sour kraut you fool

Mustard. You may use ketchup when you're a kid, but as an adult, mustard only.

mustard! the spicier, the better.

I am biased though, I have never liked ketchup (catsup? cat soup?)

Hots dogs, like ice cream sundaes and toppings, can appropriately have any number of condiments. I generally don't eat ketchup on hot dogs, but I see nothing wrong with doing so.

I generally like my hot dogs one of three ways (excepting the special holiday dog, I'm fixin' to eat in a couple hours):

1. Mustard only

2. Chili and onions

3. Plain. Just the dog and the bun.

And while I think that technology is a good thing and has enhanced the quality of our lives, the best way to cook a hot dog is still: on a stick, over and open campfire.

P.S. I'm taking Kobayashi today.

I like mine grilled or fried well with mustard and cheese! Yum!

Like DelawareBen said, Mustard. Anyone who puts ketchup on their dog after the age of fourteen doesn't like the sense of taste.

Mustard + onions and occasionally relish.

Recently tried sauerkraut from JFX market (the pickle people), it was decent.

Are there any noteworthy local hot dogs?

Ketchup (Heinz only) or chili.

I don't put mustard on my hot dogs because I don't like mustard. It seems that my dislike of mustard somehow makes me a prole or means I have the equivalent sophistication of a fourteen-year-old.

Why are mustard people so judgmental?

Because we're French!

Bucky, you've been in violation of the Organian Peace Treaty for some time now.

Mustard, any variety
Relish
Onions
Saur Kraut
Cole slaw
Pickles
Chili
Cheese
Celery salt (can you see a leaning towards the Chicago dog?)

But never, ever should ketchup be applied to a hot dog. NEVER.

Laura Lee - you lost me. Then I searched up "Organian Peace Treaty" and discovered why.

I've never watched it. TV or movies. Not knocking those who have/do. I just never have.

Off to lunch now...

means I have the equivalent sophistication of a fourteen-year-old.

I hear banjos

Wait a second...forget hot dogs, we've got something *really* important that has come up.

Bucky, you aren't a Trekkie? How can this be? I thought a love of Prufrock and Trek were nearly mandatory to hang out here?

damned light bulbs

It simply makes me laugh when people attempt to demonstrate their sophisticated, refined and “adult” palates by espousing obdurate requirements about the “proper” dressing of a hot dog.

Kobayashi
1) The champion japanese hot dog eater
2) the no-win scenario in Star Trek, short for Kobayashi Maru. Kirk won by cheating

French dressing and chopped up gherkins make the best hot dog. Split the dog in half and fry in butter, then fry the bun. That's how we do it in New York.

1. mustard
2. with cheese wrapped in a Pillsbury croissant
3. chili and cheese

Lissa, I hate Star Trek. I did grow up a fan of Star Wars, and I played Dungeons and Dragons during middle school, so I still have enough geek credentials to hang out here.

steam a large wheat tortilla, add a layer of bacon, a layer of melted cheddar, raw chopped jalapenos, more cheese of a different kind, raw onions and steamed hot dog. wrap it up and enjoy. mucho good

A frankfurter or hot dog (or white snappy) on a toasted New England style bun with mustard and relish.

Star Trek = Fascism

do the same rules apply to brats?

I like mustard and relish on my hot dogs. Rather than a white bread roll, I like the Martin's potato bread hot dog rolls sold up there.

Mustard, diced red onion, and saurkraut.

Never liked Star Trek because Gene Roddenberry ripped off Robert Heinlein for several story lines and didn't give him credit.

RoCK, Star Wars? That juvenile rehash of pop mythology? I'm never going to play D&D with you!

Heinlein ripped off more than one person for story lines without credit, too.

I think brats need to be cooked differently, due to their tender meat. Probably shouldn't overspice them, either.

Star Wars is for babies. I crush you

ketchup on hot dogs? I would say that is more the taste of a five year old. Most 14 year olds have better taste than that. my girls liked ketchup on hot dogs, but thye also liked when their mother cut them up in little pieces and ate them with their fingers. tsk tsk

I find hot dog fundamentalists annoying. Then again, I don't care for fundamentalists of any ilk.

It's one thing to say "I'd never eat a hot dog with ketchup on it!". It's quite another to imply that anyone who would is degenerate scum of the earth..

I take offense at the intolerance towards ketchup lovers!!
I will eat hot dogs with mustard/onions/relish/chili. etc., but my true fave is ketchup.
Ketchup, it's not for 5 year olds any more!

