Planking, the Facebook craze destined to last at least a few more hours one more week, has gone global. Even the sleepy backwater of Hamburg, Germany has caught on. We in Hamburg are more sensible than the rest, though. Understated refinement is how we go about things here.
And because already at least one person has plunged seven storeys to his death in pursuit of the perfect planking position, in the interest of safety the editor and staff at Letters Home recommend you at least be sober before attempting your plank.
OK, so I bent a few of the official rules here. But the penguin IS lying rigid on a 31-year-old German turntable. Top that, plankers!
The banner photograph shows the town of Britannia Beach, BC, Canada, where I grew up. It's home. But I don't live there anymore.
YEA! Plankers rule! Penguin is official enough…he might enjoy the blog post “Paws a-Plankin with the Australians.”…or maybe that’s the tune he’s already playin’? Seriously, enjoyed your post. Keep up the great work
Thanks for linking to that BBC News article. I can just imagine the health risks associated with lying face down on a subway/bus bench. (shudder)
/head:desk
Other than getting rolled for your wallet, I can’t imagine.
Well, knock me over with a feather. I would have thought that lying motionless, face down, would be one of the least dangerous fads to grip the planet. It takes a good deal of inventiveness to insert any degree of risk into this whatsoever.
Some call it planking. Others call it the missionary position after too many drinks.
Well after. It looks like rigor mortis has set in!
Having “planked” facebook itself (in the pirate sense), I had no idea. The only thing I’ve ever planked is salmon, on a good cedar board.
What’s truly distressing about this new craze is the comment in a linked article that “instructional videos” are available on youtube. Instructional videos?
Well, and this: Sergeant Matthew Russell, of Gladstone police, told the Brisbane Courier-Mail newspaper that planking could be dangerous, and practitioners may find themselves charged with “unauthorised high risk activity”
Here come the nannies!
I remember this from a few years back when people were calling it the lying down game, I thought it was a fad and never figured people would still be doing it. Maybe it’ll die off now that the Penguin has pulled off a planking that can never be beaten?
That is surely a great possibility. However, we are already into a new week, so planking is now ancient history.
There is already a new trend from Australia- coning. http://gawker.com/5811198/ice-cream-cone+ing-your-new-favorite-fad This is just getting stupid-er.
Dumb and dumber! With the fads coming so fast and from so many different directions, they’ll soon cancel each other out.