Amazon employees battle it out for coveted buffalo wing title |
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Amazon employees battle it out for coveted buffalo wing title
There were lots of greasy hands and dazed expressions as about 100 Amazon.com employees gathered at the Wingdome in Seattle's Greenwood neighborhood last night for an annual buffalo wing eating contest. Known as the Tatonka Bowl (after the word for buffalo from the movie "Dances with Wolves"), it pit teams with names like "Bare Bones" and "Thunder Tongues" against each other in a test to see who could consume the most chicken in one sitting. At times, it wasn't pretty.
Despite the raucous atmosphere, the event was highly organized, with "wing flow managers" there to ensure a steady flow of plates to the contestants ("It has to be scalable," said one), as well as "bone inspectors" to check that people actually ate the meat on the wings. The Amazonians, wearing plastic bibs, attacked their wings with gusto, to the music of a bagpipe player. As the wing tally mounted, some of the contestants started to look queasy, with at least one grabbing for a nearby bucket.
The winner? Jonathan Squibb of Amazon's Audible unit in New Jersey, who ate a grand total of 173 wings, nearly double that of the second-place finisher (do I smell a ringer?). Squibb and his Audible teammate Raphael Cedeno -- the pair was dubbed "Tatonka East" -- also won the top team award, with 235 wings. I'm getting sick just thinking about that. There was at least one vegetarian in the house, who ate celery in place of wings -- I never got his final count.
According to master of ceremonies Andy Jassy, senior vice president Amazon Web Services, this is actually the 4th Tatonka Bowl, though the buffalo wing eating tradition goes back 12 years. It seemed like a fun way for folks to blow off some steam, though I'm betting there are some people calling in sick today.
Photo gallery below.
The scene at the Wingdome.
A "wing flow manager" at work.
A bagpipe player provided the music.
Chowing down. The winning team is in the foreground.
Some of the aftermath.
Individual Tatonka champ Jonathan Squibb (right),
with teammate Raphael Cedeno (left).
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