@blackatspecialized: How Can We Address Stuyvesant High School’s Race Problem?
Black and Hispanic students speak out on the culture surrounding racism at Stuyvesant. Stuyvesant must respond: how can both students and staff make the school a more inclusive place?
The Stuyvesant High School NewspaperThe world around us is slowly losing its color. But why?
sent out via Director of Fam ily Engagement Dina Ingram’s Weekly Update #4 and Assis tant Principal of Physical Edu cation and Safety Brian Moran for female seniors to participate in a locker lottery. The lottery officially ended on September 20.
Senior Ruby Friedman of the Wellness Council Coalition initially confirmed with P.E. teachers Silvana Choy, Jenna Freytag, and Rebeca Morel that there were 114 empty and un used lockers in the girls’ locker room. Friedman notified Moran that same day and proposed the idea of making use of the emp ty lockers for seniors. “I ended up talking with him for 10 to 15 minutes and I convinced him,” Friedman said.
most effective way [...] to do it now. We can get it implemented this month,” senior and leader of the Wellness Council Coali tion Hailey Seltzer said.
The insufficient number of lockers in both the girls’ and boys’ locker rooms at Stuyves ant poses a problem for seniors who do not receive gym lockers. Typically, seniors are expected to use their lockers on the first
or second floor to store their belongings. This has caused some inconvenience when they have their Physical Education (P.E.) classes, especially since all P.E. classes require students to arrive on time, have their back packs stored away, and wear their gym uniforms.
Due to a recent discovery of vacant lockers in the girls’ lock er room, a Google Form was
The Stuyvesant Transit and Urbanism Association (STUA) recently launched their MTA transit predictor board on Sep tember 12. The board displays estimated arrival times of the trains and buses most common ly taken by Stuyvesant students and faculty.
The transit predictor board serves as a way to ease the com mute of Stuyvesant students. Insights regarding NYC transit arrivals and delays are readily accessible to students and staff just before they exit the build ing. “The second-floor hallway gets crowded with people on their phones trying to see when the train leaves and whether they can make it in time,” sopho more and STUA member Muhib Muhib said. “The board has a simple purpose. It shows what trains you can reach and if you can get there in time.”
For students and faculty who have multiple options for com
muting, the board offers addi tional information about which routes may be preferable at the moment. “I live in Brooklyn Heights, and there are many dif ferent trains I can take to get there. So, I want to know which one is coming first,” sophomore
After debating how to dis tribute the unused girls’ lock ers among seniors who poten tially wanted one, the Wellness Council Coalition and Moran ultimately settled on using a lot tery system. “There are a lot of seniors. If you cut them in half, [as] a lot of people are in roll erblading and Polar Bear that’s on the first floor [and probably won’t] come up to the changing room anyways, we felt like this was probably the easiest and
As for the boys’ locker room, the Wellness Council has yet to confirm the number of unused lockers, but it is estimated to be fewer than that in the girls’ locker room, resulting in com plications if the lottery program were to be expanded to male seniors. “The boys’ locker room [doesn’t] have as many open lockers as [the girls’]. I believe they have 40 or 50. We’re actual ly trying to check on the lockers [in the boys’ locker room] and count them right now, but they definitely have a lot less [than the girls’], so we’re still trying to think if it would be [...] worth it to do the [same] lottery sys tem,” Seltzer said. “You’re still going to have the same demand [where] 200 kids want a locker.”
As a result of the lack of lockers, most seniors change in the student bathroom stalls in stead of the locker rooms, caus ing overcrowded bathrooms and a struggle to change on
Seniors Henry Bans bach and Isaac Houts championed at Parliamentary Debate at the Yale Invitational from September 30 to October 1.
Academic Interven tion Services (AIS) for the 2022-23 school year started on October 3.
The Big Sib Chairsreleased a Big SibHandbook, providing re sources, contacts, and advice for current fresh men.
The annual Big Apple College Fair was held in person at the Jacob Ja vits Center on October 2, with representatives from over 175 colleges present.
Mayor Eric Adams announced on September 20 that vaccines were no longer mandated for anyone partici pating in PSAL sports or other extracurricular ac tivities.
coordinated with administration to receive approval and generate support for the transit predictor board. “First, I asked Ms. [Di rector of Family Engagement Dina] Ingram who to talk to, [...] and she said to talk to [Assistant Principal of Organization Dr. Gary] Haber,” Weir said. “I talk ed to [Haber], who eventually said I had to talk to Mr. [Com puter Associate Sydney] Lindsay. So we talked to [Lindsay], who ended up switching us [from] us ing that board to the TV that we now use.”
and STUA member Jakob Weir said.
Senior and STUA Co-Pres ident Jeffrey Mui organized the initiative alongside senior and STUA Leader of Communica tions and Design Ravindra Man gar, while other members of the
club pitched in with their own efforts to make the project a re ality. In all, the objective of the club is to spread information on public transit and urban devel opment.
To implement the project at Stuyvesant, members of STUA
STUA’s partnership with ad ministration allowed the organi zation to acquire and set up the necessary equipment, including a spare TV unit for the transit board itself. “[In meetings with
time for the start of the next class. “My gym is on the sixth floor and my locker is on the first floor. I have to run down, get my regular clothes, and run to the second-floor bathroom. Once I get there, there’s 10 oth er kids changing so we have to wait there until kids either fin ish using a stall, or some kids just change right in front of the sink,” senior Esther Kim said. “There have been times where I had to run to class because I was almost late.”
Though juniors currently have access to gym lockers, many express apprehension for next year if the administration does not add more gym lock ers for seniors. “I feel like bath rooms already clog up on the second and third floors around warning bell time […] I would prefer if there were to be [gym] lockers, and I definitely think the system can use a change,” junior Joanna Meng said.
A solution proposed by some is to utilize the space in
the locker room shower area to install new lockers. “I think that [installation] would be good be cause, to be honest, I don’t re ally see people ever using the showers,” senior Jet Li said. “Maybe [those with] the lockers right outside the pool might use it but [not] in terms of the regu lar gym locker rooms.”
Others believe that the avail ability of lockers for seniors should be decided on a vol untary basis. “To be honest, I don’t really use the gym locker because I find it inconvenient, but I do think the lack of gym lockers for seniors could be det rimental,” junior Amy Zhang said. “A possible solution would be for the school administra tion to send a survey before the school year to gauge out how many people would like to use a gym locker, instead of giv ing everyone one, and then go from there. If I could, I would just give mine away as I’m not using it.”
Aside from seniors, con cerns have also arisen regard ing the lack of gym lockers for transgender students. “There are always going to be problems
with the locker rooms [with] gender-[nonconforming] peo ple, [especially] if they don’t feel comfortable changing [there]. The bathrooms are a very viable option, but [they] are usually taken over by anyone else who actually needs to use the bath room instead of changing in them,” Seltzer said. “Opening that issue up to administration [and] Spectrum [...] is a great idea. Expanding gender-neutral options, I think, is the next step to reforming the bathrooms.”
In the future, Moran hopes to install additional lockers and expand this accessibility to those from all grade levels. “We were able to offer a locker to all 182 seniors who requested a locker. [The administration] has been working to increase the number of lockers in both the hallway and locker rooms. We are trying to make it so students can have a P.E. locker for all four years, but we don’t have the capacity for seniors in the locker room as of yet,” Moran said in an email interview. “I am also look ing into shared locker options for next year, to help get all stu dents access to a P.E. locker.”
The Biden administration mandated the screening of all travel ers who had been in Uganda for Ebola after a recent outbreak.
The House committee examining the January 6 insurrection rescheduled its next hearing for October 13.
The National Labor Relations Board filed an allegation against Apple, accusing the company of questioning workers regarding their union support and of forbidding the hanging of pro-labor flyers.
Jurors have begun deliberating the case of Alex Jones, who was accused of defaming the families of the victims in the 2012 San dy Hook shooting
President Biden toured an International Business Machines (IBM) factory on October 6 after IBM’s announcement that they would invest $20 billion into the production of semiconduc tors
Four Russian missiles struck the city center in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on October 8, damaging several buildings and injuring one man.
their teacher to attend.
By DANIEL CHANG, LAUREN CHIN, SETH FENTON, MADELINE GOODWIN, and DAVID LIN
In-person college visits for Stuyvesant’s graduating class are making a comeback this year after the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic restricted college visits to a virtual platform for the past two years. This year, starting Sep tember 15, representatives from various colleges held presentations in the lecture halls on the first floor. Due to limited seating, the presentations were only available to seniors, who had the opportu nity to learn more about the appli cation and financial aid processes of different colleges without hav ing to visit their campuses in per son. These visits also encourage students to ask questions about the college directly to admissions officers.
The visits allow seniors to gain further insight into a school through a representative. The College Office, which has been responsible for assisting students through the application process, worked to organize these vis its and keep them a tradition at Stuyvesant. The College Office of fered virtual visits in 2020, at the start of remote learning, and con tinued them in 2021, despite the transition back into the building. Aside from organizing these vis its, the College Office also updates students on important deadlines and events throughout the year, such as scholarship opportunities and college fairs. The counsel ors in the College Office include Director of College Counseling Jeffrey Makris, Associate Direc tor of College Counseling Jeaurel Wilson, and Associate Director of College Counseling Elizabeth Hughes, whose duties are divided evenly among homerooms.
When organizing these vis its, the College Office considered common colleges Stuyvesant stu
dents apply to, including Boston University, Stony Brook Univer sity, and Princeton University. “We want to make sure that if we take the time to schedule a visit, it is a place that is seen as somewhat relevant to our students, so that these are schools that our kids tend to apply to or maybe should be thinking about given their typi cal interests and other factors,” Makris said.
Throughout the summer, the College Office researched and reached out to a list of colleges, mostly those that were already fa miliar with Stuyvesant and had a connection with the school. “In June, when I set up the schedul ing grid, I e-mailed our representa tives from most of these schools,” Makris said. “There’ll be an online scheduling link through a site like Calendly or youcanbook.me, [and] it’ll have all the available dates and times. College representatives, when they’re figuring out their travel plans, can then go onto our link and schedule a visit.”
Even among this specific selec tion of colleges, there is variation in a college’s popularity. “There are usually about 30 to even 100 seniors depending on the college,” senior Allison Lee said. “I remem ber there was a lot for Yale and Binghamton. For Binghamton, there weren’t enough seats in the lecture hall to seat everyone, so people sat on the stairs.”
To get the most out of each visit, some students leaned more toward schools they were familiar with. “I’ve only visited the schools that I personally have heard of, [and] registered for the ones I felt like I heard of or originally planned to apply to,” senior Bri anna Tiu said.
With around 70 representa tives visiting Stuyvesant, seniors were able to access a list of up coming visits on their Naviance accounts and register for them in advance. In the event that a visit conflicts with class time, students must bring a printed slip signed by
Students’ impressions of a school varied based on the rep resentatives, who each presented their school differently. “For Bos ton University, the guy who came knew what he was doing, [but] I think he was a little introverted. [The] Yale or USC people who showed up were very extroverted, confident, [and] knew what they were doing. I think that kind of contrast [...] has some kind of overall effect in the end,” senior Elicia Chau said.
Presentations from schools closely affiliated with Stuyvesant were often more insightful for stu dents because of the school-spe cific tips they presented. “For the Yale one, the representative was an admissions officer, specifically the senior management admis sions officer for Manhattan and a Stuy[vesant] grad, so they gave us [a] first-person, very ‘in the know’ insight on what it’s like to apply to the colleges. They also give you general overviews and details about the school that you might not be able to find just simply on the college website without some digging at each,” Chau said.
For students who had already researched colleges, the informa tion presented by the college vis its could feel redundant, causing some seniors to not attend many presentations. “Information is accessible online, and [students] have done a lot of summer stuff for the colleges [presenting] at Stuy[vesant],” senior Efe Kilic said.
Despite this redundancy, stu dents still preferred the conve nience of Stuyvesant college visits to traveling for college visits. “It’s better this way. I can’t go to New Jersey to visit Princeton, [since] I’m too busy writing college ap plications,” an anonymous senior said.
Many seniors have found the visits worthwhile and appreciate the opportunity to interact with college representatives. “I think
the college process is very daunt ing, and it creates a lot of stress and anxiety for seniors,” Lee said.
“I’m glad there are these types of informative sessions to help ease any of our curiosities and ques tions we have.”
Makris hopes that the visits, even those by colleges that are not as popular among students, are a
valuable experience for seniors. “There are a wide range of dif ferent colleges here. We hope that students and seniors take advan tage of that and maybe go to a ses sion for a school they might not be too familiar with. They might walk away, become a lot more interest ed, and expand their possible list of schools they apply to,” he said.
continued from
administration,] we discussed mostly the problem of where we would get the software and the hardware for [the board],” soph omore and STUA member Theo Eicher said.
To kick off the project, members of STUA then collect ed information from the student body to determine which modes of transit should be displayed.
“If you saw surveys on Face book, I put them up so we can ask what trains or buses people take from Stuy so that we could know what to put on the board,” Muhib said.
These surveys were particu larly informative for determining student usage of various lines.
“We knew that 1/2/3 [train line] and A/C/E [train line] were obviously going to be the most taken, but those last two rows on the board, like the N/Q/ R/W [trains], 4/5/6 [trains], and the buses, we didn’t know how much space we should dedi cate to them,” sophomore and STUA member Seth Huse said.
“We were able to get around 220 responses. Additionally, we learned that the X27 and X28
express buses were the most used [buses] among Stuyvesant students.”
Though it was just recently finalized, the project was initially proposed in 2018 by former president of STUA Julian Wong (’20). However, the project took some time to come to fruition due to difficulties with trans forming data from the MTA’s API gateway into more readable information. “MTA data was kind of hard to parse, so they [had already] work[ed] on the project for two years when I be came a board member,” Mangar said. “They passed it on to me as they were graduating.”
An additional obstacle that prevented the project from mov ing forward was the slow speed at which the board would update with information from the MTA.
“[The club was] having a bit of trouble getting the response time for the board down. Originally, it was at 50 seconds or something like that, which was a lot of time for it just to be sitting there. That was the main reason we couldn’t get it up at the end of last year, which was our goal,” Huse said.
Nonetheless, members of STUA were ultimately able to im plement the software necessary
to improve the board. “[Mangar] converted the MTA’s data from their format to a readable format that I could then use and turn into the screen,” sophomore and STUA member Lopen Zuo said. “I would post updates [to the club] for feedback on what the screen should look like. With a lot of help from [Weir], I learned Python in my freshman year [...] The board itself is with Python, and the UI is with PyGame.”
To the surprise of STUA members who worked on the project, the transit board has quickly surged to be a popular topic among the Stuyvesant stu dent body. “I don’t think any of us really predicted the amount of people [who] would see eyeto-eye with us on this,” Mui said. “When we first put up the board a few days ago, there were a lot of people. Heads were turning.”
Among all other emotions, most students found themselves positively curious about the new board. “My first thoughts were that it was a pretty cool addition. It was something new and nice to see. A lot of people, like me, stopped for a little bit and took a look at the new screen,” senior Weichen Liu said. “The layout of the display is well made, and
it’s easy for those passing by to comprehend. In terms of loca tion, I believe that it would have been optimal for the school to have placed it so that it hangs from the ceiling so that it would be easy for everyone to see, es pecially during the crowded dis missals.”
Some students had a less positive outlook on the board. “My first thoughts were [that] it was kinda useless because re gardless of when you get to the train station, you probably won’t need to wait more than five min utes,” senior Faiyaz Rafee said. “I have never left school at a dif ferent time to catch the train the board says is coming.”
In spite of the generally suc cessful execution of the project, some students express that there are other methods than the tran sit board to check arrival times.
“I don’t think that most people actually are making use of the board, though I’m sure some people must find it useful. There already exists a transit app that can easily be downloaded and accessed on your smartphone much more easily and consis tently if you want to be aware of transportational arrival times,” Liu said.
Regardless, STUA members are proud of the recognition the transit predictor board has received and hope that the club will continue to make a differ ence in the school community. “We wanted to take advantage of the moment to see how we can continue furthering our vi sions for the school,” Mangar said. “We have a part two of the project where we put some use to the board during off-peak hours [...] outside of periods eight, nine, 10. We’d like to add some functionality.”
Though they may not envi sion the exact same idea, some students foresee various applica tions for a board accessible to the student body like the transit predictor. “Of all of the devel opments and ideas encapsulated in this project, the concept of having an electronic board dis playing information at a spot that sees so much traffic is the most notable,” Liu said. “I think that a lot more can be done with this idea, for example having boards that present relevant world and school news or perhaps other significant pieces of informa tion that the student population should be made aware of.”
By MADELINE GOODWIN, ELAINE HUANG, XUEMING LI, and EUGENE YOO
In-person college visits for Stuyvesant’s graduating class are making a comeback this year after the pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic restricted college visits to a virtual platform for the past two years. This year, starting Sep tember 15, representatives from various colleges held presentations in the lecture halls on the first floor. Due to limited seating, the presentations were only available to seniors, who had the opportu nity to learn more about the appli cation and financial aid processes of different colleges without hav ing to visit their campuses in per son. These visits also encourage students to ask questions about the college directly to admissions officers.
The visits allow seniors to gain further insight into a school through a representative. The College Office, which has been responsible for assisting students through the application process, worked to organize these vis its and keep them a tradition at Stuyvesant. The College Office of fered virtual visits in 2020, at the start of remote learning, and con tinued them in 2021, despite the transition back into the building. Aside from organizing these vis its, the College Office also updates students on important deadlines and events throughout the year, such as scholarship opportunities and college fairs. The counsel ors in the College Office include Director of College Counseling Jeffrey Makris, Associate Direc tor of College Counseling Jeaurel Wilson, and Associate Director of College Counseling Elizabeth Hughes, whose duties are divided evenly among homerooms.
When organizing these vis its, the College Office considered common colleges Stuyvesant stu
dents apply to, including Boston University, Stony Brook Univer sity, and Princeton University. “We want to make sure that if we take the time to schedule a visit, it is a place that is seen as somewhat relevant to our students, so that these are schools that our kids tend to apply to or maybe should
when they’re figuring out their travel plans, can then go onto our link and schedule a visit.”
Even among this specific selec tion of colleges, there is variation in a college’s popularity. “There are usually about 30 to even 100 seniors depending on the college,” senior Allison Lee said. “I remem
coming visits on their Naviance accounts and register for them in advance. In the event that a visit conflicts with class time, students must bring a printed slip signed by their teacher to attend.
Students’ impressions of a school varied based on the rep resentatives, who each presented
an admissions officer, specifically the senior management admis sions officer for Manhattan and a Stuy[vesant] grad, so they gave us [a] first-person, very ‘in the know’ insight on what it’s like to apply to the colleges. They also give you general overviews and details about the school that you might not be able to find just simply on the college website without some digging at each,” Chau said.
For students who had already researched colleges, the informa tion presented by the college vis its could feel redundant, causing some seniors to not attend many presentations. “Information is accessible online, and [students] have done a lot of summer stuff for the colleges [presenting] at Stuy[vesant],” senior Efe Kilic said.
Despite this redundancy, stu dents still preferred the conve nience of Stuyvesant college visits to traveling for college visits. “It’s better this way. I can’t go to New Jersey to visit Princeton, [since] I’m too busy writing college ap plications,” an anonymous senior said.
be thinking about given their typi cal interests and other factors,” Makris said.
Throughout the summer, the College Office researched and reached out to a list of colleges, mostly those that were already fa miliar with Stuyvesant and had a connection with the school. “In June, when I set up the schedul ing grid, I e-mailed our representa tives from most of these schools,” Makris said. “There’ll be an online scheduling link through a site like Calendly or youcanbook.me, [and] it’ll have all the available dates and times. College representatives,
ber there was a lot for Yale and Binghamton. For Binghamton, there weren’t enough seats in the lecture hall to seat everyone, so people sat on the stairs.”
To get the most out of each visit, some students leaned more toward schools they were familiar with. “I’ve only visited the schools that I personally have heard of, [and] registered for the ones I felt like I heard of or originally planned to apply to,” senior Bri anna Tiu said.
With around 70 representa tives visiting Stuyvesant, seniors were able to access a list of up
their school differently. “For Bos ton University, the guy who came knew what he was doing, [but] I think he was a little introverted.
[The] Yale or USC people who showed up were very extroverted, confident, [and] knew what they were doing. I think that kind of contrast [...] has some kind of overall effect in the end,” senior Elicia Chau said.
Presentations from schools closely affiliated with Stuyvesant were often more insightful for stu dents because of the school-spe cific tips they presented. “For the Yale one, the representative was
Many seniors have found the visits worthwhile and appreciate the opportunity to interact with college representatives. “I think the college process is very daunt ing, and it creates a lot of stress and anxiety for seniors,” Lee said. “I’m glad there are these types of informative sessions to help ease any of our curiosities and ques tions we have.”
Makris hopes that the visits, even those by colleges that are not as popular among students, are a valuable experience for seniors. “There are a wide range of dif ferent colleges here. We hope that students and seniors take advan tage of that and maybe go to a ses sion for a school they might not be too familiar with. They might walk away, become a lot more interest ed, and expand their possible list of schools they apply to,” he said.
Students may be familiar with the standard math classes at Stuyvesant: memorizing for mulas and abstract theorems, reviewing practice problems from pages of classwork and homework, studying graphs and diagrams of all sorts of shapes and lines. The heart of every math class lies in the whitefogged blackboard, lined with rows of Hagoromo chalk. But how do Stuyvesant math teach ers truly feel about using chalk on a daily basis?
For some math teachers, using chalk is simply a neces sity due to the numerous chalk boards in their classrooms. Math teacher Patrick Honner revealed in an e-mail interview that he has no particular attachment to chalk when it comes to teaching. “The only reason I use chalk is because my classroom is full of chalkboards,” he said. “I don’t have much of a choice. I would much prefer white boards.”
In fact, Honner finds the limited space on chalkboards inconvenient. “When working through complex problems and concepts, it’s helpful to keep lots of different ideas around,
are some mysteries around missing chalk in the fourth floor,” math teacher Andrew Wille said. “Sometimes if chalk pieces are left on the chalk tray, the next day they will not
separately. “I keep my longer pieces of chalk with me, and short pieces I leave on the tray and whatever happens to them happens to them.”
and having multiple boards to work on is essential for that,” he said.
Chalk has also been known to disappear from the math de partment’s classrooms. “There
be there. I don’t know why if there are students using it, if the janitor is cleaning, or if it’s other teachers.” Whatever the reason is, this phenomenon has led Wille to store his own chalk
Wille prefers using other mediums along with chalk dur ing lessons. “I personally like to use as much of the surface area in the classroom as possible,” Wille said. “I would use a smart board, I use problems given out on paper, and because there are so many chalkboards, I use chalk as well.” A favorite among Wille’s math tools is Desmos Activity Builder. “It allows stu dents to interact with multiple graphical representations of the problem and allows them to see what other students in the past are saying,” he explained. “It also gives us a summary of stu dent responses; we can not just talk about procedures, but also summarize the lesson.”
Despite all the shortcomings it may have, Wille praises the reliability and the endurance of chalk. “I’ve never had a prob
lem writing with any random chalk that I’ve used,” said Wille. “In fact, [...] my favorite aspect of writing in chalk is that unlike a dry erase marker, every time you pick up a piece of chalk you know that it’s going to work.”
Many students also have positive opinions on the use of chalk. “The more I think about it, I guess it makes sense,” said junior Yarza Aung. “It’s pretty easy for teachers to erase any mistakes and you don’t have to worry about technical difficul ties like you would with a smart board. The only issue I have with it is that handwriting can be harder to read than the text on a computer.”
Despite the excess amounts of chalkboards in math classes, the Stuyvesant math teachers don’t seem to have strong opin ions on this platform. “I hope my students don’t spend any time at all thinking about chalk. It’s chalk,” said Honner. “I hope they spend their time thinking about math.”
By ISABELLA JIA and SUYEON RYU
As students stroll around in the hallway, they may notice an increase in brightly colored mu rals and bulletin boards featur ing student-made art and post ers. Upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that these works of art commemorate Hispanic Heritage month, which spans from September 15 to Octo ber 15 to celebrate the contri butions and achievements of Hispanic cultures from around the world. The observance was first declared by President Bush in 1989, who chose September 15 as the starting date because it coincides with the Indepen dence Days of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hondu ras, and Nicaragua. Stuyves ant is partaking in this national celebration by promoting stu dent inclusivity through vari ous initiatives and encouraging students to learn more about Hispanic culture.
Multiple teachers are mak ing an effort to celebrate His panic heritage. Spanish teacher Roseanny Genao had her stu dents compare and contrast the cultures of the U.S. and Mexico by having them observe the two countries’ different ways of celebrating cultural pride. Sophomore and Spanish III student Alexa Seltzer described, “We watched a video of a presi dent in Mexico saying to a huge crowd ‘Viva Mexico’ and we were saying how they had a lot of pride and excitement for the month. And we discussed in America how we don’t do chanting [...] but we celebrate with barbecues and hot dogs.”
