Google.com's Sunday doodle on sundaes
If you search Google.com this Sunday, you can't help but notice the sundae. Today's doodle is dedicated to the 'anniversary' of the first ice cream sundae, from Ithaca. Back on this Sunday in 1892 a drug store offered ice cream 'jazzed up' with cherries and syrup as an after church treat, and shortly after the 'sundae' was being sold, for a nickel. Ithaca has the advertising proof, and Purity Ice Cream, the successor to that pharmacy, carries on the tradition.
But, there is a challenge to the Ithaca story: Two Rivers Wisconsin claims it is the home of the sundae, and that it's even older than Ithaca's claim: Two Rivers Wisconsin says an ice cream parlor operator used cherries and syrup instead in an ice cream soda because fizzy drinks were frowned upon on Sunday. But, Wisconsin birth records show he would have been only 17 at the time, which casts doubts on the authenticity of that story.
Still, the two cities feud over bragging rights. We did the story back in 2006, and if anything, the argument has gotten more heated since then.
