ANNANDALE HIGH SCHOOL700 Medford Dr. Annandale, VA 22003AAthe

AHS ‘It’s Academic’ team places high in Patriot District tournament

BY ALYSSA NAVARRETE

Co-Editor in Chief

For the first time in years, the “It’s Academic” team finished second in the Patriot District. The tournament, composed of seven rounds, was held the morning of Jan. 20 at Thomas Edison High School. The Atoms ended the district tournament with five wins and two loses.

This impressive district record allowed the AHS It’s Academic”team to finish in second place. The victory qualified them for the regional “It’s Aca-demic” tournament. This tournament

was held during the afternoon of the same day.During the regional tournament, the Atoms par-

ticipated in three rounds. During the first round, the Atoms competed against Thomas Jefferson High School and lost. During the second round, the team won against Loudon Valley High School.

“Loudon had the highest score of all the teams in the northern region during the district tourna-ment,” said history teacher and It’s Academic sponsor

Meghan Saladino.During the third

round of play, the Atoms went up against Wood-son High School and lost. Overall, Saladino estimates that AHS’s performance during the regional tournament would put them in fifth place for the northern

“Academic” continued on page 5

VOLUME #52 ISSUE 7 TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 2007 703-642-4229

ROSIE VS. THE DONDonald Trump and Rosie OʼDonnell continue their feud.

3

NEWS BRIEFS

COLOR BLIND COUPLESStudents share stories about their racially mixed relationships.

8DELICIOUS DISHESCulinary arts students share their favorite recipes from their native countries.

14CDS ARE SO LAST YEARWith downloading services becoming more and more popular, CDs are considered

18

Students show their school pride by participating in themed days and pep rally

BY CLAIRE BUI

Staff Writer

Three times every year, students get into the Atom spir-it by dressing up and donning costumes on themed days, energetically answering the question “Hey Annandale, how do you feel?”, and participating in good, old class rivalry.

Last week’s spirit week featured many of the same traditions and activities, as well as new ones, that AHS students enjoy, culminating with the winter pep rally on Jan. 20.

From Tuesday to Thursday, students showed off their enthusiasm on jersey, culture and vogue days. Friday was a day of class spirit, as freshman wore red, sophomores wore white, juniors thre on face paint, and seniors proudly marched the halls in their togas.

During the pep rally, held in R5 flex, students gathered in the main gym to watch all of the winter sports be intro-duced. The varsity boys basketball team showed off their talent as they made free throws, while the cheerleading

squads, dance team and step team entertained the school with their performances.

“We had a great time at the pep rally. The crowd really energized us and motivated us to per-form well,” freshman dance team members Julie Jurenas and Jennifer Oakes said.

Atoms also participated in a spirit competition, based on which class wore the most appropriately themed attire and could cheer the loudest. Both the juniors and seniors were declared the vic-tors, respectively earning fifty dollars for each class.

“I think everyone actually had fun. That in itself is a success,” said Junior Laith Abu Taleb, a leadership student.

“It was energetic. The cheerleading squad, dance team and step team really got the crowd on their feet and it was an overall great pep rally,” he said.

While winter spirit week 2007 was a success, many students do not realize just how stressful planning it is.

“Putting together a spirit week is a lot harder than many people realize, but it definitely paid off,” senior Bran-don Healy said. “The leadership class had to decide on which spirit days to have, what events to plan, and where it would be held. After that we had to decide on where to place each teacher and class,” he stated.

Senior John Chu sees eye-to-eye with Healy.

“The leadership class had a lot of great ideas

and activities planned for spirit week.

We put a lot of time and hard

work into it.

I think it came

together really well in the end,” he said.

This winter pep rally was the first Annandale has had for the 2006-2007 school year. The fall pep rally was cancelled due to a power outage in the neighborhood. And while the spirit week was only four days, it did not stop AHS students from showing off their Atom pride and having a good time.

Immigration stories at AHS

BY ALYSSA NAVARRETE

Co-Editor in Chief

“In my life in Ethiopia, I never saw my mom and dad,” said junior Yonas Mamo. “In ten years, they only could come to visit for 16 days.”

Mamo moved to the United States from Ethiopia a little over a year ago. His parents moved to the U.S. ten years before he was able to. His parents came over after winning a visa lottery. Because Mamo did not receive this visa, he remained with his grandmother, aunt and cousin for a little over a decade.

“I had to process all my papers and go to the U.S. embassy in Ethiopia [in order to come to America],” Mamo said. “I went to the embassy around 35 times and we spent a lot of money on a lawyer so I could come to America.”

Additionally, prior to moving to the United States, Mamo had never met his younger sister and brother because they were born after his parents left Ethiopia.

“A big difference between here and my country is I didn’t know how to live with a family because I didn’t live with them,” Mamo said. “Now I love my family a lot, my sister and brother are so funny.”

The biggest reason why Mamo believes that his transition to the United States was beneficial is because of the education offered here.

“Immigration” continued on page 5

‘It’s Academic’ places second

Preparing for Valentine’s DayBY EMILY SAMPLE

News Editor

Roses are red, violets are blue, Valentine’s Day is coming, how ready are you? Even if the fateful Feb-ruary date is sneaking up on many, several groups are already prepared to make this Valentine’s Day out of the ordinary.

The senior class is doing double duty the week before Valentine’s Day, selling both Matchmaker results and Valentine’s dance tickets. Matchmaker results are selling for $2. Quizzes were taken the week of Jan. 8 through 12. Questions ranged from what color eyes people have and what people prefer, to body type people have and what people prefer. Theses quizzes were sent to an outside company that process them and returns the answers to the school. Answers are returned in three categories, the five people who

would be compatible, the five people that would be good as friends, and the five people who should be avoided. “This might cause some break-ups…” said senior class secretary Kelly Scrivener. “But it’s going to be really interesting. We really wanted to do it, I mean look at us—its 13 girls in office!”

These results come at the same time that the class is selling tickets for a dance to be held on Friday, Feb. 16. Tickets are $5, but if the Matchmaker and tickers are bought together, the combination is only $6. The dance is, of course, Valentine’s Day themed, but “it won’t be your typical school dance,” said Scrivener. “It won’t be like Homecoming, but it’s going to be a lot of fun.” Activities include couples dance contests and door prizes. During school on Valentine’s Day, the choral department will be delivering Singing

“Valentine’s Day” continued on page 5

Broadway Desserts shines12th annual performance remains a popular choral event

BY MICHELLE RISSE

News Editor

“Come on along and listen to the lullaby of Broadway. The hip hooray and bally hoo, the lullaby of Broadway.” The flashing lights and enormous theatres were not present on for the AHS choral production of Broadway Des-serts, but the sold out crowds were gathered in the lobby of the George Mason University Performing Arts Center.

Every year, the choral department stu-

dents have a Broadway production, singing songs from various Broadway musicals. Un-like the typical chorus concerts that show-case the choral ensembles, the Broadway Desserts production highlights the singers individually. “The kids do small groups or solo numbers so it gives them a chance to “shine” as individuals rather than just in a group as they do in choral ensembles,” said choral director Carleen Dixon.

This performance is different from other choral recitals because everything is done by the students. They choose the songs they want to sing, who they want to sing with, and take care of all their costumes. “I love Broadway desserts because Broadway Des-serts because it’s a chance to perform really

“Desserts” continued on page 5

Today’s WeatherPartly Cloudy

Today’s LunchTurkey Hot Dog on Bun Macaroni and Cheese w/ Wheat RollPeanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Yogurt w/Pretzel

Today’s FlexTues., Jan. 23— R3/R7

This Day in History1865 — General Robert E. Lee named commander-in-chief of Confederate army.1964 — Twenty-fourth amendment ratified, barring poll tax in federal elections1991 — “Seinfeld” debuts on NBC

Broadway husband and wife to appear at Artspeak!

Broadway stars Matt Bogart and Jes-sica Boevers will be appearing at Artspeak! on Feb. 6. The performance will be held in the lecture hall at Poe Middle School. Everyone is welcome to attend, and admis-sion is free.

Bogart is returning to Artspeak! for the first time. He first appeared in 2003 and he is the first Artspeak! guest ever to appear more than once. Bogart has starred in countless musicals, including Damn Yan-kees, Miss Saigon and Aida. Additionally, Bogart will perform hits has from his two solo CD’s at Artspeak!

In his second Artspeak! appearance, Bogart will perform with his wife, Jessica Boevers. Boevers is a broadway star as well, having appeared in productions such as Les Miserables, Oklahoma, Rent and Beauty and the Beast.

Immigration reform seminar held tonight

The group “Generation Engage” will be sponsoring a seminar tonight at the James Lee Community Center. This event is designed to inform people about immigration reform. Student’s from AHS’s Hispanic Leadership Club will be attending the event.

The event will feature Geoge Taplin as a guest speaker. Taplin is the director of Min-utemen Civil Defense Corps, VA . Chapter. He will speak on the topic of immigration reform in the United States.

Immediately following the speaker, there will be a reception in which food will be served. Additionally, a T.V. will be available to watch the live coverage of the President’s State of the Union address.

This event will be held at the james Lee Community Center, which is located at 2855 Annandale Road. The event will be held from 7:30p.m. until 9:30p.m.

If you would like to attend, please e-mail ChrisLewis@GenerationEngage.org as soon as possible.

High: 42 Low: 29

Freshman Michael Lazar and John Odom perform the song “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” from the musical “Spamalot.”

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This survey was distributed on Jan. 18 during B, C and D lunches. Of 500 surveys distributed, 423 were completed and returned for inclusion in this graph.

Bogart Boevers

This is the fi nal installment of a three part series on the immigration stories of AHS students

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Senior Samantha England shows her school spirit by dancing with the AHS Step Team during the winter pep rally.

AHS shows spirit

I am so amazed that we made it that far and did as well as we did

“—Meghan Saladino

It’s Academic sponsor”

2 Jan. 23, 2007EDITORIALS AtAA

Standard Level courses a waste of

time and effortCome May, a plethora of students

will sit down to take AP and IB end-of-the-year exam. For a select few, they will be taking IB tests, and if they score high enough, it will make them eligible for the prestigious IB Diploma. Even more will be taking exams for AP and IB Higher Level courses, which, if scored high enough, will potentially allow them to receive college credit for their freshmen years of college.

However, for non-IB Diploma can-didates taking Standard Level (SL) courses, the end-of-the-year exam will be nothing more than a terrific waste of time.

No college that I know of will accept SL exams for credit, regardless of the score. Thus, for all you IB Geography, or IB Environmental Systems or SL Math, assuming you are not diploma candidates, your exams are worthless and a waste of your time. Sure, a good exam might help the school’s overall average, but for the student there is no incentive to do well at all.

It is discouraging, to say the least, that a student could answer every single question right and have the same result as one who answered none right.

What should AHS do about it? Ei-ther lobby colleges to take SL scores if a high enough score (6 or 7 perhaps) is attained. Otherwise, end this ridiculous policy of forcing students to take SL ex-ams that have no impact on them at all. It is an insult to the hardworking senior student to force him or her to sit down at exams that will have absolutely zero impact on their academic careers.

—By Tim Yuskavage Copy Editor

We need to avoid falling into the trap of sectarianism

AMINA MOHAMED STAFF WRITER

Twice this month, the phrase “cultural extension” popped up in the final statements of two key Arab or-ganizations, the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council. This is clearly refers to what many regard as the growing Iranian-Shiite influence in Iraq.

It was not the first time Arabs expressed concern about the Shiite revival that followed the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Two years ago, Jordan’s King Abdullah warned of a rising Shiite “crescent” extending from Iran to Lebanon. In another surprisingly frank warning, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Shiites in Iraq and across the Middle East are more loyal to Iran than to their own countries. Thus, it appears that Shiites in the Middle East, led by Iran are moving toward an era where they are the most powerful Islamic group. Arab nations appear increasingly worried about the Iranian influence in Iraq and the pos-sibility that the situation there will stir up Shiites across the Middle East.

This mistrust emerged immediately after the end of Hussein’s rule, as did the monopoly of minority Sunni Ar-abs over Iraq’s governing structures that had been held since 1638, when Sunni Ottoman Turks captured Iraq and incorporated it into their empire. The empowerment of Shiites has sent shivers across the region, raising fears of a region-wide Sunni-Shiite split that Arabs would be powerless to control and could potentially benefit Iran.

While Arab governments have expressed their alarm in diplomatic language, some religious Sunni quarters have been more direct. In Iraq itself, while Sunni political leaders

such Adnan Al-Dulaimi and Harith Al-Dhari have been vociferous in criticizing the Shiite-controlled government, more radical Sunni groups have been calling for jihad or Islamic holy war-against the Shiites. These groups gener-ally call for appeals to rally Sunni Iraqis against Shiites.

It seems that Iran is meddling not only in Iraq, but also in Lebanon, where Iran backs Hezbollah. Hezbollah is a Shiia Islamic militia and political organization based in Lebanon. It follows a version of Shiia ideology developed by Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Some Arabs have discussed a “Shiite International” in the making, which would bring about a “domino” effect, energizing Shiite communities in other countries. Still oth-ers talk about an American-Zionist-Iranian alliance aimed at weakening, and later controlling, the Sunni dominated Arab world.

If this is the case, the ramifications will echo through-out the Middle East, which itself is a mosaic of religious, sectarian, and ethnic communities. Iran appears to have created a Shiite “state within a state” in Iraq, providing support to armed groups and funds for social programs. For some Arabs, the Shiite phenomenon is not an internal problem; rather, it is an American-created problem. By ousting Hussein, the Bush administration has empowered the Shiite majority.

While American officials avoid discussing the advan-tages of such a development, it could be a chance to build bridges with the Shiite population as a counterbalance to radical Sunni groups in its fight against terrorism. That would also serve, in the long run, the goal of promoting democracy in the Arab world.

As for Shiites in Iraq, they see it as a moment of oppor-tunity for which they have been waiting for more than 80 years. The Shiites insist that they only seek empowerment proportional to their majority in the Iraqi population. Shiite leaders also counter allegations of an Iranian link, saying that while they may naturally have ties to Shiites in Iran,

they are not Iranian stooges. Instead, they believe Sunnis both inside and outside Iraq simply resent their new power and the general Shiite regional momentum.

The region faces a daunting challenge. What Arab leaders and civilians should do is avoid falling into the trap of sectarianism, which unfortunately many are doing by pushing debate on Iraq from the realm of politics into the realm of sectarianism and racism. First and foremost, Arabs should look at Shiites in their countries as being citizens and Arabs. Second, Arabs leaders should avoid what happened in Iraq during Hussein’s rule and build na-tion-states and civil governments where people can share the power and wealth equally. Sectarianism, as the Iraqi experiment has proven, feeds on injustice and autocracy.

author’s email: amina.mohamed@thea-blast.org

MAking the GrAde

Banned from baring brown

North Carolina woman goes “nuts”Rebecca Arnold Dawson, 34, of Lillington,

North Carolina, has been charged with malicious castration after a scuffle with her boyfriend. The two were at a Christmas party hosted by Daw-son’s boyfriend and became heavily intoxicated. A fight broke out and Dawson, without the use of a weapon, disfigured her boyfriend. Dawson was recently released from police custody on a $500,000 bond.

Frozen embryos now babies

Rebekah Markham, from New Orleans, is about to give birth to a child, who was actually im-planted into the Markham. During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when all of New Orleans was submerged in water, the baby was only an em-bryo that was about to thaw after the hospital lost electricity. Because of a few police officers’ bravery, the embryos were rescued, and now many happy parents are receiving their bundles of joy.

AStudents at Molloy Alternative High School in

Massachusetts have been banned from wearing the color brown because it is being considered a gang color with the emergence of a new gang called the Brown Mafia. The administration is telling all students, regardless of their behavior, to stop wear-ing brown or go home. What ridiculous rule with they come up with next, stop wearing pants?

FD

On Thursday, Jan 4., 66-year-old Democrat Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as the Speaker of the House. This is a monumental event, as it not only signifies the first time in 12 years the Democrats have gained control of the House, but also the first time ever that a woman has served as Speaker. Pelosi promises many improvements and changes on various issues in the coming months.

ANancy Pelosi sworn in as Speaker

The growing Iranian crescent

Time for Congress to step up Democrats need to put their plans into action soon

BY LUCAS HIGGINSSTAFF WRITER

So where do we go from here? The country obviously called for change. We have newly elected Democrats from many states that are traditionally seen as red states: places like Missouri and Montana. Even Tennessee was tight until the very end.

So rejoice kids, we have a Democrat-controlled Congress that can slow down what has been one of the biggest presi-dential failures in American history. We are taking gigantic strides forward in many different ways.

A woman has attained more power than any of her predecessors. True equality is starting to sound more and more possible every day. So with Nancy Pelosi wielding her gnarly fist of justice, and what is looking to be a more and more progressive government, every-thing should be okay, right? We can sit back, take a deep breath, and watch the Left work its magic in fixing our country’s problems…right?

Wrong. We are far from being “in the clear.” Yes, the

recent elections are a big positive, but for those Democrats who have been downing Bush and talking about how much better they could run everything (count me among them), the pressure has shifted. We can’t conveniently sit back

and complain anymore without having to worry about taking any of the blame. With the opportuni-ties now presented to Pelosi and the Democrats, the agenda that has been pushed for by Demo-crats finally has an opportunity to be put forth into action.

Our lovely President Bush has called for an additional 21,500 troops to be shipped off to Iraq to stabilize what has become an increasingly volatile situation. The issue of abortion is not go-ing away. The issue of gay rights, marriage namely, is not going to go away. The issue of immigra-tion is not going to go away. The number of people whose hopes rest on this new-look Congress is astronomical.

All of this has the feel of the night before the big game. The quiet before the storm. We wait

with baited breath to see if the Democrats can actually fix Iraq and cure what ails us as a nation. Simply and bluntly put, it’s time to put up or shut up.

Officially in office, it’s time for the Democrats to stop

celebrating, shake off the victory hangover and start deal-ing. Pelosi’s “100 hours” agenda is going off without a hitch, the only bump being raising minimum wage taking longer than expected.

But after Bush stated his plan to send over another massive amount of young men and women to the war zone, the Democrats have been given their first big opportunity to play some real defense before getting back to offense. Pelosi and Co. have said they plan to block funding for the increase, which, if successfully done, would be a very nice start to the next couple years of Democratic control.

If you pull yourself out of the fray and look down at the setup of the executive and legislative branches right now, it really presents itself a lot like a sports contest. One of the most famous clichés in sports is the old support of quality stopping-power, “offense wins games, but defense wins championships.” In order for the Democrats to really nail their reign, they need to put a stop to this troop increase.

The only problem is that the last time this happened, it was during the highly unpopular Vietnam War. The setup of the Vietnam War-era government was very similar to the current one, except then President Johnson was a Democrat. After forcing complete withdrawal, a Demo-cratic controlled Congress took heat for years and years for a lost war. Could this be the same? Possibly. But that said, the public is counting on the Democrats, and that’s what truly counts.

Put up or shut up.

author’s e-mail: lucas.higgins@thea-blast.org

Annandale High School Vol. 53 No. 7 (703)642-4229 4700 Medford Dr. Jan. 23, 2007 email: thea-blast@thea-blast.org Annandale, Virginia 22003 fax: (703)642-4299

Editors in Chief, Photography Print: Alyssa Navarrete Editor: Margaret Crowley David Sherman Julianne Simpson Editor in Chief, Sports Editors: Avery Adcock Online: Erick Vu Greg Rosenstein Managing Editor: Krista Silano Sports Xtra Copy Editor: Tim Yuskavage Editors: Jeff Dean Online Editor: Bryan Krzywicki Matt Johnson Design Editor: Matt Camilli In-Depth Editors: Paul Mathis Kevin Leach Chrissy Osipchak Graphics Editor: Adam Kasdorf Weekend Editors: Kate McCormack Circulation Manager: Kyle Knoche Tim Shadyac Online Staff: Samah Janpanar Amy Steinbuechler Ad Manager: Amy Stevens Marisa Tordella Academics Editors: Michael Craig Matt Camilli Cason Kynes CJ Sidener Taylor Hobson Emily Vincent Videographers/Editors: Gus Nielson Spanish Consultant: Antonio Rivadinera Drew Wildes Staff Writers/Photographers: Ben Hendrickson Bud Ireland, Daniel Fishman, Arts Editors: Lyndsay Jacobs Rachael Burnett, Ebony Chambers, Charlie Laura Simpson Winters, Lucas Higgins, Lea Nicherson, International Editors: Vanessa Cerro Meredith Rutherford, Julie Tumasz Waliha Gani Brandon Williams, Greg Young, Nathalie Editorials Editors: Shriya Adhikary Cladera Carrera, Claire Bui, Nicole Swiger, Mohamad Elbarasse Aya Saed, Caroline Merz, Cristian Roldan, Laith Abu-Taleb, Amina Mohamed Entertainment: Layluma Hotaki Adviser: Alan Weintraut Jenny Jacobs Health Editors: Becca Grimsley Sarah Waiter News Editors: Michelle Risse Emily Sample People Editors: Julie Baker Lindsey Downen

CSPASilver Crown 2004-2005

Pacemaker National Scholastic Press Association

2004-2005

Trophy Class Virginia High

School2005-2006

AtAAA

The A-Blast is an award winning newspaper that strives to inform, educate and entertain the student body and community. Published every three weeks, The A-Blast will not print any material that is obscene or libelous; or that which substantially disrupts the school day, or invades an individual’s right to privacy. The A-Blast is an independent, open forum for discussion that is printed at the Springfield Plant of The Washington Post. Signed letters to the editor of 250 words or less may be submitted to room 262 or mailed to m the school. The A-Blast re-serves the right to refuse advertisements. All submissions become property of The A-Blast, Copyright, 2007.

Issue six, Dec. 19 corrections

In the rail article on page 1, Kregg Stovner was mistakenly said to have been fired from the school. Stovner is actually on unpaid administrative leave, with the investigation still being conducted.

