In this Profile in Wing Courage, WingazetteÒ  Magazine speaks with Dan 0’Connor, a budding young law student who left one of the best jobs in the country to go to law school to be able to deal with the legal aspects of wing creation and consumption.

When we caught up with Dan, he was preparing to travel to the Northeast to continue the quest for improved research in that part of the country.

We were able to obtain this exclusive interview with one of the more courageous wing eaters of our time.

WingazetteÒ  Magazine: Dan, how did your wing eating career begin?

O'Conner: Well as you know, I don't consider myself a wing legend; I consider myself more of a witness to wing history. My wing eating career actually began by tagging along with some of the legends that have already graced the pages of your magazine.

I can certainly verify all of the, incredible stories that have been told, but I must admit that my career, while it is now in full force, began as a bit of a follower and not a leader.

WingazetteÒ  Magazine: As a long time wing eater and charter subscriber to WingazetteÒ  Magazine , how do you feel about being interviewed for the PROFILES IN WING COURAGE segment of our publication?

O'Conner: Well, as I mentioned, it feels incredible to be among the legends that have already been there. It's sort of like having completed a Little League career and then being among the Mays' and Mantle’s of Baseball's Hall of Fame.

WingazetteÒ  Magazine: We understand that you are a student of the law. What can you tell us about the legal aspects of wing creation and consumption?

O'Conner: As you already know, I am leaving Atlanta this summer to go north and work for a law firm and I expect to spend a good bit of time investigating legal issues as they relate to wings.

I think probably the biggest issue right now that true wing lovers are going to be concerned about is protecting the secrecy of wing recipes.

There's an awful lot of corporate espionage out there, so getting patents down and being very protective about people stealing wing secrets is a major concern to those of us who are representing the producers of very high quality wings at this time.

One other major concern, particularly to the providers of inferior wings, is the whole idea that there is a warranty attached to these wings. In this particular case I'm thinking of what is commonly known as an implied warranty of a fitness for a particular purpose.

WingazetteÒ  Magazine subscribers go into a particular restaurant with indeed a particular purpose in mind, and if we make our needs known to the providers of the wings and they fail to meet that, then they may indeed be in breach of that particular warranty.

That will be a part of my research this summer, to see how we can attack these providers of sub-standard product and hold them in breach of that warranty, and assure WingazetteÒ Magazine subscribers that as soon as they identify themselves as subscribers and say that they want the best that indeed that is what they get.

WingazetteÒ  Magazine: You are one of the fortunate few who have consumed and survived TURNER'S BURNERS and many of the various experimental recipes from the WingazetteÒ Magazine test kitchen laboratories. Would you care to comment on some of those experiences?

O'Conner: Yes, that is true. Other than perhaps the Turner lines creator, I’m probably the most familiar of that line of anyone I can think of, so I have indeed watched the evolution to the current status of TURNER'S TORCHERS.

It is very much an experimental process. The wings have changed from what was probably a very basic recipe to something that I'm not even sure if the creator can consistently duplicate.

These wings are more like a work of art than, shall we say - just whipping up a batch because each batch has now become unique, so that is why I use the art analogy because it is unlikely that the exact batch can ever be created again.

That's probably what makes the Turner line so special is that every time you’re eating them you may very well be the only person who's ever going to experience that particular wing taste.

WingazetteÒ  Magazine: Could you tell us about some of your more courageous wing eating experiences?

O'Conner: As I have mentioned, I do consider myself a witness to many of those. I was one of the early folks who made the trip to the Mecca that was BW3’s back in the early days of wing eating. One of my own personal experiences I can recall was when Andrew Arvay and I visited a Hooters at one time and we asked them to bring on 100 of the hottest wings they could produce.

I'm not sure whether they doubted our ability to handle the heat or the quantity, but the waitress told us that she wasn't going to place the order because we could never consume them.

We then tried to arrange a wager, and in fact this very well endowed woman promised us that if we could eat them all, she would hang upside down from a rafter and do the Hoola-Hoop.

