Wednesday 7/21/21
Celebrate National Junk Food, Be Someone, and Hot Dog Day.
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According to recent survey data obtained by the Council, Americans purchase 350 million pounds of hot dogs at retail stores - that's 9 billion hot dogs! But the actual number of hot dogs consumed by Americans is probably much larger. It is difficult to calculate the number of hot dogs Americans may eat at sporting events, local picnics and carnivals. The Council estimates Americans consume 20 billion hot dogs a year - more than twice the retail sales figures. That works out to about 70 hot dogs per person each year.
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Is the Hot Dog a Sandwich? According to Merriam-Webster, a sandwich is "two or more slices of bread or a split roll having a filling in between." By that definition, hot dogs seem to qualify as sandwiches. Many people argue, though, that while the hot dog technically fits the dictionary definition of a sandwich, it's simply not a sandwich. It is its own thing.
Eric Mittenthal, president of the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, said he's been asked this question just about daily for the past five to six years and his answer is the same.
"A hot dog is not a sandwich," he said. "If you go to a hot dog vendor and you say give me a sandwich, they're going to look at you like you're crazy. It's just culturally not the same as a sandwich."
Get details here.
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On May 31, 2012, a world record was set for the most expensive hot dog. The “California Capitol City Dawg” sold for $145.49 at Capitol Dawg in Sacramento, California. The “California Capitol City Dawg” features:
-A grilled 18″ all-beef, in natural casing frank from Chicago
-Served on a fresh-baked herb and oil focaccia roll spread with white truffle butter, then grilled
-Topped with whole grain mustard from France, garlic and herb mayonnaise
-Sauteed chopped shallots, organic mixed baby greens, maple syrup
-Marinated/fruitwood smoked uncured bacon from New Hampshire
-Chopped tomatoes, sweetened dried cranberries, chopped tomato
-Expensive moose cheese from Sweden
-Basil olive oil/pear-cranberry-coconut balsamic vinaigrette and ground peppercorn
-Proceeds from the sale of each 3 lb. super dog donated to the Shriners Hospitals for Children
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Live in an area that has weekly tornado siren tests? Start giving your pets treats when the sirens go off. They’ll associate the sound with getting a treat and stop getting scared of the loud noise. (ok..we don't have those...but thunderstorms, some dogs don't like them, but if you've been doing the treats with them this year...your dog is obese now.)
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As hot, dry weather conditions continue to fuel wildfires across much of the United States, the Bootleg Fire in Oregon has become so intense that it's creating its own weather.
The fire has scorched more than 606 square miles -- an area larger than Los Angeles and about half the size of Rhode Island. It grew to more than 388,350 acres overnight from Monday to Tuesday and is 30% contained, according to data from the InciWeb interagency website.
Pyrocumulus clouds form when extreme heat from the flames of a wildfire force the air to rapidly rise, condensing and cooling any moisture on smoke particles produced by the fire. These clouds essentially become their own thunderstorms and can contain lightning and strong winds.
The fire is "so large and generating so much energy and extreme heat that it's changing the weather," Kauffman explained. "Normally, the weather predicts what the fire will do. In this case, the fire is predicting what the weather will do."
Extraordinary plumes of wildfire smoke are billowing out of these massive complexes, reaching so far up into the atmosphere that they are being carried thousands of miles east by high-level winds.
While heavy smoke is making air quality hazardous in the West, it's also creating eerie skies over the Midwest and Northeast. The Gray between the bright white clouds in the photo is smoke.
Kind of puts me in the mind for this song.
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So you're shopping and buy some bananas..what's the product code for them...most will know that it's 4011. But what do those numbers mean?
1. If you buy a banana with a four-digit code (4011 is the code for bananas) on the sticker, that banana was conventionally grown with the use of pesticides. All conventionally grown produce will have stickers with four digits.
2. If a fruit or veggie was grown organically, the sticker will have five digits, starting with “9.” An organically grown banana’s PLU would be 94011, for example.
3. Genetically modified produce stickers also have five digits, but these codes begin with the number “8.”
And don't worry..no matter where you shop, the codes are universal.
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Is there one month of the year you hate more than every other month?
Most of us do have one, according to a recent poll.
Only 3% of people said July is their least favorite month. That's on par with most months. But four different months stood out.
Our least favorite month of the year is January. 19% of people said it's the worst, followed by February at 15%.
And third on the list is August. 10% of adults say it's the worst, maybe because it's Back to School Month.
December is fourth at 7%. And March is fifth with 4% of the vote.
26% of Americans don't have a least favorite month. And 2% couldn't decide which one they hate the most.
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