German Christmas Traditions - William Theilacker

Some people might assume that Christmas in other countries is the same as it is here, after all, why would it be different? However Christmas in Germany differs from Christmas in America in several ways. In Germany many of the children receive advent calendars. Advent calendars are cardboard or wooden calendars that count down the days in December till Christmas. Each day the child opens a box on the calendar and it contains a little chocolate or toy. In recent years the popularity of advent calendars has been rising in America however it is a German tradition. Christmas trees are a big part of the German Christmas as they are in America. However instead of decorating them as a family like we do in America the mother usually decorates them in secret if there are kids. Glass ornaments actually originated in Germany and weren't imported into America until the 1880s. Instead of opening presents on Christmas morning children normally open the majority of their presents on Christmas eve. Another German tradition that is becoming big in America are German Christmas Markets. These markets sell all different types of traditional German food and all of the goods the vendors sell are handmade, such as woodwork. On December 6th, St Nicholas's Day, the children leave their shoes by the door and he is said to leave small gifts and sweets in their shoes. In certain areas of Germany Krampus, a big horned monster with chains, is said to follow St Nicholas and punish all of the bad children. Another tradition is the Sternsinger or star singers . Children go out caroling in groups of four, three of them dressed as wise men and the last one carries a stick with a star on it to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem. They go around caroling and collect money for charity. So in the end, while the principle is the same, German and American transitions differ in varying degrees. And certain German traditions are making their way into America. So as they say in Germany, Frohe Weihnachten!

What Is Love? By Bailey Kellenberger

         As a child, our parents are our world. They are our first example of love. We attach ourselves to their hips from such a young age, but as we grow and develop we start to steer more towards independence. We still love our parents but we no longer depend on their love to get us through the day although our parents continue to love us the same way whether we are two years old or twenty years old. For a parent, this is extremely difficult. They want to hold their baby, cuddle with them, protect them, and love them the way the always did for so many years while their child was still afraid of shadows in their closets and monsters under their beds. A parent's love is unconditional which only causes their hearts to ache more as they watch their pride and joy grow so far apart from them.
           Whether you are talking about love between strangers or the love between family members, the truth remains the same. Love causes pain, heartbreak, and destruction but it brings you the most happiness, comfort, and security. Without love, without this feeling that takes control over your mind and body, there is no force pushing and turning the world around. Love never fails. Love never perishes and never falls. Love will survive any war waged against it, it will make a way through any obstacle, will move mountains if it has to, all in maintaining its existence. Love is not going away.



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Nelson Mandela and Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King by Sophocles is a classic piece of Greek literature that tells the story of a courageous and determined king who tragically is both the savior and nemesis of his people. One trait that King Oedipus displayed was his persistence in spite of adversity. He continued to press on after the truth even after it became likely he would be discovered as the killer of Laius and his reputation tarnished. Oedipus is a figure analyzed and read by many readers. His actions are scrutinized by everyone from high school students to college professors. Overall, Oedipus's fearlessness and persistence led his people out of the plague. Another modern day leader that demonstrates this trait of heroic persistence is Nelson Mandela. 

Mandela grew up in a poor tribe and worked hard in school. He rose in South African Politics, championing the black people in society and their fight against the unjust apartheid system. Mandela devoted his whole life to leading South Africa out of the system. Mandela braved bombings, shootings, and other attempts on his life. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned and tortured. However, Mandela organized strikes and uprisings from prison. He continued to fight on despite all the people trying to kill him. He fought on against the imprisonment and injustice. He said, "the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities...is an ideal for which I am prepared to die". Mandela fought for his people just like Oedipus fought for the truth. 

Oedipus the King and Nelson Mandela are similar leaders that saved their people through immense personal sacrifice and persistence. Both leaders lead their people away from plagues, one a disease and the other racial prejudice. By continuing to fight no matter what the obstacles were both leaders were able to obtain success. 

Thanks for reading

Billy Stoddard

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: a review by Kasey Senatore

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

A review by Kasey Senatore

On the 19th, my family and I went out to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. We’ve always been avid Harry Potter fans, my sister and I having read all the books and my parents having seen all the movies, so we were really excited to see the next installment in the Potter franchise. But before I can talk about it more, I feel as though I should explain what exactly it is.

So to start off: it is not a sequel to the Harry Potter series. It’s set in the same universe, of course; Newt Scamander wrote Fantastic Beasts, a textbook which Harry buys in his first year at Hogwarts. It’s also mentioned that Newt, the main character pictured above, was one of Dumbledore’s favorite students back before he became Headmaster. However, understand that Fantastic Beasts is set well before Harry Potter was born, with a completely different plot. If you walk into the theater expecting a sequel, you will be disappointed.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a film adaptation of a fake textbook released by JK Rowling in 2001. The movie follows Newt Scamander, a charmingly awkward, British magizoologist and aspiring author who finds himself in 1960s New York. As Newt makes his way through New York, he accidentally releases a few creatures and finds himself in deep trouble with the American magical government. At the same time, sightings of a strange, malevolent creature demolishing buildings have begun to spread through the city. You can view the trailer right here. Now that the exposition is over, let’s get right into the details.