Daniel Henderson was also mistakenly identified as the new full-time orchestra teacher. He is actually the interim teacher filling in for Stovner until the investigation has ended.

On page 10, in the article titled “Santa Isn’t Coming to Town” senior Brendan Fields name was misspelled.

On page 9, sophomore Leslie Burns was mislabeled as a junior in the “Best Dressed” list.

On page 10, in the article titled “Santa Isn’t Coming to Town” senior Sara Negron’s name was misspelled.

Nacy Pelosiʼs televised swearing in cer-emony was a moment that Democrats all over America savored.

There is growing concern about the possibility of an Iranian controlled region in the Middle East, also known as the “Iranian crescent.”

Frank Hargrove makes racial

commentsI suppose Virginia politicians can-

not go even two months without say-ing something idiotic. By this point, we must all know about former Senator George Allen’s ‘Macaca’ remark.

Just as the controversy over that died down another Virginian, Del. Frank D. Hargrove of Hanover, gave some enlightened remarks. Saying that blacks “should get over” slavery and rhetorically asked “Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing

Christ?” A true gentle-man, to say the least. Before get-ting too car-ried away, it would probably be a little ir-responsible

to judge Mr. Hargrove based on a few sound bites.

However, regardless of context or other circumstances, the question that ultimately comes to mind is: “Why?” Mr. Hargrove ought to be the charter member of the T.B.Y.S. club (Think Before You Speak). What he said ac-complishes nothing. It is nothing but fiery, inflammatory rhetoric from an old man who wants to be heard.

What it does, however, is continue to add to the stereotype of Virginians being racist, ex-Confederate, yokels. As the 2006 elections showed, of the “Two Virginias”, the progressive, urbane, modern Virginia is wielding more power than the old, tobacco-growing and NASCAR-loving Virginia. What Hargrove serves as is a symbol.

A symbol of a time that once was, and is steadily on its way out. More men will say things like him, but less and less as time goes on.

–Tim YuskavageCopy Editor

3EDITORIALSAtAAJan. 23, 2007

“I think that we should send 20,000 troops now and have a plan to leave Iraq as soon as possible.”

—Casey Nealysophomore

First, let me say that the Iraq War is not our gener-ation’s Vietnam War. While it is convenient for critics of the war to quickly declare that parallel, that is more of an emotional move than a use of logic. That being said, there are many aspects from Vietnam which are strikingly similar to the situation in Iraq.

The question that we must ask ourselves is have we learned our lessons from Vietnam over 30 years ago, or are we going down a similar path, making the same mistakes?

Recently President Bush announced during an ad-dress to the nation, a new proposed policy as well as a call for a troop “surge.” The appeal has been made for 20,000 more men to fight a war that supposedly had already seen the end of “major combat operations.”

Over 30 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson called for a troop increase in Vietnam, which at that point had dragged on for years. In the case of Johnson, the troop increase ultimately did not bring victory.

It took a new president (Nixon) and a policy of Vietnamization to bring an end to American involve-ment. With an election looming in 2008, it is entirely conceivable that the mess Bush cre-ated could spill over into a new administration. There is no reason to believe that the Iraq conflict will be finished soon based on the progress we have seen.

The term “perception gap’”or “reality gap” was coined to show the differences between the reality that Johnson and his staff wanted to create about the war, and the ac-tual reality of the war. Perhaps this was no more exempli-fied than with the release of the Pentagon Papers, where

years of lies and deceit were released to the public. Whether or not President Bush deliberately lied is still

under debate, but many claims made to justify the war have since been proved baseless. Most notably, there were no weapons of mass destruction. This may be the most striking error made by the war department of Bush, but many more also became realized. According to the 9/11 Commission, there was no connection between Iraq and Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks, as many in the Bush administration claimed.

The theory that the war would make the Middle East safer seems quite unlikely to be true, and even Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” banner showed the definite difference between what Bush and his men have said and what the truth actually is. Whether or not this is an active campaign to deceive the American people or just a massive series of errors in judgment, there is no doubt that his credibility is shaken; a recent Gallup poll showed that Bush was not trustworthy.

Just as in Vietnam, as the war has dragged on beyond what it seemed like it would originally take,

the Iraq War has caused a credibility gap between Bush and the American people just as it did with Johnson.

Finally, the lack of a clear goal has been a hard con-stant found both in Iraq and in Vietnam. “Major combat operations” have ended, yet the military is still around, with no real end in sight. At what point does its mandate expire? At what point is it no longer needed?

Elections have already been held, a constitution draft-ed. If the president was waiting for Iraq to be a sovereign

nation, that moment has long since passed. By not answering that question, the door has been left

open for an indefinite period of time for the troops to be in Iraq. The same can be said for how it was in Vietnam. The case was never made to the American people on what the military was trying to accomplish and when their goal would be done. As American men continued to die, they were no closer to their goal, as they never had one in the first place.

As stated earlier, it would be naïve to call Iraq a new Vietnam. To do that is to be lazy and not scrupulously look over the details of both events. However, President Bush should have learned lessons from the Vietnam War. These three problems presented are not the only ones, just the most glaring ones.

It is time for either President Bush to step up and take a cue from history or for Congressional Democrats to force him to not make the same mistakes made in the 1960s and 70s. History judged Johnson unkindly, and it is shaping up to do the same to Bush.

author’s e-mail: tim.yuskavage@thea-blast.org“I feel like it re-mains to be seen. If I knew it would bring democracy to Iraq, then I’m all for it. How-ever with such religious divide, I’m skeptical.”

—Brandon Cooleyassistant principal

“I think it’s wrong. Why are we going to invade their privacy when we have or own prob-lems here?”

—Valerie Conable

junior

For almost a month now, Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell have been exchanging words in a heated feud. It started with O’Donnell’s dissatisfaction with Ms. USA, Tara Conner, being let off so easy by Trump for underage drinking.

O’Donnell continued to make fun of Trump’s hair and called him a “snake-oil salesman,” and claimed that he was bankrupt. Trump retorted with a barrage of insults regarding O’Donnell’s physique and mental capacity.

A bit immature for so-called celebrities, wouldn’t you say? Well, if you haven’t connected the dots between this timely feud and the new season of The Apprentice, allow me to disabuse you from the front that has been so cleverly concocted by these two masters of deception.

Conner was caught drinking in public in early Decem-ber. This would have been fine if she had been of age, but unfortunately she was not. Trump is the president of the Miss USA pageant, and was responsible for deciding the consequences that Conner would face.

After Conner was let off with a little more than a slap on the wrist, O’Donnell got to work voicing her opinions on The View, the talk show hosted by notable women such as Barbara Walters and . . . did I mention Barbara Walters. But Rosie didn’t just say what she thought; she

went far enough to make fun of a business tycoon who could buy the land from under her feet.

But Trump didn’t do that. Rather, he capitalized on the opportunity by dealing with O’Donnell like a child and hurling insults back in her direction. Notice that the O’Donnell-Trump affair started on Dec. 21, just a few weeks before the season premier of the new season of The Apprentice, Trump’s primetime show that airs on NBC.

I am sure that both the ratings of The View and The Apprentice grew in their numbers in hopes of viewers see-ing more confrontation between O’Donnell and Trump.

So, I applaud the two on their powers of persuasion and manipulation. But I beseech you; don’t become the average American rube who tunes in waiting for a fight. If you like either show, go ahead watch, it is a free country. But do not fall victim to the hype.

It seems that the only thing that attracts any atten-tion these days is controversy. It is always name calling, sex, violence, drugs, anorexia, etc. Do we really have that much free time? Do we really need to know where Lindsay Lohan was last Friday or how much Nicole Richie weighs? No.

There are tabloids, news channels, websites, and millions of blogs all dedicated to the slightest actions of the rich and famous. At one point, Gawker.com enabled people to send text messages to the website informing them of celebrity sightings. Then the name, place and time that the celebrity was there are posted to a Google Maps interface so users can easily discern when and where the celebrities were.

Who knew that being a celebrity came with its own personal GPS system?

Americans today are too involved in other peoples business. Why is it that we feel the urge to know so much about some kid in skintight jeans with a screechy high-pitched voice? I think everyone should take a step

back, turn off the television, power down their computer and enjoy the silence or nature maybe, if there is still any left.

author’s e-mail: mohamad.elbarasse@thea-blast.org

“I think its not a good idea because Saddam, Hussein is not there anymore to terrorize the people. They should be left alone to make up ther own govern-ment.”

—Fardousa Warderesophomore

“I think it’s a good that we are send-ing more people over to help the Iraqis. It’s also bad for our troops because it puts more of them in danger.”

—Elijah Sloan sophomore

“I think it might be better than doing nothing. I think it was a good idea to go to war, but I don’t think Bush handled it well.”

—Alex Shurtsjunior

America relearns Vietnam lessons

By Tim YuskavageBy Tim Yuskavage

Opinion

Tim’s Tim’s TakeTake

Wrongful executions In today’s cultivated and suppos-

edly progressive world, 68 countries still retain the death penalty. From these, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States are the only fully developed and democratic na-tions to implement the legal killing of humans.

Perhaps the most recent and publicized death penalty sentence was the execution of Saddam Hus-

sein on Dec. 30. The gruesome video of his hanging has been viewed close to 16 million times on Google Videos alone, but a simple web search will generate many more websites that boldly flaunt the 2 minute 36 second clip.

Fifty-two percent of people surveyed worldwide either support or are in favor of the death penalty, while 65 percent of people feel the same way in the United States, so maybe this sordid interest in executions and hangings is not shocking to some.

I for one, find it appalling, and am highly disgusted by the thought that people are entertained and amused by witnessing the death of another human being.

Hypocrisy. It’s the only word that can be used to describe the majority of the world’s thoughts and feelings towards capital punishment. When someone hears about someone else dying prematurely or being killed by a murderer, they tend to be horrified and think about how society is being overrun by killers. Yet, is not a supporter of capital penalty doing the same thing?

Encouraging the killing of a human beings is just the same as acting as the murderer yourself. How can you condemn assasins and then turn around and advocate the ending of lives? Taking a life is morally wrong, no matter how you try to spin it. The Saddam execution might or might not have been caught on video with an alterior motive, but just the same, it is repulsive that people find amusement by witnessing the humiliating end of a human being.

Legalizing murder and passing a bill to name it “capital punishment” does not change the fact that a life is being taken, and that another crime is being committed in retaliation for a past one. Irony is flaggrant in the justice that governments deliver when they find it morally right to punish the killer by becoming the killers themselves.

Religions all over the world consider the extermination of life a sin. If you are faithful in whatever religion you practice, you will be going against your faith by favoring capital punishment. No one should have the right to decide who should live and who should die. We did not create life, so we do not have the right to destroy it.

Furthermore, to people who strongly believe that capital punishment is the ultimate retribution—think deeper. When you sentence someone to death, you are relieving them of the daily struggles of life. No one truly knows what happens after death, so how can anyone be sure that death is the greatest punishment? Plus, there is always the chance

that the offender is not guilty or false documents have been provided. And that is not even an unreasonable chance. It has been proven that these mistakes have been made in the past. No one wants the risk or blame for this unforgivable blunder, so let us not take chances with human lives.

Rather, these felons would suffer and regret their crimes much more if they were imprisioned or made to undertake grueling work in service of their victim and victim’s families. Capital punishment almost seems like a reprive from facing the consequences of criminal actions.

So what are countries, states, and people trying to ahieve when they promote and assist the death penalty? Maybe we are not as modernized and advanced as we claim, as practices that were common in 1700 BC are still being followed today. Ancient civilizations used the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” statute to justify killing people as a form of punishment. Yet if everyone were to follow that principle, the world would be filled with one eyed individuals—and where’s the justice or logic in that? Yes, justice is said to be blind, but please do not take it literally.

author’s e-mail: shriya.adhikary@thea-blast.org

ShriyaShriya Says Says

By Shriya AdhikaryBy Shriya Adhikary

Opinion

Saddam Husseinʼs execution was caught on video by a cell phone camera and uploaded to the Internet for all to see.

O’Donnell and Trump go head to headMo’s Mo’s

MindsetMindsetBy Mohamad ElbarasseBy Mohamad Elbarasse

Opinion The Play-by-PlayDec. 20th: OʼDonnell calls Trump a

“snake-oil salesmen” and says he is bankrupt. Trump answers back by threats of filing suit against OʼDonnell.

Dec. 27th: OʼDonnell writes in her blog about talking bad about an emperor with an eratic comb-over.

Jan. 15th: OʼDonnell calls Trump a “comb-over bunny.” Trump says that OʼDonnell is a “slob” and a“degenerate.”

Jan. 16th: Trump releases a letter alleg-edly from Barbara Walters̓ that says OʼDonnell “wont̓ be here for long.”

Jan. 17th: Walters and OʼDonnell are shown on The View high-fiving each other and saying that Trump “cant̓ let go.” OʼDonnell added that she was “am happy to say his show tanked. So we can go back to things that are more important.”

What do you think about sending

20,000 more troops to Iraq?

All photos taken by Meredith Rutherford

“I don’t think that us being in Iraq is actually helping them, and I think we have already caused enough problems.”

—Sarah Lockesenior

Gay/Straight Alliance Club bill

killedOn January 17, a bill that would

require students to have a signed permission slip to join an extracur-ricular club failed by a tie vote. The bill that died on a 9-9 vote by the House Education Committee would require students who wanted acceptance in a gay club to have their parent’s permission.

Ridiculous, I know. The whole point of clubs such as the Gay-Straight Alliance is to protect the student’s privacy all the while provid-ing emotional support. Also, I don’t believe that students in high school, who should be mature enough to make their own decisions, should have to request the permission of their parents for everything they do.

Although parents have a right to know what their children are up to, they don’t necessarily need to things that their children aren’t ready to tell them that won’t aversely affect them.

—Mohamad Elbarasse

. . . his credibility is shaken; a recent Gallup poll showed that Bush is not trustworthy

“”

4 Jan. 23, 2007NEWS AtAA

BY DAVID SHERMAN

Co-Editor in Chief

The Alexandria police officer that shot and killed AHS alumnus Aaron Brown in the parking lot of the Interna-tional House of Pancakes on Duke Street on Feb. 25 has been suspended for three to 30 days.

Alexandria police officials announced on Jan. 2 that they have suspended Officer Carl Stowe, and that they are revising their policies on shooting at, and stepping in front of, moving vehicles.

The staff alerted Stowe, an off-duty officer at the IHOP, that six teenagers were suspected of leaving without paying their tab of $26. Stowe exited the restaurant to find the teenagers already in their car.

Stephen J. Smith, also an AHS alumnus and the driver of the Jeep, told investigators that Stowe kept moving in front of the vehicles path, like the two “were doing a dance.” Stowe said that he was standing in one of the narrow lanes within the IHOP parking lot and signaled the Jeep to stop. According to Stowe, the Jeep then swerved and looked to be heading straight for him.

Stowe stepped back and fired six shots in rapid succes-sion as the vehicle approached and then passed him. The bullet struck Brown in the upper left arm, entered his chest and pierced his lungs and heart.

Alexandria Police Chief David P. Baker met with Brown’s family on Jan. 2 to inform them of Stowe’s sus-pension. Baker told the Browns that, although he would

not face criminal charges for the shooting, Stowe would be suspended.

“We are pleased that Chief Baker has announced a new policy that strengthens the policy against policy of-ficers creating confrontations with moving vehicles,” said Jeff and Cheri Brown. “We hope this prevents needless other deaths.”

Alexandria already had a policy that prohibited police officers from firing at moving vehicles except when abso-lutely necessary. According to Lt. James Bartlett, that policy has been redefined. The policy now prohibits firing at a moving vehicle unless it is an ultimate last resort. Firing at or from a moving vehicle now must only be used “in the most extreme and exceptional circumstances when required to avoid the immediate and foreseeable danger of death or serious injury to police officers or other individu-als,” according to Bartlett.

Alexandria officers regard Stowe’s suspension as a ma-jor disciplinary action. Under Alexandria policies, the next step beyond a 30-day suspension is termination.

Jeff and Cheri Brown said in their statement that their son “would not have died if Office Stowe had followed his police department’s rules. He should not have put himself in front of a moving vehicle and should not have fired into a vehicle which he knew contained innocent passengers.”

It is still unknown whether or not the Brown’s will file a lawsuit against Alexandria for the death of their son.

AHS students participates in a Model U.N. competition and wins high distinctions

BY ALYSSA NAVARRETE

Co Editor-in-chief

Fifty-eight AHS students met on Jan. 12 with a mis-sion: to solve the world’s problems. Students traveled to Gar-field Senior High School to participate in the 2007 IB Model United Nations conference.

“Last year was the first conference we participated in,” said IB coordinator Erin Albright. “We were only on one committee and only took one teacher and about 15 kids.”

This year, AHS had a much larger impact on the confer-ence. With fifty-eight members attending, AHS was able to have members on all of the committees. Not only did AHS students attend, they dominated, taking home some of the top prizes available at the conference.

The awards that were won include “honorable delega-tion” and “outstanding delegation.” Ten AHS delegations received such distinctions. In addition, freshman Ben Wil-son was awarded the title of “best delegate” of the country Ukraine on the committee U.N. Development Program.

“It was just a great conference,” said Model UN sponsor Jonathan York. “It was a smaller conference, but the caliber of our delegates was outstanding.”

To prepare for the conference, students were given countries that they were expected to represent on specific committees. During this conference, committees were of-fered in three languages: English, French and Spanish.

“AHS had by far the largest delegation,” said history teacher John Hawes who attended the conference. “We were well repre-sented at every level and in all three languages, so we looked pretty good.”

The purpose of the confer-ence was two fold. First, it was to participate in a mock United Nations setting. This was so that students could learn how the real UN functions. Second, the program was designed to enhance the IB

program.

IB Model U.N. wins

Members of the Model UN participated in the IB MUN competition. Sophomore Emily Koppleman, far left, won Honorable delegate for representing Algeria.

BY GREG YOUNG

Staff Writer

On Jan. 8, the final sudoku tournament was held in the AHS cafeteria. The event was sponsered by the Math Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta.

The students were given one sudoku puzzle that was rated “hard with approxi-mately 45 minutes to finish it.

However, various people in the club admitted to making the puzzle easier to attract more people. Several of the students were able to finish before the 45 minute time limit and leave early.

“If we allowed the club members to compete, people would have thought that it was a conflict of interest,” said the math honor society president Tim Yuskavage.

The overall winner was senior Yvan Pham, followed by senior Ashuarya Ventak and junior Mohammad Elbarase.

‘Im excited that I won,” said Pham, “I praticed a lot to develop different stradegies to complete the puzzles.”

The remarkable thing about Pham win-ning is that she only started completeing

sudoku’s about six months ago, defeating students who had been doing sudokus for at least one year.

Sudoku is a number game that was created in Japan about 20 years ago. It has exploded in popularity in the United States, where books full of sudoku puzzles have filled store shelves and newspapers publish the puzzles daily. The puzzle in-volves filling in a nine by nine chart with the numbers that are given. The amount

of numbers that are given and the placement of the numbers that are given determines the difficulty of the puzzle.

This will be the final sudoku tournament of the year. Atten-dence at these tournaments have not been stellar.

“While he [Mr. Evens] men-tioned the idea, we were really the

people that took the idea and ran with it,” said Yuskavage.

Though this is the last sudoku tourna-ment of the year, club members are hoping to continue the tournaments next year.

“It has definetly created exposure for the math honor society,” said junior Jeremy Hsu, “I hope we can do this again next year.”

Officer suspended in Brown case

PTSA held membership competitionLow student participation in the PTSA leads to a raffle drawing for a bistro lunch

BY CAROLINE MERZ

Staff Writer

The AHS PTSA membership has been lacking this year, so a contest was held to help spur membership.

The contest was available to all students, teachers and parents. Membership flyers were handed out to teachers during their flex period and the teacher with the highest percentage of new members to the PTSA would win a free lunch at Annandale’s Bistro. Membership forms were due on Jan. 5 for eligibility in the contest.

So why does the PTSA want increased membership? They have but one goal which is, working for the school. Each year they set a goal of raising $50,000 to support educational, social and professional development activities at Annandale High School. Additionally, they aim to provide a communications network for the AHS community according to The Courier, the newsletter of the PTSA. All of the money and fundraisers go directly to student and teachers for supplies, events, and scholarships. By advertising with a contest and free meal at the Bistro, the PTSA hope to attract more members and strengthen their basis for the organization. Mr. Shapiro’s class was the class that had the highest percentage of student members to join.

In addition, the PTSA serves as an information guide for its members, especially parents who are sometimes unable to access from information at AHS. Awareness was another key aspect to this contest.

“The fact that a man like Mr. Shapiro was able to get the students enthusiastic about becoming members was a huge success [for the organization],” said fundraising supervi-sor Cary F.Vu.

Unfortunately, the contest only brought a modest increase to the PTSA’s membership. The number of parent members remained about the same prior to the contest. Student membership is down 30 percent from last year, and teacher membership is still down 40% from last year. President Jackie Hess still considered the contest a success.

“Some things just build,” said Hess, “this was our first time trying something like this and it ran pretty smoothly, maybe if we do it next year it will be an even greater success.”

“We’re trying to get everyone under the same umbrella,” said Vu. The PTSA has many plans for the future. First, they plan on finding a way to bring

all boosters (organizations) together like sports, music, and drama. Second, more fundraisers are being planned. Current fundraisers include

the inkjet and cell phone drive, and coming in March, flower and bulb sales. They are also working on planning a student marathon.

Their third part of their plan includes reaching out to the community. The PTSA is looking for support across-the-board, especially including teachers. The PTSA has $6,000 for teacher funds but has only distributed $1,000 due to few requests by teachers, mainly because they are unaware of what resources

they have, according to Vu.“I think there are only about 60-65 teachers who are members [of the PTSA], which

is ridiculous considering there are 200 or more staff members in the whole school,” said teacher representative Linda Slesinger. Slesinger described how the PTSA works for the teachers and it would be in their best interest to join. Part of the PTSA mission is to support Annandale High School faculty and administration in carrying out the mission of Annandale High School.

