Not BBQ. Not bar-be-que. Not bar-b-que. It is always barbecue, unless it is in the context of a restaurant name, in which case we should honor that spelling.
Barbecue vs. grilling
Barbecue and grilling are not interchangeable. As ‘cue heads are quick to point out, “barbecue is a noun.” Barbecue is slow-cooked, smoked meat. Grilling involves cooking food on a grate over direct or indirect heat.
Avoid using barbecue when you mean grilling.
Avoid using barbecue as a catch-phrase for an outdoor party that involves grilling; use cookout instead.
It’s a judgment call on your part when to use blockquotes, but in general, use them for any quoted material you’re blogging that goes beyond a sentence or two.
EXAMPLES
Johnson said:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Duis mi. Donec nunc leo, vestibulum sit amet, pretium dictum, auctor vitae, mi. Nunc non libero id sem mattis volutpat. Aenean vel dolor et dui egestas bibendum.
But Wales said:
Vestibulum volutpat, pede vel faucibus laoreet, magna leo fermentum enim, molestie vulputate sem tortor vitae lectus. Curabitur eu ante vitae magna pulvinar porta. Nullam accumsan. Proin porttitor mattis arcu. Proin blandit ornare risus. Suspendisse iaculis velit. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Curabitur cursus tortor eget est nonummy scelerisque. Sed aliquet mi et nisi. Aliquam velit sapien, vestibulum eget, scelerisque at, pulvinar in, erat. Nunc nisl tellus, euismod ut, elementum in, dictum sed, purus.
Yeah. I know, right? They can never agree on anything.
HOW TO CODE BLOCKQUOTES
SINGLE PARAGRAPHS #
Note the spacing and placement of HTML tags. It is very important.
Johnson said:
<blockquote><p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Duis mi. Donec nunc leo, vestibulum sit amet, pretium dictum, auctor vitae, mi. Nunc non libero id sem mattis volutpat. Aenean vel dolor et dui egestas bibendum.</p></blockquote>
But Wales said:
See how there is one line break before and after the blockquoted material? You need those there, otherwise the formatting goes to seed.
TWO OR MORE GRAFS #
Note the spacing and placement of HTML tags. It is very important. Also note that though there are two paragraphs here, all the text and coding runs together without line breaks between the two grafs. To break the paragraphs in what will appear on the site, you have to hard-code in <p> and </p> tags.
But Wales said:
<blockquote><p>Vestibulum volutpat, pede vel faucibus laoreet, magna leo fermentum enim, molestie vulputate sem tortor vitae lectus. Curabitur eu ante vitae magna pulvinar porta. Nullam accumsan. Proin porttitor mattis arcu. Proin blandit ornare risus. Suspendisse iaculis velit. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.</p><p>Curabitur cursus tortor eget est nonummy scelerisque. Sed aliquet mi et nisi. Aliquam velit sapien, vestibulum eget, scelerisque at, pulvinar in, erat. Nunc nisl tellus, euismod ut, elementum in, dictum sed, purus.</p></blockquote>
Yeah. I know, right? They can never agree on anything.
See how there is one line break before and after the blockquoted material? You need those there, otherwise the formatting goes to seed.
Bold names of food people (chefs, celebrity foodies), names of restaurants and stores, and, if the writer is talking about stand-out dishes, bold those, too.
You can also use bolding to emphasize salient points.
Bolding is your trusty rifle* in the war against big-ass, ugly gray blocks of text. And big-ass, ugly gray blocks of text are quagmires for the reader. But, just as with firearms, you don’t want to go about using bold willy nilly. Too much bold text and the things you want to emphasize get lost in the rat-a-tat-tat. So resist the urge to bold entire sentences or more than one or two salient points per paragraph, depending on graf length. Really, there are no hard and fast rules to bolding; you have to use your judgment.
*<h4>Is Your Nuclear Option</h4>
- Apply bolding to the first reference only.
- Use <strong>Lorem ipsum</strong>, not <b>Lorem ipsum</b>
CORRECT
<strong>David Chang</strong> is a vegetarian.
Foodies love <strong>David Chang.</strong>
<strong>Danny Meyer</strong>’s burger joint, <strong>The Shake Shack,</strong> is in Madison Square Park.
INCORRECT
<strong>David Chang’s</strong> pork buns are porky.
Notice that only David Chang’s proper name takes bolding — not the apostrophe or the “s”
BOLDING WITH PUNCTUATION
Note that commas and periods in the examples above should take the bolding, but that colons or semicolons should not. Yes, it’s weird, but there’s precedent for it.
Exception: When bolding an intro phrase that contains a colon, also bold the colon. Example below …
Top Three Awesome Foods
<strong>sliders: </strong>How can you not love them?
<strong>pizza: </strong>It’s the best!
<strong>nachos: </strong>Crunchy and cheesy.