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| Customers wait in line at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) |
I don't know if Ross Perot likes barbecue. He's Texan, so probably. But it doesn't really matter.
He had the perfect term for what's happening now in some parts of the Texas barbecue world.
Gorilla dust.
Whenever Ross saw sideshows obscure real issues, whenever he saw posturing and anemic attempts at intimidation, he called it "gorilla dust."
For him, cutting through b.s. was the only way to do business. That approach helped make him a business legend.
During the past week or so, as I've thought about the reaction to Mike Leggett's recent column in the Austin American-Statesman, I keep thinking of Ross' term, gorilla dust.
Leggett, if you recall, is the outdoors columnist who wrote about his unpleasant experience at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor when he was in line at the same time a tour group from Texas Monthly arrived.
In Leggett's opinion, the tour group caused him to have to wait an inordinate amount of time to be served. That's the main issue, sideshows aside.
"Call me an old goat," Leggett wrote at the top of his column. "Call me a grouch and an ungrateful snake. Call me just plain shortsighted because I haven’t recognized the smoked meat worship that’s swept over our state."