And how about those white hots from Rochester!

this was valerie's favorite food when she was 5: hot dogs with spaghetti in the middle and yes she like them with ketchup (or catsup then) Del Monte as I recall.

http://boingboing.net/2009/04/21/freaky-food-fun-inse.html

i don't think ketchup people are scum of the earth, but they are the narrow minded ones: ketchup, not catsup! Heinz only! wah wah wah.

If it is a really good hot dog I eat them plain, there is one exception to that however, if I go to Ann's I just have to have everything on my footlong double dog

TREK RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's it, I'm going to send Boba Fett out to round up all those who don't trust in the force.

the best hot dog topping EVER was a sauce made from black olives, olive oil, roasted garlic and spices all blended up. I don't thinkit was meant for franks but it was perfect.

also you should be more attention to the bun. steamed please

Mr. Kobayashi was a key character in The Usual Suspects.

Also, a hot dog should have mustard and chopped raw onions.

Lissa, I'm not a Trekkie, although I do love StarWars (the first three films, anyway--JarJar Binks, not so much). RoCK, my younger son still has on his bedroom wall an autographed photo of Boba Fett--but with that costume, it could have been anyone, and who would know?

And I'm not a big fan of T.S. Eliot, either (but then I have already confessed to not loving poetry in general--I am too prosaic).

And I might as well say it--I can't remember the last time I ate a hot dog. It was sometime in the last century, though. A good sausage is another matter altogether.

The perfect accent for a good weenie is thinly sliced marinated cucumber salad. A little sweet, a little tart, a delicious slight cool crunch pairs perfectly with the warm spiciness of the weenie. Line the bun with the cucumber slices and place weenie on top. Marinated sweet onions work too.

I LOVE LOVE KETCHUP ON A HOTDOG. WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO GROW UP?

What's kobayashi?

Toppings for hot dogs is just like the island of misfit toys( for those of you who can't place that memory Think Rudolph)
Every condiment is welcome and there's a combination for everybody. No Dog and No Toy will be left behind. Now the hot dog brand? there's another topic to chew on. Me? Nathan's or a Sabrett. Give me a cart that sells Sabretts and I'll give you the best of the big apple.

Who is Keyser Soze?

This little piggy likes to stay home in a blanket with honey mustard

A good sausage is another matter altogether.

Hot dog IS sausage, infidel!

Pickle slices on the bun and for extra special treat crumble up some some Lays sour cream n onion. Crunchtown!

(AP)-- Joey Chestnut chomped down a record 68 hot dogs, capturing his third straight July Fourth hot-dog eating contest at Coney Island, an annual showcase for flamboyant hot dogging contestants eager to show they really are what they eat.

Chestnut of San Jose, Calif., hoisted the American flag and then stood proudly like an Olympic athlete as "The Star-Spangled Banner" played following his 68 to 64½ dog victory over his archrival, six-time titleholder Takeru Kobayashi.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/04/joey-chestnut-again-wins_n_225731.html

Take a soda straw and poke out the middle of the dog. Squirt mustard into the inside, fill. super cool explosion of taste

Hal - I agree with your comment. You should take your own advice though, because you have done the same thing to me several times in the not so distant past.

Amigo Jeff,
That sounds suspiciously like a Hot Dog Burrito. The only dish my DW has banned me from ever making again.

Yeah, I guess that's cheating. It is a burrito but a damned good one. A doggurrito. Corn torillas are terrible. Pita is meh.

I was just watching something on the history channel about Rev. War general Rochambeau. That made me think of rock, paper, scissors. Thta made me think of the ultimate version: Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock. Have yhou Trekkies heard of this? See video below. It's hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBj7-50bloE&feature=fvst

Anonymous, not knowing who you are makes it difficult for me to know what the heck you are talking about.

Ketchup is good but Heinz chili sauce is better. Add some horseradish to make coktail sauce and you have the ultimate dog go with.

Blue cheese drressing, it's good. Uh oh better run

Lissa wrote: I thought a love of Prufrock and Trek were nearly mandatory to hang out here?

Wow...I'm in the wrong place, then. Other than my one e.e.cummings poem, I think the most literary contribution I've ever made to the blog was either Robert Earl Keen, Jr. ("The road goes on forever and the party never ends...") or Jan & Dean ("You don't come back from Dead Man's Curve...").

Honestly, while I admire y'alls' ability to summon up entire passages of lengthy, boring poems from memory and at will (no, really, I do), when you start down that path I generally go over and check out Taylor Swift's latest Tweets.

Laura Lee - ah...Kobayashi is a Star Trek character. I should have bet on him today, instead. Or hmpstd's Kobayashi. Really, didn't everyone think that when he spanked Joey Chestnut in the P'zone championship, that he was back from his jaw injury and would take back the hot dog title? I know I did.

Danaan - I agree. I think.

Oh...P.S.

1) Thanks holly for clearing up the Kobayashi thing and

2) the elk dog was so good, I had another. And a chocolate-dipped soft serve ice cream cone for dessert.

Every society has rules. Otherwise, you have chaos. Among ours are ketchup on hamburgers, mustard on hot dogs. You'll find it in the Magna Carta. Those who put ketchup on hot dogs or mustard on burgers are Barbarians, however civilized they may otherwise seem.

Well said Mr. Gray. A martini with an onion instead of an olive is no longer a martini. a zombie that runs is not a zombie. a caesar salad without anchovies is not a caesar salad.

I shall defer to the thoughts of Charlie Brown in the comic strip "Peanuts": "A hot dog just doesn't taste right without a ball game in front of it!"

My personal preference? Either a good, spicy brown mustard on a good quality frankfurter, or maybe a dijon mustard. But if I'm in the neighborhood of a Polock Johnny's, I can't resist "the works" on my hot dog or sausage (it's apparently a blend of ketchup, mustard, relish, and maybe some smoke or Worcestershire, in carefully-controlled proportions--and that blend might warrant investigation someday.....).

Is it just my computer or is the blogware not remembering my personal info? I think that is why we are seeing more posts by "Anonymous".

All this talk of hot dogs made me forgo my supper of a Baja Citrus marinated ( I use those Grill Mates packets) turkey breast in favor of a hot dog sandwich:
Two dogs, sliced in half lengthwise and put on toasted whole wheat bread that had a very spicy (horseradish!) deli mustard spread. With it I had some pinto beans, sauced up with Stubbs BBQ sauce and a good bit of oregano, garlic, and onion.

jenna b,
When the onion is dropped into the martini, thereby making it a Gibson, doesn't the Gibson have the creds to be labeled a martini? A martini is a martini with a twist or with olives, but not with onion?
I think the fine distinction is crucial to civilization, but would still admit the Gibson into martinidom. I mean, you're drinking pretty much straight gin and a raw onion? I think you get to call that whatever you want.

It's a cruel world, man

Khan, I will concede that a hot dog is a sausage, but I will risk your wrath to opine that it may not be the highest manifestation of sausagedom.

Mustard and chili, although I will go for some Pollock Johnny's sauce once in a while.

A martini is not pretty much straight gin, although these days the "rinse the glass with vermouth" people like to call that a martini. But it's still just gin (not that there's anything wrong with that). Also, the onion in a Gibson is usually pickled, not raw.

Courtney is a ketchup and mustard person, but I love her in spite of that.

My wrath has been downgraded to ire. And you are correct.

A few years back I discovered that McDonald's puts ketchup and mustard on hamburgers in upstate NY, but only ketchup downstate. I always wondered if some sort of poll was taken.

Would fried bologna on a hot dog be considered a condiment??
Also to be a "true" hot dog,weiner, frank etc must it have natural casing, a la Binkerts?

Thank you, khan--very big of you!

jenna b, according to Julia Child the original Caesar salad did not include anchovies. The anchovy like flavor came from worchestershire sauce.

lissa, I would love to follow up on the Heinlein plagiarism and google gives me nothing. Any leads you can give me would be appreciated.

I didn't say plagerism, EEL, I said he used ideas that were not original. No, I'm rereading any of his books to go find those sections. They were boring the first time.

Go read some Doc Smith and other early
SF classics, and I'm sure you'll find what I mean.

(This isn't necessarily a criticism - lots of writers, not just SF writers, use the same ideas. It is the execution that makes the book. Unfortunately, Heinlein wasn't a particularly good writer.)

My, it did get lively over here!

I feel I cannot offer an unbiased opinion; however I will offer it nonetheless. I never liked ketchup (catsup - which is the correct spelling anyway?) For me it was never a question. Mustard, and occasionally chopped onion is all I ever put on a dog. Now, I will grab my flame retardant suit as I say that I don't really like Star Trek either. It's rough enough living with a husband who does.

I'll tell you what – I've seen the future of Star Trek and it blows. Look at the food. It looks terrible. Ever see a steak in Star Trek? Hell no. Now let's bring this home: not one stinkin hotdog or hamburger in Star Trek ever! And I've never seen any condiments, no ketchup, no mustard, it all looks pretty grim.

I love you, Bucky. When they start that boring crap, I usually tweak a spreadhseet or something. I may have to actually become part of Twitter.

