Scrunchy crunch

I love reading websites such as Good Morning America and the other news shows, so I can keep up with the latest news about the impending impeachment, the murder of a key witness in the Amber Guyger case, our brilliant plan to abandon our Kurdish allies by allowing Turkish forces to crawl into Syria, and what's happening with all those scrunchies in middle school.

The morning news offered full coverage of this trend. The latest little gift that middle schoolers are giving to each other is their hair scrunchy.

Used to be, guys would give girls their varsity sweater or a special ring from Kresge's or a mix tape of favorite Backstreet Boys hit, and the girls would give boys their circle pin or the brownies they baked in Home Ec or a paper heart made from gum wrappers.

Now, the girls give guys their scrunchies, and the guys wear the scrunchies on their wrists until their mothers find them in the laundry (the scrunchies, not the guys) and everyone is puzzled.

A woman named Emily Covington facebooked a PSA about this, and it has, as they say, gone viral.

"One week there were all these scrunchies in the dryer," Covington told "GMA." "The first batch, I didn't think anything of it, and tossed them in the trash thinking it was a fluke or maybe even mine that I forgot."

Her son let her in on the fad, and now the entire nation is hung up on scrunchies.

"It sounds harmless," Covington said, adding that all the moms she's connected with from around the country agree. "But I guess if a boy likes a girl, he gives her his hoodie. I told my son he better be careful 'cause I'm not buying him any new ones and it could be a very cold winter."

Here at the Lazy 'C' Ranch, our cats love to play with those little elastic hair rings, which we buy by the dozen at the Dollar Tree, and when we run out, I just slide a yardstick under the oven or bookshelves and come out with about 27 of them.

But those are cats! Kids have the scrunchies to themselves.

Next month, it'll be something else, you may be sure.