Many Grains of Salt -- Part the VIth

Long time no blog. Sorry about that, Chief.

What can I say? I had a rough year. And last few months – up until early September – Oy! Don’t ask. Speaking of not asking, I’d like to thank everyone who’s encouraged me to start blogging again.

One of the reasons I started this blog to begin with was to write about things which were hard to write about for one reason and another. In my case, the most difficult subject is knives. I’ve got a lot of information on the subject – somewhere between a book’s and a chapter’s worth. Editing it down to a useful digest is difficult, because so much of the information is contingent and/or inter-dynamic, and because there are so many different “good” and “right” choices. Worse, I’ve found is that contrary to most writing, the more organized I become the longer it gets.

While it’s something which must be eventually done, a blog entry probably isn’t the best place.

I also thought about doing a piece on sharpening – another thing promised but never quite finished. Unfinished for the same reasons – too much to say, too contingent, too interconnected, too many right ways,

Then I wondered if (barbecue) smokers might not be worth a shot. The subject presents all of the same hurdles from a writing standpoint, but for a lot of reasons, the most important of which is that there actually is a best choice for most beginners or people moving up to their first “good” smoker. Barbecues are just a lot more manageable than knives.

Eventually, a thought penetrated that block of cocobolo I call my head. The importance of making the “right” decision about the “best” piece of equipment is highly overrated. As a sort of parable, I try not to recommend most of the equipment I actually own and use. There are a lot of reasons, really. A partial list: I don’t want to use my recommendation as a validation of my own choices; I bought stuff a long time ago, and there’s better on the market; and I’m not you.

The best advice I can give about equipment purchases is to narrow down the possible options to a set – of all which are good choices. As long as you do this and bear in mind there is no “best,” you can’t go wrong.

Best advice, yes; but you and I both know that the kind of writing you see in airline magazine, which give you a sort of list of the types of choices, each and all of which according to the author are equally good, is not helpful. (That's a lot of dependent clauses, what? What?)

It’s not really fair to leave you hanging on knives, sharpening or barbecues. So let’s see what can be said meaningfully – more in terms of how than what to choose. Over the next few days (or weeks, depending on my work load), I’ll follow this entry up with a few others on those subjects.