Self-licking ice cream cone

The phrase appeared to have been first used in 1991–1992, in a book about Gulf War weapons systems by Norman Friedman,{{Cite book |last=Friedman |first=Norman |title=Desert Victory: The War For Kuwait |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-1-55750-254-4 |page=385 |authorlink=Norman Friedman}} and On Self-Licking Ice Cream Cones, a paper by Pete Worden about NASA's bureaucracy, to describe the relationship between the Space Shuttle and Space Station.{{Cite conference |last=Worden |first=S. Pete |date=1992 |title=On Self-Licking Ice Cream Cones |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234554226 |series=ASP Conference Series |publisher=Astronomical Society of the Pacific |volume=26 |pages=599–603 |bibcode=1992ASPC...26..599W |isbn=0-937707-45-7 |quote=This unfortunate train of events has resulted in a NASA which, more than any other agency, believes it works only for the appropriations committees. The senior staff of those committees, who have little interest in science or space, effectively run NASA. NASA senior officials' noses are usually found at waist level near these committee staffers. |book-title=Proceedings of the seventh Cambridge workshop on cool stars, stellar systems, and the sun |authorlink=Pete Worden}}{{Cite book |last1=Зацний Ю. |first1=А. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KI_zCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA176 |title=Нова розмовна лексика і фразеологія: Англо-український словник.: Довідкове видання |last2=Янков |first2=А. В. |publisher=Нова Книга |isbn=9789663822952 |via=Google Books}}

Since then, the term has been used to describe the purported habit of government-funded organisations and programs spending taxpayer money to lobby for more funding from the taxpayer. Other things compared have included financial bubbles, chatshows and reality television. In The Irish Times, Kevin Courtney observed that "many organisations are also stuck in limbo, destined to keep lurching on without ever achieving their stated goal. That’s because their real goal is simply to carry on regardless."{{Cite news |last=Courtney |first=Kevin |date=10 February 2009 |title=CON TEXT: SELF-LICKING ICE CREAM CONE |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/con-text-self-licking-ice-cream-cone-1.696580 |newspaper=The Irish Times}} The Cold War infrastructure has also been compared to a self-licking ice cream cone, given that expensive projects continued to be financed long after world communism had ceased to pose a viable threat.{{Cite book |last1=Leffler |first1=Melvyn P. |author-link1=Jeffrey W. Legro |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pN8Q3rcG_rEC&pg=PA130 |title=In Uncertain Times: American Foreign Policy after the Berlin Wall and 9/11 |last2=Legro |first2=Jeffrey W. |date=May 15, 2011 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0801461293 |via=Google Books}}

Richard Hoggart used the term to describe certain{{which|date=March 2025}} United Nations programmes.{{Cite book |last=Hoggart |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dW3r5q8YvxMC&pg=PA5 |title=An Idea and Its Servants: UNESCO from Within |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=9781412848138 |via=Google Books}}

Franklin C. Spinney used the term to refer to the military–industrial complex.{{Cite web |date=8 January 2019 |title=Mattis: One More General for the 'Self Licking Ice Cream Cone |url=https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/mattis-one-more-general-for-the-self-licking-ice-cream-cone/ |access-date=11 June 2021 |website=The American Conservative}}

{{Columns-list|colwidth=25em|

• Boondoggle
• Circular reasoning
• Ouroboros
• Self-fulfilling prophecy
• Useless machine
• Virtuous circle and vicious circle

}}

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{{wiktionary}}

• [http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/self_licking_ice_cream_cone/ Double-Tongued Dictionary, "self-licking ice cream cone", accessed April 2010] (containing extensive cites of usage)

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Category:Ice cream

Category:Metaphors referring to food and drink

Category:Political terminology