By TY ALLISON / The Dallas Morning News

Second Lt. Brian D. Smith was unwavering in his decision to join the U.S. Army.

The 30-year-old McKinney native set aside a successful career in law to assuage a lifelong interest in the art of war and the utilization of the tank.

“When he was a child, he became fascinated with stories his grandfather told about being in war,” said his mother, Linda Smith of McKinney. “When he got older, he read anything he could get his hands on that had to do with the military and tanks.”

He was a voracious history and science fiction reader who loved to spend hours at the computer. He enjoyed acting with a group he joined in college and sharing his deep baritone voice, family members said.

On Friday, while on patrol in Habbaniyah, Iraq, near Fallujah, Lt. Smith was killed by enemy fire.

Services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church, 315 N. Church St. in McKinney. There also will be services at Fort Riley, Kan., and Austin, where he lived.

He will be cremated along with a bottle of Dave’s Insanity Hot Sauce. “He ate it with practically everything,” said his wife, Kathleen Carroll-Smith of Austin.

Lt. Smith was born in Atlanta on Nov. 3, 1973. He grew up in McKinney and graduated from McKinney High School, where he played trumpet, sang in choir and performed in one-act plays.

He earned a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994 and obtained his law degree in 1998 from Baylor University’s School of Law. While at UT, he became a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe. It was in this group that he met his future wife. They married on Sept. 21, 2003.

He practiced law in McKinney and Austin. After successfully working with two firms, he decided to fulfill his childhood dream of driving a tank.

“We talked about him joining the service,” Ms. Carroll-Smith said. “He always said to me, ‘I need to find something that I can be, something that I can put a stamp on and claim for myself,’ ” she said.

He enlisted in January 2003, following the examples of his father and grandfather, both decorated war veterans.

“During Officer Candidate School he got his wish,” she remembered of his first experience driving a tank. “He thought it was grand fun to shoot and blow up things.”

Lt. Smith had been stationed at Fort Riley since December and was deployed to Iraq in January. He was a platoon leader of Company A, 1st Battalion, 34th Armor, 1st Infantry Division.

Friends have considered compiling his e-mails, journal entries and photographs about Iraq into a book.

In addition to his wife and mother, Lt. Smith is survived by his father, Dr. William Smith of McKinney; sister, Dr. Erin M. Smith of Austin; and grandfather, William M. Benton of McKinney.

Dave Dewitt, aka The Pope of Peppers, wrote an extensive wonderful article on everyone’s favorite pepper, the Habanero. Here’s just an exerpt of Dave’s article:

Although the species is renowned for the high heat level of its pods, we should remember that all heat levels are found in the chinense, from zero to the hottest ever measured. The typical commercial habanero averages between 80,000 and 150,000 Scoville Units but has great variability depending upon climate and stress. In a series of experiments at New Mexico State University, Paul Bosland and Peggy Collins tested the same variety of chinense, an orange habanero from Yucatán, grown under different conditions. In 1992, grown outside in a field, the pods measured 357,992 Scoville Units. The same variety, grown in the greenhouse, measured 260,825 Scoville Units. The variability of pungency approached thirty percent, which illustrates the role played by the environment in the heat levels of chile peppers. However, when cooks use habaneros and their relatives, they can assume that the recipes are hot, although it is wise to taste-test the habaneros first by placing a tiny sliver on the tongue and then chewing it up. Of course, the heat level can be adjusted by varying the number habaneros used, by increasing the amounts of the other ingredients in the recipes, or by removing the seeds and placental tissue to decrease the heat of the habaneros.

Read more about the habanero pepper here.

Love Life a Headache? Hot Peppers to the Rescue!
An estimated half million Americans suffer from “sex headaches” or “orgasm headaches,” which tend to occur on a regular basis during or after sex. Sufferers describe it as “pulsating with a lot of pressure from the top of the head down toward the eyes,” according to a study at the University of Munster. It is a relatively harmless headache with no long-term effects, but it certainly can make “getting lucky” seem ironically unlucky. Until recently, modern medicine has found no real answers regarding benign sex headaches. But for the last six months there have been studies suggesting that a capsaicin (hot pepper extract) nasal spray stops and prevents sex headaches within seconds. If further studies prove this theory to be true, imagine the implications… Just add a little fuel to the fire to really get things burning. More info available through SiCap Industries

Hot air, hot sauce – the Austin Spice Co. thought this year’s presidential candidates deserved a dose of chili pepper, and came out with labels that suit any political persuasion. The current Bush administration is taken to task with a “Where’s the WMDs?” label, with a cartoon of President Bush [related, bio] looking on in wonder as an Arab terrorist races past with a missile under his arm. “Kerry’s Flip-Flop Sauce,” decorated with sketches of a womanizing Bill Clinton and a partying Ted Kennedy, takes down the Democrats. Those who have grown disgusted with the presidential race altogether can buy “Anybody Else for President Sauce.” Each bottle is $5, plus shipping, from www.austinspice.com or 512-360-5589. How would the sauce taste with lots of baloney?

Gone Rabid Hot Sauce

With all the flavor of original Baboon A$$ brand hot sauce and five times the bite, this baboon has gone totally RABID! Use extreme caution when consuming this product. Side effects may include, but are not limited to; screaming, crying, sweating, blurry vision, hallucinations, psychosis, frothing at the mouth and a bright red Baboon Ass!
Heat Scale: 10
Scoville Units: ?
Ingredients: Water, onion, vinegar, habenero mash, jalapeno mash, habenero pepper, red pepper, red savina habenero pepper, carrot, lime juice, tomato paste, garlic & spices, chile extract.