Learn the secret origin of the 60-year-old ‘Hook ’em, Horns’ sign

Can a hand symbol blow out birthday candles? Because the University of Texas’ indelible “Hook ’em, Horns” sign turned 60 years old Wednesday.

The year was 1955, and Longhorns fans were hungry for a spot at the Cotton Bowl. With a 4-4 overall record that season and a tough-to-beat TCU next on the schedule, football fans lit candles and organized rallies all around campus, according to the Texas Exes’ website.

Harley Clark, Texas’ head cheerleader at the time, was planning the official pep rally Nov. 11, which soon snowballed into a full-on Longhorns revival, including a spirited, rousing variety show. When it came time for the rally, Clark looked for a new way to jazz up the burnt orange faithful. According to the Exes: “A few days earlier, while in the Texas Union, Clark was talking with classmate Henry ‘HK’ Pitts, who suggested that the hand sign with the index and little fingers extended, looked a bit like a longhorn, and might be fun to do at rallies and football games.”

Clark introduced the gesture as “the official hand sign of the University of Texas, to be used whenever and wherever Longhorns gather,” and it spread to the big game held the next day.

It’s a pretty conventional origin story to be sure; it’s certainly more normal than Big Bertha’s atomically contaminated genesis. But the “Hook ’em” has certainly endured — just check your emoji keyboard.

Cup and down: Following in the grand tradition of the blue-and-black dress — which was blue and black, and if anyone so much as starts to say “white and yellow,” there will be trouble — a colorized controversy has taken the Internet in its death grip. This time, that hue is red.

I speak, of course, about this year’s infamous holiday cup from Starbucks. This year, the coffee chain’s design team eschewed the motifs usually featured on their seasonal cup (snowflakes, ornaments, and that most sacred of religious icons, ice-skating children) for a simple red ombre. Some religious conservatives took to social media with the hashtag #MerryChristmasStarbucks to cry out against what they perceived as part of “the war on Christmas.” Donald Trump raised the possibility of a Starbucks boycott.

The meme machine took it from there. Many turned the hashtag on its head to mock the outrage. Dunkin Dounts fanned the fire, debuting their own holiday cup soon after, which featured the word “joy” circled by a wreath. “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert, in a clip that went viral, debuted an alternate, tinsel-festooned cup design featuring an entire Christmas tree attached to the bottom. “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah pointed to the red-and-green colors of the cup as proof that they’re still Christmas-y enough: “They didn’t make the cups red and green in honor of stoplights, or to remember the time Kermit got a rash.”

And, because the world is one giant, orange ouroborous, AL.com cartoonist J.D. Crowe held a caption contest for his cartoon featuring a red cup with a familiar, Trump-like head of foam. As it was in the beginning, so it will be in the end.

Peak Austin

Reddit, the “front page of the Internet,” is home to dozens of Austin-based subreddits, which are each chock full of interesting tidbits and stories about the capital city.

Though the most wide-ranging subreddit — r/Austin — is often dominated by nonresidents who use the space to ask Austinites questions about their home, it’s also host to discussions between Austinites about where the city has been and where it’s going.

Recently, one redditor asked other Austin users what was the “most Austin” thing to ever happen to them.

The stories posted on the string ranged from lighthearted pokes at just how breakfast taco-centric the city is to stories of struggle in a city with growing affordability issues.

A few of the top-voted anecdotes (to be taken with a grain of salt, because fact-checks aren’t required to post on Reddit):

• “We had to move out of the house we were renting on the east side because it got bought by a guy from California. He then demolished it and built a condo. No joke.”
• “I once got a smoothie on my way to teach an improv class, then afterwards rented a B-Cycle to get over to the Alamo Drafthouse. That night I watched a UT football game.”
• “I have a friend who, as I recall, about fourteen years ago was at Barton Springs with her three year-old daughter, who slipped out of her mom’s hands as she was changing her clothes to run up to a dog nearby. Her mom caught up with her, looked up at the dog’s owner and said, oh, sorry my naked daughter ran up to your dog, Sandra Bullock, we’ll be on our way now.”

— Hannah Thornby, American-Statesman staff

Newsmakers

• Last week, the world watched Shia LaBeouf watching himself. Internet surfers could tune into a live stream showing the actor as he watched “all his movies consecutively in reverse chronological order” over three days, for 24 hours a day. LaBeouf cried a couple times, and yes, that list included “The Even Stevens Movie.” LaBeouf also took a few short breaks in between movies to get coffee or popcorn and sleep on the floor in the back of the theater.

— Amanda O’Donnell, American-Statesman staff

• Singer Michael Angelakos of Passion Pit, who has publicly struggled with bipolar disorder and alcoholism, spoke openly about his sexuality on “American Psycho” author Bret Easton Ellis’ podcast last week and announced that he is gay. Angelakos also discussed the heartbreak that accompanied his divorce from wife Kirsty Mucci, who he said supported him and is “incredible.” “I’m gay. And that’s it. It just has to happen. This was exactly the type of situation where I don’t feel like I’m being threatened,” Angelakos told Ellis.

— Amanda O’Donnell, American-Statesman staff

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