Volume 111, Issue 7

The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

Volume 111 No. 7

December 11, 2020

stuyspec.com

SCIENCE

SPORTS

Robots Replacing Readers

USA Swimming Splashes in with 2020 US Open

Science writers Shriya Anand and Daisy Lin examine a new AI tool for analyzing and summing up research papers in a few sentences, which could cut out the middleman for interpreting information.

see page 16

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

Sports writer Leah D’Silva explores the return of swimming in the COVID-19 age, with a new structure for high-profile meets and a preview of the 2021 Olympic hopefuls.

see page 25

Ongoing Delay of the SHSAT Elicits Concern

NEWSBEAT On December 4 and 8, two members of the Stuyvesant community tested positive for COVID-19. Thorough investigation has concluded that there has been no exposure to the greater school community in both cases.

Five Stuyvesant seniors were awarded the QuestBridge Scholarship.

Stuyvesant alumna Kathryn Garcia (’88) and Dianne Morales (’85) are candidates for the 2021 NYC mayoral election.

Every year, nearly 28,000 eighth grade students take the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT) in late October to determine their admission into eight of New York City (NYC)’s specialized high schools. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, this year’s SHSAT administration has been postponed alongside the rest of the 2020-2021 high school admissions cycle, with the original registration period in October having been delayed indefinitely. Though the Department of Education (DOE)’s website reports that students “will have additional time to register” for this year’s SHSAT, NYC Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza has yet to announce a new registration deadline and testing date.

Mayor Bill de Blasio stated last month that because of the pandemic, an in-person administration of the SHSAT is “not a scenario we are likely to do,” which has raised speculation about the test being administered online. Concerns from

middle school families have also increased due to de Blasio’s announcement on November 18 that all public middle and high schools will be closed for

future despite current circumstances. “COVID-19 has had a profound impact across every aspect of our school system, and as a result, we have had to

at least the remainder of 2020 because of rising COVID-19 positivity rates in the city.

In response to these worries, the DOE has expressed its commitment to giving students the opportunity and time to explore admissions options in the

update our pre-pandemic admissions timeline, including the SHSAT administration. We understand that students, families, and schools are eager for more information, and we will soon share additional details around the plan for the SHSAT admin-

Ying Chen / The Spectator

Nominated by alumnus Benjamin Shpetner (’20), social studies teacher David Hanna has been selected as an University of Chicago Outstanding Educator of the Year.

By ANDY CHEN, EZRA LEE, KATIE NG, RAJHASREE PAUL, JANNA WANG, and JOSHUA WONG

ARISTA Introduces District 1 Pilot Program Initiative

By JAMES KANG, ANNETTE KIM, and HAYEON OK additional reporting by Nikki Chen

ties outside of Stuyvesant.

The District 1 Pilot Program was initiated after Principal Seung Yu connected the EC with superintendents from District 1. In

Rin

The ARISTA Executive Council (EC)—seniors President Emma Donnelly, Vice President of Events and Service Roshni Patel, Vice President of Operations Evelyn Ma, and Vice President of Web Development May Hathaway—has recently partnered with PS/MS 34 Franklin D. Roosevelt School for the District 1 Pilot Program, which aims to virtually tutor eighth grade students who are study- k ing for the Living Envi- uoka / ronment Regents. The pro- The Specta tor gram is a long-term initiative ing that the EC hopes will allow choosARISTA members to form which school to partner with, partnerships with communi- ARISTA believed PS/MS 34 Fu

was the best option to start.

“Superintendent [Carry] Chan, from community District 1, recommended PS/ MS 34 because there was a lot of change and growth going on at that school right now,” ARISTA faculty advisor Eric Wisotsky said. “And [PS/ MS 34 Principal Brian Glover] really wants to bring in new programs, like how he brought in the Living Environment program, so [Superinten dent Vivian Orlen] knew that [the principal] would really be interested in this program.”

Donnelly added, “It is the first time this school has been offered a Regentsbased Living Environment, so that’s why we decided that this would be a great stepcontinued on page 3

istration, as well as other admissions components,” NYC DOE Deputy Press Secretary Katie O’Hanlon said in an e-mail statement. “We are committed to providing ample time for families to explore schools and apply once the processes launch. We are still ​planning to administer the SHSAT; it will be later than the previously announced date.”

However, the constant reopening and closing of public schools may be a sign that the DOE needs to prioritize other aspects of online learning before planning the SHSAT. “My guess would be that the DOE has not addressed [the SHSAT] because they didn’t want to deal with the political backlash that might occur. Like, ‘It’s a middle of a pandemic, and you’re thinking about the SHSAT? Where are your priorities?’ I feel that would be the response from some people,” Shanjeed Ali (’17) said.

Administrators at Stuyvesant have reiterated the lack of explicit instruction from the DOE regarding the SHSAT. “I’ve been getting the same updates everyone else has gotten and have been raising the same questions: what exam […] should continued on page 2

Juniors Navigate SAT and PSAT Exams Amidst Pandemic

By VEDAANT SHAH, ALEC SHAFRAN, and RIFATH HOSSAIN For many students trying to take the College Board’s standardized exams, testing centers with available seats have become few and far between. Public high schools throughout New York City have canceled their SAT and PSAT examinations due to safety concerns and financial constraints. Stuyvesant has decided to host neither the SAT nor the PSAT for the rest of the testing dates this year.

Numerous issues have prevented Stuyvesant from offering these standardized tests like it has in the past. “The DOE is not funding the October PSAT administration for sophomores. [...] There are both health and logistical concerns preventing a fall PSAT/SAT administration at Stuyves-

ant,” Assistant Principal of Organization Dr. Gary Haber said in an e-mail interview.

Stuyvesant may offer the PSAT in January, however, depending on if students are back in the building. “The administration, in consultation with the SLT [School Leadership Team] and PA [Parents’ Association], is evaluating the possibility of a January 2021 PSAT administration for juniors,” Dr. Haber said.

Director of Family Engagement Dina Ingram said in an e-mail interview, “The administration is working toward finding out details from the DOE and other possible venues about whether we can administer the PSAT to our junior class in January. [...] We do not know [...] how likely we are to host the test at this time and hope to have information available as soon as we can to our families.” continued on page 3

The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Page 2

News Forensics Hosts Guest Speakers Carlos Pantoja and Lew Lieberman

By JANNA WANG Forensics science teacher Dr. Jeffrey Horenstein hosted guest speakers Detective Carlos Pantoja, a crime scene investigator (CSI), and Lew Lieberman, a parent and retired Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney (ADA), on December 3 over Zoom. Over 40 students from Horenstein’s forensics class attended.

In previous years, Dr. Horenstein, in conjunction with biology science teacher Jason Econome, has invited multiple guest speakers to speak to his forensics science class, including a forensic anthropologist, a forensic DNA scientist, a member of the faculty at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and several attorneys. This, however, was the first time the forensics class invited a CSI to speak.

The speaker event aimed to provide the forensics students with an authentic insight into the forensic science world from a field professional. “It’s terrific for students to hear, whenever they can, what a practitioner in a given field of study actually does […] this is especially true for forensic science, I think, because there are so many inaccurate representations of them in the media and in entertainment,” Dr. Horenstein said in an e-mail interview. “In the class, we study how CSIs process crime scenes, lift fingerprints and analyze blood spatter, among other things. All of these directly relate to [Pantoja’s] work.”

The class opened with an introductory session, in which Liberman questioned Pantoja, mimicking a court testification. “[A] moment I loved was the beginning when [Lieberman]

questioned [Patoja] as though he were on the stand,” senior Aki Yamaguchi said in an e-mail interview. “I love [the show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit], and the trials are the best part to me, so I loved seeing just a glimpse of it in person.”

Additionally, Liberman and Pantoja demonstrated the cooperation that takes place between a district attorney and a detective during a trial. “Hearing about the relationship between CSIs and ADAs was particularly interesting, and the role CSIs can play in trials,” senior Miranda Lepri said in an email interview. “We got to hear about the CSI’s investigative responsibilities, and then got a legal perspective as to how that played out in court because in class we don’t often explore the perspectives of District Attorneys in that process.”

During his presentation, Pantoja explained his role as a New York City Police Department (NYPD) criminal investigator who responds to all homicide, sexual assault, and life-threatening assault cases, as well as police-involved shootings to photograph, document, and recover any evidence that might be on a crime scene.

During the talk, he detailed the notable experiences he’s had as a CSI, including his involvement in the case of the October 31 New York City terror attack in 2017, when a terrorist drove a truck into a school bus, next to Stuyvesant. “My freshman year, the terrorist attack on the West Side Highway was something that I [witnessed] in person, and I had been very close to the crime scene next to Stuyvesant,” Yamaguchi said. “It was interesting to learn about someone who had been on the scene and

was behind the scenes through the investigation. [Patoja] talked about how he didn’t leave the scene for three days, […] and it’s amazing how tirelessly the NYPD worked through this time.”

With the forensics classes largely composed of seniors who were Stuyvesant students at the time of the attack, many students especially related to this discussion. “This was very much connected to us as Stuyvesant senior students, and this was a rare opportunity to hear about this case from a new angle and perspective,” senior Yume Igarashi said.

A few technical difficulties, however, caused organizers to shift to a Q&A session. “ [Pantoja’s] screen froze halfway through the talk, so we abandoned the slides, and [Pantoja], and to a lesser extent [Lieberman], spent the last half hour fielding questions from the students,” Dr. Horenstein said.

“The downside, of course, is that we didn’t get to hear the detective’s full talk. The upside was that students got many of their questions answered.”

Though Pantoja was unable to finish his presentation, participants were still impressed with the class. “The session was very engaging, with many good questions answered with detailed enthusiasm by both guests,” Igarashi said. “Before attending, I had been expecting to gain authentic insight and lessons about this criminal investigation and forensic science world from a real professional.

I believe I got what I came for.”

Dr. Horenstein expressed his excitement in hosting similar speaker classes in the future.

“Later this month, we are hosting a former prisoner who was

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and NASA

WORLDBEAT The United States reported 1 million new COVID-19 cases in the first five days of December.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi discussed a possible $908 billion bipartisan deal, which may be pushed by lawmakers to avoid a December 11 shutdown.

Maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, has pleaded guilty to three federal criminal charges for its role in creating America’s opioid crisis.

Walmart is paying $388 million in holiday bonuses to its 1.5 million employees.

exonerated by the Innocence Project, and hopefully, in January, a forensic scientist specializing in ballistics. [Pantoja] kindly offered to come back again,” he said.

Overall, many feel that this speaker event, as well as prior ones have been a success, and hold special relevance to the forensics course. “I was much more interested in attending this lecture than some other guest lectures Stuy has hosted because it connects to what we’ve been learning in forensics, and because the detective

was able to offer a perspective, I would never have been able to hear otherwise,” Lepri said. “It offers an important perspective on forensics that is hard to teach without personal experience, so [I] hope future classes [will] have the chance to hear similar lectures.”

Along the same lines, Igarashi said, “These opportunities add a different layer to the learning experience, [in which] people outside of the classroom provide great, focused insight, and an enlightening peek into their own unique world.”

Ongoing Delay of the SHSAT Elicits Concern continued from page 1

[we] expect in terms of the administration, if at all?” Principal Seung Yu said. “There’s some speculation that it might be administered via computer. Again, these are speculations, and no one knows for sure, and I think that’s been the biggest concern, that there’s not been much status on what’s going to happen.”

Many parents, students, and pro-SHSAT groups have expressed concern over the possibility of an online exam. “If the test is virtual, it [wouldn’t be] very hard for people to cheat, whether it’s a calculator or using some other method,” Zarchary Meryn, an eighth-grader at East Side Middle School, said in an e-mail interview. “I think that the test’s integrity would suffer, and it would cause a lot of frustration in my community.”

Beacon High School senior Toby Paperno—who is part of Teens Take Charge, an organization dedicated to equity in NYC public schools—said that an online SHSAT would heighten pre-existing inequalities favoring students who have had paid preparation for the

exam. “So many students don’t have access to computers or to high speed Internet, or have a phone where they can do it, and I think it’s just like if the inequalities were like this before, they would skyrocket if you were administering it online,” he said. “Even though [an online SHSAT] might be the safest thing to do, it would also be the most discriminatory to do.”

With the testing date and format still undetermined for the SHSAT, some families have begun to turn to other admissions processes. “Personally, my family was considering private schools before the pushbacks started, but as time went on, they became more convinced that it would be better for us since the SHSAT is nowhere in sight, and every date we get is constantly being pushed back,” Meryn said. “About half of my friends feel the same way and have already [begun to look] into other schools.”

The Test for Admission into Catholic High Schools (TACHS)—the admissions test used for potential candidates of Catholic High Schools around New York City—was adminis-

tered as planned in November, but as an “online, remote, athome test” rather than an inperson test, according to their website. The test required the use of an anti-cheating monitoring program called Proctorio. “For me personally, I was already planning to apply to both Catholic Schools and the specialized schools so the plans have not changed,” Judy Shehata, an eighth grader at Myra S. Barnes Intermediate School 24, said in an e-mail interview. “For others, however, I believe more students than in usual years took their chances in applying to a Catholic School and taking the TACHS since there is so much uncertainty around the SHSAT and specialized schools.”

Relying on private or charter school admissions is not an option for all families though. “I’m not going to a private school because it is very expensive, and it’s not the right fit for me, but a lot of my friends are trying to go to private schools because they have just kind of given up on the whole SHSAT route,” Tessa Kolovarsky, another eighth grader at East Side Middle School, said.

Some students continuing to

study for the SHSAT, however, have faced a significant drop in morale. Cindy Zou, an eighth grader at Marie Curie Middle School, has been preparing for the exam by attending the DREAM program, a free initiative that prepares seventhgrade public school students for the SHSAT. “The pandemic has drastically reduced my time studying for the SHSAT. It also caused me to lose a lot of motivation,” she said in an e-mail interview. “The DREAM program went fully remote and lost many sessions. Personally, I am unsuited for online school, so studying at home made it really difficult for me to concentrate and even begin [to do] work.”

Other students have continued to study diligently. “My friend Lesly has been taking SHSAT prep all summer, and she has been doing a lot of work, which has been stressing her out,” Chappell said.

Students are not the only ones who have been forced to adjust—test prep centers across the city have also had to, which has led to mixed results. “Learning is something that’s very personalized and supposed to

be meaningful. And face-toface experience is always preferred, especially for the ability to learn from your peers,” an anonymous specialized high school alumnus who currently runs a tutoring company said.

“However, the online space does offer a lot more quality control and standardization.”

Despite setbacks, test prep centers are still urging their students to continue prepping for the exam. “We’re predicting that the exam is going to take place at least three months from now, so we’re [estimating] two months to mobilize and prepare. We’re running refresher courses right now [and] free extra help every Friday to keep momentum. We obviously don’t want the kids to stop studying,” Kweller Prep founder Frances Kweller said.

Similarly, Stuyvesant’s administration has encouraged test-taking students to continue with preparation for the SHSAT, regardless of how the test is administered. “Families who have been preparing should continue to do what they’ve been doing,” Yu said. “I’m certain the DOE will provide information for that soon or in the near future.”

The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Page 3

News ARISTA Introduces District 1 Pilot Program Initiative continued from page 1

ping stone to how we could help the New York City communities in District 1.”

Orlen played an important role in developing the program, which provides a bridge between ARISTA and PS/MS 34. “I see myself as a mere facilitator and connector to what [Wisotsky] referenced before,” Orlen said.

“Sometimes, high school students want to do good work within the cities, and they want to support younger students, but trying to get into a school can be challenging.”

With the approval of Chan and Deputy Superintendent Christine Mustillo, deputy head of Manhattan High Schools Mark Rush, Glover, and PS/MS 34 Living Environment teacher Mattew Rodman, ARISTA members began tutoring eighth grade students every Tuesday after school from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., working closely with Rodman to adjust their teaching methods for their tutees. “The Living Environment test is not as deep as even introductory classes at the specialized high schools would be, so I’ve talked to the tutors about that and [gave] them an idea of where the deficits are in students that have not learned science really effectively,” Rodman said.

The EC collaborated ex-

tensively to plan and develop the program. “We [make] sure that everything we’re doing during these meetings is really building up to our main goal,” Patel said. “This means keeping meetings on track, ensuring that if there are students who pop in at the last second who need tutoring, we can make sure they’re placed somewhere, [and] there were a lot of meetings that built up to this program and during these planning meetings.”

In addition, juniors Matt Melucci and Leah D’Silva, who are ARISTA project leaders overseeing the program, have played a key role in bridging the gap in communication. “Our role basically has been to stay in communication with all of our tutors, making sure that they know what to review with the tutees [and] talk with [Rodman] to see what curriculum they might want to review,” Melucci said.

Before each scheduled meeting, the ARISTA tutors ask for the topics that their tutees are learning in class and any questions they may have.

Tutors then pair up the students into small Zoom breakout rooms to answer questions or teach specific topics from the curriculum. “Before we started our first tutoring session, we […] got the blueprint of the curriculum from [Rodman],” junior and ARIS-

TA member Si Ying Ding said in an e-mail interview. “The actual tutoring session varied depending on what the tutees struggled with and wanted to go over. For example, my tutee prefers self-study, and we usually go over topics of her preference instead of following the blueprint.”

As each tutoring session is conducted through Zoom, many tutors were able to incorporate online resources to their tutoring sessions. “I plan on providing [my tutee] with resources during our calls (Regents questions, videos, and interactive websites), discuss what’s being reviewed in her class, and just make any misunderstandings from class clear by using diagrams and easy to understand explanations,” senior and ARISTA member Sakina Gulamhusein said in an e-mail interview.

Gulamhusein hopes to help the eighth graders navigate challenges that come with learning the Living Environments curriculum.

“They are brave to take this challenging high-school-level course, and I want to help them to understand the materials better,” she said. “I want to make them appreciate the dynamic nature and reallife applications of biology outside classroom settings.”

Many tutors were able to provide not [only] help with

comprehending Living Environment topics, but also general high school advice.

“During tutoring sessions, my tutee asked me about my experiences in Stuy, high school life, etc,” Ding said.

“If I were an eighth grader, I would appreciate the presence of a high schooler who can guide me. This program definitely offers this opportunity for eighth graders.”

Gulamhusein agreed, believing that the mentorship extended beyond just strictly teaching the academic curriculum to the eighth graders. “We’re not just tutors for Living Environment. We’re also mentors,” she said. “We want to be there for these kids and guide them through whatever help they need, whether that be the central dogma or how to study and manage their time in general.”

Rodman noted that the interactions between tutors and tutees could have a positive impact beyond the classroom. “As successful young scholars, the Stuyvesant students can serve as mentors.

And just the implicit nature of working with somebody who has been academically successful will give my students access to habits of mind that they might not have had before,” Rodman said.

Once in-person learning resumes, the EC aims

to expand the program to other schools and have longer but fewer sessions.

“We’re hoping that we’re going to different schools and teaching different types of classes,” Patel said. “Hopefully, sessions are a little bit longer and more spread apart.”

Wistosky also hopes that the program will allow ARISTA members to gain valuable experience. “Bringing this holistic view, working with middle school kids, [and] building these personal relationships [are] going to be beneficial not just to the recipients and [eighth graders] [who] are getting the tutoring or the people that we do service, but in ARISTA itself. We want to provide opportunities for growth for our members.”

Moving forward, ARISTA hopes to continue to engage with the communities outside of Stuyvesant and create more personal connections and impact as an honors society. “We really see this program, especially the Pilot Program, as a stepping stone into reaching the needs of the greater New York City community and interacting with other communities that might be different from our own,” Donnelly said. “We really want to reimagine what an honor society could be […] it’s really a means to [make] a tangible impact in the community.”

Juniors Navigate SAT and PSAT Exams Amidst Pandemic According to the College Board website, the January PSAT administration will “have the same benefits as the October PSAT/ NMSQT, including eligibility for programs administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.”

While Stuyvesant may host a PSAT, constant cancellations last spring and earlier this fall prompted students to find other means of taking the exams, though with limited success. “I called about seven or eight schools that were listed on the College Board website as testing sites this year—they were mostly private schools. However, most of them didn’t call me back,” junior Elizabeth Stansberry said in an e-mail interview.

“The ones who did respond told me they were closed testing sites, and especially because of COVID, they wouldn’t be letting anyone else come in and take the test.”

Some students even used out-of-state connections in order to take the exam. “I called my grandmother, who lives in Dallas, and asked her what she thought about me taking [the PSAT exam] in Texas,” Stansberry said. “She gave me the e-mail of an ad-

ministrator, [and] from [that point on] it was pretty easy to register to take it there as a homeschooler. So then, on

Given the uncertainties of whether future SAT administrations will be available, juniors are taking extra steps

To help juniors prepare for upcoming exams, the Junior Caucus recently hosted a practice SAT session online, proc-

to prepare themselves, as they may not have many opportunities to retake the exam.

tored by students. “The SAT event was on November 21 in order to ensure that students

Andrea Huang / The Spectator

continued from page 1

October 10, I flew to Dallas, and I took the PSAT on [the following Wednesday].”

who were taking the official exam on December 5 had a chance to get some last-minute practice,” Junior Caucus Events Director Katherine Yo said in an e-mail interview. “We wanted to replicate the atmosphere that everyone would experience when they took their official SATs to relieve any added stress they might have had about the technicalities of the exam.”

Students appreciated the opportunity to take a timed practice test during the session. “The proctoring wasn’t very strict. [...] They would read the directions given like a real test, but the rest was up to us,” junior Jesse Wang said in an e-mail interview.

“In the end, it was definitely helpful. Personally, I feel like the SAT is not something you can really study for, [since] there are just too many [...] broad concepts to be able to effectively study each and every single one. I just like taking practice tests to help me prepare for the SAT. The more the better.”

Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic—including SAT cancellations— the junior class has been actively working toward preparing for the SAT effectively taking their first steps in the college application process.

Page 4

The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Features Stuy’s Ties With Plushies and More

By CHRISTINE CHANG, ISABELLE LAM, RAYMOND WU, and SOOBIN CHOI The pandemic is a time of great stress and anxiety for students and teachers alike. It is in these times of change that our childhood comfort items provide some much-needed consolation, whether it be a plushie, a piece of furniture, or even something intangible like music. Even if we no longer consider ourselves children, these items can transport us to simpler pre-pandemic times—a welcome respite from present-day stress.

Music (Carina Lee, sophomore)

White Desk (Cassie Fenwick, sophomore)

Pitch, melody, and rhythm combined in a wonderful mixture, music is the item of choice for sophomore Carina Lee. At first, when Lee was asked if she owns any special objects, she seemed to be at a loss for words. “I don’t have anything really,” Lee hesitantly replied. Though she initially had trouble thinking of any concrete objects that she valued, she soon began talking about how her friend told her to watch a TV show near the beginning of quarantine. The shows and the new music that she listened to positively influenced her, especially throughout quarantine. “In general, [music] makes me less anxious,” Lee explained.

“I guess while I’m listening to music or watching something, […] I get happier.” It may be hard to find concrete physical objects that bring comfort or are particularly special. However, there is an entirely different world of objects online. Whether it be games, music, TV shows, or movies, they have the ability to provide just as much comfort as any physical object would.

