A Good Time Was Had by All
I think we all have a pre-departure "checklist," at least mentally, of things we need before we leave our homes for whatever reason. For me, that "checklist" has often included these items, which I carry in my backpack:
-iPod w/headphones
-cell phone
-cigarettes
-wallet
-lighter or matches
-a book or newspaper
-sunglasses
-chewing gum
-house keys
-ink pen
-day planner
-ibuprofen
-a bottle of anticonvulsants from the benzodiazepine family of CNS depressants
A recent foray to Long Island, though, found me with so few items that I didn't even need my backpack. Not even the smaller one. These are the things that traveled with me:
-cell phone
-Bluetooth earpiece
-house keys
-chewing gum
-nicotine gum
-wallet
Does this speak of an internal movement to more masculinity? Hardly--I think my recent fascination with Bette Davis would cancel that out. The true reason for a lighter load, I suspect, is that I no longer fear that cigarettes will get crushed or broken if I leave them in my jeans pocket.
And if you did not make the trek to East Meadow, Long Island, for the indoor cookout hosted my Marcus and Jess, you missed a wonderful time. I'm happy to plant my feet under their table any time! Even if Jess nearly caught the kitchen on fire by "grilling" indoors. Rain, you see, had prohibited the original plans of having the cookout on the back patio.
And finally, to explain to my yankee friends once again, it's NOT a barbecue if you're grilling. Barbecue is a process that involves long, lower-temperature cooking using smoke. Just so you know.
-iPod w/headphones
-cell phone
-cigarettes
-wallet
-lighter or matches
-a book or newspaper
-sunglasses
-chewing gum
-house keys
-ink pen
-day planner
-ibuprofen
-a bottle of anticonvulsants from the benzodiazepine family of CNS depressants
A recent foray to Long Island, though, found me with so few items that I didn't even need my backpack. Not even the smaller one. These are the things that traveled with me:
-cell phone
-Bluetooth earpiece
-house keys
-chewing gum
-nicotine gum
-wallet
Does this speak of an internal movement to more masculinity? Hardly--I think my recent fascination with Bette Davis would cancel that out. The true reason for a lighter load, I suspect, is that I no longer fear that cigarettes will get crushed or broken if I leave them in my jeans pocket.
And if you did not make the trek to East Meadow, Long Island, for the indoor cookout hosted my Marcus and Jess, you missed a wonderful time. I'm happy to plant my feet under their table any time! Even if Jess nearly caught the kitchen on fire by "grilling" indoors. Rain, you see, had prohibited the original plans of having the cookout on the back patio.
And finally, to explain to my yankee friends once again, it's NOT a barbecue if you're grilling. Barbecue is a process that involves long, lower-temperature cooking using smoke. Just so you know.
posted by Michael Vernon at Sunday, June 04, 2006
3 Comments:
Don't be such a wimp! Little bursts of flame weren't going to hurt anyone! :)
As for barbecue, how do you think Marc made that brisket? :P
'Scuse me, honey, but I *do* know that barbeque involves slow smoking...that brisket was barbequed, and I don't mean sauced. I don't smoke my brisket for an extremely long time, because I don't like the smoke flavor to be that heavy. But I do smoke it...so it's barbeque. :P
As for calling grilling barbequeing, well, that's a regional thing that varies from locale to locale. Used as a noun, your definition is correct, but it can also be used as a verb, meaning to cook over an open fire. Dictionary.com seems to agree with me: n 1: meat that has been barbecued or grilled in a highly seasoned sauce [syn: barbeque] 2: a cookout in which food is cooked over an open fire; especially a whole animal carcass roasted on a spit [syn: barbeque] 3: a rack to hold meat for cooking over hot charcoal usually out of doors [syn: barbeque] v : cook outdoors on a barbecue grill; "let's barbecue that meat."
xoxoxo
Very pretty design! Keep up the good work. Thanks.
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