Wing Bowl

ANYONE who was at the recent Episcopal Academy/Oak Hill game saw a local team almost slay a giant. Unfortunately, Sam Donnellon only saw fit to get the views of Oak Hill and their coach about how bad the officiating was (which it wasn't). It's a shame he didn't focus more on how a local team played with heart and soul and almost defeated the No. 1 high school team in the country. Unlike Mr. Donnellon, I am sure Oak Hill will not forget Episcopal any time soon. Hats off to Coach Dan Dougherty and his team, you truly represented the city with pride and class.

THE MOST anticipated sporting event in the recent history of the city needs little hype from me. It's already on everybody's mind. And why not? It's got all the elements. You could say the appeal lies in the Olympic-like training. Or the massive brawn of the combatants. Perhaps it is all the color and pageantry. Or maybe it's the camaraderie among fans. Eagles vs. Rams? Hardly. It's Wing Bowl X, the real granddaddy of Philadelphia sporting events. And it is tomorrow.

FOX 29 WEATHER ANCHOR Sue Serio and husband Bill Vargus , a former sportscaster at the station, co-star in "Love Letters" Feb. 29 - March 4 at the Media Theatre for the Performing Arts. The couple live near the theater and had been impressed with productions there. They were invited to perform together in "Love Letters," which Serio says is "traditionally done by people who are a couple. You basically read the letters people have written to each other over 50 years," she said.

To: Jensen, Mike; Fox, Ashley Subject: Leaving for the NBA I'm feeling serious today. Perhaps it's the sober example set by the regular Talkin' crew or maybe it's because my Starbucks gift card just hit $0.00. Anyway, I see that Villanova's Scottie Reynolds may be leaving early and that the NCAA is considering a proposal to make it more difficult for underclassmen who declare for the NBA draft. If it enacts the plan, that would be gross hypocrisy. The NCAA enriches itself and its coaches on the backs of kids who aren't even permitted money for a bus ride home.

CHRIS McShane: Your characterization of the Wing Bowl makes it obvious that you do not understand this community. Stay home, Chris. You're about as Philly as a glass of chardonnay. Brett Wells, Audubon, Pa. Nakoa Ferrell, in defending Colin Powell's appearance on MTV, says the younger generation "are the future leaders of the world and have a right to be involved in political issues. " Have any of our "future leaders" ever considered Fox News, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC or C-SPAN?

In a couple of days, the First Union Center will host roughly 20,000 spectacle-seeking spectators for the eleventh annual Wing Bowl, Philly's traditional pre-Super Bowl extravaganza of beer-swilling, thong-wearing, contestant-parading, and extremely serious wing-eating. How serious? Seven thousand wings' serious, according to this year's wing supplier, the Rib Ranch at Castor and Aramingo avenues. Mitch Goldman, the Ranch's owner, said the secret to his wings is the marinade, which he also uses in his chargrilled chicken sandwich.

Jason Fagone is a big man with a wan handshake. He's big as in tall, not expansive, and certainly not fat, which is a no-no in the world of competitive eating, even when the eater weighs a fifth of a ton. Fagone, 28, author of Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream, learned this the hard way after he called Ed "Cookie" Jarvis that three-letter word. A writer-at-large for Philadelphia magazine, Fagone spent 11 months attending 27 eating contests in 13 states and two continents which, as he existentially questions himself in the just-published book, may have been 14 contests, six states and a continent too many.

LAST YEAR, I wrote to you about Fairmount Park's Barry Bessler, who ordered that all deer in the park were supposed to be killed except for 30. I asked, why not kill them all? - otherwise it would give the sharpshooters a chance to come back again. Well, they are back. This time the hunt will last three months. Which means us taxpaying citizens are restricted in using the park. I really don't know why. After all, there maybe five or 10 deer left. I can't understand why the mayor doesn't turn this park into a tourist attraction.

Wing Bowl: Be disgusted or embrace diversity? Did we all have to be subjected to photos of one man gagging from a wing-eating contest and another holding a skinned cow's head (Inquirer, Jan. 26)? And then there's the woman who was carried into the First Union Center wearing next to nothing. I have read The Inquirer for 50 years, and I certainly realize it is not the newspaper it used to be. However, I never expected it would become something close to a soft-porn rag. Knight Ridder should consider renaming it The Philadelphia Enquirer.

Although I wouldn't remotely qualify as a die-hard fan, I'm not especially enthralled with the Eagles today, after their nonperformance against Tampa. But you know what? I love Eagles fans. I love it that they love so unabashedly, so wholeheartedly, and with such rarely returned devotion. I love it that they believed with every fiber of their beings - until Sunday at least - that anything and everything was not only possible, but that winning it all was nothing less than this city's manifest destiny writ in large green lettters.