If I can put up with all the TV talk, you guys can put up with the occasional outburst of poetry.

Voodoo Pork once sent me an e-mail saying I should write a post about this very subject and I would get 100 comments. I thought that was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard,

LOL

Is it me or do hotdogs all taste at least slightly different? Even among the all beef types. I think my favorite is Oscar Mayer. Nathans and Hebrew National seem over-rated. Worst ever - supermarket generic. Most most disgusting? Turkey franks. Yuk

Now Bucky, surely the most literary contribution you ever made to the blog was what you wrote on March 13, 2009:

The box has not been built big enough that I can't think outside of it. If this country were a box, I'd think of the world. If the world were a box, I'd think of the solar system. If the solar system were a box, well... you get the idea.

This box is big enough for poetry and songs, TV and movies, politics and science fiction, mustard , ketchup, and catsup. Did you know, Bucky, that you were writing the Prime Directive for Dining@Large?

Clearly catsup is the recommended condiment as this vintage Hunt's ad shows.

http://pigeonbeaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/hunts-catsup.png

Thye also have mustard too. Does anyone ever do that? One or the other please

Laura Lee - how do you remember such stuff?

I didn't mean to start a fight. Yes, the Sandbox is big enough for all interests and, yes I'm sure everyone has points in time where they don't even feel like lurking around the subject at hand.

I've had football discussions with Rob and hockey smack talk with Lissa that I'm sure just bored others beyond belief.

So, I wasn't complaining about forays into literature; I was just stating a fact in response to Lissa's comment about being surprised that I didn't like Star Trek or Prufrock.

Sorry.

Can I put my two cents in about the bun?? I am a huge fan of the New England style buns, top split with sides meant to be buttered and toasted on a griddle. My favorite variation included a broiled dog, split at the last minute to allow for a thin strip of cheese to be melted inside. Into a buttered grilled bun and a swipe of brown mustard, side of potato chips and life was good.

I remember two Star Trek episodes that were so closely based on Heinlein's books that I would have sworn he wrote the screen plays. One was based on Orphans of the Sky and the other was based on (what else?) Stranger in a Strange Land.

I recently re-read Starship Troopers and found it to be more preachy (I don't think that is a word but I can't think of a better way to describe it) than boring. Not so with Stranger. Guess it depends on the book for me.

One nice thing about the New England style buns is that it's easier to get the condiments inside, since the bun will stand with the opening facing up. This is most important when including onions, as they fall out too easily from regular hot dog buns.

I personally have eaten hotdogs with various combinations of ketchup, mustard, and relish (never relish by itself, though). I like hot dogs all those ways, if it's a decent hot dog. Like Bucky, I even like hot dogs with just the dog and bun and nothing else. I apologize to no one for this, nor do I expect anyone else to apologize to me for how they eat their dogs.

I'm not sure you can call "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" inspired by "Orphans of the Sky" -- the concept of the generational ship was well established when Heinlein wrote his book. It's possible, but there's no direct linkage.

Which one was inspired by "Stranger in a Strange Land?" I've seen all the TOS episodes multiple times, and that was never apparent.

What would have been cool is a Star Trek episode based on "The Number of the Beast."

Oh, and I like Eliot too, although I like Wallace Stevens more.

I suppose at this point I should 'fess up to the fact that I had a hard drive crash a while ago and one of the things I had not backed up was the list of D@L topics that had generated 100 or more comments.

Sorry.

That is a drag, Bucky. It would not be fun recreating it.

Evil hard drives...

Actually, it's lots of fun Lissa. Bucky, I'm all over it, not to worry.

Laura Lee, you don't remember them all?

I should send you over to the webcomic Questionable Content, to meet Hanners, except that you might kill me...

OK Lissa,I checked the website, looks a little too sophisticated for me. Anyway, I'm kind of busy right now. Rummaging through posts, twentieth century style.

Naw, Laura Lee, you are too sophisticated for a web comic about 20 year olds in Northampton, MA.

Indexing by hand...need a new career?

I think Laura lee is the new Owl Meat. She is beautiful and literate without anger.

Long live Lucious Laura Lee. Likely.

Laura Lee - I'm watching the Bourne Something right now and it occurs to me that you might just be the Jason Bourne of the Sandbox.

(I mean that in a good way.)

I love sauerkraut (after I doctor it with bacon, beer, brown sugar and caraway) on hot dogs and German wurst. My husband likes mustard, relish and chopped onion on dogs, but kraut on wurst.

Yes indeedy, a Polock Johnny's with "the works" is GREAT! Problem is, I think the only place to get one these days is Lexington Market. Dang!

