The Spectator Pulse of StudenttheBody”
NEWSBEAT
Ryan Lee and Amanda Cisse: Leaders of the 2022-2023 Student Union
Located directly outside of the auditorium, the mural is adorned with an assortment of vibrant blues, oranges, yellows, and greens along with abstract shapes resembling people and numerous musical instruments. There is a hidden reference to SING! to go hand in hand with the performance elements of the music department and theater on the first floor. The letter “S” in the shape of a mi
For the student body, Lee and Cisse plan on improving com munication through strengthen ing and expanding their outreach platforms. “We are trying to
SpectatorThe/ZhaoZifei
Science teacher Gilbert Papagayo and his stu dents Ying Chen, Abigail Chung, Jessica Lin, and Mia Haas placed first in educational portal PCB101’s video challenge
see page 11
The senior class took part in the traditionalSenior Sunrise event on September 8.
Along with providing a tran sition period to the new school year, Lee and Cisse are also in tent on distinguishing them selves from prior administra tions through addressing the power dynamics within the SU. “From what I’ve seen, especially last year and the previous two years, [the SU] has just been this sort of strand of bureaucracy,” Lee said. “There was this weird chain of command [that] execu tives higher-ups of the SU would establish, making it seem [like] a bureaucratic thing where people are telling others what to do.”
The SU leaders have also chosen to improve the former SU structure by including more underclassmen in higher posi tions. “In past years [...] a lot of the upper board were all seniors, so when those seniors graduate it leaves us with [few] people who can rise up and fill [cabinet and executive council] positions,” Cisse said. “I am excited we have underclassmen [that can] bring [their] perspective to the table.”
from her, I started working on the design [with] two other stu dents in my art class, Eleanor andWhileEugenia.”creating the design for the mural, the artists drew inspiration from a variety of artistic sources, including the banner located above the 7-9 escalator. “We definitely took inspiration from that banner because we loved all the fun shapes and colors,” Leung said. “We also wanted it to be very Kandinsky-inspired.”WassilyKandinsky was a Russian painter known for modern Western abstract art that focused more on depicting emotions rather than recogniz able objects. He started paint ing in the abstract style in the early-20th century and derived his distinctive art style from listening to music. In order to combine these two sources of artistic inspiration, the art ists chose to create a colorful and abstract mural located just outside of the hallway of class
Stuyvesant High School Newspaper Volume 113 No. 1 September 8, 2022 stuyspec.com
“We spent every day during art class just sketching out ideas,” Shen said. “We were trying to figure out the colors [and] what aspects we wanted to in clude because we had a lot of elements we wanted to put in it, like [representations of] the chorus, the piano, guitars, [and] variousAdditionally,instruments.”the planning process was protracted by the students’ need for approval from administration. “We had to draw out the design and de cide on colors and we had to run it through all the teachers in the music department and they all had to approve,” Leung said.
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In order to establish an envi ronment in the SU that fosters coordination and collaboration, Lee hopes to entertain more in put and decisions from directors and members alike. “A major different approach we are try ing to do this year is to make SU much more grassroots,” Lee said. “We are trying to be as col laborative as we can by [...] hav ing our team along with every single process and project, and every single move in the project comes from a result of the dis cussion amongst a bunch of dif ferent people.”
Class schedules were released to students on September 2, earlier than in previous years.
FEATURES
rooms belonging to the music department.Thethree artists all men tioned the lengthy planning process, involving trial and er ror, while designing and incor porating colors for the mural.
The
Prior to beginning any artistic work she sought approval to paint the mural from teachers and administration as well as assistance from her classmates.
Currently, the SU is in the process of planning annual events that occur in the first se mester to aid the back-to-school transition. “Amanda and Ryan are already pretty deep into planning. They’ve mostly been focusing on things that happen earlier in the school year like merchandise-selling and Boo grams,” senior and SU Chief of Staff Jady Chen said.
Does Social Media Build Community or Cults?
By TALIA ARCASOY, KARA YIP, and ALLISON ZHAO
Currently students as young as sophomores are involved, but Lee and Cisse also plan to incor porate freshmen once the school yearLeebegins.and Cisse also plan to increase transparency as a re sponse to the lack of open com munication with the Stuyvesant student body, another concern emerging from last year’s discus sion of corruption and nepo tism within caucuses. “We’re
The design for the mu ral was created by three se niors: Eleanor Leung, Eugenia Ochoa, and Julia Shen. Shen thought of this idea after being unable to help with the fourthfloor mural since it was to be done by a professional artist.
“We Regret to Inform You…” Students share what they regret (or don’t regret) most about their time at Stuyvesant.
Despite housing the main entrance, the first floor of Stuyvesant High School is not frequently visited by the major ity of the student population except for the music depart ment classes chorus, band, and orchestra. Thanks to the dedi cation and artistic endeavors of student volunteers and the administration, the first floor fi nally received artwork intended to reflect the lively nature of the music department.
After an uncontested spring election, senior Ryan Lee and junior Amanda Cisse were ap pointed as President and Vice President, respectively, of the 2022-2023 Student Union (SU).
Camp Stuy Part Twowas held for incom ing freshmen and soph omores alike on August31, and for parents on September 1.
tinuation of last school year’s goal to increase the number of gender neutral bathrooms. “A major thing we targeted last year was increasing gender inclu sivity,” Lee said. “The Student Leadership Team made a lot of progress in adding gender neu tral bathrooms. We’ve added some in the staff offices and are looking to change that into an actual public bathroom for stu dents.”
Social media companies push users into the alt-right pipeline to ensure engagement and user loyalty, leading to more profit for said companies and disregarding the violent aftermath.
Introducing The First Floor’s New Musical Mural
see page 6
“The
crophone lies at the center of the mural in an effort to in corporate the musical part of Stuyvesant’s culture. “There’s curtains, there’s people in an audience, there’s musical instru ments, there’s music notes. It’s a very all-encompassing view of what happens in that wing,” art teacher William Wrigley said.
maximize our use of video plat forms [including] TikTok, SU YouTube, and working with our communications and graphic de partement to make sure we are using interactive videos and put ting content there,” Cisse said. “Just recently, we worked with the Clubs and Pubs Department to start up StuyActivities’s Ins tagram because we are realizing that the rules page on StuyAc tivities is [...] not digestible for students.”Furthermore, Lee and Cisse’s major focus on inclusivity will also be seen through their con
“Once the APs were finished, I started talking to the adminis tration and [Assistant Principal of World Language, Art, and Music] Ms. [Francesca] McAu liffe about the idea,” Shen said. “[And] once I got approval
In the 2021-2022 school year, Lee served as SU Vice President while Cisse served as Sopho more Caucus Co-President.
By KAI CHRISTINASARAHCAOTHIEN,DIAZ,andWANG
really trying to up our presence on social media and have more information about all the mem bers of the Student Union, espe cially regarding some problems like corruption and nepotism last year,” Chen said. “This year we’re focused on keeping our re cord really clean and organized, making sure people know that we’re here for them and we’re also ready to listen to them.”
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OPINIONS
Chow encourages students to do what they can if they are passionate about the cause. “Going beyond the Instagram reposts, going and learn ing about information, what you can do, signing petitions, being informed, being well educated, learning about what little steps you can take. I know that there are a lot of volunteering organizations, for example, escorting people from clinics,” Chow said. “It’s really whatever you feel comfortable with, but make sure to show your support now, especially when support is really really needed and show leg islators and politicians that there is a rallying support of abortions and be ing pro-choice.”
By MOMOCA MAIRAJ, PETER GOSWAMI, and ZIFEI ZHAO
PageNews2 The Spectator • September 8, 2022
Students are no longer re quired to fill out a daily health screening before en tering the school building.
Masks are required to enter a school’s medical room, nurse’s office, and any school-based health center.
Khan also used former Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was known as a very progressive justice, to illustrate the difference be tween his personal views on abortion and the legal decision made. “If you look at even Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she was a very pro-choice Supreme Court justice, but she thought that Roe v. Wade was a very poor legal de cision [that] is separate from her own personal beliefs,” he said.
Students also recognize the im plications that this decision makes for other previous court decisions. “I think this is just a gateway into turn ing around same-sex marrige or inter racial marriage and those issues and it’s really really scary,” junior Isabella ChowStudentssaid. acknowledged the privi lege of living in New York, a state that generally protects the right to abortion. “I think we’re very lucky to live in NY, especially because our current governor, Kathy Hochul, has pledged to keep women safe from abortion bans, and she ran on that as one of her main campaign promises for this upcoming election. Abortion safety definitely isn’t secured, but we are in a much safer position than oth ers,” Kathawala said.
Junior and President of the Pa triots club Jackson Mushnick also agrees that the overturning of Roe v. Wade was justified under the Consti tution, but critiques the conservative responses that he has been seeing.
The Stuyvesant administration will continue providing a form in which students and staff members are encouraged to report their positive cases. Schools must then notify the Situation Room, which will contact school communities with daily e-mails and up-to-date Daily COVID Case maps.
Multiple students had sugges tions as to how Stuyvesant students should respond to Roe v. Wade being overturned. “Stuy students need to really take this to heart and protest as much as they can. I’ve seen a ton of people posting infographics and oth er information on social media about the issue, but I think every student should get to a protest and write to their elected officials as well to really demonstrate solidarity and commit ment,” Kathawala said.
Students are no longer required to be vaccinated in order to attend school. However, high-risk PSAL sports and high-risk extracurriculars including football, volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, band, chorus, and theater will require vaccination.
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and NASA
Freshman Reem Khalifa believes this case highlights the reforms need ed in the Supreme Court, especially since the nine judges get to serve their role for their entire lifetime.
The Euro, Europe’s main currency, dipped below the value of the dollar, dropping to its lowest value in 20 years
Students and staff exposed to a positive individual should take two tests on the fourth and fifth day since exposure while monitoring for symptoms.
are going to be disproportionately af fected by this ban on abortion,” they said. “Also, clinic defense is impor tant because in New York City, right now [...] in the center of Manhattan, there are massive marches of Catho lic people to Planned Parenthood to harass people going into this clinic.
Students and staff who test positive for COVID-19 are required to self-isolate for five days before returning to school. Upon returning to school, they must wear masks for up to 10 days after their original positive test.
A large percentage of students have expressed disappointment to ward the Supreme Court ruling. “This is a huge attack on a gigantic portion of our nation’s rights. Obviously, this doesn’t just concern abortion,” junior Daria Minhas said. “This concerns birth control. This concerns other forms of contraception.”
WORLDBEAT
To show support for those af fected, many students have been re posting infographics and social media posts surrounding the issue. Howev
Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 22, 10 states immedi ately reverted their laws to a complete prohibition of abortion. Stuyvesant students commented on their reac tion to and thoughts on this historic overturning.
White House’s chief medical advisor and infectious disease ex pert Dr. Anthony Fauci will be stepping down after more than 50 years in service to pursue the next step in his career.
making sure that people are aware of everything that we need to know.”
California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) voted to ban the sale of newly produced gas-powered cars in the state by 2035
Despite not being of age to vote, some students have found ways to take action. “Originally for our Dave & Busters fundraiser, our original charity was Pencils & Promise which basically goes to expanding access to education, which is also a really amaz ing cause and everything, but with the news, I initially felt so powerless that there was nothing I could do at all,” junior and President of Key Club Isabella Chow said. “[Now the funds are] all going to the national network of abortion funds which connects over 90 different smaller funds of charities, most of which goes to high impact communities, such as indig enous communities, black commu nities, low-income neighborhoods, going to support clinics or covering transportation costs.”
President Biden approved a student loan forgiveness plan, can celing $10 thousand in debt for Americans earning less than $125 thousand each year and $20 thousand for low-income students eligible for federal Pell grants. This plan will also reduce loans for federal borrowers in the future
Some students are pro-choice, but also support the Supreme Court ruling because they believe that states know what is best for their people.
Beyond fundraisers, many stu dents such as Kastoun, Minhas, and junior Lea Esipov have responded to the ruling by participating in the re cent protests. Kastoun described her experience at the Washington Square Park protest on June 24: “It was awe some in that so many people of all genders [were] there. Everyone was really pissed. We all wanted to do something. There was definitely that sense of unity, of like, this is a huge movement, of hope that they ac complished something, of hope that legislators get their [EXPLETIVE] together.”Minhas described their personal involvement in the protest alongside Esipov, emphasizing that anyone has the power to spur a movement. “I noticed that when half the crowd wasn’t too loud, and wasn’t getting all riled up, I decided to worm my way through the crowd, climb up on a fountain, and just start to make some noise,” Minhas said. “I had a lot of people coming up to Lea [and I] afterward, asking us what organiza tion we were part of or like how else people could get more involved or come to future events. [...] I just think it goes to show that we don’t really need an organization to be doing this kind of stuff.”
“The legitimacy of the court has just totally shattered with this, because they are overturning a precedent from 50 years ago, because they got political,” senior Nour Kastoun said.
Najib Razak, Malaysia’s former Prime Minister, was convicted two years ago of his involvement in a multibillion-dollar cor ruption scandal and will now serve a 12-year sentence after his final appeal was rejected.
Students’ Response to the Overturning of Roe v. Wade
Mask-wearing remains optional but is strongly recommended by the DOE, especially among individuals who were exposed to COV ID-19, are immunocompromised, or are in a crowded indoor setting.
Multiple students have seen this ruling as something that has under mined trust in the Supreme Court.
er, Khalifa believes that sharing infor mation online can be very tricky, and people should take caution whenever reposting information on social me dia. “Sometimes there’s a lot of mis information being spread. Like one thing I saw was someone posting the addresses of the SCOTUS on TikTok and also their credit card information, which obviously isn’t gonna do any thing because [the SCOTUS] are pro tected by a lot. I guess it’s good, but it doesn’t really do anything. The most you can really do is donate, when you have the means.” So far, she and her friends have organized a bake sale afterschool, and they were able to donate over $1,000 to the National Network of Abortion Funds.
By XUEMING LI and SHARON ZHOU
“There [are] a lot of social programs that [conservatives] are not willing to adopt because of their own econom ic ideologies that would allow these people to build families and be able to support a pregnancy,” he explained.
2022 Returning to School COVID-19 Restrictions Updates
Schools will not be administering COVID PCR tests in-person. Instead, students will receive four COVID tests every month and can request ad ditional COVID tests if they are symptomatic.
Many students’ reactions include anger mixed with fear and disap pointment. “I’m incredibly angry and so, so sad that this has happened. I feel like our generation has gotten to watch every single bit of prog ress that’s happened over the last 50 years be completely dismantled and laughed at, and this has been yet an other injustice to add to the growing stack,” junior Anna Kathawala said in an e-mailJuniorinterview.LianneOhayon added on, “I think it’s just a complete disregard for bodily autonomy and the right for us to control our bodies. And it’s re ally scary when you have a country that can’t protect those ideals.”
School Chancellor David Banks issued plans to spend $27 million on replacing filters in over 160 thousand air purifiers across the city, and ventilation will be monitored daily. Ventilation Reports for Stuyvesant High School can be viewed by searching the school in Find a School, where a Building Ventilation Assessment can be found on the school’s page.
COVID-19 vaccination is mandatory for visitors and staff members working in De partment of Education (DOE) buildings.
[...] As teenagers with our own will and our own desire to protect abor tion, we need to be out there at those clinic
Ohayondefenses.”thinks that it is vital for school communities to provide edu cation and discussion after this mo mentous ruling. “I think we need to provide quick equipment or informa tion and support,” she said. Ohayon praises the free contraceptives and health education at Stuyvesant, but believes this case should also be dis cussed in all social studies classes. “I think, again, facilitating these open conversations is really important. [...] I feel like a lot of times we can get snippets of information, [from] dif ferent news outlets, some news out lets that radicalize information that make it really skewed, and [instead, we should] understand the full scope of who’s going to be impacted the most, how can we support things,
Esipov listed additional ways for students to show that they care about the issue. “Definitely donate if [you] have the means to but donate cau tiously, and donate knowledgably, and donate proportionally more to groups led by people of color because they
In a similar vein, Mushnick be lieves in the importance of having civil discussions in classrooms and other settings. “I don’t think it’s the job of teachers to necessarily force one political view over another. I think they should be conduits for rich discovery for open discussion. Some great teachers, as I’ve said, their class es are all about kids expressing their views [and] being able to really talk without fear,” said Mushnick.
“It shouldn’t be up to the Supreme Court to be making this decision. It is the Supreme Court’s duty to interpret laws, and it is up to Congress and the representative bodies to produce laws and pass laws,” junior Sayeb Khan said. “I think people in the state know what’s best for the state, so whatever the people in the state vote for should be what gets passed.”
“[The Supreme Court] is not going to provide us change or satisfaction in the next few years unless one of [the judges] either passes away or re signs. I do think [the Supreme Court] should be expanded because I per sonally wouldn’t want nine people in control of my body, or the things I can do or say, or how I live my daily life. And I do think there should be term limits,” Khalifa said.
Page 3The Spectator • September 8, 2022Advertisement Register for Classes Email:Owww.KwellerPrep.comatce:1(800)631-1757Info@KwellerPrep.comFALL,SPRING,ANDSUMMERPROGRAMSNewlyExpandedFacility!KwellerPrepZoom Fully Online - Live Group Classes Course Materials Delivered Door-to-Door Kweller Prep Queens 108-22 Queens Blvd; 2nd Floor Forest Hills, NY, 11375 (Queens Blvd and 71 st Road) Advanced Test Preparation Grade 3-12 ELA, MATH, SHSAT, ISEE, PSAT, SAT, ACT Kweller Prep o ers Zoom Online courses in all subjects. Advanced Test Preparation in Small Group Settings. 15-year Established Learning Center with Proprietary Textbooks. 14-week ELA/MATH, Hunter, SHSAT, TACHS, ISEE, SAT, ACT, AP, AMC, and Regents Fall & Spring Classes. 7-week Hunter, SHSAT, ISEE, PSAT, SAT, and ACT Summer Camps. Hebrew, Spanish, English, and Chinese Lessons Available.
—Kohl Shepherd, junior
“My personal opinion is that every one should be wearing a mask this school year. I certainly will be. The pandemic isn’t over until it’s over. This thing is serious, and I will con tinue to treat it as such for as long as it takes, no matter how much of a small inconvenience it is to my personal happiness and comfort.”
“I’d feel more comfortable taking off my mask briefly for drinking water, eating, [or] whatever the case may be than I was for most of last year, but ultimately I still plan to keep it on. I would have kept it on even without the recent uprising of monkeypox and polio, but I feel like it emphasizes the idea that there’s a big pandemic happening. More people are probably going to take theirs off next year though, so I guess the weirdness of the adjustment would depend on how many people around me keep theirs on.”
semester ended. Though it was finalized as a result of spirited collaboration, the painting pro cess did not come without chal lenges. Due to the medium with
Some students who have seen the mural believe that it was a great addition to the first floor. “It makes it seem
Is Masking Off the Table for Students in the 2022-2023 School Year?
“I think that it’s safest to enter the school year with our masks on. I’m sure that we’ll quickly get an idea of whether or not we really need them based on the infection rates we see in the first few weeks, but why not play it safe at first?” —Yarza Aung, junior
—Oleksandr Kurtianyk, sophomore
—Allison Lee, senior
know that the Vice President gets to serve,” Cisse said. “I was really excited because they do a lot of valuable work with the gender neutral bath rooms and we are looking to expand the SLT department.”
PageNews4 The Spectator • September 8, 2022
which the artists were working, the students had to make sure that each color was separately painted onto the wall, which re quired great attention to detail.
“I personally will not wear a mask any longer since I find it unnecessary as COVID cases have died down and it is only at a fraction of its strength compared to peak times. If the vast majority are wearing masks, which I really do not think will be the case, I would probably wear a mask even if it is just to put others’ minds at rest. Even if monkeypox became more widespread, I would not mask up, as it literally doesn’t help in any way or form against exchanging bodily fluids.”
“A lot of people seem to be acting like COVID’s over, but it’s really not and it’s a lot safer if everyone just wears one. I think [the emergence of monkeypox/ polio] will definitely increase mask-wearing because everyone’s worried about them, but also it might make people scared of going back to in-person. I am not go ing to unmask, [since] there is so much going on and I really just don’t feel safe doing that, and I think that effect will take a long time to go away.” —Arielle Eber, sophomore
“I’m completely supportive of mask-wearing, especially in crowded indoor spaces like Stuyvesant. Though peer pressure will always affect me to some extent, my hope is that my judgment around mask-wearing remains mostly unclouded. That said, I do think seeing others wear ing masks can be a reminder to put yours on and take any precautions around COVID that you may have forgotten such as sanitizing or so cial distancing. If COVID levels get low enough that the very mild discomfort caused by wearing a surgical mask stops being justified by the benefits it carries, I will stop wearing a mask. It seems increasingly unlikely that COVID rates will drop to that low of a level so my mask will stay on for the foreseeable future.” —Galen Jack, freshman
“Other people don’t really impact my opinion, [so] I feel very confident in my own decision to keep it on. The only thing that could make me stop masking would be a dress code change making it so you can’t wear masks and then I’d have to abide by the rules. Otherwise masks are essential for me at this point.” —Fishan Chowdhury, junior
thing with blending and shad ing, they would have been able to paint consistently through,” Wrigley said. “In this case, [we had to] get down all of the blue
like the first floor isn’t as gaunt as it used to be. It would be a good exercise for [the artists], definitely a good stress reliever, and we could have more mu rals that are more interactive so more people could participate,” sophomore Krystal Khine said With the successful comple tion of the first floor mural, the art department and students alike are looking forward to adding more murals through out the school in an effort to pay tribute to other academic departments and hone in on the artistic talents of other Stuyvesant students. “It would be super cool to do another mural in a different part of the school,” Leung said. “It’d be so fun if we were able to create this legacy of kids who banded together to paint things in the school because we obviously have so much area to work with.”
“I do wear a mask, and I highly doubt I will stop wearing one in the middle of the school year because I have gotten COVID before, and it’s really not fun at all. If COVID cases were down to less than 10, then perhaps I will take my mask off, but for now, I’m keeping it on.” —Judy Namkoong, sophomore
—Stanley Zheng, senior
“I’m definitely going to mask when I get back to school, but if it’s in a less crowded hallway, I’m not going to wear a mask as much. I feel like less people are going to wear their masks though, and I think less people will wear it in class. I honestly don’t really care if people wear their masks or not.”
The two express excite ment about working on the Student Leadership Team (SLT) team. “I had been inter ested in SLT since my fresh man year and I actually didn’t
“I’ve never done anything that huge before,” Shen said. “And I’ve never really had a direct ing experience, I guess, where I was the one telling people what should be going on.”
SpectatorThe/ZhaoZifei
—Kate Alvarez, senior
“My plan is to wear a mask the first month in and depending on how many of my peers wear a mask, I will decide whether or not to take it off for the fol lowing months. But hopefully, I plan to stop wearing a mask due to being more comfortable without a mask over the summer.”
“Personally, I will continue wearing my mask, but if others choose not to, I would understand and support their deci sion. I would like to believe that it’s fully my decision, but in reality peer pressure might be a factor. Monkeypox and polio aren’t necessarily airborne so masks wouldn’t help as much in staying protected; however, [their] emergence was a reminder that COVID is still around and [that] we should try to stay safe. Depending on the situation with COVID and others’ masking status, I may unmask at some point during this school year.”
By THE NEWS DEPARTMENT
Introducing The First Floor’s New Musical Mural
Ochoa, who was in charge of scheduling, explained how
After a little more than a month, the mural was com pleted shortly before the spring
sitioning from the caucus to the SU, the pair have man aged to learn from each other and establish a concerted dy namic. “I wasn’t aware of the administrative side of Stuy Activities, [such as] the rules on the StuyActivities page and even technical permis
sions for sending e-mails,” Cisse said. “I think [Ryan]’s been very good at commu nicating things that I need to know and making sure we are set for the year.”
“If we were working on some
In light of Lee and Cisse’s many ambitious plans for the upcoming school year, Chen has high hopes for the part nership. “[Lee and Cisse] have an amazing cabinet and they both have the drive to work for SU,” Chen said. “Because they have that [ambition], no matter what their dynamic is, they’ll get so many things done this year.”
After acquiring their paint ing materials, the three students worked alongside student vol unteers to begin painting the mural. The next step was to gather materials, such as brush es and rollers, and mix cus tomized colors for the mural. Then, the design then had to be transferred to the wall through a grid system to add paint one tile at a time. “We just stenciled out the designs onto the wall,” Leung said. “We split the origi nal picture into three by three grids and we transferred that onto the wall with charcoal to see where the objects would be and then we used paint to actu ally paint it.”
areas and then we let it sit for two hours, and then we paint the next two areas, and we let that sit for two hours.”
Ryan Lee and Amanda Cisse: Leaders of the 2022-2023 Student Union
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While Cisse has faced some difficulties with tran
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—Arko Chakrabartiroy, freshmen
“In terms of mask-wearing for COVID, I think we can keep it as it was during the latter part of last year (mean ing have it be optional). I would say ‘better safe than sorry,’ [but] mask pollution would be a huge concerning factor. If ‘unmask[ing]’ means periodically taking off my mask, then yes, I see myself doing that. I just person ally don’t feel comfortable without a mask since COVID, monkeypox, and polio virus exist and are still danger ous to some considerable degree. It would be awful to experience any and/or spread to others.” —anonymous, freshman
she had to be calculative about planning the mural’s step-bystep creation in order for it to be painted successfully. “I cre ated the schedule of when we were gonna paint which color which day. [I was] strategic about which colors I used each day so we wouldn’t run into the issue of two colors overlapping and then getting mixed togeth er,” she Manysaid.students who worked on the mural viewed the pro cess as a learning experience in various areas like leadership and the teamwork process.
“I think mask-wearing this school year doesn’t need to be mandated but COVID is still going around so it’s nice to always keep safe [...] I feel like, especially around NYC subways, I’m so used to wearing a mask, so I consistently will.”
“I think the emergence of mon keypox and such just furthered me wanting to wear a mask. I have a grandma who lives with me and goes to my house often so I would rather protect her and take that extra [pre]cau tion.” —Vanessa Chen, junior
—Faiyaz Rafee, senior
“I will probably continue to bring a mask for school. I’ll follow the same policy I had for last year. When I’m eating, I won’t wear it, when I’m in PE, I won’t wear it, when I’m outside, I won’t wear it. Masks are left up to people and [they should] decide if they’re comfortable with it. I’ll wear the mask to make sure people are comfortable. But I don’t think I’m at a point where this has be come a social thing.” —Talia Hsia, senior
—Zareen Islam, junior
“I believe keeping everyone safe is much more important than the minor discomfort that mask-wearing causes. While more powerful ‘bivalent’ boosters are expected to be available in early or mid fall that will target both the original strain of the virus and Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5, doctors have said that that will not be a magic bullet. Another possibility is that people will be more complacent after the availability of boosters, potentially reducing mask-wearing and other safety protocols like appropriate hand hy giene. Therefore, I maintain my opinion that we should continue to wear masks and practice hand hygiene to protect our friends and family.”
PennsylvaniaConnecticutMaryland
“Born a Crime” — Trevor Noah
RATE YOUR SUMMER ON A SCALE OF
“Enchanted” – Taylor Swift
STUYVESANT’S BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
“The Scorpion Rules” — Erin Bow
MOMENTS
TOP PLACES IN THE COUNTRY
“The Fifth Season” — N.K. Jemisin
STUYVESANT’S SOUNDTRACK(S) OF THEARTISTSSUMMER
“Summertime Sadness” – Lana del Ray “Supermodel” – Måneskin
A recap of how Stuyvesant students spent their summer.
