Roz Chast in the August 15 & 22 New Yorker:
As Mark Liberman observed in his recent LLog discussion of Satan sandwich in the political news, Satan here is a shit-avoidance term, with demonic overtones as a bonus. Chast has taken this and run with it.
In connection with the state fair food-on-a-stick theme, note Satan-on-a-stick among the offerings. There’s also a Satanburger, with the common libfix -burger; along these lines, Chast could have included a Satan dog (a hot dog wrapped in Satan) on the board.
August 23, 2011 at 4:09 pm |
Would a Satan dog really be “hot dog wrapped in Satan”? After all, a turkey dog is a hot dog where the “wiener” is made of turkey. I’d have thought a “Satan dog” would be a hot dog made out of Satan instead of a frank.
Oh, I guess you mean inside the bun? Like a cheese dog or a chili dog.
I suppose “dog” hasn’t been lexicalized like “burger” yet.
August 23, 2011 at 4:12 pm |
Hmmm. Working backwards so I just saw the corn dog entry. So “wrapped in Satan” works like that, or like “bagel dog”.
I guess “X dog” is just ambiguous.
August 23, 2011 at 4:16 pm |
Yes, ambiguous. On the one hand, “turkey dog”. On the other, “bagel dog”. So a Satan dog could be a dog made of Satan or a dog wrapped in it. I hadn’t fully appreciated the first possibility, having just written about corndogs etc.
August 23, 2011 at 7:10 pm |
Hmm… my first thought about “Satan dog” was the same, although I did not think of turkey. Instead, I was wondering if “Satan” in each instance was pronounced (or replaced with) “Sei’tan”. So, instead of a “Satan dog”, you’d have “Seitan dog”, instead of “Satanburger”–“Seitanburger”. In each case, there would have been no doubt that the “Seitan” (wheat gluten) would be the “protein”, not the starch. But, of course, the humor value is much higher in “dog wrapped in Satan”. Otherwise, all we have is Satan-on-a-bun, right? [One caveat–in that context, “Gluten-free Satan” sounds wrong, doesn’t it?]
But, speaking of “corndog”, would “cornsatan” make much sense? But change that to “corned Satan” and you have the making of stand-up comedy routine. To flip Satan back on the starch side, you can always change “Satan Stroganoff” creatively into “Beef Satanoff”. And, of course, there is always the Chinese-menu setup, where every item can take place of a standard protein (e.g., Kung-Pao Satan). Or use the “cheesesteak”, “peppersteak” templates to get “cheese-Satan”–probably better than “Satan-stake” (see reasons above). And, the all time Americanized-food favorite–Satan Parmesan (or, worse yet, Egg-Satan Parmesan). But for real laughs, try to say “Satan Gyros” in a supposedly authentic manner.
October 24, 2011 at 4:55 am |
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January 14, 2014 at 5:41 am |
[…] connection to Chast, who’s appeared on Language Log on 7/4/09 and on this blog on 8/23/11. Mankoff’s […]