đ Remember the Home Depot hot dogs?
BY PEYTON GARCIA | @CITYCASTDENVER
HANKERING FOR A HOME DEPOT HOT DOG? đ
We got an email from a City Cast reader/listener this week lamenting the disappearance of the Home Depot hot dog.
The Home Depot what??
You know, from the hot dog stands you used to see posted up outside all Home Depot stores? Each store had its own independent, local hot dog-slinginâ vendor â from the West to the East coast, those dogs were always there, and always exactly what you needed. As a kid, I looked forward to boring hardware runs with my parents because it was synonymous with a hot, juicy dog (and the occasional snow cone, if you went to the right Home Depot).
If you havenât been to a Home Depot in a while, you may not have noticed that these beloved hot dog stands are (mostly) long gone. They were all shut down when the pandemic struck.
Why arenât they coming back?
Thatâs what Iâd like to know. Many of the hot dog-free Home Depots seem to have decided it’s the end of an era and the start of a new one⌠one where that space outside the store is used for hardware products. But some people, including former stand owners, think COVID and the need for âmore spaceâ are just flimsy excuses for corporate greed.
âI think they could fit four lawn mowers in my space,â Kerri Ginther, who used to own a stand outside an Aurora Home Depot, told Westword for their reporting on the topic last year. âFour lawn mowers of space is worth my business?â
Theyâre not all gone, but itâs not the same.
Last summer one stand returned to a Fort Collins Home Depot and another in Arvada. The Home Depot hot dog advocate who emailed City Cast Denver said thereâs still a hot dog guy standing his ground at the Home Depot in Thornton off Grant Street. But itâs far from the amount of hot dog-slingers there used to be. Coloradoâs lucky â In some places, like Michigan, Home Depot decided that the hot dog stands wonât be returning at all.
Most stands had been stationed at their communityâs Home Depot for more than a decade, sometimes longer, and their absence is still being felt. One quick Twitter search for the phrase âHome Depot hot dogâ and you can doomscroll through tweets from hundreds of hot dog-lovers from around the country decrying the disappearance of their own local carts and what that means for the small business owners who run them.
But like with so many COVID-19 casualties, we didnât know what we had âtil it was gone.
Have thoughts on the disappearance of the Home Depot hot dog? I wanna know. Reply to this email đ§
THE DENVER ACCENT đŁď¸
âA lot of people expressed that ‘mountain’ seemed like something that was unique to the Denver accent â like the pronunciation of mountain with a what we call a glottal stop, where you make the T with your throat. … But funnily enough, this is a general phenomenon of American English.” â Jeremy Calder, assistant professor of Linguistics at CU Boulder
Does the âDenver Accentâ Exist? CU Researchers are on the Case.
As Denver continues to grow and change, thereâs a constant conversation happening about our identity. Who are we as a city? What makes Denver, well, Denver? One characteristic often in question is the way we talk. Do we have an accent? Is there a way â or more than one way â Denverites talk? Turns out, there isnât a lot of information out there on our particular speech patterns, but researchers at CU Boulder are on the case.
Today on the show, Host Bree Davies talks with Jeremy Calder, an assistant professor in the linguistics department, and graduate student Andrew Ting about their âVoices of Coloradoâ project and what theyâve found to be possible characteristics of an actual Denver accent.Â
SOMETHING TO DO đ§âđł
Growing Home â a local nonprofit committed to supporting families facing barriers to stability and success â invites you to participate in its Whatâs Cookinâ fundraising competition. Home chefs of any age can sign up to show off their best recipe, then collect votes from family and friends. Each vote comes with a donation to Growing Home!
You can compete in either the Savory or Sweet division in one of the following categories: Junior, Amateur, Professional, Local Celeb. All you have to do is share your recipe and photo on the fundraiser website. The competition is happening now and runs through May 8. Learn how to enter or vote for a local chef here. May the best meal win!Â
MORE NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW
đŚ COVID who? Yes, state health officials say that the new COVID variant (âstealth omicronâ or omicron BA.2.) is indeed among us and causing a small bump in infections. BUT transmission rates are so low and so many of us have immunity against the virus, itâs likely nothing to worry too much about. (Donât quote me on that.) Learn more about this variant đ [CO Sun]
đ¸đž Something you didnât know: Or at least, I didnât know â Prior to her superstardom, Lizzo lived in Aurora for a year and worked at a local King Soopers. Drop that tidbit at your next happy hour. The one-time Colorado resident-turned-pop-queen will be back in Denver later this year for a Halloween concert at Ball Arena. [9News]
đ˘ Sad, sad news for Standley Lake eagle watchers: Early April brought cause for celebration as our favorite family of local eagles at Standley Lake welcomed a new eaglet to the nest. But last weekend, researchers noticed evidence that leads them to believe any babies in the nest have died. Some have speculated that the ongoing outbreak of bird flu may be the cause, but without any carcasses for further testing, thereâs no way to be sure. [CBS4]
đ A big step in early childhood education: Starting next year, every Colorado child will have the opportunity to attend preschool for FREE thanks to the much-anticipated âuniversal preschoolâ bill signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis this week. The statewide program will offer 10 hours of tuition-free preschool per week for Colorado 4-year-olds. [Chalkbeat]
đ° These city employees are getting PAID: Eleven mayor-appointed city employees are getting impressive pay bumps. Most of the positions have not seen a raise in six years, and at least six are getting a more than 15% increase. Denver city council approved the raises on Monday night in a 12-1 vote. Cadi CdeBaca was the only ânoâ vote, arguing that it was inappropriate to request raises for mayor-appointed employees at the end of the mayorâs current term. The funding for the increases will come from existing departmental budgets. [Denver Post; Denverite]