The Dirt Magazine 1

T H E
D I R T
2015 edition. Science Leadership Academy.

T H E D I R T 2 0 1 4 — 2 0 1 5
Op-Ed
Room for Debate
Catcalls
Enviroment
Sports
Success
Politics
Food
Recipes
Bacon Lovers
Resturaunts, Sweet Stops
Lifestyle
Backpacks
Nails
Lauren’s Advice
Smart Phones
Entertainment
Music Spotlight
Books in Translation
Art Regardless of Age
Game Review: Spelunky
Going to the Movies
Fiction
Memoriam
Javier Story
Tobi Hahn, Josh Berg
Jamin Gilliam, Hikma Salhe
Jiwon Choi
Tomy Fleurine
Nick LePera
Mitchell Berven-Stotz
Michaela Prell, Esperanza Gonzales
Ava Olsen, Kevin Courtney
Amirah Bolling, Imani Weeks, Anna Sugrue,
Zoe Schwingel-Sauer
Hannah Nicoletti, Tenzin Chemi
Mellisa Alvarez,
Ava Olsen, Gina Sorgentoni
Lauren Hummel
Aaron Block
Zack Hersh
Claudia Bonatotibus
Leo Levy
Saul Salas
August Polite
Miles Cruice-Barnett
Javier Peraza

T H E D I R T 2 0 1 4 — 2 0 1 5
Photo Credit
Michaela Prell

Tobi Hahn, Josh Berg
Jamin Gilliam, Hikma Salhe
Jiwon Choi
Tomy Fleurine
Nick LePera, Hikma Salhe
Mitchell Berven-Stotz
T H E D I R T
Op-Ed

Josh Berg and Tobi Hahn
summer. At the same time I
think that if there was year-
round school, that the days
would be compressed in a
week, and there might be a
3 day school week instead
of a 5 day school week and
I think that the 4 day week-
end could actually jeopar-
dize their learning and the
amount of time they would
have to be taught different
subjects. Well, to change
my opinion, I would say
that schools should
say the same, just be-
cause I feel it works
out fine just as it is
now, and there would
be quite a problem,
and even an uproar
if this would change.
TH/JB: Thank you.
Jae:
JB: Do you support
the idea of year-round
Year round schools are
a divisive issue. While they
have the support of many
professional educators, par-
ents and students are often
opposed to them. Propo-
nents of year-round schools
cite the lack of disruption
in learning - summer break
often causes students to for-
get much of the information
they learned the previous
year. However, many teens
have summer jobs,
and don’t like the idea
of going to school
for the whole year.
Year-round schools
can also cause prob-
lems with the sched-
ules of parents and
children, causing
many parents to be against
sending their children
to a year-round school.
Javier Interview:
JB: Do you support
schools? Why or why not?
JP: I believe I am pretty
neutral because I feel as if
there is both the benefits
and the cons of it and I hav-
en’t made my decision yet.
For parents I think it works
if there is year-round school
because I know a lot of par-
ents have scheduling prob-
lems with their kids being
home all day during the
summer, while parents and
mostpeopleworkduringthe
Room for Debate
Op-Ed

JW: I feel like it really de-
pends on the style of the
student. Personally for me,
I think year-round school-
ing would have worked
really well for me because
I think it helps with time
management. I think
it’s really helpful for
students to have con-
sistency and routine
but at the same time
having a big chunk
of time during the
summer where stu-
dents could really ex-
plore things could be
helpful for students
who work better on a
short-term basis. For
instance, there are differ-
ent semesters or trimesters,
and then there are quar-
ters. So having different
choices would make learn-
ing so much more flexible
for students and I think it
can help cater to differ-
ent needs students have.
JB: You sort of talked
about what you would
think as a student. But
as a teacher, would you
want to work at one?
JW: I wouldn’t, to be re-
ally honest, unless there
was a significant chunk of
time secured for time off
because summer is when
teachers really get to take
time off. I’m afraid year-
round schooling will take
that time away from the
teachers, but if there are
an equal number of days
off secured for teachers I
would consider working
in a year-round school.
Monica Hahn:
TH: Do you support
MH: I don’t support the idea
of year-round school. Being
on an academic schedule
myself, since I teach col-
lege, I appreciate and enjoy
an extended period of free
time in the Summer.
I for myself like that
time to recharge and
do things not related
to my job and I know
that my kids also like
doing non-academic
things or non school
related things during
that period. And
it is also a period
where I know that
families go on vaca-
tion and where kids have
jobs, as you mentioned.
I think that eliminating
that vacation would not
be a good idea. I might
be amenable to shortened
summer break, but an elim-
ination I would not support.
TH: You sort of already
answered my second ques-
tion, but as a teacher would

you want to work at one?
MH: I would not want to
work at a school that had
a year-round schedule be-
cause as I said, I find that
extended period that is
not taken up by classroom
time to be really valuable
for thinking about future
courses or recharging and I
wouldn’t like to give that up
TH: Thank you.

Catcalling: to make
a whistle, shout, or com-
ment of a sexual nature
to a woman passing by.
-Google Definitions
Just because they may
think it is a harmless com-
pliment or that they want
to let the woman know
that they think she is beau-
tiful, does not mean that
it comes across that way.
One important part of this
definition is the fact that it
says “of a sexual nature”
which is pertaining to the
idea that this society views
women as something to be
associated with sex first
and foremost in addition
the definition only talks
about catcalling towards
women; it does not regard
men unless they are the
ones doing the catcalling.
There is no excuse for cat-
calling. There is no reason
to comment on a strang-
er’s sexual appeal, or shout
crude comments at women,
familiar or otherwise. Once
upon-a-time, there was a
period where men opened
doors for women and gave
up their seat for a lady. The
fight for gender equality is
a huge part of American
history. Women were not
allowed to go to work, ob-
tain a higher education or
do anything that a man usu-
ally did outside the home. It
was by struggling and fight-
ing that women found their
place in this country. Gen-
der inequality is still some-
thing that is still present,
you can tell by the way men
go out of their way to make
women feel uncomfortable.
Thomas Sowell, wrote in
his book, A Conflict of Vi-
sions, “Each new gener-
ation born is in effect an
invasion of civilization by
little barbarians, who must
be civilized before it is
too late.” Shouting “Smile
for me” doesn’t make us
melt, it makes us angry.
The gentleman has died
when the humane person
should have taken its place.
Just walking to the corner
store can be a scary experi-
ence for some of us. There
isn’t a sign that a man will
wear on his forehead that he
will whistle at you, holler
at you, or rape you. Women
and some men, are afraid to
leave the house due to the
harassment they are bound
to encounter on the street.
Sometimes it feels like you
are alone in a world of be-
ing barked at in the street,
but then you talk to your
friends and find out differ-
ently. They have their own
personal load of stories that
make you think, has this re-
ally become that common
or will this ever stop? In
an interview with Jae Cam-
eron from Hollaback! we
Jasmin Gilliam and Hikma Salhe
Catcalls
Op-Ed

asked a similar question:
The Dirt: “Do you think
that catcalling is something
that can be stopped in the
f u t u r e ? ”
Jae Cameron
(JC): “Ab-
solutely ... I
think that’s
already hap-
pening -
when you
look at me-
dia and en-
tertainment
from as little as 50 years
ago, you see this incredible
normalization of street ha-
rassment and other forms of
sexism, things that would
be laughable (and wouldn’t
be tolerated) today.”
Hollaback! is a wonder-
ful organization teaching
women to stand up for
themselves on the streets.
The organization was start-
ed by seven youth as a proj-
ect when they got together
and the women told their
stories of catcalling. They
all agreed that catcalling
should be stopped and to-
day we have Hollaback!
They encourage women to
understand the fact that it
is never their fault that they
have been catcalled on the
streets. Jae put this beauti-
fully after we asked her this:
The Dirt: How has com-
mittingtothisprojectdirectly
affected your personal life?
JC: Very much so - like all
forms of activism. I think
that, broadly, it’s encour-
aged me to respond to street
harassment and recognize
that it isn’t my fault when
it happens. I think respond-
ing to street harassment,
and recognizing some of
the reasons behind it, bring
up larger questions about
entitlement to public space
- which I think are really
interesting to delve into.
Workingherehasbroadened
my focus on how margin-
alized communities
occupy (and do not
occupy) public space.
As a society, we have
to realize that wom-
en are human beings
too. Women have
feelings and thoughts
too and harassing
them in the street
does not help val-
idate that. The fight for
women’s rights should not
have to go to waste due to
the feeling of being inferior
that comes with catcalling.
“..I think as individuals step up
as bystanders, and as a society
we agree that catcalling and ver-
bal harassment is “not a compli-
ment,” we’ll see a decrease in
street harassment.”
-Jae Cameron
iHollaback

“Never doubt that a small
group of thoughtful, com-
mitted citizens can change
the world; indeed, it’s
the only thing that ever
has.” Margaret Mead
Environmental scientists
are the people who learn
more about the changes in
the environment, the im-
pact that humans make, and
what these impacts mean.
These people are the envi-
ronment heroes who can
make our environment into
a healthy, green economy.
The problem is that not ev-
eryone cares about this is-
sue to become the heroes
of the earth because there
are different issues or top-
ics that we as humans wor-
ry more about than what is
happening to Earth. Even
the students who care about
this subject do not neces-
sarily know all of the de-
tails and all of the import-
ant aspects to make it their
lives to study this field of
science for the rest of their
lives. So! I will tell you ev-
erything you need to know
about environmental sci-
ence and why it is such an
awesome subject to major
or minor in during college.

Before we begin
discussing why this top-
ic is such an amazing sub-
ject to study more about in
college, we need to know
what environmental sci-
ence exactly is and what it
focuses on. Environmental
science is the study of in-
teractions of the physical,
chemical, and biological
components of the environ-
ment. This study also in-
cludes the relationships and
the effects of these compo-
nents with the organisms
(such as humans, animals,
etc) in the environment.
Professor Richard Mc-
Court, who studies biodi-
versity, evolution, ecology,
and systematics of green al-
gae, stated that environmen-
tal science also includes the
study of natural or undis-
turbed state and the changes
of the human impact. It’s so
important to learn about the
environment of the world
we live in because we need
to learn about the beneficial
and non-beneficial chang-
es of the environment, and
how we as humans affect
the world we live in. We
need to study if we need
to minimize or control
the impact that we create.
Environmental science is
actually pretty interesting
contrary to popular belief.
When studying this field,
peopleareabletolearnmany
aspects of how to make our
environment healthier than
it is currently. The fact that
this field of study is also
very accessible in colleges
are very useful because you
Jiwon Choi
Enviroment
Op-Ed

can go to almost any col-
lege and be able to study
environmental science.
The U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics estimates
that Environmental Sci-
entists were employed in
roughly90,000jobsin2012,
and should expect to see a
15% growth rate in
job opportunities.
Here’s a possi-
ble list of many
potential jobs...
L a b o r a t o r i e s
Local,state,andfed-
eral governments
E n v i r o n -
mental reme-
diation companies
Various levels of schools
(Become a teach-
er or even a professor!)
Oilandfossilfuelcompanies
Pharmaceutical re-
search companies
You could be an environ-
mental science journalist
Work in a small company
OWN A COMPANY!!
Another benefit in
studying environmental sci-
ence in college is that most
colleges have this subject
in their curriculum. In oth-
er words, you could basi-
cally go to any college and
be able to study this topic.

