An athletic & scenic planker. Most are not this pretty.

Fads.

I've lived through a few, and participated… erm. Not that often. Okay, sometimes. When it looked fun. Remember these?

• The Macarena (I loved this one, sorry to say)
• Hula hoops ( the first time around, and again, the second)
• Disco (before my time, but I participated at retro parties)
• Beanie Babies (okay, I have a large garbage bag in the attic waiting for them to appreciate as I was told they would, and no E-Bay huckster is going to talk me into letting them go before then)
• Star Wars (everything)
• Pogo Sticks
• Preppie Style (now that's my generation! Kelly green polo shirts with alligator on the boob- aren't they STILL in style? I just bought one!)
• Stampbooking (groan! Just say NO)

and now, the latest: PLANKING.

Famous author Suzanna Burke practices safe planking in her home.

Planking.

Yes, you heard me. I got a Twitter with some wacky pictures and a #planking hashtag, and had to follow it up with, “What the heck is planking?”

An obliging Tweeter sent me this definition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planking_%28fad%29

Apparently you lie face down with hands at sides, in as silly/outrageous/creative a spot as possible, and post a picture on the internet. That's all there is to it.

I was captivated. The nonstop stream of silly pictures in my Twitter feed had me giggling, and next thing you know, I talked The Hubby into it.

We turned Mike's usual sunset shot into a Planking session. Not bad for the first time!

Mike looks like he's flying. We had to take a lot of shots for his.

He must really love me that's all I've got to say.

So there we were, chuckling away and trying to get the right angle, when our 23 year old son drove up to the house and looked at us on the crow's nest deck on the roof.

“What are you doing?”

“Planking!” I yell, and giggle.

“That silly internet game?” He asks. We look at each other, sheepish.

“It's fun,” I say. And it was. There wasn't even any alcohol involved.  Well, okay, one glass of wine. And it wasn't mine, I swear.

Triumphantly post-plank! Who says middle-aged people can't be ridiculous?

Caution:

As Sooz says about her foray into planking, “fun at home, but sadly too many people have taken it beyond the realms of safe fun and into the dangerous …we have even had kids planking on moving vehicles down here in OZ. One tragic death when one young man planked from an 8th floor balcony and overbalanced and fell to his death.”

I wouldn't like that to be my epitaph. Practice safe planking!