PCB Rob, the blogware hasn't been remembering my personal info for some days now -- how irritating!

OK Bucky, I went back as far as October before my eyes started to glaze over; I may well have missed something but here are the posts I could identify with over 100 comments:

June 2009 Clambake at Dewey Beach (165)
Salad Daze (124)
May 2009 Lunch at Looney's (108)
Top 10 Most Controversial Restaurants in Baltimore (229)
Deep Thought for a Monday (234)
April 2009 Does Dining@Large have any regular posters?
March 2009 Vandals hit Iron Bridge Wine Company (138)
The worst mistakes diners make (111)
January 2009 The Rainforest Cafe closes (108)
Pecan someone your own size, Bucky (113)
Top 10 Restaurants the Baltimore Area Needs (117)
November 2008 Top 10 Places to eat Fabulous French Fries (128)
October 2008 I (Heart) Ranch Dressing (171)

Wow, I have no idea how to fix this formatting, sorry.

JL, I was busy most of the weekend and really didn't check posts a lot. But, your Gibson post gave me a moments pause because the only thing I think of is the big guitar manufacturer in Memphis.

That's what happens when one's partner is in a band!

BTW - outcome of the annual 4th of July disgusting display of gluteny in Coney Island? Anybody know? (otherwise known as the Nathan's hotdog eating championship).

Hal--relish, gack!

Joyce W., we believe you. There are gnomes out there messing with the blogware, I'm sure.

PCB Rob, the blogware hasn't been remembering my personal info for some days now -- how irritating!

Lissa, Hal: is this a blogware problem? I thought the identity was stored on your own computer.

Canon! Hope the first Sunday in the new pulpit went well!

My favorite hot dog buns are thetoasted split-from-the-top kind that HoJo's used to have.

Bucky, I believe it is a blogware problem. My identity isn't remembered since the blog software change either, and unlike Lissa, I allow cookies from batlimoresun.com.

Wow no one put this quote from Inspector Callahan yet?

"God this stuff isn't getting to me - the shootings, the knifings, the beatings. Old ladies being bashed in the head for their social security checks. Nah that doesn't bother me. But you know what does bother me? You know what makes me really sick to my stomach? It's watching you stuff your face with those hotdogs! Nobody - I mean nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog!"

This is one of my favorite movie quotes, but ketchup is the primary condiment on my hotdogs

Bucky, since the new blog skin, my info doesn't save at home (Linux) or at work (Windows XP), Of course, I have my browser locked down pretty tightly, but both saved before.

I tried allowing cookies, it didn't make a difference.

Ranch Dressing!

Unfortunately, the inability of the updated blogware to "Remember personal info?" (even when you check that box) seems to go hand in hand with the Sun's new and "improved" website design. The time of the last website update is no longer included on the home page, so you can't figure out how stale the online info is. Also, you no longer have a single-page view of lengthy articles, except in the stripped-down, boring "print" view.

Dottie,
There is a Polock Johnnie's at the intersection of Washington Blvd. and Caton Ave.

hmpstd, I don't go to the main site anymore, unless something local and interesting pops up on my RSS feed.

Pity. I used to read it several times a day.

Laura Lee - Thanks for doing that list. Between that and this I think we have it re-created.

I'll make a back up this time.

Lissa, Charlie X.

EEL, I think that was meant for me. I never really thought Charlie X was a ripoff of SiaSL, although Operation -- Annihilate! was kind of a ripoff of The Puppet Masters.

Also, Dottie, you can buy Pollock Johnny's "the works" sauce in a bottle. We had some at a 4th party I went to (along with way too many gimlets).

If they don't send a cookie you can't keep and use a cookie. Basic bad programming.

Best reference goes to Mike Singer for the Dirty Harry quote. Awesome.

107 posts so far and still counting. If there's one thing I relish, it's a topic that cuts the mustard. Can any other blog ketch up?

*groan*

Can't top that.

MAG - I love it.

I have an old engineering conversion booklet that says: "To convert gin into martinis: 5g + 1v." Obviously a relic of a bygone era.

And yes, since the latest blogware change it does not automatically enter my name but does do it for the Email address. Go figure. Luckily Firefox will prompt me when I enter the initial R.

How about this?: link

YmuPo, I bet they were hiding most of them in their trunks.

Oh Bucky, very clever but shame on you-- now my thoughts are wandering!

Hmmm ... I just tried to post a comment, and got the old message saying that my post was being held for approval by the blog owner. Are we now done with the instant posting of the last few months?

You're a bunch of mustard bullies. Read the excerpt on condiments from wikipedia below.