Unlike Lee, sophomore Cassie Fenwick was able to think of a comfort object almost immediately. She talked about her sticker-decorated pink and white desk that she has used since she was six years old. What she loves about her desk is the familiarity of it. “[I’ve] always had it; it’s just like always been there for a while,” Fenwick described. “I mean, it’s just my desk.” She recalled an anecdote about her sister cleaning the desk: “She cleaned it recently […] because she hated [that] it was dirty so [often],” Fenwick said, laughing. “That’s real dedication.

I would be like, ‘Oh your desk is dirty,’ but no way would I ever clean her desk.”

Even though Fenwick’s parents asked her if she wanted a new desk many times, she always refused. “I just feel like it’s kind of a waste because it still works, it’s not broken, and it’s just so familiar to me […] I love it; it’s nice.”

The idea of having memorabilia elicits a positive response, but Fenwick also considered the practicality of it: “It’s nice to have them; [they’re] familiar objects, but eventually, they’ll probably break or get […] kind of ratty, like stuffed animals,” she responded. Fenwick elaborated on her point by connecting it to the worth of salvaging broken memorabilia. She explained that not all memorabilia need to be kept and the situation depends on the object’s usefulness to you now. “I think it depends on what level of sentimentality it has; like if it’s […] a nice stuffed animal from your childhood [that] you went through some dark times with […] [and] when you were a little bit older it helped you, and it still helps you, […] then I think it’s worth it,” Fenwick said.

For Fenwick, the desk represents the perfect balance because it maintains its usefulness as well as its nostalgia.

Teddy Bears (Sunny Bok, senior)

CJ7 Plush (Kelly Guo, senior)

Senior Sunny Bok has a large collection of comfort items—all teddy bears from her childhood—but has two favorites out of them. The first came in a set of two that her grandmother bought for her and her sister before they were born. She originally owned the boy bear but later swapped with her sister after her sister smashed the girl bear’s nose in. “Whenever my friends came over, they’d be like, ‘What happened to that teddy bear’s nose?’” she reminisced, laughing.

Bok’s second bear is named Cream, a bear she got in fifth grade at a school trip to a Build-A-Bear Workshop. Though Cream wasn’t made correctly in the end, Bok found a way to turn the flaw into a perk. “The person [making it] forgot to stitch my bear, so the back’s just open; there’s stuffing coming out,” Bok explained. “I realized that I could put a flashlight inside the teddy bear and use it as a lamp. If I turned it on, the whole teddy bear would glow, and I used that as a [reading] lamp for the next couple months, and then the flashlight died.” For Bok, Cream brings back memories of staying up late at night to read books, something she used to enjoy often, much to her parents’ chagrin.

In elementary school, Bok used to be slightly embarrassed by her collection, but she has since grown to appreciate how they have influenced her growth. “Now that I’m older, I think it’s better to have that kind of nature, you know, that kind of caring and protective nature,” she said. While she admits that holding on to childhood comfort items can be somewhat of a setback, she feels it’s a good habit to keep some tangible memorabilia, especially in such a digitally-driven world. “[Keeping physical objects] is different from the digital world [be]cause we all have pictures now, and we can look back [at] pictures and be like, ‘Hey, remember this?’ [or] ‘Hey, remember that?’ But with teddy bears, or whatever it is, it’s visible. You can feel it. And I think it’s a different sort of comfort you get from physical items than [what] you get from digital photos, videos, [and] whatnot,” Bok said.

For senior Kelly Guo, her comfort item is actually both a movie and a plush of a character from that movie, both of which are named CJ7. Released in 2008, “CJ7” is a Hong-Kong-Chinese film that centers around a poor boy and his father who stumble across a cute alien with many technologically-advanced objects. Guo watched the movie when she was around five years old, and she got the accompanying plush of the alien around the same time. However, she didn’t really understand the film until her second time watching it when she was older. “I connected more with the characters [be]cause the boy, well he’s in elementary school and he lives with his dad, and obviously his mom is gone and that kind of relates to me with my mom [and] how she’s a single parent,” Guo explained.

The movie also contained a message which resonated with Guo: life will always get better. “[The boy’s] living situation is really bad. [He and his father] have a shelter, but they’re practically homeless. And I remember there was this scene where he wanted this new robot toy that was trending, [but] his dad couldn’t afford it, and he got really upset,” Guo described. “I feel like it’s just a really lighthearted movie [from which] people can just learn that life always gets better.”

The CJ7 plush itself is important to Guo for a different reason. “I was born [in the United States], and then I went back to China, so this is one of the only things I have left that I brought from China to here,” Guo said. “It’s just one of the oldest things I own, basically, so I guess that’s why I’m so attached to it. I don’t think I would ever throw it away.”

ChiChi (Peter Brooks, mathematics and computer science teacher) Mathematics and computer science teacher Peter Brooks’s comfort item is a stuffed panda named ChiChi. His wife got it a long time ago for his daughter Abby, and Brooks has had ChiChi for about 27 years. When questioned on where the name ChiChi came from, Brooks commented, “I don’t think ChiChi knows […] So it’s lost in the mist of time.” However, Brooks reasoned that this name likely came from “ChiChi” being easier for Abby to pronounce when she said, “I want ChiChi now,” or “Why isn’t ChiChi here?” Though ChiChi would have preferred the name “George Foreman the Fourth,” Brooks reasoned that “ChiChi was alright.”

With regards to his children, Brooks added, “It was only the older daughter, Abby, [who] was attached to ChiChi.” He gave life to ChiChi by translating what ChiChi was saying: “I can tell when Abby is around or when my dad is around or my mom is around […] just sort of by smelling the wind as it passes by. And it’s really very nice; […] it’s a great comfort to be [...] snuggling in a bed with someone who really likes you,” ChiChi said, according to Brooks. Brooks explained all that information was said in about two words. “[ChiChi’s] language is very compact,” he clarified.

Brooks further described how he would talk about ChiChi in virtual or in-person computer science classes. He remarked, “I’d have to bring ChiChi to class, which means that I’d have to have it […] sitting on my desk, and my colleagues would see I’m there with a stuffed toy, and […] [there are] all the issues that [it] brings up. But […] this way, only my class can see that I have ChiChi around. And he’s a comfort to me.” He furthered this point by saying, “There’s a problem with fuzzy animals and my sense of manhood, but I make peace with it.”

In addition, Brooks translated a message from ChiChi about his current life in quarantine: “I’m not the young panda I used to be, and things get dirty, […] washing is a chore. And so [Brooks and his family] just stick me into the washing machine, and that is really just bad news.” Brooks elaborated that “[ChiChi]’s not always in a great mood now that he spends most of his time looking at the opposite wall.”

Toward the end of the interview, Brooks delivered a message from ChiChi for all of ChiChi’s loyal and devoted fans. “Keep those cards and letters coming,” ChiChi said. “And send some bamboo.” ChiChi then gave advice on how to send the bamboo: “The post office will [send it] if you take a very large container, one of those maps containers, and just fill it up with bamboo shoots.”

However, in terms of acquiring bamboo, Brooks advised against taking scaffolding that is used for construction. “Try not to take that, okay?” he said. “Especially when people are walking on it.”

Puppy Stuffie (Josephine Lee, junior)

Scarf (Sarah Ibrahim, sophomore)

Junior Josephine Lee’s case presents a stuffed animal that she has had almost since birth. She disclosed, “I have a stuffed dog that one of my mom’s very close friends gave [me].” The stuffie is a small black dog named Puppy.

Lee reminisced, “I used to carry it around everywhere, [even though] I don’t actually remember, but my parents tell me that.” Due to her constant attachment to it, her mom had a preventative measure put in place. Lee elaborated, “My mom got a duplicate of [Puppy] just in case I lost it […] [so] there would be a backup.”

However, Lee has not made much use of the duplicate, except for one instance: “Apparently, once I dropped [Puppy] in a puddle,” Lee explained. “Then I had to use [the duplicate] when [Puppy] was in the wash.” After this, the duplicate has been living in her closet. “I always still keep [Puppy] on my bed,” she said.

Lee continued by describing how Puppy has lived an interesting life by following her around in her travels. “I usually pack him, [...] so he’s been to like Italy and China. He’s been around the world,” Lee explained.

Though Lee still has Puppy today, she expressed a different view on keeping sentimental items. “Sentimental items shouldn’t be kept […] so that you’re clinging onto the past and you can’t live in the present, and when you look at it, all you can think [of shouldn’t be about] how much you want to be in the past,” Lee reasoned.

“But I think that if it helps you cope with bad moments […] or if it brings you comfort, then you should keep it.”

Lee concluded by laughing while saying, “The best part about this interview is probably that my mom got a replacement.”

For sophomore Sarah Ibrahim, an object that holds a special place in her childhood is her grandmother’s scarf. “I grew up with no grandparents. They all died before my parents got married,” Ibrahim explained. “I remember one day I was bored, so I was helping my mom clean, and I found this scarf. I found the scarf really pretty, so I stole it from her. [My mom] sat me down and told me some stories about my grandparents and her life back in India.”

While listening to the stories, Ibrahim was able to draw connections between her grandmother and her own mother. “[My mom talked] about how [my grandmother] would never say no to anyone and how the house was always full of people. My grandma was the type to wear these raggedy clothes so that her children could wear the expensive stuff. My mom’s still like that,” Ibrahim said. Though she has never met her grandmother, being able to have her scarf is a way to form a relationship with her. “It’s a way to connect with my past that I don’t know much about,” Ibrahim said.

More than vicarious connections, however, Ibrahim was able to build her own personal connections with the scarf. “I would make up stories about [people] and pretend I could see them in the clothes,” Ibrahim explained. “It was like I [had] people, even though I don’t know them, cheering me on and still there with me in a way.” With the scarf and her imagination, Ibrahim was able to fill her childhood with play that she still appreciates to this day. “When you’re feeling down, something from your childhood [can always] light you up. Remember when I had fun running around with a piece of cloth? No tests, nothing?” Ibrahim said, laughing.

In the end, however, Ibrahim believes that holding on to objects from one’s childhood is valuable.

“There’s no harm in it,” she explained. “It brings back a lot of memories that you might have forgotten as you [got] older. My long-term memory is so bad. That’s why I like to keep objects so that I can [remember] better.

The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Page 5

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The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Features Stuyvesant: Far From Home of New York City can be lonely. “I don’t really know that many people who live here, so I haven’t seen another teenager in a long time,” Stansberry said. While she is still able to FaceTime friends and connect virtually, a lack of proximity makes socializing from outside of the city much more difficult. In addition, Stansberry has experienced frequent connectivity problems, citing frozen Google Meets screens and full Internet blackouts as regular occurrences. “We have WiFi,” she explained. “But if the WiFi cuts out, it’s just the end. I can’t go and text a friend saying

much as he would in New York.

“You’ll see people at the grocery store just breathing over produce with a naked face, and it triggers such a visceral feeling of disgust,” he remarked. Like the previous interviewees, Muhammad prefers in-person learning, but his reason is quite unique. “I miss seating charts the most, funnily enough.

Like, in Zoom, you can’t really have side conversations with kids you don’t already know, so there are limited opportunities for socialization and meeting new people. Back in school, there would be a lot of minute interactions that’d

roundings, some students who are staying outside of New York City but are in the U.S. have also been adapting to the new settings and share similar sentiments to those traveling internationally.

Junior Elizabeth Stansberry, for example, has hunkered down with her family in Colorado. While the time difference between New York and Colorado is not too dramatic, it forces Stansberry to wake up and end classes two hours earlier––a reality she accepts with open arms. “I have to start at 7:15, but I’m done with classes by 12:30, which is a big plus,” Stansberry said. Because of the drastically different environment and landscape between the two states, Stansberry also enjoys a new set of activities with her recent move. “It’s very nice to just be here in the mountains because you get to go skiing on the weekends, go outside a bunch, and just do things you wouldn’t otherwise get to do,” she explained. However, a time change of any magnitude can bring confusion. “The twohour difference has become a huge headache because every time I see a deadline or something else happening, I have to translate it in my head,” Stansberry remarked.

However, time spent outside

‘my WiFi cut out’ because my texts also won’t go through, so that’s become a bit of an issue.”

Junior Ty Oshima, who is studying at his family weekend home in the Catskill Mountains, described a similar challenge. “Unlike in New York [City], our house here is in a remote, rural area, and therefore, we do rarely lose power and Internet, which is probably one of the largest challenges,” he explained in an e-mail interview.

Despite coming to view his country house as a place of living rather than just a weekend getaway, Oshima still misses being in the city.

“Personally, I do prefer staying in New York City because New York City is my playground before and after school, with many more things to do in walking distance such as seeing friends or going to a neighborhood bakery,” he commented.

Currently living in Atlanta, Georgia, junior Asa Muhammad agrees with the inconveniences of not having public transportation but views this lack in a more positive light, as it safeguards him from potential COVID-19 exposure. Appalled by the deficiency of mask-wearing behavior, Muhammad does not go out as

help build a camaraderie that could eventually burgeon into real friendship, and that just doesn’t happen over Zoom. And breakout rooms are the bane of my existence. Even if you get a good one, they’re always randomized such that you never see your new potential friends again,” he recounted through e-mail.

While Hong, Merlet, Stransberry, Oshima, and Muhammad have relocated with their families, other students had been planning to travel abroad through foreign exchange programs. The pandemic, of course, canceled such plans.

Despite this, foreign exchange programs have been able to adapt to current circumstances, offering virtual studying opportunities to students instead. For instance, the National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y), a language-immersion program that introduces high school students to new languages, continued Virtual NSLI-Y this year. Virtual NSLI-Y consists of a 10-week beginnerlevel course that provides students with a foreign language and cultural experience that fosters intercultural understanding. The available languages it offers include Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Korean, and

Courtesy of Manolee Merlet

Sunrises, beaches, busy city streets. Boasting an assortment of options, the virtual background often makes its appearance in Zoom meetings. But for some, it is a reality. Whether they like it or not, countless Stuyvesant students have scattered across the world throughout the pandemic, each facing his or her own set of problems as well as benefiting from the unique advantages of residing in a far corner of the map. In light of the foreign exchange programs that remain on hold, these retreats are largely personal, ranging from familial to a need for a change in atmosphere.

A transition of any extent from the city that never sleeps demands utter adaptability, and these Stuyvesant students are making the best of their situation.

Sophomore Julian Hong, studying from South Korea, reported a negative experience abroad.

“This new setting has definitely been hindering my learning. I’m constantly trying to keep myself awake. I also usually do all of my homework at night (since it’s when I work best), so I’ve been forced to do work in the evening, which has been hard to get used to,” he said in an e-mail interview. Considering the 14-hour time zone difference, Hong currently takes his classes between midnight and 4:25 a.m. and has not fully adapted, since he has arrived merely three weeks ago. “Keeping track of time has been difficult,” he stated. Social isolation is another major factor in the equation. However, Hong has been able to better acquaint himself with Korean culture despite the ongoing pandemic and shows optimism in these circumstances.

“I would say my mental health has been getting significantly better. I haven’t been in Korea for over five years, and it feels really nice to visit again,” said Hong.

Sophomore Manolee Merlet, too, has been forced to adapt to the shift in time zones. Merlet currently resides in St. Maarten, a small picturesque island tucked away in the northeastearn Caribbean Sea. Unlike Hong, though, Merlet is content with the time zones in her area that result from St. Maarten’s proximity to the United States.

“Studying in St. Maarten is different because the time zones are different here. For me, classes start at 11 a.m. and end around 3:00 p.m. It’s nice because I get to wake

up later and get more sleep,” she explained. Along with the benefit of prolonged sleeping hours, Merlet enjoys the warm Caribbean weather and gorgeous, pristine beaches that populate the island.

“I get the chance to go to the beach more and sightsee, which I wouldn’t have been able to do in NYC,” she said. “I prefer studying abroad because I can see my dad here, and the weather is better. It’s really warm here, and I prefer that over the cold weather in NYC.” Though Hong and Merlet have undergone more drastic transformations in terms of physical sur-

Courtesy of Manolee Merlet

By MORRIS RASKIN, MAHIRAH KHAN, ISABELLA JIA, and ARIANA DEVITO

Russian.

This learning opportunity appealed to junior Hannah Scheuer, whose passion for language-learning led her to apply for the Mandarin course of virtual NSLI-Y. “I had contemplated self-studying Mandarin for a while, but the prospect seemed daunting. When June came around and applications for the fall virtual program opened, I was excited to have an opportunity to jumpstart my Mandarin studies,” Scheuer said in an e-mail interview. During her studies, not only did Scheuer learn how to write and speak Mandarin, but she also learned about Chinese culture. “My favorite cultural activities were the hands-on ones like paper cutting and learning to use chopsticks. Though class has ended, our teacher is planning to Zoom with us on Chinese New Year and possibly teach us how to cook dumplings,” she explained.

In addition to this new cultural exposure, Scheuer was surrounded by new faces in her class, filled with classmates from different places in the nation. Because her classes were small, with about 10 students, she was able to form close relationships with her classmates. Scheuer attributes this bonding as one of the highlights of the program. “I became super close with a lot of my classmates, and we regularly video call and text each other,” she said. “We all share the same interest in learning Chinese, but we’re from such different places (my classmates were from Virginia, Puerto Rico, Florida, Oklahoma, and a couple [of ] other states).”

Learning a new language has its advantages, but the process of doing so may involve bumps and funny moments of miscommunication. “I remember from the first or second class when we had just learned the structure ‘wo shi ___’ to say ‘I am ___,’ one kid unmuted himself and out of nowhere said, ‘wo shi quirky.’ Our teacher didn’t really understand the kid’s use of the word ‘quirky,’ but it was nonetheless a funny incident,” Scheuer recalls.

While unable to change their situation, these students have tapped into their inner resources of resiliency and adaptability. “After months of introspection and internal dialogues, I’m doing a lot better,” Muhammad notes. This is a simple yet profound statement that encapsulates the learning curve we are all facing during this challenging time, even more so to students learning from abroad.

Cheers (and a Few Tears) to the College Process

By KAELIANA YU

2 1nfinity and Beyond! As the holidays approach, something worth celebrating is that after several stressful months, Early Action (EA) and Early Decision (ED) college applications are over for Stuyvesant seniors.

Early Action and Early Decision are enrollment plans used by many colleges and universities.

Unlike the standard Regular Decision plan in which students send in applications in January and get results in March, EA and ED both require students to apply earlier.

Students usually submit applications by November and receive a decision in December or January.

However, a fundamental differ-

ence between the programs is that EA is non-binding, meaning that accepted students do not necessarily have to go to that school. ED, on the other hand, is binding.

According to Director of College Counseling Jeffrey Makris, there is one main reason why colleges offer these plans and why students decide to utilize them.

“The benefit for colleges is clear,” he said. “They get to secure an early portion of the class.”

For students, the benefit garnered by applying early is also clear-cut: if admitted, they are able to skip past the long and stressful process of Regular Decision reactions. In addition, it seems as though students have a better chance of being admitted

early: “For many colleges, the admission rates are better in the early pool than in the regular pool,” Makris said.

This year, more seniors applied EA or ED to a school than usual. College counselor Jeaurel Wilson linked the high numbers of early applicants to the extra anxiety created by the pandemic.

“The nervousness of college applications [this year] made students apply even more,” she noted. To help overcome this anxiety, Wilson suggested that students take a breather and focus on other aspects of life outside of college.

“It’s just a matter of taking their time,” she explained. “Go for a nice leisurely walk, jog if that’s your thing, draw, read, write, [or]

take personal journals.”

Makris, too, has advice. After completing early applications, Makris advised that students let the college application process leave their minds. “There’s not much you can do at [this] point; focus on things that [you] have control over, like [your] relationships, the things you do for fun, [and] staying on top of school,” he explained. “Do your best not to eat, breathe, and sleep college 24/7.”

Students should also make sure to take college applications as a chance to celebrate all of their high school achievements. Senior Kimya Firoozan certainly did.

“It’s been four long years of high school, and I’m just happy and

comfortable with where I am. The fact that I submitted my college application just a few weeks ago [...] is something to be proud of,” she said.

One of the biggest reasons to celebrate small achievements instead of becoming crazy about college 24/7 is that, at a certain point, there’s nothing more that can be done to influence the outcome. Stressing about a potential rejection won’t do anything to prevent it. “[Rejection is] a bitter pill to swallow; it really is. It’s a horrible feeling,” Wilson said. “I know the devastation that students go through, and I think this continued on page 7

The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Page 7

Features Cheers (and a Few Tears) to the College Process continued from page 6

year is going to be particularly difficult because we’re all so isolated.”

Nevertheless, college counselors have advice on how to overcome this “bitter pill.” Makris, for one, said, “It’s very important to not personalize getting disappointing news […] When you’re talking about highly selective colleges like we’re talking about, the ones that students are most focused on, that tells you that they’re denying the vast majority of their applicant pool.” Many students are prone to think along the lines of “I didn’t get [in], so I wasn’t good enough,” but Makris said they should stray from this flawed logic. Because of the myriad factors taken into consideration for admissions, it is impossible for colleges to admit all of the qualified applicants.

For all Stuyvesant students, known for its intense college culMakris shared several important ture. Counselors acknowledge goals that students should strive this difficulty: toward. These tips include stay- “There’s absoing on top of one’s workload, lutely a engaging during classes, some- c o l l e g e thing that is especially important online, and reaching out to one’s guidance counselor or teacher when one is struggling. Finally, students should remember that academic success is not the determining factor for college admissions.

Moreover, a student’s wellbeing should always take precedence over their grades. College counselor Elizabeth Hughes added, “If you’re not of culture, strong mind and body, which I you’re going to comprolove because mise yourself in so many everyone should Joanna Meng / The Spectator different ways, not just be motivated and college applications.” focused to move forward with But keeping a strong mind their education and move forand body can be hard at a school ward to college,” Wilson said.

With that pressure comes an expectation that students pursue a well-known university. “Our kids love big research universities in or near cities, [the] East Coast, Southern California, and a couple [of ] places in the Midwest,” Makris said.

Unsurprisingly, the most popular colleges among Stuyvesant students are Ivy League schools. But counselors warn against applying to an Ivy just because of the big name. “In general, our kids are obsessed with the Ivy Leagues,” Makris said. “There’s so much pressure from places to try to chase these schools that a lot of kids apply without thinking things through and [asking], ‘Are

these really right for me?’”

In addition, students should remember that big-name schools are not always the key to success.

“You don’t have to go to one particular type of school to be successful,” Wilson said.

Hughes shares this sentiment: “Where you go to college is not going to shape your future […]

College gives you all the building blocks you need, but you create the future, and I think that’s something that’s really valuable to embody.”

Makris, echoing his colleagues, reminded students that there isn’t only one college where students will find happiness and success. “In truth, there are hundreds of places for kids to go to college and build brilliantly successful lives,” Makris said. “If you’re engaged and you make the most of your experience wherever you go, you’re going to be fine.”

Seeing the World Through a Different Lens

By ISABEL CHING and ARPITA SAHA Imagine the world seven million years ago. It is dark, its inhabitants primitive. Bands of cavemen roam the land, eager to get their hands on anything they deem remotely edible. Life is hard. It is even harder for those who cannot see. They are left behind while others go hunting, forced to fend for themselves in a world they can barely make sense of. Nothing is easy, and nothing is clear. They are abandoned and alone—all because they cannot see. Luckily for today’s visually impaired, the invention of glasses and contacts have transformed the world of vision and leveled the playing field for those who would otherwise be extremely disadvantaged. Today, glasses and contacts are common and widely used, especially by students at Stuyvesant.