“The Exit” – Conan Gray
WHAT DID YOU DO THIS SUMMER?
IF YOU STAYED IN THE CITY, WHAT DID YOU DO?
MassachusettsCaliforniaVirginia
Stuyvesant’s Summer of 2022
SONGS
FeaturesPage5The Spectator • September 8, 2022
TRAVELED
“Went to the Weeknd and Red Hot Chili Peppers concerts.”
“One of my favorite experi ences this summer was doing an escape room for the first time on my birthday. We fin ished with literally 16 seconds left on the clock, and during certain parts there was lots of screaming. I definitely want to do others.”
MEMORABLE1-10
CostaMexicoCanadaRica EnglandJapanFrance
TRAVELED
Taylor LanaKateMitskiSwiftBushBTSdelRayLovejoy
“We Were Liars” — E. Lockhart “Shadow & Bone” — Leigh Bardugo
“Mary On A Cross” – Ghost
“Going to San Francisco was really great, and helping my brother settle in for Grad School at UC Berkeley was also fun.”
“POP!” – Nayeon
“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” — Taylor Jenkins Reid
“I studied Mandarin and made a friend in China who was studying French, so we tutored each other in our lan guages.”
“I got to go to Ireland and Lon don with my family, which was super cool. I got to see things like Newgrange (a giant dome shaped tomb older than the pyr amids), The Burren (a beautiful national park of sorts), and the Cliffs of Moher! In London I got to see Cabaret, which is ab solutely the best performance I’ve ever gotten to see. 10/10.”
“I did an internship involving older seniors in upper west side Manhattan! Really challenged my social skills.”
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By THE FEATURES DEPARTMENT
—Nicole Liu, senior
SpectatorThe/LiSophia
In addition to the afore mentioned support, Stuy @ CIEE will also have an am bassador working directly with CIEE to look for oppor tunities for students who have already gone on their sum mer abroad trip, and for those who would like to continue with the momentum studying abroad.“Imagine being able to send students across the world for three weeks to a month, on full rides, have them come back, share their stories— and that I think would be an incredible achievement for Stuyvesant to be able to do,” Lake said. By making the pro gram more accessible, Stuy @ CIEE may give more students the chance to learn thousands of miles away from home for a summer and enjoy the pow erful experience.
Tina Siu / The Spectator
main intentions for creating Stuy @ CIEE. As she put it, “[Let’s] create a culture [at Stuyvesant] of [not just getting] good test grades and cool internships— let’s actually send them to Ja pan, to China, to Ghana, to Costa Rica, because we can and they can go free. That’s what I want.” Her goal is to establish a firm foundation for the program within Stuy, but her larger goal is to make an impact in other schools as well. “[We could] bring this program and help set this pro gram up in their schools,” she explained. Partnerships with
Alumna Katherine Lake (‘22) recognized the incredible potential that this opportunity could have for Stuyvesant stu dents. “You can actually really witness the change in people on these programs and be a part of it as well,” she de scribed. “Helping students overcome barriers of educa tion and enrichment is some thing that Stuyvesant is known for as a school. [...] [This is CIEE’s] mission but extends way beyond the classroom.”
“The thing I regret not doing earlier is probably just being confident. I feel like as a freshman and a sopho more, I was really afraid to talk to people and I was al ways comparing myself to others but now I definitely feel more sure of myself. Being genuinely sure in my own skin has definitely made me happier and led me to meet new people and opportunities that would have been impossible for me earlier.”
“I regret not joining the Opin ions department earlier. At first I joined Speech and Debate because I wasn’t confident in my writing capabilities, but then I realized that I was much stronger at writ ing than speaking in front of oth ers. I regret not joining opinions earlier and took a risk. However, I joined in sophomore year after I was more confident in my abilities as a writer and it has been super fun ever since.”—Ivy Huang, junior
“Having a good organi zation system—just be ing on top of my stuff with Google Calendar, my planner, and apps like Notion. It helps you stay on top of things in the long run and it makes you more prepared so you know what’s coming up. Just having a good organization system is helpful when you’re ap plying to jobs, intern ships, and for school work. So I’m very glad I took it upon myself to learn how to take advan tage of these resources”
“I wish I had started doing Scioly during freshman year rather than the first semes ter of sophomore year.”
—Maya Brosnick, senior
Though she was already flu ent in Spanish, she wanted to
Tally-ho, Adventure Awaits!
Features The Spectator • September 8, 2022Page 6
By ABIGAIL JIN and CALISTA LEE
other specialized high schools and schools with CIEE alum ni alone can already create a usefulShenetwork.alsoaspires to make it accessible to disadvantaged schools that don’t have as many resources as Stuyves ant through activities such as bringing application help ses sions to them. “Imagine the opportunity that even if one or two kids from these disad vantaged areas get the chance to travel; that’s a win,” she noted.However, with such bold goals, there are obstacles to think about. Lake hopes to convince faculty that the pro gram is relevant and worth their time, so that they will endorse it for future CIEE students. “There are so many different portions of support we’ll need to be drawing from; [...] it might not be as effective as it could be,” she said. “It will be crucial to have faculty support on this for something like a push-in.” Furthermore, she recognizes that the fi nancial aspects will involve working with and requesting the approval of the Student Union.But Lake also has reason to be optimistic about the program’s future. “We’re not competing with any [other clubs], we’re not trying to find our niche. We’re literally, by definition, are in our own niche already, so it’s like the perfect scenario. [...] [We’re in a] very good place to begin,” sheLake’sexplained.aspirations for the
“I don’t regret starting swimming again. Since taking the time out of my week to spend some time in the pool, I feel more refreshed and active overall as a person.”
—Yarza Aung, junior
“I wish I’d taken care not to over load on my courses. Having no frees was a bad idea.” —anonymous, alum
about CIEE, people who had man aged to apply somehow, imagine all the students who hadn’t even heard of this pro gram and hence deem it inac cessible,” she reasoned. Lake also described the long-lasting educational impact of study ing abroad. “You come back and you can actually connect to the material that you’re learning, so if anything, this is going to accelerate students’ ability to absorb all sorts of content,” she pointed out.
“I regret not starting anime earlier.” —anonymous, senior
This summer, 47 Stuyves ant students flew around the world studying abroad with the Council on Interna tional Educational Exchange (CIEE), and they were given almost a whole month to im merse themselves in a foreign culture. In countries like Mo rocco, Japan, and France, just to name a few, there are lan guage immersion programs that offer college credits. In countries like Costa Rica, Ghana, and Portugal, there are programs about leader ship and various global issues that offer community service hours. Within these diverse locations, CIEE High School Summer Abroad provides stu dents light classes, insightful excursions, and the freedom to explore a brand new city with brand new friends.
oneplainedLakeAndcannot.’thatissomethingthatIreallywantedtopel,”exasofher
— Jordan Leung, junior
—Arpita Saha (‘21)
see if she could actually apply the language outside the class room. “You know more than you think you do, you just have to be forced to apply what you know to figure that out,” she observed. “Even if you come into that program—like many of my friends did with very little Spanish background— the amount that you can prog ress and the amount that you can still converse and make your way through a city like Barcelona is peoplegot“IfmorecessibleCIEEtioninformamakeedwantrience,eningherincredible.”Afterenlightexpeshetoaboutactostudents.peoplewhoonthistripwerewhohadheard
“I don’t regret becoming a huge Mets fan. I got really into it freshman year and I watch the game almost every night, which means I have to do homework earlier, but I don’t regret it.
Lake attended CIEE’s Spanish Language and Culture program in Barcelona in 2021.
In the past school year, Lake worked alongside anoth
er student and faculty member to help people within Stuyves ant apply, which is why there was a record-high number of CIEE travelers this year. Still, she realized that there was so much more she could’ve done to promote it. That’s why Lake is currently building a new and original program called Stuy @ CIEE.“Studying abroad, inher ently, is expensive; [...] the mere thought of it of ten is enough for people to say ‘I just
The past cannot be changed. Here’s what Stuyvesant has to say about regrets.
program’s impacts are ambi tious, but they are definitely not just far-fetched fantasies. She has already assembled an executive team of seven mem bers behind her to help carry out their plans. This year, they hope to start by increasing communication about CIEE and encouraging more stu dents to open an application through classroom push-ins, Q&A sessions, information panels, announcements, and newsletters, through which Stuy’s CIEE alumni will share their personal adventures. As the year continues, there will be open application help ses sions, fundraising, and other events to help raise money for students going on the trips.
Let’s go Mets!”
“By November, I started feel ing so tired of it and started skipping,” he said. “The way I learned to cope with it is I
While academics and ex tracurriculars are certainly im portant, mental and physical health should be prioritized. Stuyvesant students often fall into a loophole of constant ly working to the point of breaking the balance between our stress and ourselves, and getting burned out as a result. Though sources of burn out vary amongst students, whether it’s finals week or high-commitment extracur riculars, there are many ways to overcome the issue. At the end of the day, we’re all kids in an intense, work-filled envi ronment. Burnout can happen to any of us at any time. So, though our stories of burnout are all different, we can all get through it.
By ANISHA SINGHAL, REBECCA BAO, and ISABELLA JIA
Courtesy of Ulugbek Akhmedov
stopped going as much. I real ized I was taking it too serious ly, and if I just thought of it as something that was more fun, it would be easier and I would be able to not get burned out as much.” While maintaining this mindset, Guo managed to successfully avoid burn out for the majority of his sophomore year. “I didn’t feel much burn out academically,” he admitted.Other students also expressed that a way to avoid burnout was to take time off of work to have fun.
tunnel-visioned—we can only see the next test, the next quiz, and before you know it, we’ve been doing that for eight months and we’re abso lutelyBurnoutexhausted.”canhit students when there is a sudden in crease in workload. For junior Charlotte Peterson, the burn out started to kick in post-AP season. “Especially because it was near the end of the year and all the stress that I had accumulated over the year re ally started weighing down on me,” she said. “At that point, I was so tired of studying that I just wanted to give up a few times.”For others, like sophomore Kaileen So, burnout can start closer to the end of the year. “During finals week, the last second-semester finals week, there are a bunch of finals and then regents like the week after that,” she said. “There’s just so much more to do.”
to my friends after I finish everything else.”
physicsAkhmedov,Ulugbekteacher
combat the issue of constantly over working themselves. “What works for me is doing a to-do list each day,” said Namkoong. She explained that at times, to-do lists can become sourc es of stress in and of them selves, but she has a strategy to prevent this. “I know if I put a lot of things on my to do list, I won’t do any of them because I feel overwhelmed. So I just put like three main things that have to get done everyLikeday.”Namkoong, So also finds it helpful to come up
“[Try] to make
Physics teacher
is why it is so important to take a moment to simply re lax, and to take care of your self. Fighting the infamous Stuyvesant sleep schedule, for example, is likely to help pre vent exhaustion and burnout.
Sophomore Judy Nam koong explained that she felt the most burned out by the end of the first semester for similar reasons, as well as new semester schedules. “Defi nitely January to February— in between those months, because we have finals, and we’re also switching classes,” Namkoong explained.
with a organized plan to com plete her daily tasks. “Trying to come up with like a sched ule, and have it this day, it’ll just be bio and then come up with a plan of what I’m going to study for bio,” So said.
Ulugbek Akhm edov grew up in Uzbekistan under Soviet rule. In fifth grade, he was on the bus with his friend whose mom worked at an im porting company and bought her son a full-length leather coat. His friend would “wear it every day just to brag about it.”
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Lake shared that one hobby she found particularly therapeutic was art. “My goal is not to be a great artist, my goal is to do something that I genuinely have fun doing just to do it,” she explained. “It’s not for a grade, it’s not for other people, it’s so I could stare at it and be like, ‘That wasAscool.’”commendable as it is to work exceedingly hard to keep up your grades and participate in your extracurriculars, doing this on a daily basis will in evitably lead to burnout. That
Turns Out We’re Burned Out
FeaturesPage7The Spectator • September 8, 2022
While most students hope to avoid burnout completely, Lake found it to be something that should be accepted. “The key is knowing that you’ll have it at some point, and it’s just a matter of getting through it, moving on, and not being afraid to do that with sup port,” she said. “I feel like the thing that we like to say is, ‘Oh if you do just this and this, you won’t have it. If you just have a good schedule, study in advance enough, or find a routine that works for you, [you] can escape burnout.’ Yes, you can mitigate a lot of the worst forms of it. But in the end, there’s going to be a point where you sit there and think ‘Wow I just want to sleep,’” Lake explained.
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Lucky Escape from Kidnap Attempt
Moral of the story: don’t flex about your theespeciallycoats—andnotinsummer.
But burnout doesn’t stem just from academics; some high-commitment extracur riculars can be just as draining as classes. Senior Eugene Guo shared his experience with the club Science Olympiad, which held daily attendance with meetings lasting until 6 p.m.
“I justfamily,timespendinging“LikekoongNamIsomethingbymyselfrewarddoinglove,”said.doahobby,withortalking
A stranger asked the chil dren to hop on a motorcycle to show directions to a store. They obliged but as they got off, the cyclist grabbed his friend by the coat and said, “I like your coat.” “Apparently, my friend under stood. He jerked and ran, and we both ran. We heard the sound of the motorcycle [and] we thought [the cyclist] was chas ing us, but he ran away. It’s crazy but it was pretty close,” Akhmedov said.
Many high school stu dents, especially at Stuyves ant, have horror stories of pulling all-nighters to study for exams, waking up at 3:00 a.m. to finish homework, and living off of instant ramen in stead of cooking just to save time and energy. We’ve all been there. However, this life style can become extremely overwhelming and damaging to our physical and mental health. Often, this builds up to something quite common among Stuyvesant students: burnout.Stuyvesant is known for its rigorous and competi tive atmosphere, so for many students, the root of this is sue stems from an excessive amount of work and study ing. As sophomore Josephine Gunawan explained in an e-mail interview, the intense workload from school can take a toll on our physical and mental health. “I had got ten sick the week before, so I had a bunch of tests and as signments to make up, along with more upcoming exams and the task of perfecting my unfinished MET project,” she said. “I started feeling more irritated and tired, having more headaches, and getting very little amounts of sleep eachOthernight.” students shared the same sentiment, viewing burnout as something formed from a snowball effect. “I think burnout is a combina tion of new responsibilities and not enough time or space to reflect [on] how to move forward,” explained Kather ine Lake (‘22). “We get very
This story was originally intended to be apart of “The Secret Lives of Stuyvesant Teachers” spread in the LifeStuyle Magazine, but was cut due to spacing issues.
out breaks in order to meet cer tain targets. Velez and another former TikTok moderator Re ece Young described that they were expected to review videos for following guidelines in un der 25 seconds with 80 percent accuracy. They worked for 12 hours each day, with two 15 minute breaks and an hour for lunch.Social media moderators
Post it notes
SPORTS BUSINESSLAYOUTARTPHOTOGRAPHYKhushShafiulTaeeEDITORSChiHaque*AvaQuarlesWadhwa**EDITORSAlexanderLopezZifeiZhaoDIRECTORSFarehaIslam**AfraMahmud*NelliRojas-CessaVivianTeoEDITORSFionaHuang**SusieMcKnightShreyaRoyDannyXiongCOPYEDITORSNadaHameedEmanSadiqRuiwenTangRaymondYangAllisonZhao**MANAGERSInaraRabbaniAmberShenWEBEDITORSDavidChen*SamanthaHuaTheodoreYochumFACULTYADVISERKerryGarfinkel
By SUYEON RYU
When it is clear that the mental health support currently offered isn’t enough, companies should start restricting working hours and offering more breaks. Their wellness teams should be large enough in proportion to the number of moderators and should be composed of licensed psychiatrists and therapists. Ultimately, companies should focus on eliminating the risk for human moderators en tirely. As important as maintain ing proper content guidelines are, it should not be done at the expense of putting people in ac tive danger of mental disorders, especially if an alternative is available. AI technology should be replacing the function of moderators in the future, since a career as a social media mod erator poses a mental health threat that is not sustainable.
A two-in one so your head doesn’t hit the desk and leave a bruise next time you fall asleep in chemistry class. Not only will all your classmates be jealous, you will also have a lifelong friend.
A Job Looking at Abuse, Suicide, and Murder
Walking down the street, we don’t normally expect to see people eating Tide PODS or bleached strawberries. In news papers, we don’t expect to see “scientists” telling us that the Earth is flat. However, on social media, these situations seem to be the norm. Radical, extreme content spreads like wildfire, and real people get hurt in the process. Fortunately, as people recognize the problem, they have demanded safe content— content that, at the very least, does not harm people. Unfor tunately, the solution that many social media platforms have in troduced is riddled with its own problems that make it infeasible as a permanent implementa tion.Social media moderators are paid to review content on a platform and remove it if they deem such an action appropri ate. Even though we are fa miliar with how graphic online content can be, the content that these moderators view for eight hours every day is extreme. There is animal abuse, cannibal ism, suicide attempts, and child
Send your stories to features@stuyspec.com, or email us with any questions or concerns you have. If you wish, it may be published anonymously.
Would you like to share a personal narrative with the school? Whether it’s an essay you’ve written for class, or a piece you’ve been working on by yourself, if it’s in first-person and it is nonfiction it could get published in The Spectator!
It is not easy for moderators to seek outside help from their loved ones either, as they are re quired to sign a non-disclosure
should not be expected to work under such harsh circumstances. Companies need to realize that exposure to graphic content can have a severely damaging effect and that mental health risks are just as real as physical ones.
Perfect to comple ment your binder. The looseleaf holes are broken, just like how we all are inside.
Moderators are further en couraged to neglect their well being as they are desensitized from working long hours with
The real mystery be hind this object is how they are always bitten. Do they make them like that, or has your dog simply mistaken it for a fetch toy?
FEATURESRebeccaEDITORSBaoIsabellaJia*JannaWangEDITORSLaurenLeeShivaniManimaranChristinaPanOPINIONSEDITORSPeterGoswamiIvyHuang**GulamMonawarah**AnishaSinghal*SCIENCEEDITORSHellenLuo**SathirthaMondalSonyaSassonJovannaWu**ARTS&ENTERTAINMENTEDITORSPhoebeBuckwalter**NicoleLiuKenishaMahajan*LeviSimonHUMOREDITORSEricaChenOliverHollmann
What, you’ll need something to avoid death from boredom in Algebra II? Just be sure to do so strategical ly—and avoid getting caught.
so many people that they can not be attentive to each indi vidual. In the Philippines, where many companies outsource their workers, moderators were limited to one session with their counselor each month, every six months, or sometimes not at all.
Eraser that’s ha(s a bite taken out of it)lf broken
Let’s face it, they come in handy in any situa tion. You can use them when you’re taking detailed textbook notes, or to pass notes to your friends when you’re stuck in a tire some class.
LooseleafBroken
Among LunchboxUs
Pillow pet (espe cially recommend ed for freshman)
Forget the dunks and Jordan 4s, these shoes are so versatile and will go with any fit. A must have!
They worked for 12 hours each day, with two 15 minute breaks and an hour for lunch.
Calculator (with flappy bird in stalled)
exploitation on these platforms that the general public is un aware of because moderators remove these types of disturb ing content before they reach a largerUnsurprisingly,audience. these mod erators face a great deal of mental health problems. For mer Facebook moderator Isa bella Plunkett said that after two
The next time your teacher tells you to spit out your gum, simply draw out a six-foot sugar cane and take a bite out of it. The whole stick should be enough to keep you awake at school.
EDITORS IN CHIEF Momoca Mairaj* Maya Nelson* NEWS
The Spectator “The Pulse of StudenttheBody” Please address all letters to: 345 Chambers Street New York, NY 10282 (212) 312-4800 ext. 2601 eics@stuyspec.com We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity and length. © 2022 The Spectator All rights reserved by the creators. The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper * Managing Board ** Editors-in-Training
agreement that prohibits them from sharing information about the content they view to anyone outside their workspace.
Sugar Cane
Voices
years of watching horrifying content, she developed anxiety and required medication. Out of 14 current and former mod erators in Manila, one stated that he attempted suicide due to his Thoughtrauma. social media com panies boast of wellness teams being available to moderators, the reality is not often as ideal. Plunkett stated that for Face
book, the wellness coaches are not trained psychiatrists, and she did not feel properly sup ported by them. The subcon tracted staff was also limited to 1.5 hours of “wellness” a week. Ashley Velez, a contractor at TikTok, stated that a 30-minute meeting with a counselor felt rushed and superficial, because counselors are responsible for
Editorials The Spectator • September 8, 2022Page 8
Surefire way to be come the coolest kid on the block (or in the Cafeteria, for this case).
The Only “Back to School” List You’ll Need
Sometimes, tissues simply aren’t enough to hold your tears. And you’ll have a lot of them this year.
Black Air Force 1s
A Bucket
As of 2018, America trailed behind 15 countries in a survey that measured the overall amount of respect a country has for teach ers. This position can be correlated with how America is also trailing behind in terms of teacher com pensation. In Luxembourg, teach ers make nearly two times the amount American teachers make, even after working the same num ber of Schoolyears.districts have proposed unusual, creative solutions to ad dress the teacher shortage. In Flor ida, DeSantis plans to fill teacher vacancies with military veterans who have no teaching certificates or bachelor’s degrees. In Arizona, degrees are no longer required for teachers. In Texas, students in some districts only need to attend school four days a week due to the lack of Theteachers.aforementioned solutions are not just unusual. They are Band-Aid solutions that do not ad dress the larger issue at hand, only the symptoms of it. The better solution to the teacher shortage is to increase teachers’ salaries. States need to recognize the importance of investing in education and al locating more funds toward educa tion. Teachers should be making a livable wage, especially when they are preparing the next generation for the Educatorsfuture. have the ability to transform a barren classroom into an environment that fosters suc cess, empowerment, and commu nity. To address the shortage of educators, the greater issue of the shortage of proper compensation and proper support for them must be acknowledged.
Legislators and parents have also placed restrictions on what teachers can teach and even men tion in classrooms, highlighting how teachers are treated as though they are unqualified to do what they know best: to simply teach.
and other LGBTQ+ issues and al lows parents to sue school districts for teaching material they may not agree with. Similar scenarios are playing out in other states. In Penn sylvania, Republican legislators in troduced the Teaching Racial and Universal Equality Act, which aims to ban the instruction of race and gender-related concepts in schools. Not abiding by these restric tions can result in severe conse quences for teachers. In Tennessee, Matthew Hawn, a veteran teacher who taught for 16 years, was fired for giving a lesson on white privi lege. In Missouri, English teacher Kim Morrison was fired for giv ing out a worksheet about racial privilege after the class read “Dear Martin,” a novel on racial profiling. One of the responsibilities of an educator is to teach their students to engage in the exchange of ideas and to think deeply and critically. The policing of school curriculum by parents and legislators has put an end to that aspect of education. Additionally, teachers are grossly underpaid. As of the 20192020 school year, the average sal ary for public school teachers was $63,645. Nearly 60 percent of teachers have to take on other jobs in order to sustain themselves, even though teaching is a full-time job. Teachers should not have to resort to getting another job to support themselves, but that is their reality today.There’s a stark contrast be tween how teachers at Stuyvesant are treated and how teachers in the rest of the country are. Their salaries are significantly higher, with most teachers making over $90,000. They deserve it. Teach ing deserves to be a well-paid and highly respected profession. How Stuyvesant teachers are treated
British influence may never truly leave India. Globalization has connected the world in irre versible ways, such that external influences reach every corner of the world. People migrating to different parts of the globe bring many aspects of their cultures with them. This phenomenon can be positive. After all, the fu
Schools throughout the United States are currently facing a short age of 300 thousand educators and staff. Since January of 2020, around 600 thousand teachers have quit. But this shortage isn’t sudden. Over the last 10 years, there’s been a 35 percent decline in teacher edu cation enrollment, along with a 22 percent drop from 2005 to 2018 in the number of people with or working toward attaining a bach
The teacher shortage crisis shouldn’t be surprising. Over the last two years, the trust that the public instilled in teachers has eroded, and they are now treated with a lack of respect and dignity. Teachers have been placed under constant scrutiny by parents and legislators. In Iowa, legislators in troduced a bill that would require cameras to be installed in almost all classrooms so that parents could see live streams. In Indiana, the House passed a bill that required teachers to allow parents to review all their lesson plans and curricu lum so they can opt their children
India’s political, economic, and cultural state of affairs was entangled with that of Britain for a long time, and in many ways, it still is. The majority of Indian schooling, especially in higher ed ucation, is in English. This struc ture is partially due to the English Education Act of 1835, which was based on the treatise “Min ute on Education” by Thomas Babington Macaulay. The Eng lish Education Act required the Indian education system to teach more classes in English and in corporate English textbooks into the curriculum. Today, nearly 400 million Indians speak English, and India’s courts largely use English even after independence fromTheBritain.continued use of Eng lish in Indian schools and profes sions has its roots in the British empire. Learning English was crucial to reaching success under the British. It gave Indians some humanity in the eyes of the Brit ish and helped them get better jobs. Even after the British left, a large number of Indians clung to the idea that keeping elements of British culture would help them
should serve as a model for how teachers across America are treat ed.
sion of cultures only becomes detrimental when one culture starts overpowering the other. Unfortunately, this relationship is often the case in India, where British culture was violently forced upon native Indians.
SpectatorThe/FukuokaRin
Though India had a self-reli ant economy before British rule, India’s economy was dependent on external help long after inde pendence. British rule had caused a long period of economic stag nation, with India’s per capita in come declining by eight percent. As a result, they were not able to provide resources for lower income citizens, and foreign aid was required to prevent devastat ing famines.
When Should India’s Independence Day Really Be?
Residual British influence is undeniably present. The ques tion, however, is whether it is overall positive or negative. Brit ish rule was devastating for In dia, as it destroyed the economy and deepened religious divisions. The British facilitated Partition, the hastily conceived division of India, leaving a million in nocent people dead and displac ing millions more. The British promoted antagonism between Muslims, Hindus, and other reli gious groups, which has resulted in a large amount of violence. They encouraged the Hindu caste system, creating unneces
out of the class if they want to. It’s not shocking that teachers are now turning away from a profession that undervalues them.
For decades after the first Independence Day, British influ ence remained strong and pres ent in India. Forty-eight years after declaring independence, the city of Bombay was renamed to Mumbai. Six years after that, Calcutta changed its name to Kolkata. The names of several major Indian cities did not reflect the way that Indians pronounced them until decades after they were free of British rule. Chang ing the names of two major cities was a major undertaking, under scoring how important the break away from Britain was. However, the fact that it happened more than half a century after inde pendence shows how long that
By ASTRID HARRINGTONSEN
By ASHLEY LIN
sary divides. But the British left positive contributions as well: infrastructure, such as the educa tion system and railway system, was improved during British rule. Though Britain only intended to increase its own profits, this infrastructure would be further developed after Independence and modified to serve the rest of India.
Overworked and underpaid— that’s what America’s teachers are. It’s no wonder there’s a teacher shortage in America.
connection to Britain lasted.
Vitamin Teacher Deficiency
No one really knows when In dia was truly free of British con trol. Independence is more com plex than it looks, and the lines will always be blurry. That said, the progress made since 1947 is remarkable. Britain and India are now on more equal footing, and India’s economy has improved significantly. It’s impossible to say when exactly India became inde pendent, or if it has ever truly be come independent, but it grows stronger every day.
prosper, and as a result, Indian languages and culture often got pushed aside.
