Celestia Forums

I have no idea why, but I had the urge to ask a question completely unrelated to Celestia. ->>

How did the "Hot Dog" acquire its name ?

PS If yo is wonderin why I is posting all these OT fingies in purgatory,
is cos i am bored after cumin ere to find out what appened to that 'weekend' wot was promised there would be a new Windoze release a few weekends ago,, or did I miss the new one in amongst all these OT posts :-!?)
( sigh
wanders off into wilderness ->

I know I'll regret continuing this post but,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dog

...and furthermore

http://www.hot-dog.org/facts/TheHFiles.htm

That bit about Chicago and ketchup reminds me of a certain episode of a British comedy series set in outer space.

I haven't got time to check, but I think Bill Bryson did not come to an outright conclusion in "Made In America", but dismissed that usual suspect claims.

I might suggest* that maybe 'hot dog' was a corruption of the Danish name: rodp??lser. Danish pronunciation is awfully slurred, the 'r' is forced with an 'h' sound, there's a bit of a guttural stop after the 'l', and the '-ser' would be very muted. So, some Dane mumbling 'Hrod poel'sah' might have been misheard as 'hrod pod, sir' -> 'hot pod, sir', -> 'hot dog, sir'**.

Certainly, the Danish rodp??lser is much more like the US hot dog than the German Bratwurst mit Weck: a) soft roll, not hard and cripsy (like a Weck), b) heated in hot water, not grilled, c) served with ketchup, not mustard (which I think came later).

Spiff.

* This suggestion EULA is WITHOUT WARRANTY...
** OK, maybe not.