He kept his wares in two latch-lid glass jars. At the outset of the interview, the 37-year-old custodian pulled three baggies of dried peppers from them and laid them on the table in the Tribune break room. We were adults, but it felt like we were two kids sitting in a basement with a stash of cherry bombs between us. Odds were good one of us was leaving hurt. "Any one of the three of these is going to mess you up," Ted (The Fire Breathing Idiot) Barrus said of his peppers. That said, by his logic, I might as well tangle with the king - the last bag on his left. It held the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, recently given the crown as the hottest pepper in the world after some of its ilk scored 2 million heat units on the Scoville scale. A jalapeno, not even worthy of a spot in his jars, hits 8,000 at best/Cody Bloomsburg, Lewiston Tribune. More here. (Barry Kough's Lewiston Tribune photo: Ted Barrus handles the heat of the world’s hottest pepper with more poise than Tribune reporter Cody Bloomsburg as the two try Barrus’ Trinidad Moruga Scorpion challenge).

DFO: Cody Bloomsburg goes on to describe the effects of eating the world's hottest pepper & how he ended up in the emergency room of St. Joseph's Hospital in Lewiston.

Question: What's the hottest thing you've ever eaten?