Quote of the Day (Donna Tartt, on Being a Freshman Cheerleader in Mississippi in 1984)

“The gymnasiums were high-ceilinged, barnlike, drafty, usually in the middle of some desolate field. We were always freezing in our skimpy plaid skirts, our legs all goose pimples as we clapped and stamped on the yellowed wooden floor. At halftime there were the detested stances, out in the middle of the court, which involved perilous leaps, and complex timing, and—more likely than not—tears and remonstrations in the changing rooms. As soon as they were over and the buzzer went off for the third quarter, the younger girls rushed in a greedy flock to the snack bar for Cokes and french fries, Hershey bars, scattering to devour them in privacy while Cindy and her crew slunk out to the parking lot to rendezvous with their boyfriends. We were all of us, all the time, constantly sick—coughing, blowing our noses, faces flushed with fever: symptoms that were exacerbated by bad food, cramped conditions, exhaustion, and yelling ourselves hoarse every night. Hoarseness was, in fact, a matter of pride: we were accused of shirking if our Voices Weren't Cracked by the end of the evening, the state to which we aspired being a rasping, laryngitic croak. I remember the only time the basketball coach—a gigantic, stone-faced, terrifying man who was also the principal of the school and who, to my way of thinking, held powers virtually of life or death (there were stories of his punching kids out, beating them till they had bruises, stories that perhaps were not apocryphal in a private school like my own, which prided itself on what it called ‘old-fashioned discipline’ and where corporal punishment was a matter of routine); the only time this coach ever spoke to me was to compliment me on my burned-out voice, which he overheard in the hall the morning after a game. ‘Good job,’ he said. My companions and I were dumbfounded with terror. After he was gone they stared at me with awestruck apprehension and then, one by one, drifted gently away, not wishing to be seen in the company of anyone who had attracted the attention—even momentarily—of this dangerous lunatic.”—Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Donna Tartt, on life as a freshman cheerleader in Mississippi in 1984, in “Basketball Season,” Harper’s, April 1994

(This photo of Donna Tartt was taken Oct. 21, 2015 by Antonio Monda.)

TV Quote of the Day (‘Freaks and Geeks,’ on Whether a Goddess Can Be Boring)

[Sam Weir is trying to explain to his two fellow high-school “geek” friends, Neal and Bill, why he would think of breaking up with his girlfriend Cindy, a cheerleader-goddess.]

Sam Weir [played by John Francis Daley]: “She's kind of boring. It's weird hanging out with her friends. And, I mean, all she wants to do is make out and stuff.”

Neal Schweiber [played by Samm Levine]: “I'd kill to be that bored.”—Freaks and Geeks, Season 1, Episode 17, “The Little Things,” original air date July 8, 2000, story by Jon Kasdan, Judd Apatow and Mike White, teleplay by Jon Kasdan, directed by Jake Kasdan

Photo of the Day: All Dressed Up, But Nothing To Cheer For

When I took this photo of the cheerleaders for Columbia University early in the Lions’ first home football game a month ago, there was still a good deal for them to cheer for. That’s normally the way it is when you begin a season, anyway, and even more so after you’re coming off a prior one in which the team did not win a single game.

But, I strongly suspect, it’s been increasingly hard to rouse the hometown crowd when what is happening on the field seems at such wild variance with what you’re trying to do. And so it has been this year. The scores, including that first loss at Kraft Field, have been familiarly dismal, even redundant: 49-7, 42-7, 38-6, 61-28, 31-7.

This Saturday, Columbia hosts Dartmouth for the Homecoming Game. Relief doesn’t appear to be in sight then, since Big Green has won three straight, including two in the Ivy League. The losing streak, holding over from last year, stands at 16 and counting—and, as can be seen in this post from the “Roar Lions” blog after the Penn debacle, the calls for the firing of Coach Pete Mangurian continue to mount.