Freshman Iris Lin is one of these glasses wearers. For Lin, going to the glasses store for the first time was a novel experience. Just a kindergartner when she found out she needed glasses, Lin was enthusiastic about her new eyewear, partly because of the frames. “I was actually really excited to get glasses. When we were picking out frames, I [chose] purple ones with hearts, and I was really excited to wear those,” she said. However, this newfound excitement quickly morphed into something less positive: “My mom was really disapproving of [the frames], and she warned me about spending too much time on the [computer] screen, so that excitement kind of turned into disappointment.”

Lin’s mom was not the only one disillusioned about glasses.

“Once I started wearing them, I thought ‘Wow, I have to wear these 24/7, except for when I’m sleeping,’” senior Taaseen Jahan said. “It felt like a bit of a chore, but it wasn’t too much of a burden.”

However, this initial distaste for glasses has worn off for many students who, as time goes on, have learned to love their clunky companions. Freshman Lesley Lo, a long time glasses wearer, has found that her eyewear has even become something of a personality trait. “I’ve changed the style [of my glasses] a few times, but I

have been wearing glasses 24/7 every single day since first grade, and I think that my friends really do recognize me with glasses,” she recalled. “[Glasses] have changed my life. I definitely think they’re sort of a part of my appearance. Being without glasses would be really different for me.”

Junior Tina Jang echoed this thought. “I remember the first time I wore my glasses and it felt kind of awkward, but now they are like a part of me. I get used to it, and now I don’t even notice,” she said. In fact, glasses are such an integral part of her life that she used to give them names.

“I’ve had four glasses so far, and the first time I was like, ‘Oh, this is a male! This is Mr. Mustache!’”

For senior Zachary Gelman, glasses have their upsides as well: “My favorite part [about glasses] is that some people think they make you look more intelligent.”

But not everyone appreciates their look with glasses. Junior Isabella Chow started using contacts for that very reason. “For some reason when I wore my glasses, I just thought I look[ed] like the version of me that I never wanted to be called, like the person [who] was only known for their smarts,” she explained.

Jahan, however, thinks that glasses don’t always do much to convince people of your superior intellect. “[There are] tons of people [who] don’t wear glasses but are super smart, and some people can look a lot prettier or more handsome just by wearing glasses. It’s really up to the style that the person wants to take up,” he explained. Jahan has also personally felt the impact of the stereotypes associated with glasses. “Wearing glasses has made me feel like a nerd before, but only because of the appearance.

I think it’s a misconception that wearing glasses makes you a nerd or that wearing glasses in general is just a downgrade in appearance,” he explained.

Jang also shared her thoughts on the stereotypes surrounding

glasses. “The stigma that comes with glasses is so old-fashioned. I read this book about World War II with this boy who gets bullied and called ‘Four Eyes’ just because he wears glasses,” she said.

Nerdy stereotypes are not the only problems glasses bring—the tedious upkeep glasses require is irritating too. “The problem is, you have to clean them all the time. I don’t clean mine enough, so they are always super dirty,” Gelman said.

Glasses wearers have had to adapt to the unique problems the coronavirus presents as well— masks complicate things. Gelman explained, “When you are wearing a mask, your glasses fog up, and you can’t see out of them.

So when you’re walking with your mask on, you can’t

see, but you can’t really take your glasses off because you can’t see things without your glasses.”

However, for those like Gelman who are annoyed by the cumbersome care glasses require, there is a solution: contacts. The very latest technology the world of eyewear has to offer, contact lenses offer the adventurous an opportunity to experience the world in a brand new way. Jang is one of those people. Finding herself bored with her normal glasses during quarantine, Jang decided it was time to spice things up with contacts. Unfortunately, she ran into some unexpected difficulties. “I didn’t know that I have really, really dry eyes because of my Dad’s genetics,” she explained. “I can only wear contact lenses for two hours unless I have eye solution, and if I don’t, I get really, really red eyes.”

Jahan, too, encountered issues

when he first purchased his contacts and tried to use them: “The trouble of wearing contacts is putting them in and taking them out. I know it takes me five to 10 minutes just to take them out, and it’s so difficult. When you first wear contacts, you have to worry about whether you’ll be able to take them out and if you’ll [accidentally poke] your eye out.”

Chow expressed similar sentiments. She uses night contact lenses, which allow her to see without glasses or contacts throughout the day after sleeping with contacts at night. Chow described her struggle with contacts: “Sometimes when you put [the contacts] in the wrong spot and you miss your pupil, it just gets lodged in the white area of your eye, and you can’t get it out.”

She continued, “I remember in the beginning when I was putting them on, I would get scared every single time, but I knew I had to at some

thing on your face […] It makes you feel like a different, brand new person overall. I think it gives me more confidence.”

Schiminovich shares this positive sentiment. “My favorite part [about contacts] is not having to worry about [my eyes] throughout the day and not having to worry about glasses being there. I am able to do more things without thinking about my glasses.”

But glasses or no glasses, insecurities about appearance are universal. For those feeling uncomfortable about their new eyewear, experienced glasses-wearers offer their words of advice.

“You look ugly if you wear the wrong type of glasses. I was told I look cuter with circular glasses,” Jang said, emphasizing the need to find the perfect fit for you. “You should not have any stereotypes before you get glasses, and [you should] just learn more about your facial structure and know that you have options.”

Despite the r o tat pec insecurities that eS h T e/ one may have uir -Sq g n ou about glasses, Y ily Em glasses can brighten up our some- what ordinary lives and lead to memorable mopoint.” ments. Senior Abir Taheer shared However, a memory from elementary for those con- school where his class was riding cerned about four-wheeled floor scooters durcontacts, senior ing gym class. “We were messing Theo Schiminov- around on those, and then someich offers his take: “One one was going directly toward me, thing to remember is that millions and their head collided with my of people [put] contact lenses in head, and then my glasses broke their eyes every day, and almost because of that.” While it was all of them don’t have problems tragic for his glasses, Taheer looks doing it. So it’s a pretty safe thing back fondly on the experience: “I to do.” He continued, “I was re- did leave school early that day and ally concerned about the idea of then went to the store to get new touching your eye, but the eye is glasses. But then that was memoactually pretty strong.” rable.”

For those who abide by Glasses or contacts, whatever Schiminovich’s wise words or it may be, have shaped human simply overcome the initial chal- lives tremendously. These invenlenges contacts present, contacts tions allow the visually impaired can be life-changing. “When I to clearly see an otherwise blurry first wore contacts for the first world. Though both glasses and time, it was so surreal because I contacts come with different pros could finally see everything clearly and cons and preferences may without having huge frames on be debatable, one thing is clear: my face,” Jahan recalled. He con- these devices are instrumental in tinued about the effects of con- allowing people to see with 20/20 tacts on his confidence: “The big- vision, even when the future of gest benefit is that you look [how 2020 is so unclear. you] naturally [do] without any-

Page 8

The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Features

By AVA FUNG, LAUREN LEE, SABRINA LI, and KHUJISTA UMAMA Thanks to the pandemic, many students have pushed pause on normal school activities and pushed play on improving their own lives. Freed from the boundaries of societal pressures, tiring commutes, and the 10 flights of stairs Stuyvesant students face on the daily, students have felt free to channel their energy elsewhere, turning their cramped New York City apartments into a school, salon, and therapist’s office. With the time to open up a self-help book instead of a textbook, the Stuyvesant community has turned over a new page for themselves.

Or, in slang terms, many Stuyvesant students have had a “glowup”—they’ve undergone a positive physical, mental, or emotional transformation.

Freshman Iris Lin shared her mental glow-up during quarantine. “Being in quarantine for so long really put things into perspective because everything kind of seemed less, if that makes sense.

Nothing really, really mattered because you could die at any moment,” she said. “[It] sounds very drastic or really extreme, but it’s true anyone can die.”

Pre-quarantine Lin had struggled with self-confidence, but being isolated helped her gain a confident personality by pushing her to do things for herself. “You realize that no one really cares what you’re doing [when] you’re at home,” she explained. “I wanted to get my head shaved a long time ago,” Lin said. “I was scared of what people would think of me.

But I committed, and [their opinion] doesn’t really matter [be]cause I wanted to do it for myself.” This time away from others has helped Lin develop her confidence.

In fact, many students have benefited from the extra time— not only time away from others but also time away from classes, which can be credited to the decreased workload during quarantine and the lack of a commute.

With more time on their hands, they were able to focus on bettering themselves.

One student who blossomed from this additional time is junior Fahmida Luna. Along with her emotional headway, quarantine has helped calm Luna’s anxiety

A Golden Glow-Up

surrounding social interactions. “I struggle with social anxiety, and I feel like it’s a lot lower now that I don’t have to go to any social events or see anyone every day, and I feel like I can finally walk at home or walk outside without having anxiety,” she said. Taking walks helps soothe her when she feels stressed or sad, and not having to worry about people allows her to feel more comfortable going for a stroll more frequently.

Without having the added pressure of commute time taking away from her essential activities, Luna is able to flourish.

Meanwhile, for Freshman Caucus Co-President Aleksey Olkhovenko, the end of in-person activities such as his commute has freed up his calendar. In fact, it has allowed him to pick up a new pastime. “I realize[d] that I had to pick up something [be]cause I couldn’t just be spending my days during the summer doing nothing. So I decided, ‘You know what, why don’t I start a YouTube channel?’ I love entertaining people, and it was a perfect way to do it. [T]hat was really how I spent my time in quarantine,” he stated.

Similarly, with a freer schedule this fall semester, sophomore and student broadcaster Jackson Mushnick was able to turn his mind away from academics and instead toward his approach to food, exercise, and hygiene. “After quarantine, I now view food as something I can enjoy and utilize to improve my physical health and build muscle.

I have made a conscious decision to avoid all caffeine and to structure a meal plan with appropriate macros and caloric restriction,” he said. Exercise, for him, had always been a chore, but during quarantine, he found a new passion for exercising and home workouts, which slowly became his daily routine.

Mushnick’s glow-up has given him confidence in all sorts of ways. His insecurity with approaching others has diminished, and his confidence in posting on social media has grown. “I possess far more self-confidence in how I look as a result of this glowup, which has given me greater

self-esteem in socialization,” he said. His glow-up had also helped him secure his role as a morning announcer. Looking to grow his public speaking skills, he applied to become an announcer, and though he may have been insecure in the past, his newfound confidence made him more comfortable with showing his face. “I knew when applying to the morning announcements that they would be virtual, and my glow-up in my hairstyle and facial structure ensured that I wasn’t insecure about displaying my face to many students,” Mushnick revealed.

Quarantine has also opened up a new door for Olkhovenko.

It got rid of many inconveniences, giving him more time to focus on himself. “So now I’m able to do all these

thought being disconnected from the physical world forced a lot of people to engage in the online realm. Similar to Luna, at the beginning of quarantine, she said, “I used to do posts almost every day just of me wearing these super fancy and flashy outfits on Instagram and putting on this very confident pose even though I might not have been at that time.

Putting myself out there like that, even though I wasn’t really comfortable with it [and pretended] to be confident, was so weird, but at the same time it really helped me change.” She describes her new att i tude with social media as her turning point.

The new confident mindset, though f a k e , helped her push through h e r

mental battle with insecuring So ties. o/ Th This confident eS pe cta mindset developed to r from Shi’s detachment to her online persona, “I thought about it.

Even if someone hated the outfits things, that I was putting on, what were and it’s they [going to] do? Cyberbully helping me me? That wouldn’t hurt my feelto adjust,” Olk- ings,” she said. The Internet alhovenko explained. lows people to put forward the “[For Freshman Cau- best version of themselves, and cus,] we did a lot of campaigning by immersing herself in her social online and wouldn’t have been media persona, Shi helped her real able to do as much campaigning life persona gain the same amount […] if [we were] going to school of confidence. “However, when normally.” you are online, everything is so Luna utilized her online pres- much more distant, so you can’t ence on her journey. After she really know what other people are was finally able to take a breath, thinking. It’s all just how you pershe made time for the things she ceive the way that they are thinkloved, specifically art. Before quar- ing. [Y]ou’re so far away, they can’t antine, Luna ran an Instagram art come to your house and kill you,” account (@Artsylun) where she Shi said. would post her paintings and digiGrowth, however, is not altal art every once in a while, but ways achieved without bumps on she definitely has more time now the road. These obstacles along the that school is not a problem. Art way were exactly what Luna expeis her creative outlet and the way rienced. “I feel like it got worse that she is able to unwind each af- before it got better, so in terms of ternoon following a stressful day mental glow-up, it was me going of classes and assignments. through trauma therapy,” Luna Sophomore Marilyn Shi said. Without this time away Ka

Se

from the prying eyes of her peers, Luna likely would not have experienced such a transformation. Being trapped at home really forced her to improve her mental health.

“I’m in a [much] better position [than where I was] freshman year, and I know that girl would be really proud of how far I’ve come,” Luna said.

A lot of time in isolation is quite unusual for teens, but this time alone can allow students to mature. For Lin, that growth meant focusing on the present. “I try not to dwell too much on the past and regret anything […] because if you just sit there and just worry about what you’ve done, it’s just kind of useless; instead, I try to use that experience to better improve myself.” However, she has no idea where she sees herself in the future, confessing, “I’m just doing […] what feels right at the moment.”

In contrast to Lin’s outlook, Olkhovenko chooses to focus more on the future rather than the present. “[Quarantine has] taught me that I have to prepare for whatever comes in the future [… because] if we aren’t prepared, then it’ll probably get much worse,” he expressed. “I don’t know if my views on the world have changed, but it’s definitely taught me an important lesson.”

Shi also offers similar advice: “I used to care about what people thought about me 24/7, thinking, ‘OMG, everyone must hate me.’ I was overthinking literally every interaction with each human being.

And then I realized that no one is [going to] see me for a couple [of ] months, and they’re probably [going to] forget who I am. So I have time to rebuild myself, and I don’t always need to put on this ‘air’ or something I’m not.” With her new perspective, she’s able to see things through a wider lens, opening her eyes to the new possibilities that quarantine has.

While some used this time to kick back, Stuyvesant students saw a golden opportunity to focus on themselves. They embraced their confidence, created YouTube channels, enhanced their art careers, and modeled for Instagram.

Ending the chapter of their prequarantine ways, students developed habits for a healthier and happier way of life, highlighting one of the few benefits of quarantine.

Physical Affection or Tacos?

What Stuyvesant Craves in the Dead of Night A buffet of responses—what do the folks of Stuyvesant crave at night?

“One Shin [Ramyun] package with two eggs, fully cooked.”

—Sunny Bok, senior

“Usually, I end up eating cereal.”

—Victoria Yu, senior

“The last late-night craving that I had literally was chicken—grilled chicken.”

—Victor Veytsman, junior

“It really depends. Sometimes it’s dumplings or Korean fried chicken, and other times it’s sweet stuff like sorbet. But BBQ chips [are] the move.”

—Christopher Liu, junior

“Super weird, but… roasted seaweed and rice cracker snacks. I have loved seaweed my whole life.”

—Lauren Stuzin, English teacher “I usually crave something spicy, probably like chips, or maybe steak.”

—Khujista Umama, junior

“Cocoa Krispies with milk.”

—Andrea Khoury, junior “Cake and also salami.”

—Daniel Fridlyand, junior “Ice cream and noodles.”

—Nicole Chen, sophomore

“A three-minute Oreo mug cake, always.”

—Sharon Liu, sophomore

“I don’t crave much late at night but probably ice cream; or if I’m really hungry, bibimbap.”

—Sarah Huynh, sophomore

“My late-night craving would be HäagenDazs’[s] strawberry ice cream and SkinnyPop Popcorn!”

—Stephanie Shen, senior “I normally crave something salty, maybe ham.”

—Zhi Yuan Fang, health teacher

“Physical affection.” —Sasha Burshteyn, junior “Ice cream, gummies, barbecue/ spicy chips, coffee, and chocolate. These taste so much better at night for some reason. ” —Jahan Kavi, senior

“Sleep.” —Daniel Ye, senior “Fried chicken.”

—Taha Hussain, senior

“At night, I crave really heavy foods or things I haven’t had in a while—especially cheesy pizza or chicken. But in the morning and afternoon, I crave snacks and foods that are less rich, like cereal or chips, especially when I’m stressed.”

—Serena Chan, senior

“Even though I don’t actually go for it, at night, I always want pasta. So my latenight craving is pasta.”

—Alicia Pohan, English teacher

“Animal crackers.”

—Raymond Xu, senior

“Company cause I’m always alone.” —Ethan Lin, sophomore

The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Page 9

Features Virtual STC: Getting the Beat Just Right

By ANGELA CAI, SHIVANI MANIMARAN, CHRISTINE LIN, and SOPHIA LIN Taking place in the mystical land of Arcadia, the Stuyvesant Theater Community’s (STC) upcoming virtual production of “Head Over Heels’’ follows the dramatic full-circle journey of a royal family struggling to keep the fictional “Beat” that governs their land. Shadowed by the threat of four prophecies, their journey is riddled with trials of love, self-acceptance, and mistaken identities.

Likewise, the virtual nature of the production presents a new set of difficulties to STC. Amidst the pandemic, in-person rehearsals have been replaced with Zoom meetings fraught with spotty Internet connections and glitchy computers. What used to be a stage with dazzling lights and a live band is now replaced by tiny greenscreens, audio recordings, and editing software.

That’s not the only difference in this year’s production. Unlike previous years when the production was live, this year’s production will be streamed as a single video. The editing department is taking on the task of splicing together all the individual shots to make one cohesive production.

Sophomore Oliver Hollman, a member of both the cast and newly-formed editing department, described the logisti-

By NICOLE ITKIN, CALISTA LEE, ZIFEI ZHAO, and MAHIR HOSSAIN

cal struggles of creating a virtual pre-recorded performance as a cast member: “There’s kind of a lag. We’re practicing [songs and dances] on Zoom, but we’re not doing them synchronously,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to get the specific timing down and real connections between actors when you’re doing a scene.”

The limitations that come with utilizing green screens affect how dance crews design choreography as well. “It’s much more restricting regarding how much you can move around and what formations you can do,” sophomore and dance director Christina Shen said. Dance crews also have a difficult time visualizing how their individual choreographies would be pieced together to represent the entire group. “You can […] visualize things better [in person],” she said. “[T]hough we kind of have a sense of how things will look like, there’s always a possibility of things not turning out the way you want them to.”

Because cast members require time to prepare choreography and practice blocking, the filming process will start later in the production. Sophomore and assistant editing director Cassie Fenwick recounts the editing department’s preparation while waiting for filming to occur. “We’ve had some issues getting software, but we did a few video lessons about the software and how to use it for the crewmembers,” she said.

The software she plans to use are Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro. The most difficult parts in this process are filming and stitching the videos together. “[We have to] make it look […] as if they’re on stage and having an in-person interaction, even though we can’t actually have that anymore,” sophomore and producer Lianne Ohayon said. Fenwick expressed a similar sentiment about the challenges of virtual production.

“I think [the biggest challenges are] making it seem like a theater production [in which] everyone’s together and the budget because we’re having some problems, but it’ll probably work out in the end,” she said.

For some, the biggest difference between virtual and live STC lies in the bonding experience (or lack thereof ) and less frequent interactions with friends. Last year, Ohayon enjoyed fostering new relationships and rehearsing faceto-face with cast members. “One of the things that I enjoyed about SING! and STC was that there was such a big community, and there were so many relationships formed that aren’t formed to the extent that they were, now that everything is virtual,” she said.

For crews such as the band, despite the virtual rehearsals, crew-bonding is still very important. “[Our meetings occur] usually about once a week. The music parts don’t take too long

to go over, so we usually spend an hour or two playing games such as Among Us or skribbl.io in order to have some band bonding,” STC band director and junior Ava Yap said.

Producers also strive to incorporate elements of teamwork during Zoom meetings, which has been essential for communication among the cast members, production crew, and coordinates.

Though each crew has individual meetings, producers occasionally pair crews with other crews to work together. “Sometimes the producers hop in and out of those meetings,” Ohayon described. In addition, larger meetings with all the departments and producers are often conducted to ensure every member of Head Over Heels is on the same page. “We’re just trying to make sure that people are doing well and understand what’s going on and see if we can help them in any way to accomplish what they need to accomplish,” she added.

Other messaging platforms used by STC include Facebook Messenger, where each crew has their own group chat, though there sometimes are merger group chats with multiple crews. “We’ll have certain Messenger group chats with more than one crew so they can talk between each other about scheduling times and meetings,” Ohayon said.

Though communicating entirely virtually can become tire-

some, virtual STC has its merits.

For one thing, there is clearer organization. “I think it’s a lot easier to actually know what’s going on in joining meetings. There’s an actual schedule that’s very accessible,” Hollman said.

The virtual platform also allows for new and interesting digital effects. “Everyone’s going to have a green screen with a background that’s going to be drawn by the art crew, so that will be pretty cool,” Fenwick said.

Virtual STC has also allowed recent Stuyvesant graduates the unique opportunity to continue participating in the production.

Wesley Wong (’20), Jessica Kim (’20), and Ivan Galakhov (’20) have all decided to come back to STC band this semester. “If [the production] wasn’t virtual, I probably wouldn’t [join] because I don’t really have [the] time to attend rehearsals,” Wong said.

Just as the characters in the musical manage to overcome their hurdles, so will STC. The performance will be live-streamed on ShowShare on December 18 and 19. Tickets cost $10 for families and $7 for individuals and will be sold on the same platform. Though a virtual production won’t feel the same, Ohayon maintains that the result will be just as satisfying and rewarding as a live performance. “Everyone should watch the show,” she said.

“It’s [going to] be good. I have faith.”

Home for the Holidays: Teachers’ Plans for the 2020 Holiday Season

Whether it’s decking the house with festive colors, gathering with family, or having the week off from school, nearly everyone has something to look forward to as the holiday season comes around. But, as with everything else, the pandemic is changing the way people will celebrate the 2020 holiday season.

The holiday break means many things: a time to make memories, reflect on the year, and, above all, be in the presence of our loved ones.

But this year, Stuyvesant teachers are prioritizing their family’s safety by staying inside their homes and, for many, outside of New York.

Music teacher Harold Stephan, who has been staying with his family up in the Catskills, emphasized, “The biggest thing for us is just [to] get through this [...] healthy and alive and ready for 2021.”

Math teacher Andrew Wille also explained, “I’ve been trying to find ways both in school and [in my family to maintain] certain aspects of the in-person interactions while understanding that it’s just the responsible thing for us to make some necessary changes right now.” This reality means that long-held traditions and some of the usual holiday activities will have to be altered.

“Normally, my wife and I host Thanksgiving in New York for our families,” Wille described. “We get 10 or more people into a tiny New York apartment and crowd around.

It really makes the Thanksgiving table overflow with food because [there are] just too many people in a small apartment. That’s kinda the fun of it.” Of course, Wille and

his family weren’t able to do so this year.

For English teacher Judd Staley, this year marks a big change, putting an end to a long-held tradition.

“This will be the first year in 40 years of my life that I’ve not been with my parents for Christmas,” he remarked. “I don’t feel glad.

I feel sad. I would much rather be with my family this year.”

Stephan echoed similar disappoint-

we go to church all year. This year, I don’t know if we’ll be going. [In] fact, I don’t know if services will even take place in person.” Though he is not able to enjoy Christmas as he usually does, Hanna still plans to enjoy the holidays with his family.

