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Dave Looking For Burger Buff

Rick Bonino Food Editor

When it comes to the biggest hamburger buff in American history, our vote would have to go to the pleasantly persistent J. Wellington Wimpy of “Popeye” fame.

But since his cartoon career cashed it in quite some time ago (on a Tuesday, presumably), the question remains: Who’s the top burger fan in the country today?

That’s precisely what Dave Thomas of the Wendy’s restaurant chain hopes to determine in the “Dave’s Search for America’s Greatest Hamburger Lover Contest.”

Entrants must submit an essay of 150 words or less — beginning with “Dave, I am America’s Greatest Hamburger Lover because …” — on regular-sized paper, with their name, address, phone number and age printed on the back. The grand-prize winner not only gets a trip to New York City to attend a Wendy’s commercial shoot and $5,000 spending money, but Thomas will come to their house to cook hamburgers.

Entry deadline is Aug. 15. Send to Dave’s Search for America’s Greatest Hamburger Lover Contest, P.O. Box 8514, Prospect Heights, IL 60070; you also can enter or view complete rules at www.wendys.com.

Dog days of summer

Since July is National Hot Dog Month, we present the following fun facts in the interest of equal time:

* The average American household purchases about 8 pounds of hot dogs each year, with almost half (44 percent) sold from May through August.

* Southerners eat the most hot dogs, followed by folks in the North Central region, Northeast and West.

* Roughly four ballpark hot dogs are consumed for every 10 tickets purchased to Major League Baseball games — a total of 26 million wieners, or almost as many as the Mariners have trotted out to the mound so far this season.

Red-hot boycott

For those of you turned off by the thought of both burgers and dogs, Vegetarian Times is offering a free packet of information on how women can improve their health through nutrition and natural remedies, including recipes and product information.

For a copy, send a postcard with your name, address and the name of this newspaper by Aug. 1 to Vegetarian Times, Women’s Health Pack, P.O. Box 570, Oak Park, IL 60301.

Early birds

Finally, while we know it hasn’t exactly been the hottest summer on record, we weren’t quite prepared for the fax that crossed our desk the other day — informing us that the toll-free Reynolds Turkey Tips Line begins operation on Nov. 1.