November 2021 by The Tattler

EDITORIAL

IHS TATTLER NOVEMBER 2021 | VOL. 129 | NO. 3

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

EDITORIAL

An Invisible Moral Authority Guides ICSD’s Disappointing Covid Policy Changes Not Science By THE TATTLER BOARD Part One: The Big Picture

ow is it that two positive cases at IHS were announced on October 7 and no one was asked to quarantine? It is not because no one came into contact with these individuals, but because the definition of “contact” has mutated beyond recognition. A national phenomenon is developing: school districts across the country are changing policies regarding quarantine guidelines and mandates in order to guarantee that kids will stay in school. Rather than responding from a public health risk model, asking themselves what should be done to protect students, the nation’s schools have begun to redesign the very formulas that are meant to be keeping kids safe. This new practice of working backwards to make the data suit the goal should be understood as a failure of national health leadership. The Tattler Editorial Board thus wishes to shed light on these worrying changes in national public health policy, show how the policy changes are playing out in many school districts, and ask useful questions about the direction our own district will take in light of this emerging problem. A moral picture that owes more to feelings and shared ideology—rather than a close and honest attention to scientific data—drives the shift in recent school policies. For example, the first of the bulleted “Key Takeaways” from the CDC’s literature on COVID-19 prevention begins not with a clear account of the importance of a layered prevention strategy (usually understood as a connected list beginning with vaccination, effective ventilation, social distancing, testing quarantining, and masking) but with a cultural argument: “Students benefit from in-person learning, and safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall 2021 is a priority... Schools are an important part of the infrastructure of communities. They provide safe and supportive learning environments for students that sup-

port social and emotional development, provide access to critical services, and improve life outcomes.” It is notable when our leading public health institution prioritizes cultural goals over the most up-to-date scientific information. And we cannot be surprised when local health departments follow CDC guidelines, and local school districts follow health departments’ recommendations and requirements. The problem is where this tortured logic leads us. Consider this important direction from the CDC: In addition to universal indoor masking, the CDC recommends schools maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms to reduce transmission risk. When it is not possible to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet, such as when schools cannot fully reopen while maintaining these distances, it is especially important to layer multiple other prevention strategies, such as screening testing. Notice the language used here. To paraphrase: we’d really like it if you could have three feet, but if you can’t get everyone back that way, feel free to disregard what we just said—you’ll probably be fine. We might ask, Why the change from six feet to three? Well, says the CDC, a 3-foot rule would allow many more schools to open in person full time. Having weighed the benefits of strict adherence to the 6-feet spacing rule against the detriments of keeping students out of school, the CDC chooses to let individual municipalities decide whether they wish to impose any rule at all. Precise scientific measurement gives way to general cultural sentiments. What is more, the CDC’s definition of a “close contact” uses data collected before the emergence of the Delta variant—a more transmissible, faster acting, and deadlier strain than the variants of a year ago. According to CIDRAP, the Delta variant currently constitutes over 90

Editor-in-Chief

Jinho Park ’22

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EDITORIAL percent of US COVID cases and poses twice the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization as the original strain. Despite Delta’s emergence, the CDC continues to use pre-Alpha data to determine its protective measures—the same measures it is currently working to further erode. Despite our knowledge of the high rate of asymptomatic transmission (more than half, according to CIDRAP, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy) the CDC recommends students and staff only stay home when they “have signs of any infectious illness” and have dispensed with the daily location screener designed to aid the school’s contact tracing efforts. (Our school had to jettison these efforts because students refused to fill out the forms. In keeping with the new logic, when students didn’t comply with health safety protocol, the protocol was abandoned.) Currently, our own school district encourages families to merely “check for symptoms” before coming to campus and says that “people who are fully vaccinated do not need to participate in screening testing and do not need to be quarantined if they do not have any symptoms.” The problem with this approach is that it allows for untraced, positive, but asymptomatic students to come onto campus. Finally, we should be honest and clear-eyed about how dangerously comfortable we have become with the new convention of beginning with a stated goal and working backwards to ensure its outcome. If we follow this upended logic to its natural conclusion, all our problems will resolve themselves. Since sending students home to quarantine risks losing in-person learning, we will ask fewer students to quarantine! When students might have been exposed, they cannot be tested! If they cannot be tested, they will not have COVID! Part Two: The Impact of These Policies in ICSD and Resulting Student Discontent

n this new policy implemented by the district, students are no longer notified when someone in their class has tested positive. Instead, only “close contacts” are informed of their exposure to COVID. The Tattler Editorial Board recognizes concerns surrounding anonymity; we are not questioning the part of the policy that keeps the individual’s name concealed. However, according to a survey conducted by the Student Representatives to the Board of Education, the district’s approach does not reflect IHS students’ preference: out of 336 responses, 321 (95 percent) said that they’d like to be informed if a student in their class tested positive. It is highly unnerving to students and teachers when they find out about a positive case multiple days later by word of mouth. Students should be notified when a positive case arises so that families can decide for themselves if they want to take precautionary measures. These notifications would still ensure the student who tested positive has privacy and remains anonymous while making students feel much safer in the classroom. Instead of minimizing rumors or assumptions about who has COVID, as some ICSD officials have argued, the policy only fuels misinformation and conjecture and adds to students’ growing impression of the district’s lack of transparency. In addition to ICSD and the CDC’s changing policy as a result of who gets notified about positive COVID cases and resulting quarantines, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the school’s present contact tracing system. Currently, potential close contacts are identified through class rosters and an honor-based QR code apparatus around the school where students scan in their locations for each period. As the year prog-

resses, however, fewer and fewer students are scanning the QR codes and notifying the district of their location, resulting in a less accurate sense of where students are, which makes contact tracing weaker and the chance of an outbreak increasingly likely. In fact, according to a survey sent out by The Tattler to the student body, a whopping 32 percent don’t fill out the daily QR forms at all while only 31 percent fill out the QR Forms occasionally. While the small data pool collected by the QR forms might still be useful, the fact that so few students are notifying the school of their location is worrisome. Evidently, the IHS administration needs to better promote student participation in contact tracing. Another of IHS’s COVID Policies that has gone unaddressed is how learning works for a quarantined student. The official guidelines from the school administration states that quarantined students will catch up on work through Canvas, be supported by a learning coach who’ll assist the student in communicating with teachers, and attend “Remote Lab Support” to help with assignments two times a week. However, this policy doesn’t allow for the student to attend class virtually or state any other means of catching up on in-class learning besides communicating with teachers by email and doing the regular Canvas work. A student who has COVID and who is out for more than five days will most likely fall behind on course material and be put at a disadvantage. The Tattler survey also highlighted the experiences of quarantined students, and revealed that “there was no system in place to help students attempting distance learning.” Students “had to guess what work to complete” and “relied on friends and peers” for information about classwork. “It was very stressful,” a student said, projecting that if they had been absent longer, their “grades would have suffered, despite [their] best intentions.” According to the same student, “teachers often didn’t post the classwork until the end of the day”—as a result they had nothing to work on during the day and then “suddenly received all the work at the end of the day.” Posting work the day before would help students plan their days at home and decrease stress. Another student admitted that while quarantine was unpleasant, “I would much rather go through [quarantine] than not be informed of when I was in a class with a student who has COVID. Contact tracing is more important than my learning environment for me, and I know many students agree.” The Tattler Editorial Board firmly believes that the IHS administration needs to assist quarantined students by creating better guidance for teachers to ensure that students don’t fall behind on course material during their absence. Additionally, specific guidelines need to be more transparent. Currently, there is no information about supporting quarantined students on the ICSD’s FAQ page, and the only accessible information released publicly from IHS is a link to a short half-page document buried in the October 15 IHS Communications email. The document in question doesn’t talk about the procedure as a whole but merely illuminates the existence and purpose of the “Remote Lab SupContinued 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 November 13 to be included in the December 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.

EDITORIAL

An Invisible Moral Authority Guides ICSD’s Disappointing Covid Policy Changes, Not Science Continued from page 3 port” for students with short-term absences. While The Tattler Editorial Board recognizes that the process and guidelines of quarantined learning is sent to students who are quarantined, The Tattler feels that specifying these policies in a public announcement would create a sense of transparency and ease questions and anxiety about IHS’s COVID policies. By virtue of a recent New York State regulation, the district has implemented free weekly PCR COVID testing available for all students and staff, to be conducted during 0 period, lunches, and free periods. In order to sign up for the free program, students under 17 need to sign up through a parent or guardian by registering with Affinity or completing a paper copy (more information is available on the district’s website). Students can register anytime, even the night before, and have a test done as quickly as the next day. The Tattler Editorial Board recognizes the major impact that this new program will have on identifying new COVID cases in the district and highly recommends that

everyone sign up for it. According to the Board of Education Student Representatives, 50 percent of students have already signed up. The more people get tested on a regular basis, the safer the school will be, and making this program mandatory would heighten its effectiveness. While the implementation of weekly testing marks a promising improvement, the ICSD cannot continue to implement policies that set a dangerous precedent for working backwards from the goal to the science. Instead, we should be asking ourselves, “How do we lead with science, and then use it to bring about public policy?” The responses from the student body make it clear that the COVID policies and systems implemented by ICSD need to be improved upon. ICSD and IHS’ lack of transparency and communication only leads to anxiety throughout the student body and the misinformation the district has hoped to avoid. As hardworking and dedicated IHS students, we believe we deserve COVID policies designed to aid us and to keep us safe.

There’s No Shame in Dropping Classes By THE TATTLER BOARD

onsider, for a long moment, the following student who wants to take a hard history class. They don’t really know why they want to, because all of their older friends say that the class is hard. They’re worried about how much work there might be. Once they start the class, though, they find that it’s not what they expected. The expectation of learning about captivating Victorian drama is replaced with the reality of long, weekly packets. With sports, clubs, and other classes taking up so much time, they realize that while their interest in history may have once been genuine, it is waning with each passing day. Unsurprisingly, after weeks of neglecting the textbook—sorry, Spielvogel—they fail their first test. And since it all seems so impossible now, they decide they want to drop the class. They ask around—how do you even drop a class at IHS? They ask their friends, but none of them really know. Eventually, a friend of a friend of a friend tells them to look at the Program of Studies. After searching the document, they realize that by IHS protocol, they have to talk to their parents, their counselor, their teacher, and the department leader and explain to all of them why they’re dropping the class. They’re terrified. They can already envision how it would be. Their heart palpitating, their eyes suddenly unable to look at anything but their soft-grain leather boots, their voice trembling as they say, “I’m sorry, but I really want to drop this class.” And so it ends up happening, and after a few hours of awkward conversations during which they realize how dirty their boots really are, they manage to drop the class. This fictional tale of a student struggling is unfortunately a reality that many students at IHS face. Here at IHS, the process of dropping a class is frightening. To begin with, students who wish to drop a class must talk to three unfamiliar adults about

how they are struggling in class. Since many parents often pressure their kids not to drop classes, the requirement of a parent signature for dropping a class makes the process additionally frightening. Further, the overly competitive academic environment at IHS has stigmatized the dropping of classes. Since relatively few students drop classes, students who do drop classes seem like outliers, like students who weren’t “good enough” to persevere through a difficult course. This feeling of academic failure—like you are the only one struggling enough to want to drop a course—is both pervasive and dangerous, and the barriers to dropping classes only exacerbate these feelings. Even more worryingly, the convoluted process of dropping a class has the adverse effect of dissuading students from ever attempting difficult classes in the first place. Since the process of dropping a class seems so daunting, students—especially those who haven’t taken challenging classes previously—are further encouraged to avoid risks and to stay in their own lane. For decades, IHS has notoriously engaged in policies which resemble tracking, a system in which students are placed in differing academic course “tracks” based on their perceived academic ability. Here at IHS, this is seen in the distinction between “AP,” “Honors,” and “Regents’’ classes: students who start taking a certain level of course are often encouraged to continue taking the same level. Tracking often segregates schools by placing underperforming students, who are disproportionately low-income Black and Latino students, in easier classes. This effectively denies them the opportunity to ever attempt harder course work. By making the process of dropping classes more difficult, the de facto tracking system here at IHS is only strengthened. To resolve these issues, The Tattler Board strongly recommends the adoption of a simpler process for dropping classes.

EDITORIAL / NEWS

Specifically, students should be allowed to drop classes by consulting solely with their counselors and teachers; parent and department chair approval should not be needed. It is also important that students communicate honestly with their teachers and counselors. Teachers should help students continue with their class when necessary, but they should also take care to allow students to drop. By streamlining the process of dropping classes, more students would want to try difficult classes and be able to drop classes that they are not enjoying. While simplifying the dropping process would largely benefit students, it also poses a potential challenge. Scheduling is difficult enough with the current policy on dropping classes. In the first few weeks of school, counselors work around the clock to meet students’ requests. Adding a new group of students who wish to drop multiple classes might make the workload for

counselors infeasible. The solution, however, is one that The Tattler Board has argued for in the past: IHS needs to hire more counselors. By increasing the number of counselors, students will be able to receive more personalized guidance as they go through high school, and additionally, a simpler policy to drop classes can be put in practice. Classes can serve as the foundation for a fruitful education, yet on the other hand, they can also be a source of perpetual stress and anxiety. Destigmatizing the dropping of classes will allow for more students to benefit by encouraging engaged and tailored learning. As students, we will positively redefine our academic experiences when we start to take classes that suit us—the ones that we have time for, the ones that we’re ready for, and ultimately, the ones that captivate us.

Germany’s Elections Usher in a New Political Era By AITAN AVGAR

n September 26, Germany held elections to select the members of the Bundestag, the lower house of the German federal parliament. Chancellor Angela Merkel chose not to run again after sixteen years in the position, creating a unique opening for other German parties and politicians, who have been on the fringes of the political landscape, to step into the spotlight. Due to Germany’s parliamentary system, the party that wins the greatest number of votes does not immediately have their candidate for Chancellor take office. Rather, the party must form a majority coalition—an alliance of political parties and their leaderships—among the 736 seats of the Bundestag. Entering the election, there were three major parties in contention for the largest share of the vote: the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the Greens. The center-right CDU, the dominating party of German politics led for decades by Merkel and others, was led this time by Armin Laschet, a long-time German minister and prominent figure in the CDU. Although running with the endorsement of Merkel, arguably the most popular German politician since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Laschet struggled to gain strong support from the German public. This was largely due to a number of campaign gaffes, in-

cluding one in which he was seen laughing while visiting a town hit by severe flooding in July. Laschet’s primary opponent, Olaf Scholz, led the center-left SPD under promises to raise the minimum wage and halt man-made climate change. Scholz is currently Germany’s Finance Minister and although he was third place in the polls leading up to the election, his campaign made a late surge. The last of the three major political party candidates was Annalena Baerbock, leader of the Greens. Even though Baerbock has never held official office, she posed a real threat to the established political order. The Greens, a party focused on climate change and social justice, were ahead in the polls early on in the race. On election day, some 60.4 million Germans were eligible to vote and their ballots were cast. After months of uncertainty as to who would lead the most influential nation in the European Union, in the early morning of September 27, Olaf Scholz and the SPD were declared victorious, winning 25.7 percent of the vote. The CDU followed shortly behind with 24.1 percent of the vote, a close second. The Greens came in third with 14.8 percent of the vote. Scholz stated that it was “clear” the German voters wanted to see the CDU and other center-right parties in the opposition after their control since 2005.

