Our friends over at Campus Progress sent us an email about a contest they're sponsoring that should be good for a few laughs. The Social Capital blog's Free Food-a-Thon promises to pit two of the most demanding needs of any Washington intern -- to save money and to eat -- in a battle of epicurean proportions. Here's the deal:

Next week, Campus Progress interns will compete, two a day, where they will document their meals/snacks/crumbs from the floor, all of which must be free (not previously bought by the eater or purchased immediately before by another party specifically for the eater). They'll scramble for that last pig-in-blanket, angle for that mini muffin, and schmooze their way into that fancy embassy cocktail party.

I have just left Campus Progress a short while ago, and, despite suffering from an apparent inability to control my motor functions, have managed finally to wrest control of my American Enterprise Institute nametag from its handlers. Breakfasting on large amounts of overly-creamed complimentary coffee was not such a bad idea, I think, shaking uncontrollably. I place my free chips, salad, noodles, wraps, and Mandarin Orange seltzer on the table a safe distance away from my colleague, who eyes them longingly (or seems to -- is that the caffeine speaking?) The food products arrayed before me might not be the "lobster confabulations" that David Brooks, that voice of the working class, speaks so highly of, but they are entirely free thanks to the generosity of Philip Morris and ExxonMobil, among others.