CNN reports that Westside Middle school has turned to popular culture to fight the ever expanding phenomenon of sagging pants among teenagers. Drawing upon the popular TV show Family Matters, students get “urkeled,” or have zip ties placed on their pants by administrators to keep them from sagging and to humiliate them. Because, lets face it, nobody wants to look like Steve Urkel. At first, teachers were urkeling up to 80 students a week. Five weeks later, the number has dropped to 18.

This is by far the most successful enforcement of a dress code by a school that I’ve heard of. At first, I thought that this breached student’s personal rights, but every school has a right to enforce a style of dress that’s conducive to learning. The problem is most schools try to do this through belittlement and negative messages toward students. Westside Middle school has managed to make the enforcement a lighthearted competition with a “wall of shame” where pictures of students are posted and the monthly “Urkel King” award is given to teachers who dole out the most zip ties.
 

Every once in a while the nation gets captivated by a story so incredible you can't believe it is true.

And every once in a while you're right.

The 24 hour news channels, Twitter and anyone within earshot of a TV was captivated by the drama of a 6 year old named Falcon (of all things) suspended in mid-air in a home made UFO. Only when it landed was it clear that the kid wasn't in the balloon. From the footage on TV it was not even clear that the kid could have ever been in the balloon.

We do know at this point that the family that built the balloon is no stranger to the public eye, as they appeared on the fifth season of the ABC series Wife Swap.

What just happened here? Hoax? Publicity stunt? Misdirection by an X-Files like conspriacy? And while we're at it: have you dreamed this man?

There has been an increasing argument that CNN news anchor Lou Dobbs spreads myths and distorted information concerning Latinos. Three weeks ago, Albuquerque joined 25 other cities around the United States in telling CNN “BASTA” with Lou Dobbs. The video below illustrates the current debate regarding Lou Dobbs' prominence on CNN and his remarks abouts Latinos in America.

Chris Brown's first interview since he beat up Rihanna, will air this Wednesday night on Larry King Live. America is eager to hear from the R&B stars mouth exactly three things: "W! T! F!" Judging from a preview of the interview with the 20-year old Brown sandwiched between his mother Joyce Hawkins and lawyer Mark Geragos, it looks like he's not going to offer up any real explanation. We will get to hear exactly what type of emotional trauma from his childhood (which his mother should expound upon) led up to what his loved ones call "strange behavior".

But, honestly, who cares about that? The real question at hand is: can he come back from this devastating blow to his "good boy" image and maintain a career as an entertainer? Pop culture history gives us some examples to look at here.