Words of wisdom from Dennis Rogers
Dennis Rogers was a columnist at The News & Observer, my favorite of the North Carolina newspapers (but I used to work there, so I might be biased), from 1977 until he retired in 2007. He liked to write about barbecue from time to time — he even proclaimed himself the “Oracle of the Holy Grub.”
What can I say? We take our BBQ seriously in North Carolina. We’ve had a link to the excellent Lexington Collection web site in our Hot Links section (on the right, below the categories) for a while now, but today I noticed they have a page of Dennis’ most quotable BBQ moments.
Here, he addresses one of my pet peeves:
“Y’all is plural, there is no such thing as one grit and barbecue — for the thousandth time — is a noun. It is not a verb or an adjective. You cook a pig and you get barbecue. You grill steaks and burgers. You do not ‘barbecue’ anything. So shut up about it.”
(D. Rogers, The News & Observer, April 22, 1977)