Tamales, anyone?

While Mayor Nutter awaits the giant cheesecake promised by the vanquished NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg following his Giants' loss to the Eagles Sunday, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is busy assembling a wager worthy of sending when the Iggles devour the Cardinals for the NFC championship.

Gordon spokesman Scott Phelps said a wager was a hot topic at the 8:30 a.m. staff meeting, with tamales and salsa as recommended offerings, subject to negotiations between Gordon and Mayor Nutter. Phelps appears to be salivating early. He claimed that cheesesteaks do exist in the desert, and that the locals find them tasty. But "There's every possibility that yours are better."

Yes, and every possibility that there Will be red feathers all over University of Phoenix stadium Sunday. (that's right, the online university without its own team).

Heard in City Hall has some experience in Arizona, and urges Mayor Nutter to order some green chile and maybe some posole, two dishes the Northeast has not done a great job duplicating. Nutter has not yet committed to his wager. To New York he had offered a political package of five different cheesesteaks, which he wouldn't name so as not to have to choose between potentially angry cheesesteak titans unless he lost.

New York taxpayers are on the hook for one giant, 12-pound cheesecake from The Carnegie Deli, which Bloomberg's office promised Heard in City Hall it would send out tonight for delivery Tuesday.

Nutter's spokesman, Doug Oliver, said the New Yorkers had questions about how you ship a cheesesteak, but Phelps in Arizona said they have mastered shipping technologies over the years with bets going back to the Diamondbacks and Yankees in baseball (World Series 2001).

Oliver, however, said figuring out how to ship a cheesesteak is no urgent matter. "The last time we got into this fiasco, we never had to do it," he said, with fond reminiscences of the great World Series of 2008. "It's not the kind of thing we have to think about."

People of the desert, IT'S ON.

UPDATE: Big newsflash. Following a press conference on improvements at the Department of Human Services, Mayor Nutter took some questions on the Eagles victory Sunday, and his wagers with the cowering leaders of cities unfortunate enough to to face off against Philadelphia. Though Nutter said he just missed Phoenix Mayor Gordon's call (as he headed to the press conference) he already has a bet in place with Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs. The bet? Chocolate. Lots of chocolate. Apparently Glendale, which is the town outside Phoenix where the Cardinals actually play their games, is home to a "famous" chocolate maker called Cerreta's. Nutter is countering with a little operation known as Hershey's. The loser must hand deliver chocolate from the victorious town to their city council.

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