Google's Sunday tribute to sundaes

Two days after marking April Fools' Day with its Gmail Motion gag, search king Google paid tribute to a classic American dessert - the ice cream sundae - with one of its trademark Google Doodles. On Sunday, Google's home page featured an altered logo in which two ice cream scoops took the place of the O's in "Google." Hovering the mouse pointer over the logo revealed the reason for the doodle: the "119th Anniversary of the First Documented Ice Cream Sundae." Clicking on the image sends the visitor to a search page on ice cream sundaes. Not surprisingly, there are over two million results -many of which are stories about how the beloved dessert was supposedly invented. And there are many differing accounts. Urban legend and folklore According to VisitIthaca.com, the first documented ice cream sundae was served April 3, 1892 in Ithaca, New York. "On Sunday afternoon, April 3, 1892, after services at the Unitarian Church, Reverend John M. Scott paid his usual visit to the Platt & Colt Pharmacy in downtown Ithaca. Shop proprietor, Chester C. Platt, was church treasurer and he met often with Scott for conversation after services. Seeking refreshment for himself and the reverend, Platt asked his fountain clerk, DeForest Christiance, for two bowls of ice cream. But instead of serving the reverend plain vanilla, Platt took the bowls and topped each with cherry syrup and a candied cherry," goes the website's account of the first documented ice cream sundae. It added that the finished dish looked so delightful and tasted so delicious, "so much so that the men felt obliged to name the new creation." After some debate, Scott supposedly suggested that it be named for the day it was created. Platt concurred, and the first "Cherry Sunday" was born, it said. But the supposed Official Website of the Ice Cream Sundae - the first result when one clicks on the Google Doodle - said there were other places that claimed to be the birthplace of the treat. "Stories have been told many times, in many places, and with varying degrees of believability. A few of the places continue spinning their tales today, and the Sundae flapdoodle may never be settled. What is known for sure is that Ithaca, New York, has the earliest documentation to substantiate its claim as the birthplace of the great American dessert -- an advertisement placed by Chester Platt in the Ithaca Daily Journal on April 5, 1892," it said. It said that Edward Berners, owner of a local ice cream parlor in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, was the actual originator of the Sundae, and the nearby town of Manitowoc claims George Giffey as their own local hero who invented the dish. Hometown legend in Buffalo, New York, traces the sundae back to Stoddard Brothers, the first drugstore to install a soda fountain in Buffalo, selling ice cream sodas for a nickel until the day the store ran out of soda water. "Uncle" Charley Stoddard needed to dream up a new dish in a hurry, so he instructed his clerks to serve ice cream drenched with fruit syrup. Norfolk, Virginia, has its own unverifiable claim: A city ordinance not only prohibited the consumption of alcohol, but legislated against the growing "Sunday Soda Menace." To circumvent the blue law, it is purported that a local fountain owner added a few berries, fruit syrup and ice cream to an ice cream soda glass, but held off on the fizzy water. Another story in Plainfield, Illinois, is that a druggist named Sonntag dressed dishes of ice cream with syrup, and since "Sonntag" translates to "Sunday" in German, he should get the credit. - TJD, GMA News