A little background history:

Two cities lay claim to creating the original ice cream sundae:

A little background history:

Some historians claim, but never proven to be true, that the name "sundae" was created in response to the "Blue Laws" which said that ice cream sodas could not be sold on Sundays because they were to "frilly." For some reason the "righteous" very much against what they called "sucking soda" (especially on the Sabbath and the clergy started preaching against them). The dish has gone by other names at various time, most notably "sundi" and "sondhi." Some accounts have explained all these names as attempts to avoid offending the sensibilities of the devoutly religious, which might take a dim view of a pile of ice cream and syrup being named after the Sabbath.

The biggest rivalry is between Two Rivers, Wisconsin and Ithaca, New York. This dispute dates back from the 1970s with letters and barbs between the mayors of these cities. This is definitely serious business and a matter of pride for these towns. The two cities have sparred in a good-natured "Sundae War" for several decades. 

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), famed newspaper columnist, political commentator, and essayist, in his 1945 book, The American Language: Supplement 1, while writing on the suffix "DAE" as in sundae, wrote that the "most plausible of their theories ascribes the introduction of the 'sundae' itself to George Hallauer of Marshall, Illinois, and the invention of its name to George Giffy of Manitowoc, Wisconsin." Mencken version was so well received that some sources still cite it as a possible etymological source for the word "sundae." Mencken claimed Wisconsin sundae origins predated all others. Mencken's name and the plausibility of his stories have kept them alive, and still believed by many, to this day. Mencken was just reporting something that had been told in Two Rivers (and elsewhere) for decades prior to his book. 

True or False? Author Michael Turback, who wrote A Month of Sundaes: Ithaca's Gift to the World and More Than a Month of Sundae, says the Two Rivers story, as well as one about Manitowoc, were bandied about by the late journalist H. L. Mencken, who reported on the matter in the first volume of "The American Language," published in 1919, but later admitted it was a hoax. He just said Mencken was known for pulling hoaxes.