Date:    Sun, 22 Feb 1998 14:41:15 EST
<br>From:    "Barry A. Popik"  Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM 
<br>Subject: Ice cream cone; Pop (soda)
<br>
<br>ICE CREAM CONE
<br>
<br>     As most of you know, I've extensively studied American food words, from
<br>the "hoagie" to the "hot dog" to "pizza."  I've also posted on "milk shake,"
<br>"sundae," ice cream sandwich," and "ice cream cone."
<br>     A new wrinkle on that last term--which many had thought was invented at
<br>the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair--was in the New York Post, 10 February 1998,
<br>pg. 57, cols. 1-2 (in a Clive Barnes theater review, of all places!):
<br>
<br>Evening melts fast at
<br>old ice cream company
<br>
<br>     MY memory, or lack of it, could well prove the death of me.  The other
<br>night, all innocent abroad, I walked into the oddly named Paradise Theater to
<br>see Tom Noonan's oddly named play "Wang Dang."
<br>     The name of the theater does suggest a strip club, doesn't it?  But in
<br>these post-Giuliani Disneyland days it has apparently been named after the
<br>Paradise Ice Cream Co., once housed in the basement, where, it is claimed, the
<br>ice-cream cone was invented in 1897.
<br>     The building a few years later became "a hotbed of union organizing"
<br>(doubtless melting the ice cream) and is, I understand, considered the
<br>official birthplace of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
<br>     (...)  The premise is pretentious, the ideas jejune, and the evening
<br>wasted.  Paradise lost.  Bring back the ice-cream cones.
<br>
<br>     I walked to the Paradise Theater at 64 East Fourth Street (NYU's Bobst
<br>Library is also on Fourth Street).  The person there didn't know anything and
<br>said that that information came from the building's owner.  I checked
<br>telephone directories and could find NO Paradise Ice Cream Company listed
<br>1897-1899.
<br>     Next, I'll have to go to the New York Historical Society and check the
<br>Trow's directories and whatever reverse directories (based on location) they
<br>have.  I have to miss a day of work, and I haven't had the time.
<br>     In the meantime, however, whenever you eat an ice cream cone, think of
<br>the Paradise Ice Cream Company at 64 East 4th Street--and look for the union
<br>label!
<br>
<br>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<br>-------------------------------------------
<br>POP (soda)
<br>
<br>     "Pop" (soda) has been mentioned here.  The following is from the
<br>Pittsburgh Telegraph, 17 November 1882, pg. 2, col. 1:
<br>
<br>     THE Bottlers object to being called makers of "Pop," not that this title
<br>savors of pauperism, but of vulgarism.
<br>