ANOTHER THROWDOWN AT THE FUDD

Yesterday we took our most recent soon-to-be-departed intern, Chris, out to Fuddruckers in what has become a regular intern tradition at the advertising agency where I work. After conquering the Fudd's two-pounder a few months ago, Chris was feeling hungry and focused so he put the challenge to Beau and I to go head-to-head with him in a first-to-finish contest.

Before we dug into our burgers (two one-pound patties between two buns), Scott made what he thought was a safe offer: if anyone finishes in under 10 minutes, he'll buy the burger. Since we had to buy two one-pounders to make our monsters, each deuce cost around $15. Not one to pass up a free lunch, I plowed into my burger with "the works" and finished in 9 minutes, 30 seconds (that's me at right proudly displaying my clear mouth and brand new United Eaters of Pennsylvania shirt). The toughest part of that burger was that it was still piping hot from the grill. I had to separate the patties to let the bottom one cool off while I worked on the top patty (taking gulps of diet coke to cool it off in my mouth). Beau put his burger away at the 14 minute mark and Chris, conceding defeat, threw in the towel with some soggy bun and a few crickets left.

Oh yeah, the crickets. On Friday we had a scavenger hunt at work and one of the items on the list was a pack of dried "bacon and cheese" crickets from the science center gift shop in downtown Harrisburg. We took a pack of the insects to lunch and sprinkled them on Chris's burger before we got started when he wasn't looking. Normally I would never screw with another guy's food, especially in a contest, but he's an intern, so it's okay.

Here we are with our burgers before the contest. A few hours before we left for lunch, my UEPa shirt arrived from Cafe Press so I thought I'd put it to good use. I also got several of the UEPa/Dennys photo magnets and UEPa logo magnets. Enough for everyone, so the next time I see any UEPa members, I'll give you yours.

Here's a shot of what's left of Chris's burger. Those are two "crick-ettes" covered in mayo in the foreground. There were about 12 in the box and only three or four left when it was over. Chris said he noticed the box during the contest. A few bites later he crunched into his first cricket and just kept going. He's hardcore. Because that's how we train 'em.

A full set of pics can be found here.