The internet is a weird and wonderful place where people can gain support or ire for the most unlikely things. Like a Philadelphia man eating 40 rotisserie chickens in 40 days, gathering a crowd of cheering onlookers as he completed his mission.
Restaurant server Alexander Tominsky announced he was on day 11 of a mission to eat 30 rotisserie chickens in 30 days. As promised, he posted a photo a day of him eating a whole rotisserie chicken. On October 27th, when this journey was supposed to end, he posted an image of himself eating the last chicken. It was even complete with candles and decorations saying “30.”
No one can deny that with each passing image Tominsky’s face grew more and more sullen. So it was surprising that later that day he tweeted that on November 6th he would eat his 40th chicken in 40 days. Meaning he was extending his goal by 10 more chickens. This “not a party” was to be held at an abandoned pier near WalMart. Tominsky later explained that for the first few weeks he was able to gobble up the bird in 20 minutes with no pain.
But then he began to experience cramps and bloating due to all the sodium. Symptoms that sometimes made the meal take two hours to consume. While he says that he could “feel the pulse of my heart in my stomach,” and lost 16 lbs. in those 40 days, he kept going. Eventually, he viewed the rotisserie chicken as a “sensory bomb,” made up of greasy, salty, dark meat and dry white meat. The sound of his fingers digging into the bird and becoming coated in oils caused him to physically recoil. By the last 11 days he was chewing small pieces of meat until they became so mashed up he could down them with some water. “Basically, I drank the chicken,” Tominsky explained.
He soldiered on because the pain he was feeling from this journey is “microscopic in comparison to what the world lives with and sees every day.” By that point, his mission was gaining a following. “This is just a little bit of an inconvenience and a sacrifice for the joy that it seems to be bringing people.” This joy led to one person printing out the tweet announcing his 40th chicken and stapling it to a lamp post. Word quickly spread and by the 6th at noon Tominsky sat down at the pier in front of a large crowd all chanting “Eat that bird!” After an hour “The Philadelphia Chicken Man,” had devoured his last rotisserie chicken for the foreseeable future. As he took his last bite he played Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia.” Responding to the line “Ain’t no angel gonna greet me,” with “It’s just you and me my friends!”
“I’m happy that it’s over,” he said in an interview after the event. “My body is ready to repair.” For those that may still be wondering how on earth this mission gained such a massive following? Forget it, Jake. It’s Philadelphia.
Alexander Tominsky has also not confirmed or denied being this legend. We’ll let you decide on that one:
