Dinner Conversation: 5 Fun Food Facts To Share At Your BBQ

Happy Independence Day! If you're one of the 66 million people headed to a barbeque today, consider taking the hot dog out of your mouth for just two seconds to wow your friends with these five fun food facts about the Fourth.

1) Speaking of that hot dog in your mouth...there's a 25% chance that it came from somewhere in Iowa, where 17.6 million market hogs and pigs call home. And over 150 million hot dogs will be eaten today. But if you subtract Kobayashi's contribution, about six hot dogs will be eaten today.

2) What's that? No hot dogs for you? Not carnivores, are we? If your salad was a Miss America pageant, you'd have representatives from California, Idaho, Washington, Florida and Georgia. And then California would go AWOL, pose half-nude, and then become the "opposite marriage" spokeswoman, I mean spokes-head-of-lettuce -- more than three-fourths of the nation's supply comes from the Golden State. Your tomatoes probably came from Florida, your potatoes from Idaho or Washington, and your watermelon from Georgia, which produces over 1 billion pounds of the fruit a year.

3) Hand a little cold from reaching in that beer cooler a few too many times? Well, you're not alone. Beer is the most popular beverage in the world, second only to Dr. Pepper. Wait, that's just me. Worldwide, beer is second only to tea. Cheers!

4) If you're anything like me, the Fourth of July wouldn't be complete without a little sheet cake covered in Xanthan and Guar Gums, Sorbitan Monostearate, and Hydrogenated Coconut and Palm Kernel Oil. Or you might know it as Cool-Whip. Delicious! Our favorite non-freezing treat shares ingredients with hemorrhoid cream and sexual lubricants. More useful than you thought, huh? Eat up.

5) If your buddy is turning green right before your eyes because he had too much moonshine/barbeque/Jello/buckets of potato salad, fill him in on the fun facts of vomiting: humans up-chuck on average 1.28 times a year, the oldest hurl ever found is 160 million years old, horses, rabbits and rats can't enjoy their dinner in reverse, and a Fourth of July party isn't a party until someone ralphs in the pool.

Follow Lindsay Mannering on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LindsayVirginia

Comments

[captainindustry]

150.000.000 year and three month old potato salad. Like they say in Paris, if it looks green, throw it in the Seine.

[unami]

That 150 million year old barf must have been bad chicken. The risk of communicable avian diseases and bacterial contamination is alarming.If I stuck my nose up to a raw chicken and took a whiff, I would throw up regardless of the smell! LOL

[unami]

yeah, $30 for an ice cream cake? Forget it. They wanted $28 for chicken parm over pasta at a local kitchy dive. I balked, I could make 10 family size platters at home for that amount of money. $28 for a pounded chicken breast?

[gbrooks]

After going to the market, intending to buy an ice cream cake and looking at the $20-$30 price tags, I balked.

I made a chocolate cake from scratch, cut it in half and put a layer of ice cream in between. Then I frosted it with real whipped cream that I made myself with a bit o' sugar and heavy cream.

Total cost: $3. Total time spent preparing--about an hour. Much tastier than the store-bought version too.

[ranchero42]

Cheeky monkey.

[Unreadable]

Sounds like conversation cards out of that Monty Python sketch.

How about 6) Was Nietzsche a philosopher?

[Daverhagen]

If I read this right, then we really can cover my bride with cool whip and.. hehe

[captainindustry]

Thank you for sharing Ms Lindsay Mannering. Maybe next year you'll get invited to a nice Fourth of July party. But I doubt it.

[Truye]

Only 1.28 times a year!?! I vomit all the frickin' time! Too rich, fish and alcohol, alcohol and hotdogs, alcohol, chocolate and hot dogs...The list goes on and on. For a non-bulimic I must throw up waaay above the average. How sad.

[TimeToPunt]

Sounds like you should avoid alcohol.

[getalong]

150 million year old barf?

I didn't know that had McDonald's back then.

[Dynamohum]

It probably had TWINKIE in it. Those things never ever decompose!!

[shoabear]

hehe, this is funny!

[NoSandwiches]

How nice for you that you have a pool.

here it is 90 degrees and we have no pool, no air conditioning, and the weather channel has the audacity to tell me that it is only 89 degrees and "pleasantly warm"

I would clean out the vomit if only I could take a dip in a pool right now....

[Cheezette]

My salad is coming from my garden this year!

[cutter36]

Beer is 2nd to Dr. Pepper? I can accept that it is 2nd, but I would have thought Coke or Pepsi would be first. To me, Dr. Pepper and Mr. Pibb always seemed like an afterthought.

[TexasGiant]

And so they are.

You misread the article.

[captainindustry]

I wish Dr Pepper was delicious. I love the whole concept and history. Just can't stand the taste.

[learntofly]

Lesson learned - Read the ingredients label - cut out the chemical fest.