February 2022

EDITORIAL

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IHS TATTLER FEBRUARY 2022 | VOL. 129 | NO. 6

ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO TATTLE.

Established in 1892 Published Monthly www.ihstattler.com Ithaca High School 1401 North Cayuga Street Ithaca, NY 14850 FREE

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EDITORIAL

IHS Staff Are Worth Much More Than They Are Paid

By THE TATTLER BOARD

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t IHS, and ICSD as a whole, teachers and staff hold our school together. They help students discover their passions and bring out the best in all of us. They go out of their way to support us, adapting to the challenges posed by the pandemic to ensure that our education continues unimpeded. However, teachers and staff are consistently undervalued and underappreciated at IHS. In response to being asked if they felt appreciated, one IHS teacher told The Tattler, “[By] students: yes, the administration: no, and [the district]: heck no.”

Teachers, specifically, do so much for their students. Aside from preparing lessons and lectures, many teachers use their free periods and personal time to help students, in many cases staying hours after school to do so. They spend their own money on supplies for the classroom, take the time to give us feedback, and help us when we are lost. Especially now, as Covid cases rise in schools and more students need to quarantine, teachers are going out of their way to support us. But amidst piles of assignments and deadlines, we often forget who helped lead us to where we are now, focusing solely on our complaints and frustrations without looking at the bigger picture. As students, we need to realize that instructing and supporting students is continuous, challenging work that teachers do not receive enough credit for doing.

Both the student body and the administration can take actions to help support our staff. Aside from recognizing the amount of effort it takes to successfully prepare students for their academic futures, students need to be more sympathetic.

Before complaining about a certain teacher’s style or assignments, we should remember just how much they do for us.

To truly appreciate staff, ICSD needs to make one major change: pay them more. ICSD notoriously pays its staff very little compared to state and national averages. When asked if they thought their pay accurately reflects the work they do each and every day, The Tattler’s teacher interviewee responded, “I mean, I work probably seventy hours a week, so no.” They added that if they question low salaries, they are often met with a response along the lines of “You got into

teaching, you should expect that.” The average ICSD teacher salary in 2018-19 was $55,570, much lower than the New York state average teacher salary in 2018-19, $85,479. Currently, ICSD does not have a step system, meaning that raises are not guaranteed each year a teacher works for the district.

Low salaries are not only prevalent for teachers but for other ICSD staff as well, including the nurses who tend to students and the bus drivers who provide us with transportation. Many district employees are paid below the Tompkins County living wage of $15.32 an hour, including food service workers and bus drivers in training, who are paid $13.46 an hour and $13.13 an hour, respectively. The 2021 base salary for teaching aides in ICSD was $15.63 an hour, which is barely above the Tompkins living wage. Our own school nurses, whose duties have greatly expanded because of the pandemic, are being paid an entry average of $35,000, while entry pay for senior nurses (nurses who are certified to be in charge of other nurses) in Trumansburg is $41,000 and entry pay in Lansing is $46,500. At the September 15 Board of Education meeting, a dedicated nurse who has been working at IHS for seven years stated that she is still making under $42,000, an amount less than Lansing’s entry pay despite her years of service.

IHS is a high-performing school located in an Ivy League town—a place where the primary industry is education. So why are our staff paid so little? Between the 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years, the district’s budget increased by 6.09 percent and ICSD even set aside several million dollars, the uses for which were unclear.

Despite this, during negotiations with the teacher’s union, ICSD insists that they cannot afford raises before proposals are even made. ICSD staff salaries remain much lower than surrounding districts, even though the district certainly has the power to change this.

Because low pay is rampant in ICSD, teachers and staff are constantly leaving to work for other districts that pay far more. As a result, ICSD is experiencing a shortage of workers who are essential to the success of our schools. According to the ICSD nurses in their statement at the

Editor-in-Chief

Jinho Park ’22

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EDITORIAL September 15 meeting, there are a total of five nurse job postings at the elementary schools of Caroline, Cayuga Heights, and Belle Sherman. These openings have not been filled because of low pay and salaries that are not competitive compared to surrounding districts. At the September 15 meeting, a nurse working in ICSD schools mentioned that the first thing prospective nurses who are curious and excited about working in the district say is, “Is that salary a typo? Is that real?”

When asked about teacher retention and incentivizing teachers to work for ICSD, The Tattler’s teacher interviewee said, “You have to make us the best paying district in our area,” in order to fix the district’s ongoing teacher shortage and lack of teachers of color. The teacher stated that the students, their department, and the ability to teach what they want are the only things currently keeping them at IHS. “I’m willing to go to a district that will pay me more and function like a well-oiled machine,” they added. “If I see that opening, I will take it, because I’m going to have great students no matter where I go.”

Low retention rates and faculty turnover directly impacts students’ achievements and consistency of education. For example, IHS’s guidance counselors have been replaced numerous times over the past few years, leaving many students with different counselors each year. Guidance counselors are meant to provide continuous support for students throughout their high school years. This constant shifting of counselors is detrimental to both students’ preparation for their future and the counselors’ ability to support students. It also hinders the ability for students to forge connections with their counselors and makes college admissions processes extremely difficult for counselors new to the job, contributing to student confusion as well.

High staff turnover also negatively affects the teachers and

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staff who stay. When teachers leave, other teachers in their department must step in and teach their classes, resulting in a heavier workload on staff who already do so much. Teachers receive little notice about these class changes, which place unnecessary stress on their shoulders and can result in rushed curricula that are harmful for student learning.

Another policy that has resulted in teachers leaving the classroom is recruitment to administrative positions in the school.

Because ICSD administrators make an average of $109,110 a year, almost double the average ICSD teacher salary, one of the only options for teachers looking for a fairer salary is to become an administrator. This practice takes capable teachers out of the classroom and could be fixed by simply paying our teachers more. In short, because of how they allocate salaries, ICSD is subjecting students to inconsistency and yearly change as teachers and counselors move on to find fairer jobs elsewhere or leave the classroom. Paying staff more will benefit our staff, our students, and the overall quality of education in ICSD. Ithaca High School would not be able to function without the continuous effort of our teachers, nurses, cafeteria workers, janitors, bus drivers, counselors, and all of the other staff at our school. The Tattler Editorial Board firmly believes that ICSD needs to compensate staff for all they do, certainly more than how much they are compensated currently. Students and the administration have long overlooked how much our school staff do for us on a daily basis. By adequately supporting them financially, our staff will feel appreciated and welcomed at IHS, instead of giving their all to our school and receiving little recognition in return. The teachers and staff who work here move mountains to support us, so the least that students and the administration can do is to value them as much as they value us.

IHS Must Actively Combat the Eating Disorder Epidemic in Schools

By THE TATTLER BOARD Content warning: This article contains discussion of eating disorders, suicide, anxiety, and depression.

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t’s no secret that a staggering number of teenagers struggle with their mental health, but the severity of their illnesses is frequently downplayed, often with tragic consequences. This

month, the Tattler Editorial Board has chosen to focus on eating disorders (EDs), which are among the most stigmatized and misunderstood mental conditions. The most frequent diagnoses include binge eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, Continued on page 4

The Tattler is the monthly student-run newspaper of Ithaca High School. All currently-enrolled students at Ithaca High School are welcome to submit writing and photographs. As an open forum, The Tattler invites opinion submissions and letters to the editor from all community members. Email submissions to editor@ihstattler.com or mail letters to: The Tattler 1401 North Cayuga Street Ithaca, NY 14850 Send submissions by February 11 to be included in the March issue. The Tattler reserves the right to edit all submissions. All articles, columns, and advertisements do not necessarily reflect the views of editorial staff.

To read The Tattler online, visit our website at www.ihstattler.com.

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EDITORIAL

IHS Must Actively Combat the Eating Disorder Epidemic in Schools Continued from page 3 avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, and other specified feeding or eating disorders (not all of which are related to body image). These conditions are not uncommon; nine percent of the U.S. population will have an ED in their lifetime. They are also incredibly dangerous, with the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric illness—up to 20 percent of ED patients die without treatment. Eating disorders claim tens of thousands of lives each year, many of them teenagers and young adults, and the pandemic has only exacerbated their devastating effects. Since March 2020, ED rates have skyrocketed—according to Forbes, there has been a 25 percent increase in the number of adolescent eating disorder patients. These diseases are often fueled by isolation and anxiety, as well as disruption of one’s daily routine.

Many of those already suffering lost access to treatment due to Covid, or relapsed due to the heightened levels of instability and stress in their lives. Eating disorders are severely neglected in schools nationwide, and IHS is no exception. We hope that by bringing more attention to this issue in our schools, we can prevent teenagers from developing these debilitating conditions and make treatment more accessible to those who are already suffering.

Eating disorders often have serious adverse physical and mental health effects, which vary depending on the type of disorder and the individual. Some physical symptoms include cardiovascular stress, sometimes leading to low or high blood pressure and an abnormal pulse, gastrointestinal issues (such as slowed digestion and acid reflux), tooth decay, nutrient deficiencies, hair loss, low or high blood sugar, and extreme fatigue. Furthermore, those who menstruate are at risk of losing their periods, a vital indicator of health. Without regular periods, bone density is lost, increasing susceptibility to stress fractures and osteoporosis.

In addition to the severe, sometimes life-threatening physical effects of EDs, sufferers struggle with their mental ramifications on a daily basis. A number of these effects include cognitive impairment (the death of brain cells), mental fog, and trouble concentrating or remembering information. These issues make the personal, social, and school lives of eating disorder sufferers extremely difficult to maintain. Finally, EDs often have comorbidities—many people struggling with an eating disorder also deal with other mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, both of which increase suicide risk and exacerbate the fear and unhappiness many ED sufferers already feel.

It’s important to note that many people with eating disorders do not have a diagnosis or severe health complications, and that does not make their struggles any less real. It is impossible to know if someone has an eating disorder just by looking at them. People of all different shapes and sizes can be affected and engage in unhealthy behaviors, and negative health effects can be present despite someone “appearing healthy.” In addition, these illnesses can wreak havoc on one’s mental state and quality of life without physically threatening them. Everyone whose life is being negatively impacted by disordered eating deserves to be free from it, even in the absence of severe complications. Unfortunately, the idea of what “qualifies” an eating disorder is often ignorantly based on physical features, which can cause those with eating disorders to believe that they are not “sick enough” to get help as they do not fit the stereotypical “look” of an eating

disorder. Physical stereotypes of EDs may make those struggling feel invalid in their eating disorder and may push them further into their destructive behaviors so that they can “deserve” treatment. Therefore, it is critical for people with less severe physical effects to get help before their conditions worsen.

Unfortunately, the current education on eating disorders provided by Ithaca High School is insufficient. Even in courses such as Health and AP Psychology, the topic of EDs is glossed over, resulting in many students at IHS being unaware of their prevalence and severity. Multiple AP Psychology and Health students reported that they only learned about anorexia and bulimia, and even these conditions were accompanied with stereotyped portrayals and never discussed beyond their basic definitions. Students should learn about a variety of common eating disorders and their mental and physical characteristics, as well as their causes and risk factors. They should be provided with media created by experts to educate people about disordered cognitions and how to best support those who are suffering even if they cannot fully grasp what they are going through. Further, this curriculum must be taught in a way that is supportive to those who are currently struggling. To this end, teachers must be provided with ED sensitivity training and inform their students about resources and treatment options, some of which can be found at the end of this editorial.

Even if Health instruction about EDs was sufficient, many IHS students do not take this course until senior year. This is far too late for education about EDs to start, especially considering that the average age of onset for most eating disorders is 14-17. In addition, students would benefit from earlier instruction on other relevant topics covered in health such as substance addiction and sexual health and safety. Therefore, in order to better inform the student body about eating disorders and other mental and physical health issues before these problems have time to take hold, The Tattler Editorial Board proposes that Health classes be required within the first two years of high school. ICSD middle schools should also expand their Health curricula to include information about eating disorders, as these diseases can begin setting in before students even enter high school.

In addition to expanding the Health curriculum to include more thorough instruction on eating disorders, IHS can use National Eating Disorder Awareness (NEDA) week each year to bring more attention to eating disorders and highlight the importance of combating the ED epidemic in high schools. In 2022, NEDA week will take place from February 21-27, the week of winter break for ICSD, which means that Ithaca High School will need to emphasize this issue in the days leading up to and following NEDA week. During this time, guest speakers at Ithaca High School can give presentations and provide extra curriculum for students in order to expand their knowledge on the topic. The school can bring in people from the community who have insight into the topic of eating disorders, such as psychologists researching EDs at Cornell or Ithaca College and ED treatment providers.

Comprehensive eating disorder education must be implemented in the classroom because families are often ill-equipped to provide their children with the right information during their most formative years. Comments on weight, shape, or eating habits from well-meaning family members may unintentionally

EDITORIAL / NEWS

trigger eating disorder behaviors and thoughts for vulnerable teenagers, further demonstrating that parents are no less ignorant on the subject of EDs than their children. In addition, social media, films and TV, celebrities, influencers, and diet culture have a pervasive influence on teenagers worldwide. While the Internet may not be the immediate cause of an eating disorder for some individuals, dangerous misinformation online can perpetuate and worsen eating disorder tendencies already present in sufferers. Lastly, the shame commonly felt by those struggling with an ED and the self-imposed isolation associated with this mental illness prevent those suffering from reaching out for help. Once an eating disorder invades someone’s mind, it is extremely hard to willingly seek treatment, and often an intervention is required before that person can begin to heal. Reducing the incidence of EDs requires providing students with the tools and resources to resist the toxicity of external influences, and the classroom can be a safe and informative environment to do so. If ICSD truly wants to support students and their mental health, expanding eating disorder education is a massive step in the right direction–one that can and will save lives.

Please seek help if you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder.

Here are some excellent resources and ideas if you don’t know where to start: • The NEDA website (https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/) has a database of treatment providers and a free, confidential helpline which is open Monday-Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at 1-800-931-2237.