“We’ll have a tree, and we’ll wrap gifts and put them under it. I got my younger son (who’s an artist) some Bob Ross socks, and I think he’ll really dig t h e m ,” he de-

Sophia Li / The Spectator

ments, noting that he and his family will not visit Florida, where his mother and sister reside, or spend time at Club Med on Port St. Lucie, an all-inclusive vacation spot with interactive activities for his kids, deeming both to be too big a risk for this year.

Similarly, many teachers will not be able to partake in religious ceremonies that characterize the holidays. In an e-mail interview, history teacher David Hanna explained, “Every year, we go to the Episcopal (Anglican) Church in the town we live in for Christmas morning services. It’s the only time

scribed.

Hanna isn’t the only one r e flecting on the uncertainty of these times. Wille is also unsure of how he is going to celebrate Chiristmas.

With the school schedule constantly changing, “It’s just unclear what’s going to happen,” he said.

With many beloved activities being canceled, technology is playing a very meaningful role in bridging the gap between families this holiday. “Because my wife is Jewish, we’d [normally] be getting together with friends from her side for Hanukkah, and then we’d be doing similar things on my side

for Christmas,” Stephan continued. “[This year,] we’ll use Zoom to visit our family and friends. [We] look forward to meeting with the family virtually and experiencing some of their joy that way.”

In fact, Wille has already organized a new virtual family tradition to celebrate Thanksgiving. Normally, Wille’s son bakes a Thanksgiving pie with his grandmother. This year was, of course, different: “They were unable to do it in person, so the day before […] they had a Zoom call together where they each made a pie,” he recalled. And then on Thanksgiving Day, the whole family ate the pie together, virtually of course.

“We sort of shared eating the pie together, so it was a way of [having] something in common with family members and loved ones even though we weren’t physically in the same space,” Wille said.

Wille acknowledges that social isolation does not only take a toll on younger children: “I think it’s difficult for a lot of people. I see it with my students in class,” he said. “I think the adults and teachers miss [physical interactions] as well.”

Despite the lack of interactions and the inability to travel, Stephan and Staley have both found some silver linings during the upcoming holidays. Staley explained, “My wife and I have talked about this; it’s kind of nice to do things on your own, with your own family, and kind of have a smaller celebration.”

Stephan sees the situation through a similar lens; he will just enjoy the company of his immediate family and anticipates the quality time with them. He’s also grateful for the extra time to create music. “I have a lot of synthesizers and [lots] of guitars and my basses, and every-

thing’s laid out so I can make music,” he added. “I get to make more music than I would have.”

Plus, both Stephan and Staley have time to focus on sprucing up their homes to continue the holiday spirit. “We got a tree, we’re getting more decorations, and you know, just trying to get it a little more festive than usual here in the apartment because [...] we can’t go out and be festive in the world,” Staley commented.

Along with decorations, giftgiving is another integral part of the holiday season. For that tradition, technology continues to be the way to go now more than ever. “Amazon is an amazing website, and you can send whatever you want to anyone in a couple of days,” Wille commented with a chuckle. “I would much rather be able to shop locally, but it is something that I will probably be using a little bit this year.”

In an e-mail interview, English teacher Lauren Stuzin also explained the need to find the perfect gifts for the people in your life, albeit remotely. They wrote, “Call me Odysseus, but I think gifts are a special way of making someone feel welcomed, loved, and cared for.”

This year has brought on an onslaught of challenges, but at the end of the day, it’s all about making the best out of it. Both Staley and Stephan mentioned they will be looking forward to all the things they plan to do this holiday season.

So even if there won’t be any holiday shopping in the city or cooking a meal with your family in the same kitchen this year, Wille offered a word of encouragement: “Just [find] what matters the most and embrace that, even if [your] traditions look a little bit different.”

The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Page 10

Editorials Shakespeare and Sokdae: Reforming Stuyvesant’s Eurocentric Curricula Voltaire, Tolstoy, Orwell, Shakespeare, Homer, and Shelley.

Names like these have dominated English curricula in the United States for generations and have driven the conversation surrounding literary norms for millions of Americans. The common thread among these names, however, is abundantly clear from a quick glance: they are all unified by a distinctly European perspective. The similarity doesn’t stop at authors: while Van Gogh, Beethoven, and Monet are certainly pioneers of art and music, and thus worthy of discussion, their prominent place in American education has diminished conversation surrounding their international counterparts.

Stuyvesant administrators and teachers should expand the content of many classes that fall prey to this established European focus. While the curricula of standardized courses are not easy to change, those of Stuyvesantspecific classes like European Literature and Art/Music Appreciation have more flexibility. These curricula should be reformed to include increased coverage and discussion of non-European topics, an absence that has gone largely unaddressed, in order to expose students to a more diverse and balanced worldview.

It should be noted that while Stuyvesant presents students with a Eurocentric education, the decision of what to teach—and what not to teach—is not completely within teachers’ and administrators’ jurisdiction. The fact is that the U.S. is a part of the Western world, and it makes sense that much of what we learn focuses on Europe. Due to the weight of Eurocentrism in American—and our—education, the aforementioned European figures are namebrand authors, artists, historical figures, and scholars, while equally talented creatives from around the world are rarities in most curricula.

Despite these limitations, the social studies department has been fairly successful in covering the nuances of history. Many teachers use textbooks that cover more contemporary or revisionist perspectives of history, while others incorporate articles and texts that demonstrate the complex legacies of significant historical events. Moreover, the department offers several non-European electives, such as Modern China and Geopolitics, that allow students to learn history outside of the Western world.

The social studies department’s inability to more significantly reform its curricula in Advanced Placement (AP) classes can be traced back to constraints posed by the College Board. For example, the AP United States History curriculum condenses the period between 1491-1607, the years before the establishment of Jamestown in Virginia as the first British colony, down to approximately five percent of the total exam weight. This rushed pace only works to diminish our time spent on Native American tribes and how they shaped the country before major European influence. Moreover, the College Board offers an entire exam on European history but fails to extend such offerings to other areas around the world.

The College Board’s emphasis on Eurocentrism makes it difficult for Stuyvesant teachers to expand beyond the content of their exams while also preparing their students for the AP tests in May. Similarly, the European focus of Stuyvesant’s art and music curricula can’t simply be blamed on any individual teachers or policies. Due to the Western world’s undeniable influence on America, European figures have dominated international conversations in both art and music throughout history. While these figures are undoubtedly talented and deserve to be included in the classroom conversation, the sheer amount of class time

spent discussing them pushes aside a more diverse and wideranging base of artists. For example, in addition to requiring that students be able to identify Mozart’s Symphony No. 7, teachers should expose students to the eight different genres of African music and the function of Native American flutes in indigenous cultures. Similarly, the Art Appreciation curriculum should extend beyond tracing the connection between ancient sculptures to the Renaissance and Impressionist movements in Europe: art classes could also expose students to Chinese silk painting and Mayan stonework.

A problem as expansive as this can’t be resolved overnight. Both Art and Music Appreciation have only a single semester to administer their entire curriculum, and time is of the essence with every lesson. But the effort to rearrange lessons and learning about diverse and inter-continental art forms is imperative to creating a more representative set of required classes.

The English department also faces similar struggles to those of social studies and Art/Music Appreciation.

Though there is diversity in the books read in Freshman Composition and the senior English classes and electives (Black Lives in Literature, Asian American Literature, or AP Global Perspectives), there is also opportunity to expand the English curriculum beyond the Eurocentric focus found in sophomore European Literature. We recognize that many traditional classics, such as the literature from Ancient Greece, are dominated by European male authors. An optimal English curriculum, however, would strive to convey the effects of these European influences without minimizing other cultural groups. This objective could be achieved through a required class of Global Essentials, which would enable sophomores to explore classical literature structure without

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the constraint of the European canon. In addition to classics such as “The Odyssey” and “Pride and Prejudice,” Global Essentials would introduce students to international titles including Confucius’s “Book of Rites” and “One Thousand and One Nights.”

Of course, reforming the entire European Literature curriculum may not be immediately feasible. Still, slowly introducing books by diverse authors, while continuing to incorporate lessons that emphasize the monochromatic trend of the authors and including more diverse texts in other classes into the standard sophomore year English class would be a step forward.

The effort that teachers and administration have shown to-

ward expanding the curricula across the humanities and the arts is undeniably commendable. There is, still, much more to be done: the Eurocentric focus that remains does not fully encompass nor represent the diversity of backgrounds and voices in the world sphere.

Many of our most memorable books from the English curriculum—“Things Fall Apart,” “Our Twisted Hero,” “The Namesake”—have been written by non-white authors and are especially resonant for their new cultural perspectives and stories. Looking forward, it is important that Stuyvesant takes initiative to further improve the diversity in our curricula in order to gain a more comprehensive perspective and education.

#BlackLivesMatter: Globally Interconnected

By ANNE RHEE Mass demonstrations erupted across Brazil on Friday, November 20, to protest the killing of a Black civilian named João Alberto Silveira Freitas. Videos uploaded onto social media showed Freitas being escorted out of a grocery store by security guards for unknown reasons, before he punched one of them. The security guards began to beat Freitas, the situation escalating and eventually culminating in

his death.

November 20 is widely celebrated as Black Awareness Day in Brazil. Over 56 percent of Brazilians have some African descent, and similar to the US, Brazil was built on the labor of slaves. The Portuguese and other Europeans who had settled in Brazil continued to import slaves up until 1888, when the Golden Act, which enacted nationwide abolition, was passed. However, unlike in the U.S., which has a long history of legal racial segregation, Brazil never implement-

ed any major and widespread laws that cemented segregation between Black civilians and the rest of the population.

Rather, the country chose to adopt a more colorblind attitude: in history classes, Brazilian students are taught that Brazil is a democracia racial, or a racial democracy where race doesn’t matter.

Post-slavery governmental policies and actions tried to mask the history of slavery.

For example, the first census taken of the country’s population in 1890 post-abolition

didn’t ask about an individual’s race but rather their skin color.

In successive surveys and collections of statistics, individuals continued to use terms like canela and morela, two terms that refer to different shades of brown. While the focus on colorism resulted in more opportunities for a more nuanced view of race and allowed for a culture that enabled more fluidity in expressing one’s identity, there was—and still is—a hierarchy within this societal view. The idea that having lighter skin and looking more

‘white’ allowed one to have a better chance at succeeding in the workplace and having better opportunities continues to permeate 21st century Brazil.

And the statistics only reinforce this. There exist vast disparities between Brazilians of color and those who identify as white. More than 75 percent of civilians killed by police last year were Black, and two-thirds of prison inmates are individuals of color. continued on page 14

The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Page 11

Opinions Math Class, 2015

By ELICIA CHAU In elementary school, I realized that ingrained sexism exists in all our minds.

This realization spawned from one of my earliest, most vivid memories. The nine-year-old me clambered to the front of a bright yellow classroom. Blue paper was pinned to the walls with thumbtacks.

Glimmering hand-written essays dangled from each display board.

And little fourth grade bodies scrambled to the front of the room, setting off a chorus of chairs scraping against the floor tiles. We all sat on the red rug, the kind that was soft and light and plush and the one I know I loved more than anything because I still remember the way the wornout yarn passed through my clammy fingers whenever I took a seat and grasped it. My teacher smiled widely as she wrote down a math problem and smiled even wider when she asked around the room for solutions.

I remember no hands going up, and only a few minutes passing before she asked in a gentle voice, “Elicia, why don’t you answer it?”

The truth was I did know the answer. Unlike the confusion and hatred that Precalculus brings, math back then was actually enjoyable, and I found contentment in the way that every problem consistently had an answer, unlike so many of my fourth grade questions that did not (Why is the moon that color?

Why was the gym teacher so mean? Why were people scared of bugs?). I could have answered her question and I could have moved along.

But I didn’t because just days prior, I had been accused of cheating by the boy sitting next to me right after we got our math tests back. No matter how often the teacher said not to share grades, we still always did, and I remember his confidence crashed down as he received his test—a 92 compared to my 100.

“How’d you get a 100?” he asked.

“You’re a girl.”

I don’t ex actly b l a m e him for his re-

sponse—there has always been prejudice encoded in the fabric of our society. We stick gender labels on things like colors, clothes, and subjects in the most abnormal way, and with that, we begin to think that our gender limits what we can and can’t do.

STEM schools like Bronx Science High School, in fact, often have a predominantly male student population—in 2017, 59 percent was male and 41 percent was female— while more liberal-arts-focused schools like Townsend Harris High School are predominantly female—in 2017, 70 percent was female and 30 percent was male. Even at

selves, all due to a random draw of the chromosomes in our bodies. It has become engraved in our minds. It is unintentional, yet entirely real.

As I previously mentioned, Stuyvesant promotes equality between male and female students. I see this more and more everyday as I join coalitions like Girls in Science and Girls Who Code and find myself actively enjoying them. As someone who has internalized the fear of being judged for my interests in STEM, these groups have largely contributed to my growth and realization that the STEM world isn’t

ence from parents and teachers with internalized sexism and differing levels of encouragement, it’s simply not possible to reverse this disparity with mere laws and policies. It grows quietly. It’s a cycle.

But the best thing we can do is interrupt that cycle: where education occurs, change must follow. Sweden is currently leading the way.

There, interjection begins at the preschool level, where Swedish teachers have recognized the misogynistic patterns that begin at such a young age. They have begun to separate boys and girls in classrooms, encouraging

Just as my classmate had done way back in fourth grade, society as a whole frequently and unwittingly spreads this prejudice to others, creating a generation-wide stigma about what we may or may not do, how much credibility we should be given within a field, and the amount of trust we should hold in ourselves, all due to a random draw of the chromosomes in our bodies.

Stuyvesant, where we pride ourselves on being fairly equal, there was still a 57 percent male to 43 percent female ratio in 2017.

These disparities are apparent in our media too, even if we may not always realize it. Take The Washington Post’s October 7, 2020 article: the headline is simply “2 women win Nobel Prize in chemistry for gene-editing method,” focusing on the fact that the winners were women and overlooking the fact that said two women (Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, by the way) set history. Their victory marked the first time a Nobel Prize in science was given to more than one woman and no men in a specific category.

Just as my classmate had done back in fourth grade, society as a whole frequently and unwittingly spreads this prejudice to others, creating a generation-wide stigma about what we may or may not do, how much credibility we should be given within a field, and the amount of trust we should hold in our-

only riddled with prejudice.

Meeting and seeing incredibly intelligent female scientists and engineers in the making have been unique experiences, and I’m motivated to do better as I pursue my own dream of becoming an anesthesiologist. Despite this inspiration, I can’t help but wonder: how efficient are these coalitions in fighting sexism?

Sexism, after all, is silent and systematic. It’s so deeply rooted that even groups meant to encourage equality in STEM can be turned into a “if women are so strong, then why do they need their own groups” sort of argument. In relation to the origin of sexism in STEM, studies of sexism suggest that countless factors contribute to the ongoing cycle, though the largest and most prominent factor remains that girls begin to lose self-confidence as they believe men naturally possess more intelligence in the S T E M fields. In addition to influ-

them to pursue the stereotypes of the other gender: while girls are encouraged to say no and protest, boys are taught to dance and massage each other’s feet.

Through beginning this reeducation at such a young age, I believe that the loss of self-confidence that seems to start the cycle of sexism in STEM can be limited, if not eradicated. The mindset that you develop in your youth largely contributes to the mindset you maintain in the future. In elementary and middle schools, we can push to continue this foundation of equality. In high schools, we can look into the curriculum, encouraging education surrounding the influence of women in all subjects.

To start, we must bring up the achievements of women in STEM. Every highschooler has heard of Watson and Crick, two men who famously won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the double helix—yet Rosalind Franklin, a scientist who made the

discovery possible and had her work stolen, has only become a popular name in the past few years. Lise Meiter, who discovered how to split atoms, was completely discredited by her male lab partner. Esther Lederberg and her husband were scientists who worked together, making significant advances in microbiology, yet when Esther invented the now commonly-used laboratory technique called replica plating, only her husband was awarded a Nobel Prize. Esther wasn’t even nominated—nor was she mentioned in her husband’s acceptance speech. How many of the aforementioned names did you recognize? I only knew of Rosalind Franklin prior to my own research. When we finally start seeing their names regularly is when we would have succeeded in educating ourselves.

As a sophomore, I’ve only been at Stuyvesant a short while, but I can already tell it’s a different atmosphere from the largely male, lowranking elementary school I attended. As Stuyvesant students, we pride ourselves on meritocracy, and meritocracy doesn’t place limits due to gender. I’ve set my eyes on becoming an anesthesiologist, and despite being unsure due to my own childhood insecurity (did you know only 23 percent of anesthesiologists were female in 2011?), I’m certain now. Coming into Stuyvesant has been largely influential in helping me recognize that a percentage is only a number that can change as our generation progresses.

Of course, our one school doesn’t reflect everything.

There’s still so much to be done in the work field and in schools less diverse and less progressive than ours, and, to be blunt, there will never be a perfect solution to sexism. But schools like ours are the first signs of our generational step forward and that one step can produce results.

Like Neil Armstrong said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Except this time, it’s for women.

Susannah Ahn / The Spectator

Page 12

The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Opinions The Green Report Card

By ELIO TORRES

buildings. Looking at data from 50 of New York City’s most well-known buildings—including buildings like the New York Stock Exchange and the Empire State Building—we see that only four of them re-

It lights a fire under those who have grown too comfortable with their energy habits, especially during the pandemic that has ushered us all indoors.

When we see low ratings in restaurant windows, we change our dining practices, and so when t h e

Jenny Chen / The Spectator

For one in pursuit of a palatable dining experience in New York City, an A-rated restaurant is the safest bet. Letter grading was inaugurated under a Bloomberg-backed food sanitation program and has engendered among frequent diners that unspoken rule in 2010.

Though the grade is mostly a reflection of sanitation in the kitchen, lower ratings tend to rub off into the food and the overall dining experience. Few New Yorkers are familiar with the rubric used by inspectors, leaving the grade’s rationale up to the imagination of the consumer. Regardless of feeble public understanding of the process, New Yorkers respect the work of the health department and the department’s conclusions inordinately influence New York City eating patterns.

Last year, nearly a decade after the introduction of restaurant grading, the New York City Council passed Local Law 95, which extends this letter grade system to all residential buildings that span more than 25,000 square feet. The policy comes as part of the city’s Climate Mobilization Act, a landmark legislative effort dubbed the New York City Green New Deal. These residential letters indicate not the sanitation, but the energy efficiency of buildings based on their Energy Star efficiency score, a one to 100 assessment that relates energy consumption to occupants and building type. All building owners need to collect their energy and water consumption data in

a process called benchmarking, and in lieu of new 2019 legislation, owners must now also report their data to the Environmental Protection Agency’s online database to receive a grade. Currently, minor fines are being issued to buildings that are not forward about displaying their ratings, though, in 2024, the city aims to levy larger civil penalties for non-compliance.

The move to extend the city’s letter system to residential and commercial spaces is a push to better position the city to cut its emissions by 40 percent before 2030 through communal self-awareness and transparency. Nearly threequarters of all greenhouse gas emissions in the city are emitted from buildings and most of those emissions can be tied back to individual usage. The City Council’s reason for endorsing a letter grading system is not far off from why a teacher gives grades in the classroom. Being transparent about a building’s progress will allow residents to feel more ownership in improving their grade and will increase the individual stakes. In principle, having to walk by a failing grade upon entering your residence will encourage you to curb your own energy usage—an environmental guilt trip.

The much-needed push toward the city-wide environmental goal has revealed the failures of our current residential

ceived t h e h i g h est grade of an A, and the median rating was a D. Overwhelmingly, the bulk of residential buildings in New York have received failing Energy Star grades, indicating that while we often support green legislation as a progressive city, we do not enact changes on ourselves. This conclusion does not mean we should lose faith in our potential as environmentalists. Instead, it shows that a building rating program is exactly what the city needs to tip residents that change must also come from within their homes.

same rating placards are brandished in our own buildings, New Yorkers will ideally treat their habits with the same urgency.

Stuyvesant implemented a similar rating system for trash stations around the building in an effort to meet the DOE’s guidelines for zero waste. Such recycling stations were given a grade from A to F based on the accuracy of sorting. At the beginning of the program, dividing trash amongst five separate bins was foreign to many of us, who used to view the “trash” as a singular receptacle for all of our unwanted waste. I even

questioned the efficacy of leaving the burden of trash sorting up to the students. However, a few semesters after the program’s inception, station letter grades created a consciousness for trash organization. As a consequence of the Stuyvesant rating program, I am now more aware of where my waste goes at home. Self-recognition is exactly what Local Law 95 wants to stimulate, and I believe it is a healthy yet glaring reminder that there is always a need for household reform.

Hopefully in the near future, a residential energy rating below an A will be looked down upon with the same disdain as a less than A-rated restaurant.

We will not reach that point, though, with only Instagram infographics and performative activism. Giving each building a publicly displayed rating will force right-minded individuals to seek tangible change instead of just sharing opinions.

If we want to reach 40 percent emission reduction by 2030, we need to think green in the home and question our energy consumption. Capitalizing on natural light by keeping window passages unobstructed and by investing in mirrors is an apt substitute for energysucking bulbs, and when there is no natural light, shutting off lights as you leave other rooms is a safe energy saver. Also, limiting water consumption where possible, recycling old electronics, and only using high-energy devices when necessary allow for resource conservation and cheaper bills. If we can get As on our report cards, we can get them on our buildings too.

The Muslim Future Under Biden

By GULAM MONAWARAH I attended a local masjid, an Islamic school, between the ages five to 10. I had a friend at that masjid whose father owned a store blocks away.

Both she and her father were kind and thoughtful—the father offered my family so many discounts for our “loyalty” that my own mother soon became annoyed at his generosity. One day, I received awful news. As the father was closing up his deli, a group of masked men brutally attacked him. They screamed a plethora of hateful slurs, but no one heard them.

At least, we could only assume.

Bruised and bloody, he was left to lie on the cold concrete until someone saw his state and called the police.

Despite this trauma, life quickly returned to a normal pace. Adults at the masjid made quiet remarks in Bengali, like, “You know, this is the work of all of those politicians. They hate us,” “what can we do to support them while our brother is beaten with no mercy?,” and “nothing will change unless the men in charge change.”

Now the men in charge have changed. President-elect Joe Biden finally presents a hope for Muslims to face less prejudice and gain representation in

government.

Tension in the United States toward Islamic practices escalated during Donald Trump’s term as president. Islamophobes had found a representative who painted Muslims as poisonous people seeking to reverse the progress of the country. But now that Biden is set to hold the office, many people in the Muslim community are hopeful that he will lower these tensions. While he will not be able to completely eliminate anti-Islam attitudes, president-elect Biden has the ability to improve this situation.

President Trump vocalized his hate for radical Islam and American Muslims over his entire term. He first rose to political prominence promoting a baseless conspiracy theory that Obama was born outside of the U.S. and therefore not eligible to be president. Trump escalated it further when he claimed that Obama was not releasing his birth certificate because it may state that he is Muslim. This accusation was not only racist against Obama, but also Islamophobic. Trump was, essentially, implying that the religion of Islam would disqualify Obama from holding the office. When Trump ran for president, one of his main campaign promises was the

“Muslim ban” that prohibited travel from the Middle East and other Muslim majority countries. He implemented it in January 2017, signing an executive order to prohibit entry to foreigners from seven majority Muslim countries and halted Syrian refugees’ entry. This action prodigiously encouraged violence from Islamophobes throughout the nation. According to data from the Pew Research Center, attacks against Muslims from 2015 to 2016 surged in huge amounts, surpassing the record high in 2001.