Gaining seats in the Bundestag was only the first step in establishing a new era of German politics. For the past eight years, the SPD and CDU have worked together in a “Grand Coalition,” but political analysts believe this is unlikely to happen again, even if it has the majority support from the rest of the parliament. Both Scholz and Laschet are now working to form coalitions with the Greens and the Free Democrats, a smaller center-right party that received 11.5 percent of the vote. Although Scholz clearly has the edge due to his victory in the elections, the process of forming a government could take several weeks or even months. As for the future of Germany, many see the elections as a turning point for the country’s, and perhaps Europe’s, trajectory. With the CDU losing almost nine percent of the vote compared to the last elections in 2017, it seems that rising parties like the SPD and the Greens will be at the forefront of German politics for the foreseeable future. It will be fascinating to see how the new chancellor and government will tackle current issues like the COVID-19 pandemic and immigration from Afghanistan, while also addressing the longer-term matters of climate change and instability in the European Union, without the steady hand of Angela Merkel at the helm.

NEWS

Energy Collapse—The UK in Crisis By CAEDMON SETHUPATHY

hile Americans sit in their houses with the TVs blaring and all of the lights turned on, another country just a hop over the pond is looking down the barrel of energy sector ruin. Welcome to the UK’s energy crisis. Gas prices have skyrocketed, renewable energy production has stalled, and power plants have shut down. It’s important for Americans to understand issues like this that are unfolding around the world because the United States relies on valuable resources from other countries, and if they are in an economic crisis, the US could follow suit. So what is this crisis and how does the UK’s government plan to solve it? In short, the prolonged period of lockdown due to the pandemic has caused stores of energy to be low all across Europe. The shortage is due in part to people spending substantially more time at home over the past year, resulting in significantly greater energy use—primarily gas. The current gas insufficiency is very problematic because the UK depends heavily on fossil fuels such as gas and oil for both heating and electricity across the country. Due to low supply and high demand, gas prices have more than doubled since January 2021 and 70 percent of this inflation occurred in August alone, leading to an economic disaster. In times of energy crisis, most countries fall back on reserves. However, the UK’s backup gas reserves are extremely low. In fact, they hold less than one percent of all gas stored in Europe. Since the UK can only produce 40 percent of their energy needs, they have to rely heavily on trade agreements with other countries. One of these countries is Russia; their state-backed company, Gazprom, has reduced gas input to Europe drastically. Technically this reduction is legal, but many critics have accused Gazprom of having ulterior motives. There is speculation that this is an attempt to garner leverage for a massive project proposed by the company. Several countries still refuse their demand for the right to build a pipeline through the Baltic Sea, which would connect Russia to Germany and eventually the rest of Europe. The proposed pipeline would double Gazprom’s gas distribution capabilities and would give them more control over the market, as well as the ability to easily cut off resources if it would be politically expedient for Russia. Unfortunately for the British, this political game is leading to a severe lack of gas imports. As the gas crisis deepens, the UK’s government may look to renewable energy sources as a fallback option. The UK’s most relied-upon sources of non-fossil fuel energy are nuclear and wind power. However, both of these alternatives have problems of their own. Nuclear power makes up 16 percent of the energy used for electricity in the UK. Unfortunately, many power plants are aging and experiencing constant and unpredictable shutdowns for equipment maintenance. Wind and solar energy collectively make up 28 percent of the electricity market (an increase of almost five percent from last year). Unfortunately, solar power is not particularly effective in the UK’s cloudy environment. Wind power is also experiencing setbacks, primarily because the past

few months have been the least windy in the UK since 1961. Another option for the UK is to import electricity in cables across the English Channel from France. Disastrously, however, the most powerful cable from France was just recently shut down due to a fire. This, combined with all of the aforementioned problems, has helped contribute to a massive wave of energy business shutdowns. Another cause of the shutdowns is the British energy price cap. The price cap is a law that limits the amount of money energy providers can charge customers. Because energy prices are on the rise and providers aren’t allowed to charge more, they are having to pick up the slack. The extra burden has driven several of the smaller providers out of business. This is particularly problematic when you consider the fact that the UK has been whittling down these companies over the past few years. The number of energy providers available on the market has dropped from 70 to 30 since 2018. An overdependence on a few large corporations could come back to haunt the UK if this energy crisis continues to worsen. One important thing to note is that Brexit’s impact on the energy crisis is highly debated, and while Brexiters would like to blame it all on the pandemic, there seems to be some evidence to the contrary. One of the fallouts from Brexit was an immediate decrease in non-British workers, particularly truck drivers. These drivers transport gas to stations where it can be used by the general public. So even if the UK does manage to get out of the energy crisis, there will be a reduced labor force to transport the imported or manufactured energy. This is a massive infrastructure flaw that will likely cause issues in the coming months. It is clear that the British economy is spiraling out of control, and many people look to the government for an answer. The British Chancellor is considering a plan to give out a large loan to high energy consuming industries to keep the economy afloat. It is also likely that the price cap will be raised, which would result in approximately 15 million British families seeing a 12 percent rise in their electrical bill. If the worst comes to worst, the UK might have to put energy rationing into place like China (which is in its own crisis). Overall, the UK’s crisis is bad news for its citizens and the world at large, and only time will tell just how bad it will get.

9/24 football game by Grace Lim

NEWS

The Evergrande Scare By VICKY LU

Unfinished building in Fuzhou, Fujian, China, courtesy of the author

hile the punchline “In this economy?” retains both truth and relevance for us in our personal finances and national economy, the other side of the globe is gearing up to face their own latest set of economic problems that are too similar to America’s Great Recession for comfort. Though the oldest students in IHS were just coming out of toddler-hood during the financial crisis of 2008, you wouldn’t be hard-pressed to find a senior who knows a bit about it, or a staff member who was affected by it. The Lehman Brothers financial firm grew to be the fourth largest investment bank in the United States between 1847 and 2008 when they filed for bankruptcy after a series of poor investments in subprime mortgages and a sudden decline in demand for housing. Advertised by the US government, these mortgages were high-stakes, high-rewards loans to people with poor credit scores who wouldn’t have been able to obtain one under regular circumstances. With a quarter of a million employees worldwide, $639 billion in assets and $613 billion in liabilities according to Investopedia, the Lehman Brothers’ collapse added a ship’s worth of fuel to the fire that was the Great Recession at the time. It’s easy to see why people are taking note of a seemingly similar situation in China right now. Banking company Evergrande, or 恒大集团 (Héng dà jítuán), is the largest privately-owned conglomerate of businesses in China, founded by businessman Hui Ka Yan in 1996. BBC news has reported that Evergrande Real Estate owns 1,300 projects spanning over 280 cities and has the rights to 656 million square meters of development land in 22 of China’s largest cities.

Chinese culture places a certain importance on buying houses. “[Whether] you have some money saved... or need to borrow it, homes are the first thing you need to own as an adult, for the safety and to build a family. Home is not a dream, [it’s an expectation],” an anonymous Chinese citizen and mainland resident explains in an informal interview. Often, a couple will have one person already with an apartment of their own or set up a loan to buy one the moment marriage is on the cards. China’s shaky history with economic stability has encouraged a trend of investing one’s money rather than trusting a bank with it, most of which have unsatisfactory interest rates. Houses have been a safe bet for the past two decades as prices climbed with no sign of falling significantly, but, in turn, it’s harder for the average citizen to buy apartments now. To hear of it from our interviewee, “It’s not an uncommon concept to spend thirty, forty years paying off an apartment, or to buy a home that doesn’t exist yet.” In the past, it was commonplace for land developers to offer discounts on planned homes and apartments, placing them on the market even before construction starts in order to raise the funds for said construction. However, recent years have seen a change in this regulation, only allowing for the sale after the completion of the building. This change to the normal procedure, along with the stagnation in the market from the COVID-19 pandemic, has generated poor responses and a decline in the housing market. The banks from which a company takes loans for construction can bring an investment turned risky to court and argue for their money back under different conditions than originally set. With the loss of funds from selling apartments beforehand as well as losing money to loans cashed-in before construction and purchases are finalized, a number of Evergrande’s projects remain incomplete. Before the new regulation came into effect, another contact of this author purchased a three bedroom apartment from Evergrande Real Estate in the city Fuzhou for about $600,000, but construction has been left half-finished due to banks demanding their loans back early. The worst of it, according to the contact, is the waiting to see what happens to their money. When asked for an opinion on the situation, the first contact responded, “It’s not much.” To their best estimate, “Every big city has only maybe a thousand people with this problem, but to most of China, the damage [isn’t a huge deal] because they have faith that the government will step in and fix it. Those people will be losing some money, but the government will make sure it’s not one hundred percent gone.” While these accounts should be taken into consideration, China is also known for heavy censorship in its media and its industrial power. A recession the likes of which were seen in the US a little over a decade ago would have a far more global impact if it took place in China, which outputs 28.7 percent of the world’s manufacturing, according to an article from the Global Upside. That’s nearly twice as much as the US’ output—but, like the several thousand people with their payments to Evergrande up in the air, there’s not much to do but stand back and keep a careful eye on how things play out.

NEWS

How Supply Chain Woes Are Causing the “Everything Shortage” By MUKUND GAUR

hy is the price of everything going up? It’s a complicated question that has been asked many times throughout history, and the answers vary from something as mundane as inflation, to something as unexpected as tulip mania. Today, the answer to that question sounds uninteresting, but when looked into, it’s anything but that. The “supply chain” is a complicated term that describes a simple idea: anything and everything you buy has to come from somewhere, and that process of an item reaching you is the supply chain. Most of the time, it works without a hitch—if you go to a grocery store, you’ll usually find the food you’re looking for, and if you go to an electronics store, you’ll almost always find the computer you wanted. But, when an unexpected event causes problems in the supply chain, the effects can be far-reaching. As far as unexpected events go, the COVID-19 pandemic is certainly one of the worst in recent history. During the pandemic, many manufacturers were adversely affected and unable to operate at previous levels. Meanwhile, the rest of us, stuck at home, kept on ordering and buying at the same rates as before, if not even more. What does that mean? Demand was far greater than supply. This has led to record shortages of everything from ordinary household goods to automobiles. But why aren’t we finding the products we want in stores? For one, millions of workers in the US have quit their jobs during the pandemic. Just in August, 4.3 million Americans quit their jobs. This is leaving holes in the trucking and warehouse industries, key parts of the supply chain. The shortage of truck drivers has been especially problematic: If you order something online, it’s going to have to travel at least once in a truck before reaching you. The warehouse industry is also struggling, and had 490,000 job openings in July.

The face of the global supply chain crisis, at least for now, is the semiconductor shortage. Semiconductors are chips that are used in almost everything with electronic parts, from computers to toothbrushes. The shortage has had major impacts on the auto industry, with General Motors reporting that vehicle sales fell by more than a quarter in the 3rd quarter of 2021 due to the chip shortage. The company has also been forced to shut down several plants, and overall auto sales have dropped 13 percent in the United States because of problems directly related to the semiconductor chip shortage. Beyond automakers, Apple has warned that the chip shortage could affect its production of iPhones. However, the semiconductor shortage is just one facet of the supply chain crunch. Port congestion is ubiquitous, with 29 container ships anchored outside of Los Angeles in mid-October, forcing its port, one of the largest in the U.S., to begin operating 24/7. This has caused shipping prices to skyrocket—reserving a container that would have cost $2,500 before the pandemic now costs ten times as much, $25,000. The same shortage of truck drivers that caused a fuel crisis in the United Kingdom (see page 6) is wreaking havoc, with a forecasted shortfall of 160,000 drivers in the US by 2028. This poses a severe problem, as 68 percent of the US’s freight is transported by truck. The supply chain is fragile, and nothing has tested our globalized trade system like the COVID-19 pandemic. The perfect storm of logistical issues, accidents, and pandemic related labor shortfalls has led to unprecedented scarcity in nearly every industry. As these shortages continue to persist, and as the American public continues to buy more things than ever, we may be forced to accept a future where not all of the shelves are fully stocked.

Upcoming Supreme Court Case Could Reshape Gun Legislation By CHARLES SAWYER

n 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that people can own firearms in the home for self-defense. That was the last time the Supreme Court took a major Second Amendment case, until now. On November 3, 2021, the Court is set to hear oral arguments on a case about carrying a weapon outside the home for self-defense purposes. This case is being brought by New York gun owners against New York State, which requires citizens to have a license to carry a concealed firearm outside the home. Our state has numerous restrictions on where people can conceal carry and why. Self-defense isn’t a sufficient reason except in cer-

ain professional situations, such as bank messengers carrying money or store owners who fear armed robbery. Laws like this are also in place in seven other states—California, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. But in most states, there are almost no restrictions on concealed carry of a firearm outside the home. This case is going in front of a Supreme Court that has a conservative majority; six of the nine justices have been appointed by Republican presidents. Therefore, it is unlikely that they will rule in favor of New York State and more likely they will side with the gun owners. This will affect gun laws in all the other states with restrictions. Even in states with loose restrictions, it

NEWS / OPINION will stop them from tightening the reins if the ruling favors the gun owners. Four justices did make speeches on not following party lines and voting based on law; however, four is still a minority, so it doesn’t change the probable outcome. Concealed carry firearms are normally pistols, which are used in 45.5 percent of homicides, according to Joslyn Law Firm. So, the biggest concern when relaxing concealed carry laws would be an increase in homicides. Gun proponents, however, will point out that the shooter kills the victim, not the gun. Additionally, some underlying issues do lead to homicide more than just access to guns. California is a state with some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. Texas, on the other hand, has some of the most relaxed gun legislation. If it were true that access to guns means more homicides, then Texas should have far more, but the statistics show otherwise. California has a homicide rate of 4.5 percent and in Texas, it is 5.9 percent, according to the CDC. These are pretty similar. Another telling statistic: Maine has some of the most relaxed gun laws but the lowest homicide rate in the nation. Maine also has relaxed concealed carry laws and doesn’t require a license as New York does; therefore, there must be other factors besides access to firearms and the legality of carrying them in public. Some of these disparities can be attributed to poor mental health services in states with more homicides, but the data don’t completely support that either. Maine, for example, has the lowest homicide rate in the country, but their mental health services only rank 21st in the USA. Mississippi has the highest rate of homicides, but their mental health services rank 28th out of USA states. This shows that the quality of mental health services isn’t proportional to the homicide rate. Poverty, though, does seem to make a difference. The two states that have the most homicides are also the states with the most poverty. In Mississippi, 19.6 percent of the state lives in poverty according to the Friends Committee on National Legislation. In Alabama, 15.5 percent of the state lives in poverty, and Alabama also has the second-highest homicide rate in the nation. In fact, the ten poorest states have the ten highest homicide rates. This shows that increased access to firearms doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in homicides—instead, social issues like poverty play a larger role in homicide rates. As stated previously, New York restricts where people can conceal and carry firearms. All firearms are prohibited in schools, daycares, campgrounds, state parks, government buildings, and airports. Additionally, concealed carry is banned without permission from the head of the police of one’s city. Many pro-gun people will say such restrictions are pointless because people who want to do harm with guns wouldn’t obey these laws. They are already breaking laws, so why would they follow this one? But the ugly truth about this is that we are talking about concealed firearms—the point of concealed carry is that those around don’t know you are carrying a weapon. So even if someone isn’t allowed to carry a firearm in a certain building, they might anyway. If there aren’t security measures in place to spot these firearms, then it could be possible for someone to carry one without anyone knowing. Unless there is a system to detect concealed firearms, then there is no point in banning them, since people could easily carry them without getting caught. This Supreme Court case will impact concealed carry laws in America, and with a conservative majority, they will most likely rule in favor of the gun owner. Only time will tell how this case will change American gun laws. Hopefully, it will be for the better.

