Think I've got a plan on that front. Every different ice cream joint seems to have a slightly different way of serving ice cream. I've been enough places around town, ordered enough cones to feel qualified enough to state this as fact. Cocoa Bean, for example, serves their cones smoothly patted down; Paradise Doughnuts serves theirs plastered into the cone with great texture; this place I'd never heard of till their representation at the Farmers' Market this afternoon, G's Dairy Delights, seems to scoop in big round balls (which of course get really melty really quickly.) Here's my triple scoop in waffle cone, with bonus waffle cone tossed in for free due to the structural instability of all that ice cream in only one cone:
I placed it in the plastic cup to hold it for the photo; it didn't come like that. It was indeed that lopsided to begin with though... Melty stuff (which is of course awesome, especially when dealing with the ice cream as an artistic subject.)
Guess then that that triple-scoop isn't the best example of the kind of scooping technique they utilize. Luckily I happen to have a photo taken plein-aire, on the spot, of an "itty bitty"-sized cone that a girl from the family in line in front of me dropped and got replaced, which I picked up and was allowed to keep I guess.
See the roundness? And how it's already beginning to melt, even on this not-particularly-hot day?
So yeah. Every ice cream place has different recipes and mixtures, which cause different consistencies and melt temperatures, which lead to different scooping styles, totally unique to each site.
So I am thinking that the ice creams being eaten by the anthros act as a sort of travelog of places I've eaten ice cream from. Single-scoop cupcake cream mint from Cocoa Bean? Bam, being eaten by like a porcupine. Apple pie small cone from Paradise Donuts & Gelato (though I never actually got a photo of that?) Go there again, snap a picture this time, and bam, being eaten by a skunk or whatever. My ice creams there, the berry itty bitty and the german-chocolate-on-top strawberry-cheesecake-in-the-middle monster-on-bottom waffle cone? Bam, being eaten by maybe a raccoon and, I don't know, a puma. Respectively.
Though no, actually, I haven't started on the triple-scoop-in-waffle-cone yet. Totally worth it. ...maybe. Thing cost me $8. It is huge (I know you don't really have size context clues for comparison in the black-matte-background photo) but still, $4 more than I was planning to spend at the Farmers' Market? Could've gotten just a single scoop with the waffle cone, but that doesn't make a good subject to be consumed by an, otter? Dingo? Shoot I don't know...
Alright, so.
What the heck is it with people these days using the term "kiddo" when they really mean "kiddie?" You see it in that price window there. And it drives me straight-up-the-walls bonkers. Kiddo is "used as a friendly or slightly condescending form of address," while it's kiddie that means "a young child." Ngramming it it appears that both took off around the same time, peaking in respective popularities around the same time...
Note the split in usages of the plural forms (only one example listed ever of the alternative spelling "kiddoes" pre-2008, so I just opted to leave that off the chart.) Kiddo being used almost exclusively in the singular implies indeed the word to be a term of address within its historical usage, while the plural form of "kiddie" fits neatly the pattern you generally see of plural forms attested in ratio to singular forms... except for the bizarre plateau that occurs sometime in the late '60s. Got no idea what's up with that...
"Kiddies" is also a way better word just for the scansion of the copy alone. "Itty bitty kiddies," contrast against, "itty bitty kiddos," I just, man, I don't know why people do the things they do...
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