NAMES IN THE NEWS : Soviet to Take Ribs Into Space

The first Soviet journalist in space will dine on barbecued ribs from John Robertson’s Beale Street Barbecue restaurant in Memphis during a space flight next year, a restaurateur said. Thomas (Silky) Sullivan, who is known as Memphis’s ambassador of barbecue, made the announcement Wednesday night upon his return from a 10-day trip to the Soviet Union. Soviet broadcaster Nick Lutsenko will take the ribs into space next year on a Soviet space flight, Sullivan said. “They liked the barbecue sauce so much they tore the Berlin Wall down trying to get some,” Sullivan joked.