The Straight Dope: What causes “ice cream headache”?

[Send questions for Cecil Adams: cecil@straightdope.com](mailto:cecil@straightdope.com) FOLLOW CECIL ADAMS ON [TWITTER]( AND [FACEBOOK](! [910628.gif] THREADSPOTTING: THE BEST OF THE STRAIGHT DOPE MESSAGE BOARD — 09/06/2019 The full story about singing that song, liking that drink, and getting caught in the rain. [Click here]( for more. STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC #1 — 06/28/1991 Dear Cecil: When eating ice cream and sno-cones too fast I often get a "cold headache." What causes this? What would happen if you kept chowing down on those frozen treats? — Chuck Nevitt, Dallas Cecil replies: The standard medical term for this phenomenon is “ice cream headache” — an expression so clear and comprehensible it obviously was settled on by mistake. Probably that accounts for the scarcity of research on this universal (well, pretty darn common) human condition. One recalls the attention given some years back to a complaint someone had been shrewd enough to name “hypoglycemia.” Can you see getting big money to study Folks Feeling Vaguely Punk? [Click here]( for more. STRAIGHT DOPE STAFF REPORT — 09/18/2000 Dear Straight Dope: Not too long ago, there was a wave of sightings of "rods", things that look like bizarre insects flying too fast to be seen but captured on videotape. Has there been any explanation for these things? Are they real, a videography artifact, or a hoax? — Brad SDStaff Doug replies: This one should get put up front somewhere, with big flashing headers. This “rods” nonsense is one of the biggest scams in recent history, and needs SERIOUS debunking. [Click here]( for more. STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC #2 — 02/25/1994 Dear Cecil: What does Alice B. Toklas have to do with Alice B. Toklas brownies, anyway? — Judy Prisoc, Chicago Cecil replies: About as much as she had to do with The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas — which is to say, not much. The 1933 “autobiography” was actually written by Gertrude Stein, Toklas’s lifelong companion and one of the legendary figures of the Parisian literary scene in the first half of the twentieth century. Similarly, the recipe for marijuana-laced brownies (actually it was a brownielike hashish fudge) that appeared in the 1954 Alice B. Toklas Cook Book wasn’t Toklas’s own but rather that of a wiseacre painter friend named Brion Gysin. [Click here]( for more. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [View this message as a webpage](. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. To advertise on The Straight Dope, contact Rich Hummel at rhummel@suntimes.com [Privacy Policy/Terms of Use]( • [Unsubscribe]( © 2019 Straight Dope, LLC. 30 N Racine Ave. Suite 300, Chicago, IL 60607