UPDATE: Franks For The Memories... Is It The End Of The Road For The Wienermobile?

Sadly, Oscar G Mayer Jr., the hot dog company's retired chairman, died on Monday. According to TMZ (!), he requested that the famed sausage-shaped vehicle not make an appearance at his funeral, saying it would be "too much of a spectacle". Now PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has weighed in on the debacle, sending a letter to Oscar Mayer's current president of the company urging him to retire the Wienermobile.


The letter states:
"For years, the Wienermobile has been driving kids toward a meat-laden diet that can increase the risk of making them fat and sick... The best thing that parents can do for their kids, for the animals who are raised for food, and for the environment is to stock up on delicious, eco-friendly veggie dogs and burgers and bid farewell to the Wienermobile for good."

I hate to break it to you, PETA, but Mr Mayer died at age 95, so his diet, which presumably included some wieners, can't have been that bad.
 
We say: let's eat less meat and let's treat animals better, for sure, but, please, keep the Wienermobile running!

As its Twitter page points out, you can't help but smile (or, rather, totally crack up) when you see it.

UPDATE, Monday July 20: It may well be the end of the road for one particular Wienermobile, which crashed into a home in Wisconsin on Friday. Apparently, the driver "was trying to turn the Wienermobile around in the driveway and thought she was moving in reverse". At least she was, er, frank.

And, while we're on the topic, here's a pic of an absolutely gorgeous Wienermobile.

Now that's not a sentence you hear every day.