Pig Pulling, Breaking Barriers and a Nooner

One of the attributes encouraged amongst our folks at work is to be a "barrier breaker". For many years, I labored under the apparently false illusion a "barrier breaker" was a bad thing resulting in threats from irate dads, ostracism at school, marriage at a young age, and sometimes in rare cases even the growth of a mullet.

But it turns out, being a "barrier breaker" in the work place is a good thing. If you are successful at being one, it means you start hanging out with others in the department with whom you don't normally work on a day-to-day basis. And if you do it exceptionally well and can convince a higher-up in the department to nominate and vote for you, then sometimes there is even a cash award to go along with your skill.

The idea of course is you'll learn a lot of new info about your co-workers through casual conversations that you wouldn't otherwise know. Our office is pretty rigidly segregated into functional areas through the use of invisible divider panels. You don't just go crossing willy-nilly from an IT area into financial turf - its just not done. Unless of course you develop your game as a "barrier breaker" or provide tech support for a department software app (which I do).

Friday, Cara, Leslie, and I went to lunch to work on possible solutions to several of the world's problems and to strengthen our individual and collective skills as "barrier breakers". Leslie suggested the lunch outing giving her the BB edge. Cara then offered to drive which pulled her into a BB tie with Leslie. My contribution was to select the place.

Our choice? Jack's BBQ - the original Trinity Lane location. Its not quite in the hood, but its on the warning track to its entrance. But you've gotta go where the good eating is. A few weeks ago, I pimped out Hog Heaven as a fantastic BBQ joint in Nashville. The truth is we have several great ones. Folks in North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas City, and Texas will all shout you down about how great their individual style of barbecue is compared to the others. Nashville will never claim an original recipe - we just sit back and pull the pig, munch the brisket, or gnaw the ribs while the rest of 'em fight it out.

Remember the first rule of finding good barbecue? The goofier the name or look, the more likely you'll find good Q. The name "Jack" isn't so silly - but the pink pig with his name on it out front is - so Jack's passes test #1.

So off Cara, Leslie & I went. To Jack's. In Cara's husband's new car. As a reminder, my selection of a barbecue place depends on the answer to 3 questions:

1. Does it have a hokey name or motif?
2. Does it have a genuine hickory wood pile - especially one scattered about showing its used?
3. Does it have a variety of cars in the parking lot to indicate patrons from differing economic strata?
   

As I worked on my skills as a "barrier breaker", I made myself open to new ideas. I tried to listen more. I tried to learn something new. But I have to admit when I heard these unexpected questions asked I tweaked my head such as a dog often does when he hears a high pitch whistle :

1. Do they have good slaw?
2. What kind of barbecue place doesn't have fries?
   

I had to step back and take a moment to look at the world through another's eyes. I mean I like some slaw - but most slaw isn't good. And I can eat me some fries when I'm in the mood to do so. But the failure of either will not deter me from eating BBQ if my original 3 tests pass.

Yet it was important to Cara and Leslie these questions be answered. They learned (1) Jack's does not have good slaw and (2) the absence of fries was offset by the quality of the pulled pork. A barrier breaker success? I say yes.

The three of us wrestled with such profound questions as:

1. Why does our travel agent continually remind married women get a new driver's license and Social Security card? Isn't there job to book travel and to send out the courtesy reminders about TSA checking names?
2. Is it OK to snicker at folks with funny last names like "Nooner"?
3. Does anyone have the first idea about the rules of the card game Euchre?
4. Can a co-worker who has volunteered to plan a themed event at an in-house training seminar be fired from his volunteerism if he is slow on his progress or has dumb ideas - especially if 2 barrier-breaking other co-workers have much better ideas and a willingness to help?
   

In the end, the meal and the conversation were excellent - even if we didn't resolve any of the world's problems (after all, we only had an hour). And the two of them ably demonstrated their barrier breaking skills by all but delivering a turn-key party theme in 30 minutes - something that couldn't get accomplished by 5 of us in 6 weeks.

Leslie - Thanks for putting the invite out there for me. Cara - thanks yet again for driving - and I hope your husband enjoyed the replacement new car smell of hickory and mesquite.

TMC

Lunch in the park

Nashville has Centennial Park. It'll never be mistaken for San Diego's Balboa Park. Or the Boston Common. Or Central Park in NYC. But its ours. We don't have a world famous zoo in our park. No one took all our metal chains and poles to melt down for war armament. And we don't have a section in our park named for a song penned by a dead Beatle.

But its still a pretty neat park. Like all city parks, it gathers a wide variety of folks. People who like to run. Bicyclists. Moms with strollers. Inner-city childrens' field trips. Tourists. The homeless. Floriculturists. Baptists, Catholics, and Oldsmobile men.

Centennial Park also has one thing these other parks don't - the Parthenon.

Sure, Athens, Greece has one too, but theirs is all falling apart and everything. We fixed ours up real nice like. I'm not sure what the ancient Athenians paid for their Parthenon, and I'm not really sure what Nashville paid for ours either. The city spent a fortune about a decade ago carefully cleaning years of grime and pigeon poo from around the exposed privates of all those mythologial Greek fellers and womenfolk. What I do know I reckon then is maybe Nashville has taken better care of their 150-year old version than Greece has of their 2,500 year-old one - so there.

