alt Hacker News> In German, “der” means “the.” “Wiener” means “of Vienna (Austria).” Although the English “to sling” probably traces back to Old Norse’s “slynja,” meaning “to hurl,” the German verb “shlingen” means “to wolf or scarf down,” as in food.
Yes, as a German, I was appropriately confused and expected some horrific contraption to get better in hot-dog eating contests or something like that.
But that's nice too.
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> expected some horrific contraption to get better in hot-dog eating contests or something like that.
KSAAS - Kobayashi Shake As A Service (TM)
I wouldn't overthink it. It's "parody German": a hot dog slinger but "Germanized", if you will, to be funny
> When he was a standup comic in Los Angeles, Omapod host Tony Bock used to do a bit about the name. “Just saying ‘Der Viener Schlinger’ on a comedy stage gets a laugh, whether you’re in Nebraska or not,” he told me. “There’s something quintessentially Nebraskan about mustering the courage to solve the problem we faced before the advent of this invention: the inability to ‘schling’ the wieners.”
But there is no german verb called "shlingen".
Does the person who wrote this, speak german?
I assume "schlingen" was meant, but this sounds more like "etwas herunterschlingen" aka eating quickly; that was mentioned via "scarf down, as in food", but to me it sounds more like a description of the object that is held here, like a sling.
But why would that be associated with Vienna, anyway? Nothing like that exists in Vienna really. Also I am not sure about that explanation; to sling makes more sense with hurling something in this context. And the thing looks like a huge slinger. Nobody is opening the mouth to eat everything coming out of that thing right?
For further explanation Wiener means Wiener sausage and is a kind of Frankfurter sausage.
In Austria a Wiener is a different kind of sausage and the German Wiener is called Frankfurter
> In Japan, if you use a word wrong, someone will quietly teach you the correct one. In Texas, I thanked a mechanic by saying "you are a good man of the trucks." He did not correct me. He put it on his voicemail. "You've reached Ray. Good man of the trucks."