One of the best Books ever is EXTRAORDINARY ORIGINS OF EVERYDAY THINGS
by Charles Panati.
For instance, did you know that 'Sausage Stuffing' was invented 3,500 years ago when the Babylonians rammed spiced meat into animal intestines.
Homer,
no the other Homer, 
wrote in the Odyssey,
wrote in the Odyssey,"As when a man beside a great fire has filled a sausage with fat and blood and turns it this way and that and is very eager to get it quickly roasted."
Ain't that the truth!
Sausage stuffing, along with anything else that's fun, was banned by the early Roman Catholic Church but as you can see, nowadays even the Pope likes wieners.
However by the Middle Ages, European Butchers were hard at it.
Each area became famous for their wieners' distinct qualities, shape, and size;
Mediterraneans had hard, dry, ones that wouldn't spoil in warm weather,
Scots stuffed theirs in oatmeal,
but the German wieners were thick, soft, and fatty!
By 1852 Butchers in Frankfurter produced a streamlined sausage with a slightly curved shape encased in a thin, transparent, membrane. They called it the Frankfurter, which probably didn't impress the oldtimers who made Wiener (Vienna) Wurst (Sausage).
By the 1880s two immigrants from Frankfurt presented their wieners to America.
They were, and I kid you not,
Antoine Feuchtwanger...
and Charles Feltman..
who hired an young assistant named
Nathan Handwerker...
and the guy who started calling them Hot Dogs?
Tom Dorgan!!!
I wonder if future President Palin knows much about wieners?
She's outdoorsy! Sarah probably yanked a few out at Weiner Lake, Alaska, which is even shaped like a wiener. Hopefully she will enlighten us in tonight's debate and regale in old fishing tales of landing a big one in the boat out at Weiner Lake!
YES, Americans
LOVE Hot Dogs & Politics
and the Wiener takes it all!
Yay! First! I'm a wiener!
ReplyDeleteI have most of Panati's books.
ReplyDeleteHours of reading pleasure, aren't they?
Feuchtwanger - Feltman - Handwerker
ReplyDeletereally?
gotta get this book....
asian weiners are shorter.
ReplyDeletewhat ARE we talking about here..
I love hotdogs oyeah!
ReplyDeletebtw Donn where can I download Violent & Young from...d u know?
Keshi.
Lentils.
ReplyDeleteI don't get the way americans eat. They make really tasteless food and then plaster it in red sauce. And is there something wrong with the way they grow stuff over there - even when we bought organic it still didn't taste as good as our UK grown stuff.
ReplyDeleteDunno what happened there, what I meant to say was 'wieners my arse!'
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAdd more Indian spices. Nothing tastes better.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am glad you have started reading books even though such stupid stuff. There is redemption for you yet.
You know, I was kind of getting so worried about you. Even though I myself got black soul..err..black..err..brown skin..err...whatever!!
G-A-OOO-T-A-M-EEE
Next time you call me GOTME, you have HAD it!
I have that book! Okay, I'm not sure about the rest of the post since I am a little revolted by sausage.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOh right. I missed the Med part.
ReplyDeleteCongress is a big old sausage fest.
ReplyDeleteIn America, we celebrate the sausage, from bite size Vienna to footlong salamis! Eat more protein! Americans also luv their hotdogs between delicious buns!
This post is simply wiener-riffic!! I will have to check this book out...it seems only Canadians know about it. Cuz we's Americans is stoopid.
ReplyDeleteYou just can't resist waving time-suckers in front of me, can you? :) It's like you have a direct line to what I find most distracting. I bet I find this one in your bathroom.
ReplyDeletehey Donn dun worry abt the mp3...I got it downloaded..yeah its in mah pocket already! ;-)
ReplyDeletetnxx mate! this song is gonna be my next 'smells like teen spirit' for a very long time!
Keshi.
"The judges will decide
ReplyDeleteThe likes of me abide
Spectators of the show
Always staying low
The game is on again
A lover or a friend
A big thing or a small
The winner takes it all"
I looooove me some Abba!
I love ABBA too yeyyyyyyy!
ReplyDeletebut I dun 'whine'...I just win ;-)
Keshi.
MJ
ReplyDeleteIf the house was on fire and I only had time to grab one book, it would be this one...
and no I'm not getting any money from Amazon
D'OH!
KATHERINE
This stuff writes it self don't it?
You couldn't make up funnier names!
MISTI
HAHAHAHA!
Oh go-on now, that's a myth about Asian wieners..isn't it?
pfffft!
KESHIROO
I'm delighted that you finally found it..it's playing 23/7 in my head!!!
VICUS
Yes. Lentils indeed. I hear that they are relatively tolerant to drought.
*coyote howls in the distance
actually its 24/7 for me!
ReplyDeleteTOM
ReplyDelete"Wieners my arse" is a catchy slogan...very Baden Powell.
GAOOOTAMEEE
Our Indian friends are teaching us all about spices and yes, my redemption is at hand, and learning to read was the first step..
and every journey begins with a single step right?
CITIZEN MONDO
I am delighted to report that Wienerphobia, or Fearing the 'Wurst', is curable...
but you will need to have a good attitude, a hearty appetite, and it doesn't hurt to be really drunk.
ALLAN
The Meds had "hard, dry, ones that wouldn't spoil in warm weather" which ironically, is pretty 'cool'.
EROSWINGS
Well said, especially the nice buns part, perhaps you could elaborate on the American infatuation with the cocktail wienie?
RANDOM CHICK
ReplyDeleteWell my dear that's exactly why Sir John A MacDonald made Canada..
we're like Jiminy Cricket sittin' on your shoulder handing out free advice.
ANDREA
One of these days I will lure you over to the dark side..
I'm getting closer and closer with every, single, posting...and yes it's in the bathroom ((sigh))
*hangs head
KESHTAR
I knew that you'd find it before I ever shot off an e-mail. I could send you a list of other cool songs that you might not know...
you need to email me?
ANNA
Thank You for the ABBA reference. Sheesh I thought that was a nice big slow fat one down the middle right over the plate???
You hit it out of the park.
yes...being the music maniac I found it in a jiffy. :)
ReplyDeleteyes email me man...u know really cool music!
Keshi.
I met this German bloke last week and he said: "Hello, my name is Andreas and I'm a Frankfurter."
ReplyDeleteThe conversation was mercifully short.
No mention of the British banger - a rusk and fat-filled tube developed in wartime that exploded (went bang) in the pan. Won us the war and left the nation with chronic heart disease.
KESHIROO
ReplyDeleteWill do. Half the fun of finding great Music is sharing it with others who will appreciate it.
MALC
Thank goodness his name wasn't Frank Feuchtwanger from Frankfurt!
Ah yes British Bangers!
*wry smile
Aren't human beings amazing?
ReplyDeleteI mean... somebody had to kill an animal and eat it... Then decide that some bits weren't so good to eat... But who was it that first thought:
"I know - I'm going to take one of these tubular bits of an animal that we don't eat, and stuff them full of the chopped up pieces of the other parts of animal that we don't eat... "
"And then, I'm gonna EAT them!"
Some total fuckin' nut job, that's who!
But they were RIGHT.
You continue to be brilliant and my brain just exploded. You owe me a keyboard.
ReplyDelete