Pardon the tardiness of this reply, but I must have missed Mr. Zotti’s mailbag item on hot dogs ( http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhotdog.html )the first time around.
The article is basically correct, but I feel compelled to add a couple of points:
(1) Hot dogs had previously been called dachshund sausages, by all accounts. This seems to me a clearer link to the term hot dog than the origins of the meat (not that I am denying that this was a college joke/reference and contributor to the use of the term dog).
(2) The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council does not disavow Popik’s story, as it appears on it’s web site history of the hot dog.
http://www.hot-dog.org/hd_history.htm
Hope y’all have been well.