Now, Joe Biden will have to stand by his beliefs and follow through with the Muslim people. Based on his recent actions, it seems to me that he may be on the route to doing just that.

Recently, Biden promised to eradicate the travel ban.

One of Biden’s most notable statements on the ban was during Engage’s Million Muslim Voter initiative. His very presence there already speaks volumes about what he is focusing on. Biden’s action may have worked: throughout America, around 78 percent of eligible Muslims registered to vote in 2020, an improvement from the 60 percent in 2016. Perhaps more importantly, in October, he famously vowed to end the travel ban on his first day of

presidency. “As president, I’ll work with you to rip the poison of hate from our society to honour your contributions and seek your ideas,” Biden said.

“On day one, I’ll end Trump’s unconstitutional Muslim ban.”

Biden is not the most capable president-elect to ever grace the nation by far, but compared to Trump’s fear-mongering habits, he is more invested in erasing the prejudice against Muslims.

He represents the representation my community has been quietly begging for for so long.

Second, Joe Biden also encourages direct Islamic representation in our government.

In 2019, there were only three Muslim representatives in Congress, compared to the millions that make up America’s total population— about 1.4 percent in 2015, which is expected to double by 2050. The Council on American-Islamic Relations found that the Islamic community in the United States is currently demanding a number of reforms. We desire the ability to make decisions for ourselves and to be treated as equals in the highest offices of the law.

Biden recently promised to encourage and include Muslim Americans on every level of government and to hold his administration accountable when they make mistakes. Consid-

ering that Trump has worked hard for so long to discourage and villainize Muslims, Biden’s concern feels like a breath of fresh air at last. It is a symbol of hope that somehow, some day, we can slowly start to earn the equity we deserve.

Not all Muslims are Democrats, nor do we all support Biden. We have every reason to be skeptical of his optimistic words. Admittedly, I cannot possibly expect everything to change within the next four years. His policies are not nearly bold enough. However, the current lack of Muslim equality and inclusitivity does not warrant the government’s ignorance, and it does not excuse their hate.

Still, Biden’s victory is a signal of hope, a sign that life may actually begin to go our way. We have many ambitious goals: we want Syrian refugees not to be held at airports due to their religion. We want to see little children grow up knowing they have a chance at becoming senator or president. While Biden may not be the golden man who will liberate us, he is our best chance at progress.

Meeting our goals may take years or decades, but I hope that Joe Biden will be the one to light the fire that sparks such progress.

The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Page 13

Opinions Indoors, on the Sidewalk?

By ANISHA SINGHAL A bike ride through Greenwich Village is enough to illustrate some of the reasons for the recent spike in COVID-19 cases. Sidewalk spaces and blockaded roads are brimming with diners. And while my family ordered takeout from a small taco shop that did not offer indoor dining, other restaurants were packed with people blatantly neglecting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. Sidewalks were crowded with (maskless) people talking and drinking over standing tables, putting not only themselves but also every passerby in a dangerous predicament.

More often than not, their intentions are pure. These aren’t malicious anti-maskers nor are they arriving in groups of over 10 people, but rather average New Yorkers hoping to catch a meal with a few friends on a Sunday evening.

But when multiple groups of 10 congregate in the same cramped dining space, it jeopardizes safety.

Because one cannot eat while wearing a mask, dining out is currently one of the riskiest activities there is. In fact, a CDC report found that people who test positive for COVID-19 are twice as likely to have eaten at a restaurant

than those who test negative.

In-person dining is becoming more perilous this winter as restaurants and customers are sidelining caution for comfort and convenience.

As winter approaches, restaurants are facing challenges posed by cold weather. Many restaurants have begun to put up walls and roofs in an at-

restaurant and with ventilation on the roof), outdoor dining rules mandating that tables be six feet apart still apply. In practice, however, these capacity percentages are muddled and thrown to the side as restaurants attempt to squeeze in more tables and customers.

One potential solution restaurants are experiment-

regular pace again: small businesses and restaurants took massive financial blows from the pandemic. But rather than squeezing more tables into an already cramped and not socially distant “outdoor” setting, it is crucial for restaurants to promote takeout options and take only advance reservations for limited seating.

While takeout dining may not capture the charm and ambiance of its in-person counterpart, remember that we’re not ready to go back to normal just yet. My afternoon bike ride through Lower Manhattan reveals a whole new architectural view with tents, gazebos, and bubbles popping up on every street. tempt to block out the wind.

Essentially, outdoor dining spaces have become indoor spaces on the sidewalk. When you add packed tables barely six feet apart, serious concerns arise.

The NYC guidelines for outdoor dining have been tweaked for the winter. Restaurants are permitted to set up tents, but if the tents have at least three enclosed sides, the restaurants must maintain a maximum of 25 percent capacity in them. If the tents are 50 percent open (completely open on the side facing the

ing with is private bubbles for each party. These round plastic tents are being placed around dining tables to insulate the space while minimizing the risk of transmission between separate groups. The flaw in this model is that these are essentially poorly ventilated indoor spaces being reused by multiple maskless customers.

So if a person with the virus eats in the bubble that morning, everyone who sits there throughout the day is prone to infection.

Still, it is understandable that they are eager to run at a

Much of the responsibility should be placed upon customers as well. We can continue to support local restaurants by purchasing takeout and tipping generously. On occasions when we wish to eat out, it’s a good practice to reserve tables ahead of time. In addition, we should avoid considering seating availability as a factor in deciding where to eat: restaurants functioning safely will have fewer seating options, whereas those that are not will squeeze in tables hazardously.

In other words, the restaurants with the most available seats

will not always be the safest.

Moreover, pinpointing places with safe procedures is crucial.

When in doubt, it’s perfectly reasonable to ask restaurants about their safety protocols.

If seating at safe restaurants is unavailable, ordering takeout to eat in a park or at home is a great alternative.

As a vaccine seems to draw near, we are all itching to go back to normal. The end feels so close, and we want to get up and running again. Unfortunately, this mentality has brought a second wave of the virus on New York and has begun to slowly chip away at the precautions we take in our everyday lives. While takeout dining may not capture the charm and ambiance of its in-person counterpart, remember that we’re not ready to go back to normal just yet. My afternoon bike ride through Lower Manhattan reveals a whole new architectural view with tents, gazebos, and bubbles popping up on every street. At another time, they could have been a fun addition to this ever-changing city. But today, I hope they don’t lull us into a false sense of security.

Victory over COVID-19 could be close. We can compromise our love for in-person dining just a little while longer.

Gatekeeping Games

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inferior. In 2014, an online campaign that is now known as “Gamergate” was launched against several women who were prominent in the video game industry. Several even had their addresses revealed and were threatened with horrific acts of vio-

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The Nintendo Switch that I share with my younger sister has remained relatively unused since the start of this academic year, tucked away on its charging dock in the basement. We only have two real games: Animal Crossing (for her) and Breath of the Wild (for me).

On the few occasions that I’m actually able to play, I need to remind myself to take out the Animal Crossing cartridge and switch it for Zelda before returning upstairs to the family room. I take my usual seat in the corner as the TV plays in the background and load up the game. The Switch isn’t known for its graphics, but the intricacy of the game still continues to astound me. There are hundreds of locations to travel to, with dozens of adventures to find and places to discover. In a world like this, it’s easy to forget the actual point of the game: saving Princess Zelda from Ganon.

Instead, I spend my time traveling from temple to temple, making sure I’ve got the whole map explored and every possible quest fulfilled. After all, what’s the point of playing an open-world game like this if you’re not actually going to use the whole world?

I don’t play many video games, nor am I particularly good at them. I only know the most basic maneuvers in Zel-

da: use the joystick to move and press Y to attack. The harder moves fly past me: any parry or rush I make is pure luck. However, my lack of skill doesn’t detract me from my enjoyment. There’s something strangely calming about repeatedly hitting buttons until your enemy explodes into a plume of purple smoke and monster parts. Furthermore, I’ve always enjoyed fantasy stories like Zelda. The deep lore and otherworldly sights of the game make it all the more interesting, which is why I can sink so much time into exploring the map. It’s fun to imagine that, even if it’s just for a little while, anyone can be the hero of Hyrule.

But how far does “anyone” really extend? Even as a person who doesn’t play video games often, I’ve still read countless horror stories of people being excluded from the gaming community. Some are shunned as “fake fans,” others are insulted for their playstyles, and still, more are ridiculed for the games they enjoy. Unfortunately, certain people seem to believe that games are solely limited to those of a specific gender, preference, or skill level.

One of the most notable divisions is that of gender identity, where women are frequently insulted or seen as Ais

By LAUREN CHIN

lence. On a more day-to-day basis, female players face discrimination, especially in online multiplayer games.

Studies have shown that women often feel forced to take measures like hiding their identity or not interacting with other players in order to stay safe.

Such elitist and unwelcoming culture is what stigmatizes this community as toxic; though there are plenty of kind and helpful players,

they are often overshadowed by the cruel and judgmental minority. It’s much easier for outsiders to only see the negative aspects of the gaming community, and as such, many feel compelled to speak out against the modern-day gamer. For example, the media often describes video games as harmful—evident in the infamous claim that “video games cause violence.”

Despite their intentions, beliefs like this only further divisions. They create an “us versus them” mentality, through w h i c h gamers see themselves as persecuted

by the status quo and in turn reject others who they think are invading their personal safe haven. The idea that video games cause violence is, therefore, further perpetuated and the cycle continues.

The logical solution to this cycle seems to be getting rid of video games altogether. After all, if there isn’t anything to criticize or to be toxic about, surely that should eradicate the problem entirely?

But is it truly the fault of video games alone? Well, they can certainly create a breeding ground for discrimination.

These online landscapes are incredibly easy places to find and to indoctrinate others in hatred, with right-wing hate groups apparently recruiting gamers. But that simply proves the point that gaming toxicity is a mere manifestation of the bigotry people face in their everyday lives. Its communities are a reflection of the true problem, an issue of intolerance that humanity has faced for thousands of years. And unfortunately, solving this problem won’t be as easy as just getting rid of video games.

Even if the gaming community didn’t exist, racism, sexism, and other elitist views would still show up in other parts of our lives.

At the end of the day, video games are just that— games. Most players are simply playing to have fun, be it by competing in multiplayer games, exploring adventurous challenges, or playing through interesting stories. Universes are formed, skills are acquired, and friendships are formed through these games. Criticizing video games or the gaming community has little beneficial impact on anyone, especially since the real problem lies elsewhere. All that this judgment does is create a community of exclusion in a world already filled with barriers.

Page 14

The Spectator • December 11, 2020

Opinions #BlackLivesMatter: Globally Interconnected ues to permeate. Racism has evolved, moving from physical acts of violence to racist comments in the media and cultural appropriation. People commonly use derogatory lan- guage or ra-

Not only does there exist a colorist hierarchy within Brazil, but the country altogether has also turned a blind eye to the history of slavery and eugenics in its country. Slavery is barely touched upon in school curriculums. The concept that, because Brazil did not struggle with racial tensions, race relations do not need to be addressed became the reigning ideal propagated by government officials. Furthermore, Brazil’s past of eugenics continues to remain unaddressed: in the late 19th century when slavery was on the decline, white European immigrant labor was brought into the country because of a fear by the Portuguese colonists that the disproportionate majority of Black Brazilians would outnumber them and “pollute” future generations.

This historical amnesia indicates that Brazil’s institutions remain stuck in a tunnelvisioned mindset—in which they perceive that racism isn’t an issue because it doesn’t manifest itself in explicit violence. Such a perception is highly problematic because it ignores the more systemic ways in which racism contin-

ed definition of racism. This compliance and oftentimes, feigned ignorance, allows racism to persist in Brazil with no legal consequences.

Despite this bleak outlook, c u r -

Ka Seng Soo and Andrea Huang / The Spectator

continued from page 10

cial slurs because they don’t know the racist history behind them.

Perhaps even worse, these offenders are let off the hook because these comments do not fit within Brazil’s outdat-

rent actions by Brazilian activists in influencing and reshaping the public opinion toward race offer a more promising future. A recent survey conducted by the Locomo-

tiva Research Institute has shown that the majority of Brazilians believe that Black people are more likely to experience police brutality and violence compared t o

whites.

Black activists’ protests s u r roundi n g t h e colorblindness of Brazil’s government has begun to find support among prominent white leaders. In fact, in October, when a full-length letter addressing anti-Blackness in the wake of George Floyd’s

Liberals and Leftists Have Similar Goals but Different Plans to Achieve Them

By JOHN GROSSMAN I am used to hearing “liberal” as an insult. Ever since I was singled out for being the only kid to vote for Barack Obama in my fourth-grade mock election, I have understood that the connotation of “liberal” depends entirely on the person saying it. However, I am now seeing “liberal” being used as an insult in both leftist and conservative spaces. From a leftist perspective, liberals seek to preserve the status quo and are unaware of or unwilling to address the structural issues that face America. This dynamic was on full display in the 2020 Democratic primary. In an early debate, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D - Mass.) lambasted Representative John Delaney (D - Md.) for refusing to adopt a more ambitious platform. After Representative Delaney claimed that her policies were unrealistic, Senator Warren responded by saying, “You know, I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.” This remark essentially torpedoed Representative Delaney’s struggling campaign and cemented a “revolution vs. reform” fight between leftist and moderate Democratic candidates.

However, the animosity between liberals and leftists seems unjustified when one evaluates where the 2020 candidates actually stood on major issues.

For the sake of comparison, let’s use Senator Warren as the sample progressive and Pete Buttigieg as the sample moderate. Both candidates supported a $15 federal minimum wage, canceling student debt for lowincome students and those who engage in some form of national service, ending cash bail, and legalizing marijuana.

Even where they support different policies, the differences are minute. Buttigieg called for a top marginal tax rate of 49.99 percent while Warren called for a two percent wealth tax on those worth more than $50 million. Both of these policies would increase the tax burden on the wealthiest Americans.

For Buttigieg, all Americans above a certain income threshold would see all of their income above that threshold taxed at 49.99 percent. This would be a departure from the tax policy of every president since the Reagan era, as top marginal tax rates have not exceeded 40 percent since then.

Warren’s plan would instead tax the wealth that rich people hold. This policy only applies to those with a net wealth exceeding $50 million, so if someone is worth $52 million, that extra $2 million is taxed at two percent. While these policies certainly differ in some respects, they are nowhere near as different as leftists claim nor do they come from two candidates with opposing ideologies.

There is, however, a clear disparity in the popularity of progressive and moderate policies. For example, Joe Biden’s

plan to combat climate change bears a strong resemblance to the Green New Deal. The founder of the progressive Sunrise Movement even claimed that Biden’s plan represents a “seismic shift” in climate policy at the federal level. Joe Biden’s own website cites the Green New Deal as a crucial framework in addressing the climate crisis. Despite the similarities, Biden’s plan has a 66 percent approval rating, while only 43 percent of Americans support the Green New Deal. There are clear differences between the policies. Biden phases out fracking while the Green New Deal bans it outright, and some critics, such as President Trump, have claimed that the Green New Deal is far too hostile toward cows. Most notably, the Green New Deal has been at the core of Republicans’ fear-mongering, while Joe Biden’s plan has mostly flown under the radar. Nonetheless, it is shocking that there can be such a large polling difference between two policies that are so openly linked.

Ultimately, these polling differences are caused by the way progressives advertise their policies. The Green New Deal and a wealth tax are seen as drastic steps to reinvent life in America for the better. Reasonable Americans have come to a consensus that climate change and income inequality are major issues, yet leftists force giant wedges into these fundamental agreements. They tie popular ideas to unpopular specifics, then disparage those who try

to build on bipartisan truths.

There is no reason to insist that aggressive spending on climate change or taxing the rich needs to feel radical. There is no reason to say that a literacy program would be a good thing for America, and then point to Cuba as a great example of how to implement it. We could enact real change in this country if we sought a more moderate tone when discussing these issues. When we turn allies into opponents and isolate ourselves on an island of moral purity, we fail to enact the policies we insist are necessary.

I support a great deal of progressive policy, but I support very few progressive candidates. By and large, progressive candidates regularly tie moral positions to specific policies and make big fights unwinnable. Even if the Green New Deal is the best way to fight climate change, it is still the most divisive. We have just over a decade to get a grip on climate change, and I do not want to spend seven of those years fighting Republicans on fracking. I want fracking to be banned just as much as any other young person who is scared for their future in a world altered by climate change, but I know that it will take a lot of time and a lot of work to get it done. In the meantime, we should work on getting basic victories on limiting carbon emissions and green energy. If every climate change policy has a fracking ban in it, we will be fighting in Congress while the sea levels continue to rise and

death began to circulate political communities around Brazil, some of Brazil’s own prominent white leaders also agreed to sign the letter, indicating that the change in mindset experienced by activists across the country is one that the entire country shares.

Black Lives Matter demonstrations not only in the U.S. but also globally continue to remain important for several reasons. The U.S. is not the only country in which systemic racism remains, and the spread of the BLM demonstrations toward Brazil shows an international struggle against antiBlackness and police brutality.

Regardless, as people living in a country which is still struggling to reconcile with a history of systemic racism, we should continue to express our support for the BLM movement in other countries.

Movements like these open up new spaces for criticism and discussion about the future of racial politics internationally.

Otherwise, while change may be effectuated in one country, status-quo mindsets about race relations will continue to remain the same, which forecloses any possibilities for racial progress and society to move forward.

California continues to burn.

The notion that being willing to settle for a less perfect but easier to implement policy makes you less concerned about these issues is absolutely ridiculous.

I would argue that working to make incremental progress on climate change instead of sending hate tweets to Joe Manchin until he supports the Green New Deal reflects a sense of urgency, not a concession to the right.

Frankly, I think a fair amount of leftists do not understand what liberals stand for. Very few of us embody the stereotype of the rich millennial who “just wants to get back to brunch” or the out-of-touch boomer who hates Trump but misses the Reagan era. Yes, I am a liberal, but I am a liberal who wants universal healthcare, aggressive climate change policy, substantial criminal justice reform, and nearly every other thing that progressives and leftists support. I just believe that there are several paths to these goals. A jobs program that would make us the world leader in green energy may not feel as radical as the Green New Deal, but it achieves many of the same goals. The desire to strip policies of their most gratuitously divisive elements and sell massive changes as common sense is not a concession to the right, but a drive to get things done in a polarized nation. Liberals and leftists agree more than leftists realize, and it is time for us to build on our similarities to work toward our shared goals.

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Page 15

Science Wiring the Brain: The Science Behind Music “Chills”

By KIMYA FIROOZAN

Many people have experienced an inexplicable moment while listening to music, especially after hearing a particularly good chord or note, in which chills run throughout their body.

At the moment, most people do not know the reason behind this feeling, but it’s been estimated that around 50 percent of people experience shivers, a lump in their throat, or goosebumps when they listen to certain types of music. This phenomenon, termed “frisson,” is also known as “aesthetic chills” or “musical chills,” a psychophysiological response to auditory and/or visual stimuli that often induces a pleasurable state. This subsequently results in skin tingling, chills, goosebumps, and pupil dilation.

Neuroscientist Thibault Chabin and colleagues at the Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté in Besançon, France have now used the electroencephalogram (EEG) to link chills to multiple brain regions involved in activating reward and pleasure systems. An EEG is a test used to evaluate the electrical activity in the brain as neurons communicate with each other through electrical impulses. They found that specific electrical activity in the orbitofrontal cortex (emotional processing), the supplementary motor area (movement control), and the right temporal lobe (auditory processing and musical appreciation) work together to process music, trigger the brain’s reward systems, and

By SHRIYA ANAND and DAISY LIN

Other researchers have discussed that the act of experiencing frisson could have been embedded into the subconscious memory in childhood development years from ages one to six. It is primarily the modality of music (major, minor compositions) that may have been retained from auditory stimuli from a young age that influences the release of chemicals into the central nervous system, thus inducing frisson. These findings, recently published in the Psychology of Music journal, also indicate that people who intellectually immerse themselves in music (rather than just letting it flow over them) might experience frisson more often and more intensely than others.

However, it’s just as possible for an individual who simply listens to music occasionally to experience frisson. Either way, frisson is not easily inducible, and listening to a chord that had previously resulted in frisson will not always do so again.

The research conducted regarding frisson and its impact on the brain could change the way music therapy works in the future. Music therapy is used for a variety of conditions for both adults and children, treating illnesses such as depression, anxiety, trauma, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia. Patients listen to, reflect on, and create music to improve their health and well-being in therapy; immersing oneself in music can allow one to more easily express emotions, identify and process difficult experiences, or simply find emotional release. While

music therapy is not a cure for these conditions in any way, it may soothe symptoms or even deter the progression of memory loss. Researchers are attempting to discover ways to induce frisson in patients currently undergoing music therapy in order to promote subjective well-being or happiness, which can be considered synonymous with mental health progression.

The tingling sensation that characterizes frisson has also been compared and contrasted to autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), which is a brain response to certain visuals and sounds that allow for relaxation and sleepiness.

Though ASMR and frisson result in similar physiological mechanisms, they are caused by different kinds of triggers, making them qualitatively different.

An fMRI study demonstrated that the mentioned brain regions activated by frisson were also associated with brain activity stemming from ASMR exposure. Their similar patterns of activation and resulting feelings can most certainly be used in music therapy. More knowledge regarding frisson and its beneficial effects can be applied to better the mental health of patients, something that ASMR and music therapy proponents are looking to further investigate. It is a slowly but surely growing field of interest, one that is capturing the attention of many researchers looking to improve the lives of individuals who could potentially benefit from inducible frisson.

Robots Replacing Readers

Though the technology has only been applied to articles covered by Semantic Scholar, the results have proved promising. Dan Weld, manager of the Semantic Scholar group at AI2, says t h a t “peop l e seem to really like it,” as the tool has helped readers sift through papers faster than if they had to read titles and abs t r a c t s, especially on a mobile device.

A preprint, which is a journal article published before formal peer review, described the instrument and was first introduced on the online archive arXiv server in April of 2020. The developers have also published the code along with a demo website that

allows users to try out the technology. Because the tool is still being fine-tuned, it is expected that new versions will be released with the ability to summarize articles written by other publishers with equally impressive efficiency.

This device isn’t the first of its kind, though. AI technologies have been developed with similar abilities already.

For one, in 2018, the website Paper Digest started providing short summaries of the papers that it published.

These summaries consisted of key sentences extracted from the article rather than newly generated ones.

As a result, the summaries weren’t as thorough and often focused on one particular topic rather than the article as a whole.

On the other hand, TLDR can generate a unique sentence from a paper’s summary, introduction, and conclusion. This

Anna Ast / The Spectator

As our lives have shifted from the physical world to the virtual one, our definition of a “normal” day has undoubtedly changed.

Instead of spending hours in school filling out worksheets, we are using online platforms to complete assignments. Despite the change in environment, there are still tasks we must perform.

As students, we have all needed to do research. Whether it’s for an English paper or a biology lab report, these lengthy assignments take extended amounts of time to research for and write.

