# The Texas A&M bonfire burns my butt. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 10, 2001, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673 "2001-09-10T15:21:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/21 "2001-09-10T20:04:39Z")
Nice 10 watt, bug attracting logic, bernse. To know you is to… well, to know you. Your lack of a vocabulary explains the reading skills. Once and for all and s l o w l y . . . It’s an unwise waste of a resource. The temptation to always “make it bigger than last year’s” will eventually and unpredictably ensure it’s future collapse yet again. Spirit and tradition can be generated in other, safer, equally emotional ways. With your people skills the closest you’ll get to lays is with a frito. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/22 "2001-09-10T20:10:38Z")
excuse me, bernse. that above was directed to demise. my apologies. lieu ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/23 "2001-09-10T20:10:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dropzone \* > \*\*I have no use for jocks and school spirit types and was heard to describe the non-jocks killed at Columbine as unfortunate collateral damage. \*\* You must be running in “clue:optional” mode today because you sure don’t have one. I suggest you go [here](http://www.msc.tamu.edu/traditions/bonfire/1999/services.shtml) and realize that these were human beings that died. And what on the IPU’s green earth does Columbine have to do with the bonfire collapse? Maybe, some day, when you go to college you will realize that the social dynamics are substantially different than they are in high school. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/24 "2001-09-10T20:41:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by adam yax \* > **And what on the IPU’s green earth does Columbine have to do with the bonfire collapse?** Dead jocks. And I’m 47, been through college and all the group dynamics shit you might want and still have little use for the classic “jocks,” as defined as “people with muscles instead of brains, testosterone instead of blood, and school spirit out the wazoo” versus people who happen to be athletic and ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/25 "2001-09-10T20:45:35Z")
**lieu** , Its just a stupid tradition. Along the lines of Christmas trees (now, that **is** a waste, but another rant). Is it deforesting the US south? Nah. Is it polluting the air we breathe? Not appreciably. It is something to be a little miffed about? Maybe. Is it a **BIG DEAL** worthy of a pit rant? Well, not for me but whatever floats your boat. Its just not a problem for most people, thats all. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/26 "2001-09-10T20:47:34Z")
ooooops! Wrong button. Actually, I’m just in a jagoff mood. I’d be real sad if one of my daughters had been killed there. Either place. And I’d be pushing to get something as moronic as that bonfire cancelled permanently. But I’m mostly indulging in borderline trollish behavior. I should, and will, stop. ---
**Author:** ![Demise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@Demise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demise)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/27 "2001-09-10T20:51:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lieu \* > **Nice 10 watt, bug attracting logic, bernse. > To know you is to… well, to know you. > Your lack of a vocabulary explains the reading skills.** How ironic that you try to belittle _my_ logic. Then again, I suppose that I shouldn’t be surprised. My reading skills are fine; yours seem to be lacking however. I’m saying that you are so full of shit, you’re like a big turd volcano. Each of your posts is a crap eruption that showers this message board with squirts of liquid feces and dung bombs. The foul miasma that is rushing like a excremental pyroclastic flow from your odorous orifice is so potent that I’m surprised it hasn’t stained the surrounding posts brown. If you have any evidence at all for your little rant, post it. Otherwise you’ll remain a super-sized shit spout. > [@](#): > > \*\*With your people skills the closest you’ll get to lays is with a frito. \*\* Someday you might almost be clever. Keep trying! ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/28 "2001-09-10T20:57:47Z")
Agreed, bernse. Maybe if every Stevie Wonder wannabe driving a 2 1/2 ton phonebooth down here didn’t just happen to have “gig 'em” stickers plastered all over their ever lastin’, shit blastin’ maroon pick ups I’d be more tole’rant. Butt they do and I’m not. peace. ---
**Author:** ![cykrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@cykrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cykrider)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/29 "2001-09-10T20:59:23Z")
> [@](#): > > The problem seems to have been with the central log, which cracked and led to the accident. I doubt it. The problem was that the fucking aggies were drunk off their ass, as is the norm for that worthless school. It’s understandable though because most of the common sense in Texas can be found in the Austin area. A&M’s bullshit traditions are one of the plethora of reasons why I left the 8th layer of hell known as College Station in pursuit of a real education. I’d also like to make it known that Miami University kicked the shit out of A&M in the US Cycling Federation track racing team pursuit and the Men’s points race this past weekend at Major Taylor in Indianapolis IN. Go Flyers! ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/30 "2001-09-10T21:06:22Z")
My central log cracks and I’m going to have an accident too. ---
