Mee-Ow’s sexy first show of the quarter won’t be its last

By SELENA KUZNIKOV daily senior staffer @selenakuznikov

Lap dances and live music galore, Mee-Ow Comedy kicked off their first show of the quarter — Mee-owgic Mike’s Last Dance — with a bang. Opening with a performance from the Mee-Ow band to get the crowd pumped up, the group smashed its first two-hour long show of the weekend.

Communication senior and Mee-Ow co-director Liv Drury said she immediately felt that Friday night’s shows were going to be successful because of the crowd’s energy early on.

“It’s just a ball, it’s so fun,” Drury said. “It was just very nice to hear your friends get a warm welcome and to hear the first laughs of the show.”

Mee-Ow Comedy is a short-form comedy group that combines sketch comedy, improv and live music. Sketches range from roughly five-minute scenes to one-minute jokes called “blackouts.”

The show also includes different short improv games where group members take suggestions from the crowd to create a sketch on the spot.

Communication sophomore Ferdinand Moscat joined the comedy group at the beginning of this school year. They meet almost every weekday, with each member bringing in around two sketches per session.

“Mee-Ow is just such a party,” Moscat said.

“You do some improv, you do some sketches and then you dance for like 20 straight minutes in the middle of the show. I felt very grateful to be able to do something that brings me so much joy, and it’s just such a blast.”

Moscat said many of his sketches stem from everyday experiences that might be a little awkward or silly. One of the sketches in the show was inspired by his fear of being kicked out of a reserved library room.

Anelga Hajjar, Communication senior and MeeOw’s co-director, said one of her favorite parts of the show was being able to work with Drury and do a short improv piece together. She said the shows’ sketches are a part of a collaborative effort between the cast members.

“All these sketches are constantly evolving,” Hajjar said. “We’re always making like last minute tweaks based on how performances go and the improvising that a performer might do.”

She said the process of creating the show is a quick one as cast members do not get the script with the sketches that will be performed until the Sunday before tech week.

The cast members constantly play off of each other during improv and sketch scenes, according to Hajjar. She said one of the most important aspects of the show is improvising parts of sketches or games according to how receptive the audience is.

“We just get to act and have fun and improvise and do this performing fun thing,” Hajjar said. “I felt surprisingly calm this week. I was just like, ‘Is this all I have to do? Just go on stage for an hour and a half and tell sex jokes?’ It’s just so fun.”

The Mee-Ow band is one of the most important aspects of the show when it comes to pumping up the energy in the crowd and between cast members, according to Drury. The band’s guitarist, Communication sophomore Sam Marshall, said the improvised nature of the show influences the band as well, allowing band members to work with one another on the spot.

“It’s constantly changing,” Marshall said. “It’s never the same show twice. We all have to be on our toes because at any moment we could have to jump into a sketch or add something to a scene. It’s been one of the most fun things I’ve experienced at Northwestern. ”

The band performs throughout the show between sketches and improv scenes, as well as during a short intermission where students are encouraged to head up to the stage and dance.

Mee-Ow hosts two shows in Winter Quarter — one during the weekend of week four and another during the weekend of week eight. Drury said the audience brings the sketches to life through their engagement and laughter.

“I think for the greater Northwestern community, it’s like a little beacon of joy in the harsh, sad winter,” Drury said. “I think people really enjoy coming and just laughing for two hours and dancing.” selenakuznikov2025@u.northwestern.edu

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Anna Souter of unionization.

The Main Street outlet currently has 13 employees, but one person, Shift Supervisor Ashley Graham, was out of town during the election. She said she was disappointed to miss the chance to vote yes but is excited to see her store join a nationwide movement.

Graham and Brennan said they’re hoping to bargain for more consistent schedules and hours, a higher starting wage and full benefits extended to all employees beginning on their first day. They also expressed concerns about understaffing at the store, with Brennan saying employees are “stretched very thin with very little room for error.”

Unionizing will give workers a greater opportunity to push Starbucks to address these issues, Brennan said.

In response to a request for comment on the vote, Starbucks Media Relations said the company opposes unionization but is also working to listen and learn from partners in unionizing stores.

“From the beginning, we’ve been clear in our belief that we are better together as partners, without a union between us, and that conviction has not changed,” a spokesperson wrote in an email to The Daily.

For employees, Graham and Brennan said, getting Starbucks to come to the bargaining table is the next step.

So far, very few bargaining sessions between the company and local unions have occurred, which the national group Starbucks Workers United has attributed to Starbucks’ attempts to delay the process. The company has blamed the union for delays in bargaining.

“All I can do is focus on keeping the excitement and the momentum up at my store, and the conversations and the information going, while we wait,” Graham said.

Brennan said he was especially proud of the

Enamel

From page 1 across a single crystal.”

The team found elements like magnesium, sodium and fluorine segregated to the crystal boundaries. DeRocher said element segregation in crystal cores and boundaries make them more susceptible to acid dissolution. Additionally, elemental composition and crystal packing can lead to varying dissolution behavior, impacting enamel lifespan.

Feinberg Prof. and study co-author Stuart Stock ran the majority of the X-ray diffraction data, which was used to detect enamel rod signals — ultimately characterizing their orientations.

Stock said thousands of long, thin crystallites make up each enamel rod and that enamel damage by dental caries causes chemical etching, dissolving unanimous vote in light of the upper management’s approach to the store’s unionization efforts. He said managers have held one-on-one or two-on-one meetings with employees to present misinformation about unionizing.

Starbucks has used aggressive union-busting tactics at locations nationwide, according to reporting by Slate and NPR, among other news outlets.

Regarding claims of anti-union retaliation, Starbucks Media Relations wrote, “Starbucks trains managers that no partner will be disciplined for engaging in lawful union activity and that there will be no tolerance for any unlawful anti-union behavior, if ever found to be true.”