OpinionsPage9The Spectator • September 8, 2022
Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru raised the In dian flag above the Red Fort in Delhi on August 15, 1947. After 200 years of British rule, India celebrated its freedom with the passage of the Indian Indepen dence Act. Decades of nonvio lent protests led by distinguished freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi had finally culminated in liberation, and in the years that followed, India hoisted flags, held parades, and partook in lav ish ceremonies to commemorate that fateful However,day. many Indians would soon realize that true in dependence takes time. India had achieved apparent indepen dence—it had the right to elect its own leaders—but true inde pendence includes economic and cultural independence as well.
elor’s degree in education.
SpectatorThe/ChenStacey
In Florida, Governor Ron De Santis recently signed the Parental Rights in Education Bill, otherwise known as the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, into law. It bans the instruc tion and classroom discussion of sexual orientation, gender identity,
Times estimates that a quarter of U.S. women would have to travel more than 200 miles to get a legal abortion. However, traveling to recieve an abor tion will be highly difficult for marginalized communities such as people of color, low-income Americans, and those living in rural areas. Underserved com munities will be the ones that are disproportionately affected by the overturning of Roe, as the typical abortion patient is low-income, unmarried, and more likely to be a person of color.While legal abortion rates decline, maternal deaths will most certaintly increase. With out Roe in place, people who may suffer through life-threat ening pregnancies will not be able to access a legal abor tion until it is too late, forcing them to either go out of state or get an illegal abortion. An example of this would be the scenarios that many pregnant people have to face once the full abortion ban takes effect in Texas. Right now, Texas’s cur rent heartbeat law states that a pregnant person cannot get an abortion once “cardiac activ ity is detected in the embryo” or around six weeks. The only exception is if there is a “medi cal emergency,” which only re ally happens when the patient is at an imminent risk of dy ing. This means that even if the pregnant person has an ec topic pregnancy—a pregnancy in which the fertilized egg im plants and grows outside the
Without Roe protecting the rights of people to get an abor tion, legal abortion rates will most likely decline, as many clinics will soon close across the country. As a result, many women will have to travel far ther distances to receive an abortion. In fact, The New York
An early abortion was loosely defined as prior to fetal “quick ening,” the moment when the fetus’s movements could be detected. Before quickening, it wasn’t considered an abortion if women were allowed to take medication or other treatment to try to get their menstrual period back. And even when the government tried to restrict reproductive rights, regulation relied on the person’s own ex perience since only they would know when quickening would occur. The right to whether or not a person should receive an abortion was, and should still be, up to the person carrying the pregnancy.
The overturning of the case holds many repercussions. Ac cording to the Center for Re productive Rights, 25 states are likely to ban abortion and 13 states even currently have “trigger laws” in place that are set to make abortion illegal im mediately after the falling of Roe. For example, in Louisiana, the legislation would define “personhood” as beginning from the moment of fertiliza tion and even classify abortion as murder, making it a federal offense. This meant that any thing that would prevent a fer tilized egg from becoming a real pregnancy and being born would be considered murder, including intrauterine devices and emergency contraceptives like Plan B. Other states, like Michigan, have old abortion laws that used to be invalidated by the Roe decision but may now be enforced once again. Similarly, the Ohio Supreme
A Threat to This Country: The U.S. Supreme Court
When talking about the strikedown of Roe, the trans gender and nonbinary commu nities are often left out of the conversation. Even when Roe was held, the transgender com munity was still discriminated against and shunned when they
these clinics, many transgender people will not be able to access proper health Furthermore,care.Roe’s knock down is a threat to all of the Su preme Court’s past rulings. The 14th Amendment, which pro tected abortion, is connected to other settled freedoms involv ing procreation, bodily integrity, and familial relationships. In his published opinion, Justice Clar ence Thomas argued that the Supreme Court justices should “reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process prece dents, including Griswold, Law rence, and Obergefell,” which many rightfully see as a threat to other SCOTUS precedents. Griswold v. Connecticut estab lished the right to privacy and legalized birth control (for mar ried couples only at that time) and the potential overturning of this ruling would mean that people can no longer legally use contraceptives. Without con traceptives like birth control and Plan B, there will be higher rates of unwanted pregnancies, causing more people to seek an abortion, legally or not. Law rence and Obergefell gave the right to same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage, respec tively. The potential overturn ing of these two rulings would move women’s rights back over 50 years and bar LGBTQ+ relationships. Yet as the Con necticut Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald noticed, Thomas didn’t include the Su preme Court’s ruling in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case
After a leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion, the na tion grappled with the possible consequences of Roe v. Wade being overturned. By June 24, 2022, it was official—the Su preme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) upheld Mis sissippi’s ban on abortion at 15 weeks, thus overturning the 1973 landmark case that pro tected the federal constitutional right to receive an abortion. Now, it is up to the power of each state’s government to de cide reproductive rights.
With all these dangers and implications, more pregnant people will turn to illegal abor tions. Back in the 1960s, when abortion was illegal, people would pay physicians to fake that they were going through a miscarriage by squirting blood into their vaginas. Once the blood seeped out, the physi cian would perform a dilation and curettage (D and C) for their “incomplete abortion.” That was the safest option. If the pregnant person could not afford the fees to go through a D and C, they would resort to other extreme measures. Re cently, a 16-year-old girl drank lye to abort herself and died as a result. Another patient, Jeretha Tanner, died on the ta ble after an abortion attempted by a pratical nurse, rather than an educated doctor. The un deniable truth is that people would go to extremes to end their pregnancy, despite cost, humiliation, agony, and the risk of sterility or death.
that overturned a Virginia law barring interracial marriages.
The Supreme Court’s daunt ing decision to strike down Roe is deadly for everyone through out the country. No matter who you are, the overturning of Roe will most likely affect you in some way or another. The Unit ed States is more polarized than ever, with states either strength ening their laws to guarantee people the right to an abortion or with states passing laws that basically makes it illegal to have an abortion. This also means that there is no greater time than now to vote, as it is now up to the citizens of each state to determine their fate. Vote for your rights, the rights of your family, and the rights of your friends. If you cannot vote, be sure to share and educate others about the issue. Join petitions and protests. Donate to abor tion funds and organizations supporting people to get the re sources that they need. People across the nation are hurting because of the deadly decisions of the Supreme Court and we can no longer hold our silence.
The New York Times estimates that a quarter of U.S. women would have to travel more than 200 miles to get a legal abortion. However, traveling to recieve an abor tion will be highly difficult for marginalized communities such as people of color, low-income Americans, and those living in rural areas.
Justice Samuel Alito’s 40 page opinion makes it clear that by passing the power to the state, the state would be serv ing “legitimate state interests” such as the “respect for and preservation of prenatal life at all stages of development.”
Court allowed the state to rein state a ban on abortions at six weeks of pregnancy on July 1. The court went on to deny the emergency petition opposing it from Planned Parenthood.
However, all hope is not lost. On a smaller scale, certain states such as New York and New Jersey are making sure that the right to get an abortion is fully protected. For example, the New York State Legisla ture passed the Equal Rights Amendment, which would ini tiate the process of not only en shrining the right to abortion in the state constitution, but also guaranteeing the right to acess contraception, and prohibiting the government from discrimi nating against anyone based on race, ehtnicity, national ori gin, disability, or sex (including sexual orientation, gender iden tity and expression, and preg nancy). New Jersey has passed two bills into law that protect out-of-state residents seeking productive services and repro ductive health care providers themselves. Even in Florida, a judge has blocked a state law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
He further argued that because abortion was not rooted in his tory and that it wasn’t until the latter half of the 20th century that abortion was made a con situtional right, the U.S. Con stitution could not protect it. However, contrary to what Alito believed, for most of the first 100 years of American his tory, early abortion was legal.
The Spectator • September 8, 2022Page 10
By ERICA LI
Additionally, the United States President Joe Biden re cently declared for the first time that he supported ending the filibuster—an action designed to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote on a bill, reso lution, amendment, or other debatable question—to pro tect a person’s right to an abor tion and a greater issue of the constitutional right to privacy. This was an extremely striking assertion from someone who had long resisted calls from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, asking to strike down the Senate practice of a 60-vote threshold requirement to pass legislation. Biden even went on to say that Roe v. Wade needs to be codified into the law and that Congress needs to act now.
Opinions
uterus—there is no guarantee that they will be able to get an abortion. Other life-threatening conditions like an infection in the uterus or a hemorrhaging patient also wouldn’t be able to get an abortion because under Texas law, they are not “medi cal emergencies.” And with the trigger law that is about to be passed, abortion will be made a felony even if the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest. Abortion providers are already starting to turn pregnant peo
ple away out of fears of legal culpability under the Texas law. Dr. Jessica Rubino said, “Get her out of the state […] make sure she can get an abortion be cause I will not be able to do it here. I’m going to have to wait till she’s actually dying.”
tried to get proper healthcare, which made abortion already hard to get in the first place. With the fall of Roe, the clin ics that used to provide the LGBTQ+ community abortion care will lessen. In addition, many of the abortion facilities also provide hormone therapy and other essential services to the LGBTQ+ community. This includes treatments that are specific to a transgender man, if they choose to carry a pregnancy to term. Without
programmed to propagate altright motives?
OpinionsPage11The Spectator • September 8, 2022
By SOPHIA DASSER
The Yard study served as just another reminder that, as relatable and likable as they may seem, celebrities are just that— celebrities. As the working class is encouraged to “play their part” by using paper straws and carpooling, private jet us age somehow slips under the radar of mainstream media. It’s impossible for the blame to be shared equally, even if we are technically “all in this togeth er.” These celebrities, as well as other millionaires and billion
frivolous and superficial at best. Dwayne Wade wasted nearly 500 thousand gallons of water due to a swimming pool mal function, while Stallone’s sur plus of water is used to grow fruit trees. Monetary penalties mean very little to such wealthy Los Angelans, allowing them to repeatedly ignore such restric tions on water usage.
We all have an obligation to protect this world, even those of us who are rich enough to pay for our own private flights. In fact, these people are the ones who actually have the resources
solution.Many proclaim that the government would never have the power to stop the rise of the alt-right and that even if it did, it would be unprecedented and overbearing. However, this occurrence isn’t the first time American legislators have had to fight against unwanted digital media. In the early 2000s, with the rise of personal computers, pornographic spam became a digital epidemic. Opening your computer would trigger a half dozen pop-ups of porn, no mat ter the user. After an increase in complaints and concern over child safety, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was passed. The federal law illegalized all unsolicited pornographic and marketing spam, and the problem disap peared within the next year. The problem with today’s alt-right dilemma is that lawmakers don’t want to restrict social media. So cial media “tech gods” pay their lobbyists an absurd amount of money to convince lawmakers, ensuring restrictions that hinder profit won’t be passed. A clear example of this power was when Google paid $21.7 million on lobbying in one year alone. No lawmaker would willingly liqui date their position, and hence, there is no solution in sight if these social media companies continue to indirectly manipu late regulations. As long as those in control of the media keep their ROI as their main concern, alt-right radicalization will con tinue to be a problem.
Does Social Media Build Community or Cults?
SpectatorThe/LinIris
apps, no longer centered around discussion or forums, are also pushing the agenda of alt-right extremists. But is this result just herd mentality, or are the social media apps we use every day
In late July, a Yard study cal culated the CO2 emissions of various celebrities’ private jets throughout the first half of 2022. The amount of CO2 pro duced by their private jet rides is nearly 500 times the amount of CO2 the average individual emits in an entire year. Some flights only lasted 17 minutes, which is equivalent to an hourlong car ride. Popular figures such as Taylor Swift, Kim Kar dashian, and Jay-Z were some of the biggest offenders, spark
While scrolling on my Tik Tok “For You Page,” a familiar face popped up on my screen. A close friend of mine, whom I hadn’t spoken to for years, was posting extremist views on his public platform. My heart dropped after seeing someone, whom I shared late night Fourth of July fireworks and carpooled to school with, fall into the altright pipeline. “Taking the red pill,” “radicalization,” and “the alt-right pipeline”—these are all terms referring to young adults, usually men, who end up doing and spewing extremist things. But why do so many young people fall into this pipeline? Af ter seeing my old friend’s post, along with the popularization of social media figures such as Andrew Tate, I decided to test whether or not online radicaliza tion is encouraged by TikTok. I created a TikTok account with no link to my email, my phone number, or the device I previously had an account on and scrolled through my “For You Page” to see just how long an alt-right-leaning video would pop up. After viewing only four clips, I landed on a video of Tate, an American-British man who recently appeared on numerous podcasts and spread misogynist takes on women. Tate is often seen as a “gateway drug” into the world of right wing radicalization. His content is centered around young men living an “alpha male” lifestyle through hateful speech and ob session with the material world. I decided to like the video and kept scrolling. I continued to form my algorithm with a mix ture of video game clips, Twitch streamers, and podcast videos for about a day. By the next day, almost every video on my “For You Page” attacked women, a specific race, a body type, or a religion. The comment section was almost always centered on how a woman dressed, whether or not she would be an “easy lay,” and whether a teenage-looking girl was innocent enough. Most of the vile videos came in the form of duets, in which an older man usually duetted a young girl. Commentary for these vid eos focused on the amount of makeup the girl was wearing and her clothes, but rarely ever on the point of her content or what she said in the videos. It wasn’t until about half a week after that more violent videos surfaced, surprisingly centered around self-harm; self-hate; and dissatisfaction with one’s body, life, or relationship status. I was expecting to see violence toward
social media companies are no different. One way to measure a company’s ROI is through key performance indicators. For social media, these indicators are predicated on engagement, which includes likes, comments,
shares, and average watch time. In order to make a profit, so cial media apps will push con tent that ensures engagement through the creation of a kind of close-knit community that users feel obligated to return to and participate in. Radicaliza tion, both left wing and right wing, is an easy way to ensure profit and engagement, so social media apps will push videos that guarantee a strong reaction until users are in a niche circle within that app where extremist com munities are formed.
To determine why social me dia apps are becoming a breed ing ground for alt-right radi calization, we need to pinpoint the main goal of these apps. Return on investment (ROI) is usually the main indicator of a company’s success, and large
The Gap Grows Wider
content they had been fed, and resorted to violence. Specifical ly, I chose to dive into an attack that affected me personally. The terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand killed about 50
a joke and an attack on an entire demographic will later comment on videos that fall deeper into the alt-right rabbit hole. Usually, the videos perpetuate beliefs af filiated with Neo-Nazis, such as the justification of “white su premacy on the basis of eugen ics and ‘race science.’”
As CEOs of these social media apps continue making empty promises to address radi calization, and public pushback against government regulations fails to change, thousands are falling prey to right wing ideol ogy, and hate group numbers are rising. Government officials are currently forced to battle the thin line between free speech and the safety of others when dealing with censorship of hate speech. The easiest way to en sure that fewer young people fall into the alt-right is through edu cation. Digital literacy ingrained at a young age, a credible coun terview made by creators who aren’t just yelling liberal buzz words back to alt-right videos, and manipulation of search engine results to show or hide certain content seem to be the
ing outrage and disappointment among their followers.
others, but instead, it seems like radicalization may stem from self-loathing.Afterperforming my ex periment, I researched past in cidents in which young boys finally acted on the radicalizing
was a result of extremist views formulated online and especially nurtured by the 8chan commu nity, where killing Muslims was the endgame. As we engage our selves more and more with the digital world, we find that other
Radicalization, both left wing and right wing, is an easy way to ensure profit and engagement, so social media apps will push videos that guarantee a strong reaction until users are in a niche circle within that app where extremist communities are formed.
Muslims in two mosques. Right before the shooter entered the mosques, he posted on 8chan, “Well lads, it’s time to stop s***posting and time to make a real life effort post.” Doctor of Philosophy at Western Syd ney University Luke Munn ex plained that it was clear by the terrorist’s post that his violence
By LAUREN CHIN
A logical question that is usually asked is “Why is alt-right radicalization so much more common than alt-left?” Con trary to popular belief, it’s not. Even though alt-left radicaliza tion is just as common as rightwing radicalization, the alt-left tends to be quieter within their community, and statistically, those who fall into the alt-left are usually more educated and more difficult to manipulate into a toxic and violent mindset. The alt-left operates similarly to a class group chat where informa tion is shared and regurgitated from other inputs, whereas the alt-right operates like a cult. The alt-left, until recently, doesn’t usually appeal to younger audi ences since it requires more aca demic reading. The alt-right is more concerned with clickbait, buzzwords, derogatory jokes, and absurd views that catch a viewer’s attention, making it easier for a younger audience to be engaged. Tanya Basu of MIT Technology Review extended on this idea by referencing a study that found more than 26 percent of users who comment on vid eos that tread a fine line between
aires across the globe, have the capabilities to pollute the world in ways that the average person could never even imagine doing.
to donate and fund movements against climate change. But even if they don’t participate in protests or donate to chari ties, the least celebrities can do is avoid unnecessarily polluting the Fortunately,world. mainstream news sources and social media platforms have acknowledged these “climate criminals” in re cent years. Holding these celeb rities accountable is necessary to stop the acceleration of cli mate change and give humanity more time to find a permanent solution.
Aside from private jets, many celebrities do little to di vert the climate crisis. Many fa mous Los Angeles residents, for example, surpassed the munici pal water usage budget in the midst of the California drought crisis. The Kardashians, Kevin Hart, and Sylvester Stallone all received warnings and fines, yet continue to exceed district lim its. Worse still, the reasons for such excessive water usage are
A Lesser Known Evil of Climate Change
One of the most ambitious projects in modern times, The Line is expected to have high-speed rails that will allow passengers to travel from one end to another in 20 minutes, erasing the use of cars and ultimately carbon dioxide emissions. Further, the modern city will function fully on renewable water and energy supplies. This innovative proj ect could be the perfect step toward accommodating the rise in population we’re bound to see in future years. In cluding the lack of fossil fuels, this sys tem is the ultimate killing of two birds with one stone.
While the expense of the project is an expected negative, we also have to consider the real motives of the Saudi government. Wanting to stretch beyond the country’s dependency on oil, Prince Mohammed bin Salman has stated that the main purpose of The Line is to at tract more tourists into Saudi Arabia and compete with the tourist hotspots of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. This goal is why The Line is strategically located be tween the three continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa so that 40 percent of the world can travel to it in a three hour flight, making it a future magnet for trade and tourism.
problems, such as India, Haiti, Central Africa, and Northeast South America. These places all line up practically per fectly with countries on the lower end of the spectrum of Gross Domestic Prod uct (GDP). Research conducted by John
While this utopia presents itself as a huge step toward preventing press ing issues such as overpopulation and climate change, we have to question its feasibility. Critics are doubtful on whether this project is technologically achievable. High-speed rails as the goto form of transportation sound like a great idea for the environment, but it will be difficult for millions of resi dents to get around primarily on the
Luke Gallup and Jeffrey D. Sachs of the Center of International Development at Harvard shows that among countries with populations greater than a million, malarial countries have an average GDP less than one-fifth that of other countries.
Picture living in a mirror-encased, horizontal-skyscraper city with tech nology straight out of a science fiction novel. This image is the soon-to-be reality in Saudi Arabia’s plans for its upcoming metropolis: The Line. The shockingly ambitious project is an en tire city stacked 1,640 feet high, reach ing 656 feet wide, and stretching out a staggering 106 miles from near the Red Sea to across the Arabian desert. Housed in mirror glass walls, nine mil lion residents are expected to live in sectioned parts. Organized in three di mensions with amenities stacked atop each other, citizens will have everything they need within a five-minute walk.
We cannot back down from protect ing public health, even as we try to re sume our lives after COVID-19. Now that we’ve seen firsthand how this pan demic not just caused deaths but also af fected education, labor, and the economy, we need to put effort into preventing it from happening again. We need politi cians to stay vigilant about keeping peo ple safe rather than turning away from the problem. More than that, we must hold companies accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions. The only way to prevent the amplifying effects climate change has begun to and will continue to have on these diseases is to reach net zero emissions. We must do everything we can to avoid massive breakouts of dis eases and quell future infections. Climate change will affect every aspect of our lives. We can’t let any part of this issue be unknown.
Mosquitoes are attracted to warm climates, which is why colder areas like the Northeastern United States see rela tively few mosquitoes compared to hot beds down south. As the temperature of mosquitoes’ environments increases, so does how easily they can spread a disease, but only up to a certain threshold. This boundary is called the “optimum point” of the transmission, which is different for every disease. For example, the optimum point of malaria is 78 degrees Fahrenheit, while for Zika, it is 84 degrees Fahrenheit. The rising temperatures caused by climate change make it easier for regions to reach said optimal temperatures. Mosquitoes will be able to migrate further because of the warmed temperatures, and it will be harder to prevent diseases as viruses are transmitted more easily. Due to climate change, there will be milder winters, lead ing to a growth in mosquito populations.
Aedes mosquitoes are one of the most common disease-carrying species of mosquito. These are known to carry a large range of illnesses, such as Zika, dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and Rift Valley disease. The Culex species, also known as household mosquitoes, can transmit wild diseases between birds and other animals. Mosquitoes carry a wide variety of diseases that are hard to defend against, and as climate change continues to warm the Earth, these will only spread to countries that are inexperienced in dealing with them.
Another vector whose activity is en hanced by climate change is ticks. They thrive in forested areas and carry many diseases, such as Lyme disease, Anaplas mosis, Powassan virus disease, and Eh rlichiosis. Now, as a result of warmer winters, fewer ticks will die, leading to an increase in tick populations and tick carri ers. Ticks latch onto hosts in their habitat, like deers and other wild animals, which will increase the range and speed at which ticks can travel and spread diseases. In the United States, cases of Lyme disease in the Northeast have been steadily increas ing for decades. For example, between 1991 and 2018, the number of cases per 100 thousand people in the US almost doubled. Lyme disease in ticks will spread even further as climate change warms the formerly frigid temperatures of the North’s Decembers. We can’t ignore this effect. Instead, we must choose to protect against it.
While areas may be affected differ ently by vector-borne diseases, no area is free from what climate change will do to our Earth. Malaria is only one of the many diseases that could make their way to areas nearer to the poles, so we need to be prepared. Countries must put effort into preventing disease outbreaks instead of reacting after a disease starts filling up hospital beds. Even as an individual, one can avoid getting sick by using bug spray and covering exposed skin if pos sible throughout the summer. Stuyvesant students can get involved too by recy cling and reusing materials. For students in New York, there are opportunities to work with environmental groups and at tend protests. Though you can’t control the actions of global superpowers by yourself, you can take steps to help out.
By MUSHFIKUZZAMANKHANDAKER
While this utopia presents itself as a huge step toward preventing pressing issues such weoverpopulationasandclimatechange,havetoquestionitsfeasibility.
Another factor to consider is Saudi Arabia’s heavily criticized human rights record and the current state of the country. From Saudi Arabia’s oppres sive laws and attitude toward women and homosexuality to the recent mass execution of 81 men in one day, Neom’s projected messages of living revolution and unparalleled social promotion seem contradictory to the country’s previous actions. This disparity leads us to won der how righteously the thousands of workers in this massive project will be treated. On top of millions of manual laborers, 20 percent of Saudi Arabia’s 34 million citizens lives in poverty. It would seem more reasonable for the government to spend the $500 billion funding to improve the lives of their residents or better already existing in frastructure. With the state-of-the-art technology shown in the plans for The Line, it appears only the rich will be able to afford the luxury of living there.
In a world still struggling with the aftermath of COVID-19, any more outbreaks could lead to pandemonium. However, many people overlook that the ever increasing problem of rising tem peratures has led to changes in migration patterns of disease-carrying insects. The drastic change in climate has led to and will continue to cause the spread of dis eases transmitted by mosquitoes, ticks, and other vectors. The increased warmth and humidity of previously cool areas will make it easier for unfamiliar afflictions to spread. We must limit the rise of temper atures caused by climate change in order to protect public health.
As the planet heats up, areas with his torically cooler climates will become op timal habitats for disease-carrying pests. While the risk of vector-borne diseases will increase in these regions, it will de cline in regions that are the usual hotspots: tropical climates, especially among low in come populations. Malaria actively handi caps infested countries, contributing to their economic demise. Many areas that are known to be poor have raging malaria
The drastic change in climate has led to and will continue to cause the spread of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, ticks, and other vectors.
As announced by Bin Salman, The Line is the centerpiece of the futuristic Neom site. Neom will consist of two other uniquely designed cities, Trojena and Oxagon. The Line itself is pro jected to generate over 380 thousand jobs and increase Saudi Arabia’s GDP by $48 billion. Though it’s complete ly natural for a leader to advance his country’s economy and people, these projects may seem rather gilded in the sense that their promotion focuses on beneficial purposes while the underly ing reasons are in the capitalistic region.
While America and similarly rich countries may be able to handle this influx of disease, many more lack the resources needed to fight back, like vaccines, treat ments, and insect repellent. This divide follows the common theme of how cli mate change targets lower income coun tries that contribute only a fraction of the greenhouse gas emissions fueling climate change. For example, India suffered mas sive heatwaves this summer, despite hav ing very few emissions until recently. We must protect against vector-borne diseas es, but they’re only one piece of the larger problem.
However, The Line is not quite the superficial, money-hungry plan to continue systematic oppression that it appears to be. Like most construc tions, The Line is an investment for a profit and to bring more people into the country, ultimately boosting the economy. Along with increased trade and tourism, the government could use these profits to perhaps improve other aspects that they initially didn’t have expendable money for, such as poverty and manual labor. While Saudi Arabia’s past records are not defendable, this project could be a turning point. They can’t expect to pull off such an engi neering feat and gain the public’s favor if they do it in an immoral way. Regard less of the structure, Neom plans for a city that the average citizen will be able to live in. Like other cities, it’s reason able to assume that not everyone will necessarily be able to afford the higher tech. Considering there are to be nine million residents, the project won’t be successful if it is meant for only the elite.It’s important that we look at the bigger impact The Line could have. Climate change is certainly not an un known issue, and we’ve hardly seen any major changes to the mass amounts of greenhouse gas emissions caused by cit ies. Despite the complications that The Line presents, it still stands as a very unique blend of economic and techno logical advancement. Looking beyond the troubles of viability, money, and government, this linear city is a concep tual revolution to how humans could live on this planet. Focusing on the cli mate and sustainability, we can take a step forward in urban living, renewable sources, as well as healthy economic ac tions. Construction has already begun with plans for 1.5 million people to live there by 2030. Whether Saudi Arabia achieves the highly ambitious goals and puts together all the complex parts of the engineering plan is yet to be seen. Hopefully, we are able to overcome the difficulties and make this “blueprint for tomorrow in which humanity progress es without compromise to the health of the planet” a brilliant reality.
subway. While it’s hard to make any promises mechanically, we also have to consider the estimated cost of $500 billion associated with this project. The first phase, lasting until 2030, will cost $319 billion. This amount will have to come from several sovereign wealth funds, regionally and globally.
By RIYA SUNDARAM
Today, fires rage through dry forested areas, ocean levels rise, and ice caps melt as increasing levels of greenhouse gases are released into our atmosphere. Climate change is hardly an unknown topic now, but one of its lesser known effects is how it increases the spread of deadly diseases.
The Line: A Step Towards the Future or SciFi Fantasy?
