Killer Ribs: Mouthwatering Recipes from North America's Best Rib Joints by Nancy Davidson

This tome on the art of smoking ribs was published in 2006. It details some of the best rib eateries in all the 50 states and in Canada. Yes, Canada! Turns out that our friends to the North are known for taking culinary tours of American BBQ and some have brought the all-American meal of ribs, beef, pork and everything in between, back across the border with them!

If you are using this book as a travel guide, you might be rather disappointed. Of the 3 locations listed in my home state of North Carolina, 2 of them are now defunct. More often than not, BBQ joints are a family run business. So unfortunately death, divorce or old age has caused for quite a few rib joints to close. COVID-19 did a number on the restaurant industry as well. My advice, utilize a Google search when using this book as your next culinary travel guide.

Thankfully, there's more to this book than locales. In every 2 page spread, along with a history of the restaurant and its pit masters, you get a recipe and tips for selecting the right cut of meat and the best wood for the job. I was surprised that many of the recipes were provided by the pit masters. I always thought such information was treated with more care and confidentiality than an American President with Top Secret documents. 

Some of the recipes are for the rub. Some are for making sauces. Fewer are about actual cooking of ribs. Surprisingly, there's a recipe for making alligator ribs and another one for mutton. And if you are thinking about skipping the rub, DON'T! You might think that the salt is unnecessary sodium in the formula. But it's needed to help break down the proteins and impart the other spices and smoke deep down all the way to the bones. If you are worried about your blood pressure, find ways to cut it in the sauce. I was surprised to find how many pit masters thumb their nose at BBQ sauce! It's naked ribs or nuthin'!

So why did I read this book? Well, recently, my wife ordered me a smoker. We got a fantastic deal that I don't think I am at liberty in mentioning here. (Feel free to PM me if you want the details.) Now that the smoker has arrived and I am setting it up, I realized that I had this book, which I got as a prize for participating in last year's summer reading program at our local library. It felt as good a time as any to get some further learning on the subject. 

Here's a few highlights:

* Remove the back skin. Or don't. Some pit masters think that elastin keeps the ribs from falling apart. 

* Use the smoker to primarily impart the flavors. Going at a temp no higher than 250F, a lot of pit masters get the ribs up to temp by finishing in the oven.

*Speaking of ovens, that's the time for the sauce. Not while in the smoker. That's the #1 way to ruin a smoker. Not to mention, burning the ribs.

*Lastly, the amount of celery seeds and celery salt used by rib joints... It's a wonder that I have made it to 48. I'm very allergic to stuff. Yet I would say 3 out of every 10 recipes didn't call for the stuff! I eat ribs a lot. How have I not succumbed to a batch of saucy hidden dangers?!

If anything, I learned the process. I've got my own ideas for the blend mixture of wood chips to use. Same goes for the sauce. Just about every pit masters in here has firm guidelines for how to smoke their meats. But when it comes to flavors, spiciness and taste, they almost always say to adjust with what you prefer. 

I've got nearly 2 decades of culinary education and experience, so with exception of the mutton recipe, I'm going to experiment. But if you are a newbie to cooking, definitely start out with what the experts say on the first go-round. Then adjust to your preference as you repeat the recipe. 

Oh, and one more thing, if you are going to become the next great pit master, get a high quality smoker. But don't break the bank. The cheapest of smokers often are not worth the materials that they are constructed from. In fact, the greatest smoker I ever encountered was my grandfather's and it was made from an old drum and ample amounts of solder. If you know how to build it yourself and you can do the job right: do it! Size doesn't necessarily matter either as the 2nd best one was a tiny little number my other granddad got at Lowe's. 

If there's one thing that I know about BBQ, not grilling barbecue, but BBQ'd beef, pork, chicken and gator, apparently, it's that while all these championship pit masters claim that they know how to make perfect smoked grub, there is NO definitive way to smoke meat. So, go with what you know and love and you'll enjoy the lengthy process of low and slow for some killer ribs!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day

I took my god son to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day and I have got to say that it was really good.

The world may have forgotten Peter Parker. But it hasn't forgotten about Spider-Man. This includes best bud Ned Leeds and girlfriend MJ who have fractured memories of being rescued by the superhero. Crime in New York is at an all-time low. That is except for at the Department of Damage Control. That federal office has been attacked by an unknown assailant 4 times in the last month and now with attack #5, Spider-Man is involved. Whomever is behind the attack is possessing people in order to free Mac Gargan, the Scorpion, in hopes of discovering the secret of V-Max. 

When the entity attempts to enter Spider-Man, his Spidey senses push the intruder out of his mind. But in doing so, Spider-Man triggers his latent abilities, organic web shooters for one thing, that is causing Peter Parker to go insane. After almost killing both the Scorpion and a cop, Parker seeks out help in the form of Dr. Bruce Banner, who has developed a device that keeps his mean, green side in check. 