Then, how much money do
you earn when you become
an environmental scientist?
According to the US Bu-
reau of Labor and Statistics,
the median annual wage
for environmental scien-
tists and specialists was
$63,570 in May 2012. The
lowest 10 percent earned
less than $38,570, and
the top 10 percent earned
more than $109,970. And
depending on where you
work at, you earn different
amounts. Here a few for
you: Federal government,
excluding postal service:
$95,460, Engineering ser-
vices: $67,770, Manage-
ment, scientific, and tech-
nical consulting services:
$64,940, Local govern-
ment: $60,280, State gov-
ernment, excluding educa-
tion and hospitals: $56,640.
So… What
skills or character-
istics do you need
to be a perfect can-
didate to become a
environmental sci-
entist? Well, this
might be just per-
fect for you if you
like collecting sam-
ples, interpreting results,
and acting ethically and
humbly. According to Pro-
fessor McCourt, you need
to be curious and creative.
Also, you should also be
proficient in science and
math. You don’t necessari-
ly need to have expert math
skills, but you should be
good at computer science
and using computer tools.
You should be involved
and excited about helping

out through volunteering
and joining organizations.
If you have these skills and
characteristics and are in-
terested in studying about
this topic more in depth,
you might want to know
what you should do in high
school to prepare for your
future. In high school, you
should definitely take math
and science courses for all
four years to get you su-
per prepared. For example,
Tamir Harper, a high school
freshman, is very involved
in helping out his commu-
nity. He is one of the lead-
ers for community service
inside and outside of school
and he likes focusing on
community walks, pollu-
tion, and how we as human
beings impact the world.
Environmental science is
actually very important to
study because we humans
impact the environment so
much, and there are many
changes every year.You can
receive many benefits from
studying this topic, and you
can be one of the heros that
help improve our environ-
ment. I believe that learning
more about the environment
is very valuable. I have
learned more about how
we impact the world, and
how we can help make the
environment better through
volunteering such as clean-
ing up litter, making people
more aware about issues,
and fundraising for natural
disaster events. I strong-
ly recommend this field
to students are interested.
If you have the skills and
characteristics for a per-
fect environmentalist, you
should consider checking
this field out for college.

Why is Soccer Popular?
In 2006, it was es-
timated that around 715
million people worldwide
tuned in to watch the world
cup finals. What makes
soccer so popular is that
its easily accessible and
understandable. The game
only requires a ball and two
objects to represent nets on
opposite sides of a field. Be-
cause its so simple anyone
from the richest of the rich
to the poorest of the poor
can play soccer. Because
people all over the world
have soccer to connect to
it brings people together to
enjoy something. Soccer
provides accessibility and
fun allowing people every-
where of any age, class, or
status to enjoy the sport.
T r i v i a
What is the world
most popular sport?
Who is the world’s high-
est paid athlete who com-
petes on a regular basis?
Whichsporthasaworldwide
competition to determine
which country has the best
players every four years?
What is soccer?
Why isn’t soccer more
popular in America?
Should you watch soccer?
Did you know?
Scientists have traced
the origins of soc-
cer all the way back to
2,500 B.C back in egypt.
The average soccer player
runs 7 miles per game com-
pare to American football’s
average1.25milespergame
Didier Drogba, a soccer
player who plays for Chel-
sea in England, ended a
five year war in his home-
land of the Ivory Coast.
Barbados once had to
score on themselves in the
world cup in order to ad-
vance to the next round.
Where should I start?
There are hundreds of soc-
cer leagues around the
world so delving into the
sport can seem like a daunt-
ing place for those late to
the party. However there is
an easy way to jump into
the sport. People can start
enjoying soccer by watch-
ing matches played in the
four most popular leagues
in the world which are
Bundesliga of Germany,
Ligue 1 of France, Bar-
clays Premier League of
England and La Liga of
Spain. These leagues offer
the most high octane skill-
ful level of soccer that you
can find in the world thus
making them a joy to watch.
WherecanIwatchSoccer?
You can watch soc-
cer on Espn, Sky Sports
and Fox Sports. Soccer is
Tomy Fleurine
Sports
Op-Ed

also readily available on-
line for people to watch
on the go making is easily
accessibly to anyone who
has decent internet access.
Today’s Soccer
In today’s soccer the best/
most famous soccer leagues
are the Spanish La liga , the
English premier league,
and the German Bundesli-
ga. The best teams at the
moment from La liga are
Real Madrid and FC Barce-
lona. The star players from
this two teams are, the alien
Cristiano Ronaldo from
Real Madrid and the Genius
a.k.a the flea Messi who are
widely considered to be the
best strikers of their gen-
eration. From the Premier
League we have players
like Diego Costa the strik-
er and Eden Hazard, the
center attacking midfield-
er who are known for their
physicality and creativity
when the ball is placed be-
tween their feet. Finally we
Arjen Robben and Marco
Reus who are renowned
all over the world for their
speed and dribbling skills
making other teams trem-
ble. These three leagues
are home to the best soccer
players in the world leaving
entire crowds in awe with
the miraculous touch that
they bring to a soccer ball.
The best team in the En-
glish premier league so far
is undoubtedly Chelsea.
The two star players from
this team are respectively
the prolific winger Eden
Hazard and the goal scor-
ing machine Diego Costa.
Eden Hazard, wow, what a
talent. His rise over the past
couple of years has been
meteoric, with the Belgian
starlet undergoing a re-
markable transformation
from precious little young-
ster in Ligue 1 to one of the
most sought after players
in Europe. The fleet-footed
attacker has drawn compar-
isons to Cristiano Ronaldo
and Lionel Messi, aka the
top soccer players in the en-
tire world. All the rumours
linking him with a big-mon-
ey move to Paris Saint-Ger-
main are now forgotten.
Jose Mourinho, head coach
of chelsea, would be crazy
to let him go and the Bel-
gian play-maker, has clear-
ly stated he will remain at
the club for a long while. If
he continues where he left
off in the previous cam-
paign, he would add the
Player of the Year trophy to
last season’s Young Player
award and perhaps go for
the ballon d’or award. Why
not? After Chelsea wins it
all, he will certainly be in
the talk. All he needs to do
is shake off the disappoint-
ing showing for Belgium at
the world cup. He’s had 5
goals so far in the season.
Do not be surprised if this
number doubles in the next
few games, he’s that type
of player. Diego Costa?
Well Chelsea needed a new
striker. There is absolutely
no doubt about that. And it
appears they’ve found the
perfect one, the Spanish in-
ternational Costa. Last sea-
son he had an outstanding
27 goals, finishing 3rd in
la liga in goals scored be-

hind the world’s best play-
ers Messi and Ronaldo. He
fired up Atletico Madrid
to win la liga for the first
time in 18 years. Diego also
made Atletico being run-
ner-ups of the champions
league last year losing to
real madrid in a dramatic
fashion. The Brazilian-born
striker is simply a goal
scoring machine, scoring in
so many varieties and in so
many different occasions.
He’s already had 11 goals
this season in 12 appear-
ances only being topped
by another top striker with
the name of Sergio Ague-
ro but something tells me
he’s gonna keep scoring
and perhaps even surpass
him. The man just cannot
help himself. Chelsea end-
ed up losing in the semis
last year because well, they
did not have Diego Cos-
ta. Now that they do, well
watch out Real Madrid.
Now for the Italian
league serie A the best team
is juventus with the aston-
ishing star player Andrea
Pirlo this man is mostly
known for his beautiful free
kick accuracy and amazing
goals and also the upcoming
young sensation Paul Pogba
of course. Now we have the
bundesliga. The best team
so far is FC Bayern Mu-
nich as they have been for
as long as I can remember.
They really haven’t been
challenged too much for the
title as the team closest to
them last year was 19 points
behind, that is over 6 more
losses than Bayern Munich
ern! Their star player out
of hard difficult decision
is their very own goal-
keeper Manuel Neuer, this
man is listed the top best
goalkeeper in the world.
In other words it would be
extremely silly and igno-
rant to deny the existence
of soccer in the fact that it
is indeed the most watched
and loved sport in the entire
worldtodayandidon’tknow

Success. What bound-
aries stop us, what are the
roads that guide us to success,
and why does it all matter?
It was almost junior year and
the passion for my goal had
only grown further. Unfalter-
ing strength and belief were
guiding me on the never ending
path of success. Success only
lasts as long as one believes.
This is why I was in New York
City. It was there I attended the
professional bodybuilder Kai
Greene’s “Believe” seminar.
He suggests that a large part of
success is belief, which is rein-
forced in seeing other’s goals
achieved, and is further en-
hanced by hardships attributed
totheheroorheroineofthestory.
It was this belief that Kai talked
about. He shared his life story,
about growing up in poverty in
New York, going from foster
home to foster home and never
really feeling like he belonged.
It was here he said, “Is it pos-
sible for a man who has won
bodybuilding competitions af-
ter bodybuilding competitions
to still be seen as vulnerable?
Sometimes, people see you in
the middle of a successful sit-
uation and think, ‘oh things
have always been great for
you’ without necessarily real-
izing you’ve been somewhere,
you’ve got a story to tell”.”
Success is like many other
things. It is hard to imagine
when looked at in the mac-
rospect. It comes in many
forms and is often disput-
able. What exactly is success,
and how can it be obtained?
Depending on where you are
from, and the circumstances of
your upbringing, success can
mean something else. In the
school districts of the United
States, many students of poorly
funded high schools struggle to
find their calling in life. A fes-
tering, endless cycle of juvenile
delinquency is the bane of any
population. The only answer is
to create unity among people
to help meet individual mile-
stones of personal achievement.
In these communities, people
should begin to encourage, not
discourage community mem-
bers to reach goals so that every-
one can be a productive mem-
ber of society. We must further
inspire others to follow suit yet
retain their unique properties.
I shall reiterate, what exactly is
success? Success is experien-
tial, meaning the idea of suc-
cess is different for everyone.
You might see success as mak-
ing big bucks and living a lavish
life. However, how do you end
up doing that? There are end-
less ways to obtain money. It is
argued that money doesn’t buy
happiness, but some of the rich-
est in the world seem just dandy.
What did the wealthy do to get
to their wealth and what other
things do they have in their life
other than money? If you have
one million dollars but wake up
feeling like one dollar then you
do not have success. However
if you are to have 1 dollar and
wake up feeling like a million,
then surely you have succeeded.
Nick Lepera
Success
Op-Ed