Opinions The Spectator • September 8, 2022Page 12
general relativity considers events like energy transfer to be continuous, while quantum mechanics considers them to be discrete. Though they both have withstood the rigorous tests of experimental physicists,
The wait is over. We have finally received the highly antici pated first images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which launched at the end of 2021. After it reached Lagrange point two, a position in space where the gravitational forces of objects are balanced, on January 24, 2022, the telescope under went all necessary procedures, such as the unfolding of the golden mirror, telescope align ment, and instrument turn-on. With all going according to plan, JWST has successfully started its scientific operations and has de livered its first snapshots of the cosmos.President Joe Biden released the very first image taken by JWST to the public on July 11, 2022. NASA’s Webb took only a day to capture the deepest in frared image of the universe yet. Brimming with thousands of galaxies, Webb’s first deep field is the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. The picture is the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length in the night sky. Containing some of the most obscure objects ever observed, the total mass of the galaxy cluster acts as a gravita tional lens, which is why some of the galaxies appear distorted around the cluster. JWST’s NearInfrared Camera (NirCam) cap tured SMACS 0723 as it was 4.6 billion years ago, composing images at different wavelengths all together in a matter of 12.5 hours. The photo outshines the deep fields taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, which took weeks to process. As said by NASA, this is only the beginning
General relativity correctly pre dicted the existence of black holes, gravitational lensing, the distortion of light around mas sive objects, and gravitational waves—waves in space caused by massive objects—and has shaped our understanding of physics for over a century.
Using evidence from as tronomical observations as well as atomic clocks, scientists have claimed that Earth’s days are getting longer but lack reasoning as to piterwhy.and
Europe is experiencing the worst drought in over 500 years, with two-thirds of the continent being in a state of alert or warning
Of the many proposed uni fied models of physics, string theory is undoubtedly the most popular. String theory, or su perstring theory, proposes that the fundamental particles of the standard model of physics
(quarks, gluons, etc.) are actu ally strings vibrating at different frequencies. Under superstring theory, gravity is thought to be the result of a particle, the grav iton, which is again just a string. String theorists hold it as a pos sible unified theory of quantum gravity because it may unite general relativity and quantum mechanics.Unfortunately, experimen tal results have yet to confirm superstring theory—rather, the experiments that have been conducted only invalidate it. For instance, superstring theory requires something called “su persymmetry,” which is where the theory gets part of its name from. Supersymmetry propos es the existence of a partner particle for all particles in the standard model of physics. Sci entists have yet to uncover any evidence indicating the exis tence of these partner particles.
Superstring theory also re quires the existence of at least nine dimensions of space. The proposed existence of these dimensions lacks evidence, but string theorists speculate that these other dimensions are so compact that modern experi ments lack the energy to detect them. Furthermore, super string theory clashes with the modern understanding of the cosmological constant, which deals with the energy density
the two theories are incompati ble in certain extreme cases that scientists can not yet examine, such as in the centers of black holes or at the instant of the Big Bang. That’s where string theory comes in, or at least
With all going according to plan, JWST has successfully started its scientific oper ations and has delivered its first snapshots of the cosmos.
Why String Theory Deserves More Skepticism
SCIENCEBEAT
By MUSHFIKUZZAMANKHANDAKER
The final of the five images from JWST is of the glittering “Cosmic Cliffs.” The breathtak ing photo encapsulates, in in frared light, the Carina Nebula in all its glory. Gargantuan stars at the center of the “peaks,” which are seven light-years high, cause scorching ultraviolet ra diation. The carved and eroded areas from the nebula and hot, ionized “steam” are due to this radiation. Webb was able to pry through the stellar dust cover ing this star-birthing place and expose objects in early star for mation that are typically difficult to uncover. The effects of larger stars are very clear while these low-mass younger stars are less well-known. From this image we can see smaller stars create nar row jets which insert tons of en ergy into the dust clouds. Webb will help astronomers survey the amount of these smaller stars and their impact on the nebula, providing a broader sense of star formation.Inaddition to these first five images, JWST has also captured evidence of water in the clouds of WASP-96 b, a planet orbit ing a Sun-like star. One of the 5,000 confirmed exoplanets in the Milky Way, WASP-96 is a gas giant that is half the mass of Ju
By AAREEB JAMIL
SpectatorThe/TongYile
possibly caused quasars, or ex tremely powerful black holes. In fact, the uppermost galaxy in the image, NGC 7319, has an active galactic nucleus. Using its NearInfrared Spectrograph (NIR Spec) and Mid-Infrared Instru ment (MIRI), Webb collected data on the supermassive black hole that’s actively pulling in and putting out energy equivalent to 40 billion Suns. This image will be key in shedding insights on how interactions between galax ies shaped the early universe.
of space. It requires the cosmo logical constant to be negative, but Nobel Prize-winning exper imental evidence demonstrated that the cosmological constant is in fact a positive value. This causes the universe to expand at an accelerating rate, whereas a negative cosmological constant would result in decelerating expansion. The contradictions between string theory and sci entific observations undermine its validity.Modern string theory is ba sically pseudoscience. When new experiments disprove its predictions, string theorists try to put another bandage on the already-dead theory. These im promptu explanations that are currently unfalsifiable prevent the theory from being totally discredited. This is a serious problem because high-energy physics, the sub-branch of physics encompassing topics like string theory, has fierce competition for research fund ing. It is already impossible for many physicists to find research positions and funding for work that produces meaning ful results, so more funding for string theory comes at the cost of genuine progress in phys ics. But for now, string theory remains a thorn in the foot of physics academia, yet a source of hope for those who pursue it so religiously.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Zynteglo, a genetic treat ment for the blood disorder beta-thalassemia, which causes low hemoglobin and severe anemia, last week.
However, physicists have reason to believe that general relativity may not be the full story. The issue arises with quantum physics. The quantum revolution in the early 20th cen tury completely transformed our understanding of the sub atomic world by revealing that subatomic particles exist as probability waves until dis turbed by Generalobservation.relativityand quan tum physics model the natural world at completely different scales and thus have fundamen tal differences. For instance,
awkwardly tries to. String theo ry first arose in the late 1960s to explain the strong nuclear force but was later revised to be a the ory of quantum gravity, which attempts to unify general rela tivity and quantum mechanics.
ies. Four out of the quintet are caught up in a “cosmic dance” and are in the process of col liding and merging. These four galaxies are located 290 million light-years from Earth while the fifth is located 40 million lightyears away. Compared to other galaxies, these galaxies are rela tively close, allowing scientists to better understand the signifi cance of merging galaxies in gal axy Compactevolution. groups like Stephan’s Quintet were more present in the early universe when it was superheated, which
1.2 times greater the diameter. Using its Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS), Webb measured light from the exoplanet, confirming its size and orbit and more im portantly, revealing previously unknown details of its waterabundant atmosphere. Research ers will be able to use JWST’s ex ceptional technology to further research exoplanets like these and perhaps even uncover pos sibilities of life on them. To add to the telescope’s rapid accom plishments, Webb has also taken photos of the Cartwheel galaxy, released on August 2, and a rivet ing new view of Jupiter in infra red light on August 22.
It’s electrifying to see the huge success JWST has been, with photos as beautiful as the critical information about our universe they hold. It’s even more invigo rating to think of what comes next as the telescope promises to share the enthralling secrets of the universe yet to be unveiled.
Next up in Webb’s cosmic showcase are two images fo cused on the Southern Ring planetary nebula, located 2,500 light-years away. Using NirCam and MIRI, Webb has revealed details on this cloud of gas and dust ejected from dying stars that we call a nebula. While the image with NirCam conveys the layers of light from the stars, the one with MIRI has revealed that the second star is surrounded by dust. This indicates that the first star is at an earlier stage in com parison to its neighbor. It will produce its own nebula in the
of Webb’s infrared abilities, and we will receive further informa tion on the distant phenomena in the image as astronomers review what the image reveals about our earlyTheuniverse.nextday, July 12, we re ceived four more pictures during a ceremony at Goddard Space Flight Center. The next in the gal lery is Stephan’s Quintet, Webb’s largest image so far. The 150 million pixel image, constructed out of 1,000 images, displays the grouping of five striking galax
Page 13The Spectator • September 8, 2022 Science
The million-dollar ques tion in theoretical physics is an elusive one. With Albert Ein stein’s theory of gravity on one hand and quantum mechanics on the other, physicists have long struggled to unite the two. Einstein’s general relativity de scribes gravity as the warping of spacetime by massive ob jects, which has proved consis tent with experimental results.
future, influencing the current nebula’s appearance in the mean time. The images look very dif ferent because the instruments used to take them operate at different wavelengths. Through the NirCam Image, researchers can observe the shells of dust produced by the older star. Iden tifying the molecules present in the thousands-of-years-old lay ers will renew our knowledge on these space nurseries.
Webb Telescope’s First Images–A Bright Past Promising A Brighter Future
PageScience14 The Spectator • September 8, 2022
tain the virus, and polio was thought to be eradicated from the Americas in 1994. That is, untilThenow.patient reported to have poliovirus was identi fied through the presence of vaccine-derived poliovirus type two (VDPV2) in his stool. Vac cine-derived poliovirus refers
Since the beginning of hu man life on Earth, we have learned to coexist with ani mals in order to survive. They served as prey to hunt and predators to hunt with. Along the way, our bond with ani mals deepened from centuries of sharing common environ ments and resources. In the lab, animal subjects are integral to breakthroughs in research. Ad ditionally, animals with proper training help people with dis abilities through their daily rou tine via animal-assisted therapy. They can simply act as lifelong companions and friends as well. However, our relationship with animals is a complicated one. With monkeypox making daily headlines, we are inclined to take a second look at this situation again and re-evaluate how healthy our relationship really
to when a strain of weakened live poliovirus contained in oral polio vaccine (OPV), a type of polio vaccine that uses a weak ened live form of poliovirus, circulates in the body for long enough to revert to its origi nal disease-inducing form. But because the patient was unvac cinated and had not traveled during the potential exposure period, researchers concluded that the virus had originated from someone who received type two-containing OPV abroad and has since been cy cling throughout the US. Health authorities respond ed by analyzing the wastewater in Rockland and surrounding counties. From 260 collected wastewater samples from treat ment plants in Rockland and Orange County, 21 sample
A pathogen’s journey from an animal to human involves a series of steps that ensure its sur vival and replication in the body of its new host. For one, there are many ways the pathogen can enter the hu man body, not all of which involve di rect contact.
By SUBAAH SYED
The Tough and Deadly Journey from Animal to Human
vaccination coverage among in fants and children younger than 24 months living in Rockland County declined from 67 per cent in July 2020 to 60.3 percent in August 2022. This decline is largely due to the decrease in routine vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving many communities susceptible to resurgences of vaccine-pre ventable diseases.
LillianZou/The Spectator
After nearly three decades of absence, polio is making a reappearance in the United States, with its first case be ing right here in New York. In late July, a young unvaccinated adult living in Rockland Coun ty, New York, became the first case of paralytic polio, a type of polio that can cause paraly sis in the spinal cord and brain stem, in the U.S. since 2013.
Combined, our modern so ciety has fostered an environ ment where our interactions with animals have not been completely beneficial. While our relationships with animals may not be perfect, we can take steps individually and as com munities to form a better one.
is taking our own steps to prevent the transmission of viruses. This includes basic hygiene and taking preventa tive measures against animal bites and scratches. To avoid food-borne zoonotic disease, it is just as important to han dle store-bought food safely by washing them properly and keeping the cooking utensils and prepping area clean. The second part involves a more industrial approach, which concerns administering proper
By ARIN FARUQUE
spread to the brain and spinal cord, resulting in diseases like paralysis—the loss or impair ment of muscle function in a part of the body.
Though zoonotic diseases start from animals, we should take responsibility in control ling their transmission by work ing to improve human-animal interactions. Global phenom ena such as climate change and the rapid urbanization in recent years don’t just account for the dramatic changes occurring in weather patterns and human populations—they’ve also led to an increase in infectious dis eases that were once confined to warmer climates. Addition ally, deforestation for the ex pansion of cities has led to mis placed animals and increased human-animal interaction.
to transmit to humans and be come the Human immunode ficiency virus (HIV), the virus had to undergo several genetic mutations. For thousands of years, humans were actually immune to SIV, which allowed them to have the upper hand in evolution. A crucial part of this immunity lies in the structural complexity in the binding site of the human cell which pre vented the SIV protein to tight ly bind. However, over time, a few SIV variants man aged to overcome the biological hurdles in the human body, eventually lead ing to the emer gence of HIV, which has af fected tens of millions of people since the first Limitingcase. the prevalence of mals.lationshipimprovingre-evaluatingdiseaseszoonoticcallsforandourrewithaniOnepartofthis
Polio,risk.or poliomyelitis, is a contagious viral illness that at tacks the body’s central nervous system. The RNA virus spreads through person-to-person con tact, most commonly through contact with the stool of an infected person. Most people who contract the virus (about 72 out of 100) will not have vis ible symptoms, and will devel op flu-like symptoms instead. In most cases, these symptoms fade away on their own within two to five days. However, in extreme cases, the infection can
been administered in the U.S. since 2000. IPV consists of in activated poliovirus strains of all three polio variants. When entered into the body through intramuscular injection, IPV stimulates the creation of an tibodies in the blood for all three variants and prevents paralysis by blocking the virus from spreading to the central nervous system. By the 1990s, two additional polio vaccines were developed to further con
environment is a whole other battle. In general, it is quite rare for animal viruses to infect humans due to the differences in structures and microbial en vironments. Diseases such as Ebola and COVID-19, which were found in bats, did not af fect them as much as they did humans. In order for viruses to invade a host cell and replicate,
tested positive for poliovirus between the two counties. Spe cifically, one of the positive samples from Orange County was collected in April, suggest ing that this strand has been present in the water since April or earlier.Theinvestigators followed up by assessing vaccination rates in the patient’s communi ty. According to the New York State Immunization Informa tion System, three-dose polio
they must possess the correct protein to attach to the recep tors on the new cell’s surface. However, the same virus that infected the animal body may not possess the properties to effectively bind to the surface of a human cell. For instance, in order for the Simian im munodeficiency virus (SIV) found in nonhuman primates
via rodents on shipments to Texas, thus causing outbreaks in the US. A key piece of ad vice public health agencies have given to prevent con tamination is to avoid infected animals, especially mammals. As shown in the monkeypox outbreak, animals have played a significant role in carrying and transmitting zoonotic dis eases.
In the case humansintotheCOVID-19,ofviruscamecontactwiththrough a wet market, a place where cramped and unclean conditions led to different fluids and resi dues of infected animals mix ing with each other, eventually forming breeding grounds for viral bacteria. During the Black Death, the bubonic plague found in rats was carried by fleas that came in contact with humans, making this a vectorborneGettingdisease.into contact with the human body is one task, but successfully entering the body and surviving the new
regulations and safety proce dures when handling domestic animals and food production andCurrently,marketing.in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administra tion (FDA) provides guidelines and information on handling animals and addressing food safety in products and the plac es where the products are pro duced. Since the FDA only ca ters to the US, other countries may have different regulations regarding food safety and han dling animals. In some cases, their regulations may not be enough to guarantee complete safety, which emphasizes the importance in handling import ed production with expert care.
Dr. Jonas E. Salk licensed the first polio vaccine in 1955. Salk’s vaccine, called the inac tivated polio vaccine (IPV), is the only polio vaccine that has
As for next steps, what’s most important now is for ev eryone to make sure that they are fully vaccinated against the poliovirus. Health authorities have already begun strength ening immunization efforts by supplying IPV to existing clinics and launching new vac cination clinics throughout Rockland County. Now, public health concerns rise as out breaks are now being seen in other parts of the world. In Is rael, seven children have been identified as VDPV positive, and Britain faces a similar pre dicament as the US with the virus being detected in Lon don’s sewage system. Britain has already responded by offer ing the polio vaccine to all chil dren aged one through nine. It’s crucial that this vaccination effort also spans beyond the af fected countries and becomes a worldwide effort to get rid of polio for good.
Is Polio Back?
Zoonoticis. diseases, also known as zoonoses (singular: zoonosis), are pathogens that are naturally transmissible from animals to humans. Some pop ular examples are rabies, which comes from getting bitten by a rabid animal; anthrax, which comes from cattle; and avian flu, which comes from contact with birds. More recently, the viral outbreak of monkeypox that was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) was first identified in a colony of mon keys native to West Africa used for research in Copenhagen, Denmark. While monkeypox outbreaks were most common in Africa, the disease traveled
After nearly three decades of absence, polio is making a reap pearance in the United States, with its first case being right here in New York. In late July, a young unvaccinated adult living in Rockland County, New York, became the first case of paralytic polio, a type of polio that can cause paralysis in the spinal cord and brainstem, in the U.S. since 2013.
After further investigation, this strand of polio has been found in surrounding communities, with new reports revealing that polio has been found in New York City wastewater as well. This spread, combined with lower overall vaccination rates, poses a serious nationwide health
if you always in cluded the correct choice as one of the two possible ones, your chances of guessing to a perfect score improve to 1/2141, or one in 2.8 x 1042
As much as they’ve im proved our present, nanoma chines have even more poten tial to benefit our future, most notably through two major potential innovations. The first is internal hospitals. Hospitals operating inside the body at a nanoscale could provide sev eral boons, including earlier diagnosis of difficult-to-detect diseases, quick treatment, and significantly simplification of the logistics of hospital visits. If this technology had been de ployed during the pandemic, we
is usually possible to narrow down the choices, so it may be more apt to guess between two possible answers. There are six ways to choose two answers out of four, three sets of which will contain the correct an swer. The chance of choosing the right pair is one-third, and the chance of then choosing the right answer is one-half, so across the MCQs, the chance of a perfect score is one in 5.2 x 10109. The chances are actu ally lower than those of blind
There are two major ap proaches to nanofabrication, the processes used to create structures in the nanoscale. The first is the top-down approach, in which traditionally larger technologies are miniaturized to the nanoscale or are created by the breakdown of a larger block of material. The second approach to nanofabrication is a bottom-up approach, which consists of smaller pieces being
Even outside the IT field, nanomachines improve con sumer products. Nanoscale ma terial can make personal body armor more deflective, tailor smart fabrics to monitor health and capture solar energy, and make vehicles more lightweight.
made it smaller and therefore faster and more efficient. This significantly improved comput ing capability and helped grow the global economy. It has also spurred the creation of the MRAM system, which will al low computers to boot instantly.
Nanomachines and Their Implications For Human Society
would burn if they were to al ways take the stairs. Judging by a few schedules from last year, most students are likely to have to go up 34 flights and down 32 flights of stairs on a no-gym school day. A healthy person should be able to climb four flights (60 stairs) per minute and descend about six flights (90 stairs) per minute, meaning a healthy Stuyvesant student spends about 14 minutes (8.5 ascending and 5.3 descending)
ters of carbon dioxide could be captured. One ton of carbon dioxide is 556.2 cubic meters, meaning 833 tons of gas would be collected in total. The av erage American has a carbon footprint equivalent to 16 tons, so by collecting carbon dioxide at Stuyvesant over one year, 52 Americans’ damage to the envi ronment is offset. Cars emit 4.6 tons of carbon dioxide annual ly, so one high school worth of carbon dioxide offsets 181 cars. Capturing carbon in offices and schools might be the key to the future.
What If I Guessed on the SAT? and Other Questions
This requires very sophisti cated technology and is there fore rather expensive. Struc tures built using this method are important complements to top-down designs and are often inspired by life processes. An example of a process inspired by biological machinery is DNA origami, consisting of DNA and proteins. Since many biological systems are nanomachines that serve a variety of purposes, they are replicable blueprints for ef fective nanoscale engineering.
By SETH FENTON
James Clerk Maxwell be came the first human to inten tionally design a nanomachine in 1867. Since then, nanoma chines, or structures with di mensions measured in nano meters that can perform quasi mechanical movements, have ingrained themselves into every part of modern life. Nanoma chines have also become a field with major potential to advance society in the coming decades. These technologies no longer exist only in the sci-fi realm— they are an integral part of hu manity’s present and future.
internal conditions. This is al ready incredibly useful for in creasing our understanding of neuroscience. This technology could eventually be used to ef fectively interpret mental data into actual thoughts, potentially allowing machines to follow mental orders. The ability to control machines with human minds would remove the need for a non-mental user interface, shortening development times and improving human capabil ity with technology. Obviously, this is a massive number of in novations (and decades) away, but its benefits would be incred ible for every aspect of human life.Nanomachines are an in credibly useful future tech nology with the potential to revolutionize practically every industry. While there are several obstacles to nanotech develop ment, including the difficulty of scaling down technologies and the sheer cost of building something tiny yet functional, nanomachines will fundamen tally improve human life.
There are 141 multiplechoice questions (MCQs) with four answer choices each, and 13 grid-in questions on the SAT. If you were to guess on every MCQ and ace every grid-in, the chance of a 1600 is 1/4141, or one in 7.7 x 1084 GoodBut,luck!you’re a Stuyvesant student, so what if you took educated guesses instead? It
2: What if I guessed on the SAT?
the MCQ brings the chances up to one in 1.4 x 1014. Given the 3,344 students at Stuyvesant, if every student were to success fully narrow down 11 questions to two possible answer choices while getting the rest of the test correct, there would likely still only be one perfect score.
Experts believe this incredible technology could be available by 2045, though right now, it’s more of a far-reaching goal that could induce other advance ments. When it does arrive, it will decrease healthcare costs and improve our quality of life considerably.Thesecond potential in novation is injectable nano sensors. Nanosensors are tiny data collectors, and the unique thing about them is their ability to cross the brain-blood bar rier safely. Right now, they’re just being used to record and transmit data on the brain’s
1: What if we captured the carbon dioxide released by the Stuyvesant student body?
To answer this question, we need to know how much energy the average Stuyvesant student
To improve your chances, you might only guess on half of the multiple choice. Assum ing the rest was correct and that your confidence in your educated guesses is 50 percent, that perfect score is one in 1.2 x 1021. Guessing on a third of
A person releases around 0.11 cubic meters of carbon dioxide per hour. Given the 3,344 students at Stuyvesant, 367.8 cubic meters of carbon dioxide are released into the building every hour. The air is kept breathable and circulating with windows and mechanical ventilation systems in accor dance with building codes. If those ventilation systems were retrofitted with adsorbent fil ters, to which carbon dioxide would bind, they would be able to collect the gas and allow for its repurposing. Swedish com pany Climeworks is doing just that on a larger scale by captur ing carbon dioxide in the open air. The captured gas is then dissolved in water and pumped underground. There, it reacts with basaltic rock to form car bonate minerals. It is predicted that if usage of carbon capture and storage technology became more widespread, it might be possible to offset climate change.Inone academic year at Stuyvesant, assuming every student is in the building for seven hours and maximum ef ficiency of filtration methods are utilized, 463,428 cubic me
One of the most important displays of the potential of nanotechnology is the transis tor. This is a vital component of modern computing, and so phisticated nanotechnology has
Being a Stuyvesant stu dent means breathing recycled eau de teenager air, deciding between running up stairs or braving crowded escalators, and wanting to throw in the towel on tests but never quite doing it. Sometimes, you get to wondering: am I really sav ing that much energy by avoid ing the stairs? Does guessing on the SAT actually work for anyone? Could school air be useful? I figured it was time to put pen to paper (and finger to calculator) and find out.
would have discovered the true infectious potential of the vi rus sooner. Patients would also have been diagnosed almost im mediately when they got sick, allowing for much earlier quar antines. Hospital beds wouldn’t have filled up because even relatively severe cases could have been treated by the nanohospital from within the body. This would allow the hospital’s limited space to be taken up by only the most severe cases.
3: How much energy do I save by taking the Stuyves ant escalators instead of the stairs?
Page 15The Spectator • September 8, 2022 Science
At 30 calories “saved” per day, what can you do? You can repurpose them to give your brain that extra boost when studying: a half-hour reading session requires 34 calories for someone at 125 lbs! Skip ping the stairs for a week will “save” enough calories to fuel two hours of studying. Taking the escalators during midterms week isn’t laziness—it’s conser vation. Or, use them towards building those abs: 70 sit-ups, perhaps?Looking at it another way, skipping the stairs saves enough energy in joules to power a 60watt light bulb for 34 minutes. Alternatively, taking the stairs all 180 days a school year ex pends the energy it takes to drive an electric car with a 25 kilowatt-hour engine 51 miles. After four years, the average Stuy student will burn enough calories on the stairs to drive that car 207 miles. But, the real question is: which option will get you to class on time more often? Knowledge is power!
built into novel nanostructures. Some technologies that have been successfully made smaller through this approach include the components of integrated circuits. This approach is signif icantly more cost-effective but can be very difficult to achieve. It can also be challenging to replicate a piece of technology’s function at that scale.
on the stairs daily. The average 16-year-old male is 134 lbs, and the average 16-year-old female is 119 lbs, so without consid eration of demographics, the average high school student is 127 lbs. Thus, this student will expend 62 calories a day on the Stuyvesant stairs, assuming a backpack weighing between one to 15
However,lbs. this average stu dent is not “saving” 62 calories by taking the escalator: stand ing burns energy, too! Standing on the escalator for about one minute per passing burns 12 calories, but counting the two flights up in the morning to get to the escalators, two flights down to the ground floor in the afternoon, and assuming four flights in either direction required by the odd and even floors, taking the escalators will still require an estimated maxi mum of 22 calories.
guessing.However,
By UMA SUKHU
SpectatorThe/McArthurSkye
Something You Can’t Return To Jon
By NICOLE LIU
Arts and Entertainment The Spectator ● September 8, 2022Page 16 Playlist
Though much of the sea son matches the previous ones in terms of quality, there is a noticeable improvement in this season’s character development. This rings especially true for the show’s messy lead. Devi’s nar cissism and inanity are toned down in favor of a more sub dued disposition, and her sig nature conniving personality
It’s the middle of the work week, and people are flood ing into Metlife Stadium for an incredibly energetic, dynamic, and exceptional show. The Red Hot Chili Peppers’s “Unlimited Love” tour follows the release of the band’s 12th album with the same name, in anticipation of its 13th coming out this fall. These albums aren’t the only reason behind the excitement for the band; legendary guitar ist John Frusciante rejoined the band in late 2019, and to say that fans are happy would be an understatement.Theshowbegan with two opening acts: Thundercat and The Strokes. Thundercat’s opener began earlier and in full daylight, prompting fewer people and visual effects. He did, however, have a massive cat head on stage, a unique touch to his set. Thundercat’s unique sound, which beautifully blends his feelings, emotions, and evocative musical tech niques, was showcased in his more popular songs like “Them Changes” and “Dragonball Du rag.” Following Thundercat, The Strokes’s set commanded a huge portion of the crowd out of the concourse and into their seats for an opening act filled with hits like “Reptilia” and “The Adults Are Talking.”
continued on page 17
Psychedelic pop
his established stereotype, de veloping from a dim-witted womanizer into a mature, intel
towards women, as one particu larly memorable scene follows him while he apologizes to all
Despite the new release of “Unlimited Love,” the setlist consisted mostly of their ear lier hits, with interludes of new songs. The new releases do have a slightly different sound, like the Red Hot Chili Peppers without the Californian influ ence: less mellow and more melancholy in some instances while rougher in others. De spite the shift, their new songs are still similarly stylized and definitely enjoyable. Even so, it was clear that the crowd favored the throwbacks—and the band knew it. The feeling of sing ing along with thousands of other people in the stadium was thrilling, and there was a shared excitement and joy within the crowd, fostered by the musical prowess of every member of the Thoughband.
