“
As for literary criticism in general: I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel or a play or a poem is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or a banana split.
”
”
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage)
“
I belonged in Idle Valley like a pearl onion on a banana split.
”
”
Raymond Chandler (The Long Goodbye (Philip Marlowe, #6))
“
At that moment I had a thrilling sharp intuition. I knew it as if I held it in my hands: In the gloom of death that surrounded the two of us, we were just at the point of approaching and negotiating a gentle curve. If we bypassed it, we would split off into different directions. In that case, we would forever remain just friends.
”
”
Banana Yoshimoto (Kitchen)
“
Personally, I like to mix and match--I prefer to get a couple of milk shakes, a banana split ... a sundae or two. Then I top it off with a mocha chip in a cone. I don't know why. I guess that's like the dinner mint at the end of a meal to me. Know what I mean?"
Mary had to turn around again. Bitty was looking forward, her brows super-high, her little face the picture of surprise.
"He's not kidding," Mary murmured. "Even if you're not into the ice cream, watching him eat all that is something to see.
”
”
J.R. Ward (The Beast (Black Dagger Brotherhood, #14))
“
A muddy little stream, a village grown unfamiliar with time and trees. I turn around and retrace my way up Main Street and park and have a Coke in the confectionery store. It is run by a Greek, as it used to be, but whether the same Greek or another I would not know. He does not recognize me, nor I him. Only the smell of his place is familiar, syrupy with old delights, as if the ghost of my first banana split had come close to breathe on me.
”
”
Wallace Stegner (Wolf Willow)
“
All right, Potatoes,” said Aru, “time to make like a banana and—” Aiden’s face darkened. “Aru, don’t you dare—” “SPLIT!” cackled Aru.
”
”
Roshani Chokshi (Aru Shah and the City of Gold (Pandava, #4))
“
Emmylou kissed her forehead. “Darlin’ girl, I’ll never make fun of you for that. But if you really want to try waxing the lady taco, I’ll do it for you at the studio. Takes, like, ten minutes to heat up the wax tank.”
“Since when do you give wax jobs?”
“Since always. Some of the guys who come to me for a massage are apelike hairy. The fur on their backs grosses me out and reminds me why I prefer to eat the banana split rather than the banana.
”
”
Lorelei James (Bound (Mastered, #1))
“
Es extraño, princesa, contigo me gustaría ir a caminar por el Sambil o a caernos a latas en un cine; me gustaría llevarte a ver las nutrias del Parque del Este o a comernos un banana split en la 4D. Contigo, más que tirar, me gustaría hacer el amor.
”
”
Eduardo Sánchez Rugeles (Blue Label/ Etiqueta Azul)
“
He sat heavily down on a tall tubular adjustable chair, which shortened suddenly under his weight and split him on the floor. Somebody always leaves a banana-skin on the scene of a tragedy.
”
”
Graham Greene (Our Man in Havana)
“
Really neat that human beings conquered the Earth invented poetry and mathematics and the combustion engine, discovered that time and space are relative, built machines big and small to ferry us to the moon for some rocks or carry us to McDonald's for a strawberry-banana smoothie. Very cool we split the atom and bestowed upon the Earth the Internet and smartphones and, of course, the selfie stick.
But the most wonderful thing of all, our highest achievement and the one thing for which I pray we will always be remembered, is stuffing wads of polyester into an anatomically incorrect, cartoonish ideal of one of nature's most fearsome predators for no other reason than to soothe a child.
”
”
Rick Yancey (The Last Star (The 5th Wave, #3))
“
There is a tray full of glass sundae dishes filled with brightly colored ice cream. Strawberry, pistachio, black raspberry. Pink, green, and purple. I like the colors next to each other and wonder what kind of impossible things I can draw about ice cream. Maybe melting rivers of it. And a man with a cone-shaped head sitting in a babana split dish rowing with a spoon.
”
”
Lynda Mullaly Hunt (Fish in a Tree)
“
They had the first hospital in America. The first library and zoo. They had the first newspaper, the first TV and radio broadcasts. Pennsylvania had the first capital of the United States. And most importantly, the banana split was invented here!
”
”
Dan Gutman (Never Say Genuis)
“
Liam thinks cremation
should be the name of a new ice cream parlor.
All afternoon he won't shut up about
banana splits with extra hot fudge,
triple-scoop waffle-cone supremes,
brownie batter blasts.
Until I explain to him that cremation actually means to burn a dead body.
”
”
Rebecca Caprara (Worst-Case Collin)
“
Pennsylvania is a state of firsts. They had the first hospital in America. The first library and zoo. They had the first newspaper, the first TV and radio broadcasts. Pennsylvania had the first capital of the United States. And most importantly, the banana split was invented here!
