It’s National Hot Dog Day

July 23 is National Hot Dog Day. The United States Chamber of Commerce declared July as Hot Dog Month back in 1957.

We eat a lot of them. On average a person consumes 50 hot dogs a year. A total of 20 billion are eaten in a year with about 150 million hot dogs being consumed on the Fourth of July.

Hot dogs have long been a staple at the ball park. Chris von de Ahe of St Louis is credited with being the first owner to sell hot dogs in his ball park. Von de Ahe was a bit ahead of his time. In 1892 he opened a new ball park with an amusement park, beer garden along with a horse track in the outfield, and an artificial lake. He introduced hot dogs in his baseball park in 1893.

The first words uttered by Mickey Mouse were "hot dog."

It's said that the first food eaten on the moon was a hot dog.

Adults prefer mustard on their dog while ketchup is the favorite of children.

There's no definite answer as to how the term hot dog evolved. One story has it that in the 1890s lunch wagons were quite popular on college campuses. The quality of their food or lack of quality caused the students to refer to the wagons as dog wagons. One of the foods they sold were sausages that the vendors placed in buns so the students could eat while walking to class. This is just one of several stories as to how the term hot dog evolved.

It's a beautiful July day, why not cap it off with a few hot dogs on the grill tonight?