After Texas Monthly officially named a Barbecue Editor in Daniel Vaughn, a position that supposedly “exists at no other magazine in America,” the North Carolina Miscellany blog was quick to point out that this type of work has been done for at least the past 15 years in NC. 

That’s the nit-picky stuff that I’m not so interested in. Where it gets interesting is in the comments of the blog post where John Shelton Reed (author of Holy Smoke), Daniel Vaughn himself, and the blog article author have an interesting back and forth which leads to a sort of NC-Texas alliance proposed by John Shelton Reed.

We suggested, basically, that Tar Heels should enjoy our eastern-piedmont civil war, but join hands when appropriate against barbecue barbarians from beyond the pale like (excuse me) y’all. I’d love to see a similar alliance of convenience between us and you against gas-cookers, International House of Barbecue chains, and the Kansas City heresy that barbecue is about sauce. We could call it the Tar Heel-Texas Axis. Memphis could be Italy.

(via)

-Monk

First in Barbecue Editors, Too