So if we were to study a list
of celebrities, who would be
the happiest? The one with the
most positivity and hobbies at-
tributed to their name. Money is
simply a correlation to success
rather than a causation. A suc-
cessful person to me is deter-
mined by the individual, rather
than groups and mass ideas.
No matter how much we judge
someone’s success, if they are
not gratified by the work they
do or the people they socialize
with, how are they successful?
I spent much of my time grow-
ing up wanting to be a doctor, a
soldier, or an architect. Howev-
er, this was because I was led to
believe these titles would make
me successful by neighbours,
family, friends, classmates,
and the media. Perhaps they
could make me successful, but
it surely was not my success.
Generally, any sort of field as-
sociated with fame is denoted as
a path to success, for the own-
ers of this form of success have
often become portrayed as dei-
ties, making it seem less reach-
able to some people. So they
go through life wishing, rather
than believing in this goal they
have set for themselves. Many
people find themselves lean-
ing more towards less publi-
cized jobs that on average pay
well, majors in college replace
ideas and, as a result we fur-
ther distance ourselves from
passions that lead us in life.
It was halfway through my
sophomore year in 2013 when
I decided I would become a
professional bodybuilder. This
decision was met with scrutiny,
as I expected. However, this did
not stop me from pursuing my
dream. In many instances when
I find myself conversing, the
topic of what I want to be when
I grow up would be mentioned.
My answer is always received
with raised eyebrows. They look
at me as if I am naive, or insane.
A common concern for people
in their teenage years is peer
acceptance. This concern caus-
es changes in a persons behav-
ior. In an effort to fit the stan-
dards of different groups, these
people try to change who they
are. However they spend more
of their time trying to bargain
off pieces of themselves for the
happiness of their peers, and in
turn they forget to make them-
selves happy. It is at this point,
depression can hit someone
and it will hit hard. Success is
experiential, and only obtained
through the belief in a goal. If
belief is removed, what is there?
If you do not believe you can
do great things, that you can-
not go places, then who in their
right mind would even con-
sider putting work into a goal
believed to be unattainable?
Success is the realization of
one’s goals, and weighing them
over the sphere of influence of
your surroundings. It was the
bodybuilder, artist, and phi-
losopher, named Kai Greene
who said “If you don’t have a
dream, then you have noth-
ing to work for, nothing to get
up in the morning for, no rea-
son... and no purpose to be. But
friends we do have a dream and
dreams do come true, not be-
cause we keep believing but be-
cause we keep working hard.”

Critic’s Corner:
Global Warming
Hello my readers. I’m back
again to continue my at-
tempt to sway you from
your liberal escapades!
Even though this is our
first publication, because
of my heartfelt love for
you readers, it feels like
I am returning to a long
lost family. Today’s “hot”
topic: Global warming.
We’ve all heard of it. The
sun fires rays from space,
they bounce off our es-
teemedplanet,andtheatmo-
sphere pulls an Obama and
allows them to stay within
our borders and apply for
working permits. Apparent-
ly, this “Global warming”
is bad stuff. This heat might
be melting our icecaps, and
causing draughts around
the world. Now, the liber-
als say that it is our fault.
How can that be? We
wouldn’t even be letting
these invaders stay here
if it weren’t for their trag-
ic backstory and ability to
work for less than we are le-
gally obligated to pay them.
Are sun rays fleeing perse-
cution? Are the Ultraviolet
A and B rays being banned
from Ultraviolet C restau-
rants and water fountains?
Why won’t the atmosphere
make this energy go away?
The scientists are trying
to tell me and you, World,
that we, the human race,
are responsible for these
strict atmospheric reforms.
The facts state that there
are many, many factors in-
volved when it comes to the
increaseofsocalled“Green-
house Gasses”, something
I had previously only as-
sociated with the smoke
produced by marijuana.
Greenhouse gasses are
created by a wide array of
things that are necessities
in our lives: Vehicles, pow-
er plants, factories, cows,
and anything else that is run
on our sweet, sweet, liquid
gold. There has been an in-
crease of around 150% of
the tolerable amount of this
in the atmosphere since the
age of America’s great rise,
the industrial revolution.
Mitchel Berven-Stotz
Politics
Op-Ed

The facts look scary, but I
like to consider myself un-
biased, able to look beyond
the facts.And let me tell you
how those nerds got these
facts: Drilling holes in the
very polar ice caps that they
are claiming to be melting.
So, we are supposed to turn
ourselves into oilless prim-
itives, while these scientists
are sinking the planet them-
selves. Man made global
warming? I say liberal-sci-
entistmadeglobalwarming.
And what about our poor
economy? If we are wasting
time and energy producing
and integrating alternative,
reusable energy sourc-
es into our energy system,
there is so much that we
will lose! We will no lon-
ger have an excuse to wage
war in the middle east! And
if we no longer wage war
in the middle east, we will
have to spend money on
things other than the mili-
tary, things that don’t mat-
ter, things like education.
Our government’s fo-
cus on the environment will
stop us from making short
lived, volatile jobs by build-
ing an extremely dangerous,
fragile pipeline through
people’s neighborhoods.
v
We won’t be able to con-
tinue collecting taxes in
our esteemed Pennsylva-
nia from all of the frack-
ing that we don’t tax!
Anyway, it all comes down
to the price to implement
this new fangled technolo-
gy. It will cost us billions of
dollars to install enough so-
lar panels and wind turbines
to power the nation. This
will take a whole six months
before it breaks even and
starts gaining money. That
is six months where we as
a country have to worry
about spending and come
up with petty excuses to
blame government figures.

Our blessed United States
stands to benefit extremely
from both an environmental
and economic standpoint
from alternative energy.
However, I lived 4 years
of my early childhood in
good old rural PA, where
we are taught to trust in the
tea party, and listen to our
politicians. This ungodly,
unethical, oil free energy,
while seemingly perfect in
every way, falls under the
liberal, hippy umbrella.
This stops me from sup-
porting it myself, but that
doesn’t stop me from hint-
ing strongly to you that
it is, in fact, a good idea.

Michaela Prell
Ava Olsen, Kevin Courtney
Amirah Bolling, Imani Weeks, Anna Sugrue,
Zoe Schwingel-Sauer
T H E D I R T
Food

Michaela Prell
kernels are popped, but as
soon as the popping stops
take the bad out of the mi-
crowave otherwise the ker-
nels might get burned.)
After that just put the pop-
corn in a bowl and add some
salt.An even simpler option
is to just throw some salt in
the bag and snack away!
Apple Sandwiches
Up next we have ap-
ple sandwiches. You still
only three ingredients...
An apple
Peanut butter
G r a n o l a
Once you have all your
“When I go home, the first
thing I do is make myself
a bowl of cereal. And its
never anything good.” Says
11th grade high school
student Lauren Hummel.
I found that most high
school students, including
myself feel the same way.
But the time we get home
from school we are tired
and hungry.This mix usu-
ally results in you wanting
food but not wanting to
make anything, so you just
open a bag of chips or have
some cereal. I want to give
you some snacks that you
can make pretty fast and
will be tastier than just a
bowl of Fruit Loops. Some
of these snacks are going
to be nice and healthy, but
others not so much. We
will start with the healthy.
P o p c o r n
The first snack on our menu
will be popcorn, which is
actually a very healthy food,
especially if you don’t add a
lot of butter.You will need...
A brown paper bag
Corn kernels
S a l t
That’s it! that all you’re
gonna need. Then you...
Put the kernels in the paper
bag and microwave for 2
minutes. (You might want
to put them in for about 30
more seconds if not all the
Recipes in 5 minutes
food

ingredients you must...
Cut the apple into even
slices and take out the core.
You have to cut the apple
while it’s laying on its side.
Then spread peanut butter
on one of the apple slices.
Sprinkle the granola
onto the peanut butter.
Put the other slice
on top and enjoy!
Tomato and Avocado Melt
For the next snack I’m gon-
na instruct you on how to
make a tomato and avocado
melt.Youaregoingtoneed...
A tomato
An avocado
C h e e s e
B r e a d
M a y o
You will need a few slic-
es of cheese, you can use
whatever kind you want.
This is the same for bread,
just use your prefered kind
of sliced bread. I make
mine in a toaster oven,
but if you don’t have one
you can just use the toast-
er and the microwave. To
make the melt you must...
Toast your bread just a little.
While you wait you
can cut your tomato
and avocado into slices.
Spread you mayonaise on
the toast and put you toma-
to and avocado on top. Then
put cheese over everything.
Toast/microwave un-
til the cheese is melted.
You can eat it warm or
wait for things to cool
down, either way enjoy!
Brownies in a Mug
Now it’s time to move on to
our unhealthy snacks. First
up we have brownies in a
mug. you don’t even put it in
the oven.You just make it in
the microwave. The ingre-
dients are a bit more exten-
sive, but it is totally worth
it considering it only takes
about 2 minutes to make.
Your ingredients are...
1/4 cup of flour
1/4 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
3 tablespoons of water
a pinch of salt
an optional scoop
of ice cream.
To make this deli-
cious treat you must...
Stir your dry ingredi-
ents together in a mug.
Mix in the wet in-
gredients next.
Stick that in the microwave
for1minuteand40seconds.
At this point you can
go ahead and eat away,
or put a scoop of ice
cream on top and enjoy!
Cream Cheese Wrap?
The next recipe is really
two in one, but it does not
really have a name. You
can just call it a cream
cheese, cinnamon and
sugar wrap, or a jam and
cream cheese wrap. The
ingredients needed are...
Tort i l l a
Cream cheese
Cinnamon and sugar

a n d / o r
J a m
There are just three
simple steps...
Spread cream
cheese on a tortilla.
Sprinkle cinnamon
and sugar on top, or,
spread whatever kind of
jam you like you like.
Rollupthetortillaandenjoy!
N a c h o s
Our final not so healthy
snack is more on the sa-
vory side. We are going
to make nachos in the mi-
crowave. You will need...
Corn chips
S a l s a
Shredded cheese
Feel free to use any other in-
gredientsyoulikeonnachos.
To put it all to-
gether you must...
Evenly spread out the corn
chips on a plate. Make sure
not to pile them to much
so that every chip gets the
topping spread on them.
Spread salsa and any oth-
er toppings on the chips.
Sprinkle a generous
handful of shredded
cheese over everything.
Microwave for 1 min-
ute, or until the cheese
has melted. Enjoy!

