The night before you plan to barbecue, combine brown sugar, paprika, black pepper, salt, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder and red pepper. Apply about a third of the spice mixture evenly to ribs, reserving remainder. Place ribs in a plastic bag; refrigerate overnight. Before you begin to barbecue, sprinkle ribs lightly but thoroughly with spice mixture, reserving remainder. Let ribs sit at room temperature for 30 to 40 minutes. Prepare smoker, bringing the temperature to 200-220 degrees. Transfer ribs to smoker. Cook about 4 hours, turning and sprinkling ribs with spice mixture after about 2 hours. In the last 45 minutes of cooking, slather ribs once or twice with barbecue sauce. When ready, the meat will bend easily between the ribs, and the sauce will be gooey and sticky. Allow slabs to sit for 10 minutes before slicing them into individual ribs. Serve with more sauce on top or on the side and plenty of napkins. Yield: 6 servings. Adapted from "Smoke and Spice." ? 1998 Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. Posted to bbq-digest by Sherman Watkins on Jul 28, 1999,