Two fourth graders

[Ed62]

It's been pretty cold here. Yesterday morning, when I got up, it was 7 below zero. Two local fourth graders, whose job it was to raise and lower the flag, decided to put their tongues on the pole, like in "Christmas Story" . They were sorry they did that when they lost a couple of layers off their tongues, and were bloody to boot.

Ed

[mater]

Ouch! That makes me hurt thinking about it.

[Hellrazor]

Ed, next time pour some warm water on their tongue, don't pull them off

[big tim]

That smarts!

Tim

[AAJIII]

Here is the news article.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22858883/

[guycox]

Ed, next time pour some warm water on their tongue, don't pull them off

I haven't quite run the math yet, but it would take quite a bit of warm water. Chances are a splash of "warm water" would flash freeze to the pole. That's quite a bit of themal mass a 7 degrees that would need to be warmed up to 32 and have enough extra calories to melt the frozed saliva on the tounge. This one should be sent to Mythbusters.

[pierhogunn]

I would think that it's not about warming the pole, but melting the very thin layer of ice that has formed between the tung and the pole, because there would be a pole - ice junction and an ice-tung junction

also, couldn't you use vodka ( I mean seriously, were talking about school teachers and administrators here, someone has some booze at their desk, My wife taught school and could probably find some), instant hand sanitizer, or some other liquid, like salt water to depress the freezing point of the water in the saliva where the tounge meets the pole?

seems like you could come up with some sort of spary ( just make it real bitter to avoid abuse) to keep in the office of the school where our little brain donors can put them selves in this sort of peril
I'm making up terms here to clear up my idea.

[Mrs. Wallnut]

I don't know about sticking a tongue to a flag pole but when I was a kid around 12 or so it was the middle of summer and the ice cream truck was making its rounds through our neighborhood. My mom gave us kids some money so we went out the the truck and got our ice cream. I believe I bought a fudgecicle and started to eat it. Well I don't know if it was because it was so warm outside and the ice cream was really frozen but the thing stuck to my lips. I couldn't get it off for the life of me and went running into my dad who turned on the water and got it off for me but believe me that was not fun at all. I think because I had tried pulling on it to begin with but I lost a layer or two of skin on my lips.

So I feel for those kids but on the other hand I would have never tried it. I know people that I went to school with that would have done it for a dollar.

[germdoc]

My momma warned me against sticking my tongue on cold metal objects, trying to swallow a live ant, and swallowing a tootsie pop whole without chewing first, because she had tried all three and found they didn't agree with her.

My grandma warned me against swallowing my tongue, and it was only 'til medical school that I realized she was full of baloney. She also told me a story involving hippies and the restroom at JC Penneys that was also a total BS urban myth--I wouldn't use a restroom at the mall for years.

So sometimes the old gals are right, sometimes, well...

[mschrank]

I remember well learning the toungue-on-frozen-metal lesson when I was in grade school. Lost quite a few toungue cells to that swingset leg. I also remember the even worse pain later that day when I tried to drink some OJ with my lunch. Salt in a wound hurts, yes...but try citric acid. That was around 32 years ago, and I swear I can still feel it.

[Pappy]

My youngest is in Baltimore for the next several weeks. The company he works for services communication towers. Hopefully he won't try this when he is 200' up a tower! But, then again, there are still times I wonder about that boy....

[BobSch]

My youngest is in Baltimore for the next several weeks. The company he works for services communication towers. Hopefully he won't try this when he is 200' up a tower! But, then again, there are still times I wonder about that boy....

If he's anything like me, he'll be too busy hanging on! I remember being 150 feet up on a radio tower changing clearance lights. It's a tough job when you're haging on with all four appendages!