August 2 was National Ice Cream Sandwich Day. This paper's Tuesday echo treated the leftover aisle as the point. Wednesday the wafers are gone. The month is not. [1]

National Day Calendar still dates the sandwich to August 2. The origins story traces to 1899, when a New York pushcart vendor sold ice cream between two wafers for a penny. The modern chocolate-wafer version emerged in the 1940s. [1]

Congress designated July as National Ice Cream Month in 1984. The sandwich day sits just after that month and keeps the promotional machinery running into August. [2]

X wants a single date. The industry wants a season. That is the split. The sandwich was designed to be held. The calendar was designed to be sold. Both still work. Wednesday is the echo, not the holiday.

Manufacturers and retailers use both windows. Consumers share photographs. The feed moves on. The freezers do not. [2] A treat that requires no utensils is easy to photograph and easier to discount on a Wednesday.

The freezer case does not care which calendar square sold the last sandwich.

National Ice Cream Month is over. The sandwich day is the leftover aisle.

-- MAYA CALLOWAY, New York