Arnold Zwicky's Blog

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.

This entry was posted on August 2, 2023 at 6:13 am and is filed under Gender and sexuality, Language and food, Mascots, Phallicity, Trade names. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.