Interview with Ms. Echols
I n t e r v i e w e r :
Esperanza Gonzalez
What comes in mind when
you think you think of
teachers? I always thought
teachers lived in schools
and had nothing else to do
but grade papers and tests.
Turns out, teachers can do
many things for fun and
don’t quite live in school.
What are the things teachers
might do for fun outside of
school? Many of them play
sports, sing, draw, read, etc.
Ms. Echols is a teacher that
loves to cook. She’s cur-
rently a physics teacher in
Science Leadership Acade-
my. Ms. Echols surely does
enjoy many things other
than grading papers.
What inspires you to cook?
Ms. Rami is absolutely
right, I do love to cook, and
I spend a lot of time doing
it. I also really love baking
(probably more than cook-
ing, actually). I will do my
best to provide you with
solid answers to your ques-
tions, and if you have any
follow-ups, let me know.
(I’m not sure I’m going
to do a good job separat-
ing them out by number).
I think there are a lot of
things that inspire me to
cook. It is something that
has been a big part of my
parent’s life together. They
have always put a lot of
care and thought into cook-
ing, and when my broth-
ers and I were younger
healthy balanced (and deli-
cious!) meals were part of
every day, even when we
were buying the cheapest
food we could. My fam-
ily doesn’t really have a
distinctive “culture”, but
cooking and baking have
always been a huge part of
our life together and that
is really important to me. I
hope to continue that with
my family as I grow older.
Why do you like to cook?
A big thing that my parents
have always enjoyed doing
is experimenting and trying
new things in the kitchen.
I follow a bunch of food
blogs, all (coincidentally)
written by women about
my age, and really enjoy
trying the recipes they post,
whether for baked goods or
more dinner items. I occa-
sionally buy cookbooks (al-
though, it might not seem
occasional if you look at
the bookcase holding them
all). Most recently, I bought
one about Middle Eastern
cooking, which has been re-
ally fun because the flavors
are different from most of
the food I grew up with,
so it’s really nice variety.
Esperanza Gonezales
Recipes
food

Is there a particular dish
that you like to make fre-
quently? If so, what is it?
I do have a couple stand-
bys, that I go to when I
can’t think of anything else,
or need something really
easy. My absolute favorite
is baked mac-and-cheese,
something my mom has
always made and which
I associate with comfort
(my first year of teaching,
I made mac and cheese ev-
ery single week. I kid you
not). I also really love mak-
ing chicken cutlets, sau-
teed spinach, this braised
chicken and mushrooms
recipe, and a tofu-brocco-
li-mushroom stir fry with
rice noodles. I also LOVE
baking (ask my advisory).
Pie is especially yummy,
but I try to bake things that
go with the season. YUM.
In your opinion, what
makes a good cook?
I have watched a million
hours of the food network
at this point (whoops), and
one of the thing that has
struck me over the years is
that the people who I would
consider to be really good
cooks not only care about
the food, but care about the
people they are cooking for.
There are people who can
be mechanically brilliant
but aren’t really cooking
for something specific. The
people I respect the most
as cooks/chefs are the ones
who are doing it for people
they love or because they
want to take care of people.

Bacon has been an up-
and-coming trend throughout
restaurants, cookbooks, cook-
ing shows, and so much more.
Advertisements use bacon to
their advantage to advertise
their latest burger, salad, or oth-
er food-related concoction. It’s
also been used decoratively on
duct tape, clothing lines, soap,
band-aids, and so much more!
Since there is a clear bacon-re-
lated obsession in our culture
today, we thought that it would
be useful to find and review
three recipes with bacon as an
ingredient. We have found a
recipe for bacon wrapped avo-
cado, parmesan crusted chicken
with bacon, and maple french
toast bacon cupcakes, and tried
each one. Please enjoy try-
ing these recipes on your own!
BACON WRAPPED
A V O C A D O
This appetizer dish
combines the buttery texture
of avocadoes with the chewy
caramelized texture of bacon
and the brown sugar to create
a truly addicting finger food.
I n g r e d i e n t s :
4-6 strips of bacon
1 avocado
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2-1 tsp chili powder
Yield: 3-6 people
I n s t r u c t i o n s :
Preheat oven to 425°.
In a small bowl, mix to-
gether the brown sugar and
chili powder. Set aside.
Line a baking sheet with tin foil.
Cut open the avocado and re-
move the pit. Slice about 3/4”
slices lengthwise through the
avocado, and then cut through
the middle to cut all of the
slices in half so that you have
thick chunks of avocado.
Cut each slice of bacon in 3-5
pieces and wrap each piece
around the avocado. Roll in
the brown sugar mixture and
place on the baking sheet.
Bake at 425° for 10-15 min-
utes. Remove from the oven
to a platter and stick a tooth-
pick in each for serving.
P r o s / C o n s :
P R O S :
Process was quick and easy
Great taste
C O N S :
Needed something to hold
it together, like a toothpick
Our Review:
The bacon-wrapped avo-
cado was a simple and success-
ful recipe. Brown sugar gave
the recipe a sweet taste and
caramelized the bacon, giving
it a different texture. We split
five slices of bacon in smaller
strips to wrap around the avo-
cado chunks. After seeing and
hearing the sizzling of the ba-
con being cooked in the oven,
we were so excited to dig in.
S u g g e s t i o n s :
If the bacon unrav-
els, use a toothpick.
Instead of rolling the avo-
cado and bacon through the
brown sugar mixture, press
it on with your fingers to
Ava Olsen and Kevin Courtney
food
Bacon Lovers

get more to stick at once.
PARMESAN CRUSTED
CHICKEN WITH BACON

This entree partners the crispy
Asiago flavor with the chewy
bacon coating to constitute a
delicate seasoning and taste.
Oil for frying – about ½ -¾ cup
depending on size of skillet
4 boneless skinless chicken
breasts – about 4-5 oz each
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp pepper
½ tsp salt
1-1½ cups shred-
ded Asiago cheese
3-4 slices bacon – cooked and
crumbled (can leave slight-
ly under-done, it will fin-
ish cooking under broiler)
1 egg beaten
1 tbsp water
Yield: 3-4 people
In a small shallow bowl,
mix egg and water.
In another shallow bowl, mix
cheese, pepper, salt and garlic.
Heat oil over high heat.
Dip each chicken breast first
in egg mixture then in cheese.
Fry in hot oil un-
til crust is golden brown.
Prepare a baking pan by
covering with foil and
placing wire rack on top.
Place chicken on rack and
bake for about 20 minutes
or until the juices run clear.
Remove from oven
and turn oven to broil.
Top each piece of chicken with
Asiago cheese and bacon and
placeunderbroilertomeltcheese.
P r o s / C o n s :
P R O S :
Was surprisingly simple
for such a delicious recipe
The smooth taste of the cheese
and bacon on top of the chick-
en went well with everything
Easy to set up
C O N S :
Even with oil in the pan, the skin
of the chicken easily comes off.
Did not need to be cooked for
20 minutes after being fried.
Needed some flour or some-
thing else to bind the skin to
the chicken itself and fry easier.
Can easily get burnt
while frying the chicken.
Our Review:
Overall, the parmesan-crusted
bacon chicken was a success.
There was one main fault with
the dish: the cook time was ex-
tremely long. The cook time
could have been decreased
substantially, because frying
the chicken and baking after-
wards made the meat tougher.
The seasonings and taste were
not affected, because the rec-
ipe still yielded tasty results.
Decrease cooking time
Increase amount of oil in pan
when initially frying chicken
MAPLE FRENCH TOAST
BACON CUPCAKES
This sweet cupcake des-
sertispartneredwiththesaltyes-
sence of bacon to create the per-
fectsweetandsaltycombination.
C u p c a k e s :
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 (4 ounce) box vanil-

la instant pudding mix
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp potato starch
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted but-
ter, at room temperature
3/4cuppackedlightbrownsugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 large egg whites,
room temperature
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup half-and-half,
at room temperature
1/2 cup bacon,
chopped and cooked
F r o s t i n g :
1 (8 ounce) package cream
cheese, at room temperature
2 tsp unsalted but-
ter, at room temperature
2cupssiftedconfectioners’sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 slices bacon, cooked
and chopped (optional)
Yield: 12-16 people
Place paper liners in
a 12-cup muffin tin.
Prepare the cupcakes:
Combine the flours, pudding
mix, baking powder, potato
starch, cinnamon, nutmeg and
salt in a bowl with a whisk.
In a separate bowl, cream the
butter and sugars with a mixer
on low speed until combined-
for 6 to 8 minutes. Gradual-
ly mix in the vanilla and egg
whites. Scrape down the sides
of the bowl; continue mixing
until light and fluffy. Add the
flour mixture in 3 batches, al-
ternating with the maple syrup
and half-and-half, mixing after
each addition and ending with
flour. Mix until the ingredi-
ents are just combined; do not
overmix. Fold in the bacon.
Pour the batter into the pre-
pared muffin tin, filling each
cup about three-quarters of the
way. Bake until a toothpick
inserted in the center comes
out clean, about 40 minutes.
Cool completely.
Meanwhile,preparethefrosting:
Beat the cream cheese and
butter with a mixer on medi-
um speed until creamy. Add
the confectioners sugar, ma-
ple syrup and cinnamon; beat
until combined. Spread on
the cooled cupcakes; top with
chopped bacon, if desired.
P r o s / C o n s :
P R O S :
Cupcakes were really delicious
Was a creative recipe
C O N S :
Did not need to be baked for
40 minutes - they were a lit-
tle tough and crispy. They
seemed like muffins with icing.
Cupcakes were sweet.
Our Review:
The cupcakes were also a suc-
cessful recipe. The recipe called
for a large amount of sugar,
whichdefinitelydidn’tneedtobe
used for such a small amount of
cupcakes. The baking time was
also extremely long and could
be cut down by a lot. In regards
to the frosting, it was a little bit
runny. The picture that was on
the recipe online had light and
fluffy frosting that was piped
nicely, however the icing that
the recipe made was runny and
could not stand up on its own.
Decrease cooking time
by at least ten minutes.

Restaurant Reviews are a
great way to show people
where the A list places are to
eat. This is our restaurant re-
view to show teens affordable
ways to eat. No matter if its a
quick bite, date night, or just
hanging with your friends.
Being that we’re teenagers,
we choose places that is very
accessible by public trans-
portation. As picky teenagers
we want to show you guys
the two places we went and
had fun trying the differ-
ent kinds of food. Take this
journey with us as we trav-
el downtown to restaurants.
The best thing about living
in Philadelphia is having so
many choice of places to eat .
One bad thing is not knowing
where to eat at and knowing
which places are good. Green
Eggs Cafe is a breakfast and
brunch restaurant. They’re
most busy on weekend morn-
ings and during the day
around 12:00 and 1:00. Green
Eggs sales a lot of different
type of delicious food. There
are three different locations
in South Philly, Midtown Vil-
lage, and Northern Liberties.
Green Eggs cafe is a cash only
restaurant. Everything is very
affordable! The highest thing
on the menu is 14 dollars.
The atmosphere of the restau-
rant can sometimes be very
busy but is very comfortable
and family orientated. There
are good vibes all around,
with the design of the restau-
rant and the service from the
waiters/servers. Green Eggs
can be a little cramped, so
we wouldn’t advise this to
be a date place but it’s a nice
place to go with the family.
We got there from the Market
Frankford Line and walked
to Locust. It’s in between
Walnut and Locust actually.
The walk was not that long
and there are plenty of nice
stores around the area. If you
would drive it might be hard
to find a parking space. Now
getting to the food, Amirah
chose to get a General Tso’s
Wrap and Imani got Buffalo
Chicken Mac & Cheese. The
wrap was a mix of tangy and
sour, and the mac and cheese
was a mixture of spicy an
and creamy. It was a good
choice, but we both liked
the Macaroni and Cheese.
Jeans Cafe is a place to get
a quick bite to eat. It’s also
a deli, which is really cool.
Jeans is a busy place, but the
wait is not long. The workers
know how to multitask and
they seem to work well to-
gether. They serve breakfast
and lunch. Everything is on
the menu. They have cheese
steaks, wraps, chicken ten-
ders, fish fillet, cheeseburg-
ers, and everything you would
eat for breakfast or don’t nor-
mally eat they sell it. It’s also
like a little corner store too.
Chips, cakes, candy and juic-
es all surrounding the counter.
Don’t even worry about the
prices. Everything is under
$10, I swear it’s not a waste
of your allowance money!
Amirah Bolling and Imani Weeks
Resturaunts
food

