Slivowitza (1837); Yum; Yankees (1904)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

SLIVOWITZA

AUSTRIA AND THE AUSTRIANS
(no author on title page--ed.)
London: Henry Colburn
1837

VOLUME TWO
Pg. 103:
   ...at Warasdin, and we found the liqueur _slivowitza_, extracted from prunes, very agreeable when mixed with water. or even as a pure liqueur.  It is chiefly made in Illyria, but a great quantity of strong inflammatory spirit distilled from grain and other substances, is made in Sclavonia and the military frontiers, and called sometimes _brantwein_, and sometimes _slivowitza_.  This spirit is found in every little inn throughout the country, at which your driver seldom fails to halt for a moment without dismounting, to take his _schnapps_ or dram...

(OED has 1885 for "sliwowitz."  I had previously posted 1845--ed.)

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MAID-RITE:  USPTO records show "since 1926," but also a claim of 8-1-1925 first use.

YUM-YUM:  There are 179 USPTO records; I didn't see the sandwiches right away.  Sunshine had "yum-yum" cookies from 1904.  "Yum-Yum" apples claim first use 10-1916.  Nashville Agricultural & Normal Institute, Madison College (TN) registered "yum yum" vegetable loaves & vegetable sandwich fillings from 8-1940.  Windsor Frozen Food claims "yum yum" steaks from 1958.

BLACKENED FISH:  "Blackened Redfish" was trademarked with first use 7-1979 by K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen.  "Blackened Red Fish Magic" was trademarked 10-1-1979 by Paul Prudhomme.

KETTLE CHIPS:  The "original" Kettle Chips were trademarked with first use 8-4-1982 by Kettle Foods, Salem, Oregon.

KETTLE KORN:  "Korn Kettle" by someone in Gainesville (FL) claims first use 5-1-1968.  "Korn Kettle Krunch" by a PA company claims first use 6-28-1968.

SHAMROCK SHAKE:  McDonald's (In BANANA SCULPTOR, there's a guy who wants to eat at every McDonald's) claims first use of "Shamrock Shake" 3-1971.

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PENNANTS & PINSTRIPES
THE NEW YORK YANKEES 1903-2002
by Ray Robinson & Christopher Jennison
Viking Studio (Penguin Putnam), NY
262 pages, hardcover, $34.95
2002

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
   ...Barry Popik, for his research on the Highlanders, who became the Yankees...

Pg. 3:
   _What's in a Name?_
   There is no record of an official act or announcement marking the change from "Highlanders" to "yankees."  The change itself seems to have occurred earlier than most people thought.  On April 7, 1904, a year after the New York Highlanders were launched, an article in the _New York Evening Journal_ bore the headline: YANKEES WILL START HOME FROM SOUTH TODAY.  The team had just completed a winning spring training schedule so it's likely that the name was a more or less generic reference to victorious northerners heading home after a southern campaign.  In 1904 there were lots of people with still vivid memories of the Civil War.  A week later the same newspaper's coverage of opening day was headlined YANKEES BEAT BOSTON.  In addition to the headline, the Yankees name was used in the article's lead sentence.

(No one gives me a free book anymore...I told George Steinbrenner and Yankees Magazine about this six years ago.  No one was kind enough to respond.  I put a bad-luck curse on the team, after which the Yankees have never failed to make the World Series--ed.)