Is This Man “The Emperor of Ice-Cream”?

The great American poet Wallace Stevens, author of “The Emperor of Ice-Cream” and many other famous works, was also a longtime insurance executive. While researching him for my previous post, I decided to look up what his old employer, The Hartford (formerly the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company), is doing these days. Turns out they’re insuring ice cream vendors!

“Some folks call me a rock star,” says Buck Buchanan, founder of Lumpy’s Ice Cream, in this recent TV ad. “Some call me The Mayor.” Can’t we go ahead and declare him The Emperor of Ice-Cream instead? Look at him smiling with lordly beneficence in the opening shot, folding arms as “muscular” as those of the dessert-maker in the poem. Behold the regal ease with which he flaunts his white paper crown.

Make this nickname happen, Internet literature lovers. Let the coronation proceed. Let be be finale of meme.