Don't lick that cold metal pole in winter—if you do, don't panic

We all remember that infamous scene in the 1983 classic, A Christmas Story, where a young boy licks a cold metal post on the playground and ends up getting his tongue stuck to the surface. It's practically a childhood rite of passage. A 1996 case study coined the term "tundra tongue" to describe the phenomenon. But how dangerous is it, really? And what's the best way to free one's tongue with minimal damage?

Anders Hagen Jarmund, a graduate student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)...