Smoke Signals: Presidential grilling

I cannot tell a lie: I did not barbecue yesterday.

Should have, I know. Because yesterday was Presidents’ Day, which means it might as well be called Barbecuers’ Day.

George Washington was himself quite the barbecue hound. “Went into Alexandria to a Barbecue and stayed all Night,” he wrote in his diary for May 27, 1769.

According to “ Barbecue: The History of an American Institution ” (University of Alabama Press, 2010) by Robert F. Moss , the father of our country “recorded attending six such events between 1769 and 1774, including, on September 18, 1773, ‘a Barbicue [sic] of my own giving at Accotinck.”

Note the capitalization of the word. I think we should return to that spelling, according the food its proper respect.

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