• The Upstate New York Eating Disorder Service in Elmira is a specialized eating disorder clinic that has a satellite office in downtown Ithaca and provides a variety of outpatient and inpatient treatment options.

• Consider reaching out to a therapist who specializes in eating disorders if possible.

• Surround yourself with recovery-oriented content and avoid social media accounts and other media that are triggering or unhelpful for your recovery.

Read books like Body Kindness, 8 Keys to Recov- Read books like Body Kindness, 8 Keys to ery, and Goodbye Ed, HelloEd, Me.Hello Me. Recovery, and Goodbye • Some supportive podcasts include ED Matters, The - Some supportive podcasts include ED Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast, and Recovery Matters, The Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast, Warrior. and Recovery Warrior.

• Watch Youtube videos fromfrom creators like What - Watch Youtube videos creators like Mia Did Next, Chris Henrie, Linda Sun, and Rebecca What Mia Did Next, Chris Henrie, Linda Sun, • and Rebecca Leung.

• Leung.

• Build a support network of trusted friends and/ or family members that you can lean on in times of need. Find people in your life who encourage you to take care of yourself. The ultimate goal is self-compassion, but sometimes external affirmations of our inherent worth can be a bridge to help us get there.

• If you are currently suffering, recovering, or recovered, The Tattler Editorial Board wants you to know that you deserve to get better and we believe in you.

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How ICSD’s Quarantine System Impacts Students and Teachers

By MUKUND GAUR

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s Covid spreads in IHS, many classes feel abnormally empty. Although not all of these absences may be from Covid, any previous issues of absence at IHS have been worsened by Covid. And yet, students in quarantine seem to simply disappear from school—there are no virtual meets where they can be included in class, nor any interactions between students in quarantine and students in person during school. For most students that haven’t been quarantined—and, as it seems, for some teachers—the quarantine system is a mysterious black box.

So, what’s really going on?

I spoke to two administrators about how the quarantine system is supposed to work—and how it’s actually working in reality. The medical side of the quarantine system is relatively simple: When a student tests positive, regardless of vaccination status, they must quarantine for five days. If they have no symptoms after five days—or if their symptoms are resolving—they may return to school. If a student is only exposed to the virus, their quarantine lengths differ depending on vaccination status: while an unvaccinated student will have to quarantine for at least five days, a fully vaccinated and boosted student can continue to come to school. In terms of students’ education, however, the protocol didn’t seem to be as clear-cut.

A student who tests positive is supposed to inform the school of their own accord—if a student or their family does not inform the school that the student is quarantined, the student must communicate with teachers on their own. If a student does inform the school (which the administrators strongly recommended that students do), the district has set up a system referred to as “short-term absence support.” Within this system, two designated teachers—one for ninth and 10th grade, another for 11th and 12th grade—help support students who are in quarantine. One of the administrators I spoke to described this system as a “connection with the teacher and the family and the student to make sure that they have access to what is needed to happen during [quarantine].” This includes, but is not limited to, the Continued on page 5

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NEWS

How ICSD’s Quarantine System Impacts Students and Teachers Continued from page 5 designated support teacher emailing the teachers of the quarantined student to help the student catch up with work, virtual meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays for students to meet with their support teacher, and general support for the student. Throughout the interview, the administrators emphasized that the district was following Tompkins County Health Department guidelines, although it is unclear to what extent TCHD policies dictate the quarantine learning system.

It is worth mentioning that this system isn’t entirely foolproof.

If a student doesn’t notify the school that they are on a “shortterm absence,” none of the aforementioned resources will be provided. One administrator noted, “There are kids that are out and follow the rules and we may not know about it.” Nor is there much room for direct student-teacher communication, besides through the support teacher and what the student does on their own. When asked if there were any plans for teachers to set up virtual meets during class so quarantined students could join class synchronously, one of the administrators I interviewed responded, “[Virtual meets] should not be happening across all classes… That is our district policy.” The administrators did inform me, however, when asked if this system would still be adequate with increased numbers of quarantined students, that “Yes—it is working.”

However, student experiences seem to differ from these administrators’ accounts. I interviewed two students who had been quarantined for at least five days with Covid. The main issue that seemed to come up was a lack of communication from the administration. One told me, “I got my positive test Monday night… The school didn’t really tell us anything.” The student’s family did notify the school, but as they didn’t receive much guidance, they stated that they mostly figured out what they were supposed to do by checking the school’s Covid policy online, as well as the county’s Covid policy.

In terms of the learning process itself, the students had mixed experiences. A student who was contacted by the school said that their support teacher emailed their teachers while they were in quarantine, but their teachers didn’t really respond to those emails. However, their teachers did respond to the emails that the student themself sent out. They sounded a positive note about the short-term absence support system, saying that, “It was really nice and probably would have been helpful for anyone who needed support.” The other student, however, said that “there was not really anything available” in regards to schoolwork, and that they fell behind in classes with in-person lessons that they couldn’t really make up—as the first student stated, “I just tried to do my best with whatever I could.” Both students pointed out language classes as a place of difficulty. Neither student I interviewed had a particularly negative experience with quarantine—however it is important to emphasize that every student has a different experience with Covid.

I also spoke to a teacher about their experiences with the quarantine system, and these seemed to echo what students saw. In terms of the actual quarantine system itself, they didn’t receive much communication from the administration, saying “I actually don’t know what the [quarantine] protocols are as of right now.” After I described the current policy to the teacher, they remarked, “Even if there is a policy it’s not necessarily being

followed.” The teacher brought up a point that seems to be an issue with the current quarantine system—if a student does not contact the school or their teachers, they essentially disappear.

As the teacher stated, “Many [quarantined students] just fall off the grid, until they just miraculously come back.” Going handin-hand with this is the fact that how well a student performs in quarantine is entirely dependent on the student, noted by both the students and the teacher I spoke with.

Beyond the quarantine system specifically, the teacher I spoke with mentioned some other issues within the context of Covid and quarantine. In one of their classes, they said that out of a total of 23 students, at one point, for a few weeks, only 11 students were present, less than half the class. Although not all of these absences may have been related to Covid, this is a stark contrast from what I was told by administrators—that only one to two students are absent from any given class due to Covid. The teacher also stated that some administrators had made attempts to “guilt-trip” them into exempting some quarantined students from work, observing that “they’re making an assumption that we just give frivolous work,” and that any seriously sick student would obviously be given accommodations. In school, the teacher said that more diligent enforcement of mask wearing and greater consequences for not wearing masks should be enforced.

It’s clear that there is a great discrepancy between how students and teachers are experiencing the quarantine system and how the system is supposed to work. Although the quarantine system, when implemented properly, seems to be functioning for students, teachers and students attest to the fact that this system is not being universally implemented appropriately. Handling students’ learning in quarantine also seems to be falling to teachers in many cases—giving them a double job of managing their in-person students and at-home students.

Suns in the Night Sky by Ruby Zawel

NEWS

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Colorado’s Wildfire Problem

By ANAIS VANEK-RAPHAELIDIS

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n December 30, 2021, a wildfire spread through several suburbs of Boulder, Colorado. More than 35,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes, and there was one recorded death. Nearly 1,000 homes burned down, and the damage is estimated at $500 million, making this wildfire the most destructive in Colorado’s history. Local authorities say that it will take years to rebuild in the wildfire’s wake.

As of mid-January, the origin of the fire was unknown. Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle has said that the investigation may take weeks or even months. However, Colorado has a poor track record of thoroughly investigating fire events. According to Sam Brasch, a writer for Colorado Public Radio, only 43 percent of wildfires have had their cause identified by the state.

Nonetheless, multiple weather-related factors certainly played a role. On the day of the fire, wind gusts upwards of 100 miles per hour fanned the wildfire and hastened its spread. Moreover, Colorado had record-setting dryness in the latter half of 2021.

Climate change is to blame for this—increased air temperature and prolonged drought, particularly in the western United States, lead to wildfires that are not only much more frequent but more destructive. The Colorado State Forest Service stated in a report that there were an average of 457 fires per year in the 1960s. In the 2000s, there were nearly 3,000 per year. Not only that, but while wildfires burned an average of just 8,000 acres yearly in the 1960s, since the 2000s wildfires have been burning upwards of 97,000 acres yearly. There are also demographic changes exacerbating Colorado’s wildfire problem. The state has one of the fastest-growing populations nationwide, and as suburban development rapidly encroaches on wilderness, the potential for disastrous wildfires increases.

Wildfires are essential to ecosystem health. Fire reduces tree disease and pests, while burned organic material helps replenish soil nutrients. Most notably, recurring localized fires prevent the buildup of slash (flammable brush material), which lowers the potential for severe fires. Controlled burning is a practice with roots in Indigenous cultures; for example, the Yurok Tribe of northern California conducts regular controlled burns that restore traditional plant food sources and support salmon fisheries.

Western state governments have failed to emulate this method.

For the last century, their approach to fighting forest fires has focused on early detection and vigilant suppression. The perceived necessity of this approach has only grown as the wildland-urban interface in Colorado has become more populated. In March 2012, a controlled burn in central Colorado that was presumed to be completely extinguished re-ignited 5 days later. The flames then spread outside the designated boundary, ultimately destroying 27 homes and killing 3 people. After this event, called the Lower North Fork Fire, Colorado’s government banned the state forest service from conducting controlled burns. This ruling has only worsened the destructive capability of recent wildfires.

Where should Colorado go from here? They understandably

have a tenuous relationship with controlled burning. With adequate education on the preventative power of prescribed burning when executed safely, as well as reassurance that fires like Lower North Fork are extremely unlikely to occur again, faith can be restored.

Moreover, a handful of state legislators are pursuing a bill that will establish a minimum fire safety code required of all new buildings. Measures will include using fire-safe building materials and maintaining “defensible space” around homes, a given radius with few or no trees. Before now, implementation of firesafe infrastructure has been in the hands of local governments, but it is clear that a state-wide measure is necessary to keep the people of Colorado safe and preserve their livelihoods.

Mayor Svante Myrick Steps Down

By WILL THOMAS

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fter claiming the title of Ithaca’s longest-serving mayor, Svante Myrick will step down from his role effective February 6, 2022. Myrick was chosen to serve on Ithaca’s Common Council in 2007, while still attending Cornell University. In 2012, at the age of 24, Myrick was elected Mayor of Ithaca.

He won commanding victories in both subsequent elections, winning 89 percent of the vote in 2015 and 76 percent in 2019.

He’ll move on to take the reins at People for the American Way, a liberal think tank that he has worked and collaborated with since 2017. After noting his love for Ithaca and passion for fighting for its community in his statement of resignation, Myrick said, “I also love this country. The American democratic experiment is the reason that someone like me—born into homelessness, and raised by a single mother—was able to attend an institution like Cornell, and serve the city he loves.”

I once had an opportunity to speak with the mayor for around an hour as part of a work program. Similar themes cropped up then and now, themes of making Ithaca a better place for people who grew up as he did, bouncing around housing arrangements.

Having inherited a 3 to 3.5 million dollar budget deficit, Myrick’s two successive budgets closed the deficit with a limited tax increase while also managing to transform the City of Ithaca into a living wage employer. He maintained a salary that was around half of what some of his colleagues made in a year, working fullContinued on page 8

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NEWS / OPINION

Mayor Svante Myrick Steps Down Continued from page 7

time at a job that is often listed and discussed as a part-time one. Myrick has been consistently praised as a hard worker and advocate for Ithacans, pioneering a number of progressive reforms that have gained national attention. The adoption of the Ithaca Plan for combating drug overdoses, which works to funnel low-level offenders to social services rather than the legal system, was the first among these initiatives. Brought about partially by Mayor Myrick’s past as the child of an addict, the plan (also introduced in Seattle, WA) works to limit drug overdoses on multiple fronts.

More recently, the Ithaca Green New Deal and Myrick’s plan to reimagine public safety and the IPD have made headlines. Understandably, the latter has become the focal point of a considerable amount of debate, with the police union characterizing it as a form of union busting. Criticisms from the left are similarly not uncommon, with allegations being presented by some candidates for Common Council that the plan is glorified window-dressing that does not address the racist roots of the policing system. Other initiatives of Myrick’s include his plans to build additional subsidized and market-rate housing while simultaneously supporting Cornell (whose students contribute heavily to competition for housing in Ithaca) in its plan to build more on-campus housing.

This project is also noted to be a product of his background.

From the struggle for affordable housing, to his plan to help those with drug issues, Myrick has consistently fought for people who come from similar backgrounds as him and those disadvantaged in all ways—that’s more than one can say for most politicians. With the Democrat-dominated New York Legislature likely to take a page out of the book of their GOP counterparts in other states and redistrict some Central New York seats traditionally held by Republicans, many expected Mayor Myrick to make a run for a higher position. Instead, we’ll have to be content with the 10 years of advocacy we got from Myrick as our city’s leader, and the tens of years we’ll likely get in the future, whatever position they come in.

Laura Lewis, the current Common Council alderperson representing Ithaca’s fifth ward, will succeed Myrick and become acting Mayor on February 7. Lewis has also signaled intention to continue focusing on Ithaca’s housing problem, and has successfully presented legislation and budgeting for a program that provides tenants legal representation in eviction court. Rather than Lewis serving the rest of Myrick’s current term, scheduled to end in 2023, primaries for the office of the Mayor will be held this spring, and elections will be held in November 2022.

OPINION

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Death to Capital Punishment

By LOUISA MILLER-OUT

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ulius Jones had four hours left to live.

He’d spent nearly twenty years on Death Row for a crime he likely didn’t commit. In fact, during the murder, 19-yearold Julius was at home, eating dinner with his parents and sister, but his legal team failed to present this alibi at his trial or call his family to the witness stand. Nor did they show the jury that Julius didn’t match the eyewitness description of the shooter. Eleven out of the twelve jurors who decided his fate were white, and one of them called him the n-word and said they should take him behind the jail and shoot him. On top of that, a third of the presiding District Attorney’s death penalty convictions, most of which were Black people, had been overturned due to prosecutors violating the legal process. A clearly racially biased court, a lackadaisical legal team, and a case largely riding on a sole eyewitness account— Julius Jones’s trial was overflowing with reasonable doubt, and yet he was marked for death.

