The World of Ribs : Ribs: Good to the Bone

“I don’t know,” said Barney. “These things look like too much trouble to eat. There isn’t much meat on them, and look at all the bones.”

“You’ve got rocks in your head, Barney,” said Fred. “Don’t think of them as a little meat with a lot of bone--think of them as steaks with handles. They’re a convenience food, right here in the Stone Age. Millions of years from now people will still be eating ribs.”

“Steakasaurus ribs too?”

“Of course. And maybe the things with horns on them and those little woolly things and the pink things that go ‘oink, oink,’ but probably mostly Steakasauruses.”

“Will they throw them right on the fire like us?” asked Barney, dragging a Steakasaurus rib behind him.

“Maybe,” said Fred, a misty, far-away look in his eyes, “and maybe they’ll stuff them and stew them and cut them into chops. And all because we had the foresight to eat them now. So you see how important this is?”

Barney looked thoughtful. “Yes, Fred,” he said. “I yabba-dabba-doo.”