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Extreme irony:

a@beginner’s first time extreme ironing

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By Jacey Gibb, Opinions Editor

ince I came into existence

21 years ago, I have been

subjected to my fair share of
fads. I remember when the playground
hierarchy revolved around who had the
most holographic Pokemon cards and
all the anyones who were anyone had
intimidatingly stacked Crazy Bones
coffins. Looking back, those fads seem
pretty ridiculous—especially when you
think about how much time and money
was funnelled into those black holes
called hobbies. In my heart, fads of the
modern world will never even come
close to the activities that consumed
my childhood. Especially when people
these days are engaging in stuff like
planking and, even worse, a craze that’s
become increasingly popular: extreme
ironing.

Although extreme ironing has
supposedly been around for over 15
years, it’s new to me. The objective is
to venture out into the world outside
of your computer screen, find a place
that is typically inaccessible or out of
the way and then photograph yourself
ironing clothes. It seems about as
extreme as a snack-sized bag of Doritos
but, like planking, there are people
who take this “sport” seriously and
have been photographed doing extreme
ironing on mountains, under water, and
even while jet skiing.

In order to write a thorough
article on extreme ironing, I knew I
had to embark on my own city-wide

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extreme ironing rampage. By that, I
mean I rode the SkyTrain to Olympic
Village and spent an hour and a half
trying to find the most absurd place to
photography myself doing household
chores. Much like when engaging in a

re

I’m not someone who gets
embarrassed easily, but I have to hand it
to extreme ironing; doing this made me
feel like an idiot. I wasn’t concerned
about the thoughts being transpiring
by those passing by, but rather how J

 

extreme ironing again anytime soon.
Do I think extreme ironing will
become the new planking? I sure hope
not, but probably. It’s incredible how
popular these things become—though
a large part of that probably stems from
the internet. Planking and extreme
ironing are kind of like Lindsay

“I wasn’t concerned about the thoughts being transpiring by those =| ghan’s music career: it’s funny when

passing by, but rather how | saw what |! was doing. | spent several hours
of my day faux-ironing around town when | could have been working on

my psychology paper, or even doing actual ironing at home.”

good ol’ fashioned planking, location is
everything to extreme ironing.

On the way downtown, I couldn’t
resist prematurely popping my extreme
ironing cherry, and I did my first
one while going up the escalator at
the SkyTrain station. I would highly
recommend the Olympic Village stop
on the CanadaLine for any newbies
to the fad. There were train tracks
nearby (extreme), an overpass that led
to downtown (extremer), and even
trees that had recently fallen down, as
if some benevolent force had wanted
me to pose with an ironing board while
standing on top of them (extremest).
The crown jewel of my expedition was
a result of me wanting to buy some
gum and then deciding that Canadian
Tire could use a little more extreme.
Part of me wanted an employee to
happen upon the situation, with my
ironing board down and my shirt out,
just to see what a civilian’s reaction
would be.

   

saw what I was doing. I spent several
hours of my day faux-ironing around
town when I could have been working
on my psychology paper, or even doing
actual ironing at home. Though the
pictures produced from the excursion
are priceless, I don’t see myself going

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you hear about it the first time and
you might even dabble into it “just
because,” but then you realize it’s not
a joke and it makes you want to punch
people in the face. Perhaps instead of
these absurd, not even funny when
you do it ironically fads, people could
focus more on important things. Like
bringing back pogs. I think I still have a
few back home, and they’re a hell of a
lot cooler too.