Other Spanish classes are doing similar individual class room celebrations. The ulti mate goal of the foriegn lan guage department as a whole is to adorn the fifth floor with
information and art related to Hispanic culture. This includes the bulletin board next to the cafeteria, which is covered with beautiful posters of art meant to inform students about the significance of Hispanic Heri tage Month.These different infographics display all kinds of aspects of Hispanic culture ranging from politics to food to language. Assistant Princi pal of World Language, Art, and Music Francesca McAuliffe commented that this was to
events. They are planning a His panic Celebration Dinner on October 13 after school in the cafeteria with the hopes of pro moting cultural education. BSL president and senior Sukanya Ferguson said, “With fundrais ers, dinners, infographics, and announcements, we want stu dents to have the opportunity to educate themselves while also being directed to a safe space within the school.”
Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to represent
be typically represented. Smu lansky believes there should be more representation of differ ent Hispanic cultures. “There is this mural with all these flags. But the Sephardic Jews don’t have a flag and I don’t think the flag of Spain would really be fitting because Spain didn’t treat the Sephardic Jews well. Acknowledging the less cliche Hispanic groups as well is im portant,” he said.
The month is also a chance for students to gain appre
our places of origin, and un derstanding our history is im perative to knowing ourselves as human beings,” she says. “It is equally important to learn about, value, understand and celebrate the cultures of our global citizens and neighbors.”
ASPIRA president and se nior Arlette Duran stresses the importance of unity beyond our surface-level differences. “Our culture is what ties us together and makes us a big family,” she says. “For that rea son, the celebrations around Hispanic Heritage month have been open to all students re gardless of ethnicity.”
Learning about culture also helps prepare students for the real world where cultural aware ness becomes more important for socializing. “When you’re in an environment where you’re surrounded by a lot of diver sity, [...] you want to be able to meet new people and connect with them on a deeper level,” Seltzer says.
This willingness to learn is another way to celebrate His panic Heritage Month that ev eryone can take a little time out of their day to do. “Educate yourself. Look into the history, study it. I know people are not going to have the greatest in centive to do it as they might not relate to it entirely, but I think it’s important to learn the history and look at the over looked groups or parts of his tory,” Smulansky suggests.
celebrate Hispanic culture as a whole. “All aspects of a culture affect one another and are of equal importance,” she said in an e-mail interview.
Student-led clubs like The Black Student League (BSL) and Stuyvesant’s Hispanic Stu dents Association (ASPIRA) are also hosting their own
Stuyvesant’s relatively small Hispanic student body, which Stuyvesant seems to be doing a good job of doing. “I feel in cluded,” remarked sophomore Milo Smulansky, who is Sep hardic Jewish.
However, this acknowledge ment also includes other His panic populations, who may not
ciation for Hispanic culture, whether one is Hispanic or not. McAuliffe believes that the purpose of Hispanic Heritage Month is to reconnect with oneself and the world around us. “Speaking with the elders of our families, learning the recipes of our ancestors, being familiar with traditions, visiting
The celebration of our di verse cultures through things like Hispanic Heritage month can help students feel support ed in connecting with their cul tural roots. Stuyvesant is work ing toward celebrating identities from all over the world during all months of the year. Cel ebrating Hispanic Heritage Month is one step of many to come.
Each year after the SHSAT results are released, New York Times writer Eliza Shapiro pub lishes an article titled, “Only 7 Black Students Got Into Stuyvesant, N.Y.’s Most Selec tive High School, Out of 895 Spots.” Sometimes, it’s titled “Only 8 Black Students Are Admitted to Stuyvesant High School.” In 2020 it was titled, “This Year, Only 10 Black Stu dents Got Into N.Y.C.’s Top High School.”
When Shapiro compiles the experiences of Stuyvesant’s Black students into a repeti tive statistic, it’s easy for New York Times readers to look at the low numbers without much thought. Non-Black members of the Stuyvesant community can see these numbers, think “what a shame,” and move on with their day. But for Black students at Stuyvesant, these numbers hold meaning. They mean that a Black student can go an entire day without seeing someone who looks like them, or that they’ll often be the only Black student in each of their classes, or that they’ll witness discrimination that other peo ple may quickly forget. Because there are so few Black students at Stuyvesant, it’s often difficult for them to even discuss their
experiences with other stu dents, either because they can’t relate or won’t take the issues seriously.
In my time at Stuyvesant, it has become clear that my Black peers do not feel that they are able to share negative experi ences with racism and discrimi nation.
This summer, I wanted to
By AMANDA CISSÉmonths since I started the ac count, over 100 students have shared their stories on the page, and the account has gained over 1,400 followers.
An overwhelming amount of stories focus on staff, teach ers, and students at Stuyvesant. An anonymous submission on July 30 stated, “There was a teacher who said the N-word
White teacher made a project based on sharecropping [...] and said that we had to do the project ‘because it’s historic.’” The project required students to create a song parody sing ing from a sharecropper’s point of view. Another submission critiqued Stuyvesant staff who confiscate durags: “Several staff have chosen to take du
ant. Adults are in a position of power, and they are supposed to create a safe and welcoming environment for students of all backgrounds. It reflects poorly on the school as a whole when efforts from the administration to combat racism are under mined by contradicting actions from their staff.
I created an Instagram account called @blackatspecialized, where students are able to share their experiences with race at these schools. In the two months since I started the account, over 100 stu dents have shared their stories on the page, and the account has gained over 1,400 followers.
provide a platform for students to share their stories and be heard across specialized high schools. I created an Instagram account called @blackatspecial ized, where students are able to share their experiences with race at these schools. In the two
in a music class at [Stuyves ant]. Over six students reported him. He got a little talk from the administration and came by the class to explain himself, but [he] didn’t even say sorry. I think this was poorly handled.”
Another student shared, “My
rags from students because it is a symbol of ‘gang violence,’ but nobody takes those ban danas White girls wear.” This behavior from teachers is inap propriate, and it is a big con tributor to the uncomfortable culture around race at Stuyves
Students have also shared stories of discrimination and microaggressions from their peers on the Instagram ac count. One of the most liked posts on the page reads “Two non-Black kids dressed up in African dashikis, traditional wear, on [Stuylloween] cos tume day—one with a curly wig.” Several students also wrote that they often heard the N-word and other discrimina tory language used around their school, as illustrated in the list of quotes from various anony mous submissions. The people who have interviewed with the @blackatspecialized project or submitted a story may be using social media as a platform to express their concerns because they don’t feel that they will be heard in their schools. In the following interviews, students echo this idea when discussing the administrative approach to racism.
“I don’t think I have had any conversations with teachers or faculty or anything regarding racism […] a lot of people don’t acknowledge it at all, which can honestly be really frustrating.”
—Prapti Biswas, sophomore
“[Stuyvesant] should treat us and our problems as if they are more important than the way the school is treating them right now, because be ing Black at Stuy isn’t really a topic that’s discussed. It kin da gets brushed over because there isn’t a big population of us.”
—Samaria Noel, junior“The [administration] kind of tries to cover up racism […] if there is an ac tual racist incident they try really hard to hide it because they want to project this image that we are all perfect and the best school and [that] there are no racist people here, which is just not true.” —Henry Ji, junior
“There are Respect For All month guidance push-ins where [the administration] talks about racism, but then it never comes up again, and when something actually needs to be done, it gets brushed off to the side. It feels really performative. They aren’t really interested in doing anything about it, they’re just making themselves look good for show and to make the students think that they have the support of their school when in reality they don’t.”
—River Soto, sophomore
“I like how socially aware most of my teachers are [...] but I dislike how a lot of racist incidents go unreported. We are scared of what happens when we do report them, because the people we report are now aware that we told on them and are not facing severe consequences or any consequences at all from our administration.”
—Reem Khalifa, sophomore
“It’s upsetting to know that people just a few years younger than me will most likely have to find a way to cope with the same or worse experiences than my own, because racism knows no bounds. My school does not care about racism and they refuse to stop anything that happens. Any offender gets a flick on the wrist and proceeds to go on with their life.” — Anonymous, junior
“About the way reports are handled, I feel like sometimes it’s 50-50 if they are actu ally going to do something or not. I feel like they dont take it as seriously as they should, because making sure that all your students feel comfortable in the school is a number one priority [...] when my music teacher said things about how they would’ve voted for Trump or how the first time they met a Black person was when they were 19, that stuff is not really acceptable in a school setting and it made me and my class mates feel uncomfortable. So, I feel like they should be more serious about how they handle it.” —Malcolm West, junior
“Even as a South Asian, [and] even with the huge South Asian population at Stuy, I still feel like I don’t fit in because of the amount of East Asians. Just naturally, I can’t insert myself into a group of East Asians the same way an East Asian would. That brings me to wonder how left out Black students at Stuy feel. There are barely any people who look like them. The im poster syndrome must be out the surface.”
—Anonymous Submission, September 1
“For the past two years [...], one Big Sib chair has been Black, and my non-Black friend keeps telling me that they only got the position because they are Black.”
—Anonymous Submission, August 27
“So crazy how someone posted ‘I’m honestly just curious about what’s wrong with a White lives matter shirt’ on the Stuy confessions page, and nobody interacted with that post. It had like nine reactions, and only two people decided to say something. Thank you to those two people, but this school always chooses to ignore stuff like this.”
—Anonymous Submission, October 5
“The Latina workers at the McDonald’s by Stuy are consistently mocked by this group of White and Brown boys for their accents.”
“I was at the deli near Stuy[vesant] and this kid and his White friend were in line. They were talking about Black coffee and the kid goes ‘I like N-words in my coffee.’ The White friend was like ‘omg stopppp’ like it was a joke.”
—Anonymous Submission, August 1
“Before coming to Stuy, I browsed the school website, and there was a banner with a Black student under the spot light standing among their peers. It’s so sad how Stuy tries to show off the ‘diversity’ instead of just owning up.”
—Anonymous Submission, August 17
“At Stuy I heard some (nonBlack) kids ‘joking around’ and making fun of Tourette’s, and then one of them proceeded to say the N-word and pass it off as part of the act.”
—Anonymous Submission, August 13
—Anonymous Submission, August 1
“The amount of people that are secretly racist at Stuy is so crazy to me. Once I was talking to my friend about disparities in the education system and the percentage of Black students that get into a specialized school and he said that most of them just aren’t smart or capable enough.”
—Anonymous Submission, August 27
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To gain a better understanding of the opinions of different racial groups at specialized schools, I surveyed 200 anonymous specialized high school students. The following figure is separated into Black/Hispanic, White, and Asian groups, to measure their agreement with the listed statements on a scale of one to five.
There is a striking difference between the response of Black students and the response of White students when answering the question, “I have felt uncomfortable at my special ized high school because of my racial or ethnic background.” When rating their agreement to this question on a scale of one to five, Black students averaged a 4.15 out of five while White students averaged a 1.73 out of five. Black and Hispanic students also averaged 2.69 when rating their agreement to the statement, “I fit in socially at my specialized high school.” These data points echo what has been shared on the @blackatspecialized account. A submis sion from September 21 states, “I find it exceedingly difficult to make friends with people who look like me, especially when you consider the fact that only 1.4 percent of the students here [are] Black. Most of the students here will never have life experiences like me or have to deal with the same things that I did because of my race.” Students feel that friend groups are almost segregated into different racial groups, and that being Black or Hispanic has impacted their ability to socialize.
When responding to the statement, “I have heard or seen student(s) using slurs or being discriminatory toward other students at my specialized high school,” Black and Hispanic students averaged a 4.15. White and Asian students averaged 3.18 and 3.34, respectively. It
is worth noting that while all racial groups surveyed indicated a strong agreement (3+) to this statement, Black and Hispanic students agreed more. A possible explanation for this is that Black and Hispanic students are able to notice and recognize harmful microaggressions, whereas White and Asian students simply may not because they have experienced less of it at their school. Multiple Black and Hispanic interviewees supported this idea by sharing that after their non-Black or Hispanic friends viewed the @blackatspecialized account, they actually reached out to them to ask if they had done anything that could have come off as discriminatory. One Bronx Science interviewee said, “I’ve seen a lot of my non-Black friends follow [@blackatspecialized] and I feel like it really shows them how much [...] we get told racist things even though they might not notice. [Out of] my friends who have been reading the posts, one even asked me, ‘Have I done anything like that to you? Because I’ve noticed that there are a lot of things I might not have known are racist but are actually offensive.’”
Not enough non-Black or Hispanic students are aware of the discrimination in our school, which is why it is important for the administration to promote discussion around racism and take action steps toward making Stuyvesant an anti-racist space.
I have heard
While there are teachers and staff who have acted in racist ways, there have been efforts to combat racism that students should be aware of. Firstly, the administration cannot always be transparent about their response to reports about racism. All racial groups surveyed rated their agreement to the state ment “My specialized high school adequately, quickly, and properly responds to reports of racism sur rounding discrimination” negative ly, with an average of 2.3. It is clear that students are unhappy with the way reports are being addressed at Stuyvesant, but it is important to keep in mind that the staff who handle reports are not able to dis close what disciplinary action they took. While this can be frustrat ing, it doesn’t mean that nothing is being done about the situation. The administration follows guide lines set by the NYCDOE Disci pline Code, or Citywide Behavioral Expectations to Support Student Learning which can be found on the DOE website. The code has evolved over time—in the past, the discipline code was zero-tolerance. If a student said a slur, there was harsh disciplinary action taken. However, the current version of the NYCDOE discipline code says in its mission statement, “New York City believes that overly puni tive methods of discipline are not in the best interests of students, fail to advance school safety, and can harm students’ long-term poten tial.” The DOE has moved toward restorative justice, encouraging staff to address student behavior in a manner that “enables students to learn from their mistakes and be accountable for their misconduct,” instead of more punitive disciplin ary responses. There is controversy
surrounding whether restorative or punitive discipline is better, but re gardless, administrators must use it as a guideline when addressing racism. While staff cannot disclose to students what action they’ve taken, students can use the NYC DOE discipline code as a resource to see what general steps adminis trators are instructed to take, what rights students have in the report process, and various options for disciplinary action.
While Stuyves ant may have to stick to NYCDOE policy when addressing re ports, the adminis tration has also been putting effort into ad dressing racism in oth er areas. Last spring, the guidance office, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) team, and I, as a student co ordinator, worked to create the Respect for All program. Lectures were presented to each freshman homeroom during two of their lab periods through out the month of February, focusing on anti-racism education. Soto com mented that the Respect For All month program seemed performa tive, because the discussion “never came up again.” In order for these initiatives to create change and not come off as performative, they should be supported by the rest of the school. It is important that staff continue conversations about racism and discrimination, even outside the month of February. This allows initiatives like Respect
for All to be more impactful, be cause it is not the only space for students to discuss race.
It is more difficult to feel com fortable discussing race as a com munity if conversations around race are isolated within Black History Month, or only happen because of initiatives created by Black and Hispanic people. As Vice President of the Black Stu
mission statement to include a mention of being an “anti-racist” school, soon to be added to the Stuyvesant website. The Stuyves ant Mosaic organization has also provided a space for parents of Black and Hispanic students to meet and socialize with each other.
to that point where people can say ‘Hey, it’s my role as someone privi leged in this conversation to say that this isn’t right,’ then I’ll feel like we’ve made good strides in ra cial equity at Stuyvesant […] but at this point I don’t think we are even close to being there.”
dents League, I can also confi dently say that the guidance office, DEI, and select administrators have shown us respect and support when we have shared our concerns with them. They have taken time to meet with us, hear what we have to say, and outline next steps. They’ve also been working hard to make the school a more inclusive place. Earlier this school year, Principal Yu and the DEI team set into mo tion a plan to modify the school’s
However, it is not acceptable for the administration to rely on select administrators, the guid ance office, or the DEI team to address racism at Stuyvesant by them selves. Senior Suki Fer guson said,* “You need to be sensitive when it comes to relaying in formation and teach ing students of color […] just being inclusive in what you teach by teaching in a way that’s not censored but also effective, and doesn’t make students uncom fortable.” All teach ers should be making a conscious effort in their classes—espe cially in English and Social Studies classes— to consider how their words and lessons may impact students of col or. Students at Stuyves ant also need to do their part in speaking up against racism.
Staff should make the school a place where it is safe for students to speak about racism, but students should also make a conscious ef fort to speak up when they see something wrong. Senior Saman tha Farrow said,* “At Stuyvesant there aren’t a lot of people […] who would stand up in their privi lege to say, ‘That isn’t right, you shouldn’t say that,’ and until we get
The school should also im prove transparency when it comes to their response to racism and dis crimination. Students receive fre quent communication with the ad ministration, whether it be through weekly emails, morning announce ments, or Talos blogs, but there is no clearly communicated policy that details the school’s non-toler ance of racism, or expectations of how students should ask. We have an existing Spiral of Communica tions for the Homework Policy, which is frequently distributed, and helps to clear up any confusion for students who have an academic complaint. Stuyvesant should have something similar that concerns an anti-discrimination policy. We need to make sure students know who they can talk to about any racial discomfort they are experiencing, and we should also make it clear to all students what is expected of them when it comes to respect.
Since July 30, over 1,400 stu dents have engaged with the @ blackatspecialized account since its creation, and most have shared the same sentiment: the current environment at Stuyvesant High School (and other specialized high schools) needs improvement. Ef forts from the administration need to be met with open-mindedness from students in order to create a shift in culture—students and the administration both need to play a role in shaping the school into a more inclusive space.
I have felt uncomfortable at my Specialized High School because of my racial or ethnic backgroundI fit in socially at my Specialized High School
Getting to sit down and chat with somebody one-on-one for an extended duration can seem daunting in a high-paced
environment like Stuyvesant. Here’s your chance to get to know four of Stuyvesant’s new teachers for this school year—sit back, stir your coffee, and delve into the backstories and journeys that led these teachers into your classroom.
On the sixth floor is a familiar face for those who had her as a student teacher in the spring of 2020—Sarah Lifson, who is currently teaching Writing in the World and American Literature.
As a student, Lifson was always a hu manities person. Naturally, her favorite subject was English. “I’d love to sit in on a chemistry class, but in high school, chemis try was not my thing. I loved studying fiction and learning to write and how to articulate myself,” she said. She’d also gained teaching experience as she tutored kids in French and other general academics.
Lifson double-majored at Rutgers Uni versity, receiving a BFA in dance and a BA in literature. She danced professionally be fore returning to school at Hunter College, where she received a master’s in English education.
During her career as a dancer she dab bled in teaching, her students ranging from three to 20 years old; she taught at Rutgers, New York University, and the “Dance Proj
ect of Washington Heights,” a nonprofit or ganization. “I learned that I loved to teach when I was dancing because I was teaching dance, but I didn’t want to teach dance for ever. I thought back to my experiences being a student and how amazing my senior Eng lish class [AP Literature] was when I was in high school, and it kind of just became a nobrainer to combine my undergraduate de gree in English literature with this new thing that I found and loved, which was teaching,” Lifson said. She went on to work with sev enth, eighth, and ninth graders, teaching a course similar to Freshman Composition. “Those classes were really general litera ture classes—there was no specific theme to work with,” she commented when asked about how those classes were different from Writing in the World.
Lifson knew she wanted to work at Stuyvesant after meeting English teacher Dr. Emily Moore through a colleague, who in vited her to sit in on English classes at Stuy. She was greatly inspired by one of English
Social studies teacher Marissa Shapiro has always been interested in the stories of different people. Born and raised in New York City, Shapiro found that history pro vided a way to understand the motivations of different people, and in an overarching sense, the story of humanity.
During her college years, Shapiro moved from the city to Williamstown, Massachusetts, to study history at Williams College. It was there, from a hands-on campus life to an undergrad teaching job, that Shapiro merged history and teaching. “I have always been interested in stories, and history really provided that for me in a way that engaged me and interested me,” Shapiro said. “But I can think of the spark when I knew I wanted to be a teacher.” In a summer teaching program for college students to try out teaching in a low-stakes environment, Shapiro taught a history class of 10 sixth graders, with a mix of other arts. “And it was there I real ized, I love teaching. This is so much fun. I just enjoyed being part of that in-touch experience. And I think I came eventually to teaching history,” she said.
Shapiro eventually found her way back to New York City, teaching at Hunter Col lege High School for two years before coming to Stuyvesant. Current seniors may recognize Shapiro from their freshman year, when she taught Global History un der Alyssa Compton in the fall of 2019.
As Stuyvesant is a heavily STEM-fo cused environment, Shapiro finds it essen tial that students learn history not only to
understand why certain things are the way they are, but also to understand the impor tance of varying perspectives. “Thinking about the layers of the past is something I want all students to be empowered to do, because not only can [you] better under stand certain places and governments, but you can make meaningful impacts and also draw your own point of view, and draw dif ferent conclusions based on new discover ies. And that’s my real goal when I’m teach ing,” Shapiro explained.
Shapiro also finds that one’s environ ment can play a large impact on both learn ing and teaching. In Williamstown, a more rural setting, Shapiro found that there was a different pace to the classroom than when teaching city kids. “There, you can do a lot with nature. And there’s interest ing experiences with field trips, that sort of thing.” Back in the city, Shapiro encour ages her students to take advantage of not only urban experiences, but to also seek out meaning in locations that may just be a part of daily life. “I can encourage students to say, ‘Hey, this museum is free to students. You should go check it out.’ Or we can walk past different memorials and places everyday and see in this way today and dif ferent the next day because of the chang ing people and time. I mean, that’s what I love about living and teaching in New York City,” Shapiro elaborated. Outside of the classroom, Shapiro explores different neighborhoods, tries out new foods, and sometimes visits the Rockaways when the sun’s out.
Assistant Principal Eric Grossman’s Great Books classes. “It was a lesson on Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs. Dalloway,’” she recalled. Dur ing the lesson, he related the book to a quote and a song that he played. “I was bewildered, almost, by the lesson—the way he taught, the way his lesson was formed, the fact that he brought in other mediums besides text. [...] I wanted to learn more about what he and the other teachers do here,” she said.
One of her favorite things about her students is how welcoming and sweet they are. “What I’m loving is that so many of my students [from when I was student-teaching in Spring 2020] are coming up to me in the hallway and saying ‘Hi,’ and they’re just so happy that I’m back. [...] There’s a lot of joy when it comes to greeting teachers in the hallway.” As the school year progresses, Lifson hopes to get comfortable with the Stuyvesant community and the technology she’ll be using to teach. “I’m really hoping to use [my students’] knowledge to guide me,” she said.
Eric Portales, one of the newest addi tions to the math department, can be found teaching both Algebra 2 and AP Calculus AB to his 10th and 12th grade students.
Portales first found his passion for teach ing through volunteer work during the sum mer of his junior year of college. “I loved interacting with the students, and getting to know them, and dealing with the highs and lows of teaching,” he commented. In school, his favorite subjects were in the sciences, and then he attended Harvard University to study government, but he ultimately chose to teach math, participating in Teaching Fellows at St. Johns, which is an organization run by New York City for aspiring teachers.
Portales worked at the Academy for Ca reers in Television and Film for five years before working at the Brooklyn Latin School for seven years, where he taught math classes through the IB program they offer, which is comparable to Stuy’s AP program. “[The program] is a very holistic approach to teach ing. It touched upon a lot of topics, but I re ally wanted to focus on getting further into details and understanding the material more and just going through more with the stu dents - instead of a survey course more like an in-depth analysis of the concepts,” he said. “I saw that there was an opportunity here at Stuyvesant and I was really excited. Since then, working here has been wonderful.”
Teaching AP Calculus AB was unfamiliar territory for Portales, as he had never taught AP classes before. However, he has devel oped a newfound appreciation for the sub ject since he himself took it in high school. “I enjoy [teaching it] because of how much it builds on itself and the things that I thought
were redundant when I was taking it in high school. And now I noticed, oh, there was a reason why we did that operation over and over again, and why we found that derivative using slope over and over and over again. And now it makes sense. I feel like I’m re discovering a course, ” he said. When asked about classes he’d be interested in teaching in the future, he responded with Geometry and AP Calculus BC, hoping to see the dif ferences in how they’re taught compared to other schools.
Portales has also developed a positive impression of his students, such as noticing how they’re prepared in asking questions. “Before, it used to be that someone would ask me for help, and then I’d be like, ‘Alright, so what do you need [help with],’ and they’d say, ‘The whole unit.’ But here, the students are very attentive. They’re paying attention, [and] they’re taking great notes. And when they have that confusion, that’s when they ask.” Portales has also been impressed by his students’ thoughtful answers to his ques tions and how well they work together during group work. He hopes to be able to challenge them intellectually over the school year. “[I want to push] them to think and learn topics and discover them and see the relationship between the different topics within Calculus [and Algebra 2].”
As much as Portales loves working with numbers and derivatives, he’s also always been in touch with the arts. He played the trombone and baritone saxophone in high school, and danced salsa and ballroom in col lege. “It’d be really nice if I had more time,” he explained, wishing he could get back into his old hobbies.
John Rothman, who joined Stuyvesant’s technology department this year, is a bit of a jack of all trades. He’s worked in fishing boats off the coasts of Alaska as a biolo gist, has toured as a professional musician, and can now be found near the Irwin Zahn Innovation Lab at Stuyvesant High School.
So, how did he get here? Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, Rothman found his initial passion in music, and from there inadver tently found his first foray into technology. “I’ve played music in bands since I was like 13 years old. And from doing that, I would build a pedal board for my guitar, or I would design posters, make silk screen Tshirts that we would sell on the road. And so through doing that, I learned a lot of the cert design process, a lot of graphic arts. I was always just excited to build things,” Rothman explained.