Oftentimes, the process is prolonged due to difficulties in analyzing certain articles. Students may find themselves scrolling through countless pages packed with technical jargon that is difficult to understand. What if there were a solution to this problem?

Recently, the non-profit Allen’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) publicly released an AI tool for the scientific journal search engine Semantic Scholar.

AI refers to any task performed by a program or machine that is deemed to require human intelligence. Though this definition has been debated, tasks involving planning, learning, reasoning, knowledge representation, perception, or creativity are generally within the capabilities of AI. After analyzing a research paper, the free tool creates a few short sentences to summarize it. The team refers to these reports as “TLDRs,” a common acronym for “Too Long Didn’t Read.”

release dopamine. This produces frisson, the physiological response thought to indicate greater brain connectivity or the interrelatedness of the parts of the brain.

The peak of musical emotional experiences that elicit frisson has to do with two particular areas of the dopaminergic system of the brain: the caudate and the nucleus accumbens.

Each of the brain’s hemispheres contains a caudate nucleus, both located in the center and near the basal ganglia (near the thalamus, close to the midbrain). The caudate controls voluntary skeletal movement as well as reward and emotional interactions, among other functions. The nucleus accumbens plays a large role in the reward system as well, focusing on dopamine and serotonin transmission. The caudate nuclei anticipate the moments before the emotional peak of frisson, and the nucleus accumbens activates during the release immediately after the peak. The connectivity between auditory and emotional reward processing systems suggests frisson is a network of reward regions rather than a single modular region. Listening to frisson-inducing music corresponds with a change of cerebral blood flow to certain areas of the brain, which reflects a “craving” reflex similar to our responses to food, sex, and drugs of abuse.

It can be concluded that there is an affinity for frisson-inducing music due to the development of dopaminergic anticipation for its return, or a slight addiction to the musical stimulus.

advanced capability comes from the use of deep learning as opposed to basic machine learning.

Deep learning is arguably a more intelligent sect of machine learning as it “structures algorithms in layers to create a ‘[deep] neural network’ that can learn and make intelligent decisions on its own.”

In contrast, machine learning simply “uses algorithms to parse data, learn from that data, and make informed decisions based on what it has learned.” The former is capable of running without guidance as it can determine the accuracy of its outputs and fix them accordingly, while the latter depends on a physical engineer to step in and make adjustments. As a result, deep learning tends to be more capable, efficient, and more accurately mimics the human brain. These deep neural networks were first trained on tens of thousands of research papers using software that used frequently occurring phrases and concepts to summarize the papers. Once the networks learned to generate concise sentences by scanning through the paper and correlating it to the brief title, the team provided the software with thousands of computer science papers. They also provided the program with summaries (written either by the papers’ authors or by students) as a means of self-checking. The deep learning software was then able to identify its errors and adjust itself when its output was not similar to the summary provided. The team will continue to feed the tool with training examples from different fields so that it can learn

SCIENCEBEAT DeepMind, an artificial intelligence lab in London, claims to have built a computer system that can determine the three-dimensional shape of a protein given only its sequence of amino acids. Scientists have struggled with this problem for decades.

A 90-year-old woman in the United Kingdom was the first to receive Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.

New data from the Curiosity rover suggest that Mars once experienced massive floods as a result of heat generated from a meteorite impact.

A new method to test vaccines using lab-grown human cells may significantly reduce the reliance on controversial animal testing.

from diverse writing styles and approach analyzing papers more efficiently.

Currently, the tool is limited to the 10 million computer science papers covered by Semantic Scholar. The summaries are usually constructed from key phrases within the article and are aimed more toward individuals who understand the paper’s jargon.

Though the original intended audience was scientists or professionals in the field, it doesn’t seem far-fetched that versions of the tool may someday be designed for non-expert audiences.

Perhaps the tool will eradicate the need for the “middle man” media that interprets information in complicated papers before conveying it to the public.

If all it takes is a browser extension, one may not need to search through countless websites for a simplified version of an article.

The tool may even be helpful for educators who now spend hours reading through their students’ research papers or essays.

It is no secret that some end up skimming through the papers regardless, so the tool may result in more meaningful grades as the analysis is done via AI. Overall, this advancement in technology has the potential to improve the lives of people from a variety of fields. As Jevin West, an information scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, said, “I predict that this kind of tool will become a standard feature of scholarly search in the near future. Actually, given the need, I am amazed it has taken this long to see it in practice.”

Page 16

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Science The Curious Incident of the Platypus and Fluorescent Fur

By JENNA MACKENROTH

The platypus, one of nature’s curious oddities, is known for its long list of absurd traits. Endemic to Australia and affectionately dubbed “Frankenstein’s first attempt,” the platypus’s quirky characteristics include venomous spurs, an electrosensitive bill that can detect other platypuses, the ability to lay eggs despite being mammals, a beaver-like tail, and many more. Now, the platypus has yet another feature to add to its list: fluorescent fur. The discovery of the fur was accidental, as researchers and mammalogists at Northland College were experimenting with UV light on a variety of mammalian pelts and observed the fluorescent glow of the platypus.

It can all be traced back to the analysis of fluorescent flying squirrels. The discovery of fluorescent squirrels had come about due to Dr. Jonathan Martin, an associate professor at Northland College, shining his UV flashlight on a flying squirrel during a night hike. To his surprise, the squirrel glowed pink. From this, Dr. Martin was inspired to shine UV light on other specimens of flying squirrels. Each squirrel specimen emitted a similar glow, and the researchers wanted to see if other mammals also fluoresce under UV light.

Professor Paula Spaeth Anich of Northland College described, “It was a mix of serendipity and curiosity that led us to shine a UV light on the platypuses at the Field Museum.” Hoping to find the trait among other distant branches of mammals, Anich also observed opossums, another member of the marsupial branch. A branch of mammals known as monotremes, represented by echidnas and platypuses, was next in line.

As Anich put it, “We pulled the monotreme drawer, and we shined our [ultraviolet] light on the platypuses. And they were

incredibly, vividly fluorescent green and blue.”

The discovery was initially thought to be a product of preservation, but other preserved echidna and marsupial furs didn’t fluoresce. The similarity of the fluorescence pattern between the platypuses, flying squirrels, and other species means that the phenomenon is consistent with other mammals previously observed having fluorescent pelts.

These findings inspire the question: what is the importance of fluorescence in platypus fur? Despite the sample size being too small for strong conclusions, researchers have developed several theories, all of which are based on the hunch that it may have something to do with the dark.

The earliest of these theories is that platypuses fluoresce to disguise themselves from u l tr av ioletsensi-

Mandy Li / The Spectator

tive predators.

Anich believes that platypuses, which are primarily nocturnal, may absorb ultraviolet light rather than deflect it onto potential predators. Biofluorescence occurs when light, often blue light, is absorbed by an organism and then reemitted at another wavelength.

This causes the light to appear in different colors such as red, purple, green, or blue. Because platypuses are nocturnal, any sort of light emission would alert a nearby predator of their presence, making them easier to be hunted. By absorbing the UV light and emitting it at different wavelengths, the light emitted is undetectable by UVsensitive predators. This allows

the platypus to escape safely without alerting any predators of their presence.

Josh Griffiths, an Australian wildlife ecologist, disagrees with this theory. “Maybe up in northern Queensland, they get chomped by a crocodile now and then, but essentially, they just don’t have any predators,” he said. Instead, Griffiths attributes the fluorescent fur to communication between individual platypuses. Most platypus detection comes from their bills, which are filled with approximately 40,000 electrosensitive re-

ce ptors. The equal expression of fluorescence among male and female platypuses indicates that the trait isn’t related to sexual behaviors or elaborate platypus mating rituals, s o any form of communication would likely be related to general detection. Other mammals have been reported to be sensitive to UV light, so the trait could also be present in the platypus. In their twilit environments, a trait like this could be useful for communicating beyond electrosensitive detection. A similar idea is discussed in regard to fluorescent frogs and salamanders, which may also communicate with their bright green glows.

Once they have ascertained the reason for fluorescence in the platypus, one advancement that researchers hope to make

involves tracking platypuses in the wild. Platypuses are notoriously difficult to study because of their low population, which is said to be in decline since the arrival of the first Europeans in the 17th century. A study conducted in 2016 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) found that populations had dropped by about 30 percent on average since Europeans first arrived in Australia.

The primary causes of this decline are overhunting and habitat loss. In the 19th century, platypuses were hunted for their fur, which was often turned into slippers and rugs. More recently, the wildfires that ravaged Australia earlier this year evaporated lakes and decimated the brush where platypuses hide and interact when out of the water. The loss of bodies of water also means that platypuses are losing their sources of food and their homes. Climate change is also a large threat to the platypus population; another study by the University of Melbourne and the University of New South Wales indicates that the population could decline by up to 73 percent in the next 50 years.

Because fluorescent fur could allow scientists to track the elusive platypuses without having to handle them or interfere with their natural behavioral patterns, analyzing them may be easier in the future. Additionally, the research generated by this potential new method of tracking may aid scientists in rebuilding the platypuses’ natural habitat and in their repopulation.

In addition to potentially aiding researchers in their tracking of platypuses, the fluorescent fur also has important implications for mammalogical evolution. As part of the monotreme branch, which includes echidnas, platypuses

are said to have separated from other mammals approximately 166 million years ago. Platypuses may be an evolutionary oddity because they evolve ‘more slowly’ than other mammalian species. A fossil discovered in 2008 indicated that the platypuses’ slowed metabolism and generation times may have evolutionarily held platypuses back. Because platypus fossils are so few, analyzing their evolutionary history is often difficult.

However, the fluorescent fur may aid in studying the evolution of mammals. Though monotremes split from marsupials and placental mammals hundreds of millions of years ago, their shared fluorescence indicates a common trait which scientists can use to pinpoint specific evolutionary events.

While the recent discovery is not enough to establish conclusive lines of evidence, seeing this trait in “all three of the major branches is indicative that it is an ancestral trait,” says Anich. She is excited about what this discovery can reveal, such as answers to questions about mammalian evolution and shared ancestry, as well as the interactions and behavior patterns of nocturnal animals.

As random as the discovery may appear, the presence of fluorescent fur in platypuses is sure to make waves in mammalogy, conservation efforts, and evolutionary science. Whether it links together mammals that may have seemed too distantly related or allows researchers to learn more about platypus habits and behavior, fluorescent fur is a curious but exciting feature bound to change the way scientists address mammals and their history. The fur may answer several questions about the unique mammals while opening up new questions about the nocturnal and mammalian world. Regardless of the evolutionary and ecological conclusions, Frankenstein’s first attempt may take pride in its possession of yet another fantastically fluorescent trait.

VA Uses Machine Learning for Suicide Prevention

By ZOE PICCIRILLO

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death among all ages in the United States. An average of 132 Americans commit suicide every day, with nearly one-fifth of them being veterans. According to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), veteran suicides are on the rise and totaled over 6,000 in 2019. In an attempt to lower veteran suicide numbers, the VA is working with researchers in Berkeley, California to develop Reach Vet, a computer program that uses machine learning to identify veterans at risk of taking their own lives.

Machine learning is a subject within the field of artificial intelligence that teaches computers how to make predictions from data. Put simply, computer programs are fed massive sets of data that are classified into different categories. The program analyzes the characteristics of the data and their classifications, and after study-

ing enough data, it is capable of classifying data on its own. The Reach Vet machine learning model uses data from around 700,000 veterans to learn demographic, medical, and biological trends among veterans who committed suicide and previously suicidal veterans. After it is trained with this massive dataset, it can analyze a veteran’s characteristics and medical records to predict whether they may be suicidal or at risk of becoming suicidal.

Like many other machine learning models, Reach Vet uses a neural network to process inputted data. Neural networks are composed of several layers of artificial neurons, which are coded to resemble the functions of a biological neuron. Similar to a biological neuron, which receives, processes, and sends electrical impulses throughout the body, artificial neurons receive data, perform functions on it, and pass on an output.

They are organized in layers and communicate with each other in order to learn about

the data they are given, which mimics the way neurons communicate with each other in the human body. To effectively analyze a veteran’s data, Reach Vet uses its neural networks to analyze 61 specific factors, including previous suicide attempts, arthritis, and drug prescriptions. Each layer has a different weight in the model’s predictions, with the heaviest factor being previous suicide attempts.

After analyzing each factor, the program assigns a score to each veteran in the database indicating their risk of suicide. Every month, the model flags veterans with the highest 0.1 percent of scores as high-risk.

Once a veteran is flagged as high-risk, his or her local VA clinic is notified, and a doctor contacts the veteran. The doctor explains the meaning of the flag and encourages the veteran to schedule an appointment to discuss safety plans and potential treatment options. Doctors emphasize that Reach Vet’s flag does not mean they are in danger; rather, it is more of a warn-

ing sign and an opportunity for veterans to check in with the VA about their health.

Though Reach Vet is changing the face of suicide prevention efforts, it is not perfect.

Some veterans, for example, feel wary about having an inanimate machine learning model determine their risk level. In a New York Times article, one veteran who was flagged noted that he doesn’t like the idea of being put on a list by a computer. However, he appreciated that the VA was making an effort to give him the support he needs, and he now regularly goes to therapy at a VA hospital. Another complication with the machine learning model is that it does not make perfect predictions all the time. This is potentially due to the model overfitting the data: in other words, making extreme predictions or finding patterns in the data where there are none.

In addition, not all data is perfect: Reach Vet has to combine electronic health records with physical records such as pre-

scriptions and doctor’s notes, which can be difficult to locate and organize. Reach Vet’s miscalculations of high-risk veterans could scare some veterans, who may be flagged inaccurately, and cost the lives of veterans who are overlooked and miss the treatment they need.

Currently, Reach Vet cannot show why a veteran was flagged and what type of care is best for each veteran. Without this extra information, doctors can find it difficult to interpret the model’s findings, but they hope, with future improvements to Reach Vet, to gain a deeper understanding of each patient.

Nevertheless, Reach Vet is an important development in the intersection of healthcare and technology, providing suicide prevention care to veterans who might not know they need it.

Stuyvesant: If you are in a crisis or are struggling, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800273-TALK (8255), for help 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Your call is confidential.

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Page 17

Science Observatory Discovers Water Molecules on the Moon

By SHAH NABIL

By HENRY CEN

Perseverance: A Glimpse Into the Future causing them to emit a wavelength of light, hence why this process is called fluorescence spectroscopy.

This “emission wavelength” is then filtered onto SHERLOC’s optical detection system where the emission wavelength and the original wavelength of the laser emitted light beam can be compared, yielding the identity of the compounds and minerals present in the scanned area. Detection of carbon lends support for the presence of organic compounds. For even smaller traces of organic compounds, SHERLOC uses a phenomenon known as Raman scattering, which is when the frequency of a source of light,

why not? The SHERLOC investigation will advance the understanding of Martian geologic history and identify its past biologic potential.”

Perseverance will also pioneer many scientific techniques that could play a critical role in the future of Mars exploration. One such technique, the artificial production of oxygen, is essential for humans to gain a foothold into future colonization.

To test the viability of this, Perseverance was also equipped with the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE).

Michael Hecht, the Principal Investigator for MOXIE, spoke on the

a laser in this case, is shifted in response to making contact with another compound. This shift in frequency is detected by SHERLOC’s optical system and serves as another indicator of organic substances.

Raman scattering has extremely strong detection capabilities, detecting even the smallest traces of a substance.

Luther Beegle, the Principal Investigator for SHERLOC, stated SHERLOC’s objectives: “Key, driving questions are whether Mars is or was ever inhabited, and if not,

possibilities of MOXIE: “When we send humans to Mars, we will want them to return safely, and to do that, they need a rocket to lift off the planet. Liquid oxygen propellant is something we could make there and not have to bring with us. One idea would be to bring an empty oxygen tank and fill it up on Mars.”

Mars’s atmosphere consists of 96 percent carbon dioxide, a toxic gas that humans cannot breathe.

For humans to be able to take up permanent residence on the red

Ivy Jiang / The Spectator

Perseverance, NASA’s latest Mars rover, took off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on July 30, 2020. For the past six and a half months, it has been traveling to the red planet. Now, it is less than 100 days away from touching down, with an approximate landing date of February 18, 2021. As the countdown begins, let’s take an in-depth look at the mission and its significance for the future of Mars exploration and colonization.

Perseverance is set to land inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater. Scientists believe that the Jezero Crater was home to a lake and a river delta a few billion years ago, which made it a prime water-abundant location for life to have inhabited. NASA hopes to search for any signs of ancient life in the crater to prove that the red planet was able to and can sustain life.

NASA set out on the Perseverance mission with four main objectives in mind: “[to study] Mars’s habitability, [seek] signs of past microbial life, [collect] and [cache] samples, and [prepare] for future human missions.” To accomplish these tasks, Perseverance is outfitted with various onboard instruments.

Assisting Perseverance with searching for life on the barren red planet will be one of its onboard instruments, Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC). SHERLOC is located on Perseverance’s robotic arm and utilizes Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy in order to detect and characterize organic materials and minerals on the red planet. SHERLOC consists of a spectrometer, a device used to separate rays of light, and a 248.6nm deep ultraviolet laser, which is connected to an auto-focusing and scanning optical system. The laser emits a beam of light onto a selected area (SHERLOC has a restricted detection area of 7x7 mm).

This excites the electrons of any compounds or minerals in the area,

is based on the concept of solidified barriers that shield water molecules from sunlight. Another speculation of where water molecules are stored includes holes created by the heat from meteor collisions or undetected shadows on the Moon.

The discovery of water on the Moon’s surface is vital to understanding origins of objects in our universe. This could prompt further research potentially leading to answers including the origins of the Moon’s water. If planets and moons are closely studied, the ability to use these water molecules would open up additional opportunities, such as taking water from the surface to create a stable atmosphere that could lead to space colonies in our solar system and beyond. Focusing on and analyzing water molecules on other planets outside of the solar system would also increase the chances of finding extraterrestrial life, as most organisms need water to thrive. SOFIA gives reason to put more funding into creating flying observatories that can look beneath the surface of celestial objects, as discoveries such as this one will bring us closer to a future where humanity can survive on other planets.

Cindy Yang / The Spectator

On the barren, rocky surface of the Moon, there is no sign of life at all. Everything seems to be a wasteland full of craters and dry soil. Any attempts to search for water yield to a freezing environment. There are many celestial objects that contain water in the form of ice, such as Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. However, this is not always the case, as an observatory found that there are water molecules on the surface of the Moon.

This finding changes the way we view celestial objects like the Moon, as it reveals that water molecules can exist outside of ice.

NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) discovered that there is water on the Moon, more specifically, where the Sun shines. According to NASA, the observatory is known for the fact that it can fly “at altitudes of up to 45 thousand feet […] with a 106-inch diameter telescope [reaching] above 99 percent of the water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere.” SOFIA was able to find traces of water molecules within the Clavius Crater, a surface cavity constantly exposed to the

Sun’s rays, by taking advantage of its high height relative to space. Not much water was found, as shown in the Nature Astronomy research article, which states how “observations reveal a six µm emission feature at high lunar latitudes due to the presence of molecular water on the lunar surface. On the basis of the strength of the six µm band, we estimate abundances of about 100 to 400 µg g⁻¹ H2O.” Therefore, the observatory shows the practicality of implementing telescopes at higher altitudes within our atmosphere, as a closer view can lead to critical discoveries such as water on the Moon.

In addition, the question of where water molecules are being contained is still up in the air. A Nature Astronomy research article concerning the discovery states, “The distribution of water over the small latitude range is a result of local geology and is probably not a global phenomenon. Lastly, we suggest that a majority of the water we detect must be stored within glasses [from past meteor collisions] or in voids between grains sheltered from the harsh lunar environment, allowing the water to remain on the lunar surface.” The scientists’ conclusion

planet, a sustainable and reliable source of oxygen needs to be established. MOXIE takes in the Mars atmosphere’s CO2 and feeds it to the Solid OXide Electrolyzer (SOXE) within it. The SOXE electrochemically splits the CO2 into O2 and CO. It then checks the purity of the O2 before emitting it, producing breathable oxygen.

However, MOXIE is a prototype and is only the size of a small car battery. To sustain future human colonies on Mars, it will need to be scaled up immensely.

Perseverance will also test the viability of employing small drones and helicopters in exploring extraterrestrial planets. On the underbelly of Perseverance is a small helicopter named Ingenuity. Once Perseverance reaches Mars, Ingenuity will take to the Martian skies, becoming the first-ever rotorcraft to do so. The success of this trial could mark the emergence of small rotorcraft in extraterrestrial exploration, being able to navigate the small nooks and crannies that other spacecraft may not be able to reach.

Perseverance will provide data that will be pivotal in Mars exploration. However, humanity is still a bit away from full-scale colonization.

While Perseverance hopes to address the issue of oxygen, there are a few more challenges that a settlement on Mars entails.

The most pressing issue would be radiation poisoning. Though scientists suspect that Mars once had a magnetic field similar to that of Earth’s, it has long since been stripped away, leaving the red planet vulnerable to the fury of the Sun. The planet is constantly bombarded with cosmic rays and solar flares, some lethal to human beings.

NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft was equipped with a special instrument called the Martian Radiation Experiment, which was able to measure the amount of radiation Mars was receiving. In a period of 18 months, the instrument detected radiation levels 2.5 times higher than what astronauts experience on the International Space Station, 22 milli-rads per day, which works out to 8,000 milli-rads (eight rads) per

year.

Some solutions have been proposed, but the most interesting of such belongs to the prospect of genetically modifying astronauts. Permanent residence on Mars would place significant stress on the human body from being in constant contact with radiation, microgravity, toxic air, and many more lethal factors. With the genetic modification industry rapidly innovating, these solutions could be solved through the genetic modification of astronauts. One study has already experimented with inserting tardigrade cells into human cells.

Tardigrades are a unique group of microscopic animals that can survive in extremely harsh conditions, such as the vacuum of space. According to geneticist Christopher Mason at Weill Cornell Medicine, the engineered cells exhibited greater resistance to radiation than their normal counterparts. Modifications akin to these may allow humans to handle the struggles of extraterrestrial occupancy.

The prospect of Mars colonization is incredibly nuanced. Every detail of human life on the red planet will have to be worked out down to the traffic lights and bedsheets. Even a cup of coffee will be hard to obtain. Martian soil is covered by a regolith, a blanket of rocky material, which makes it hard for nutrients to linger long enough to grow coffee plants. And not to mention, most of Earth’s crops have adapted over a long period of time to the conditions of Earth’s atmosphere and would likely not be able to tolerate Martian conditions.

Mars colonization will be a chance to reinvent human civilization as agriculture, architecture, and industrialization have, except this time, we have the wisdom and knowledge of hindsight. It will be a long and arduous process, but today’s era of technological innovation and investment in curiosity has put us in the best position to make great progress. The Perseverance missions may only be the discovery of wooden clubs, but soon, we’ll make fire and then reinvent the wheel.

Page 18

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Arts and Entertainment

Television

By CAROLINE PICKERING ** Spoilers ahead on “Supernatural” up to season 15, episode 19 Viewers will tune in one final time to The CW’s “Supernatural” on Thursday, November 19. After 15 years and over 300 episodes, the show has gained name recognition and touched the hearts and minds of people all over the world. “Supernatural” follows brothers Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) on their quest to hunt and kill a host of supernatural creatures. After their mother, Mary (Samantha Smith), was brutally murdered by a demon when they were children, the boys, along with their father (Jeffery Dean Morgan), are set on finding the killer demon and

deemed artistically. The show benefits from modern animation techniques, adopting visual gags that wouldn’t be possible in the ‘90s, most notably complete shifts to anime art styles for fight scenes and Sanrio-esque animation for Dot Warner’s kawaii takeover. Even in the main animation style, characters pop against classic backgrounds, the Warners somehow look more “cartoony” than the characters surrounding them, and quick character movements look a lot more fluid than before.

