Dog Days

May 2, 2011
In this entertaining memoir, comedy writer Ihlenfeld (Family Guy) tells of the year he spent after college traveling the U.S. and Europe in the iconic Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, the hot dogâshaped bus that still hawks hot dogs and hands out thousands of Weiner Whistles to kids. Ihlenfeld was one of the first group of young "Hotdoggers" hired in the late 1990s to help revive interest in the Wienermobile after it had been dropped as an advertising gimmick in 1977, and the many incidents in his amusing memoir combine elements from Gen-X romances and road movies ("the vehicle is so unbelievably uncomfortable that even sitting shotgun is a chore"). But the best parts of this book are the chapters that offer a fascinating look at the Oscar Mayer company and its innovative marketing techniques, beginning with its sponsorship of polka bands at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. In fact, an entire book could be devoted to the lives of the first two little people to play "Little Oscar," the world's smallest chef featured on the earliest Wienermobile: Meinhardt Rabbe, who later played the Munchkin City coroner in The Wizard of Oz, and George Molchan, whose 2005 funeral procession featured the Wienermobile followed by mourners singing "I Wish I Were an Oscar Mayer Weiner."

May 15, 2011

Touring America and beyond in a blindingly orange, fiberglass hot dog on wheels.

Ihlenfeld has come a long way since spending 1999 driving one of Oscar Mayer's "wacky promotional vehicles," the Weinermobile, for $21,000. With more recent TV writing credits on Malcolm in the Middle and Family Guy to his name, he's free to recap the disenchantment of his college years fed up with journalism school and living the life of a pessimistic, directionless underachiever. Desperate for postgraduate employment, Ihlenfeld answered an Oscar Mayer open call for Weinermobile drivers eager to "travel the Hot Dog Highways." He was hired after a succession of interviews at their Wisconsin headquarters which, he humorously offers, "smell[ed] like bacon." Much to his surprise, he received spirited encouragement from his parents and a happily energetic crew of fellow Hotdoggers like driving partner Ali and "super-hot chick" Sofia. Ihlenfeld's satirical travelogue brims with wit, humor, chapters of hotdog history and puns galore. He shuffles readers though adventures in processed meat at the "Hot Dog High" two-week boot-camp training and chronicles the challenges of navigating the sweltering, breakdown-prone vehicle through the hills and valleys of California and the Southwest. Random acts of carnality and conciliatory camaraderie soothe frustrating months on a job that soon lost its initial appeal, but Ihlenfeld kept his wild and crazy year on the road churning through hemorrhoids, a bailout at Mardi Gras and Europe with new partner Tammy. The inspiring conclusion finds the author gratefully equipped with mobile-marketing savvy and a newfound self-confidence, the marks of a well-traveled "Hotdogger."

Lighthearted fare from a resilient road warrior.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 15, 2011
In 1999, Ihlenfeld decided he wanted something different but didnt know what. Turned out, it was a job driving the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, the hot-dog-shaped vehicle that turns up at fairs, sports events, and so forth. Not exactly a high-prestige job, it promised a years worth of fun and adventure. In his true-life story, Ihlenfeld, now a TV comedy writer, uses real people but changes their names to protect privacy, making it difficult to assess the reality-to-fiction ratio. But this much is certain: the book is a lot of fun. Ihlenfeld takes us through the training process (prospective Hotdoggers must attend Hot Dog High before theyre allowed behind the wheel) and then on the road across the country in a four-wheeled weiner, a journey that seems to have been equal parts adventure, misadventure, and romance, with a little slapstick comedy here and there. Driving the Weinermobile is a silly job, of course, but Ihlenfeld, with tongue in cheek, makes it seem noble, brave, maybe even just a bit heroic.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)