Rothman attended the University of Montana where he majored in biology with a concentration in botanical sciences and minored in Native American studies. “This was in the late ‘80s. I went out there think ing, like, what can I study that will help me, you know, save the world. What can I do to help conserve?” Rothman mused. However, it became apparent that the field wasn’t the right fit. “But then pretty soon, like, maybe a semester into college, I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe this isn’t quite right.’ So I ended up studying biology and the Native American studies. It was another perspec tive, another sort of way of exploring,” he elaborated.
After college, Rothman found his way back to music. For four years, he per formed and toured professionally as a part of the indie-rock band, The Long Winters,
based in Seattle, Washington. “What I can say is that playing music professionally is amazing. But it’s hard to make a living that allows you to have a family, and you have to live a certain way while touring. At a cer tain point, I was like, ‘Okay, you know, I want to have a family. I can’t be touring on the road.’ It’s time for me to do the other thing.”
This other thing just so happened to be teaching. Rothman always could see him self being a teacher, and views the profes sion as a sort of cumulative learning and giving experience. “Teaching, to me, is like just the most wonderful way of being able to bring everything that you’ve ever, you know, sort of like experience learned to the table. You can, all those things find their way into the classroom,” he explained.
After leaving The Long Winters, Roth man found his way to New York City and studied education and mathematics at Hunter College. He spent around five years teaching mathematics, then transitioned into teaching engineering-focused courses. “When I was teaching math, many students were asking me for engineering opportu nities,” Rothman said. “I found out about something called maker education, which uses things like 3D printers and laser cut ters, and physical computing things like Ar duino [and] micro:bit to build things that solve problems. And so that’s where the engineering component comes in,” he ex plained.
In a certain way, the multitudes within Stuyvesant’s walls mirrors Rothman’s eclec tic life trajectory. “I was leaving the build ing, one Friday afternoon. And the energy here was just electric. I was walking out of
a robotics -lab that was just packed with people who were wanting to get things done. I go downstairs. The fencing team is running through the halls with their sa bers. There [are] 50 kids who are doing pilates or something in the theater. When you see that many people who like to stay that late, you can tell it’s a pretty tight, positive place to be,” Rothman said.
As for a bit of Rothman’s life philoso phy, after dabbling in many fields, he ex plains, “I’ve never been like, ‘I’m locking myself down. This is all I’m going to do.’ That didn’t really serve me. I’ve always been incredibly curious about a number of things. And so I want to have enough flexibility, enough freedom to be able to explore those things.”
With college applications omnipresent in the minds of Stuyvesant students, one of the key motivators for extracurricular participation is a substantial ap plication profile. For many, this aspect includes service hours, but the various ways they have “given back” to their communities often consist of inflated or blatantly false reports of volunteer hours, putting up a facade of efforts to help one’s community. Many stu dents at Stuyvesant view volun teer work as simply another way to stand out among other college applicants, rather than a source of personal fulfillment or commu nity obligation.
The heart of the issue is the general apathy toward volunteer work among the student body. This apathy can be partially at tributed to the structures of vol unteer organizations within the school. Sometimes, attending an orientation event for a communi ty service-oriented club is adver tised to count for service hours, when in reality, there is no ben eficiary receiving service. Other times, events are counted for double the number of hours the volunteer actually participated in order to attract more volunteers. Still other times, there are cases in which the leaders of an organiza tion agree for all members of the group to significantly inflate the hours they have worked to both boost their application and seem believable. This situation brings up the question of what a service hour means. When volunteers can
get the same amount of credit for either productively contributing to their community or for show ing up at an event to do noth ing, most students will choose the path of least resistance. That being said, without an incentive structure, how many students would volunteer at all?
In many other high schools, volunteer hours are mandated to encourage students to develop a genuine passion for service. Yet, in many cases, such as the ones previously mentioned, volunteer hours have become an inaccurate representation of what students are truly doing to give back to their communities. Sometimes, giving out extra credit and inflating vol unteer hours are the only ways to entice students to join organiza tions like Big Sibs, ARISTA, and Key Club. Mandated volunteer hours transform a potentially ful filling activity into another mo notonous task to fill the tally of hours required. Plus, incentivizing students to volunteer takes away the true idea of giving back to the people around you. This ef fect can permanently shape stu dents’ outlooks on volunteering, discouraging them from doing so in the future because of their past experiences.
It is understandable that lead ers of clubs wish to cultivate gen uine interest in the activity they promote, even if it requires some bait to begin with. The need to ap peal to colleges has long existed at Stuyvesant and is unlikely to ever disappear. Standing out on an ap
plication does not have to come without meaningful volunteer contributions. In fact, while em bellishing one’s resume isn’t the best root motive for volunteer ing, it can still lead one to partake in volunteering with clubs. Some discover their love for volun teering and put in serious effort, while others don’t love it but put their best foot forward anyway. The problem arises only when the hours claimed to be spent volunteering are not an accurate representation. We must remem ber that there is always someone in need on the other side of vol unteer work. Inflating work hours and faking sincerity paint honest deeds as performative at best and downright harmful at worst.
At the end of the day, the re sults from a service hour matter more than the motivation behind it. Organizations within Stuyves ant that provide service hours to students should be more formal about how much time is actually spent doing something meaning ful, rather than inventing set hour counts for activities that add no real value to our community. One does not have to include inflated service hour numbers on college applications, as it is very possible to achieve something equally im pressive with genuine intentions. Volunteering is not something that owes anyone community service hours. The work that is accomplished during each ser vice hour should have a genuine, meaningful impact on the people and things around us.
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By AMARYLLIS SUNFashion trends from years ago that were once deemed “un attractive” are now making a comeback, inspiring intricate dis cussions on whether they should be brought back into mainstream media. However, many of these repopularized trends do not give proper recognition to the true creators that pioneered them.
For instance, the “clean girl aesthetic” involves a slicked-back bun with minimal makeup and gold jewelry. This look gained popularity around the beginning of last summer, with the hashtag “cleangirl” found in the captions of makeup looks on social media. Many of these looks were inspired by Bella Hadid and Hailey Bieber, who are both famous white mod els. However, Black, South Asian, and Latina women have been donning similar looks for decades, oftentimes with a special cultural meaning. For instance, numer ous South Asian women recall being bullied for their “dirty” hair, which their mothers lovingly oiled every week, massaged into the scalp to promote hair growth and thickness. Similarly, Black and Latina women have often been labeled “ghetto” and “trashy” for
wearing gold hoop earrings and necklaces.
For centuries, people of color have been demonized by the me dia and their peers regarding their beauty choices. In a scene from the famous sitcom “Sex and the City,” which is set in the 1990s, two characters converse about jewelry. One of the characters, Miranda, tells Carrie, another character, “But you wear gold jew elry.” Carrie responds, “Yeah, like ghetto gold for fun.” The stereo type involving gold jewelry, com monly worn by Black and Latina women, demonstrates the nega tive association between beauty choices and people of color. These stereotypes can often lead to stopping a cultural tradition for fear of further harassment, so it is important to note the hypocrisy occurring in the modern beauty industry.
While it is true that neither Bieber nor the introducers of the “clean girl aesthetic” claimed to have invented the look, it is evident that the style was popu larized by white women. Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner, and Gigi Hadid were all labeled the inspira tion of this trend by many, with some even going as far as calling a slicked-back bun with upturned
contour the “Bella Hadid look.”
Similar to the “clean girl aes thetic” trend, the “brownie glazed lip” was shared and popularized by a white woman. Bieber dubbed the look after the makeup prod ucts she used from her beauty company, Rhode Skin. Beauty gurus all over social media have attempted the “brownie glazed lip combo,” which uses a dark brown lip liner with a clear lip gloss on top, as if it were a new trend. Once again, Latina and Black women were the pioneers of this look, having invented it in the 1990s. Back then, many makeup brands were not inclusive of all skin tones, so Black and Latina women had to utilize alternatives to achieve an effect, using eyeliner and brow pencils in dark shades to line their lips. Appearances have important meanings behind them, and when a white celebrity brands the look with her own la bel, leading people to believe it is a new trend, it disrespects the cul tural importance of the look cu rated by Black and Latina women, who were shamed for it.
Though less recent, the “foxeye” makeup trend has also been trending for years. Once again, many labeled Bella Hadid as the inspiration. Following the trend,
numerous girls have expressed their desire to have blepharo plasty, a plastic surgery procedure that involves lifting the eyes by removing fat in order to look like Bella Hadid, while she admitted to using facial tape to achieve her iconic fox-eye appearance. Several other celebrities have participated in the trend of receiving cosmetic procedures to acquire a pulled back eye look. Jenner and Megan Fox are both suspected to have received brow lift or blepharo plasty procedures by several med ical professionals. However, East Asians have experienced relent less bullying for decades regard ing the genetic look of lifted and pulled eyes. For instance, artists sometimes illustrate East Asians with exaggerated slanted lines for eyes. Dr. Seuss, a renowned children’s book author, was criti cized for his grotesque portrayal of Asians, shown in books such as “If I Ran the Zoo” and “And to Think That I Saw It on Mul berry Street.” These mocks of hereditary features have resulted in numerous East Asians receiv ing cosmetic work for their eyes to appear wider.
With the rise of aesthetic surgery becoming more acces sible and common, girls’ desire to change their appearance is often a direct consequence of social media. Social media has repeat edly promoted toxic and often unrealistic beauty standards, such as the standard Eurocentric fea tures among models: clear skin; straight, shiny hair; and a thin frame. Constantly seeing these traits promoted as beautiful can lead young girls to think that they
need to change their appearance to be good enough for society’s standards. Surgeons in southern California have estimated that teenage plastic surgery has in creased by 300 percent in the last three years. This effect is especial ly consequential for young chil dren and teenagers who do not have Eurocentric features, as so cial media can indirectly encour age them to change racial features that have been passed through generations.
The introduction of ethnic looks into mainstream media does hold certain benefits, how ever. Though these looks are currently being popularized be cause of white women and not for cultural reasons, populariza tion can still lead to a decrease in stigmatization. More people are slowly learning to enjoy the beauty choices that were once looked down upon in the past, possibly also leading to a decrease in harassment against people of color for these beauty choices and traits. Despite the fact that recog nition is not given, the increasing acceptance of these traits is a step in the right direction.
By working to combat the cultural appropriation occurring throughout the beauty industry, future generations can begin to understand the history of their traits, someday resulting in ap preciation. To start, attempting to diversify beauty trends and ac knowledging cultural history by giving credit to pioneers can one day lessen the Eurocentric stan dard of beauty that is so com monly praised throughout social media.
To start, attempting to diversify beauty trends and acknowledging cultural history by giving credit to pioneers can one day lessen the Eurocentric standard of beauty that is so commonly praised throughout social media.
It was the beginning of the school year, and I was in my sec ond-to-last class of the day. My teacher was explaining her sylla bus to us, before asking Jewish students to raise their hands out of the blue. This question made me feel confused and almost embarrassed. Regardless of her intentions, it wasn’t okay for the teacher to pressure students to publicize their religion with no explanation. On one hand, stu dents should feel proud of their identities. However, the long his tory of Jews being singled out and targeted is a deterrent for many. I ultimately decided to raise my hand, though hesitantly. I didn’t think sharing my Jewish identity would incite any radical reaction, but she ended up talking about how much she “like[s] Jews because of how many days off they gave” her. While the com ment may not seem as cutting on the surface, it still felt like a re duction of my identity.
This occasion wasn’t the end of the tense and uncomfortable space she cultivated through her insensitive commentary on reli gion. It was almost Yom Kippur, and she asked students to explain what it is about. My classmates described that it is when people apologize and forgive in order to start the year fresh. After listening to Jewish students explain this as
pect of their culture, she simply responded, “I feel sorry for the Jews. Their holidays are so sad.” Yes, there are sad holidays, just like in any other religion. Some of these sad holidays remember all of the horrible things that have happened to Jews through out history, largely because of the spread of ignorance. But Yom Kippur is not a sad holiday. It is one of the most important holi days in the Jewish calendar, and it is about moving forward and making amends. The comment felt out of place and not worthy of the pity it received.
Sadly, this situation wasn’t the last of the discomfort I ex perienced last year. For my Freshman Composition class, we had to complete an I-Search pa per. The assignment required us to research anything that interest ed us. I chose to research Jewish representation in the media, spe cifically how it is often stereotyp ical. To kickstart the assignment, we were instructed to go around the room and write down com ments, suggestions, and feedback on other papers. When I came back to my seat, I read through my suggestions, and one of them caught my eye. Someone sug gested that I talk to an antisem ite to hear the other side of the story. My immediate reaction was disbelief and anger. Antisemi tism isn’t an argument that can be disputed. It is an everlasting issue
that has persisted to this day. I shared the comment with a Jew ish friend in that class who sym pathized with my frustration. She joked that I might as well “go talk
how Hitler needed a scapegoat after World War I to regain con fidence and how he chose the Jews. Anything that could have been taught to a class about the origins of Hitler and the Holo caust was taught. And while we didn’t exactly look at things from antisemite’s per spective, we did explore the Nazis’ mindset.
A slogan for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Re membrance Day) is “Never Forget.” We talked about this phrase in that class, and I still think about it today. The best way to keep history from repeating itself is to know what not to repeat, which means remember ing the past. Remembering the past doesn’t mean remem bering just the outcome or the winning side, but also the bad parts, the parts you want to forget ever happened.
was also solely for Christmas. The first time I had a public school lesson on Judaism was in sixth grade, and it probably lasted less than a week. Not only did the lesson fail to cover any of the discrimination Jews have been through, but a very important portion of it also contradicted the education I had learned from my Hebrew school. Since that week, Judaism and Jewish history have barely been discussed in my public school education. With this context in mind, how can I blame students and teachers for antisemitic comments when they have been provided with next to no education on the matter?
that the comment was antisemitic in its invalidation of Jewish vic tims, I somewhat understand the person’s point. When learning about the Holocaust at Hebrew school, we often learned about the Nazis’ reasoning. We learned
Despite this need for cultur ally sensitive learning, Judaism was never really talked about at my school. The decorations that hung in the hallways were for Christmas, while the winter holiday days off were scheduled around Christmas, not Chanu kah, and holiday school singing
The solution is simple: in clude a mandatory curriculum that includes Jewish history. A week in sixth grade isn’t enough. Waiting until 10th grade to learn about the Holocaust isn’t enough. Important understanding of the past fades over the years, which is why Jewish American Heritage Month needs to be celebrated every May. Social studies teach ers should be required to teach Jewish education. Culturally sen sitive education should be pro vided to not only students, but also teachers. Ignorance is easiest to address before it becomes a problem in the first place, which means that a lot of the respon sibility falls on schools. Schools need to do their part and teach to eliminate ignorance.
By KIKYO MAKINO-SILLER
Despite being the shortest recession on record, the CO VID-19 pandemic decimated a multitude of companies and in dustries. During the peak of the pandemic, 49.8 million people reported being unable to work because their employer closed or went out of business due to the virus. An estimated 60 per cent of these closures have been permanent. All of these factors have led to the stagnation of the American economy. But out of all the affected industries, one has received the most media at tention.
In recent years, the news has been full of stories of delayed flights, frantically enforced inflight health measures, and laid off airline workers. It would be fair to say the American airline industry has been going through some… turbulent times. The arrival of international tourists worldwide has fallen 74 percent. There were nearly three million fewer flights in 2020 than in previous years, and 400 thou sand airline workers were let go. Health measures to reduce the risk of transmission mean that even now, flights often fly at half of their passenger capacity.
The effects of these emer gency measures are still felt today. As the pandemic calms down, 62 percent of flight operations lead ers say that a key concern is find ing enough qualified pilots. The New York Times recently pub lished an article detailing a flight attendant’s response to agitated airline customers. Kristie Koer bel, a veteran in the industry, ex plains what post-pandemic travel looks like. Flights are frequently canceled due to a lack of backup crew, leading to frustrated travel ers and troubled companies.
On top of various CO VID-19 difficulties, jet prices increased by 90 percent in the past year because of the Rus sia-Ukraine war, taking a toll on airline budgets. To compen sate, ticket prices have skyrock eted by 25 percent over the past couple of years, making travel even more inaccessible. Many who wish to travel are forced to rely on travel agents, buy tickets months in advance, or redeem rewards. Overall, in the first quarter of 2021, American air lines reported a net loss of $5.1 billion. General air travel fell by over 90 percent. Many unhappy customers have taken to social media to complain, damaging the reputation of flight travel.
It’s tempting to think that these current events are tem porary. In fact, most econo mists and industry experts seem to agree that the industry will bounce back as consumers itch to indulge in post-pandemic travel. However, airlines have been struggling for a very long time. Even before COVID-19, mandatory retirement, fewer pilots exiting the military, and lack of accessibility, influenced by factors such as expensive training procedures, limited the number of pilots entering the field. Flight delays and cancella tions were also a general trend before the pandemic. To say that COVID-19 is the sole cause for a substandard airline reputation would be a lie.
A Columbia University jour nalist noted in 2011 that the domestic airline industry had a net negative income in 23 out of the past 31 years. With high safety and equipment costs and a massive labor force, airlines are a risky business in nature—un profitable companies quickly go bankrupt. All three notable U.S.
Rin Fukuoka / The Spectatorairlines (American, United, and Delta) have filed for bankruptcy at one point.
Yet these airline companies somehow continue to survive. Several factors, namely govern ment subsidies and the flow of liquid assets, help influential airlines make it past all of their financial and employment trou bles. Aside from being bailed out by the American govern ment, many airlines rely on mortgaging their airplanes, tak ing out loans, and selling bonds and stocks. During COVID, the CARES Act authorized the U.S. Treasury to allocate $46 billion in loans to aviation businesses. Out of 267 applicants, 35 loans totalling $21.9 billion were ex ecuted. Airlines also rely heavily on laying off employees to save
money when budgets are tight. This practice is problematic, as airlines rely on a large workforce to manage their many planes.
These desperate measures have given airlines just enough money to scrape by. In fact, the revival of airlines post-pandemic may be harped as a success story for a heroic industry that perse vered through difficult times. But it’s important to remember that airlines have been desperate for years and will likely be desperate for years to come. Analysts also fear that the impacts from CO VID-19 will be devastating in the future.
Airlines have a tendency to go through their most tumultu ous times years after a financial crisis. Four years after the Sep tember 11 attacks, Delta and
Northwest filed for bankruptcy due to the expenses of added se curity measures. Similarly, Amer ican Airlines filed for bankruptcy in 2011, long after the Great Re cession. Now that the reputa tions of airlines have fallen with COVID-19, the struggles of air lines may be reflected in the fu ture of the industry.
Thus, “recovery” for airlines is difficult to define. No matter what steps companies take to better their financial position, there will always be people who get the short end of the stick. Workers will be laid off. The government will have to provide funds. The quality of service will decrease. As long as the need for air travel exists, the industry will likely continue to occupy its pre carious position in the economy.
I grew up within the lonely for tress of a boarding school halfway across the globe in Taiwan. In that time, I developed a strong habit of tabulation. I obsessed over analysis, and even my favorite movie became a victim of my childhood analytics. To this day, I can remember with clarity the most important numbers in my life: there were six bedrooms on my floor, 625 ceiling tiles in my dorm room, and 88 minutes in Dis ney’s “Mulan.”
“Mulan” easily became my most watched movie as a child. I saw the glittering city of dragons and good luck in the pictures of Chinatown my parents sent me in the mail. I imag ined the red lanterns strung across streets and liveliness in my fantasies of home. I’d sneak into my caregiv er’s room past my 8:00 p.m. curfew and beg her to watch the movie again with me, desperate for the thrill and musical numbers the film provided. Sitting on her plush rug, the kind your hand sinks into when you run your fingers through it, I became en thralled with the imagery of a nor mal girl saving her country.
Ironically, Mulan herself became the epitome of perfection. I wanted nothing more than to be exactly like her. She demonstrated a sense of strength and initiative and cunningn I wanted to emulate: she proved her worth in a way I attempted to do as well. I transcribed her narrative onto my skin, learning every line and plot point meticulously.
But Mulan wasn’t just strong and clever. She was beautiful and thin. Other Disney princesses also portray slimness and conventional beauty as a trend, and I began to wonder if I was defective because I didn’t have those traits. In my attempt to resem ble Mulan mentally, I began to pick apart my own body, trying to find the bones and silhouettes that looked like hers and the other princesses.
My tabulations slowly began to include numbers of my weight. I moved to New York, but I didn’t lose that habit and the desperation to resemble the characters I grew up with. If anything, they multiplied. I visited Disney World for the first time, met my idol, and found myself learning she was just as thin in real
life as in the movies. I spiraled into insecurity, surrounded by restrictive concepts of beauty, and I grappled with understanding body image and my own self-hate.
When I see my little cousins watching the original Disney movies, my instinct is to cringe. The media we consume is a direct reflection of how we will inevitably learn to view our selves, and it feels like I have an obli gation to protect them from the ex pectations they could learn from the movies. When I talk to my friends, especially women, about this con cept, it’s often a resounding agree ment that growing up surrounded by the original Disney princesses and their unattainable standards has caused a wave of insecurities. Very few people escape the idea that you must fit a certain standard in order to have a happily ever after.
But the solution isn’t to just de lete all such media from the world, because the ideas have already been transcribed onto us. It’s simply not possible to completely erase these messages, because they’ve been nor malized. They’re such an ingrained part of our society now that they are seen as representative of a “normal girl’s childhood.”
But we can begin to make chang es by calling out the internalized bi ases we have. With time, more people grow aware of these ideas being pre sented to children. Many of the kids who grew up watching the original Disney princess films are now able to have a voice in new media put on screens, and, as new animated mov ies suggest, bring a well-welcomed range of body types, sizes, and col ors. In new movies like “Turning Red,” we see characters who differ from the traditional beauty standard, characters with hijabs and different skin colors, characters with visible disabilities—in essence, characters who would be virtually unheard of in the original films.
I hope that with the new films available, children like my little cous ins will have evident examples that their bodies aren’t mistakes, as I was led to believe about myself. It’s important to continue to promote these changes, and hopefully, with time, numbers representing weight will stop affecting kids’ perceptions of themselves.
High school is the time when many students first enter the workforce. Whether it’s working for a family friend, participating in SYEP, or life guarding at a local pool, many of us are expected to learn responsibility, time management, and financial skills through our experiences at work. However, it’s hard to maintain a healthy balance between work, school, and leisurely activities when jobs expect more than just their descrip tion: coming in for extra shifts, staying overtime to do something a coworker didn’t have time to finish, or doing something just because your boss didn’t feel like delegating it to someone else. A new phenomenon has risen, along with a corre sponding speculative name: quiet quitting.
Quiet quitting is when you detach yourself from whatever standards you normally hold yourself to and do your work without striving for perfection. As NPR puts it, quiet quitting is do ing the “bare minimum.” However, later in the article, there is a contradictory definition ascribed to quiet quitting: completing work that is assigned to you and part of your job description during the allotted time of your shift. So how is that the bare minimum? Quiet quitting is the result of burnout, and if that’s what workers need to do to sustain their mental stability, then it might as well be the norm.
The appeal of quiet quitting is under standable: it helps set boundaries between per sonal and work life. Defining one’s worth based on the perfection of one’s labor has detrimental effects on mental health, causing an increase in stress, anxiety, and depression. A recent study led by University College London Professor Mika Kivimäki and others found that these mental health problems bleed into physical health, in creasing chances of strokes and heart attacks.
Unsurprisingly, many businesses are critics of quiet quitting. Employees who go above and be yond with their work without compensation are obviously preferable, so when a new trend like quiet quitting arises, CEOs become concerned about their profit rather than the mental health of their workers. The result of our capitalist so ciety, in which yield is prioritized over well-being, is that workers are pushed to burnout after being given an unrealistic workload. What these CEOs seem to ignore is that as the mental health of their employees plummets, so do their quality of work and their loyalty toward the company. Quiet quitting is proof that ignoring the problem of emotional neglect doesn’t solve anything.
It wasn’t until I put quiet quitting into terms I understood that I realized it shouldn’t be normalized. As Stuyvesant students, we are ac customed to hard work. Most of us have proba bly been going above and beyond our entire lives, to the point where it’s almost expected of us. No feeling is more familiar to us than burnout,
and sleepless nights and tireless streams of work are second nature at Stuyvesant. However, we all have that one thing we look forward to. Whether through a club, an English class, or a computer science elective, Stuyvesant does its best to nur ture our passions. In theory, your future career should do the same. It should be a place that challenges you to push the boundaries of your passion, no matter how much time or work that goal takes. Many of us choose to put in the ex tra effort in certain subjects or areas of interest because they tap into our passion, and most of us will also choose a career path that is intellectu ally demanding. The path to success is undeniably difficult, but, once again, worth it. Quiet quitting, however, is evidence of failure in the workforce. It tells us that workplaces have become so toxic and devoid of passion that any effort put into work is unsatisfying. It warns of a dark future of slow burnout in a tedious job that does not feed into our passions after graduation.
Quiet quitting may also be the result of a sys temic issue within our education. Stuyvesant is a school that offers endless resources. However, many schools are not as lucky and do not have the resources necessary to foster an intellectu ally challenging community. Those who are lucky enough to have found a passion will usually try their best to find a job in that field, praying that it isn’t oversaturated. But many fall through the cracks with no drive or direction, forced to work in a career they hate. Without any determination to succeed, these people are not motivated to put in the extra effort. They are also more prone to burnout since they don’t have a goal in sight. This situation creates yet another reason to quit quietly, and it’s rooted within a flawed education system.
