You put it in your mouth and suck on it

Another chapter in the annals of phallicity. From Owen Campbell on Facebook yesterday:


(#1) Owen sucking on an Otter Pop

Owen’s comment:

At my job, teenagers deliver freezies [AZ: freezies ‘Otter Pops’]

otter pops (often no longer understood as a brand name) are also known as freeze pops or ice pops; freezies might be a regional term, but I’ve been unable to get information about it in any of the likely lexicographic sources: the OED, GDoS, and DARE. For what it’s worth, Owen’s in Winnipeg MB.

Now, two things: about Otter Pops; and (very briefly) about Owen.

Otter Pops. From Wikipedia:

Otter Pops are a brand of freeze pops sold in the United States. The product consists of a clear plastic tube filled with a fruit-flavored liquid and is one of the earliest brands of this dessert. [AZ: You suck the frozen liquid from the tube]

… Otter Pops are a frozen treat, but stores generally sell them at room temperature for the consumer to later freeze at home.


(#2) A carton of Otter Pops


(#3) 6 frozen Otter Pops

Background: National Pax introduced Otter Pops in 1970, in competition with Jel Sert’s similar product, Fla-Vor-Ice. As of 1990, the product was manufactured by Merrytime Products Inc. of Marshall, Texas.

In 1996, Jel Sert acquired the rights to Otter Pops as well. During the 2000s, Jel Sert modified the Otter Pops recipe to add more fruit juice. The company’s manufacturing facilities are in West Chicago, Illinois. Otter Pops come in 1-, 1.5-, 2- and 5.5-ounce serving sizes. They also come in 6 flavors, each [playfully] named after a different character [AZ: the article goes on to list 12 named flavors, only two of which have been discontinued]:

— Blue (blue raspberry): Louie-Bloo Raspberry

— Red (strawberry): Strawberry Short Kook

— Pink (fruit punch): Poncho Punch

— Yellow (lemon): Rip Van Lemon (discontinued in the late 1970s)

— Green (lime): Sir Isaac Lime

— Purple (grape): Alexander the Grape

— Orange (orange (fruit)): Little Orphan Orange

— Gold (mango): Major Mango

— Yellow (pineapple) DJ Tropicool

— White (coconut) Cosmic Coconut

— Cyan (tropical punch) Anita Fruit Punch

— Red (cherry) Scarlet ‘O Cherry (discontinued in the mid 1990s)

Why otter? One site maintains that the original Otter Pops had real otters on them — I have seen no photos of these, but let’s buy the story — but that only drives the question back to why otters were chosen as mascots for a frozen confection. Presumably, just because they’re cute. The name Penguin Pops would have gotten the cuteness plus the frozenness. But there’s a lot of randomness in naming.

On ice pop as a generic name. From my 7/16/20 posting “quiescent and deliquescent”:

But what does [quiescence] have to do with food? That would be via ice pops. From Wikipedia:

An ice pop is a water or milk-based quiescently frozen snack on a stick. Unlike ice cream or sorbet, which are whipped while freezing to prevent ice crystal formation, an ice pop is frozen while at rest [while quiescent] and becomes a solid block of ice.

Then to ice pops combined with ice cream. [See] my 10/17/18 posting “PUMP!ing it up”, on the Creamsicle Access Trunk (in the Access line of men’s underwear, so-called because it provides open access to the wearer’s buttocks); and on the Creamsicle — Popsicle-ice frozen exterior, vanilla ice cream interior — originally in orange flavored ice (hence the color of PUMP!’s underwear line), though now in a variety of flavors; with a section on Popsicles, Creamsicles, and Fudgsicles

Owen Campbell. On the amiable OC: he’s Canadian, now in Winnipeg; he identifies himself on his Facebook page as:

Queer. Trans. Lover of cooking baking fermenting.

Wow. In any case: delicious as well as amiable.

 

5 Responses to “You put it in your mouth and suck on it”

  1. arnold zwicky Says:

    Ruth Lawrence on Facebook, commenting on this Otter Pop posting, and then an exchange with me:

    — RL: we used to call this sort of thing Icy Poles down here
    — AZ > RL: That sounds like a trade name; there’s a whole pack of Otter Pop competitors, with a variety of trade names.
    — AZ: But no. It turns out that icy pole (lowercased) is a generic Aussie name for the confection. I will expand on this in a comment on my blog.
    — RL: it was the common name
    — AZ > RL: You’re just saying that it was commonly used. But many brand names are commonly used. The point is that icy poles is a *generic* name (that happens to be used only in Oz, so far as I can tell), like ice cream not a brand name. A number of different companies make icy poles. [Just as a number of different companies make ice cream]

    From the Sarah Moore (registered nutritionist) website, “The best and the worst of icy poles” on 11/26/18:
    https://www.sarahmoorewellness.com.au/the-best-and-the-worst-of-icy-poles/

    It’s icy pole season again! Summer is almost upon us and it wouldn’t be an Aussie summer without sitting on the trampoline with an icy pole. Kids adore them and they can be a great way for everyone to cool down.

    She goes on to Zooper Doopers, Sugar Free-zies, Peters Frosty Fruits, and more.

  2. Mike McManus Says:

    Alternative definition: I’ve often described in my journal a sleek and furry dude with kids in tow as an “otter pop”. Also, a young and furry dude, perhaps shorter than a just plain otter, I’ve described as an otter pup. (And yes, I’m rather fond of both.)

    • arnold zwicky Says:

      Yes; words get used in lots of ways. When I was much younger, I was indeed sleek and furry, and pegged as an otter (and desirable). (I have a certain amount of otterbilia that people gave me at the time.) I was also a (loving) father, which made me even hotter for some guys (and really hot for some women), absolutely unacceptable for others; life is complicated.

  3. Stewart Kramer Says:

    Otters also have elongated bodies, so the cartoon otter mascots (other than Strawberry Short Kook) have the right proportions to resemble the plastic bags.

    Also, the Wikipedia article on Otter Pops mentions a “Stanford professor” joining the fight to save Sir Isaac Lime. That actually refers to me, as a Stanford non-faculty employee. It’s an example of two layers of sloppy reporting (I like lime flavor, and I used a Stanford email address, but I didn’t bother to correct the correct them when they assumed I was a professor, and the L.A. Times just quoted what was on the web page).

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