Intro (for Anna and Zoe):
This fall we aspiring des-
sert connoisseurs went on a
quest to find the best sweet
stops in Philly. Anna, the pie
lover, went looking for the
best pie, and Zoe searched
for the sweetest sweet shops.
From Chestnut Hill to South
Philly and from snicker-
doodles to apple pie , we
sampled plenty of delicious
treats; here are our results.
Rating:
: You’ll feel the need to rinse
your mouth repeatedly to get
the taste out of your mouth.
:You’ll feel like you could’ve
chosen a much better option.
: You’ll feel like the
you just experienced the
epitome of mediocrity.
: You’ll feel very satisfied
with the delectable food.
: You’ll feel like you’re in
sugary food heaven, and
you never want to leave.
Insomnia Cookies:
Insomnia Cookies is a sweet
shop that sells cookies and ice
cream. They have a various
different cookie types includ-
ing snickerdoodle, double
chocolate chunk, and white
chocolate macadamia. The
cookies are not overpriced as
they are $1.35 each. They’re
a yummy treat, but not the
best cookies ever known to
man. The cookies are slight-
ly warmed, which in turn
makes the chocolate chunks
perfectly melted. The flavor
is good, but probably not bet-
ter than your family’s home-
made ones. The stores also
deliver (and closes at 3 a.m.),
but not to every neighbor-
hood, which is disappointing.
Sweet As Fudge
Candy Shoppe:
This candy shop is a small
stand inside Reading Termi-
nal Market. There are various
homemade candies, includ-
ing: chocolate assortments,
fudge, jelly beans, and more.
When I went to visit I in-
dulged in a small square of
dark chocolate sea salt fudge
($3.25). This fudge was ide-
ally rich; it wasn’t overly rich
(I could eat more than one
bite). This specific piece of
fudge was crafted beautifully
with caramel in the middle,
and sea salt on top adding
the perfect amount of kick
and balance to the sweetness.
Capogiro:
Capogiro is small gelato fran-
chise that has multiple stores
in Philadelphia. At each loca-
tion there is a huge selection
of gelato to choose from. My
personal favorite is the dulce
de leche. I find that no matter
whatflavoryoutry,itisalways
delicious. Gelato is much
more rich than ice cream, and
also more expensive. For a
small it is $4.75. Even with
the more expensive price
tag, it’s more than worth it.
High Point Cafe:
High Point Cafe is a local
cafe with two locations in Mt.
Anna Sugrue and Zoe Shwingel-Sauer
Sweet Shops
food

Airy. The cafe sells various
pastries and hot drinks. Some
of the most popular items
on the menu are the crepes.
There are both savory and
sweet options. My favorite
crepe to order is the chocolate
one. It’s more a dessert, than
a breakfast, but it’s delicious.
The crepe layers are light,
but not flavorless. There is
also chocolate drizzled across
the top and two generous
dollops of whipped cream.
Marcie Blaine:
Marcie Blane is a store that
makes and sells homemade
chocolate.The store sells box-
es of chocolate (of varying
sizes), and within each box
are multiple types of choco-
late. The flavors range from
crispy hazelnut (milk choco-
late praline) to salted caramel
to smoked pimenton (cinna-
mon hazelnut) to prosecco
(sparkling wine, infused with
truffle). In addition the delec-
table flavors, there are also
small intricate designs on
these chocolates. There are
an eclectic range of colorful
designs. Since Marcie Blaine
is located in Philly they also
have some Philly designs:
love park, liberty bell, soft
pretzel, and the philly sky-
line. The chocolates start at
$17.95 for a nine piece box.
Getting these boxes are both
aesthetically pleasing and a
delicious way to try many dif-
ferent well-made chocolates.
Bredenbeck’s:
Bredenbeck’s is a pastry
and ice cream shop located
in Chestnut Hill. It has two
entrances; one entrance for
customers wanting to buy
pastries and one entrance for
customers wanting to buy ice
cream.UsuallyIenterthrough
the ice cream side. They have
many flavors of ice cream; ev-
ery flavor I’ve tried has been
a success! What I especially
recommend is getting a milk-
shake. I am a milkshake snob
and this place has mastered
the art of the milkshake. The
milkshake is thick, but you’re
still able to sip it up through
the straw. It’s also incredibly
rich; their ice cream is top
quality. They also have amaz-
ing cakes. Every year my dad
orders their german chocolate
cake for my mom’s birthday,
and the cake never disap-
points. The service is always
welcoming and the scents in
Bredenbeck’s are heavenly.
Sweet Ending:
Sweet Ending is a great fro-
zen yogurt place. One of the
best things about this place is
that you can get a lot of frozen
yogurt for not a lot of mon-
ey; the pricing is per pound,
and is very cheap. There are
about eight flavors to choose
from. Sweet Ending is most
popular in the Spring and
Summer, but it’s open year
round. The toppings bar has a
lot of variety and my personal
favorite concoction is to add
strawberries and oreo crumbs
to chocolate frozen yogurt.

Jasmin Gilliam, Mellisa Alvarez,
Ava Olsen, Gina Sorgentoni
Lauren Hummel
Aaron Block
Lifestyle
T H E D I R T

lifestyle
Backpacks
My sketchbook
because I am a visu-
al learner and it helps
me get my thoughts out
hikma:
“My pepper spray because
I’ve been harassed in the
streets so many time so I
feel the need and my moth-
er feels the need to make
me carry pepper spray.”
“My laptop and my charger
because if my phone dies I
can charge it on my laptop.”
Tiarra:
my book bag is a timbuk-
tu bag so umm its a hiking
bookbag because I like hik-
ing. so it has like all these
features for hiking on there.
I like it because it has a
front strap that’s supportive.
On it is… I bought it from
the poconos… is a com-
pass. That’s important to me
because I love nature and I
don’t like the city so like
it’s a way for me to find my
peace and reminds me that I
shouldgobacktothewoods.
Olivia:
The color of my book-
bag is neutral so it
matches my outfits.
Caitlin:
My backpack is blue be-
cause it’s my favorite color.
Maggie:
“My phone because I can
listen to my music. It al-
lows me to express myself.”
I
Introduction Paragraph:
“Everybody has a story. In
this project, our mission
was to give the readers an
intriguing way to tell one’s
personal story and character
through something close to
them but concurrently not
so close to them, their bag.”
Everybody has a story. Part
of their story is told through
things they carry around
everyday. They carry things
that they couldn’t live with-
out yet they don’t even re-
member they are there. On
a daily basis people sub-
consciously place items in
their bags but if you give it
ten minutes they forget it’s
there. You can tell so much
about a person just by look-
ing at what they carry each
and every day. It’s time to
take a step into their world...

There are many mis-
conceptions we have about
the correct way to care for
our nails, the effect artifi-
cial applications may have
on our nailbeds, and the
best ways to make them
dry the quickest. We’re go-
ing to be debunking some
of the most common beau-
ty myths out there about
nails, giving you tips on a
cute DIY design, and the
best pages to follow on in-
stagram for different nail
designs that you might like.
Myth #1: Acrylic or gel
manicures ruin your nails.
If the application and re-
moval process of either
acrylic or gel nails are
both done correctly, they
shouldn’t cause any dam-
age to your actual nail. This
is all dependent upon the
applicator, of course. Per-
sonally I like to manicure
my own nails because it’s
cost effective, and I don’t
have to worry about any-
thing breaking off of my
fingers. On a special oc-
casion though, it might
be nice to treat yourself
to an acrylic or gel man-
icure for a different look.
Myth#2:Youshouldnotkeep
your nails polished 24/7;
they need time to breathe.
Nothing from the outside
has an effect on the health
of your nails. Everything
that your nails need to grow
are provided by what is al-
ready in your body. I know
that I like to polish my
nails at least once a week
just to have a fresh look,
or because I want them to
match what I’m wearing.
Myth #3: Dipping your nails
in ice cold water results
in a faster drying process.
Nail polish will dry once the
solvents in the polish have
evaporated. If you dip them
in ice water, it will only
put a stop to this process.
Trust me, it doesn’t work.
Your best bet for a quick
dry if you are on your way
out somewhere is to stick
your fingers out of the car
window as it’s moving, or
to blow-dry them on a low
heat or cold temperature.
Myth #4: If you clip your
nails on a regular basis,
they will stay healthy.
Every time you clip your
nails, your cuticles are be-
ing exposed to fresh bacte-
ria. The length of them is
what actually keeps germs
from entering the nail bed.
I know when it’s the right
time to clip my nails when
my nail bed starts to feel
thin and fragile, or when
I’m washing my hair and
I feel my hair get caught
to a nail; this usually indi-
cates that there’s a small
rip on the side of the nail
and that it should be cut be-
Mellisa Alvarez
Nails
lifestyle

fore it gets caught and torn
off accidentally later on.
Myth #5: You should
file your nails in a back
and forth motion to
get the best outcome.
Filing your nails in a back
and forth motion is an awe-
some way to damage your
nails. You should be filing
from the outside edge to
the inside edge, and only
in one direction. Also just
in general, if you file your
nails in one direction, you
get a much cleaner and
smoother edge than if you
try going back and forth.
Myth #6: Jell-O helps to
increase the health of your
nails and their growth.
Gelatin in any form has
zero effect on your nails.
I’ve personally never tried
this before because my nails
have never had a “sick day”
where they are in need of
immediate growth. If you’re
clean with your hands and
take care of them, you
should have no reason to be
doing this in the first place.
Myth #7: Putting nail pol-
ish in the refrigerator will
make the colors last longer.
Putting nail polish in the
fridge will only slow the
thickening of the liquid, but
what really keeps the colors
long lasting is making sure
that you tighten the caps of
the bottles as best as possi-
ble. I find that the color that
lasts the least for me before
it gets gloppy is white. Most
nail designs will call for a
white base, so I use it the
most out of any polish and
it ends up drying the fast-
est. So make sure you seal
your bottles as tight as you
can, because the freshness
won’t be there too long.
Myth #8: When you
have white spots on your
nails, this means they
are lacking calcium.
White spots are usually the
result of a minor injury to
the nailbed. These spots
tell you absolutely nothing
about calcium levels. Ha-
ven’t you ever accidental-
ly smashed your toe into
something, or have your
finger slammed by a door?
It’s happened to me many
times, and I usually end
up with a small white line
or mark on my nail. That’s
all it is; what a good smash
on the nail looks like.
Myth #9: Any mani-
cure cream can be used
to treat a nail infection.
If your nails are infected,
don’t try self-diagnosing
and end up using a harmful
cream or ointment on your
nails. Go see your derma-
tologist to get a profession-
al diagnosis and the proper
treatment. I mean you don’t
treat a cold with vitamins
do you? It’s always bet-
ter to be safe than stupid.
Myth #10: UV gels are
better to use than acrylics.
UV gels are actually just
another form of an acrylic
formula, so one isn’t actu-
ally better than the other;
they’re the same. When
you really break down the
chemical formula of either
polish, you’ll find that they

both originate from the
same substance, so if you’re
debating with your friends
about which polish is
healthier for you, just stop.
It’s important that if you
enjoy polishing your nails
and want to keep them
growing healthy, that you
are able to differentiate the
myths from the facts. It’s
all about having the prop-
er tools, materials, and a
LOT of patience because
one mess-up can ruin an en-
tire design (trust me). Now
we’re going to try an easy
DIY winter nail design!
Here’s what you’ll need:
10 Best Nail Artists/Designs to follow on Instagram
Nails Tutorial: @nailsartvidss (5.2m followers)
Nail: @nail (2.3m followers)
Tam: @ohmygoshpolish (1m followers)
SharingVü: @sharingvu (109k followers)
Chelsea Queen: @chelseaqueen (107k followers)
Britney Tokyo: @britneytokyo (66.2k followers)
Bernadette: @bdettenails (65k followers)
Amina: @amina2inspire (62k followers)
Kristin and Kayla: @polishedtwins (59.3k followers)
Lexi Martone: @leximartone (40.2k followers)

