D. Barbara McWhite grew up in York County, S.C., and lives in Orange Park, Fla., with her husband and cat. Her column is published here each Tuesday. Opinions expressed are solely her own.

Ben & Jerry's ice cream has a new offering on its menu – Schweddy Balls!

The new flavor is described as vanilla ice cream with a hint of rum that's loaded with fudge-covered rum and malt balls. But really, guys, Schweddy Balls?

I'm not a stick-in-the-mud, but I have to say there should be limits.

Ben & Jerry's spokesman, Alex Stewart, says the company isn't trying to offend anyone. "We chose it (the name) to have a sense of humor," she asserted.

The play-on-words name is borrowed from Saturday Night Live's performance by Alec Baldwin, in which he plays Pete Schweddy, owner of a holiday bakery. The character is portrayed hawking his "Schweddy balls" - cheese balls, rum balls and popcorn balls while the female actors make bawdy comments. He ends each skit by saying, "No one can resist my Schweddy Balls."

While this skit is in line with Saturday Night Live's edgy, late-night fare, it crosses the line for what is proper for an ice cream joint that serves folks from childhood to the elderly. I don't need my grandchildren asking for or hearing about Schweddy Balls when we go to buy ice cream.

Ben & Jerry's has crossed the line of what is proper in order get publicity and sell its ice cream. It’s kind of like making a sex tape and leaking it to the tabloids. You get attention and make some money, but you are still nasty.

If Ben & Jerry's were a bar, I wouldn't complain. Bars have long favored risqué names for drinks, such as “Sex on the Beach” and “Pink Panty,” so Schweddy Balls would be in line with the rest. But when it comes to foods served to children and the general public, the names assigned should not offend or encourage adult conversations among children.

On this issue, I believe Ben & Jerry's sold its strawberry soul to make a mint.

Mature folks know all they care to know about Schweddy Balls, Ben and Jerry, and young folks need to take their time learning about them.

Lets keep it clean, please.

I'm afraid to ask what you plan next.

Maybe chocolate ice cream with angle hair pasta called … Hairy Pitts.

Perhaps five Vienna cookies with ice cream and strawberry preserves -- Toe Jam.

Are you planning anything named menopause or hemorrhoids? Heaven forbid.

I know times are hard and merchants, like everyone else, are doing what they can to hang on. (It’s obscene enough that, this year, stores displayed lighted Christmas trees before Autumn began.) But there should be limits to what you will subject your brand and reputation to.

We like your ice cream, Ben and Jerry, and though I haven’t tried your latest flavor, I have to believe that a good dish of Rocky Road will trump a dish of Schweddy Balls any day.

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