But just hours before Julius’s execution, which would have been the first in the state of Oklahoma since a string of horribly botched ones in 2015, governor Kevin Stitt altered his sentence to life in prison without parole. This action was largely in response to the state Pardon and Parole board’s vote to grant Julius clemency and widespread outrage on social media on his behalf. In the nick of time, a potentially innocent man who had been rotting in prison, awaiting his certain death for almost two decades, was spared. But up until what he thought were his final moments, Julius Jones was slated to die on the basis of scant evidence and a trial packed with racists. What if his clock had run out and he’d gone to the grave innocent?

The harsh and horrifying process known euphemistically as capital punishment is illegal in New York, as well as 21 other states. One major reason for this abandonment of the death penalty is the likelihood of wrongful conviction—according to the National Center for Reason and Justice, anywhere from 46,000 to 230,000 innocent people are currently in prison in the United States. The best available research from the Innocence Project reveals that the wrongful conviction rate for capital cases specifically is about four percent. This is not an insignificant number— remember that this means about four innocent people will be murdered for every 100 executions.

Even if the likelihood of taking innocent lives is negligible, is the government really justified in killing people for committing offenses such as espionage, treason, and first-degree murder? If the death penalty was in the interest of preventing future aggression, it would be administered immediately, but instead people are kept on Death Row for decades, in a torturous march towards their early deaths. Therefore, the function of the death penalty is purely retributive–the taking of one life for another. I personally believe that two wrongs don’t make a right. If we consider human life to have intrinsic value, which seems to be the rationale for condemning murder in the first place, executing murderers

is unethical. Killing people who commit more symbolic offenses, like spying or treason, is even harder to justify. And yet, even I acknowledge that the moral argument against the death penalty is flimsy and highly subjective.

The main reasons it should be abolished are much stronger; the death penalty evidently constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and has no practical utility.

The favored method of execution at the moment is lethal injection, purported to be instant and relatively painless. Tell that to John Marion Grant, who died in agony more than twenty minutes after his shot, convulsing and drenched in his own vomit. And he’s not alone. The rate of botched lethal injections is over seven percent, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). Grant’s gruesome death was just a few months ago, in October of 2021; clearly, the cocktail of drugs currently being used is far from humane. Moreover, the practice of keeping people in limbo on Death Row for years to await their state-sanctioned deaths is a form of cruel and unusual punishment in itself.

The mental devastation this must cause is unimaginable and erodes the likelihood of rehabilitation. The justice system should seek to help people find a sense of purpose and fulfillment, not punish them. Most crimes are committed out of desperation or triggered by some trauma in a person’s life. Psychologically torturing people who are already traumatized and suffering by subjecting them to the inhumanities of prison serves no one.

Proponents of the death penalty argue that it should remain in place as a deterrent to crime; however, this argument crumbles under scrutiny. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), there is no evidence that capital punishment discourages crime better than long prison sentences do. Since so many states have already abolished the death penalty, we have a wealth of research that makes this fact overwhelmingly clear; states without the death penalty do not have higher crime and murder rates than those that retain it. The lack of a deterrent effect makes logical sense upon further consideration; most people who end up committing crimes do not consider the consequences as they are often in an altered mental state. When a crime is premeditated, the perpetrator often plans to avoid being caught, so the possibility of future punishment has little impact on their decision.

Another common justification for capital punishment is that keeping someone in prison for life supposedly costs the government more than simply executing them. However, this argument holds no water—the DPIC has conducted extensive research that proves the opposite. Because of their higher stakes, capital cases have longer and more intensive legal proceedings, meaning the costs associated with the trial, lawyers, and jury selection, as well as appeals for the convicted person’s life, are exorbitant. This Continued on page 10

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OPINION

Death to Capital Punishment Continued from page 9

means that death penalty cases are actually far more expensive than life-without-parole cases. And even if the death penalty were more cost-effective for the state, would that be sufficient reason to kill someone who could have been innocent or rehabilitated? If the government is really worried about money, they should stop wasting time and taxpayer dollars on imprisoning people for nonviolent drug offenses and crimes of necessity. Executing people, at great financial cost, in order to avoid paying for their room and board, is both illogical and morally bankrupt.

The ultimate goal of the justice system should be to get as many people as possible out of prison and living better lives. To this end, the steep costs associated with death penalty trials could instead be channeled into rehabilitation programs for convicted people, or even genetic testing to establish innocence and guilt more conclusively. If capital punishment were taken off the table, the psychological torture of waiting on Death Row would be alleviated, removing a source of mental trauma for incarcerated people and thereby making them less likely to reoffend. It’s abundantly clear that when we abolish this cruel, anachronistic practice, our society will regain just a bit of its humanity.

What’s the Deal With Protein?

By ELLIOTT SALPEKAR

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very plant-based eater has encountered the question “But where do you get your protein?” For any well-meaning peer, this is often what first comes to mind when they hear of a friend’s decision to eat plant-based. Protein is one of the overriding concerns for the average diet-conscious person, emphatically printed in bold on nutrition labels countrywide.

But how did protein become so culturally significant? Is it really as important a nutrient as we believe? And if not, why are we so obsessed with it?

First off, let’s clear up exactly how hard it is to get enough protein. Using the average recommended requirement of 42 grams of protein per day, the largest study ever conducted on plant-based eating found that the average vegan consumed 70 percent more protein per day than they needed. The meat eaters ate about 78 percent more than the requirement. In short, vegans get plenty of protein, and so does everyone else.

But don’t we need extra protein for growth? Consider human breast milk: the one food that’s been engineered over millions of years of evolution to hold the perfect balance of nutrients for a human baby. Infancy is marked by rapid growth, so if protein were indeed the catalyst of growth that we believe it is, we would expect that dependence to be made apparent by analyzing human breast milk. Instead, we find that humans have among the most protein-poor breast milk in the entire mammalian kingdom. For example, while cows’ milk is about 3.3 percent protein by weight,

3.3 percent protein by weight, human milk comes in at less than a third of that.

But if protein quantity isn’t an issue, might protein quality be one? The idea that plant proteins are “lower quality” than animal proteins is founded on the idea that certain protein sources are “incomplete,” i.e., lacking in curtain essential amino acids. In reality, all plant proteins in the food supply contain each of the essential amino acids. This is the result of a simple truth of the natural world: only plants have the ability to strip nitrogen from the air and manufacture amino acids. Every amino acid molecule in an animal’s body originated in a plant, because animals simply can’t make them from scratch.

The worry, then, shifts to the ratios of individual amino acids.

As it turns out, our bodies already have the solution: recycling.

We keep pools of each essential amino acid, topping them off with a massive 90 grams of decomposed proteins daily. Since no protein in the food supply is truly incomplete, the relative amino acid deficiencies in any set of proteins are controlled by smart mixing and matching of each. In short, nothing goes to waste, making it practically impossible to consume a diet that is sufficient in calories but deficient in certain amino acids.

Then why is it so shocking to hear that all our protein concerns are a myth? The answer, as for many things, is marketing.

The most notable asset in the lobbying campaign to make American plates meatier has proven to be checkoff programs.

These are government-organized initiatives that directly siphon off a fraction of animal food producers’ output into dedicated marketing programs for those products.

As analyzed by the USDA, the return on investments for checkoff programs range up to 18 dollars per dollar invested. The enormous capital that gets injected into them allows for some true feats of public influence: do the phrases, “Beef: It’s what’s for Dinner” and “Got Milk?” sound familiar? These are the children of checkoff programs. They are ubiquitous, bombarding us in public schools, television ads, and bus stations.

Various other products, like soybeans and cotton, have their own checkoff programs. What sets animal foods’ checkoff programs apart from the rest, however, is their sheer unity: all producers in the program contribute to boosting all of their sales.

The lucky producers of beef, eggs, chicken, dairy, and the rest share a ludicrously effective, government-mandated marketing budget, and the result is a culture-defining tsunami of industry propaganda.

But who specifically benefits from these programs? It’s certainly not the idyllic small cattleman. These programs began as an optional boost to farms that were big enough to afford it; nowadays, they’re forced on all producers, more akin to taxes.

The producers with the ability to supply our largest meat sinks, like the fast food and meatpacking industries, are those who return the most on their checkoff investments. Small, local ranchers and dairy farms are instead stuck with another mandatory tribute, the rewards of which they are too powerless to reap. All things considered, protein is a vastly overrated nutrient. It’s not nearly as much of a nutritional concern as we perceive, and our dependence on it is a fabrication of the animal foods industries.

The notion that plant-based diets lead to protein deficiency and stunted growth is an unjustly placed stumbling block on the path towards better eating habits. It’s up to us to step past it.

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How Veganism Taught Me Open-Mindedness

By MARLEY THOMSON

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s soon as we start kindergarten we are taught to eat from the five food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, proteins, and dairy. The classic “Choose My Plate” can be found all over American schools, particularly elementary schools. Although I support maintaining a balanced diet, the diet we are taught to eat fails to take into account the reality of American food.

In the early months of 2021, a TikToker by the name of “That Vegan Teacher” was gaining popularity. In the comment section of her videos, countless people bashed her for being vegan and for caring about animal life. That Vegan Teacher had a very straightforward way of explaining the food industry—without sugarcoating it. Since most of us are taught that meat is the go-to protein and if we don’t drink dairy we won’t grow, many people refused to listen to what That Vegan Teacher had to say. I was not vegan myself and am usually not open to people telling me what to eat, but I gave That Vegan Teacher a chance. It turns out that most of the things she said were absolutely right.

In America, we have this notion that cows make milk for humans. In fact, cows are similar to humans in that they don’t produce milk unless they have recently given birth. The reality of the dairy industry is that cows are raped to give birth, only for their offspring to be ripped apart from them and their milk taken for humans. As someone who is a strong advocate for reproductive rights, this strikes me as something straight from The Handmaid’s Tale. Yet as a society, we are conditioned to think this is okay. Younger me would be too close-minded to accept these facts, but now that I have grown as a person, I am able to understand just how unethical the meat and dairy industry is. Leaving aside the moral consequences of dairy, there are numerous health consequences. Dairy, along with meat, is one of the leading contributors to heart disease, cancer, and obesity. Another fact we need to accept is that by eating animal products such as dairy and killing animals for consumption, we are gradually killing ourselves.

A popular rebuttal to veganism is how expensive it can be.

While it is true that vegan alternative food can be expensive, so is the cost of healthcare. In the United States, we have some of the most expensive healthcare in the developed world. 28 million Americans are uninsured and many more have sub-par health coverage. Considering that meat and dairy cause so many health complications, the average American will end up spending much more money on medical expenses than they would on healthy food.

The moral here is not that you must become vegan. The moral is that by being open-minded we can come to terms with facts, whether we like them or not. I personally love a cheeseburger and some ice cream, considering Ithaca has some of the best dairy offerings in the state. I will always find a juicy cheeseburger and

some ice cream tasty but as we mature in life we realize that everything is not about self-pleasure. This realization sparked personal growth in me so that I am now able to admit when someone else is right, regardless of whether I like it or not.

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OPINION

Do Schools Prepare Students for an Ideal World or Reality?

By MANU BOSTEELS

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ews flash! The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has affected how we think about school. This is not an original observation: the topic of mental health in education has become much more common today than in the pre-March 2020 era.

Now, educators consider the opinions of students more in making administrative decisions, which has led to a fierce debate. Do schools prepare students for what should be considered an ideal version of society, which may or may not be reached in the future, or for the current reality, which we will most likely encounter after graduation?

This, specifically, is not a question you hear many asking.

However, it lies beneath the debates over reading requirements in classes; pass/fail versus numerical versus letter grades, standardized testing requirements, et cetera.

Proponents of lessened reading requirements say that reading is not in any way simple or easy for all students. Further, the argument is that expecting students to read several books over a school year is detrimental. In a May 2021 article for The Tattler, Raia Gutman wrote, “As fun as reading books is for those of us who engage in it as a hobby, it can feel labored, extraneous, and hopeless. The words swim before one’s eyes, all blending together, forming a whirlpool of boredom. It is not ICSD’s job to force this upon students in hopes of transferring to them a valuable skill simply by exposure.”

These arguments conform to the ideal-world scenario in that they suggest that students who find reading difficult or tedious should not have to. There are indeed jobs and opportunities out there without reading, and it is also true that, as a public and non-selective school, Ithaca High School should not only cater to those jobs that would require reading beyond short articles.

Then, one should also consider that the majority of jobs will most definitely require some form of extensive reading and text analysis. No, it may not be Orwell, Adichie, Achebe, or Shakespeare, but it will be reading nonetheless. Maybe you help manage the social media account of a major company—surely you would benefit from knowing how to conduct research on media engagement and read long-form reports on how to increase social media reach. A Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce report found that by 2020 (which is now two years ago), the number of jobs requiring at least a bachelor’s degree would become 35 percent, and 65 percent of jobs would require some form of education and training beyond high school. It also found that, by 2020, the United States would have five million fewer workers with postsecondary education than the market would have required.

This goes to the realist argument. It is unrealistic to presume that Ithaca High School can serve its students without preparing them for postsecondary education and that these forms of postsecondary education will not require extensive reading. Of course, extensive reading is not the only aspect of this larger

question, it is merely one of many that merits focus.

On the topic of pass/fail grades as opposed to their more detailed numerical counterparts, the idealist argument is that pass/fail grades allow for student evaluation without the stress that comes from differences of one, two, or three points. When a course is graded pass/fail, students are not pressured to be perfect all the time, merely to understand the content adequately. This can be helpful in a pedagogical context because it takes away the fierce competition and psychological consequences of comparing 87s to 93s to 74s. And then, the realist argument is that high schools across the country would need to adopt such a system in order for it to be truly revolutionary. If Ithaca High School is alone in a change like this, the result is that students with pass/fail grades are only at a disadvantage when compared to students with complete numerical grades. Those of us not planning postsecondary education would not have significant detriment with numerical grades in the first place, and those of us aiming for competitive postsecondary education will only have less information to provide to higher education institutions.

