January 05, 2007

• Cheerleaders at girls' games: Hurrah! It is interesting to note that male athletes are never asked whether they want cheerleaders at their games; it is simply assumed that they deserve the attention and encouragement in the name of school spirit and sportsmanship. History of Cheerleading in America Cheerleading, as we know it today, was initiated in 1898 by Johnny Campbell, an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, who stood before the crowd at a football game and directed them in a famous and still used yell. "Rah, Rah, Rah! Sku-u-mar, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-So-Tah!" 1920s: Women became active in cheerleading. The University of Minnesota cheerleaders began to incorporate gymnastics and tumbling into their cheers. Cheerleading requires true grit Cheerleaders put just as much wear and tear on their bodies as any other athlete. We do a lot of things the body probably isn't meant to do.
• Sku-u-mar?
• what the report described as a "chocalate tampon" ?
• I didn't like to ask.
• *turns on Moneyjane Bat-signal*
• Somewhere in Canada, moneyjane is giving you the finger.
• I wish.
• I'll finger you, capt. Meet me by the bandstand at 8. Bring cider.
• *applies cherry lip-balm, practices pouty look*
• *back-combs bum-fluff moustache*
• This Dallas Morning News article has a PDF of Harry Jones' report on the McKinney cheerleaders.
• Will somebody tell this Yankee what a "Texas bedroom community" is?
• I didn't like to ask about that, either.
• These stories make many people react with the "I can't believe kids today" kind of response. But much -- if not most of this -- is actually so easy to deal with. You punish the kids. You take things away from them. In this case, you cut the kids from the cheerleading team, certainly. You suspend them. The parents take things away from them. However, no one seems to do this. Coaches and teachers don't come down hard on the kids because they (especially coaches) will lose their jobs if they do. Cut the best player on the team? Parents would force the school to fire the coach. And, of course, the parents are the worst. I think a lot of parents right now remember growing up and not having it all. They see that they can provide their kids with material things that they never had. So they do so. They also work more and spend less time with their kids. How to make up for not being as active in their lives as they might like to be? Provide them with more material goods. People sometimes say things like, "How can you want to have kids in an age like now knowing that they are going to grow up to be like that?" The answer is simple. My kids won't grow up to be like that. They will not be perfect. They might even be bad people. But they will learn that things in life have to be earned. They will learn that there will be consequences for their behavior. They most certainly will not be spoiled.
• Yeah, well see, the problem with this whole situation is that the Principal (one of the girls' mothers) was shielding them from the consequences of their actions. That, to me, is the real heart of the story. Kids will be kids no matter what, it all comes down to how much free reign the parents/teachers/administration give them, and sadly, that amound is by no means consistent.
• Thread-theme-stealer! Ruiner! *runs, cries*
• Good points, well made. But what about the chocolate tampons in the bedroom communities?
• Did you see the picture of the principle in that last article? That's a hairstyle that screams "trouble" in 17 languages. Mee-yow!
• *inserts joke about liftoff / rockets / re-entry re second article*
• "Texas bedroom communities" are a holdover from the huge Sears Craftsman home recall from the late 20's. Sears was mass-producing houses on an enormous scale at the time. The houses would be delivered to the homesite, ready to be assembled. However, through a gross miscalculation, Sears produced around 400,000 too many bedrooms. There was some clerical error and they produced material for four bedrooms for 400,000 homes that called for three bedrooms. There was no easy way to add on the fourth bedroom. Most of these errors occurred in homes that were delivered in the South. There were more in Texas than in any other state. People received their kit for a house, and found that they had enough materials left over for another bedroom. So many, many people at the time had materials for a bedroom lying around in their backyards. Creative people started figuring out a way to take six or seven bedrooms, attach them together, and make a house that is made entirely out of bedrooms. Neighborhoods that consisted largely of this kind of home became knows as "bedroom communities," and, in Texas, as "Texas bedroom communities."
• *knee slap*
• I think a "bedroom community" (and I'm sorry to infringe on bernockle's finely crafted response) is actually just another name for residential suburb that lacks any industry of its own. Like, you go to work in the big city, but at night you drive out to the burb and get some shut eye. Actually, bernockle's response is on the right track, only a bit too narrow in scope. It is, in fact, the entire town that is made up of bedrooms and nothing else.
• bedroom community = dormer town?
• Cheerleaders should be hot. It's the only thing that makes life as a dumb jock bearable.
• George W. Bush was a cheerleader in his youth. I wouldn't exactly call him hot, though I'm sure some people find him quite attractive.