Adopt-a-landmineBY RACHAEL BURNETT

Staff Writer

A landmine claims a new victim every 22 minutes, a third of whom are children and 80 percent of whom are civilians. The AHS Student Government Asso-ciation (SGA) is working to help remove landmines and spread awarnesss throughout the community. The SGA collected money during all lunches and at basketball games. At the basketball game on Jan. 16, the school collected only $70, follow-ing short of their $5,000 goal. All the donations recieved will be used to help save lives and remove landmines in Ethiopia.

The SGA is trying to collect a total of $5,000. It costs approximatly five dol-lars to put a landmine in the ground, but a total of three hundred to one thousand dollars to remove one landmine.

Senior John Chu is in leadership and said “I feel it’s a good cause that is why I choose to be on ths committee and try to help out all the people who suffered.”

The money is not only being used to

remove the land mines but also going to help those suffering from the injuries. Ad-ditionally, countries in poverty are having trouble to support the new technology needed to help with these issues. “Four to five thousand dollars is a lot of money, is not practical for this issue becuase removing landmines expesive, however I think its

a good effort” said senior Josh Miller.

The SGA is worried about not getting enough money to help out because of high expenses.

Health teacher Ga-briel Romano says that he hopes this project suc-ceeds, and that hopefully in a few years technology will be able to remove these landmines instead of people being threat-ened. “My whole class was moved by this and

it is very touching to see these innocent people losing limbs. I back this effort one hundred percent”.

The SGA is very pleased with their efforts and is not just trying to recieve a lot of money, but to raise awarness among students so that in the future they will be well informed.

NEWS BRIEFS

COUR

TESY

OF

THE

BROW

NʼS

Science National Honor Society

The following students met the qualifications for the Science National Honor Society

Nita AvarySeemal AwanKyung ChoiArlene ChungSahar GaniWilliam GibsonKelsey GrantYamen HamaMarie HanDana HardbowerKathryn JanssenWafa KhadraouiAh-Ram KimTina LeBen LordOmar MayassiJosh MillerReema NazAmanda NguyenDiem NguyenLinda Than NguyenTruc Anh NguyenY-Van PhamAbdullah RahmanyarBethlhem TeshomeMichelle TranJonah WilliamsNausheen Yusuf

Maureen Bunyan to be 2007 Graduation Speaker

ABC-7 news anchor Maureen Bun-yan has been announced as the gradua-tion speaker for the class of 2007. Bunyan will speak at the graduation ceremony that will be held on June 13 at D.A.R Constitution hall.

Bunyan has been a primary news anchor for ABC-7 News since 1999. Prior to this, she held jobs at numerous other news organizations. Bunyan is also the founder of two journalism organizations: the National Association of Black Journalists and the International Women’s Media Foundation.

In order to get someone of Bunyan’s caliber as the graduation speakers, the senior class officers began looking for a speaker at the end of the 2006 school year.

Senior class vice president Rachel Navarrete is responsible for getting Bu-nyan as the graduation speaker for the 2007 commencement ceremonies.

“My grandpa has been a journalist for years,” Navarrete said. “I knew that he had a lot of friends in the journalism business who would be willing to speak at graduation and he immediately sug-gested Maureen Bunyan.”

Navarrete and the other senior class officers sent a letter to Bunyan request-ing her as the 2007 graduation speaker. She accepted the offer immediately.

COUR

TESY

OF

NICO

LE S

WIG

ER

Aaron Brown was shot last Feb. 25 in parking lot of an IHOP.

Hama

Janssen

Tuberculosis scareIn November, the AHS public

health nurse notified school officials that a student had tested positive for tuberculosis.

The AHS public health nurse, along with Fairfax County Health Department officials, met with Dean of Students Rebecca Julca, Director of Student Services Steve Sengstack, and Principal John Ponton to discuss and review recommended protocol.

Based upon extensive interviews with the affected student, who cannot be identified due to confidentiality, Health Department officials were able to determine individuals that were in daily contact with the student. Those individuals have since been contacted and have been apprised of the neces-sary steps they should take.

“If you have not been contacted, you were not identified as an individual who had regular daily exposure to the affected student,” said Ponton in a state-ment to the AHS faculty.

A person must be exposed to TB germs for an extended period of time, usually in an enclosed area, to be in-fected. A person is infected with TB by breathing in TB germs that are spread when a person with active TB coughs, sings, shouts or sneezes, according to the Health Department.

If a person tests positive for TB, this does not necessarily mean that you are sick or contagious, it only means that you have been exposed to it. A positive TB skin test means that you should see your doctor of Health Department for further testing immediately.

Despite common belief that testing positive for TB is fatal, the disease is treatable. The prescription medication given for TB, called INH, is given to persons who test positive for TB before they are even ill. The prescription, which is in pill form, must be taken every day for six to twelve months.

However, if the disease is not treated or properly diagnosed and treated, one can develop a serious health problem. Signs and symptoms for TB include the following: loss of weight, coughing (especially coughing up mucus or blood), feeling weak, sweating at night, loss of appetite, chest pains, or a fever that lasts longer than a week.

—David Sherman Co-Editor in chief

Sudoku tournament held

Bunyan

Victims suffer from lost append-ages due to landmine accidents.

5NEWSAtAAJan. 23, 2007

“Immigration” continued from page 1“The education is very different here,”

he said. “I learned English here, when I was in my country I didn’t know English at all.”

Mamo added that the education he gets in America could help him if he ever decided to move back to Ethiopia.

“Education here is so important be-cause if you learn in the U.S. and then go back to my country you can work anywhere,” Mamo said.

Though he believes an American education could benefit him if he decided to move back to Ethiopia when he gets older, Mamo plans to stay in the U.S. for the rest of his life. His ultimate goal is to become a famous soccer player.

“My favorite thing is soccer because in my country I used to play soccer,” Mamo said. “In my country I won three awards [for soccer].”

The awards that Mamo won include “best player” and two awards for the most goals scored in one game (12 and

14). While living in Ethiopia, Mamo said he spent the majority of his free time playing soccer on a local team and with his friends.

When he arrived at AHS last year, Mamo was immediately attracted to the school’s soccer team.

“Last year I tried out and I passed my physical and try outs,” said Mamo. “But since I was new, I didn’t have any grades so I couldn’t play.”

However, after spending more time at AHS, Mamo now meets the grade requirements, and plans to try out for the team in the spring.

Overall, Mamo has enjoyed the tran-sition to the United States. He feels as though the opportunities for things such as education, athletics and careers are much better in the United States.

“To me, the U.S. is the biggest, it changes people’s lives,” Mamo said. “In Ethiopia there’s war, no democracy and we don’t have good leaders. Things are so different here.”

Coach and teacher Earl Gill served AHS for 46 years

BY RICHARD MCCORMACK

Special to The A-Blast

Long-time Annandale High School teacher and golf coach Earl Gill died on Sunday, Jan. 7 of liver failure. Gill, 73, was a teacher at Annandale for 31 years, from 1958 until 1989. After that, he worked with the AHS golf team for an additional 15 years, starting in 1990 and finally retiring in 2004 at the age of 71. Gill was a sweet, caring, patient and dedicated man.

As a coach, he committed himself fully to the mem-bers of the golf team. He did some amazing things for the team. When the team went to Patriot District matches, he would use his own money to buy buckets of range balls in order for the players to warm up before teeing off. Throughout the season, he was always buy-ing players lunch, snacks and dinners whenever the team went to tournaments or on overnight trips, and he never thought twice about being reimbursed. He drove players literally thousands of miles every season, and never asked for a dime for gasoline.

One time, a team member wasn’t dressed properly and the pro at the private country club asked him to leave the premises prior to the start of a match. Coach

Gill drove the player to a clothing store and purchased the “proper” attire. They returned a half-hour later with the player looking snappy, ready to tee off. Coach Gill did something else that was entirely unique: he never cut a single player. This was not an easy thing to do, but he had a philosophy of inclusion rather than exclusion. Most teams keep only the top 10 or 11 best players. Everybody else is told to go home. Some years, the Annandale golf team had more than 30 players.

Ask any golfer how hard it is to get a tee time in the Washington area, and they’ll tell you that it’s dif-ficult. Now imagine getting 10 consecutive tee times. Hundreds of AHS students were able to learn how to play golf and play at some of the most exclusive country clubs in the area thanks to Coach Gill.

Prior to being a teacher at Annandale, Coach Earl Gill was a member of the Marine Corps and fought in the Korean War, though he possessed not a single quality of a warrior. He was a sincerely nice man. He didn’t carry a grudge. He didn’t judge people. He never swore. Never had a fit. He never spoke ill of any one at any time. He was quick to volunteer. He treated every-one he met -- especially his students -- with respect and honor. He was buried with full military honors at the Quantico National Cemetery. For 46 years, Earl Gill made Annandale High School a better place.

-- Richard McCormack coached golf with Earl Gill for nine years, from 1996 to 2004.

NEWS BRIEFS

Hey SEC,I have a problem. My two friends

got into a fight and are giving each other the silent treatment. I re-ally would want them to be friends again. I’ve waited to see if time would do something. It’s been a while. What should I do? Should I be the middle man and try giving them advice back and forth to each other? But what if they end up hating me?

Sincerely, Stuck in the Middle

Dear Stuck in the Middle,I see how you can be considering both

options. My first advice to you is, if you’re not involved in it, try not to be. Let them work it out by themselves. If they can’t and you don’t feel comfortable choosing between one or the other, let them know. I don’t think being a “middle man” will help because usually things are misunderstood and lost in translation. This will also only cause you to be more hectic. If you can get them two to talk about it, that would be just fine. Don’t get stuck in the middle! Good luck! Sincerely,

The SEC

If you have an ethical dilemma and would like advice on how to handle the situation, submit your questions to layluma.hotaki@thea-blast.org. All sub-missions will be confidential.

A magical night on Broadway “Desserts” continued from page 1

fun songs with your friends in a group,” said senior Erika Rodden.

Preparing for an event as big as this should take a long time, but actually, auditions, dress rehearsals, and the performance takes about ten days.

“The preparation time from auditions to performance is less than two weeks, which is an incredibly short time to prepare a program like this,” said Dixon.

However, students take time outside of school to rehearse their selected pieces with private voice teachers and the other members of their groups.

“This year I had six pieces to prepare for Broadway Desserts,” said Rodden. “It was a challenge to find enough available rehersal time.”

This was the twelth annual Broadway Des-serts production, all of which have been held at the George Mason University Center for the Performing Arts.

“AHS has been presenting Broadway Des-serts ever since 1995, my second year here,” said Dixon.

Having the GMU facilities draws more

people to the event because it is off school grounds and there is more space for the in-creasing crowds.

“Overall we sold 808 tickets. There was a slight increase from last year,” said Dixon. The increasing ticket sales reflect the students’ and community’s increasing interest in this cabaret showcase.

“The show is so well received because every-one likes Broadway music,” Dixon said. “It’s easy to understand and it’s fun.”

Immigration stories“Academic” continued from page 1

region.The Atoms team was made up of four

seniors: Tim Yus-kavage, Chirssy Osipchak, Alyssa Degner-Lopez and Marie Han. According to Sala-dino, Yuskavage was the highest scoring member of the team.

“I’m re-ally proud of our team, the entire experience is re-ally amazing,” said Degner-Lopez. “We were kind of the under dogs, and being able to place well against all these different schools is pretty amazing.”

While many people associate the “It’s

Academic” team with the NBC-4 show It’s Academic, this event was not videotaped for television.

“We have a taping [for the show] on Feb. 10 at NBC-4 studios,” said Saladino. “We’ll compete against Oxen Hill High School and Woodrow Wilson High School.”

“We’re looking for-ward to going on the show in a few weeks,” said Degner-Lopez. “We’re hoping to do as well there too.”

Overall, the It’s Aca-demic tournament was a huge success for the AHS team.

“I am so amazed that we made it that far and did as well

as we did,” said Saladino. “I think it’s awe-some.”

Valentines Day approaches

“Valentine’s Day” continued from page 1Valentine’s. As of publication, songs had not been finalized but it was expected that the Men’s Chorale would sing “Blue Moon”, the Annandale Singers would perform “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You”, and the Women’s Ensemble would sing “When I Fall in Love”. Songs cost $3 to buy and will be sung to whomever—in-cluding teachers.

The culinary students are a new addition to the avail-able goods on Valentine’s Day. Starting on Jan. 22, cakes go on sale until Feb 2. A white 8” round cake with a pink heart detail is $5, a pink 8” heart shaped cake is $7.

“It’s a wonderful way for students to share with each other,” said head chef Christine Gloninge. This “sharing” comes in the form of messages written on the cakes. The options of messages range from “I love you” to “Your secret Admirer” and are available in Spanish. Personalized messages are a $2 extra charge. Cakes will be available after school on Feb. 14 outside the cafeteria, or available for pick up in the Bistro after lunch on the same day.

Whether this Valentine’s Day is spent with friends or with a partner, AHS is doing its best to make sure that everyone has several options for making this day special.

Coach Earl Gill, left, poses with the 1992 Golf team. Gill taught at AHS for 31 years, and coached for an additional 15 after that, finally retiring in 2004.

Sophomore Whitney Ackridge performs her solo, “Light in the Piazza” from the musical Light in the Piazza.

‘It’s Academic’ wins

By Layluma HotakiBy Layluma Hotaki

Ethics Advice

EthicallyEthicallySpeakingSpeaking

AHS teacher nominated for teacher of the year

Brain Dunnell, a lead teacher for the Student Acheivement Model (S.A.M.) program, was nominated by the PTSA for the Fairfax County Public School Teacher of the Year

2007 and The Washing-ton Post Agnes Meyer

Award. From every Fairfax County school one teacher is nominated, and Dunnell is the AHS nominee for the award.

“I’m honored and humbled. I’m hum-bled because there are so many teachers in this school who deserve this. But this is my 15 minutes. I’m very excited,” said Dunnell.

Sweetz cheesecake saleCOE students are selling cheesecake

until Jan. 24. The cheesecakse will be delivered before Valentine’s Day. If you can’t find a COE student, contact Monica Bentley in room 223.

Atoms decal saleStatic clings with the atoms logo are on

sale for $2. Clings will be sold at lunches, basketball games, on teacher workdays, and at PTSA meetings. With the purchase of a cling, a ticket is entered in a raffle, to be announced at the basketbal game on Feb. 2. Prizes include a portable CD/Radio and a home entertainment system.

Parent Outreach ClassesSchool to community outreach pro-

grams are being held throughout Feb and March. Vida Sanchez is the coordinator who has scheduled the following programs:Learning the Basics of using a computer: A beginners class for Hispanic parents; Get-ting to know AHS; Immigrant parent sup-port group: Session #1; Parent leadership classes. Dates and Times to be announced. Contact Vida Sanchez for more info at (703) 642-4270 or at vida.sanchez@fcps.edu.

Dunnell

Former golf coach dies

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All Night Grad Party tickets on sale, volunteers needed

Plans for the annual all night grad party, held immediately following the se-nior graduation ceremony, are underway. In order for this event to be successful, tick-ets must be sold in advance, and parents must volunteer to help.

The party is designed to give seniors a fun, safe and substance free celebration to congratulate them on their accomplish-ment.

To prepare for and put on the event, it takes over 200 volunteers. The PTSA, which is sponsoring the event, encourages freshman, sophomore and junior parents to volunteer to help out because the parents of seniors are often busy with other gradu-ation preparations.

Volunteers are needed in all areas: ticket sales, set-up/decorating, carnival games, casino games, pool activities, prizes, security, food and clean up.

For more information on how to volunteer, contact Nicole Bracken or the PTSA.

Students enrolled in the Freedom of Expression program, sponsored by the Freedom Forum visited AHS Jan. 16. Students were from Azerbaijan, Jordan and Tajikistan. Students came to the publications lab to learn about student publications, took a walking tour of the school and ate lunch at the Bistro.

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Itʼs Academic sponsor Meghan Saladino is “amazed” the team made it so far.

AHS choosen for Nations report card

AHS has been selected to participate in the 2007 National Assessment of Edu-cational Pregress (NAEP). This assess-ment will take place on Feb. 6. A random sample of seniors will be selected to take a 90 minute test consisting of subject-area questions and background information. results will not be announced except for on a regional, state and national level. For more information visit http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard.

Junior Derrick Elmore and senior Erika Rodden perform “Buddy Blues” from the musical Follies.

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7ACADEMICSAtAAJan. 23, 2007

“I think that everyone can improve, and if the students gave the teach-ers an A it would be unrealistic because there would be no

room for improvement. I see lots of profes-sionalism in the teaching staff here at AHS. I think a C is a little harsh because in the Math department I see a lot of effort from the teach-ers. I think students should give teachers a chance to finish the year before giving them a grade. It’s like grading your coach before the season ends.”

A survey of over 400 students in B, C and D lunches was conducted to find out students’ thoughts on different aspects of AHS. Students were given the opportunity to grade various facets of our school in a unique role rever-sal, where the normally graded became the graders.

The survey asked students to give a letter grade, A through F, to these aspects of AHS: teaching staff, food and cafeteria, sports programs, administration, school facilities, clubs and extracurricular activities, school ac-tivities such as dances and pep rallies, and technology.

The responses were calculated in two different ways to come up with overall grades for each aspect. The first way grades were found was by recognizing the most fre-quent responses, or the mode. For instance, the teaching staff received 33 As, 141 Bs, 119 Cs, 33 Ds, and 53 Fs. The most frequent response was a B, so this would be the overall grade for teaching staff using this method. This system is used in the graphic below.

The second way of calculating the data was more complicated. Grade point average was used to determine the average grade that the aspect would receive. Every A counted for four points, every B for three points, and so on. An F received zero points. The number of points was added up and then divided by the total number of responses to determine the average GPA, which was then converted into a letter grade.

According to the first method of calculation every

aspect had a B as the most frequent response except for the food and cafeteria and school activities such as dances and pep rallies, which both received Cs. According to the second method, every aspect had an average of a C except for sports, which had a C+, and school food and school activities, which both had D+s. Throughout the entire survey, 411 As were given, 1,004, 834 Cs, 418 Ds and 437 Fs were given out.

The aspect of AHS that students rated the highest was the sports programs. The sports programs average GPA was 2.7, a high C+. It received the most As and Bs, and the least Cs, Ds, and Fs. The aspect of the school that got the lowest rating was the school food which received the highest number of Ds and Fs and the least number of As.

“My overall reaction to the survey is that it under-evaluates, but my feeling is that even if we are doing well we can always do better. We just have to look for ways to continue to improve in all those areas,” said principal John Ponton. “Before I applied for this job there were a lot of people that said a lot of negative things about Annandale, and so one thing we’ve tried to do is to dispel the negative perception of this school and I think we’ve taken a lot of strides there. For every one or two complaints or concerns I get, I probably get ten positive things said about this school.”

An interesting thing found through the survey is that freshman gave the school an overall 2.5 GPA, which is a C+, whereas the seniors gave the school a 1.9 GPA ,which is a D+. Sophomores gave the school a 2.2, a C, and the

juniors gave it a 2.1, also a C. This downward trend in approval is obvious according to the survey.

“After four years of the same routine you just get tired of it,” said senior Trevor Daggle. “Ninth graders like it more because it’s a big step up from middle school. There are more friends to make, more opportunities

and more freedom. But school loses its excitement. It’s just repetitive. By your senior year you are ready for the transition to college.”

“Freshmen are excited to start something new,” said freshmen An-nika Jessen. “We don’t know all the bad things yet, and we haven’t been here long enough to get tired of it.”

According to Jessen, it’s the sports that make high school more appealing. “All the seniors are used to it by now, but it’s new to us.”

“I think the graduating seniors, they’ve been through the ringer. In their time here they’ve had multiple principals, the school was under renovation, so they dealt with a lot of uncomfortable things. They are at the end of the line,” said Ponton.

This survey, though not flawless or entirely scien-tific, does present a basic idea of the students attitude toward their school. A students’ perspective is certainly not the most accurate indicator of how a school is actu-ally doing.

“In my year and a half here, I see things every day that never cease to amaze me about the students, facil-ity, custodians, support staff, parents, and things that are going on in the community. I think we have a really good thing going here,” said Ponton.

“I would give the cafeteria a C. I think that part of the reason is because our menu does not change, it’s a 4 week cycle. I think that the students are bored, although the quality of the food is pretty good. We have 40% of reduced lunch kids and we are trying to keep a good inventory. It’s a guessing game with student choices.”

My overall reaction to the survey is that it under-evaluates . . .

“—John Ponton

principal”

Students grade AHSSurvey says students’ attitudes toward AHS depends on grade level

BY CASON KYNES

Academics Editor

Teaching Staff

“The teaching staff deserves a B be-cause if I gave them an A that would be too flawless and many of my teachers are not perfect. A high B is a good grade because they go above and be-yond to help the stu-

dents learn. Some of the teachers don’t trust the students enought but you can’t blame them because most students are not trust worthy. Most of the teachers seem to really care about the students. They want them to get into college. The foreign language teachers could do a little bit more to help me learn. Some teachers have too high of expectations for students. Overall, the teachers do a really good job,” said Max Augliere, sophomore.

B/C

“I think that the administration deserves a B because they’re not really good and they’re not really bad. They are average for me. I don’t really like how they patrol the halls and roam around the school, but I think that they do a good job because I feel safe at school. My opinion of the administration would change in a positive way if the administration organized more

school related activities. They should allow the students to have more spirit weeks and other school sponsored events. In general, I’m saying that the administartion is not as good as it could be, but not bad,” said Jen Oakes, freshman.

Administration B/C

Cafeteria Manager

Athletic Director“A C+ is just a

little better than av-erage, but our sports programs are way above average. It makes us feel proud because relative to

the other grades the sports programs did well. Our training department is excellent, and our coaches provide many services to the athletes. The sports department does a great job of connecting with the entire AHS population. The booster club has helped the sports programs a lot.”

