This more or less matches my memory of the etymology of zoob, except that I vaguely recall an old Salt Lake City children’s song (from probably a 1960’s era local children’s TV program - or perhaps an LDS primary song) that repeatedly used the word doobie (google searches obviously come up with nothing more than 80 pages of Doobie Brothers references). As I recall, sometime in the 80s/90’s, combining the Zoo characteristic from BYZoo, with the children’s song, and referring to an attendee/fan, it became BYZoobie, shortened to Zoobie, then zoob.
I’m posting largely to see anyone else remembers a local TV doobie reference.
(And, while I’m going back 50+ years, and thinking about local TV shows from my youth; it was Fireman Frank, who performed the classic voice of the old KUTV Friday night classic “NIghtmare Theatre” television introduction - we once convinced him to perform it for us at lunchtime on a summer afternoon. while eating fries at the counter of Snappy Service. I’d kill for an order of those Fries and to still be 10 years old eating them).
Beat me to it. Yep. Miss Julie and several other “Misses.” In my college days it became “Do be a Zoobie.” Or something like that. In my family discussion now, the term “zoob” is used to describe someone who is impossible to discuss BYU or Utah sports with rationally: “Don’t bother discussing the game with him. He’s a confirmed zoob.”
I always figured the “zoob” term came from the idea that byu students were like animals in the zoo. The world was as they saw it from inside their confinement (byu campus). They couldn’t fathom the outside world.
It was explained to me that animals at the zoo are held in a confined location where they are kept under strict control. Caged as it were. The only thing they do in a zoo is eat and procreate. Meanwhile we all gaze at them with sympathy that this is the only world they know, and to their knowledge its the real world, when in fact it is not. The occupants are referred to as a Zoob.
I’ve never sent racist, misogynistic or homophobic emails in my life. I don’t pity a fully mature adult who sent them whenever and his only punishment is termination of a $100 million employment contract and being cast out of the temple of the demigods.
Icons of our cultural institutions are our new religious leaders now that religion is irrelevant. They tell us what to do, what is right and wrong. So they need to be spotless. Let Gruden burn.
This is the part that baffles me the most about this.
I would gladly have someone review the last 20+ years of my personal and professional e-mail correspondence, because I can guarantee with absolute, 100% certainty that there is no racist, homophobic, or misogynistic language in there. That’s not to say it’s all sunshine and rainbows, but it sure as hell doesn’t include anything like the constant derogatory statements Gruden used. I’ve always been taught that you never put anything in an e-mail that you wouldn’t be willing to have others read.
The fact that a large number of people are content to just brush this all aside as “no big deal, everyone does it” is really weird to me.
For the record, I thought the same thing when people defended Scalley’s comments with “who hasn’t tossed around the occasional racial slur”. The primary difference (and the reason Scalley still has a job and Gruden doesn’t) is that Scalley’s appeared to be a one time (spectacularly bad) decision, while Gruden’s appears to be a consistent pattern of behavior.
I am an old fart who probably graduate from the U before some of your parents were born. I went to grad school, then worked in Big Pharma for nearly 35 years. I was there at the beginning of email use when I was a researcher at Johnson and Johnson. I can guarantee you can do a deep scrub of my entire email, Twitter, text message, and Facebook lives and you will not find one drop of homophobia, misogyny, racism, or anything else.
I am far from a perfect human being, just ask any of my ex’s – they thought I was worthless, but they’d agree that I never did any of that crap.
There is simply no excuse for writing that kind of crap. None. And by doing it, I know for certain what you are. I have an adage that I use when dealing with people on the internet – the second that you have to explain that you are NOT a _______ (racist, homophobe, sexist, etc) then you are.
My actions and words only show me to be a good liberal – I just hope that hating BYU and Georgetown does not betray that belief in myself. Well, one of my ex’s was BYU grad with fungible beliefs about Mormonism, so I don’t hate all of BYU.
That is consistent with my assessment of Andrew Cuomo’s BS, “ I didn’t know the line moved,” excuse. I started working as a professional in January 1981, and in my world I never saw the line being anywhere near the one he saw. That’s not to say people didn’t cross it, and get away with it, but there’s really nothing new about what he, or Gruden, did wrong.
and to still be 10 years old eating them).