High school education should not hinder either path.

This is an opinion article, so my job here is not only to describe two sides of an argument, but also to argue which is correct: neither.

Schools do not prepare us for an ideal version of the world or a realistic version. Schools do not prepare us for any version of the world because that is not their primary purpose. Education is not supposed to be preparation for the future because it is meant to enrich students in the present and our current environments.

Education is fundamentally centered on gaining knowledge and understanding of the world around you. Whether students enrich themselves with aims of improving their future selves, to prepare for distant opportunities, or to become more knowledgeable citizens is up to them. Educational establishments ought to be worried about providing the most valuable knowledge about what makes humans understand their culture, the historical developments behind it, and the scientific innovation that laid the foundation for the world as it is in 2022.

Therefore, whether I walk into an English, AP European History, Programming, or Driver’s Ed class, my aim should not be to prepare for an ideal future or a realistic one. It should be to improve my abilities within that field of study. Different courses and course levels give you knowledge that may be more useful within certain career paths over others, but the ultimate decision resides with each student. At the institutional level, schools are places of learning; postsecondary education, whether it be a vocational school, undergraduate institution, or technical school, concerns itself with preparation for the world.

Frankly, the idea that schools should need to conform to either side of the debate does not make sense because (what a surprise) ideal versus realistic futures are all dependent on individual perceptions. On the topic of reading requirements, my

OPINION / FEATURES ideal future would involve everyone sharing, at the very least, an appreciation for the act of reading if not entirely a love for it. An ideal secondary school education would involve exploration of the Western canon in addition to a global reading curriculum that introduces students to the diversity of literature—allowing students to find the perspectives in books that interest them. Because of this, a school institution can’t conform to “the ideal standard” or “the realist standard” because a universal version of such standards doesn’t exist.

If any changes are to be considered, let them be considerate of this: the purpose of education, particularly in the United States, has been diluted, distorted, and frayed. It has become all too focused on resumé building for university admissions and, simultaneously, on constantly providing “alternatives” to essential parts of education. Schools teach. It is beyond time that we allow them to do so once more.

Takeout Review: Hawi

By TANIA HAO

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estled between a boutique and a shoe store at 113 South Cayuga Street, Hawi is a local restaurant that offers “semi-authentic” Ethiopian food, according to an Ethiopian friend of mine. I’ve been wanting to eat there for quite some time but haven’t gotten a chance to as the pandemic wears on. Proceeding safely, I decided to review Hawi through their takeout. Although I was not able to review their in-person dining atmosphere in detail, I was able to experience a wide variety of Hawi’s food options. After reading through several glowing Yelp reviews, I was very excited as I scrolled through Hawi’s online menu.

On their dinner menu, Hawi offers assorted appetizers, vegetable and meat dishes, as well as several combo options. Since I would be sharing the meal with my family, I chose the meat combo for four. The combo includes a choice of two meat dishes and three vegetable ones, so I was able to experience a vast assortment of the food Hawi has to offer. For my two meat dishes, I chose doro tibs (chicken sautéed with onions, tomatoes, and jalapeños) and gomen besiga (a dish with lamb and collard greens).

My three vegetable dishes were yatakilt alicha (carrots, potatoes, and cabbage cooked together), gomen (collard greens cooked with garlic and ginger), and yater kik alicha (split peas cooked with garlic, ginger, and onion). The wait staff member who took my order over the phone was polite and friendly; they told me the food would be ready in 45 minutes.

About an hour later, I walked into Hawi and was immediately struck by the coziness of its interior. The dining room was small and dimly lit, with traditional music playing in the background and Ethiopian art on the walls. There were several diners but not too many; the atmosphere of the restaurant was very peaceful and relaxing. The smell of cooking food and the warm lighting were a welcome contrast to the bitter cold outside, making the short time I spent inside the restaurant seem almost dreamlike. Of course, it could also have been the fact that I haven’t actually eaten in a

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restaurant since the pandemic started.

I only saw one waitstaff member during my time at Hawi, and they greeted me instantly as I came in the door. I gave them my name and paid for my order, then waited for about fifteen minutes as they prepared my food. While I waited, I was able to witness the staff interacting with the diners and saw the real relationships they had. One diner seemed to be a regular and the staff referred to them by name, making sure everything was set for them. When another diner came in carrying luggage, the staff helped them to a table with an outlet. Later, when this same diner was unsure of what to order, the staff helped them decide, asking questions about the diner’s own preferences and dietary restrictions. Each interaction I witnessed was kind and genuine and seeing these relationships between people was definitely the highlight of my experience.

About fifteen to twenty minutes after I arrived, the wait staff brought out my order and wished me good night. When I got home and opened the bag, I realized I had gotten a lot more food than I’d expected. The two containers were fairly large on their own and they were also filled to the brim with food. The combo for four could’ve passed as a combo for eight, which is something to keep in mind if you’re ordering for one meal only.

All dishes from Hawi come with a free portion of injera, an Ethiopian flatbread made from teff flour. Each of our containers had the vegetable and meat dishes snugly wrapped inside several pieces of injera, and opening the flatbread felt like opening a present. The injera was gray in color with a light, spongy texture and a striking sour taste, which I was not expecting. Ethiopian food is meant to be eaten with your hands, using the injera to scoop up the dishes, and my family and I tried to follow this principle while eating. Hawi’s website refers to their food as reminding you of “the connection between your body and the way you take each bite,” which I definitely experienced throughout the meal. Although I enjoyed trying this new way of eating, the injera was very soft and slightly damp from sitting in a container for thirty minutes, making it difficult to scoop up the accompanying dishes.

As for the assorted meats and vegetables, I enjoyed their texture when eaten with the injera, but the flatbread’s sourness often overpowered the tastes of the dishes, and I found myself eating them with a spoon to see what they tasted like on their own. Each of the five dishes that I ordered was delicious, both on its own and with the injera. The doro tibs was definitely my favorite out of the five—the chicken had a slightly smoky flavor, as did the tomatoes and the jalapeños. The jalapeños were scattered throughout the container, so they were a fun surprise whenever I found one. I also especially liked eating the yater kik alicha and the gomen together. The mildness of the split peas and the bitterness of the collard greens made a pleasing combination.

The entire meal came down to about $70, including tax. Considering the quality of the food, the large amount (we were able to have the leftovers for the next two days), and the fact that it was the combo for four, I found the price very reasonable.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience at Hawi a lot, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to have a quiet, flavorful meal, either in-person or at home. The wait time was longer than I expected—I was told my order would be ready in 45 minutes, but I went an hour later and waited for some time at the restaurant—but the food was definitely worth it in the end.

FEATURES

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Hall Monitor

By ADAM SAAR

What are you listening to?

Lei Cao ‘23: “Holiest” by Glass Animals

Annie Marschner ‘22: “Overload” from the soundtrack of Dirty Dancing

Ben Velasquez ‘23: “Smuckers” by Tyler, the Creator

Sean Albertson ‘22: “Back” by Jeezy feat. Yo Gotti

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FEATURES

Anais Vanek-Raphaelidis ‘22: “Fineshrine” by Purity Ring

Xander Black ‘23: “Green Hill Zone” from Sonic the Hedgehog

A Short Exchange with ICSD Food Services Director Beth Krause

By CAEDMON SETHUPATHY

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elow is a question and response series between myself and Beth Krause, the Food Services Director for all of ICSD. Her answers should help the IHS community to better understand the statistics behind and inner workings of the cafeterias in our district. Information on the reusability of our trays and utensils is also given. Any links have been provided by Ms. Krause for more information regarding food services in our district, which can be found in the online version of this article at ihstattler.com.

BK: We have approximately 35 café workers, and their hours can range from four to eight hours per day.

CS: For how long has there been a school lunch option at ICSD? BK: I don’t know about ICSD but I imagine that meals have been served since the buildings were built. See the history online.

Caedmon Sethupathy: For approximately how many students does the district provide school lunch?

CS: Which, if any, of the trays or utensils are recyclable or reusable? If they are not, then why?

Beth Krause: In the District Meal Counts Average for November 2021, 2730 lunches and 1349 breakfasts were served per day.

BK: We have used compostable trays for years. Due to the supply chain issues, companies do not have the “ingredients” to make these trays. We are purchasing anything we can get at this time Continued on page 16

CS: How many cafeteria workers does ICSD employ?

FEATURES

16 A Short Exchange With ICSD Food Services Director Beth Krause Continued from page 15

to use for serving meals. Some buildings do use real silverware but we have an issue with those being thrown out and needing to purchase more often.

BK: We are federally funded. A la carte and vending sales go towards purchasing new ovens, carts, steam kettles, and new equipment as needed.

CS: At how many schools in ICSD is there a dishwasher?

CS: How much food is needed to feed all of ICSD for lunch, and how much does supplying so many students with food cost?

BK: We have one at Boynton and one at IHS. LACS and Dewitt have very small dishwashers for silverware. An LACS student group does dishes.

CS: Does ICSD use composting for leftover food?

BK: Yes, we compost food.

CS: When students pay for snacks or ice cream during lunch, where do the received funds go?

BK: About $1 million worth of food per year. Our produce bills run at about $5,000 a week.

CS: How does the school district manage to make lunch free this year and will this take place in future years?

BK: Free lunch this year is a federal program due to the pandemic. Federal Free Meals is scheduled to end in June of 2022. We are hoping that New York State will extend it into next year.

Check Your Source: The Origin Of...The Heart Shape

By ADDIE HOULE-HITZ

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Image provided by author

love you <3.” You get a text from your mom, followed by an emoji of a heart. You wonder, Where does that shape even come from? It’s so far removed from the shape of the organ that pumps blood throughout our bodies. How did these two very different images somehow become synonymous?

To answer this question, we have to look all the way back to ancient Greece. The ancient Greek physician, known as Galen, “discovered” that the human heart was shaped like a pinecone, and according to him, worked with the liver. This idea of a pine cone or an eggplant-shaped heart continued—in 1250, a French

allegory known as The Romance of the Pear shows the first depiction of a drawn heart with a wide base and a narrower, curvy top.

However, the shape we know today seems to directly contradict this. The heart shape that’s seen now, with its pointy bottom and wider top, first emerged in the work of the 14th-century Italian artist, Francesco de Barberino. In his book, Precepts on Love, the first symmetrical “heart” appears, although it looks more like an inverted triangle. Although a seemingly unimportant step in the journey from a shape of an organ to the heart shape, this is the first recording of a heart portrayed as having an inverted shape, making it a vital step in the process.

The clearest instance of the modern heart appears in a piece of French writing titled The Romance of Alexander (1340). On a page’s border, a woman holds up an inverted heart with two clearly defined lobes—the shape which we know today (pictured to the left). It is believed that this artist took inspiration from Franceso de Barberino’s “heart,” and in order to add some extra flare, curved the points inward.

From this point forward, the cartoon shaped heart we know today became more stylized and popular. The artistic heart shape continued to be released in playing card decks in the 1400s as one of the four suits; in the 1600s it began to be associated with love and dedication by Catholics because of the “Sacred Heart of Jesus,” one of the most important Catholic devotions.

As the shape became more popularized as being associated with love, it also began to be associated with Valentine’s Day. This day was originally a fertility festival but after the development of the popular heart shape, became time to celebrate those who you love, both platonically and romantically. Throughout the entire month of February we are bombarded with red, pink and white hearts on any manner of things, such as bears, posters, trinkets— even candy! The history behind the littlest things can sometimes

FEATURES

lead to a world of discoveries. When you next see this shape (which I’m sure will be soon), take pride in the fact that you know the history behind it, as well as its meaning.

From the Archives: Excerpts from the Tattler Issues of Yesteryear

By ALICE BURKE

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eep within the halls of IHS, at the end of the E-wing, one can find a very small, very pink room. This room is hidden to most—the number of students who have stepped foot in the room can be counted on a single hand. Although small and overlooked, this room holds some of the most enticing and unknown secrets of our school. For within these walls lie four average-looking filing cabinets that contain the annals of Tattler history, dating all the way back to 1892. Here follows a small selection.

Read more online at https://tattlerarchive.wordpress.com/ Note: The current Tattler does not necessarily endorse the opinions published in historical Tattlers.

February 14, 2007 “Central Quad Tree Vandalized” During the night between January 6 and January 7, 2007, two people with chainsaws snuck into the high school quad. They quickly and accurately cut a large slice out of the Douglas Fir that dominated the courtyard. Then they left, their images caught on security cameras but their faces masked by the dark.

On Sunday, worried that strong winds would push the tree over into G-Building, the Ithaca City School District decided to cut the Fir down.

The tree the perpetrators killed, planted in 1966, was, for many, a symbol of IHS character and spirit. On Monday, students clustered around the stump in the empty quad, reminiscing. The

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next day, several seniors replaced the Douglas Fir with a Christmas tree, although that tree was knocked over during the day and taken away.

The responses to the tree’s death were documented on the blog http://ihstree.wordpress.com/. Many people left heartfelt comments, citing their attachment to the tree. Kevin W. wrote, “First of all, we have all thought about it, cutting [it] down as a prank. But as a class of 1995 member I will always remember the cool shade it gave me while I gawked at hot girls in the quad, or the subtle whisps it offered over a hackysack game. I will miss the tree forever.”

February 1975 “A Test We Betcha Can’t Pass: Interdiscipline Career Development Examination” INSTRUCTIONS: Read each question carefully. Answer all questions.

TIME LIMIT: 4 hours. Begin immediately.

HISTORY: Describe the history of the papacy from its origins to the present day, concentrating especially, but not exclusively, on its social, political, economic, religious, and philosophical impact on Europe, Asia, America, and Africa. Be brief, concise, and specific.

MEDICINE: You have been provided with a razor blade, a piece of gauze, and a bottle of Scotch. Remove your appendix. Do not suture until your work has been inspected. You have fifteen minutes.