In their own words

Teaching Staff

C/D+

Administrator“It is hard for me to give a response to this grade. It is unfair because if you asked ten people to elaborate you would get ten different an-swers. Students may disagree with the decisions that administra-tors make.”

Food and Cafeteria

“The school lunch deserves a C because it’s not very appealling, but it’s still edible. I don’t want to bring my own lunch, so its good to have food provided. Sometimes I get tired of having the same food every day. Lots of times its overcooked or too greasy. They could put more effort into how it is prepared to

improve it. Sometimes people don’t clean up after themselves in the cafeteria, and those little speeches people make on the microphones can be re-ally annoying. People cut too much in line. There needs to be more order. The food is cheap, which is a good thing,” said Teddy Oh, sophomore.

C/D+ Clubs andExtracurricularActivities

“I think that the clubs at AHS are good but not great. I think that the clubs could do a better job at advertising their club to get new mem-bers. I’m in DECA, the snowboard interest club and model U.N. I

think that they all deserve a grade of a B. Sometimes I don’t go to the meetings, but I think that they all deserve a good grade. I like clubs because they help me get into college, so they can’t be that bad,” said Matt Ashford, junior.

B/C

School Activities

School Facilities

“Our school facilities are pretty good. The biggest problem is that it is too small. It was made a long time ago and built to fit a lot less people than there are now. A few kids stand-ing in the hallway can block the way. I like the new fields with bermuda grass. The front of the building looks a lot nicer now, after the renova-

tion. People are not treating the school with respect. The school is too small, but thats the only thing I don’t like. Compared to other schools the gym is not as nice. The up-stairs gym was awful before the renovation, now it is nice,” said Dae Hwan Kim, senior.

B/C

Sports Programs

“The sports programs deserve a B because they actu-ally know what they are doing. The jerseys and gyms are new and better than most schools around. They don’t deserve an A because they are not succeeding. The coaches are doing an OK job, some better than oth-ers. A lot of people are involved in

sports, which means that a lot of people enjoy them. The programs are exceeding in getting kids involved. Its not organized very well, the practices are not at set times. Football did a good job by working hard and win-ning the district. I would improve the sports programs by having more practices and making the ath-letes more committed,” said Taimoor Bhatti, sophomore.

B/C+

Bruce Fisher

Technology

“Overall, we have nice computers here. The technology area has all new computers which are really nice. A few classes have smart boards so the notes can be posted on the Internet. That way I don’t have to take notes in my math class. Our security system is up to date. To im-

prove our technology, I would replace some of the older com-puters with new ones. Students should all have laptops and wireless internet like T. C. Williams. Better scoreboards like South County with graphics would be cool. But this school is cheap so we can’t do any of the stuff I just mentioned,” said Rory O’Connor, senior.

B/C

Taimoor Bhatti

Conny Schiller

Max Augliere

Teddy Oh

Rory OʼConnor

Dae Hwan Kim

“I think that

the school activities deserve a grade of a C. I haven’t seen a Pep Rally at AHS yet because this is my first year. I was really disappointed when it was canceled and it wasn’t reschel-duled. I need to be able to show my school pride. I’m looking forward to the next Pep Rally, but I wanted to see the one in the fall, too. Also, I think that the dances need work. The administrators need to relax at the dances. They need to have less lights at the dances and get better music,” said Logan Miller, freshman.

Jen Oakes Matt Ashford

Logan Miller

Chemistry teacher Ms. Morgan

Jamie Carayiannis

Angelo Hilios

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Mode Mean Mode Mean

Mode Mean

Mode Mean

Mode Mean

Mode Mean

Mode Mean

Mode Mean

Mode: most frequent response

Mean: average of all responses

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7ACADEMICSAtAAJan. 23, 2007

“I think that everyone can improve, and if the students gave the teach-ers an A it would be unrealistic because there would be no

room for improvement. I see lots of profes-sionalism in the teaching staff here at AHS. I think a C is a little harsh because in the Math department I see a lot of effort from the teach-ers. I think students should give teachers a chance to finish the year before giving them a grade. It’s like grading your coach before the season ends.”

A survey of over 400 students in B, C and D lunches was conducted to find out students’ thoughts on different aspects of AHS. Students were given the opportunity to grade various facets of our school in a unique role rever-sal, where the normally graded became the graders.

The survey asked students to give a letter grade, A through F, to these aspects of AHS: teaching staff, food and cafeteria, sports programs, administration, school facilities, clubs and extracurricular activities, school ac-tivities such as dances and pep rallies, and technology.

The responses were calculated in two different ways to come up with overall grades for each aspect. The first way grades were found was by recognizing the most fre-quent responses, or the mode. For instance, the teaching staff received 33 As, 141 Bs, 119 Cs, 33 Ds, and 53 Fs. The most frequent response was a B, so this would be the overall grade for teaching staff using this method. This system is used in the graphic below.

The second way of calculating the data was more complicated. Grade point average was used to determine the average grade that the aspect would receive. Every A counted for four points, every B for three points, and so on. An F received zero points. The number of points was added up and then divided by the total number of responses to determine the average GPA, which was then converted into a letter grade.

According to the first method of calculation every

aspect had a B as the most frequent response except for the food and cafeteria and school activities such as dances and pep rallies, which both received Cs. According to the second method, every aspect had an average of a C except for sports, which had a C+, and school food and school activities, which both had D+s. Throughout the entire survey, 411 As were given, 1,004, 834 Cs, 418 Ds and 437 Fs were given out.

The aspect of AHS that students rated the highest was the sports programs. The sports programs average GPA was 2.7, a high C+. It received the most As and Bs, and the least Cs, Ds, and Fs. The aspect of the school that got the lowest rating was the school food which received the highest number of Ds and Fs and the least number of As.

“My overall reaction to the survey is that it under-evaluates, but my feeling is that even if we are doing well we can always do better. We just have to look for ways to continue to improve in all those areas,” said principal John Ponton. “Before I applied for this job there were a lot of people that said a lot of negative things about Annandale, and so one thing we’ve tried to do is to dispel the negative perception of this school and I think we’ve taken a lot of strides there. For every one or two complaints or concerns I get, I probably get ten positive things said about this school.”

An interesting thing found through the survey is that freshman gave the school an overall 2.5 GPA, which is a C+, whereas the seniors gave the school a 1.9 GPA ,which is a D+. Sophomores gave the school a 2.2, a C, and the

juniors gave it a 2.1, also a C. This downward trend in approval is obvious according to the survey.

“After four years of the same routine you just get tired of it,” said senior Trevor Daggle. “Ninth graders like it more because it’s a big step up from middle school. There are more friends to make, more opportunities

and more freedom. But school loses its excitement. It’s just repetitive. By your senior year you are ready for the transition to college.”

“Freshmen are excited to start something new,” said freshmen An-nika Jessen. “We don’t know all the bad things yet, and we haven’t been here long enough to get tired of it.”

According to Jessen, it’s the sports that make high school more appealing. “All the seniors are used to it by now, but it’s new to us.”

“I think the graduating seniors, they’ve been through the ringer. In their time here they’ve had multiple principals, the school was under renovation, so they dealt with a lot of uncomfortable things. They are at the end of the line,” said Ponton.

This survey, though not flawless or entirely scien-tific, does present a basic idea of the students attitude toward their school. A students’ perspective is certainly not the most accurate indicator of how a school is actu-ally doing.

“In my year and a half here, I see things every day that never cease to amaze me about the students, facil-ity, custodians, support staff, parents, and things that are going on in the community. I think we have a really good thing going here,” said Ponton.

“I would give the cafeteria a C. I think that part of the reason is because our menu does not change, it’s a 4 week cycle. I think that the students are bored, although the quality of the food is pretty good. We have 40% of reduced lunch kids and we are trying to keep a good inventory. It’s a guessing game with student choices.”

My overall reaction to the survey is that it under-evaluates . . .

“—John Ponton

principal”

Students grade AHSSurvey says students’ attitudes toward AHS depends on grade level

BY CASON KYNES

Academics Editor

Teaching Staff

“The teaching staff deserves a B be-cause if I gave them an A that would be too flawless and many of my teachers are not perfect. A high B is a good grade because they go above and be-yond to help the stu-

dents learn. Some of the teachers don’t trust the students enought but you can’t blame them because most students are not trust worthy. Most of the teachers seem to really care about the students. They want them to get into college. The foreign language teachers could do a little bit more to help me learn. Some teachers have too high of expectations for students. Overall, the teachers do a really good job,” said Max Augliere, sophomore.

B/C

“I think that the administration deserves a B because they’re not really good and they’re not really bad. They are average for me. I don’t really like how they patrol the halls and roam around the school, but I think that they do a good job because I feel safe at school. My opinion of the administration would change in a positive way if the administration organized more

school related activities. They should allow the students to have more spirit weeks and other school sponsored events. In general, I’m saying that the administartion is not as good as it could be, but not bad,” said Jen Oakes, freshman.

Administration B/C

Cafeteria Manager

Athletic Director“A C+ is just a

little better than av-erage, but our sports programs are way above average. It makes us feel proud because relative to

the other grades the sports programs did well. Our training department is excellent, and our coaches provide many services to the athletes. The sports department does a great job of connecting with the entire AHS population. The booster club has helped the sports programs a lot.”

In their own words

Teaching Staff

C/D+

Administrator“It is hard for me to give a response to this grade. It is unfair because if you asked ten people to elaborate you would get ten different an-swers. Students may disagree with the decisions that administra-tors make.”

Food and Cafeteria

“The school lunch deserves a C because it’s not very appealling, but it’s still edible. I don’t want to bring my own lunch, so its good to have food provided. Sometimes I get tired of having the same food every day. Lots of times its overcooked or too greasy. They could put more effort into how it is prepared to

improve it. Sometimes people don’t clean up after themselves in the cafeteria, and those little speeches people make on the microphones can be re-ally annoying. People cut too much in line. There needs to be more order. The food is cheap, which is a good thing,” said Teddy Oh, sophomore.

C/D+ Clubs andExtracurricularActivities

“I think that the clubs at AHS are good but not great. I think that the clubs could do a better job at advertising their club to get new mem-bers. I’m in DECA, the snowboard interest club and model U.N. I

think that they all deserve a grade of a B. Sometimes I don’t go to the meetings, but I think that they all deserve a good grade. I like clubs because they help me get into college, so they can’t be that bad,” said Matt Ashford, junior.

B/C

School Activities

School Facilities

“Our school facilities are pretty good. The biggest problem is that it is too small. It was made a long time ago and built to fit a lot less people than there are now. A few kids stand-ing in the hallway can block the way. I like the new fields with bermuda grass. The front of the building looks a lot nicer now, after the renova-

tion. People are not treating the school with respect. The school is too small, but thats the only thing I don’t like. Compared to other schools the gym is not as nice. The up-stairs gym was awful before the renovation, now it is nice,” said Dae Hwan Kim, senior.

B/C

Sports Programs

“The sports programs deserve a B because they actu-ally know what they are doing. The jerseys and gyms are new and better than most schools around. They don’t deserve an A because they are not succeeding. The coaches are doing an OK job, some better than oth-ers. A lot of people are involved in

sports, which means that a lot of people enjoy them. The programs are exceeding in getting kids involved. Its not organized very well, the practices are not at set times. Football did a good job by working hard and win-ning the district. I would improve the sports programs by having more practices and making the ath-letes more committed,” said Taimoor Bhatti, sophomore.

B/C+

Bruce Fisher

Technology

“Overall, we have nice computers here. The technology area has all new computers which are really nice. A few classes have smart boards so the notes can be posted on the Internet. That way I don’t have to take notes in my math class. Our security system is up to date. To im-

prove our technology, I would replace some of the older com-puters with new ones. Students should all have laptops and wireless internet like T. C. Williams. Better scoreboards like South County with graphics would be cool. But this school is cheap so we can’t do any of the stuff I just mentioned,” said Rory O’Connor, senior.

B/C

Taimoor Bhatti

Conny Schiller

Max Augliere

Teddy Oh

Rory OʼConnor

Dae Hwan Kim

“I think that

the school activities deserve a grade of a C. I haven’t seen a Pep Rally at AHS yet because this is my first year. I was really disappointed when it was canceled and it wasn’t reschel-duled. I need to be able to show my school pride. I’m looking forward to the next Pep Rally, but I wanted to see the one in the fall, too. Also, I think that the dances need work. The administrators need to relax at the dances. They need to have less lights at the dances and get better music,” said Logan Miller, freshman.

Jen Oakes Matt Ashford

Logan Miller

Chemistry teacher Ms. Morgan

Jamie Carayiannis

Angelo Hilios

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Mode Mean

Mode Mean

Mode Mean

Mode Mean

Mode Mean

Mode Mean

Mode: most frequent response

Mean: average of all responses

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8 Jan. 23 , 2007INTERNATIONAL AtAA

Freshmen Tiffany Medrano, an El Savadoranian, and Chris Yurko, a Caucasian, have been in a relationship for two years. Despite their different ethnicities, they are just like any other couple. Race is not a factor in their relationship.

No limits on love

More than just skin colorSophomore Shane Doty, whose heri-

tage is a mix of Puerto Rican, Caucasian and African American, is dating one particular young lady: sophomore Tricia Wayland: a Caucasian. It all began a year and three months ago.

“He played for my dad’s football team, at first he wouldn’t say ‘hi’ to me, but then we started dating a year ago,” said Wayland.

Both sophomores agree that they see their relationship lasting for a while.

“We get along great,” said Doty. To both Doty and Wayland, it is less

about color and more about what they can grasp from each other.

“He doesn’t speak Spanish, he’s smart though, I learn a lot of stuff from him,” said Wayland.

Doty and Wayland’s music taste of music is very different. “She tries to make me listen to country music, but I’m more into rap and hip hop” said Doty.

The best part of dating outside on ones own race for Doty?

“It’s the fusion of a culture, like some say, love is blind.”

Junior Lara Coulter and senior Matt Un having been dating for four and a half months. Coulter is Caucasian, while Un is Cambodian. Coulter and Un met through a friend, and quickly began to notice they were different from one another.

Coulter who is Jewish, and Un, a Christian, noticed that with different religions and backgrounds comes a new level of learning and understanding.

“I think I learn more about Christi-anity from him, because we’re both of different religions,” said Coulter.

From both sides, Coulter and Un experienced some dislikes from family members towards each other.

“My grandparents have a problem with it, they’re racist to everyone,” said Coulter. “My grandpa asked what Matt looked like, and you could tell he was bothered by it, he didn’t really say any-thing though.”

With Un’s family, he recieved a similar reaction.

“I showed my aunt a picture of Lara online and she got really upset, she was like ‘what?’ And I told her she was Jew-ish and that made everything worse,” said Un.

Did you Know?

∞ Non-Hispanic whites marry other whites 96.5% of the time

∞ In 73% of black-white marriages, the husband is black

∞ 86% of black-Asian couples consist of a black husband and an Asian wife

∞18% of Asian wives have white hus-bands, only 7% of Asian husbands have white wives

∞ 6% of black husbands are in an inter-racial marriage compared with only 2% of black wives

∞ In 2000, the most common type of interracial couple in 2000 was a white husband married to an Asian wife.

∞ In 1970, fewer than one percent of all married couples had an interracial marriage.

–2000 Census data

Are you in or have you ever had an

interracial relationship?

DEBATEOne of the arguments surrounding inter-racial dating is that it leads to a “color-mute syndrome”, in which people disregard the race completely. A psychology professor from the Gender and Racial Attitudes Lab at the University of Texas-Austin argues that interracial dating tends to make people “colorblind.” Experts debate on whether the racial inequality in society is ever addressed and if interracial dating will lead to a future generation of ignorance of American culture. Student response:“I think it [interracial dating] brings people

together, but the stereotypes of different races still exist. If you have a friend that is a specific race, you might not put that friend under the typical stereo-type, but that doesn’t really

stop the negative stereotypes about the group as a whole.

–senior Sarah Bracken

Student response:“I see interracial dating bringing people together and different cultures meet-ing. Even if there are certain stereotypes about different races, those stereotypes are slowly dying out as people intermix.

–senior Andrea Carbajal

I’m not a super-Paki guy. I just wouldn’t fit in with most Pakistani girls.

“—Zin Javaed

senior”

Junior Lara Coulter and senior Matt Un continue to fight prejudice from family

Sophmores Shane Doty and Tricia Wayland are one of the intermix couples at AHSThis survey was distributed on Jan. 10

during B and C lunches to 500 students. Out of 500 distributed, all were returned.

56%

44%

Yes No

∞ 30% of students are not open tobeing in an interracial relationship due to worries about disapproval from friends or family/public embarrasement, 19% believe that they would not get along with someone from another race, 16% have a firm belief that we should stay withtin our own race, 35% is for other reasons not mentioned.

∞ 78% say that their religious beliefs or family upbringings have not affected their position on interractical dating, whereas 22% say that it has.

∞ 61% say that they feel happy when they see a member of their race dating someone from another face,13% feel angry, betrayed, or disguisted.

–Taken from student survey conducted Jan. 10

Student’s opinions

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Even though sophomores Shane Doty and Tricia Wayland are from different ethicties, they find ways to work their differences out.

Junior Lara Coulter and senior Matt Un have been in an interracial relationship for four and a half months.

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Many students integrate with other ethnic groups and cultures when it comes to dating

BY WALIHA GANI

International Editor

Since the days of Martin Luther King, Jr., the United States has made tremendous achievements towards racial integration, as best seen by the increase in the number of interracial marriages and relationships.

Interracial dating, or miscegenation, is the mixing of different ethnicities or races. With the influx of immigrants and increased globalization effecting communication, many Americans are now much more open to interracial relationships than they were three decades ago.

43 years ago, King dreamt of a day when his children would not be judged by the color of their skin. The echo of King’s words is heard in the opinions of many AHS’s heterogeneous student population. Not only do many students have friends from dif-ferent ethnicities, several have had or are currently in a relationship with someone from a different culture or race.

Freshmen Tiffany Medrano and Chris Yurko have known each other since seventh grade. Medrano is El Salvadorian and Yurko is Caucasian. They have been dating each other for two years. To them, race means nothing.

No boundaries“Tiffany is Hispanic, I’m white, and we are coming from different sides of the

globe, but so what?” said Yurko. “When I met her, I wasn’t thinking about the color of her skin, I was looking through that.”

Yurko and Medrano are among the approximately 46.3 million Americans, ages 14 to 24, part of the most diverse generation in American society, who are more tolerant and open-minded than generations of the past about interracial dat-ing, according to an analysis of studies by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

However, the acceptance of interracial marriage has not come about so quickly. According to USA Today, six percent of marriages are inter-rcial, whereas in 1970, it was less than one percent.

To the majority of AHS students, race is irrelevant when it comes to love. According to a poll conducted, 56 percent of 500 students said that they currently are or have been in an interracial relationship. The survey also shows that 58 percent of students said that they would consider a serious relationship with someone of another ethnic group, with a 42 percent who disagreed.

“I like Afghan food. I like McDon-alds. I like tacos. I like the East and the West. The world is just filled with so many different people with different ideas. I want to take part in all of that,” said sophomore Ahmed Al Afrangy. “I have had rela-tionships with girls from a different race and religion than me. I take advantage of all the different, wonderful cultures diversity brings together.”

Interracial dating today is very different from the past. It is fairly common to see an African American/Asian couple, a Pakistani with a Hispanic, or a Jewish/Muslim couple. However, historically, interracial dating was only known to be between African Americans and Caucasians. In fact, in the late 18th century, many white segregationists accused African Americans for using interracial marriages as a way of destroying the white race.

Yurko and Medrano believe interracial dating broadens people’s minds and exposes others to diversity.

“At first, some of my family members weren’t used to Chris around. They were skeptical about it, but then as time passed, they all became used to him, and enjoyed his company too,” said Medrano.

“People used to give us stares, but then when they got used to us, and we showed them that we are no different than any other couple, then they backed down, and got the mes-sage,” said Yurko.

Many parents are obstinate to their children dating within the same culture and race.

“I want my daughter to bring home a nice Pakistani boy home. He must speak Urdu and understand the Pakistani customs,” said sophomore Hira Asif’s mother, Robina Asif. “I won’t allow her to date anyone besides

that. She must stay with her own culture.”Sophomore Amy Luong’s father, Shawn Luong, agrees with Asif. “Dating and marriage is a huge step for my daughter. It’s not that I don’t like it [inter-

racial dating], but it would be just so much easier for the family to easily interact with a boy who speaks the same language as us and knows the culture well,” said Luong.

It was not long ago that staying within one’s culture was not a choice, but mandatory under the law, when tolerance in society did not exist. Anti-miscegenation laws were passed in the 1600s to prevent marriage between freed slaves and whites. More laws forbidding interracial mar- riage were passed in the 1700s and 1800s

as many Chinese and Filipino laborers immigrated to the U.S.

It was not until 1967, when the Civil Rights Movement reached its apex, that Congress ruled that misce-genation laws were unconstitutional in the Loving v. Virginia case.

For some students, the beauty of interracial dating lies within dat-

ing someone outside their own culture to fit in more.

Seniors Zain Javaed, a Pakistani, and Raquel Aguire, a Bolivian, have been dating each other for three years.

“I prefer having relation-ships outside my ethnicity because dating a Pakistani girl is just too much trouble and drama,” said Javaed. “I’m not a super-Paki guy, I just wouldn’t fit in with most Pakistani girls.”

On the other hand, some students prefer stay-ing within their own culture when it comes to dating.

“I have had some rela-tionships with guys outside my race, and it just didn’t work out. Since he couldn’t speak Spanish, I just didn’t think he could express him-self that sweetly. It was sweet, but it just wasn’t the same,” said sophomore Cherry Silva.

“We just viewed things differ-ently. I was a quinceaera type

and he was more of a “sweet 16” guy,” said Silva.

Freshman Meena Rahmanyar agrees with Silva.

