" eyes without a face..."

"It's not even enough to write what you know. You have to know interesting things. You have to put yourself into a world where you have experiences"- John Hodgman

                                                                                                                                                                            A   few years ago an unusual trend called planking was all the rage being captured on cell phone cameras and gaining notoriety in YouTube video clips.  Although planking has been around since 1994 the general public was now being made aware of its dangers due to a few unexpected and tragic accidents.

     Acton Beale, a 20-year-old man, plunged to his death after reportedly "planking" on a seventh-   floor balcony in Brisbane, Australia. Planking is also called the "The Lying Down Game"  which consists of lying face down in an obscure location with both hands touching the sides of the body. The term planking refers to mimicking a wooden plank. Yes, planking sounds a bit odd but not nearly as unbelievably strange as the new but probably now passe fad among Japanese pre-teens called "worming"

 or eyeball- licking.

     Apparently, this bizarre fetish is a display of affection equivalent to getting to second base with your crush. The Japanese media have reported the trend started a little over a year ago from a music video by the Japanese band Born, in which the lead singer gets his eyeball licked by a seductive woman. It's a damn good thing boy toys One Direction didn't initiate an armpit-licking craze featuring Harry Styles. Even a nostril lap up would be preferable and genuinely more healthy. It seems obvious that affectionately licking your loves eyeball might not be among the best ways to show you care, doctors have concluded the practice can spread viral conjunctivitis or "Pink Eye,"  Conjunctivitis is an itchy and highly contagious eye ailment feared by grade-school teachers and especially parents. It took awhile for adults and authority figures to catch up with the trend. "Honey, why is our son wearing an eye patch to school?"  By the time parents, adults and the media figure out what's "cool" the craze is cold. But that is the way of the world.

      Luckily, here in the States the trend hasn't appeared to have caught on. Our enterprising American youth spend so much time playing with their smart phones they have developed a phenomena  known as "sleep-texting" which all things considered is better than "sexting" or using snapchat.  Snapchat is a mobile photo-sharing app with one distinct feature compared to other ways people might share photos on their cellphones. Snapchat photos, once viewed, disappear from view, after a pre-set length of time. However,  as we all know phone or computer data never really disappears completely. So even photo's of freakish eyeball-licking can be recovered. Bad news for impulsive teenagers but great news for protective parents.