Public College Should Be Tuition Free By MARLEY THOMSON

“S

hould college be free?” is a question that has inhabited the minds of students and administrators in the United States. “Free” would mean having no cost to the people using or receiving a service or product—in this case college students. In the United States and around the world, in order to have a high-paying professional job, you need some sort of post-secondary education. In countries such as Denmark and Finland, college is free or very inexpensive for its citizens. Although these countries are much smaller than the United States, having a free college system in the United States is still possible. Many people who are opposed to a free college system say that “it would cost too much money” or “I don’t want to pay for someone else’s gender studies degree.” The truth is, you already are. Every year the federal government spends approximately $30 billion on student grants. Although $30 billion is a lot of money, this money does not serve the majority of students entering college. This is due to the fact that college is so expensive and in order to qualify for the maximum Pell Grant ($6,495), you must be under the poverty line and attend a school with a high cost of attendance (COA). If we were to take the maximum Pell Grant ($6,495) and apply it to the tuition of the average state college, it should be enough, right? Wrong. $6,495 used to be enough to cover the tuition and fees for the average state college, but now the average tuition and fees of a state college are $9,580. This, with the cost of room and board, means that the average college student attending a state college or university spends $25,615 a year. The reason why state colleges and universities have increased their prices astronomically is because of negligible state and federal spending. President Biden proposed a federal budget of $1.5 trillion, with 50 percent going to the military and only 7 percent going to education. This 50 percent proposed military budget is actually decreased from the previous year and the education budget is increased. Just taking 1 percent away from the military budget and adding it to the education budget would give education an additional $15 billion. This 1 percent alone could provide 585,000 students with a 4-year state college education, including room and board, free of charge. If we were to use that 1 percent for just providing students 4-year tuition, then 1,564,455 students could have no tuition at a state college. The amount of money the federal government spends on college grants ($30 Billion) is only 2 percent of the military budget. This goes to show that the United States has the money to provide free college but chooses to spend it on other things. Public colleges should absolutely be tuition-free. The very Continued on page 10

OPINION

Public College Should Be Tuition Free Continued from page 9 term “public” implies that this resource should be accessible to everyone. While it may be harder to gather support for complete funding of all public colleges, we can start by making community college completely free. The average tuition of community college is $3,400. Just by using 1% of the military budget ($15 billion), we can send 4,411,764 people each year to community college for free. As a country, we will benefit from more people having access to college. According to the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), bachelor’s degree holders earn about $32,000 more than a person whose highest degree is a high school diploma. Even an associate’s degree in a technical skill

from a community college can increase income. Another study conducted by the APLU revealed that bachelor’s degree holders are 47 percent more likely to have health insurance provided through their job, and their employers contribute 74 percent more to their health coverage. Having proper health coverage can tremendously increase someone’s life expectancy. For those of you who like to say “I don’t want any freeloaders getting my tax money for health coverage,” access to a college degree will prevent more people from having to use government health insurance. Our country will also increase its GDP by having a more educated workforce. The evidence is overwhelmingly clear: public college should be free.

Space: A Foolish Frontier By CLARA WEBER

hese are the voyages of the starship… New Shepard? Regardless of your interest in space, astronomy or otherwise, it’s likely that you’ve heard about the recent space launches from Jeff Bezos’ new company, Blue Origin. The company’s first manned flight, on July 20, 2021, was a ten-minute, ten-second journey into space on the flight capsule dubbed “New Shepard.” In an interview with Bezos after the flight, he states, “What we’re really trying to do is build reusable space vehicles. It’s the only way to build a road to space, and we need to build a road to space so that our children can build the future.” While this may be true, the current use for the capsule falls short of “build[ing] the future.” On October 13, 2021, Blue Origin launched the “New Shepard” a second time, carrying a four-person crew including 90-year-old Star Trek actor William Shatner. This particular flight has been called an example of “space tourism.” Experiences like these are available only to the extremely rich, and, fascinating as they may be, they’re relatively useless and may even be harmful to the planet. Although the carbon footprint of Blue Origin flights is relatively small, the other emissions from the rockets (water vapor, soot, other gases and particles) can be detrimental to the atmosphere, as products of the breakdown of water vapor can convert ozone into oxygen, depleting the ozone layer. As with any emission-producing process, the more frequently these flights happen, the heavier the impact of their emissions. Additionally, as far as I can tell, there’s no point to these flights besides the aforementioned space tourism. Sure, it can be placed under the guise of research and development, but what is being researched and developed other than technology that has already been produced? If all that’s being improved is the systems to leave the atmosphere for ten minutes over and over, we really have nothing to gain. Some arguments for the continued development of space travel and similar technologies point to the climate crisis as justification. They claim that, if our planet is dying, we might as well try to find another one that we can overflow to. Appealing though this idea may seem, it places values in all the wrong places. The danger of making our planet uninhabitable should provoke action to save Earth while we still can, not to find another planet to

destroy. The steep costs of space tourism (one ticket sold at auction for $28 million) could fund research and projects to protect and rehabilitate our planet. NASA’s 2021 budget of $23.3 billion, while funding more legitimate research than Blue Origin, could be put to better use without leaving Earth’s atmosphere at all. Unfortunately, it would be entirely unrealistic to expect that space travel and research stop altogether. The five Mars rovers—intricate, complicated, and long-lived projects—should not simply be abandoned. Even so, we need to limit our expenditures into space travel. Space tourism provides no benefit to practical research and is unattainable for most of the world to begin with. Rocket launches, something that used to be incredibly rare and internationally followed, are now somewhat commonplace, even without any real gains in the field. Launches like these should be rare, and they should only occur for legitimate, necessary reasons. If we truly want to “build the future,” we need to start by protecting our present, ensuring that our planet will survive us. Space may be the “final frontier,” but we cannot boldly go where no one has gone before if we have nowhere to return.

Pictures of school (1) by Adina Wilensky

OPINION

Perspectives on Celebrity IHS students were prompted to share their perspectives on our pantheon of public figures and whether the notion of celebrity should exist at all. Here are their responses. By ADDIE HOULE HITZ

here’s no sugar-coating it: celebrities lost their minds over quarantine. Not being at the center of attention and being unable to go out and produce content has resulted in such wonders (or atrocities) as Jack Black’s “quarantine dance” and Julianne Moore’s enthralling video of her cleaning a pot for three and a half minutes as dramatic music played in the background. It really does beg the question: why? Celebrities are accustomed to a constant amount of activity and attention. This means that when quarantined, they’re not only bored out of their minds, but also left with no real way to attract their audiences’ attention.”In March 2020, when everything shut down, media and product production screeched to a halt, leaving many celebrities to sit alone in their giant houses and expect us to take pity on them. Although there have certainly been massive egotistical stunts (see Kanye West comparing himself to Jesus Christ), in my opinion there is no bigger flex of unnecessary wealth than whining to your Instagram followers about how bored you are in your 8,055-square-foot home (Ellen DeGeneres). The amount of privilege that these people have—and are blind to—is insane. Not only that, but should these people even have as much money as they do? The net worth of former professional basketball player Shaquille O’Neal was estimated at 400 million dollars in 2020. To put that into perspective, that is approximately 9547 Tesla cars. To put it into even further perspective, he spent his first million-dollar paycheck from the NBA in thirty minutes. Most celebrities don’t really care about the money they make or how it is made. Many of them use exploited labor forces in the production of whatever they are selling. In what universe have we made it okay to idolize those who do these kinds of things? The very idea of a celebrity is becoming outdated. With the climate crisis well underway, now more than ever, we need to be able to look up to people who aren’t as self-centered as we have allowed celebrities to be. Most celebrities think that everything can be fixed very easily, or at least that is what they have led us to believe. In this time of need, we need to be able to trust that those in the positions that we have created for celebrities are true humanitarians and know how to handle traumatic situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Celebrities: We’re the Problem By LILY NEWTON

f I wanted to ride on a school bus, I’d simply walk down my road on any given weekday morning and wait for one. If Stormi Webster wants to ride on a school bus, her parents go to the dealer and charge it to their platinum card. While one could hate on a three year old, saying she’s playing make-believe poor, here’s the issue: I’d love to want to ride in a bus, but instead complain about riding to school in a BMW with a custom pink interior. I’m not a celebrity, or even the child of one. Celebrities think of themselves as the people’s saviors (because what is life without another strangely scented Gwyneth Paltrow candle or blood infused shoes), providing us with not only entertainment but the idols they think we so desperately need. Influencers tell us what to wear and models what to look like, singers control what music we listen to and actors the shows we see. The problem isn’t their existence, it’s the platform we create for them. Sure, Addison Rae went to the Met Gala, but who was liking her TikToks in the beginning of 2020? We propel these people to preposterous levels of fame, setting impossible standards for them, and then get upset when they fail to live up to our ideals. We promote them and their content, and then get upset when they make a profit. I’m not saying that celebrities are generally good people—influence and money go straight to the ego—but why are we dissatisfied with the system and the people we created?

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*** Celebrities: We’re the Problem By LILY NEWTON

f I wanted to ride on a school bus, I’d simply walk down my road on any given weekday morning and wait for one. If Stormi Webster wants to ride on a school bus, her parents

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OPINION

ICSD STEM is Failing Female Students By NOMI FALK

Note: I use the terms girls/females to indicate any students that are externally perceived as females, but this experience applies to all misogyny-affected individuals regardless of personal gender identification.

s a proper overachiever, I’ve been taking some of the highest math and science classes available in Ithaca City School District since sixth grade. I started in accelerated math in sixth grade, and then continued on to the early Earth Science track in eighth grade. I have had some genuinely wonderful experiences in these classes and am very grateful to have been provided the opportunity to be pushed in these areas. This being said, I’ve noticed some discouraging and harmful discrepancies in terms of making the classroom environment equally welcoming to male and female students. These discrepancies exist due to some fundamentally different ways in which male and female students experience classroom settings. I categorize them by teacher behavior and student behavior, which coincide in a few important ways. A lot of the things that teachers do or don’t do are basic, beginning-of-the-year, expectation-and-environment-setting things. On the other hand, student behaviors are more pervasive, year-round, and subtle. Many student behaviors are also dependent on teachers’ behavior; there is considerable overlap and interaction between the two. I truly believe that some small changes on the part of teachers could change girls’ experience of learning math and science for the better. Per the American Psychological Association, stereotype threat is the phenomenon in which students that are stereotyped as being weaker in a subject perceive teachers discussing the difficulty of a class, lesson, or test as a sign that they will be unable to perform well. This can often lead to a decline in performance. An example of stereotype threat that I have come across in my high school career has been math teachers telling a class at the start of the year that their class is very difficult, contains many difficult tests, and will be a real push for them. While male students interpret this as a challenge to which to step up, female students are likely to hear that their skillset is inadequate and are then more likely to drop the class, or, due to anxiety about the difficulty, do worse in the class than their male peers. Teachers giving the “my class is hard” speech at the beginning of a class is truly unnecessary. While it is true that some classes might be too rigorous for some students, a more beneficial speech would express that while the content may be challenging, students will be well prepared for success and can seek help in x, y, and z manners. At IHS, students can drop a class up until the end of the first five weeks, so if students come to the conclusion on their own that the workload is overwhelming or the content too challenging, they can make their own decision to drop the class. Teachers should encourage and support students, not scare them. A positive environment is especially critical when their threats are received differently on the basis of gender. Furthermore, male students perpetuate a hostile culture

towards their female peers. Having looked back on my own experiences and spoken to many of my female peers, we all share experiences of our male peers talking down to us. They often mansplain things to us, either answering a class question in a way that re-words what we have just said, or doing similar things in smaller groups. Some girls have experiences of male peers refusing to seek help from them even when they know the content better than their male peers. I have personally been told on a day when I was the only person in my small group to do the homework in full (and the only girl), that they hoped I was “smart enough” to carry the group. These kinds of comments are often tossed offhandedly, and while boys may think nothing of them or not mean them in a malicious way, they are insulting, discouraging, and disrespectful. It is important that, if boys hear their male peers making such comments, they speak up on behalf of their female peers, who often feel belittled, embarrassed, or frozen on the spot. Last year, when I was in Honors Precalculus BC, only a third of students in my class were female, while this year, in AP Calculus AB, only a third are male. These classes should both be 50/50. Behaviors like the aforementioned of the teachers and of students are a large part of the problem. It is the job of teachers to create a classroom environment where such comments are explicitly unacceptable. It is the job of students to not behave in such a manner and to support their fellow peers when they see such inappropriate behavior. Many classes offer a few points of participation credit per class; part of participating is behaving in a manner that is not hostile towards fifty percent of the population. No one is smarter based on their gender, and girls deserve to feel empowered in their hard work and knowledge. To make classrooms more welcoming, there are a few basic steps that should be taken. At the beginning of each year, teachers should establish a classroom that is welcoming to students regardless of gender by using time otherwise spent espousing the difficulty of their class discussing the support systems available to students if they are struggling with the content. Additionally, they should have direct conversations with students about the importance of treating the thoughts and ideas of their peers with attention and respect, making the conversation explicitly about discrimination. In order to maintain this throughout the year, teachers can make treating peers in a non-discriminatory manner part of students’ grades. Some responsibility falls upon the students themselves, in that they should call out their peers for any inappropriate behavior, and support victims of discrimination. Finally, for long-term development of a welcoming classroom environment, teachers should have discussions among themselves about how else they might make the classroom a gender-equal space. We all benefit from having more smart, hardworking girls in advanced classes and learning advanced topics. They bring new perspectives, and suppressing half of the population’s full STEM potential is nothing short of illogical.