Finally, the modern era has brought “Animaniacs’’ humor beyond the screen. Being able to watch the Pinky and the Brain segment of episode six with a pause button unlocks a new joke. The screen reads “Planet Domination” along with a “fake” phone number, and calling it directs you to a phone sex hotline. Though Hulu has since changed the number to one that’s actually fake, it’s the perfect example of the elevated and subtle humor that “Animaniacs” is known for.

“Animaniacs” (2020) is a confusing show to review because in truth, it is an adequate series that’s worth a tentative watch. The disappointment only seeps in because of the standard “Animaniacs” set for itself in the past. By having such great jokes and segments, the missteps appear with such glaring contrast that a passable episode looks horrible in comparison to a great one. While “Animaniacs” (2020) is inconsistent in its quality, it is never bad. It just ranges from spectacular to mediocre, and seeing those passable moments is like watching your straight-A student get a C––it only hurts as much as it does because you know they can do better. The new “Animaniacs” is good, but it has so many moments when you can see its potential to be great, and that’s what makes it so frustrating.

And those are the facts!

tor

ing) and the insecure fixation on being a reboot, the humor of “Animaniacs” (2020) is still fresh.

While some of the plots can be a little heavy-handed (bun control being a played out and generally

ect a

The original “Animaniacs” television series (1993-1998) has become something of an enigma. The show revolves around the three Warner siblings, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, who spend their days running amok around the Warner Movie Studio Lot, wreaking havoc on unsuspecting security guards and balding child psychiatrists. The outlandish plot has equally esoteric characters to boot, with a cast ranging from a flock of stereotypically Italian pigeons to a crabby, anvil-toting squirrel.

Yet unlike most children’s television at the time, it hardly pandered to the lowest common denominator. Chock-full of colorful pop culture references, sly off-color remarks, and slapstick antics, the original “Animaniacs” allowed for a viewing experience that had as much appeal for adult viewers as it did for children.

Perhaps the greatest feature of the original is the rapid-fire sketch format that each episode falls into, splitting every weekly segment into multiple parts, with a completely different plot and set of characters for each. The variety show format jetts the viewer between several distinct animation techniques, genres, characters, and comedic-styles before the dreaded credits rolled.

Sadly, the original “Animaniacs” was canceled after a measly four seasons despite winning a slew of Daytime Emmys and gaining nearly universal critical acclaim. For 22 years, nobody heard a peep from the feverdreamish Warner Siblings.

Enter the reboot––same general premise, same main characters, same cartoonish antics, all rocketed two decades into the future.

In “Animaniacs” (2020), this dynamic trio of siblings (selfdescribed as “zany to the max”) is back. This television reboot is full of the same irreverence as its predecessor, but with a new audience, that irreverence needs to be adapted. The “Animaniacs” has always thrived on spoofing current events, but nowadays the turnaround time feels much faster. When shows in today’s

streaming era take two or more years to produce, current events become a much riskier topic for jokes. “Animaniacs” finds its strength in timeless stories and classic parodies, like Episode 2’s Odysseus skit, wherein the usual comedic torture techniques of the Warners are ineffective because Odysseus sees their punishments as challenges. This particular story doesn’t rely on dated pop culture references and is thus still funny two years after it was written. That is, until its ending, which focuses on a Trump-like cyclops written i n 2018, when peak Trump humor was “covfefe” and hand jokes. The already surfacelevel humor is further diluted with time, when their dead horse has been beaten down to gelatin.

This episode is one of many that forces 2018-era political humor onto a jaded 2020 audience. This isn’t to say the jokes aren’t funny––they’re just outdated.

While a show as cuttingedge and satirical as the original “Animaniacs” is the antithesis of Hollywood reboot culture, they can’t help but join the fray. The 2020 show, however, can’t seem to let go of the fact that it’s a reboot. There are endless selfdeprecating quips within each episode that the showrunners seem to believe redeem themselves of any “reboot scorn.”

What they fail to understand is that there are very few viewers watching that are even marginally as frustrated by the concept of a reboot as they are. Songs, jokes, skits, and references are unceasingly dedicated to the subject and make it hard to enjoy the show as its own independent body of work, as we’re constantly being reminded that enjoying it is wrong.

Aside from the outdated humor (which isn’t really their fault, I mean, no one saw 2020 com-

Sp

By ASA MUHAMMAD and MORRIS RASKIN

he

Television

22 Years Later, Are They Still Zany to the Max?

/ Ho ies r A

T

n o n s e n s i - cal riff on gun control), the one-liners are still laugh-out-loud funny. Some of the funniest moments, though, are seen in shorts, inserted to fill the remaining time after the two main segments.

The quality of these shorts deserves praise, but they highlight another problem with this rendition of “Animaniacs”: the episodes are too long. The shift from three, highly varying segments an episode to two stretches a funny concept to its limit.

While the original show toted six possible sketches to choose from for any particular episode, the new episodes only alternate between the main Warner siblings and veteran sketch characters Pinky and the Brain, a format that quickly becomes formulaic.

While this problem wouldn’t be as noticeable were it a weekly show, it just feels hypocritical that a show so focused on being a streamable reboot for the modern era is so poorly optimized for binging.

Where “Animaniacs” fails structurally however, it is re-

The Road So Far: A Look Back on “Supernatural” returning the favor. But over the years, it becomes much more than that, as the Winchesters get tangled up in the battles of heaven and hell, pitting them against not only demons, but also angels, Satan, leviathans, the Antichrist, alternate dimensions, and God himself. It’s been an extremely long road for the characters and viewers. As the show comes to an end, it’s important to look back on a series that has made an undeniable impact on the first decades of the 21st century.

Whether you’re a die-hard fan or have never watched a single episode, there is a high chance that the name “Supernatural” rings a bell. From online usernames to a reaction image in a tweet, allusions to “Supernatural” are hidden everywhere.

The series has had a massive im-

pact on our generation’s history and culture, without many of us even realizing it. While most high school students didn’t know about the show at the height of its popularity in the early 2010s, the “Supernatural” era defined internet culture and still remains in the minds of many young people today.

And there are many reasons why fans would flock to such a show. If the series can last for 15 years, it has to be good. It has a plethora of characters that viewers have loved and cherished over the years, none more than the “self-hating angel of Thursday,” Castiel (Misha Collins).

“Supernatural” owes much of its success to Cas, both in the universe of the show and in ours.

Many fans have pointed out the correlation between viewership

and Castiel’s screen time. In fact, the legacy of the show is widely agreed to hinge on whether or not he is brought back from the dead in the series finale. The angel has wormed his way into the hearts of almost every fan, and it’s no wonder why. Over the years, fans have watched Cas learn how to be human, sometimes for comedic relief, how a warrior of heaven learns how to create a voicemail, but more significantly, how to feel and love.

He’s possibly the only character on the show that has done everything in his power to be good. Characters like Cas have been idolized by fans (whether or not many characters should have been aside), and there is no continued on page 19

Playlist Cinematic Soundtrack Timeline

By THE ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT DEPARTMENT Brimming with childhood nostalgia and dynamic emotion, these are some quintessential songs and compositions that graced the films (or television series) of the past and present.

Ecstasy of Gold “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly” (1966) Ennio Morricone Mrs. Robinson “The Graduate” (1967) Simon and Garfunkel Laura Palmer’s Theme “Twin Peaks” (1990) Angelo Badalamenti My Sharona “Reality Bites” (1994) The Knack Hip To Be Square “American Psycho” (2000) Huey Lewis and the News Sweet Disposition “500 Days of Summer” (2009) The Temper Trap The Ellie Badge “Up” (2009) Michael Giacchino In Motion “The Social Network” (2010) Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross Nightcall “Drive” (2011) Kavinsky Moonage Daydream “Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014) David Bowie First Step “Interstellar” (2014) Hans Zimmer The Middle of the World “Moonlight” (2016) Nicholas Britell Easy “Baby Driver” (2017) Commodores Visions of Gideon “Call Me By Your Name” (2017) Sufjan Stevens Identical “On the Rocks” (2020) Phoenix

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Page 19

Arts and Entertainment The Road So Far: A Look Back on “Supernatural”

Television

character arc in the penultimate episode “Inherit the Earth,” in which he finally fulfills his destiny of becoming God. It is clear that everything Jack struggles through was purposeful. He suffers but retains his heart of gold. He brings a new dynamic to Team Free Will—Sam, Dean, and Cas—and they all become more whole with his presence.

It’s important to recognize that because “Supernatural” first aired in the early 2000s, a much different social climate, many viewers today would be shocked and offended by much of the content. And while it may not be as openly awful as it once was, the bigotry has evolved to be more subtle yet just as cutting.

There is hardly any representation, and when there is, the token characters are either poorly written or brutally killed. There has not been a single POC main character throughout all 15 seasons, and hardly any others

Television

By KRISH GUPTA The narration talents of Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), British people chasing cheese down a hill, and a pepper farmer from the Carolinas looking to torture people: what’s not to like?

This is Netflix’s “We Are the Champions,” a new sixpart original miniseries chronicling oddball sports (that is, if we can even call them sports) around the world, such as cheese rolling, chili eating, and frog dancing. Each episode follows a different obscure competition in the most remote parts of the world, making for a unique, diverse, and esoteric collection of traditions. This lighthearted series offers the chance for unusual sports and competitions to enter the spotlight in a category dominated by big names and leagues.

The most striking feature is noticeable from the getgo. The cinematography and special effects are excellent throughout and on-par with other stunningly shot Netf-

have done a much better job at incorporating them.

Finally, of course, the infamous homophobia in the show remains controversial. The show started out in its early seasons being able to make homophobic jokes, and though there have been massive changes for the LGBTQ+ community over the past 15 years, the series hasn’t improved its portrayal of the handful of openly LGBTQ+ characters. These characters either show up for a few minutes in one episode or follow the “bury your gays” trope: getting killed off for no reason.

What has made the homophobia of “Supernatural” so well-known among fans and nonfans alike is the queerbaiting of Dean and Castiel’s relationship.

“Supernatural” is the poster child for

this marketing technique for years, as the pairing has been a fan favorite since Castiel’s debut. Almost anyone who has watched “Supernatural” could tell you that the pair are more than friends, and they’re right to do so. The pair, affectionately dubbed Destiel, has been a central pillar of the series for fans for years.

There is no one else Dean has mourned so desperately, with whom he would trade Sam, the

have appeared at all. While there have been several female characters who are in fact great, the writers hardly ever focus developing them, and for the most part, they only exist to aid the Winchester brothers. While this hasn’t stopped characters such as Claire Novak (Kathryn Love Newton) and Charlie Bradbury (Felicia Day) from becoming fan favorites, fans recognize that the writers for the series should

little brother he would go to the ends of the Earth for, in a heartbeat. Every time Cas has died over the years, Dean has visibly fallen to pieces. Dean, jokingly dubbed the most emotionally constipated character in the show, has only ever let his guard down around Cas, someone who he himself has admitted that he can barely live without.

In the 18th episode of the final season, “Despair,” Cas sacrifices his life in order to save Dean from Death and in his final moments, professes to him how Dean has changed him for the better and given him the ability to love. This declaration of love was so powerful that it overshadowed even the rumors of Vladimir Putin’s resignation on November 5. Critics of the show and the scene have pointed out that this final confession

that fans have been waiting 12 years for is inherently homophobic, as Castiel is killed immediately afterward. This could be remedied in the final episode if Castiel is brought back (again) and Dean is able to reciprocate his feelings, but for now, it is just another example of the show’s refusal to have openly LGBTQ+ characters unless they die.

This does not negate the impact this moment had on fans after years of being called crazy for believing in a couple they

knew would never get together.

This moment was the final confirmation and fulfillment of hope for so many people, a moment that took years of fighting from several writers and cast members to accomplish. Ironically, for all their homophobia, the writers of “Supernatural” wrote one of the greatest and most famous homosexual love stories of the 21st century.

Fans, however, have not come back year after year just because the show is good. They come back for the connections they’ve formed with the characters, seeing them as comparable to loved ones. While no fan will ever hesitate to explain to you the issues they have with the series, part of them—the part that fell in love with the show, the part that made them feel like they could be heroes—found a family with this show.

And at the end of the day, that is what the show is all about: family. “Supernatural” is a heartfelt tale of two brothers who would do anything for each other and stick together through even the toughest of times. Who, despite a harrowing—and most likely abusive—upbringing, are able to find and build a family. They lose, over and over again but come back each time just as strong. It’s a story of love, loss, freedom, and above all else, resilience. It’s sad to say goodbye to Sam and Dean Winchester, who have had such a massive impact on so many people’s lives. As the Winchester Gospel comes to a close, I look back fondly on the way the series has helped shape me into the person I am today, and it warms my heart to know that the boys will be going out the way they always intended: guns blazing.

“We Are the Champions”: A Refreshingly New Category for Sports Television lix originals. The show has a distinctly whimsical feel from the beginning of episode one, opening on a slow-motion clip of people of all ages sprinting and rolling down a steep hill in pursuit of a wheel of cheese, with crowds lining the side of the peak and cheering. Then, to top things off, cue the iconic voice of none other than Wilson.

Each episode delves into a new unorthodox sport in a documentary-style format. Every new sport totes interviews that follow contestants and locals in the days leading up to the big event and culminating in the real annual competition. The series focuses just as much on the contest itself as it does on the people involved.

The crew carefully documents the personalities naturally and effectively, to the point that viewers Google them to continue to learn their stories after each half-hour episode. Some may be intrigued by Flo from the opening episode, who has always wanted to get a cast, others by “Smokin” Ed Currie:

the man, the myth, the legend, who reigns above the world

show takes care not to mock any of the traditions, but Wil-

of chilis. What really sets this series apart from other sports documentaries though is not only the strange subjects, but also the tone throughout. The

son’s witty voice, coupled with a playful soundtrack, makes for a series that’s pure fun.

That being said, “We Are the Champions” is not without

Iris Lin / The Spectator

doubt that the strong sense of morality and positive message the show promotes has helped save lives.

Additionally, the cast of Ackles, Padalecki, and Collins knows their characters extremely well and have played them superbly since the beginning. It’s amazing to watch the dedication that goes into every line and microexpression that has helped shape these characters and make them real in the hearts of thousands, if not more. I personally have never found another series with actors who can play characters in such a way that you can see layers upon layers of subtle emotions, which have helped to bring the story to life over the years.

Furthermore, while the show has fallen off in recent years, the writing in the first five seasons is spectacular. There is no denying that the character arcs of both Sam and Dean are executed extremely well, bridging the span of the whole five-season arc, testing their humanity and their relationship as brothers. Each season’s plot builds upon the previous one, creating a continuous, organic arc. The very first episode of season one was always building up to the season five finale, something every season afterward has lacked. The subsequent arcs feel disconnected from each other and strung together out of necessity to keep the show going.

The only exception to this is the arc of Jack Kline (Alexander Calvert), the son of the Archangel Lucifer. It’s clear the writers had a plan even before his formal introduction in the season 12 finale and put careful dedication into the resolution of his

Rachel Chuong / The Spectator

continued from page 18

its pitfalls. The last minute or so of every episode gets cheesy, with Wilson (or Schrute, for some of us) preaching a lesson learned from each episode.

The show closes with alarming clips of contestants giggling or striking a strange pose in front of a colored green screen, culminating with Wilson saying “We Are the Champions.” This cringe-inducing ending counteracts the playful vibe of the rest of each episode, so you might be better off switching your TV off a minute early.

After ESPN’s series “The Last Dance” (2020) on Michael Jordan transfixed the world earlier this year, Netflix has successfully capitalized on the world’s starved hunger for sports television. “We Are the Champions” has sought out a broader audience of sports fans and casual viewers alike.

Though the series certainly isn’t perfect, it breaks the norms of a typical sports docuseries, contributing to what should be an exciting next few years in documentary television.

Page 20

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Arts and Entertainment On Obama’s “A Promised Land”

Literature There’s an odd serenity to former president Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land.” It is in the careful detail he writes, much like how he speaks. He narrates in adagio tempo, as a debonair past president. “A Hawaiian walk, Michelle likes to say, sometimes with a hint of impatience”; his writing is a slow burn, each detail meticulously analyzed, as if it is a fireside chat for two and there is all the time in the world.

“A Promised Land” is the first in what is to be a two-volume series, starting from formative events to initial political campaigns and concluding in the Abbottabad raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. It is an autobiography of Obama’s once youthful idealism, his best intentions, his political enemies, and his moral dilemmas, all with the growing shadow of his successor.

In a purely literary sense, the memoir is massive—768 pages, complete with an index, a photographic insert, and credits. There is a grandness to it; the narrative is vivid and often pleasurable to read. Yet the memoir is anything but celebratory or joyful. It is more a careful moderation or an act of atonement to his legacy, all the while written during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Obama thinks—and thinks some more. He wonders if his first run for office was from a desire for greater power or from an honest desire to serve.

He reminisces about the road trips he used to take with his mother and his grandmother, Toot, of the “glimpse of the dizzying freedom of the open road, how vast America was, and how full of wonder,” and later of “the days [that] were too stuffed with prescheduled, staff-monitored activity” for his

Music

By FARIHA MABUD Tobi Adeyemi, better known under the moniker of tobi lou, is a Nigerian-American hip-hop artist with a unique talent for world building. With a playful style developed from both nostalgic ‘90s cartoons and K-pop aesthetics, Lou combines whimsical visuals with what he calls “happy [EXPLETIVE]” musical dualities in order to create and expand his Tobi Lou universe.

Lou first caught mainstream attention in late 2019. His track “Buff Baby” (2018) on Spotify immediately stood out to many with its reference to the dancing baby Finn clip from the popular cartoon “Adventure Time” (2010-2018). The lyrics—simultaneously cheerful and selfdeprecating—paired themselves with a strange, dancing figure reminiscent of the beloved cartoon. TikTok feeds soon became flooded with an abundance of the “Buff Baby” dance.

Before music, however, Lou played baseball semi-professionally in the Minor Leagues and planned on pursuing the sport further before an injury

Julia Shen / The Spectator

By CHRISTINA PAN

daughters. A private tour of the pyramids of Giza reminds him that “soon, I and those I loved would someday turn to dust.”

When a crowd forms outside his hotel window at the Nobel ceremony, he thinks of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and reflects: “on some level, the crowds below were cheering an illusion. The idea that I, or any one person, could bring order to such chaos seemed laughable.”

Yet this prolix style is more defensive than reflective. It is as much Obama’s desire to examine himself before others can—to take a topic and analyze it from all angles. Obama’s

psychological malady is that he sees himself as a figure studied and sculpted by an outsider: “I was from everywhere and nowhere at once, a combination of ill-fitting parts, like a platypus or some imaginary beast, confined to a fragile habitat.”

This steady detachment takes on a mournful, nearly elegiac tone. Whether or not it is because of the following presidency that sought to unravel all that his administration had accomplished, or that it is representative of his actual thoughts, is up to the reader to decide.

The name “Trump” hovers over the memoir like a ghost; a foreboding presence,

silently invading the reader’s conscience. Not until page 672 does Obama refer to Trump explicitly, following the “birther” movement and in his speech at the subsequent 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner.

As readers, we have the hindsight of the past four years. Regardless of political affiliation, when one reads “A Promised Land,” they are reassured by the presence of a literate person—of somebody who can link consecutive sentences together and form a meaningful paragraph. This standard may not be so valuable in any other country or time, but after four years of incoherent tweets, it is comforting to remember that some American presidents still hold a basic sense of decency.

Yet another difference “A Promised Land” highlights between Obama and Trump is not only the latter’s illiteracy, but also the former’s lack of conviction. As stated in the famous lines of “The Second Coming,”

by William Butler Yeats, a poet that Obama often references in his written and oratory work, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”

Obama is almost incapable of being dogmatic. He is more concerned about the steady constant of power and how he can aid others through its use.

This intent is apparent even in his own self-analysis, in which he states, “I was a reformer, conservative in temperament if not in vision. Whether I was demonstrating wisdom or weakness would be for others to judge.”

He also applies this steady moderation to his stance on racism. Obama frames his words carefully, anticipating both supporters and critics. Racist incidents—such as the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. outside his own house or congressman Joe Wil-

son’s outburst “You lie!”—are juxtaposed with the notion of “complexity” that serves as an evasive device to keep the conversation comfortable. Of course, Obama has a complex understanding of race, but it is his political pragmatism, similar to that of a middle child, that causes him to cut corners on racial issues. Perhaps this is indicative of his unique parentage or his determination, above all else, to satisfy the masses. In Obama’s 2004 campaign run, for example, his then press secretary states, “Trust me, whatever else they know about you, people have noticed that you don’t look like the first 42 presidents.” In other words, the crowd doesn’t need to be reminded that Obama is Black; focusing on race would further alienate a white majority.

With all of Obama’s eloquence and penmanship, however, he is not the final biographer. The torch will be passed on in January; Joe Biden, who Obama repeatedly describes as a brother in “A Promised Land,” will take office amid the pandemic and in a recession arguably worse than the one Obama inherited. The second volume will cover Obama’s second term, and the release date is yet to be announced.

From the epigraph at the start of the memoir, we are told from an African American spiritual; “O, fly and never tire, / Fly and never tire, / Fly and never tire, / There’s a great camp-meeting in the Promised Land.” Yet for all of Obama’s starry-eyed euphemisms, we are left with questions unanswered and a world on high. As Yeats might write, we are “turning and turning in the widening gyre” on a threshold of a type of apocalyptic revelation as our history reaches the end of an outer gyre and begins moving into itself.

Tobi Lou and The Creative Mind in Mexico cut his dreams short.

“I thought, ‘Damn, this is really my last game.’ But in that moment, I knew that I would do music next,” he said in an interview with V Magazine. A year after his injury, Lou moved to Los Angeles and began working with director Glassface, whom he met on a Kanye West forum under his original musical name, Wonda. He gained initial buzz with early singles like “New Bish” (2016) and “Game Ova” (2017).

One of Lou’s main appeals is his unique marriage between wild, provocative imagery and versatile music. His early works were heavily inspired by the big names of hip-hop: The Notorious B.I.G., Pharrell, Timbaland, and Kanye. He also cites “Hey Ya!” by OutKast as one of his favorite songs, and its powerful influence in his work is evident.

The song’s basis, “You don’t want to hear me, you just want to dance,” follows the same grit and aggression covered by a happy melody found in Lou’s tracks like “Darlin’” and “TROOP,” the latter featuring Smino.