As Spidey develops an inhibitor to his new powers, the unknown entity has learned the webcrawler's secret identity. To keep Spider-Man from interfering with their quest to discover what Damage Control is hiding with V-Max, the entity has taken control of someone very near and dear to Peter's heart and he must turn to the one guy he'd never trust in a million years to protect them; one Frank Castle, the Punisher.

My god son wanted to see it in 3-D. I was wary because I wear glasses and the last time we went to a 3-D flick, I got the biggest headache. Not this time, however. There must have been some improvements since the last time I did 3-D, which I think was Venom...

Marvel Studios has gotten some flak for poor CGI and special effects in recent films. But I think they must have made some improvements as well. The scenes of Spidey swinging through the New York skyline was stunning. I felt like a kid again, living a childhood dream to be like Spider-Man in the parts where the movie was shot from the heroes point of view. With the classic blue, red and black costume, this is how I wish Spider-Man '77 could have been like.

Once again, Tom Holland is the definitive Peter Parker. Jon Bernthal as the Punisher was perfect. This is what I expect Frank Castle to be like if he was a real person. The guy playing the Scorpion, Michael Mando, has that kind of face that I swear that I have seen before. I got the actor who played Damage Control's head honcho, Bill Metzger wrong. He's played by Tramell Tillman, not Jason Derulo. And I really bombed on my guess as to the mystery character Sadie Sink was playing. I didn't even hit the target, much less a bullseye.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day was the first film since last year's Superman where I would have paid movie to see it again, right then and there. Though I don't think my ever falling apart body could have stayed seated for another almost 150 minutes of run time. But this was a great movie that really sets some things up for Avengers: Doomsday this Christmas. Just don't expect too much from the extra scene at the very end of the credits. Seeing the various webheads of the Spider-verse is not happening just yet. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Bill & Ted's Most Triumphant Return

According to Alex Winter, Mr. Bill S. Preston, Esq. in the flesh, in this book's foreword, when the creative team of Brian Lynch and Jerry Gaylord was crafting this miniseries, Bill and Ted creators Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon were working on the third film in the series, Bill & Ted Face the Music. Secretly, Winter, along with the creators as well as Keanu Reeves were on massive pins and needles. If 2015's Bill & Ted's Most Triumphant Return sucked, it could very much upset the whole thing. Studio execs could warrant that if a comic book sequel to the first 2 Bill & Ted movies was a giant flop, why would they want to pump millions of dollars into another live action flick to could potentially go belly up as well? Thankfully, this canon comic book epic didn't wreck the franchise!

Taking place after the events of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, the boys having some massive writer's bock. The world is demanding another rock epic from Wyld Stallyns and the fear of failure has paralyzed the guys. It's also really bugging them as to why Chuck De Nomolos, the villain from the 2nd movie, hated Bill and Ted so much. Into the time machine for the fellas...

Appearing in the future, they meet a teenaged De Nomolos who is ostracized by friends and family alike. Turns out being the foretold killer of your society's messiahs really carries a stigma. Bill and Ted really feel bad for the kid and they attempt a personality makeover. However, their good deeds don't go unpunished as when Bill and Ted return to their time, they find themselves replaced by De Nomolos and his future cronies! If you thought making robot Bill and Ted to kill the real McCoy was sinister, you haven't seen anything yet as Chuck De Nomolos not only strands the boys in prehistoric times, but he also allegedly kills off both members of Station, turns Rufus into a wanted fugitive and steals Death's Grim Reaping powers!

I thought this was a fantastic midquel that doesn't do anything to harm the flow between Bogus Journey and Face the Music. If you're having trouble visualizing what a midquel is, think about how Rogue One now sits in-between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Lots of great historical cameos. I won't spoil anything. But I do want to complain just a pinch that Cleopatra and ancient Egypt is nowhere in this book despite being featured on the front cover. 

Speaking of the cover, there are tons- TONS, of variant covers. Plus there are several shorts that explore the B&T universe. They were great reads featuring art and story by special guest-stars. I wouldn't mind another helping of these tales; they were that great.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 1: Squirrel Power

There's not many superheroes out there that can claim that they defeated Thanos, Deadpool and Doctor Doom. Oddly enough, Squirrel Girl can. And she's about to add a few more villains to her list, including the biggie of them all: Galactus! But first, she's got to move into her dorm, meet her roommate and her roomie's cat, attend freshman orientation and catch the eye of the freshman hunk that she ran into during her first day of college. Armed with her best friend, Tippy Toe the squirrel, some borrowed Tony Stark tech and a nauseating amount of optimism, Squirrel Girl just might be able to save the world.

