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Don’t fall for everything you see on TV By David Argetsinger | for the Mail Tribune Dec 25, 2022 12:15 AM A A T-Mobile has been running a television ad lately showing a reckless young man freezing his tongue on a metal utility pole. It is supposed to be funny but is actually kind of dangerous. On a cold winter day in Minnesota, about 75 years ago, when I was in the third grade, a second grader from our 10-room schoolhouse touched her tongue to the top bar of the low chain-link fence surrounding the school. She may have been encouraged to do it by a “friend.” Her tongue quickly froze to the bar. Instead of waiting for help to arrive with some warm water, she quickly pulled it off, leaving a large piece of the tip firmly frozen to the bar. News of the incident quickly circulated around the school and, by the end of the day, probably most of the third through six graders visited the site of the carnage to look at that frozen piece of tongue. That image is still as vivid in my brain, so many years later, as it was then. That young girl’s tongue was painfully and permanently altered for the rest of her life. The medical information displayed by Google states the end of the tongue does not regenerate. Humans are not starfish. So if the family is planning to visit grandpa’s ranch in Eastern Oregon over the holidays or trekking up to northern Montana for a winter experience with Aunt Sally, watch the kids. Don’t let them experiment on the old windmill tower or Sally’s fence rails. If you Google it, apparently, the urge to try this experiment is timeless ... and not limited to second graders who don’t know any better. Shame on you T-Mobile! David Argetsinger lives in Medford.