Instead of blaming workers for how they cope with the mental and physical strain their workload gives them, we should zero in on the kind of work these people are given. Most who are complicit in quiet quitting spend their days performing robotlike duties that require no creativity or variation in jobs that don’t challenge them and instead lull them into constant boredom. Above all, these workers are exposed to toxic employers who treat them like replaceable objects rather than people. Testimonials from quiet quitters exemplify this treatment. One employee said that her ideas were “mocked and rejected” and that she missed the environment under former leadership, where she had “creative freedom.” Another said her trigger was when she had a “job that [didn’t] appreciate” her. We should try to understand the employees who are prone to quiet quitting instead of blam ing employee apathy on the individual.
Quiet quitting is not the fault of workers but is due to the neglect of companies and the mass production of a directionless workforce. When treated poorly, workers feel unmotivated. If com panies truly care about their profits, they’ll focus on the treatment of their employees and priori tize mental health over quality of labor.
By KHANDAKER MUSHFIKUZZAMAN
Take a moment to observe the environment around you, wher ever you are. Maybe you see green leaves turning to a brown-orange as fall approaches or the blue seats of the train you’re on. The vibrancy around us is something we take for granted, and while it may not be noticeable in our daily lives, the world is losing its color.
It sounds overly dramatic, but despite the richness of colors we see in nature, in the commercial world, and ultimately the “hu man” world, the variety of color is decreasing. Large companies began using more and more neu tral, generic color in the 1980s to cater to the widest range of consumers possible. For instance, Apple mainly uses darker, neutral colors because iPhones in hot pink, for example, wouldn’t ap peal to everyone.
As more and more compa nies switched to bland colors to accommodate everyone’s likings, the world followed along with the shift. The car industry is a prime
example. Grayscale tones for cars jumped from less than 50 per cent in the 1990s to more than 75 percent today. A study by the British Science Museum captured over 7,000 objects and ob served the change in col ors used over time. Both interior and exterior design have become more “modern ized” with mono chrome colors, as city buildings have become a standard gray and their inte riors monoto nous. This de crease is evident in the clothing industry as well. Blacks, whites, and grays are the most popular for all types of clothes. Essentially, we’re seeing this trend of significant decrease in color in all ranges of companies.
The big issue here is that col or has a huge effect on the human brain. People associate differ ent colors with different moods
and feelings. In art class, colors are used to express the emotions
with what studies have shown about the color gray. BMC Medi cal Research Methodology found that people struggling with de pression and anxiety chose gray to most accurately represent what they feel. Gray is the color that has become most commercially used in the last 30 years. Connect ing the dots reveals a terrifying revelation. Gray is a dull color, and too much of it causes feel ings of loneliness and isolation.
Though it hasn’t been long enough to determine direct ef fects, it’s certainly not a good idea to wait and see how our mental health is affected as the world around us slowly turns gray. Besides the internal conse quences, color is a way of expres sion and individuality. Movements like minimalism, which tie into the “simplicity” of neutral colors, are becoming more prominent. While minimalism can be ben eficial in other aspects of life, re ducing the variety of color causes less personal expression instead of advocating the appreciation of simplicity. Industries that have reduced their color usage need
to start bringing back the variety in items and products as soon as possible. Even though these com panies are worried about reaching a greater number of customers, they can still do so with a more varied and colorful collection of items. People love having options, and not everyone wants the gray that most companies have de faulted to. It shouldn’t be a loss of profit for sellers to produce col orful items if variety will attract more consumers. Further, this limited availability is causing the supposed “popularity” of toneddown hues. If this popularity in creases, it’ll influence more and more companies to lessen the col or in their products. Even though that consequence may not be as apparent in all current stores, the facts state that we are slowly but surely losing color.
The vibrancy in the environ ments we pass through, from our home to school to the outside world, and all the things within them creates a richness in life itself. Diversity and variety are needed in all aspects of the world, and color is no exception.
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In computer science classes, we mainly focus on learning how to write good software, but the environment in which software is developed can also have a sig nificant impact on its functionality and usage. Open-source software is software whose source code is available in the public domain for anyone to read, modify, and re distribute. Though the adoption of open-source infrastructure has been growing exponentially in recent years, open-source soft ware development is not a new phenomenon. In fact, the Open Source Initiative even suggests that open-source software has been done since the creation of software itself.
The primary characteristic that distinguishes open from closedsource software is that large proj ects are usually developed in a more community-driven manner. This is because the users of opensource software can also become its developers by fixing bugs and adding features they think others would benefit from. On the other hand, closed-source software is developed in private with a spe cific group of developers, all of whom typically belong to a single company. With closed-source software, consumers can’t inspect its inner workings. Traditionally, a large amount of the software de veloped by large companies has been closed-source, though this seems to be gradually changing.
Oftentimes, this type of col
laboration with open-source software takes place using Git, a version control system that allows developers to write code together. Additionally, developers can use a platform like GitHub, an applica tion that facilitates conversations about software projects and can also host codebases. When someone wants to make a change to some opensource code that they are running, they can either change it locally by changing their own version, or they can try to get it changed up stream by changing the “original” version of the software. You can do the latter on a platform like GitHub where you can open a Pull Request. It is called this because you are requesting the maintainers of the codebase to pull some of your code (perhaps a bug fix) into their codebase.
Open-source software with an active developer and user community can be considered more secure than closed-source alternatives for numerous reasons. Because all of the code is public, more people can review that code and find bugs in it. Furthermore, a user who is competent in the re lated field may discover that the software is performing question able activities, such as collecting
information that is unnecessary for the correct operation of that software. An example of software that might be considered more secure than closed-source alterna
Manaal Khurram / The Spectatormeaningfully review the code to ensure that it does what is ex pected.
If the software is open source and free to use, then how can someone get paid to work on de veloping it? While it is certainly less straightforward than a tradi tional job, people are able to make a living off open-source devel opment through donations and developer funds. Companies that benefit from opensource projects will also sponsor devel opers to work on these projects.
There is a certain degree of freedom that comes with being an open-source developer.
Namely, the developer gets to decide what as pects of a project they wish to work on. Though they may be sponsored by people or compa nies, they technically don’t have a supervisor telling them exactly what to work on, unlike a tradi tional developer job. However, while this might certainly seem like a benefit as they have com plete control over how they spend their time, it can be challenging to decide how to spend their time in the most useful way possible.
tant for developers who are de pendent on this code to be able to review the code which handles this cryptography. The fact that OpenSSL is open-source allows anyone with the right skill set to
The development of opensource software isn’t just about the software itself—it is also about the collaborative ethos. Open-source software is power ful because it allows anyone in the
its inherent benefits are vast.
By SETH FENTONSince the Industrial Revolu tion, fossil fuels have been the lifeblood of society. During the early modern era, these resourc es—namely coal, oil, and later natural gas—were necessary to maintain the quality of life of de veloped nations. Today, much of our infrastructure has been built up around their transport and use, resulting in an increasing reliance on fossil fuels among corpora tions and countries. With progres sive technological advancements, however, fossil fuels are no longer the only option to power a devel oped nation.
The non-fossil fuel energy source that produces the largest percentage of power consumed is nuclear power. Nuclear power is efficient, incredibly reliable, and easily independently producible in almost every country. It does have major flaws, though. The first and perhaps most commonly known issue is its production of radioactive wastes that require vast amounts of time to become safe to be around. In fact, uranium-235, the main source of fuel for most nuclear reactors, has a half-life of over 700 million years. The pub lic conception of this problem is based less on the current effects of radiation on residents located near nuclear power plants and more on fears induced by histori cal incidents, namely the Cher nobyl disaster and the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. Though these incidents were certainly tragedies, it is extremely unlikely that events of the same level of destructive ness could ever happen again with enforced reactor safety measures. Both disasters simply spotted far too many hyper-specific mistakes that current reactor safety has been explicitly designed against.
Additionally, while the massive evaluations caused by Fukushima Daiichi were very disruptive to people’s lives, significantly fewer people died from the nuclear di saster itself than from the tsunami that caused it.
The second major issue with nuclear power is the difficulty of fuel extraction. In fact, ura nium-235 is a rare isotope of ura nium and can cost large amounts of money. This means that while nuclear power can currently be produced independently com pared to fossil fuel energy sources like crude oil, the running of a nu clear reactor still requires trade to support it. Though nuclear power definitely has its flaws, it’s a poten tial supplemental energy source for other renewables in the fu ture. Therefore, despite the largescale catastrophes caused by these tragedies, their root causes do not make nuclear power a fundamen tally non-viable energy source.
The largest source of renew able energy—energy in which the requisite natural resources recharge faster than it is con sumed—is hydropower. It lasts nearly indefinitely and produces a significant amount of energy. Hydropower is also a reliable al ternative as the course and speed of rivers almost never change, and hydroelectric infrastructure tends to be relatively resilient. Neverthe less, the main downside of hydro electric systems is that they can be environmentally disruptive: they interrupt fish migration patterns and cause huge nutrient buildups behind dams, which can then lead to the cultivation of algae and oth er aquatic weeds. Over the course of decades, these two factors can induce catastrophic environmen tal destruction, including massive weather changes like increased drought. While the government
Jaden Bae / The Spectatorhas attempted many different methods to improve fish migra tion, such as the utilization of fish elevators, it is virtually impossible to completely mitigate these prob lems.
The most versatile renewable energy source is solar power. It can be implemented in most loca tions without requiring any spe cific geographic features. Its con struction is also relatively simple and is at low risk to human safety. However, solar power is unable to generate energy as quickly as nu clear power or hydropower do and
Much like solar power, wind power is another climate-based renewable energy source. It is us able in fewer locations than solar power and has many of the same flaws, including the need for mas sive batteries and supplemental energy sources when the wind it relies on is reduced in intensity. Windmills require even more min ing for minerals and metals than solar panels, which can cause this so-called “green energy” to have a relatively high carbon cost. Be sides the environmental impacts,
Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley discovered a breakthrough technique that allows them to upcycle polyethylene plastics, which are com monly used to make plastic bags, bottles, and con tainers, with minimal fos sil fuels.
Thanks to new virtual real ity research, scientists have found a key contributor to déjà vu: spatial resem blance of new scenes to those in one’s memory that aren’t consciously called to mind.
world to improve upon someone else’s code and ideas.
The development of opensource software isn’t just about the software itself; it is also about the collaborative ethos. Opensource software is so powerful because it allows anyone in the world to improve upon someone else’s code and ideas.
relies on the continuous, mostly unobstructed presence of the sun. There have been several efforts to resolve the energy storage prob lem with more advanced battery technology, but larger high-tech batteries are costly. The compo nents of solar panels also require the mining of rare earth metals, hindering the technology's prog ress. Despite those two limitations, solar energy is considered to have the largest potential since most of its major issues are avoidable and
windmills are also incredibly loud machines which, just by virtue of being so disruptive, can increase anxiety and sleep deprivation when placed near residential ar eas. Though these problems are solvable by strategic placement of wind turbines and more expensive sourcing of the raw materials that compose them, such adjustments may require more resource and time input compared with the ac tual outputs we can extract from wind power.
Increasing exposure to sci entific knowledge has allowed us to recognize the harms brought by fossil fuel combustion. By re leasing an immense amount of both greenhouse gases and air pollutants during combustion, the use of fossil fuels drives cli mate change, acts as a potential cause of hundreds of millions of deaths, and significantly boosts the risk of contracting respiratory diseases. They also force our econ omies to become reliant on natu ral resources produced in faraway states, such as Russia and Venezu ela. Fortunately, scientific devel opments have introduced to us many alternative energy options, most of which surpass fossil fuels in efficiency, safety, sustainability, or supply chain independence. In a world with so many energy op tions, we need to build a smart grid that can utilize energy sources tailored to fit the circumstances of an area rather than an interna tional universal energy source that is certain to be flawed.
While the question of what is the best energy source is still at the center of controversy, some en ergy sources have wider use cases than others. Solar power, for ex ample, can be used almost entirely anywhere and is incredibly low risk in terms of securing human health. However, it is not the best conclusion to build an entire pow er grid based upon it, due to sun light’s inconsistent potency. This drawback can be supplemented, nonetheless, by nuclear and hydro powers which can both be used regardless of weather conditions. In our technologically developed world, this infrastructure is in credibly effective, and if built up intelligently, it could modernize our energy grid while aiding in approaching the goal of net zero carbon emissions.
In Hong Kong, the average life expectancy is 85 years. In Belgium, the life expectancy is 82 years. In the United States, it’s 79 years. Though 85 and 79 seem close, the gap be tween these two numbers tells a greater story than a six-year difference. One may expect life expectancy in the U.S., which is considered to be one of the most powerful countries in the world, to be higher than 79. However, it ranks only 46th according to the latest United Nations Population Division estimates, the lowest among developed countries.
In general, a variety of so cial and economic factors de termine the life expectancy of a population. Typically, the richer and more educated the individual is, the longer they are predicted to live. This is why countries with higher Gross Domestic Products (GDPs), like Japan and France, tend to have a significantly higher aver age life expectancy than coun tries with lower GDPs such as Haiti and Afghanistan, both of which hold an average life ex pectancy of less than 65.
The average life expectancy of an American has been get ting shorter since 2019. An
By SOPHIA WAN-BRODSKYWhat do dragonflies, bot tlenose dolphins, and mallard ducks have in common? How about sea stars, bats, and pi geons? They’re all gay! Well, not exactly. Not only would that be an oversimplification, but it would also anthropo morphize animals, an act that is best avoided in animal behavior science. These six animals are among the over 1,500 differ ent species that display samesex sexual behavior. Same-sex sexual behavior (SSB) is any behavior typically performed at a stage of reproduction with a member of the opposite sex that is instead being aimed toward a member of the same sex. These behaviors have a wide range, includ ing courting rituals, raising young, and mounting.
It’s clear that our history of homophobia led to a scar city of research on this topic until the second half of the 20th century. For a while, the little that was published on SSB was laden with bias. Take, for instance, the British entomolo gist W. J. Tennent’s observa tions on same-sex mating in butterflies. His study, titled “A Note on the Apparent Lower ing of Moral Standards in the Lepidoptera,” was published in 1987. Even though signs of SSB in animals are everywhere, they were kept out of the sci entific spotlight.
Public awareness of “queerness” in the animal kingdom began with Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap pen guins born in the Central Park Zoo in the same year that Ten nent published his study. In 1998, zoo staff noticed that they were participating in mat ing rituals such as intertwining
important factor behind this change is the COVID-19 pan demic. At its peak, the virus caused hundreds of thousands of deaths across the world and decreased the life expectancies of many countries. In the U.S. particularly, minority groups, which included Black, Hispan ic, and Indigenous people, were hit the hardest. Many individu als from these groups lived in communities that were not able to offer the best medical assis tance due to limited funding in their respective communities and racist policies like redlin ing, which is when companies make their services consider ably less convenient to nonwhite customers. These even tually caused a sharp decline in the life expectancy of minori ties, further emphasizing how one’s social and economic con ditions closely follow their life expectancy. While the average life expectancy of many other wealthy countries has since re covered from the worst of the pandemic, the US has still not completely gone back to its pre-pandemic number.
A reason behind this prob lem lies in the health situation of the country even before the pandemic. America has faced higher rates of chronic disease and drug use when compared
to other wealthy countries for years. Six out of 10 Ameri cans live with a chronic illness such as heart disease, cancer, or diabetes, and the high rates of obesity levels prevalent amongst Americans often con tribute to these fatal complica tions. Additionally, the ongoing opioid crisis has led to 69,000 deaths in 2020 alone, highlight ing a deep-rooted issue of drug abuse in the country. Yet, the rising costs of healthcare have led to many people not receiv ing sufficient medical care.
This situation highlights a major flaw in the American healthcare system: the lack of universal healthcare, something that many other wealthy coun tries have. Universal healthcare means that all people have the right to health services even when in financial hardships. Currently, in the US, it costs around $200 for a forearm Xray and around $10,000 for delivering a baby. There have been efforts to create programs close to achieving healthcare for all, such as Obamacare, but instituting a solid strategy for a universal healthcare system in the US has become a more political concept and pos sible plans would have to go through a series of committees and conference rooms until
they could be considered.
Recent political decisions such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade have led to concerns about increased child poverty and pregnancy-related deaths, both contributing to a shorter life expectancy. Additionally, the federal government’s lack of action in the war on drugs and the opioid crisis are also important examples of how government activity has a sig nificant impact on determining life expectancy. Since President Nixon first declared a “war on drugs,” drug abuse has still been a prevalent issue in the country over the last fifty years. Analysts have pointed to how it is really the state and local gov ernments that are fighting the war rather than the federal gov ernment, thus calling for action against drugs on a greater scale.
Overall, the factors deter mining life expectancy fall un der what we as individuals can and cannot control. The genet ics and the socioeconomic po sitions we are born with may not be in our control, but how we go about our lives is—this includes the habits and routines that constitute our daily lives. Implementing certain practices while avoiding others will cre ate a better lifestyle that guar antees a longer life. Research
their necks. They were found trying to incubate a rock and were later given an abandoned egg to hatch and raise. This fe male chick, named Tango, later
study found that 31 percent of pairs were female-female. Evi dently, some female albatross es copulated with males who likely already had mates so they
arose is that early animal spe cies did not have many sex-spe cific traits such as size, color, or body shape. In fact, it can be evolutionarily costly to develop
has shown that staying active, exercising for at least 15 min utes every day, and maintaining a proper diet are all linked to a longer and healthier life. Mean while, avoiding smoking and drinking alcohol are strongly encouraged and have shown to increase one’s years, as both habits drive fatal diseases such as liver cancer correlated to drinking.
Politics and the changes that occur on the local, state, and national levels also play important roles in how long we live. Though they may seem out of our control, participation in our government and increasing awareness of issues such as the opioid epidemic and universal healthcare are promising steps that we can take.
A nation’s average life ex pectancy says plenty about the country itself. Despite our high GDP and powerful ranking in the world, the United State’s healthcare system doesn’t live up to our reputation as a world leader. Though drastic changes to our government such as in stituting a universal healthcare system and court rulings are very difficult and will take time, the most immediate changes ensuring a longer life are the ones we can make in our own lives.
quent same-sex mating, will en gage in more non-reproductive sexual contact during stressful events such as encounters with other groups of bonobos that are unfamiliar to them.
In addition to incorrectly implying that SSB does not have benefits, classifying SSB as an evolutionary paradox as sumes that animals that solely partake in different-sex sexual behavior (DSB) will have more progeny than animals that perform SSB. However, DSB frequently does not result in reproduction anyway, with ani mals mating numerous times to have just a few offspring.
In other words, DSB is not necessarily efficient at creating babies, so the supposed ben efits of DSB compared to SSB are not as clear as one would expect. Furthermore, animals that participate in SSB will of ten also participate in some amount of DSB, with means that many animals that seek out members of the same sex still have offspring.
Lack of open-mindedness toward the diversity of sexual identity in humans has un doubtedly led to similar bias in the study of SSB in animals.
of Laysan albatrosses in Oahu.
Same-sex pairings in this colo ny were first noticed because several nests had two eggs, even though females can only lay one egg per year. Because male and female Laysan alba trosses are nearly indistinguish able, genetic testing was used to reveal that the two birds in those nests were female. This
prevalence of SSB in the ani mal kingdom as a whole. Un der the traditional Darwinian mindset, SSB should not exist because, unlike intercourse be tween two members of differ ent sexes, it does not directly lead to reproduction. For this reason, SSB has been viewed as an “evolutionary paradox.” The likely reason for how SSB
members of the same sex, a practice thought to establish trust and, in some cases, domi nance.
Besides, it is well established that animals experience arousal and sexual pleasure. Sexual ac tivity of any kind can make ani mals feel good or even reduce cortisol, a stress hormone.
Bonobos, well known for fre
The default assumption that SSB is an evolutionary paradox exemplifies this because it pro motes the inaccurate concept that it somehow goes “against nature” and is detrimental to the survival of a species. Even with advances in recent de cades, our knowledge of SSB is far from comprehensive, and studies are still ongoing. Ani mal behavioral and evolution ary science has a lot of catch ing up to do when it comes to same-sex sexual activity, and it remains unclear what, if any thing, this science can tell us about the complexities of sex uality in humans.
Everyday food is standard and often uninteresting. Thus, it is worthwhile to investigate the gastronomical world with an open mind. I reached out to the Stuyvesant student body to hear about their scientific inqui ries, and saw a common theme in their questions: what hap pens when you branch out to the extremes of eating? From extreme materials to extreme diets, I put pen to paper (and finger to calculator) and found out.
1: What if we unrolled all of the Fruit Roll-Ups and extended them across the world?
It is tricky to know exactly how many Fruit Roll-Ups exist right now, but it can be approxi mated. A 2020 survey showed that 1.4 million Americans had eaten five or more Roll-Ups in a month, 1.7 million had eaten three to four Roll-Ups, and 5.5 million had eaten one to two. This comes out to a total of 21.2 million Fruit Roll-Ups con sumed in a month, or 212,000 boxes of 10 Fruit Roll-Ups. Judging by Hershey’s warnings of a Halloween candy short age and the fact that over 10 percent of candy sales happen on Halloween, it seems there must not even be 10 percent of a year’s sales in Fruit Roll-Ups
currently available. Thus, there are about 254,400 boxes of 10 Fruit Roll-Ups each. The task at hand is to unroll and extend 2.5 million Fruit Roll-Ups around the Earth.
Fruit Roll-Ups are roughly 4.75-inch-long squares. Our supply will extend 11.9 mil lion inches, or 2,249 miles. The Earth has a circumference of 24,901 miles, so the candy won’t even make it halfway around. If the Roll-Ups were laid in a straight line starting in Manhattan, the path would end around Reno, Nevada. If they were instead laid along roads, the Roll-Ups would stretch from Stuyvesant to Salt Lake City, Utah.
It would take 332 million Fruit Roll-Ups to actually reach across the Earth. That’s $82 million worth of Fruit Roll-Ups at $2.48 a box! Something tells me there are better uses for $82 million than a Fruit Roll-Up chain, but to each their own.
2: What if you ate quark-gluon soup?
About 20 microseconds af ter the Big Bang, the universe was soup: quark-gluon soup. Protons and neutrons contain three quarks and gluons each. In essence, gluons are the car riers of the force which holds protons, neutrons, and atoms together through quarks. This force is also the basis for the
nuclear force binding atomic nuclei together. After the 20 microsecond mark, the uni verse began to rapidly cool and decrease in density, and the quarks and gluons combined into particles.
When it comes to our rela tivistic meal, there are multiple considerations: we want a stan dard soup bowl full of plasma sitting on the dinner table, but how will the soup be obtained and how will we deal with the temperature, color, and cost?
Quark-gluon plasma (QGP) can actually be made in particle colliders by colliding nuclei like those of lead and gold at close to the speed of light. The col lisions are at such high energy and speeds that the Hagedorn temperature (1.7 x 1012 K) is achieved. At this temperature, there are actual fireballs of new particles ejected from the heated matter. Furthermore, since the soup is hotter than the core of the sun, it would send annihilating shockwaves of ra diation for hundreds of miles, assuming it lasted more than a trillionth of a second in the plasma state.
Even when pretending this does not happen, the density of the soup alone creates issues. Interestingly, while a high den sity suggests an extremely hard object, quark-gluon plasma is in fact extremely free-flowing. By definition, the substance is ex tremely close to being a perfect
liquid and essentially friction less—the soup would feel great going down, if you could feel it at all. Unfortunately, it would also be extremely heavy. A cu bic centimeter of QGP would weigh 40 billion tons, so a whole bowl of it would create a gravitational force near 90,763 Newtons, which is significantly smaller than the pull between the Earth and the Moon, but enough to make eating our soup impossible.
Considering the cost of running experiments at highenergy colliders like the Large Hadron Collider, the soup would set us back at least $1 billion. That’s an expensive din ner, but don’t worry about the bill! You won’t live to tell the tale.
3: How many potatoes could you eat in a lifetime if you never stopped eating pota toes?
All health concerns aside, let’s say you are approaching your potato-eating as a simple meal replacement. If you were to eat 2,000 calories worth of Yukon Gold potatoes every day, you would be eating 20 po tatoes a day. If the average life expectancy is 73.4 years (as of 2019, before the pandemic dis rupted measures), you would eat slightly more than 5,000 potatoes in your lifetime. This would cost you only $1,000,
As one of the basic neces sities of life, food is a univer sal experience. For millennia, people have been searching for new cooking techniques. From the discovery of fire to the contribution of modern chemi cal engineering in our meals, our diets and taste palates have evolved along with society. All in all, food has grown to be much more than just sustenance. Yet a question remains: what makes food taste good?
When food enters the mouth, it is chewed and bro ken down by the enzymes in our saliva. On the surface of the tongue, thousands of mi crosized bumps, called papillae, come in contact with the food and are immediately stimulated. These bumps contain dozens of taste buds, receptors that can detect the temperature, texture, and flavors of food. Soon after, this information gets sent to the taste cortex in our brain through the nerves lining the tongue.
Our brain recognizes five core flavors: salt, bitter, sweet, sour, and umami. The umami taste is less well-known and is the savory taste behind foods like shellfish, pork, or beef. The different flavors signal certain characteristics of foods. While umami and sweet tastes suggest a higher density of nutrients, a salty taste helps identify concen trations of essential ions that the body needs. These qualities make these core flavors inher ently pleasant. Conversely, high levels of bitterness suggest
toxicity and act as a defense mechanism, triggering a gag re flex. Similarly, a sour taste has evolved to signal acids, such as those in spoiled food. In creat ing differentiation, these pro files allow humans to experience food and make eating immer sive. It explains the importance of seasoning in supplementing these flavors, creating a balance in the stimulation of our taste buds.