PUBLIC SPEAKING: 2,500 crazed people are storming the classroom. Calm them. You may use any ancient language except Latin or Greek.

BIOLOGY: Create life. Estimate the differences in subsequent human culture if this form of life had developed 500 million years earlier, with special attention to its probable effect on the English parliamentary system. Prove your thesis.

MUSIC: Write a piano concerto. Orchestrate and perform it with flute and drum. You will find a piano under your seat.

PSYCHOLOGY: Based on your knowledge of their works, evaluate the emotional stability, degree of adjustment, and repressed frustrations of each of the following: Alexander of Aphrodisias, Ramses II, Gregory of Nicea, Hammurabi. Support your evaluation with quotations from each man’s work, making appropriate references. It is not necessary to translate.

SOCIOLOGY: Estimate the sociological problems which might accompany the end of the world. Construct an experiment to test your theory.

MANAGEMENT SCIENCE: Define Management. Define Science.

How do they relate? Why? Create a generalized algorithm to optimize all managerial decisions.

ENGINEERING: The disassembled parts of a high-powered rifle have been placed in a box on your desk. You will also find an instruction manual, printed in Swahili. In ten minutes, a hungry Continued on page 18

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From The Archives: Excerpts from the Tattler Issues of Yesteryear Continued from page 17 Bengal tiger will be admitted to the room. Take whatever action you feel appropriate. Be prepared to justify your decision.

ECONOMICS: Develop a realistic plan for refinancing the national debt. Trace the possible effects of your plan in the following areas: Cubism, the Donatist controversy, the wave theory of light. Outline a method for presenting these effects. Criticize this method from all possible points of view. Point out the deficiencies in your point of view, as demonstrated in your answer to the last question.

POLITICAL SCIENCE: There is a red telephone on the desk beside you. Start World War III. Report at length on its socio-political effects, if any.

EPISTEMOLOGY: Take a position for or against truth. Prove the validity of your position.

PHYSICS: Explain the nature of matter. Include in your answer an evaluation of the impact of the development of mathematics on science.

PHILOSOPHY: Sketch the development of human thought; estimate its significance. Compare it with the development of any kind of thought.

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: Describe in detail. Be objective and specific.

EXTRA CREDIT: Define the universe. Give three examples.

“SANTA MONICA SUMMER” Chasing down the beach for grunion after midnight finding none but stumbling over one another on the way back home.

Part of another Santa Monica summer when all went well or did it?

Perspectives, like horizons, change.

The facts are these, I loved you I meant to always be there just as I meant to master algebra somewhere along the line.

The line grew shorter as the shadows all grow longer now.

The need for algebra began to fade as surely the need for you grew stronger and grows stronger still now that you’re away.

I did not intend to master you but I wish I’d taken time to learn more than your body.

That geography, though dear enough, was incomplete without the doorway of your mind ajar as a midnight hunt for grunion several summers back in Santa Monica.

February 1920 “Constitution of the Tattler Board” PREAMBLE The object of The Tattler shall be to bring the pupils into closer touch with each other, to strengthen and unify school spirit, to give pupils a business training obtained by actual management of the paper and an editorial training obtained by literary work for the paper, to support all the activities of the school, and through exchanges with other school papers to bring our school to the attention of other communities.

The Tattler as an organization of the pupils of the school shall be subject to the rules and regulations of the Board of Education and the General Council.

Therefore, we, the members of the Tattler Board, do hereby form and establish this constitution for the Tattler Board of the Ithaca High School in order that the duties and privileges of the members of said Board may be more clearly defined and set forth.

ARTICLE I. Purpose: It is the purpose of this Board to publish a school magazine or paper at least eight times during the school year.

ARTICLE II. Name: The name of this body shall be known as the Tattler Board of the Ithaca High School.

ARTICLE III. Membership: The members shall be chosen by competition from the student body of the High School, or, if necessary, selected by a committee consisting of the Faculty Advisors and two members of the Board.

Section 1. Election: The retiring Tattler Board shall elect the Board for the ensuing year keeping in mind the editorial business or artistic qualifications of the competitors.

Section 2. Vacancies: At least one vacancy among the Associate Editors and one on the Business Staff shall be left till January to be filled by means of competitions.

Section 3. Qualifications: (a) The competitor for each vacancy must be a subscriber to The Tattler and his subscription must be paid. (b) His attitude towards the work and towards the school shall be considered in making the selection. (c) The Associate Editor must have contributed and have had accepted at least one article preceding his election to the Board. (d) In making the selection for the Second Assistant Business Manager the amount of money turned in through collections and the amount of work done shall be the basis of the selection.

ARTICLE IV. Members: The members of the Tattler Board shall be: Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor or Assistant Editor, Artistic Editor, Assistant Artistic Editor, at least four Associate Editors, Secretary, Faculty Advisors, Business Manager, Assistant Business Manager, and other officers deemed necessary by the Tattler Board.

ARTICLE VI. Free Copies: The members of the Tattler Board shall each be furnished with two free copies of every issue of The Tattler. One copy of each issue shall be presented to the High School Library.

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ARTICLE VII. Amendments: The constitution of the Tattler Board may be amended at any regular meeting of the Board, by a majority vote of those present, when ratified by the General Council and the Committee on Student Activities.

Constitution of the Tattler Board revised and amended January 1920.

February 4, 2013 “Dear Danielle: Valentine’s Day Edition” Situational Mixture Hyphen Altruistic Levity: I know this guy is crushing on me, and he’s a sweet friend, but I really don’t like him. I actually like a different, amazing guy, and I’ve already made it pretty clear to him with subtle

hand waves and clever facial expressions. I don’t know how to confess to my true love without hurting my friend. Help?

Why don’t you give me names? Ugh this is so confusing.

Hmmm, let’s call the first guy Hopeless and the second guy Stupid. Now that that’s clear, why are worried about hurting Hopeless? You’ve already kicked him into the bottomless obscure pit of peril, a.ka. the friend zone. To put your worries at ease, just say blatantly offensive phrases to hopelessly stupid Hopeless and Stupid will stupidly support your hopelessly intelligent actions.

Finally, hopeless Stupid will enjoy your hopelessly aggressive nature and you’ll be stupidly happy, know what I mean? I hope so, because I don’t. Remember, if your relationship becomes abusive, please call the Advocacy Center, I’m serious.

I hope this situational helped. I love making up words.

Singles Unite!

Danielle Agular

How Are You Preparing for Inevitable Loss?

By RUBY LaROCCA

We don’t admit that the things we love—the beautiful people and places and objects we love—will die, or disappear, or be destroyed. And so we don’t give them the attention they deserve.

And then, inevitably, they die, disappear, or are destroyed.

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mericans have a peculiar talent for pretending we don’t have a problem until it’s crushing us. Then, we give over to despair. The 2008 subprime mortgage crisis or the ongoing climate crisis or the current pandemic make clear that even our legislators and regulators are better at lying to themselves (and everyone else) than soberly considering the facts, doing the math, and implementing urgent corrective measures. But our lack of preparedness—or more accurately, our deliberate unwillingness to ready ourselves for the concrete crises barrelling toward us—is not limited to the problems we all know and talk about.

We are even more unprepared for the problems many of us don’t know we have.

In 2015, journalist Kathryn Schulz wrote a feature article for The New Yorker, “The Really Big One: The Earthquake That Will Devastate the Pacific Northwest.” Schulz won a Pulitzer for her efforts, and many readers of the magazine were made aware, for the first time, of the imminent dangers faced by inhabitants of the Pacific Northwest, a vast area of prime real estate that runs from Northern California through Oregon and Washington and up to Vancouver, British Columbia. The Cascadia Subduction Zone, named after the Cascade Mountain Range along which it traces, is a 700-mile fault line capable of producing the worst natural disaster in North America’s history.

Because I’m a burgeoning Latin nerd, I am tempted to delineate at length the etymology of the word ‘subduction.’ Don’t worry, I won’t. In short, a subduction zone is an area where tectonic plates meet—where one is drawn underneath the other, sliding slowly, millimeters at a time, over a period of many years.

This continues until the force and pressure is too great, and the oceanic plate (in this case, Juan de Fuca) recoils, causing an initial earthquake and triggering a tsunami. The most destructive earthquake recorded in America was the 1906 San Francisco quake; when Cascadia ruptures, it will be 45 times more destructive. When the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami hit Japan’s northwest coast, 332,395 buildings, 2,126 roads, 300 hospitals, 56 bridges and 26 railways were damaged. Around 4.4 million households in North-East Japan were left without electricity.

The devastation caused by the Tōhoku quake was instigated by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake—roughly the same magnitude that the Cascadia quake is projected to have. People living in Portland, the center of the inundation zone, will have ten minutes after the initial shaking to get to high ground before a 100-foot tsunami comes roaring in. In addition to the demolished houses, buildings, and roads, power grids will fail; if the earthquake strikes at night, the ensuing scramble will unfold in darkness. FEMA projections of the damage are based on a scenario in which the event occurs in winter, when no one will be on the hundreds of miles of beaches—perhaps in order to make the fatality projections more stomachable. If the rupture occurs in summer, beach-goers will be stranded, and both the damage and cost will be multiplied.

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EDITORIAL

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Curated by FRANCES KLEMM

EDITORIAL

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Graphics by YASMEEN ALASS

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22 How Are You Preparing for Inevitable Loss?

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The Cascadia Subduction-Zone, drawn by my nine-year-old sister Star A partial-margin rupture (meaning only the southern part of the Cascadia Subduction-Zone caves in) will inspire an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 to 8.6. This is what Schulz refers to as “the big one.” If, however, the entire zone ruptures concomitantly, the magnitude will lie somewhere between 8.7 and 9.2—“the really big one.” The difference is not, in fact, as small as the decimal margin suggests: the Richter scale, with which earthquake magnitudes are calculated, is logarithmic. Instead of increasing in equal increments, each interval is increased by a factor of the base of the logarithm—each number increase on the Richter scale indicates an intensity ten times stronger. For example, an earthquake of magnitude 5 is ten times stronger than an earthquake of magnitude 4.

The Richter scale, by Star Although our current understanding of the Cascadia Subduction Zone depends on relatively new research—forty years ago it wasn’t on seismologists’ radar—the science is well-founded.

Experts in the field put the chance of a full margin rupture in the next forty-five years at one in ten. They put the chance of a partial-margin rupture at one in three.

Our lack of preparedness for this event has a psychological dimension, as well. Seismologists in the Pacific Northwest are now aware that our level of unpreparedness and willingness to disregard the science to preserve our own peace of mind will contribute hugely to the impact of the actual disaster. At the time the article was written, there was “no long range plan.” Children going to school on the Oregon coastline, the hardest place to evacuate from, have “no place to go,” and measures put to the state’s congressional delegation “came up empty.” The Cascadia Subduction-Zone earthquake and its fallout, as Schulz writes, “pose a danger to us today because we have not thought deeply enough about the future.”

Chris Goldfinger is a paleoseismologist at Oregon State University whose research is featured in Schulz’s article. He was attending a field-related conference in Japan at the time of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami—a disaster that caused the deaths of 16 thousand people and remains to be the costliest natural disaster in the world. (He speaks more directly about the projected impacts of the Cascadia quake in a short PBS video.)

However devastating Tōhoku was, it only destroyed a relatively small number of buildings—compared to the number it could have destroyed—because Japan designs buildings with earthquakes and tsunamis in mind. But buildings aren’t built in the Cascadia inundation zone to withstand quakes like Japanese ones. Pacific Northwest bridges were built before we knew about and understood plate tectonics; houses and school buildings are unreinforced and most have “no retrofitting at all”; ninety-five percent of Oregon’s oil reserves are stored on the coast and will spill into the ocean, causing fires as they descend. According to Goldfinger, we are “nowhere near as prepared as Japan was for this kind of disaster.” In fact, he tells us exactly how deficient our plans for the Northwest are for this event: “We are one-thousand years behind.”

Japan is a country much to be admired for its earthquake preparedness. Seismometers are placed on every train track to monitor seismic activity, and guard rails have been added to prevent complete derailment. Skyscrapers remain erect during an earthquake because they have a counterweight system installed that swings with the movement of the building to stabilize it.

Smaller houses are built on flexible foundations that can absorb movement in six directions and diminish the effects of the quake.

Elevators automatically shut down and have to be checked before they operate again. Gas, electricity and water lines turn off automatically when triggered (which prevents fires, floods, and explosions). Fire departments practice drills relentlessly.

Children are taught in school how to deal with earthquakes since kindergarten. They do drills, learn to stay calm, and gain experience in simulation machines. Everyone is trained to adopt a “no-panic attitude” during an earthquake. Even when scared, Japanese citizens will follow the protocols, ensuring that the people themselves won’t add to the terror of the event. Every family has a backpack full of emergency supplies—food, water, solar power banks, personal items—for every family member.

In addition to all these layered mitigation efforts, government plans in Japan are not secret—they are made publicly available so that every citizen has a real chance to protect themselves and their loved ones. According to the Japanese government’s

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Cabinet Office of Disaster Management: The Government of Japan will use the experiences of natural disasters including the Great East Japan Earthquake [Tōhoku] as a lesson and act swiftly to take all possible measures when disaster strikes, against the backdrop of natural disasters which have become more destructive, such as a series of floods occurring in the last few years and the heavy snows during winter. The Government will also steadily advance the country’s disaster prevention and mitigation efforts and build national resilience.

In the United States, however, the disaster itself must occur before the federal government feels the need to respond. If you are affected by an earthquake, you must make a request through bureaucratic agencies to receive help. Why should we prepare for an event when we can just throw money at the problem once it happens? This is our long-term plan: When a disaster is declared, the Federal government, led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), responds at the request of, and in support of, States, Tribes, Territories, and Insular Areas and local jurisdictions impacted by a disaster. Response actions are organized under the National Response Framework.

The page associated with the Natural Disaster Response and Recovery page of the U.S. Department of the Interior does not feature the words ‘prevention’ or ‘preparedness’ once. . . .