Written by Ryan North and illustrated by Erica Henderson. Although, it really seems to me that Erica Henderson should receive co-plotter credits based on the amount of work she's credited for by Ryan North in the letters column of each issue. When's the last time you could say that a trade paperback included the letters columns? Tongue is very much in cheek all around. However, there's a certain degree of reverence to the lead character, which you have to admit is one of Marvel's odder creations. 

Almost every page has a secret message around the bottom margin. You'll need a microscope to read the ones in issue #1. It gets a little bigger on issue #2 but it doesn't help much that the font color appears to be this dijon mustard beige hue. The messages are mostly funny. A couple are interesting factoids. But they also gave me a bit of a headache, and that's with reading glasses.

I don't think that I am going to keep this book. I wouldn't be opposed to reading volume 2 if I found it for cheap or at my local library. As a bonus feature, Squirrel Girl's first appearance from 1990's Marvel Super-Heroes Winter Special is included. Those early 90s seasonal specials are on my wish list and I have quite a few in my collection. Considering how expensive a copy is, I wouldn't mind owning a reprint or facsimile edition of that issue. But only her story is included in this book. It's just not enough to get me to want to hold onto it.

Be mad at me if you want, but Tippy Toe is the best character and excellently drawn. I just hope she doesn't meet the same grisly fate of her predecessor Monkey Joe.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

The Case of the Dangerous Dowager by Erle Stanley Gardner

I have a fairly extensive knowledge of the character Perry Mason because of my mom. She owned a copy of every one of the books written by Erle Stanley Gardner and when growing up, there was a good chance that Perry Mason, played by Raymond Burr was on in either rerun or as a 2-hour movie of the week.

For about the past year now, I have been enjoying mystery novels. Mostly the crime noir tales of private detective Philip Marlowe written by Raymond Chandler. I've always loved a mystery and with me about to have run the gambit of works by Chandler, I felt that it might be time to seek out another classic mystery writer. 

During our family's annual scavenger hunt during the 301 Endless Yard Sale, I decided to put a Perry Mason novel on the list. Hopefully, somebody would find one and since you didn't really have to start with book #1, I was open to whatever might be available in just about any condition except severely water damaged and mildewed.

I got lucky at my first stop, a thrift store that supports a pet rescue called Street Dogs and Stray Cats. Minus the dust jacket, I found this 1937 first edition of The Case of the Dangerous Dowager. It's the 10th book in the series and it's about as far away from episode of the golden age of television series as I think you could get. 

Here's a quick rundown of the case. There is this rich grandma who knows that her granddaughter is over $7000 in debt to a pair of 'legitimate businessmen', who own a casino ship, legally 12 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. The husband of the granddaughter is about to file for divorce and if he could get his hands on the IOU slips, it would strengthen his case to become sole guardian of their infant child and executor of a rather large trust fund. 

The grandmother hires Perry Mason to buy up the IOUs before the husband can. It's not really the sort of thing Mason does. But the grandmother feels that the lawyer is a very trustworthy soul and she authorizes him to include a bonus to prevent the casino owners from blackmailing the granddaughter and keep the inheritance in the family. 

Mason takes a speedboat to the casino. With money in hand, Mason is prepared to buy the IOUs and then wash his hands of the entire affair. However, when he goes to visit the co-owner who oversees the financial side of things, he finds the man shot through the temple. Only, there's no gun! The IOUs are right there at the deceased man's desk. The granddaughter was spotted on the boat. As was the husband. Grandma too! 

So Perry Mason finds himself implicated for the murder. Instead of going to trial, the lawyer goes on the run. As the story breaks in the newspapers and radio, Perry runs through the suspect list in hopes of clearing his name and finding out just who the murderer is. 

With exception of a scene that takes place in a conference room with the Los Angeles County District attorney and all of the suspects rounded up about to testify before the grand jury, there is no actual court proceedings! Perry manages to wrestle control of the pre-jury meeting from the D.A., and through extensive questioning, gets to the bottom of things. But in this book, he's more of a P.I. than a lawyer. 

I know that on the 2020 HBO reboot series, Perry Mason starts out as a private detective, working his way up to becoming a defense attorney. So having him trying to solve the crime by beating the pavement by working over leads might be in line with the character. But I don't remember an episode of 1957-1966's Perry Mason not ever taking place in a court of law. Where's Hamilton Burger, the most unlikely assistant D.A. in history? Where's the judge threatening contempt of court? This is so unlike what I grew up with.

There's a rule in my family that we never judge a TV series by the first episode. We always give shows at least 2 more episodes before we decide whether or not to cut bait. I luckily was able to get a second book at the same time as this one. I'm just wondering if all of the books are like this one or is The Case of the Dangerous Dowager the exception to the rule?

I'll find out shortly.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars. 

