Hemet High School, Hemet, CA 92544 (951) 765-5150 Issue #7 - February 2018

Hemet HigH ScHooltHe Bulldog

Why Flowers?... By: MJ Vargas

Have you ever wondered why people give their loved ones flowers for Valentine’s Day?

What’s the meaning behind it? Well, flowers have been symbols of love, marriage and romance; many people use them for just that! Back in the Victorian era, people used flowers to send secre-tive messages to their loved ones. Now it’s time to find out why many do it for Valentine’s Day to-day! Here is a list of the type flowers that people give and what each of them mean.

Roses~ Red Roses usually represent love and romance. People give roses to their loved

ones to let them know that they care about them and love them for who they are.

Tulips~ Tulips are said to represent

“perfect love.” A red Tulip is what usually represents that “perfect love.” Pink and Yellow Tulips represent feel-ings of caring and being hopelessly in love.

Orchids~ Orchids are a symbol of

love, wisdom, beauty, seduction, and refinement. Orchids are rather rare and hard to find. Although, Orchids themselves need love and care to survive, so be sure to treat them well.

Dahlias~ The Dahlia flower signifies senti-ments of dignity and elegance. It’s also the

symbol of a commitment and bond that lasts for-ever. Dahlias usually bloom in the color white but can come in a variety of colors such as; pink, crimson, orange and yellow.

Bird of Paradise~ The Bird of Paradise is a 9th weeding anniversary flower which symbol-

izes faithfulness and celebrates distinctive and unique beauty. The flower is said to represent and express freedom and joy.

If you don’t know what to get your special some-one for Valentine’s Day besides Roses, be sure

to check out these different types of flowers that are sure to make them fall more in love with you!

THE TRUTH OF VALENTINESBy Sydney Amestoy

Sometimes, things are far too murky of origin to be trusted. Sometimes, they take someone

crazy dedicated enough see the truth. Valentines Day. What is it? Where did it come from? How does a holiday in February warrant the millions spent on it every year? What is the truth???

Supposedly, Valentines Day comes from dark pasts as it is. Roman Emperor Claudius II ex-

ecuted two men both named Valentine on differ-ent years, but the same day. That day? February 14th. The Catholic Church has celebrated it as a minor holiday since.

Or at least it used to be a minor holiday. That was until Hallmark. Hallmark, the compa-

ny we all know for cards of any kind of subject and weird snoopy themed things all shoved in a musty gift shop.

“But Sydney!” you utter in pure confusion, “What does Hallmark have to do with Valen-

tines Day other than pink cards and little cupid wings?”

Well, let me explain why the company your grandma buys cards from (or reuses every

year) is actually a corporation that has forced us to pay billions.

In the 19th century, an industrial revolution allowed for the mass production of cards. In

1913, the Hallmark company began its creation of Valentines cards. Boom. A new cash-cow hol-iday is born.

Other Hallmark holidays include Grand-parent’s day and May day. THESE HOL-

IDAYS ARE COMPLETELY BOGUS PEO-PLE! HALLMARK IS SIMPLY PLAYING US! LIKE A CHESS GAME! THEY’RE THE HANDS AND WE’RE THE PAWNS!

As you can tell, I’m single. Whatever. Have a fun and safe Valentines Bulldogs.

Hemet High School 41701 E. Stetson Ave.

Hemet, CA 92544 951-765-5150

www.hemethigh.com

Journalism Staff2017- 2018

Views expressed in this issue are those of the students writers and are not the expressed or implied views of Hemet High School, it’s Staff,

Administration or the District.

HHS Journalism Staff: Hanna Walsh, Natalie Martinez, Sabrina Hunter,

Sonya Tyler, MJ Vargas, and Sydney Amestoy.

Mr. John Hill, Advisor

In your classroom, on the web, reporting on our school!

New to NetflixBy Sabrina Hunter

In February, Netflix will add a bunch of new movies and shows! There will be some for ev-

ery genre and plenty for you to binge.

