They Started As Cheerleaders

BB pal Vann Hall noticed that this WMUR Channel 9 slideshow "They Started As Cheerleaders" is somehow very odd. It's hard to put my finger on it, but I think the weirdness may come from the juxtaposition of the specific photos they chose more than the "surprise" that these people were once cheerleaders. Link

[#1 posted by derPlau , January 24, 2008 12:32 PM]

Another strange thing is the wide variation in detail given in the caption of each one; so it's "Jamie Lee Curtis" vs. "Dwight D. Eisenhower, the thirty-fourth president, was a cheerleader during his high school years in Abilene, Kansas."

[#2 posted by Jeff , January 24, 2008 12:37 PM]

Give me a W! Give me an O! Give me an M! Give me a D! W-O-M-D! Weapons Of Mass Distruction! Yeah team!

[#3 posted by Earth Man , January 24, 2008 12:43 PM]

Sam Jackson as cheerleader?

"Give me a motherf*cking 'A,' you son of a bitch!"

[#4 posted by Santa's Knee , January 24, 2008 12:57 PM]

Heck, Bush is STILL just a cheerleader - for Darth Haliburton.

[#5 posted by agnot , January 24, 2008 1:21 PM]

I didn't even know there were male cheerleaders before before the mid 80's, much less when Eisenhower was in high school.

Phillips Academy, where it says Bush "cheered," was the women's academy when Bush attended Andover Academy, the men's, if memory serves. Looks like they merged into Phillips-Andover Academy since. Maybe somebody from Andover MA can clarify. It has been 30 years since I have been there.

Earth Man @ #3: It is Hollywood.

Santa's Knee @ #4: I agree, although didn't know Bush was a cheerleader, I had read that he was the social activities advocate among his class.

[#6 posted by morris , January 24, 2008 1:32 PM]

I vaguely remember something about the Bush being a mascot, but I can't see him in a frilly skirt waving pom poms and gracing the cover of "When Cheerleaders go bad" or "Cheerleaders: Your Quim is my Gym" anytime soon...

[#7 posted by Santos , January 24, 2008 4:04 PM]

Sally Field was a great cheerleader for the Birmingham Braves. I think Terry Gilliam was Student Body president at the school then.

[#8 posted by yotta , January 24, 2008 4:18 PM]

AGNOT@#5, your memory does not serve you at all. From the history page of the Phillips web site:

The school became coeducational in 1973 when Phillips Academy merged with the adjacent Abbot Academy, the first incorporated New England school for girls, founded in 1829.