On Saturday, Philadelphia became the first city to lose two major sports championships on the same day . . . the World Series and the MLS Cup. (Yes, soccer counts as a major sport.) But there is THIS to brag about . . .
Last month, a 31-year-old waiter in Philly named Alexander Tominsky challenged himself to eat 40 ROTISSERIE CHICKENS in 40 days. And he just completed the task Sunday afternoon in front of a huge crowd of people.
On October 8th, he announced his plan by tweeting out a photo of himself with a whole chicken in front of him. At that point, he was already 11 chickens in and planned to do 30 days, but eventually upped it to 40. (Here's the tweet.)
Since then, he's taken down one full chicken a day without a ton of fanfare, but slowly kept gaining followers. Last we checked, he was up over 37,000.
Last Friday, he posted a flyer inviting people to come watch him eat his 40th bird. He didn't even give an address. It just said he'd be at, quote, "that abandoned pier near Walmart." But dozens, if not hundreds of people showed up for it.
To add some drama, he held up a speaker and played "Streets of Philadelphia" by Bruce Springsteen for his last few bites. Then he slowly walked through the crowd . . . held up his empty plate . . . and everyone went nuts. So he went full absurdity with it. (Here's a photo.)
The question is, why did he do it in the first place? And the answer is . . . just because. He did some interviews, including one with "The New York Times". Basically, he says he wanted to make people laugh while everything else in the world seems so crazy. So it's almost like performance art.
One person who went to watch on Sunday summed it up like this: Quote, "There's no broader meaning here . . . it's just a guy eating chicken."
Alexander says he hasn't made any money off the stunt, and didn't gain anything from it, except followers on social media. Someone at Perdue Chicken even reached out at one point and offered him free chicken, but he said no.
He does admit he's relieved to be done. And he wouldn't suggest it to anyone else. At first, he could take down a whole chicken in 20 minutes, but it got harder and harder. So by the end, it was taking him up to two hours.
He also says it ravaged his body, and he actually LOST 16 pounds.
(NY Times / Food & Wine / The Takeout)