• Benockle, I love you. So is Flushing Meadows a "bathroom community?"
• So is Flushing Meadows a "bathroom community?" BWAH! *uncontrollable giggle* Commuting is insane these days. There are people driving ... DRIVING! from outside Modesto to San Jose (that's like 150 miles one way), for work each day. Many of them do this because they can afford to buy a nicer house in the more distant-from-work location. What good is that if you never see the damn place when the sun's up? I ask you.
• Well, you can afford food. I've heard that that's nice. /tightens belt.
• I don't get what the Texas Cheerleaders did that was so notworthy. THey took some sexy pictures. Bug deal. And they acted like snots to the teachers/ Is any of that newsworthy? The newsweek article doesn't mention anything about being mean to fellow students. If it did, then I might understand why this is newsworthy. But high school girls being stupid enough to post pictures of themselves in public and not respecting their elders doesn't really seem like it deserves to be in Newsweek. Its a good thing that only right white people misbehave in schools...
• I can't google "chocolate tampon" because I'm at work. Dammit.
• Merry Christmas, Lara.
• I was Googling that too - I don't see that site as a conclusive answer, though, is it?
• Thank you. Don't see anything conclusive either, though. I'm thinking it might be a "specialty chocolate". A friend's sister used to run a bakery, and in the back she had chocolate molds shaped like naked women, male organs, etc. I was thinking this might be along those lines. Or not.
• This must be answered! By someone. At . . y'know, some point.
• I'm guessing that Chocolate can only be a euphemism for what was on the tampon. Although if it was a bunch of spoiled kids perhaps they just melted some chocolate or rubbed it on a tampon to make it look like feces.
• So a girl tells a teacher to "shut up, I'm talking to my mom", and that's the scandal of the century? That's another freakin' day in the hallway for me and millions of other teachers! What a load. What passes for the "news" about teenage behavior never ceases to stun me with its naivite. PBS' Frontline covered this ten years ago in The Lost Children of Rockdale County. Michael Franti called it "The failure found in the luxury, not in the hardship"..
• The way they had it in quotes made me think it was a complete euhemism, neither chocolate nor tampon. Although, a "wet Wille" does invove actual wetness, so I'm not sure. Never followed up on anyone's "nerples" to see if they were indeed purple. The "Injun burn" is neither burn nor Injun.
• Exclusive video and interviews on . . . that's right . . Hannity and Schmuck (Okay, Hannity and Colmes, whatever, it's all javascript so you have to navigate your way to it but it's fun for all the wrong reasons)
• I'm guessing it's a tampon dipped in chocolate to disguise it as a sweet, then given as a sweet. Like when we used to dip cat poo in chocolate and give it to our friends as a joke.
• Well, what I keep finding on google besides this story is either the phrase "It's as useless as a chocolate tampon", the joke "Why did the woman use a chocolate tampon? Because it was the Easter period." and references to a prolific message board/X-Box live user with the screen name "Chocolate Tampon". No good whatever. Someone must find out.
• But the most infamous photo of all was taken in a Condoms To Go store. Kum & Go?
• Coming from that area of Texas, I find it pretty par for the course that the girls in the picture for the condom store got a suspension that was twice as long as the girls who were drinking. I also find these girls' behavior pretty common -- back when I was in marching band in high school, the cheerleaders would spit on us and question our sexuality when we were lined up to go on the field for football games.
• Amid charges that Theret gave the girls preferential treatment, the school district launched a $40,000 investigation conducted by Jones in the fall. you know, $40k could buy a lot of books, beakers, and floor hockey sticks
• Why on Earth would the investigation cost 40k? Lawyer fees?
• Is a chocolate tampon akin to a chocolate teapot as in 'He's a bit of a chocolate teapot' i.e. useless ???????????
• Cheerleader Becca Manns has been cut from the squad after some photos of her were posted to the web. NSFW. I like cheerleaders. They are nice.
• She's a real smooth operator...
• All of the cheerleaders at my high school were fat and were on speed. It's odd, since I thought the speed with thin them out, but it didn't.
• The cheerleaders at my school were all fairly nice girls. And their uniforms had sleeves, and coered their abdomens. Ah, the innocent 1980's... ;-)
• 
• I went to an boys only school. Nuff said.
• Well no, not enough apparently... an -> a
• Yeah. So did I. The cheerleaders were rough as fuck. Easy, mind.
• why isnt that young lady wearing any underpants or bloomers?
• Because Jebus loves us.
• The one on the bottom{<-ha hahah ahahha}right looks an estate agent(realtor).