"barbecue pit"

[Wilson Gray]

I didn't know that there was a Saint Louis style of barbecuing till I
after I had moved away from there to the Northeast. When I lived in
Saint Louis, all references were simply to "barbecue," no doubt
because, in Saint Louis, the Saint Louis style is necessarily the
default case.

-Wilson

On Mon, Aug 11, 2008 at 2:08 PM, Doug Harris <cats22 at frontiernet.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "barbecue pit"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> And it could be said, somewhat metaphorically, that NE-defined
> barbeque _is_ the pits compared to the southern or St Louis style.
> dh
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: "barbecue pit"
> -----
>>
>> Isn't the issue here related to a dialect matter that we have discussed
> within the past year or two?  In the South and Southwest (principally) the
> VERB "barbecue" means 'cook large pieces of meat slowly--for several
> hours--over coals in a pit or in a brick structure above the ground'. In the
> North (principally) "barbecue" means 'cook hamburgers or wieners for a few
> minutes on a portable metal charcoal or gas griller', which could be
> metaphorically called a "pit" in deference to the TRUE meaning of
> "barbecue."
>>
>> --Charlie
>> _____________________________________________________________
>>
>> ---- Original message ----
>>>Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:04:03 -0400
>>>From: Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>>>Subject: "barbecue pit"
>>>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>>
>>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
>>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
>>>Subject:      "barbecue pit"
>>>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----
>>>
>>>The second sentence of the appended article reads: "An argument over
>>>whether a third guest should stay in the house got so heated that the
>>>woman picked up the barbecue pit and hit the man over the head with
>>>it, police said." The friend who sent it to me wrote:
>>>
>>>-----
>>> File under, "You keep using that word...I do not think it means what
>>>you think it means."  I saw the headline, and I wondered how you could
>>>do that.
>>>-----
>>>
>>>So did I. To me, a pit is a basically a hole in the ground, possibly
>>>lined with bricks and fitted with assorted useful accessories for
>>>cooking, but still a hole.
>>>
>>>But this term seems to have been lexicalized, e.g.,
>>>
>>>http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/bbqgrill.pdf [from the Cooperative
>>>Extension Service of Mississippi State University]:
>>>MULTIPLE-SECTION PORTABLE BARBECUE PIT
>>>Barbecuing chickens for large groups is fairly easy when a
>>>multiple-section portable barbecue pit is used. It is prefabricated in
>>>sections, permitting fast and easy assembly and disassembly. The unit
>>>is easily transported and stored. Any number of eight-foot long
>>>sections can be interconnected, depending on the number of chickens to
>>>be barbecued.
>>>
>>>And the readers commenting on the website of the local newspaper that
>>>originated the story
>>>(http://www.thetowntalk.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080807/NEWS01/808
> 070337
>>>, "Serving Alexandria, Pineville, and Central Louisiana") don't seem
>>>to find anything unusual in the usage.
>>>
>>>================
>>>
>>>http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080807/D92DOO2O1.html
>>>
>>>Two arrested after using barbecue pit as a weapon
>>>Aug 7, 7:54 PM (ET)
>>>
>>>ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) - A man and a woman found a new use for a
>>>barbecue pit - one that landed them in jail. An argument over whether
>>>a third guest should stay in the house got so heated that the woman
>>>picked up the barbecue pit and hit the man over the head with it,
>>>police said.
>>>
>>>The man picked up the barbecue pit and returned the favor and hit the
>>>woman in the head with it, police reported. The woman then told police
>>>that she picked up the barbecue pit and hit the back window of the
>>>man's car with it.
>>>
>>>Police admit that the whole situation was confusing, but after medics
>>>treated the man and the woman, they were handcuffed, read their rights
>>>and taken to jail.
>>>
>>>The man was booked on a charge of aggravated battery and the woman was
>>>booked with aggravated battery and simple criminal damage to property
>>>valued less than $500.
>>>
>>>==============
>>>
>>>
>>>--
>>>Mark Mandel
>>>
>>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
>  -Sam'l Clemens
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org