The Alamo Bowl had no real significance to anyone beyond Penn State and Texas A&M fans this year. That all changed a bit when this clip of a Aggie yell leader started making the rounds during the slow news holiday period:
Many people were upset about the blatant disrespect to Joe Paterno, with the comments about how he needs a casket, etc. JoePa shrugged it off, and once again I agree with Joe. While it wasn't the smartest thing to insult Paterno at a joint pep rally, college kids have done dumber things. No ... my strong reaction was to two other aspects of the clip. (1) WTF is "yell leader", what's with all of the goofy motions and movements, etc. (2) Why was the story that he was telling so stupid? There was nothing funny or interesting about it. In theory, this guy performs regularly in front of a big crowd, right? Does this type of rambling pass for entertainment in Texas?
After a little research, I found my answer to issue (1). Here's any entry in wikipedia about the yell leaders.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yell_Leader
With regard to issue (2), apparently you have to go to Texas A&M to understand. It seems that they have a LOT of traditions there, with no concern for how ridiculous they are. There's a short story by Shirley Jackson called "The Lottery". Maybe they should cover this work in a course at Texas A&M.
Just because it is tradition doesn't make it right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lottery
Thursday, January 10, 2008
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