Wellll.....

I guess I must admit that I can appreciate the 'pedantry' that some
folks have in being a purist. In very much the same way that has been
demonstrated in this thread, it really flares my roids when I see
someone plug a digital effects processor into a tube amp, drop a Chevy
small block in a '32 Ford, say OSX is UNIX, call an H2 a Humvee, or
refer to a DJ as "a musician". There's a bit of love involved in the
desire to learn, do and master things.

Doing a "proper BBQ" (as a process, not a sauce) is certainly a
laborious process and it has some very different results from slow
cooking something in a crock and dousing it with some HFC-based
sauce. I get that. Building a hot rod the ground up with all Ford
parts (and fabricating all the parts you can't buy) is considered
doing it "the hard and expensive way", but it's also considered doing
it "the right way" by those who do it. Sure you could build a
fiberglass '32 Ford out of a catalogue and yank the drivetrain out of
a $400 Chevy Caprice for some V8 power. From 15 feet away few will
know the difference. Most won't know it up close. But for those who
did it "the hard and expensive way", well, that's real art and
craftsmanship. Why else would they hunt the continent for an
underpowered, obsolete 239cid Flathead V8 and pay thousands of dollars
for it? When you put that much work and that much of yourself into
something, you build a relationship with it. It becomes a part of
you, and you become a part of it. I get that too.

But at the same time, I guess I've learned to know the difference.
There will always be things that I'm going to get into to the point of
a purist, and there will always be the mass crowd that i won't feel
will 'get it'. I've sort of accepted this now. I'd like to say I've
always been that way but it's really only in the last few years. I
guess age has its benefits. So to be honest, I'm not the least bit
offended when someone tells me "10 hours in a crock pot and dumping
sauce doesn't equal BBQ". Do I know the difference? Story time:

Last summer my girlfriend's mom got remarried. The wedding took place
up in the WI Northwoods at a nice piece of wooded property the family
owned, which used to be a Nudist Resort. It was a potluck type deal
(which is always great) but for the main course they hired some local
guys out to do a pig roast. These guys rolled up around 5am pulling a
giant black grill on a trailer behind a full-sized Silverado. This
grill was taller than me and longer than the truck that pulled it. On
the front was a 5hp electric motor that drove the internal spit
through an old Saginaw 4 speed. The back of the truck was full of
charcoal (not briquettes) and there were several buckets of wet wood
chips. They probably spent an hour getting it all set up, maybe
more. There was, i believe, four whole pigs that went into this
(there was about 100 people at the gig and it was a 3-day event).
They put those pigs in there, and they turned. And smoked. And
turned. And smoked. And turned. And smoked. I want to say six or
seven hours, but I wasn't watching them the whole time. At some
point, they pulled them out and put them in Nescoes..... this is the
point where the purists in this thread will say "yes, this is the
right idea", but know what they did after putting the pork in the
Nescoes? They poured on a mixure of Famous Dave's BBQ sauce and
Miller High Life.

So you tell me. What's right anymore?

Was it good? Hell yes. Was it a lot of work? Hell yes. Not for me,
but it was an all day adventure for two men to make that happen. Is
my crock pot pork with Sweet Baby Ray's sauce on it the same thing?
No, of course not. But it's more similar than dissimilar, wouldn't
you think? When I say "BBQ Pulled Pork", what will over 80% of this
ng think I'm talking about?

I guess the moral of the story is not to get too bent up on labels.
Just enjoy the content. Remember the beer can shim story in Zen and
The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

-J