Bob has been very busy cooking BBQ this week. It’s been raining in Phoenix this past week and rain always makes people think of summer BBQ. Anyhow, here are a few responses to some of your questions. Bob promises to answer more soon.

Bob, what’s the grossest thing there is to eat? — DB Smith

Well, it really depends on the person. I’ve seen a grown woman shriek when she realized she was eating cow tongue, but then casually eat some goat eyeballs as a sort of tasty treat before a jog. So it’s really tough to say. If you’re looking for something really gross, try eating a well done steak. That’s bloody murder, I tell you!

If you’d care to explore the exotic frontiers of Asia, you might enjoy the Korean sannakji. I’ll let you read about it here (end of the page).

Good question!

Have you ever barbequed on another planet? — Gamwyn

I once did a big catering job on Neptune, but honestly, it was far too inconvenient. The travel time requires the deep freeze of all of your beef. Either that or you’d have to take live cows on board and feed them. Much too complex!!

I’ll tell the story. We arrived on Neptune after 2 weeks of travel and discovered we had forgotten to pack the right kind of potatos. So basically the entire event was ruined because we had red potatos instead of russet. And you know how that makes all of the difference in space!

That right there is why whenever I’m asked to cater on the Space Station I say “as long as we bring red potatos.”

if you scrape or cut the mold off of cheese is it still edible? — Mark Rush

That depends. Is it the mold that you’re wanting to eat or the cheese itself? 99% of the time the cheese is absolutely safe. It’s the 1% you need to be worying about, Mark. Seriously, if you’re not eating your cheese fast enough that it’s growing mold. Something’s wrong with your diet. It might be time to introduce crackers into your diet. They’re safe and go great with cheese of all types.

Do ‘kids today’ still know what “chinny rekon” means? — Mark Rush

They haven’t a clue. I’ll shed some light on this though, so that all of our faithful readers gain some actual brain fuel today. Quoting from a knowledgable source: It started life as ‘itchy chin’, which then somehow morphed into ‘chinny rekon’ later on. You say it when someone is telling a lie.

Bob, explain an equation that ties in the four forces of nature. — Bryan

Great question, Bryan. I feel it might be important to educate people who might not read BrainFuel regularily. I’m sure any of our regular readers would know this.

There are four known forces: (Source)

1. Gravity – This force acts between all mass in the universe and it has infinite range.
2. Electromagnetic – This acts between electrically charged particles. Electricity, magnetism, and light are all produced by this force and it also has infinite range.
3. The Strong Force – This force binds neutrons and protons together in the cores of atoms and is a short range force.
4. Weak Force – This causes Beta decay (the conversion of a neutron to a proton, an electron and an antineutrino) and various particles (the “strange” ones) are formed by strong interactions but decay via weak interactions (that’s what’s strange about “strangeness”). Like the strong force, the weak force is also short range.

Now to your question. I will answer it with a question. If the Weak Force was stronger than the Strong Force, but ganged up with the Electromatic Force, could the Strong Force win a battle of the wits with Gravity’s help? Haha! That is a much better question because as we all know, with the help of Gravity pretty much nothing can get out of earth’s gravitational pull. Well, I’m blabbering. I’ll ponder this some more as I cook up a little BBQ for the drive home.

Remember, SAFETY FIRST! Always cook beef with Bob’s BBQ Sauce!

If your question wasn’t answered, it will be. He just has to get back to the BBQ. Leave a comment with your question for Bob if you have one.

If you have no idea who Bob is, then read this.