Characters

I could write for ages about the characters of Fantastic Beasts. This, in my opinion, was the strongest part of the movie by far -- there was chemistry, relatability, and a certain sense of charming imperfection found in each of the characters that made watching the movie most enjoyable. The protagonists are organic and lifelike, as are their interactions.

However, I say the protagonists specifically for good reason. The antagonists of the movie are at best poorly developed and at worst confusing. What I mean is, you see this guy in the beginning of the film, and you instantly know he’s the Bad Guy. There’s no way for you to see this man’s face, and not say, “yeah, he’s definitely a villain.” Graves’s demeanor, speech patterns and looks all point to him being a bad guy. However, therein lies the flaw: Graves is a completely forgettable, cliched villain. Not only that, but his motive as a villain is completely unknown for the majority of the movie. I, for one, didn’t understand it at all, and still don’t. He just seems to be a bad person, and the movie hopes you’ll just accept that and not question it.

Graves is also involved in a hugely butchered plot twist near the end of the movie; this part of his character is a spoiler, however, and if you want to avoid it, I’d steer clear of the plot section of this review.

Special Effects

The special effects were also an extremely strong part of the movie. In a film full of thunderbirds, nifflers and bowtruckles, it’s an essential component to make the world feel truly alive. If you go out and see Fantastic Beasts, be ready to be dazzled by the handsome detail and care taken with the creatures’ presentation.

Plot (contains spoilers)

This is definitely where Fantastic Beasts suffers the most. In a two-hour long movie, you have to make the plot interesting and easy to understand; if someone starts getting confused in the beginning of a two-hour movie, the rest of it probably won’t make much sense to them either. And yes, I did, most definitely, get confused during the movie. It seemed to want to focus on the characters and give each their due time, while at the same time attempting to paint a rich world and detailed plot. In the end, it turned into huge scenes of Newt and his new friends searching for creatures, spliced with clips of Graves urging Credence (in a dramatic, gravelly whisper) to find “the child” and scenes of a gigantic shadow monster rampaging through the streets of New York. What I’m saying is, it wasn’t well done. Exposition was laid on heavy-handedly, while at the same time managing to be vague and under-detailed enough to confuse the viewer.

Possibly the most notable example of plot-holes lies with Graves. After Credence and the obscurial are killed, there is a facial reveal involving Graves. Somehow, Newt is able to realize that Graves isn’t really Graves, and turns his wand on him as he goes to leave the scene. The head of MACUSA then pulls a magical disguise off of Graves’ face Scooby-Doo style, revealing him to be...um...a white-haired Johnny Depp with an undercut?

The characters then comment, awed and terrified, that Graves was really Grindelwald in disguise. Yeah, that random Johnny Depp character is Grindelwald. Graves, for any fans who don’t remember (as I didn’t), is a dark wizard whom Voldemort killed in his search for the Elder Wand. However, even if you did know who Grindelwald was, this reveal would still be meaningless to you. Why? Because Grindelwald was never shown in any of the movies! We never knew what he looked like. This bugs me more than anything else in the movie -- you can’t do a facial reveal in a movie and expect it to be effective if the face you’re revealing isn’t significant to the viewer!

Historical Inaccuracies

Another issue in Fantastic Beasts that I’ve seen pointed out is the universe. Fantastic Beasts is set in 1920s New York. This was not a time of great respect or safety for black people in America. As such, the fact that the movie never explains how Seraphina Picquery, an African American woman, could be respected as the President of MACUSA in 1920s America, is rather jarring.

New York in the 1920s was also the host of the Harlem Renaissance, in which the African American population and culture of Harlem, NY, was booming. One of the biggest critiques I’ve seen of the universe setting is not that lead roles were not filled by people of color, but that the movie itself never included black people in background roles, filling the streets of “New York.” Even the Great Gatsby, a movie whose focus was entirely on rich white people, included black people in the world (an example of such representation pictured above). This is a flaw seen in many fantasy novels and movies, including well-respected novels like the Lord of the Rings. Working toward world-building diversity would be an important step in the right direction for modern fantasy, and it is my hope that the coming movies will seek to improve on this historical error.

Overall

Overall, I felt the movie was a promising start to the new installment in the Potter world. The characters are relatable and lovable, the special effects are to die for, and the developing American side to the universe is a breath of fresh life to the aging franchise. Though the plot is more than a little hard to follow and the historical accuracy could use some touching up, the film overall is definitely a decent start. 6.5/10 -- I’d definitely recommend seeing it -- just don’t expect another Harry Potter just yet.