Photo Credit
Claudia Bonitatibus

If you are a regular Pin-
terest user, then you know
how quickly you will pin a
DIY article without ques-
tioning if it works. You pin
it to your DIY & Crafts
board, along with hundreds
of other crafts. We went
through our ample amount
of DIY pins ,and have
compiled a list of popular
DIY’s to try and see wheth-
er or not people are wasting
their time by pinning them.
DIY #1: Painting on Glue
This is a fun project that
can triple as a suncatcher, a
wall decoration, or a coast-
er. This DIY craft is fun for
people of all ages! During
the project, you will be
painting on white glue with
food coloring or colored
ink. When dried, the final
product will be colorful
with a psychedelic effect.
All this project requires is
white glue, a small contain-
er lid (preferably a round
one), toothpicks, and food
coloring or colored ink.
Step 1: To do this proj-
ect you must first pour
your glue into your con-
tainer lid. Make sure the
glue covers the entire lid.
Step2:Next,startaddingcol-
or. Spread the color around
with your toothpicks and be
creative - there are tons of
things that you can design!
Step 3: Once you finish
with your creation let it
sit until the glue hardens.
I deemed this craft a success
until the the glue began to
dry. It was fun, simple, and
didn’t require a lot of mate-
rials. The drawings started
with very fine lines, but as
the glue dried, the ink set-
tled and the fine lines began
to expand and bleed into
one another. (This didn’t
ruin the project). I would
advise that anyone who
tries this project should take
into account the “bleeding
factor”. The finished proj-
ect was a round, white cir-
cle covered with beautiful,
streaky rainbow designs.
DIY #2: Vanilla Scent
Throughout the House
This is an extremely easy
project that takes a couple of
minutes to prepare and the
results last anywhere from
1-3 days. If you enjoy the
freshsmellofvanillainyour
home, I highly recommend
trying this. All you need
is vanilla extract, an oven
safe container, and an oven.
Step1:Preheatovento350°.
Step 2: Measure three
teaspoons of vanilla ex-
tract and place it in an
oven-safe container.
Step 3: Leave in the
oven for 20 minutes.
Step 4: Enjoy the
delicious smell.
This craft was a suc-
cess, and it was only min-
utes after the vanilla went in
the oven before you could
already smell it. I would
love to see how this works
with other kinds of extracts,
such as peppermint, al-
mond, etc. The great thing
Ava Olsen and Gina Sorgentoni
Pin Busters
lifestyle

about this craft is that the
smell stays in the house for
at least a day afterwards.
DIY #3: Sugar Scrub (Gina)
If you would like to have an
easy gift to give to friends
and family, a sugar lip
scrub is the perfect gift to
give. Whether in the sum-
mer or the winter, everyone
is prone to get chapped lips.
This sugar scrub will elim-
inate your chapped lips, is
easy to make, and tastes de-
licious. All you will need
for this project is coconut
oil, white sugar, and some
type of extract (vanilla,
peppermint, orange, etc).
Step 1: Take ½ cup of co-
conut oil, and place it in
the microwave for 15-
20 seconds or until soft.
Step 2: Remove from mi-
crowave, making sure the
oil is soft, then add 1 ½ cups
of sugar. Combine. If the
solution is too liquidy, then
add more sugar to the mix.
Step 3: Add in 1 tbsp of the
extract of your choice (Pep-
permint is recommended).
Step 4: Combine until
the extract is distribut-
ed throughout the scrub.
Step 5: Pour into containers.
How to apply: Take a small
amount of the scrub and rub
it on your lips. Exfoliate for
however long you want.
When finished, you can
lick the scrub off of your
lips. Enjoy your refreshed
and rejuvenated skin!
Creating this craft was a
success! It was easy to
make and required very few
ingredients. The product it-
self works wonders as an
exfoliator and moisturizer,
and has a long shelf life. It is
a great gift to give to friends
and family. I made a few
small containers to give out
during the holidays. I will
definitely be making more
of this lip scrub in the future.
DIY #4: Hair Mask
This DIY is great for
people that want silky, shiny
hair. The coconut oil has
vitamins that help nourish
your hair and help control
dryskin.Thehoneycontrols
the moisture of your hair.
The apple cider vinegar bal-
ances the pH and removes
hair product buildup. The
three of these ingredients
combine together to cre-
ate a perfect hair treatment.
Step 1: Use 2 parts coco-
nut oil, 2 parts honey, and
1 part apple cider vinegar.
Step 2: Melt the coconut
oil in the microwave for
ten seconds so it’s soft.
Step 3: Combine all of the
ingredients in a bowl and
then apply to hair. (Option-
al: Cover hair with foil so it
doesn’t get on your clothes
if you’re moving around).
Step 4: Leave on your hair
for 30 minutes, and then
wash and rinse your hair.
This DIY was suc-
cessful for several reasons;
it was easy to use, it made
my hair light and fluffy, and
it was inexpensive. I was
doubtful in the beginning,
but afterwards, there was a
definite improvement in my
hair’s texture and appear-
ance. It can’t repair split
ends, but it can definitely
improve the texture of your
roots to prevent split ends.

and especially in the case
of ending one. Like all re-
lationships, friendship is a
fragile thing that is not al-
ways appreciated from both
sides equally. You have to
deal with this situation care-
fully though because people
are sensitive and especially
if it was a strong friend-
ship at one point, it can be
hard for other people to un-
derstand that you are feel-
ing a certain way and why.
To deal with this, I would
first ask, ‘is this really what
you want to do?’ If your
answer is yes, I would first
like to tell you how to not
deal with it. Ignoring them,
avoiding them, cursing
them out or yelling at them
and sabotaging or stabbing
them in the back is not what
you do. That just ends up
reflecting poorly on you.
What you want to do is
have a casual sit down and
Many teens of this
generation and previous
generations and surely of
generations to come, some-
times have a hard time ask-
ing the questions that they
so desperately need the an-
swers to. Sure you could
ask a friend, or an import-
ant adult in your life but it
can be hard to put yourself
out there with some of those
questions you may have and
the implications that come
with them. This provides an
anonymous outlet for any
and all of your questions
with no judgement because
your identity is unknown.
How do I end a
friendship without hurt-
ing the other person?
Friendships can be ex-
tremely difficult sometimes
discuss what’s happening
and explain why you are no
longer happy with the re-
lationship. I am under the
assumption that you don’t
want to totally cut them
out of your life but become
more like acquaintances
than good friends. While
this may not be a 100%
amazing, fool-proof idea,
there is really no safe way to
end a friendship or any type
of relationship for that mat-
ter without hurting some-
ones feelings a little bit.

Ineed help in a class, but
my teacher intimidates me,
and none of my friends can
help me. What should I do?

This is something I know
many people, including my-
self struggle with. You want
to reach out, but you are
scared that there is no one
there lend you the helping
hand that you need. You can
also feel a little bit strand-
ed at that point because the
one person you know can
help you is not someone
Lauren Hummel
Advice
lifestyle

you are comfortable with
and you are already uncom-
fortable enough because of
your lack of understanding.
There is always the
default of googling it, but
that is not always very reli-
able or effective in the long
run. One thing you could do
however, is turn to a teach-
er that you are comfortable
with. While most teachers
only teach specific subjects
but that doesn’t mean that
they don’t know anything
about all of the others. Your
teachers are humans too and
they have been in the same
shoes that you are current-
ly in so they understand.
They are also teachers be-
cause they want to enrich
your mind and learning so
it gives them a stronger
sense of purpose when you
go directly to them for help.
Another solution is
to get some backup. Most
of your friends proba-
bly wouldn’t mind going
with you to your teach-
er as a moral support.
You would be surprised to
know how far a little mor-
al support can take you.
Or, if it is the idea of
you confronting you teach-
er in front of the whole
class that you find intim-
idating, you could send
them an email arranging a
get together to discuss the
issue. Teachers also tend
to act differently individu-
ally than when they have a
whole class watching them.
Again, they are human too
and often act different pro-
fessionally than personally.
How do I juggle
school and a relationship?
High school is hard
enoughwithallofthehome-
work, projects and tests but
to further complicate it, you
often find yourself in many
relationships that use a lot
of your attention. This is a
totally normal. However, it
can become a little bit over-
whelmingandI,ofallpeople
understand that quite well.
First of all, school
should always come first.
While that can be a little
frustrating, you still have
your entire future ahead of
you and you can’t let your-
self get caught up in rela-
tionships and other drama.
Romantic relationships
especially can be very dis-
tracting and sometimes
even cause you to fall be-
hind on school work be-
cause you are so caught
up in the relationship and
making time for that. I must
even admit that even I have
fallen victim to this.To ad-
dress friendships and work,
people that are truly your
friends will understand that
you have other responsi-
bilities and that school is
something that is some-
thing important to you.
As to help balance
social and school lives,
something very helpful to
do would be schedule and
plan to doing things ahead
of time. This will help to
keep track of the time you
have to do different things
and save you from uncom-
fortable situations, espe-
cially when you have to
choose between going out
with friends and your boy-

friend or girlfriend. With
school work especially,
giving yourself deadlines
or getting the work done in
a timely fashion will allow
you to have more free time.
You could also try combin-
ing your relationships and
work by having some time
where you have study ses-
sions with everyone where
you all collaborate to get
some assignments done.
What are some test taking
tips? I always get stressed.
Welcome to the club.
I always get stressed for
tests even if I know ev-
erything that will be on it
but over the years, I have
figured out some ways of
limiting the overall stress.
These tips are not guaran-
teed to make your test tak-
ing process less stressful,
but from experience, I know
that they can be helpful.
One thing you can
do is be prepared. Know-
ing that you have every-
thing that you will need to
get the test done, can make
it so you are not also wor-
ried about whether or not
you have everything. Be-
ing unprepared is a big
factor with stress for tests.
Like having extra pens or
pencils and scratch paper.
You can also make
sure that you get enough
sleep. It helps to keep your
brain sharp and focused. It
also makes you more alert
and makes it more likely
that you would be able to
answer questions and un-
derstand them either. These
two simple things can help
to make the test taking pro-
cess much more stress free.

