That old timer knew what he was talking about. Less fussing means the smoke and heat do the work without you interrupting things every half hour. Every time you open that lid you let out all your heat and stall the cooking process, plus you drop the humidity inside the chamber. Basting and spritzing mostly just washes away the rub and keeps the surface wet so the bark never gets that chance to set up proper. Its like making a crust on a good steak, you gotta leave it alone if you want that dark, crispy outside. Now I still might spritz once or twice if the meat looks dry real late in the cook, but mostly I trust the pit and keep my hands off. Some lessons are hard to learn until a stranger calls you out on it.

Had a buddy try that bottle trick once and nearly sprayed fluid all over his driveway.

Well heck, I switched to phone pics last year and now I've got 847 photos of random countertops because half the time I forget what the receipt was for! The trick for me was renaming the file with the date and amount right after I snap it, otherwise future me is just guessing what that blurry gas station was for. Honestly, it beats my old system of shoving everything in the glove box and finding a paper snowstorm every spring when tax time rolls around.