# My tongue most decidedly DID stick to a popsickle!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
**Created:** [July 19, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906 "2012-07-19T18:22:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@grue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grue)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/1 "2012-07-19T18:22:00Z")
Regarding [Why does your skin stick to an ice-cube tray, but not to a Popsicle? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/802/why-does-your-skin-stick-to-an-ice-cube-tray-but-not-to-a-popsicle)
When I was a kid, my family had a freezer that was capable of deep-chilling things. We kept our popsicles in there. Tongues would, in fact, stick to those popsicles for quite some time. One time my brother thought he’d help me get unstuck to the popsicle by yanking it away really hard. Surprisingly, a tiny part of my tongue went with the popsicle.
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### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2012, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/2 "2012-07-19T20:09:02Z")
Yes, if it’s cold enough, then the ability of the popsicle to absorb heat may lose the race with stupidity.
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2012, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/3 "2012-07-20T23:30:57Z")
Cecil’s article at [Why does your skin stick to an ice-cube tray, but not to a Popsicle? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/802/why-does-your-skin-stick-to-an-ice-cube-tray-but-not-to-a-popsicle) discusses how your tongue can get stuck to a metal ice cube tray or metal pole, but not to a popsickle (for long).
Well, when I was about 10 years old, I took a popsickle out of the freezer and my tongue most definitely DID stick to it. I didn’t know about the trick of running hot water across it to get it un-stuck at the time, so … I just yanked the popsickle off.
I could see a very thin layer of my tongue’s skin stuck to the side of the popsickle right afterward, and my tongue was sore for the next day or so. Ouch.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2012, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/4 "2012-07-21T15:03:58Z")
This comes up when the article gets reposted.
My example was a case of a creamsicle-type bar in grade school. They were kept in a box with dry ice. Most kids knew you had to breath on them a bit to warm them up before licking them. One kid decided to try it without doing that. His tongue stuck hard and he pulled. Leaving a layer of skin on the sicle.
Ah, the good old days.
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### Author:  [@Tad\_Dainty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tad_Dainty)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/5 "2012-07-21T16:34:14Z")
Popsickle? I think you might have been licking some kind of curved metal blade. That’s why you got stuck. :smack:
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### Author:  [@talosparoxi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/talosparoxi)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2012, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/6 "2012-07-23T06:14:18Z")
While Cecil is correct, he neglected to mention that because popsicles are mostly comprised of sugar they are also partially melted due to the enzymes in your saliva breaking down the simple sugars. the insulation mearly covers why it does not reach as low temperatures that the metal achieves.
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### Author:  [@kob09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kob09)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2012, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/7 "2012-07-23T06:44:41Z")
it all depends on the temperature …
my brother ripped off part of the skin on his tongue when he got stuck to a popsicle… I tried it out with a metal bar on a cold winter day … same effect 😃
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2012, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/8 "2012-07-23T12:05:01Z")
Welcome to the SDMB, **talosparoxi**. When you comment on one of Cecil’s columns, it doesn’t automatically link back to that column. So we usually ask that when one comments on one of Cecil’s answers, that you link to it in your O.P. I assume this is the column you’re referring to?
[Why does your skin stick to an ice-cube tray, but not to a Popsicle?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/802/why-does-your-skin-stick-to-an-ice-cube-tray-but-not-to-a-popsicle)
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2012, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/9 "2012-07-24T11:42:24Z")
Moderator’s note: I’ve merged two (OK, three) threads on the same subject. This causes a slight hiccough in the trouser-legs of history, and renders **cochrane** ’s adding a link to the column redundant. Please forgive me, **cochrane** , your action was appreciated anyhow 🙂
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/10 "2012-07-24T17:30:40Z")
That’s OK. I hiccough on my trousers all the time. Especially when I’ve had a few too many. 😃
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### Author:  [@kob09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kob09)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/11 "2012-07-24T17:42:47Z")
lol I was reading through it and wondering how I had jumped so many posts and why I have posted something others had already stated … :o
thanks for the explanation 😃
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### Author:  [@al27052](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/al27052)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2012, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/12 "2012-07-25T00:48:55Z")
I used to put some extra saliva on my tongue right before I licked a popsicle, when I was a kid. This seemed to work well to prevent sticking.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2012, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/13 "2012-07-25T13:57:55Z")
> [@al27052](#):
>
> I used to put some extra saliva on my tongue right before I licked a popsicle, when I was a kid. This seemed to work well to prevent sticking.
Given the poor thermal conductivity of Popsicles and such compared to metal, it really doesn’t take much to avoid sticking. Like I said upthread, we just breathed a few times on ours and that warmed up the outer surface enough to start eating.
That and _not pulling_ you stupid idiot when you do get stuck. Just wait a minute doofus! (A strategy that isn’t so great for metal poles.)
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2012, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/14 "2012-07-25T22:38:21Z")
I was puzzled by the article’s mention of fingers sticking to metal ice trays. We used metal ice trays when I was a kid. They had the lever you pulled up to break the cubes loose. I never got my fingers stuck. Hands are too dry.
Maybe if you washed your hands and immediately grabbed a metal ice tray then you’d stick to it. It would have to be deliberate.
I have stuck my tongue to a Popsicle. Just for a second or two and then it came unstuck. I guess the Popsicle melted a little.
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### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/15 "2012-07-26T17:00:49Z")
It would depend partly on how cold your freezer was.
When I was a kid, by the way, the levers weren’t around, either. Instead, the insert was made of rubber.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [July 26, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-tongue-most-decidedly-did-stick-to-a-popsickle/628906/16 "2012-07-26T21:34:48Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#):
>
> It would depend partly on how cold your freezer was.
Like I said upthread, the school’s were kept on dry ice. Far cooler than a typical freezer. So “incidents” were common.
Some of the small ice cream “trucks” (cycles with a box really) also used dry ice but so little and out in the sun for so long you were lucky if the ice cream wasn’t runny.
(OTOH, some of the drivers could be persuaded to give us a chunk of dry ice for “experiments”.)