If you are interested in crime or thriller movies, then Netflix is adding Kill

Bill (which is rated R). They are also adding Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve, and Ocean’s Thirteen. All of which are only rated PG-13.

If you want to watch a comedy, Netflix is adding some of those

as well. Meet the Fockers and Meet the Parents are both being added.

Of course there are plenty more to be added in February, and on Valentines Day, they are

adding Greenhouse Academy: Season 2 (Net-flix Original) and Love Per Square Foot (Net-flix Original). There are so many that are sure to make someone happy including Ella Enchanted, Full Metal Alchemist (Netflix Original), Bates Motel: Season 5, and The Emoji Movie.

However, with new releases, Netflix takes things away. Some of these are sure to be

missed. Netflix is taking away Nightmare Before Christmas! They are also taking away Corpse Bride, The Benchwarmers, An Idiot Abroad: sea-sons 1-3, and Freakonomics.

Netflix is taking away so many shows and movies as well as adding them. So go onto

Netflix and form your own opinions on their re-cent or future changes.

The Ancient Origins of Valentine’s Day

By Hanna Walsh

Have you ever wondered how Valentines came about? Who was this mysterious baby that shot

arrows at people to make them fall in love? Why do we celebrate it on February 14, and why is it declared a day for love and romance? If you haven’t already guessed it, our beloved Valentines symbol Cupid is in fact based off of a god. Like many stories and char-acters, Cupid was inspired by old Greek and Roman mythology. I’m getting ahead of myself though, so let’s take it back a couple hundred years.

Valentine’s Day wasn’t always referred to as, well Valentine’s Day. It was also known as St. Val-

entine’s Day or the Feast of St. Valentine. This hints that Valentines Day could have Christian roots, and has even been thought to have Pagan origins as well. However, what most people believe to be true is that this holiday originated from ancient Roman traditions and festivals. Now, stay with me here. Lupercalia was an old festival during the Roman times. From Febru-ary 13th to the 15th, men would undress and *ahem* whip young women to increase their fertility. Strange how some things stick with us through time, right? Anyways, that is where we get our date for Valen-tine’s Day. A fun little game they supposedly would partake in was where they would write names down and put them into a jar. They would draw names and create pairings out of them. Sound familiar? This would eventually lead to the tra-dition of exchanging love letter and little notes.

If you’ve never heard the story of Cupid and Psyche, let me

give you the short version. Cu-pid was the son of Aphrodite, known for her beauty, passion and jealousy. One day Cupid falls for a beautiful mortal woman and saves her from being eaten by a sea monster. They fall for each other and get married, with Psyche never actually seeing Cupids godly face. Out of curiosity and pressure form her sister’s, Psyche went and looked at her husbands face while he was sleeping. This is when Cupid leaves her. Aphrodite did not approve or trust Psyche so she concocted a plan to trick her into being trapped in the underworld. Cupid was completely heartbroken so he asked Zeus to bring her back up to Olympus, where she was healed and about to give birth to her child. (They didn’t mention she was pregnant in the story until the end lol.) There are many variations of the story, but the premise is the same. In Roman mythol-ogy, Cupid was the son of Venus who was the goddess of love. In Greek mythology he is the son of Eos and Aphrodite, who we know is beautiful and passionate. It’s no wonder how he came to be the grand symbol of the day of love.

I know I’m probably the only one who finds this re-motely fascinating, so I applaud the eight of you

who may have read to the end. So there you have it, a little bit of background information on everyone’s (Let’s be honest no one actually loves this day and you should really be showing love and appreciation towards your loved ones everyday) FAVORITE hol-iday!

The Lose-Lose Super BowlBy: Sydney Amestoy

There may be nothing more American than the Super Bowl. Whether you’re watching for the

game, the try-hard commercials, or the half-time performance with Justin Timberlake, nothing else brings us together like the Super Bowl. This year was an interesting match-up between the under-dog Eagles of Philly and the ESPN favorite Pats of New England.

