"Hot Dog" article in The Atlantic

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

In a private message Barry Popik replied to the incorrect assertion
( July 2, The Atlantic) that "hot dogs" were in disrepute nationally                                                                                                     until FDR raised them to respectability in the 1930s (subtitle of article:
"Before FDR helped the hot dog become a Fourth of July favorite,                                                           it was an outcast associated with squalor, crime, and moonshine.")
     ---- With Popik's permission I now pass along his comments below:
       '... 1909-1939 was not "America's Era of Sausage-Hating." Nathan's became famous in this era.
New Jersey had its Texas Hot Wieners. Michigan had its Coney Islands.
All of America FELL IN LOVE with hot dogs during this era!
       'Plus, technical cooking advancements were being made and hot dogs lost
the tough, leathery skin and became more edible than ever before.
      "America's Era of Sausage-Hating," if we must declare one, is from the
NINETEENTH CENTURY, when "hot dogs" were named. The "dog sausage" name
and stories about tainted meat were cited by Gerald Cohen and me many
years ago--found from the 1840s. Old news, really, by 1909.'
------Gerald Cohen
cc.: Barry Popik
       Daniel Fromson (associate editor, The Atlantic)
_________________________________________________________________

On Sat, Jul 2, 2011 at 11:27 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard gcohen at mst.edu>wrote:
> An article on "hot dog" appeared in The Atlantic today:
>
> ahttp://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/07/the-hot-dog-files-12-tal
> es-from-americas-era-of-sausage-hating/241338/<http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/07/the-hot-dog-files-12-tales-from-americas-era-of-sausage-hating/241338/>
>
> Its author was evidently unaware of the extensive research that Barry
> Popik, David Shulman, and I have done on this term  (book: Origin Of The
> Term "Hot Dog", 2004).  If he ever decides to treat the subject again, he
> need only request assistance from  Popik or me (David Shulman is no longer
> alive), and we would be happy to provide it.  Several other members of ads-l
> would also be well qualified to provide help.
> Gerald Cohen
>

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