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Saturday, August 12, 2006

My tongue hurts and my tummy feels gross -- and I kinda like it

So the City Beat went down to the Red River to sample some chili today. The actual event is Cats Incredible, a catfish fishing tournament, but I think much of the draw comes from the Friends of the Greenway chili contest and all the fun things to do for the kiddies.

This year's chili contest looks like it might be the most well attended. I got there at 1:45 p.m. and three or four of the chili contestants had run out of chili. Tasting was supposed to be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Some contestants were running out of cups by maybe 2:30 p.m.

I've got some photos below of the chili contest. Check them out.

Anglers trying their luck on the Red River.

East Grand Forks Mayor Lynn Stauss' team doing their best to restore the city's honor. Team Eastside, stricken one year by the mayor's illness, has been beaten time and again by archrival Team Grand Forks. This year's cooks, from left to right, are former Ward 5 City Council member George Wogaman, economic development chief Jim Richter and the mayor himself.

Pirates of the Red, Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown's team, in their usual wild getup. From left to right, public health director Don Shields, city administrator Rick Duquette, the mayor, fire chief Pete O'Neill and finance director John Schmisek. The mayor's assistant, Pete Haga wasn't here for the photo. See him below.

Pirate Pete, shown here, subscribes to the Capt. Jack Sparrow school of piracy. "You're no man if you don't wear eye shadow liner."

One of local television's hottest women, Cassie Walder from WDAZ, the people that brought you the titilating slogan "Make a date with Channel 8." (Update note: That's my beer.) Her other team mates included anchor Terry Dullum, weekend anchor Tami Osborne, chief photog Chris Regimbal and photog James Degelder. Anchor Milo Smith was judging the contest (blind taste test of course).

The women from The Herald's Red River Valley Women Today team. That's Shanna Flannagan on the right left and Barb Steadman on the left right (Update correction: Your other right, fool!).

Just for fun, the catfish contest was accompanied by a fat cat contest. This cat is named Benton and the guy holding him is his owner Greg (I wasn't working so I didn't have a notebook to write his last name down). Greg must have pipes of steel if he's carrying Benton around all day.

AAARGG! The Pirates win the chili honor again for Grand Forks. East Grand Forks will just have to wait for the Boy Scouts' pine wood derby car contest, which Eastside has dominated every year.

A more interesting crop of that last photo. Pirate John Schmisek getting totally aggro. What's a suitable title? "When accountants go wild"? Go John!

It reminds me of the insurance company clerks turned pirates from "The Crimson Permanent Assurance," a segment from "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life." I asked some friends about this but no one knew what I was talking about. Geek.

(Update note: Those of you who saw today's paper will see almost the same photo. Just so you know, I didn't steal anyone's photo. Herald photog Jay Pickthorn and I were next to each other, waiting for the pirates' reaction. It looks like he cropped his photo tighter, which in retrospect, might be what I should've done.)

Update 6:04 p.m., 8/12/06: The photos are available in larger formats at my Flickr Web site. That's for anyone looking to torment John. I can't believe I called this guy a "wonk." How cool is AARG?

If you want the Cassie Walder photo, you'll have to pay for it. She's gonna kill me when she sees this post.

Update 4:47 p.m., 8/13/06: Here's the Herald story about the chili contest. I forgot to mention the Single Guy from Warroad, Minn., who came with his chili and a sense of humor. He called it "F3 chili," as in F3 tornado.

7 Comments:

Blogger Good Ol' Boy said...

Quite the torrential rains. I wonder if Betty Does or if Betty Doesn't? (Lame, I know))

6:35 PM  
Blogger Coffee Guy said...

Nice pics. I ended up cleaning out my garage, which I've been putting off for weeks and weeks.

9:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cassie IS a fox.

10:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I get it. Does that make me a geek?

I can just envision Schmisek swinging across North 4th Street and crashing through the windows of the Herald's editorial board room and going on a rampage.

It's fun to charter an accountant.

The Meaning of Life might just be the best movie ever made.(With the possible exception of Napoleon Dynamite).

10:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That cassie is hot. And she's got a pounder sitting in front of her too.

My kind of girl.

11:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I thought Cassie was engaged and you were Chasing T.O. ...No Not Terril Owens! WDAZ T.O.

10:30 AM  
Blogger Tu-Uyen said...

Cripes, no talk about personal life here. Cassie is just a friend. She's not too fond of getting mentioned in my blog so I do it just to be annoying. I snipe at those guys at DAZ for the same reason.

2:46 PM  

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