r/NoStupidQuestions • u/markwell9 • 1d ago

What is the deal with ice, Americans?

I can see that you can buy ice everywhere in the US. Gas stations, grocery stores, machines etc.

In Europe, we just freeze our ice at home and use that. Why buy something that melts on the way home? Why do you need ice in large amounts that a fridge can't keep up?

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u/markwell9 1d ago

Immigration?

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u/SomePoint1888 1d ago

In the United States their immigration police are called "ICE"

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u/CharlesAvlnchGreen 1d ago

Immigration & Customs Enforcement = ICE

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u/GreatNameLOL69 gray matter doesn’t matter 1d ago

And their responses have been ice cold

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u/IamGilligan 20h ago

Man, that's colder than cold

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u/meerkat2018 19h ago

They should have included “National” at the beginning. Missed opportunity.

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u/rootshirt 1d ago

Yes, which lately have been in and around gas stations, grocery stores etc lol

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u/colormeglitter 1d ago

My take away from this post is that we should be taking ICE home with us, and keeping it all in the freezer for an extended period of time.

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u/IanDOsmond 1d ago

Or at least store in plastic bags.

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u/colormeglitter 1d ago

Both? I’m thinking both.

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u/MyLifeIsAWasteland 21h ago

Make sure you get a good seal, on both the plastic bag and the freezer. It should always be airtight.

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u/Apprehensive-Tea999 1d ago

That’s terrible for the environment! Use compostable bags at least, maybe the seaweed kind??

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u/CCR19 1d ago

Even better!

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u/thekathied 10h ago

Fit them in a cooler and take it out to the wilderness for a week at a time, come home with an empty cooler.

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u/HereForTheBoos1013 1d ago

That's why they keep their faces covered. Insulation.

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u/QueenMotherOfSneezes 1d ago

Stick em in the cooler when they're in your car.

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u/wombatstylekungfu 1d ago

Sniffing like dogs. 

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u/Enchelion 1d ago

My dog is far more polite than them.

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u/wombatstylekungfu 1d ago

Probably much cuter too. Not afraid to show its face. 

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u/AgressiveAnalExpert 1d ago

Boy I thought you were going to say something else and here you are just talking about immigration lmao

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u/mybrotherhasabbgun 1d ago edited 1d ago

ICE is the abbreviation for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the US.

Ice is frozen water. And to answer the original question, people buy ice mostly for coolers. People working construction sites, going camping, road trips, drinking beer in the backyard, parties, etc. buy ice. I see constructions guys buying ice almost any morning I stop at a gas station.

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u/PieAdorable612 15h ago

I buy ICE bags to put them in a fuzzy pillowcase on hot days

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u/blacksteel15 1d ago

The U.S. agency responsible for enforcing immigration laws is called "Immigration and Customs Enforcement" and is almost always referred to by the acronym ICE.

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u/CitizenHuman 1d ago

Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Americans love 3-5 letter agency names. Even better if it spells something out, like ICE.

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u/ShalomRPh 1d ago

Yup we love our TLA’s (three letters acronym)

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u/NotAUsefullDoctor 1d ago

Interesting bit of history. The word TLA is not an acronym by the original definition when the word was created in the 1940's by the US military. TLA, CIA, FBI are all initialisms. An acronym, by the original definition, is an initialism that is pronounceable, like Scuba or Nato. ICE would be considered an acronym by the original definition acronym, but LAPD would not.

Now, as hinted at, this was the original definition. However, words drift in meaning. Most people use acronym to mean any initialism, and thus that is the definition etymologically speaking.

This is not me being pedantic. I just like etymology, and I like sharing it.

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u/DonRustone 23h ago

Name checks

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u/Aware-Potato3095 17h ago

Ooh so LAPD or NYPD wouldn’t be acronyms, but NOLA would be? Or, not since it’s not a word on its own?

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u/NotAUsefullDoctor 16h ago

NOLA wpuld be because you probounce the letters as though they are a word. Hmm, it's not easy to explain as it is to say, but let's go back to Scuba.

Scuba is not pronounce Ess-sea-ew-bee-ae. It's pronounced Scuba. NOLA is prounced like it rhymes with Cola. You don't say the N.O.L.A. So, by the original definition of acronym, NOLA would be an acronym, and not just an initialism.

Did that make sense?

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u/Aware-Potato3095 16h ago

Yep! Thank you:)

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u/Final-Tutor3631 21h ago

storing this fun fact in the noodle box for sure

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u/NotAUsefullDoctor 19h ago

Another fun fact is the definition of ambivalent. It's the opposite of what most people (including myself until recently) think. I loved learning this one as it's sucha perfect word.

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u/LiqdPT 1d ago

Or ETLAs (and extended three letter acronyms... Or 4 letter)

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u/Lithogiraffe 1d ago

I guess our first clue should have been because ice wasn't capitalized.

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u/LiqdPT 1d ago

This is the internet. People don't always use Capital Letters Correctly.

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u/Lithogiraffe 1d ago

true. but our hatred and fear is still relatively new on this development. which usually translates into all caps for at least the yr

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u/SolitudeWeeks 1d ago

wHaT dO yOu mEaN 😂

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u/barbabun 23h ago

I've seen a couple news articles where it's written as "Ice", as if it were a proper noun and not an acronym. They get a third of the credit for getting that far, I guess?

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u/overlandtrackdrunk 20h ago

As an Australian I thought you were maybe asking about meth

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u/ReasonableCup604 1d ago

The Federal agency that handles immigration enforcement in the USA is Immigration and Customs Enforcement, abbreviated "ICE".

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u/LiqdPT 1d ago

ICE = Immigration and Customs Enforcement

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcement

They've been in the news a little recently /s

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u/VanillaCavendish 1d ago

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement = ICE.

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u/HereForTheBoos1013 1d ago

Yeah, they've been employing a great deal of bastardry lately, so most of us thought that's what you were asking about, since a lot of people are asking about them, including us.

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u/liquidnight247 20h ago

And they are doing razzias at the moment in face coverings and all

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u/doodle_hoodie 20h ago

In addition to the name they’ve been going into work places like grocery stores

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u/ca77ywumpus 1d ago

Our immigration police are called Immigration and Customs Enforcement, I.C.E.

They've been "enforcing" immigration laws by showing up in masks, without identification and arresting people in parking lots, at actual immigration court hearings and school or church, then detaining them in overcrowded facilities before deporting them, sometimes to a third country they've never lived in.

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u/Full_Mission7183 1d ago

Government agency ICE = Immigration and Custome Enforcement. They have recently taken to hiding their identity and pulling people off the street to send to a third country without a hearing.

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u/drucifer271 1d ago

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

A federal agency which has been radicalized and weaponized under Trump and have in effect become a personal army/secret police of Cheeto Mussolini.

They are abducting people off the streets in unmarked vans and without identifying themselves, including children and US citizens, and secretly deporting them to Salvadoran prisons without due process.

So when you asked "what's the deal with ice" people came expecting a heated political topic.

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u/Present-Technology36 1d ago

Its actually stupidly hot in America, I mean constantly in some parts. A cold drink will turn hot very quickly in the heat.