OPINION

Physical Education Should Not Be A Second Sport For StudentAthletes To Play By ALICE BURKE

here are 86,400 seconds in a day. Each progressing moment is another tick of the clock, another priceless instant consumed by the passing of time. While these seconds may seem insignificant to the average person, for many student-athletes at IHS, time is a precious commodity that is too often wasted on unimportant activities and tasks. Imagine being a student-athlete―you wake up early to pack for school, making sure you remember your school bag, sports gear, and the extra water bottles your coach keeps telling you to bring to practice. Then you rush off to your classes, where you spend the next six and a half hours sitting at desks, trying to complete as much work as possible before you have to attend two long hours of athletics. Maybe you have a game or meet today and can only return home late at night, unshowered and unfed. Finally, at 10:30, you start your homework, but by now you are too mentally and physically drained to produce any work of value. You decide to postpone your homework until tomorrow, hoping that a little extra sleep will magically generate more time in the day for you to complete your work. But tomorrow is the same: wake up, rush to school, go to practice, return home too tired to do homework… No matter the sport, a simple fact rings true for all student-athletes at IHS: there is simply not enough time in the day. The struggle for student-athletes to find adequate time for schoolwork―let alone meet basic needs such as sleep and nutrition―is a problem that must be addressed. The easiest and most simple way to do this is to exempt student-athletes from their Physical Education class during their sports season and instead place them into a mandatory study hall. P.E. classes are practically useless to student-athletes at IHS: these students already maintain physical fitness through their chosen sports, and most understand and demonstrate the goals set by the P.E. curriculum. Exempting student-athletes from P.E. would increase the time they have for studying, reduce individual stress levels, and decrease the number of injuries student-athletes (and their classmates) sustain as a result of physical activity. Allowing athletes to be excused from P.E. may improve their athletic performances as well, thus furthering their success and that of the school as a whole. Student-athletes at IHS do not require gym class in order to achieve or maintain physical health. According to the Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia, physical fitness is defined as “good health and strength achieved through exercise.” If this is what constitutes physical fitness, then student-athletes already attain this through participating in their chosen sport. In addition, the CDC recommends that “adolescents…do 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily,” a quantity easily surpassed by IHS student-athletes practicing for two or more hours a day. Considering this definition of physical fitness and

the CDC’s suggested activity level, the benefits for student-athletes to participate in gym class are significantly lowered; after all, these students are already physically fit and engage in over 60 minutes of daily vigorous physical activity. In many cases, P.E. does not improve student-athletes’ fitness levels―it is just a waste of time in athletes’ over-packed schedules. The P.E. curriculum at IHS outlines how the class is important for the “development of…leadership and positive social behavior characteristics. All students will participate in physical education…to ensure that they will become independent learners and competent decision makers.” While this may be valuable for students who are not also athletes, the merit of P.E. for student-athletes regarding what the class aims to teach is limited at best. Student-athletes develop the leadership and social skills addressed in the P.E. curriculum by being part of a team. When on a Varsity or JV sports team, athletes are required to communicate effectively with their teammates and coaches and be able to take charge of situations when necessary, risking the cohesion and success of their entire team if unable to do so. These essential skills of communication and leadership are directly linked to other important qualities outlined in the P.E. philosophy: independence and competent decision-making. Student-athletes prove their independence every single day by showing up to practice on time, prepared with the proper equipment and self-motivation to improve in their sport. They must also be adept at making decisions, as every single moment in competition requires split-second choices and reactions that may determine the outcome of a game or meet. Participating in a sport offers student-athletes a real-world setting in which to develop the skills outlined in the IHS gym curriculum, giving them a stronger, deeper understanding than many of their non-athlete peers. Physical Education is not only unhelpful for the athletic and personal development of student-athletes at IHS―in fact, the class may even be harmful and performance-hindering. According to a study released by the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in 2009, the annual number of gym class injuries increased by over 150% between 1997 and 2007, from about 24,000 annual cases to over 62,000 injuries in 2007 alone. The increased size and student-teacher ratio of P.E. classes contribute to this alarming uptick in injuries, as these factors both lead to less supervision and more bodies in a small space. Even if student-athletes are not directly injured by their participation in Physical Education, the extra physical exertion combined with their already-intense exercise regime has the possibility to result in their body breaking down and becoming overly fatigued or developing overuse injuries. Exempting student-athletes from gym can eliminate these direct and indirect injuries stemming from participation in the class. Decreased gym class Continued on page 14

OPINION

Physical Education Should Not Be A Second Sport For Student-Athletes To Play Continued from page 13 sizes can also create more space for non-athletes to participate in P.E., resulting in a safer environment for all. Allowing high school athletes to attend a study hall instead of gym class would benefit academic performance and alleviate some of the stress placed on these athletes’ shoulders. Being a student-athlete at IHS is extremely stressful and time-consuming―it is hard work to constantly represent this school in the best possible light, as these athletes so skillfully do. On top of this pressure, high school athletes are held to an academic standard if they wish to continue participating in their sport, and with the lack of time student-athletes face, meeting these benchmarks may prove to be especially difficult. A student-athlete’s time is valuable, and forcing them to attend 45 minutes of an unhelpful and potentially harmful class is neglectful of their contributions to IHS and the athletes themselves. This time should be spent studying, so student-athletes can meet their academic standards

without having to stress for hours every single night, worrying if they will have enough time to complete their work. The proposal to excuse student-athletes from Physical Education is not a new or revolutionary idea in the slightest―in fact, thousands of schools across the U.S. allow students to fulfill P.E. requirements through participation in school sports. Demanding that all students participate in gym class every year of high school disregards the mental and physical health of student-athletes. IHS and other schools across New York State have the responsibility to address this issue and create solutions that build a more positive environment in which student-athletes can learn and perform. Reforming the Physical Education system at IHS must be done, not simply to ease complaints about the dullness of gym class, but rather because it has the potential to positively affect the personal, academic, and athletic lives of this school’s student-athletes.

To Ring or Not To Ring By ADDIE HOULE-HITZ

Note: This article was written prior to the current bell change (RIP Emma and Octavius)

s the first bell rings, the class surges forward toward the small door at the far end of the classroom. “WAIT,” the teacher yells. I slink back to my desk, hoping to avoid the dreaded noise of the second bell. A few moments later, a sound mimicking an amber alert emits from the loudspeaker, and I start to book it across campus. Affectionately named Octavius, the upperclassmen’s bell is absolutely terrible to hear in comparison to its underclassmen counterpart, Emma. As cute as these names are, the two bells hardly do anything to reduce congestion in the hallways, which was their intended purpose. Most teachers don’t even release their upperclass students at the second bell, often releasing them at the first and contributing to said congested hallways. Upperclassmen who are made to wait for the bell are then left with less time to get to their classes and, let’s face it, given how crowded the hallways are, even if people were released at the proper times, it would hardly decrease the risk of COVID transmissions. In the eight periods of the day, I believe I have one, maybe two teachers—on a good day—that release our class at the second bell. It begs the question: would teachers still teach in those 30-40 seconds that the upperclassmen are in the classroom if they were to be released at the second bell? Does it really help to have your students dismissed but crowded around the doorframe waiting to be released? While I recognize the intent behind the bells to reduce transmission of COVID, having your class gather around the door before they are released, or having them packed shoulder to shoulder in the hallways if you release them early, can hardly do much to bring down the risk of transmissions. There should be more easily accessible guidelines stating what is

expected of students and teachers in regards to these bells, and what is to be done about the congested hallways if we get rid of them all together. This brings us to the second issue, the fact that there is less time to get to classes means that upperclassmen have to rush more than underclassmen. This issue has a simple solution, though—to simply implement another bell following the arrival bell for the underclassmen. This way, students don’t have to run across campus or from the gym all the way to upstairs G; they’d have a few more precious minutes to transition. Besides the problems of time and congestion, the absolutely grating sound of Octavius echoing over the loudspeaker has broken more than a few eardrums. It sounds like a more intense version of the amber alerts we automatically get sent to our phones, but a thousand times louder. So how do we fix this? I say we send out a poll to the student body with different options if we intend to keep the (semi-useless) bells. Some options could be included to have music play, repeat the underclassmen bell, or to simply keep Octavius, but at the very least students should be allowed to provide their opinions. Although the bells really only serve the “purpose” of adding extra noise right now, there are many ways in which we can actually make them useful. The idea behind them is to help reduce transmissions of COVID-19 in the hallways. To do that, the expectations of how students and teachers are to follow them have to be made clear, because they certainly are not right now. In addition, if we are going to mandate upperclassmen to follow the second bell, there should be a second arrival bell that would allow them to not have to worry about being marked as tardy. As much as I love Octavius, another option may need to be presented—at the very least, students should have a choice in what they are listening to if it’s not going to be the joyous sound of Emma reverberating throughout the school.

OPINION

The Benefits of an Increased Minimum Wage By MARLEY THOMSON

he current minimum wage for all workers in New York State is $12.50. Although this still isn’t a living wage for most people in New York, getting to this point has taken a long time. Just under five years ago, the minimum wage for all workers in New York State was only $9.70. This increase from $9.70 to $12.50 (or, in some areas, to $15), took a lot of fighting from both the State Legislature and workers. The estimated living wage in New York State for just one adult is $18.62, a $6.12 per hour difference. Before this $12.50 minimum wage was enacted for all workers, including tipped workers, it was legal to pay someone in the service industry just $2.13 an hour. This means that on a slow day a service worker could walk away with next to nothing. Around the country, there has been a fight to get the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Many people, specifically conservatives, fear that with a minimum wage increase will come fewer jobs and an increased cost of living. While this is true in theory, in reality it doesn’t exactly work like this. In 2009, the federal and state minimum wage was increased to $7.25. Since 2009, the federal minimum wage has not increased, but the New York State minimum wage has increased by $5.25. Although the minimum wage has not increased federally, automation in stores has. Since 2009, there has been a 10% compound annual growth rate of automation in the United States. Examples of this automation can be seen at the grocery store self-checkout and with the increase of online businesses. Some argue that this is because “people don’t want to work” or that it is because of the minimum wage increase. Automation is due to companies simply not wanting to pay workers and to keep as much profit as possible. “People not wanting to work” is due to people not wanting to work for subpar wages when they know their labor is more valuable. Increasing the minimum wage will make jobs more appealing to workers and will prevent “people not wanting to work.” According to New York Times business, “Employees become more productive when their wages are higher. The higher wage may also attract more skilled or industrious people to the job.” In Ithaca, there are many businesses with signs saying “Now Hiring.” Most of these places are paying below $15 an hour, but on the other hand, Dunkin Donuts is paying $16.50 an hour. I personally wasn’t looking for work but when I passed by this sign I submitted an application to work there. Inside the Dunkin Donuts there were other people also inquiring about the job. This is an example of how increased wages encourage people to want to work. When wages increase, people will put up with more stress since they figure they are getting compensated for it. Increasing the minimum wage will help compensate for the increased cost of living. According to CNBC, full-time minimum wage workers cannot afford rent on a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the United States. This means that minimum wage

workers who need a two-bedroom apartment must work more than one job or rely on government assistance. Instead of providing corporate bailouts and tax breaks for big corporations, the United States should increase its minimum wage and not have to provide as much government assistance. Despite being let off easy with taxes, big corporations are the number one employers of people on government assistance. These workers are not on government assistance because they are lazy, but rather because they aren’t being paid enough. Some argue to “just get a better job” but the fact is all jobs need to have someone doing them. If minimum wage workers “just got a better job,” there would be no one taking your drive-thru order and no one to stock the grocery store shelves. The people servicing you are much needed in our society and they need to be able to live.

Little Spirit by Grace Lim

FEATURES

Hall Monitor Curated by NOMI FALK

What’s your greatest high school regret?

Luke Little ‘24: “Not asking more questions in class in order to understand better.”

Niko Fontanez-Vargas ‘22: “Dating my ex because he cheated on me.”

Imala McDaniels ‘22: “Not creating enough good bonds with teachers (especially now that I need teacher letters of recommendation!).”

Elle Decatur ‘23: “#noregrets.”

Elden VanCamp-Ingiosi ‘24: “Not communicating with teachers and emailing them about due dates and extensions.”

Bella Pauldine ‘22: “Not prioritizing school when I should have.”

FEATURES

Dove Williams ‘22: “Not talking to enough people in my classes last year.”

Lorelli Cervantes ‘23: “Skipping, like, half of my Zoom classes last year.”

From the Archives: Excerpts From The Tattler Issues of Yesteryear Curated by ALICE BURKE

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 lies four average-looking filing cabinets that contain the annals of IHS 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. November 1927 “LA FEUILLE” I If I were a maple leaf, A red and yellow maple leaf, I’d whisper in the autumn When the big woods are still; While dancing with the boyish wind, The rolicking and playful wind, I’d tell him all the secrets Of the forest and the hill.

II If I were a maple leaf, A brown and dying maple leaf, I’d murmur, oh, so softly As I slowly drifted down; That the frost of death had caught me, And to my end had brought me, But that I’d not be sorry To reach the waiting ground. November 2008 “Drink Up Me Hearties, Yo Ho”

Water. All around the world, and to scientists, philosophers, and sociologists everywhere, it’s considered a basic survival necessity―along with food, shelter, and women. At IHS, however, water is no mere biological fact; rather, it’s a refined delicacy sampled by high school sommeliers from building to building. And the unquenchable thirst for quality water (one of the seven deadly sins, alongside whininess, body odor, freshmanliness, ugliness, ducklingliness, and the public display of affection) is enough to drive students mad (and angry ones glad) trying to find an appropriate drinking fountain. So, to aid all of the madmen in this school, here is the unofficial guide to IHS drinking fountains, sorted by building: G-Building has a delightful fountain upstairs which consistently has met or exceeded the highest national standards of watery excellence since its construction at the beginning of time. According to Genesis 0:12 through 0:16, “In the beginning, God created this fountain in upstairs G, along with the Declaration of Independence and the Elder Wand. It was sort of an artesian well at Continued on page 18

FEATURES

From the Archives: Excerpts From The Tattler Issues of Yesteryear Continued from page 17 the time of its conception due to technological limitations, but it spouted holy water. This fountain was the first body of water, and once God created the sun, it produced the first reflection. God, in seeing his own reflection, got the idea of making man in his own image, instead of strictly the image of that lamp from The Brave Little Toaster. Many thanks, fountain.” Unfortunately, God created the other G fountains as mere afterthoughts, none of which are exceptional in any way―rather like humans. K-Building: this building’s water fountains, as roughly one fifth of the students in this building would say, are the “creme de la creme,” which translates to “gustatory paradise.” These fountains are easily the best in the school, which would be great if more than seven students ever went into K. Pity. Unfortunately, the upstairs fountains leave much to be desired. H-Building has the fan favorite: the little fountain that could, but probably won’t. Sitting opposite Mr. Tuori’s room, this fountain waits for an unsuspecting student to become its prey. There’s an old saying that goes, “If peeing your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis.” Following this same logic, if having a weak stream is cool, consider this fountain John Coltrane. Advice for the thirsty: the longer you hold down the button, the stronger this little fountain gets. “Dear Genghis: Cult of Craig” Dear Genghis, On Friday I was walking towards the bathrooms in K-Building, when I heard some chanting coming from a nearby classroom. What I saw chilled my very soul and sent my psyche running, screaming, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” through the hallways of my mind. An old lady, perhaps two hundred years in age, sat atop a desk, dispensing sarcastic quips. Behind her lay a rack of shrunken heads and a blood stained machete. All around her sat her minions, scribbling on sheets of crude parchment, no doubt rendered from the flayed skins of her freshly slaughtered human corpses. They copied down every one of her unholy words. Occasionally one stopped and looked up, and timidly communicated a request in a half-English, half-savage pidgin. “What is the ellos subjunctive form of escoger?” “Escojan, stupid!” came her spiteful and trite reply. I quickly fled the proximity of the door, lest these cult members catch me and sacrifice me to their leader. What have I witnessed? How can I ever be sane again? -Scarred and Scared Dear Scarborough Country, You have seen the one thing in this world I fear: el culto de Craig. I have sacked cities, raised provinces, and slaughtered all the lords and sheiks from Korea to Baghdad, but the only person more ruthless, bloodthirsty and unafraid of the possibility of eternal damnation than I is Lana R. Craig. The worst of her transgressions is what draws her cult members to her: she teaches. What horror! What cruelty! To make lads and lasses think! If I were you, I would flee as far as possible. Perhaps you will have the illusion of safety in the Canadian Rockies, or the Tibetan Plateau. Good luck and Godspeed. -Genghis Khan

November 29, 2007 “Letter: Blood on All Hands” As most people know, our school has recently been tense. I first saw these tensions between urban black students and rural white students. I felt disconnected from this conflict, because I generally view myself as being very tolerant and as a child of the cultural and racial acceptance that Ithaca mythically embodies. I feel that there are many students who felt that they were not a part of the conflict, since they too view themselves as bias-free. Sadly, we are all wrong. There is not one among us who has not caused this conflict. True, I did not directly force the opposing groups to be angry at each other, but I would be lying if I said that I was not involved. This conflict was originally (and is still, I hope) about equal rights and treatment. We cannot preach this high ideal if we ourselves do not practice it. Who among us can say that we do not walk down the hall and notice the differences between the students? Who can say that they see everyone as equal? Not a person. November 1968 “Improbable History” The IHS cafeteria has won the “Federal Lunch Gourmet Award” for the month of October. The inspection team which visited IHS termed the cafeteria operation “outstanding” although they declined to stay for a meal explaining that they had “already eaten.” They rated IHS high in all categories. The school rated a top score in administration efficiency because the cafeteria has made money for the past three years. Methods such as putting leftover beans into the vegetable soup and selling leftover fruit a-la-carte have contributed to this record. Cafeteria staff members boast they haven’t thrown anything away in the last ten years. They also note that seeing hamburgers for the snack bar special every other day has helped to keep large numbers of students buying “type A.” Student reaction to this presentation was mixed. One wellknown brown-bagger stated simply, “They must be crazy.” However, soccer player Pat Cooke claims to enjoy federal lunches and felt the award was justified. Others conjectured that perhaps lunches elsewhere were even worse than those here, although many find this hard to believe. The majority of students have been indifferent to the honor so far. Dr. Graves has planned a pep rally in an effort to overcome this apathy but the prospects for improvements are dim. As one individual commented, “There just aren’t any gourmets in this school.”