In the US, the National Sausage and Hot Dog Council conducted a poll in 2005, which found mustard to be the most popular condiment (32 percent). "Twenty-three percent of Americans said they preferred ketchup....Chili (chili con carne) came in third at 17 percent, followed by relish (9 percent) and onions (7 percent). Southerners showed the strongest preference for chili, while Midwesterners showed the greatest affinity for ketchup. Nationwide, however, mustard prevailed.

32% mustard and 23% ketchup isn't that different with ketchup being more popular in the midwest. 32% is not a very big number. Rise up ketchup people against the East Coast liberal elite mustard conspiracy.

I treat the common hotdog as a canvas for condiment art. It's not just a meal, it's a medium.
While I sympathize with mossbacked recidivists who insist on mustard, their ketchup proscription strikes me as narrow and possibly pecksniffian (present company most certainly excluded); we are talking hotdogs after all.
And without cheese, a hotdog is unappetizingly naked. Bacon? Only if you crave flavor. Capers? Mmmm ... keep talking.

I sure wouldn't want to be a pecksniffier. I'm eatin' ketchup.

Bucky, I can't imagine you lasting more than 13 seconds at The Bar if word got out that you were a pecksniffier, regardless of the perceived definition of that wonderful term. But, of course, eschewing ketchup on hotdogs isn't pecksniffian; whereas it's at least conceivable that, de haut en bas, upbraiding others for Heinzing the dog is.

Hear that mustard snobs? You're pecksniffiers.

It sure feels good to be on the right side of this condimentarian issue.

Dear Jon, (it feels so good to finally write one of these -- and in the hotdog post no less!)
A martini, properly made, is pretty much straight gin. That's the dang-ol' point of a martini. Olives are the reward for having the temerity to drink martinis; twists and pickled frickin' onions are the martini's accommodation to outhouse iconoclasts. Vermouth is a "v" word, nothing more.
And martini "purists" are subservient reactionaries; I ought to know, I am among their fawning admirers.
So there.

I agree with Hal Laurent that there is something creepy fundamentalist about the mustard people. None of the ketchup people have made condescending absolutist statments about mustard people like "anyone who puts mustard on hotdogs is...."

Yet the mustard peeople have no problem categorizing ketchup people as something less than basic human beings who might just like something different from what they like.

Heil mustard! Mustard burkas for all women!

Mustard. The condiment of facists. Yum!

jl, I'm so reactionary I drink my martinis (and Manhattans) out of a coupe (like William Powell did) rather than a newfangled triangular cocktail glass.

The vermouth is just as integral to a martini as it is to its ancestor, the Manhattan. The origin of the term "dry" applied to a martini did not mean less and less vermouth, but the substitution of dry vermouth for the sweet vermouth the drink originally called for. Around the turn of the twentieth century the gin and vermouth were mixed half and half, as well as requiring Old Tom sweetened gin. They also contained orange bitters.

To be a martini it must contain vermouth. I'm admittedly a child of the times, so i usually settle for a splash or two, making it probably a 5:1 mixture, rather than the classic 4:1 dry martini.

How can y'all still be arguing about the proportion of gin to vermouth in a martini?

This issue was settled some time back.

Love you, Buck.

Jon, you drink martinis out of a car? :-)
(If that was supposed to be a link, it didn't work).

As my post from yesterday continues to be held for approval by the blog owner, here, again, is the list of additional 100-post topics to add to Laura Lee's list:

Cheerios are baby crack and other childish horrors
Welcome to my world, Dave
It's that time again...the next Top 10
The split check and other horrors
Sandwich musings
Crab-tastic fun from you know who
Beef fat again already
Top Ten Locations We Miss Terribly
Next week's Top Ten

The list is subject to further additions as old topics get new posts which move them over the magic 100-post threshold.

For some reason,certain comments that have links in them don't auto-publish. How random is that? I better look in "unpublished comments" to see what else hasn't published. EL

Bucky, no issue is ever settled. Think of how many fewer comments would accrue were issues settled. And in this case, Jon is absolutely right and so am I and so are you. Eve, too. Unsettling is how we learn about stuff like drinking out of a car. And as long as you're willing to argue with me about it, the more likely this post has of drawing the all-time highest number of comments.

EL -- I tried once more to post my comment from yesterday, which was a supplemental list of D@L topics with 100-plus posts. Once again, I got the message that my post was being held for approval by the blog owner.

Since my post had hyperlinks to the listed 100-plus topics, is that causing my post to be rejected by the powers that be at Tribune Interactive (or whoever is ruling the blogware nowadays)?

