N.C. rare burger ban gets AOL Weird News attention

My recent column on the myths surrounding North Carolina's rule against cooking burgers to less than 155 degrees has gotten some attention this morning. Ben Muessig of AOL Weird News interviewed me last week for his own column on the issue.

Ben's column was then followed up Ben Chapman of the N.C. Cooperative Extension, with his own column on Barf Blog, a Web site where food safety experts weigh in. Chapman points out that the video AOL-WN posts, showing how to grill a burger, is itself sprinkled with food safety violations, particularly handling raw meat and then handling other things in the kitchen and out at the grill.

It's always a little strange being interviewed by a fellow journalist, and there are a couple of facts I'd quibble with in the final piece (for one, I wasn't the first journalist to write about, my esteemed colleague Helen Schwab has covered it too). But then, people quibble with my articles too. It's part of the writing world.

Still, AOL Weird News? Gee, that's quite a morning.