“I click more with my Afghan culture. I want a guy with the same customs as me, so he could be more understanding and interact with my family,” said Rahmanyar.

The cultural differences be-tween Javaed and Aguire do not form any discrepancies in their relationship.

“The first time Zain tried eating an orange the Bolivian style, it was hilarious because he couldn’t do it properly even after I showed him several times,” said Aguire. “My family and I still joke around about that with him,” said Augire.

While Augire, Yurko, and Medrano’s parents are supportive of their children’s relationships,

Javaed’s is kept in secrecy. “I can’t tell my parents

about her [Augire]. I’d just get in trouble. Interracial dating isn’t common in our culture,” said Javaed.

Most students agree that interracial dating helps decrease all the negative ste-reotypes of specific races.

“When people start having relationships with others outside their race, others are more exposed to different cultures. It slowly works to seize some of the racism,” said sophomore Alexis Williams.

“By getting to know him, I have learned more about Muslim people and how they really are. There aren’t any races. We are all just one race: the human race,” said Aguire.

9ARTSAtAAJan. 23, 2007

BY LYNDSAY JACOBS

Arts Editor

Using poetry as an outlet to express what is going on in her life, sophomore Annie Wieser writes poems whenever time permits.

Wieser gets inspired by her

friends because they all are such a good writers. Also things that she sees around her contribute to them.

Wiesers most recent Poem is titled “Two Beating Hearts” which she wrote for an English poetry project that was suppose to be about you or related to you in some way.

Most people enjoy rhyming poems but that is not the story for Wieser. “I hate rhyming poems” said Wieser who likes free verse ones because you can express yourself easier and say whatever you want.

BY LYNDSAY JACOBS

Arts Editor

Usually found socializing in the hall, junior Chester Yavari is a poet that you would not nor-mally know about. Yavari started writing poetry in “4th or 5th” grade, mainly because of

“boredom and lack of activity” said Yavari.

Yavari typically writes poetry when he is bored about history or people who have ac-complished something in there life. Although some people have a special book that they write poems in Yavari just writes them on anything that he has.

Typically Yavari writes sonnets because they are simple to write and when he is not writing a sonnet he writes poems that use various rhyme schemes.

When writing his poems Yavari feels inspired, “When I do write poetry I am really relaxed, everything around me has to be quiet so that I can focus” said Yavari.

Being a male poet, Yavari is embarrased by his poetry. “I dont want people to know about my emotions,” said Yavari.

“Roses are pink, violets are yellow, you really stink but I’m a cool fellow.”

—Garrett Hallfreshman

“Oh my god I can’t believe that I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it. Now I’m standing here in Literature class, hoping I pass.”

—Abdul Koroma

sophomore

“Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you!”

— Debbie McCoyjunior

“Being grown up isn’t half as fun as growing up!”

—Arcadia Lacoma

senior

“Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness from hatred.” - MLK

—Ron StanleyEnglish Teacher

BY LAURA SIMPSON

Arts Editor

The Washington Post Music and Dance Scholarship Awards are awarded for high school seniors. The winners of the awards receive scholar-ships to put towards their college funds.

The dance scholarship competition is held every year and was established in order to recognize and promote excel-lence in the artistic and academic abilities of high school seniors in the Washington Area. The competition was produced by Rickey Payton, the Sr. CEO of Urban Nation Inc.

On November 4, 2006, senior Rachel Frank was one of the few recipients of the scholarship that was given to 12 out of 150 applicants from students around the Washington/Metro area. She received a $1500 scholarship to put towards her first year college funds. Applicants are judged on the basis of academic records, performance tapes and essays on the importance of arts in society.

“I was sitting with my dance coach

when I was announced and we both got so excited, and we bumped heads when we hugged, it was a really good surprise,” said Frank. In order to be eligable, she submitted a transcript, personal essay and a prepared ballet piece. Frank did not have to choreograph her own piece and was able to use a variation from Act III of the ballet Swan Lake.

Frank rehearsed her piece for three weeks beginning at the end of May of last year. She preformed the piece at her end-of-the-year ceremony at her dance school.

After she learned she had been selected as a candidate for the scholar-ship, Frank started rehearsing again for her performance at the Historic Warner Theater.

Frank has been dancing since she was four years old, but began intense training at the age of nine. Currently, she dances at the Arlington Center for dance and plans to attend Butler College for Dance next year.

Her main ambition is to dance for a company and she is currently trying out

for a few of them. “I really want to be able to dance for a company, but I can’t pin point a certain one because they are very selective so I can’t be too picky about it,” said Frank.

The award is a huge accomplish-ment in Frank’s early career and she is hoping to continue her rise to success.

The poetic side of AHSThe Fight For Freedom

“We heard footsteps coming from a far A treacherous night of running left many bearing the scarChains rattled and branches crumbled, as they were very close to us now people stumbledPeople jumped and tried to run, but were surely stopped by the sight of a gunOne by one we marched aboard the wooden ship they laid in the seaAnd as we stepped foot onto its belly, it swallowed us whole without hearing our pleasA vigorous journey indeed it would be a vigorous journey for me I would seeFor what felt like years crippled down to days on new land my feet now layAs my knees touched the ground of this brand new horizon, I was pushed and shoved meBody was aching and frightened,As I gazed upon a creature that reached out to me, whose skin was white and hair thatWas straight and had eyes that were fi lled with hate”This isn t̓ where Iʼm supposed to be...” Iʼm not where Iʼm supposed to be...”

My Country

I’ve fought for Arkansas, through NashvilleFrom Wilmington to

JacksonvilleFor AtlantaTo SavannahFor everyone that sits,

stands, or leansFor Louisiana and its

New OrleansI fight for the greatest

Robert E. LeeAnd for my family back in

MontgomeryI was there for my men at

Fort SumterTo the clashing of the

Merrimac and MonitorI am a husbandI am a fatherI am a soldierTo fight for my countryThe Atlantic to MississippiTo stand and fight

for what I believeThat is what I shall achieve.

BY LYNDSAY JACOBS

Arts Editor

“[I like to write poetry] because it helps me express myself said, junior Nick Bush about why he writes poetry. Poetry is typically used as a way to

express oneself and thats the case

for Bush also.Bush likes to write about anything that

comes to his mind. “If I could I would write about sports,” said Bush who is an active member of Annandale’s Varsity basketball team.

Free verse is Bush’s favorite type of poem because “it gives me the freedom to say what-ever I want without getting in trouble,” said Bush.

Inspirations for writing includes his family, friends and whatever is going on in his life.

Bush has been writing poetry since the the first grade. He now has a large collection of poems, but he has only really liked seven of them.

Senior Rachel Frank receives Washington Post Music and Dance Scholarship

Rachel Frank, center, leaves school early each day in order to practice dancing for special events.

Featured Artist

Annie Leibowitz was born in West-port, Con-necticut in 1949. Leibowitz started to publish her photos in Roll-ing Stone magazine in 1970 as a inde-penden photogra-pher. Not long after, Leibowitz graduated from the Institute of Art of San Francisco in Fine Arts. Leibowitz is most famous for her photos of celebrities. Some of her most famous ones include pictures of John Lennon with his wife Yoko Ono, Demi Moore, and Whoopi Goldberg. Leibowitz’s work was exhibited in the National Gallery of Portraits of the Smithsonian Institute of Washington D.C. in 1991. Leibowitz has won man awards such as Photographer of the Year, Rewards of Photographic Innovation of the American Society of Photographers, Award to the Campaign of the Decade of the Magazine Advertising,etc.

Can you think of a poem off the top

of your head?

Leibowitz is known for her many photo maga-zine covers on Rolling Stone such as the John Lenon photo shown above.

YavariBush

Wieser

Two Beating Hearts

Her mom called her stupid,Her father only sighed.Her boy friend said “Not my problem.”Her friends turned their backs,She simply cried.

Why me God, why?That was her constant prayer,As she wondered what to do.She had to make a choice for both of them, The hardest decision of her life.

She had no help from those around her.Her only company was the tiny life inside,Like an invisible and silent angel.Should she let “it” live or die?But as she thought she knew “it” must live

It would mean nine months of sacrifices.No friends, disappointed family and no love,But look where love had gotten her.She knew she could do it,For that little heart beating hers not far above

AHS student dances her way to success

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Yavari expresses love forAmerica Bush strives for freedom

Wieser looks towards the Filament

This photo is located in one of Vogueʼs issues. Leibowitz regu-alrly photographs for magazines such as Vogue.

This photo of Lance Armstrong is one of the more popular. Leibowitz takes photos of many famous people.

Types of Poems:

LIMERICK - A five-line poem written with one couplet and one triplet. The rhyme pattern is A A B B A. They are meant to be humourus and often contain hyperboles, onomatopoeia, idioms, puns and other figurative devices.

HAIKU - A poem that orginated from Japanese culture. Haikus are usually writ-ten about everyday things like nature, feelings or experiences. It is meant to have simple words and grammer. The standard set up for a haiku is three lines, the first line having five syllables, the second line having seven syllables, and the final line having five syllables.

SONNET - The word is derived from Italy meaning “little song.” It is a poem that contains 14 lines with a strict rhyme scheme and logical structure. There are Italian sonnets and English sonnets, which differ by inventors and origins. Poets usually use iambic pentameter for their structure of the poem.

ACROSTIC - An acrostic poem is a simple poem that can easily be written by children or adults. The set up of the poem is unique having the first leters of each line aligned vertically to form a word. The word that is formed is usually the subject of the poem.

CONCRETE - A concrete poem is a poem that forms a picture of the topic or has the lines flow in a certain pattern to suggest the topic. It is sometimes known as “visual poetry” and its goal is to tell the story of the poem through the picture it is creating.

COUPLET - A couplet is the simplest form of poetry with two lines of rhyming poetry that usually have the same meter. The ending of the lines must rhyme or else it is not condsidered a couplet.

12 Jan. 23, 2007SPORTS XTRA AtAA

Little leagues leave lasting impression

“I learned team work and learned how to be a better athlete.”

—Stephanie Burns

freshman

“I learned team-work and how to organize my time”.

—Arielle Pak sophomore

“I learned how to manage my time better and too have more fun”.

—Joseph Ingbergjunior

“I learned that you have to share the glory”.

—ShakiaBranch

senior

“I learned that teamwork goes a long way at the end of the day”.

—Geoffrey Jospitresenior

What have youth sports taught you?

•Founded in 1959, the Annandale Boys and Girl Club offers football, lacrosse, basketball, soccer, baseball, boxing, and cheerleading

Phone Number: 703-941-4411

•BRYC offers baseball, bas-ketball, bowl-ing, football, cheerleading, recreational and travel soccer, girl softball, volley-ball and rugby

Phone Number:703-3782792

•The LRSC (Little River Soc-cer Club) has two sections; a house league and a travel league

Phone Number:703-256-3979

•FPYC offers basketball, cheer-leading, football, lacrosse, rugby, track, soccer, softball, volleyball and wrestling.

Phone Number: 703-591-3792

Annandale Boys and Girls Club

Braddock Road Youth Club

Fairfax Police Youth Club

Little River Soccer Club

Junior Tiffanie Le has played lacrosse and field hockey for three years at AHS. She has worked hard to learn the sports because high school was the first time she ever played. Lacrosse is her favortie sport and she enjoys being a part of the team. Le spends time outside of school improving her skills to get ready for the upcoming season.

Q: What do you do to get ready for the lacrosse season?A: I go to Change your Level Lacrosse Camp at George Mason Uni-versity on Sunday nights from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Q: What do you do while you are at the camp?A: The first hour we learn new techniques and tricks. The coaches teach us shooting techniques and dodges and different defensive and offensive positions.

Q: What was one of your favortite things about the camp?A: We played a lot of games and met a lot of new people. It was nice be-cause there were six other AHS lacrosse players who did it with me.

Q: Do you think the camp was beneficial?A: Defintely, I will bring the things I’ve learned from camp to the team. I have picked up lots of new skills that will help me in the season.

Q: What teams have you been on previosly at Annandale?A: I made JV my freshman year and Varsity my sophomore year. The camp will help me become a better player this year.

Interview complied byMeredith Rutherford

John Copenhaver is a sophomore at AHS who plays baseball for AHS. He made the Varsity team as a freshman last year through his talent and dedication. He plays baseball regularly to stay in shape and get ready for the spring season.

Q: How long have you played baseball?A: It been a really long time. I have played since I was six years old. Brian Van Balen used to play little league with me and now he’s here on the team with me at AHS.

Q: What are some of the most memorable moments you had in little league?A: My favorite moment was when my team won the championship at the major league level of competition. My worst moment in little league happened during the game when I was trying to bunt and I got hit in the thumb. It started bleeding pretty badly and eventually my thumbnail fell off.

Q: What have you done to advance your skills since little league?A: My skills have overall increased, I’ve gotten much faster and my understanding of the game has improved. The Virginia Baseball Club sessions have helped me become a better hitter. I was also on a school summer league for Annandale.

Q: Who does your U16 team play?A: We play other high school summer teams in the region like West Springfield, Hayfield, South County, and Lake Braddock.

Q: Do you have any desire to continue your sport after Annandale?A: Maybe in college but I am not sure. It is fun and challenging so it woud be fun to play in college but i dont know if I will or not.

Junior Zach Sells commands the midfield for the varsity lacrosse team. He attributes much of his success in high school sports to the valuable experience that he gained in the Annandale Youth Lacrosse League.

Q: How long did you play youth lacrosse?A: I started playing youth lacrosse in fifth grade. I had played soccer before that and wanted to try something new. I played youth lacrosse until I started high school.

Q: Why did you like play-ing?A: It was great playing a new sport after playing soccer for so long. I also got to meet new kids.

Q: How do you think it has helped you in high school?A: I had a great advangtage over beginners com-ing into high school, most kids that try out have never played before.

Q: What did you learn from youth la-crosse?A: I learned fundamentals that I needed for high school ball, all of my coaches were very helpful and dedicated.

Q: What was your favorite memory of youth lacrosse?A: When my team won the league championship my eigth grade year.

Interview compiled by Matt Johnson

High School sports can dominate an athlete’s time and interests, and it is easy to forget where it all started. The majority of all participating athletes began their athletic careers in the region’s little leagues where they learned the fundamentals of the game.

John Copenhaver keeps playing ball from 6 to 16

Tiffanie Le learns late in life

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Sophomore John Copenhaver poses for one of his many little league photos he had taken over his years of playing.

Zach Sells sticks with lacrosse

BY MATT JOHNSON AND JEFF DEAN

Sports Xtra Editors

“I was proud because we pulled together as a team against a really good opponent,” said junior Zach Flynn.

This is one of Flynn’s fondest memories from his days playing in the area’s youth leagues. Youth sports are where the average goal becomes an extraordinary memory. Flynn and the members on his team will forever that spring day.

“I can use my left hand much better,” said Flynn. “My whole game has improved.” Now a varsity lacrosse player, Flynn still appreciates the experience and hopes to maintain a good relationship with the youth league. The Annandale lacrosse program also shares Flynn’s goal.

“I do whatever I can for the Brittons [head of the Annandale Youth League]. If they need practice space, for me to set up clinics, or just to have my players help teach; I’ll do it because it benefits the kids and the community,” said head lacrosse coach Bill Maglisceau.

The Annandale Youth lacrosse program has connec-tions to the AHS program. The Annandale youth program practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Chapel Square, which is the same place that the AHS team practices. On both Tuesdays and Thursdays the AHS players stick around after their practices and help coach the youth teams. This is valuable experience for the youth players not only because it provides valuable coaching points, but it also exposes them to the high school lacrosse environ-ment.

The time that the lacrosse team has been putting into the youth program has paid off for the AHS team. Many of the current varsity players played in the youth league for many years. As the Annandale youth lacrosse league continues to give valuable experience to youngsters, AHS’s lacrosse team will continue to receive skilled players.

Baseball coach Ron Abrigo is helping out the youth leagues around the area that feed into Annandale to help build up the baseball program. The baseball pool of talent has been empty for many years in the Annandale area, but with the new approach of reaching kids while they are young, the baseball program looks to be heading up.

“I believe that connecting the young kids with the high school program is important because this is where they will go to school, and the sooner the better that we get them in here instead of them being out and running around. It’s a way of giving back to the community,” said coach Ron Abrigo.

Coaches from the Annandale staff are now coaching young players during the off-season so that the fundamen-tals that coach Abrigo wants the players to learn are the same that are being taught at the little league level. Not only are they being coached on the field, but also they are being brought into the weight room after school to help get the players stronger and ready for the high school level of play faster.

Every summer there is a very popular week-long camp hosted by the basketball program. The camp is attended by a plethora of kids from 7-14 year olds. The camp spends a lot of time teaching the fundamentals of basketball that are probably not prevelant on the blacktops.

The camps results have been seen as numerous current players sport their Annandale Basketball Camp t-shirts at practices. The success of this camp has been a result of not only teaching the fundamentals of the game but also making it very fun for the young kids.

The relationship between the high school sports programs and the youth leagues in the area are very important to the the popularity of the sport and also the realtionship between the two in the community.

Youth league helps all

The eigth Grade Annandale Youth Lacrosse team in 2004 contained 6 future AHS Lacrosse players. From left to right: Matt Perez, Zach Flynn, Matt Johnson, David Waiter, Zach Sells, and Michael Craig

13PHOTOAtAAJan. 23, 2007

Behind the Scenes of The A-Blast

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How a News Story is Made

Every three weeks The A-Blast publishes 3,500 copies of its awarding winning newspaper and distributes them throughout the country. Because of a unique realtionship with The Washington Post, The A-Blast is printed for free, saving the school over $25,000. The publication’s cycle begins with a copy meeting and ends with The A-Blast in your hands. Pictured below is an inside look at what goes on behind the lab doors.

Junior Paul Mathis, In-Depth editor, looks at the pages on the dummy board. Throughout the process of making the paper, editors are required to put drafts, or dummies, of their pages. Dummy pages act as an outline for how the page will develope throughout the next few weeks.

Step 1: News stories are put up on the board and assigned to staff writers.

Step 2: Editors in Chief distribute story checklists to staff writers. Story checklists tell the writers the angle of the story, how many words it should be, who they should talk to and the questions they should ask.

Step 5: Editors place the final copy on their pages. Stories range anywhere from 300-600 words. Layouts for pages are usually done before stories are assigned, so placing stories on pages is done last.

Step 3: Staff writers work on their stories and talk to sources as needed. They normally have a week to a week and a half to get their first draft in to editors.

Step 4: Editors make corrections to each story. Stories are usually read at least four times before they can be put on pages. Both Editors in Cheif read the story, followed by the Copy Editor, The A-Blast advisor Alan Weintraut, and at least one other student.

Above: Sophomore

Cultures Editor Waliha Gani asks

students questions for

a “man on the street.” This

consists of asking students

questions they have an opinion about, and then

taking their picture, also known as a

mugshot, for the newspaper.

Above: Senior Entertainment Editor Jenny Jacobs passes out surveys during lunch. Right: Sopho-more Staff Writer Marisa Tordella looks up student schedules for her story. Most stories must have at least three sources.

Junior Health Editor Sarah Waiter takes her frustration out on the computer while on deadline. Deadline can be a stressful time, as the editors try to get stories and pictures together. The staff can usually be found working in the lab until 6:00 p.m. on deadline days.

Students listen while senior Editors in Chief Alyssa Navarrette and David Sherman go over page ideas for the next issue. Planning for the upcoming issue is done at copy meetings .

Right: Junior Sports Editor Avery Adcock works with the layout of her page. Editors decide what type of layout they will use and their pageʼs topic.

Above: Senior Weekend Editor Kate McCormack concentrates on finishing her page during her W2 Journalism class. Left: The A-Blast adviser Alan Weintraut meets with seniors Emily Sample, News Edi-tor, and David Sherman, Editor in Chief, to discuss Sampleʼs news page. All stories are read by Weintraut before they are approved for the newspaper.

Senior People Editors Julie Baker and Lindsey Downen work together on placing stories and perfecting their page.

Senior Editor in Chief David Sherman collects The A-Blast from the Washington Post plant in Springfield the morning before they are distributed. On distribution day, The A-Blast is taken to every class and to the four red distribution stands located in AHS.

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Senior Sports Editor Greg Rosenstein podcasts his column after it has been pub-lished in print. Podcasting allows strories to be recorded and then put on the Internet, and enables them to bedownloadable on iPods.

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Senior Copy Editor Tim Yuskavage proofreads pages before they are sent to The Washington Post. Below: Juniors Matt Johnson and Jeff Dean, Sports Extra Editors, take a break from working to enjoy some Taco Bell.

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ETTE Step 6: The final step to completing a

stories cycle is putting it on the web. This involves logging in and loading onto the webpage www.the-ablast.org. This makes the newspaper accesible to people with computers around the world.

PHOTOS BY PHOTO EDITOR JULIANNE SIMPSON

14 Jan. 23, 2007PEOPLE AtAA

Rebecca Sandoval

“My family eats this during the holidays because

itʼs really easy to

make. The taste is

very different.”

Arroz con leche - Latin America

• I have taught at Annandale for two years

• I attended Penn State

• I majored in African American Studies

• His hobby is collecting

• I like to listen to go-go and rap

• I have traveled to some states in the United States

like Florida, and Chicago

• In my spare time I like to sleep

• My favorite season is fall football season

• I was born in Portsmith, VA on August 29, 1982

• I enjoy playing Madden and coaching football

• My biggest pet peeve is when people do not try and

do not listen to other people

compiled by Bud Ireland

If you know the answer to “Who am I,” come to the Publications lab to claim your prize

Who am I?

Atoms who matterBest Laugh

“Derrick really de-serves this because every time I see him in the hall he laughs so heartily and it warms my day. His laugh just makes everybody’s day a little better and you know he’s having fun,” said senior Whitney Clark.

—Derrick Bestesenior

“Erin looks really happy when she laughs, like she’s really having fun,” said sophomore Paul Bernfeld about his friend.

—Erin Price sophomore

Freshman Paul-lina Sorbi says, “I’m happy a lot. I think you should enjoy life so I laugh a lot.”

