Las Vegas Weekly

September 1, 2009 · 1:21 PM

Las Vegas! Better Than a New York City Sidewalk Hot Dog!

By Sarah Feldberg

In the battle of Las Vegas vs. the New York City sidewalk hot dog, is there really any question?

Photo: The Busy Brain / Flickr

Las Vegas is in need of a new slogan, and the The New Yorker wants to help. For a while “what happened here stayed here,” but one too many businessmen learned that while their favorite strippers didn’t catch the return flight home, their credit card statements followed them back to Hoboken. Then “our Vegas was showing” – a catchy enough statement, but one that made me feel like blushing or grabbing a towel. And finally, there was “Only Vegas.” Easy to remember and utterly vague – marketing requisites fulfilled.

Now, thanks to The New Yorker, we have a new candidate for a Las Vegas slogan: “Las Vegas! Better Than a New York City Sidewalk Hot Dog!”

Sure, it’s a bit wordy, but Las Vegas made the list of things New Yorker blogger Matthew Diffee thought were better than the revered New York City dog. The blog supposedly stemmed from a conversation Diffee had with a friend who suggested that “not a lot of things in the world” were better than the food cart staple. But Diffee thought of a few. More than 200, in fact.

Las Vegas has some good company on the extensive list, alongside items like “white-water rafting, perfect pitch, Penicillin, an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, stiletto heels, a sky full of hot-air balloons, Vermont maple syrup, swimming with dolphins, NPR” and “Billie Holiday.” Sushi even made the list twice.

But when given a little extra thought, these clearly wonderful items are only so clearly wonderful with a few stipulations: White-water rafting is only fun if you don’t get sucked into a hole. Stilettos lose their charm with a few hours worth of blisters. A sky full of hot-air balloons could ruin a perfectly good day of tanning, and the NPR fund drives, while necessary, are undeniably annoying. Vermont maple syrup is always delicious. Always.

Now that we think of it, even Las Vegas could come with an only-if-you-don’t-lose-your-shirt disclaimer. So, maybe we’ll pass on the new tagline for now. Thanks for trying, New Yorker. We appreciate it.

Epilogue:

Not so keen on The New Yorker’s hot dog bashing, New York Magazine weighed in with their own list of things better than other things – to be specific, “Things Better Than a New Yorker Blog Post on Hot Dogs.”

Here’s what author Joshua David Stein came up with:

A New York City sidewalk hot dog

A New York City sidewalk hot dog with kraut

A New York City sidewalk hot dog with kraut and mustard

A New York City sidewalk hot dog with kraut, mustard, and pickle relish

A New York City sidewalk hot dog with ketchup

A New York City sidewalk hot dog with ketchup and mustard

A New York City sidewalk hot dog with ketchup, kraut, and mustard

A New york City sidewalk hot dog with ketchup, kraut, and pickle relish

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