Wow, that’s funny!
A kid I knew in High School used to call
bagels with cream cheese smear bagels! In fact, it was at his house I had my first bagel with cream cheese.
I never put the 2 together but that makes sense.
There are a LOT of German and Czech immigrants here, and that could very well be the reason “Smear Gravy” got it’s name.
Why not?
As the general knowledge of mankind advances one useless millimeter ....