—Paulina Sorbifreshman

What’s cooking at AHS

“I was probably voted for ‘Best Laugh’ because other people’s laughter makes me laugh three times more,” said senior Lisa Otten-heimer. “She has a very unique laugh

and it’s contagious,” said her friends, se-niors Taylor Hobson and Emily Vincent.

—Lisa Ottenheimersenior

Last Issue’s

Who am I?

Nast

Celebrity Birthdays for January

2nd - Kate Bosworth (24)5th - Marilyn Manson (38)7th - Nicolas Cage (43)13th - Orlando Bloom (30)14th - LL Cool J (39)

17th - Kid Rock (36) and Jim Carrey (45) 24th - Mischa Barton (21)

25th - Alicia Keys (26)28th - Elijah Wood (24) Nick Carter (27) and Joey Fatone (30)29th - Andrew Keegan (28)30th - Khleo Thomas (18) and Christian Bale (33)31st - Justin Timberlake (26)

Food: It is a universal language understood by people of every country, but unique to each country as well. In the AHS culinary arts class-room, students bring ideas and knowledge of their homeland’s foods to the kitchen under the direction of teacher Christine Gloninger. Students who can enroll in this class are juniors and seniors. The class teaches classically French cuisine, but students of-ten give input and suggestions from what they have learned at home about cooking.

“At holiday parties, I ask students to bring their own recipes. I like to see what they do on their own,” said Gloninger.

Here, a few culinary arts students share the reci-pes from their native countries.

Junior Chelsea McCarthy said, “my friends are really funny and they make me laugh a lot. In my group of friends I would say I’m the one who is laughing the most.”

—Chelsea McCarthyjunior

“I was picked because when I laugh I make others smile,” said junior Nick Bush.

—Nick Bushjunior

(right): The Vietnamese dish Pho has become very popular in the U.S. Junior James Thach likes this dish because of the versatil-ity of its ingredients. You can add different flavorings to it to fit your craving.

Zereshk polow is an Iranian dish. Zereshk polow can be made in many different forms with various mix-ins for fla-voring. It is also often made with fruits and nuts mixed in.

HTTP

://W

WW

.FAR

HANG

SARA

.COM

/FOO

D/ZE

RESH

K-PO

LOW

HTTP://PRIMATES.XIMIAN.COM

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Lemon zest (of one lemon)

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold

2 eggs1/2 cup heavy cream

Preparation:

Preheat convection oven to 350 degrees. Mix to-

gether all dry ingredients in a bowl. Add lemon

zest and toss to combine. Cut in the butter until

the mixture looks like oatmeal. Make a well in

the center of the mixture. Mix eggs and heavy

cream together in another small bowl. Add the

egg and cream mixture all at once to the dry

ingredients. Mix ingredients until mixture

holds together. Divide the dough into two equal

portions. Form each portion into ball, and place

on lightly floured table. Flatten each into a 1-

inch thick disk. Use a pastry brush to brush

milk lightly over the disk. Sprinkle with crystal

sugar. Cut each disk into 1/4 inch wedges with

a chef knife and place on a parchment lined

sheet pan 1/2 inch apart. Bake at 350 degrees

Christine

Gloninger

“My close friend

made up this

recipe so when

Iʼm making

scones this is

the one I use.”

Zereshk Polow - Iran Ingredients:2 cups basmati rice8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs2 onions, thinly sliced2 tablespoons butter1 teaspoon turmeric and 1/2 teaspoon saffronMilk for soaking the saffron1/2 cup plain yogurt and 1 egg2 ounces barberriesPreparation:

Soak 2 cups basmati rice in cold salted water for sev-eral hours. Season 8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs with salt and pepper. In a large frying pan, fry 2 thinly sliced onions in 1 tablespoon butter until lightly colored. Remove onions from pan and reserve. Add 1 more table-spoon butter and sprinkle the chicken with 1 teaspoon turmeric. Brown the chicken gently on both sides. Add 1 cup water and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and the liquid is syrupy. Remove the chicken from the pot and cool, separately reserving the cooking liquid and onions. Soak 1/2 teaspoon saffron in a little milk until brightly colored, then whisk in 1/2 cup plain yogurt, 1 egg, and the chicken meat. Set aside. Wash 2 ounces barberries well, drain,

and cook in a small pan with 2 tablespoons butter and 1 tablespoon sugar for several minutes, stirring, or until plump. Drain the soaked rice and rinse under cold water. Bring 6 cups salted water to a boil, add the rice, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Preheat the oven to 300˚F. Brush a large casserole dish with 2 tablespoons butter and spread in half the rice. Arrange the chicken mixture over the rice. Combine the barberry mixture with the remaining rice and spread over the chicken. Spoon the reserved onions with liquid over the rice. Cover tightly and bake for 1 hour. Remove from oven. Rest the casserole for 15 minutes before serving.

Judy Elahi

“We eat this when my family comes over. This is not a bland dish at all, itʼs very colorful and flavorful.”

Ingredients:2 chicken breasts1 tablespoon minced garlic1 cup of tomato sauce1 package of angel hair pastasalt (amount desired)Half of a large onion, diced

Prepration:Boil the chicken in a pot of lightly salted water. After the chicken is cooked, remove from pot, drain, and shred the meat. Put chicken back in the pot along with minced garlic, tomato sauce, and diced onions. Add cooked pasta to this

mixture. Cook for five more minutes and remove from heat. This dish should be served with pico de gallo.

James Velazquez

“This meal is fairly flexible to go with your lik-ings and itʼs great for when family comes over.”

Ingredients:3 cups whole milk1 can sweetened condensed milk2 teaspoons vanilla1/4 teaspoon salt2 cinnamon sticks1/2 cup raisins, soaked in warm

water to soften1 cup rice, short or medium grain

Preparation:Bring milk to a simmer. Stir in rice,

add in cinnamon sticks and simmer

until rice is softened, about 15-20

minutes. Remove cinnamon sticks

and stir in remaining ingredients.

Bring to a slight simmer and

cook for an additional 20 minutes

or until almost all of the liquid is

absorbed and rice has a pudding-

like consistency.

• I have taught at AHS for three years

• I attended Virginia Tech

• I majored in business

• My hobby is traveling

• In my spare time, I enjoy taking my

dog to the dog park

• I like to listen to alternative rock

• I have traveled to Russia, Brazil, and

Europe

• My motto is ‘always have a positive

attitude’

•I was born on December 9, 1977 in

Portland, Oregon

• In my spare time, I enjoy reading

• My favorite part about teaching is when

the information that I teach “clicks” with my students

• My pet peeve is bad drivers

Lemon creme scones - United States

Ingredients:4 quarts low-sodium beet broth 2 large onions, thinly sliced6 slices of fresh ginger1 cinnamon stick1 star anise1 teaspoon whole black pepper pepercorns2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed1 pound sirloin tip, thinly sliced small bullet 2 8-oz. packages dried rice noodlesPreparation:In a large stockpot, add broth, onions, gin-ger, cinnamon, star anise, peppercorns and garlic. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.Arrange garnish ingredients into separate plates and bowls at the table.Soak rice noodles in warm water for 15 minutes or until softened then drain (do not rinse

with cold water.) Place equal amounts of noodles in soup bowls and cover with raw beef slices.You can add different spices or sauces to the soup, to fit to your liking. Suggested gar-nishes: basil or mint leaves, hot pepper sauce, lime wedges, jalapeno peppers.

Jamez Thach

“Iʼve had this dish since I was a little kid. Itʼs a good family meal. It has an original taste and itʼs hard to find a recipe like it.”

Pho - Vietnam

Sopa - Mexico

15HEALTHAtAAJan. 23, 2007

For years lip balms have bulked pockets alongside extra change and candy wrappers. These addictive cylinders hydrate and sooth dry, irritated lips with multiple moisturizers and other beneficial factors.

Junior Meagan Harlowe carries mul-tiple lip balms in her backpack as well as her car. “I can’t stand my lips dry so I always have some sort of chapstick around,” said Harlowe. While Harlowe sports all different brands of lip balm, her favorite is one less popular.

“Soft Lips brand is the best. It comes in a really skinny tube so it doesn’t lump my pockets. It also smells like candy and leaves my lips feeling tingly,” said Harlowe.

The tingly sensa-tion that so many people enjoy is caused by an added chemical called menthol. This covalent compound is extracted from pep-permint and mint oils. It provides a cooling sensation that relieves irritation and is used to treat sunburns.

Many lip balms contain sun protectants to minimize swollen lips and sores caused my sun damage. Sun Protectant Factors (SPF) often range from four all the way up to 45. It is important to wear chapstick whenever you are in direct sunlight.

Cold weather and winds quickly can chap your lips also. Applying lip balm before hitting the slopes or hiking in cold weather is reccomended to reduce any irritation.

“I always have a Chapstick in my jacket when I go snowboarding,” said junior Danny

Wirdzek. “If I don’t wear it, my lips get so chapped and I start to lick them which makes them even worse.”

Lip licking can make your chapped lips far worse because saliva evaporates on the lips leaving them dry. It is important to refrain from the awful habit as much as possible.

Many brands produce an overnight lip treatment to keep lips soft and looking healthy even while you sleep. These treat-

ments nourish and condition tired lips. “I wake up a lot with chapped lips if I don’t wear lip balm because I sleep with a fan on,” said Harlowe.

Lip balms are becoming increasingly popular among teens because of the wide variety of flavors and scents available.

Starburst produces tasty and colorful chapsticks with flavors such as strawberry blast and orange, while Chapstick sells originally scents such as cherry and spearmint.

Chapstick is currently taking part in a popular fundraiser for breast cancer. For every pink pack sold, Chapstick donates twenty cents to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Whether you are looking to make your own lips soft or looking to get compliments after a kiss, lip balm is the way to go. “I want a girl to have a nice kiss, a smooth one, not a crackly one,” said junior Omar Mayassi.

In America, magazines and T.V. give out the message that skinnier is better. Models walking down the catwalk look practically anorexic.

But is it really all that good to be skin-ny? We’ve all heard that it is. Sometimes being skinny is not all that great, especially for those people who can be dubbed “skinny-fat”. It sounds like a oxymoron and it’s nearly im-possible to tell who’s skinny or skinny-fat by looking because they will look pretty much the same.

Skinny-fat means that while someone looks skinny, they have a high percentage of body fat and are actually unheathy. Many people as-sume that skinny means healthy, but that is not always true, just as there are people who weigh more than the average skinny per-son but have a lot of muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat, therefore it cannot be said that a thinner person will be stronger than a heavier person.

These people are in every school. That thin guy who claims he can eat a whole pizza at a time and never needs to work out? He may, in truth, be unhealthy. That model who shares her diet of caffiene and donuts and says she has a great figure no matter what she does? She could be skinny-fat.

Next time a skinny person goes walk-ing by, don’t be envious. She might look great on the outside and in that short skirt, but is she able to do 10 pushups or run a mile?

This article isn’t saying all skinny people in the world are un-healthy or that all fat people are healthy. It just depends on whether they exercise or if they just lie around being couch potatoes all day. Some people are able to refrain from exercising but can still stay healthy through a good balanced diet.

Sophomore Pamela Egg-erton said she doesn’t do any school sports because they have no attraction for her. She might not have muscles, but she does try to eat well and

take vitamins. “I come from a family of incredibly high metabolisms,” said Egg-erton. Junior Sophia Chafik keeps weight off just by eating healthy. “I drink plenty of water all day long,” said Chafik. She has chosen not to do any sports this year.

Chafik has eliminated red meat and nearly all bread from her diet. Instead she eats grilled chicken and plenty of fruits and vegtables daily to stay healthy.

Is it good to be thin?

Chapsticks, and chapped lips...Lip balms become increasingly popular with their almost addictive moisturizers that leave lips feeling softer than ever before

BY SARAH WAITER

Health Editor

History: ChapStick was invented in the early 1870s. When the product was not successfull locally, Fleet sold rights to the product to John Morton. Morton melted the chapstick mixture, cooled it, and cut it into sticks. The product began to sell rapidly. Chapstick became a registered trademark and refers to any lipbalm contained in a lipstick-style tube and applied in the same manner as lipstick.

History: Burtʼs Bees is a earth-friendly company that uses only natural or organic ingredients. The company began in Maine in the 1980s orignally bottling and selling honey.

What do you use to moisturize your lips? “I like Blistex chapstick.

It’s really the best. It gives me a really refreshing and soothing feeling on my lips.”

—Leslie Burnssophomore

“My favorite is Bert’s Bees, it makes my lips nice and tingly.”

—Dinh Transenior

“My favorite is Chapstick brand with moisturizer. It’s cheap, protects from the sun, and keeps my lips feeling soft for a re-ally long time.” —Linda Ngyuen

junior

“I don’t use Chapstick ever. I perfer lip gloss.”

—Jenny Sosophomore

“I prefer cocoa butter for my lips. It feels good and makes my lips extra soft.”

—Robin Scottsophomore

Health Knowledge Quiz

1. Which chain has virtu-ally eliminated trans fats from its menu? a. McDonaldsb. Wendy’sc. Burger Kingd .Pizza Hut

2. A large order of fries at McDonald’s is how many grams of trans fat?

a. .5b. 2c. 12d. 8

3. A Fiesta taco salad from Taco Bell has less saturated fat than a cheeseburger at McDonalds.

a. Trueb. False

4. How many grams of fat does a two-ounce package of ranch dressing add to your salad at Burger King?

a. 20b. 10c. 15d. 5

5. According to market research, how many fast food meals does the average American consume each year?

a. 25b. 37c. 156d. 98

6. Which breakfast has the most calories?

a. Starbuck’s non-fat grande latte and bagelb. Dunkin Donuts glazed cake doughnut

7. Getting your pizza topped with pepperoni adds more than 100 calories per slice.

a. Trueb. False

Answers:

1. B —Wendy’s. A large order of its fries has only 0.5 grams.

2. D—8 grams trans fat

3. B—False. A salad sounds healthy. But put it in fried tortilla bowl and top it with cheese and sour cream, and it’s not. It has 14 grams of saturated fat, while a regular cheeseburger, has about 6.

4. A—20 grams. Use a low-fat vinaigrette instead to be healthier.

5. C—156. According to a report by the NPD Group, a market research firm, Americans eat an average of 156 fast food meals per year—or about three per week.

6. A—Starbuck’s latte and bagel. Even if the latte is “skinny” and the bagel has no butter, this breakfast still adds up to 640 calories. A glazed doughnut has only 350 calories and19 grams of fat.

7. A—True. A slice of cheese pizza from Sbarro already has about 486 calories. Pepperoni gives it150 more calories and 11 grams of fat per slice.

The truth comes out:being skinny and be-ing healthy aren’t actually the same thing

BY BECCA GRIMSLEY

Health Editor

A-B+

C

Parasites proven beneficial

A study done by researchers in Argentina has shown that parasite infection may be good for patients with mutiple sclerosis (MS). The infections can change the way the immune system responds, which in turn affects the disease

Twelve MS patients were given a parasite infection and 12 were not. They were observed for 4.6 years to see what happened.

It turns out that there were 56 relapses in the group without the infections and only 3 in the group that did.

The people who did the study think that the parasite infections reduce inflammatory responses caused by MS.

These worms can help some-one with multiple sclerosis

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk

Appearance: 6Feel: 8Tingle: 5

Appearance: 8Feel: 7Tingle: 8

Appearance: 5Feel: 5Tingle: 7

History: Blistex started in 1947 and has expanded into 70 different countries around the world. It is well known for its strong minty scent. Celebraties such as Cameron Diaz, Matt Damon, and Emeril Lagassse use this product frequently.

I want a girl to have a nice kiss, a smooth one, not a crackly one.

“—Omar Mayassi

junior”Pucker up if you know what’s good for you

WWW.SELFGROWTH.COM

• Kissing is very good for the teeth. Research has found that kissing can help prevent plaque build-up because it stimulates saliva flow.

• Kissing is good for the heart, as it creates adrenaline, which causes the heart to pump more blood around the body.

• Studies have indicated that those who kiss their partner good-bye each morning live five years longer than those who do not.

• Kissing can aid in slowing the aging process. A fairly passionate kiss exercises as much as 29 muscles in the cheek and jaw, not to mention the asthetic benefits it brings to the color and fullness of the lips.

• Kissing is known to be a stress-reliever, triggering the release of oxytocin, the “feel- good-all-over” hormone.

Junior Sophia Chafik maintains a healthy weight eating a variety of fruits and vegtables.

Editors’ picks:

Source: www.msn.com

16 Jan. 23, 2007SPORTS AtAA

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Athletes soar at AHSGirls Basketball: Jenna McRae Wrestling: Jesse Kruse Winter Track: Lane Craggs

Wrestling hopes to pin down district titleSenior James Godbout and more go the extra mile to get one step closer to title

BY AVERY ADCOCK

Sports Editor

As the winter season starts to wind down, the varsity wrestling team is just starting to kick into high gear. While many athletes are starting to like the idea of a snow day much more than a day in the gym, varsity wrestlers are training harder than ever to get one step closer to the district championship.

When most kids are still dreaming at 6 a.m., wrestlers like senior James Godbout are in the gym before school to get an extra work out in. Not only does the pre-school training challenge these athletes physically, but most of all mentally. “Training in the morning has really helped me. It’s really good to come in and get a good workout before school. It takes a lot of dedication but it’s worth it,” said Godbout.

Despite the immense senior leadership this season, their source of winning has come from an unlikely source: freshman. There are six freshman starters on the team that have stepped it up in every match, not only to please expectations, but to exceed them.

“This season is different because we have so many young wrestlers. We have six freshman and two sophomores starting on varsity,” said Godbout. “Ricky Adams and Damien Stone have really stood out among the freshman.”

With an impressive record of 13-3 so far, the team is looking to continue their success into the district playoffs, regionals and states. Already passing their previous season record of 11-7, the Atoms are serious about continuing to improve. Junior Jesse Kruse

is counting on their top performers to lead the team strong into the district tournament. “We are really focusing on getting ready for districts. Practices are getting longer and tougher as we refine our technique. We will be looking for strong performances from Bud Ireland, Oscar Santos, Nick Chung, Ricky Adama, Baha Awadalah, James Godbout, and Wade Akridge,” said Kruse.

Despite a poor showing at the CAA Duals on 1/19-1/20 the Atoms are not letting that hold them back. Senior Wade Akridge thinks that nothing can stop them with the way they are performing lately. “We should send a lot of our guys to regionals this year, and many more than last year,” said Akridge.

While varsity wrestling has surpassed expecta-tions for this season, they look to amaze with a district championship.

Girls fall to R.E. Lee Track adapts to coldBY BRANDON WILLIAMS

Staff WriterMidway into the season, and the

lady atoms still are facing major prob-lems. They stand at an unimpressive 7-9 team record, with a 4-4 district record. The team has been trying to catch their second wind and pull out some well needed wins, but it has yet to happen for the ladies. Only time can tell the fate of this confused team.

The lady Atoms have had numer-ous opportunities to win games, but have fallen short of the victory on many occasions. They have put so much time and effort into their craft and are now beginning to slip away from title con-tention.

It seems that the team can use a lot of re-adjusting to make it back on top. Junior Kamilla Stevens feels that she can do more to help the team. “I feel I can help the team win by staying focused before the game and keeping a clear mind,” she said. Stevens who has played on every level at Annandale, is playing for the varsity team this year. She said she had a lot of transitions to make, coming off the bench this year. “It’s a bit of a transition coming off the bench this year because I have been a starter for the past two years and now

I’m not”When a team is not doing so well,

spectators would normally question the coaching staff, but the players of

this team do nothing of the sort. Senior and co-captain, Kelli Munchmore, feels the coaching deserves more respect. “I feel the coaching staff is full of energy and work very hard for the team,” she explained.

Munchmore, who has been a member of the varsity team since her freshman year, has been a positive asset to the team for multiple seasons and is continuing her positive image.

Although the team is in a slump at the moment, the lady Atoms are al-ready trying to overcome their problems. Starting 3 guard, Jenna McRae has found some faults with the team, and

explained what she as a player and captain, is doing to correct them.

“I feel the team can do bet-ter with working as a unit, rather than individu-als. It seems like majority of the confusion of the team comes from

having to adjust to the new coach.” McRae has been a strong contribu-

tor to the team, with scoring and defense skills, and feels the team has more to give then what the fans are seeing.

For our dear Atoms to get back on track, the team has to realize they are a team and have to function as one. With half of the season already behind them, the ladies have to focus on simply play-ing good basketball, and keeping a clear mind, and with out a doubt, they could be in the regional championship that they so deeply desire to capture.

Runners look to qualify for regionals

BY KYLE KNOCHE

Circulation Manager

As the winter sports season begins to wind down, the AHS winter track team is just beginning to heat up. Having begun the season with a strong outing on December 14, the team has now competed in three of their four scheduled non-district meets.

Despite countless meets throughout the regular season, all runners look to qualify for districts and regional meets. Many hoped that the cold weather would stay away, but it seems that their wishes will not come true.

Throughout the season’s track meets, which have been held indoors at The Thomas Jefferson Center in Arlington and Episcopal High School in Alexandria, a number of Atoms have triumphed over their competition from both the Patriot District and other districts in the Northern Region whom they race against.

On the boys team, key players include senior Reid Runolfsun, junior middle dis-tance runner Brad Grabo, and junior Joseph Ingberg, a long distance runner. For the girls team juniors Lien Vu and Rachel Sykes, along with junior sprinter Seemal Awan are some of the team’s fastest runners.

“It has been a really warm winter so far, but it is just started to get really cold,” said junior Danny Wirdzek, a long distance run-ner. “The air not being so cold makes it easier on your body. It is much less painful for your

throat and lungs. Because of that, practice has become more enjoyable.”

“The best thing about track is the meets because you get to hang out with all your friends for hours and only have to run a one minute race,” said junior Claire Welling. “Even the bus rides to and from the meets are fun. The meets are really long so you have a lot of down time to chill.”