Another cool element of the park is that its just across the street from work. I really don't take advantage of it as much as I should. I generally hustle off to lunch, meetings, happy hour, scout meetings, Friday night Mexican dinners, etc. rather than take the time to enjoy a bit of time away from the cubicle farm.

Lots of folks use the park for exercise. Some ride around thinking they're destined to be Lance Armstrong's teammate. Some change into shorty-shorts and sports bras and spend their lunch hour jogging. Some leave on their work clothes and just change their shoes to tennies.

As for me, I use the park as a cut-through to the barbeque joint on the far side of the park.

With everyone else busy today, I was on my own for lunch. My initial reaction was to hit the company cafeteria, but it was simply too nice a noon hour - about mid 80s with low humidity - to waste it on Lunch Lady Land. So I headed off in my Dockers and wing-tips for a rendevous with pork.

I read an article several years ago about how to ID a top-notch barbeque joint. The writer suggested an acid test of 3 questions:

• Does the place have a corny name? The cornier the name, the better the Q. On the frontside of Centennial Park sits...Hog Heaven. PASS

• Does the place have a wood pile scattered about? If it does, it means the pitmaster and his crew are slinging wood around for true smoked flavor. If the wood is too neatly stacked, its simply a cosmetic addition to the location and you should avoid eating there. At Hog Heaven, the wood pile is inside a screened area where I couldn't get a good picture. I suppose they do so to minimize the risk of having the homeless snarf it for a pillow or an energy source. But it is there, and the wood is scattered about. Plus, they had two guys working on the roof today with an open-flamed, long-handled, propane torch which was cool. So PASS.


• Does the place have a variety of vehicles parked outside - from a rusted pick-up to new a Benz? Hog Heaven is primarily a walk-up joint with a handful of picnic tables inside a screened-in covered area. The employees are covered in tats and piercings. The patrons wore everything from button-downs and chinos to jeans, wife beaters, and hard hats. White guys, black guys, Mexcian guys. Young folks. Thick folks. Blue collar. White collar. No collar. PASS

I'll put HH's Q up against just about any other place in town - Jack's, Whitt's, or Jim & Nick's. Famous Dave's? Fuhgetaboutit - you fail on all 3 tests.

Plus, Hog Heaven sells those great Zapp's chips.

So after an hour of chowing down, people watching, picture taking, and strolling peacefully back to the 2nd floor, its now back to the realities of ... blogging.

TMC

Rear View Mirror: Kansas City

A few thoughts from last week's trip to Kansas City, Missouri...

Driving

Nashville often gets tagged for having crazy drivers. But I've also been told most Nashvillians aren't from Nashville. So if we have bad drivers its because we inherit them from everywhere else. In Kansas City, highway driving habits are much different than here in middle Tennessee where we supposedly don't now what we're doing. In KC, folks hang out in the 'passing' lane at or just below the speed limit. If you approach someone in the left lane, they simply will not budge - no moving to the right and no acceleration to match the speed of the approaching car. Yet, if a car is in the right lane, they refuse to move to the left lane as they encounter cars entering the highway from an on-ramp. Both moves are courtesies in our neck of the woods - but neither to seem to be in effect in Mizzou.

Weather

My oh my, how nice was it in KC? In prior trips, I've often landed amongst dirty snow. And true to form, I even found a little bit of it again this trip.



But it was melting...rapidly. The temp was in the mid 60s on Wednesday and was up to the high 70s by late Thursday. What a marvelous early March.

Bob Walkenhorst and Jeff Porter

Went to Bob Walkenhorst's and Jeff Porter's standing Wednesday night gig at the Record Bar. Sat with a CD-trading friend of mine. Took him some Rush boots and got a few Rainmakers and Bob boots in return. Tossed back a few Boulevard Pale Ales. Ummm, umm.



Talked to Bob a bit after the show. New CD coming soon from him & Jeff - with hopefully a regional tour later this year. While talking, Jeff (who I'd never met face to face) came up behind me and simply said "Too much country!" Either a reasonable guess after our e-mail exchange or comparison of my in-person look to my profile pic. Or an insult that I perhaps missed altogether.

Barbecue

Ahhh...Arthur Bryant's. I've eaten there before. I blogged about it. I ate there again. It did not disappoint.



Before:



After [burp...geez, excuse me!]



Next stop on the 2009 travel trail...New Orleans.

TMC

A Little Bit of White Trash In Us All

Headed to Kansas City, Missouri later this week. Purpose of the trip is to get some work done...officially. An unofficial purpose and planned side trip while there is to see Jeff Porter and Bob Walkenhorst. Bob's music is a blog entry of its own (stay tuned). But I've started listening a bit to Jeff's music after hearing some shows he's done with Bob.

This one cracks me up everytime I hear it - mainly because there's so much truth in it. Listen to it - you too will be convicted by its facts, stereotypes, and generalizations.



Speaking of having a bit of white trash in us all, I also plan to gorge myself at the infamous original Arthur Bryant's BBQ - while wearing my worsted wool suit, starched white shirt, and silk tie of course.



TMC