The historic match-up was not the first time these teams had faced off on football’s big-

gest stage. Previously, in 2004, the Patriots beat the Eagles in a close game, 24-21. The Pa-triots have been a foot-ball dynasty ever since, strongly hated by many. The Eagles have a ded-icated fan base, but had never won a Super Bowl in their 84 years of existence.

This was the year of redemption for the

Eagles. A chance for the underdogs to beat this team, which for

years has been the monopoly franchise of the NFL. And amazingly, they did it. With a back up quarterback no less. For all fans, except the Pats fans of course, it was a glorious day. Yet, it also felt like a loss for many.

The fans in Philly are notoriously a

little, um, rowdy. It was hard to even tell if the Eagles won, as a full-blown riot broke out including the de-struction of cars and the burning of, any-thing really. Some people thought it was overkill, but I suppose if my team beat the Pats for a Super Bowl win, I’d be pretty ecstatic as well.

The Patriots, and a 40-year-old Tom Brady, lost. Quite frankly, I think it’s about time. The

Pats always win, always; it was honestly refresh-ing not to see the world champions next to the Patriots logo.

This Super Bowl caused some controversy in the sports world with many claiming the

league was rigged. My argument is that Goodell hates the Pats, and they’ve won five Super Bowls already so… If the league was rigged, I’m not even sure how it would work. Maybe the refs are paid off (PROBABLY) but hey, it’s a fun game either way.

By the way, did you know that the day after Super Bowl is the biggest day for people to

call in sick. Think about it.

Hemet Highs Academic Decathletes

Our Academic Decathlon team traveled to Co-rona HS to compete in the 35th Annual Riv-

erside County Decathlon. The Academic Decathlon featured teams of six to nine students in 10 academic cate-gories. Hemet had 8 representatives.

This year, 21 teams represented 18 high schools compet-ing over the past two weekends. The topic was Africa.

Students were separated by GPA, with each team having three competitors with A, B and C averages. Students ac-

cumulate points in essay writing, speeches and interviews plus written events in mathematics, economics, art, music, literature, science, social science and Super Quiz.

Hemet’s theme this year was based on Star Wars where every student donned a red shirt

with the name of a Star Wars character on it.

With a team short on competitors, Hemet still made a formidable challenge in the testing

events and took 3rd in the Super Quiz event on the final Saturday. Overall the team placed 6th. Coach McDonald could only think of what if we had that one more teammate, then we would have placed at least 2nd. Elsinore won the county this

year. The experience the students went through was amazing and the memories of being a De-cathlete will last a lifetime. Congratulations and thank you Decathletes for representing Hemet High so well.

The ResidentBy: Natalie Martinez

So there aren’t too many good shows on TV right now and I don’t know about you but that has

me STRESSED. We need good TV shows to sur-vive the rest of second semester! We need some-thing to watch when doing last minute homework or forgotten extra credit. Well one good show that came out a few weeks ago is called The Resident. For those of you Bulldogs that like Grey’s Anato-my, this is the show for you.

It’s about a hospital intern who has a resident he has to obey orders

from, the resident’s name is Conrad and he is seen as this ob-noxious, stubborn yet insanely genius man who is well liked by all patients and most of the staff. He has a thing with the nurse yet they’re broken up but the obvious love and romance is still there. The intense part of the show you would think would be the surgeries like in Grey’s anatomy but it’s not! It’s when the evil corrupt Doctor Drake is shown on screen trying

to get his hands to stop shaking during surgeries. He ends up killing a lot of people because he re-fuses to let anyone know that his million dollar hands are now ruined and he is literally the hospi-tal’s star surgeon. Conrad hates him and so does the audience.

It seems like just another doctor show but it’s not at all! I was pretty shook the first time I

saw it to be honest and so far I’ve not been disap-pointed with every new episode. It is definitely a show to continue watching in my eyes! Give it a try Bulldogs!

How did President’s Week be-come what it is?

By Sonya Tyler

President’s Day is an American holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February. Originally it was

established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington; it is still officially called “Washington’s Birthday” by the federal government.