Something humans are more accustomed to than the destruction of hundreds of miles of coastline is the destruction of our private lives after the death of a loved one. American writer Joan Didion died this December at age 87. In one of her final and most loved books, The Year of Magical Thinking, the grieving author, reeling from the death of her husband of forty years, explores how very hard it was to wrench herself out of her daily patterns and expectations in order to accept her own, and very real, staggering loss.

Star’s drawing of Joan Didion

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The book chronicles Didion’s attempt to make sense of the period that followed her husband’s death: “weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I had ever had about death, about illness, about probability and luck, about good fortune and bad, about marriage and children and memory, about grief, about the ways in which people do and do not deal with the fact that life ends….” For Didion, the real lesson of her husband’s death was the fact that it actually happened—that the daily life they shared of meals and conversations would not, in fact, go on in the way it always had. Of course, intellectually she knew this was the case, and yet what she details in her book is the difference between knowing something rationally and believing it, inhabiting it physically, allowing the knowledge to be a shaping influence in daily life.

What Didion calls her “year of magical thinking” began the night her husband died of a massive coronary event, and, alone in the apartment after the ordeal, Didion refuses visitors on the grounds that she “needed to be alone so that he could come back.” Even months after his death, she couldn’t fully clean out his closets—couldn’t give away his shoes—because “he would need shoes if he was to return.” Didion, a brilliant and very logical person, illustrates the dangerous habit that most of us have adopted; namely, assuming that the ordinariness—the predictability—of our current lives is the best gauge of our lives to come. As Didion confesses, “it was in fact the ordinary nature of everything preceding the event that prevented me from truly believing it had happened, absorbing it, incorporating it, getting past it. I recognize now that there was nothing unusual in this: confronted with sudden disaster we all focus on how unremarkable the circumstances were in which the unthinkable occurred, the clear blue sky from which the plane fell, the routine errand that ended on the shoulder with the car in flames, the swings where the children were playing as usual when the rattlesnake struck from the ivy.”

The great lesson of Didion’s book is captured perfectly by its first three lines: Life changes fast.

Life changes in the instant.

You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.

A blunter version of the same sentiment, Didion notes, is what Episcopalians say at the graveside: “In the midst of life we are in death.” Even this honest, brutal truth doesn’t go quite far enough, however, because the most useful feature of Didion’s revelations is the way they wake us up to the predictability of disaster. Yes, that’s right. If your loved ones are human, death will come for them. If your beautiful coastal cities are built on shifting tectonic plates, they will collapse. The good news is that precisely because death and destruction are predictable, we can prepare ourselves for them.

Mark Ginsburg, a Portland area community disaster expert, extols a wise view of how to live in the face of an impending quake: “I can’t control [the time or degree of the Cascadia Subduction-Zone disaster] but I can control my own preparedness and training.” What Ginsburg knows is what most people don’t like to admit: “The time to figure out what to do is not after the Continued on page 24

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24 How Are You Preparing for Inevitable Loss?

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earthquake, the flood, the fire, but to know in advance what we should do.” He also seems to know something about the ancient practice of Stoicism.

The ancient Stoic philosophers developed practical, teachable imaginative exercises that offered just the kind of psychological training in preparedness all sufferers of disaster (i.e. humans) need. Their notion was that when we enjoy what life has to offer, without becoming addicted and clinging to it, we will always be prepared for things to take a turn for the worse. Contrary to popular belief, theirs was not a morbid practice but a joyful one, as remembering how temporary every person, place or event really is actually teaches us to attend to and enjoy them fully.

Interestingly, one of the ways you obtain preparedness psychologically is by not taking things for granted. This is an ancient lesson but one we need today more than ever. The Stoics devised useful means to train your mind to deal with seemingly impossi-

ble scenarios—the exercise of imagining the death of your child, unthinkable as it is, becomes a device to treasure that precious being. By simply saying or thinking, “I kiss this mortal child” you train your mind to treat your child differently, and pay more attention. Such practices offer a way to really value our daily lives and the lives of those we love. As philosopher William Irvine writes in A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, “By contemplating the impermanence of everything in the world, we are forced to recognize that every time we do something could be the last time we do it, and this recognition can invest the things we do with a significance and intensity that would otherwise be absent.”

In the midst of life we are in death. But by viewing destruction, change, and loss truthfully, we can give ourselves the space to prepare and train—and find new life.

Manga and Manhwa Selections

(For People Who Already Know A Lot About Manga)

By GENE WICAKSONO

Tower of God, 524 chapters, ongoing

Synopsis: The series follows a young boy named Twenty-Fifth Bam, who has spent his life beneath a gigantic tower. The only other person in his life is a girl named Rachel, who finds her way into the mysterious tower. Determined to be reunited with his friend, Bam also enters the tower.

My Rating: 4.25/5 Tower of God is what you would expect from a manhwa that caters to this audience. There is the cliché main character, who is incredibly stubborn; throughout the story, it can be really irritating as to how irrational he is. For a good portion of the series, he undergoes very little character development, maintain-

ing the infuriating, innocent I want to save everyone and I will avenge my friends mindset. I’m not kidding—this dude takes 300 chapters to grow the smallest pair of balls. Another thing I really disliked was the fact that there are too many lasers. Literal lasers. It’s like the author forgot how to make decent ability designs halfway through the series. As the story progresses, you see less strategy and more big flashy abilities. It gets somewhat boring. Despite this, the concept of the series and its storytelling are phenomenal. The tower is introduced as a holy entity, where anything and everything one desires is at the top. Naturally there is competition, and players will take advantage of anything and everything they can. The words and sentiment of “I resent God” are executed so f*cking well. The show emphasizes how much success is based on luck, and the egocentric mindset that people use in the tower. This idea is seen especially during the floor of test, where we see players of “shounen” type backgrounds who train an incredible amount but are denied because they were simply from a race with low “shinsoo” resistance. On the other hand we see other people advancing with little effort. I also love the animosity with Rachel, who actually wanted to climb the tower but was snapped back to reality because she wasn’t the “chosen one.” Rachel is mediocre, weak, and fails most of the time. Bam, on the other hand, was “blessed”—he has incredible power and grows at an exponential rate. “Why not me?” Those words are heard throughout the series and it really drives the idea of the “tower” home.

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Chainsaw Man, 93 chapters, complete

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magical abilities, must battle deadly monsters to protect the human race from certain annihilation, a notoriously weak hunter named Sung Jinwoo finds himself in a seemingly endless struggle for survival.

My rating: 4.8/5

Synopsis: Denji has a simple dream: to live a happy and peaceful life, spending time with a girl he likes. This is a far cry from reality, however, as Denji is forced by the Yakuza into killing devils in order to pay off his crushing debts. Using his pet devil Pochita as a weapon, he is ready to do anything for a bit of cash.

My rating: 6.5/5

Solo Leveling is a great manhwa. The panels are very beautiful and it is the overpowered main character story that you need.

Unlike stories such as One Punch Man and SAO, we actually see the main character get stronger (I also really like how there wasn’t any 12k fanservice trespassing your screen for cheap comedy). This is what makes it so fun and satisfying to read. Little by little, our small, weak main character becomes the strongest man alive, and it never gets boring. Each of his summons have a unique personality, and also grow throughout the series. It’s not a story that makes you think, but damn is it fun. It does well emotionally, especially the last chapter—I was getting the feels.

Power scaling is pretty good, relative to the amount of development in the series. And the art is phenomenal. I’m not kidding.

30 percent of the panels are wallpaper-worthy. I enjoyed every minute reading this manhwa, and I’m sure you will too.

Fire Punch, 83 chapters, complete

This is by far my favorite manga. The first half of the story isn’t anything too phenomenal—it follows the same shounen concepts and common character tropes. However, the second half is pure gold. The storytelling is absolutely stellar, having the plot seamlessly go from jujutsu kaisen, to John Wick, to doom eternal, back to jujutsu kaisen, before having an emotional ending. Such a masterpiece. The characters are written incredibly well. Although some characters are somewhat clichéd, others miss the target completely in a good way, which creates a unique dynamic between them. The plot is unpredictable, and the story can change completely in a single, well executed plot twist. The story is very immersive, and I enjoyed every second reading it.

Best manga I’ve ever read.

Solo Leveling, 179 chapters, complete

Synopsis: Fire Punch takes place on an Earth that has become frozen over and barren, purportedly at the hands of a being known as the Ice Witch. The witch is among a few who possess special abilities known as “blessings.” The protagonist Agni is a boy who has the blessing of regeneration, along with his sister Luna.

Synopsis: In a world where hunters, humans who possess

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Manga and Manhua Selections (For People Who Already Know A Lot About Manga) Continued from page 25 My rating: 4.6/5 Tatsuki Fujimoto does not miss. He wrote Fire Punch before the more popular Chainsaw Man, and it is incredible. Chainsaw Man focused more on action, while Fire Punch focuses more on themes and emotion. As you would expect from a seinen manga with a dystopian setting, it’s somewhat dark, and is probably the

heaviest manga I’ve read. The heart of Fire Punch is its nihilistic approach and the futility of any motive in the face of the main character’s seemingly indefinite existence. Mans goes eight years straight on fire, just to get pulled into a revolution to be revered as some god, but is eventually hated again, and then tries to start anew. And yet, everything he does has little to no significance, because he is essentially immortal.

SOMETIMES I MIGHT BE INTROVERT: 2021’s Under the Radar Album of the Year

By ADAM SAAR

Cover art for Sometimes I Might Be Introvert by Little Simz, courtesy of Pitchfork

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eptember 3, 2021 was a notable day in hip hop—Certified Lover Boy, Drake’s most recent album, dropped after much anticipation; Donda, Ye’s long awaited and teased project, released a week earlier. The world of rap was experiencing quite a high. Yet, the best album released in that whirlwind week belonged to neither epochal artist—rather to the reserved but supremely confident 27-year-old woman who performs under the name Little Simz, and her album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

Simz, born Simbiatu Ajikawo in North London to Nigerian parents, has been in the British rap game for over a decade, having released her first mixtape, Stratosphere, in 2010, and first studio album, A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons, in 2015. Her 2019 album, Grey Area, gained widespread critical acclaim in

Britain, and included Simz’ biggest hit yet, “Venom,” which was included in the 2021 movie Venom: Let There Be Carnage, and has recently gone viral on TikTok. On September 3, Simz released her most impressive project to date, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert—a 19-song, genre-bending epic full of exciting and experimental production, insightful lyrics, crisp flows, and even interspersed interludes featuring the voice of Emma Corrin (the actress who plays Princess Diana in The Crown). Produced by Inflo, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (a backronym for Simbi, Simz’ nickname to her friends and family), incorporates elements of traditional hip hop, afrobeat, R&B, jazz, ‘80s synth-pop, and cinematic, score-like instrumentation akin to Ye’s Late Registration.

SIMBI opens with “Introvert,” a six-minute-long roller coaster of impactful bars and stunning, grand production filled with horns, strings, and military-style percussion that demands your attention and holds it tighter than your teddy bear during a thunderstorm. “Introvert” introduces the dual themes of the album in the verses—the first and last verse offer social commentary and criticism, and the middle section offers a view into Simz’ psyche and state of mind as she evaluates what it means to be an introvert in show business. In the chorus, vocalist Cleo Sol offers the first of many contributions to the album, her angelic voice meshing with and complementing Simz’ perfectly. “Introvert” was the lead single from Sometimes I Might Be Introvert and was accompanied with a striking music video mainly set in London’s Natural History Museum.

“Introvert” flows directly into “Woman,” a groovy, feel-good women of color empowerment anthem, and the biggest hit from the album. Including the aforementioned songs, the first 12 tracks of the album (from “Introvert” to “Rollin Stone”) are absolutely stellar, and form one of the most extended strong album openings I’ve ever heard (the only other album that comes to mind is Lorde’s Melodrama, which only has 11 songs total). The most notable high points for me are “I Love You, I Hate You,” in

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which Simz reflects on her complex internal relationship with her absentee father; “Little Q pt. 2,” where Simz raps from the perspective of her cousin who had been stabbed, over an infectious and catchy beat that carries over from “Little Q pt. 1 Interlude”; “Standing Ovation,” in which Simz contemplates her standing in the rap industry over grand horn-heavy production, and “I See You,” a slower, guitar-heavy song that describes Simz’ ideal romance in gorgeous detail.

Entering the latter third of the album, the genre-defying nature of the album reaches its highs, with “Protect My Energy,” an ‘80s synthpop-inspired song, and “Point and Kill” and “Fear No Man,” which draw heavy inspiration from afrobeat. These three songs, however, are the weakest on the album, as the emphasis is taken away from Simz’ delivery and lyrics, and thus grow old much quicker than the rest of the tracks. However, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert is closed out just as strongly as it’s opened, as the last two songs—and particularly the outro, “Miss Understood”—are both powerful, masterful tracks that exemplify Little Simz’ storytelling ability.

Although Sometimes I Might Be Introvert got buried under the industry-mammoth albums that were released in the same week in terms of commercial success, it stands head and shoulders above them in quality. Even more impressively, every track is both lyrically and musically deep, so that no matter how many times I’ve listened to the album I pick up something new on each listen. No matter your music taste, SIMBI offers something to enjoy, and, as the closest-to-perfect album released in 2021 (that I’ve listened to, at least), Sometimes I Might Be Introvert barely pips Taylor Swift’s Evermore to my Album of the Year title.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home: An Absolute Banger of a Movie

By HANNAH SHVETS

A poster for Spider-Man: No Way Home, courtesy of Marvel Potential spoiler warnings: If you haven’t yet watched the movie, don’t read this!

O Black and White Azalea by Anneke Ryan

n December 17, 2021, Marvel awarded us with the most recent Spider-Man movie: No Way Home, starring Tom Holland as Peter Parker (Spider-Man). Unpopular opinion: the last Holland Spider-Man movie, Far From Home, was not that memorable. This time, I walked into theaters with my expectations relatively low, despite all the TikToks and Instagram posts I had seen in previous weeks gushing about the movie.