”
”
Dan Gutman (Never Say Genuis)
“
Sure you don’t want any?”
He shrugged and leaned toward me. “Okay, I’ll take some.”
Which I’d so not expected, and which had me wondering what I was supposed to do now. Stick my spoon in his mouth?
I felt a cold drip on the hand holding the carton and realized my spoon was suspended and the ice cream was starting to melt. I extended it toward him, watched as his mouth closed around my spoon. Now what? I was so not used to feeding guys.
He wrapped his hand around my wrist and guided my hand back. I watched appreciation glide over his face like hot fudge over a banana split.
“It tastes like you,” he said.
The heat rushed into my face. “Uh, yeah, my lip balm…same flavor.”
“I think it just became my favorite ice cream.”
Ookaay. So was that an endorsement of my kiss?
”
”
Rachel Hawthorne (The Boyfriend League)
“
love is sharing a banana split. and letting you have the last spring roll. it’s reminding me that i need to wake up early tomorrow. and staying up until i fall asleep. love is driving me to the airport. bringing takeout when you pick me up. love is grabbing your hand on a roller coaster. or during a scary movie. love is asking if you need a jacket. it’s feeling sad for me when i’m sad. love is knowing your favorite pizza toppings. love is surprise notes. love is being honest. love is showing up. love is all of it.
”
”
Michaela Angemeer (Please Love Me at My Worst)
“
In his book The Telltale Brain, neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran poetically explains: Any ape can reach for a banana, but only humans can reach for the stars. Apes live, contend, breed and die in forests—end of story. Humans write, investigate, and quest. We splice genes, split atoms, launch rockets. We peer upward . . . and delve deeply into the digits of pi. Perhaps most remarkably of all, we gaze inward, piecing together the puzzle of our own unique and marvelous brain . . . This, truly, is the greatest mystery of all.
”
”
Tasha Eurich (Insight: The Power of Self-Awareness in a Self-Deluded World)
“
Si no me gustaras no te habría invitado a almorzar en McDonalds; si no me gustaras nunca te habría llevado a mi casa ni habríamos ido a la rumba de Titina. Si no me gustaras, no estarías acá. Yo no me meto en moteles de carretera con todo el mundo. Creeme que si, en lugar de estar contigo, estuviera con tu amiga Natalia, la muy perra no podría caminar por los calambres en los muslos. Pero contigo es diferente. Es extraño, princesa, contigo me gustaría ir a caminar por el Sambil o caernos a latas en un cine; me gustaría llevarte a ver las nutrias del Parque del Este o a comernos un banana split en la 4D. Contigo mas que tirar me gustaría hacer el amor.
”
”
Eduardo Sánchez Rugeles (Blue Label/ Etiqueta Azul)
“
MARILYN: Remember, I said if anybody ever asked you what Marilyn Monroe was really like – well, how would you answer them? (Her tone was teaseful, mocking, yet earnest, too: she wanted an honest reply) I bet you’d tell them I was a slob. A banana split.
TRUMAN CAPOTE: Of course, but I’d also say…
(The light was leaving. She seemed to fade with it, blend with the sky and clouds, recede beyond them. I wanted to lift my voice louder than the seagulls cries and call her back: Marilyn! Marilyn, why did everything have to turn out the way it did? Why does life have to be so fucking rotten?)
TRUMAN CAPOTE: I’d say…
MARILYN: I can’t hear you.
TRUMAN CAPOTE: I’d say you are a beautiful child.
”
”
Truman Capote (Marilyn Monroe: A Beautiful Child (Schirmer Art Books))
“
Banana by Maisie Aletha Smikle
Ripe banana green banana
Boil banana bake banana
Roast banana fried banana
Shred banana mash banana
Banana porridge
Banana bread
Banana cake
Banana flake
Banana pudding
Banana dumpling
Banana muffin
Banana punch
Banana at breakfast
Banana at lunch
Banana for snack
Banana at supper
Chocolate joined banana
Peanut butter pineapple papaya
Peach strawberry blueberry cherry
Ice cream and whip cream too
They got on a banana boat
Manned by a bearded goat
And made a banana float
While sailing around the moat
Banana got festive
And turned into a balloon
Then made a banana cartoon
Where banana got whipped into a dip
Banana fritter banana batter
Banana is whipped
And beaten into batter
Banana split finding solitude with nuts on a sundae
”
”
Maisie Aletha Smikle
“
The True-Blue American"
Jeremiah Dickson was a true-blue American,
For he was a little boy who understood America, for he felt that he must
Think about everything; because that’s all there is to think about,
Knowing immediately the intimacy of truth and comedy,
Knowing intuitively how a sense of humor was a necessity
For one and for all who live in America. Thus, natively, and
Naturally when on an April Sunday in an ice cream parlor Jeremiah
Was requested to choose between a chocolate sundae and a banana split
He answered unhesitatingly, having no need to think of it
Being a true-blue American, determined to continue as he began:
Rejecting the either-or of Kierkegaard, and many another European;
Refusing to accept alternatives, refusing to believe the choice of between;
Rejecting selection; denying dilemma; electing absolute affirmation: knowing
in his breast
The infinite and the gold
Of the endless frontier, the deathless West.
