New Look Auto Body

I wasn't always a lawyer.  Before I went to law school, I worked at a variety of random (some of them were pretty "odd") jobs, for example, washing dishes at a fraternity after lunch every day while I was a freshman in college.  The pay wasn't great but I ate for free, and the French lady I worked with was a great cook.

One summer I worked for Manny Lopez at New Look Auto Body.  I did light body work that mostly consisted of prepping the cars for painting.  I masked them, and went over every inch of the old paint job, filling in chips and scratches with putty and sanding them so they were nice and smooth before going into the paint booth.  Once in a while I did a little auto upholstery.

What does all this have to do with food?  Well the Lopez brothers had built a little hot dog cooker that consisted of a 6-inch piece of 2x4, 2 large (16-penny) nails, and a 3-foot length of electrical cord with a plug at one end.

DON'T LET YOUR CHILDREN READ THIS NEXT PART!!!

You see, the nails were pounded all the way through the wood and out the other side, so that maybe 2 and 1/2 inches of nail was sticking out the other side of the 2x4.  The nails were positioned about 3 inches apart from one another, and the wire end of the electrical cord had been split apart with one wire going to each of the nails.

To cook the hot dog, you set the cooker on the work bench with the nails sticking out the top.  Take a hot dog and, using both hands, stick that hot dog straight down onto those nails, so that each end of the hot dog has a nail going through it.  When you plug in the cord, that hot dog cooks IMMEDIATELY!!!  I mean, as soon as you plug it in, the hot dog sizzles and plumps up -- it is, most definitely, COOKED!!

So, what's the physics of that????  Was the hot dog being electrocuted?  I'm really not sure -- I have a very rudimentary understanding of how electricity works; one of my co-workers in the maintenance department at the student union where I worked as an undergraduate explained it to me like this:  From the plug, the 2 wires have to make a complete circle, but they have to have a "load" in between them, like a light bulb or a fan.  If the hot (the wire carrying the "juice") and cold wires touch each other without a load in between them that's a short circuit (not good - sparks).  In this case, I guess the hot dog is the load.  I sometimes wonder if you put a raw Italian sausage on it, would it get cooked as fast as the hot dog?  If so, that would sure save a lot of time.

I occasionally think about making one of those hot dog cookers; it would be very easy to build.  I never actually follow though with building it though, because my very next thought is always, you know, that's not a very safe thing to have around the house, what with 2 nails sticking out of it, one of them attached to a hot wire.  I mean, you WILL get shocked if you touch the "hot" nail while it's plugged in.  I don't think you'll get cooked like the hot dog... but... still not a good idea.

I suppose I could build it, do my Italian sausage experiment, then take it apart really fast, destroying any evidence of its existence, including the sausage which I'm quite certain would disappear quickly.  I'll let you know if I ever get around to it.   :-)

And I promise, my next post will be about something really yummy you can cook right now that doesn't involve nails or the possibility of getting shocked by your cooking apparatus!

Later....

I had a request to include a picture of the Lopez Bros. hot dog cooker, which, as you know does not, and may never exist, at least not in my world.  Which means, if I were to include a picture of this apparatus, it would have to be some kind of drawing.  So, here is the pencil sketch I put together: