"JimmyDean" news and stories

It's a sad time for pork lovers. Jimmy Dean, the country music singer-turned-sausage entrepreneur died yesterday.

The 81-year-old was best known musically for his hit, "Big Bad John," but for millions of Americans he was equally revered for his contribution to the breakfast table.

His wife, Donna Meade Dean, said her husband died at their Henrico County, Va., home on Sunday. Although he had health problems, she said his death -- he was found unresponsive in front of the television -- came as a surprise.

Dean was a workingman's hero. Born in 1928, he grew up in Plainview, Texas, during the Great Depression and dropped out of school before the 10th grade. After enlisting in the Air Force in 1946, he began playing his accordion at a bar near Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., eventually landed a gig as the host of a local television jamboree. By the early 1950s, Dean's band had its first national hit in "Bummin' Around." From there, he hopscotched his way to the pinnacle of country music fame, with "Big Bad John" hitting number one on both the Billboard Pop and Billboard Country Charts in 1961.

The breakfast sandwich market gets a little more crowded with Dunkin Donuts' newest creation: The Waffle Breakfast Sandwich. Yes. I know. Calm down. The sandwich consists of egg, cheese and bacon between two maple syrup-flavored waffles.

The composition evokes memories of Junior's Restaurant's brisket-on-latke sandwich, but the DD sandwich's taste overkill is more reminiscent of the famous Jimmy Dean sausage-in-a-pancake-on-a-stick. And, like the sausage-in-a-pancake-on-a-stick, the bacon-egg-cheese-maple-waffle sandwich possesses a dubious deliciousness.

The mix of artery-clogging morning cholesterol with the sweetness of maple syrup is almost too much to bear, yet somehow you cannot resist devouring the last sticky crumb. Devouring, wishing that the waffle was truly waffle-sized and not English muffin-sized. And hating yourself for wishing that. And swearing to go straight to the gym as soon as you are done. And craving another one.