Letters to the Editor

 

Karen on Deck
I really enjoyed your article on Karen Gladstone's 52 adventures (Winter 2011). However, I was a bit concerned about her "empirically proven 1,567 licks" required to reach the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. My freshman year in Brockman, I set off to explore the same experiment. After many hours of consecutive licks while doing homework, taking a walk around campus and even making a visit to Bellarmine Chapel, I reached the Tootsie Roll center with 807 swipes of my tongue. My results are still published on the baby blue chest of drawers that is blanketed in quotes and memories written by my Xavier classmates and me during those great four years. Thus, while I question the validity of Ms. Gladstone's result, which was almost twice as mine, I appreciate the great memories sparked by our common experiment.

PS: A few weeks later I learned I could fit 800 Cheerios in my mouth at once. Brockman Hall was such a great laboratory.

—R. James Uhler, Class of 1996