Crank That Loose, Jock

A local high school has banned a popular rap song, thanks to lyrics that are said to refer to women in a profane and disrespectful manner. (I know, it's hard to believe.) From the article:

A popular rap song has spawned more than a dance craze in Mason. The song "Crank Dat" by teen rapper Soulja Boy, was banned from the school?s homecoming dance this weekend.

School officials said students may still perform the dance, which turns up in video clips posted all over the Internet, but they'll have to make their moves to another song.

Imagine trying to do the "electric slide" to another dance-floor standard like the Commodores' Brick House - or performing "the hustle" to Parliament's Flash Light. It would be complete pandemonium - and certainly there are liability issues to consider, as feet and limbs risk injury while attempting movement in directions that do not conform to the appropriate beat.

Adding insult to injury, the youngsters in charge of the school newspaper had recently published a special section, with diagrams, that explained exactly how "dat" could be most effectively "cranked". (Take that, Tom Friedman - trying to claim that Generation Q lacks organization and motivation.) More enlightened school administrators might have been pleased with this responsible approach to dance-floor groovage.

The situation is not unprecedented. If memory serves me correctly, the youngsters in Elmore City, Oklahoma had this problem a few years back. They'd been yearning, yearning, for somebody to tell them that life wasn't passing them by, and yet they were able to get up from their knees and turn things around. The youth of Mason, Ohio should follow that example.

Tags: Kevin Bacon, Tom Friedman, Soulja Boy, Grover Norquist