FEATURES / ARTS

November 18, 1960 “Candidates’ Wives Clash in Kitchen” Suppose the national T.V. debates had been handled by the candidates’ wives. Here’s our result: Mrs. Nixon: My opponent has been guilty of malicious falsehoods and misrepresentations. Her statement that Macaroni Timbales should be made with only one-sixteenth of a teaspoon of salt shows great irresponsibility and lack of maturity. Under the Republican administration, pizza has been granted equal rights, the U.S. has led the world in the amount of T.V. dinners produced, and thanks to Ithaca High School, America has led the world in gross national consumption of ice cream sandwiches and donuts. Under a Democratic administration there would be strict government control. No longer would the housewife

add a pinch of salt or a dash of pepper, but say 46.72 percent of a teaspoon. The administration that brought America “Hostess Twinkies” will not fail it. Mrs. Kennedy: Under the Republican administration we have not moved ahead. I’m not satisfied when I see that Betty Crocker’s prestige abroad has sharply declined. I’m not satisfied when the fatality rate in home arts classes has risen 30%. I’m not satisfied when I see the Wienerschitzel and Suki-yaki do not have the same opportunities as the hot dog. And I’m not satisfied when the Russians are able to learn all our major secrets. If it weren’t for the Republican administration, we would still be the only nation in the world with jello. We are behind in vitamins A, B, C, D, and G, in iron, and in protein. And from the looks of Mr. and Mrs. Krushchev, the Russians are catching up to us in fats and carbohydrates. I say it’s time for a change.

Ithaca Murals

By CLARA WEBER

rowing up in Ithaca, it feels like I’ve always been surrounded by art in the community. Pretty much anywhere you go downtown, you’ll only be a few seconds away from a mural, sculpture, or other installation. For people our age, it may seem like this is how it’s been forever, but in reality, the majority of these works appeared after 2009. Caleb Thomas, the current head of the Ithaca Murals project, joined the Public Art Commission of Ithaca in 2008. As one of his first endeavors, he led the Underground Railroad Mural project located on Green Street. It was this success that inspired the Board of Public Works to give the green light to more murals and installations that would become the Ithaca Murals project. Now, Ithaca Murals is a group of local artists and community members who want to bring more meaningful art to Ithaca. It prioritizes minority creators, as well as people driven by social justice. While the works commissioned by the Ithaca Murals project only date back to 2009, the map listing all the murals in the city—180, according to the list on their website—records murals from as early as 1948 (the earliest being the mural lounge at New Roots Charter School). The list includes indoor and outdoor installations, displaying the artist’s name, the title of the piece, and the location, if the piece falls outside the borders of the map. Among the most recent additions to the Ithaca Murals project are The Kiss by Sophie Strang (Cayuga Street, across from Lot 10), Color Me by Kristin Dutcher (near the corner of Green Street and Cayuga Street), and We’re Not Really Strangers by Ava Troph (corner of S. Aurora Street and Hillview Place). Along with the newest (and oldest) items on the Ithaca Murals website, there are pieces middling in age that could be considered local landmarks. Number 159 on the list is the Planets mural and the World Map mural on the Fall Creek Elementary playground, and number one is the Two Row 400 Year Anniversary mural by Brendan Lazore, near the bus stop on Seneca Street. Kellie Cox’s Black Eyed Susans, number two on the list, can be seen on the parking garage on the corner of Aurora and Seneca Streets. Another local phenomenon largely taken for granted is the 21

Boxes project. Not officially a part of the Ithaca Murals project, the Public Art Commission selected 21 electrical boxes around the city of Ithaca to be painted. Each box is unique, bringing new life and vibrancy to the otherwise overlooked appliances. The boxes have a wide variety of styles, ranging from a giant block of cheese (Buffalo Street, by Dewitt Park and across from Greenstar) to starry acrobatics (on the corner of Buffalo Street and Geneva Street). My personal favorite of these boxes is Prehistoric Ithaca by Kurt Piller, located on the corner of E. Buffalo Street and N. Aurora Street, and is incredibly detailed with cleverly hidden icons throughout the piece. With nearly 200 murals in our city alone, I encourage you to take a day (or a weekend) to appreciate all of the amazing artwork around town. You wouldn’t even have to walk more than a few blocks to spot many of them! Visit ithacamurals.com for more information on some of the murals, to access the map, or to even apply to paint your own!

Nature Takes Over by Ruby Zawel

CENTERSPREAD

A Snapshot of IHS Today Curated by FRANCES KLEMM When do you wake up on a weekday on average?

5:00am 1.3% 6:00am 27%

7:00am 58.5% 8:00am 12.6% 5:30am 0.6%

The following is a snapshot of IHS right now, the lives of students. The data is collected from the 158 students who filled out the form in their emails. 37.2 percent of respondents were Freshmen, 23.7 percent were Sophomores, 18.7 percent were Juniors and 20.5 percent were Seniors. Some students also chose to give comments about the current school year. These comments can be found below.

Comments from students

"I feel that we should switch to a nineperiod day to allow for more electives, and for students to have a chance for a lunch period."

Do you have a lunch (or a study hall during a lunch period)? Every other day 5.1% No 19%

"I think that some of my homework is necessary but other homework is just busy work and we do the same stuff every day. It is hard as a person that plays at least one sport every season to make time for all of this busy work. And the only reason I have lunch is because I have a zero period. This means I cannot stay up all night doing homework because I wake up everyday at 6:20 in order to get out of the house in time to make my zero period class." "I spend a lot more time "doing my homework" than I do doing my homework. The distraction of social media can be quite alluring."

Yes 75.9%

Are you in a Study Hall? *Not during a Lunch Period Yes, more than one 8.2%

"What time I get home varies a lot based on when I have games, when practice is, when board meetings are, etc. so it feels like I can never get into an actually consistent routine." "I have different events on different days. Some days I get home at 4:30, some days I get home at 9. Really depends."

Yes, I have one 34%

No 57.9%

"Not only do I have homework at night but I have other tasks like folding laundry, cleaning, showering, practicing my instruments and eating dinner." "Some days I have no homework, and then on other days I have hours."

CENTERSPREAD

How often do you participate in a school club? 4 days a week 3% 3 days a week 17.2% 0 days a week 39.1%

2 days a week 16.6%

Comments Cont. "I get home at 4:40 pm every day except Thursdays, and on those days I get home at 6. And then I have to do all my Chemistry work, which is difficult for me, for a few hours. and then like two math assignments each night, which are also annoying. And then I also have chores at my house that need to get done by a certain time, too. And now I have no time to socialize because I have restrictions on my phone so I can't really talk to anyone after 9 pm, so I'm stuck with like half an hour of socializing and it's just annoying. I was looking forward to getting back to school and seeing people, but the actual learning and school part is annoying."

1 day a week 23.7%

Do you participate in a school sport?

What hour do you go to sleep on an average school night? 2am-3am 5.7%

Yes, 3 season 7.5% 1am 15.8%

Yes, 2 seasons 15.1%

No 57.2%

Yes, 1 season 20.1%

11pm 34.8%

12am 28.5%

When do you get home (or are done for the day commitment-wise) at the end of the day on a week day after activities/work? 9pm-11pm 10.8%

4 14.5%

8pm 7.6%

7pm 19.7%

How many hours do you spend on homework per night on average? 5 5.7%

4pm 14%

10pm 10.1%

none 3.8% 1 17%

5pm 29.9% 3 28.3% 6pm 17.8%

2 28.9%

Graphics by YASMEEN ALASS

ARTS

Squid Game: More Than Just Your Next Thriller Series By ALICE BURKE

Squid Game characters Cho Sang-Woo, Seong Gi-Hun, and Kang Sae-Byeok (l-r) Warning: this article contains mentions of violence, and possible spoilers

f you haven’t yet heard of Squid Game―the enormously successful and binge-worthy Netflix show from South Korea released in September―then you’ve been living under a rock ten miles thick for the past month and a half. And if you have heard of this masterpiece and still haven’t watched it…well, that may be an even greater offense. Perhaps you’re scared to watch the show because of all the hype it’s received, and you’re worried that it won’t live up to the high praise. Don’t worry, it most definitely will. I promise you that by the end of your nine-episode binge, you’ll be begging for a second season, just like the rest of us. Squid Game is a South Korean thriller that has gained popularity all over the world, officially becoming Netflix’s biggest original series launch in history. According to CNN, the show maintained the number one spot on Netflix for 24 days, and was viewed by 111 million accounts during that time. This release far surpassed that of Bridgerton (previously Netflix’s most popular series release) which, in comparison, was only watched by 82 million accounts worldwide within the first 28 days. Squid Game’s popularity is warranted: the show is easily one of the best of 2021, full of intriguing characters, agonizingly suspenseful cliffhangers, and sophisticated themes tying it all together. Squid Game is designed to rip hearts to shreds and leave viewers to fend for themselves against the emotional onslaughts that ensue after every single episode―and its loyal audience would not want it any other way. The show focuses on a group of deeply indebted individuals in South Korea who unintentionally enter the Squid Game, a deadly

competition offering incredible wealth to one lucky winner and certain death for everyone else. The competition consists of six rounds of children’s games, but with a twist: the losers of each game are killed on the spot. Every time somebody dies while participating in the games, the prize money increases, eventually reaching a sum of ₩45.6 billion (about $38.4 million). Because the players are able to terminate the games if agreed upon by the majority, this tremendous monetary incentive is crucial in maintaining motivation for many of the players, including Squid Game’s protagonist, Seong Gi-Hun. Gi-Hun is a deadbeat dad who enters the games to win money and escape from the threat of vicious loan sharks. What he thought would be a quick fix for his incredible debt soon becomes a matter of life and death in a competition quickly bringing out the worst aspects of human nature in many of the competitors. Squid Game is unique from other survival thrillers like The Hunger Games or Japanese action film Battle Royale because of its simplicity: the games played by Gi-Hun and his fellow competitors are children’s playground games, not intricate competitions that take half an episode to understand. Because the games are simple, the show does not need to spend extra time ensuring that the audience understands them, and can instead devote every possible second to the development of its characters. Possibly Squid Game’s greatest strength―of which there are many―is its ability to create not just characters, but people. The competitors in Squid Game are compelling and realistic, and display humanity in its rawest form. From Gi-Hun, the protagonist, the audience sees how good intentions and morals cannot save someone from the desperation and despair of bottomless debt. Sang-Woo, GiHun’s old childhood friend, displays the more deceitful side of human nature, showing the audience how many of us are willing to trick others and do whatever it takes to survive and come out on top. Finally, Sae-Byeok, Gi-Hun’s final ally and friend in the show, is the embodiment of true selflessness and loyalty. Everything she does is to save her family, and her bravery and heart of gold make her an easy fan favorite. Squid Game spends ample time exploring each of the side characters as well as developing major ones, creating unique personalities with individual motivations and backstories that truly help bring the show to life. Squid Game brings a refreshing new take to the oversaturated thriller genre. Between scenes of gore and death, an anti-capitalistic theme persists, elevating the show above others of its kind. The themes in Squid Game speak directly to young people in South Korea and the “get rich quick” schemes many have welcomed as a way to battle feelings of socioeconomic unease in an increasingly unequal society. This show primarily focuses on the financial distress of the competitors, touching on Gi-Hun’s job loss and the subsequent violence he suffered when he and his fellow workers went on strike. Gi-Hun’s story reflects South Korea’s anti-labor reputation:

ARTS to this day, only about 13.5 percent of the country’s workers are in unions, according to research conducted by Seoul National University. Also, KOSTAT (South Korea’s official national statistical organization) released that, in January 2020, the country reached a staggering unemployment rate of 27.2 percent among young people, and according to the Bank of Korea, the country’s household debt ($1.54 trillion) now exceeds its annual economic output by over five percent. These astonishing statistics help viewers understand why the majority of players in Squid Game return to participate in the sinister competition, even after walking free in the aftermath of the first game. As expressed by Han Mi-Nyeo, an often villainized side character in the show, the players are dying in the real world too, but at least by participating in the deadly games, they have a chance to win something for their troubles. Mi-Nyeo’s attitude reflects how capitalism creates an environment in which those desperate enough will do whatever it takes to make it to the top, and further conveys Squid Game’s critique on capitalism. Although originally aimed at the desperate, indebted young people of South Korea, Squid Game is a show that is able to resonate with people around the world. This show is not just a

survival thriller with underlying anti-capitalistic themes; it is a piece of art displaying humanity in all of its forms, from beautiful to destructive. Viewers can emotionally connect with the show’s compelling characters, and relate to the desperate situations they find themselves in as a consequence of a society split apart by social inequality and the greed of the rich. The ability of Squid Game to reach such a wide audience through its universal themes has created more acceptance of Asian (and especially South Korean) culture. For the past couple of decades, South Korean K-pop and K-dramas have been ridiculed, with claims that these forms of media are for teenage girls to obsess over. However, as Squid Game has gained popularity, more people from varying demographics have become increasingly open to other, less widely known or accepted types of South Korean entertainment. The massive success of Squid Game has also proven to its Western audience that a show does not need to be made in the United States with American actors for it to be the most popular show of the year. It can be directed, shot, and produced in South Korea with Korean-speaking actors, and still be more successful than any American show released by Netflix in 2021.

The Strokes’ Is This It Twenty Years Later By MANU BOSTEELS

Album cover for The Strokes’ Is This It Please note: Is This It (in italics) is The Strokes’ first album, whereas “Is This It” (with quotes) refers to the first song on that same album.

t begins enigmatically, with an eerie electronic riff reminiscent of a robot powering down. A simple drum beat starts up. Then, along with a straightforward guitar backing, Julian Casablancas’ cool, collected lyrics usher in the song’s true colors. This calm, mellow tone continues throughout; while there is a clear distinction between highs and lows, the range is limited.