Finally, nighttime came, and Flea, John Frusciante, and Chad Smith—the bassist, guitarist, and drummer, respectively— came on stage for an impres sive intro jam. Accompanied by a dynamic background of flashing lights that changed with every song, the music was matched by light ranging from cool-toned, flowy patterns to bright fiery colors. The open ing instrumental was energetic, with a sound that combined well with the fast-paced rhythm of Flea’s bass and loud, power ful beat from Smith’s drum set. Similarly styled instrumentals were scattered throughout the show, and the looming pros pect of another song created an exciting, suspenseful atmo sphere. After the introduction, the band opened with “Can’t Stop,” off of their 2002 album “By The Way.” Singer Anthony Kiedis ran on stage and was met with an already pumped-up crowd that enthusiastically sang along and cheered all the way through.Both sides of the stage were equipped with a screen pro jecting footage that frequently switched between members, making it clear that when the Red Hot Chili Peppers per form, you are not there to see any one member—you come to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Though we all wanted to watch the stage, our eyes were con sistently drawn to the screens, where close-ups of each mem ber were projected. Of course, their sound is impressive, but watching Flea feel the groove of the bassline, Frusciante’s hands skillfully move up and down the neck of his guitar, Smith bang
Never Have I Ever Been in a Love Square Television
all good things must come to an end, the Red Hot Chili Peppers ended with a bang. The last song in their set was the upbeat, funky, dy namic single “Give It Away” from their 1991 album “Blood Sugar Sex Magik,” which in stantly changed the mood of the crowd following the more melancholy “Californication.”
Frou-frouSoccerShotgunMommyIndierockPlaces/PlansSkullcrusherIndiefolkinMidsummer
flipturn Indie rock
The Last Day of Summer The EternalAlternativeCurerockSunshineJhenéAikoR&BAugust
Fires Cocteau Twins Dream pop WeekendMGMTWars
Summer ‘22 has come to a close, and soon it will fade to a memory. Here is a collection of songs we used to memorialize the summer that was and bemoan the unwelcome transition back to class.
In recent years, there’s been an explosion of new teen dra mas, and Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever” stakes its place in the competitive genre, even as it ap proaches its third season.
TwoLonnieSummerSibylleSoundtrackBrionTheEndBaierFolkNightsListonSmithJazzfusionThousandEighteen, Bye Slauson Malone Plunderphonics
is taken down a few notches. While the previous seasons of ten found Devi in the awkward
ligent, college-bound adult who no longer worries about what others expect of him. Though originally hesitant to apply to college because of his perceived intellectual inadequacies, he re
Though the entire experi ence of this concert was more than noteworthy, one of the most notable moments came right at the end of the encore when a fan holding a sign say ing “We love you John” was projected on the screen, pro ducing the loudest noise from the crowd yet. The sign refers to the band’s guitarist, John Frusciante, who was recently welcomed back into the band for the second time following a ten-year break and solo-stint in which he released five records. Frusciante’s place in the band is complicated; he’s a legendary guitarist and excellent musician, but his stage presence isn’t as striking as the rest of the band. He doesn’t talk to the crowd, and his outfits aren’t as bold as the shirtless, skirt-wearing Flea or the neon mesh-clad Kiedis. Nevertheless, his instrumen tal skill makes up for that, and he is just as effortlessly cool as the rest of the band. Though he definitely differs from the group in many ways, he simulta neously blends in perfectly with theirIt’ssound.anage-old question: was my favorite band as good live as on record? Well, it’s safe to say that the Red Hot Chili Peppers was, and might even be better. It was clear from the first moment that this is a band that gives a performance its all, and the crowd loved it, never losing that original burst of energy from the moment the band came on stage. The Red Hot Chili Pep pers’s combination of excellent musical ability and over-the-top energy made for a truly unfor gettable experience.
alizes that his only true obstacle was his own insecure mindset. He also improves his behavior
While their set was impressive and the band was as stylish as ever, they were saddled with daylight and disinterest from the crowd in their anticipation for the main act. The band’s set lasted just under an hour and ended as the sun began to set.
The Sweet, Deafening Sound of Red Hot Chili PeppersMusic
Paxton, the show’s resident pretty boy, also breaks out of
Back to School Blues
After the end of their set, the band came back for an encore with “Under the Bridge” (1991) and “By the Way” (2002), to which the entire crowd erupted into cheers and energetically sang along with.
fallout from her convoluted schemes, this season, she finds healthier ways of coping with rejection and loss.
“Never Have I Ever” fol lows Devi Vishwakumar (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan), an Indian-American high school student with a short fuse, who is struggling with the death of her father amidst blossoming feelings for her academic rival Ben Gross (Jared Lewison) and the most popular boy in school, Paxton Hall-Yoshida (Darren Barber). Season three picks up where the second season left off, with Devi entering a new relationship with Paxton.
SpectatorThe/MahmudAfra
By THE ARTS ENTERTAINMENT&DEPARTMENT
By ROXY PERAZZO and VITA KIRSCHTEIN
on his drums with such coor dination and fervor, and Kiedis embody the lyrics with his ex pressions was too tempting to resist. The Red Hot Chili Pep pers are truly masters of their craft, and it can be clearly seen in the way they play live.
tion and abuse are real prob lems that plague some teens, most high school students have more quotidian adversities of romance and self-worth, which deserve to be unpacked in an entertaining way just as graphic, flashy issues have.
I, too, found that the inti macy of my exchanged letters with my pen pal provided cher ished moments to be seen and understood. I cannot convey the childlike delight of finding her letters in my mailbox.
it all seemed foreign, as tech nology has popularized instant communication, which gives us the ability to react immedi ately to a message with a quick “lol” or emoticon. Instant messaging offers efficiency and allows us to depersonalize
cards has decreased signifi cantly. The U.S Postal Service reports that mail volume has decreased by 28 percent in the past decade. These printed ob jects, often later sacredly held as memorabilia, are quickly be coming obsolete.
SpectatorThe/GutierrezGabriel
romance.Despite “Never Have I Ever”’s shortcomings, it still succeeds in being an entertain ing and lighthearted watch, which is refreshing in a genre riddled with dramas that sen sationalize the lives of teenag ers. Season three upkeeps the charm and charisma of the pre vious seasons while exploring a maturer side to the characters. While other shows tend to dete riorate at this point in their run time, “Never Have I Ever” takes advantage of what it’s good at and continues to improve its formula. There is no doubt that future seasons will continue to appeal to their young audience with their invigorating take on teen drama.
a slew of new issues. One big point of confusion this season is the timeline. The first three episodes follow Devi over a few weeks, while episode four jumps forward six months. The accelerated pacing con tinues throughout the season, which concludes at the end of the school year. Considering the drastically slower pacing of the show’s preceding seasons, the inconsistency is jarring and
this square also evolves outside of their relationships, creating multi-dimensional characters.
her, almost as if it was second nature. In our conversations, I found myself reminded of the details and memories that she had shared with me through the mail many months ago. We shared a tangible history, traced through the exchanged artifacts of letters, artwork, and trinkets. The physicality of our letters concretized our rela tionship into something deeper than a series of text exchanges. There was evidence of a devel opedLetter-writingrelationship. in times of crisis has remained a constant throughout American history. During the age of immigra tion, immigrants would write to their loved ones in their home countries, explaining the changes of the new world. The Smithsonian National Postal Museum claims that letters were a way to communicate across the distances that had separated loved ones.
Arts and EntertainmentPage17The Spectator ● September 8, 2022
“Never Have I Ever” also explores practical, relatable
her address hundreds of miles away. Offline letter-writing of fered the ability to be vulnera ble and honest without fear of exposure to hundreds of fol lowers and Facebook friends. Concealed in the privacy of the envelope, a letter is an intimate
also suffers in the plot department at certain points. After two seasons of build-up, Devi and Paxton anti climactically break up after three episodes of being a couple, sub sequently rebounding with new love interests one episode later.
Buy those stamps, lick the seal, make the trip to your local post office (there happens to be a beautiful one on Church Street, right near Stuyvesant). I invite you to rekindle the vestiges of physical mail. You won’t be disappointed.Yours truly, A snail mail proponent
of the girls he’s wronged. Simi larly, Ben, the second contender in this seasons-old love triangle, grows from a college-obsessed workaholic to a relaxed and re alistic high school student after winding up in the hospital due to his intense study regime. His character arc is especially wellexecuted and brings more com plexity to his personality.
Rekindling the Lost Art of Letter-writingCulture
disapproval. Both relationships ended abruptly in an unsatisfy ing way that missed opportuni ties to develop their characters.
In the doldrums of winter while we were all still masked, the Stuy Pen Pal Club pre sented an intriguing invitation: connect with a student through the nearly outdated custom of letter writing. It was enticing. Why not meet someone new? I couldn’t remember the last time I wrote a letter. A post card from vacation, sure. But a letter with a real stamp, sealed in an envelope and placed in one of those odd, blue boxes on the street. My first letter felt awkward and provoked a new set of inquiries. Which type of paper should I use; how should I configure my handwriting? Should I include doodles?
ourselves through automation. Unlike written letters, text mes sages conceal the missteps of our hands, or the flair of our handwriting. The art of letterwriting reinvigorates tradi tional customs that have fallen by the wayside. We don’t press invitations anymore for spe cial events. The use of holiday
By HUTCHINSONMADELINE
banter. The writing accurately emulates teen humor, angst, and uncertainty in a way that isn’t over-sensationalized, as is the case with other teen dramas like “Euphoria.” Even the costume and production design balances trendiness with realism, foster ing a relatability that could ap peal to any young viewer.
confusing.Theshow
I share an obscure proposi tion—a handwritten letter can be a more intimate way to con nect with others in a time when communication can be too im mediate. Let me explain.
As a result, there is no obvi ous answer to this love square, which is part of the show’s charm.Though it is clear that ro mance is the main appeal of “Never Have I Ever,” comedy also contributes to its charisma. While the dialogue is cheesy at times, it’s also chock-full of wit ty one-liners and lighthearted
continued from page 16
Never Have I Ever Been in a Love SquareTelevision
The relationships in this show add tremendously to its appeal. Most of the discourse surrounding the show has to do with the love triangle at its center. Though the last sea son ended with what seemed like a resolution, the conun drum is revived when Paxton breaks up with Devi because of her raging insecurities. The complications compound as the triangle evolves into a love square when Des (Anirudh Pisharody), the perfect blend of Paxton’s dreamy looks and Ben’s intense academic prow ess, is introduced into the equa tion. The show juggles multiple love interests well, with each character retaining clearly dif ferent personalities and roles in their interactions with Devi.
Dear esteemed reader, Have you ever had the de sire to send a message with out the anxiety of awaiting an instant response? Have you ever wanted to communicate with someone without worry ing about your photographed pose, or what time of day it is?
The acting also doesn’t do much to mitigate the show’s deficiencies. Though satisfac tory during comedic scenes, the acting is noticeably worse when the show shifts to a more seri ous tone. This proves especially true for leading lady Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, whose expres sions feel hollow when playing emotional scenes. Yet despite some awkward moments, the actors maintain strong chemis try, which is more important for a show that relies so heavily on
Though the third season of “Never Have I Ever” fixes some of the problems present in previous seasons, there is also
As I found myself connect ing deeper with my pen pal, I would collect things from my everyday life that reminded me of her. A small bunny-shaped bell from Chelsea Market, postcards from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a Simon and Garfunkel CD from a flea mar ket: all these things were sent to
themes. Ben grapples with his need to be the best and Devi deals with grief and selfesteem issues following the death of her father. While the show doesn’t shy away from confronting serious issues, it also doesn’t sensationalize the teenage experience by roman ticizing or misrepresenting its tribulations. Nudity, drugs, and alcohol are all prominent ele ments of popular teen dramas like “Euphoria.” While addic
While Des teaches Devi how to be in a healthy relationship, Pax ton helps her recover from her father’s death. Each person in
After much neurotic con templation, I opted to write freely. I found writing to be an opportunity for reflection as my letters were more thought ful than the quick messages I often sent. My letters evolved almost into diary entries. Still,
Just as Devi’s new relationship with Des develops into some thing more serious, they break up because of Des’s mother’s
message between you and your correspondent, and seemingly eliminates the fear of becom ing a screenshot. There is trust and authenticity imbued in that envelope.Assummer reached its peak, I had the chance to meet my pen pal in person for the first time. I found it easy to talk to
Despite “Never Have I Ever”’s shortcomings, it still succeeds in being an entertaining and lighthearted watch, which is refreshing in a genre riddled with dramas that sensationalize the lives of teenagers.
Hisspace.ceramic plate “Female Nude” stands in front of the entrance of The Studio, directly involving the viewer in this im mersion of connection to the grand piece. The plate conveys a nude model in an eccentric pose: a somewhat crunching position with its back to the top of the plate, and its head and legs point ing towards the bottom of the plate. The piece, though seem ingly simple, has an unexpected complexity through the selection of colors and distribution of space. It is assumed that this piece was created within minutes, indi cated by the hastily and unevenly
To the left of the painting are three paintings, the plate, and a terracotta sculpture, all on the utmost left of “L’Atelier Rouge.” The painting “Reclining Nude” is especially enchanting. Though the actual painting does not exist anymore, the piece is illustrated in “L’Atelier Rouge.” Practice sketches are displayed in the back of the gallery to provide an es sential sense of the pose of the piece. But the only indication of the color palette is through the “Red Studio,” which reveals that the colors of this painting are hot
The exhibition is split into
spective to maintain the theme of the Thegallery.fourth step, “The Gar goyle Club,” exposes the first buy er of “L’Atelier Rouge.” During this stage in Matisse’s life, his style of art has widely evolved, shown through the painting, “Studio, Quai Saint Michel.” The paint ing is much more realistic using more natural colors and portrays objects through shading.
However, the exhibition in cludes that his pieces were never always respected during their lifetimes. From Matisse’s hum ble beginnings to rejection and criticism to then achieving wide spread success, The Story tells the tale of Henri Matisse’s rocky career through ”L’Atelier Rouge.”
rangement of the objects in the room.The Modern Museum of Art (MoMA) reunited the iconic “L’Atelier Rouge” with its 11 companions in the exhibition “Matisse: The Red Studio” after 73 years in the making. Having collected these pieces since 1949, the MoMA also obtained the five drawings Matisse used to plan for this work and have assembled an impressive, cohesive collection, even with the absence of “Unti tled (Study for Reclining Nude),” which was destroyed decades ago.
Henri Matisse’s work would soon grow to notable attention. He was the foremost figure of Fauvism, a style using bold, vi brant colors and brushwork. Matisse is regarded as an impor tant influence in the art world, as his pieces are widely recognized for their atypical notion of space and color in a contra-period of impressionism.Thesesignature techniques and aesthetics are on display in one of Matisse’s most famous pieces, “L’Atelier Rouge” (“The Red Studio”). The painting de picts his workspace using just one color, Venetian red, and it went on to become one of the most influential artworks throughout history as the first monochrome painting to have gained wide spread attention. Despite work ing with one color, Matisse added complexity to the piece with his expression of space, featuring rich, layered brushstrokes and ar
However, black midi are not just effete alchemists, blending genres like chemicals from test tubes. Their distinct narrative personality is just as essential to
pink with blue and yellow for the flowers. This aspect of “L’Atelier Rouge” makes it more intriguing, as questions are left unanswered.
The Spectator ● September 8, 2022Page 18
“Hellfire” is a showcase of black midi’s musical talent and evolution. It shows great im provement from the relative tonal homogeneity of “Schla genheim” and “Cavalcade” in the variety of the album’s tone and genre, as well as its music as a whole. It features the band’s best performances yet. All that remains constant is black midi’s ability to balance captivating nar ratives and goofy humor with zany, manic instrumentals and impressive technicality. “Hell fire” shows an upward trend that is hopefully yet to end; black midi is on fire.
By GRACE RHEE
Arts and Entertainment
“Hellfire” is both distinct from and an evolution of black midi’s previous work. On “Hell fire,” black midi exceeds the standard of dense, chaotic musi
the farmer mentions how “temp tation had [him] by the balls,” or on “The Race,” where one line lists off the ridiculous names of several racehorses: “That’s Lucky Star, Eye Sore, Doctor Murphy, Sun Tzu, The Clap, Mr. Winner, Spot, Wallace, Mrs. Gonorrhea, Perfect P, Deadman Walking, and The Company Favorite.”
cal compositions it is well known for. The rapid guitar arpeggios and drumming on “Sugar/Tzu,” the frenzied piano and percus sion on “27 Questions,” and the tense, blood-pumping riffs on “Welcome to Hell” and “The Race Is About To Begin” are a testament to the band’s creative and memorable instrumenta tion. Greep’s expressive vocals accompany the album’s incred ible instrumentals, contributing a bombastic theatricality to the already dramatic compositions on “Hellfire.” He showcases the full range and extent of his vo cal capabilities with his passion ate croons on “The Defence,” violent bellows on “Dangerous Liaisons,” and speedy talk-sing ing on “The Race Is About To Begin.” On the two songs bass ist Cameron Picton performs in, he demonstrates a similar vocal range with his fiery delivery in the climax of “Eat Men Eat” and emotional vulnerability on “Still,” which is not as present in Greep’s vocal performances on “Hellfire’s” other songs. Never theless, both singers are astound ing on “Hellfire,” and show a
The first step, “Building the Studio,” extends artifacts that de tail the construction of the studio behind “L’Atelier Rouge.” The second step, “Seeing the Studio,” has a wall plan for viewers to vi sually compare Matisse’s painting to the conventional studio. This step incorporates paintings that Matisse made during his occupan cy of the studio. One specifically fascinating painting is the “Blue Window,” which differs from a lot of his works. Although there is emphasis on line and color, the painting is more realistically descriptive with the many shades
The Story delivers the realis tic and fitting perspective of the studio, and showcases the evolu tion in art. The ability for view ers to form their own creativity is exhilarating, as the two differing galleries create a deep emphasis on Matisse’s style in art, as well as hinting at his purpose of creating. Rather than reflect a subject ac curately, Matisse created art that conveyed a matter of space and perception. As he once stated, he wanted his art to be “of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter.”The Red Studio exhibition powerfully created an intimate and personal look into Henri Matisse’s vision when he created “L’Atelier Rouge.” The produc tion provided a number of di mensions to look at, and beauti fully told the story of the lasting significance of Henri Matisse.
Spontaneous brushstrokes, expressive colors, and dynamic lines come together to create a collection that is unabashedly unique.
The gallery illustrates his life time as well as the lifetime of “ L’Atelier Rouge” in five steps, which demonstrates the evolu tion of his art. In contrast to The Studio, The Story displays the life of Matisse. The gallery includes full wall length photographs that create a visually entertaining and biography-like appearance. It ex hibits pictures, floor plans, pho tographs, letters, and newspapers that capture elements of his pro gression.
of blue. The painting conveys Matisse’s bedroom window, con taining everyday objects on the interior contrasting with the trees and moon that are portraying the exterior. The piece is visually en gaging as the many shades of blue form the more naturalistic solidlike Theforms.third step, “The Paint ing’s Debut,” spotlights Matisse’s style, depiction of space, and techniques through two paint ings he created. The paintings is sue his fusion of color and lines to paint the environment. This step also exhibits Vanessa Bell’s “Matisse Room at the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition”, which illustrates the gallery that showcased Matisse’s artworks. This painting differs from the two, by illustrating the environ ment through a more naturalistic approach. The painting seems out of place, but plays the crucial role of providing a conventional per
London trio black midi graced the burgeoning British post-punk scene with their de but single “Bmbmbm” in 2018. A live performance of the track captivated the rock world with its linear, chaotic crescendo and lead singer Geordie Greep’s gar bled, eccentric vocal style. black midi’s debut album, “Schlagen heim,” was met with heaps of critical praise the following year, cementing it as a band to watch. Its followup, “Cavalcade” (2021), expanded the scope of their mu sical skill by displaying a more dynamic emotive range and ambitious compositions, while drawing from classic progressive rock influences like King Crim son. On its newest effort “Hell fire,” black midi further expands on and transforms its technical prowess, narrative idiosyncrasy, and compositional complexity, leading to its best album yet.
By LUCA ADEISHVILI
The artist behind these at tention-grabbing pieces is Henri Matisse, a renowned 19th-century painter, draftsman, printmaker, and sculptor from Le CateauCambrésis, France. Henri Matisse was born to generations of weav ers. Brought up in an environ ment that allowed him to visually experience variations of textiles from many different origins, Matisse developed unique ideas of color and pattern at a young age. Later, Matisse would go on to study law, but eventually found a deep passion in art.
two main galleries: The Studio (an immersive walk into Matisse’s workspace) and The Story (a timeline of Matisse’s life). The Studio is a captivating, transport ive experience, as the curation of the gallery allows viewers to pic ture themselves standing in his work
As I walk into the gallery, I stare at the blank white walls enlivened with vibrant artwork. Even when surrounded by the eclectic, colorful works that adorn the walls, the centerpiece com mands attention: a bold red paint ing encircled with 11 other pieces. Spontaneous brushstrokes, ex pressive colors, and dynamic lines come together to create a collec tion that is unabashedly unique.
their music as their technical wiz ardry. “Hellfire” is presented as a loose concept album, with an overarching narrative stringing together select stories about evil people and their sins that con demn them to hell. The main idea of the album is rather dark, and many of the individual narratives of the songs are similarly dark as shown in songs like “Danger ous Liaisons,” where a farmer is tasked by Satan, disguised as a mafioso, to strangle another per son to death for money. Despite the superficial weight of the al bum’s narratives, much of “Hell fire” is still bombastically absurd, as seen in songs such as “Sugar/ Tzu,” which tells the story of a young child in the year 2163 as sassinating a famous boxer in a prize match against his rival, or “Eat Men Eat,” which follows the captain of a mining team who poisons the food of his em ployees to be able to harvest their stomach acid and turn it into red wine. Even on the album’s more serious narratives, the lyrics of ten show some tonal dissonance, such as on the aforementioned “Dangerous Liaisons,” in which
“Hellfire” shows black midi’s ca pability in providing compelling, meaningful narratives peppered with flecks of levity.
The final step, “New York City,” finally shows how the “L’Atelier Rouge ‘’ rose to fame, incorporating the acquisition by the MoMA. It also shows Matisse’s last pieces: his transition in mediums (to paper cut-outs) and the last finished painting, “Large Red Interior.” The “Large Red Interior” is very similar to the L’Atelier Rouge,” in a way such that both use the collabora tion of lines and the solid color, red, to depict the space he is in. Although also very different, the painting presents a theory of symbolism and connection to his once and forever iconic piece, “L’Atelier Rouge.”
A Walk into Henri Matisse’s Red StudioArt
painted flower petals.
remarkable evolution in vocal talent since “Schlagenheim.”
“Hellfire” demonstrates black midi’s growth not only vo cally, but also in its compositional versatility. No single part of the album ever sounds the same due to the enthralling, ever-changing tonal nature of the music. “Hell fire” also explores a wide assort ment of genres throughout its runtime, such as jazz fusion, pro gressive rock, cabaret, and fla menco. The album’s willingness to dip its toes into many genres adds a variety and unpredict ability to its already phenomenal instrumentals, a variety not only present in its genre, but also in the tone of its individual songs. In contrast to the sonic bed lam of “Schlagenheim” and the acoustic balladry of “Cavalcade,” “Hellfire” opts for a mix of the two, with songs like “The Race” and “27 Questions,” transition ing from chaotic to peaceful pas sages and back again.
The Only Way is Up on black midi’s Highway to “Hellfire”Music
was meant to look like a banner welcoming stu dents back or to Stuy! He hopes you all have a great time solving and learning more about our community, with tons of stuy trivia mixed in. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 Across 1. Tenth graders 6. What you might be called if you whiff all your shots in a game of Val 10. Racist 14. Actor Jared in Morbius 15. Follower of pi 16. Aang, Korra, and Roku, 19.e.g. Probably, slangily 21. Tutoring service offered by many Stuy teathers 22. Common sandwich meat 23. Entangled, in the jungle 24. Fox-like 25. The O_y__ey, required 10th Grade Foundations of Literature book 26. What Stuy students wor ship? 27. Annual theatre compe tition between 5-down, Ju niors, and Seniors 31. Alternative for SAT 32. Newton's honorific 33. One of 24 in the sternum 36. Freshmen biology unit 38. Succeeder of 'road' or 39.'acid'Regrets 41. Sponsor of the Annual NYC Marathon 42. ___ to Joy 43. Nemesis of 14-across 44. See 43-across 45. Beta version of a game 46. Opposite of NNW 47. Schumer or Gillibrand, 48.shortlyOnce ____ a time 49. Snake Slithering Sound 50. Bowler or top 51. Ruin Down 1. Stuy students exceed these 2. Sporting event that hap pens every 4 years 3. Practice, for a performance 4. JFK listings, in brief 5. See 27-across 6. America_ Museum of Natu__l Hi_tory 7. Popular band club at Stuy 8. Comfortable, to a Brit 9. What you're reading right now with "The" 10. _a_ _aa black sheep, have you any wool 11. God (premium chocolate 12.brand)Star Gadot from Wonder 13.WomanWith -graphy, the science of the ear 17. Saves, from a precarious situation 18. Part of OS 19. Who's solving this right 20.nowTeen anxieties 27. Producer of Stuy's musi 28.cals Roth ___ (retirement 29.fund)Lice to be 30. Navigation tool for cars 34. Lightbulb, metaphorically 35. Hell-____ 36. Snare or ear 37. Type of cabbage 40. Annual Stuy talent show that happens around June
Mad Libs: Promposal
I approached _____(undying lover’s name) _____ (adverb) and said:
“I want to _____(verb) you so much,” I ____ (synonym for said) before _____ (verb ending in -ing) my _____ (adjective) poster that had _____ (intense declara tion of love + promposal request) into _____ (undying lover's body part). _____ (undying lover's name) _____ (synonym for screamed) with _____ (emotion) and _______ (synonym for ran) in the opposite direction, to my _______ (adjective) _______
Crossword Kyle Ha),
Dearest ___(insert your undying lover’s name here),
Fun Column
(synonym for said) before _____ (verb ending in -ing) onto the floor and ______ (verb ending in -ing) into tears. A ______ (body of water) of ______ (bodily fluid) ______ (verb ending in -ed) beneath me, and out of the corner of my eye I saw my ______ (subject) teacher looking at me with a ______ (noun) of _____ (facial expression). The last thing I ______ (verb in the past tense) was _______ (dean) _______ (verb ending in -ing) toward me before I ________ (verb ending in -ed) from ________ (extremely strong negative emotion).
“I saw you pass by _____ (subject) class. You looked ____ (adjective) and I couldn’t help but ____(verb) in front of you.”
I ____ (verb that ends in -ed) into their ______ (body part on face). Their ______ (adjective) skin reminded me of ______ (adjective) _______ (fruits).
This unconventional crossword, constructed by
Humor The Spectator ● September 8, 2022 Page 19
H. Chan (with additional cluing help from Dorothy
Stuy Moment #7: Be Careful What You Wish For
I walked up to ____ (your undying lover’s name) during ________ (class) wearing a ____ (color) ______ (type of underwear) and ____ (texture) ____ (piece of cloth ing). ____ (undying lover’s name) looked incredibly _______ (adjective) while _____ (verb ending in -ing) _____ _____ I could feel my ______ (body part) ______ (verb ending in -ing). I made _____ (body part) with ______ (undying lover’s name): but it was for a _______ (amount of time). I wanted to ____ (adverb) _____ (verb) _____ (undying lover’s name) in the _____ (location). The next day, my _______ (body part) was _______(verb ending in -ing) with ________ (adjective) thoughts.