“Both: I will have them both!” declared this true-blue American
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, on an April Sunday, instructed
By the great department stores, by the Five-and-Ten,
Taught by Christmas, by the circus, by the vulgarity and grandeur of
Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon,
Tutored by the grandeur, vulgarity, and infinite appetite gratified and
Shining in the darkness, of the light
On Saturdays at the double bills of the moon pictures,
The consummation of the advertisements of the imagination of the light
Which is as it was—the infinite belief in infinite hope—of Columbus,
Barnum, Edison, and Jeremiah Dickson.
”
”
Delmore Schwartz
“
Neptune’s Lost Banana by Stewart Stafford
O lost banana of Neptune,
Do you wonder why you’ve washed ashore?
Do people see a yellow fruit in the water?
Or a Portuguese Man O’War?
You were so near the fingertips of power,
Did fortune peel away your chances too quick?
Or do you see yourself in an ivory tower?
Of a split-away banana republic?
You could have been top banana,
Now you’re potential poetic justice,
For someone with bad karma to slip on,
And go skidding as you go squish.
© Stewart Stafford, 2021. All rights reserved.
”
”
Stewart Stafford
“
Herman and I have been doing a lot of talking about the cake the past couple of days, and we think we have a good plan for the three tiers. The bottom tier will be the chocolate tier and incorporate the dacquoise component, since that will all provide a good strong structural base. We are doing an homage to the Frango mint, that classic Chicago chocolate that was originally produced at the Marshall Field's department store downtown. We're going to make a deep rich chocolate cake, which will be soaked in fresh-mint simple syrup. The dacquoise will be cocoa based with ground almonds for structure, and will be sandwiched between two layers of a bittersweet chocolate mint ganache, and the whole tier will be enrobed in a mint buttercream.
The second tier is an homage to Margie's Candies, an iconic local ice cream parlor famous for its massive sundaes, especially their banana splits. It will be one layer of vanilla cake and one of banana cake, smeared with a thin layer of caramelized pineapple jam and filled with fresh strawberry mousse. We'll cover it in chocolate ganache and then in sweet cream buttercream that will have chopped Luxardo cherries in it for the maraschino-cherry-on-top element.
The final layer will be a nod to our own neighborhood, pulling from the traditional flavors that make up classical Jewish baking. The cake will be a walnut cake with hints of cinnamon, and we will do a soaking syrup infused with a little bit of sweet sherry. A thin layer of the thick poppy seed filling we use in our rugelach and hamantaschen, and then a layer of honey-roasted whole apricots and vanilla pastry cream. This will get covered in vanilla buttercream.
”
”
Stacey Ballis (Wedding Girl)
“
Pretty soon, however, I noticed something familiar. Most books are also about the exceptional. The biggest history bestsellers are invariably about catastrophes and adversity, tyranny and oppression. About war, war, and, to spice things up a little, war. And if, for once, there is no war, then we’re in what historians call the interbellum: between wars. In science, too, the view that humanity is bad has reigned for decades. Look up books on human nature and you’ll find titles like Demonic Males, The Selfish Gene and The Murderer Next Door. Biologists long assumed the gloomiest theory of evolution, where even if an animal appeared to do something kind, it was framed as selfish. Familial affection? Nepotism! Monkey splits a banana? Exploited by a freeloader!31 As one American biologist mocked, ‘What passes for co-operation turns out to be a mixture of opportunism and exploitation. […] Scratch an “altruist” and watch a “hypocrite” bleed.’32 And in economics? Much the same. Economists defined our species as the homo economicus: always intent on personal gain, like selfish, calculating robots. Upon this notion of human nature, economists built a cathedral of theories and models that wound up informing reams of legislation. Yet no one had researched whether homo economicus actually existed. That is, not until economist Joseph Henrich and his team took it up in 2000. Visiting fifteen communities in twelve countries on five continents, they tested farmers, nomads, and hunters and gatherers, all in search of this hominid that has guided economic theory for decades. To no avail. Each and every time, the results showed people were simply too decent. Too kind.
