Coverage Like ...

Sprint has launched its latest salvo in the war of mobile-phone-service providers. The Overland Park-based company is using billboard ads to remind us that it should be the hometown favorite. The most curious ads appear along northbound Interstate 35 near the Broadway ramp and eastbound Interstate 70 near the Paseo. A red-inked sketch of a smoking barbecue grill is drawn over a photo of the downtown KC cityscape. The caption reads "Coverage like sauce on ribs."

Depending on whose barbecue you eat, that slogan can have many connotations. So here's a Department of Burnt Ends menu to help you interpret the ad.

· Coverage like Arthur Bryant's: In a world of iPhones, new technology includes a Cold War-era cash register.

· Coverage like Gates: Customer service amounts to someone impatiently screaming "May I help you?"

· Coverage like Danny Edwards' Eat It an' Beat It: Have you been to a Sprint store? Leaving is the best part.

· Coverage like Oklahoma Joe's: Operating a restaurant in a gas station is like building a cell-phone company campus that looks like a prison.

· Coverage like KC Masterpiece: Mismanaged and with limited availability.