"Ambassador Hot Dog"

On Mon, 8 Jun 2009 22:57:15 -0500, "Gregory Morrow" <...@xxuitx.cu

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/weekinreview/07barry.html

June 7, 2009

Ambassador Hot Dog

By DAN BARRY

"In the Swiftian world of international relations, every detail, every
gesture, is fraught with meaning. One diplomat interprets the innocent
sneeze of another diplomat as an insult to his mother, and off they go into
Lilliputian-Blefuscudian brinksmanship.

Thankfully, the United States has developed over the years a disarming way
to put its foreign guests at ease. It is to offer that most unassuming of
American food items, one long associated with baseball, barbecues and
occasional gastrointestinal distress. Yes: the hot dog.

In the formal language of diplomacy, perhaps, the presentation of a hot dog
may say: "On behalf of the United States of America, may we offer you this
tubular delight of meat, meat byproducts, curing agents and spices?" But
what it really says is: "How ya doin'? Wanna beer?"

Such is the democratic charm of the hot dog.

Last week, the State Department informed its embassies and consulates that
they could now invite officials from Iran to their Fourth of July
receptions, all in keeping with the Obama administration's policy of
openness to communication. Iranian diplomats have been off the invite list
ever since a certain faux pas, the 1979 seizure by protesters of the
American Embassy in Tehran.

But now, finally, representatives of the Iranian government are welcome to
annual Independence Day parties, which, as The Times's Mark Landler
reported, usually include "hot dogs, red-white-and-blue bunting and some
perfunctory remarks about the founding fathers."

There is no record of the founding fathers ever eating hot dogs, no trace,
for example, of mustard on the Declaration of Independence. But the hot dog
has played a role in American foreign relations since at least June 1939,
when the king and queen of England attended a picnic at President Franklin
D. Roosevelt's estate in Hyde Park, N.Y., while soliciting American support
for England in the war about to consume Europe.

The next day, a front-page headline in The New York Times shared the news:

KING TRIES HOT DOG
AND ASKS FOR MORE
And He Drinks Beer With Them

Bob Clark, the head archivist at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential
Library, in Hyde Park, agreed on Friday to dig deeper into this seminal
event. "Anything we can do to further the diplomacy of the United States,"
he said.

He called back to report that: a sample tray of hot dogs was served on a
silver tray; the royal guests nevertheless joined everyone else in eating
off paper plates; King George VI ate two hot dogs ("with gusto," the
historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. later said); and the brand of hot dog was
Swift.

A more delicate diplomatic matter concerned Queen Elizabeth. According to
"The Roosevelts and the Royals," a 2004 book by Will Swift, the queen turned
to President Roosevelt and asked: "How do you eat it?"

He is said to have answered: "Very simple. Push it into your mouth and keep
pushing it until it is all gone."

But the Queen of England could not conjure her inner Ebbets Field bleacher
bum. She is said to have used a knife and fork.

Twenty years later, in 1959, a hot dog again figured in American foreign
relations when Nikita Khrushchev, the unpredictable leader of the Soviet
Union, toured the United States. At one point he stopped at a packing plant
in Des Moines, where he ate his first hot dog - although at least one
account says his first bite had to wait until security agents waved a Geiger
counter over the dog. A mere cold war formality.

The hot dog, it seems, figures in American diplomacy only when absolutely
needed. In 1999, for example, President Bill Clinton gathered at a table
with Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and the Palestinian leader Yasir
Arafat to eat hot dogs. Kosher, of course.

Now it is needed again - on Independence Day, to help the Obama
administration with the delicate matter of Iran. And if things do not go as
well as planned, the administration might consider contacting the National
Hot Dog and Sausage Council, a project of the American Meat Institute and
conveniently located in Washington.

Its officials can suggest recipes beyond the traditional dog in a bun.
Perhaps the crisis at hand might call for "grilled hot dog and fruit
kabobs," or maybe something more traditional, like "franks and beans."

The council also has a cheeky list of etiquette tips that could come in
handy for foreign heads of state. Among them: use paper napkins, not cloth
napkins, when wiping one's mouth while eating a hot dog; take no more than
five bites in consuming a hot dog; and never, ever, use utensils to eat a
hot dog on a bun.

One more thing, Your Majesty. Wanna beer?"

</

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