WING BOWL XII TOMORROW: Here in the Philadelphia area. As my coworker Lee said--and I paraphrase--what was once a little local joke is now a BIG local joke. It's gotten big enough that probable IFOCE rookie of the year Sonya Thomas has been brought in as a special contestant. She will challenge local big fella and cult hero El Wingador for the title. Wingador is talking smack:

"She's a great eater for 12 minutes, but she's never proved anything for 30 minutes," El Wingador intones. "You have to have the will to go on. We'll see."

If Wing Bowl gets bigger I think guys like Wingador will end up constituting the Golden Age of Wing Bowl, local heroes who ended up winning in an era where you could just be a guy off the street--and not a 100 pound eating prodigy--and win Wing Bowl. Like all those early NFL teams composed of amateurs in places like Canton and Pottsville.

Al Morganti's odds:

Bill Simmons El Wingador 42 2-1
Sonya Thomas The Black Widow 36 2-1
Edward Jarvis Ed "Cookie" Jarvis 37 3-1
Don Lerman Moses 54 4-1
Khalil Masso The Beast from the Northeast 22 6-1
Fino Cachola Chili Dog 35 7-1
Eric Booker Eric "Badlands" Booker 34 10-1
Henry Goldey Hank the Tank 26 12-1

There you go. Somebody should tell Sonya that that Black Widow thing has already been taken....