There has been a spate of stories on the Internet, the music channels and even in the mainline printed press over the subject of a new style of youthful fun called Freak Dancing.

The Seattle School District has been urged by one city daily newspaper to ban it. In Palo Alto, Calif., the schools are seeking to "regulate sexually explicit dancing," says news story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Many parents have no idea what freak dancing is and what the fuss is about. It has been described variously as "lap dancing standing up," and "heavy petting with clothes on," to which a wag added, "what clothes?" The Chronicle story said it is "bumping and grinding to the rhythm between couples, threesomes, foursomes and moresomes" unloosing "that (which) nature wisely has taught us to hold well in check."

It is always amazing to see the people who protested everything from wars to dress codes to dating rules suddenly realize they are now the people that are freaked out fogies themselves.

One parent told us she was "shocked" when she happened to see her daughter and friends watching a display of such dancing on MTV. Even more shocked she was when her daughter calmly told her mother that "it is the only dancing we know about, so we do it."

The teen girl was blas/ when asked about the issue, suggesting sagely that "it'll still go on no matter what the school says."

We think the schools should set some rules and try to enforce them, but an outright ban means the schools have to set down in words exactly what is not legal and what is. It reminds us of a United States Supreme Court justice said he'd know what pornography was when he saw it. Uh huh.