“Noodle” is slang for “brain.” A popular riddle is:
Q: What food is good for the brain?
A: Noodle soup.
The joke has been cited in print since at least 1976.
Google Books
Biggest Riddle Book in the World
By Joseph Rosenbloom
Illustrations by Joyce Behr
New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
1976
Pg. 30:
What food is good for the brain?
Noodle soup.
10 October 1992, St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, “Jumble,” pg. 9D, col. 2:
He ate plenty of noodle soup because he thought it was this—GOOD FOR HIS BRAIN
11 February 2007, Sunday Mail (Glasgow, Scotland), “Funnies,” pg. 3:
What food is good for the brain?
Noodle soup.
25 February 2009, Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, AZ), “Jokes corny enough to win readers cookbooks” by Kathleen Allen, pg. C3:
And this from Patricia Suhocki: “What food is good for the brain? Noodle soup.”
Twitter
Jamie Brook
@jbrook
Joke - Food jokes: What food is good for the brain? Noodle soup. http://76k.com/j/s20eox
6:35 PM - 7 Jan 2010
Living, Learning and Lovin’ Life!
What food is good for the brain? Noodle soup.
June 18, 2013 by Sam Smith
Google Books
Sensible Nonsense.. Frank’s Comic Pack:
Humour Pack Series
By Frank Paul
BookBaby
2014
Pg. ?:
What food is good for the brain?Noodle soup.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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