Little segue here; famed Americana photographer Jim Dow wrote an article for the FT a few days ago on BBQ;
Some etymologists claim that the word barbecue may derive from the French “barbe à queue”, “beard to tail”, meaning roasting a whole animal on a spit. Others plump for barbacoa, a Caribbean word for meat swathed in leaves and cooked underground. Then there is the Mayan term baalbak kab (meat, cover, earth) … but for most it is just three large capital letters.
=-via The Finanacial Times