Your Per-
fect Smartphone
The new iPhone 6 design
left a lot of dedicated Apple
users question-
ing their alle-
giance. Some
physical flaws
paired with
what seems
to be the iP-
hone’s move
towards a
more Samsung
Galaxy-esque
phone was not
what people
expected from
the tech giant.
So, for those
who may be
ready to look
for a change
in their smart-
phone, here
are a few good options.
Apple’s iPhone is the most
popular smartphone in the
U.S. holding a 41.4% mar-
ket share in the as of April
2014 and Samsung is also
a very popular smartphone
provider accounting for
nearly 28% of the smart-
phone market share. The iP-
hone and Samsung Galaxy
have been competitors for
awhile now. Google Nexus
is a newcomer, releasing its
latest iteration of the smart-
phone on October 15, 2014,
but it has the potential to
be a major competitor like
the iPhone and Galaxy.
It’s worth not-
ing that the Goo-
gle Nexus and
Samsung Galaxy
phones both run
on Google’s An-
droid operating
system. However,
the Galaxy runs
on its own spe-
cializeduser inter-
face: TouchWiz.
Even though the
Nexus and Gal-
axy run on the
same operating
system it’s worth
looking at them
separately be-
cause the experi-
ence of using each
one will be a little different.
Apple has long been praised
for creating quality, durable
Aaron Block
Smart Phones
lifestyle

products with great design
and this has been a ma-
jor factor for consumers.
However, that may not be
so important when buying
a smartphone. When you
can buy a new phone
at a severe discount
every 2 years (and
so many people take
advantage of this),
phone lifetime is not
as important so long
as it lasts 2 years.
The design, how-
ever, remains im-
portant and is what
puts Apple on top
for many customers.
The communities
associated with both
Android and Apple’s
iOS may also be im-
portant to many. For
example, Android is con-
sidered a much more open
community for develop-
ers. The requirements for
an app to get onto Google
Play (Google’s App Store)
are much more lax than Ap-
ple’s which is somewhat
infamous for being incred-
ibly picky about what apps
it lets into the App Store.
Android has also always
given developers more ac-
cess to certain features on
the phone itself. Mean-
while, Apple has been very
restrictive about what it lets
its developers do. For ex-
ample, only until the latest
major iOS update (iOS 8)
were developers able to ac-
cess the aperture and shut-
ter speed of the camera. An-
droid has entrusted its users
with this feature for a long
time.This may not seem im-
portanttotheevery-dayuser
but if affects what kinds of
apps that can be produced.
Overall, if you want the
most functionality out of
your phone, I would go for
either the Sam-
sung Galaxy or
Google Nexus.
The Android op-
erating system
makes these two
phones incredi-
bly powerful in
a way that the
iPhone can’t and
likely won’t be
given its histo-
ry. On the oth-
er hand, if you
are mostly look-
ing for a good
looking phone
with long bat-
tery life, then iPhone is
the right choice for you.

Zack Hersh
Claudia Bonatotibus
Leo Levy
Saul Salas
August Polite
T H E D I R T
Entertainment

Zack Hersh
Anna Sun guys return
with a cool, dancey record
Into fun., Foster the People,
Bastille or Bleachers? How
about just indie/alternative pop
in general? This cool new re-
cord is worth checking out.
Talking is Hard is the latest
from Walk the Moon, the group
best known for their break-
through single “Anna Sun”. A
collection of glitzy and pulsing
80’s style dance tunes, returning
fans will love Walk the Moon’s
redesigned sound, and newcom-
ers to the quartet will be hooked
on catchy but melodic songs
and electro grooves. The album
is highlighted by the opening
track “Different Colors” and the
anthemic “Shut Up and Dance”,
the first single off the album.
Overall, a strong sophomore re-
lease from Walk the Moon, defi-
nitely worth a listen for fans,
critics, and newcomers alike.
Released December 2nd
Ratings,basedonhowmuchcer-
tainaudiencesmaylikethemusic
★☆☆☆☆ Will not like it
★★☆☆☆ Will kind of like it
★★★☆☆ Will like it
★★★★☆ Will really like it
★★★★★ Will love it
Newcomer Rating: rating
for newcomers to the artist
who already like the genre
Fan Rating: rating for re-
turning fans of the artist
Critical Rating: rating
from a critical standpoint
POP
ALTERNATIVE
Sucker, Charli XCX
Newcomer Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Fan Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Critic Rating
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Fancy singer back with
smashing pop-punk LP
The singer-songwriter of two
of the decade’s standout pop
songs, Icona Pop’s “I Love It”
and Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”,
Charli XCX, returns with a new
album that will be great for pop
and punk fans seeking new mu-
sic. Into Jessie J,Ariana Grande,
or other pop superstars and di-
vas? How about The Clash or
The Ramones? This catchy and
fun record is worth a listen. Or
five. Chock full of loud, sassy
jams like the opening title track
anthem of “Sucker” and “Break
the Rules”, Charli creates her
own crazy pop and punk sound
experience that fans of these
genres cannot miss out on.
Released December 16th
Talking is Hard, Walk the Moon
Newcomer Rating
★ ★ ★ ☆☆
Fan Rating
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Critic Rating
★ ★ ★ ☆☆
Music Spotlight
Entertainment

R O C K
Rock or Bust, AC/DC
Newcomer Rating
★ ★ ★ ☆☆
Fan Rating
★ ★ ★ ☆☆
Critic Rating
★ ★ ★ ☆☆
AC/DC boldly scream that rock
music still has a place today
You’ve heard the name, now
hear the songs. Fans of Jimi
Hendrix, Eagles, Led Zeppelin,
Pink Floyd, or Nirvana, among
others, may enjoy AC/DC and
their latest album, Rock or
Bust. No glitzy beats, no elec-
tric synths. Just a surging record
of straightforward, classic rock.
While fans may not like it as
much as some of the Australian
group’s older albums, for others
it may be a great place to start
or to find new rocking music.
Right from the first song, the
title track “Rock or Bust”, AC/
DC lays down the law of the
land: energetic drum and guitar
centric music with heavy riffs.
Rock or Bust declares, quite
boldly, that even in a world of
pop and electronic music, ret-
ro, classic rock is still a thing,
and can still be awesome.
Released December 2nd
The Dream Walk-
er, Angels and Airwaves
Newcomer Rating
★ ★ ★ ☆☆
Fan Rating
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Critic Rating
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Group digs deep into emo-
tions in dark and haunt-
ing yet melodic record
Fans of Foo Fighters, Blink
182, and Imagine Dragons,
among others, may enjoy this
new alt-rock album by Angels
and Airwaves, a modern rock
group fronted by the lead singer
of Blink 182, Tom DeLonge. A
collection of 10 deep and heart-
felt but not sappy songs derived
from painful personal memories
ofthebandmembers,TheDream
Walker turns pain and darkness
into passion. Fans will love the
progression each member’s re-
spective stories, and newcomers
will only begin to discover the
complex world and history of a
group that fans have attached to
for years. Add in the high crit-
ical quality and acclaim, and
this record is one to try for sure.
Released December 9th
Other new albums
Pop T h e
Pinkprint, Nicki Minaj
Alternative M o n -
uments to an Elegy, The
Smashing Pumpkins
The Hunger Games: Mockinjay
Part1Soundtrack,VariousArtists
E l e c t r o n i c /
Dance Motion, Calvin Harris

Listen, David Guetta
New albums on the horizon
Imagine Dragons are releas-
ing a new album, Smoke +
Mirrors, in early February
fun. have planned the release
of a new album for early 2015
Fall Out Boy’s new album,
American Beauty / American
Psycho releases mid January

Claudia Bonitatibus and Trinity Middlebrooks
imagination to create the
fictional world in which the
narrative takes place. Books
allow for a gradual and de-
tailed development of plot
and characters slowly over
many pages and over a
much longer period of time.
This fundamental differ-
ence is the most important
obstacle to overcome when
books are turned into films.
While we appreciate
the slow-paced, pensive
quality of books, the au-
dience requires action in
movies to keep them en-
gaged. This makes some
books easier to translate into
movies than others - phil-
osophical, internal narra-
tive-driven stories are hard-
er to make into movies than
plot focused ones like epic
or adventure stories. This is
why epic, fantasy stories set
in dystopian worlds are fre-
The sheer number of
recent blockbuster movies
that owe their origins to
books is nothing less than
remarkable. What is even
more impressive is that the
overall cinematic and artis-
tic quality of these transla-
tions is so high. Think about
it: the Harry Potter series,
The Hunger Games, Diver-
gent, Ender’s Game, not
to mention classic works
such as the Hobbit, are all
box office smashes. While
many of the book series
spawned a legion of loyal
fans, many movie versions
of these popular books were
busts: Eragon, The Golden
Compass, City of Ember,
Inkheart, and many others.
These books seemed like
they could have evolved
into effective and popular
films, but for some reason
the final results were dissat-
isfying. The movies either
did not meet the public’s
standards or were simply
discontinued. This goes to
show that success is not
guaranteed when translat-
ing books onto the screen,
which raises the question
- what qualities in a book
make it possible have a suc-
cessful movie adaptation?
The problem is that what
makes a good book and
what makes a good movie
are entirely different. Cin-
ema is essentially a visu-
al medium where the nar-
rative unfolds via images
over a short period of two
hours or so. Plot and char-
acter development are im-
portant, and the music adds
to the emotional impact;
yet, a movie must first ap-
peal to the eyes. Books, on
the other hand, appeal to the
intellect and stimulate the
Books in Translation
Entertainment

quently adapted into suc-
cessful films, while more
thought-provoking, con-
templative books, like The
Giver, require an action-ori-
ented subplot to capture the
imagination of viewers.
However, often
these cinemat-
ic adaptations
do not do jus-
tice to the books.
Books have hun-
dreds of pages
to help the read-
er cultivate their
thoughts. They
have paragraphs
upon paragraphs
to create situa-
tions where deep
thoughts are not
only allowed,
but necessary. A
movie only has
around two hours
to do the same thing. Be-
cause of this time limit,
movies are not able to do
justice to the deep thought
provoking scenarios that
are allowed to simmer in
a book. Movies not only
speed up the story, they
also add a little spice to
keep watchers interested.
We accept that not every
book will be a heart stop-
pingpageturnerandattimes
will even be boring. What
we don’t accept is a boring
movie. Movies have to be
action packed, full of drama
and romance. They have to
have good lighting, great
camera work, and an out-
standing soundtrack. With
all of the extra requirements
for movies, small things
like underlying themes
fall through the cracks.
Accuracytothebooksbeing
adapted also plays a major
role in the pop-
ularity of the
movie. In the
end, books are
transformed
into movies in
hopes of luring
their loyal fans
to buy theater
tickets, there-
by siphoning
off the success
of the fran-
chise; among
this literary
audience, ac-
curacy is seen
as extreme-
ly important.
Movies have
to take liberties; given the
time restraints, it becomes
mandatory to cut scenes out
of the book that may not be
essential to the plot or char-
acter development. Howev-
er, even though this might