”
”
Rutger Bregman (Humankind: A Hopeful History)
“
Ivyanne laughed. ‘It’s not like that,’ she assured them. ‘It’s just like... really great ice cream.’ She flicked her tail, propping herself up further out of the water. ‘You know when you go to Baskin Robins, and you can have as many flavors as you want? Sometimes you try new ones... but almost always, there’s at least two you love that just don’t go together in a banana split?’
‘Like rum and raisin, and apple sorbet,’ Joyce said quickly.
Ivyanne nodded. ‘Exactly. One’s sweet, one’s savory. And you end up standing there for the longest time, trying to pick which one you can go without…’ She shrugged. ‘That’s what this is like. When they’re together, they completely kill my appetite. But when I’m enjoying one…’ she sighed wistfully. ‘I can’t remember what the other tasted like.
”
”
S.K. Munt
“
THE FIRST TIME she left the house with her sleeping son in her arms, still unsteady on her legs, gripping the railing tightly, she surveyed the yard, astonished. It was at once familiar and strange. Something was different, though she could not immediately put her finger on it. The morning sun beamed through the bushes. The leaves of the banana plants seemed greener, their fruit larger and yellower. The hibiscus and the bougainvillea had never looked so beautiful. A warm breeze caressed her skin. Maung Sein was perched on a log below her, chopping kindling. Stroke by stroke he would split branches as thick as a fist. The uniformity of his movements radiated something infinitely reassuring. Nu Nu looked at Ko Gyi in her arms. He had her nose. Her mouth. Her cinnamon skin. She cautiously took one of his little hands. It was warm. And would always remain so. Suddenly he opened one blinking eye, and then quickly the other. He had her eyes, too, without a doubt. Ko Gyi regarded his mother earnestly, intently. She smiled. His deep brown eyes did not move. They looked for a long time at each other. Then a quiet smile drifted across his face. No one had ever smiled at her that
”
”
Jan-Philipp Sendker (A Well-Tempered Heart)
“
Boys always stared at Leeda, but they stared at Murphy harder because Leeda looked fine like china, but Murphy looked like the world’s most decadent banana split. Boys were scared of both of them. Scared of Leeda because she looked too cool to touch and scared of Murphy because they were afraid she might bite them.
”
”
Jodi Lynn Anderson (The Secrets of Peaches (Peaches, #2))
“
Ahem! I will now recite a poem full of wisdom!
Quack. Quack.
Says the duck.
Oh my, a truck!
The duck gets hit.
Banana split.
Quack quack no more.
”
”
Yennie Fer (Remote Angel Volume 1 (Remote Angel, #1))
“
The only splits I could handle from now on were ones with bananas.
”
”
Laura Pauling (Prom Impossible (Prom Impossible, #1))
“
For lunch my colleagues and I each ate the equivalent of a double banana split. I told my wife I had two bananas for lunch...I failed to mention I had to eat my way through five pounds of ice cream to get to those bananas.
”
”
Dan Adams
“
get us some little jeeps. Maybe like those moon-buggies they used to have on The Banana Splits.
”
”
James Swallow (Relativity (Stargate SG-1 #10))
“
Oh yes?” Chet retorted. “Hop over to the Bayport Soda Shop with me, and I’ll show you what I’m investing in—a year’s supply of the biggest banana splits you ever saw!
”
”
Franklin W. Dixon (The Disappearing Floor (Hardy Boys, #19))
“
Ah,” replied Shorenstein, “you’re worried? Listen. Did you ever go down to the wharf to see the Staten Island Ferry come in? You ever watch it, and look down in the water at all those chewing-gum wrappers, and the banana peels and the garbage? When the ferryboat comes into the wharf, automatically it pulls all the garbage in too. The name of your ferryboat is Franklin D. Roosevelt—stop worrying!” The Shorenstein rule no longer has quite the strength it had a generation ago, for Americans, with increasing education and sophistication, split their tickets; more and more they are reluctant to follow the leader. Politicians, of course, still look for a strong leader of the ticket; yet when they cannot find such a man, when it is they who must carry the President in an election rather than vice versa, they want someone who will be a good effective President, a strong executive, one who will keep the country running smoothly and prosperously while they milk it from underneath. In talking to some of the hard-rock, old-style politicians in New York about war and peace, I have found them intensely interested in war and peace for two reasons. The first is that the draft is a bother to them in their districts (“Always making trouble with mothers and families”); and the second is that it has sunk in on them that if an H-bomb lands on New York City (which they know to be Target A), it will be bad for business, bad for politics, bad for the machine. The machine cannot operate in atomic rubble. In the most primitive way they do not want H-bombs to fall on New York City—it would wipe out their crowd along with all the rest. They want a strong President, who will keep a strong government, a strong defense, and deal with them as barons in their own baronies. They believe in letting the President handle war and peace, inflation and deflation, France, China, India and foreign affairs (but not Israel, Ireland, Italy or, nowadays, Africa), so long as the President lets them handle their own wards and the local patronage.
