sausage Eating Champion; and Seattle's Ray 'The Bison' Meduna is the top-ranked eater in the Pacific Northwest.

The leading amateur in the group was Scott "The Pork Slayer" Sayer. Sayer, an engineer with Hewlett Packard in Albany, OR advanced to the final round by polishing off 2 and 1/4 pounds of ribs (that's pure meat, not including the bones) in the preliminary round on Friday evening. The other amateurs that participated in the final round were Tom Jones, Levi "The Mountain" Oliver, and one other guy whose name if forgot (sorry).

When the dust settled on the event, here's how the finalists finished up:

1st Place: Ed "Cookie" Jarvis, 4.65 lbs

2nd Place: Dale Boone, 3.70 lbs

3rd Place: "Gentleman" Joe Menchetti, 3.15 lbs

4th Place: Ray "The Bison" Meduna, 2.9 lbs

5th Place: Scott "The Pork Slayer" Sayer, 2.7 lbs

6th Place: Levi "The Mountain" Oliver 2.5 lbs

What an unbelievable event. Pictures will be coming very soon!!!

Good news. I'm going to be attending the World Rib Eating Championships this weekend. Oddly enough, the contest is going to be held in Lincoln City, OR which is on the coast, about two hours from Portland. I'm going to have to check but I don't really belive that Lincoln City is a hotbed of BBQ, but the contest is being held in a casino parking lot so that should make up for it. They are having a three day BBQ and chili cookoff and the weather looks like its going to be fantastic...

The best part about the contest is that the because it is an IFOCE sanctioned event, Ed "Cookie" Jarvis and a few other (not so well known) competitive eaters will be there. I can't wait to see Cookie up close and in person, I plan to get some good pictures of him before/during/after the contest and hope to be able to secure an autograph. It will be up on the site asap...

Okay, time to talk chicken. Can't all chicken wing fans just get along? I've seen some pretty heated debates lately about traditional versus non-traditional wings. The traditionalist camp would like to believe that the Anchor Bar way of making wings is the only way to go; naked wings (non-breaded), fried, and tossed in a hot sauce/butter combination. On the other side, the non-traditionalists have opened up to such options as breaded wings, grilled/smoked wings, and such sauces as teriyaki, garlic parmesean, and BBQ.

Another thorny issue is what Hooters has done for the buffalo wing world. Many traditionalists don't even consider Hooters' wings to be "buffalo wings". While I can agree that sometimes the breading at Hooters does get in the way, I think its impossible to deny the benefit that they have had to the wing world at large. Their focus on the wing (with such things as tiered wing pricing) and widespread growth (although they still don't have one in Portland, OR; punks!) have helped to spread the goodness of the wing to the mainstream market.

I say that sticking to your guns and eating wings the way you like them is the way to go. Forget what others say, traditional or non-traditional, just eat the wingy!!!

This is pretty stinkin cool. And easy to use, let's see if this one works...

First time blogger here, sorry for the inexperience, you're just going to have to bare with me... This is going to be my little extension to www.cluckbucket.com where I can easily write about different things that are going on in the chicken/buffalo wing world. Sorry, I'm not going to write much now, but need to publish this to see if it works...