Complex Numbers

Revisited: "A Frank Discussion"

Diving into the past again today, I came up with a relatively recent entry, from May of last year: "A Frank Discussion" 

The entry revolved around a piece on the bon appétit site; as of right now, the article is still there.   And it's about figuring out which big-brand hot dogs are best.

I doubt the world of wieners has changed much in a year and a half. The article has a "summer's coming so here's something about grilling" slant, which, of course, it's the precise wrong time of year for, here in the One True Hemisphere.

Apparently, at the time, I'd overlooked one of the article's biggest flaws: while aimed at summer grill cooks, the testing featured boiled hot dogs. As anyone with taste buds knows, boiled dogs taste way different from grilled dogs.

Me: It's been many years since I've actually eaten a hot dog, frankfurter, or weiner; anything requiring a hot dog bun.

And now it's been many years plus a year and a half.

Not to mention I know what they're made of, but that doesn't stop me from eating breakfast sausages.

I've also eaten way worse than breakfast sausages, since then.

Here's the thing: it's hard to be objective about food (or drinks) during a taste test. Taste is, well, a matter of taste. Beer, for example, is highly personal; some love *shudder* IPAs, while I prefer darker, less hoppy brews.

Additionally, taste changes over time, and can be affected by numerous factors, such as your overall health and the last thing you ate or drank.

I concluded that entry with what may have been my first assertion in here that a hot dog is actually a taco. I'm not sure I actually believe it, myself, but it does tend to get one to think about categorization problems and their edge cases.