EL -- thanks for the info under the 11:38 AM post.

The blogware probably holds comments with links in an attempt to prevent link spam.

Smart spammers put it in the URL field, anyway.

I think that happened to me once before -- format a link, it looks fine in preview and the post, then it doesn't actually work. I give up.

In any event, a coupe is like an oversized champagne glass, resembling a small bowl on top of a stem, rather than the Y shaped martini glass that became popular in the 1950s. You can see them a lot in movies from the 1930s. You can find a picture of one on Google.

Thanks, hmpstd. I'll combine all the lists we've come up with. (Most of those weren't in LL's list because she had gotten back only to OCT '08. I understand that. After a while, you eyes starts scrolling back into your head.)

Ketchup on a hot dog makes you gay. Stay with me baby birds. I was about five years out of university and went to a cook-out for people from work. I ran into a friend from my fraternity. He was there with a male friend who worked in my department who was out and about gay. Whatever. My friend from school was staright when I knew him.

My friend asked the other guy to get him a hot dog. He came back with one for himself with mustard and relish and one for my friend with ketchup. My immediate thought - they are a couple. Dudes rarely take the liberty of dressing another dude's dog without asking what they want on it first. That betrayed a level of intimacy.

I am incredibly gay, and never eat ketchup on hot dogs. Or on anything else.

I sincerely hope Mr. Fergal's statement isn't true, because if it is, I'm going to have to change my recruiting strategy.

Lissa,
Is your nickname "The Spatula". :-)

I am incredibly gay,

LOL. Comment of the Week. I don't think he meant that literally about ketchup.

Is Wilton Fergal another in-joke name that I don't recognize? It sounds a lot like Floyd R. Turbel.

My parents didn't think it was a joke.

I was just reviewing my gay agenda and I didn't see anything about "ketchup".

An omission?

There's a hotdog section in the Lesbian Handbook?

Maybe ketchup is just for gay men. Lesbians may have their own hot dog topping of choice. I, however, will not be offering up any possibilities.

Still on topic but the ice feels a bit thin.

I just asked my friend Phillip and he eats mustard.

Joyce W., I just checked the back of the Heinz bottle and I don't see anything there, either. Maybe it's in the very, very, very fine print and we "lovers of Heinz" missed it. Hey, do you think "lover of Heinz" will become a new, supercool replacement for "friend of Dorothy"?

This post is now wracked with metaphorical pitfalls.

Dorothy who?

Dahlink -- see this website for a definition of friend of Dorothy.

No, RayRay, but I was a huge Flip Wilson fan as a child.

"Lovers of Heinz" sounds like it belongs in the new "Bruno" movie.

Thanks, hmpstd--learn something new every day on this blog!

YP, I'm good with "lovers of Heinz",(because I am)!

Lissa, something from a "Bruno" movie is still of value, if only shock.

Silly Weenie Burger, there's no such thing as a lesbian handbook. It's the gay agenda - ask any conservative about it!

Joyce, there is so a lesbian handbook. On Our Backs put it out, I was just looking at it on amazon.com the other day.

I bet conservatives would find it a lot more fun than the gay agenda, which has always sounded really boring to me. I mean, I have to clean out the cats' litter boxes, do the dishes and vacuum my floors. When do I have time to destroy the family?

Since folks are still weighing in three days later, I will too. My personal preference is for ketchup, no mustard, no relish, no cole slaw, and because I'm Kosher, no cheese.

In my home town of Syracuse, there is a joint called Heid's which serves white hot dogs ("coneys") on a square New England-style bun. Ketchup is not even available.
The white color comes from the veal-pork mix they use: no beef. http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/299/1266699/restaurant/Syracuse/Heids-Liverpool

Oh, and by the way, as I posted my last post, this came up on the Web. Let us all now doff our caps for a moment of silence for Oscar Meyer jr.:
http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/457591

Ladies, let's not bash conservatives. You know some conservatives are quite cool. Some may even say uber-cool or even hella-cool.

Ok, at this point I need two more people to say it, so it will be true. Unfortunatley, I won't be able to count on my MSNBC watching wife to help me out here.

You are correct, RoCK. It is possible to be thoughtfully conservative.

Robin, I take it that since you keep kosher you aren't eating that veal pork dog? Thanks for the news on the latest Celeb death. Oscar Meyer!

RoCK and Bucky, you know we have love for you guys despite your somewhat sketchy politics (kidding, just kidding)

Lissa, you sure told me something I didn't know. I'll have to check out Amazon later!