In October, Starbucks closed its Edgewater location, which was one of the first Chicago locations to unionize. Since then, stores across the state have unionized, too.

Just last week, the Westfield Old Orchard Starbucks elected to unionize in a 10-6 vote. Tino Luna, a shift supervisor at the Old Orchard outlet, went to support his Main Street counterparts Thursday during their election.

“In terms of having another neighbor who’s unionizing? I think it’s awesome,” Luna said. “I’m hoping to keep it going.”

Camaraderie and community support proved “magical” as Main Street employees organized, according to Graham. Employees hosted a “sip-in” on Jan. 14, where they met union supporters and reassured themselves that “we’re in this for the right reasons,” she said.

Now, Graham and Brennan said they’re working to keep the fire burning as they meet members of Starbucks Workers United across the country.

“I’m really excited not for just our store, but just to join the movement as a team. There’s so many Starbucks stores that are unionizing,” Graham said. “It’s very exciting to have the backing of our community and to have the bravery and the excitement to join the fight for workers’ rights.” avivabechky2025@u.northwestern.edu some of the minerals in the outer layer of a tooth.

“It appears that the region between rods is a place which might be less organized and have more propensity to chemically be attacked,” Stock said “It’s more vulnerable.”

The 0.5- to 10-micron scale research required a focused ion beam connected with a scanning electron microscope. DeRocher said a stream of gallium ions used to cut up the enamel acted like a very tiny blade or scalpel.

But, she added that getting the right orientation of enamel on a micron-scale posed a challenge.

Joester said the team faced the challenge of being the first in the field to conduct lattice analysis on the mesoscale, which lies between the atomic scale and what the human eye can detect.

“We essentially had to invent the analysis and write the code,” said Joester. “We had to be very, very careful because ultimately, we used this

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Flow Drive

From page 1 been used to dehumanize marginalized groups,” Pope said. “We’re just focused on restoring dignity for all menstruators and making sure that people can just bleed normally and healthily in a safe environment.”

MEA partnered with five organizations this quarter, including the ASG Health & Wellness Committee and Planned Parenthood for the drive.

Weinberg freshman Alison Bai said she plans on donating her excess pads and liners to the drive. She said she felt motivated to contribute after watching a video on menstrual inequities.

Bai said she appreciates that MEA hosts these drives each quarter and that it’s easy to assume people who menstruate have easy access to basic necessities like period products.

“People don’t often think of (period products) when they think of homeless people,” Bai said. “They usually think of food and shelter but for (people who menstruate) specifically … It’s really important.”

Houren expressed that the destigmatization of periods is important to raising awareness of the issue more broadly. She said the drive aims to disrupt this stigma.

But, in addition to hosting on-campus donation drives, Houren said MEA is working to provide period products free-of-charge in all dorms.

“Periods are very stigmatized,” Houren said. “If you’re going to the bathroom to put a tampon in, you’ll hide it in your sleeve because people have made it seem like a gross thing. The first thing would be to just be open to talking about the subject.” beatricevillaflor2026@u.northwestern.edu technique to measure distances with a precision in the picometer range — so smaller than an atom.”

Dr. Rares Raibulet and Dr. Marcos Montoya, co-owners and doctors at Stephens Dentistry in Evanston, said the most common day-to-day problems in their practice is either initial tooth decay, when outer enamel has been broken, or enamel decay around previous fillings.

Raibulet said once a tooth is compromised and enamel loss occurs, it becomes more difficult to keep the mouth healthy.

“We hope (the research) will be one of the puzzle pieces that really allow us to predict how enamel dissolves during caries,” Joester said. “Once we understand that, we have a foothold to design interventions that prevent that from happening.” noracollins2025@u.northwestern.edu

Healthcare Center

From page 1 medical care to life.

Having worked with national soccer teams and serving as the team physician for the National Football League’s Chicago Bears, Bennett said the center’s location attracts highly trained orthopedic physicians to Evanston.

The facility also offers diagnostic imaging services including mammography, ultrasounds, magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography, according to the center’s Jan. 18 news release.

Director of Ambulatory Breast Radiology

Sonya Bhole said this array of imaging is essential for women’s breast care.

“(It) is great to be able to offer (annual screenings) in a community center,” Bhole said. “But we wanted to take one step further and really be able to offer diagnostic imaging — that means any patients that are coming in with symptoms.”

Bhole hopes to start including biopsies and supplemental screening in its care in the spring. She said she hopes to eventually expand beyond Evanston and open small ambulatory centers throughout the Chicago area.

At the moment, Bhole and Bennett both said the center also offers fast appointments and works to ensure a short turnaround between diagnostic screening exams and results.

“We typically pride ourselves on same-day (and) next-day visits and even MRIs and other advanced diagnostics,” Bennett said. “We’re staffed with athletic trainers who are sort of the first-line responders for injured athletes.”

The facility isn’t necessarily able to provide same-day diagnostic testing and interpretation to every patient but is hoping to do so more often as the center gets up and going, Bhole said.

Ajay Chapa, the medical director of ambulatory imaging, said he hoped the center increases the community’s access to physicians.

“What we wanted to do is provide a patientcentered focus,” Chapa said. “We wanted to create a unique experience for the patient, where it’s going to be a ‘one-stop shop’ where they can go see their doctor.”

Bhole said she wanted the center to serve as a place where patients could advocate for their personal care in an intimate, accessible setting.

It brings the quality of Northwestern Medicine’s Chicago location to a local center in Evanston, she said.

“Allowing patients that access really helps us (remove) those barriers to healthcare that exist,” Bhole said. “Being able to offer academic medicine in your backyard is really what we opened this center for.” amittal@u.northwestern.edu

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