Traditionally celebrated on February 22—Wash-ington’s actual day of birth; this holiday became

known as President’s Day after it was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. While several states still have individual hol-idays honoring the birthdays of Washington, Abraham Lin-coln and other figures, Presi-dent’s Day is now popularly viewed as a day to celebrate all U.S. presidents, past and present.

President’s Week is a time to celebrate the leaders

that put their time into creat-ing a better environment for our country. These people de-voted their time to us. Some of them died trying to help.

Groundhogs DayBy Hanna Walsh

Let’s be real for a second here, all right? No one really knows or cares about this so-called

“holiday”. Most people just know about the little mole looking thing that comes out of a hole and tells us whether we can finally start going to the beach on weekends again or not. They don’t know that Bill Murray was stuck on that same day in the Groundhog Day movie. Or that little furry guy’s name is Punxsutawney, but real fans will call him Phil. It’s okay though because believe it or not this holiday is widely celebrated in Pennsylvania. (That’s where Phil lives.)

If you don’t know what Phil’s job is, let me ex-plain. Every year on February 2, Phil emerges

from his home, known as Gobbler’s Knob. If he sees his shadow, it’s a sign that there will be six more weeks of bad winter. If he doesn’t see his shadow or it’s a bit cloudier out, that’s a sign that spring will come early. It’s just one of the many fun and quirky things that we in the U.S. do.

If you’re wondering what Phil predicted this year, I’ll save you the trouble and spoil it. Wait,

you know what, I’m not going to tell you because that would be too disrespectful to Phil and his work. Shame on you. *This holiday is only im-portant to me because it does indeed fall on my birthday.

A New Orleans CelebrationBy Sydney Amestoy

Beads. Lights. Music. Midnight. It’s Mardi Gras baby! You know that holiday that only

two states even really take part in!

The origins of “Fat Tuesday” start in the stone roadways of Old Europe. The carnivals of

the past were days of drinking and celebration, a break from the strict church life. This was es-pecially prevalent in France. So when the French settlers came to the future state of Louisiana a party culture soon developed.

Fast forward a few years, when New Orleans became the capital of Louisiana, Mardi Gras

tradition grew. The first official parade happened in 1837.

People throw around beads and wear masks. There are parade floats and lots of confetti.

It never expanded outside of Louisiana and some parts of Alabama. Why? I have no idea. Not enough French culture in SoCal, probably.

If you’re so inclined, you could have a Mardi Gras yourself. Probably by yourself too but I’m

not judging. Throw on some purple and gold. Do a little dance. Cover yourself in beads and wear a creepy feathered mask. Scare your parents as you holler down the hall.

Or you could just check and see whether or not there are any local parades going on. The

most famous Mardi Gras parade this side of the Mississippi is in San Diego. Give a shot. As they say in France, Beouf Gras!

I could have said anything and only I KNOW!

Stranger Things are afoot during season 3…

By: MJ Vargas

Everybody loves the hit television show Stranger Things, a Netflix original that caught

everybody’s attention and left fans desperate for more. Well, hold on to your hats everybody be-cause there are two more seasons that are on their way! Writers have already announced that they plan on doing two more seasons and then end it after four long running seasons.

Season 3 has more strange things in store for us and writers plan to blow the audience away

with the new plots of the series.

Stranger Things season 3 still doesn’t have an air date,

but producers and directors are working to get season 3 going as soon as pos-sible! Although, many others sug-gest that fans will have to wait for their new Stranger Things un-til 2019. Although, writers say that season 3 will have fewer episodes, it will have about eight or nine episodes and the season will focus on the main characters a lot more than the 1st or 2nd one.

Season 3 is also featuring a lot more of our favorite pairing, that’s right you guys! The

iconic duo is back! Steve Harrington and Dustin Henderson will sure to be featured and get more screen time in season 3! I know many fans will be excited and saying “Finally!, They get the recog-nition and screen time that they deserve!”

