Re: A&M story FAKE
Patrick Driscoll (pdris1995@WORLDNET.ATT.NET)
Tue, 7 Dec 1999 08:08:54 -0600
WHOA! I SAY, WHOA WHEN I SAY WHOA!
Let's all get a fresh cup of real coffee before we all jump on our
horses and ride off in all directions with blazing six-guns.
Auntie Beans, you are right, as far as the facts go. That ain't very
far. I'm not flaming you, its just that you are not from Texas.
Check to see if you are missing a leg. In fact, from what I've seen
growing on this thread, there is a whole roomful of
people who got their legs pulled right off.
I bit at first. I had spent a couple hours trying to phrase an
agreement with what Cal Gray said when suddenly, the light came on for
me.
Aggies...Twelfth Man...Now I remember...Its a story, an allegory
with a need for editing. A work of FICTION! There are but a few million
Aggies out there who could tell this better than me, and I hope they
will, but I have got to try to stop the
bloodshed now!
Texas is not the U.S.A. What I mean is that up east, they play
this game called football. There are two teams, each with eleven
players. They take this ball and everybody tries to beat to death the
player with the ball. Sometimes the guy with the ball escapes and
scores. (I think that means that he gets someone to rub his bruises that
evening. Either a coach or a cheerleader, I forget which. If he doesn't
escape, but lives, he must "walk it off" That is how I hear they do it
in the U.S.A.
Down here in Texas there is a place known as Aggie Land. They play
football there too, but there is a subtle difference.
There are twelve men on the Aggie team. Now not everyone can see
that twelfth player, but his power is often felt by opponents when he is
summoned.
How they got this twelfth man goes back to the dawn of time, before
the forward pass even. I think it was around about the time the
dinosaurs were turning into oil.
The Aggies back then were like any old team, eleven men. In fact
that is all they had. But then someone got hurt. It looked like the
Aggies would have to forfeit the game. But then, just when everything
looked hopeless, a twelfth man came from out of the stands and put on
the shirt. Victory was had by the Aggies that day because of the twelfth
man.
The Twelfth Man is all the Aggies, students and alumni.
When Aesop used a story it was called a fable, when Jesus used
one it
was called a parable. Legend, fable, parable--all the same--short
fiction created to
illustrate and instruct a virtue or an ethical way of behavior or
explain the the unknown.
This thing may be a way of reaching out for strength using the
tales of old to help alleviate the horror and sadness of the present.
Mike Bowman mentioned that it was something that had been going around
the net when he posted it. I got another posting of the thing from a
friend and I just sort of put it away and forgot about it.
Until Auntie Beans noticed that the facts didn't quite add up. So
did Ted Burton. Scouter Petey noticed the legend but I don't think he
meant his comment to sound the way it did. Calvin Gray noted Petey's
unfortunate phrasing. Please folks, lets stop now before the thread gets
out of hand. Innocent bystanders may get caught in the crossfire over a
piece of Internet fiction.
Patrick Driscoll Time flies like the wind but fruit flies like bananas.
CM P699, Training Team & CSRT; Alamo Area Council, San Antonio, Texas
PDris1995@worldnet.att.net "I can Antelope no more."
I get paid to surf. No brag--just fact. Try it yourself.
www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=gka100