”
”
Theodore H. White (The Making of the President 1960: The Landmark Political Series)
“
The blade cut into his dick, slicing it like the worst banana split ever conceived.
”
”
D.E. McCluskey (Zola)
“
Time flies like an arrow . . . but fruit flies like a banana.
”
”
Douglas E. Richards (Time Frame (Split Second, #2))
“
Well, when we grow up, I’m going to marry him,
”
”
Anica Mrose Rissi (Anna, Banana, and the Friendship Split)
“
Time flies like an arrow . . . but fruit flies like a banana.” —Unknown (often attributed to Groucho Marx)
”
”
Douglas E. Richards (Time Frame (Split Second, #2))
“
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; A time to kill, and a time to heal.” —Partial excerpts from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, King James Bible “Time flies like an arrow . . . but fruit flies like a banana.” —Unknown (often attributed to Groucho Marx)
”
”
Douglas E. Richards (Time Frame (Split Second, #2))
“
Look, maybe it’s none of those things or a combination of them. All I know for sure is if you don’t talk to him you’ll never know. Call him.” “I can’t—he hasn’t called me.” “So?” “So, I don’t want to be the one to call first—it’s too desperate,” I protested. “Will you listen to yourself? You’re a strong, independent woman—a supernatural creature with almost unlimited physical strength and immense magical capabilities and you’re acting like you’re back in high school,” she scoffed. “Excuse me,” I snapped. “I know it must seem stupid to you but this is complicated. I don’t want to chase after him if he doesn’t want me.” “Of course he wants you. He came after you even though he knew he was walking into a trap. Even though he was pretty sure he was going to die—he still came. And you…” Addison pointed at me with her white plastic spoon. “You came back from the freaking dead for him.” I frowned. “I don’t actually remember a whole lot of that.” “Well, Gwendolyn does. She said you were all set to go into the light—and by the way, you ought to tell your bigoted parents that because apparently vampires can go to Heaven. Anyway, you were almost past the pearly gates and she got you to come back by saying Victor’s name.” “She did?” I asked. I had vague, blurry images of a vast black pit filled with writhing things and the horror of falling… and then waking up in my own body. But that was as far as my memory went. Addison nodded. “You weren’t even going to come back for me, roomie—but you came for him. You came back for Victor.” She pushed her spoon back into the upside down banana split. “I can’t eat any more of this. I’m going to be sick.” “I didn’t know I was that far gone,” I said quietly. “I mean, I had some vague memories but I thought they were just dreams… nightmares.” “They were real,” Addison said shortly. “I didn’t want to talk to you about it because I didn’t want to think about how close… how close I came to losing you.” She sniffed dabbed at her eyes with another paper napkin. “Addison…” She cleared her throat, obviously trying to get control of her emotions. “I don’t know for sure but I got the impression that Gwendolyn risked a lot to bring you back—apparently, it’s kind of a big no-no to snatch someone from death’s door like that. But she wouldn’t have been able to do it if you weren’t willing to come. And the only reason you were willing was—” “Victor,” I finished for her, in a whisper. “Right.” She nodded decisively.
”
”
Evangeline Anderson (Scarlet Heat (Born to Darkness, #2; Scarlet Heat, #0))
“
Dishes are set before him: grilled pheasant and pomegranate salad; the haggis, neeps, and tatties soup; a savory doughnut stuffed with fresh crabmeat; lemon, zucchini, and Anster cheese soufflé; a slab of moist sourdough bread with a pot of freshly made crowdie and preserved lemons to spread on top; and, of course, the pudding.
This one was born from Susan's childhood memories: after-school treats of bananas split in half and spread with peanut butter, and her mother's chocolate-chip studded banana bread, lavished with butter or dripping with honey. This pudding starts with a cake: the bottom layer is a rich, dark, fudgy chocolate as luscious as velvet. On top of that a layer of banana honey cake laced with cinnamon- just sweet enough to balance out the bittersweet bottom layer. And finally, a peanut butter mousse that dissolves as soon as it reaches your tongue, melding creamily with the other layers like a slightly salty, addictive sauce. Shards of honey and peanut praline decorate the cake, and it's accompanied by a little peanut-flavored candy-floss "lollipop" on the side.
”
”
Brianne Moore (All Stirred Up)