The movie started with lots of Peter and M.J. content to satisfy fans, and Zendaya and Holland’s chemistry was better than ever (probably due to them finally making it official in real life).

In a classic Peter Parker move, he accidentally upsets the balance Continued on page 28

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Spider-Man: No Way Home: An Absolute Banger of a Movie Continued from page 27

of the universe because of something completely unimportant in the grand scheme of things: him and his friends not getting into MIT. From there, things quickly spiral out of control, and ultimately, Peter finds himself holding a dead Aunt May in his arms.

I was sure the movie would begin to come to an end, but what’s a Marvel movie without a twist? MJ and Ned manage to accidentally bring two other Peter Parkers from different universes into Ned’s grandmother’s living room, and from there, the real fun begins. At the end, when everyone is forced to forget Peter’s identity, a part of me expected love to triumph all, and for MJ to somehow remember him. Spoiler alert: she sadly doesn’t. The movie ends on a bittersweet note, as Peter moves into a new apartment and begins his life seemingly from scratch, with no family, friends, or colleague superheroes.

The most noteworthy part of the film was all the characters brought from previous movies and other cinematic universes.

All three Spider-Men were featured (played by Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and of course, Tom Holland), as well as iconic villains Electro, Green Goblin, Dr. Otto Octavius, and Sandman, in addition to fan favorites like MJ, Aunt May, Ned, and Happy.

There were theories that Emma Stone (playing Gwen Stacey) would also return, but fans were sorely disappointed when the first trailers were released. Writers did consider bringing Gwen back, as well as Tobey’s love interest, played by Kristen Dunst.

However, this idea was scrapped because the movie was meant to focus on Holland’s version of Peter, and bringing back the love interests of the other Spider-Men wouldn’t effectively fit into one movie. Gwen and Peter’s reunion wouldn’t have been done justice—it simply would have felt too rushed—but there’s talk that Stone and Garfield will reunite in a future movie, so fans can keep their hopes up.

One plot hole that came up in discourse online was the appearance of Electro (also known as Max) following Dr. Strange’s spell, which was specifically said to bring back people who knew of Spider-Man’s identity in their respective universes. As far as we know, Electro had no idea that Spider-Man was Peter Parker.

He also seemed surprised when he landed in Holland’s universe and saw him, saying, “Can I tell you something?…You got a nice face, you’re just a kid. You’re from Queens. You got that suit, you help a lot of poor people. I just thought you was gonna be Black.”

Honestly, valid reaction Electro. For many people, finally seeing a live-action non-white Spider-Man could be really powerful (in addition to the animated Miles Morales from Into the Spider Verse, who comes from an African American father and Puerto Rican mother). Recently, Marvel movies have been trying to become more diverse, but it seems quite forced. Instead of incorporating characters from all different cultures, ethnicities, and races into general Marvel movies, Marvel has a habit of making “a movie per race” in a sense (Black Panther, Shang-Chi, etc). It feels performative, and featuring the characters in more supportive roles than important heroes in other movies very much undercuts the idea of including them. Audiences deserve to see themselves represented on screen, and some more variety would be beneficial.

So how did Electro make it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) without knowing who was under the mask? According to fan theories, the villains that appear in this movie may

be “variants” who were aware of Spider-Man’s identity. Others believe Max may have actually discovered the secret in Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and just not said anything in the heat of the moment. To me, it seems as if Dr. Strange just messed up the spell even more than he had previously thought.

At the end of the day, a franchise as huge as the MCU is bound to have some holes and missing details. It’s too complicated to keep everything consistent, and therefore these minor issues don’t take away from the quality of the movie at all. Personally, the most important thing will be seeing how the MCU addresses the consequences of this movie in future storylines. Where does Peter Parker go from here? These questions will surely all be answered in future movies of 2022 or 2023, maybe even in the next Doctor Strange movie in May, whose trailer was featured in the second post credits scene. It’s not clear if Holland will be in it, but the botched spell is likely to have a direct link to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and fans can expect to learn more about the repercussions of the spell and Peter Parker’s fate soon.

Oreobread House by Grace Lim

My Christmas Present by Grace Lim

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Don’t Look Up: The Most Interesting Film with a 54% Rating on Rotten Tomatoes

By ELI MCKENZIE

An action shot from Don’t Look Up, featuring Jonah Hill, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, and Jennifer Lawrence (l-r), courtesy of The Los Angeles Times Potential spoiler warning for readers who wish to watch the movie before reading!

D

on’t Look Up is a December 2021 satirical disaster movie starring Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio.

The film is about two scientists who find a large comet hurtling towards Earth and their quest to stop the destruction of the planet. On the journey, they encounter opposition from all sorts of stand-ins for real people or groups, from popstars to flat earthers to Elon Musk. If you’re looking for a review in the traditional sense, I’ll keep it brief: it’s not great. The comedy misses more than is ideal, the themes are muddled, and much of the acting is below what you might expect given the all-star cast. But should you watch it? Absolutely. Being interesting is by far the most important quality for a film to possess, and Don’t Look Up has it in spades.

The most prominent underlying theme of the movie is climate change. That is, of course, the message the filmmakers intended and there is a lot of evidence for it; the resistance that the protagonists meet is clearly meant to parallel the challenges faced by climate scientists. They are faced with news programs that don’t take the problem seriously, politicians who don’t listen until it becomes politically favorable, and conspiracy theorists who dismiss all evidence. The film lambasts the relationship between the government and companies as well: the tech-bro billionaire meant to be a conglomeration of Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerburg uses his immense wealth to, among other things, gain full government security clearance. The

president, who is often read as a Donald Trump reference, is beholden to the interests of the people that give her campaign money rather than the American people, as one might expect of someone in her position.

The other message of the film is about what cultural critic Walter Benjamin calls “the aestheticization of politics.” In the film, politics is not about helping people or saving the world but instead about the spectacle of it all. The comet is constantly drowned out by breaking stories about the misdeeds of the president’s Supreme Court nominee, and the president only joins the cause when she thinks that it will help her polling numbers. DiCaprio’s Dr. Mindy is embraced by the media, while his student Kate Dibiasky (played by Lawrence) is shunned and hated because she is portrayed as annoying and is vilified because Dr. Mindy named the comet after her. The political landscape has become an artistic representation of actual politics. The genuinely important policies implemented by the government have no association with how the public sees the government. This is meant to be an attack on the relationship between Trump and the media apparatus, both of which focused heavily on the optics of situations and virtue signaling to the people that support them. To Benjamin, this is a smoke signal for fascism.

In reality, the movie is not plainly a straightforward attack on conservatism. The film maintains, paradoxically, both a broad critique of late-stage capitalism and an endorsement thereof. To understand this, we have to talk about a little more theory. Film theory holds that filmmakers simultaneously have relative autonomy over the messages and themes of their work and are heavily influenced by a huge range of factors outside of themselves. In Don’t Look Up, for instance, even though the film seems to attempt a criticism of the American political system as a whole, the only solutions it offers are within that system. It says that if we, the people, just paid a little more attention to the media we consume and weren’t so disengaged with the goings on of the political world, then the system would not be as broken and we could solve the existential threat that is climate change.

The main problem is that the film does not address the underlying problems but instead the flawed solutions to the visible problems. While the criticisms of business oriented solutions to the climate crisis are spot-on, the nature of the disaster that the filmmakers chose to focus on removes any opportunities Continued on page 30

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Don’t Look Up: The Most Interesting Film with a 54 Percent on Rotten Tomatoes Continued from page 29 to attack the fossil fuel industry, which created and perpetuated the problematic conditions that led to climate change. The premise of the film, by necessity, is unable to grapple with the fact that this is a human-made problem and that there are people who are actively at fault for this catastrophe. The result of this is not a condemnation of the malicious nature of capitalism but a condemnation of the stupidity of specific people in power. It’s the fault of the Trump-like president and the head of a technology company, says the film, not the fault of the whole political and economic system.

So if you can deal with overly long and unfunny bits about a general who makes people pay for “free” snacks and Oscar-winning actors phoning it in, I recommend that you spend a couple hours to watch Don’t Look Up with a critical eye. Even though it does not succeed in what it sets out to do, in its failure we get a glimpse at the complex nature of ideology and the culture industry. You can see what actions America is easy to condemn and which more devastating and malicious actions it elects to ignore.

This film does not only tell us something intriguing about its subject, but also about the people and systems that created it.

ARTS / SPORTS

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Artist Shoutout: jdcappa

Cover art for jdccapa’s new album

Check out jdccapa’s new album out on all platforms! Scan the code to see the Youtube channel and take a listen!

Ithaca Varsity Boys Basketball Team Feature

By AITAN AVGAR and ADAM SAAR

Luke Little ‘24 shoots a free throw as his teammate Justin Yearwood ‘23 watches, courtesy of Levi Hall

A

s the game reached the middle of the third quarter, combo-guard Justin Yearwood ‘23 sprinted down the court after a steal to dunk the ball in emphatic fashion, inspiring the student section just yards away to erupt in cheers.

The dunk extended the Ithaca Lil’ Red Varsity Boys Basketball team’s lead against Horseheads to 18, and effectively wrapped up the game. Sitting with our friends in the student section, the feeling in Bliss Gym was rapturous, players and fans alike excited both by the scoreline and by witnessing a game in person, with parents and peers in the stands.

Yearwood is a third-year varsity player for Ithaca and is leading the team in scoring this season, averaging 24 points per game. Yearwood described the team’s play style this year as “uptempo” and said that Coach Mcnair has emphasized the importance of playing in transition and with hustle. When asked about a teammate he has particular chemistry with on the court, Yearwood mentioned guard Luke Little ‘24, who he has been playing with since elementary school. For the spectators, this chemistry is easy to spot. Consistently throughout games, Little and Yearwood find each other for an outlet on the three-point line after a slicing drive to the hoop or passing the ball down court to the other for an easy lay-up. They are a dynamic duo that is difficult for even well-constructed defenses to stop. Little and Yearwood are not going anywhere and plan to play for Ithaca in the 202223 season, hoping to build on the success of this season.

Yearwood noted how great it is to have spectators back to watch games, even with a spectator limit, compared to last year when none were allowed. The highlight of the season for him so far was the team’s first home game against Owego in which they played with fans in Bliss Gym. Ithaca won the game and Yearwood described a “new energy from the students” that was great to see. From watching home games, you can tell this team does not shy away from the spotlight, having a winning record at home and enjoying every second of the cheers and chants from the crowd.

Continued on page 32

SPORTS / LITERARY

32 Ithaca Varsity Boys Basketball Team Feature Continued from page 31

Coach Lester Mcnair has been a large part of the team’s success in his third season coaching them. Observing him from the sidelines, it is clear how passionate he is as he calmly argues with referees and inspires the team to continue playing their hardest after every huddle, even when they are behind. As a former Ithaca Varsity Basketball player himself, Coach Mcnair knows the culture of Ithaca basketball better than anyone and he can continue to pass down a winning mentality to a new generation of Ithaca players. When asked about his team, Coach Mcnair said he is extremely proud of the student athletes’ academic record this season with GPAs as high as 4.2 and their overall success in the classroom. He described the team culture as “students first, athletes second.” Coach Mcnair also gave nods to players MJ Thomas ‘22, Will Holmes ‘23, and the aforementioned Luke Little ‘24 who have been playing “really well.” He added that senior captains Sai’d Galloway ‘22 and Kaiden Malpasso ‘22 have given “solid contributions” throughout the season so far.

Kaiden Malpasso ‘22 and Will Holmes ‘23 warm up for a game, courtesy of Levi Hall The team has been challenged this season by not having a complete roster for any of their games, primarily due to injuries and Covid. But despite these setbacks, the team is determined to make Sectionals by finishing the season with a record of at least 8-10. Yearwood said everyone should know that this team is extremely resilient and that “We’re not giving up. There’s no quit in us.” It will be exciting to see how the rest of the season plays out and if the team can achieve their goals of winning “the rest of our games and make sectionals and win the sectional title.” If this team puts their bodies and minds to it, it feels like there’s nothing they can’t do.

To That One Song I heard Three Years Ago:

By Natalie Patrone Hi again. I know it’s been a while, and I’m sorry that I didn’t try to contact you sooner, but frankly, I forgot about our encounter completely. If you’re having trouble remembering too, I was the young kid slouching in the front seat, and you were that one baroque piece that reminded me of rainstorms, gothic castles, and similar dramatics. I never really listened to classical or baroque music as a kid, so I surprised my mother when I asked to play you again when you had finished.

I put you out of my mind for a while, unfortunately, but recently I have been in need of a song I can dramatically listen to on repeat. You’re the perfect song to blast through earbuds while wrapping my wool blanket around my shoulders and pretending that I am some cape-wearing noble from a different time. I wish I remembered your name or your composer’s name, but recalling names has never really been my strong suit.

I ended up asking my mom about you, and if she still had the CD. (Yes, I know. Very old-fashioned of me to still use CDs.) She obviously didn’t remember the one song that we had listened to several years ago, and was very confused why I seemed so insistent on finding this particular song. I wasn’t surprised that she didn’t remember you (it was three years ago. I’m the unreasonable one in this scenario, clearly).

After that, I didn’t stop looking. I couldn’t possibly stop my search now, after I had gotten so far. I do feel a bit embarrassed about the fact that I had tried to Google you, but ended up just searching for “dun dun dun dundundunddeedundoowaoodundun.” Obviously, that gathered no results (it’s very hard to impersonate the sound of a full orchestra through mere letters of the English alphabet).

After that embarrassing experience, I searched for “what is that really dramatic baroque song that sounds like thunderstorms and imminent doom?” This query pulled up a significantly larger amount of results, but in every YouTube video and every Spotify suggestion I skimmed through, I couldn’t find you.

Sure, they were all overly dramatic and would probably have fit the bill, but not a single one made me lose my breath and want to listen to it again, like you did.

Anyways, in the infinitesimally small chance that you end up reading this, hit me up and send me your YouTube or Spotify link? Thanks.