This is, of course, the titular first song on The Strokes’ hit album Is This It. The ideal introduction to their masterpiece, “Is This It” hints at what’s to come. It gives you a taste of the skill of guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr, bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and how they mesh with Julian Casablancas and Fabrizio Moretti to create The Guardian’s second-best album of the 21st century and Time’s best album of 2001. Yes, this album is twenty years old. No, I have not been a fan of the album since its release—it was nearing five years old when I was born. Don’t let that turn you away from a fantastic album, though. I only came across The Strokes last year, when a good friend first recommended “Someday” from this very album. During the (ongoing) pandemic, The Strokes released The New Abnormal, and that album helped convince me of their abilities. Check out “Eternal Summer” and “Bad Decisions” in particular, but I digress. Is This It continues with “The Modern Age,” my favorite song on the album (“Hard to Explain” is a close second), and a proper presentation of The Strokes’ range throughout the album. Like “Is This It,” “The Modern Age” is an accessible introduction. Unlike the former, “The Modern Age” is more of a bop, and will unequivocally have you tapping your foot or bouncing around. Casablancas’ singing is friendly and the guitar line is addictively fun. While repetitive, the song is easy to follow, and stays balanced enough to avoid falling into the zone of annoying predictability. Continued on page 24

ARTS

The Strokes’ Is This It Twenty Years Later Continued from page 23 “Soma” is quite the trickster. Again, it begins relaxed, but this one picks up pace substantially quicker. Between “Is This It” and “Barely Legal,” the subsequent track, the songs consistently increase in beats-per-minute, which contributes a wonderful rising sensation to the album. Furthermore, in “Soma,” the highs are significantly more pronounced. Casablancas’ lyrics become louder, his voice rises, and it is clear that the album is climbing up to its peak. Is This It shines in its cohesion; the songs are expertly calibrated to have a similar cool and easy going feeling, but have sufficient variation that the album does not seem like a single song. I don’t want to give detailed information about every song; half the fun in checking out a new album comes from clicking through different tracks and seeing which one fits your taste best. Approaching something like Is This It might seem daunting, as any amount of research into the album returns detailed articles on its role in the revival of guitar bands, the connection between The Strokes and [The] Velvet Underground, and myriad other questions that may seem pedantic or fussy. But that’s my point: this album is just good. I don’t know the history of rock, I don’t listen to [The] Velvet Underground, and I still love Is This It. If any of these descriptions sound appealing to you, check it out, and I guarantee you’ll find something you like. Careful,

though. The Strokes can be a slippery slope, a sort of musical vortex that keeps you hooked and doesn’t let go. In a 2015 interview with The Guardian’s Dave Simpson, Strokes producer Gordon Raphael notes, “[Julian Casablancas] wanted his voice to sound ‘like your favourite blue jeans—not totally destroyed, but worn-in, comfortable.’” That is a wonderfully accurate description of the album. Is This It is familiar, easy, and foolproof. After a long day of school, putting in my earbuds and clicking the green play button is not something I need to consider. I know I like it, and even though I haven’t listened to much else over the past couple of months, I don’t like it any less. The Strokes produced something genuinely satisfying and, yeah, comfortable. Great albums are commonplace. Great songs, even more so. But it is rare for there to be albums that can withstand constant repetition. All too often, a month or so of listening renders an album bland, dry, or downright dull. Is This It lies among the selective offering of albums that just don’t get old. More impressively, it is thriving even in the grey area between new and classic, a realm many albums don’t survive. Just consider: it made enough of an impression that a high school student felt the need to write about it, twenty years after its release. The Strokes must have done something right.

Taylor Swift? More like Gaylor Swift: A Playlist of Taylor’s Queerest Songs By HANNAH SHVETS and RAIA GUTMAN “Betty” - Folklore his song being a women-loving-women (WLW) song shouldn’t be up for debate, but apparently people still interpret this song as “Swift writing from a male point of view.” Mm-hmm, that’s what they all say. Swift herself claimed this song was from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy losing his first love, but it sure doesn’t seem like that. The song is—at least in my interpretation—about a girl in a relationship with her closeted friend, Betty, who gets jealous when she sees Betty with a boy, and cheats on her. She sings about “the worst thing that she ever did” and refers to herself as James, but the one time she uses he/him pronouns is when she sings about how it all went wrong when she “saw you dance with him.” Swift later goes on to sing about another girl pulling up in a car as she walked home and going home together, betraying Betty. Although on the outside it does seem like a 17-year-old boy who cheated on his girlfriend and is now begging for her back, hearing Swift sing about this girl she’s in love with and wants to kiss and love in public hit home for me. The lyrics “Will you love me? Will you kiss me on the porch/In front of all your stupid

friends?” is emblematic of a queer love and the internal struggle with sexuality. Oftentimes, queer teens have to face the struggle of being in love with, and in a relationship with, someone who is not yet ready to come out. Not being able to be in public with your significant other and having to hide who you are isn’t an uncommon experience for LGBTQ+ high schoolers. “Delicate” - Reputation This song had some queer themes, but it took some digging to really convince me that it is NOT about a heterosexual relationship. Swift starts out with common queer-coded tropes, such as having to keep relationships private to protect your reputation, as well as being scared to show your feelings. The line “My reputation’s never been worse” immediately made me think of rumors around her sexuality and her desire to cover them up, and the elements of secrecy in the lyrics “Dive bar on the East Side, where you at? Phone lights up my nightstand in the black, come here; you can meet me in the back” couldn’t be gayer. She later sings, “Is it cool that I said all that? Is it chill that you’re in my head?” which is the classic thought process of a woman falling in love with another woman she isn’t sure is gay.

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Enough said about the lyrics themselves—we all know Swift loves her easter eggs. Model Karlie Kloss and Swift have been friends for almost a decade, with the spotlight constantly on their ups and downs. Many fans were thrilled when pictures came out in 2014 that appeared to show Kloss and Swift kissing at a concert, although it’s definitely up for speculation. Reactions ranged from jealous men and their blatant homophobia to the not-so-uncommon fetishization of WLW relationships, which are seen as forbidden, inherently sexual, and targeted toward the male gaze. Furthermore, many parts of Swift’s songs seem to be about Kloss. In “Delicate,” Swift sings, “Third floor on the West Side me and you!” while describing her relationship with a lover. Guess who happens to have had an apartment on the West Side of Manhattan with bedrooms on the third floor… “Dancing with our Hands Tied” - Reputation Swift back at it again with the secret love trope. Seriously woman, how do you expect us to still think you’re straight with lyrics like “I loved you in secret” and “People started talking, putting us through our paces, I knew there was no one in the world who could take it, I had a bad feeling.” I’m aware this is around the time she started dating Joe Alwyn, and it’s been agreed most songs on Reputation are about him. However, even if Swift isn’t singing about a specific WLW love interest, it’s very possible she included these lines as hints, or to leave her songs more up to interpretation. “Wonderland” - 1989 Unsurprisingly, one of my favorite songs growing up was “Wonderland,” with the iconic lyrics “Too in love to think straight” and “Haven’t you heard what becomes of curious minds.” This song is also very much up for interpretation as a WLW song, although many think the song refers to her romance with Harry Styles. Additionally, the mention of green eyes has been pointed out as another reference to Kloss. Other fans claim the song is actually about her friend (maybe lover) Dianna Agron—who is said to love Alice in Wonderland, have the tumblr URL of “we fell down the rabbit hole,” and a tattoo that says, “we’re all mad here,” potentially a play on the lyric “And in the end in wonderland we both went mad.” I don’t know much about their relationship, but I can say that “Wonderland” has always felt very queer to me, with the once-again favorite Swift trope of secret/forbidden relationships. “Seven” - Folklore Folklore is full of songs Swift sings “from the male perspective.” In reality, this trope of male-POV love stories has been used for centuries to allow women to express attraction to other women. “Seven,” on the other hand, is blatantly autobiographical, narrating an intimate friendship with another girl in her childhood. Along with the trope of the male perspective, close female friendship has appeared countless times to render the reality of romantic and sexual WLW relationships more benign. Swift’s portrayal of this female friendship is one of romance, whether or not she truly had a romantic relationship with her friend at seven. The song has themes of secrecy, escape, and perseverance of love. Swift quite literally refers to the closet in which her friend

must hide. Her suggestion that her friend “... come live with me and we can be pirates” reflects the historical need for queer people to escape heterosexual social norms, often with a life partner. Finally, the lyric “Passed down like folk songs, our love lasts so long” mirrors the Sappho fragment, “Someone, I tell you, will remember us, even in another time.” Put together, these themes build a narrative of two girls in an intimate friendship, one of whom must hide from disapproving parents, who fantasize about running away together and their love outliving them. “Dress” - Reputation “Dress” is a song about a façade of friendship. The speaker and her lover are assumed to be best friends, but in reality, their relationship is characterized by “All of this silence and patience, pining and desperately waiting.” Despite their obvious closeness, there is an intimate side to their relationship that must be kept from others, one that only surfaces in “secret moments in your crowded room” and in private, when they spill wine in the bathtub, kiss each other’s faces, wake up together, et cetera, et cetera. The thing that makes this song queer is the fact that “best friend” is a gendered term, as it is most often used to refer to two women. The lyric “I don’t want you like a best friend” is reminiscent of one of the best-known lesbian songs of all time, Tegan and Sara’s “Boyfriend.” “Boyfriend” is also about a secret relationship that treads a fine line between platonic and romantic—it features the lyric “You treat me like your boyfriend, and trust me like a—like a very best friend.” Whether or not this is a deliberate reference, the dynamic expressed by “Dress” is distinctly queer. Honorable mentions of queer-coded songs by Taylor Swift are “I Know Places,” “Gorgeous,” “Paper Rings,” “Illicit Affairs,” “My Tears Ricochet,” “August,” and “Love Story.”

Scan this Spotify code to listen to the full playlist!

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Femme Fatales: Breaking Down Gender Norms in the Music Industry By ADDIE HOULE-HITZ

ithout meaning to, we often put people in boxes. Regardless of whether or not we know them, human beings tend to blindly assign certain traits to a person. One such trait is femininity: no matter one’s true identity, we are often placed into the box of either feminine or masculine, pink or blue. Expanding on that femininity even further, one then gets the accompanying sexism and blatant disrespect they wouldn’t receive if they were masculine-presenting. For feminine people in music, the constantly over-sexualized and dark world of the music industry is no nightmare that they can wake up from—it’s the reality of their environment. In an interview with Billboard Magazine, Madonna stated, “If you’re a girl, you have to play the game. You’re allowed to be pretty and cute and sexy, but don’t act too smart. Don’t have an opinion that’s out of line with the status quo. You are allowed to be objectified by men and dress like a slut, but don’t own your sluttiness.” This perfectly sums up the glaring hypocrisy of what is expected of feminine people in the music industry. Not only are they expected to be beautiful, sexy, and glamorous, but at the same time they aren’t allowed to truly acknowledge how badass they are, or they will seem too full of themselves. Ego is a huge issue in the world of music. While men are celebrated for acknowledging and celebrating their own accomplishments, femme (feminine-presenting) people are put down for patting themselves on the back. As a result, they are constantly pitted against each other. For example, take Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift’s spotlight at the 2009 Video Music Awards. After Swift won the award for “Best Female Music Video,” West interrupted her speech to say that Beyoncé should have won instead. After this incident occurred, both Beyoncé and Swift went public about the fact that there were no hard feelings, with Beyoncé commenting, “I didn’t know this was going to happen, I feel so bad for her.” Both women in this scenario had no malicious intent but were pitted against each other at one of the largest nights of the year in the music industry. To take a brief pause from the world of pop, let’s dive into the barriers set up for feminine people in classical music. While it’s true that some walls are starting to be torn down, this is only the beginning of a long road. Having been a femme presenting person in low brass myself, I can talk firsthand about how intimidating it can be. Walking into a room with an instrument that may be the size of you or larger and everyone looking at you as the only femme in the entire section is absolutely terrifying. There was a point in my life where I was the only one playing that specific instrument in the entire school, and I was pushed a thousand times harder because of it. I had to be better than the

guys, because if I wasn’t, then I was letting down all feminine presenting trombone players. That pressure is an insane amount of weight for anyone, much less a child, to feel. The phrase, “You should join, we need more girls,” is not one with which I am unfamiliar. It was never, “You should join because we need YOU,” it was, “You should join because we need the diversity points.” There was always this underlying emphasis on the fact that I was femme, not on my talent, and that it’s such a rarity to see someone like me get as far as I have. So what do we do? Do we diversify? How do we do that without leaving some people out? I’ll answer those questions with another: would it really kill us to start conducting completely blind auditions for ensembles? Before we even have the chance to see whoever is auditioning, this would allow us to judge them on what really matters: their musicianship. We as humans put people in boxes. Being a femme classical musician means you are automatically an anomaly, something that is either totally desired or completely unwanted, and you’re all these things without having actually performed yet. Feminine musicians are badasses, not because they are feminine, but because they are incredible artists who should first be seen as such.

Over-Exposed Tree by Ruby Zawel

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SPORTS

Girls’ Varsity Tennis’ Talia Shaw on COVID, Balancing Commitments, and Future Plans By TANIA HAO

enior singles player Talia Shaw has been playing tennis since the third grade and has been on the IHS Girls’ Varsity Tennis team for three years. She loves playing the sport and is having an amazing season this year as the team’s top singles player. After a year and a half of uncertainty, Talia has appreciated having a semi-normal season and getting to know everyone on the team. Although tennis is very individualistic, she especially enjoys spending time with her teammates. Tania Hao ‘24: This is your first year playing singles, which obviously requires a lot of independence and determination. What’s your thought process like going into and during a match? Talia Shaw ‘22: I would say my main focus is mostly on staying in the moment and not really worrying about what else could be going on. Whenever people watch me—I’ve had quite a few spectators at some of these matches—usually they would be making me nervous, but my main focus at that moment is trying to tune that out and just trying to stay focused on what exactly is going on on the court and just playing the game. There aren’t that many thoughts going on in there, which maybe isn’t the best, but just getting the ball in. TH: Sectionals and Southern Tier Athletic Conference (STAC) finals are coming up. How are you feeling going into those? TS: I am a bit nervous and a bit excited as well. I’m really looking forward to team sectionals because I feel like I really enjoy the team aspect of the sport more than the individual aspect. The individual sectionals feel like a lot more pressure and almost not as enjoyable because it’s only a you thing—one person moves on and the rest of the team doesn’t. You don’t really have anyone with you. But I’m really looking forward to team sectionals because I feel like having the rest of the team to share the experience with could be really enjoyable and beneficial. STAC finals I’m excited to play just because that’s with everybody and I really just enjoy being with the team. TH: How did you start playing tennis? TS: My parents both have played for a few years, so it was more like a family sport. My parents were like, “Oh, we play this, maybe she should play,” so I guess it was that. I took lessons with two of my friends, and we just took lessons and did clinics together. It wasn’t a consistent time of me playing—I played third through sixth grade and then stopped, then picked it back up halfway through my freshman year. It was really just something I could do for fun, and then I was just like, “Oh, maybe I’ll do this in high school.”