“Wait!”(emotion).I______
Henry Bansbach / The Spectator
gave a fake smile to the seniors from the swim teams, and ran back to the locker room.
According to my expert analysis, the perfect location for napping is the library. For one thing, you can expect a peaceful environment since the room is legally required to be as silent as a grave. Second, there are multiple tables to lie down on, and no one judges you that much since they’re too busy slaving away at their Eng lish essay due in a few periods. One of the greatest upsides of the library spot is that you don’t need to set an alarm. In fact, the librarians kick you out of the library right before the pe riod is over. This might sound awful at first, but it’s usually
pecially splendid since they get heated up in the winters.
Humor The Spectator ● September 8, 2022Page 20
After receiving my ID card and lying to myself that the picture wasn’t THAT bad, we headed to our ID swipe ses sion. With the entrance “scan ner” people standing by, shout ing orders and correcting our swipes, I sat in the cold and used my newly made ID to do practice swipes as if I were en tering the building. I could feel my feet growing cold and my phone screen was slowly freez ing over as I held up my health screening. After what felt like an hour, but was actually only 15 minutes, we were sent off to lunch in the cafeteria. My fel low pre-freshies and I raced off through the snow in hopes of finding the least messy table.
By ALEX ZHENG
It seemed rather pointless for me since I lived within walk ing distance of Stuy, but I was in no mood to be yelled at by Mr. Grossman. After our sprint practice, we speed-read flash cards for our morning math
Camp Stuy: The Sleepaway Camp No One Asked For
NEWSBEET
you desire. Further reconnais sance has also uncovered the existence of pillows, sheets, and blankets, making this the optimal location for napping if you are able to exit the school building. However, please do enter at your own risk and we, the Humor department, are not responsible for any charges in curred.
For those snorers or those with two study halls in a row, a more optimal location would be the cafeteria. However, many preparations need to be made here. First of all, assume the worst about every tabletop and make sure to clean it ag gressively using the strongest cleaning agent available; acids or a flamethrower usually work best, but Lysol wipes work too. The noise of the cafeteria can be deafening at times, but you can easily fix that with a pair of noise-canceling headphones and a nice K-pop playlist. One issue with napping in the caf eteria is that no one is going to wake you up. According to wis dom passed down from previ ous generations, a tried-andtrue technique is to install an alarm on your phone. Having a friend aggressively wake you (slapping recommended) might be a better option though. More research is needed here.
Another common sleeping spot is the floors of Stuyvesant. They’re definitely not clean, but some people do prefer this op tion over the wooden benches. Some popular spots include the half floor between the first and second floor, the half floor be tween the 10th and elusive 11th floor, and the sophomore bar. Both half floors are great places as long as you have something comfortable to rest your head upon. Common objects include backpacks, rolled-up sweat ers, or other people (**cries in single**). A word of warning: though the sophomore bar is an option, it is highly recom mended to avoid it.
On a final note and as words of encouragement, any where can be a sleeping spot as long as you are sleepy enough. Good luck and sweet dreams!
It is finally important to note various locations outside of school. The Long Island Rail Road is an especially pop ular option for your average Queens commuter. A highly overlooked location is the mat tress shop across the street from the basketball courts. A preliminary scouting of the area has shown various viable bed options—normal, inclined, or heated ones—suitable for whatever napping experience
Once my friends and I had thrown all of our backpacks on the available chairs, we stood in line to get school lunch. The school lunch ladies stared men acingly at our plates, their eyes beckoning toward the fruit and daring us not to get one. Even though the apples were missing their skin and some were glow ing iridescent blue, it was always made clear that we were ex pected to take them along with the rest of our stale pizza and chunky milk. The trick was to sneak the apples into the trash. This was a challenge in itself;
Experts agree: your schedule doesn’t suck, so stop whin ing about it like a little baby
while the lunch ladies could be distracted, the environmental club couldn’t. They stood by all the exits and trash cans, hoping we would ask them about recy cling and composting.
SpectatorThe/MillerReya
As the sun began to set at just 4:30 in the afternoon, I reflected on my days at Camp Stuy. They surely weren’t en joyable, and the mayor had even threatened to shut down the camp after parents com plained about students return ing home without toes or fin gers. But nevertheless, I knew I had to persevere to the end of the week. I was so jealous of Brooklyn Tech’s orientation program in the Bahamas.
You don’t remember the name of that one kid from AP Biology last year. Shame ful
Half of the incoming fresh man class has drowned dur ing swim tests at Camp Stuy.
For the most daring, we have the option of sleeping in class. Of course, the efficacy of
I didn’t have time to relax in the shower though. We only had five minutes to dry off and get ready, so I threw on my
By NIAMH WERNER
thermal underwear and clothes before being hurried to take my ID picture. After being barked at to stand in line in an “orderly fashion,” I waited somewhat impatiently for about an hour. Once it was finally my turn, I sat down in the uncomfort able desk chair and smiled. The camera flashed bright in my face and I tried not to squint. Little did I know that my des perate attempts to not look like
These articles are works of fiction. All quotes are libel and slander.
Our first activity of the day started a mere 10 minutes after we got up. With heavy back packs hanging on our backs, we practiced sprints for when we were about to miss our trains.
Humor Editor takes “investi gative” piece too far… result ing in a gruesome murder
After barely making it out of the lunchroom alive, I quickly got back in line with the rest of the homeroom as our Big Sibs led us through a tour of the building. Since we were in an igloo in the middle of the Arctic, there wasn’t much to see other than pictures of our soon-to-be high school. After an hour of yawns from Big Sibs and pre-freshies alike, we head ed to a small computer that we all huddled around for a Zoom meeting with the principal, Dr. Seung Yu. While he explained our exciting new classes, sched ules, and community, all of us groaned in complaint and jeal ousy at the sunshine streaming through Dr. Yu’s windows and his ability to wear a t-shirt.
Not to brag, but I’ve been sleeping my entire life. As a seasoned professional with years of experience in the field, I believe that I am qualified to offer my judgement on the vast study of napping spots at Stuyvesant High School. Of course, this review will merely scratch the surface of the pos sibilities since this is a diverse and constantly evolving field of research.We’llbegin our investigation with the most basic of nap ping spots situated around the school—the wooden benches. One of the most elementary skills Stuy kids learn is how to sleep on one of these. A popu lar location is the benches on the first floor beside the pool, though it smells strongly of chlorine and may get a little dark. Other locations include the seventh to ninth floors. For instance, the seventh floor benches beside the escala tor offer a breath of life with their natural greenery. Similarly, the benches on the ninth floor offer a gorgeous view of not only the Hudson River but also of your average suffering AP Chem student. A better bench, such as one on the fifth floor beside the cafeteria, allows one to fully lay down due to the lack of armrests. These are also es
quiz. It was the placement exam for geometry, but my mother wouldn’t accept any thing below honors. After our quiz, we headed to the freez ing cold lake for our swim test. I hurriedly got in and swam across the width of the lake, occasionally glancing at the bored expressions on the life guards’ faces. After getting the thumbs-up of approval from Mr. Moran, I exited the lake,
this option depends heavily on where in relation to the teacher you sit in class, the teacher’s opinion on sleeping in class, and the class subject itself. Sim ilar to the library option, there is a common mental hurdle for first-time in-class nappers: the fear of being cold called lead ing to not being able to look your teacher in the eye again. Therefore, this can be viewed as a final resort and should not be emulated on a normal basis due to its effect on one’s class participation.Basedon a primary source, StuySlumped, there has also been documentation of indi viduals napping between the escalators (see post Nov 19, 2021). However, various safety issues, Mr. Brian Moran issues, as well as comfort issues can arise from this location. yourunrecommended—attemptHighlyatownrisk.
just a gentle tap on the shoul der. However, there may be a hurdle for first-time nappers in the library as having a ran dom person wake you up may be unsettling. However, once you master the art of ignoring your embarrassment, this is a completely viable and recom mended option.
Napping Spots: A Glorious Review
Sasquatch would be irrelevant. My ID card picture, like every one else’s, made me look like Frosty the Snowman with bad botox.
Half of The Spectator’s members have been removed from the roster because they failed to check their inbox for membership renewal emails during the summer.
I woke up to the sound of a phone alarm blasting over the loudspeakers at 5:30 a.m. I was groggy and tired after staying up late for what Mr. Grossman called “sleep schedule train ing.” It was ironic because I never had a sleep schedule to begin with. As my fellow prefreshies and I awoke, we threw on as many layers of clothing as possible and hurried out the door. The Arctic was freezing, just like Stuyvesant. It was go ing to be just another awful day at “Camp Stuy.”
I’m sure Camp Stuy used to be an enjoyable place where you got to meet friends, learn about your new schedule, and explore the school. But all of this ended with the disaster of the class of 2023. With groups of kids leaving the school ev ery five minutes to warm up, it was decided that Camp Stuy would be moved to the Arctic to “over-prepare” students for the working conditions faced at the school. That’s how I ended up spending a week sleeping on blocks of ice and warming myself by fires made out of Spectator newspapers. It’s not like anyone reads them anyway.
Hesitantly, you respond, “Not really. I’m just confused about
how everything is working so well. I mean, obviously, I’m grateful, but—”The man interrupts. “No, you’re right to be suspicious. Real istically, all of your schedules would be hot garbage. There is no perfect schedule. This world isn’t real.”
Mid-discussion, a wooden prism broke through a window, breaking through the glass before settling in the middle of the crowd, revealing itself to be an Ouija board. Hushed onlookers watched it intently: “N” (pause) - “A” (pause) - “M” (pause) - “D” - followed by an eerie silence.
“?-?-?-C-E-N-T-E-R-!-!-!”
On the first day of school, schedule in hand, you walk to your third period class. Nothing’s gone wrong yet. Maybe everything is al right? You find your classroom un nervingly quickly and look around at your fellow students. You spot two of your friends, who wave for you to sit with them. Your besties have ended up in the same class as you, and in adjacent seats! As you three squeal about your insane luck, something catches yåour eye in the doorway. It’s a man wearing a black jacket and oval-shaped sunglasses. He’s staring directly at you. Then he disappears.Youlookat your friends. Con cerned, you ask them, “Did you see thatYourguy?”friends shake their heads. You look around the room. Every one else is going about their busi ness. You were the only one to see him.
Yougoes?”shake your head. “No way. I’m not risking having to scale 10 floors in five minutes. Those ro bots can parasitically steal as much energy as they want. Just let me keep my two frees in a row.”
SpectatorThe/KhurramManaal
Now, you could look at this in two different ways:
tage, and a host of other issues, the late Senator Wagner arrived from the “Other Side” with a more focused agenda.
You jump out of your seat an begin heading toward the door. Your phone buzzes again.
Now, for those of us who would prefer to stick with humans as companions (how boring!), here are some suggestions for how to rid yourself of the cockroach:
“Uh, Javits Center?” ventured Mayor Eric Adams, referring to the 800 thousand square foot New York landmark named in honor of Wag ner’s longtime rival, Congressman Jacob Javits (1904-1986).
The man presents to you two cap sules: one red and one blue. “Take the red one and return to reality with its god-awful schedules. Or take the blue one, forget every thing, and enjoy your life.”
ED]If you are interested in becom ing friends with your new cock roach, then there are definitely many benefits (as long as the smell doesn't bother you):
cially if you reward it with treats af ter. Having a cockroach following and tormenting your enemy with jump scares will make you feel a lot better.3.Get an extra week off school. If you can find another fellow cockroach, be sure to introduce it to your bestie! As long as you keep your cockroach healthy and happy by feeding it and keeping the tem perature high, your best friend will have the ability to provide you with many new friends. Before long, your number of friends will con tinue to grow, resulting in a seri ous infestation, allowing everyone to get some much needed rest and relaxation while the school calls for an exterminator. Be sure to warn your cockroach friends of the4.danger!Getout of a test. Every Stuy kid has longed for extra time to study, especially the last minute before the test. Invite your agile cockroach friend to sit in on one of your classes on test day. Your new classmate is guaranteed to buy you at least five extra min utes of studying once the teacher sees your friend and runs out of the room screaming.
Before the man can stop you, you throw the blue pill down your throat and swallow it. The strange man fades from your vision as the fourth period bell rings. You don’t remember what you were just do ing, so you look at your schedule again. Two frees? Slay! You turn around and head toward the bridge, blissfully unaware of your phone buzzing in your backpack.
1) Wow, a new best friend
because everyone’s schedules are wrong or something. There’s no way, right?
Best Friends with a Cockroach
4. Hire an exterminator. For those of you who have a little extra cash to spend, here are the num bers of a few famous extermina tion companies who wouldn’t mind sending a person or two to help you with your little cockroach problem. (212) 203-2538 (212) 355-2078 (212) 321-3448
Immediately, you lunge for the blue pill. Concerned, the man says, “Whoa, hold on. Aren’t you gonna, like, think this through first? Don’t you want to see how far this rabbit hole
While concerned citizens de bated how green space could be pre served within the proposed network of floodwalls, how to maintain ac cess to the Museum of Jewish Heri
Matrix. The computer’s been pro grammed to give you a perfect life and everything you want to make you want to stay in the simulation so the robot overlords can keep draining your body for energy.”
QueensboroI-D-G-E-?”“Q-U-E-E-N-S-B-O-R-O-B-R-“YoumeantheEdKochBridge?”Negotiationsbrokedownshort
Just then, your phone buzzes. You take it from your pocket and, to your horror, watch the screen turn black. Is it broken? No, some thing else is happening. Green text rolls across it.
5. Make a little extra cash. You’ve heard of rent-a-car and rent-a-girlfriend, but now you can rent-a-cockroach for a small fee. For a limited time your friends can have a cockroach too! One cock roach a day—no questions asked. Be sure to have a contract ready, since you don't need any lawsuits because of your small side hustle (taxes and fees may apply).
With that, the lights in the audi torium went dark and the planchette flew across the auditorium, narrowly missing the mayor. The town hall was swiftly concluded, and officials prepared for the next meeting, which would discuss expelling the troll from under the Queensboro Bridge.
lockers just for storing the AirPods that they take away from students. Mr. Simon has to be popping out of somewhere to confiscate those AirPods—perhaps he has his own hidden locker warehouse? Hope fully they would be willing to give up one locker for you to use. Best of all, we would be able to confirm the 3.rumors!Transfer schools. Try Bronx Science or Brooklyn Tech. I heard they also have lockers. Who knows, their lockers may be better than ours. Take this with a grain of salt, for their roach problem could be worse. Who knows?
I’ve ever seen.
By TARA SURI
ing the same pattern with increasing urgency.
Celeste Hoo / The Spectator
GO TO THE HALF FLOOR
“Have you heard of the Ma trix?”“That movie with Keanu
2. File a complaint to Mr. Mo ran and/or Mr. Simon. They will be more than happy to help you with your problem. Rumor has it that the deans have an extra supply of
Scared, you sit back down. How did they know you were go ing to skip?
You pause. “What?”
1. School wide domination. Ev ery villain needs an origin story and having a cockroach as a best friend is a great way to get started on your plans to take over the school. Your cockroach will be able to go un detected while collecting as many locker combinations as possible. You never know when you're gonna locker—itsomeone'sneed may come in handy if you ever need to hide a dead body (and frame some one for it). I'm sure you could fit a freshman in a locker if you tried hard2.enough.Watch your enemies crum ble. Your new best friend would be more than happy to help you deal with anyone you can’t stand, espe
1. Steal your friend's locker. I know you already have a best friend in your locker, but hopefully you have some human friends as well. Sharing lockers with your friends could either be the best thing that's ever happened to you or the worst. At best, you will be able to keep your things cockroach-free and at worst, you might discover that you’re friends with a psycho who likes to keep rotting eggs in their locker.
5. Finally, if all else fails, accept your fate as someone who will for ever have a best friend cockroach.
Whichever method you choose, I wish you well. Please don’t get me involved if you ever get into any drama with your new bestie.
NOT NOW LIKE DURING
“What is ‘NAMD’?” asked Deputy Borough President Margaret Jones, which provoked a flickering of lights and a chill in the air, be fore the planchette circled the word “NO” four times and began repeat
approach the man. He says, “Hello. I’m sure you have many questions.”
Last Tuesday, Stuyvesant High School hosted a town hall to ad dress the South Battery Park Resil iency Project’s proposed demolition of Robert F. Wagner Park as part of its climate preparedness initiative. The town hall attracted leaders and community activists from around the city, including the spectral presence of the late Senator Robert F. Wagner (1877-1953) himself.
Humor The Spectator ● September 8, 2022 Page 21
A FREE DON’T SKIP CLASS
E-N-A-M-E“N-A-M-E-N-A-M-E-N-A-M--!“
The Perfect Schedule?
By MICHELLE HUANG
Ghost of Robert F. Wagner Submits Impact Statement via Ouija Board at 14-Hour Public Hearing
ly after 3 a.m. when the chair sug gested reconvening the following week at the Javits Center.
with Wagner’s ghost very, very slowly accusing city officials of being “DU-N-D-E-R- H-E-A-D-E-D-GU-T-T-E-R-S-N-I-P-E-S,” among other insults dating from the early20th century. Wagner’s ghost grew increasingly agitated as it realized every park, city building, and bridge name were spoken for by other dead, forgotten New York politicians.
“I’m“What?”here to offer a choice.”
Over the next 10 hours, the late senator gradually spelled out—letterby-letter—a number of concerns, mostly attacking the destruction of his namesake park, but also how no one appreciated all the good he had done for New York, various longstanding grievances with Mayor Abe Beame (1906-2001), and how 3-1-1 was doing nothing about the noisy food cart across the street from his mausoleum in Queens’ Calvary Cemetery.Themeeting became heated,
“E-A-S-T-R-I-V-E-R-P-A-RK-?”
By FINN CHAREST
2) WHAT THE [REDACT
Today is the day that schedules come out. Opening up your laptop, you quickly sign into Talos, pre paring yourself for a long wait as the site loads—but somehow, the page opens up immediately. That’s strange. Normally, the site struggles when more than 12 people are on it at a time. Ignoring this, you exam ine your schedule. You read it over once, twice, three times, looking for that disastrous 10-floor hike or the name of that god-awful teacher everyone warned you about. You are prepared for, and are practically anticipating, disappointment, yet it neverYoucomes.got all the classes you wanted. You don’t have to run up more than three flights of stairs in a single passing. You’re especially excited about that senior-priority elective you got, despite being a mere sophomore. This is insane! Excitedly, you log onto Facebook to squeal about the good news to your friends. They’ll be so jealous. However, looking through your messages, you see nothing but ex citement. Everyone else, it seems, has gotten their perfect schedules as well.No one is complaining? On schedule day? Something is up. You’re gonna go to the first day of school and everything will be chaos
“Uh, John Lindsey…”
Class passes in a flash. After ward, you run down to the half floor and look around. It’s devoid of people, except for that same strange man. You breathe a sigh of relief, knowing the half floordwelling freshmen are gone, and
Reeves and the funny bullets?” “Precisely. That’s… Yeah. You’re there, like, right now. The Matrix. You’re in the Matrits—
As the new school year begins, we all start to open our lockers, a safe haven that doubles as our per sonal trash can. This will soon be a place that is overflowing with text books we were supposed to take home three months ago, certain tests that cause such anguish and should never see the face of the Earth again, and everyone's favor ite COVID tests. I felt a sense of dread as soon as I saw the closed lock. Last year, after an embarrass ing encounter that involved three different people trying, and failing, to open my lock, I vowed to always leave my lock open in an attempt to avoid such a situation again. Alas, a new school year meant a new, closed locker. I sat there, sweat dripping down my face, as I looked for a Big Sib, a teacher, any one, for help, but the hallway was empty. On the bright side, at least no one would be there to witness my humiliation. Slowly I turned my lock to the correct numbers, and 10 and a half tries later (my personal record), the lock opened. This was going to be a great year, I thought to myself as I forced the locker door open. Everything looked good: three walls, two hooks and… The biggest, ugliest cockroach
And that, my friends, is where this utopia becomes dys topia.~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SpectatorThe/LaAshley
“¡VIVA LA REVOLU CIÓN!”
By SEQUOIA RABINOVICH
Humor The Spectator ● September 8, 2022Page 22
Hours later, all the revolu tionaries remain (except for the LIRR kids who had to make the 4:46 p.m. train). Principal Yu has found himself enjoying the revolution, forgetting his finan cial strife, and more important ly, agreeing to the terms of this new Constitution at the expense of his staff’s coffee. There was only one condition: never mess with his BTS minifigures again. They had been adequately rus tled during the chaos.
By ANIKET ROY
A crowd of outraged, Aminus students collects during third period, which is arguably too early in the day to stage a re volt, but whatever works. Their march proceeds swiftly to the office of the man who started it all.Poor, unsuspecting Princi pal Yu. He hardly notices the
Mr. Peng sweats profusely as his personal finance class goes feral over the newly imposed taxes, dubbed collectively by the
Beware of the Clan that Shoots for the Ground Instead of the Stars
“AMAZING IDEA!” he proclaims to himself, as once again, there is no one else in the room to hear his scheming. “LET’S CHARGE THEM TO USE THE HALF FLOOR! No, why stop at the half floor? The sophomore bar! The atriums! Yes! Genius! Yu, you’ve done it again!”
3. Hypnotize Them. Pick up your hypnotizing kit from Principal Yu’s office on the first day! It takes some practice, but once you’ve got it down, you can make any dean asking you for AirPods cluck like a chicken or fall asleep on the spot. However,
So you’ve stumbled across this guide. I’m guessing what led you to this sacred text is your hatred for the freshman race. A hatred so strong that you wish to deal with them yourself. Well, you’ve come to the right place. Have you ever heard of the term “freshie hunter”?Some of you believe it to be a crude joke or a myth, but the profession is all too true. I, the author of this guide, come from a long line of freshie hunters. But it seems as though I’m reaching an age where continuing to hunt freshies may land me in a grownup jail, so I must pass down the secrets of this sacred art to the nextI’llgeneration.behonest. Not all of you who read this will become pro fessional freshie hunters. Some
lunch is going to be voided for 10 days.” But they can’t take your AirPods if you're having a medi cal emergency! Just scream “My head!” and pretend to faint on the floor, right in front of them. They’ll call for help, and you’ll be whisked away from them, taken to safety. Warning: a dean might use a defibrillator from one of the AED stations on you, so make sure to ‘wake up’ before that, or you’ll be wishing you gave them your AirPods.
The crowd roars again as Principal Yu finds himself chanting along with them. What? It’s catchy.
And then, it hits him. TAX ES.
freshmen fall for this ruse and become victims of the Oompa Loompa Clan—forced to buy coffee and Whole Foods cookies for the clan members for the rest of their high school career.
…That is, until the rat union begins growing furious over de layed payment.
of this tricky situation:
I’m waiting for them to process my payment!” stat ed an anonymous sophomore on the locker rentals earlier. “They’re checking my credit score. Hopefully I can pay off that loan later.”
subjected to UNFAIR TAXA TION over it? No more!”
“Stuyvesant? In THIS Economy?”
“Think, Yu, think,” he mur murs. What is the natural re sponse to not having enough money amidst rising prices? “Hm.”
“We DEMAND equal treat ment regardless of grades be cause gosh darn if it wasn’t hard
These freshie hunters are
“And we DEMAND that it be socially acceptable for freshies to hang out by the se niorThebar!”crowd stops like a re cord scratch, then boos. A se nior shoves the freshman off the desk.
youOneplease.of my colleagues has become known as the Freshie Queen. She lures in overacheiv ing freshmen with promises of study guides and then hunts them down to make them her slaves for a semester. When a new semester starts, she gets rid of them and finds a new pair of freshies to do her bidding.
Now that you know some of the inner workings of the Freshie Hunter business, I wish you luck on your new business venture. One piece of advice from a veter an: never hunt too many at once, or you’ll draw too much atten tion to not only yourself but also your colleagues. It’s best to let the population recuperate once every now and then. Good luck, new bie, and Godspeed!
“This is outrageous!” Prin cipal Yu exclaims. “With prices this high, how are we to fund the various needs of our glori ousThisschool?”comes amidst the eco nomic crisis of the century. Starbucks drinks can now drain bank accounts with their price tags, but the staff needs caffeine to deal with nerds all day. The rat union of the Stuy lockers de mand payments in exchange for not residing in the hallways, as they have been bribed since the founding of Stuyvesant in 1904. And with all this inflation, how on earth will the principal fund his BTS minifigure collection?
“PLEASE!” Principal Yu begs. “I JUST… WANTED… SOME…AmidstCOFFEE!”thechaos, a lone freshman climbs atop the prin cipal’s desk, unraveling a non sensically long scroll of coffeestained paper for historic effect.
some of the most duplicitous people known to the communi ty—they act all kind to the Little Sibs but are secretly plotting how they will capture them.
Something to keep in mind: the Big Sibs are also consid ered royalty in the freshie hunter world. Anyone who dares to cross them is never heard from again. It happened to my buddy Eric once.
By ESHAAL UBAID
The crowd resumes with thundering support!
that or “snooze,” which is too Disney for a revolution.
Study Guides Are a Way to a Freshman’s Heart Study guides are something freshmen just cannot resist. It’s wise to make a Facebook post claiming that you’re giving away some free study guides for fresh man courses, and you’re bound to draw some nerds to the nest. Se lect a meeting spot in the school that isn’t all too crowded (I sug gest the North staircase connect ing to the first floor) where you can deal with the freshies however
The Big Sib Program is Just a Front for the Cruelest Freshie Hunters
terview. “This is INJUSTICE. I got a B- in freshman AP Bio. So what? I now know that the golgi body is the powerhouse of the cell! Does that count for nothing? Am I to be reduced to a numerical value, and to be
"YU’S DUES LOSE!” they mercilessly chant. It’s not an amazing chant, but it was either
“THIS IS THE ONE PER CENT BERNIE WARNED US ABOUT!” shouted a Global Studies teacher.
student body as “Yu’s Dues.” Financial burden has plagued every reachable corner of the school. Students on the half floor now have to pay to get the classic experience of littering everywhere. Couples weep as they can no longer “secretly” get their smoochie smooches on in the Hudson—it costs $5 per entry, plus a 10 percent cou ple’s tax. Locker payment is also back, and it’s more debilitating than“Oh,ever.
4. Play Dead. Only resort to this if all other options have failed. Most deans follow the same routine each time: “Give me your ID, and your outside
rumbling outside his office, until a Jungkook minifigure on his desktop tips over. Soon, the revolution swamps the floor.
Alas, peace and harmony resumes, with students of ev ery grade holding adventures around the school. Youngsters play Valorant on the half floor, sophomores make cringey Tik Toks around the bar, every one is once again afraid of the Hudson stairs, and Mr. Peng’s personal finance class sees sky rocketed interest. Stuyvesant is chaotically normal, financially democratic, and tranquil.
“As the students of Stuyvesant, we DEMAND no taxation!”
Personally, I was never a part of the Oompa Loompa Clan because I’m not vertically chal lenged. Just for your information, 5’6” is not short. It’s a perfectly average height, and my doctors say I’m still growing.
2. “What AirPods?” Put them away and then dumbly reply, “What AirPods?” Deans
The crowd cheers.
