Every July Fourth, announcers retell the same origin story before Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest: In 1916, four immigrants on Coney Island settled an argument over who was the most patriotic American by seeing who could eat the most hot dogs in 12 minutes. James Mullen, an Irish immigrant, won with 13.

It never happened.

‘A hot dog is like a pop idol. Hot dogs are cute.’

The story was invented in the early 1970s by two Nathan's press agents, Max Rosey and Mortimer Matz, who needed a brand-new publicity stunt to make the contest look like a decades-old American tradition.

In 2010, Matz admitted to the New York Times: "In Coney Island pitchman style, we made it up." A Nathan's spokesman later confirmed the company "had no evidence of the contest" before Matz and Rosey got involved.

The fabrication came well embellished. The dates weren’t even fixed yet — early contests popped up near Memorial Day, Labor Day, and once in April. Some versions of the legend cast entertainer Jimmy Durante as a competitor, judged by Eddie Cantor and Sophie Tucker.

According to a former president of Nathan's, the real first contest happened in 1972. "We'd honestly wait for a couple of fat guys to walk by and ask them if they wanted to be in a hot dog contest," said Wayne Norbitz, who served as president for 26 years.

Bobby Bank/Getty Images

Nathan's still markets the event as an unbroken tradition dating back to 1916. It's a strange irony for a holiday built around an honest declaration.

Six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi, known as "The Tsunami," was once asked point-blank whether a hot dog counts as a sandwich.

"No! No. You have to have a lot of respect for hot dogs. It's completely different. First of all, the hot dog is American. Sandwiches are not American. They're different. Second of all, a hot dog is like a pop idol. Hot dogs are cute. It's a pop image — everyone knows what a hot dog is."

Anthony Bourdain called the bun "a ballistic delivery system" and warned that ordering a "hot dog sandwich" at any respectable stand would get you reported to the FBI. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council agrees, officially classifying the hot dog as its own category rather than a subtype of sandwich.

Maybe the only thing more mythical than Nathan's 1916 origin story is the idea that anyone has actually settled what a hot dog is.

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The reason 'The Star-Spangled Banner' is so hard to sing

Most Americans know the words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Few know the tune wasn’t written for America at all.

The melody Francis Scott Key used was the popular English tune "To Anacreon in Heaven," originally the constitutional song of the Anacreontic Society, a gentlemen’s music club in London.

The next time you bail on the high note at a ball game or a July 4 cookout, don’t blame your lungs.

The club met regularly for a formal concert, dinner, and social time during which members entertained each other with songs. Its 1780 membership included peers, commoners, aldermen, gentlemen, actors, and tradesmen.

Although it is often described as a “drinking song,” the song was not a barroom ballad — it was convivial, but in a special and stately way. The verses were sung by a solo singer, with the entire society joining in only on the refrain.

When Key wrote his lyrics on September 14, 1814, after watching the British attack Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, he wasn’t composing original music — he was setting new words to a tune Americans would have instantly recognized.

Nik Pennington/MLB Photos/Getty Images

He wasn’t the first American to do it. By 1798, many new songs had already been set to the melody, including “Adams and Liberty,” a patriotic song in praise of the nation’s second president. By 1820, 84 sets of lyrics had been written to it in the United States alone.

The tune’s origins also explain a common modern complaint: The anthem is famously difficult to sing. It was intended for solo performance by an experienced vocalist — never designed for mass singing.

The composer’s identity was itself a mystery for generations. John Stafford Smith was identified as the writer of the original tune only in the 1970s, when a librarian in the music division of the Library of Congress tracked him down.

So the next time you bail on the high note at a ball game or a July 4 cookout, don’t blame your lungs. Blame an 18th-century London music club that never expected anyone outside its dining room to try.

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Olympian indicted for allegedly vandalizing Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool — and faces STIFF sentence

A U.S. Olympian canoeist who was arrested for allegedly vandalizing the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial has been indicted by a federal grand jury, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

David Hearn, 67, willfully and "violently" damaged a 2-square-foot section of the sealant at the pool on June 19 after it was renovated by order of President Donald Trump, according to Pirro.

'By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs.'

"Today a grand jury has returned a felony indictment against a defendant, David Hearn, for felony destruction of property for which he faces 10 years in prison," Pirro said in a media briefing.

She said Hearn admitted to reaching down into the pool and that National Park Service employees observed him forcefully pulling up and removing the bottom liner "with both hands."

A National Park Service employee reportedly told Hearn to stop what he was doing.

"Hearn reacted by shouting at that Parks employee, saying that she cared too much about the reflecting pool," Pirro said.