Needless to say, we polished off the hundred very quickly. She did indeed climb up there and entertain us for a while, and just to rub it in, we ordered 50 more and consumed those after she was finished.

WingazetteÒ  Magazine: That sounds like a truly excellent wing eating experience. Would you now describe your version of the ultimate hot wing?

O'Conner: Hal Turner and I have had this discussion before and have probably agreed that the true measure of the ultimate hot wing is called the "Fear Factor." The "Fear Factor" is that you really enjoy what it is that you're doing, but somehow you just hope that there isn't going to be one more left.

It's quite a struggle actually, it's an internal struggle because part of you is saying "I'd really like to have another one because it tasted so good," but the "Fear Factor" tells you that you're really hoping that the next time you look down at your plate that there aren’t going to be any more and you can say that you have conquered that batch.

I would say that the ultimate hot wing is the one that really strikes that balance that gets you the full benefit of the flavorful experience but doesn't quite let the fear factor do you in so that you don't enjoy the sitting.

WingazetteÒ  Magazine: Is there any truth to the rumor that there is indeed an "O'Connor Celery Index," which can be monitored to determine the absolute degree of heat from a particular batch of wings?

O'Conner: Ah, now you're embarrassing me. Yes, it is true that one of my early statements in the pioneer days of wingdom was that celery was for wimps, and certainly in the early days I criticized anyone who went anywhere near the celery.

The progress that has been made in wing technology since those days has indeed made celery a necessary part of the meal, even for myself, so I must admit that now we measure the true heat index and probably fear index as well as to how much celery is going to be necessary to get through a meal.

WingazetteÒ  Magazine: What are your projections for the future of the hot wing market?

O'Conner: I think we're going to see a bit of a shakeout in the market because now that a higher quality wing is being made available and certainly WingazetteÒ Magazine has educated the consumer as to where they can go to get that wing. I think you are going to see very little tolerance for the inferior product that people put out just to try to capitalize on the wing craze.

I think we will see a survival of the fittest, and of course, the key to that is the education that the WingazetteÒ Magazine provides to it's readers, so that will be good for us, because what we will see is the inferior products disappearing and the wing providers who get high marks in WingazetteÒ Magazine will probably stay in business and continue to prosper.

WingazetteÒ  Magazine: Do you have any other helpful advice for the readers of our magazine?

O'Conner: One thing I would definitely advise is that they start planning trips around the selected restaurants in WingazetteÒ Magazine. They can't really appreciate some of the numbers in there until you compare those numbers to the best as the Editors of WingazetteÒ Magazine do.

It's one thing to read the various reviews, but I think it's very important to actually sample some of the very best. Of course since I have been a frequenter of the Turner Test Kitchen, I do have a very good handle on all the numbers, and those who have been to the Half Fast Oyster Bar and BW3's have a feel for that too.

For those of you who are still in the middle of the ratings, you really need to plan a week's vacation and get to a couple of these spots and put some true meaning into the rating system, so that you'll have a better appreciation as the list continues to grow and grow with the additional rankings.

WingazetteÒ  Magazine: Can we count on you this summer to contribute reviews from the Pittsburgh area, since you'll be out of the Atlanta Area of wing Influence (AWI)?

O'Conner: Yes, most of my weekends will be consumed visiting the wing restaurants available in the Northeast within a driving distance of where I'll be, so you can look forward to many, many additional reviews perhaps in the Pittsburgh AWI and the Cleveland AWI.

I may have to go as far as Philadelphia, even though that's a little too close to Atlantic City, we do need some information as far as the East side of Pennsylvania, so I'll try to provide that.

I also anticipate another wing legend, Dante Vespignani, will assist me in these efforts, he has promised to do that, as we’re going to try to build the database on the Northeast up to the same level as the Southeast, in terms of providing high quality information to WingazetteÒ Magazine readers.

Editor's Note:  In subsequent years after this interview, Dan would go on to write one of the greatest articles in Wingazette® Magazine history, The Storm Of The Century!

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