The sense of taste is not the only thing that contributes to making food taste delicious. Ironically, all the other senses also play a role, direct or indi rect. Arguably just as important in determining flavor is the ol factory system, or smell. Olfac tion makes up a majority of the unique flavors that we experi ence as it faces fewer restrictions on the odor qualities it can pick up. Through a process called retronasal olfaction, the volatile chemicals released by foods in side the mouth are received by scent receptors at the back of the nose. A more acute smell allows for more distinction. As a result, the overall flavor of a certain type of food is a combi nation of both smell and taste.
Sight and hearing both play sig nificant roles when it comes to the perception of flavor, act ing as cues for how something should taste. Good-looking food creates expectation and anticipation, leading to saliva tion priming the mouth. This has the effect of making the food taste better. On the other hand, audio aids in the percep tion of the texture. It identifies
how crunchy or chewy the food is. Oddly enough, tactile sense, though less direct in taste, aids in how one might view a prod uct. The haptic qualities of the material or packaging that a sub stance is in, such as coffee in foam versus paper cups or rice on china versus paper plates, all affect the consumer’s opinion of the food. Eating is a multisensory experience, so better stimulation of the senses leads to tastier food.
to carrots were more likely to smile, while those who had kale grimaced. This suggests that the development of taste occurs as early as in the womb, as these infants are able to differentiate between sweet and bitter vegeta bles. The mother’s diet becomes the baby’s first experience with flavors, playing a large part in the foundation of the fetus’s food preferences. These pref erences will continue to change throughout one’s life.
based on Walmart’s current prices.
But what if you were eating those potatoes at a competi tive eater’s pace? Joey Chestnut, winner of Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest, gobbled down 63 hot dogs in 10 minutes. If someone were to eat 63 potatoes every 10 minutes, by the end of the day, they would be dead due to a stomach rupture.
Returning now to the health concerns, how quickly would your potato diet be forced to an early end? You would last at least two months, because it has been done before with supple ments. Following a pure potato diet, the vitamins A, B12 and E, and calcium and selenium defi ciencies would eventually catch up to you. Your vitamin A defi ciency would nearly blind you, and you would likely die within a year due to a decreased abil ity to fight infections. Suddenly, potatoes don’t sound so good after all!
There are a few takeaways from this odyssey into the world of Stuyvesant students’ questions. It is, sadly, not worth it to roll Fruit Roll-Ups around the world. Eating the building blocks of the universe for din ner isn’t the best plan, but eat ing the same thing all the time certainly isn’t either. It is time to exit the realm of the hypotheti cal… until next time.
However, these factors only generate the variations that oc cur in food and how they are de picted by the five senses. Taste, in its truest nature, is subjective: there are both distinct and sub tle preferences that are unique to people caused by our genetics and environments. In a recent study published by Psychologi cal Science with a group of 100 pregnant women in their third trimester, researchers found that fetuses that were subjected
During childhood, prefer ences are simpler to explain, since they follow natural in stincts. It is a combination of fa miliarity and simply what tastes good, which usually consists of sugary foods. Children are naturally drawn to sweet flavors because of their evolutionary purpose of signaling nutrientdense foods. When one reaches their teenage and adult years, it is further complicated by a mul titude of factors. For starters,
genetics affect how people per ceive different flavors, creating what’s known as a supertaster or non-taster. A supertaster has significantly more papillae than a non-taster, hence their higher sensitivity to the core flavor pro files. As a result, they show less preference for sweet, fatty, spicy, and bitter foods while non-tast ers demonstrate the opposite. Socioeconomic factors, age, and health have huge long-term im plications on food preference as well. Aging leads to the deterio ration of taste buds, decreasing the overall sensitivity to specific flavors. Objectively sweet food might become bland. Along with age comes acquired tastes cre ated by constant exposure and familiarity. Things like coffee or cheese, despite their objectively horrible taste and putrid smell that go against natural bodily reactions, become desired. How one perceives taste can also be influenced by immediate causes like hunger, which heightens sensitivity or even food crav ings for specific comfort foods. These cravings stem from a sen timental value caused by one’s culture or general nostalgia. The taste is affected by previous ex periences with the food and generates feel-good responses.
With so many contribut ing factors, everyone has dif ferent preferences. Everything from genetics, culture, gender, age, and health affect this everchanging definition that the brain associates with delicious ness. So to revisit the question, what are the secrets behind “de licious” food? The answer: you.
Seventeen young men and boys were gruesomely mur dered and mutilated by serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer between 1978 and 1991. Also known as the Milwaukee Monster, Dah mer primarily targeted young men of color, luring them back to his home with the promise of money if they posed for pictures. On numerous occa sions, neighbors and even fam ily members suspected Dahmer of criminal activity. On top of these suspicions, Dahmer was a registered sex offender and had multiple encounters with the police throughout his 13year felony span. All of this poses the question: why did it take 13 years for Dahmer to be recognized as the monster that he was?
Netflix’s “Monster: The Jef frey Dahmer Story,” created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, attempts to answer that ques tion as it explores Dahmer’s life. The series chronicles Dah mer’s childhood, family history, substance abuse, and criminal offenses, as well as various sto ries of Dahmer’s victims.
Henry Bansbach / The Spectator
The cast of “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” makes for a compelling and bingeworthy series. Evan Peters, an Emmy award-winning actor
and interactions with a psy chiatrist. Murphy also had Pe ters watch Dahmer’s infamous interview with Stone Phillips to prepare for the role. How
comfortable with going into “really dark places and staying there for an extended period of time.” In the end, though, Peters’s alarmingly brilliant portrayal of the serial killer concealed any struggles that the actor faced when taking on the role.
best known for his various por trayals in the “American Horror Story” (2011-2022) anthology, puts on a chilling performance as Jeffrey Dahmer. To cre ate as authentic of a series as possible, Murphy read various biographies and police reports and listened to recordings of Dahmer’s 1992 confession
ever, even with his meticulous preparation, Peters admitted in an interview with Netflix that playing Dahmer was easily the toughest role he’s taken on. Unsurprisingly, playing the part of a serial killer can take a toll on one’s mental health. In the same interview, Peters admit ted he had to learn how to be
But Peters is not the only actor who contributed to the show’s masterful storytelling. In the Netflix series, Niecy Nash takes on the role of Glenda Cleveland, Dahmer’s neighbor. Nash magnificently dives into Cleveland’s role as the primary—and perhaps only—person who really ar ticulated her suspicions about Dahmer. During her time as Dahmer’s neighbor, Cleveland continuously looked out for his various houseguests, whom she suspected were in danger. When Dahmer brought home and drugged 14-year-old Kon erak Sinthasomphone (Kieran Tamondong), Cleveland urged the police to investigate the sit uation. However, they believed Dahmer instead, a registered sex offender.
You’re in London at the Hammersmith Odeon on July 3, 1973, sitting in a dark stadium buzzing with anticipation. Fans are seated restlessly, donning outfits, makeup, and hair that resemble their idol. They’re all
of David Bowie are hypnotiz ing, and Brett Morgen’s film “Moonage Daydream” captures that heart-thumping, extraordi nary musical journey through the 20th century.
“Moonage Daydream” is less of a traditional documen tary about the life and acco
audience in his creative vision.
In an interview with In dieWire, Morgen explains his inspiration and process of mak ing the film: “I was hoping to create a theme park ride around my favorite musical artist, some thing that would be intimate and sublime and experiential.
influential singers, songwrit ers, and artists in the history of music. With his vivid lyr ics, contemporary visions, and larger-than-life persona, Bowie pioneered our modern concep tion of a rockstar. He was a chameleon of an artist, defining the decades he lived through by constantly switching up his style and crafting captivating al ter egos.
One of the highlights of Morgen’s documentary is in terviews with Bowie superfans, pooling into the streets to see him. His fans were truly fas cinated by him, even going to great lengths to mimic his icon ic makeup and eccentric style.
There are dozens, nay, HUN DREDS of songs recommended by our lovely writers that simply could not fit into our biweekly playlists from the past semester of Spectator publication. Here is a smattering of recent near misses that deserve christendom into the A&E playlist canon!
waiting for him to appear. Sud denly, the darkness is pierced by a dim light that splashes onto the stage. A roar floods the sta dium. Dressed in a glittery pair of pants and a sheer black top, Ziggy Stardust emerges, the man who fell to earth, the alien rock star. The sights and sounds
lades of Bowie, and more of a quilt of overlapping visuals and audio that come together into an entrancing cinematic expe rience. Capturing the story of this remarkable person requires an intimate understanding of Bowie, going beyond his many personas, and immersing the
But the film became something much deeper and richer.” As Morgen painstakingly probed through old interviews, exclu sive concert footage, and audio recordings, he stripped away the character “Bowie” to reveal the person underneath.
Bowie was one of the most
Bowie’s immeasurable cre ativity transcended across other artistic mediums besides mu sic, such as painting, sculpting, writing, acting, and fashion. He was the epitome of self-expres sion, bringing every ounce of his persona to the foreground. The documentary peppers in details of Bowie’s personal life through audio snippets of his monologues and live television interviews. There is no other voice featured in the film other than Bowie’s and occasionally that of a talk show host, giving the viewer an intimate connec tion with Bowie’s story.
In the aforementioned in terviews, Bowie discusses the estranged relationship he had with his mother, and how they cut each other out of their lives. He also references his older half-brother Terry numerous times, describing the impact
It’s a sunny day in Victory, California. Couple Alice (Flor ence Pugh) and Jack Chambers (Harry Styles) are living the dream—at least, their dream. After Alice makes a sand wich for her husband to take to work, she begins sealing up the remaining ingredients with plastic wrap: lettuce, tomatoes, and turkey. She then wraps her own face, with her breathing turning shallow until she real izes what she’s doing. We start worrying, darling.
“Don’t Worry Darling” is an archetypal psychological thriller that follows the lives of Alice Chambers and her husband Jack. They live in the meticu lously curated Victory, Califor nia, a company town for the Victory Project led by Frank (Chris Pine). Everything seems to be perfect: Jack is the bread winner and works for the Vic tory Project, while Alice is the typical ’50s housewife, provid ing for her home and indulging in activities that satisfy her. But after another housewife, Mar garet (KiKi Layne), has a sup posed “psychotic break” and spews anti-Victory Project sen timents, Alice’s reality begins to shatter and break. As she slowly realizes that not everything is as it seems in the Victory Project, viewers also discover that this town is too perfect to be real.
They say don’t judge a book by its cover, and the same somewhat applies to this film.
The movie’s 38 percent on Rot ten Tomatoes juxtaposed with its 17 minute standing ova tion during its screening at the
Venice Film Festival left many uncertain about what to expect from the film. Overall, “Don’t Worry Darling” deserves some credit. The cinematography is quite nice—cinematographer
Matthew Libatique expertly weaves intense, close-up shots of Alice and Jack’s heated argu ments, with lively, jubilant jazz tunes fit for a Great Gatsbyesque party scene (circa 2013).
There is an emphasis on a re curring circle motif through the cinematographic choices, such as the image of a pictureperfect cul-de-sac with white picket fence houses.
The costume design is also incredibly effective in establish ing tone shifts during the film.
Designer Arianne Phillips jux taposes the vibrant, colorful poodle skirts and crisp tuxedos of the ’50s with growing ten sions that tease a possible coup of Victory ideals. Though some pieces and moments are not necessarily period-specific, the inconsistencies are purposeful: Alice wearing nothing but Jack’s shirt while sending him off to work fits into their “honey moon couple” narrative.
Arguably, a good soundtrack can elevate a film to the next level, and composer John Pow ell undoubtedly delivers. The different scores contribute to the pace of the movie, making the film more immersive. Music is one of the most important elements in “Don’t Worry Dar ling,” as one of the moments that foreshadows the collapse of the Victory Project is when Alice begins humming a simple five-note melody that she can not place the origin of. This
plotline would not have been possible without the stellar soundtrack to complement it.
However, “Don’t Worry Darling” is far from perfect.
Chan, Nick Kroll, and Olivia Wilde, who also directed the film, fill the ranks of this mov ie. Though their performances were well-rounded and a true
scrambling for more, and not in a good way. There are too many unanswered questions, which leaves the movie feeling some what incomplete. Though cliff hangers can be addictive, they can also be unsatisfying if not executed well.
Most unattractively, “Don’t Worry Darling” was the cen ter of much gossip and drama, which tainted its reputation as a serious film. From Harry Styles and Olivia Wilde’s potentially PR romance to Florence Pugh feeling very uncomfortable on set, the anticipation for this film became less about the film itself and more about possible tensions between the actors. Watching this film with every thing that went on behind the scenes can be distracting, but once the beginning scenes start rolling, the drama moves to the side, allowing you to enjoy the film to its fullest.
Krystal Khine / The SpectatorWhile Florence Pugh’s perfor mance as Alice is powerful and evocative, Harry Styles’s novice take on Jack is stiff and unre alistic. It seems almost unfair to put such a strong leading actress opposite an actor with such limited experience. The cast as a whole is indeed starstudded: Chris Pine, Gemma
embodiment of the characters they portrayed, when the lead ing man can’t perform well, it sours the whole production.
Additionally, the plot of “Don’t Worry Darling” is not only a repetitive science fiction cliche that resembles the dysto pian classic “The Giver” (2014), but it also leaves the audience
The Living Gallery sticks out like a sore thumb in Bush wick. With its colorful front wall plastered with spray paint tags and cult induction stickers, the venue’s exterior mirrors the life within. The Living Gallery is a multifunctional space for creators to showcase their art, regardless of the medium—the gallery could turn into a make shift museum or music hall de pending on the day. In one of the venue’s more recent con certs on September 18, local bands such as Autumn Rhythm, Cellarhead, and Matter of Min utes played to a densely packed crowd of sweaty high school ers. Even anosmia could not negate the tangible coating of perspiration that wafted over the crowd. One bug-eyed Turk ish kid with a mullet insisted on wearing their leather jacket the entire time despite the Sa haran climate. Poor ventilation compounded the olfactory nui sance into a safety hazard. Still, the dim lighting and unbridled fun of the performers made the odor almost charming.
The set began with Mat ter of Minutes, an indie rock band with four equally adorable members. The two guitarists stood out as memorable per formers, both smiling through out the set and carrying their jovial attitude into fantastic solos. Matter of Minutes did a spectacular job pumping up the crowd, which went from a deadbeat headbangs to full jumps and flails. Doc Marten loafers smashed against De monika combat boots as mosh pits formed for nearly every song. Some cuts sounded like an age-of-the-internet Weezer, while others—especially the summery scat-chorus of “Let ter to Home”—came off as
more Rex Orange County. The crowd was brought to life over the course of Matter of Min utes’s set, and after closing with a slower song, the band joined the crowd.
Next was Cellarhead, a Bea con High School punk band whose sound lands somewhere between the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
and Crass. Despite the collec tive heatstroke, Cellarhead kept the crowd’s energy up with a mix of driving hardcore punk songs laced with infectious bass licks and a lot of shouting. The lead singer had a phenom enal stage presence (and really good hair), getting the crowd to crouch down with them at one bassline breakdown and come
back up for a pit to form. Their drummer also stood out with multiple solos and lightningquick breaks. Out of all the bands, the most kids moshed to Cellarhead; their sheer energy was simply contagious. After several sweat pools had accu mulated and Cellarhead ended their set, Autumn Rhythm took the mic.
With shirts coming off left and right (the drummer and guitarist both went bare-chest ed for most of the set), Au tumn Rhythm slowed the pace of the concert with cute Flock of Seagulls-esque guitar licks and an even cuter dreamy lead singer with hair like an Afghan Hound. Though not as intense
“Don’t Worry Darling” ex emplifies some of the classic dystopian dilemmas: what lies beyond the borders of the se cluded enclave, and what do those in power know that we don’t? Though the film suffers from casting flaws and a lack luster plot, the cinematography, costume design, and soundtrack assuage some of the movie’s deficiencies. Though not nec essarily an award-winning film, “Don’t Worry Darling” inter rupts the recent influx of biop ics and horror movies and is re freshing to watch. Harry Styles put it best at the 2022 Venice Film Festival: “You know, my favorite thing about the movie is, like, it feels like a movie.”
or wild as Cellarhead, the band created an unmistakable atmo sphere with each song. “Staring In” was a particular highlight, with fast-paced drums and light vocals that even had the previ ously-terrified leather jacket kid jumping. Their set continued with several fantastic buildups to lovely indie rock riffs and so much onstage chemistry. The guitarist and singer hit some El vis shimmy moves together and the drummer was an absolute soldier through the heat. The closing track, “Paper Lanterns,” was a beautiful conclusion, with a slower ballad and a mantric refrain of “come back around.” They were the leather jacket person’s favorite band.
Each band showed authen tic talent and seemed incred ibly excited to play at the Living Gallery, making for a serotonininjected fever dream. Through the scalding sweat, rattling chains, and moshpit shoves, the show was raw and electrifying. Many of the bands will return to the Gallery again for an up coming Halloween concert and costume party, and hopefully countless more concerts in the future.
The Living Gallery sticks out like a sore thumb in Bushwick. With its colorful front wall plastered with spray paint tags and cult induction stickers, the ven ue’s exterior mirrors the life within.
Kelsea Ballerini is a force to be reckoned with. At 29, she is well on her way to countrypop queendom with a dozen hit songs, two Grammy nomina tions, and a repertoire of starstudded collaborations. Hits like “Peter Pan” (2015), “Miss Me More” (2018), and “home coming queen?” (2020) have earned her a place as country music’s sweetheart with her au thentic songwriting, lyrical ge nius, and sonic versatility. Her newest album, “SUBJECT TO CHANGE,” finds the Nashville singer at a turning point in her life, enduring the heartbreak of her divorce and mastering the art of self-forgiveness.
“SUBJECT TO CHANGE” is deceptively optimistic and shallow on the first listen, but upon closer inspection, tinged with an undeniable sadness. Ballerini copes with the dev astation of her divorce by jok ing about needing therapy and the complexities of conditional love, but her lighthearted ness feels almost intentionally forced. While looking past Bal lerini’s jovial facade, it is evident that divorce is her worst night mare—a nightmare she even anticipated on her debut album “The First Time” (2015). In “Secondhand Smoke,” Ballerini reflects on her parents’ divorce, revealing her tenuous hope to “be the one to shake the habit.”
“SUBJECT TO CHANGE” sees her standing in the ashes of the aftermath of her worst fear, breathing in the smoke with bravery and poise.
Despite its initially genericseeming description, the al bum is anything but a typical heartbreak record. In an inter view with Apple Music, Bal
lerini explained that “the theme was change and evolution and growing up.” These overarching messages are present in every track, as Ballerini explores sub jects from her metamorphosis during the pandemic to the agency she demonstrates over her own life. From the contem plative title track to the pulsat ing, bass-driven pessimism of “I GUESS THEY CALL IT FALLING,” Ballerini paints a nuanced, flawed self-portrait, and finds balance in her chaotic existence.
These themes are introduced in the predictable yet charming title track, which pales in com parison to the second: “THE LITTLE THINGS.” It’s a clas sic Ballerinibanger, punctuated with country twang, wide-eyed romanticism, and small-town imagery. The song is grounded by drumming and clap-beat percussion, but its plucky banjo and electric guitar melodies el evate it from classic country to a sound that is distinctly Balleri ni’s. The chorus is contagious and playful, a perfect example of Ballerini’s lyrical mastery. She croons, “It’s when we’re in a crowded room, put your hand on my back / And waiting on me in the morning with my cof fee black,” making the melodi ous notes sound effortless.
The sixth track, “MUSCLE MEMORY,” is another high light of the album. Ballerini’s soaring vocals emulate a “1989” (2014)-era Taylor Swift. Her voice is smooth like honey as she sings about reigniting an old flame while he is back in town, yet has an edge and sharpness that reflects the state of her life in the midst of a plethora of changes. Evocative of Camila Cabello’s “All These Years” (2018), the song is both a pop goldmine and distinctly Nash
Chloe Huang / The Spectatorville country. A hammering bass backbeat and intoxicating electric guitar bring the same magnetism and intrigue as Bal lerini’s mysterious ex. The song
causing the lyrics to come off as amateur despite the song’s winning chorus and refrains.
Surprisingly, the ballads of the album lack Ballerini’s signa
icons Kelly Clarkson and Carly Pearce does little to redeem the lyrical and thematic clumsiness of the bulk of the album.
Most disappointingly, the album is predictable and re petitive at times; the gentle gui tar strumming, twangy banjo, overused clap tracks, and chim ing electric guitar solos blend the songs together. The more upbeat songs on the album are infused with contagious bass beats, but the slower bal lads lack sonic complexity and have a grainy acoustic sound. The lackluster production of “SUBJECT TO CHANGE” feels like a defense mechanism, with the superficially bright major chords distracting from the aching lyrics. With a sound similar to her previous albums, Ballerini disguises her sadness with the sounds that character ized the naivety of her youth.
Terry had on him: he intro duced Bowie to subjects from John Coltrane and contempo rary poetry to Buddhism and spirituality prior to Terry’s un timely death. In voicing his ear ly childhood trauma, we learn about Bowie’s private fear of insanity and inner struggle to fit in.
In contrast, the film also captures Bowie’s openness about his sexuality. He describes it less of a black-and-white con struct and more of a fluid spec trum, which was unheard of at the time. Part of his intrigue came from his refusal to be de fined by social norms. A clip from an interview featured in the documentary encapsulates the public’s reaction, showing an obnoxious host poking fun at Bowie’s outfit and asking him, “What kind of shoes are those? Men’s shoes? Women’s shoes? Or bisexual shoes?” to which he responds, “They’re
shoe shoes, silly.”
Throughout his lengthy career, Bowie slowly revealed more of himself by shedding his disguises, including Ziggy Stardust and the Thin White Duke. “Sometimes I don’t feel as if I’m a person at all. I’m just a collection of other people’s ideas,” he revealed in a 1972 interview. The documentary shows that even a man with seemingly unshakeable confi dence and the world’s adoration still possessed the same vulner
is a lyrical highlight of the al bum as Ballerini sings the clev erly crafted words, “I can pick you out of a lineup, baby, even with my eyes closed,” to an ir resistible rhythm.
Despite its hits, “SUB JECT TO CHANGE” has its fair share of misses. Songs like “WEATHER” and “WALK IN THE PARK” exhaust every meteorology metaphor in ex istence, failing to use symbolic imagery effectively. In “WALK IN THE PARK,” Ballerini sings, “Sometimes I’m a sum mer day, sometimes I start rain ing / Always one season away from everything changing,”
ture sparkle, with records like “LOVE IS A COWBOY” and “UNIVERSE” falling flat. The last three tracks on the album are centered entirely around the seductive illusion of fame, echo ing Ballerini’s personal struggles with her mental health in a way that comes off as performa tive. This insincerity is evident on the 13th track, “DOIN’ MY BEST,” when Ballerini disses Halsey, singing that she regrets collaborating with her on “the other girl” because they are no longer on speaking terms. Even on “YOU’RE DRUNK, GO HOME,” Ballerini’s power ful collaboration with country
That being said, the magic of “SUBJECT TO CHANGE” comes not from its produc tion, but Ballerini’s impressive vocals, which brilliantly fuse vulnerability and strength. Our starry-eyed Knoxville hero ine has been disappointed one too many times, and decides to make the music she wants without confining herself to anyone’s expectations. The al bum is her way of picking up the pieces of her life, surround ing herself with what matters to her, and healing from her past. Ballerini herself describes “DOIN’ MY BEST” as “the celebration of taking owner ship of cringe,” a statement that rings true for much of the album; it is honest, unapolo getic, and contains both flickers of undeniable beauty and emo tional “word vomit.” It may not be perfect, but as Ballerini is learning and recuperating, per fection is not the goal.
abilities as the rest of us.
As anticipated, music was central to the documentary. With the fast-paced, upbeat “Hallo Spaceboy” (1995) in the intro, the dramatic ballad “Life On Mars” (1971), and concert
experience is captured beauti fully: the otherworldly presence of Bowie in prime glamor, the pounding sounds of drums and guitar, and the deafening noise of passionate fans, all seen through the grainy footage of a
bit repetitive and almost nau seating. The rapid-fire mon tages of flashing images that were enjoyable in the first half of the documentary soon be come dizzying. There is never a calm moment in “Moonage Daydream;” that’s what makes it so captivating yet exhaust ing to watch. The bombarding stream of creative conscious ness exhausts expectations for a typical documentary, but after all, “Moonage Daydream” is no typical documentary.
recordings of hits from Bow ie’s catalog, like “Let’s Dance” (1983) and “Heroes” (1977), Morgen utilizes tracks spanning Bowie’s extensive discography to recreate the atmosphere of pivotal moments in Bowie’s life. The David Bowie concert
35mm lens.
However, the constant thrust of passion radiating throughout the documentary doesn’t give the viewer much time to process anything. Run ning at a lengthy two hours and 15 minutes long, it becomes a
Overall, the biopic brings a fresh perspective to a familiar individual. Bowie’s narration is as close as you can get to lis tening to him share his most intimate thoughts. In sifting through Bowie’s private vault of memorabilia and stitching them together, Morgen created something remarkable. Bowie shielded his personal life from his audience and created unique personas to hide behind, but through this first-hand narra tive, we can get to know the man behind the icon.