Practices, led by Coaches Phil Harris and Zach Sykes, can be long and difficult, but team members say that during the meets, all of the effort that is put into practice dur-ing the week is rewarded.

“I have to work hard in practice, but knowing that I am respected by Coach Sykes makes it worth it. Since this is my

first year I didn’t re-ally know much about jumping but now I am completing all of my personal goals and doing better every day. I also have become a much better jumper,” said junior Omar Mayassi, a jumper on the boys team. “I can’t wait until spring, I’m definitely going to do track again.”

Not having certain star preformers from last year to lead the Atoms on has been a major disadvantage. They have had to rely on younger runners to lead them into qualifying meets.

One thing is for sure; the Atoms will have a lot of work to do if they want to qualify at least five runners to regionals.

Their next meet will be at Episcopal High School on Feb.3 at 7:30 A.M. Districts will start on Feb.7.

The Atoms hope that a strong showing on Feb.3 will lead them to qualify as many as they can.

Sophomore Alexis Williams looks to dribble past a Lee defender. The Atoms lost on Jan. 19 with a scrore of 43-67.

Members of the varsity track team adjust to the cold weather during their warm-ups laps. They are preparing in tough weather for their next meet on February 3 at Episcopal H.S.

I feel the team can do better working as a unit, rather than as individuals.

“---Jenna McRae

senior”The air not being so cold makes it easier on your body and on your lungs

“—Danny Wirdzek

junior”

Year: JuniorYears Playing: 10Why she made it: scored 24points against Garfield intourneyPosition: small forwardHeight: 5’ 11”Weight: 135Record this year: 7-9Must-see match: Senior night at South CountyBiggest Influence: Kara Wats-onSuperstitions: has to wear black socks and red spandexMusic Before the game: shuffleWorst part of practice: suicides sprints

Year: JuniorYears Playing: 3Why he made it: placed

6th in PA tourney Position: wrestles 189Height: 5’ 8”Weight: 185Best match: match

against EdisonRecord this year: 13-3Must see match: pack

the pit Biggest Influence:

coachesSuperstitions: noneMusic Before the game:

Metallica

Year: JuniorYears Playing: 3Why he made it: high jump at 6’ 5”- best in schoolEvents: high jump, triple jump,4X4 relayHeight: 6’3”Weight:155Must-see meet: 4X4 meetBiggest Influence: Zach SykesSuperstitions: prays before meetsWorst part of practice: running

Girls Basketball Box Score:43-67

How the game went 1st quarter:

Senior Denay Wood looks to pass to se-nior Tori Clark, while avoiding a pick.

Sophomore Alexis Williams quards a Lee guard. The Atoms lost on Jan. 19 43-67.

Girls basketball coach, Williamson talks to players during a timeout speech.

Freshman Tamika Jones looks to beat a Lee defender with a bounce pass.

2nd quarter:

3rd quarter:

4th quarter:

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Practice Pictorials:Winter Track

Senior James Godbout and junior Jesse Kruse handfight to set up a take down

Senior Oscar Santos is pinned down by freshman Ricky Adams .

Junior Jesse Kruse picks up senior James Godbout with an overhead move.

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ALL RAIL PHOTOS TAKEN BY AVERY ADCOCK

17SPORTSAtAAJan. 23, 2007

Year:Senior Sport: Varsity WrestlingNote: Earned eight place out of 24 wrestlers in the 215 weight class at a tournament in Conestoga, Pennsylvania on Dec. 30. Player Quote: “The competition at this meet was tough becasue Pennsylvania is known for being a wrestling state,” said Akridge. “My conditioning really helped my performance.”

Year:Senior Sport: Track and FieldNote: Qualified for Regionals in 500 meter dash with a time of 1 minute and 8.6 seconds at DCIAA Invitational on Jan 10. Player Quote: “I work very hard when it comes to the races,” said Williams. “I have to be a leader and set the standard for the team.”

Year:Junior Sport: Track and FieldNote: Improved 200 meter and 300 meter times to 28 seconds and 68 seconds, respectively, at TJ Middle School on Jan. 5. Also, improved 300 meter time by a second at DCIAA Invitational meet on January 10. Player Quote: “I have been trying a lot harder in recent meets,” said Rudzinski. “Hopefully I’ll improve and get better times in future.”

WADE AKRIDGE

BRANDON WILLIAMS

JANINE RUDZINSKI

Atomic Athletics The records of JV Sports around AHS

4-1

JV Girls Basketball

7-3

JV Wrestling

Record not reported

All sports records taken from www.annandaleatoms.com

JV Boys Basketball

Year: JuniorSport: TrackNote: Achieved eighth place out of 22 competitors in the Triple Jump event at the DCIAA Invitational on Jan 10.Player Quote: “I try my hardest each time I practice so I do well at meets,” said Sykes.

Year: FreshmanSport: Gymnastics Note: Achieved third place in her category against Lake Braddock on Jan. 10. Player Quote: “I enjoy the success because of how hard I have worked,” said Flint. “ The team is getting better as the season continues.”

Additional reporting by Marisa Tordella, Rachel Burnett and Caroline Merz

RACHEL SYKES

ELIZABETH FLINT

Compiled By Greg RosensteinCompiled By Greg Rosenstein

Sports Column

SportsSports SpotlightSpotlight

BY GREG ROSENSTEIN

Sports Editor

The boy and girl had their arms wrapped around each other tight. Moments later…wham! The boy is flung hard to the ground with his lips touching the floor. Was it a sud-den relationship problem? No. It was junior JV wrestler Van Phan taking her opponent hard to the mat.

Phan decided to pick up wrestling as a sophomore because no other sport really appealed to her.

“Wrestling was different than the other sports,” said Phan. “I like it because it is challenging, rough and ag-gressive.”

According to Sports Illustrated, each year the amount of female wrestlers in U.S. high schools increase across the country. In the last decade alone, the number has tripled from 1,629 to 4,975. There still are, however, more than 50

times as many males who participate in the sport.Locally, added interest has been growing due to the suc-

cess of female wrestler Firen Gassman of Herndon High School. Gassman, a two-time All-State qualifier, provides many local female wrestlers with the inspiration that they can compete against the boys.

“Last year, I would never see any girl wrestlers,” said Phan. “But since [Firen] went to States, I have seen at least ten this year. The amount is growing.”

Despite this sudden increase, Phan is still the only female wrestler in the AHS program. But the JV team has made her feel just like everyone else.

But do members of the team take a different approach to wrestling when facing a female rather than a male op-ponent?

“In practice when we wrestle, [my approach] is not much different,” said freshman Andrew Sells, one of Phan’s

practice opponents. Jesse Kruse, a varsity member ques-tions that.

“I think guy wrestlers would take it a little easier,” said Kruse.

Phan said that she has noticed a little of both styles in competition, however.

“When I face a guy wrestler, they might be either timid or overly aggressive at first,” said Phan. “It’s a lose-lose situation for them. If they win, its ‘you only beat a girl,’ but if they lose it’s embarrassing.”

Phan is 4-4 thus far in the season and is looking to be more victorious. “Last year the bright spot was pinning my opponent from Thomas Jefferson,” she said. “Hopefully I can do more of that this season.”

Phan believes joining the wrestling team two years ago was a good move. “I was a little hesitant at first, but it turned out great,” said Phan. “I love it.”

Arenas: The new face of D.C. sports

By Greg RosensteinBy Greg Rosenstein

Sports Column

TheThe Extra Extra PointPoint

OK, I’ll admit it. Before this basketball season, I not only lost interest in the NBA – I hated it. I hated the fact that the players competed more for their paycheck than the team. I hated how when I would go to NBA games or watch on television, the atmosphere would be close to nothing. I hated, how, with 82 games in a season, a loss didn’t mean much in the long run. I was a college basketball guy.

But this year, something changed. A daily habit became reading pro basketball articles online and in newspapers. Instead of looking away when NBA highlights came on SportsCenter in the morning, now I’m paying close atten-tion. Why? Gilbert Arenas.

The star guard for the Washington Wizards is not like other players, and never will be. Everything about Gilbert is a story in itself.

Take his childhood. His mother left him at the age of three with his father in Tampa, Florida. At seven, when his father wished to pursue his acting dreams, the two piled

into a van and drove to Los Angeles—with $25. The first night in California, they slept in their car at a park. The next night they got kicked out of park by the police and moved to a drugstore parking lot. A few nights later they found hospitality at a local YMCA, where they slept on a mattress in the auditorium. A man at the Y who noticed young Gilbert bouncing a basketball, soon after offered his father a job as a clerk for his company. This enabled them to rent an apartment in Van Nuys, a suburb of Hollywood.

Take his tenure at the Uni-versity of Arizona. After he com-mitted to play basketball for Lute Olson and the Wildcats in his se-nior season of high school, critics said he would play zero minutes as a bench warmer in Tucson. In response, Arenas chose to wear the number zero to prove doubters wrong.

His freshman year, he started for the powerhouse school. Two years later in 2001, he led Arizona to the Final Four and chose to go early to the pros.

Take his career in the NBA. Doubted once again at the start, critics said he was undersized and would not make it at the next level. He was drafted by the Golden State Warriors with the 31st overall pick (2nd pick of the 2nd round). Still wearing his number zero jersey, Arenas wreaked havoc on every other team in the NBA, especially the ones that passed over him in the draft for the likes of DeSagana Diop, Rodney White, and Joseph Forte. After winning the Most Improved Player Award his second season in the league, he

tested the free agency waters and came to Washington.In his four years as a Wizard, Gilbert has been spectacu-

lar, averaging over 26 points and 5.6 assists per game. He is also one of the most clutch performers in the game today. In Game 5 of the first round of the 2005 NBA playoffs in Chicago against the Bulls, he hit the game winning shot with no time remaining to advance the Wiz to the second round. This season alone he has hit 11 buzzer beaters (halftime included). As of Monday, Gilbert is averaging 29.7 points, 6.3 assists, 2.0 steals, 4.5 rebounds for the top team in the Eastern Conference. He is a leader both on and off of the court and should be a front-runner for the NBA MVP come May.

Take Gilbert’s personality. He is funny, likeable, quot-able, and sometimes just flat out weird (in a good way). Here are some examples: Before every game, he hides a teammate’s jersey and makes him look for it. ESPN re-ported in October that Arenas had converted his home to simulate high-altitude conditions, so that he will have more energy late in games. (Don’t tell me that isn’t brilliant.) This season he has begun to shout “Hibachi” (a Japanese grill) as he takes a jumpshot. Arenas has publicly stated that he works out nine hours a day and only sleeps three.

As much as the fans love Arenas, he loves them back. After each game, regardless whether home or away, Gilbert tosses his jersey (which he pays $250 each for) into the stands. He is also donating $100 for every point he scores each home game to local D.C. area schools.

Gilbert Arenas is the best thing to happen to Washing-ton area basketball in the past decade. And at just 24, we can hope for a lot more of the same.

BY GREG YOUNG

Staff Writer

The Atoms swim and dive team concluded their regular season on Saturday, Jan. 19, defeating T.C. Williams by a combined score of 430-217.

As the score indicated, the meet was a blowout, with AHS winning in every event except boys diving.

“We blew them out of the water,” said the senior boys captain, Chris Fitz. “T.C. doesn’t have enough depth to really compete with the top teams in the district and we knew that we weren’t going to have any trouble against them” said head coach Bruce Fisher.

Several of the swimmers were also fighting for the oppor-tunity to compete in districts, with the meet against T.C. Williams as the final chance to qualify this season.

The girls finished their regular season with four wins and three loses, while the boys finished with five wins and two loses.

“I anticipate us swimming the best times of the season at the district meets,” said Fisher.

Overall, the AHS swim team has demonstrated clear improvement throughout the season. Several of the key swimmers will be returning next season, including junior Amy Fleming, sophomore Rachael Burnett, and freshman Annika Jessen. Burnett has also qualified to swim in the state meet at George Mason University.

“The guys have really been successful, and the girls have improved tremendously throughout the season,” said Fitz.

“The girls had a lot of spirit this year, significantly more then last year,” said sophomore Erin Price.

Next year the team expects to continue its improve-ment. Fisher expects another strong freshman class, which could boost the team into the upper echelon in the Patriot District.

“We are becoming more competitive with the top teams in the district, such as West Springfield and Lake Brad-dock,” said Fisher. “Next year, I hope to continue to close the gap between them and us.”

Swim team enters districts

Atoms look to turn around season before tournament

BY GREG ROSENSTEIN

Sports Editor

After going 2-1 in Westfield High School’s “Bulldog Bash” tournament during the winter break, the Atoms seemed as if their early season woes were going away. Well, think again. Since a Dec. 27 victory over Robinson, the team is riding a six-game losing streak.

At 4-11 on the season, the Atoms sit sixth in the Patriot District standings. Six games remain before the district tournament on Feb.13, and head coach Anthony Harper and team members agree the Atoms have much to improve on to vie for a higher seed. “We don’t share the ball enough, look inside to Erik [Etherly],” said Harper. “We need to limit the turnovers and make better decisions.”

An issue plaguing the Atoms all season has been turnovers. “No verbal communication and no eye-contact leads to turnovers,” said senior Antwan Buggs. “Turnovers are our main struggle,” said junior Nick Bush. “We need to have a higher basketball IQ and play as a team.”

Multiple times this season the team has led or has been within five points of its opponents, yet was unable to pull out the victory. “We’re breaking down mentally,” said junior Erik Etherly. “We don’t have the stamina to keep up the full four quarters.”

“The fourth quarter has been hard for us to pull out,” said Buggs. “Basketball is 99% mental. That is why we need to start thinking.”

While the ability to stick with an opponent a full 32 minutes is crucial to winning, the Atoms feel importance also lies with the start of the game. “We are digging deep holes for us to get out of,” said Etherly. “Other teams are coming out ready to play. We are coming out flat and are giving [our opponents] a chance to run up the score.”

Despite the areas of improvement, positives coming in recent weeks have been the improved play off of the bench. “Rehman [Bhatti], Brian [Ma], and Nick [Bush] the last few games have been playing well,” said Harper. Added junior forward Bush, “I have stepped up because I realized we can’t have all of the weight on [the starters] shoulders.”

One change Harper hopes to see is an increase in fan support at both Tuesday and Friday night games. “The team feeds off of the crowd,” said the first year varsity coach. “The atmosphere was great against T.C. [Wil

liams], but the following Tuesday against West Potomac barely anyone was there. We need the fan support.”

Although the season has not met expectations, the Atoms feel there are still enough games left to make noise in the district standings. “The problem is we don’t know how to convert what we learn in practice into a game situation,” said senior Tim Shadyac. “But we can see it developing.”

Added Harper, “I think if we come together and play as a team, we can finish in the top four seeds of the district, which would give us a first round home game for the tournament. Once the tournament starts, it’s wide open.”

Sophomore Alan Stalp drives hard to the hoop against Lake Braddock on Jan. 12. The Atoms are 4-11 on the season with six games remaining.

GRE

G RO

SENS

TEIN

GREG

ROS

ENST

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Phan challenges stereotype and wins

Senior captain Megan Price

Junior Van Phan is the only female member in the wrestling program. Currently on the JV team, Phan is 4-4 on the season.

(Right) Phan prepares to take down an opponent in practice. “My friends think it is cool, and respect me for participat-ing in the sport.”

The popularity of female wrestling has increased greatly in the last decade, more than tripling from 1,629 female wrestlers to 4,975.

Arenas

18 Jan. 23, 2007ENTERTAINMENT AtAA

Say good-bye to the CD and welcome the future of music: downloading

BY JULIE TUMASZ

Staff Writer

The CD industry is singing the blues. All around the country, CD sales are dropping. In a Times survey of 2,000 music fans aged 16 to 24, 60% of fans predict the CD will die out within five years. But while the CDs are spinning slowly down, downloadable music is singing strong.

Although it may look like teens are listening to less music, it is not true. Kids are listening to just as much music, but they are getting them from different sources than their local record store.

Although music-industry lawsuits stopped early file sharing networks like Napster and Aimster, others like KaZaA, WinMX, LimeWire and iMesh are only in their prime. Teens know when they are using illegal networks, but many feel it’s not their problem.

Senior Sarah Bracken, a Metallica fan, says, “I don’t really care either way. The only thing that sucks about illegal downloading it that you are ripping off the artist and I want to try and respect my favorite artists.”

Bracken owns an iPod, but she still likes CDs better because she can keep them for longer than she keeps MP3 files.

But while Bracken is leaning toward CDs, Senior Carmela Tanedo says, “I stopped buying CDs years ago. It went from listening to CDs to burning them and then once you get an iPod, that’s it, no more CDs.”

The local Tower Records on Little River Turnpike has recently closed it’s doors on account of the rapidly decreasing popularity of CDs.

Senior Matt Kishiyama said, “Living right near Tower Records, I used to go there occasionally just to browse through the rare albums. I think the closing of Tower Records will have a direct effect towards the decrease in CD sales. However, there are still many retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City which are beginning to build up a good selection of CD’s

themselves.” Many different opinions were made about the fate-

ful closing. It has been called an “indifferent” change by junior Chris Santamaria because “it’s all about FYE, not Towers” and “truly sucky” by Bracken because “my best friend used to live right near the Tower that closed down, and we used to go there a lot.”

Senior Lucia Schaefer said, “It was a bummer. They were an outlet for smaller local artists. Unfortunately, according to big businesses, individual small scale cre-ativity isn’t profitable.”

Besides file sharing networks, new gadgets and technology are increasing the needs and wants of teens for easy assess to music. Phones equipped with music playing technology have recently been brought to the public’s attention. A few weeks ago, the famous company that brought us the iPod, Apple Computer Inc., released the iPhone.

Schaefer says that, “The iPhone is amaz-ing. There was this whole thing on it in last week’s Time Magazine. It does everything.” She worries though. “I hope it doesn’t destroy the market like it did for mp3 players. The iPod has the unofficial monopoly over everything.”

Interesting enough, Apple Computer Inc. has also just changed their name to Apple Inc. be-cause its managers believe that people should realize that they sell other things besides computers. Schaefer thinks with their unofficial monopoly on iPods they really don’t

need to change their name for people to realize they sell iPods.

Kishiyama does not want a iPhone or any of the new music playing cell phones. He says, “I think they are fascinating, but not worth the steep price tag. I merely use my cell phone for its intended use: talking. I’d rather have separate devices each specialized for one purpose rather than a bunch crammed into one with lesser quality.”

The problem for the CD industry is that all these new gadgets are not using CD’s to play music but downloadable music. Soon, CD’s will be singing a sad song goodbye to all their listeners.

How do you get your music?

“I downloaded music yesterday. I prefer to download muisc because it is cheaper.

—Mike Ejigufreshman

“Yesterday I downloaded a song, and I prefer to download be-cause it is quicker and cheaper.”

—Maggie Cregge

freshman

“I haven’t bought a CD in like years, I prefer download-ing music because it is faster.”

—Joel Waterssophomore

“I like to down-load music because it is cheaper.”

—Anita Obasisophomore

“Last night I downloaded a song. I like down-loading because its faster cheaper.”

—Ava Blennerhass

sophomore

Children of Men is absolutely stunningIt is the year 2027. Women are in-

fertile and the youngest human being on the planet (Diego Ricardo, 18) has just died. This is the setting for Alfonso Cuaron’s thrilling new film Children of Men.

We are taken into a dark and hopeless future that looks shockingly similar to the world we live in today. Po-litical undertones revolve around the story at all times with quick refer-ences to past events and conflicts going on right now around the world.

The premise for the film is simple: all hope has been lost around the world be-cause women have become incapable of having children. No one knows exactly why this has happened and the truth is never revealed.

That seems to be the only aspect left out of the dialogue. It is never explained how the world got this way which causes some scenes to be quite confusing but leads to interesting conversation after the movie is over.

We do get some background knowl-edge when main character Theo (Clive Owen) meets his hippie, pot growing friend Jasper, beautifully played by Michael Caine in a role that we have

never seen out of him before.

The deca-dence of the world looks all too familiar as refugees are thrown into camps and transported from check

point to check point while being harshly mistreated by the police. This startling world created by Cuaron is slightly haunting but also visually remarkable.

We follow all of the action along with the camera which gives you a front-line sort of feeling, resembling such films as Apocalypse Now and Saving Private Ryan. Cuaron uses several long un-broken sequences to intensify the action and take you deeper into his view of a world with no hope.

The semi-fascist Great Britain has

become the only functioning country left causing enormous masses of illegal immigrants to travel to the country only to become captured, beaten, and tossed into cages along the sidewalks like animals.

The movie takes place in the col-lapsing city as we follow former student activist Theo as he slowly discovers that humanity still has one faint glimmer of hope left, a pregnant young girl, Kee (Claire-Hope Ashity).

Theo is eventually kidnapped by the Fishes, a group of “terrorists” fighting for equal rights for the illegal immigrants in England. The group is headed by Theo’s past love interest Julian (Julianne Moore) with whom Theo had a kid with that died sev-eral years before. The Fishes need his help to get transit papers for Kee and help them get her to the coast where they can hand her off to the Human Project.

The Human Project is a group of scientists dedicated to finding a solution to the world’s

infertility problem and seems to be the world’s last resort.

The broke Theo eventually accepts the Fishes offer of £5,000 for his services thus beginning the action packed jour-ney, which could eventually decide the outcome of the human race.

Cuaron incorporates social problems including racism and terrorism drawing parallels from our modern world to a world with no hope.

This is the kind of film that raises questions, which should not be forgotten in the bustle of every day life. A truly stunning and remarkable cinematic achievement, Children of Men is a film

that everyone should see.

LUCAS HIGGINS

Staff Writer

Raise your hand if you are getting tired of this whole “emo” thing. My own hand is twitching. A couple more months, four more “it” bands later, and my hand will be up when asked that question. Originality is getting harder and harder to come by. Lyrical genius? More and more scarce.