Talia Shaw (Image courtesy of Fiona Glenn-Keough) TH: How has COVID impacted the team and your play this year? TS: I think this year, it’s been better than last year was, at least. It kind of has lessened the amount that you can get to know people, at least. It’s made me a little shy on trying to get to know and introduce myself to other people on the team. I feel like with that whole year-and-a-half-long gap of not being in school, there were a lot of faces that were totally new to me and I didn’t know anything about anybody, so then going in and having to meet that amount of new people on a team like that was semi-stressful. But I would say for the most part it’s been a bit better to have more of a normal season this year in general, so at least having a fullsized team and normal matches and everything has been good. TH: The girls’ tennis team has been undefeated for three seasons in a row. What are your thoughts on that? TS: I feel like it’s a pretty good accomplishment. For us, I think that one side of having that reputation in a section may add a bit more pressure, but it could be taking off the pressure because I feel like other teams going in to play us are probably a little more nervous. I guess technically that could serve as an advantage for us if they’re already nervous, but honestly, it’s just something to be proud about, having a team that’s been that consistent and a team that has so much depth in their playing ability, not just

SPORTS they have a few good players. Everyone on the team is really good, and having that depth and skill of all the players on the team, I think, is the main reason why the team is doing so well. I would say that having the team aspect of it brings everybody together more because having so many people who can play so well makes it so it’s not on a few players. Everyone’s contributing to the same wins, which I think is super conducive for a team environment. TH: With multiple matches a week, being on the team is a huge time commitment. How do you balance tennis with other activities? TS: You know, right now, I’m not doing my best job at that. I mean, it’s really important to section off time after practice and matches to sit down and do your work and also incorporate time to have a social life and take care of your own mental health. I would say I personally focus more on the “taking care of myself” aspect than the “doing the work that I should be” aspect, but I’m learning to get better at it. I’m planning out my day instead of just kind of going with the flow, so I’ll section off certain amounts of time for certain activities that I need to be doing based on if we have matches or practice or anything like that. Also, taking advantage of weekends is a big one. TH: What were your goals going into this season? Have you accomplished them yet? TS: Going into the season, I think my goals were mainly to just have fun and focus on the team aspect of it. I was definitely not expecting to be at some of the same levels as some of the other top singles players. In past years, some of the top players have been a lot better than me, so I was expecting to lose a lot more than I did. But mostly just go in and have fun and play your best game, which I would say still are my goals, because winning is not everything and I don’t really enjoy winning all the time. The balance is very important. I have definitely accomplished most of it because almost every match that I’ve played I have thoroughly enjoyed. Also, I’ve gotten a lot closer with many, many more people on the team, so I think that’s a success. TH: What is the most important thing you’ve learned during your tennis career? TS: I would say remaining in the correct headspace while you’re playing is the most important thing for me, because if I let my emotions get control of me, then I won’t be able to correctly play how I normally would. Just really remaining calm with a positive attitude—I’m just here to have fun, it’s ok, shake it off, not really worrying about the what-ifs and the possibilities instead of what’s actually happening. I guess self-determination and talking yourself up.

to know so many different people; I think it was a lot easier to. Maybe this is coming from me, a senior and a captain, but I feel like there’s a lot more of actually interacting with people and getting to know everybody on the team rather than just the people you already know. So I guess the social aspect was great, and now I have a lot more friends who are not just in my grade and my friend group, and it’s a whole community. Last year, I feel like I did not meet a single person that I didn’t know. I would only interact with people that I knew, which probably wasn’t great and I probably should have been more outgoing, but this year is better. TH: What’s your favorite thing about tennis? TS: I would say the outlet that it provides for me; having some way to get physical activity in and exercise. Also, maybe this is me being biased, but being able to swing at something, like at a ball, anything like that, gets out a lot more emotions than something like running would. It’s kind of a way to decompress, maybe after a day of school, so I think it’s really great that our practices are after school. I can just get all my emotions out by going and swinging around a racket, which I think is pretty fun. TH: What will next year look like for you? Are you going to keep playing tennis? TS: It depends on if I’m in college or taking a gap year. If I’m not at school I’ll definitely keep playing for fun, depending on where I am physically—if I’m still living in Ithaca or somewhere else. If I’m at college, I think I will be playing on a club team if that’s a thing at the school that I’m at. So if they have a club tennis team, it’s kind of an outlet for all my emotions, everything like that. Also, being at college is another way to make friends and make a community, and being on the club team could do that, so I think I will definitely keep playing but I’m not sure where exactly. TH: What’s your advice for newer tennis players? TS: Mostly just sticking with the sport if you find it fun. Also, I don’t want to sound repetitive, but making sure you’re building up your mental skills just as much as your actual tennis playing skills. It’s just as important because if you let your emotions take control on the court, then it’s just not going to work out that well. I would say have the mindset of trying to have fun on the court and not just to be there to win or to play your best. It could be helpful for people to keep that in mind if they’re not already thinking about it. Note: The Girls’ Varsity Tennis team won STAC as of 10/28!

TH: What are your favorite things about the season so far? TS: I guess getting to know each other, especially in comparison to last year, when the team was a lot smaller and not as many people joined just because it was during COVID—not a normal season, no normal matches. Also, I feel like everybody was generally closed off last year during the season, just because maybe they were a little scared to interact that much, especially since we hadn’t seen anybody in such a long time. I would say getting

Apple Fest 2021 (1) by Luna King-O’Brien

SPORTS

Women’s Soccer Deserves Attention By ADAM SAAR

Vivianne Miedema dribbling through Chelsea defenders, (image courtesy of 90min)

occer was my first love. I started playing when I was seven—it was only natural considering that I’m the son of immigrants, and soccer is the World’s Game. I began actively following the professional game when I was 10, after the 2014 FIFA World Cup. I started supporting Arsenal, the North London-based team my friend’s family supported. For too many years, however, I was blind to half of the sport. Until 2019—when I was in ninth grade—I only followed the men’s game. I had watched the U.S. demolish Japan in the 2015 Women’s World Cup Final, but I still remained ignorant to Arsenal’s women’s team, the most successful team in English women’s soccer history, and to the entertaining and competitive women’s club soccer tournaments and leagues in Europe. I started following women’s soccer more closely after the 2019 Women’s World Cup, and my eyes were opened to an unknown world. I came to realize that women’s soccer was rapidly expanding in Europe—especially in the UK—and that Arsenal had a plethora of world-class players on their roster, including superstar Dutch striker Vivianne Miedema. This was a welcome revelation and source of joy to compensate for the men’s team’s chronic underperformance in recent years. I began watching the English Women’s Super League (WSL), and it certainly does not disappoint. Many soccer fans, in their defense for not paying attention to women’s soccer, claim that the game is too slow, too sloppy to enjoy. While women’s soccer is perhaps played at a slightly slower pace than the men’s game, at the top level it is undoubtedly just as technical. It’s also interesting to see the game played in a slightly different tactical way than in the men’s professional game. The slower pace of the game makes for intense tactical match-ups where the use of space and coverage is emphasized, and positional play is emphasized even more than in the men’s game—making women’s soccer an ideal watch for young players who seek to learn from the pros. In continuing to ignore the women’s professional side of soccer (and sports in general), society is continuing to refuse female athletes the same level of priority and recognition that male athletes receive, from the professional level all the way down to youth recreational leagues. Just as exceptional male

athletes can work towards their dreams of making an incredibly lucrative living from playing the sport they love, female athletes should be able to do the same. Where male soccer players in England can make a living from the sport playing in the fourth division of English soccer, female players can only do so in the very top division, and even then it’s comparable to the amount a fourth-division men’s player can expect—yearly salaries ranging from £20,000 to £200,000 (about $27,000-$270,000). In comparison, Premier League players—the men playing in England’s top league—earn, on average, over four million dollars a year. Of course it would be impossible to pay WSL players that much currently due to the amounts of funds it generates. However, we as a society must give more of our attention and money towards women’s soccer—and women’s sports in general—in order to offer all young athletes the same opportunities to play the sport they love. The fact of the matter is that once a fan lets go of the expectation that the women’s game must be exactly like the men’s—that women’s soccer is slightly slower, that women basketball players don’t dunk as much—the sport is by no means an inferior product. In addition to just giving me more soccer to watch—my favorite pastime—following women’s soccer has also offered me a view behind the scenes into both the day-to-day lives of professional athletes and the struggles women face in male-dominated industries. In an initiative to bring more eyes to the sport, UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) created We Play Strong, a social media initiative that highlights the behind-thescenes of women’s soccer. Their weekly vlogs—hosted by West Ham player Lisa Evans and her girlfriend, the aforementioned Vivianne Miedema, among others—offer fascinating glimpses into the lives of professional athletes. It also highlights the conditions women in professional soccer face, from having to use small academy facilities to playing in tiny semi-professional stadiums, women soccer players face unjustly poor working conditions in comparison to their male counterparts, even within the same club. This is even a bigger problem in the U.S. where women’s soccer teams don’t have the same support of large professional men’s teams as many European clubs do. In recent years, the world has begun to open up to women’s soccer on a larger scale, but the sport deserves more; only more widespread attention can bring the necessary funds into the sport. In the United States, many women’s soccer games and leagues are free to watch online—WSL games are streamed free on the FA Player, with the occasional game on NBCSN; the UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) is free to watch on DAZN’s Youtube channel; and the NWSL (National Women’s Soccer League, the top women’s league in the U.S.) is available on CBS Network and Paramount+. At almost any point during a weekend one could watch a WSL (morning/midday) or NWSL (afternoon/evening) game, and UWCL games are played midweek (Tuesday-Thursday). Only once women’s soccer receives more widespread viewership can we expect the sport to be able to grow and provide for its players the lucrativity the men’s sport offers, and it is up to us, the fans, to get it there.

SPORTS / LITERARY

What Sports Mean To Me By LORELLI CERVANTES

o me, sports are a way to connect with other students in the school. It is so much fun to be a part of a team and work together on something that you love. I love volleyball, basketball, and softball. Basketball can get stressful because it is a fast-paced sport where you have to make a lot of quick decisions, but part of the game is learning and growing. Sports are a fun way to stay active, whether you’re playing for the school or just on the side. Let’s be honest, unless you are one of those people who go to the gym every day, have a protein shake for breakfast, and a salad for dinner, it can be difficult to stay in shape. Many students want to get fit but either don’t have the motivation or discipline to actually start working on it. By playing a sport, getting and staying in shape can be made fun. You get to learn a new activity and maybe even fall in love with it. As a bonus, you get to share it with other people. You and your team play against other teams from other schools and get better together.

Some Letters to Authors Who Make Me Want to Scream, Cry, and Smile By HANNAH SHVETS In typical Hannah fashion, when it came time to sit down at my laptop and write a letter for National Author’s Day, I found myself stumped on whom to choose. I could go with authors who shaped my childhood and gave me unhealthy obsessions that last to this day (Cassandra Clare), those who wrote amazing things but turned out to be highly problematic (Murakami and his notso-subtle pedophilia and objectification of women), and authors I have absolutely no complaints towards, personally or with their writing (Donna Tartt). Instead of choosing one, why not do them all? Dear Cassandra Clare, I read your first book when I was 11, huddled in the library of my small private school with my best friend. I’m still reading the Mortal Instruments series to this day—you release books faster than I have a chance to read them. Eighteen books, hundreds of characters, the span of several centuries, these books were the stories that I grew up with. I can’t say that the books were particularly well-written or unique, but you have a way of making your readers associate a bittersweet nostalgia with the word “Shadowhunter.” I’ve heard plenty of claims about plagiarism, and there’s the obvious, highly uncomfortable incest and abusive relationship plot lines you tried so hard to convince 13-year-olds all over the world were completely O.K. but anyways... Thank you for giving me this beautiful, magical universe you created to grow up with. I can’t put into words how impactful it was for me to grow up with the countless queer characters, strong women, and friendships you intertwined throughout your books. And yes, I absolutely will be that 18-year-old who goes and gets a tattoo to commemorate her favorite YA series. Thank you, Hannah Dear Murakami, Seeing the way you write about girls my age makes me a little inclined to not start a letter to you with “dear,” but I’ve never

Tiger’s box by Grace Lim Continued on page 32

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Some Letters to Authors Who Make Me Want to Scream, Cry, and Smile Continued from page 31 been the best at using other words. I won’t deny that one of the best books I’ve ever read was written by you (specifically Kafka on the Shore), but the more I delved into your writing the more uncomfortable patterns I began to notice. As Noemi Donenfeld (‘23) said in a TikTok comment so well, “I love him but then he’ll go from magical realism to talking abt some prepubescent girl’s nipples…” Anyone who’s read your books is bound to notice this common theme. You can’t even describe an important female character without mentioning some random body part of hers you admire (like her ears), and often go an entire book without giving a woman a name (instead, you’ll refer to her as “my girlfriend” or “the woman with the hat”). I can’t say it doesn’t make me uncomfortable; the feminist in me is constantly irked by the way women in books like The Wind Up Bird Chronicle or A Wild Sheep Chase serve as simply sexual beings to fulfill the needs of the main male character, or as some sort of mysterious guide through an internal battle. I haven’t read every book you’ve released—perhaps there are books in which women are given a more important role instead of just being plot devices. However, you’ve admitted in interviews that you don’t see a problem with the way you describe women and don’t plan on changing. At the end of the day, good writing is good writing. I intend on continuing to read books you write, but I’ve been left overall disappointed and disillusioned with you as a person. Sincerely, Hannah Dear beloved Donna Tartt, If I had to name two books that “touched my soul” the most, I would say The Goldfinch and The Secret History take the cake. The Secret History convinced me to do a 180-degree-turn on my life plan (from going to medical school and becoming a surgeon in a big city to moving to a liberal arts college in the middle of nowhere and studying Greek mythology and English literature). There’s nothing I love more than the pretentious humanities students friend group trope, and Francis, Charles, Camilla, Richard, Henry, and Bunny are the blueprint. The Secret History is an overall beautiful book, a psychological thriller of sorts that delves into the deepest and darkest parts of a person’s mind. You capture the dynamics of a troubled group of friends spiraling into insanity together so well. A slightly less dark (but deep nonetheless) book by you that I loved was The Goldfinch. It’s a huge book—a real challenge to take on reading—but so worth it in the end. I absolutely adore books that follow a person through their life like this one did, showing all the ups and downs—from the pain of losing a parent to struggle with substance abuse and sexuality. I remember the very day I finished reading this book; it was the day my grandfather died. The fifteenth of January: I had finished my work in English class early and was reading. Just a few hours later, I was called out of school to come home and mourn with my family. In a way, having this book on my mind really helped me to cope with losing a loved one. It had such a bittersweet ending and view on death and loss—it was like a warm blanket around my shoulders as I said goodbye to the first person I ever really knew who died. You inspire me to write and make me want to read. Yours truly, Hannah

Forsaken Flower By LOUISA MILLER-OUT A fever rushes screaming through the air That evil thing that dominates the sky It singes me with every scorching glare The arid earth is burnt beyond repair The best laid plans of humans gone awry A fever rushes screaming through the air The farmers’ bones have almost been picked bare How could they leave me here alone to die? It singes me with every scorching glare My leaves are parched, with not a drop to spare I swear to god I’ve never felt so dry A fever rushes screaming through the air I’m rooted in that solar soldier’s stare A bloodred, bloodshot, never-blinking eye It singes me with every scorching glare Beyond the dusty haze, just over there I swear there’s an oasis, would I lie? A fever rushes screaming through the air It singes me with every scorching glare

