Zombies!

In honor of Halloween, and since the abandoned buildings weren't quiiite creepy enough, here are 5 scientific ways to create a zombie horde. I'm not too sure how dangerous any of these actually are, but I was particularly interested in the second one.

Apparently voodoo priests in Haiti have some chemical solution they feed people that makes them work the fields in a highly suggestive state (read, no complaining). "Zombie" is a Haitian word and refers to these people (according to the article). Weird.

The brain parasites are pretty scary too. Not to mention the fact that labs are working on "re-animating" dead brain tissue. Really? Wow.

It's on Cracked, so there are f-bombs galore, but no naughty pics. The ending is priceless. Boo!

Scales

This site that lets you play with measurement scales is a billion times cooler than this description makes it sound (haha, get it?). The sound is kind of annoying, and so is the intro text, but just start clicking around to get to the good stuff. You can click on the little images to learn about the objects.

Urban exploration

This collection of several abandoned buildings is pretty cool. It reminds me of HL2 (if you don't know, it doesn't matter).

Snakes on a Plane

If you don't know the awesomeness that is this movie, I pity you. The microwave scene put it over the top. It was a thing of beauty.

It's about snakes on a muthafuckin' plane!

Wingdome review

They've got a good thing going, but it falls short of perfection. So does everything else, but they made a couple of easy to correct slip ups.

First off, I don't care about atmosphere, service or beer specials. I mean, I do of course, but that's not what I'm reviewing. Just the wings. For the record, all of those seemed just fine for a small wing hut sports bar, though I got mine take out.


I only have one major thing to complain about, so I'll get it out of the way first. The most obvious forehead smacker is there's no buffalo style on the menu, an unforgivable oversight. This goes right up there with no cajun style at Joe's Crabshack. File this one under "what were they thinking?"


The only other complaint is they skimped on the blue cheese. I'm sure there's a muckity muck somewhere saying, "Our sauces are so good, you don't need to dip the wings" or "If they notice the dips, we have bigger problems".

Well I dipped. And I noticed. The wings should be so hot you need a bit of cooling dip... and when you go for that dip, it shouldn't be starchy runny slop. I've seen burst pustules with more appetizing ooze. You can get large jugs of quality blue cheese from Costco, a few miles from the Greenwood location. Look into it.



So, how were the wings?


They have 8 grades of spicy, from naked to 7 alarm, plus assorted "garbage" flavors. I'm sure they're fine, great in fact. But there's no way I'm ordering BBQ or whatever at a wing place. I'm there for wings.

WINGS, dammit! I understand they need to appeal to whatever poor sucker is there with me, so they need a broad menu. Nevertheless, I consider flavors off the standard hot scale like fruity beer ... it's there to shut your girlfriend up while you get to what you came there for.


I tried 3, 4, and 5 alarm. 6 seemed to be the real hottest level, which is usually suicidal, and 7 was tacked on for the amusement of others. You can only buy level 7 by the wing, and you get your name on the wall if you eat the whole thing. Nuh uh. Not falling for that one again.

5 alarm is where the real hotness starts, though 4 is pretty tasty. The chicken is good quality, and it's fried just right. The sauce isn't overly goopy or runny. The hotness and consistency are good.

But the flavor is off. This is where subjective taste comes in. They're perfectly fine wings, but they aren't buffalo style. 90% of people would be perfectly happy with them, but my endless pursuit of wing perfection leaves me slightly unsatisfied.



In a test, I also got some "naked" and spun them in The Greatest Wing Sauce of All Time (Wingtime). They were a little messy, but otherwise perfect. That says all it needs to about my expectations.



I give Wingdome a B. Counting down from A, they lost one notch for cutting corners on the blue cheese, and 2 for not having buffalo style. An A+ would have to exceed expectations. That said, I'll definitely be back. 6 alarm has my name all over it! Dare I go for 7? That depends on how much beer you buy me.

The most important subject of our time

You all know how seriously I take buffalo wings. I'm the sort of person who will feel personally insulted when wings are done poorly, as though it was done deliberately just to piss me off (I'm looking at you, Wendy's buffalo chicken sandwich).

So I don't say this lightly:

I found the greatest wing sauce of all time.


I imagine we all have nuanced ideas of what buffalo wings are supposed to taste like. Well this one is mine (the "hot" variety). This is great news because until now, the best wings I could find (reliably) were at Hooters. Yeah. You can understand my quandary.

It's called Wing Time. It does everything right. The right consistency (it sticks to the wings, unlike Franks), the right level of hotness, and most importantly, the right flavor. The only problem is the small bottle.

You can find it in most grocery stores in the PNW, such as QFC. You can see a list of retailers on their site. Or.... you can buy it by the case directly from them. Oh yeah, you know what I did!



For the record, there are much much MUCH better wings than Hooters in smaller chains and single restaurants. I only mention them as a sort of standard because they were legitimately out there as the first successful big chain to base their food on buffalo wings (granted, that's not the only draw).

I can eat Hooters and be happy with it, but I could nitpick the sauce. I always get TMI, and while the level of hotness is perfect, the sauce itself is too vinegary and runny (same problem with Franks). But that's not to say I don't enjoy the food and the uh... atmosphere.

There's an excellent place for wings in Portland called Fire On the Mountain. There's a place in Seattle called Wingdome that was recommended to me by the lady at FOtM that I have yet to try out. I recently noticed they have a restaurant pretty close by, so I'll make sure to stop in one of these days.

Heck, even the wings from Dominos in Chicago weren't bad, once you resauced them and baked them a bit. They're significantly better than the wings from Dominos in Seattle (hispanics kick up the spice noticeably -- at least that's my theory). Don't even get me started on the Queen Anne Dominos.



I wish I'd found this sauce earlier on in football season.

Wingsuit

You could surely come up with one or two really crazy friends. No way are any of them even close to as crazy as these guys (vid, minor cursing).

Is it wrong that I kept hoping one of them would hit?

Things I wish I'd known when I was younger

link

Pretty good stuff. I'm not feeling original, so this is all you get.