West Chester Chili Cook Off - Mission Accomplished

The West Chester Chili Cook Off today was a great success. The crowd was in a great mood too. I'm not sure if the excitement was because they were excited to eat chili or that the Phillies were about to beat the Brewers or because me, Dr Zibbs was in their midst. Those things are almost impossible to measure without expensive machinery. All I know is, I ate over 25 of these mini bowls of chili:

.... And now - my awards. The That Blue Yak Gold metal award for best chili goes to Collegium Charter School. Congratulations. You did it. Great flavor - perfect spice.

There was too much to eat to make extensive tasting notes at the cook-off but there was everything from traditional chili to chicken and andouille chili to people dumping tomato sauce, beans and meat into a pot and calling it chili. Here are the other awards I'm giving after an afternoon of tasting:

My silver metals go to: Iron Hill Brewery, 1st West Chester Fire Company, Century 21 Alliance, Victory Brewing Company, Good Will Fire Company.

My bronze metals go to: Blue Dog Printing and Design, Lenape Pizza

Well done people!

..and to top the day off, Kildare's Pub was giving out coupons for a free pint of Guinness. I selfishly took two and enjoyed a Guinness while checking the Phillies and Eagles scores. I'll save the second one for another day.

And on another note, stay tuned to hear the story of two local bloggers that were able to meet me AND shake my hand at the event.

Good Neighbor Day

Chester County residents flocked to Downingtown's Kerr Park yesterday for the annual Good Neighbor Day Festival. As usual, many non locals - unfamiliar with "Good Neighbor Day" were disappointed upon learning that the Downingtown event has completely nothing to do with Ned Flanders - the popular Simpsons character.

"I was pretty pissed - I mean - 'Good Neighbor' - you know, 'hey Diddly Doo neighbor' - it's totally Ned Flanders. It's text book bait and switch. We came all the way from Maryland for this?"

Disappointment for many however turned to joy as they discovered the famous Inflated Uncle Sam (see amazing photo above). Just look at that Uncle Sam, all blown up, larger than life and perfectly framed by two strategically placed flower pots. Throughout the day, hundreds flocked to the inflatable Uncle Sam. Many dancing around him - others gained courage and moved closer to see if he was in fact real. And others took advantage of the top of the hour "Inflatable Uncle Sam speaks" portion of the festival where a few chosen Downingtown residents were invited to stand behind the blow up figure and pretend they're the Inflatable Uncle Sam. Although most lucky VIP's respectfully used their 30 seconds with the microphone, one jerk, who turned out to be from Coatesville, almost ruined the event by yelling into the microphone ,"Lambert's an A-hole and his truck is a piece of s**t. And his old lady's a skank!" He was quickly tackled and patriotically beaten by the locals.