“Moonage Daydream:” Keep Your Electric Eye On MeFilm
“Moonage Daydream” is less of a traditional documentary about the life and accolades of Bowie, and more of a quilt of overlapping visuals and audio that come together into an entrancing cinematic experience.
Episode two, “Please Don’t Go,” ends with an authentic phone call made on the night of Sinthasomphone’s murder. The call was between Cleveland and Officer John Balcerzak (Scott Michael Morgan), who sent Sinthasomphone back into Dahmer’s apartment, thus exposing the police’s disregard for Cleveland’s concerns. The decision to incorporate the au thentic phone call as the con clusion to the episode adds a necessary aspect of actuality to the series, cleverly remind ing their viewers that Dahmer’s story is not merely fiction, but a real, 13-year-long tragedy.
Throughout the series, Cleveland also fights to resist Dahmer’s harassment, which is seen in an intriguing portrayal by Nash in episode seven of the series, “Cassandra.” In this episode, Cleveland convinces their landlord to evict Dahmer, and in return, Dahmer brings her a sandwich made of hu
man meat. When Dahmer tries to force her to eat it, she boldly refuses and insists that he leave her apartment, until he reluc tantly concedes.
Despite Peters and Nash’s impressive acting, the show has its imperfections. For one, the storyline’s lack of linear chronology is at fault for con fusing the audience at times. The viewer bounces back and forth between Dahmer’s child hood and adult lives, as well as between his murders and the events leading up to them. All of this can make the show difficult to follow. However, the more prominent flaw of this series is that despite being advertised through media as largely told from the victims’ points of view, the series pri marily follows Dahmer’s life and perspective.
These misdirections ulti mately landed Murphy and Brennan in hot water. Many believe that monsters like Dah mer should not be constantly immortalized through media, especially because of the lack
of focus on the victims. While one victim, Tony Hughes, had an entire episode dedicated to his story, many believe that this was the bare minimum, as the show fails to explore or even mention the majority of Dah mer’s victims. On top of this, the families of Dahmer’s vic tims had no knowledge of the show’s production despite their inherent involvement in the tragedies. Many of the victims’ relatives took to social media to express their frustration.
Eric Perry, a cousin of Errol Lindsey, who was just 19-yearsold when he was murdered by Dahmer, said, “It’s retrauma tising over and over again, and for what? How many movies/ shows/documentaries do we need?”
The show also recreates Lindsey’s sister Rita Isbell’s court appearance following Dahmer’s arrest. However, despite being directly featured in the show, Isbell herself was never contacted. In an inter view with Insider, she voiced her frustration and said, “When
I saw some of the show, it bothered me, especially when I saw myself—when I saw my name come across the screen and this lady saying verbatim exactly what I said.” Isbell also proposed that Netflix should have offered some of their profits from the show to the victims’ children and grand children, saying, “If the show benefited them in some way, it wouldn’t feel so harsh and careless. It’s sad that they’re just making money off of this trag edy. That’s just greed.”
Many also believe that there is an inherent issue with the way that true crime media feeds into the disturbing trend of dramatizing the life and crimes of serial killers. Many argue that this dramatization often allows criminals like Dahmer to retain an undeserved audi ence, and, in some disturbing cases, a fanbase. Additionally, this sensationalism usually re sults in misinformation, as seen with Dahmer. For example, although Cleveland was Dah mer’s suspecting neighbor, she
From the plain exterior, one wouldn’t expect the intri cate works housed inside Ti ger Strikes Asteroid Gallery, a small artist-run space nestled in Bushwick. But Sana Musa sama’s “I Never Played With Dolls” is nothing short of in credible. Musasama works with clay, a medium she has felt connected to since her youth. Her work is centered on the experiences of women from all around the world and her personal connection to them, covering a range of topics from female genital mutilation to the lost voices of victims of the Holocaust and 9/11. Her work typically uses symbolism and abstraction to amplify its themes, but this exhibit differs greatly from Musasama’s more abstract work, depicting wom en directly with a more stylized and realistic approach.
A primary focus of “I Never Played With Dolls” is the Topsy-Turvy dolls, which derive from antebellum dolls. Because owning dolls in their own likeness was prohibited by slave masters, enslaved women would make dolls with a white head on one side and a black head on the other so that their daughters could have a doll that represented them, but was easy to hide in order to stay out of harm’s way. Musasama’s take on Topsy-Turvy Dolls de picts influential women from around the world in histori cally accurate attire specific to each woman. She worked with groups of people to create each dress using recycled materials. Each woman is coupled with another like herself, or two ver sions of the same woman are combined and juxtaposed to show different aspects of her identity. For instance, one doll
Artshows Helen Keller with her lifelong mentor on her flipside, and another fuses two versions of Michelle Obama: the effec tive, political First Lady and the gardener who helps children.
Of all the Topsy-Turvy dolls on display, the most evoc ative was that of the girl soldier.
Musasama described the pro cess of kidnapping and break ing the will of a child, how girls are brutally raped and forced to kill their own families. Her dress on the “before” side is filled with bright and colorful reds and oranges, which quick ly turns to the same girl with an empty expression, a crown of bullets, and a camouflage dress hemmed with guns. She points her own gun at the viewer of the piece, forcing them to con front the violence that she has endured.
The other type of Musa sama’s dolls focuses on selfrepresentation. They carry a much more personal message
from her childhood, depict ing her experiences in a 1950s American military community.
Musasama spoke about feel ing undesirable growing up and hating her features be cause boys in her community preferred light-skinned girls. When she expressed this to her mother, they sat together for hours, an unusual occurrence in their busy home. Together, they made a doll that bore re semblance to Musasama, one that made her feel beautiful, hence the name “I See Me.”
She spoke about how the doll was a step closer to loving her nose, lips, and hair. In her later recreations of the original doll, she uses the raku firing method to create color in the piece, a technique where ceramic is re moved from the kiln while it’s still red hot and placed in flam mable material like sawdust or newspaper to create markings. The dolls are either prepubes cent or entering puberty like
Musasama was at the time, and each doll’s hair is adorned with colorful paper beads that she learned to make in Cambodia.
Sana Musasama is a woman with an incredibly powerful set of life experiences, and she’s always willing to learn and share her wisdom. The space her work occupies amplifies her voice, as there’s no wall of text to follow for explana tions of her dolls. Instead,
did not live directly next door to him in the Oxford Apart ments as the show portrays. In reality, his next-door neighbor and victim of the aforemen tioned sandwich scene was a woman named Pamela Bass.
In the end, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” offers racism as an answer to why it took so long for law enforce ment to capture Dahmer. The majority of Dahmer’s victims were young men of color, and their sporadic cries for help were often overlooked by the police. Additionally, Dahmer lived in a predominantly Black neighborhood, and the suspi cions of his neighbors were also often ignored. The series resulted in understandable an ger within the Black communi ty of Milwaukee for dramatiz ing the tragedies that occurred. While the show aimed to shed light on Dahmer’s victims and the horror that he inflicted, it ultimately resulted in over whelming controversy regard ing the humanization of mon sters like him.
she is physically there in the gallery, personally speaking about her work and her con nection to each piece, creating an interpersonal connection between art, artist, and viewer. Each piece is visually captivat ing, with distinct and beautiful qualities that pull the viewer in.
“I Never Played With Dolls” is a uniquely transfixing must-see for any and all sculpture fans.
At 6:30 a.m. sharp, Principal Yu enters a deserted Stuyvesant High School. He always makes sure to ar rive early so that he can spend an hour practicing saying “good morning” to students as they walk into the build ing. Normally he’s the first person there, but today he is greeted by a lone Spectator editor who had stayed overnight to finish this week’s paper (only three people actually wrote their articles). Yu greets the sleep-deprived student and eagerly takes a copy from the pile.
As soon as the student is out of sight, the principal begins to throw the newspaper into the trash, like he usually does, but this time something catches his attention: a Newsbeat on the front page that reads “Spec Humor Members Want Yu to Join Them.”
“What the [REDACTED]?” Yu mutters as he begins to flip to the Hu mor section, where he finds his name in an article titled “Principal Yu: Stuy’s #1 BTS Fan.”
“I don’t even like K-pop!” he exclaims bashfully. He reaches into the trash can, which is specifically dedicated to Spectator copies, and digs out old papers. He frantically flips through the Humor sections, his
face filling with horror as he finds his name on every page.
“Principal Yu Eats His Pizza With a Fork”
“Principal Yu: Secretly a Furry?!”
“Principal Yu x Y/N Fanfiction”
honor their almighty lord and savior Principal Yu. As per usual, the class room is set up with a huge candlelit shrine containing framed pictures and fanart of the principal, with “Dyna mite” by BTS playing softly in the background.
“Greetings, children,” announces Humor Editor Bert, accompanied by his co-Editor Ernie. “Before we begin our brainstorming session, we must take a moment to honor our supreme overlord and creative muse, Seung Yu. Let us bow down to him so that he may bless us with more article ideas.”
“But first, we must provide him with an offering,” adds Ernie. He places in front of the shrine a Dunkin’ Donuts bag containing a half-eaten chocolate donut. But before the stu dents can complete their ritual, the door slams open and Principal Yu ap pears. The children look up in shock; they’ve never actually seen their deity in person before, and the very sight of his beauty brings them to tears.
“Oh, divine ruler, what a pleasure it is to see you in the flesh!” says Bert. “Tell us, what is it that you desire?”
Unamused, Principal Yu holds up the BTS article. “Explain this.”
“An article inspired by you, your highness,” explains Ernie. “We hope you enjoyed it!”
“Enjoyed it?” He crumples the paper in his hand. “Just like I en
joyed your fanfictions, and your theo ries, and your false accusations? And don’t even get me started on the BTS jokes—you should know the only band I listen to is Radiohead!”
“We apologize for any sorrow we have caused, Your Majesty. Would you like us to start writing articles about Radiohead?” Bert interjects.
“Students, this is absolutely un acceptable. I am your principal, and this is a pre-professional, nay, PRO FESSIONAL environment, but you guys are treating me like some sort of joke—and not even a funny joke, because your articles are garbage! I’m sorry, but if this continues, I think I’m going to have to remove the Humor department.”
The students cry out in protest. “We will stop writing articles in your name, sir, if that’s what you wish. Just please don’t erase our humble depart ment!”
“Thank you,” Principal Yu sighs. “Also, could you take down this… shrine thing? It's kind of weird.”
“Of course, Your Majesty,” says Ernie. The students bow down to the principal as he awkwardly exits the room.
Two weeks later, Principal Yu picks up a copy of The Spectator and flips to the Humor section. He smiles as he reads the title “Brian Moran Confesses His Love for BTS."
“Why Principal Yu is the Ideal Husband”
to push you out of their oh-soimportant path, down the stairs, or around the corner, while rush ing to… the cafeteria? This spe cific phenomenon of freshmen rushing to go basically nowhere is so common and annoying that it automatically warrants first place; it’s the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind when they think of characteristically-freshman be havior. Freshmen, why are you in such a hurry? Where are you going? Clearly never anywhere important. Calm down. Show ing complete and total respect to your upperclassmen at all times is significantly more important than being punctual for your so-called “geometry final.”
ing nonetheless. It’s a little gross, especially when you have gym two to three times a week and you’ve been wearing the same sweaty gray shirt under your hoodie for half of the school day. Tons of upperclassmen do this too, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s total freshman behavior. Dr. Markova definitely had a point about gym uniforms—don’t wear them all day! You know her, so honor her otherwise questionable legacy and just change. Leave the Stuyvesant Physical Educa tion department-repping fashion choices to the freshmen. Except for MAYBE wearing the sweat pants as pajamas—that is kind of okay.
Student found unalive due to taking excessive SAT prac tice tests
Survey shows that most of Stuyvesant’s math teachers have more maidens than YOU.
The English Department has finally made the switch from books to hand-to-hand combat
Entire student population checks out after a record to tal of four weeks
By CHARLOTTE PETERSONFreshmen are ragged on by upperclassmen for all sorts of reasons. After all, they’re new to the school and, as such, have not properly developed an acute sense of shame. Everyone has seen a younger student do some thing lame and thought, “Ugh, freshmen.” But of their multitude of unconscious embarrassments, which are the most terrible?
Which are even somewhat forgiv able? Here, I’ve organized a de finitive ranking of the worst sins of Stuyvesant’s freshman class.
1. Running in the hallways Ah, the most classic example of freshman behavior! Everyone has, at one time or another, wit nessed a small student with an oversized backpack racing past them in the hallway. The worst part about it is that it involves you, too. They’ve probably tried
Whenever schedules are re leased, freshies always want to know what their teachers are like and how to successfully kiss up to them. Of course, instead of us ing the search function at the top of every Facebook group to see what other upperclassmen have said on similar previous posts or trying something (extremely advanced) like joining old advice groups and searching surnames on there, freshmen constantly have the great idea to make sepa rate posts asking, “How’s x for y?” despite 15 other people hav ing asked the same question just an hour ago. This one is terrible because of how much it clogs up everyone’s feed, but it isn’t too vile because it’s only a problem right around the beginning of a new semester. While there are upperclassmen who do this too, most have long since upped their game by choosing to stalk teach ers online instead.
3. Wearing their gym uniforms under their clothes
This one is not as common as freshmen running in the hallways, but it warrants a third place rank
4. Being able to open their lockers Honestly, struggling with lockers at the beginning of the school year is pretty understand able. Everyone who isn’t a fresh man spends at least three minutes fiddling with their locker, open ing Talos, making sure they’ve tried the correct combination, and then trying again. Frankly, it’s embarrassing to get your locker open without asking for help—you’re just spending too much time and energy when you could just get someone else to do it for you. But this is also a bit less embarrassing than the other sins mentioned, because there’s no one except other freshies who might judge you on the uber-isolated 10th floor. If you figured out how to open a lock er as early as the second day of school, though, something might be seriously wrong with you. Ev eryone else only figures it out at least weeks into the school year. I would be completely ashamed to admit that I got the hang of it before October.
5. Still having an optimistic, un crushed soul Unfortunately, most fresh men still have the childlike,
Hello, Stuy students! As the months get colder and the de lightfully familiar feeling of burn out starts to set in, I know we all feel as if we are missing some thing. Maybe it’s that weird feel ing of comfort that warms you from within when Principal Yu says good morning to you on the bridge, or the flutter of emotion you get when you brush hands with another student reaching for the same copy of “Sigma Male Mentality” on the library shelf. Do you sense it in the air? Yes, ‘tis the season for you to realize the extent of your own loneliness. It’s time to fall in love in October.
But if you’re not exactly sure how to do that, because you spent all your formative years (that should’ve been dedicated to crushes) playing Cool Math Games, don’t worry. In this ar ticle, we’ll show you all the tips and tricks you’ll need to find your true love before this month is over.
Tip #1: Know what is sure to attract a mate. First, you want to increase your natural phero
mones, so try to avoid shower ing for as long as you can to re ally buff up that natural scent. If needed, you can even try roll ing around in the locker rooms.
Ladies and gentlemen love that stank. Another big help for a romantic ambience is the back ground. Play some music, prefer ably something that nobody can resist. We recommend the playl ist Best of Weezer, as well as just browsing r/EdSheeran. Another solid choice is the Hannah Mon tana theme song; blasting it from your rolling backpack will surely make you utterly irresistible.
Tip #2: Use the Stuyves ant online dating app Hudson Hooked, which was created by an alumnus in 2003. No need for Tinder—the underground application for Hudson Hooked makes it much easier to get dates. You simply input your free peri ods, GPA, and credit card infor mation, and Hudson Hooked will set you up with a member of your preferred sex in a registered time and place at Stuyvesant. The re views are good, albeit some onestar reviews complaining that the users are mostly freshmen. Now
adays, it seems to be used more as a tutoring service rather than the aforementioned dating app, but at least it’s working out for some.
Tip #3: Join Spec Humor. There is nothing more attractive in a person than if they write for
ging you to date them.
Tip #4: Ask all your teach ers for advice! More often than not, they will definitely want to share the details of their person al life with you. We hear from a little birdie that Moran gives the
middle school-based eagerness and enthusiasm that is entirely unbecoming of a jaded Stuyves ant student. If our school’s stu dents weren’t always visibly over worked, exhausted, and totally dead inside, we might as well lose our super impressive reputation as one of America’s most stress ful high schools. Dewy-eyed freshmen are putting all of that at stake, and it’s incredibly selfish of them. However, this annoy ing characteristic of the fresh man class is ranked last because of how wonderfully temporary it is: the light will fade from their eyes before the end of their first semester of high school. They’ll finally stop bringing total shame on our school and become true Stuyvesant students.
While making this ranking, I’ve come to the conclusion that freshmen are indeed as terrible as everyone says they are. Their sins will hopefully dull in extrem ity by sophomore year, and then we’ll finally be able to look them in the eyes and see them as val ued members of the Stuyvesant community. To all the freshmen, remember to never just be your selves: be better.
the Humor department of The Stuyvesant Spectator. Everyone here is an incarnation of god and we all get dozens of pleas and marriage proposals daily. If you join Humor, you will have people grabbing onto your ankles, beg
best tricks to students. He’s even known to help students put up posters around the school adver tising their dateable traits. Feel free to rip down posters for “im portant clubs” to paste a gigantic photo of your face on the wall,
complete with your phone num ber. I mean, someone’s bound to take the chance.
Tip #5: Make sure to use the best pickup lines. We interviewed countless students, and these were the most successful one-lin ers that made them swoon. “Are you the impostor? ‘Cause you killed me, girl.” (Extra points for the Among Us reference.) “You must be from Tennessee, ‘cause 38.89795622, -77.03682560.”
“If I had a dime for every time I thought you were beautiful, I’d have four cents.” “I’d like to meet your mother, to ask for her permission to date you. Oh wait, no. Actually, I’d rather date your mother.”
And there you go! With these five tips and tricks, you’re bound to be making out on top of the sophomore bar or blocking the escalators with your hand-hold ing in absolutely no time! And of course, remember to always ne glect your schoolwork and other personal obligations in the pur suit of teenage infatuation. True love only comes once, but your grandma's funeral can always be rescheduled.
Almost all crevices and cran nies in the current Stuyvesant High School building have been explored by bored and overly determined students. The forty stationary bicycles clumped to gether in a room half the size it should be? Check. The specific location of the glass box-inthe-wall of the class of 2038? Check. The perfect spot on the Hudson staircase for undisclos able human-to-human relations? You betcha. All of ‘em pinpoint ed, and you probably even know that last one. However, there is one spot on campus completely off-limits to the curious eyes out there: the roof on the fifth floor.
At first, this seems illogical. It is a perfectly good resting area literally attached to the building, and yet we are barred from en tering it. Moreover, it’s right next to the perpetually-crowded and smelly cafeteria, so one would imagine that the roof would supply some much needed space and fresh air. Thousands of students have come and gone without getting the chance to experience the wonders of the red-bricked fifth floor roof, only able to longingly stare at it from the other side of the windows. Well, it turns out that there is actually a really good reason Stuyvesant doesn’t want you trespassing in that area, and I’m willing to bet it’s not what you expected…
The first of many offenses
occurred during the Spring of 1994, with Stuyvesant fresh off of the great location change of 1992. First, let’s give some context. Benyamin, an animeobsessed senior, had been hid ing for seven hours in a janitor’s office with 24 Sailor Mooninspired t-shirts. Then, in the middle of the night, he ran out
smart cars. For four people, Benyamin’s gift was the sweet release of death. And for many others, it was a not-so-free ride to the hospital. The next morn ing, Ben was found weeping on the roof, deeply regretful, not for the damage he caused, but instead for the loss of pieces of his prized anime collection.
maker, and, like most freshmen, she was not of a particularly size able stature. In fact, she was so inconspicuous that she donned a long sign that stuck out of her backpack and read “MIND YOUR STEPS, FRESHMAN BELOW” so that no one walked over her. Despite the fiasco that had occurred a few months pri
geted by the biggest stork, who soon overpowered her, grabbed her by her shoulders, and flew her into the sky. Far, far away she flew, everyone stood, noth ing they could do, where she would land, nobody knew, poor Lulu, boo, hoo, hoo.
onto the roof and began drop ping each t-shirt over its ledge, one by one. In his mind, Benya min believed that he was giv ing over two dozen lucky New Yorkers the most amazing gift one could dream of. Unfortu nately, the falling t-shirts had caused one ginormous car col lision that involved three SUVs, one 18-wheeler, and twelve
He failed to show up for his court hearing, instead fleeing the country, and Stuyvesant was forced to cover the costs of the damages. The culprit’s current whereabouts are unknown.
The next occasion was in September of 1994, only a few months after Benyamin’s t-shirt incident. Our hero of this tale was named Lulu Lemonader
or, the fifth floor roof was still an easily accessible part of the campus; anyone could walk on it and dillydally during their free periods. One particularly sunny Monday afternoon, Lulu was sit ting with her friends on the roof when a muster of vicious storks approached them. Everyone was able to swat away the hostile birds except Lulu. She was tar
Obviously, a missing child report is pretty bad for PR, but that wasn’t really why the school shut down the roof. In fact, the final occurrence that contribut ed to the closing, the straw that broke the camel’s back, if you will, happened twelve years lat er in 2006. Elizabeth Windsor, Stuyvesant’s head of the janito rial staff at the time (no relation to Elizabeth II), made the grav est mistake in the history of this school on the morning of Janu ary 7, somewhere between 7:22 a.m. and 7:31 a.m. Ms. Windsor made the great error of… losing her keys. Yup, that’s right. The reason we cannot enter the fifth floor roof today is because of a single lost key. Not because of the numerous literal deaths I’ve listed above, but rather because the school was too lazy and cheap to make A SINGLE rep lica of the roof key. A SINGLE replica.
So there the roof remains, cursed to be locked away for ever, never to be trampled on by the weak steps of Stuy kids. But who knows, maybe one day the administration will finally take initiative and install a new lock. Or maybe we’ll just die first. Goodbye!
You disgust me. You heard me. You are a Stuyvesant stu dent. You can’t have your 2014 obsession with Wattpad come back again—you went to ther apy for this after staying up for 45 hours reading the entirety of Freddy Fazbear x Y/N volumes one through 37! Your obsession with Y/N fanfics is not normal. It’s weird, and the more you read, the more detached you get from the real world.
OMGGGG THIS IS MY FIRST FANFIC@@!!! Hope fully u guys like it ^OwO^.... i hope this does well, i need to do better than ALYSSA’S BTS x Y/N FANFIC!!
BACKGROUND: You are a new, untraumatized sophomore at Stuyvesant High School. You transferred in after making it through the SHSAT during the second round, and with the first month of Stuyvesant un der your belt, school’s getting real. After failing your quizzes, what used to be “I got straight A’s without even trying!” has become “I am praying to every divine being that I pass.” You also have a crush on a senior LMAO. We, as authors of this article, are not projecting. Trust us.
Y/N: Oh man, I’m walk ing across the Tribeca Bridge again. It doesn’t get any easi er after knowing that my Val orant privileges for the week depend on my grades… I just want to spend cuffing season with my Senior Crush and forget about school!!
Katherin (without an E!!!!): “Hey Y/N!!! It’s really nice to see you!”
My bestie Katherin snuck up from behind me. It’s really nice to have a friend in these
trying times, esp since she’s in my math class and makes it so slay. I don’t know what I would do without her….
Y/N: “OMG KATHER IN!!! It’s so nice to see you!!!”
Katherin: “it’s so nice to see you too!!!! O yeah we’re hanging
katherin about him…i just couldn’t help myself. if that’s the best or worst decision of my life we’ll see….
Y/N: “KATHY!!! Don’t say that outside!!! Someone might hear u….”
Katherin: “but he can come can’t he…plus u HAVE to get more photos for ur shrine….”
Y/N: “I guess ur right… i’ll go see him at the senior bar…”
Y/N: Sometimes it sucks to be a sophomore. Having a crush on a senior is really hard. They’re just so pretty, and you can’t talk to them because they look at you like you’re a little kid. However, I can’t give up. I have to try. I have to try and talk to them.
Senior Crush: Hey, Y/N! What are you thinking about?
Y/N: Oh. Nothing much. Hey Senior Crush, can I ask you a question?
Senior Crush: Sure!
Y/N: Are you by any chance free this weekend?
Senior Crush: Yeah, why?
Y/N: Do you maybe want to go to Rockefeller Park on Saturday? We could go ice skat ing and then grab some lunch.
Senior Crush: Yeah, sure. Can I invite some of my friends?
with just me. Crap, what do I do now? Do I say “Yes,” or do I just bail out? Think, Y/N, think! No! It can still work. I need to have hope!
Y/N: Yeah! It could be a mini-hangout and a getaway from school. I think we all need it.
Senior Crush: Couldn’t agree more! Alright, I invited some of my friends, and my boyfriend is also coming.
Y/N: Boyfriend?
Senior Crush: Yeah! I forgot to mention I had one, lol.
Y/N: You know what? Maybe sticking to 2D girls isn’t such a bad idea. At least they don’t keep stuff from you. Also, who the hell says “lol” in-person unironically? Oh, who am I kidding. I'm never going to get over them. Besides, that shrine I built is too expensive to dismantle.
Senior Crush: What are you thinking about now, Y/N?
