Word: doggedly
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...critics, the hot dog, like any other American institution, does have its loyal defenders. "If I were an Oscar Mayer wiener," insists the jingle, "everyone would be in love with me." Edwin Anderson, president of the Zion Foods Corp., salutes the frankfurter with a serious mien. "Hot dogs," he maintains, "are still the American's favorite meat food. Let's compare apples with apples. The hot dog is a ready-to-eat product and should be compared with other similar products rather than with hamburger, which loses 30% to 40% of its weight in cooking." Adds Michael Levine...
...dog manufacturers have bothered to read the entrails. For despite the tocsins from Washington, despite intruders from overseas, the maligned frank furter has proved as irresistible in 1972 as it was in 1914 to a boy named Penrod. The hero of Booth Tarkington's Huckleberry novels thought the "winny-wurst" was "all nectar and ambrosia. ..it was rigidly forbidden by the home authorities." Like Penrod, contemporary Americans tend to ignore authorities; they consume 15 billion hot dogs every year - possibly even because of the warnings. Forbidden fruit tastes delicious; why not proscribed wieners...
There are other, better reasons for the hot dog to be top dog. Crackling tidily above briquettes, steaming under vendors' umbrellas and in short-order restaurants, the frank still emits a sharp democratic zonk, redolent of exotic spices and domestic meats. To most Americans, the hot dog is the equivalent of Proust's madeleine; it triggers memories of afternoons in the bleachers, and languorous Sundays spent lolling on pic nic grounds. At 170 calories, it is modest enough to be included in a dietary lunch; yet the gourmet James Beard has wrapped a recipe around it: choucroute...
Given these statistics and endorsements, even Ralph Nader would have to agree with Governor Nelson Rockefeller's dictum: "No candidate for any office can hope to get elected in this country without being photographed eating a hot dog." (Indeed, F.D.R. went so far as to serve franks to King George VI.) One of those candidates, a consumer named Richard Nixon, once announced, "I come from humble origins. Why, we were raised on hot dogs and hamburgers. We've got to look after the hot dog...
...neither politicians nor preservatives can guarantee shelf life forever. Those who see the hot dog as an American symbol may be discomfited to learn that its very ethos is vanishing. Once, for example, franks were the staple of daytime World Series games. But this year, all weekday Series games will be played at night. Who wants a hot dog after dinner...