Athens marks meat week

For Josh Skelton, this is the greatest week of the year.

The first week in February is the highest of holidays, he'll tell you. Christians have Easter, Americans have Independence Day and partiers have Mardis Gras.

But carnivores everywhere have this week - even if they don't know it yet.

Today marks the beginning of Meat Week, the 6-year-old holiday that time forgot. Everyone is invited to a roving eight-day banquet, but there is a catch.

Barbecue always is the main course.

"The question I get all the time is 'Why Meat Week?' " Skelton said. The answer: "Because 'Meat Month' would kill you."

Still, a week's worth of barbecue dinners isn't something to take lightly. Meat Week is a holiday, but it's a bit of a marathon, Skelton said.

Anyone who can eat eight-straight barbecue dinners really has achieved something. Most who try fall short.

Last year, 12 diners started out their barbecue voyage at Harry's Pig Shop. Only three made it the whole week.

"You get your second wind on Thursday after hitting the wall, but by the second weekend you're just delirious," Skelton said. "After Meat Week, you're so happy that you finished, but you go through a withdrawal."

Chris Cantey and Erni Walker created Meat Week in 2005 in Florida to fill a void in their lives, sort of.

Actually, the two video editors were playing with some word generator software at their Tallahassee, Fla., office one day when it spat out the two words that soon would become a holiday. Cantey and Walker chose the week following Sorcerer Day and

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