How Did They Do That? (the hot dog)

While Dave is on vacation, here's something to ponder:

Did you ever wonder how they named the hot dog?

A guy named Feuchtwanger of Bavaria brought the sausage to America in the 1880's and began selling the frank in St. Louis. He offered the customers a pair of white cotton gloves to prevent them from burning their hands with each piping hot frank that he sold them. The gloves became too expensive to give out with each frank so he approached his brother-in-law, the baker, to come up with, you guessed it, a bun for that hot frank to fit in.

At the New York polo grounds vendors would sell these franks, luring customers by shouting, "Red hots! Get your red-hot dachshund sausages!"

In 1900, a sports writer in the press box during a game doodled a cartoon of a vendor selling these franks. He sketched a barking dachshund in a roll, and, not knowing how to spell "dachshund", he called it a "hot dog".

The name stuck, and there you have it, "the hot dog".