It may have happened on a dare.
It could have been a double dare.
In fact, it might have actually been that rarest of all taunts, a triple dog dare.
Fans of the 1983 classic movie "
A Christmas Story" will certainly recognize what happened to a fourth-grade student in the city of
Hammond, Indiana on Wednesday. The kid was outside in freezing cold temperatures nearing -12C when a friend challenged him to lick a hydro pole.
He obviously never saw the film, because the youngster did it.
And you know what happened next.
The boy's tongue became hopelessly stuck to the pole and police and an ambulance had to be called.
By the time they arrived, the now sadder but wiser young man had managed to work himself free, and he got a lecture from authorities about taking stupid dares, while his mother was told how to care for a bleeding tongue.
It's not clear what happened to the boy after that, but it's hoped he doesn't ask for a BB gun next Christmas.
There's fear he'll put his eye out.
Photo courtesy: Warner Home Video