Eating a Habanero Hamburger was once a rite of passage for new and departing operating systems engineers at Silicon Graphics. The tradition is apparently still alive and well in the graphics group. Having set the Silicon Graphics company record for number of Habanero Hamburgers consumed, Brian Totty brought the fine tradition to Inktomi Corporation.
A few SGI historians have shared their reflections on this tradition. You can read about the origin and status of the Habanero subculture at SGI below:
Hi Bri - good to hear from you!
Here is what I know about the infamous "tpos" habanero hamburger tradition. I wasn't around for the early days of this, so parts may be somewhat apocryphal...
Way Back When, what became the Power Challenge OS group was sitting around discussing hot food. One of the people had mentioned that when he was working at Oracle, they used to stop by a little dive called the Prince Of Wales Pub whenever they wanted to really burn out their taste buds. Everyone was about due for a group lunch, so they decided to go try their luck at the Prince Of Wales.
It, um, certainly lived up to its reputation. Presumably, there was much wailing and moaning for the requisite 24 hours after their trip but most everybody survived. To commemorate their shared suffering, the souvenir bumper stickers that you get when you order a habanero burger at the POW all found their ways onto office doors, etc.
Since the bumper stickers aren't exactly subtle, they drew a fair bit of curiosity from others. "Oh, it couldn't be *that* bad" was the typical response of the uninitiated. Eventually there were enough unbelievers to warrant another trip. After all, there is a certain mildly sadistic pleasure in watching a devout skeptic choke/sweat/tremble/moan through their first habanero burger. More suffering ensued, followed by more bumper stickers, and then more unbelievers. A cycle was beginning to appear.
Of course, only a fool (ahem...) would voluntarily eat a second or subsequent habanero burger, so the voyeuristic sadists among us needed some kind of an excuse for going to the Prince Of Wales and then ordering some Ordinary sandwich. Thus, it became something of a tradition to initiate new members into the department by making them eat a habanero burger. And then the tradition was extended to include people *leaving* the group (think of it as a "retention plan"). I think we even managed to use the start and/or end of a sabatical as an excuse for a forced habanero feeding once or twice. Every time, there were always a few additional skeptics who also needed to be taught a lesson, and that always added to the fun.
Unfortunately, the Power Challenge OS group has since disbanded, and the habanero burger tradition seems to be falling by the wayside (a recurring theme at SGI, I'm afraid, though perhaps this is not the most important tradition to cling to). I'm happy to hear that you folks at Inktomi are still carrying the torch, as it were...
-Rob (rdb@engr.sgi.com)
Steve Whitney adds some additional color to Rob's recollections:
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 1997 16:34:08 -0700 (PDT)Brian-
I read Rob Bradshaw's description of the habanero tradition at SGI. He's got the right information, but my favorite part of the story when Tom Lawrence was telling it (he introduced the Burger to us at SGI) was that he went home and ate one of those little red and white peppermint candies and it "tasted like a rock." The group had been into sadistic activities at the time after a deep sea fishing trip during which all but two people got really, really seasick. Anyway, we had habanero burgers.
Next Jeff Doughty, the manager responsible for all this heard that there was a restaurant in Berkeley that served insects. But that's another story!
--Steve (sw@engr.sgi.com)
Allan Schaffer reports the habanero hamburger tradition is still alive and well in SGI's graphics group in 2002:
Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 19:13:16 -0700 (PDT)I stumbled across your website and thought I'd drop you a note.
I'm a twice-survivor of the famed Habanero Burger myself. But what I'm writing about, Rob Bradshaw (former @ SGI) wrote in 1996: "Unfortunately, the Power Challenge OS group has since disbanded, and the habanero burger tradition seems to be falling by the wayside".
You may be happy to know that the Graphics division has kept this "fire" burning. "I survived.." bumper stickers line the halls, and new hires go missing in the afternoons after their first trip.
Anyways, we all noticed that there's woefully few SGI'ers on the Hall of Flame, so you might get some additional submissions in the coming weeks. :-)
Allan (allan@sgi.com)