Although, we all love the main characters Mike, Will, Dustin, and Lucas, it’ll be sad

to hear that Will Byers will not be in season 3 as much as he was in the last two seasons. One of the producers, Shawn Levy states: “We’re going to give Will a break. We’re not going to put Will through hell for a third season in a row. He’ll be dealing with stuff, but he won’t be at rock bottom the way we forced the amazing Noah Schnapp to play, we’re going to be dealing with forces of evil that are new.”

With that said, many should expect to not see so much of Will Byers in season 3, sorry

Will Byers fans but The Duffer Brothers want to focus on the main three: Dustin, Mike, and Lucas.

Stranger Things season 3 is on it’s way but for now, fans will have to wait and be excited for

the new season and what it has in store! It is sure to leave fans wanting more Stranger Things and even more plot twists!

Valentines Day Snack MixBy Hanna Walsh

Valentines Day can either be your favorite or least favorite day of the year. Luckily I’m

here with a rec-ipe for you sin-gle people, and the couples. Whether you’re going out or staying in this is the perfect treat. This mix is also perfect to give to your friends, family, coworker or teacher. You know, those people in your life who could use a little love and appreciation during this time. Without further ado here is a recipe to lift your spirits during this hallmark holiday!!

Ingredients

• 2 cups corn Chex cereal• 1 cup pretzels• 1 cup Cheerios• 1 cup M&Ms• 1 cup peanuts• 2 cups white chocolate chips• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Instructions:

Combine Chex cereal, pretzels, Cheerios, M&Ms, peanuts in large bowl.

In separate bowl, mix oil and white chocolate chips and melt in either the microwave or double boiler.Pour melted chocolate over dry ingredients and fold every-thing together. Spread mixture out onto wax paper to cool and set. Note: You can substitute the white- chocolate chips and oil for white melting chocolate.

The City of Gotham Rises or Falls?

By MJ Vargas

Batman and DC fans may be furious to find out that Gotham may be canceled for a season 5.

The show got the attention of many Batman fans around the world, the plots of the episodes are twisting and leaves fans wanting more! Gotham fans, nicknamed Gothamites, have been wanting a 5th season after season 4 ends. Right now, sea-son 4 is being split into two different years; The fourth season of Gotham aired last year on Sep-tember 21st and will continue with the rest of the season this year on March 1st, 2018.

Although, many disagree with the intention to cancel Gotham and not let it go on for a sea-

son 5. Many people say that there’s just too much going on in the show to end it so soon, many claim that writers are beginning to reveal the back-sto-ries of many characters in the show. Here are 5 reasons why people think the show shouldn’t be canceled:

Gotham is beginning to dig into Bruce Wayne’s transformation into Batman.

Gotham is one of the many shows that fans are still waiting to hear about a new season.

Season 3 has proven that Gotham has figured out how to do it’s villains and how to do them

well.

Many fans are in-vested in where

Penguin and The Rid-dler end up as to where the show is with Bruce.

Will Bruce Wayne finally end up

with Selina or will we never get to see her

reach her full potential into becoming Catwom-an?

Gotham has so much going on and is leaving fans desperate for a 5th season, hopefully we

finally get to see where the character’s stories leave off and what happens as their stories contin-ue. Will the city of Gotham finally rise up from the shadows or will it fall and become the home to thousands of villains?.

Heart Thumbprint PlatterBy: Natalie Martinez

Hey there Bulldogs! Happy Valentines Day! Now I know there are a lot of you out

there that like to do arts and crafts for every season to make cute little décor around your house so here’s a recipe perfect for this season! SUPPLIES: –White serving platter (square, rectangle, oval, whichever you prefer)–Glass paint–Sharpie-Keep a wet rag or damp paper towels on handDirections:1. Place a small amount of paint on a piece of

foil or wax paper, carefully dip your finger in the paint, then make two prints to form a

heart shape. If you mess up, all you have to do is use the wet rag or damp paper towels and wipe it of,

2. Use the Sharpie to write the names, date, and any other text you would like.

3. Follow the curing directions on the paint you used to dry

p.s. You can put as many thumb prints as you want and get creative!