The witnesses described Hearn's behavior as "belligerent, rude, and disrespectful."

Hearn denied damaging the liner in comments to the Washington Post.

"I didn't vandalize anything," he said. "I didn't destroy or break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was going on, I was being put in handcuffs."

The renovation of the reflecting pool has been mocked by many on the left, but others say it was a necessary and reasonable effort to clean up the monument for the 250th anniversary celebration.

Hearn competed for the U.S. in the 2000 Olympics.

"This was a deliberate act to damage the Reflecting Pool at the National Mall that members of the National Park Service actually have worked hard to restore and have witnessed," Pirro said.

She added that there are about six other similar cases being investigated.

"Some of them will be misdemeanors, and some of them could be less, like a violation, but we're reviewing every case based upon the evidence and reviewing all of the reports, and right now it's about another half dozen misdemeanors," Pirro said.

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Trump has been normalized — which means American greatness has too

Sorry, leftists. Despite a decade of screeching demands that we refuse to "normalize" Donald Trump, the concept of Trump as president of the United States and the most powerful man on earth is now the norm.

Thank goodness.

Even some of Trump's fiercest critics have softened.

As we celebrate our country's 250th birthday and our exceptional heritage, it's nice that the cultural focus on politics in general and on Trump in particular has waned.

The Trump obsession has not been healthy for America or our relationships with one another. Deep familial divisions that Jesus predicted would result from resistance to God's truth instead have occurred because of a fleeting political landscape.

Though communists are on the rise in the Democratic Party and some in America love hating Trump too much to stop, the overall mood in the media and in pop culture has shifted since the beginning of Trump's second term.

Gone are the days of Jim Acosta and his ilk badgering the president during press briefings with constant interruptions and inflammatory accusations. The "walls" that were always "closing in" on him during his first term somehow decided to stay put in the second.

Even some of Trump's fiercest critics have softened.

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Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in November 2025; Demetrius Freeman/the Washington Post/Getty Images

Joy Behar, for instance, seemed to forge a genuine connection with Vice President JD Vance during his appearance on "The View" last month. Without any trace of her trademark snark, Behar afterward characterized Vance as "intelligent" and funny, while Vance complimented her tough persona and joked good-naturedly that they are now "best friends."

Americans in deep-blue cities like Memphis and D.C. have thanked Trump for cleaning up crime in their area and for restoring beautiful fountains and statues. Meanwhile, the No Kings rallies have made little impact, while attempts to cancel celebrities for participating in Trump-adjacent events have failed miserably.

In fact, respecting the office appears to be back en vogue.

For the first time under a Trump presidency, a championship NBA team has accepted an invitation to the White House. Trump's hometown team, the New York Knicks, will reportedly travel to the White House to mark their first title in more than half a century.

Jack Hughes, who scored the game-winning overtime goal against Canada to bring home Olympic gold in men's hockey, indicated back in February the power of sports to unite the country:

"Everything is so political. We're athletes. We're so proud to represent the U.S., and when you get the chance to go to White House and meet the president, we're proud to be Americans and that's so patriotic."

It turns out that endlessly hating Trump, and by extension, America itself, is exhausting. Even certain Democrats had to admit in an election autopsy that "anti-Trump sentiment alone was insufficient to motivate voters" in 2024.

By contrast, falling in love with the U.S. is easy. Just ask the thousands of World Cup visitors who have been surprised by the kind welcome they have received and the unique culture they have experienced in America's heartland.

America and American greatness are much bigger than any one person, and though a larger-than-life figure, Trump is just a man — a man who, to paraphrase basketball legend Michael Jordan, still has to use the bathroom just like we all do.

The era of treating Trump as an "existential threat," an enemy, or even a proxy for all of America's faults, real or perceived, is over. For nearly six of the past 10 years, Trump has been the president of the United States, and the sun has still risen in the east and set in the west.

In other words, all is normal. Thank goodness.

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California city council members voted out in a landslide refuse to leave office

Elected officials in California are carrying on with business as usual, even after their constituents voted overwhelmingly to send them packing.

An election was held on April 28 in the California city of Avenal in Kings County, where the mayor, Alvaro Preciado, and three city council members — Leticia Gamez, David Reynosa, and Pablo Hernandez — were recalled with at least 76% of voters backing the ouster in each case. The Kings County Registrar of Voters certified the recall election.

'I’ve never seen a city so deflated.'

The driving force behind this electoral housecleaning — which the council members unsuccessfully attempted to stop with a lawsuit in April — was principally voter concerns about transparency and the council's previous decision to cease contracting with the county fire department.