A junior also commented tearfully, “I-I’ve had to sell m-my TI-84 CE plus in metal lic purple… to pay for enough bathroom passes. It’s not my fault I have irritable b-bowel syndrome…”Yetthe dismay surround ing Yu’s Dues was worsened by inequality—namely, the slow but sure discovery that students with better grades were exempt from certain taxes. What a slap to the face. If you’re nerdy enough, you can get into the soph bar for free, or maybe even use the bathroom without emptying the ol’ wallet. Cried in the middle of your last chem test? Get Yu Due-d, you broke failure.“I cannot BELIEVE that you need a 4.0 GPA to get out of this mess!” a senior, already a nervous wreck over applying to 38 colleges and only getting into two safeties, exclaimed in an in
1. Book it. Run! This is the best option for those on a PSAL team, especially track. No dean will be able to catch you once you've scaled three floors. Just make sure you do not stop out side of a mop closet, because the deans have secret passages leading to each one.
to be here in the first place!”
of you will crack under pressure, others may fall victim to a freshie’s charm, and some may become so immersed in the freshie world that they will forget who they once were. But for the rest of you, reading this will allow you to truly unlock your inner huntsman and join us in the chaotic realm of freshie hunting.
The Big Sib program is por trayed as a group of upperclass men helping the naive underclass men adapt to the new high school environment. However, that’s all a front for the sinister freshie hunt ing gold mine it truly is.
In the freshie hunting busi ness, there is a group known as the Oompa Loompa Clan. The clan is one composed of the ver tically challenged, but this is an evolutionary advantage for them as they’re able to disguise them selves among freshman crowds and sequester off portions of freshmen to capture. Some naive
“WE DEMAND FREE HUDSON STAIRCASE SHE NANIGANS!”
How To Hunt Freshmen: The Beginner’s Guide
can't touch you without catching charges. And if they ask for your ID, plead the fifth. Stuyvesant’s a public school and therefore a government organization, so use your constitutional rights!
the second law of thermody namics states that as time moves on, entropy always increases. So be careful you don’t leave them in a trance for too long or the en tropy of their brain will increase. The longer they are in a trance, the higher the chance that their brains turn into guacamole.
Four Ways to Escape a Dean
So, you’re sitting in the hall way, doing homework. While you’re enjoying the dull vibrancy of school, AirPods in, rocking out to some lo-fi beats, a dean strolls down the hall. Despite your quick head-phone remov ing reflexes, your efforts are no use for the classic dean ‘stare and walk’ method. It’s a situation we know all too well. To combat this, here are the four best ways that we recommend to get out
“Wait, that’s real?”
coffee?Vin
Dear diary, actually hmm RUNFROM,THESETHEM!!THERE’SRETREAT,AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!RETREAT!!TOOMANYOFWHEREDIDALLOTHERKIDSCOMETHEPIZZAOVEN??BAC—OW!I’vebeen
Humor The Spectator ● September 8, 2022 Page 23
The Lost and Found Family
At Peace, Kirkland Brand Plastic Fork
“The Metrocard gremlin?”
Determined to Escape, Kirkland Brand Plastic Fork
Diesel starts to explain. “Yes, that’s 18 thousand gallons of pure black coffee. The pool was initially created back in 1989 when the seniors decided that orally ingesting caffeine wasn’t enough to keep them awake, and that they needed to bathe in it. They started coming here in be tween classes to gulp down as much coffee as possible, breathe in the smell for a quick pick-meup, splash some on their face, and even swim in it.” He rubs his hands together. “As far as I know, there’s a latch on the bottom of the pool that leads to some pipes that will take us to the outside world. But you have to make sure you make it to the end without overdosing on coffee. We may not all survive this, but this is the only chance we have to escape. Are you ready?”
Worried and Afraid, Kirkland Brand Plastic Fork
Dear diary, We need help! There’s only three box es left, and our num bers rapidly!dwindlingare
“It’s the 11th floor pool…”
“Don’t worry,” the bottle of olive oil reassures them. “We’ll
Dear diary, Every day I wake up to find that another one of my friends has been yanked away and tor tured to death by some lunatic children. I’ve had enough! I’m leaving this wretched place. Al though I wouldn’t want to leave all my friends behind… What if they could come with me? What if we could arrange… a revolu tion… a strike of some sort? What if we all ran away from the cafeteria, and never came back? Hmph, I’d like to see those stu dents try to stop us!
But after searching the whole school, the group still had no way out. And with the sun going down in the sky, they knew they had to escape before the gremlin got to “Well…”them. Vin Diesel sighs. “There is one more place we could check. But beware, once we go there, you might be trauma tized for life.”
All the Ianotherotherstartedplayers.GenshintheawayyankednextbewantsnobodyingpanickareforksandtotheonebycrustyThesabotagingtosurviveforminuteorthoughtIknew
Joe mama posted in Dear Incoming Stuyvesant Class of 2026… WE HAVE ADVICE!
cover a hollow plank in the stair case, and when Vin Diesel man ages to smash the false piece of wall open, they discover what looks like a cave full of guitar strings, rats, and also… Metro cards?“What is this place?”
June 27, 2022
It has been a mere day since I’ve arrived in this 10-story building and so much has al ready happened. What I had thought was a dream job end ed up becoming a nightmare. Why did I ever sign up for this job in the first place?? I should have known it would be bad when I woke up as a plastic fork wrapped in a flimsy plastic wrap instead of being plated with sil ver and kept in an airtight con tainer. I had been so excited to take on the job that all my an cestor forks had done—feed children. And yet, what I saw instead made my prongs shiver in fright. Those… children! No, they can’t be called children. Children are delicate, innocent creatures. These—these crea tures are the devil’s spawn! I wit nessed them tearing the prongs off of my all fellow forks, laugh ing crazily as they crushed my comrades into multiple pieces. What should I do to avenge my friends?
stepped on! I don’t… I don’t feel so KirklandBrokengood…inThree,BrandPlastic Fork
SpectatorThe/Young-SquireEmily
Daniel He / The Spectator
being turned to dust by those rock solid frozen fruit cups that the cafeteria al ways serves. Or being used to
The items look at each other curiously, but then determination spreads across their features.
band together and figure this out. Through the power of family.” And with that, he assumes his true form. Vin Diesel? Sevenfoot-nine, and with a gruff voice, the man addresses the rest of the lost-and-found items. “Come on. There’s no time to waste. We have to find a way out.”
And with that, they start their adventure through Stuyvesant.
By ERICA CHEN and RYAN PENG
think this plan had a chance of working? And to make matters worse, those students started grabbing fistfuls of forks and subjecting them to iced (fruit) torture! I can’t help but think that I’m the reason for all of this…
“Yes, but it’s not what you think.”Vin Diesel leads them up the last flight of stairs before the pool. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” When he’s met with unanimous nods, he takes a deep breath and opens the door.
October 12, 2021
October 16, 2021
Mentally inCapacitated, Kirkland Brand PLastic Ford
away. Is this what it feels like to be in Plague Inc. and watch all your friends die catastrophically, with no cure in sight? Please, I beg, find a cure for the disease called children!
Dear diary, My plan failed… I failed all of us. What revolution? What strike? I caused hundreds of forks to die… They all got squashed under the feet of those monsters. Why did I ever
Before them is a giant pool, glistening with light and sur rounded with statues of Greek gods. But, when they look closer, it’s not water in the pool but…
March 22, 2022
**The following entries are from a diary found lying on the floor of the cafeteria, covered in solidified pizza sauce.**
It’s 8:45 a.m. The bell rings through the vacant building. The Tribeca bridge is empty save for the group of marathon runners training for the 20-mile run from Terry’s to Ferry’s and the pi geons doing unspeakable acts on top of the roof. It’s a Thursday summer afternoon and no one is here. That is, nobody human, of course. A lone box sits behind the doors of the building. Some where among all this quiet, some thing mysterious, almost magical, seems to Suddenly,awaken.there is a sound. It is quiet, but unmistakable—a rus tling of some kind. And it sounds like it’s coming from the lost and found? All of a sudden, out from the dusty remains of the box of abandoned belongings springs a pair of light-up Sketchers, an old umbrella, a bottle of olive oil, a handwritten note to an anime waifu, a soccer ball that seems to have never been used (this is Stuyvesant, after all), a digital camera filled with illegal pho tos of Deltamath answers (there were always rumors of an un derground Algebra II ring), and a gym shirt that has never been washed. All of these were objects that Stuyvesant students had lost over the years, piled into a box, and never to be found again. But now, they seem to have come alive? And are trapped in the school?“What do we do?” a pair of lone gym shorts wails. “The heat has rendered us sentient but how are we supposed to make a safe return back to our owners if we can’t get out of this hellhole?”
Dear diary, AAAAAAHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHH! NO, PLEASE! NOT CAFETERIA PIZZA! ANYTHING BUT PIZZA!! NOOOOOO— Dead and Decaying, Kirkland Brand Plastic Fork (composted)
the AP thanChemnerds?Well,Iguessit’sbetter
September 8, 2022
Dear diary,
Dear diary, They’re gone. All of them. I’m the last one here. You’re the only one I have left to confide in. When I walk across the si lent cafeteria, I see the fractured bodies of the people I used to call friends… I can still hear their dying screams, blended to gether with the maniacal laughs of tiny children and the strange ly cheerful sound of Tetris® 99 music. Did those children beat us up because their teach ers beat them up mentally with the red PupilPath grades? Are we at the bottom of the torture totem pole? Whatever their mo tives were, they seem to be gone now. Finally, I can rest and play Hypixel Turbo Kart Racers on my stolen TI-84 calculator, like I’ve always wanted to.
“Alright then. See you on the other side.” And he jumps.
Confused yet Thankful, Kirkland Brand Plastic Fork
“This,” Vin Diesel replies, “is the lair of the Metrocard grem lin.”
“What is it?”
“Yes. It has been a myth for years amongst the student body. There are rumors that there is a creature living in the walls of the school who loves to swipe Metro cards from students’ wallets so they can’t get home. Many chalk it up to just forgetfulness, but some students have reported seeing a little green man roaming the halls, arms full of stolen Metrocards. This must be where he lives.”
The group exchanges nervous glances. “But if this is his lair,” the soccer ball asks, “then where is he?”Vin Diesel doesn’t respond, only making his way back into the hallway. “I’d rather not stick around to find out. Let’s keep go
ing. And watch out, because if he finds us, we’re done for.”
By VIRGENYA ZHU
May 18, 2022
Spiteful and Wokeified, Kirkland Brand Plastic Fork
September 20, 2021
>> did anybody else see dwayne the rock johnson crawl ing out of a sewer next to stuy??
eat pizza.
Dear diary, I was pleasantly surprised to see no children storm in today— oh wait, a stray child just walked in and grabbed… 50 of us?! He was mumbling something about “stupid Erica, making me get all forks for the Chem test just so I can crunch them up and get my ed…”validattestIs this our Turnedfate?intoG-Fuelfor
Diary of a Cafeteria Fork
them to be nice utensils, but today one of them just used its friend as a shield to avoid getting yanked
The first place they check is Principal Yu’s office. (“He’s got to have a secret exit somewhere? How else would he smuggle out the dismembered bodies of all the students he dislikes?”) But once they walk in, Principal Yu seems to greet them, waving his hands and smiling. They look at each other in a panic—has he been here in his office all sum mer? But as they move closer to examine him, they discover that he’s actually a robot. Clenched in his fist is a note that says: “The real Mr. Yu committed immeasur able amounts of tax fraud before disappearing off the face of the Earth in 2019. Ever since then, he has been replaced by an anima tronic that gives all his pep talks, gushes about his love for BTS, and stands ominously cheerfully outside in the bitter cold of the winter to welcome students into school.”But even after they thor oughly search the office, there is no secret exit; instead, they only find a pile of Mountain Dew and a bucket list of war crimes. So, they leave, but not before they re program the robot to confess its undying love of the sophomore bar at all Headingtimes.into the Hudson stairs, the group passes by the freshman lockers and decide not to question the smell. They dis
September 14, 2021
If you thought COVID-19 and monkeypox were all you needed to avoid this summer, you are woefully misinformed. An other disease has begun spread ing, particularly targeting Stuy students who are trying to enjoy their well-deserved time away from stress and pop quizzes. With so many fun ideas on our summer bucket lists, this is the last thing we need to interrupt our blissful months of freedom.
Why would anyone actually want to hang out there? It’s be
- Sleeping for more than five hours. After getting used to be ing so sleep deprived during the school year, having a healthy sleep schedule again completely disorients your body. Ironically, the sudden lack of everyday nightmares and stressful naps re ally confuses your immune sys tem, so it’ll end up failing you when the virus attacks. Once the virus is in your system, you’ll find yourself dreaming at night about a romanticized version of Stuyvesant (including a sparkling, rat-free cafeteria and a clean Hudson staircase.) You’ll crave going back until you see its crude reality on the first day of school. So stay up to stay safe—pull those all-nighters for the sake of it while you can!
Alright! May the odds be ever in your favor as you embark on this journey filled with many blessings and curses. Now excuse us as we head to the Hudson stair well to contemplate our life deci sions…
SpectatorThe/ShenJulia
11. Make Some of the Closest Friends You’ll Ever Have At this place, friendships aren’t just friendships. They’re survival pacts. After all, misery loves com pany.
12. Join the Best Department in The Spectator (Humor, duh) Do we need to explain?
SpectatorThe/MermelsteinOri
By CHRISTIAN KIM and EVE LIN
Variants of the “I Miss School” disease include: the “The End Of Summer Signifies The End Of My Happiness” disease, the “I’m Gonna Make Sure Ev eryone Knows I Went On Vaca tion This Summer” disease, and the “I Actually Do Like School (But I’m Still In Denial Because I Don’t Want To Be A Social Pa riah)” disease. Thankfully, they’re all pretty self-explanatory. Un fortunately, there are no available vaccines for prevention of any of these because the FDA hasn’t batted an eye in this direction.
ly feel suspicious if you have any of these cravings.
loop of anxiety until next sum mer.
The “I Miss School” disease always hits in the middle of the summer. By that point, time has effectively blurred our memories of the painful hours we spent cramming for exams during the school year. It is a result of a vi rus that basically tricks our brains into thinking we miss school over the summer. Here are the most common ways people catch this -disease:Doing your summer homework.
Basic, we know, but a classic staple nonetheless. After all, the more time dedicated to work, the more you get done, thus com pleting Stuy even faster, right??? (Christian Kim and Eve Lin are not liable for any sleep depriva tion-induced injuries, including…)
3. Join 30 Clubs Only to At tend One to Two Meetings and Then Dip
If there were two words to de scribe the students enrolling in AP Chem, it’d definitely be “dumb” and “dumber.” You’ll probably have an average in the low 50s, but at least you’ll get to say that you took an AP class (and have many horror stories to tell in the future)!
Ummm… No thanks?
Good. That was a trick one. Never lead stretches in PE.
1. Pull a Couple of All Nighters
First of all, the words “summer” and “homework” should never have been put together. Anyway, your stress-free time is tempo rary, but that Deltamath home work will always be there. Many summer assignments are chosen by our lovely teachers to bore you out of your mind. The virus then takes advantage of your halfawake stupor to attack your body. Due to the virus, you’ll never stop doing your summer home work and once you finish, you’ll find yourself a reformed nonprocrastinator eagerly looking forward to going back to school, so be sure to carefully avoid do ing your homework if you want this disease to stay away.
schedule, which is not part of this list. But hey, maybe if you spent less time procrastinating… By the way, have you done your homework yet (or even started)?
Coffee is essential at Stuy— unless you have a consistent sleep
yond us, but we suppose that it’s a worthy spot if it gets the upper classmen upset. ;)
The “I Miss School” dis ease is also pretty contagious, so please stay away from your friends (if you have them) if you suspect you have the disease. You don’t want to be spreading that negativity around. Also, there’s a very high mortality rate: most students end up returning to school! Unfortunately, once you do, it’s too late to turn back, and then you’ll be stuck in an endless
6. Say that You’ll Drop Out of Stuy About 235.6 Times Al ready During the First Week of School
Ever feel so overwhelmed from all the schoolwork that all you want to do is stay in bed all day? Well, it’s only going to get worse from there, so instead you can tune everything out for most of the day and then freak out at 11:00 p.m. because you haven’t done any of the previous two days’ of work.
The “I Miss School” Disease
4. Apply for Many, Many APs Even After Hearing All the Horror Stories from Upper classmen
Humor The Spectator ● September 8, 2022Page 24
- E-mailing your teachers during the summer (by the way, that’s awfully clingy). I’m sorry to dis appoint you, but if you have a re ally important question you need them to respond to, it’s too late for that. Either way, you’re only going to get rejected because our teachers are definitely enjoying ghosting us during the summer. The lack of response will leave you not only broken-hearted but also vulnerable to a virus that will happily feed off your pain. It’s a vicious cycle—you may miss school so much that you end up constantly sending more ques tions and e-mails to your teachers until you realize you’re just going straight into their spam folder and are just hopelessly schoolsick.
school, there are a few common side effects to help you recognize
4.5. Lead PE Stretches
Honestly, the destruction and chaos that occurs when a horde of Stuyvesant kids storms the MET can be considered a work of art in itself.
While the bad news is that there is no cure, the good news is that there are still a few treat ments that you can turn to. If you do catch the disease, it’s rec ommended to play video games, binge popular TV shows, or scroll on social media for a mini mum of 12 hours a day. Honestly, any form of procrastination will do. This will effectively distract you (albeit temporarily) from the school-shaped hole in your heart.
Other than an inexplicable yet burning passion to return to
if you have the disease. For ex ample, you could contract an in tense urge to go to Muji to buy all their cute stationery. Maybe you’ll find yourself yearning for black coffee, which you used to drink every school morning for the strong caffeine. Or you might even find yourself wanting to constantly check your e-mail out of bad habits formed during the school year. You should definite
By ABIGAIL JIN
Maybe it’s true that absence does make the heart grow fond er, but the disease should still be acknowledged. Luckily, the “I Miss School” disease usually completely disappears by the end of September (when students re member how much they loathe Stuy’s jail-cell-like barred win dows and broken escalators), so it looks like we’ll all be safe from it soon. Unfortunately, it also sig nifies the beginning of the “I’m So Stressed Because I Have Five Tests Next Week” disease, which is usually much more serious… but that’s a problem for another day!
6. Terrorize the MET Museum for Your Little “Art Project”
Why the .6? Well, it’s for the time that you were going to say
that you’ll drop out in a call with your friends—but your mom walked into your room with a plate of fruit.
WELCOME BACK TO STUY!!! First day of school and you already want to cry? Don’t worry… us too; it’s a tradition at this Naturally,point. even though it’s the first day, you already want to get this whole ‘school’ thing over with, perhaps in the fastest manner pos sible. Well too bad, because that won’t be an option, so you might as well savor the full Stuy experi ence. After all, why would you come to Stuy if you didn’t want to enjoy all four of these years? You could have gone to Brooklyn Tech,Soy’know…tellus,are you up for the challenge? If so, you’re in luck be cause after much trial and error, many cups of coffee, and count less all-nighters, we’ve formulated 13 perfect tips for YOUR en chanting four years at the happiest place on Earth.
7. Sit in the Hudson Staircase and Contemplate Your Life Choices
The perfect place to hide away and contemplate (cry) over your choices… given that you can ig nore the group of students trying to film a budget Among Us skit in Spanish and the student prancing around in a fairy costume for a reenactment of Romeo and Juliet.
We get it, the renaissance devil inside can get the better of us sometimes.
5. Sneak into the Senior Bar and the Junior Atrium
8. Get Your Phone and/or Headphones and/or ID Con fiscated by Batman and Boy Wonder—We Mean, Mr. Moran or Mr. Simon
2. Skip a Class (or Even a Day) to Catch Up on Work
1.5. Get Into Parent-Debt for Spending a Lot of Money on Coffee
It’ll cost you your pristine re cord and possibly a phone call home, but hey, you only live once!
9. Break an Escalator Self-explanatory. Perfect for those looking to have a very enjoy able time at school—you’ll make a ton of friends by announcing that you’re the one who broke the es calator! If you want to really dou ble down, go for the elevator (we haven’t seen that happen yet).
10. Develop a Questionable Digital Footprint Vent about your teachers, homework, and life in public Stuyvesant social media (these ar ticles included…)! It’s definitely not infiltrated by teachers—and definitely won’t come back to bite you when you apply to colleges later on (never getting into zaddy MIT now…).
Stuy: Your Top Priority “To-Do” List
It may seem like a basic job— all you need to do is run after a ball, right? Yet, there are many hidden rules that make a ball person’s job no easy feat. A suc cessful ball person needs to have good hand-eye coordination, speed, focus, a positive attitude, and a good understanding of ten nis rules to know where the balls need to be at any given time. On top of that, they need to be able to withstand the grueling sum mer heat and the constant rays
ing played on, with either three “backs” and one “net” or four “backs” and two “nets.” The back position is responsible for chasing down the tennis ball and providing the players with balls before their serve. The net po sition is responsible for running across the court to retrieve balls
With the U.S. Open finals just around the corner on September 10 and 11, all eyes of the tennis world are on Arthur Ashe Sta dium in Flushing, NY. Practically unrecognizable from its incarna tion as Stuyvesant’s graduation site, I spent my last weeks of summer vacation roaming the grounds at the United States Ten nis Association (USTA) National Tennis Center as a member of the U.S. Open Ball Crew. While most tennis spectators focus their attention on the players dur ing matches, the ball crew plays an indispensable role in keeping matches running smoothly— whether it’s clearing balls off the court, holding umbrellas for the players, or providing players with the right number of service balls, the ball crew has a role in all of it.
Tennis Spectacular Awaits: The US Open Ball Crew
role in my performance during the first few matches, but after a while, the rolling, bouncing, and running all became a second na ture.Being on the U.S. Open Ball Crew is an experience like none other. With a spot right on the court, it is one of the best seats in
Fans gathered outside Manches ter United’s stadium, Old Traf ford, and protested to have the Glazers sell the club. Many fans even participated in chants that mentioned killing the owners. Nonetheless, it is unlikely for the
Soccer
feld episode and an ELLE un dercover report, and even woke up early to practice on the local tennis courts. Despite my efforts, nothing could prepare me for the nerves I felt during the 15-min ute tryout. Each supervisor had a different way of holding tryouts: some simulated an actual match while others tested the skills in dividually. I left the courts with a sinking feeling in my stomach, all prepared to practice more and try again next year. The odds also weren’t in my favor, as gen erally, about 500 people try out and only about 150 make it onto the team. Surprisingly, within a week of tryouts, I received an email welcoming me as an official member of the 2022 U.S. Open Ball Crew. In mid-August, there was one day of training and an orientation, but then right after, the tournament began.
The last potential problem with Manchester United is the team’s morale. “It’s been a difficult start. Nobody is prepared to start like that at this club. But there is no better game to give an answer, for us and for our ambitions. It’s because of the lack of trust be tween us,” attacking midfielder Bruno Fernandes said. “It’s a sad
One of the first potential problems of the team is some of its players, in particular goalkeeper David de Gea and captain and center-back Harry Maguire.
mentally destructive for players. After giving football their all, it can be extremely demotivating for players to be detested by their own fans. Most of the time, these comments are crude, highly dis criminatory insults. It is sad to see the football community exhibit ing such hatred of the players. It’s completely fine to be passionate about the club you support, but taking your anger out on players is completely unjustifiable. At the end of the day, excessive online abuse can be detrimental to play ers’ lives and, ultimately, their per
Page 25The Spectator ● September 8, 2022 Sports
of its players, in particular goal keeper David de Gea and captain and center-back Harry Maguire. De Gea has been making fa tal mistakes that have led to the opponents scoring, such as dur ing Manchester United’s match against Brentford, when he al lowed the opponents to score four times. Despite the keeper’s poor performance, Maguire has received even more backlash. Due to mistakes while defend ing, he is often ridiculed in online memes. Many fans believe that he needs to be sold in order for
By KAILEEN SO
Glazers to sell the club, consid ering how profitable it has been. Just last year, its overall value in creased by 10 percent and is likely to further increase, meaning that the Glazers are there to stay.
One of the first potential problems of the team is some
formance. Action must be taken to remove hate from the beautiful sport.Even though the club is clear ly experiencing hardships, there is still hope. In their third game of the season, United handily de feated Liverpool 2-1. This result was shocking, considering their performance in the two previous games and Liverpool’s perfor mance in prior years. Manchester United was able to dominate the midfield and go on the counter attack much quicker. Maguire was not in the starting lineup, as Ten Hag aimed to create a set of fast paced forwards and strong defense that didn’t need to ac commodate his lack of speed. Additionally, Ronaldo was not in cluded due to his central playstyle and inability to slip into small spaces or counterattack. This win was absolutely crucial, as it gave hope of a better season to both the fans and the players. It will be difficult for Manchester United to finish in the top of the league, considering their fierce competition. Nonetheless, there is potential. If they are able to solidify their defense for the sea son and be more flexible in the midfield and attack, Manchester United will be a tougher team to play against. On top of those aspects, if Ten Hag uses similar tactics from his previous team, constantly having his players act aggressively and overwhelm the opponent defense, they might just have a chance at becoming Premier League champions. See ing how Manchester United will learn from their mistakes and progress in the season will be one of the most intriguing things to look out for.
from all over the country come to New York City for the honor of serving on the U.S. Open Ball Crew. It is a great end-of-summer job where you can make memories that will last a lifetime. So, if you tune in to the U.S. Open Finals this week end, keep an eye out for the brightly-colored ball crew who are there to keep the game run ning smoothly.
ter United fans is blaming their losses on the club’s American owners, the Glazer family. Man chester United fans want the Glazer family to sell the club be cause of the large sums of money they have taken out of the club (about €1.6 billion) and the poor player purchases they have made.
of sunshine beating down onto the courts. But their most im portant role is to go unnoticed, as the ball crew is there to make sure the match runs smoothly for the players. Ballpersons work in teams of four or six, depending on which courts the match is be
the team to improve. Some fans have taken matters to extreme measures, sending Maguire nu merous death threats. One stated that if he didn’t leave Manchester United in 72 hours, explosives set up in his house would go off. In order to protect his family, Ma guire’s home has several video surveillance cameras installed and round-the-clock guards in place. Even if the team’s losses were largely because of him, current fan behavior is not at all justifi able.Another group of Manches
The process of becoming a U.S. Open Ball Crew member be gins in early June when the online application, which includes some basic information about yourself, a resume, and a quick tennis quiz, is due. Once participants are confirmed for a tryout, supervi sors provide a manual covering most of the skills that will be tested during tryouts. To prepare, I watched every YouTube video I could find about being a ball person, which included a Sein
SpectatorThe/MengJoanna
the house. Out of all the Grand Slam tennis tournaments, only ballpersons at the U.S. Open are paid an hourly wage. Most are paid minimum wage but veter ans can make more. Not only is it a paid job but members of the ball crew are given a daily food allowance, plus an unlimited sup ply of Body Armor and Polo Ralph Lauren uniforms, which cover from hat to shoes, and can be kept even after the tourna ment. In addition, the credential a ballperson receives acts like a grounds pass, allowing access to every court except Arther Ashe, where a ballperson can watch their favorite players during their off time. Walking through the crowds at the USTA National Tennis Center, I’ve felt the buzz and excitement radiating from all corners. Putting all that aside, just being able to assist the big gest names in tennis makes it all worthPeopleit.
locker room, a bit dejected by the results.” He claims that after los ing 1-2 to Brighton, the players’ morale plummeted and was a rea son that they lost 0-4 in their next match. A potential factor contrib uting to the apparent decrease of players’ morale is the recent surge in the online abuse that they re ceive. Out of the top 10 players receiving the most online abuse in the Premier League, seven were from Manchester United, and forward Cristiano Ronaldo was in first place. Receiving thou sands of hate messages can be
that have hit the net and provid ing shade for the players during changeovers. Ballpersons work on shifts—one and a half hours on, one and a half hours off. Typically, those under 18 only work two shifts per day. Like the tryouts, nerves played a major
By TOMAS LEVANI
If you consider yourself a football fan, then you have prob ably heard of Manchester United, an elite team from Manchester, England with millions of fans worldwide. Because of their his torical success in European foot ball competitions, Manchester United’s supporters have always had high expectations for the club. Even though these stan dards may be high, it’s unlikely for a team to perform the same way over long periods of time. Some times, teams exceed expectations, while other times, they fall short. However, Manchester United’s performance this season has been extremely disappointing and unexpected. To fans, it seemed that they were going to be better than ever, especially after legend ary manager Erik ten Hag prom ised to turn around the situation at Manchester United, primarily by introducing his creative strate gies and playstyles. Nonetheless, Manchester United has not been holding up its reputation this season. After two losses against teams they were expected to win against, they plunged down to 20th place in the Premier League. Many fans were disappointed af ter they finished in sixth place last season, but dropping down to the very bottom of the table made it clear to fans that there is a prob lem with the team. Three poten tial worries brought up by fans are some Manchester United players, the club owners, and the players’ morale. It is hard to pinpoint a single problem that is leading to their losses, but it is worth explor ing all of these concerns.
