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They say turkeys get nervous around Thanksgiving. Whatever animals are found in hot dogs must feel the same way during summertime. People gorge themselves at barbecues and ball games, and we imagine few stop to wonder how the meal got its name. For years, many believed a cartoonist named T.A. Dorgan coined the term during a baseball game in the early 20th century. According to legend, Dorgan observed a vendor selling "hot dachshund sausages." Dorgan used the term "hot dog" in his cartoon because he couldn't spell "dachshund." While this makes for a good story, the truth-seekers at Snopes.com
say it isn't so. The more likely explanation is that German immigrants came up with the term. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council quotes a "hot dog historian" named Bruce Kraig who says that in addition to bringing the hot dog to the United States, Germans also brought the dachshund. The name likely "began as a joke about the Germans' small, long, thin dogs." There you have it. May you never again eat a hot dog in ignorance.
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