not seem that important to
those who have not read the
books, those who grew up
reading a book or series and
hold it dear demand that the
movie rewards them with
similar feelings to those in-
spired by the book. It can
feel like a betrayal when
the movie strays too far
from the plot. The Lord
of the Rings movie trilo-
gy excelled in this regard,
but then again, these books
were written as epics and
were essentially cinematic,
so almost all of the major
parts of the books could be
included. This trilogy has
come to represent the gold
standard of movie adapta-
tions. One thing that made
these movies seem more
natural and authentic is that
these books were written in
third person. Since movies
cannot easily show inner

dialogue, movies based on
books written in the third
person seem more accu-
rate than those written in
first person. And this inner
dialogue cannot be easily
omitted without changing
the whole tone of the sto-
ry. This problem confronts
efforts to adapt into movies
many of today’s popular,
first person narrated books.
Books and movies are com-
pletely different mediums,
but still, one element is of
prime importance to both
- the credibility and attrac-
tion of the story. If the au-
thor is successful in creat-
ing a fictitious world which
the reader or the viewer
enthusiastically wants to
inhabit, the effort will be
successful, no matter what
medium it is produced in. A
common misconception is
that films are going to be an
exact replica of the original
text, but a different medium
awakens a whole different
dimension. Sometimes the
accuracy of the film must
be sacrificed in order for the
story to be translated across
mediums. When watching
these translations one must
acknowledge that the sto-
ryline, tone and even plot
are not going to be the same
as the books’ and we must
respect the directors’ artis-
tic license. While books can
take their time and be more
cerebral, movies can sweep
you up in their visual ac-
tion, but both require one to
suspend disbelief and per-
mit the storyteller to lead
the imagination to places
beyond our experiences.

Leo Levy
self, because it is one of the
most difficult things to do.”
Externally, too, Phillip has
often been frustrated by
how much more difficult
his work is made by his
young age. He says that cli-
ents have denied to pay him
the prices they originally
agreed on, citing his age,
even after their assignments
are complete. He’s even lia-
ble to throw around the term
“Ageism,” a concept coined
in 1971 by elder-rights ac-
tivist Robert Neil Butler
to describe discrimination
against older people, but
which is now understood
to mean any age-based dis-
crimination or prejudice.
Phil is not alone when he
talks about ageism. In fact,
while not heavily publi-
cized, organizations like
the National Youth Rights
Association campaign to
When I asked Phillip King
for an interview, and spec-
ified that I wanted to do it
in person, we both assumed
that it would take place in
an abandoned building.
King’s body of artistic work
is evenly divided between
portrait photography and
photography of abandoned
architecture. He works as
an active commercial pho-
tographer. He is also 16
years old and a high school
student, but he didn’t let
that stop him when he was
founding a Facebook com-
munity called Humans of
Philadelphia, with over
6,500 likes. Nor does he let
that stop him from work-
ing at Photolounge, the
hub of Philadelphia’s pho-
tography community, or
having prints hung in gal-
leries in center city Philly.
His motivation seems to be
a genuine love of the medi-
um, as he told me when I fi-
nally did catch up with him.
When I asked why he prac-
ticed photography, Phillip
told me that “It’s so hard to
put into words what it does,
but I can never imagine my-
self doing anything without
it. It’s a very vital part of life
for me,” and that “It really
adds perspective to things.”
His passion is evident in
the sheer amount of his life
which he had dedicated to
the art, but, like most ar-
tistic pursuits, his journey
has not been without chal-
lenges. Internally, Phillip
says he often wrestles with
self doubt. He cautions fel-
low artists of such pitfalls,
saying, “There are so many
things that you might see
as problems that are caused
by yourself. But I’m not
gonna pretend that its not
hard to believe in your-
Art Regardless of Age
Entertainment

change the way that age is
viewed inAmerican culture.
Their focus, as an advo-
cacy group, is on fighting
for the legal freedoms af-
forded to Americans in the
Bill of Rights which are
withheld from youth. Spe-
cifically, NYRA has cam-
paigned to lower the drink-
ing and voting ages, and
repeal curfew laws. They
are just one group, how-
ever, in a large movement
fighting to end discrimina-
tion against young people.
Phillip King’s experiences
help to illustrate the neces-
sity for this sort of work. It
would be unconscionable
for a client to refuse to pay
an adult photographer for
work they had already done.
Even coping with these
barriers, though, Phillip has
achieved incredible things,
and shows no signs of slow-
ing down. As his next proj-
ect, he aims to delve into the
photographic genre known
as bodyscapes, which sits at
the intersection of his inter-
est in the human form and
in architecture. He also urg-
es aspiring teens who seek
to make their voices heard
to, “Be nice, and be louder.”

Phillip King Interview:
What sort of work
do you do, mainly?
Mainly retail. If you mean
photography though, I do
a lot of portraiture. I love
portraiture, and abandoned
architecture. With photog-
raphy, I guess I’ve always
been doing the same thing,
which kinda sucks now that
I think about it. I only real-
ize it when I look back at
my Flickr and want to kill
myself. But I guess your
style changes regardless of
what you’re doing, as long
as you’re growing with it.
Why do you
do photography?
It’`ssohardtoputintowords
what it does, but I can never
imagine myself doing any-
thing without it. Its a very
vital part of life for me. Its
one of the only mediums I
can use correctly, or I feel
is really applicable. When
used correctly, photography
really is just the same thing
as painting, you just have
to know what you’re doing
with your tools. It really
adds perspective to things.
What sort of challeng-
es have you faced in
achieving what you have
achieved in photography?
The only things have been
me just telling myself that
I can’t do something, or I
don’t want to try a style or
I’ll be shitty, et cetera, et
cetera. Most of the prob-
lems are really just self
doubt. There are so many
things that you might see
as problems that are caused
by yourself. But I’m not
gonna pretend that its not
hard to believe in your-
self, because it is one of the
most difficult things to do.
Do you think your work
as an active photographer
has been made more dif-
ficult by being a teenager?
Oh fuck yeah. Definitely. I
fucking hate it. People try to
dick you out of your mon-
ey. Please don’t use my ex-
act quotes on this one. They
uh, I’ve done some jobs and
people have just denied to
pay me the original price
because of my age, regard-
less of skill level or talent
or if I did what they asked
me to do. Ageism is a real
thing, it’s a problem. Not a
lot of people get that. You
can still be a human being
on the same level as anoth-
er one, regardless of an age
difference. Especially at
this age there shouldn’t be
a problem. I would under-
stand if I was a 4 year old
with a point and shoot, but
clearlyI’mdoingsomething
correctly if I’ve made it this
far, so don’t be an asshole.
If you could give a mes-
sage to aspiring teen art-
ists, what would it be?
Be nice. And be louder.

About Spelunky: Spelunky
is a 2D sidescrolling, dun-
geon-like, rouge jumping
platformer that follows
a traditional one screen,
four-player screen-sharing
with no online compatibili-
ty. It’s a reworked game that
was originally made free
for the operating system
Microsoft Windows back
in 2008. On July 4th, 2012,
developer Derek Yu re-
leased his first selling game
onto other consoles with re-
mapped designs and heavy
implemented elements into
the new meta. For instance,
newer levels, more player
characters, more music and
special events and the most
important change the old
one didn’t have, local co-
op. You can now play with
A.I. bots found in game
store levels, or with up to
THREE of your closest
friends you may enjoy yell-
ing to and journal entries
which are like collectible
pages for you to complete,
discover,learn,andhavefun
enjoying monster defeat/
defeated progress counters!
Such great reworks include
tweaks, more appealing
controls which can now be
customized with any key
or button. Like pressing the
esc key to move your char-
acter to the left on a key-
board? I wouldn’t see why I
wouldn’t! Smoother tiles to
move on and fluent move-
ment the old game lacked.
It is still more accessible in
the newer game and easy
to pickup, and difficult as
the old game. The game is
has smoother controls, mar-
velous graphics, and made
items and physics more
visually more appealing.
Although, some may refer
to the game as HD, but I
would call it a masterpiece
of true innovation. It has
so many more new levels,
items, enemies, balanc-
es, and much much more
secrets you can find by
learning the game beyond
the tutorial can teach you.
S P E L U N K Y :
THEN AND NOW:
The old freeware game
didn’t have much as the
newer one have today. The
older game had secrets,
traps, and item stores with
the same grumpy old men.
But whatever was to the
end of the screen didn’t
move, so if you were to
shoot a shotgun or a shop-
keeper was chasing you, it
would all remain still on
the other side of the screen
until you moved there. The
traps were either too deadly
or too narrow to maneuver,
making basic first level ar-
row traps very bouncy with
very poor physical controls
you shouldn’t have taken
damage. Some items like
the bow or a pistol were too
Saul Salas
Spelunky
Entertainment

broad, that or they just felt
too weak or just wouldn’t
work as you would think.
Odd ragdolls would happen
and enemies were easily too
aggressive to charged the
player quicker than your
reaction time. But with
the newer game, Derek Yu
changed and brought back
some of it’s core elements
and fixed the things it need-
ed and taken out some ob-
solete items and reworked
with it’s physics to make
it so you didn’t get dry
humpedbyafloorfilledwith
the same blood pool that
should have stopped if you
died. Aside from all humor-
ous tones, it’s a complete-
ly new and different game.
Gameplay: In Spelunky,
you start out with 4 bombs,
4 ropes, and 4 life points.
But you have to share these
starting items depending
on how many people are
playing with you. Progress
is unsaved when playing
locally, so therefore, you
cannot unlock shortcuts
which skips certain parts of
a world you would want to
skip, but you can still use
them if you already own
them anytime before play-
ing. You can blow up tiles
to reach certain places, find
treasure, or hidden items
and exits. Just like in the old
Spelunky, how cool is that?
Your goal of the game is to
reach to world 4 or 5. Easier
said than done, since each
level you progress gets you
more pressured with traps,
and enemies. There is also
an ingame journal, which is
typically entries which only
alerts you on the screen for
every new discovery for
the first time which is then
saved. It tells you informa-
tion about items, monsters,
and new places you discov-
ered which the old game
didn’t had! It also shows
the number of times you de-
feated a monster, and how
many times you died by
them or traps. So the journal
also acts as a personal sta-
tistic for you whenever you
want to revisit your score
counter. The journal entry
is very basic, and I always
come back to read the brief
short summary of monsters,
places, and items. I also find
myself seeing how many
times I defeated an enemy,
because it’s a really fun tool
to use and is claimed to be
the best treasure you find
and start out with by the
main character, Yang. The
first enemies encounters are
very easy, and very frustrat-
ing when underestimated.
Because there are also set
traps, such as spikes and ar-
row, some of them are set to
disguised as blocks, which
if ignored can seriously
make one really frustrated.
Traps are included in ev-
ery level in the game from
spikes, to boulders, man
eating piranhas. The only
way to recover hearts is by
rescuing damsels in distress
which can only make you
recover or gain one heart,
unless you have the Kapa-
la, or go to a Kissing Palor
which are other ways of ob-
taining more life. These act
as trade or buy option es-
sentials to the player, espe-
cially if they needed more
life. Oh, and if you die,

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