11 November: National Sundae Day

Today is National Sundae Day. Here are ten things you might not know about the ice cream dessert:

1. What is a sundae? It’s an Ice cream dessert that typically consists of one or more scoops of ice cream topped with sauce or syrup, and often fruit and/or nuts.

2. A banana split is a type of sundae. It consists of two halves of a Banana, sliced lengthwise and served with strawberry ice cream topped with Chocolate syrup, chocolate ice cream topped with crushed Pineapple, and Vanilla ice cream topped with strawberry syrup.

3. Another kind of sundae is the Knickerbocker glory. It’s served in a tall glass, consisting of layers of ice cream, jelly, fruit, and cream, topped with syrup, nuts, whipped cream, and often a cherry. It is popular in the United Kingdom.

4. The original sundae consisted of vanilla ice cream then topped with strawberry sauce, whipped cream, and a maraschino cherry, served in a small glass tulip-shaped vase.

5. There is some dispute over where the sundae originated. Two Rivers in Wisconsin is one of the places claiming to be the birthplace of the Sundae. Local lore has it that sundaes were invented by Edward C. Berners, the owner of Berners’ Soda Fountain in 1881. However, there is evidence that Berners would have been only 18 in 1881 and probably too young to own the shop.

6. There is evidence from archived copies of The Buffalo Evening News and the Buffalo Courier from 1889 that The Stoddart Bros. Drug Store in Buffalo, New York has been selling sundaes since 1889.

7. The dessert was originally called “Sunday soda” or ice cream to be enjoyed with soda on Sundays. In 1890, however, states began passing laws restricting things you could get on a Sunday. Soda was one of the things banned on the Sabbath because it was often drunk with Whiskey, which was also banned. Ice cream vendors adapted and made the dessert without the soda and changed the name so as not to offend the church.

8. Or it might have been to avoid getting done for breach of trademark. A letter from a patent attorney dated 24 March 1894 shows that one Chester C. Platt, proprietor of Platt and Colt's Pharmacy in Ithaca, New York, wanted advice on trademark protection for the use of ‘Sunday’ for ice-cream novelties.

9. In 2019, McDonalds Portugal promoted a sundae for Halloween with advertising that dubbed it "Sundae Bloody Sundae".

10. The largest ice cream sundae weighed 24.91 tonnes (54,917 lb) and was made by Palm Dairies Ltd under the supervision of Mike Rogiani in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on 24 July 1988.

Character birthday

Predator. A naturalist in Infinitus, he was opposed to the proposed bomb test on Bird Island. He managed to get a place on one of the boats going to the island to protest, although his main motivation was to collect samples of rare plants from the island to preserve them rather than to protest. He stole the dinghy of the boat he was on and went to the island. Absorbed in his task, he lost track of time and was still on the island when the bomb detonated. He was pulled through the resulting wormhole to Earth, where he met up with a couple of other Infinitans. However, whenever Predator was near them, they weakened and got sick. Realising he must be the cause, he left them, and began living as a near recluse. He adopted a sinister mode of dress to help frighten people away.

He eventually met Fixer, who was curious about Predator's lifestyle and managed to get the story from him. Fixer, by nature, wanted to fix things – and helped put his new friend in touch with people who could help. Thanks to power neutralising wristbands, he could re-join society. He moved into a spare room in Fixer's flat, and joined Combat Team Gamma.