Y/N: Still nothing. Hey, I just contracted an STD, so I don’t think I will be able to go on Saturday.
Senior Crush. You contract ed a what now???!?!?
Y/N: Bye, Senior Crush. Gotta head to class.
out this weekend right…?”
Y/N: “yeah silly… why, were u thinking of inviting someone (lol)?”
Katherin: (whispers) “your senior crush silly….”
Y/N: oh yeah i told
Y/N: Dammit. Mission failed! I knew it was too good to be true. His stunning, hazel-brown orbs with just a tinge of raven-black were too entrancing and romantic! I should have known. Senior Crush would never hang out
PART TWO WILL BE RE LEASED IN ISSUE 5 IF THERE ARE MORE THAN 10 RESPONSES ON THE FORM: https://tinyurl.com/humor prt2
(Aniket doesn’t want to write it so we really should write it ��)
No one likes a public bathroom. Whether it’s at a McDo nald’s, movie theater, or gas stati on, sometimes everyone would rather just wait it out. But school bathrooms are the worst—they’re the only option you have for eight hours. As a user of the esteemed Stuyvesant bathrooms, I have seen the best, the mildly okay, the bad, and the egregious offerings of the se smelly havens. I shall rate these bathrooms for the benefit of the students at Stuyvesant who use them.
I’ve only been in this bathroom once, considering it was locked every other time I tried to enter it. The one-time experience was actually quite enjoyable. Early in the morning means clean floors, no foul-looking stalls, and full paper towel and soap dispensers. But it should be known that it’s mostly teachers who occupy this bathroom. This could be the reas on why it’s so clean, as teachers are better kept than students. Or, the teachers are covering up a secret business. To be clear, I am not pro claiming that Stuyvesant teachers run an underground fight club inside of the bathroom, but it is a possible explanation for why they always have “headaches.” Either way, it’s a higher-tier bathroom, but take that with a grain of salt due to my lack of experience. An 8/10.*
As the bathroom on the floor of the bridge entrance and the Senior Bar, the second floor bathroom suffers from constant congestion. Whether it be people changing in and out of their gym uniforms or a nameless, faceless group of seven boys trying to skip
their Global class, it’s never easy to find an empty stall. On the off chance that you do, you’re too em barrassed to do your business be cause of the amassing boy horde outside of your stall. But for no as tonishingly bad environment, a low 6/10 for the second floor.
You crack the egg open, then make and eat an omelet with said egg. The taste of this omelet is what the third floor bathroom smells like—so bad that I believe there’s a risk of dying via radiation ex posure. I am not going to sit here and pretend as if bathrooms smell
The Fifth Floor Boys’ Bathroom:
For a bathroom on the same floor as the cafeteria, you’d expect a lot of people coming in and out after eating, but it is relatively quiet. However, I don’t think many would choose to use the same bathroom with people who willingly eat the beans and “pizza” from the cafete ria. There is an extra stall, which is a plus, but the sinks are atrocious. Whether it’s mold or smelly tis sues filled with God knows what, I want nothing to do with those sinks. 4/10.
The Sixth Floor Boys’ Bathroom:
I’ve never had a single good experience with this bathroom ever since the first day of school last year when I found an unflus hed toilet bowl of feces inside of a stall. But this year, it’s just a re ally bad floor. Tissues are everyw here, the floor is always wet, and the shoe prints do not help at all. But this isn’t all that surprising considering that a large part of the bathroom’s users arrive from the Sophomore Bar—which, in all ho nesty, may possess more garbage, disease, and bacteria than any of these bathrooms combined. A low 5/10 bathroom.
The Seventh Floor Boys’ Bathroom:
the physics department, but I have never seen a single happy person enter or exit this bathroom. But it doesn’t smell bad, is usually stoc ked, and has no remarkably dirty floor. I might even say it’s a good bathroom. Maybe the juniors know something I don’t—or maybe the juniors are depressed and constipa ted. A 7/10 rating; I’m suspicious.
If you were to ask me last year, I wouldn’t touch this bathroom again. If I had an obnoxious sto machache and this was the only bathroom available, I would’ve car ved my stomach open and released the intestines from my body. But this year, it isn’t as bad as it once was. There are two soap dispen sers, which is good, but only one of them actually contains soap. The other is kind of useless. The re are also paper towels, which is another rarity. A higher-end 7/10 rating.
The Third Floor Boys’ Bath room:
Imagine someone hands you a rotten egg. The egg was laid three years ago and has transformed into an inconceivable object of matter.
like rainbows and sunshine, but to smell like the lost tomb of Alexan der the Great is an unfathomably disgusting feat. 0/10; it would be negative if it didn’t smell slightly better than that one subway car.
Despite the biology enrollment of freshmen using this bathroom, none seem to know how to per form the basic process of human expulsion without dirtying the place up. 4/10.
The Eighth Floor Boys’ Bathroom:
This bathroom is just sad. May be it’s because the floor is home to
This is what I imagine the af terlife to be like as a Stuyvesant student. If I ever die on a desk du ring a chemistry or French test this year, I don’t want them to bury me. I want them to place me in the 10th floor bathroom. This bathroom is my home away from home. The only downside is the fact that it is on the 10th floor, but that is a small sacrifice for such a gift from the angels. 10/10. Best bathroom. I would kiss it on its lips if I could.
Glad to end it on the very best option, but in all honesty, I would advise not to use Stuyvesant bathrooms and instead just wait until you get home.*
*The Spectator is not respon sible for any health complications that may arise as a result.
Fellow citizens of Stuyvesant High School: have you ever found yourself sitting peacefully in the Hudson staircase, or in a corner of the sophomore bar, when Sr. Simon creeps up behind you and demands that you give him your AirPods? Or maybe it was Mr. Moran who snuck up on you, weaving his way through the crowd of confused students in a fire drill to take your phone out of your hands?
If this has been your experi ence, then look no further: we’ve compiled the ultimate guide of places to hide from these trouble makers.
The first hiding place we have a detailed account of is the 10th-floor bathroom. Not only is it unnotice able, but it can also sometimes serve as a backup for the Hudson staircase in desperate situations. It has a vast array of stalls, each drop ping down low enough to conceal whatever heinous acts you’re trying to tuck away from Simon’s eyes.
Apart from the design, it is also almost unnervingly quiet, which makes any outside pursuit audible and aids your attempts at escape. Since nobody, including teachers, is aware of the 10th-floor bathroom’s existence, it makes the perfect place to duck away from any eagle-eyed staff trying to interrupt your jam sessions.
It seems that the higher the floors are in Stuyvesant, the fewer
staff there are patrolling the halls looking for students who have breached Law #36 in “Acceptable Floors for Students to Have Fun” by Brian Moran. Many students hang out on the benches next to this hidden open box space, but benches won’t successfully cloak your presence as well as a nice, dark corner. To find it, go into the caf eteria’s unknown kitchen and keep walking until you reach a specific broken stove. Turn it on and sit in side, and a portal will be activated that brings you directly to the ninthfloor corner. The corner is fairly spacious, fitting up to seven people while concealing them from anyone approaching. There’s also a backup plan: in front of this space are the doors to a classroom that I’m pretty sure is collecting dust by now.
Everyone knows where the cafeteria is, but since it’s such an obvious place, you can become im perceptible once you are among the crowd of freshmen. If slipping into the cafeteria to avoid facing conse quences for your actions somehow doesn’t work, have no fear: the Hudson staircase at the back of the cafeteria has your back.
If you have ever sat on the halffloor stairs, you’ve probably noticed their reputation of being heavily populated by freshmen and maybe some juniors who got kicked out of the sophomore bar for being too old. Or perhaps you’ve been to the West and East staircases and realized their absolutely wonderful ability to attract teachers and the
random students skipping Wang’s physics class. Fear not, for we have the perfect solution for your un healthy obsession with stairs. Famous for their power/talent to cuff/mate students, the lovely (get it?) environment of the Hud
been getting intimate there surfac ing around the school, even Simon and Moran are refusing to approach the area. However, this only means that the location is popular among students who are in desperate need of a love life. Now, you can not
mend simply going to the first floor, turning left, and walking forward until you hear some guy playing the baritone sax so hard that his cheeks will explode. That being said, while your eardrums might burst, it is cer tainly a place that Simon and Moran will not visit. From fact #938 of the Ultimate Stuy Survival Guide, we know that Simon and Moran would not like to go deaf, so it is safe to say that you will not be caught for whatever wild activity you are doing there.
From there, you can also threat en—we mean, politely ask—the band students to play Chopin’s Nocturne op. 9 No. 2 for you. If you’re craving some lyrics, we rec ommend that you, once again, “politely” ask the chorus students in the theater next door to sing for you. Surely their heavenly voices are enough to replace your crude mu sic taste. Both services are also free of charge, so you no longer have to worry about those vexing Spotify un-premium ads.
son staircase is certainly the most desolate but CLEANEST (*ahem* sophomore bar *ahem*) place to peacefully enjoy music in the school—at least, when there aren’t any scandalous acts drowning it out. With the rumors that students have
only listen to your music in peace but also potentially get a lover or a date for prom.
For prospective students who are desperately trying to hide from Simon and Moran, we also recom
This concludes our lesson on how to hide from Simon and Moran. We would like to remind everyone that The Spectator is not respon sible if this advice fails. At the end of the day, you can always steal your AirPods from Simon’s and Moran’s offices when they’re not there. Or if you weep to Principal Yu loudly enough, maybe, just maybe, he will sympathize with your sob story and get them back for you. Though if you’re really desperate, we recom mend just buying new AirPods. Af ter all, the music has and always will be in us all, and no intruding staff can hit the pause button.
Name: Sam Glusker Grade: Senior Height: 5’10”
Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Hazel Date of Birth: 11/18/2004
Name: Efe Kilic Grade: Senior Height: 6’3”
Hair Color: Black Eye Color: Brown Date of Birth: 05/07/2005
1. When and how did you start playing football? How long have you been on the Peglegs, the Stuyvesant varsity football team?
S: I played flag football for most of my life, but I only started playing tackle when I joined the Stuyvesant team my freshman year.
E: I used to play recess football in middle school. Those were some of the most intense games of my life. Many friendships were broken. I always liked the strate gic aspect of football, so I joined Stuyvesant football the summer entering freshman year. I’ve been playing on varsity since sopho more year.
2. What inspired you to join the football team here at Stuyves ant?
S: I’d always wanted to play tackle football but never had the op portunity to do so before high school. My parents were appre hensive about it, but we made a deal that if I came to Stuyvesant, they’d let me play.
E: At the open house, one of the old captains pulled me aside and practically forced me to sign up. My mom would make fun of me because she said I was all size and no aggression, so I decided to try tackle football to shut her up. I think it was a really good decision.
3. What positions do you play, and what skills/strengths are involved?
S: I play running back and safety, both of which require you to be a pretty well-rounded athlete. Basic stuff like speed, strength, agility, vision, elusiveness, and the abil ity to understand what’s going on around you help make a great player.
E: I play quarterback, but un til recently, I would double up as a linebacker until the coaches got scared of possible injuries.
Aside from size and arm power, a quarterback must be one of the smartest players on the field. In addition to memorizing plays and everyone’s roles, a quarterback has to be able to read a defense and make quick decisions. They have to be vocal enough to lead
10 other people and have a great game sense.
4. Do you have a most memo rable/proud moment with the Peglegs?
S: Our homecoming game last year is one of my most memo rable moments with the team. We had been falling short of our expectations due to injuries and other roster issues. All of the oth er captains had missed significant time with injuries, yet everyone suited up to play. Not only did I have my best personal game that night, but it was also our most complete team win of the season with everyone watching.
E: It would have to be my first win as a starting quarterback. The COVID year was a tough year, and we had a lot of young players. Pulling out an early win with such a young group of guys bonded us closer together, allowing us to realize that regardless of size or experience, we could still roll with any team we play.
5. How has being a captain changed your outlook on foot ball? What lessons have you learned from this that you can apply to life?
S: Being selected as a captain for the last two years has been a great honor for me. When I first start ed playing football, I sometimes doubted my ability as a player and leader, and I wasn’t sure how good I would ever be. However, being selected as a captain showed me the trust that my teammates have in me to lead us as a unit.
E: As captain, I’ve learned the im portance of responsibility within a team sport. Every member has their own beliefs, value system, and goals. I understand that as a captain, it is my responsibility to channel all of those ideals toward one common purpose. Whether it be through winning or losing, be ing a captain has introduced me to the importance of accountability: the sense of knowing when to step up in tough times as opposed to standing back. It’s a difficult task, but it helps to know that my teammates believed I was fit for such a role.
6. Do you have any plans to continue playing football in the future or in college?
S: I have an offer to play football at MIT that is contingent on my admission to the school. While I’m not committed yet, I am pur suing that opportunity at the mo ment.
E: I started the recruiting pro cess late, so I’m still talking with coaches. However, the main plan for now is to get into a nice school off my application and walk on to play football there.
7. Do you have any pregame
superstitions or rituals?
S: I always walk the full 120 yards of the field before every game. It helps me focus and envision play ing at a high level.
E: I like to listen to Sinatra as I walk back and forth in the end zone 11 times. Sinatra may be a weird choice, but it actually helps me get locked in.
8. What is your jersey number, and what made you decide that
E: My individual goal is to beat DeWitt Clinton. As a team, we want to stay healthy. Of course, the playoffs are on the top of our agenda, but to get there, we need to have our team together. Last year, we had a roster ready to make a deep run, but injuries early in the year ruined our season.
10. What are the best and worst parts of football?
S: The best part is definitely the
though Stuyvesant is such a big school. We’re honestly just look ing for people that are eager to contribute. People often think that they need to be massive to make an impact, but some of our best players are often smaller guys who simply have a great mental ity. There’s a lot of people at the school who could be great players but don’t take the risk to join for that reason.
E: The recruiting process was a bit difficult. At the end of the day, not a lot of Stuyvesant students like throwing their bodies on the field. However, we showed a lot of effort in branching out, and we were able to get a great turn out of new recruits. I already see a lot of JV players with lots of potential. When recruiting, we didn’t look for size or strength like many people would assume. We looked for eagerness. Regard less of how big or strong you are, it won’t mean anything if you re ally don’t want to be on the field.
Stuyvesant doesn’t always have the biggest people, but we have the people who want it the most. It has become the culture of the team, a culture that I can see lead ing us into the playoffs.
Funniest Teammate: Eric Tang Favorite NFL Player: Deebo Samuel Favorite NFL Team: San Fran cisco 49ers
able to either produce anything off of their two red zone visits or convert on downs, the Colts were shut out for the third time by the Jaguars in just the past six seasons.
The Saints lose to the Vikings
number?
S: I switched to wear #1 this season. There’s been many great players before me to wear it, and I want to continue the trend of being a leader and playmaker for those around me.
E: I’ve worn 11 all four years of football. I’m not necessarily sure why. I used to be really into soccer in elementary school and played with teams until high school. I chose to wear 11 on these teams because my favorite player was Miroslav Klose, who wore 11, and I just stuck with it.
9. What are your individual goals for this season? What are the team goals for the season?
S: My only individual goal for this year is to continually improve and be a better player than I was last season. As for the team, we want to make the playoffs, something we haven’t done in the past two seasons. We want to set the tone as a winning team and potentially make a deep run.
community and brotherhood that we have. As cliché as it probably sounds, it’s a great feeling to have such a tight-knit group that all has the same goal in mind. The worst part is easily the conditioning we do. It’s necessary to allow us to perform at a high level, but that doesn’t change how much it sucks every time we have to do it.
E: The best part is definitely the friendships. A big part of why I’ve stayed so committed to the team is not because of the sport, but rather the friendships that I’ve made over the years. A group of people willing to throw their bod ies on the line for one another is a group that is tight-knit, and I feel that I can really consider them family.
11. What is the recruitment process for the team like? Is it tough to get people to join the team? What things do you look for?
S: Recruiting people to join the team can often be difficult, even
The New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings started the NFL 2022 International Series by playing their Week Four matchup at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadi um in London. While the Vikings held the lead the entire game go ing into the fourth quarter, it was always close, staying within a one-score game. Yet after a
Saints touchdown and a success ful two-point conversion, the Saints got their first lead in the game. After a Minnesota touch down and back-to-back kicks by both teams, the Vikings had the lead once again with less than 30 seconds on the clock. A 33yard reception put the Saints into field goal range, allowing kicker Will Lutz a chance to kick a 61
yarder that would tie up the game and bring it to overtime. Many in the stadium, including Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell, believed that Lutz would make the kick, as he had make the kick from 60 yards just the posses sion before. Even after the ball left Lutz’s foot, it appeared that the kick would be good, but just as it seemed like it would go in,
Brand of Cleats: Nike Playing on Full or Light Stom ach: Light Favorite Sports Drink: Yellow Gatorade Favorite Post-Game Snack: Chocolate milk Hobbies: Cooking, Playing with my dog, and Basketball. Motto to Live By: Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.
Fun Fact: I went to court over a $50 speeding ticket this summer.
Funniest Teammate: Eric Tang Favorite NFL Player: Jimmy Garoppolo Favorite NFL Team: New York Giants
Brand of Cleats: Nike Playing on Full or Light Stom ach: Light Favorite Sports Drink: Blue Ga torade Favorite Post-Game Snack: Agua Fresca and Chicken Chipo tle Bowl
Hobbies: Playing FIFA, Tagging friends in TikTok videos I enjoy, Practicing the trombone, and Lifting.
Motto to Live By: Whatever it is you are seeking, it won’t come in the form you are expecting Fun Fact: I convinced an officer to let me hold his gun.
the ball hit the left upright, then the crossbar, and bounced out, giving the Vikings their win in London.
With many weeks left in the football season, there are bound to be many more thrillers and up sets, highlighting the excitement, and heartbreak, of the NFL.
Every team in the NBA goes through changes in man agement. While teams usu ally replace coaches and lead ers during the offseason, these switches are typically because of lackluster performances, not scandalous behavior. The Phoenix Suns and Boston Celt ics, both top teams in their re spective conferences, are prime examples. If they don’t fix their administrative problems, the Celtics and Suns’ championship hopes will be over before the season even starts.
The fall of Robert Sarver is yet another woe on the Suns’ long list of adversities. Sarver was the owner of the NBA franchise until a league inves tigation uncovered his racist and misogynistic actions during games and practices, which in cluded the repeated use of the N-word and inappropriate com ments toward Suns’ employees. Sarver denied the allegations, but co-owners, coaches, and workers have all confirmed his toxic behavior. “There’s literally nothing you could tell me about him from a misogynistic or race standpoint that would surprise me,” a former Suns executive said.
The NBA quickly took ac tion, fining Sarver $10 million and suspending him from the organization for a year. How ever, many believed that the league’s punishment was too lenient. An investigation un covered former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Ster ling’s usage of racial slurs and inappropriate sexual comments in 2014, and as punishment, league commisioner Adam
Silver forced Sterling to sell the team outright. Players like Lebron James voiced their con cerns, citing the unequal treat ment and the need to uphold league values and virtues. The league needed to be consistent with its justice, but rather, it chose to risk repeating similar actions.
Initially, Sarver vehemently denied everything, releasing a
cord in the 2022 NBA season. However, they were plagued by drama, whether it was los ing by 40 points in win-or-go home playoff games, injuries to Paul, cheap-skating, or an gering their young star center Deandre Ayton by refusing to extend his contract—one of Sarver’s many frugal and poor decisions. The Suns have even been ridiculed after just losing
head coach Ime Udoka was discovered to have engaged in an intimate relationship with a Celtics employee. The investi gation began when the husband of the Celtics employee heard his wife discussing her infidel ity on their front porch. The months that followed revealed Udoka’s multiple violations of team policy and his use of “crude language” in certain in stances.
The league swiftly sus pended Udoka for the 2022-23 season, frustrating many fans. To them, this was too harsh a punishment, considering the case findings stated that the relationship was brief and con sensual. The suspension would also squash the recent success Udoka had, where he led the Celtics to the finals during his first year on the job.
Despite the skepticism and calls to tank the rest of the season, Udoka switched up the Celt ics’ game play, prioritizing ball movement and active defense. This sparked a phenomenal 28-7 game run to finish the 2022 regular season, and that momentum carried with them into the postseason. In an as tonishing fashion, they swept the star-studded Brooklyn Nets in the first round, took down the first-seeded Miami Heat, and toppled the reigning cham pions of the Milwaukee Bucks. Udoka and the Celtics were just two games short of the title, seeing their magical run end against the Golden State War riors in six games.
press statement saying, “I’ve never called anyone or any group of people the N-word.”
However, as more of Suns’ as sociates backed the allegations, the backlash was clear and his relationship with the franchise was irreparable. A week after the allegations, Sarver announced he was selling the team, admit ting to his past mistakes despite adamantly denying them prior.
Potential buyers started to ex press interest, including Ama zon founder Jeff Bezos, Disney CEO Bob Iger, and Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison.
The Suns were supposed to have a bright and consistent fu ture of playoff dominance af ter their trip to the 2021 Finals.
Their young core, featuring two stars in guards Chris Paul and Devin Booker, had the best re
a preseason game to a bottomranked Australian team consist ing of former NBA G-leaguers. The situation with Sarver just adds more to the instability and public scrutiny the team has to face.
The Western conference is stacked with talent. Between the emerging young talent in the Timberwolves and Pelicans, and the Lakers, Clippers, and Nuggets finally being healthy, the Suns are at risk of yet an other early playoff exit. If this pattern of behavior and mis fortune continues, the Suns will never reach their promised po tential.
Sarver is not the only NBA executive to recently endanger his team’s success with work place misconduct. In late Sep tember, former Boston Celtics
However, Udoka’s decision to enter a relationship with a Celtics employee without no tifying the team greatly under mined workplace integrity—his decision ignored the power dy namics between a superior and a staff member. In addition, Udoka is engaged to his fiancé Nia Long, who has yet to speak out on his infidelity. In a high profile position like head coach, Udoka should have known bet ter than to make such rash and scandalous decisions, as they would be heavily scrutinized and looked into. Now, the Bos ton Celtics are forced to pay the price.
Udoka was a brilliant strate gist, studying under the Spurs’ Gregg Popovich before mak ing his debut as head coach in Boston. Initially, the Celtics struggled, entering the midway point of the season below .500.
During their 2021 season, the Penguins, Stuyvesant’s girls’ varsity swimming and diving team, showcased an impressive season, making it all the way to city finals against Brooklyn Tech’s Sharks. Despite com ing up short of the title, the Penguins were not dispirited. This season, they are back for blood, working harder than ever to become the 2022 PSAL champions.
Even though the Penguins lost only four seniors this year, their roster has changed drasti cally. The Penguins have wel comed four new freshmen to the team, while also strategical ly narrowing down their roster from 35 to 28 total swimmers.
Despite these considerable changes, they continue to grow stronger as a tight-knit group, but not without an apprecia ble effort made by senior cocaptains Caitlin Wong, Linsey Wong, and Liana Wu, as well as Coach Alan Zhu. “From the onset, our goal was to make the team closer, because we felt a little bit of a disconnect,
and I think we’ve been doing pretty well,” Caitlin Wong said.
Linsey Wong also recog nized the efforts put in by the rest of the team. “Everyone makes time out of their busy schedules to come to practice and to hang out after practice. I think just together, we all have a very strong mindset, and we bring each other up,” she said.
The team chemistry that the Penguins have been culti vating this season has not gone unnoticed. During all three of their meets so far, the Pen guins’ team spirit and support for one another allowed their contagious positive energy to radiate.
The Penguins have claimed three for three victories so far this season, defeating LaGuar dia, Bronx Science, and Hunt er. At their first meet, the Pen guins won with a total of 48 points against LaGuardia’s 35. The team set a good precedent for the season, placing both first and second in every event.
Despite their overwhelming victory, the Penguins continue to work as hard as ever. “I think our practices have been really
good,” Linsey Wong said.
“I feel like we’re getting a lot more serious, and we’re ready to win,” Caitlin Wong said.
sive effort in the water contin ued to propel them forward, earning them the first place finish in every event.
Senior diver Daria MinhasThe Celtics now find them selves headed by interim coach Joe Mazzula, one of Udoka’s assistants. Many are skeptical of Mazzula’s experience and age and whether he can reach the bar Udoka set last season. Maz zula is 34 years old, with players like Al Horford on the roster passing him in age. In addition, injuries to key players like Rob ert Williams and Danillo Galli nari limit the Celtics’ defensive capabilities.
The Celtics find themselves in a crowded Eastern confer ence, with teams adding AllStars and getting fully healthy. Mazzula cannot replicate the same success Udoka had. He does not have the same revered experience under Coach Popo vich, nor does he have as close a bond with the players. The Celt ics can run the same X’s and O’s as last year, but if they continue to miss Udoka’s instinct and knowledge, they will not be able to replicate his success.
The Penguins’ hard work was on display at their next two meets when they defeat ed Bronx Science 53-38 and Hunter 57-44. Though the Penguins knew that Bronx Sci ence would bring competition, their team spirit was not shak en. The overwhelming support from the sidelines and impres
also continues to put on an impressive performance for the judges. This year, Minhas is the only diver of the Pen guins, but the pressure ex pected to come with this role does not seem to have phased them. Across their three meets, Minhas has continued to top their previous scores, wowing
the judges as well as specta tors with each dive. “I’m really grateful that this year, I’m not as rushed, as I had extreme difficulty with consistency last year, and now, all of my scores have been pretty consistent,” Minhas said. Even though it is just their second year div ing, Minhas is confident in their progress. “Last year, I placed third in the city,” they said. “This year, I am shooting for first, because my difficulty scores on my dives are higher, so I can score higher overall.”