Preciado, Gamez, and Hernandez voted on June 11 to reject the will of the electorate and remain in office. They even approved a new city budget despite recall advocates producing a restraining order, reported the SF Chronicle.

Those officials clinging to power, including Reynosa, maintain that the recall election was conducted unlawfully by Kings County and without the council's authorization.

Preciado told the SF Chronicle last month that he was staying in office until a judge decides on the recall's legality.

California Democrat Attorney General Robert Bonta cleared the way for legal action against the recalled officials on June 11.

In his opinion, Bonta noted that "if the Relators are correct on the merits, then the Defendants are not lawfully occupying office. It would not be in the public interest to permit elected officials to disregard election results."

Days after Bonta granted the recall campaigners' application for leave to sue in quo warranto, residents served Preciado and the other recalled officials a lawsuit and an earful at an Avenal city council meeting.

Dalila Barajas, a resident of Avenal who is one of the recall proponents, told KGPE-TV, "It just seems that the more meetings they have, the more money that they're spending illegally, the more our citizens are getting frustrated and the more we're asking for them to step down."

While Bonta cleared lawsuits against the recall officials, King County District 2 Supervisor Richard Valle criticized the state attorney general for his apparent disinterest in the scandal, telling KMPH-TV on Wednesday, "I believe that if these were MAGA republicans who were refusing to leave office, someone in California would have done something about that."

"We were hoping he would take some action," added Valle.

"I’ve never seen a city so deflated in my time of being around in public service. The people feel like nobody’s coming to help," added the King County supervisor. "Why is it being allowed to take place here in the state of California, in the county of Kings, in the city of Avenal? It’s embarrassing."

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Proof That the Unraveling of MAGA Has Begun | James Lindsay

'Kill your local Republican': Trans former volunteer for trans Democrat appears to call for 'trans jihad'

A transgender-identifying former volunteer for a transgender-identifying democratic socialist congressional candidate in Wisconsin allegedly made numerous extremist calls for violence against Republicans.

Teha Delaruelle allegedly posted the videos and messages on Instagram, TikTok, and other social media accounts, and they were reposted on social media by outraged conservatives.

'We're gonna make it so that they will be the ones that have to walk down the streets in fear, anxiety, and worry.'

In one post, Delaruelle appears to speak in front of a dry-erase board that seems to read, "Kill your local Republican," and points at the message.

"We’re going to make this the moderate position for the state of Wisconsin,” Delaruelle says, according to one video. "But I need your help, because we have one month do to this, so let’s do it."

Delaruelle, who identifies as a female, appears to call for a "trans jihad" to fight against "the oppressor, the bigots, the animals that make up MAGA" in another post.

"For decades, everyone else, all of the marginalized in-house minorities, we've had to be the ones that walk down the streets with anxiety, with fear, but no, no more," the activist says, according to the video.

"No more, folks. We're gonna do the reverse. We're gonna make it so that they will be the ones that have to walk down the streets in fear, anxiety, and worry. And we're not gonna make this, like, oh, they gotta do this for like a week or something where they get really scared. No, this is their new reality," Delaruelle continues, according to the video.

In a response to a request for comment, Delaruelle told Blaze News: "No, I don't wish violence, and I post satire of what the right posts. I was too edgy, and it hurt people, and I'm sorry. I just want to be left alone."

The bio in Delaruelle's TikTok account says, "I never advocated for anything hurtful."

Katrina deVille, the candidate that Delaruelle volunteered for, responded to a request from the New York Post and said Delaruelle was only a volunteer for a brief period of time and was removed after it became clear that Delaruelle was "deeply troubled."

DeVille added that Delaruelle was later blocked from the campaign's social media pages and accounts because "they were actively creating a dangerous situation around my campaign."

The deVille campaign platform includes a $22 minimum wage and the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

Messages posted last month on an X account linked to Delaruelle say, "I'm trans," and, "I'm trans fem."

The Republican Party of Brown County condemned the violent messages in a post on Facebook.

"This kind of violent rhetoric is unacceptable and dangerous," the statement reads.

"The Republican Party of Brown County rejects all political violence and threats. We will continue working for a safer, more civil Wisconsin."

As of Thursday afternoon, Delaruelle still has social media posts endorsing deVille for Congress.

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The 'tradition' behind Nathan's hot-dog eating contest is a fake news PR stunt

The reason 'The Star-Spangled Banner' is so hard to sing

Olympian indicted for allegedly vandalizing Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool — and faces STIFF sentence

Trump has been normalized — which means American greatness has too

California city council members voted out in a landslide refuse to leave office

'Kill your local Republican': Trans former volunteer for trans Democrat appears to call for 'trans jihad'

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