Close-up Lily by Ruby Zawel

LITERARY

Odessa By Addie Houle-Hitz The lights are blinding. That’s the thing that nobody ever tells you about your first appearance—that the lights feel like they could burn through your eyes, leaving gaping holes in their wake. Odessa relies on them being blinding, if she’s being honest. She relies on the squint that they will force her to produce, the look of “small-town-girl wonder” that the press will catch on their cameras and publish in their magazines and newspapers. She lives for it, savors it like the last bite of something sweet, loves to see her name in bold. Not that she ever lets them know, of course. The persona of SWEET GIRL, SNATCHED UP BY HOLLYWOOD BIG-WIGS is an act she plays well. One she puts on every day before she leaves her penthouse apartment that her studio pays for. There’s no better press than pity. It just so happens that her family came into a very large fortune when she was at the prime age to begin small acting jobs. Odessa was always praised for having a “young face” when she was young, and it meant that studios could hire her for roles younger than she actually was. Do you need a sixteen-year-old to star in a TV show? Well, child labor laws mean that you can’t hire an actual sixteen-year-old for the amount you want to work her but here! It’s Odessa Saint-Clarke, and she can pass for sixteen! Frankly, Odessa could pass for far younger if she’d wanted to, but it was her big break into the industry, and she relied on the fact that she was the poor thing, the young girl who couldn’t tell New York City from Los Angeles if she tried. Now, Odessa’s twenty-two. Although her birth certificate says otherwise, she tells the late night talk show hosts: “Twenty-two. Y’know, I’m still getting used to this big city, but y’all have been so kind to me.” She makes sure to draw out the word y’all in a lilting voice, far different from the one she uses at home. “Home? Oh, gosh, well what do I think of when I think of home?” She puts a perfectly manicured finger to her chin in a mock musing pose. “Well, I guess I think of the small town where I was raised.” An eye flicks to the audience. Odessa leaves room for a sympathetic awww. “That’s right, folks, Spicewood!” “That beautiful Texas town?” the host asks, beaming at her. She wishes he’d stop his beaming and how he’s letting his eyes wander. She smiles back at him with ten times the playful glimmer in her eye. “No Mr. Jones, I mean that beautiful South Carolina town.” She playfully bats at his arm, and she wishes he’d stop asking questions about the backwater city she grew up in. “Please, call me Johnny, and I can’t say I’ve heard of it.” “Not many can, Mr. Jones,” she says. Odessa knows she’ll get an earful from her publicist if she doesn’t lay on the polite southern charm. “But I must say, it’s a gorgeous little place. Everyone knows everyone else. Hi, Deb.” She gives a shy little wave at the screen. “You hear that, folks? Odessa Saint-Clarke, always remembering the little people.” A fluorescent blue light blinks on that says APPLAUSE, and Odessa is hit with a wave of sound. She blushes and tugs at her skirt, giving a sly smile to her agent offstage. After the host has bid everyone goodnight, he slides her his

phone number across the desk. Odessa gives him a small smile and contemplates telling her agent to tell his wife, as she’s done countless times before. When men who are forty years the senior of the girls they hit on, their wives normally want to know, but she decides to leave this stone unturned and throws the number in the waste bin on her way out the back door. There are a few stragglers who she says hi to and agrees to take pictures with. She’s sure she will get forwarded an article from some tiny blogger later about how nice she seemed and how she really did smell like apple pie. She likes when that happens. Odessa returns to her apartment at one in the morning and slides off her Mary Janes at the front door. It’s cold and dark in her apartment; every surface is marble or tile, white on white on white, blinding during the daytime and horribly depressing at night. She sighs as she goes to her fridge and pulls out a single cupcake and places a candle on top. She lights it and walks to the kitchen island where she sits and watches the flame crackle skyward before blowing it out. It is Odessa Saint-Clarke’s 30th birthday.

Apple Fest 2021 (2) by Luna King-O’Brien

Apple Fest 2021 (3) by Luna King-O’Brien

LITERARY

Flora: A Duet By Natalie Patrone Rhaine I’ve never been brilliant with my emotions. I understand them. I can rationalize them. They’re almost tangible in the safe cavities of my head. Expressing them is the issue; friends and family are too personal to share my feelings with. Thinking about it now, that might not make sense, but nothing makes sense when I verbalize it. I don’t need professional help, really. I just need an outlet for all of the feelings I’ve accumulated over time, which is why I visit the flower shop every day. That’s the one break from my monotonously spontaneous existence. The one bit of order I can hold on to. It started months ago, when my aunt bought me a book that documented the secret language of flowers. I had considered it infantile at the time. Who would want to know what a yellow lily meant, as opposed to a tiger lily? I thought little of the small book at the back of my closet. I almost forgot about it (I’m sure Auntie Sally found it at some yard sale clearance section), but I saw the flower shop’s sign, and I dug the book out. I don’t really understand why I did it in the end. Maybe to entertain some childish fantasy that I hadn’t let go of. Maybe because, somehow, I knew what was to come if I did. Entering the shop was a heady feeling. The increase of temperature and humidity hit me seconds before the overpowering scent did. The smell of all the flowers combined was slick and sweet and clung to the back of my throat and brain. At that moment, any complaints I had about a boring job and the numb feeling of solitude that haunted my life took a back seat. They were still there, just less upfront. It was just me and the flowers. I thumbed through the small book, the pages barely the size of my hand. The illustrations of various flowers started to blend together as the pages flew by. I gradually stopped on one page, staring at the flower pictured. Candytuft. The flower looked like a mass of small, purple petals. It looked pretty enough, I supposed. I read the small print below the illustration. The yellowed pages made the words difficult to read, but I made out the words “lack of interest” and “disappointment.” I scoffed. How had I found the flower that described my life on the first try? I walked to the counter and asked the clerk for a bouquet of candytufts. The clerk gave one to me, and I carried the wrapped bouquet outside. As I stepped out of the shop into the fresh outdoor air again, I realized how stupid I had been. Buying a bunch of flowers because of some childish expression of my feelings? That was a waste of six dollars. It’s not like buying those idiotic purple flowers helped. They smelled bad anyway. Stupid! I threw them on a nearby bench and stomped away, only looking back once. The next day, I passed the bench and the flowers were gone. Samuel The first time I found the flowers, I was feeling awful. The type of wallowing melancholy that swallows all of your steps and furrows your brow. It was one of those days in which you wake up on the wrong side of the bed after missing the alarm, end

up tripping and stubbing your toe while spilling your coffee on your favorite shirt, and become late for work in the process. I felt that my feelings were valid and justified. Then I saw the purple flowers laying on the bench. The paper packaging was crinkled, and some of the flowers lightly damaged. I recognized them immediately as candytufts, an unusual choice of flower because of their generally unpleasant smell. I was immediately transported to feelings of indifference and disappointment. Not that I was feeling these emotions at that moment, but it was impossible to forget how I knew the specific meaning of this flower. I wondered if the person had bought them because they knew the meaning too. Floriography, or the secret language of flowers, had been my secret little hobby for the majority of my life. I don’t remember when I had originally become aware of this secret and beautiful language, but I know that I can’t remember a time before it. Maybe the person knew exactly what the flowers meant, or maybe they didn’t. I had a feeling that they had known what they were doing. At the time, I equated it to some sort of melancholic bond that the two of us shared. In a fit of inspiration, I took the flowers and rushed back to my house. The flowers looked even more wilted by the time I had reached my door. I quickly filled up a glass jar and stuck the stems into the water. Then I placed the flowers near the window. After a few minutes of staring at the bouquet, I left once more. To this day, I don’t know exactly why I took the first flowers. But I never regretted that decision, even after months passed, I had collected numerous other bouquets, and that first bunch of vibrant purple flowers had faded to brown. Rhaine Every day after that first day, I’d buy another bouquet and realize how weird it was, subsequently leaving it on that bench. Every time I’d see the bench the next day, the flowers were gone. Some merciful garbage collector probably picked it up. Part of me was grateful, the other part sad. My bouquets were meaningless. I knew that already, obviously. But there was a part of me that wished for some sort of recognition. That’s probably why I had a bunch of yellow carnations nestled in between my hands and my chest. I didn’t even need the book to know that they symbolize rejection and loneliness. Today was different. I stood dumbfounded in front of the bench (MY bench): this was the first time someone else was occupying it. For some reason, I hadn’t ever really thought about what I would do if someone was on the bench. No one had ever sat on it before, in the months that I had come here. Because of this, I had the only natural reaction someone in my situation could have. I froze. The person sitting on the bench wasn’t special-looking. He had normal clothes, extremely normal shoes, a perfectly normal demeanor, and an almost overly normal haircut. The only out-ofthe-ordinary factors about him was the fact that he was politely

LITERARY sitting on the edge of the bench and that he held a bouquet of flowers in his hand. I squinted to see the contents of the flower package, and upon noticing, I stopped in my tracks. Zinnias, bluebells, and daisies. Samuel I knew it was risky. I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew that after months of silence, I had to approach the person who bought the flowers. I left my apartment a few minutes early and entered the small flower store. After several minutes of contemplation, I decided on three, and the clerk wrapped them for me. All I had to do after that was wait for them. And then they came, holding the

yellow carnations. They froze. Looked at me, and then my flowers. I smiled and outstretched my arm to give them the flowers. They continued to stare blankly at me. “They’re for you,” I prompted. They finally took the flowers tentatively and inspected them closer, a gloss covering their eyes. I pretended not to notice. Then, they looked up and gave me a watery smile, and I knew it was worth it after all. Zinnias: friendship Bluebells: gratitude Daisies: new beginnings

Fields of Asphodel By Louisa Miller-Out

I still remember the day my best friend told me she loved me. We were sitting in the window seat of the abandoned library where we used to meet after a long day’s work; me mending and tailoring clothes all day and her tilling fields and sowing seeds. One of the happiest sights in the world was to see her grinning at me with a piece of hay between her teeth, perched on a fence but poised to hop down and go have an adventure together. Somehow, she always found time to wash the dirt from under her fingernails and pluck the hayseeds from her clothes, and she looked immaculate that afternoon in the dusty sunlight as she reached toward the yellow rose pinned to my dress. “Delia, I’m afraid I have to take this back,” she said with mock sorrow. “But why?” I replied, confused in earnest. “Well, it simply doesn’t reflect my sentiments toward you anymore.” My throat seized up and my face took on an angry flush. “Did I do something wrong? I thought our friendship was iron-clad,” I sputtered, trying to seem nonchalant though my voice was quavering. “No, darling.” And then I saw the red rose grasped between her long, graceful fingers. My nerves melted to nothing, like butter dissolving into a warm piece of bread. But now I could see her anxiety in the way she bit her full bottom lip and the tremor in her usually-steady hands. For a moment, all moral qualms about what I was doing were alleviated by the rush of affection I felt towards Asphodel, so radiant in her loose white cotton shirt and her surprising vulnerability. And I took the rose and pinned it over my heart.

II. I still remember the day she took it back. I had been refreshing the rose periodically so she could see my love for her in full bloom whenever we met. I practically sprinted to the old library each day just to spend a few hours in romantic delirium with her, where no one was around to see but the iridescent hummingbirds feeding on honeysuckle outside the windows. But that day, she seemed withdrawn and mournful, and when I asked what was the matter she seemed on the verge of tears. And without a single word, she plucked my precious red rose from my lapel and replaced it with a black one. III. I still remember her every time I go back to our library, even more overgrown and beautiful now than it was then. And every time I stroke the velvety petals of the black rose on my chest, it’s almost like I’m touching her skin again. Even when she was covered in hives, the fever couldn’t tarnish her beauty, right up until her final breath.

Close-up of a turkey feather by Ruby Zawel

LITERARY

Haiku Contest! ALEX JORDAN Can’t believe I’m here. Fallen on the final year. Nothing left but fear. No rest by SAM SACHS Quiet winning streak Aways time is fleeting, but— Never dare to cheat Autumn Stirring by SAM SACHS Winter’s bath of root Seasoned fair, for those that care Comes the season’s soup TARAN KNUTSON

Pictures of school (2) by Adina Wilensky

november haiku i really do not want to poems are boring EVAN JAMES I think it’s been 4 Maybe 5 now that I think 5 Fire alarms ADINA WILENSKY Tomorrow, always reaching for Tomorrow. but never for today. LORELLI CERVANTES Studying reading Working hard to pass these tests So much stress no sleep ANONYMOUS Moving can be hard You leave everyone you know And make new best friends ANONYMOUS No interaction Quarantine made me insane Tick tock time was slow

Fall Tree by Rhiannon Galloway

INSPIRING THE NEXT GENERATION TO DARE BIG. Explore the achievements, adventures and discoveries made by women in American paleontology over the past few centuries in our special exhibit, now on view through December 2021.

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EDITORIAL

Predictions For This Year’s Thanksgiving Feast, According To Your Horoscope By Alice Burke Scorpio (Oct 23 - Nov 21):

Taurus (Apr 20 - May 20):

You’re going to become this year’s champion of your family’s ultra-competitive game of Settlers of Catan and win the entire turkey for yourself! Congrats!

You’re going to be very upset when your aunt decides to make the mashed potatoes chunky this year. What blasphemy! Mashed potatoes are meant to be CREAMY!

Sagittarius (Nov 22 - Dec 21): For Thanksgiving dinner, you’ll try to make candied yams without a recipe. Unfortunately, they’re going to come out as sugary rocks and will be too hard to eat.

Yay! Family time at last! You won’t have to tell all your jokes to your stuffed animals anymore—instead, you’ll get to tell them to real people! Cancer (June 21 - Jul 22):

You’re going to facilitate a who-can-eatthe-most competition with your family and force yourself to consume four plates of food because you’re determined to win.

You’ll become the family therapist this Thanksgiving, even though you’re the one who needs therapy the most. It’s okay—you’ll be able to ease your stress by eating all the stuffing.

Aquarius (Jan 20 - Feb 18):

Leo (Jul 23 - Aug 22):

You’re the favorite among all the little cousins, and this year you’ll finally decide to make the most of it—by leading a pie-tasting cult and making your cousins feed you pie.

Family karaoke night this year will be your time to shine: release the Rihanna and Beyoncé, and get ready to party!

Pisces (Feb 19 - Mar 20):

When your uncle says goodbye this year, he’ll be leaving with a sprained ankle and broken toe because he tripped over the mountain of dirty laundry in the middle of your living room.

Aries (Mar 21 - Apr 19): Even though you know it’s dangerous, you’ll bring up politics with your extremely conservative extended family just to stir the pot and get into an argument. For fun, of course.

Cool :) Mr. Barnes Thanksgiving Break

Gemini (May 21 - June 20):

Capricorn (Dec 22 - Jan 19):

Sadly, you’re going to lose the family game of Go Fish for the first time in four years, and you’ll respond to this loss by crying in your room for half an hour.

The Coolness Spectrum

Collage Concert Land Acknowledgement Giving out KN95s Changing Bells Forced Password Changes

Virgo (Aug 23 - Sep 22):

Clocks That Don’t Work Locked Bathrooms

Libra (Sep 23 - Oct 22): This Thanksgiving, you plan on being the most helpful grandkid ever to exist—not because you actually want to help, but because you need to be in your grandparents’ good graces when the winter holidays come around.

Study Hall Rules G Hallway

Uncool :(