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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

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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.