Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/05/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On May 27, 2008, at 9:12 AM, Chris Williams wrote: > LOL! > > I went to school in TX for one year. Our history book was a Texas > History book. Forget the rest of the world.... > > The school had 3 cafeterias and served McDonald's. Kids were dropped > off in limos and Mercedes. This was the mid 80's right before they > lost the oil money. > > The most bizarre place I've ever lived, and we've lived in > Spain,UK,Egypt,Turkey,Chile, Pennsylvania,Alabama,Florida, and > Louisiana. this explains everything, Steve > > > Chris > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Barbour" > Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG: May Nawlins Wedding #1 > > >> now I feel like I know more than most Texans...:-) >> >> Steve >> >> >> On May 27, 2008, at 8:50 AM, Emilio Perea wrote: >> >>> On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 08:12:41AM -0700, Steve Barbour wrote: >>>> On May 26, 2008, at 1:19 PM, Peter Klein wrote: >>>>> Just one thing I wanna know, and forgive my cultural >>>>> ignorance. What >>>>> does the crooked "two fingers" sign in picture #55 mean? >>>> >>>> I wonder too, >>> >>> It's the "TCU football sign" >>> >>> Paul Burka's old article on Texas Monthly: >>> >>> Football Hand Signals >>> >>> The Southwest Conference may not have the best teams, but it does >>> have >>> the best school signs. >>> >>> Blame it all on an Aggie named Pinky Downs. >>> A 1906 Texas A&M graduate, Downs was a member of the school's >>> board of >>> regents from 1923 to 1933. He was the kind of Aggie who wore a >>> maroon >>> tie every day and who prodded the school into spending an extra >>> $10,000 >>> so that its new swimming pool would be longer than the one at the >>> University of Texas. When the Aggies had a yell practice before >>> the 1930 >>> TCU game, Downs naturally was there. "What are we going to do >>> the those >>> Horned Frogs?" he shouted. His muse did not fail him. "Gig 'em, >>> Aggies!" >>> he improvised, appropriating a term form frog hunting. For >>> emphasis, he >>> made a fist with his thumb extended straight up. The Southwest >>> Conference had its first hand sign. >>> >>> The primordial image of sticking frogs with a spear captured the >>> essence >>> of Aggieness--a good ol' farm boy who was not so much >>> unsophisticated as >>> anti-sophisticated. When other schools later developed their own >>> hand >>> signs, the signals likewise started out as visual representations of >>> school mascots. But they soon evolved into more. All those horns >>> (long >>> and frog), claws (bear and cougar), and the rest have become totems, >>> symbols of belonging to a tribe. Or a sect: They are, to borrow a >>> phrase >>> from The Book of Common Prayer, "an outward and visible sign of an >>> inward and spiritual grace." In Texas it still matters what school >>> you >>> went to and who won the last game. That is why the Southwest >>> Conference, >>> defiled though its reputation may be, remains the best habitat >>> for hand >>> signals since charades. Of the nine SWC schools, more have hand >>> signs >>> (seven) than NCAA investigations (six). For that matter, one school, >>> SMU, has more hand signs than football teams. >>> >>> For a quarter of a century after Pinky Downs's moment of >>> inspiration, >>> the Aggies had a monopoly on official gestures. But by 1955 >>> archrival UT >>> had fallen on hard times, made harder by a corresponding rise in the >>> fortunes of A&M. A UT cheerleader named Harley Clark syllogized: (1) >>> A&M has a hand sign, (2) A&M is winning, (3) UT has no hand sign, >>> therefore (4) UT is losing. (Such reasoning prowess would later lead >>> Clark, as an Austin judge in 1987, to conclude that the state's >>> system >>> of financing public schools was unconstitutional.) At a pep rally >>> before >>> the TCU game, Clark held up his right hand in a peculiar way. The >>> index >>> and little fingers were sticking up, while the thumb held down the >>> two >>> interior digits--the head of a Longhorn, Clark said. The creation >>> proved >>> not to be the immediate answer to UT's football plight, however, as >>> signless TCU won the next day, 47-20. >>> >>> Once A&M and UT had hand signs, everyone else wanted one. Even >>> before >>> 1955, SMU students had been raising their index and middle >>> fingers in a >>> generic V for victory. By the late fifties, Mustang rooters had >>> changed >>> the meaning to . . . pony ears. >>> >>> Baylor was next. In 1960 cheerleader Bobby Schrade came up with >>> the idea >>> of holding the hand aloft with all five fingers curved to suggest >>> a bear >>> claw. Only alcohol had a harder time getting accepted on the Baptist >>> campus. For twelve years students and administrators argued >>> whether the >>> sign was sufficiently dignified before it was formally blessed in >>> 1972. >>> >>> When the University of Houston was seeking admission to the >>> conference >>> in 1972, cheerleaders decided that U of H needed a hand sign, too. >>> The >>> result--the UT sign with the middle finger added--officially >>> represents >>> a cougar claw; unofficially, it indicates the students' attitude >>> toward >>> UT. >>> >>> At Texas Tech, members of a spirit organization called the Saddle >>> Tramps >>> decided in 1971 that the Red Raiders were getting left behind. >>> Emulating >>> Raider Red, the costumed mascot who discharges a brace of large >>> pistols >>> after each Tech score, the Saddle Tramps began brandishing thumb- >>> and- >>> forefinger pistols of their own. >>> >>> TCU cheerleaders began experimenting with hand signs in 1980 on >>> the way >>> to a cheerleading camp in Tennessee. To represent Horned Frogs, they >>> first tried the UT sign with the outer fingers bent at the >>> knuckles. No >>> good: it could be seen as an admission that TCU was only half as >>> good as >>> UT. So they switched to bent index and middle fingers. >>> >>> Even Rice students occasionally use a sign, but it is not >>> pictured here >>> because university officials, suspecting that a middle finger poked >>> outward has a meaning other than "peck 'em, Owls", have declined to >>> sanction it. Not surprisingly, the only conference school without >>> a sign >>> is Arkansas, whose adherents have a state all to themselves and thus >>> have no need to proclaim in sign language that they Belong. >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information