My best friend’s daughter planks. Or is that the right wording? Should I call her a planker?
If you don’t know what planking is, don’t feel so bad. Microsoft word balked at my using planks as a verb and planker as a noun.
Planking is the craze where you lie straight down on something, with your arms to your side. Normally, I prefer this to be my bed or couch, but plankers love to plank in unusual places, take pictures of themselves doing this, then post it on a social media site such as Facebook.
The more outrageous a place you can take a photo planking, the better. My best friend’s daughter planked on top of two aquariums where she worked. Others have planked on roofs, vehicles, and even a Wal-Mart checkout stand.
Planking, called such because you are mimicking a wooden plank, may have been around as early as 1994. At least that’s when comedian Tom Green claims to have invented it. Gary Clarkson and Christian Langdon say they invented it in North East England in 2000.
No matter who invented it, planking is still a popular craze.
But, before you go jumping on the planking bandwagon, you need to know that police are starting to arrest people for planking in certain places.
Case in point, police in Queensland, Australia arrested a guy for planking on a police cruiser. He was found guilty of being on police property without a lawful excuse. While the police could appreciate the “light-hearted fun” of planking, they worried that it would put both the planker and others at risk.
Then there was the 14-year-old boy in York, who was arrested after police saw a photo of him planking on a train track. Dude, just not a good plan.
If you think it’s only the foreign plankers getting busted, you would be wrong. Two 24-year-olds were arrested for trespassing in Willoughby, Ohio after a police officer noticed them planking on the roof of a building.
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