Terrorists, Home Grown, Attack BarBeQues

Technorati Profile

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

I just fired up my barbeque for the first time this season, after buying a 20 lb bag of Kingsford brickettes at K-Mart on sale. I built my little pile, squirted on the lighter, and waited until I had a nice glowing pile.

Then I went to spread them around, and a good one third of them fell through the grate to the catch pan below! ARRRgh!

I looked at the bag. Kingsford, each brickette with a "K" on it. I've used the stuff for fifty years with no problems. I looked closer at my 20 lb bag......hmmmmm.......it's now an 18 pound bag. No wonder it was on sale at a price just slightly below last season's 20 pounders.

I looked at the brickettes. They seemed, skinnier????? Could that be?????

I still had an older bag back in the shed. I took it out. It was a 20 lb bag. I looked at the brickettes. They seemed...thicker. Quickly I lined up a bunch from each bag, and indeed the new brickettes are thinner on average than the older ones. This means that they will burn up faster, fall through the grates more easily, greatly add to the air pollution and CO2 levels, and force me to go locate a crossway grate to catch the falling brickettes, and hold them at the right height.

I've been told that K Mart and the other big box stores get specially packaged inferior products of brand names. Is this evidence of that? My dogs seem to need to eat more Pedigree dog food than they used to. Is it less nutritional now that gas has gone up?

Nathan Hotdogs on special, but that's a 12 oz package, not a 16 oz package. Seven skinny dogs, also subject to "fall through," not 8 dogs as before. "We have met the enemy, and they is us," Walt Kelly of Pogo fame.

It's time to see if http://consumerist.com with take up the story.

it's obvious that both companies want to sell more product at less cost. And Kingsford doesn't care how much they pollute the environment. I think I will go to natural wood style charcoal for the duration.