Radio Free Mike

a berlin blog

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Summer Hot Dogs

We seem to have fallen off the wagon with our summer hot dog series here at Radio Free Mike, but don't worry. Here's another Mr. Miller stand in Berlin, blocks away from the first one, and even closer to the sexually ambiguous Fiberglas hot dog on Kastanienallee. One Radio Free Mike commenter has previously noted the disturbing Mr. Miller motto, "Eat Here, Diet Home" -- clearly visible in this photo.

Smithsonian argues that hot dogs are quintessentially American, but has no idea where the name comes from:

Hot dog history, warns author Donald Dale Jackson, is a compendium of myths, guesswork and public relations inundating a scanty dossier of facts ... The product was originally called "dachshund sausage" for its resemblance to the low-slung German dog. One story has it that a newspaper cartoonist drew a picture of barking dachshunds between buns and labeled them "hot dogs" because he couldn't spell "dachshund." Trouble is, no one has ever found the cartoon.

Yeah, whatever.

posted by Michael Scott Moore | 2:01 PM

Comments:

"Eat Here, Die At Home!"

Unbelievable.

# posted by Doughnut Boy Andy : 4:17 PM

Isn't that great? At least they promise you won't keel over right away.

# posted by Michael Scott Moore : 4:55 PM

There's a semi-related french-fry statue over on Castingallee I was meaning to tell you about. You should grab your camera and take a look at it.

# posted by Ed Ward : 2:03 PM

I think I had a photo of that before the Great Hard Drive Crash of '06. But this is a hot dog series, so I shouldn't get distracted.

# posted by Michael Scott Moore : 2:16 PM

Au contraire: I saw it again yesterday, and the bag of fries is holding a hotdog in his hand.