It National Hot Dog Day

Every year, the third Wednesday in July has been designated by the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council as National Hot Dog day.



This year, National Hot Dog is sponsored by ACME Snappy Weenie - The Almost 100% all beef frank (but hey don't ask what the other stuff in it is.) Let us slide our hot weenie into your Buttered Split Buns and feel the difference.


July 21, 1951 - Robin McLaurim Williams, actor and comedian, was born on this date (or was it 1952.)





I hope his career will pick up some day.


Today in History
July 21, 365 -
Earthquake destroys the ancient Egyptian city of Alexandria, causing the sea to recede and then re-enter the city with tremendous force. Many of those not killed by collapsing buildings were drowned. Fifty thousand die.

It was not a good day in Ole Alexandria


July 21, 1730 -
Holland established the death penalty for acts of sodomy.

Who knew the Dutch were such a pill?


July 21, 1899 -
Ernest Hemingway was born on this date. He was young at the time of his birth. It was fine to be young.

He drove an ambulance in the first world war. It wasn't called the first world war then. It was called the war. It was one of those times when people shot at each other. When people were shooting at each other they didn't have time to worry about what to call it. It was only afterwards that they needed to call it something. "What should we call that time when we were shooting at each other?" "Let's call it the Great War." "Good."



It was a good ambulance. It was long and white. It had flashing lights and a siren that went "wee-ooo, wee-ooo." He liked that.

After the war he lived in Paris. A lot of Americans lived in Paris after the war, but only a few of them had ever driven an ambulance. In the 30s he went to Spain. He was a journalist. They were having a war.

They called it the Spanish Civil War. It was started by an Evil Bastard named General Franco on July 18, 1936. It was a test to see whether or not they should have World War II. They had fascists and socialists and anarchists. They even had clowns. People shot at each other.

(General Franco finally gave up power on July 19, 1974, because he was sick. Maybe he had always been sick. It is sometimes hard to understand sickness. Maybe we are not meant to understand it.)

Later Hemingway lived in Cuba. He liked to fish. He thought all men should fish. He wrote stories about fishing. Finally he blew his brains out at his home in Idaho. It was July 2, 1961.

He had written a lot of books but now he was dead.

July 21, 1919 -
Two passengers, a mechanic and 10 bank employees are killed in Chicago when a Goodyear blimp, the Winged Foot Express, catches fire and crashes through the roof of the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank.

This was the first and worst accident (prior to the Hindenburg crash) involving a dirigible.


July 21, 1925 -
The so-called "Monkey Trial" ended in Dayton, Tenn., with John T. Scopes convicted of violating state law for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.

Scopes was found guilty and was fined $100. The conviction was later overturned on a technicality.


July 21, 1972 -
In Milwaukee, George Carlin is arrested for obscenity and disorderly conduct for performing his "Seven Dirty Words" routine on a Summerfest stage in Milwaukee.



He was released after posting $150 bail.


July 21, 1981 -
Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years in prison for the shooting of John Lennon. His only response is to read a passage from Catcher in the Rye.



When not being continually sodomized by irate Beatle fans, Chapman is currently working as a janitor in Attica State Prison. Lindsay Lohan is now spending upwards of 20 hours a day in solitary confinement (to avoid being sodomized by crazed Freaky Friday Fans) in an L.A. jail - coincidence.



And so it goes.