*Recipe from simplykierste.com

Failure: A Love StoryBy Sabrina Hunter

The Hemet High theatre had two great shows this year with Cinderella and Busytown. Now

that those are over, they are now setting up for Failure. Failure is the next production that is go-ing to go up at the end of March.

Failure, set in the 1920s, is about three sisters who all end up dying and the man that loves

them. It goes through love and loss, but it’s fun-ny as well. Kamiron Werking Volk is the assistant director for Failure: A Love Story. She gives her opinions and works with the director, Mr. Cher-land, as well as works with the actors to make the show look better.

Maddie Smith, Kristiana Mckel-

vey, Hannah Jacks, and Justin Laskowski play the leads.

Maddie Smith plays Gerty Fail, the

oldest Fail sister. Gerty Fail is strong-willed and able to see value in peo-ple, which is what Maddie likes about her. How-ever, with such a strong character, Maddie finds trying to react as her character challenging. The actors are given the lines and blocking, but they see how their character would react and they need to be that character. Kristiana Mckelvey plays Jenny June Fail. Jenny June is spunky and con-fident, which Kristiana likes, however it makes it harder to play. Just as other actors, she is excit-ed to put on the play, but she especially excited for the swimming scene. Kristiana says that Jen-ny June is different from her previous roles, so it makes it harder to play her. Hannah Jacks plays Nelly Fail. Justin Laskowski played Mortimer. Mortimer is suave, but deep down he’s a good guy and he develops throughout the show. He is also excited to perform and wants “everyone to come out and see it.”

Along with the actors, there are the technicians putting effort into the play as well. There is

going to be a two-story set for the show. Stage crew is building the set. Erykah Peterson is the crew head for stage crew. Lights crew head is Elliot Tate. Props crew head is Emma Quintero and Natalia Apffel and Brandon Garza are doing sound.

Right now, props are being gathered, costumes are being set, and sound is working on sound

design.

Failure is set to go up on March 22nd, 23rd, and the 24th. Everyone should go out and see their

fellow Bulldogs put on a great play!!!

2017 Memorial and AnniversariesBy Mj Vargas

There have been many deaths in the year of 2017 and many anniversaries that have hap-

pened of those whom we have lost in the past years. Many celebrities have lost their lives due to drugs or just to unusual scenarios. Here are some celebrities whom we have lost in the year of 2017, and some of whom are just too devastating to ignore and leave behind.

Many people know about Carrie Fisher, she was a great actress that everybody loved

until her sudden death last year on December 27th 2016. She is most known for her movies such as The Blues Brothers, The Burbs, Scream 3 and many other films, but her role that she is most know for is Princess Leia from the Star Wars movie series.

Charlie Murphy is another well known ce-lebrity who was the older brother of Eddie

Murphy. He was in movies such as Night At The Museum, Vampire In Brooklyn and many others but was most known for hosting the comedy se-ries Chappelle’s Show. He sadly died last year on April 12th at the age of 57.

Adam West was a very well known actor during his time and many still know about

him today. He was in movies such as Chicken Lit-tle, Meet The Robinson’s and The Scooby Doo movie: Aloha, Scooby Doo! He was most known for his portrayal as Batman in 1966 and the Bat-man animated television series. He sadly died last year at the age of 88 on June 9th.

River Phoenix is a very well known actor who many knew about in the 1980s and today’s

generation. He is still loved by many today and his movies entertain many people from around the world. He is the older brother of Joaquin Phoenix, also known as Leaf, who many also know about today. River was in movies such as Stand By Me, Running On Empty, Indiana Jones, Explorers and many more. Sadly, he died in 1993 on October 31st at the age of 23 from a drug overdose.

Many celebrities have lost their lives and sadly never thought about losing them, but

their spirits will live on through their careers and will continue to entertain many around the world and they will live in many people’s hearts forever.