hands off my grill dawg!

ARLINGTON, Texas Jul 11, 2006 (AP) — The school district here has expanded its dress codes to include mouths and earlobes. Students may no longer wear mouth jewelry known as "grillz" shiny teeth caps or the earlobe-stretching practice known as "gauging."

"The district is having to respond to fads because they've become distracters or a safety hazard for those around them," said Malcolm Turner, the district's executive director of student services.

Damn Texans, always tryin' to bring a brother down. What are all the wannabe white rapper kids gonna do without their grills?

As for the earlobe-stretching phenomenon...perhaps it's a return to our tribal past. My brother-in-law got his earlobes stretched a few weeks ago. I went to the piercing shop with him after we watched a World Cup game one weekend. The fact that we consumed several beers before the clock struck 12 noon might have led us to that piercing shop. But he's happy with the look. I think the beer helped take the edge off the pain of removing his cartilage (yeah it was gross). I don't mind the tattoo artist's needle one bit, but the thought of getting a piercing makes me queasy.