Is Calling a Hamburger a “Hamburg” an Impeachable Offense?

A lot of Pennsylvanians weren’t happy with Gov. Tom Wolf’s decision on Wednesday to shut down bars and reduce seating capacity at restaurants.

As much of a bummer as that was, something happened during his press conference where it was announced that’s even more unsettling.

Tom Wolf Calls a Hamburger a “Hamburg”

Tom Wolf calls a hamburger a “hamburg”.

Yeah, a hamburg.

When he tried to explain how it’s apparently safer to order food with a beer at a bar than it is to just order a beer, he said the following: “If you have a place where you can go get a hamburg with a beer, that’s fine. But if you’re just a dive bar or a nightclub and all you do is serve drinks, that’s not gonna work.”

OK, so try to ignore the scatterbrained logic that goes into coming up with such a policy that says food and beer is safe but just beer puts the entire state at risk of contracting COVID-19.

Focus on the hamburg.

Who says this? And can Tom Wolf be impeached for saying it?

Certainly, an argument can be made for it. It’s bad enough we’re forced to live with this Governor for a few more years. Now it’s even more difficult because we know he talks like this.

Who Calls a Hamburger a Hamburg?

The short answer to who calls a hamburger a hamburg is this: Almost no one.

It’s un-Pennsylvanian and frankly, it’s un-American.

We searched for several days on the internet and found very little on the topic.

In this discussion on the topic at UsingEnglish.com (in which many people are puzzled by its use), we learned that some people in Japan refer to a hamburger as a hamburg. But there, hamburg is only used to refer to the uncooked meat patty, not the finished, cooked product on a bun.

Over at Reddit, a thread from 9 years ago tackled this very important topic.

One person says, “Where I’m from people say ‘hamburger’ to refer to beef on a bun and ‘hamburg’ to refer to ground beef alone.”

Another user says they’ve heard it in New England.

But the best case we’ve found for people using “hamburg” instead of hamburger is in Canada.

One user says, “I live in Niagara Falls, Canada. People do this CONSTANTLY.”

“Canada. ‘Nuff said,” someone smartly replied.

Impeaching Tom Wolf

So one lone Reddit user in Canada says they hear people saying “hamburg” to mean burgers “all the time” and our Governor thinks it’s fine to drop it in a press conference? Outlandish, really.

Legislation to impeach Tom Wolf is stuck in committee in Harrisburg right now. Perhaps this is the fodder they need to get the ball rolling on that.

ALSO READ: 

• State Reports 18 New COVID-19 Cases in Schuylkill County on July 17
• Wolf Closed Schuylkill County Bars Over 36 “New” Coronavirus Cases in July
• Wolf Says Food with Booze is Safer than Booze and No Food