"like pickles and ice cream"

[Garson O'Toole]

Jon, I think that the two food items (pickles, ice cream) appeared
individually as items of craving for pregnant women. Separate
individuals might have these cravings in the early examples. Here are
some raw Google Book hits

Design for glamour
Terry Hunt - 1941 - 197 pages - Snippet view
an ice cream cone at two o'clock in the morning, or suddenly developed
an insatiable craving for pickles, ... a woman should wear a girdle
during pregnancy, but I suggest you do so only on the direct advice of
your own obstetrician. ...

The Complete book of mothercraft: a collection of expert advice ...
1952 - 896 pages - Snippet view
THE MYTH OF FOOD CRAVINGS. Some of the older generation of women like
to tell of the things they just had to eat during pregnancy. These
tales range all the way from dill pickles to ice cream. ...

Here is an instance in 1914 where the items are both mentioned but are
not close:

1914, Better Babies and their Care by Anna Steese Richardson

The woman who feels an inordinate craving for certain articles of
diet, such as pickles, lemons, candy, etc., should exercise judgment
and self control. Like any other habit, extremes in diet will grow
upon a woman until they really endanger her health. Their indulgence
will in no way lighten the burdens of pregnancy. Considerable acid is
supplied in salads and fruits; and a limited amount of sweet pickle,
catsups and other modern condiments may be taken with meals.

Custards, gelatins, sponge cake, light desserts made with fruit, and
ice-cream are desirable sweets.

http://books.google.com/books?id=jY0-AAAAIAAJ&q=craving#v=snippet&


On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 2:25 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "like pickles and ice cream"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> To sum up:
>
> "Pickles and ice cream"/ "ice cream and pickles" was a meme by the late
> 1890s connoting "an indigestible food combination that children might eat
> foolishly."
>
> By 1960 the meme had generally come to refer humorously to "a strange
> and disagreeable craving commonly experienced by pregnant women."
>
> By 1990 "pickles and ice cream" had come, in addition, to stand jocularly
> for any two items that proverbially don't or proverbially do go together.
>
> BONUS "go together like peanut butter and jelly":
>
> GB offers this allegedly from 1959: "And conversely, nothing unlocks the
> secrets of the potato like meditating on the Psalms. These things go
> together like yin and yang, like Martha and Mary, like peanut butter and
> jelly."  The next "go together like peanut butter and jelly" isn't till
> (apparently) 1966, with very slow growth through the '70s and '80s and
> a startling increase in incidence since about 2000.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> JL
>
> On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 10:25 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      "like pickles and ice cream"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> The latest Progressive insurance commercial
>> http://www.progressive.com/commercials/unicorns.aspx has goofy, affable
>> Flo
>> telling a young couple that some insurance bundles "go together like peanut
>> butter and jelly!" Hubby says, "Like hamburgers and fries!" And pregnant
>> wifey says, "Like pickles and ice cream!" When Flo tries to top that with
>> "Like unicorns and glitter!" she falls flat. So "like pickles and ice
>> cream"
>> is supposed to be an unremarkable collocation.
>>
>>  Google turns up nearly 1,000 hits on "together like pickles and ice
>> cream,"
>> many or most of them ironic (i.e., they don't go together at all).
>>
>> According to a 1988 GB snippet:  "Diets and pregnancy seem to go together
>> like pickles and ice cream. 'A doctor knows from years and years of
>> frustrating experience just how much mothers tend to shovel in,' writes the
>> author of one popular birth and baby book." That may be the earliest p&ic
>> "go togther ex."
>>
>> Now for the mysteries.
>>
>> I first encountered this combination in the '50s as a humorous but typical
>> food craving of expectant moms.  This appears to be the nearly universal
>> interpretation today. However, a GB search reveals the pairing up of
>> "pickles and ice cream" as far back as the 1890s as a combination that may
>> be bad for children, or anyone, even if eaten simply at the same meal. A
>> 1903 ex., from a medical periodical, humorously connects the combination
>> with young, working-class women, but surely they're not all pregnant!  My
>> impression is that most early exx. imply litlle more than that children and
>> teenagers will gorge on pickles and ice cream (because they have no sense)
>> and then get sick.
>>
>>  A 1968 ex. refers to the craving during pregnancy as "time-honored," but
>> GB
>> reveals *nothing* relevant before 1967 in a search for "pickles and ice
>> cream" + "expecting" [or "expectant"/"pregnant"/"pregnancy"].  It does find
>> an unmistakable ex. of the less euphonious "ice cream and pickles" from
>> Doris Lessing in "1952" (though WorldCat suggests "1954").
>>
>> What we know: "pickles and ice cream" seems to have entered pop culture as
>> a
>> sign of pregnancy no earlier than the 1950s.
>>
>> What we don't know: Metaphorically, do "pickles and ice cream" go together
>> "like love and marriage" (GB: 1950s, also the time when, acc. to the song,
>> "Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage").  Or do they "go
>> together" metaphorically only in an ironic sense?
>>
>> JL
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
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>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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