As the economy continues to weaken, the toll of human tragedy continues to mount:
On the eve of the annual Wing Bowl, there is a nationwide chicken shortage that is driving up the price of chicken wings.
Like the feeling you get after an incomplete pass, a Super Bowl party without wings can leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.
Wing prices always go up before the Bowl, but this year, the cost of wings has taken flight thanks to a wing shortage across the country.
"Before Christmas, they were $1.29 a pound and now they are up to $1.79, so they have gone up about 50 cents," Cavanaugh's Restaurant and Sports Bar owner Brian Pawliczek said.
[. . .]
Pilgrim's Pride, which supplied one quarter of the country's 24 billion wings last year, filed for bankruptcy protection in December.
The National Chicken Council Board says chicken production is down by 5 percent this year.
50 cents a pound more -- oh, the humanity! Have a manly snack, ya wimps!