With their grand start to the 2022 season, the Penguins have only one thing in mind: winning. “We want to win. We won freshman year, and I think it would be really nice if we could sandwich it our senior year,” Linsey Wong said.
The Penguins’ three cap tains continue to work hard to make this season a memorable one for the team. “We want to leave a legacy. We want people on the team to remember this year as the best year,” Wu said. With this mindset, the Pen guins are looking to make a splash this season.
After visiting the first four groups of the 2022 World Cup, it’s time to look at what exciting matchups await in Groups E, F, G, and H. The first 16contained some exciting teams including a star-studded Netherlands side and a very promising England squad. Now, it’s time to shift the focus and make our predictions for the second set of groups.
Germany (Favorites)Coach Hansi Flick’s side can play with frightening, machinelike efficiency to combine quick passes and create deadly attacks at any point during a game. Many of the team’s world class stars like Joshua Kimmich, Serge Gnabry, and Thomas Müller have already developed years of synergy through play ing alongside each other for Bayern Munich. Germany is surely one of the teams to beat in the upcoming World Cup.
Spain (Challengers)Spain only has one World Cup title to its name, originating back to when the golden era of Spanish football dominated the 2010 tournament and captain Iker Casillas lifted the trophy. This year, coach Luis Enrique’s star-studded lineup includes ex perienced veterans Sergio Bus quets and Jordi Alba, as well as bright talents like Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres. The squad is well-balanced and prepared to
enter the competition.
Japan (Underdogs) - A prepared Japanese team which placed 24th in the FIFA men’s ranking has promising young sters like Takefusa Kubo and Takehiro Tomiyasu, who pose a threat to the Group E titans Germany and Spain.
Costa Rica (Wild Card)Costa Rica’s exceptional perfor mance at the 2014 World Cup’s group stages, where the team topped Group D against all odds above Uruguay, Italy, and England, is still fresh in people’s minds. They will no doubt aim to repeat those results in this year’s competition too.
Group F: Belgium (Favorites) - De spite Eden Hazard’s poor form at Real Madrid and Romelu Lukaku’s unsuccessful spell at Chelsea, Kevin De Bruyne’s stunning performance for Man chester City sparks hope that the Belgium team could have a real impact at the 2022 World Cup, with many considering them to be group favorites.
Croatia (Challengers)2018 World Cup finalist Croatia may have lost some firepower with the retirement of Ivan Perišić, Ivan Rakitić, and Ma rio Mandžukić from interna tional soccer. However, under Luka Modrić’s captaincy, the well-rounded squad has a good chance of making a deep run in this year’s competition.
Morocco (Underdogs)
- Underestimating Morocco before the World Cup could prove to be a deadly mistake. The country is placed 22nd in the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) men’s rankings, above the likes of South Korea, Japan, and Po land. The squad has standout players like Hakim Ziyech and Achraf Hakimi and has also proven their teamwork and syn ergy on the pitch in recent years.
Canada (Wild Card) - Can ada, though facing European giants like Belgium and Croatia, could surprise its opponents if talented players like Alphonso Davies step up to the big occa sions against the top teams.
Brazil (Favorites) - To no one’s surprise, the new FIFAranked #1 in the world is a na tion that is spiritually fueled by soccer. The Brazil squad, with well known stars like Neymar, Gabriel Jesus, and Vinicius Jr, will surely hope to recover from their recent loss in the Copa América 2021 final by adding a sixth to their record high five World Cups.
Switzerland (Challengers) - Just like in the 2018 competi tion, Switzerland is matched in the same group as Brazil. The Swiss team surprised many when it knocked out France in the 2022 European Champion ship and could once again shock the rest of the world in the up coming contest by making it dif
ficult for a top-class Brazil team.
Serbia (Underdogs) - Ser bia face tough competition in Group G but have a good chance of making it into the round of 16 if the squad can perform on the big stage in the early matches and perform against Brazil and Switzerland.
Cameroon (Wild Card)After failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, coach Rigob ert Song’s players will certainly have their minds set on making a strong impression in this year’s tournament by making it diffi cult for its opponents in Group G to qualify for the next round.
Portugal (Favorites) - Cris tiano Ronaldo had a slow start to the season after a rough sum mer when he failed to secure a transfer away from Manchester. However, everyone knows that the 37-year-old superstar is a different monster when he plays for his country. Supported by a strong squad with big names like Bruno Fernandes and Ber nardo Silva, Portugal is aiming for a deep run in the competi tion this year.
Uruguay (Challengers) - Uruguay, one of the South American powerhouses in this year’s contest, historically have been one of the most successful countries at the World Cup and will be looking to add a third title to its name. Spearheaded by a prolific striker partnership in Luis Suárez and Edinson
Cavani, the star-studded Uru guayan team will be a force to be reckoned with.
South Korea (Under dogs) - South Korea shocked the world when they defeated Germany in last year’s World Cup and held the 2014 World Champions from advancing to the knockout stage. Captain Son Heung-Min has been in amazing form recently, tying Mohamed Salah for the Golden Boot last season in the Premier League. If he continues these performances, he could lead his country far into the upcoming World Cup.
Ghana (Wild Card) - The Ghanian team will aim to erase the failure to qualify for the last World Cup with a strong showing in the group stages, provided that stars like Thomas Partey and Iñaki Williams can take charge on the big stage in a challenging group.
That wraps up all of the groups in the 2022 World Cup. Will this be Neymar, Lionel Messi, or Cristiano Ronaldo’s first World Cup title, or will Kylian Mbappe’s France take the win for a second consecu tive tournament? Perhaps an unexpected twist of events will help one of the dark horses of the competition, such as Japan, become world champion. Don’t miss the first match on No vember 20 as host nation Qatar takes on Ecuador in the Al Bayt Stadium.
ments in youth talent are finally paying off, with outfielder Julio Rodríguez putting up an im pressive .844 OPS. They were against the Toronto Blue Jays for their wild card matches.
After missing last year’s post season by a one-win margin, Toronto destroyed the Boston Red Sox in all of their 2022 matchups, exemplified by their 28-5 rout in Fenway Park.
The New York Yankees took the high road this year, led by outfielder Judge and a pow erhouse pitching rotation fea turing Lou Trivino and Gerrit Cole in a double-ace formation. Their milestone man, Judge, added one more triumph to his collection, becoming the alltime AL home run champion with 62 home runs under his belt.
This year features a new playoff structure, namely add ing two more teams to the playoffs bracket as wild card teams and changing the wild card from a one-game affair to a three-game series. The new format has allowed the Tampa Bay Rays to feature in a play off series against the Cleveland Guardians, who clinched their division but did not have a good enough record to win a wild card bye. Overall, Cleveland’s
dominance managed to give them an NLDS berth against the Yankees as they shut down the Rays at home in two games.
The Blue Jays hosted the Mariners in a three-game series, featuring two games completely
the St. Louis Cardinals, a team coated with star power. How ever, the Phillies are no slouch es. They won four of seven games against the Cardinals this regular season. They extended this to six of nine games after
advance to the NLDS to face the number one team in base ball, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Four division series remain. After six days’ rest, the Yankees, Astros, Dodgers, and Braves will finally get going against the Guardians, Mariners, Pa dres, and Phillies, respectively.
The Yankees-Guardians series is certain to be close. Though Judge has had a historical sea son and the Yankees have been dominant for the majority of the season, the Guardians might have what it takes to emerge victorious in a four-game series.
The Guardians’ unwillingness to lose, proved by their 15-in ning win in the wild card series, gives them a great shot against any top team in baseball.
like a soap opera.
The Padres proved a point leaving New York with an NLDS spot that the Mets be lieved was earmarked for them all season long. But against the Dodgers, no amount of pitch ing prowess can keep their of fense from scoring. The Padres will have to maximize their hits to runs, as they did against the Mets, in order to have any chance of victory. However, in all likelihood, this series will fall to the Dodgers in a swift three games.
opposite in nature. Game one, dominated by Mariners ace Luis Castillo, ended with a shutout victory. However, in game two, the Blue Jays offense jetted off to a 9-1 lead by the fifth inning.
Despite the massive deficit, the Mariners completed a shocking storybook comeback, scoring nine runs over four innings and ultimately winning the series.
The Phillies also owe their playoff berth to the league’s new structure, and they faced
sweeping the Cardinals in the wild card series, and they will be playing their division rival, the Atlanta Braves, in the NLDS.
The last of the wild card games featured the Mets and Padres clawing for the last NLDS spot. The Padres played all three games in Queens and took the 100-win Mets to a high stakes three-game series. With a stunning one-hit shutout led by pitcher Joe Musgrove, the Pa dres defeated the Mets and will
After dethroning the Blue Jays, the Mariners look hopeful heading into Houston. How ever, Justin Verlander will be fully rested for game one, and the Mariners don’t seem to have enough pitching power to match the Astros’ powerful starting rotation. They will have to work hard to prevent the Astros from scoring. However, the Mariners seem to have defied the odds all season long, and historically, they have had clutch potential when needed most. Though it is an unorthodox pick, we feel that the Mariners will be able to defeat the Astros in a tight fivegame series that will be scripted
To round off the division series, the Braves will be play ing their NL East division rival, the Philadelphia Phillies. The Braves have had success against the Phillies in the regular sea son, holding an 11-8 record. We expect the reigning champions to sweep Philadelphia in three games, considering their much stronger lineup and recent suc cesses.
After that, the possibilities are endless. We look to return with an update for the pennant races and world series when the time comes, but for now, the division series is set. Another week of exciting and intense baseball should provide for big comebacks, upsets, blowouts, and everything in between. Get ready baseball fans. It’s just get ting started!
The year was 1998. In Gsta ad, Switzerland, Roger Federer was facing Lucas Arnold Ker in Federer’s inaugural Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tournament. Fast forward 24 years and 20 Grand Slam singles later, the Laver Cup hosted Fe derer’s last ever professional game—and what a game it was.
The American duo of Jack Sock and Frances Tiafoe took on Federer and his long-term rival from Spain, Rafael Nadal. The Swiss and the Spaniard ended up taking the first set 6-4, but a comeback from the Ameri can duo in the second and third set won Team World the annual 2022 Laver Cup. In the end, the score mattered the least. That day, for all tennis fans, was one to rejoice and bid farewell to one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. Not many have left as much of an impact on the sport of tennis as Feder er. The moment the game was over, Federer hugged Nadal and went over to Sock and Tiafoe to congratulate them. Shortly after, the tears began. Nadal started crying as well, but his tears were drowned out by the thunder ous applause echoing from the stands.
Post-match, Federer told a reporter, “I enjoyed tying my shoes one more time. Everything was the last time.” Eight days
prior to the game, he released an official statement across his so cial media platforms, stating that the Laver Cup in London would be the final ATP event of his ca reer. Let’s take a look at some of the statistics which have solidi fied Roger Federer’s position in the history of tennis.
#1: Consecutive Weeks as the World’s Number One Player:
Nowadays, with new talent emerging in every tennis tourna ment, the top spot is constantly up for grabs, making consistency the key ticket to a long-term run at the top. Throughout his ca reer, Federer’s consistency was unmatched. Federer’s journey at the number one spot began on February 2, 2004, when he defeated Andy Roddick at the Australian Open. Fast forward 237 weeks later, he was still at that number one spot. In terms of competition for that record, Jimmy Connors comes second, but he only spent 160 consecu tive weeks at the top of the ATP rankings, which is incomparable to Federer’s 237. This incredible statistic highlights one of the best qualities of Federer which is not admired enough: consis tency.
#2: Tiebreak Record in Major Finals:
As the sport of tennis be comes more and more competi tive, the time each match takes
continues to increase, emphasiz ing each player’s grit and deter mination. It often goes unno ticed how much effort it takes to win each point, and these
record in major finals. In these tiebreaks, he has won 19 out of 25 in his entire career, which comes out to be a 76 percent success rate. Bear in mind that
able to overcome this exhaus tion 3/4 of the time in order to win the tiebreakers, showing how his “never give up” mindset was vital to his success as a ten nis player.
Not many can claim they have won both the U.S. Open and Wimbledon in their careers, but Federer is one of those few. In fact, he can say he won five of each in a span of five years. Fe derer collected five Wimbledon trophies between 2003 and 2007 and five U.S. Open trophies be tween 2004 and 2008. This sta tistic makes him the only player in tennis history to have fiveyear winning streaks in two dif ferent Grand Slam tournaments. His domination in each of these tournaments for those five years are what make him the player he is: one who is never satisfied with his winnings.
players partake in these endeav ors for hours. In Federer’s case, his grit and determination could be proved through his tiebreak
a tiebreaker is the 13th game in a set, so both players are physi cally drained and exhausted by that point. For Federer, he was
Aaron Judge now stands alone.
With 62 home runs, he takes sole ownership of the Ameri can League home run record, surpassing Roger Maris, whose record stood tall for 61 years. Through all of the appraisal for Judge, arguments have also been made disputing whether or not he holds the record for Major League Baseball (MLB) history as a whole. In the official books, Barry Bonds lays claim to that with a whopping 73 homers, but he, along with fellow home run leaders Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, set their respective re cords during the MLB’s steroid era, leading to disputes over the legitimacy of their numbers.
There was no apparent in fluence of steroids on Judge’s historic season, with Judge hav ing been tested multiple times throughout the course of the season––and frankly, he has no need to enhance his perfor mance. At 6’7” and 282 pounds, there’s no question that he has the attributes to be the most powerful hitter in baseball, and his perfect swing has cemented that title. With each home run, Judge has demonstrated an ex quisite understanding of his own swing, creating a flawless launch angle with exemplary power.
There was no doubt about it— if anyone was going to surpass Roger Maris, it would be Aaron Judge.
Judge’s 62 home runs repre
sent arguably the most difficult achievement in baseball history. While Maris and Babe Ruth’s records are astonishing in their own respect, the difficulty of pitching they faced is almost trivial compared to what Judge battled. Leading the Yankees to
and there is more movement on pitches than ever before. All of these improvements are com pounded by the prominence of analytics in baseball, which have allowed pitchers to identify how they can best exploit batters’ weaknesses. Judge, for example,
eraging around 0.2 more home runs per game than this season. Adjustments were made to the baseball at the beginning of the season, including a greater air drag on the ball, minimizing the distance that it would trav el when hit. In simpler terms,
Though Federer played his last official game, his career gives us something to look back on: eight Wimbledon titles, five U.S. Open titles, six Australian Open titles, and one French Open title. Not many will be able to surpass what he has done in his career, and his records only corrobo rate that. Though it was your last time playing a professional tennis match, we thank you for everything, Roger.
a division title, Judge faced 254 pitchers throughout the season, seeing a closer ratio of starters to relievers (60-40) than any one in the 60-home-run club. In contrast, Ruth saw just 64 pitchers (75 percent starters) and Maris saw 101 (70 percent starters) in their respective 60+ seasons. The substantial amount of pitchers that Judge saw pre vented him from developing a familiarity with the pitches he was seeing. Additionally, Judge faced a far greater range of pitches: most starting pitchers sport an arsenal of four to five pitches, while the majority of re lievers have two to three viable options. Fastballs have increased by a significant four miles per hour over the past two decades,
is known to struggle against slid ers, so pitchers have adapted to favor their slider when the 6’7” slugger takes the plate. Other members of the 60-club faced a far more limited arsenal, and without today’s data analytics, it was harder to locate where their specific weaknesses were. All of these obstacles have pre vented anyone else from break ing Maris’s long-standing record, but the mammoth slugger has seamlessly powered through ev ery single one.
As impressive as Judge’s feat is, it would be doing him a dis service not to look at the bigger picture: the league as a whole. Prior seasons featured extraor dinary home run numbers, with each of the last three seasons av
many hits that would’ve left the park last season have been drop ping down for flyouts, leading to lower scores and less home runs across the board. Last year, 12 players had 38 or more home runs—a stark contrast to this year’s five. Evidently, players have had difficulty getting ac customed to the new baseballs, and the modifications made are not benefitting the league’s usual top sluggers. Judge, however, is the exception to this rule, as his 62 home runs sit comfort ably ahead of Philadelphia slug ger Kyle Schwarber’s 46. The league’s best hitter has had no problem asserting his domi nance against practically every pitcher he’s seen this season.
Even in a year characterized
by much success, Judge experi enced his fair share of challeng es. After his induction into the 60-club, he encountered his lon gest drought of the season, go ing seven games without a home run. And though he continu ously put the Yankees’ success over that of his own, Judge’s frustration shined through near the close of the season, when he slammed his helmet after failing to crush an easy pitch beyond the park. His few struggles this season reminded fans that he was human, which only made his accomplishments all the more unfathomable.
Best of all, he’s done all this in a contract year. Last offseason, Judge declined a $230 million offer from the Yankees, believing he had another level to reach. He proved himself right, while proving a lot of others wrong in the process. He came close to challenging for the A.L. Triple Crown and is a practical lock for the A.L. MVP trophy. Judge has landed himself a co lossal raise, no matter where he goes.
Despite his staggering pur suit, however, he never once lost his team-first mentality, nor his defining humility. In the words of Roger E. Maris Jr., “I can’t think of anyone better that base ball can look up to than Aaron Judge.”
One day, maybe he’ll be sit ting behind home plate, watch ing the next great baseball player chase 63. But for now, Aaron Judge stands alone with 62.
The league’s best hitter has had no problem assert ing his dominance against practically every pitcher he’s seen this season.Jaden Bae / The Spectator By KAILEEN SO
While the NFL kickoff was just over a month ago, the first few weeks have already caused fans many heart attacks after lastminute touchdowns, missed field goals, and costly mistakes. Here’s a breakdown of some of the sur prises in the league so far.
Going into the game’s fi nal two minutes, everything was against the New York Jets. They had lost their starting quarterback Zach Wilson to a preseason injury and were playing in front of a loud Cleveland home crowd, down 13 points after a Browns’ rushing touchdown. According to ESPN stats, teams leading by at least 13 points in the last two minutes had won the last 2,229 consecu tive games, so no one expected the Jets to come out with the win. But after the Browns missed the extra point on that touchdown and were unable to significantly run down the clock, the Jets took their chance. In just one minute and 30 seconds, the Jets’ backup
quarterback Joe Flacco was able to get the ball into the endzone for a 66-yard touchdown. After recovering an onside kick, Flacco threw another touchdown, giving the Jets the lead. The Browns had one last chance to retake the lead with less than 30 seconds left, but the Jets’ win was secured when the Browns’ quarterback Jacoby Bris sett threw an interception. This win for the Jets, along with the hard-fought Giants’ win against the Panthers, and the Mets’ and Yankees’ baseball wins against the Pirates and Brewers, marked the first time since 2009 that these four New York teams had all got ten wins on the same day.
The Falcons almost come back from 3-28 In Super Bowl LI, the At lanta Falcons were at the losing end of history after blowing the largest lead in Super Bowl history and losing to the New England Patriots, even after they were up 28-3 late into the third quarter. In Week Two, after a start riddled by a missed field goal, a turnover on downs, and an interception, the Falcons found themselves down
28-3 at the start of the second half against the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Los An geles Rams. Yet the momentum soon shifted in favor of the Fal cons as they were able to score touchdowns on their next three possessions. With a touchdown converted after an interception and a blocked punt returned for a touchdown, the Falcons cut it down to a one-score game. After getting the ball back after a Rams fumble, it looked as if the Falcons might have been able to come back from their own infamous score. However, the Falcons ap pear to be cursed with that score forever, because in the last min ute, Falcons quarterback Marcus Mariota’s end zone pass was in tercepted, ending their chance at a redemption comeback.
The Jaguars shut out the Colts
Going into the game, the In dianapolis Colts hadn’t beaten the Jaguars in Jacksonville since 2014. The most recent example was in Week 17 last season, when the 3-14 Jaguars beat the 9-8 Colts, preventing the Colts from secur ing their Wild Card spot in the
Aaron Judge’s record-break ing 62 home runs. Albert Pu jols’s career milestone 700 home runs. The Seattle Mariners’ end of a 21-year playoff drought. The Atlanta Braves’ comeback from 10 games behind in the National League (NL) East. These moments have given fans one of the most entertaining MLB seasons in recent history, and it’s not over yet. Twelve teams, each with a unique regu lar season experience, enter the postseason with the goal to win it all, and here’s how they stack up entering the playoffs.
In the NL East, the titledefending Atlanta Braves had to work hard to earn a division series berth after a high stakes battle with the New York Mets. Their championship squad re mains mostly unchanged, with first baseman Matt Olson, third baseman Austin Riley, and shortstop Dansby Swan son each finishing with over 90 RBIs. Their bullpen maintains itself as an impressive pow erhouse with the third lowest ERA in baseball. The all-around strength of the Braves has made them one of the favorites to make a deep playoff run this postseason.
Their northern rivals, the Mets, gave them a run for their money this season. In the midst of one of the franchise’s best seasons, featuring several un likely comeback victories, the Mets pulled ahead of the Braves with a 10-game lead in June. However, continued dominance from the Braves saw a Mets lead transform into a two-game deficit, and the latter ended up with a wild card spot. Despite this late season slide, the Mets
have a powerful core. Their of fense, led by Francisco Lindor, Pete Alonso, and MLB batting champion Jeff McNeil, looks sure to score many runs against baseball’s most elite pitchers.
They have their infamous onetwo punch, consisting of Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, as well as lights-out closer and team phenom Edwin Díaz.
The San Diego Padres, re turning to the playoffs for the first time since 2006, headlined the season with a blockbuster trade for superstar Juan Soto. Even without their star short stop Fernando Tatis Jr., who was issued an 80-game suspen sion for using performanceenhancing drugs, the team man aged to slot into the postseason, thanks to strong pitching from Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, and Joe Musgrove.
The Phillies are the last of the NL East teams. Though they won five more games than they did last year, they were con sistently demolished by teams with worse records. A series against the Phillies was great news for the Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, and San Fran cisco Giants, who collectively went 15-1 against the team, de spite the triad’s inability to post winning records. The Phillies will face challenges in this year’s next stage and are the reason why some critics still oppose the new playoff system.
Back west, the Los Angeles Dodgers need no introduction.
They are the NL’s self-pro claimed powerhouse, for good reason. After breakout seasons from Tyler Anderson, Andrew Heaney, and Tony Gonsolin, the Dodgers have maintained one of the most successful pitching rotations in the league.
Continued dominance from
MVP candidates Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman has car ried the team offensively. For now, the Dodgers enter as the favorites to win the pennant, carrying 111 wins and winning records against all but three teams during the regular season. The pressure is high for these Dodgers to win the World Se ries, and if not them, who will bring the title back to the city of Angels?
To round off the NL teams, the St. Louis Cardinals look to make one final run in the play offs with their aging core. On their road to clinching their di vision, 42-year-old slugger Al bert Pujols, 40-year-old catcher Yadier Molina, and 41-year-old pitcher Adam Wainwright have broken several MLB milestones. Wainwright and Molina started their 325th game together, the record for a pitcher-catcher duo. Future Hall-of-Famer Pujols is now fourth in career home runs and second in career RBIs. As he finished chasing 700 runs, he showed glimpses of his prime years in his final MLB season.
In the AL West, the Hous ton Astros once again clinched the playoffs through their scor ing trio, consisting of right fielder Kyle Tucker, designatedhitter Yordan Álvarez, and third baseman Alex Bregman. Their pitching staff remained solid as always, featuring another dominant season from Justin Verlander and the best pitching staff in baseball by ERA.
The biggest shock partici pant in these playoffs is the Se attle Mariners, who qualified for October baseball for the first time since 2001, when they tied the record for the most wins in an MLB season. Their invest
playoffs. However, the Colts were still the slight betting favorites go ing into their Week 2 matchup. But after the kickoff, Indianapolis had no response for Jacksonville. The Jaguars defense was electric against quarterback Matt Ryan
and the Colts, picking Ryan off three times and sacking him five, while also holding Jonathan Tay lor, the league’s reigning rushing yards leader, to just 54 yards. Un continued on page 24
Boys’ Varsity Fencing vs. Beacon High School Beacon HS Gymnasium 4:30 p.m.
FRIDAY
Girls’ Varsity Soccer vs. Beacon High School East River Park 4:00 p.m.
Boys’ Varsity Soccer vs. Long Island City High School
Long Island City HS Field 4:00 p.m.
Boys’ Varsity Football vs. Dewitt Clinton Pier 40 6:00 p.m.
Girls’ Varsity Volleyball vs. Fiorello H. Laguardia Stuyvesant High School Gymnasium 4:30 p.m.
Boys’ and Girls’ Cross Country Borough Championships Broadway & Van Cortlandt Park 10:00 a.m.
Boys’ Varsity Badminton vs. Dr. Susan S. Mckinney School of Art Dr. Susan S. Mckinney School of Art Gymnasium 5:00 p.m.
The San Diego Padres dominated the New York Mets 2-1 in the Wild Card round, successfully advancing to the NL Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Norwegian striker Erling Haalanda has dominated every competi tion he’s played in so far for Manchester City, with 20 goals in just 13 matches.
Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas to win the third edition of the Astana Open.
After being left out of the starting lineup for some time, Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 700th goal for Manchester United against Everton.
In Week 5, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Atlanta Falcons 21-15 with questionable “roughing the passer” calls against Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett.