Friday, May 02, 2008

"Fried Fridays: How to propose..."

For most high schoolers, the Prom is something monumental. Finding that special 'one' to be on your arm is a big to-do, and it's gotten to be a pretty big thing. Friends group together and rent a limo to go to dinner and then to the prom itself and then back to a friend's house, some ladies spend crazy amounts of money on dresses that don't cover a whole lot, and guys get off easy renting tuxes...at least there is a lot more of that than I've ever seen before.

Of course, the biggest hurdle of all is who to ask...and how....

DATELINE: ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN

A varsity lacrosse star, Kristoff Wennersten had the hots for Carolyn Campbell there at Huron High School and wanted her to be his prom date. Simple enough. But he wanted to make the 'proposal' special, memorable, the kind of story that gets retold through time.

But what to do? I can only imagine the locker room banter tossed about, or conversations mulling over options as Kristoff and his buds played Guitar Hero at the friend's house that had the biggest TV gaming room...

The proverbial light bulb went off sometime somewhere, and so the plan was drawn up. It wasn't going to be a one-man operation, either, as he enlisted a dozen other teammates to help him. Kristoff knew Carolyn would be at a J.V. lacrosse match, and planned on displaying his 'banner' there, publicly asking her to be his date.

The words were straight forward:

"Will You Go To The Prom With Me? Yes or No"

Emblazoned across the guys butts, no less, which they bared on queue to seldom seen sunshine...

Understandably, administration officials were not amused and suspended the 13 players for a day and for an undisclosed number of games. Too, they tagged on 20 hours of community service for each.

Dottie Davis, school athletic director, was quoted in the Ann Arbor News saying, "Inappropriate is inappropriate. It disrespects women, and that's the clear message we need to have the students understand — what may be fun to them isn't necessarily fun to everyone else."

Touche'. Even the players understood and accepted the punishment. Kristoff was quoted as saying, "I enjoyed every bit of it!"

And Carolyn's response? She went up to the guy with the word "Yes" on his tush and patted him on his back. That classic sighing "aawwwwwww..." was heard around the world.

It all goes to prove that everything works out on, er...uh... in the end.

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