Slog

News & Arts

The Stranger Suggests

Critics' Best Bets
Music Arts & Food


Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Chew on This

Posted by on Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 2:12 PM

Picture_4.png

As Dan mentioned last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics would like the hot dog redesigned. Armed with Playdough, Fast Company tries reimagining the meat-tube over here on their blog.

 

Comments (13) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
Mattini 1
One thing the tube has going for it is that it resembles food. Sure, we know that a hot dog is not food, but we see the shape and our brains think it is similar (like a carrot; like a cucumber; like a roll of sweet tarts).

The brain cannot be fooled with these new shapes.
Posted by Mattini on March 2, 2010 at 2:17 PM
The Amazing Jim 2
Hot dogs are as much food as is tofu. Except that hot dogs taste good and are good for you. Don't feed kids food they can't eat.
Posted by The Amazing Jim http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=100000076496291&ref=profile on March 2, 2010 at 2:47 PM
3
Make them into little cubes. I don't know why.
Posted by Cube Me A Dog on March 2, 2010 at 2:48 PM
4
Before I read the post, I thought the shape on the left was a piece of Bazooka Gum.
Posted by alicepenguin on March 2, 2010 at 2:55 PM
Mycelium 5
Y'know, even though I have never liked hot dogs, that condiment carrier groove could be loaded up with enough relish or mustard to actually make the thing edible.
Posted by Mycelium on March 2, 2010 at 3:01 PM
warreno 6
Yes, because cutting hot dogs lengthwise into halves or quarters -- or better yet, serving bologna -- or better yet, actually being there while your child eats so you can do something if he starts choking is just too damned much to ask of some people.

While we're at it, let's put pads on all furniture and fill the Grand Canyon with concrete, to prevent people falling in.

In 2006, 61 kids choked to death on food. Sixty. One.

Food choking hazards are effectively nil. This is a nonexistent problem being put forth by babbling idiots.
Posted by warreno http://www.nightwares.com on March 2, 2010 at 3:23 PM
Dougsf 7
How exactly is the shape of the hotdog before it's chewed responsible for choking deaths?
Posted by Dougsf on March 2, 2010 at 4:11 PM
elenchos 8
warreno, read more, spew less:
More than 10,000 children under 14 go to the emergency room each year after choking on food, and up to 77 die, says the new policy statement, published online today in Pediatrics. About 17% of food-related asphyxiations are caused by hot dogs. ... . "I'm a pediatric emergency doctor, and to try to get them out once they're wedged in, it's almost impossible


I'm not sure I understand the urgency of condiment containers in the hot dogs but maybe that's like the nonsense they made up about QWERTY keyboards being faster. Helps it sell I guess.
Posted by elenchos on March 2, 2010 at 4:25 PM
9
Note that the tube shape is the shape of the hot dog bun already. Condiments are not the problem. The problem is hysteria. 77 children a year choke to death on hot dogs, in a country with how many millions of children who don't? So let's re-design a basic food item (and why stop with hot dogs: why not ALL SAUSAGES?), spend however many millions retrofitting our sausage factories? Think of the factories! They're the future. And what about string cheese? Any other thing shaped vaguely thoat-ish?
Posted by Chicago Fan on March 2, 2010 at 8:56 PM
10
Um. Don't feed your kids hot dogs?
Posted by Gloria on March 3, 2010 at 8:26 AM
elenchos 11
People feed their kids a lot of hot dogs because it's the cheapest meat you can buy. And they've been told a thousand times that without meat they won't get enough protein and without a pound of protein a day they will die.

I know you don't all only shop at Whole Foods. Look around.
Posted by elenchos on March 3, 2010 at 9:17 AM
elenchos 12
People feed their kids a lot of hot dogs because it's the cheapest meat you can buy. And they've been told a thousand times that without meat they won't get enough protein and without a pound of protein a day they will die.

I know you don't all only shop at Whole Foods. Look around.
Posted by elenchos on March 3, 2010 at 9:20 AM
elenchos 13
Also. Compare the 70-some choking deaths of children per year to the 19 deaths total linked (including indirectly) to defective Toyota cars. The whole world is in an uproar because a grand total of 19 people have died in accidents that might have had something to do, directly or indirectly, with Toyotas having messed up gas pedals.
Posted by elenchos on March 3, 2010 at 11:42 AM

Add a comment

Advertisement
 

All contents © Index Newspapers, LLC
1535 11th Ave (Third Floor), Seattle, WA 98122
Contact Info | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Takedown Policy