Marinade, butter and baste, and rub it in - barbecuing is raised to the level of fine dining. Smoking ribs, turkey, chicken, and pork shoulder or butt has become one of my favorite cooking methods this summer. Today I am trying my own recipe for a rub. The test subject on my smoker is a five pound chicken.

Let’s get right to it - here is my new recipe:

2 Ounces of Paprika

2 Tbls of Brown Sugar

2 Tbls Granulated Sugar

3 Tsp salt

1 Tsp ground black pepper

1 Tsp Garlic powder

Ben Stiller has a new comedy movie being unveiled this week. The movie is called “Tropic Thunder.” But it is being trumpeted as some sort of evil incarnation of ancient bigotry against mental illness or the mentally impaired, or something like that. Apparently the movie uses the term ‘retard’ multiple times. The movie has an all star cast of Toby McGuire, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, and Ben Stiller.

I am one who is occasionally accused of being politically correct - and I admit that occasionally I find benefit in being careful not to hurt others. But I recognize that the world is what it is, and we have to live with it.

I was in my bank the other day to roll over my wife’s 401k, and I was browsing all of their literature while I waited for the financial advisor. I don’t usually pay any attention to all of the stuff along the wall because I already have all of the banking junk that I need and I don’t want to be tempted to open another account just to get the free M&M’s, which I would almost certainly do. I love M&M’s. For the first time I looked at the “Business Of The Month” table, and I was appalled.

This has been a good summer for my patio. A friend gave me an old smoker - one of those stand up models with a water/drip pan. But hey, I never smoked a piece of meat in my life. I have smoked other things, but they could easily fit in my shirt pocket. So I began my summer of experimenting with smoking pork, turkey, and chicken.

I read the Barbecue Bible, by Steven Raichlen. The book is well done, has many fine recipes, and examples of outdoor cooking from around the world. He faltered when he professed that Kansas City, Kansas, is renowned for Barbecue. The renown for barbecue is from Kansas City, Missouri, on the Missouri River, not the Kansas River - all of that aside, the book is worthy of consideration.