Monday, December 21, 2015

Flick's Tongue (SHEP)

Talk radio great, Jean Shepherd, tells the story of how Flick's tongue got frozen to the telephone pole.

This is it! The 50 minute rambling story that led to about 2 minutes in one of my all time favorite movies _A Christmas Story_. Jean Shepherd was a crazy midwesterner who made his way to New York in the middle of the last century to pioneer talk radio. There are a number of hilarious anecdotes related by him and about him. My favorite is how he used to consistently promote a book called _I, Libertine_ to his listeners. Frustrated, people would write to him that they were unable to find such a book in their book stores and the proprietors seemed powerless to order the title. When he finally got enough requests that he deemed it worthwhile, Shep wrote _I, Libertine_ and sold a ton of copies! What a huckster!

I recommend you skip the first chaotic minutes and start listening at about 6:30, where the story begins for real.

Jean Shepherd
Flick's Tongue
28 January 1968



Jean Shepherd

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