**Author:** ![cykrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@cykrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cykrider)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/31 "2001-09-10T21:08:35Z")
Sorry, for all those of you in support of those sheep rapers here: [http://www.dallasnews.com/specials/bonfire/1204bon1alcohollevels.htm](http://www.dallasnews.com/specials/bonfire/1204bon1alcohollevels.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/32 "2001-09-10T21:10:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Instead, I will just assume that they were, since sober and intelligent people wouldn’t have done what they did. Now, now. Sober AND intelligent people might not have, but it’s certainly possible that sober and stupid ones would. I don’t mind so much. It just seems to me that if you’re going to routinely build a huge-ass bonfire, that accidents will happen from time to time, and people will end up dead and injured. Obviously it’s not much of a tragedy if the tradition’s more important than that inevitability. Not something to exult over, and certainly people dying is a sad thing, but a tragedy? Naw. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/33 "2001-09-10T21:15:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cykrider \* > \*\* > > The problem was that the fucking aggies were drunk off their ass, as is the norm for that worthless school. \*\* I asked **Dropzone** for the same thing, now I’ll ask you. Do you have a cite for your accusation that the people invovled were drunk? ---
**Author:** ![Demise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/34f0e0/32.png) [@Demise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demise)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/34 "2001-09-10T21:32:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by adam yax \* > \*\*I asked Dropzone for the same thing, now I’ll ask you. Do you have a cite for your accusation that the people invovled were drunk? \*\* The link he posted above stated that two of the students killed were drunk. Two out of twelve, good enough, let’s call them all drunk. :rolleyes: **cykrider** , your sentiments are in the right place, but I’d have to say they are a bit extreme. While I despise Aggies, I don’t want them dead, nor would I celebrate them dying. Besides, UT lost that game because we felt sorry for them. Can’t go giving Aggies advantages like that all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/35 "2001-09-10T21:36:22Z")
a couple of notes from yet another “non-Aggie” who “wouldn’t understand”: If you look at old A&M yearbooks (say, from the '40s or '50s), you’ll see a much smaller and simpler bonfire than the kind of multi-tiered wedding cake design that collapsed. Were the students back then sadly deficient in school spirit because of the size of the fire? To hear the recent squawking over scaling down the bonfire, you’d have to think so. Has anyone at that school ever considered how much finer a memory a class could leave behind by working on a senior project that created something lasting, rather than lurching and hollering around a bonfire? ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/36 "2001-09-10T22:18:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cykrider \* > \*\* > I doubt it. The problem was that the fucking aggies were drunk off their ass, as is the norm for that worthless school. It’s understandable though because most of the common sense in Texas can be found in the Austin area. A&M’s bullshit traditions are one of the plethora of reasons why I left the 8th layer of hell known as College Station in pursuit of a real education. > \*\* Out of morbid curiosity, how did you end up in what you call the eighth layer of hell? Did you not read the brochure carefully? Did you tour the campus with a blindfold? Were you accepted as part of an affirmative action program designed to give socialization opportunities to complete assholes? ---
**Author:** ![cykrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f19dbf/32.png) [@cykrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cykrider)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/37 "2001-09-10T22:33:42Z")
I don’t really think that _everyone_ was drunk. But the link plus the other news coverage etc. was enough to show that alcohol was involved. ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/38 "2001-09-10T23:11:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by cykrider \* > \*\*I don’t really think that _everyone_ was drunk. But the link plus the other news coverage etc. was enough to show that alcohol was involved. \*\* Involved in what? Two out of twelve were drunk. Big deal. Saying “alcohol was involved” is a joke. Even the article you allude to says as much- > [@](#): > > “A few students drinking could not have caused that accident,” said Bob Wiatt, director of security for A&. “That would have had to have been a massive show of force to cause those logs to topple the way they did.” I’d add a bunch of reasons why I support the rally, but other’s here have done a better job than what I would do, especially **MGibson** - He nailed it, as far as I’m concerned. \*And **Dropzone** - I haven’t read a more full of shit, ignorant, comment like that since **FreakFreely** left. What the fuck is your problem? ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/39 "2001-09-10T23:33:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jackmannii \* > **If you look at old A&M yearbooks (say, from the '40s or '50s), you’ll see a much smaller and simpler bonfire than the kind of multi-tiered wedding cake design that collapsed. Were the students back then sadly deficient in school spirit because of the size of the fire? To hear the recent squawking over scaling down the bonfire, you’d have to think so.** This reminds me of the local “corn monument” here in Iowa. During Homecoming week, it was a tradition to create a monument made out of corn and burn it after the big parade. But over time, it became less practical to burn a huge cornstalk bonfire in the middle of town, and it became a quaint memory. On the other hand, the A&M bonfire seems to have developed a case of megalomania. It just kept getting bigger and more insane, nothing could stop it until someone got killed. ---
**Author:** ![Tokiwoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@Tokiwoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tokiwoki)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673/40 "2001-09-10T23:47:07Z")
Aggies are fucking red necks who get off to sheep. I went to A&M last year and it was the worst mistake I have ever made in my entire life. Unless you are a narrow-minded, wrangler-wearing, tobacco-chewing, cousin-loving, cowboy, you would agree with me. I am not surprised at their carelessness with our environment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-texas-a-m-bonfire-burns-my-butt/80673.md?page=3)