It was a featureless disk the orange color of perfect barbecue coals, if you know someone who can afford to burn wood.

The chips are delicious with salsa or guacamole, as well, and make soulful, satisfying snacks for nibbling while waiting for the barbecue coals to turn white.

The last problem may seem far-fetched, but at the Meadowlands last June, for example, six cars caught fire when hot barbecue coals were left too close to a parked car during an N.B.A. game.

John stood up and gloomily rearranged some of the barbecue coals.

They set up camp under the oak trees and lit the barbecue coals by 7.

The man's gray eyes were as dull as day-old barbecue coals.

Snatched from the barbecue coals by Protection And Security (PAS) officer Cass Cromwell - an image of survival against the odds that lies at the heart of our show.

And while the hull wasn't white-hot, it was glowing a deep red; the color of perfect barbecue coals.

Now we just bend the rules and let a little real technology in, replacing the pie tin with the latest molded plastic, just as we replace the barbecue coals with tanks of propane gas.

Like barbecue coals, I said, you know the way they're orange one minute and then you turn around they've just become grey dust?