RoCK, there are lots of kinds of conservatives. I can't resist tweaking the nutsier ones. I'd doubt you are one of those. I also like to tweak the nutsier lefties, but I'm probably the biggest one on here, which makes it hard.

Joyce, maybe we should write a book. _Ketchup: A new paradigm for realignment of women's sociosexual political wellness_.

Lissa, if you write it, I will catalog it. It doesn't sound that different from other books in the university library.

Joyce, reading some of your comments on this blog, I've always considered you a closet conservative.

My word! RoCK, you are outing me!

Just to make things clear...eating Bush Baked Beans, laughing at Michael Palin and watching "Bedtime for Bonzo" does not make you a conservative.

I've got a new paradigm for realignment but it sure ain't ketchup.

MAG, you just opened up the discussion: so what does make a conservative? And would it be helpful to construct a Conservative is to ketchup as Liberal is to mustard analogy?

I've got a new paradigm for realignment but it sure ain't ketchup.

and what would that be?

I thought friend of Dorothy had something to do with the Wicked Witch of the West, who was ironically not a friend of Dorothy. I always thought "Surrender Dorothy" was a lesbian exhortation. I think the Wizard of Oz is about sexual awakening in a young woman. It always seemed like a walking road tip from G Village to wherever. The whole movie makes a lot of sense is you see it as a parable of sexual awakening. And duh, yes her friends were gay.

This topic of Friends of Dorothy is making my head spin. I think it may lead to me becoming a friend of Bill W.

Let me know if you need directions, RoCK.

Dahlink, thank you for your kind offer, but a) I haven't written it yet and b) I like to keep my hand in cataloging by occasionally cataloging random items. It is, after all, such fun.

Of course Kansas would be the home of represssed puritanical sexuality. Toto is her libido.

The Wizard of Oz is, according to a history teacher ,Frank Baums interpretation of the folks and issues involved in the election of 1896.
William Mckinely (the Wizard)
William Jennings Bryan (The Lion), he Tin Man, the eastern industial workers,the Scarecrow, the agrarian farmers etc...

well, IMHO, for what it's worth, The Wizard of Oz is what it is. But, having said that I quite like "I always thought "Surrender Dorothy" was a lesbian exhortation" by Weenie Burger . I just like the sounds of it!

R.I.P. Oscar Mayer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/08/oscar-mayer-dead_n_227932.html

I wonder if he was cremated on a giant stick?

Mustard only

Mustard and onions

Mustard and sauerkraut

Mustard and chili

Mustard, chili, and onions

Mustard and relish

Mustard, chili, and sauerkraut

Mustard and fried bologna

Take cow, make hamburger add ketchup. Take another cow make hotdog, why no ketchup? Cow likes ketchup

I retract any comments I may have made about mustard under another name. I will not be associated with the claim of fascism any longer. Ketchup is A-OK with the Liquor Board! We love ketchup and mustard. In fact, we like to mix it up into some kind of cheap french dressing.

Hot dog toppings, ranch dressing. Why do condiments garner so much conversation?

Elizabeth, perhaps you should do french fry toppings next (mayo, salt, vinegar, etc.)? Or potato chip flavours? We'd probably kill the Sun's servers with our flametastic comments on potato chip flavours.

Lissa, it IS interesting that this group has so much passion about condiments. I suggest sauces as the next discussion point.

Marinara, sweet or savory? Or maybe pasta noodles. I bet we could get some good mileage out of what's better, linguini or angel hair.

No one can accuse us of not being opinionated!

Joyce W., in general if the question is sweet or savory, I vote for savory. I am sweet enough as it is.

Yes, indeed you are, Dahlink.

Here is a great article on condiments for hot dogs and other summer grilling foods.
So, we can agree to disagree on the ketchup/mustard controversy and move on to other flavors :-)

On the frying pan. I usually eat three cause I'm a fatty when it comes to hotdogs:

One with relish, mustard, and hot sauce.

One with ketchup AND mustard (yeah, i went there).

And of course, a plain one. Because you just can't beat that good ol' fashion big colon taste! Yum!!

I'm in West Virginia, we put cole slaw, chili, onions, and mustard on our dogs.... YUM!!

was there ever any doubt?

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=ketchup&word2=mustard

Mustard, onions, relish, tomatoes, sport peppers and pickle. NEVER ketchup unless your under the age of 10. Sometimes just mustard, onion, hot peppers. If you add chili and onions it's a chili dog. Save the sauerkraut for brats and sausages.

Shill spam at 6:16 AM! (Yup, it's another post from that European group of electronic device website.)

I've got to do something, I'm just not sure what. EL