Jimmies (1954)

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 12:01 AM 7/12/2003 -0400, you wrote:
>Peter A. McGraw wrote:
>>I know I've heard of sprinkles and never, until now, of jimmies.  But I
>>have  at best a nodding acquaintance with them so am forced to admit that
>>I'm not entirely sure what the definition encompasses.  There are the
>>little chocolate bits, and then there is another thing that's like large,
>>multicolored sugar crystals.  Does "sprinkles" (and presumably also
>>"jimmies") cover both, or only the chocolate kind?
>
>I'm not familiar with the multicolored sugar crystals. But there are
>colored objects of the same size and shape as the canonical chocolate
>sprinkles/jimmies. I would call these sprinkles, and, I guess, if I
>were in Boston, I'd call them jimmies.
>
>--
>==============================================================================
>Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
>Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
>New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203) 865-8963

When I was in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport yesterday, I bought an ice
cream cone and asked for jimmies on top, "or whatever they're called
here."  Without batting an eyelash, the server scooped up the little brown
things.  Multicolored bits were right next to them, but he assumed
(rightly) that I meant the brown ones.  This in the Midwest--though I can't
recall whether I picked up the term in Minnesota or Ohio.  Come to think of
it, I spent the summer of 1970 in Boston; maybe it was there.