Dear Diary

trying to organize a yard sale sucks.

all that dusting, organizing, and pricing sucks.

you know what's even worse? when the last 5 days have been SUN and then it decides to RAIN on your yard sale day.

however, my house is full of crap and I need some $$.

History of the Edible Fried Dog.

I've been packing and cleaning all day, making way for my official big move out of the city to a small cow-town. Needless to say I have a lot of feelings running through me, and a lot of thoughts racking my brain.

Everytime I move I feel like a little part of me dies inside. That feeling only lasts a few weeks, though.

This time is especially hard, however, given that i've gotten quite comfortable with my surroundings. Moving from apartment to house is one thing, moving from a city to a town is quite another.

With the State Fair in my midst tomorrow, and my physical and mental exhaustion taking a toll on me, the only thing i'm looking forward to is settling in and watching To Catch a Predator.

I have mixed feelings on this show. Is it entrapment? Is it wrong? Is it possible that there are actually that many pedophiles amongst us? Half the time they just seem like poor losers who can't relate to women. I bet half of them don't even think they're really talking to a 12 year old, just a chance to get free sex with a girl. A women. Anything. And then I wonder, with the popularity of this show reaching an all time high, how can men still be so stupid to fall for this kind of charade? Don't they get suspicious?

And how come they never trap women into this sort of thing? Why is it always men who have to play victim?

Don't get me wrong, I don't condone underage sex whatsoever, and half the men on this show are quite disturbing...but I have issues with how this show really pressures these guys into coming over and being trapped into a situation they can't get out of. A majority of the time they can hardly speak English.

I think it's hilarious that they have a huge staff working around the clock to catch these would-be "predators."

Anyway.

What i'm really writing this blog about is something that i've been craving all day, given the Fair being around the corner and all the hard work i've been doing, i'm awarding myself to a corn dog. There's a place called Mike's Drive-In that has corn dogs to die for! So this was the inspiration for this blog.




I remember watching the Today show and seeing Matt Lauer eating a corn dog for the first time. They talked about how it was mostly a west coast thing and a lot of New Yorkers had never tasted a corn dog. Imagine..never getting the experience of the perfect deep fried hot dog. I assume this is because they think they're better than us in a lot of ways.
Who is the genius behind this madness, anyway? Let's take a further look...

There is some debate on the origin of the corn dog. References to corn dog stands stem as early as 1941. In a book titled "In 300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles" the author states that the "Krusty Korn Dog Baker" was featured in a wholesale catalog of hotel and restaurant supplies in 1929. They were not deep-fried in hot oil, however. They were made like waffles in the Krusty Baker Machine.

Sometime between 1938 and 1946 several vendors claim to have created and sold the first deep fried hot dog on a stick. Pronto Pups in Oregon and Minnesota hold the U.S. patent and trademark introduced in 1942.

One thing holds true, however, and that is that a corn dog recipe always includes corn meal. The fact that it resembles an ear of corn gives the dog it's generic name. That's right, "corn dog" is just a general term, and not the official name of the deep fried dog.

The corn dog has it's own holiday. National Corn Dog Day is celebrated in March of every year on the first Saturday of the NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Championship. (The NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Championship is a single elimination tournament held each spring featuring 65 college basketball teams in the United States. A mouthful, I know. And what it has to do with corn dogs is anyone's guess. In my opinion the corn dog is amazing enough to have it's own holiday without the added flair of a College Basketball Tournament.)

National Corn Dog Day was introduced in 1992 by a group of high school students in Corvallis, Oregon. It has since been expanded to include tater tots and beer, offically sponsored by PBR and Foster Farms.

Corn Dogs are also available in many different varietes, whether it's a veggie corn dog made of cornmeal and cardboard, a bratwurst dipped in corn dog batter, sausage dipped in pancake batter, or even corn dogs without a stick, served as appetizers and knows as "pups."

So whether the dog hails from the Fletcher brothers in Texas, or Jack Karnis (Pronto Pups) in the early 1940's, is anyone's guess. That's the mystery of the Battered Beast. Suffice it to say, the corn dog continues to be an American staple in so many ways.

I guess in a way it perfectly sums up America itself; plump, deep fried, and a little bit crusty.

There’s the relaxed fit generation and then there’s the next generation.

One of my favorite things right now is my new American Apparel deep v-neck t-shirt.

Granted, I never bothered to give American Apparel the time of day due to (in my opinion) their considerably high prices, and the fact their models are always kind of weird looking...
I was, however, on a quest for the perfect worn-in t-shirt, one that felt like a favorite vintage tee, worn out over the course of many years. The odds of finding one in a thrift store being the same as your odds of finding a genuine Louis Vuitton purse at Goodwill. For $5.99.

So in celebration of my finding the perfect equivalent to this long-yearned-for gem, I got a little insight into the history and ideals of American Apparel.

Dov Charney, a Canadian, ironically, founded AA in 1991, where he began making t-shirts under the brand's name.
Initially the objective was to sell basic jersey t-shirts to screenprinters and wholesalers in order to compete with the Hanes Beefy-T.

The popularity of the AA brand stems from several directions. One being it's environmentally friendly tactics.
American Apparel offers a bicycle lending program to it's employees, runs animal friendly-practices, being voted by PETA as a favorite vegan-friendly clothing company; and even recycles it's fabric scraps, using these scraps for the company's underwear line.

Dov Charney has earned recognition for his fair wage tactics and refusal to outsource manufacture.
(outsourcing=subcontracting a product design or having that third party company manufacture your product to lower firm costs.)
The company also offers low cost healthcare, English speaking classes, and free long-distance phone calls when on-duty.

Another appeal to the AA brand is it's marketing toward young, fashion forward, slightly androgynous consumers. AA stores are most often found in low rent, high traffic locations, taking into consideration urban areas that can be revitalized.

The company has not been without it's controversies, however. Some stores feature Penthouse magazine covers from the 70's and 80's, it's models are "real" girls, never airbrushed and posed provocatively, and Dov Charner, CEO and founder, has been the subject of five sexual harassment lawsuits.

Given my new light on the story behind the iconic brand, I could feel a little better paying $22.00 for a plain cotton tee, knowing my money is going to a company making a better difference than most. My American Apparel still comes from a distributor on Ebay, however, since i'm still totally cheap in the long run.

August 19th. The Birth of an Icon.

Today marks the birthday of late, great, fashion icon Coco Chanel.



Now granted, the only thing remotely Chanel I can afford is Chanel no. 5 parfum.

It was that perfume, however, developed in 1921, and considered the #1 selling perfume in the world, that helped make her a millionaire.

She was also known for taking what were considered "poor fabrics" (like jersey) and updating them into simple articles of clothing she could sell for more money than they were probably worth.

At the beginning of WWII she closed her shops and took shelter in one of the most prestigious hotels in the world. During this time she maintained a taboo relationship with a German spy.

In 1954 she returned to Paris from Switzerland, and went back to building her fashion empire. Her fashion lost it's popularity with the Parisians as a result of her relationship with the Nazi spy.

It did, however, regain popularity with 15 year old girls and booth renters in Chinatown.

side note: the term "Haute couture" is french for "high dressmaking" and aptly describes collections designed by Chanel. It's a term I always heard on Project Runway and never bothered to totally learn what it meant...