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- Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban
- Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!darwin.sura.net!ra!AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil!hoey
- From: hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil (Dan Hoey)
- Subject: Re: Licking the bars
- Message-ID: <9212311742.hoey@aic.nrl.navy.mil>
- Sender: usenet@ra.nrl.navy.mil
- Organization: Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC
- References: <1992Dec31.161335@vinnie.cuc.ab.ca>
- Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1992 22:42:33 GMT
- Lines: 25
-
- jonathan@vort.cuc.ab.ca (Jonathan Levine) writes:
-
- > Getting your tongue frozen to a piece of metal outdoors in the winter is
- > comonly known as "licking the bars". The origin is schoolchildren, as
- > the bars referred to are those comprising the fence around the schoolyard.
-
- A kid I knew in high school claimed to have done this, but I had a
- hard time believing he was that stupid. I suspected he was using it
- as a cover story for lesions due to some even more embarrassing stunt
- but I couldn't imagine what it could possibly be.
-
- But it does happen, according to an article I read earlier this very
- winter, probably in Harper's. This story had a happy ending, though,
- because the child's father was there, and thinking quickly, freed the
- child's tongue with only minor damage by urinating on it. The doctor
- commended his quick thinking. The kid was not available for comment.
-
- > BTW, how widespread is knowledge of "the dogpile"?
-
- They soothe them by licking, too. Dog saliva is reputed to have
- enormous healing powers and dogs' tongues reach places you and I can
- only imagine.
-
- Dan Hoey
- Hoey@AIC.NRL.Navy.Mil
-