Dave's Thoughts of the Day: July 5th

I said a few days ago I was not going to blog again this week, but seeing that I have so much time as I write this, on July 4th evening with nothing going on around me, I wondered if anyone would check the blog the next day.  Surprise!!!!!!!!!!!

First of all a hearty congratulations to Joey Chestnut for taking down the 7th Hot Dog Eating Title in a row.  Hey!  Did you know that Chestnut has a female equal now?  Her name is Sonya Thomas.  It's like He-Man and She Ra, but way less gay.   Although some people I know might consider eating a lot of hot dogs in a row "for the gays" so that last comment is subject to approval.

I love hot dogs.  They're not only easy to cook, but easy to eat.  All week I had worried about how to circumvent the 8 buns, 10 hot dogs problem, but as written on the message boards, I got around it by finding two packs of Hebrew National dogs with 7 franks each and one pack of Farmer John dogs, 10 wieners each.   Problem solved.  --and it was delicious!

I didn't eat the Hebrew Nationals today, I went after the Farmer John hot dogs first.    Our East Coast audience is probably unfamiliar with brands like Farmer John and Hoffy.  Both of them are LA-based meat packing companies.  Both do some very good tasting hot dogs.  Very different character for each brand though.  The "lighter taste" of the Farmer John hot dog is not for everybody.

Out East the brands du jour are Sabretts and Nathan's.  We get Nathans dogs out here too, it's like the best of both worlds -- Nathan's and Hoffy.   I also get Boar's Head hot dogs in the natural casings.   Thing of beauty, friends, thing of beauty.

I put on the Mariners/Rangers baseball game on last night and I said to myself, "Why am I watching this game???"

You know the first thing I'm going to do on Friday morning as I prep for Andy Murray's Semifinal Match in Wimbledon?  I'm going to Peet's.  DO THE DANCE!!

You know how long I've gone without a cup of Peet's?  It has to be at least a month.   I love me some Peet's.

I love me some Amanda Peet too, she was tremendous both body and mind.  Hope I see her on TV or in the movies soon.

Remember that show "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip?"  There's another show that really didn't get a chance.  It was pretty darn good.  "Playmakers" on ESPN was pretty darn good, a show about football.  Both shows were done after a year.  It's really too bad, both shows combined for good television.

Here's something that blew my mind.   I'm sure most of you are familiar with "Ball Park Franks" from the grocery store.  Now when you see a food called "ball park franks" you're always going to think "ah, haha, that's cute they named their hot dogs 'ball park' to make you think that they came from a baseball stadium.   Very nice."   I did the Wikipedia lookup -- the damn things were invented for Detroit Tigers Stadium!  Get outa here!!!

I remember other folks saying that Ball Park Franks weren't very good, but knowing that this is the official Detroit hot dog of record, specifically designed for Tigers baseball, I may need to sample it once again.  Oh, and by the way I gave them a cooking many years ago, they do *not* plump when you cook 'em.   What a joke...  I mean they expanded a tiny bit but it's about the same percentage you get from any other hot dog.

No, I am not going to go to the Ball Park Franks factory and maim a guy because of false advertising.

It's a tempting situation -- I have Friday off and all signs indicate easy road travel for Hollywood.  I *may* go this route... as you know, they have the city's best pancakes in Hollywood, in a place called "Du Par's"  Now... here's the thing.  They only serve regular pancakes -- not banana pancakes or strawberry pancakes or chocolate chip pancakes... but if they have bakery items there, I doubt it's that far fetched to ask them to add chocolate chips to the pancake batter.  Might be worth a look either Friday or Saturday.  Stay tuned.

I saw the fireworks program on NBC (now this went on while actual fireworks went off in the Santa Monica sky but I was too lazy to go check it out).   Last year, Regis did the show but I thought to myself that Regis was getting old, so I said "Hey, I bet you Nick Canon will do the show this year."  I put on NBC and Nick Canon was indeed hosting.  Heck of a guess huh??

Also to come (or in progress when you read this) on Friday is the big Wimbledon Semifinal between Andy Murray, Britain's own, and Janowicz.  But don't sell short Djokovic vs Del Portro.   Djoko's got it going on... doncha think he's the best thing going in Tennis right now?   Del Portro will be game.  After all, he beat out Federer for a U.S. Open Title didn't he?   Big day in tennis today!

I had one other inspired idea for the weekend... I would call this "The weekend of barbecue!"   One day, I'd do Southern Barbecue like pulled pork and ribs.  One day I'd do Korean Barbecue.  Then on another day I'd try Hawaiian Barbecue.  Not sure if I'll follow through here but it's a pretty neat concept. 


I can't wait for that Peet's.  Talk to you soon everyone, have a good weekend!