So let’s pessimistically delve into the latest band to become huge, My Chemical Romance, and their second album, The Black Parade. Ev-erybody has heard the title track blaring over the radio with what seems to be almost “How to Save a Life”-regularity. Okay, it is a well-crafted song that attains the tag of “epic” because a piano-to-punk build up just can’t miss. But what about the rest of the album? Are they

actually trying to make a concept album? Surely not. Leave that to the Early November, please.

Actually, the answer is no. Although many critics have slapped the “con-

cept album” sticker onto this effort, that is not what “The Black Parade” really is. While a few of the songs do tie together nicely (“The End.”, “DEAD!” and the title track), each song will grab you in its own way. Gerard Way proves his lyrical merit with “Teenagers,” a song in which the lyrics read like a letter to Mr. generic, lonely, kicked-

to-the-curb-by-every-clique-imaginable Jersey kid. “The Sharpest Lives” is one of the many testaments

throughout the album to MCR’s ability to be dark and oh-so-catchy at the same time. And did I mention just how epic that title track is? It’s five minutes and eleven seconds of pure empowerment.

So yes, My Chemical Romance is mainstream. My Chemical Romance does wear makeup. My Chemical Romance is, like all these other bands, from New Jersey. But man, are they good at it. The Black Parade is easily one of the best albums of 2006, and sets a precedent for all these suck-bands to live up to in 2007. This one goes out to the scene-dwelling emo kid in all of us, no matter how small he or she may be.

Download this: “This is How I Disappear”, “The Sharpest Lives,” “Teenagers,” “Famous Last Words.”

Death to the CD?

The Black Parade brings the best of ‘06

Drew Drew ReviewReview

TheThe

By Drew WildesBy Drew Wildes

Movie Review

Adventures of Brew By Drew Wildes & Ben Hendrickson

“Last time I bought a CD was over the week-end, I prefer to buy CDs because downloading is unfair to the artist.”

—Kat Reachjunior

“Two days ago I downloaded a song. I prefer downloading be-cause I don’t have any money.”

—Zach Flynnjunior

“Download mu-sic, it’s a new era! I downloaded a song yesterday.”

—John Derricksonsenior

“Yesterday I down-loaded a song, I prefer to download music because it is easy.”

—Hilda K-Smithsenior

“Last Christmas (2005). I’ve never downloaded mu-sic because I don’t know how to and I don’t want to. ”

—Mr. Carayiannisassistant principal

R.I.P.

1982-2007

19ENTERTAINMENTAtAAJan. 23, 2007

Horoscopes

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb.18)Angering situations can be blown over

quickly if you let them. From opening doors to eating, there are many things you can’t do with your fists clenched.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)Time to once again be your own su-

pernanny, separating yourself from the bad influences. This is tough, especially when the most persuasive troublemak-ers are closest to you.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)You long to feel the crash of a waterfall,

the cool breeze, or the humidity of a rainfor-est. Anything but stale, indoor air. A mini break might do you well.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)Relationships are complex and will

put you to the test. You’ll make the strong choice, although it’s hard to say whether it takes more emotional strength to hold on or let go.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)If all endings are beginnings, does that

mean that all begin-nings are endings? Try your best to add people to your life without changing too much.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)Staying cheerful will set an example

to those around you. Remember that your rivals will back down as soon as you stand up for your beliefs and your property.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)Accept praise. Don’t deflect it to your

friends. You deserve a little recognition, too. Tonight you’re inspired by the promise of love. You’ll go to impres-sive lengths to thrill someone.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)Loved ones need help in overcoming

negativity. Don’t indulge them in their untrue story. Shed light on the way life really is. You’ve got a gift for talking.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)What was once adequate compen-

sation now seems a mere pittance. Bite your tongue while you research. You’ll need to make a strong case in your arguement.

Aries (March 21-April19)You’re in an outrageous mood. If it can

be overdone, your subc-oncious mind seems to be working in hyperspeed to figure out a way to overdo it.

Taurus (April 20-May18) Recent excitement has knocked you

out of your usual pat-tern. There’s comfort in returning to the routine, yet it’s not exactly the same. It might never be the same again.

Virgo (Aug. 23- Sept. 22)Assumptions are dangerous. When in

doubt, ask. When not in doubt, ask. You can’t be too careful on days like this, when a tiny error can cost you hours.

Sudo

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Fill in the blank spaces in the grid so that every vertical column, every horizontal row and every 3x3 box contains the numbers 1 through 9, without repeating any. There is re-ally only one solution to each puzzle. This puzzle is based upon reasoning and logic. It does not require any arithmetic.

WW

W.D

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SUDO

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easy medium

How far are game designers willing to go in order toexpress themselves?

BY LAYLUMA HOTAKI

Entertainment Editor

What would people have to say if a game designer cre-ated a game that depicted what happened on September 11th? How would people react to that? Probably the same as they are reacting to the creation of the game based on the Columbine High School shootings that happened in 1999.

Rated “M” for mature, Super Columbine Massacre RPG first made its appearance on the Internet as a free downloadable game. The description given on the website says the “game delves into the morning of April 20th, 1999 and asks players to relive that day through the eyes of Eric Har-

ris and Dylan Klebold, those responsible for the deadliest school shooting in American history.”

Senior Kwaku Osei, who has played the game only once said, “It’s kind of stupid and not very fun. I can’t complain that it’s a really bad video game because there’s been worse.”

It does not say that in the game players learn about the shooters as they prepare for the killing spree that occurred that spring morning. They also learn about the shooters’ backgrounds, obsessions and the friendship they shared.

“I can see why people are mad about it thought because it’s too soon to talk about it. It just happened like five years ago,” said Osei.

Some share this opinion, but others feel stronger about the topic. “I think it’s really messed up and [they] shouldn’t recreate what happened,” said senior Andrew Awadallah. “The kids that play this video game might think it’s cool and want to do it themselves.”

This is quite the controversy considering the story about the gunman Kimveer Gill. He was a fan of the game be-

fore he went on a shooting spree last year in Montreal and then killed himself.

Creator of the game Danny Ledonne said he was bullied as a kid and could have possibly led the life of the Columbine shooters if he had not found another path. He said he wanted to explore who they really were, but didn’t have the funding to make a film, according to The Washington Post.

“I would never play it because it’s based on a real event,” said junior Eric Loch.

Is a video game about Columbine wrong?

“First off this ain’t no diss record/This for some of my homies that were misrepresented...”

First off, this isn’t a diss review either. I thoroughly enjoyed the album, even if the lyrics don’t always match the beat. In Nas’ latest album, Hip-Hop is Dead, he writes the obituary of the hip hop world, listing in detail the missing players in today’s music industry.

In the usual style of hip hop, almost every track is shared with another artist. Including the Black Eyed Peas Will.i.am, Kanye West - who does a spectacular job - Kelis, Snoop Dogg, LeRoi Moore, Jay-Z and The Game, as well as several oth-ers.

Some of these additions sincerely better the song, oth-ers make the song

like Snoop Dogg, and still others bring down what could have been a good song.

In “Where Are They Now,” Nas proclaims that “Rap is like a ghost town, real mystic/Like these folks never existed/They the reason that rap became addictive.” Nas looks back at the roots of his industry and laments that the real reasons that people fell in love with rap and hip hop are gone for good, and that not enough people are pausing to mourn the end of their era.

At the same time, he takes a glance back at his own roots, in “Not Going Back”. He maintains that even in his mansion or his private yacht he can hear the shootings and the crime of his former hood, and promises that though he cares, he’ll never return to the life there (“I know the guns that were used how much money the shooter got/Cause on the private yacht I’m still within earshot of it all”).

“Still Dreaming” pairs the real tones of Nas with the appeal of Kanye West, creating one of the best overall songs on the album. The track follows a the pattern between the singers, West sings his end with little or no profanity, while in every line of Nas’ addition there is at

least one word that would keep parents from buying this album for their kids.

This trend is noticeable in the other songs as well, but is best highlighted when compared to an equally famous MC is able to make his point without vulgarity. This album is different from any others that are currently on top, and it’s a welcome reprieve. It’s an album worth listening to on the whole, but definitely not in the car with your parents.

Download this: “Play on Playa,” “Still Dreaming,” and “Hip-Hop is Dead”

author’s e-mail: emily.sample@thea-blast.org

Nas brings Hip Hop back from the dead

NasHip-Hop is

Dead

B+

What’s on your iPod?If you had an iPod, what

would your most played list look like?

Here are some teachers and students from AHS who were put to the test and asked to reveal their most played playlist. Check out their top 10 songs here. Rebekah Ralston

English teacher1. Two-Step, Dave Matthews

Band2. It’s My Life, No Doubt3. Black Tambourine, Beck 4. Sunday Morning, No

Doubt 5. You and I Both, Jason

Mraz 6. Stay or Leave, Dave Matthews Band 7. Long Road, Beanie Man8. Ain’t No Other Man, Christina Aguilara 9. Are You Going To Be My

Girl, Jet 10. Love Song, 311

Mishell Hernandezsophomore1. Mezz’ora, Zero Assoluto 2. Such Great Heights, Postal Service 3. Foxtrot, Bloodhound Gang 4. Jerusalem, Matisyahu 5. Minimalismi, Zero Assoluto 6. Why You Wanna, T.I. 7. Dedicato A Te, Le Vibrazioni 8. Gone Going, Black Eyed

Peas 9. Dream a Dream, Captain

Jack 10. Baby Britain, Elliot

Smith

Leon Mavlianjunior1. Sleep, Azure 2. Here I Am, Keane 3. Simple and Clean, Utada

Hikaru 4. All For You, Janet Jackson 5. Fergalicious, Fergie 6. Maneater, Nelly Furtado 7. Only Time, Enya 8. This is Halloween, Danny

Elfman 9. Unforgettable, Nat King

Cole 10. Duel of the Fates, John

Williams

Fabrice Kabeyasenior1. Shoulder Lean, Young Dro 2. Chevy Ridin’, Cool and

Dre 3. Top Back, T.I. 4. Luv It, Young Jeezy 5. Go To Church, Ice Cube 6. That’s That, Snoop Dogg 7. What You Know, T.I. 8. Stuntin’ Like My Daddy, Lil’ Wayne 9. Let’s Ride, The Game 10. Stay Fly, Jim Jones

Max Kirkonfreshman1. Black Republican,

Nas 2. Hail Mary, Tupac 3. Internally Bleeding,

Immortal Technique 4. Juicy, Biggie 5. My Block, Scarface 6. One Mic, Nas 7. When Thugs Cry,

Tupac 8. We Right Here, DMX 9. Virginia, Clipse 10. Into the Arms of Angels, Jedi Mind Tricks

Caitlin Counihansenior1. Well Whiskey, BrightEyes 2. I Woke Up With This Song in My Head, BrightEyes 3. 180 by Summer, Taking Back

Sunday 4. Always, Blink 182 5. 1979, Smashing Pumpkins 6. Work, Jimmy Eat World 7. Man and Wife, Desaparecidos 8. Recluse, Cursive 9. Vital Beach, Blood Brothers 10. On the Brightside, Fear Before the March of Flames

Tobias DienstfreyMath teacher1. Stairway to Heaven, Led

Zepplin 2. Lola, The Kinks 3. Behind Blue Eyes, The Who 4. Free Bird, Lynyrd Skynyrd 5. Yesterday, Beatles 6. Dream On, Aerosmith 7. You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Rolling Stones 8. Ruby Tuesday, Rolling

Stones 9. Black Dog, Led Zepplin 10. You’re Just What I Need,

The Cars

Bryce Donaldsenior1. It Ends Tonight, All

American Rejects 2. Back in Black, AC/DC 3. Gasoline, Audioslave 4. Swing Swing, All American

Rejects 5. Praise You in This Storm,

Casting Crowns 6. Feels Like Today, Rascal

Flatts 7. Stuntin’ Like My Daddy,

Birdman 8. Fast Cars and Freedom,

Rascal Flatts 9. Beautiful Letdown,

Switchfoot

Carina Riverasophomore1. La Ex, Wison Y Yandell 2. Dime Como Olividarte, Rakim 3. Days of Life, Bone Thugs 4. My Love, Justin Timberlake 5. Runaway Love, Ludacris 6. Irreplaceable, Beyonce 7. Hip Hop is Dead, Nas 8. Juicy, Notorious BIG 9. Butterfly, UBC 10. Ridin’, Mary J. Blige

Download This:

1. Runaway Love, Ludacris2. Top Back, T.I.3. It Ends Tonight, The All American Rejects4. What Goes Around, Justin Timberlake5. Wasted, Carrie Underwood

20 Jan. 23, 2007WEEKEND AtAA

Upcoming Concerts

9:30 ClubBlue OctoberTue., Jan. 23

IncubusFri., Jan. 26Sat., Jan. 27Cowboy MouthFri., Feb. 2

Goo Goo DollsMon., Feb. 5Tue., Feb. 6

The State TheaterPerpetual GrooveThur., Jan. 25Blue OysterSat. Jan 27

The BirchmereIsaac HayesThur. Jan 25

Verizon Center

Red Hot Chili PeppersThur. Jan. 25Rod Stewart Fri., Jan. 26

The price is right

By Kate McCormack and Tim ShadyacBy Kate McCormack and Tim Shadyac

ChowChow DownDown

Restaurant Guide

Bangkok 54 is located on Columbia Pike in Arlington. The surrounding area is not especially classy, but Bangkok 54 stands out among the rest

I looked over and saw it. A whole fish lying on a plate,

with its eyeballs still in. I’m not one to try that sort of thing, but at Bangkok 54 on a Saturday night it seemed that many people had ordered it and were happily eating it directly off of their plate.

Bangkok 54 has a staff of all native Thai people making it the most authentic tasting Thai I have ever eat

Upon entering I was quickly ushered to a seat by the hosts. It was clear at once that all of the staff is from Thailand from their accents, which can make it some-what hard to understand them. However, all were extremely friendly and helpful in their service.

Thai food is my favorite food and Bang-kok 54 had the best I have ever eaten. There is something on the menu for everyone; the Pad Thai has a subtle hint of peanut sauce but not overpowering, making it delicious. All of the curries are spicy, but you can alter

them to your tastes.Everything is stylishly presented, for example, the spring

rolls are served in a martini glass with sweet and sour sauce in the bottom.

Red chopsticks sit in vases in the middle of each table adding a more contemporary feel. The décor is mostly red and white with plants all around and neat lighting.

The menu is full of good bargains; each dish has more than enough food for one person and each comes with a bowl of rice. Since there is more than enough food for each person, dishes can be shared amongst a group for less money.

The restaurant is also a bar and is popular on weekends but during the day it is not very crowded. If you go on a weekday during lunch hours there is a special menu in which everything is $5.99 and spring rolls are only a dollar more if added.

Bangkok 54 is located on Columbia Pike about five minutes from the District. The surrounding area is not particularly agreeable but Bangkok 54 stands out. Located next door is the restaurants grocery shop along with a small

movie theater two shops down.

For more information please see www.bangkok54restaurant.com or visit them

at their restaurants:

2919 Columbia Pike, Arlington VA

703-521-4070

Food:

Service:

Decor: out of 4 stars

KATE

MCC

ORM

ACK

KATE

MCC

ORM

ACK

Everything at Bangkok 54 is served stylishly. Spring rolls are served in martini glasses with sweet and sour sauce.

Thrift and Consignment

stores in Fairfax County:

Thrift Stores

Clco k Tower Thrift Store: 5503 Leesburg Pike, Bialey’s Cross Roads703-845--8023

Fair Oaks Hospital Thrift: 9667 Lee Highway, Fairfax703-273-3519

Good Will Industries: 4714 Columbia Pike, Arlington703-979-5947

Joseph’s Coat: 3022 Annandale Road, Falls Church703-538-6289

Look Again Resale Shop: 900 King Street, Alexandria73-683-2558

Salvation Army: 6528 little River Turn-pike, Alexandria703-642 -9270

Sisters Thrift Shop: 7395 Lee Hwy #H, Falls Church703-846-0362

Consignment Stores

Auntie Te’s Consignments: 5244 Port Royal Road, Springfield703-321-9363

Classy Consignments: 7104 Brookfield Plaza, Springfield703-644-4655

Consignments Unlimited/ Corner Cup-board2649 North Pershing Drive, Arlington7030276-0060

E C’s Closet: 9415 Old Burke Lake rd., Burke703-503-0772

New to You, Inc.: 108 W. Broad Street, Falls Church703-533-1251

Once is Not Enough: 428 N. Columbus St., Alexandria703-549-1129

Treasure Trove Shop: 7036 Columbia Pike, Annandae703-256-7715

Vogue to Vintage: Lake Anne Plaza, Reston703-787-5700

BY TIMOTHY SHADYAC

Weekend Editor

Our clothes are so boring, just modern mass-produced sewn pieces of cloth. Where is the originality? Where is the flavor? We were out of luck until our visit to our neighborhood thrift store, Salva-tion Army.

Rows upon rows of clothes, racks filled with donated clothing of others. We did not even know were to start.

The first row we decided to rummage through was the row of shirts and sweaters. Available at Salvation Army are some of the world’s ugliest clothes, but also some of the most unique clothes that you may not be able to find anywhere else. Any color, any style, any fit imaginable can be found.

The only problem with these massive amounts of clothes is the lack of organization. There is no separa-tion of size or color, just the style of the clothing, but this is what can make your trip to Salvation Army an adventure.

Because you cannot go to a specific section to find what you are looking for, you are forced to look through all of the clothing, which often helps customers find great things they might normally not even notice.

The next area was the pants rows. This is where your Salvation Army experience may get al little com-plicated. It is very difficult, nearly impossible, to find pants in your size, your favorite material, and your favorite style.

If you plan on shopping at Salvation Army, you should be willing to spend a good hour to search for something you really want.

While you may be thinking, used clothes? Gross. This is not the case. Contrary to what many believe, the Salvation Arm does wash donated clothing. We still encourage you to rewash any items you purchase.

Even beyond thinking that used clothes are dirty, the Salvation Army does not shun away customers that are from lower income families.

Many make the assumption that you must need financial aid to shop here. Salvation Army is a charity organization in that their profits go to helping the poor. They appreciate any business they can get.

Salvation Army sells much more than clothing. In ‘the annex’ located up a ramp in the store, sells the most unusual items. Items

in the annex range from bowling alls, records, televisions, radios, and silverware.

Furniture and sports equipment are sold on the main floor of the store. When it comes to furniture, typically one must purchase a complete set.

Because of the recent boom in sales of flat panel televisions, once can find dozens of functioning tube style televisions.

Do not let Salvation Army deceive you. Used products are underrated. Salvation Army offers its customers clothes and other good for far less money than one would typi-

cally spend.Most T-shirts are$.99 and most collared

shirts range from between $2 and $4. Pants and sweaters can be found from anywhere between $5 and $10.

If you are looking for new clothes that no one else has, give Salvation Army a chance. Do not let your preconceptions about the

store turn you away from shopping at a thrift store.

The Salvation Army is located right outside of Annandale on Little River Turnpike. It is close to Home Depot and Hollywood Video. Its

location makes it one of the closest thrift stores in the area.Cheap clothes. I was able buy four great items for under $10.

Look to save your money like I did when you need a new style.

Thrift store shopping

Tim’s shopping cart

Kate’s shopping cart

BY CLAIRE BUI

Staff Writer

While thrift and consignment stores used to be retreats for die-hard bargain shoppers, they have now become a place to follow mainstream style and spot that “ultimate find,” without having to break open the piggy bank. From furniture, to clothes, to knick-knacks, thrift and consignment stores offer secondhand stuff, proving that “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.”

Every now and then, Beth Hertel, junior, likes to stop by The Remix or Annie Creamcheese, vintage thrift boutiques in Alexandria and Georgetown, in the hopes to find chic and unique pieces.

“Sometimes I shop at these places because it allows me to have a piece of clothing or jewelry I that know no one else will be wearing,” Hertel said. “I’ve also seen designer goods at other thrift stores, like vintage Gucci handbags,” she added.

Although you may not always come across designer duds or doodads worth big dough, shopping at second-hand stores can often save you money.

“I like thrift stores because it’s wonderfully inex-pensive and you always can walk out with something,” senior Colin Webb said. “I’ve bought mostly shirts and sweatshirts, but the advantages to shopping at these

stores are that you don’t have to spend a lot of money and you look more original,” he stated. “One time I

found a cool lemonade dis-

penser and I bought it and gave it to the kids down my street who have lemonade stands,” said Saman-

tha England, senior. “I also found some cool picture frames for only a dollar,” she added. The growing

popularity of thrift and consignment stores have made places such as the Salvation Army and

Goodwill, both national charities, trendy places to find hidden treasures, regardless of how much money one has in their pocket.

“You can always find cheap clothes, cool brands and unusual styles that can’t easily be found in regular stores for clothes,” junior Danny Wirdzek said. “I’ve bought track jackets, jeans, winter coats and t-shirts from thrift stores.”

Every store offers something different, as people are constantly donating their cast-offs to them.

Senior John Chu enjoys thrift shopping for col-lectables.

“I try to look for vintage stuff that I can’t find nowa-days. Like wild 1994-1995 Bulls gear,” he said.

“Going to a thrift store is always a gamble, because you never know what they will have there,” Webb said.

The trend of secondhand shopping has slowly bal-looned throughout the country, and it seems to have hit the Annandale area in a big way.

The Treasure Trove Shop, Joseph’s Coat, and Annandale Surplus, along with the Salvation Army and Goodwill, are all consignment and thrift stores, popular for their clothing, accessories, furniture and other amenities.

Shane Keady holds up the new flannel shirts he found at the Salvation Army.

Sweater: $4.99 Bag: $5

VHS: $1

Record: $1

Record: $1

Picture Frame: $1

Total: $13

Total: $9Polo Shirt: $0.99

Sweater: $4.99 Polo Shirt: $1.99

Although bags and shoes are messily displayed, there are alot of interesting designs to be found sin the clutter.

KATE

MCC

ORM

ACK

Compiled by Kate McCormack

TIM SHADYAC