July is National Hot Dog Month, and if you haven’t been celebrating by shoving hot dogs down your cavernous maw like a Sonoran version of Joey Chestnut, then you can redeem yourself by heading over to your local Weinershnitzel tomorrow, Tuesday, July 14, for “Free Chili Dog or Small Cone Day.”
It probably goes without saying, but anyone visiting any Weinerschnitzel tomorrow is entitled to a free chili dog or small cone.
Even though a chili dog is not exactly the pinnacle of culinary achievement, turning down free food in this economy is bad form. Plus, the National Weather Service is threatening a high of 105 degrees for tomorrow, so that free ice cream might be what saves you from going completely, frighteningly mad.
The weiner masters at Weinerschnitzel and the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council also sent out this keen list of hot dog facts, which I humbly submit for your perusal:
• Americans eat 20 billion hot dogs a year — an average of 70 hot dogs per person.
• More hot dogs are eaten in July than any other month of the year, which is why it is designated National Hot Dog Month.
• On July 4 alone, the biggest hot dog day of the year, 155 million hot dogs will be consumed. That is enough hot dogs to stretch from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., more than five times.
• Los Angeles is the second-biggest hot dog-eating city, after New York.
• More than 21 million hot dogs will be eaten at major league baseball parks this year. That’s enough hot dogs to round the bases 41,667 times — or stretch from Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. to AT&T Park in San Francisco!
• The first words Mickey Mouse ever uttered in a cartoon were “hot dogs” (in “The Karnival Kid,” 1929).
• Perry Como, Elvis Presley and Led Zeppelin all recorded songs titled “Hot Dog.”