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brother

After S. An-sky

By Jinho Park

By Raia Gutman

new york city sidewalk. they all started putting tables outside, as if the pungent city air would somehow make things more “normal” inside isn’t safe

Is there a belief among you that when the soul departs it is forbidden to stand opposite the dying man’s bed, because that is when the Angel of Death appears wielding a sword?

you’re sitting real funny. right leg crossed on left, and a navy croc crested with brown bears is on your foot in sport mode, and you’re folding chopstick holders. you tell me i’m a barbarian for leaving my chopstick on the white “tablecloth” that is really just paper. a gray cotton t-shirt perches loosely on your shoulders. it looks like you’re wearing a tablecloth with holes. a navy mask’s ear loops don’t fit on your slim wrists —your radius protrudes just like mine— so you slide the mask up to your elbows. i cannot imagine a world where things do not drape over you. be little like i know you to be—mouse in a rat’s world. here, in this photo, you are still, yet to me you are always moving. so little brother, please stay little. for i am clinging to you. like one of your croc’s little bears.

Tree Canyon by Ruby Zawel

Rabbi, I sat at his bedside for two days as he died, his last labored breaths draining him dry, his eyes dark and sallow as he slept.

He woke twice. The first time I had fallen into a light sleep, my head in an uncomfortable position against the back of the chair.

First I sensed movement and mistook it for a dream. I opened my eyes to sound and saw his head flat on the pillow, his eyes gaping open as wide as his mouth. At first I recoiled back into the chair, fearing he had choked on his saliva while I dozed off. But then his eyes focused and with his minimal strength raised two fingers on his right hand to beckon me over. I rose from the chair and ambled closer, avoiding sudden movements as if he were a skittish cat or dog. He turned his head to the side to acknowledge me, and I wondered if he judged it time to impart his wisdom. I wondered if I was worthy.

The old man pointed to the foot of the bed, where discarded blankets were piled. I knew before he spoke what he wanted me to know. It was only at that moment, at the bedside of someone with thinning white hair and eyes that had known a different time, that I remembered what my grandmother had once said to me.

“Sheifale,” she called me. She leaned toward me like she was telling me a secret. “When someone dies you must not stand opposite his bed, or you will get in the way of di malekh hamoves, the Angel of Death.”

My grandmother had known some English, which she used interchangeably with her native Yiddish, but this man did not. Still, through a combination of his pointing and the words I could make out, I understood. I did not stop to decide if I believed the Angel of Death would truly come but rather treated it as a final wish of his, one that would lead him back in death to the world he knew. I moved the chair to his side from its position opposite the bed. His weak brown eyes met mine for a moment, and then his head lowered and his labored breathing resumed.

I am not sure I did not dream the second time we both woke.

I am not even sure I was asleep before it happened. My eyes were brought into focus by the descent of light upon the room, which strangely came from the wall opposite the window. When I looked over at the man, I saw in the whites of his eyes that he was awake, but fading. The blankets at the foot of the bed quivered, and a moment later I felt the same wind on my face. It was so cold it felt wet, blowing my eyes open, making them water.

The old man’s white hair blew back onto his head, and his hands shook on either side of his torso. He tried to clutch the bedsheet, Continued on page 34

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34 After S. An-sky Continued from page 33

but his fingers were too weak to hold on.

He turned his head against the light. I turned my head too, afraid to confront the presence I could sense opposite the bed.

A whistling erupted from the foot of the bed, as if an object were being pushed through the wind, and the man slumped against the bed, seemingly pinned down. I felt pressure on my eyelids, and then I must have lost consciousness. When I woke, I knew before checking his pulse that the old man’s life had ended. You have told me that the loss of a person is more than the loss of one life; it is the loss of an entire world. I do not know if I witnessed the flight of the Angel of Death that night, but I am certain I saw the light go out on an old world.

Be well, Leah

Cause and Effect

By Anonymous 8:31 A.M.— I stare at the stranger’s face before me. The bloodshot and empty eyes that meet me are foreign and terrifying. Their hair is stringy and unkempt, their mouth pulled downward, their eyes constantly stinging with the stabs of tears that I know I put there.

I dare not look lower at their body, knowing that the only things I’ll find are the scars and nightmares I put there. I do manage to look at their hands, however. Red dots pepper their skin, a physical manifestation of their stress and pain. I look back up.

The stranger stares at me with hatred, but also a small amount of pity. They know I’ve been hurting. Still, that is no excuse for the pain I’ve caused them. I’m repulsed and horrified by their blank and firm stare that I can’t help but return.

How did we get here? The silence is so violently passive that I have trouble breathing. The stranger does too, it seems. Their shoulders stop their motions and their mouth is held slightly agape. It’s almost as if they’re trying to say something that gets choked before the final push of air. I turn away from the stranger and put them out of my head. I assume that they have turned away too. Maybe they still stand there, waiting for my inevitable return. I don’t turn back around, so I would never know.

8:29 A.M.— I wake up this morning like every other. I check the time and shuffle out of my room, reluctant to leave the warm comfort of my bed. The clock on my phone screams its disapproval of my sluggish lifestyle. Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I swear the phone screen is glowing more intensely than before as if to remind me that I’ve missed my bus once again. It seems like I am missing a lot of things lately.

I move slowly to the bathroom to find my toothbrush still laying on the sink counter. Last night, I just couldn’t seem to

find the energy to move it back into the cup where the rest of my family put theirs. No one moved it since last night. I don’t know how that makes me feel. I grab my brush and place it back in the cup. Something feels off about that placement, so I take my toothbrush once more and set it back down where it was previously. I check the time on my phone. 8:31 A.M. Once I turn off my phone, I sigh and raise my eyes to look into the mirror.

Untitled

By Simon Cohen All artists are beautiful All who create hold a naive Desire to react against their Own destruction We are born drowning We know all we will be Is froth and foam In inky depths Yet we birth We create things that much like us Will disappear in an instant Become dust just as it was made Deeply we understand We are treading water In a vorpal sea Yet we ponder the beauty of our grave We have hope in a sea That is not malicious or evil But simply hungers Siegfried would shudder Joy in the face of the inevitable Is to surpass the inevitable And be endless Even if for an instant

LITERARY

BREATHE

By Ella Avgar

a tiny cicada awaits the night barely visible in the evening light creeping crawling dancing falling elegantly it swoops and dives fresh air keeps the cicada alive gently a willow tree wallows in wind hardly holding up its somber limbs it bends, shifts but the boughs never break just the hum of the air keeps the willow awake keep watching the world bit by bit long shadows form beings form spirits alit maple leaves sticky with the sweetness of past newly dropped acorns blown from the mast one simple thing keeps it all together past present future joined by a tether quiet the noise and begin to prepare reach out your lungs and breathe the air step on the acorns and sticky leaves try not to step on the cicada please under the fog of our own invention various magic in suspension wait as the air washes through sorrows ‘xactly what will come with tomorrow you don’t know but the willow can share zillions of possibilities if you remember the air

Her Mirror and Skin

By Addie Houle-Hitz Swapped like baseball cards Stolen like a jewel Intended with total privacy Now she’s been made the fool Loud whispers in the hallway It wasn’t theirs to win But a screenshot was taken, a text was sent A picture of her mirror and skin

A Far Cry from October

By Louisa Miller-Out I used to know how to love you Estábamos atados First we drifted, now we’re lost and Desilusionados I’d find wherever you would be 날 사로잡혔어 Press my feet into your footprints In the crystal snow How and when did we go wrong Yo no lo entendí But somewhere there along the way We drifted out to sea Months of worship made me fragile 유리, 결국엔 I’d shatter like glass If you would just touch me again Solía saber amarte Juntos, we were bound Pero ahora nos perdimos How can we be found 네 옆에 항상 찾았어 You captivated me 발자국을 따랐어 내 숨, 하얀 연기 Cómo, cuándo mal salimos I don’t understand If it were up to me, I’d never let go of your hand. 죽을 만큼 사랑했어 How life used to glow 세상 끝난 것처럼 다시 날 잡아줘

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Like a Star

By Jordyn J. Baker Content Warning: The image below reflects one of the real and cruel outcomes of slavery.

(Inspired by “Whipped Peter”) Work, whip, scream Repeat Work, whip, scream Repeat We are given shelter We are given food We are unloved and not cared for Yet, that tends to depend on their mood Work, whip, scream Repeat Work, whip, scream Repeat Having feelings is not the reason I’m alive Though, thinking of my family helps me survive My cheek holds a pain that stings caused by the back of golden rings My back feels like my ebony skin is slowly being peeled off Work, whip, scream Repeat Work, whip, scream Repeat People sing of a star that will save us and guide us far People sing of hope and peace and that our pain will cease But, how can I sing of things I do not believe?

How can we sing of things we cannot achieve?

Work, whip, scream Repeat.

I Have a Superpower

By Laura Mead I have a superpower That saturates my blood That drips inky waterfalls That floods my fingertips with strength.

My superpower gives me Wings to soar through dissonance Eyes to translate coded emotions And a spine to hold the rhythm graceful It gives me Fingers to coax the warped vibrations Wrists to unleash the accents And a heart to magnify the melody My superpower rings Battle cries in my mind unsaid New rhymes for my unmade bed As I sing my world turns red My superpower awakens Dark spots of dancing thoughts Scaled ribbons stir white chalk Fingers walk, harmonies hot Superpowers are a fantasy But my anger is not.

February Nonet Contest to my liz - Maura Kinast

The image of “Whipped Peter”

they said it was cancer in your mouth you’d slip away into blueness and he would just move again only you kept him still the couch was your cage your “happy place” now you’re gone he’s down south

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LITERARY Excerpts From the Sun - Caroline Sine The moon is so lovely, tell me, how Could I not be in love with her?

And so I’ll burn and I’ll burn.

Let her bask in my warmth What else can I give?

I’ll make all fall; I will give Her my Shine.

Untitled - Summer Steinhagen I will never be yellow enough.

Is it not okay to be blue?

Would you love me more as green?

I could change to be pink.

Or maybe orange?

I’d change it all.

Please don’t go.

I’ll change.

Stay. flowers - Maura Kinast

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my neighbor with blue hair is staring out at me from the bay window to where I’m standing, a hill pushing forth from the dirt between the needles her face had turned to flowers dying, dead

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Writer’s Block Schedule - Jan Vanek-Raphaelidis Note: The author of this poem does not intend any disrespect for their teachers or classes.

German is a fun way to start the day.

Algebra two is slow but cool.

PE can be fun sometimes.

Chemistry is awesome.

Lunch is where it’s at.

CIM is quite cool.

English meh.

Lectures…

Home!

The Devoted Friend - Anonymous My childhood was bright: all mosquitos and scraped knees. Now I was my own enemy - anxious red lines still remain. My body: a portrait of time and shame, empty if not for these, my scars.

Little Devil in My Soup - Matilda Schrader Wee Devil holds my pinky finger What did I do to you pure beast You’re saccharine preen Devil I promise you, you are Hold me little one Like I did you Please Devil Hold me Once

Seasonal Depression by Hannah Shvets New Year’s Day Breakfast by Grace Lim

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EDITORIAL

How Will You Fall On Your Face This February?

By Adowyn Ernste Aquarius (Jan 20 - Feb 18): You will be so excited for the day that you will jump out of bed, still tangled up in your blankets, and promptly tip sideways onto your face. (Luckily, you will also be tangled up in your pillows, so your fall will be well-cushioned.)

Pisces (Feb 19 - Mar 20): A friend will wave to you across the hallway. As you turn to wave back, not looking where you’re going, you’ll careen sideways into the nearest wall and then crumple onto the ground in a pool of despair.

Aries (Mar 21 - Apr 19): Over the years, the floor has been such a reliable, old friend. You just figured it was about time to pay your respects and give it a well-deserved hug. You definitely didn’t fall. This was a choice.

Taurus (Apr 20 - May 20): How will you fall on your face? How will you not fall on your face? This month, you will discover a million new, innovative ways to fall on your face—defying probability, gravity, and the general laws of the universe. Put Guinness World Records on speed dial because you’re about to make history.

Gemini (May 21 - June 20): After spending all night studying for exams, the slow drone of your teacher’s voice will lull you into a peaceful slumber.

But don’t worry—you won’t be asleep for long. Several moments later, you’ll awaken as you slam, teeth-down, onto the cold tile of the classroom floor.

Cancer (June 21 - Jul 22): You will find yourself leaping through the air to catch a falling glass vase. Miraculously, you’ll make the catch—only to skid across the

Cover photo by Yang Shuo on Unsplash

ground and give your face a generous rug-burn.

Leo (Jul 23 - Aug 22): One day, you will simply lie down slowly, arms perpendicular to your sides and face squished up against the floorboards. As you close your eyes, you will discover a deep inner peace.

Virgo (Aug 23 - Sep 22): You will fall on your face so spectacularly that the entire world will stop what they’re doing to turn and look. But don’t be ashamed.

As Confucius once said, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

Libra (Sep 23 - Oct 22): Just moments before achieving victory and possibly world domination, you’ll slip on a banana peel. Who knew that such a thing could actually happen in real life?

Scorpio (Oct 23 - Nov 21): It’s such a shame that shoelaces like to come untied, you’ll think to yourself as you hurtle towards the pavement.

Sagittarius (Nov 22 - Dec 21): Like the great peregrine falcon, human beings excel at high-speed downward motion.

However, unlike these elite predators, we don’t have wings to lift us back into the air. So the next time you find yourself barreling towards the floor, don’t blame yourself: blame evolution.

Capricorn (Dec 22 - Jan 19): Good news: it wasn’t your fault this time! It was actually the person behind you who tripped down the stairs. Unfortunately, you were standing in close enough proximity that their flailing arms took you down with them.

The Coolness Spectrum

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IHS Staff Boynton Bugler Drive My Car Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” Ms. Snowman’s Ventilation Project Wordle Snow Day Calculator 19°/89° Classrooms Cold Hot Chocolate College Decision Wait Low Staff Pay

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