Slimer #1

I started this book over a month ago. I had gone to a local comic book store to stock up on some reads for my annual family vacation, which is where I came across this book. I was really excited to get it because I had seen it advertised on FB the week prior and was convinced that it was going to be sold before I got there. But it was my lucky day. 

Anyways I read the first half of the comic and then went on my vacation the next day and we'll, wouldn't you know it's the end of July before I remembered that I still had half of the book left to read. The comic, a spinoff of The Real Ghostbusters starred everyone's favorite ghost, Slimer. Published in 1989, the book had 2 stories, both written by Hilarie Staton. 

First, Slimer accidentally frees a ghost from a containment unit and the ghost could not be any more of a brat. Trying to get Slimer to embrace the mischief that comes with being a ghost, the new spook ends up continuously getting the green ghostie into trouble he didn't ask for. Then while seeking out a really large cake, Slimer unknowingly causes trouble for a hotel full of attendees of a plumbers convention.

In both stories, Slimer can speak full sentences. When did this happen? All I remember as a kid from the animated Ghostbusters cartoon was that Slimer mostly spoke gobbledygook with maybe a 2 year old's vocabulary.  So having him speak so eloquent in this book was a bit of a shock. 

At the beginning of this book, the editing team pat themselves on the back for finally earning the CCA stamp. Sadly, it's really too little, too late for NOW Comics as they'll be filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in just a another year or so and both Ghostbusters comics will be cancelled! I understand that obtaining the stamp was done in order to make NOW Comics more marketable nationwide. But I would have appreciated it more if the folks at NOW would have spent all that time and effort instead on making the artwork look better. Okay. The artwork was spot on. But the coloring was atrocious. It looked like something my mom could have colored with her beloved markers instead of by a seasoned professional

Despite earning the stamp, I was very surprised of the content of the second story because the giant cake Slimer wants to eat will eventually contain a stripper, who shows up to the plumbers convention wearing nothing but a bikini and F-Me pumps. To be fair, the girl is never called a stripper and she never gets into the cake. But man, the Comic Code Authority really let just about anything pass during their waning years it seems.

Deadpool Team-Up, Vol 1: Good Buddies

I got on the Deadpool Team-Up band wagon way too late. I'm taking about the 2009-11 series, by the way. I bought issue #884 which has the Merc With a Mouth teaming with Oatu the Watcher. A sucker for a team-up title, I was thrown off by the high numbering. It turns out that as a joke, Marvel decided to spoof the now meaningless legacy numbering by having each issue of this series go backwards from #899, after releasing a special 900th issue of Deadpool!

With Deadpool Team-Up getting cancelled with issue #883 and finding it a financial nightmare trying to collect the rest of the series, I quietly put the series on my wishlist and went on to collect other, more affordable titles. For nearly 15 years, I searched and searched for issues that wouldn't break my bank. Wanna guess how many issues I found? If you guessed zip, zilch, nada; give yourself a cookie. That was until this past week. I had a box full of stuff to take to a used bookstore for trade credit and got lucky finding not just this hardback edition, but the other 2 volumes that round out the run. Being premium editions, each book was still pricey. But at a little bit less than half of original cover price, AND considering how difficult it's been to get this series off my wishlist, I scooped up all 3 books and merrily went about my way. Besides, the trade credit covered the price, meaning that the cash in my pocket could be spent on other things!

With the numbering going backwards, I wouldn't have been surprised if you were supposed to read volume 3 first. But I can attest that is not the case here. In the opener, Wade Wilson finds himself stuck in the wandering labyrinth of legend with none other than Hercules! Deadpool then attempts to collect bounties for successful hits with a pair of lucha libre hitman siblings called the Zapata Brothers, legendary big rig trucker US Ace, and a pair of Ghost Riders. Wade then helps a woman locate the missing behemoth, IT!, the Living Colossus before accepting a hit to rub out the Punisher, who at this moment in time has been reanimated into a Frankenstein monster!

The Punisher issue has a ton of fantastic cameos. It's a real treat if you are a fan of Marvel's monsters, of which I definitely am. You could consider me gobsmacked when I learn that the old Jim Shooter lead series US1 is actually pronounced US Ace! There are no numbers to be said when speaking about the title! Plus, I didn't realize that the trucker had adventures in outer space. I'm going have to revisit that staple of dollar boxes nationwide...

Featuring a different talent team each issue, I really dug this series. A good rule of thumb about team-up books is that the more obscure the guest star, the better the story. And with IT!, the Living Colossus and the hermanos Zapata, I do not think you could get much more obscure. The only thing I wasn't such a fan of was the inclusion of the bonus material of an issue of Marvel Spotlight focusing on Deadpool. It's mostly a 30 page commercial for other Deadpool titles and if you've read 1 interview with a comic book creator, you really have read them all. I mostly read it for the pictures...

Come on volume 2!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.