Barbecue hazing

Today, we took a group to Dixie's barbecue, so that some of our newer members could meet "The Man".

"The Man", of course, is Dixie's extremely hot barbecue sauce.

While the novices were recovering and the repeat customers were figuring out how to encorporate "the man" into our meals without permanent damage, it struck me that Dixie's has a very intesting marketing concept, one that we labelled "barbecue hazing".

By having "The Man" (and Gene, the man behind "The Man"), repeat business is pretty much insured - nearly all people who meet the man are thinking about who they're going to bring to meet the man.

So, you get great food, a bit of theater, and the chance to make your friends suffer. What more could you want?