Shovel talk

Popular Barbequer
I spent about three summers cooking mass amounts of meat for company picnics. We probably did 150 picnics each summer, with an average of 250-400 people per picnic. Chicken, ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, tri-tip. For three summers. Two of those summers were spent with my dear friend Ted talking about the A's, teaching him about the Raiders, talking about girls we liked and/or wanted to sleep with...it was awesome. I think both of us have referred to that job as our best ever. So we'd stand there talking about that stuff as each manned a giant grill that was framed by a crazy brick structure. This thing was massive and truly old school. It had a wheel on either end so you could raise and lower the actual grill according to how much heat you needed. It's kind of sad to thhink that they eventually tore it down in favor of smaller, quicker, propane grills. But during these chat sessions with Ted, which we called shovel talk (the shovel was used to spread mesquite around evenly), we managed to come up with a magazine just for the barbeque professional, popular barbequer. I don't what the hell would have been in it. Recipes?

But here's a practical application for a silly idea. I think supermarkets could give away a publication of the same title with tips, and recipes, and interviews, etc. as a relationship marketing effort in the summer time. They could even design the cover so it looked like Popular Science. It wouldn't make them rich, but it might get you a few loyal customers.

An interesting note to this story: At the end of the third summer, I got really sick. I coughed a lot, and the doctors thought I might have asthma. Eventually, some genius doctor (who for some reason I never saw again) tested my breathing capacity and found I was only capable of 60% of normal. I had lost nearly have my lung power! That summer ended and I got better and I didn't go back the next season. Word to the wise, inhaling smoke from mesquite is not good for you.