Ohio State by Amanda Sangalli

I sat in French class and phone started buzzing. I glanced down and saw my mom texted be three times. As I read the messages my heart dropped. "There was a shooter at Ohio State today right across the street from your brothers building." On November 28, a Somali refugee drove their car onto the sidewalk and then proceeded to get out and swing at people with a machete (There was a gun on him but he did not use it). I texted my brother Matt asking if he was okay and what had gone on and he told me he was getting ready to leave for class when he got the lock down alert. Now a days school shootings have become a reoccurring thing for us. From Sandy Hook to Columbine, massive school shoots seem to be happening left and right. As a student, it is unsettling to hear all about all these accounts especially when they happen close to you or by someone you know. Going into school everyday I never have the thought "What if we have a shooter today" and that question should never cross my mind. Terrorism has been presenting itself more frequently and kids growing up now a days are forced to live in fear. These school shootings and attacks are not only scaring kids/ students, it is scaring parents to the point where they don't want their kids to leave the house. My mom now has been on edge about my brother, my sister and I going to school or leaving the house just because of my brother coming so close to experiencing this first hand.  Had this happened a few minutes later, my brother would've been caught between Watts Hall (the engineering building) and the business building where his class was.

Thanksgiving by Nuriel Rozenberg

Thanksgiving just recently passed, but it is clear that most of us want to go back to the four-day food filled weekend we just had. I know a lot of us had the simple struggle of wanting to stay in bed because you are tired, but then getting hungry, so you contemplate the pros and cons of going downstairs. The aroma of delicious food making your mouth water. It was hard for me not to go downstairs especially when my grandma called me her "Official Taste Tester." Once downstairs, I knew I had to start helping set up three tables for all the family that was coming over. This year especially, I heard that a lot of families were trying to skip the political talk and keep a calm environment. My family was one of those families, but when thirty-five people sit at the table with not much to talk about, it became hard to not talk politics. Everyone was mostly in their own conversations until my uncle loudly disagrees with his brother. Then one of my aunts exclaims her reasoning for agreeing. By now, most of my family was listening to the argument. My uncle then shoots up from his seat yelling in his brothers face why he's right and why his brother should agree with him. This triggered his brother to then stand up too and yell back why he's correct. Suddenly, my uncle takes a small piece of turkey and flicks it in his brother's face. The room is dead silent, my grandma looks offended by the actions that my uncle took with the turkey that she made. His brother was about to launch some mashed potatoes into the air until my grandma hits the both of them on the head and yells at them and curses in Arabic. The feud died down and this was definitely not the point and purpose of Thanksgiving. As we all know, the real reason Thanksgiving happened was because of the peace that the Native Americans had with the colonists. That is not completely true either since the colonists not only took their land and invaded their villages. Also, a war was started. The real story that happened was that hundreds of women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for the annual Green Corn Festival. This is similar to our Thanksgiving. The Natives who were sleeping at the time were surrounded by English who were ordered to shoot whoever walked out. Others, who did not go outside were then buried alive. The following day, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony declared that a day of Thanks should happen since hundreds of unarmed natives were killed. So, no matter how crazy or bad your Thanksgiving goes, just remember that we are honoring the natives that were caught in the genocide.

Election 2016: Interviews about the weeks after Election Night By: Cameron Riley

I personally know that hearing about this topic now makes people cringe and feel bad but since the most hyped up, mud slinging, protested election probably of all time, people have acted so strangely and unexpectedly. The now President elect Donald Trump won the election by a count of 290 to 232 electoral votes, some argue that the Popular vote should decide who wins the election not how many people represent the state in congress. Nonetheless, Trump won the election and the country didn’t like it. People revolted immediately after the election occurred and sparked a miniature revolution against the President elect. In states such as Oregon, New York and California. I spoke with three people of different ages and demographics, I asked three questions to show people’s views on common events about the revolts, what the election should be decided by and how the election was in one word.

When asked about what the election should be decided by, two of the three decided to have the popular vote decide who the president is. Reasons behind this were like a vote between friends, if 2 voted to go to get hamburgers and 5 others wanted to go get pizza you would go get pizza, not say someone who voted for hamburgers has more friends that her vote counted more. You would go get pizza because more people voted for Pizza. When asked about the protests, all the people agreed that it was fair because we all deserve free speech and if used in such cases like this, it should be used fairly and not abused to hurt others. All of the answers for the election in one word all related to the word Tragic, meaning that the result and what had happened in those weeks leading up were Tragic.

The election was a rough time in America, but everyone’s opinion matters and that is what this exercise was attempting to achieve by using other demographics and different kinds of people to speak about their opinions and use reasoning behind it to speak for others who don’t want to speak about it.