The Manchester United Situation
The aftermath of the Durant saga is met with a mix of skepti cism and optimism. While the chemistry between Durant and Nash will be tested after being pit ted against each other, the Nets have quietly acquired additional pieces to their already decent ros ter. Their supporting cast includes solid shooters like Joe Harris and Seth Curry, scoring help in T.J. Warren and Cam Thomas, and un derrated defenders like Simmons and Royce O’Neale, all under the lead of Durant and Irving. If the Nets can avoid the injuries and drama that plagued them the last three seasons, they have a title shot for the 2022-2023 season.
the monumental wages Haaland wanted are taken into account, Haaland will actually end up cost ing City up to an astronomical £213 million ($250 million).
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between Mitchell and the Knicks appears better than any other through his many ties to the city: he and his family are from New York. More importantly, Mitch ell’s family now lives in New York. “[Mitchell] loves the Knicks. [Mitchell] loves being around his mom, his sister, his dad,” Mitch ell’s former coach Rick Pitino said. “It would be very special for me as his coach to see him in a Knicks uniform, as an ex-Knicks coach.” Pitino is obviously biased in favor of a trade to occur, but his con nection to Mitchell gives credence to his statements and important insight into how Mitchell might influence a potential trade to help move him to New York.
gressive pass and carry rate when compared to his Uruguayan rival at just 1.61 and 2.53 per 90 re spectively. Núñez also completed more dribbles per 90, with Haa land having just 0.54 compared to his 1.52. Statistics like these show that while Núñez does have a lower direct goal scoring record compared to Haaland, he offers a broader range of attacking output for the team through his progres sive carries, passes, and dribbles which create time, space and op
The Knicks and Jazz are the most likely scenario in which a trade occurs, meaning that it is trade or bust. With Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant situation resolved after he came to an agreement with the Nets to play in the up coming season, a trade is now more likely to occur. However, both teams can’t come to terms with the package required for the
the unfavorable direction on the front office. Durant and Irving have tugged on the reins of the franchise ever since they agreed to team up in Brooklyn. Player em powerment has allowed them to transcend their roles as players and influence team decisions, forcing the front office to bear the risk of disgruntling their precious stars. It was Durant and Irving who hand picked head coach Steve Nash, who had no coaching experience at all. They also insisted that the Nets sign center DeAndre Jor dan, a close friend of theirs who is near the end of his career. They even pushed Marks to sign him to a four-year $40 million contract and took pay cuts so that Jordan could have a longer contract. Fur thermore, they urged Nash to start Jordan over center Jarrett Allen, who developed into an NBA AllStar shortly after being traded.
“What’s going on in Utah?” ESPN writer Brian Windhorst said.Free agency is winding down to a close, and for most teams in the NBA, this transition means preparing for training camp with the players they have and getting ready for the upcoming season. But for a few teams, the offseason is not over just yet, specifically for the Utah Jazz and the New York Knicks this season.
It is an understatement to say that the Brooklyn Nets’ 2021-2022 NBA season was a disappoint ment. Between dealing with a part-time Kyrie Irving, an injuryprone Kevin Durant, and a men tally unprepared Ben Simmons who has yet to play a game, their underwhelming 44-38 record and first-round exit drew widespread criticism and outrage from fans. When first formed, the Nets were the epitome of a superteam, and the backlash they faced when they fell short of expectations was in evitable.Then, Durant demanded a trade out of Brooklyn at the be ginning of NBA free agency. He was unhappy with the team’s per formance and how general man ager Sean Marks refused to offer Irving, his close friend, a contract extension. Durant listed the Phoe nix Suns and the Miami Heat as his preferred destinations, both teams being the first seeds of their con ference. The demand sparked out rage among the media and fans. To them, this insistence was Durant quitting on his team when things got hard Despiteagain.this controversy, many fully expected that Durant would eventually be traded. Player em powerment was at an all-time high in the NBA, which was fully exhib
It is unfair that Durant blames others when he is the one who is initiating all these ill-fated deci sions. This entire fiasco was Du rant’s excuse to leave yet another team when things are not panning out for him. After blowing a 3-1 lead to the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 Western Conference finals, Durant left his Thunder team and its loyal fans to join the Warriors, bringing forth the infa mous phrase “If you can’t beat them, join them.” He then left the
portunities for his teammates at a lower price point.
At the end of the day, the expectation will be on Liverpool and Manchester City to provide us with yet another mouth-wa tering war for the 2022/23 title.
Liverpool’s recruitment of Núñez will always be the target of doubt, just as with any player when they command such a large sum of money. And these doubts are warranted, as Liverpool is off to a slow start to the season, with just
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However, as the offseason started to go by, trade talks came to a halt. The Suns re-signed cen ter Deandre Ayton, their best trade asset. Since players cannot be traded until six months after sign ing, the Suns were knocked out of the Durant sweepstakes. The options for the Nets started to dry up. The Miami Heat offered a package centered around budding guard Tyler Herro, but the Nets declined the underwhelming offer. Ironically, the Boston Celtics, the same team that defeated the Nets a month ago, offered their young star Jaylen Brown. This proposal outraged the loyal Celtics fans, as Brown was the best player in the NBA Finals that very season, but the Nets declined nonetheless.
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PageSports26 The Spectator ● September 8, 2022
After another disappoint ing exit in the first round in six games against the Dallas Mav ericks, the Jazz wanted to take a new direction for their franchise. This change was headed by re cent addition Danny Ainge, who joined at the end of 2021. While GM Justin Zanik dealt with dayto-day operations, Ainge was hired as CEO to handle big pic ture ideas for the team. For his first major, team-changing move as the new CEO, Ainge and the Jazz front office decided to trade three-time Defensive Player of
one win in their first four games, with Núñez even receiving a redcard for a hot-headed headbutt on Crystal Palace center-back Joachim Andersen. But he has time to learn from his mistakes and improve. Jurgen Klopp has done a brilliant job in years past with developing young players, and with Núñez’s unlocked po tential, he will no doubt provide Liverpool with unique attacking prowess and brilliant footballing ability.
est appeal: his generational talent. While player empowerment is at its peak in the league, so are the values of those players. For ex ample, Utah Jazz star center Rudy Gobert was traded to the Minne sota Timberwolves early on during the offseason for five players and a whopping four first-round picks. Gobert is widely regarded as the best rim defender in the league, but his lack of ability to switch on faster players has cut the Jazz’s postseason short many times. De spite his glaring flaws, the Jazz received a gargantuan return for their center. Durant is several tiers above Gobert as a player, so it begs the question: what price does he demand? After all, superstars go for a premium, and Durant is one of the best superstars to ever step on the court.
Many believe that the match
Warriors after arguments with for ward Draymond Green, but many suspect that it was the constant invalidation of his championships with the Warriors due to the fact that they were already the best team in the league without him that spurred him to join and cre ate the Brooklyn Nets in his own vision.Hours after Durant reiterated his request though, Tsai cemented his decision to stand with the front office and call Durant’s bluff. In the following weeks, Marks and Nash met with Durant and Tsai and eventually talked things out, putting their best foot forward for the upcoming season.
“We’re trying to build a champion ship team, but there’s no intent [to trade Mitchell], at all,” Zanik said soon after the Gobert trade. How ever, a few days later, NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported that
the Year and center Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for five players and five first-round picks. This move, two trades of veterans, forward Royce O’Neale and guard Patrick Bever ley, for a first-round pick and two young players, respectively, along with the loss of eight-year head coach Quin Snyder, led to ques tions on the Jazz’s plan for the fu ture and the intention with guard Donovan Mitchell: were they re tooling around him, or were they rebuilding?Mitchell is a budding star in the league, considered top 25 in the 2021-2022 season by ESPN Rating. He is a three-time All-Star and a killer in the playoffs as well, averaging 28.3 points per game for seventh all-time in career play off points per game, so the Jazz’s decision with Mitchell will define the future outlook for the team.
Amid the stalled trade discus sions, Durant met with Nets own er Joe Tsai to discuss the situation, where he took the opportunity to reiterate his trade request and is sue an ultimatum: it was either the front office or him. The ultimatum was not completely unexpected, as players usually apply pressure and leverage publicity to increase the chances of a move happening. However, by forcing Tsai to pub licly choose, Durant might have desecrated his relationship with the Durantorganization.haslittle right to blame
from
At only 22, Haaland is already one of the best players in the world and his statistics back that up. Surpassing Núñez with 0.87 non-penalty goals per 90 last sea son, his goalscoring is in the 99th percentile. However, Haaland falls short in areas where Núñez excels, having a much lower pro
When the trade demand hap pened, every team in the league gave the Nets front office a call. Durant is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and had an MVP caliber 2022 sea son, and yet, trade talks came to a halt. Why wasn’t this trade getting done? Ironically, the most glaring problem is also Durant’s great
NBA
Brooklyn’s Trade Saga Comes to an End
Spida-Man: Homecoming?
By JUSTIN HUANG
ited when Sixers guard/forward Simmons sat out games for half the season to force a trade with a lengthy four years remaining in his contract. Stars are used to getting what they want in the league, and many thought the Suns and Nets were about to close a deal.
Soccer
trade. Berman reported that “the Knicks were turned off by […] a package of seven first-round picks and players.” The Jazz now want a return of six first-round picks and many young players. The Knicks believe that valuation is still too high, but the Jazz aren’t willing to back down on their de mands, leading to a stalemate in trade
Astalks.ofthe time of writing this article, talks are still developing, with a package of Obi Toppin, Evan Fournier, and five picks be ing put forth by the Knicks and discussions of a possible threeteam deal with the Lakers. There are also rumors that the Jazz want to complete a trade before train ing camp. Now, with the Knicks signing a four-year extension with RJ Barrett, time is dwindling down on a trade, with less assets on the table. New York will have to wait and see whether the Jazz bite on the Knicks offer or if they stay put on their demands, but one thing is for certain. Look out for what’s going on in Utah with the Knicks.
striker, something which City has not had since the departure of club legend Sergio Agüero. Many view the price point of Haaland as highly attractive, as on the face of it, the £51 million ($60 million) fee City paid for Haaland seems to be a bargain when compared to the $100 million sum splashed by Liverpool. However, when agent fees, signing bonuses, and
the “Utah Jazz [are] now willing to listen to [...] Mitchell trade scenar ios,” leading to doubts surround ing Mitchell’s future in Utah. The new willingness to listen to trade offers has led the New York Knicks to become front runners for the Mitchell sweepstakes.
Why Liverpool Needs Darwin Núñez
By TEJAS SIDDARAMAIAH
After another playoff-less sea son and one year removed from their unexpected appearance in the fourth seed, the Knicks were looking to retool their roster to make another run at the playoffs. This goal led to the creation of cap space by trading away and waiving five players in order to sign guard Jalen Brunson in the offseason. The Knicks have been establish ing a young core, with 12 of their players being 25 or younger. Marc Berman of the New York Post re ported that “adding Mitchell, [the Knicks] believe, would be good enough for a 10-game leap to 47 victories.” The Knicks also have the most tradable assets out of the potential teams, with up to eight first-round picks and three pick swaps at their disposal.
Stuy XC: One Hill of a Sport
: I really like running as just a way of staying in shape. When I run, I feel healthy, and my men tality overall is better. My mind is clear, and I am more focused, so I will definitely keep running
they can really grow. Most of the guys don’t have prior experience running before joining the team, so just giving tips on the small things to get better is important. Also, running is a simple sport, so really if you run enough miles, you will run faster, so I want to push everyone to run as much as they can.
V: I always eat pasta with to mato sauce and grilled chicken the night before a race.
Vernon FunniestHughesTeammate
H: Exactly 40 minutes before our race, as a team, we will go on a light run, go to the bathroom, and just talk and joke around with each other to settle our nerves.
Favorite Athlete: Jakob Ingebrigtsen
Athlete of the Issue
9. How has playing multiple sports together impacted your relationship?H
States of America for a reported fee of $9 million. Vieira brings depth for Martin Ødegaard at the CAM position, while Turner pro vides much-needed backup for Aaron Ramsdale at the GK posi tion.The window was a positive one for fans of the Gunners, and now it’s up to the squad to per form and bring back Champions League football to the Emirates Stadium.Overall, the 2022 summer transfer window was one full of chaos, but with a couple weeks left to go, it will be interesting to see what moves certain teams try to make and how it will impact their respective squads going into the season.
workouts our coach gives us. We work on hill sprints so we are able to cover the hills in races, because the uphills are where people lose the most time.
:
3. Do you have a most memo rable/proud moment with the Greyducks?H
a talented Danish international, was a smart purchase from Salz burg who filled that much-needed RB position previously occupied by Luke Ayling. To bring creativ ity and end product into the side, Luis Sinisterra joined from Fey enoord for a price of $27.50 mil lion. The Colombian international was stellar for Feyennord last sea son, providing 23 goals and 14 as sists in all Collectively,competitions.Leeds’s transfer business was smart. The task of replacing Raphinha and Phillips wasn’t easy, but Leeds managed to do that while replacing even more positions, such as the RB spot.
Soccer Shining The Spotlight To Premier League’s Rising: Underlooked 2022 Summer Transfer Windows
work?H
for fun, but at this point, I do not think I am going to be running competitively. But when I am older, my goal is to run a mara thon, so at some point, I will train towards that.
V
: In cross country, we run 5ks, and in track, we run the two mile, the 3200-meter, the 1600-meter, and the 800-meter.
Page 27The Spectator ● September 8, 2022 Sports
“The plan only works if you do.” Fun Fact: I speak Serbian.
Name: Hugo Jenkins Grade: Senior Height: 5’10” Hair Color: Blonde Eye Color: Blue Date of Birth: April 11, 2005
Favorite Sports Drink: Lemon-Lime Gatorade
: Definitely when we went to states for cross country this year. It was a very tough season, and we had many unfortunate races that went very badly, but in the end, we were still able to qual ify. Even after we qualified, we didn’t even think we were going, because at first, PSAL schools’ spots were pulled, but they were given back.
“When your legs can’t run any more, run with your heart.” Fun Fact: I have two cats and a dog.
V: Being a captain to me means really trying to oversee the personal growth of other indi viduals and helping them experi ence their own moments where
freshman year, so we were so happy to be able to go. None of us were feeling that good leading up to the meet, since we only had three races leading up to states due to COVID, but everyone raced extremely well.
Motto to Live By:
country?H
V: The main thing is fitness, and that is something we improve by running every day. We also fo cus on our strength by building up our core and fixing our form and posture. These little fixes can make all the difference in a race. Mental strength is also a huge as pect we work on and can make everyone a better runner.
V: Having to run after school is both a physical and social break, because I get to talk to people and just unwind after a long day of school. This makes going home and having to do homework easier. So even if I am losing one or two hours because of practices, it doesn’t feel like time is actually being lost.
: From our hours of talking during running every week, we have gotten very, very close.
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Name: Vernon Hughes Grade: Senior Height: 5’10”
1. What inspired you to start running at Stuyvesant?
H: Consistency with run ning is definitely the main thing, but we also try to hit a variety of things in practice based on the
: It depends on what school I go to and whether I can walk on the team, because right now, I am not looking to get recruited. But I will definitely keep running no matter what, because it is a great way for me to get away from aca demics and keep myself fit. I also want to build up to a marathon. Hugo and I have talked about it, and we will look to do it in the future, even if we are not on a competitive team. At the mo ment, we are in shape to run one, but we need to train more mileage to run it fast enough, because we want to qualify for Bos ton or other similar marathons.
Favorite Sports Drink: Fruit Punch Gatorade Favorite Post-Meet Snack: Carrot cake and Skinny Pop Hobbies: Skiing Motto to Live By:
6. Do you have any plans to continue running in the future or inHcollege?
for Arsenal was by no means simi lar to those of Nottingham For est or Leeds United. Already a top club in the Premier League, Arsenal’s goal heading into the window was to elevate their team into the Champions League, as they failed to do so in recent years. Still, some of their purchases this window were excellent and are destined to help Arsenal improve significantly.WithAlexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubamey and’s departures, Arsenal was in dire need of a central figure in at tack—and who better to get than Gabriel Jesus? As an established player in the Premier League for Manchester City, Jesus ticked all the boxes for Arsenal, and it was
HughesVernonandJenkinsHugoofCourtesy
Club #3 - Arsenal: The summer transfer window
H: I started running because I wanted to get in shape to try out for the lacrosse team. But I ended up enjoying running, so I decided not to switch and stayed on the cross country and track teams.
V: We also run tempos to work on our endurance, as well as run shorter sprints and repeat intervals to get our heartbeat re ally high at one moment and work through lactic acid buildup. Other small things we do in addi tion to our main mileage are core workouts and strides after runs, which are short, not full, sprints 60-80 meters, where we focus on our form.
: I found that having to put away a couple of hours after school every day to go run actu ally helps me handle my academics a lot. When I don’t have practice and just go straight home, I kind of just sit around and don’t end up starting my work until much after I would have started if I did go running. I just spent the whole day at school, and I don’t want to sit down and do more work, so when I run, it separates those times.
Favorite Athlete: Eliud Kipchoge
2. What races do you run, and what skills/strengths are in volved?H
Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Blue Date of Birth: March 23, 2005
Our relationship goes past running, as Vernon is definitely my best friend at school, and we have gone on vacation together.
Favorite Post-Meet Snack: Carrot cake Hobbies:
V: It really boils down to how cross country and track might feel like an individual sport because you have your own times and re sults, but when we are running and practicing, it is really about working together as a team. We spend so much time talking to gether about everything, because no one wants to be bored on a run and just look up and down at your watch, so it has really opened up our relationship a lot.
V: I actually tried for the soc cer team first, but I didn’t make it on, so I was going to use cross country to be more ready for the soccer team the following year, but I decided to stick with run ning.
4. What is your strategy for constantly improving yourself (specific workouts, exercises, mentality, etc.)?
8. Do you have any premeet superstitions or rituals?
5. How has being a captain changed your outlook on cross
7. How do you balance being a three-sport ath lete and school
that money, the task was simple. Replacing the void left by the de partures of the two fan-favorites was the biggest priority alongside signing a new RB to replace the aging Luke Ayling. In addition, for fans of the USMNT, this win dow was exclusively special. Leeds purchased two of the USMNT’s most talented players in Tyler Ad ams and Brenden Aaronson for reported fees of $18.70 million and $36.13 million. Tyler Adams, alongside Marc Roca of Spain, joined to replace Kalvin Phillips’s role in the Starting XI, while Bren den Aaronson looks to contribute his incessant energy and pressing. Furthermore, Rasmus Kristensen,
By YASHNA PATEL
Hunter Pesin
Hugo FunniestJenkinsTeammate:
V: Going to states is some thing that we wanted to do since
: Before I realized that we would be captains and leading the team, I had focused more on my own training and just let other people do their own thing. But now, I am going to be more fo cused on making sure everyone is doing well, making sure there are no issues, and giving advice to the underclassmen.
shocking that in the end, no other teams went for him besides Ar senal. Another job for Arsenal to cover was to bring in compe tition for Kieran Tierney, who was quite injury-prone last sea son. Once again, Arsenal turned to Manchester City, but this time for Oleksander Zinchenko, deemed one of Man City’s most “technically-gifted” players. With these two transfers, Arsenal al ready strengthened their squad to a degree that made qualifying for the Champions League look like a strong possibility, but their business didn’t end here. They in creased their depth by purchasing Fábio Vieira from FC Porto for a reported fee of $40 million as well as Matt Turner from the United
Skiing, watching soccer, and playing the violin
Rico Lau and Andrew Udov
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WNBA star Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in Russian prison after being found guilty of drug possession and smuggling.
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Raphinha, leave the club for re ported fees of $53.62 million and $63.80 million respectively. With continued on page 27
FRIDAY
This past summer, Liverpool smashed their transfer record with an £85 million ($100 mil lion) move for Uruguayan striker Darwin Núñez. Rivals and fans alike raised doubts on whether he was worth the money, pointing to the well-established striker Erling Haaland, who was also brought to Manchester City this past summer, as the better alternative. Follow ing the disappointment of miss ing out on the Premier League yet again, and losing to Real Madrid in the Champions League final, there are certain flaws and short comings in Liverpool’s system that need to be improved upon if they are to maintain the high stan dards that they have set for them selves in seasons past. Núñez has the expertise to address these is sues, and under the guidance of manager Jurgen Klopp, he is too good to be written off and can help elevate Liverpool. Simply put: Liverpool needed him.
Hijacks. Bargains. Sagas. Re lease clauses. Looking back, the 2022 summer transfer window had it all. With Erling Haaland moving to Manchester City for a reported fee of $65 million and Antonio Rudiger choosing Real Madrid as his next destination, we saw some of the world’s biggest names leave their clubs in search of a new challenge. Throughout this article, the spotlight will be turned toward clubs that have had an equally productive but widely underrated transfer window.
THESPECTATORSPORTS
League for Watford. On defense, the additions of Omar Rich ards, Neco Williams, and Moussa Niakhaté add the perfect mix of experience and talent. Due to the outstand ing amount of signings which Nottingham For est have made this trans fer window, their overall squad increased in capac ity significantly, adding to their depth. These sign ings have given the team a new face ahead of their campaign in the Premier League this season.
Club #2: Leeds United: Leeds United bid fare well to one of the most legendary coaches in their history, Marco Bielsa, on February 28, 2022. To replace him, Ameri can coach Jesse Marsch stepped up. This coming season will be his first full season in the Premier League, but luckily the Leeds’s quality transfer pickups will re duce some of the nerves heading
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Shining The Spotlight To Premier League’s Rising: Underlooked 2022 Summer Transfer Windows
BoysWEDNESDAYBowlingVarsity vs. East Harlem Pride Bowl 360 Astoria 5 4:00 p.m
Boys Badminton Varsity vs. Brooklyn Tech Brooklyn Tech HS Gym 2 5:00 p.m
Serena Williams kicked off her farewell tour with a first-round win over Danka Kovinic of Montenegro. She is set to face Anett Kon taveit of Estonia in the second round.
Why Liverpool Needs Darwin Núñez
Interestingly, Núñez has been on Liverpool’s radar for some time now, ever since one of their scouts spotted him playing Uru guayan team Penarol’s under-19 team in 2015. What appealed to Liverpool was his smart position ing, ability to make penetrating runs, his explosive speed, and a great aerial presence at 6’2”. Liv erpool has monitored his prog ress since, and last year, with his former side Benefica taking on Liverpool in the quarter-finals of the Champions league, he got the perfect opportunity to audition for them. In both legs, Núñez wreaked havoc on Liverpool’s backline, scoring twice, which
Ukrainian heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk beat British former world champion Anthony Joshua via split decision, retaining his WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO belts.
could have been more had two of his goals not been offside. He im pressed Klopp across those two games, with the German man ager claiming, “He is good, really good. If he stays healthy, he has a big career ahead of him.” These two games proved to Liverpool that the young striker is capable
8
By VEDANT KOTHARI
A shocking stat from the three cup finals that Liverpool played in is that they did not score a single time. 0 goals in 330 minutes of gametime. That is indicative of a problem that has been brewing for a while now. For the past five seasons, the Redmen have played with Brazilian Roberto Firmino as a false-nine—someone who dropped into the midfield to help win the ball, create space for his teammates, and overall do the “dirty work” for the team. Fir mino is unique, but he is not an out-and-out goalscorer, and in the last three seasons his goals have dried up. This leads to Liverpool’s problems when playing in games where teams play compactly and are hard to break down through the middle. They do not have a di rect option through a true striker, so they resort to countless crosses from the wing from wingbacks Trent Alexander-Arnold and An drew Robertson, which seldom produce anything. Struggling to
break down and score against compact teams end up costing them points in draws or one-goal losses in games which they should be winning. In the grand scheme of things, losing silly points is also what loses you titles. In matches like those, they needed someone who could make something hap pen, someone who could grab the match by the scruff of the neck, break the defensive line directly, and score. Núñez is that player.
SpectatorThe/JeongBina
their talents to the team. Taiwo Awoniyi, who provided 20 goals and five assists in all competitions last year for Union Berlin, has the potential to create a danger ous duo with Emmanuel Dennis, who netted 10 times and assisted six times in the English Premier
Haaland, as both are of simi lar age, play a similar position, and came to the same league at the same time. Like Núñez, the Norwegian was brought to Man chester to be their out-and-out
New York Knicks forward RJ Barrett finalized his four-year exten sion worth up to $120 million, complicating Donovan Mitchell trade talks.
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into the season.
Page 28 The Spectator ● September 8, 2022
Manchester United signed Brazilian winger Antony from Ajax for a reported fee of $95 million.
The most obvious compari son that can be made to Núñez is Manchester City’s 6’4” Erling
In terms of departures, this window was not an easy one to watch, especially for Leeds’s fans. They witnessed their two best players, Kalvin Phillps and
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of playing against big teams on big Inoccasions.addition to these games, Núñez’s statistics reaffirmed that he is the man for Liverpool. Per 90 minutes last season, he took a whopping 7.48 touches in the op posing team’s penalty box. This saw him achieve an expected goal for non-penalty goals of .48, which he actually exceeded with 0.76 non-penalty goals, landing him in the 97th percentile. Apart from his direct goals, Núñez shows that he offers a wider range of skills to offer, like his ability to create chances for his teammates by being a forward-thinker. On average per game, his 5.07 pro gressive carries and 1.51 dribbles completed led him to directly cre ate 1.4 goal-scoring opportunities per 90. All of these figures from last season put him in the high 80th to 90th percentile, showing that on paper, he has an excellent track record, and showing that he offers Liverpool versatility by pro viding more than just goalscoring.
CALENDAR
By FREDERIK SCHUTZ
Club #1: Nottingham Forest: The 2022 summer transfer window will certainly be remem bered for years to come by Not tingham fans. Led by manager Steve Cooper, the club managed to complete an astounding 16 transfers ahead of the 2022/23 campaign, spending almost $162 million in Withintotal.these transfers, we see the likes of Morgan Gibbs-White
from the Wolves, Taiwo Awoniyi from Union Berlin, Neco Wil liams from Liverpool, and Em manuel Dennis from Watford add
Buffalo Bills rookie punter Matt Araiza was accused of raping a minor in a lawsuit filed in San Diego.