Date:  Wed, 5 Apr 1995 08:33:16 EDT

From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Re: s'mores and thousand island dressing



Lynne Murphy writes (after agreeing with the majority sentiment that s'mores

must contain real fire-roasted marshmallows [gee, sounds almost trendy that

way] and not fluff glop and NO peanut butter):



>now, if you've gotten this far, could you tell me if "thousand island

>dressing" comes from the thousand islands in new york? the american

>heritage says "possibly." a bottle i saw here recently had a picture

>of a woman hula-ing on the label, which amused me, since i think of

>the thousand islands as a place where you need a sweater.



That IS quite an image, a line of fisherman-sweater- and parka-wearing

inhabitants of the St. Lawrence seaway area with grass skirts dancing the

hula. I'm quite confident that even if the connection between the dressing

and the 1000 Islands of the St. Lawrence is embellished by myth, any

connection with that OTHER archipelago can only be a recent folk etymology

(or advertising ploy: grass skirts might be deemed to sell better than

anoraks).



Larry

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. M. Lynne Murphy            104lyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]muse.arts.wits.ac.za

Department of Linguistics            phone: 27(11)716-2340

University of the Witwatersrand          fax: 27(11)716-8030

Johannesburg 2050

SOUTH AFRICA