Years ago, My Lady was roped into being a judge for a chili cookoff an hour or two outside of San Antonio. The senior judge was a PR character from one of the SA breweries...an old cowboy type in full regalia. The actual cooking took place in a very large corral and the senior judge's guidance was something like...

'The first thing to do is take a spoonful and smell it. If it doesn't smell good, don't eat it. There's a bunch of Aggies here and there's no telling what they put in it (the chili).'

Since I wasn't doing the tasting (and I knew a bunch of Aggies), I thought it was quite funny. Since then, I've come to know it was very wise advice for the trail...

FB