One of Lou’s other major

inspirations is animation. “Not only did I grow up watching cartoons, but I [also] still watch that [EXPLETIVE],” he said in

Lou is constantly exploring his creative potential. His most recent EP “Lingo Starr” (2020) is actually a six-minute song bro-

With a playful style developed from both nostalgic ‘90s cartoons and K-pop aesthetics, Lou combines whimsical visuals with what he calls “happy [EXPLETIVE]” musical dualities in order to create and expand his Tobi Lou universe.

an interview with COMPLEX Magazine. He thanks Goodnight Meesh, his current album cover artist, for creating the Little Lou character that appears on most of Lou’s covers and in his fully animated music videos. Lou hopes to create a cartoon himself in the future, reminiscent of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988), blending cartoons and reality.

ken up into three parts. “I wish I could make all my songs 10 minutes long,” he admits. “[But] I know that not everyone wants to go on that journey.” The live music video is striking and extremely entertaining. In one shot, Lou runs through the streets of L.A. handing out Black baby dolls. In another, he dons clear butterfly wings that catch aflame and transform him into a dragon.

The visuals are fun and playful, while still incredibly well produced, complimenting the sweet but weighty melody.

“Lingo Starr” specifically touches on racism and the Black Lives Matter movement, topics that Lou has included throughout his discography. “I try to continue the conversation even when there’s nothing about it in the news. People are taking down systems of oppression, and we’re all becoming our own dragon now,” he said.

Throughout all of his work, Lou is tireless. His great energy and the limitless possibilities his imagination fosters allow Lou to develop and explore his own sense of self through music.

While he is still rising in popularity, he has never stopped using his platform to create wonderful and inviting worlds inhabited by childhood nostalgia and bright pop aesthetics. Like he says, “We’re all dealing with real [EXPLETIVE]. But even when dealing with real [EXPLETIVE], you’ve still gotta have a sense that anything can happen as if your life is a [EXPLETIVE] cartoon.”

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Page 21

Arts and Entertainment Band Beat: “Trouble’s Coming” From Royal Blood

Music

ings of an electric keyboard to propel the song into the chorus, which arrives on a complete wall of sound. As the drums and bass

ing the struggle to overcome feelings of self-doubt and insecurity with lyrics like “Spider web cracks on the mirror / I see someone

but not somebody.” There’s even a breakdown (if you didn’t already think this song was good enough to work up a sweat to) in between all of this incredibly danceable song’s slickly produced staccato of beats—a brief respite as you prepare for the thunder of its ending.

This band has gone from playing open mic nights to hallowed stages such as Glastonbury, South by Southwest, and Coachella, presenting what is sometimes a hard-to-listen-to genre for those who aren’t hardcore fans into something approachable without losing any of their head-thumping ability. As we see with the extra electronic elements and more focused production on this track, they present as a firmly established band looking in a new direction and willing to experiment for their third album.

They’re continuing the brave act of trying to save traditional rock music in a world where popularity has much more to do with image and presentation than technical skill, and packaging skilled instrumentation in a song that can’t be criticized for appealing only to a niche group of out-of-touch audiophiles.

We’ll have to see if they follow through and get a third number one album (at least in Britain), but if this is any indication, there’ll be at least 30 minutes of music that makes you want to move both your head and feet in time to their solid rhythms.

The Life and Works of Jan Morris style: a beautiful, flowing prose that evoked sensory pleasure and catapulted the reader into a majestic, dreamy world. Due to

came to her after 1972 when she successfully underwent gender reassignment surgery; the procedure was extremely rare at the

Morris’s books aren’t just your average travel brochure: they’re vivid, captivating, mesmerizing, and so eye-opening that you forget when and where you are and get transported to a whole new world. time, and few people knew how the process worked. She abandoned the name James Morris, announced herself as Jan Morris, and wrote a book about this transition called “Conundrum” (1974). Early reactions were mixed due to confusion and prejudice surrounding the idea of changing genders. Over the years, however, being transgender became m o r e widely r o tat

Sp ec

the success of “Venice,” Morris wrote “The Venetian Empire” (1980), a historic account of the ancient empire. Though the topic might seem boring to some, Morris managed to make it captivating by whooshing readers back to the past in great sensory detail. Her vivid account of landscapes, for instance, takes readers to a different world.

Her great success in these early books led her love of travel to blossom; she continued traveling on her own after she quit the Times of London and wrote prolifically about these adventures.

Morris even produced artwork detailing some of the places she traveled to: all continents but Antarctica. In her home, which she called Trefan Morys, some of these paintings are still present, as well as models of ships (her childhood obsession).

But out of all of the incredible journeys she undertook for her literature (my personal favorite account is when she described traveling to Italy, where she worked as an intelligence officer for World War II), perhaps Morris’s most perilous was her own transition.

A different kind of fame

he

The internationally-acclaimed historian and writer Jan Morris passed away on November 20, 2020 at the age of 94. Her career spanned nearly 80 years, during which she focused on a wide variety of topics, from travel to her experience as a transgender woman. She wrote over four dozen books—most on her journeys around the world—and was honored in the Royal Society of Literature, winning several awards including two Golden PEN awards and the Glyndwr Award.

Rather than acting as an objective narrator and listing facts about the places she traveled to in her books, Morris allowed the reader to create their own image of the places by focusing on the beauty of the landscapes and different cultures. She served as a role model for other aspiring writers and other transgender people as someone who was not afraid to come out to the world during more conservative times. Though I do not identify as transgender, her confidence inspires me to become more open and reflective with myself.

She was born as James Morris in England, where she grew up and later started working for the Times of London. During her time as a journalist, Morris was offered an opportunity to accompany Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first people in history to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on their 1953 journey up the mountain and thus became the first reporter to break the news of the incredible feat to the world. She later published “Coronation Everest” (1958) on this experience, bringing her fame and recognition and two years later, wrote “Venice,” which established her distinct

denly grab hold of your body and keep it in a vise-like grip with every steady attack. Alternatively clipped and sweeping vocals from

/T

By AGATHA EDWARDS

pound on relentlessly, the singer’s multi-tracked falsetto comes in to fill all the registers above it, voic-

iK ha n

History

frontman Mike Kerr that seem more hip-hop than hard rock work hand in hand with the pluck-

Sem o

There are countless songs in the world and only slightly fewer artists, and pretty much all of them are easily accessible not too far into the guts of the digital universe. How do you decide which ones to listen to? Fear not! This column will strive to help you find your next favorite artist, presenting a selection of bands and singers not quite so well known but currently active and worth some of your hard-rationed time.

For the first edition, it seems fitting to roar right in on the (hardly) dulcet tones of Royal Blood, notable for winning the title of Best Nonmetal Band at the Global Metal Apocalypse. If that doesn’t give you any indication of their eccentricity and hardcore-ness, try a quick flick through their most popular songs like “Ten Tonne Skeleton” (2014) and “Little Monster” (2014)— they’re not the lightest thing you can listen to. But if you’re expecting an all-out assault on the ears, don’t worry—they’re more than just blazing guitars and thundering drums With their new single, they’ve ascended to become a metal band you might actually dance to. This newest track is called “Trouble’s Coming” (2020), heralding the imminent arrival of their third studio album after their previous two records topped the UK’s Albums chart. They waste no time at all, coming straight out the

gate with a pounding rhythm of bass guitar and an almost houselike drumbeat that seems to sud-

Cecilia Chen / The Spectator

By MATTHEW WAGMAN

accepted, largely thanks to “Condundrum,” and Morris received her two golden PEN awards in 1999 and 2005 for her book. Her belief that every human soul had a gender and that it didn’t necessarily have to be the same gender that you were born as spoke to a lot of people. The first sentence of “Conundrum” is “I was three or perhaps four years old when I realized I had been born into the wrong body, and I should really be a girl.” By freely being herself, Morris inspired others to do the same. Morris has become a confident role model to many and emphasized that being transgender is something to embrace and celebrate.

Up until her death, Morris was witty, motivated, and sharp.

She lived in North Wales, Ireland and cared for the love of her life, Elizabeth Morris, who suffers from dementia. In the past few years, people who have met her described her as “funny,” “outrageous,” “skillful,” and “spirited.” She took walks, ate out, interacted with fans and citizens, and entertained her community of Criccieth with stories and memories of her long life. She lived through World War II, the Suez Cri-

sis, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Vietnam War, and other iconic historic moments, all of which she documented in poignant detail.

Personally, I love reading about different places and cultures because the only country I have been to outside of the United States is Canada. My history classes and my own research have introduced me to information on the endless locations I would love to visit. It would be a dream come true to visit the scenic landscapes of Sydney, Australia; experience the rich culture of Spain; and explore the city of Hong Kong; all places that Morris visited and wrote about. Reading a few sentences out of Morris’s books almost makes me feel like I’m already there. Morris’s books aren’t just your average travel brochure: they’re vivid, captivating, mesmerizing, and so eye-opening that you forget when and where you are and get transported to a whole new world. It’s almost as if I don’t even need to travel to these places because Morris paints a picture through her words too well—yet my desire to travel grows as I read on. Words that flow brilliantly don’t need pictures to accompany them, and Morris creates elegant imagery for the reader to effectively imagine the scenery. Her books are also meant to serve as a kind of “choose your own adventure”— readers can immerse themselves and imagine the landscapes in all sorts of different ways based on the descriptions of the place.

I read some excerpts from her books “Over Europe” (1992), “Manhattan ‘45” (1987), and “Venice” and became immediately enchanted and hooked. I can’t explain it in my own words—you have to read hers!

Page 22

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Arts and Entertainment “One Day at a Time”: Representation or Ratings?

Television “One Day at a Time” (ODAAT) has been canceled

by Pop TV. This cancellation is not the first that the show has faced—Netflix dropped the show in 2019 due to low viewership. For many, including myself, ODAAT being canceled twice is not reflective of the show’s quality. In fact, just hours after the cancellation was announced, numerous petitions advocating for its continuation began circulating online, garnering hundreds of thousands of signatures in a matter of days. When the show was revived by ViacomCBS owned Pop TV, fans of the show—myself included—rejoiced. Sadly, the show has been dropped once again and is currently seeking a new network. In fact, after the cancellation was announced, coshowrunner Mike Royce tweeted, “What if #ODAAT was the first show ever on three networks?”

This may seem like a tough feat, but it certainly wouldn’t the first time ODAAT accomplished the impossible.

“One Day at a Time” is a family sitcom that follows the Alvarezes, a Cuban-American family living in Echo Park, Los Angeles. The family consists of Penelope (Justina Machado), a single mother and veteran; Lydia (the legendary Rita Moreno), the larger-than-life, albeit traditional grandmother; Elena (Isabella Gomez), the budding teen activist; and Alex (Marcel Ruiz), the charming little brother. In addition to the Alvarezes, the main cast features Schneider (Todd Grinnell), their wealthy, slightly clueless landlord and Dr. Berkowitz (Stephen Tobolowsky), Penelope’s hilariously awkward boss and Lydia’s “exclusive nonsexual platonic companion.” ODAAT includes the typical sitcom tropes but goes so much deeper than any other show.

“One Day at a Time” is such a stand out amongst family sitcoms because it tackles conten-

but they manage to share their thoughts respectfully and productively. This format is evident in many of the episodes and ap-

plied to a multitude of topics including the LGBTQ+ community, xenophobia, racism, colorism, sexism, substance abuse, mental health, and veterans’ issues, just to name a few. In fact, ODAAT’s most recent episode, aptly named “The Politics Episode,” is dedicated to educat-

Whether it’s through the subtle references to Latinx culture; short, light-hearted exchanges; or long, emotional scenes, the show captures the story of a Cuban family and explores the multiplicity of the Latinx experience. tious issues in a natural way and with the nuance they deserve.

The show’s main cast is composed of characters of different ages, backgrounds, and experiences, thus creating a breeding ground for misunderstandings and disagreements. In classic sitcom fashion, the family resolves these arguments by the end of the episode, giving us a neatly packaged lesson in just thirty minutes. For most sitcoms, the lesson is a cliche message about family, love, life, or all of the above. For ODAAT, these lessons are a blend of wholesome entertainment and topical content. Early in the first season, for example, the family has an in-depth discussion about illegal immigration. Everyone involved has a distinct take on the issue,

ly underrepresented in the media as front-and-center. ODAAT is mostly successful in portraying a well-rounded view of Cuban-

identifies as non-binary, a gender identity we almost never see in television. Though Syd is not a main character, the way they

etc. They, however, wind up shooting themselves in the foot almost every time for one simple reason: they value quantity over

American culture and, for the most part, avoiding stereotypes.

Whether it’s through the subtle references to Latinx culture; short, light-hearted exchanges; or long, emotional scenes, the show captures the story of a Cuban family and explores the multiplicity of the Latinx experience.

Though equal representation has and always will be necessary, Latinx representation has become especially important in the last few years. After President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017, the U.S. entered an era of extreme polarization. Trump’s ascent to the highest office in America has had a profound impact on minorities, specifically Hispanic and Latinx communities. Trump’s blatant racism against and villainization of the Latinx community has led to the normalization of racism and xenophobia, which were already all too prominent in our country.

Several episodes are inspired by the tense political climate, which keeps the show topical and encourages viewers to confront that tension. A major theme of season two is Lydia’s path to citizenship, further complicated by immigration laws and the national dialogue about civic duty following the 2016 election.

Along with shedding light on the Latinx community, ODAAT offers representation for many other groups. In Penelope’s support group, we see several female veterans—primarily women of color—with various sexual orientations, backgrounds, and personalities. In addition, Elena’s partner, Syd (Sheridan Pierce),

are incorporated into ODAAT is proof that a little detail goes a long way. The use of they/them pronouns in casual conversation normalizes the use of genderneutral pronouns and makes it easier for viewers to do the same.

The intricacies of the characters and their distinct perspectives allow the audience to see diverse representation from many communities on ODAAT. For these reasons, among many others, the cancellation of ODAAT was met with extreme backlash. The disappointment viewers expressed is indicative of a much larger issue with streaming services like Netflix: how they cancel shows. These companies are unabashedly data-driven; if a season doesn’t get enough views, it is quickly given the ax. Netflix has even reduced the episode count for all new first seasons from 13 to 10 or less. Though it claims to value underrepresented voices, Netflix’s actions say otherwise.

In a Twitter thread announcing the cancellation of the show in 2019, Netflix addressed those who “felt seen or represented…

by ODAAT” telling them not to “take this as an indication their story is not important.” The responses are varied, ranging from hilarious GIFs of Lydia to essays about the problems at Netflix, but they all echo the same sentiment: disappointment.

For a while now, Netflix has tried to recreate the success of its smash hits like “Stranger Things” (2016-present), “Orange Is the New Black” (2013-2019), “House of Cards” (2013-2018),

quality. Because its main metric of success is views and clicks, Netflix often cancels promising new shows or older shows with a stagnant fanbase. After canceling many shows with LGBTQ+ and minority representation, Netflix rightfully received a lot of criticism.

ODAAT’s cancellation by Pop TV for a second time is further proof that most media companies do not value representation. Media should reflect multiple cultures, creeds, and perspectives in order to tell stories that make everyone feel seen.

Focusing solely on viewership is a flawed approach, one that’s likely doing streaming services more harm than good. After recent cancellations, such as that of “GLOW” (2017-2019), “AJ and the Queen” (2020-2020), and “Patriot Act” (2018-2020), coupled with the release of the highly controversial film “Cuties” (2020), Netflix’s unsubscription rate has nearly doubled. Though movies that represent minorities like “Crazy Rich Asians” (2018), “Moonlight” (2016), and “Black Panther” (2018) make millions upon millions of dollars—with “Black Panther” breaking into the billions—companies, like Netflix, have not yet realized the importance and practicality of representation. Right now, companies are being tested by their audiences, and Netflix seems to be falling behind. The media industry is in dire need of meaningful change. Without it, the industry will never evolve, and millions of voices will be left unheard.

Iris Lin / The Spectator

By KENISHA MAHAJAN

ing the audience about modern politics and how to approach conversations about polarizing topics. The show strikes a happy medium between education and entertainment, which keeps it from coming across as preachy. In addition, ODAAT delves into the intersectionality of these topics. On top of the big conversations the family has, the show also explores the relationship between race and wealth inequality, the struggles of being gay as a Latina, the stigma of mental health in communities of color, the impact of race on civic engagement, and so much more.

ODAAT examines not just one family, but the world that they live in.

“One Day at a Time” puts groups that have been historical-

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Page 23

Humor These articles are works of fiction. All quotes are libel and slander.

Do Colleges Accept Gummy Bears Instead of SAT Scores?

So my SAT got canceled a bunch of times. Oh, what good fun! At this point, I’m doubting the sheer existence of the SAT. Actually, I take that back. My real question: Does the College Board even exist? I mean, with all these cancellations, does their organization even have grounds for me to take my test on? Well, that’s a crisis I’ll save for later. Back to my SAT. I have the best story to tell y’all, and you’re going to want to sit down for this and keep your socks firmly glued to your feet, for they are in extreme danger of being blown off.

Imagine you’re just vibing at the end of sophomore year, but you know all the stress is about to pile up. It’s currently August, and you have finally signed up for your SAT. Eventually, the day when you become a big girl comes. You’re going to do the rite of passage that will show you’re an upperclassman. October 3? That seems like a good enough chunk of time to make sure you don’t totally bomb that test. Better get cram-

ming! So you cram, and cram, and cram. Oops. It’s a week before the test, and you get a fun e-mail from the College Board stating, “If you are receiving this e-mail, it means we don’t care about you.

We don’t care about your wellbeing, and we honestly couldn’t care less about the fact that the system we created to exploit you is unavailable to let you do the one thing we made you think you want to do. (You can’t take your SAT when you want; henceforth, you must wait until we’ve had our coffee. We might get back to you in a few months. We don’t know yet.)”

That got me thinking. Should I even take my SAT? Wait, I gave them a whole lot of my parents’ hard-earned dollars just to take it.

Be right back, I gotta cry about that for a second…

You manage to score a spot for the November 7 test date, which gives you another fair chunk of time to cram some more! Nice.

Fast forward to three days prior to the SAT. You still firmly believe that you’re wildly unprepared.

However, that doesn’t matter. The College Board has canceled on

you once again. Is this a yes? No! Was it postponed? No! You scurry to find another seat somewhere, in December obviously. I mean, what are you going to do? Wait

gan closed. Missouri closed. Is every state starting with the letter M closed? Not sure. Woah, Kentucky! Open! Score!

It’s a little far, but at least you

for March? You check the spots.

Staten Island closed. Upstate New York closed. Connecticut closed.

Pennsylvania closed. Massachusetts closed. Maine closed. Michi-

can calm down now that you’ve gotten a spot. But no, you were mistaken, for all the dates you once thought were available have magically been canceled as well. You

Vivian Teo / The Spectator

By KRISTA PROTEASA

Loser’s Thanksgiving

By GABRIEL HUANG Imagine the perfect Thanksgiving dinner. The cooking goes without a hitch (because your parents had good enough sense to buy a cooked turkey instead of trying to actually bake one). Your side dishes include mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and stuffing; life is good. An entire happy extended family comes over to visit—the house is warm, with the smell of fatty goodness wafting around. Maybe you even see the hot cousin or the visiting stepsister or brother. You feel filled to the brim with a heartwarming emotion—thankfulness. Blessed be whatever deity you surrender yourself to for this food, this occasion, your life. And at the dinner table, there are no arguments or chit-chat about politics. Just beautiful stories that leave everyone feeling satisfied, in stomach and soul.

Now, based on my picturesque description of the occasion, it would seem like I am subject to these delightful events. Well actually, no. There has not been a single Thanksgiving where the smoke alarm didn’t start screaming and all of us nearly suffocated on turkey gas. Frick, I’ve never

even seen stuffing in a turkey. It sounds gross. I mean, first, you’re shoveling a bunch of food into its butt. There has to be some animal rights movement against that.

Second, what the hell even goes in there? And how do you even get to it? Last time I checked, you eat turkeys from the outside in.

There’s no way that by the time

joy it.

Let me tell you how my Thanksgivings go. My two completely Chinese grandparents come over, only talking to demand me to “eat more” while heaping spoonfuls of whatever we’re eating onto my plate. Every time, I’m a little “too skinny” or a little “too fat.” Sometimes they

ery time people come over and I try to watch some honest anime, there’s some girl with questionable proportions flailing about and accidentally tripping chest first onto an edgy young male protagonist. And of course, that’s when my grandparents walk in behind me. Fantastic. Like I need to explain why there’s some ani-

Sometimes they ask if I have a girlfriend yet. Do I still play the piano? Do I have a job yet? How’s the food? No (unfortunately), yes, no, and, well, I avoid the last question.

you get to the middle of a bird’s carcass anyone still has the stomach for anything else. What even are mashed potatoes? And cranberry sauce! The last time I ever saw that was when I got Swedish meatballs at IKEA! To all of you out there who thought the first paragraph was relatable in any way, shape, or form, that’s what privilege feels like. I hope you en-

ask if I have a girlfriend yet. Do I still play the piano? Do I have a job yet? How’s the food? No (unfortunately), yes, no, and, well, I avoid the last question. I can’t cap, and they won’t like what I have to say. It feels more like an interrogation than a wholesome family gathering. Sometimes I try to watch TV to alleviate the tension.

But for some strange reason, ev-

mated p*rn on my Apple TV. The “It’s just a misunderstanding; this only happens once in the entire 10 seasons” argument won’t work on them, so I guess my reputation in the family will just be tarnished again.

Anyway, remember that previous question I tried to avoid?

I could answer that question for days on end, but my family would

go to reschedule, which is nothing new at this point. December’s a no-go, and so are March, August, and September 2021. You sigh in exasperation. What about your college applications? We don’t want to talk about those. Well, at least you’ve come to some realizations in this frantic search for spots. You don’t need anything.

You shall receive nothing. Your SAT cannot be taken this year or next year. This is your fate. At this point, screw it. March 2022, when you are a second-term senior, will be your new testing day. Now, you can do whatever you want with all that time. See it as a blessing or a curse, this is your destiny.

Wait, you got a new notification just now from the College Board! Let’s have a little Blue’s Clues moment and open this email together!

“We don’t regret anything we have to inform you about, but the College Board is shutting down, and no more SATs will be administered, ever. You’ll have to invent a new thing to wow any and all colleges with. Sorry lol.”

I—

disown me if I told them my answer. So, I will write it in my school newspaper and hope they never see it. So, how’s the food, Gabriel? To be honest, I’ve never seen golden brown, crispy skin on a turkey. It’s always some halfcooked slimy skin I have to slurp up before I bite into the meat (which, by the way, has the texture of sandpaper). How does it taste?

See for yourselves, you old hags— how do you feel after eating it?

Sad. I feel immensely sad. And disgusted. I feel bad for the turkey that had to be eaten this way.

It could have been deliciously roasted, but it was subject to being cooked by my family and digested by me. To the turkey spirit up there chilling in heaven and watching its body being desecrated this way, I’m so sorry. You deserve to be free-range, out in the fields, pecking seeds with your fellow poultry, and smashing hot chicks.

Next year, I’m going to padlock our oven to end these turkey shenanigans once and for all.

Maybe the fridge too. Whatever happens, I will stop them from cooking ANYTHING over my cold dead hands. Hopefully, they’ll eventually give up and just choose to buy a damn rotisserie chicken instead.

Newly Announced Curriculum for (Virtual) P.E.

By DAVID NACHMAN As the second marking period of virtual school at Stuyvesant comes to a close, we can look back and see how teachers and students have struggled during this period of virtual learning. Many teachers, whose previous highest level of experience with technology was struggling to scan in textbooks at the beginning of the year, were thrown into a new hostile environment of trying to figure out the seemingly endless ways to mess up using Zoom or Google Meets.

This rapid change resulted in many teachers accidentally muting themselves for 20 minutes while students hesitated to tell them, or being unable to figure out screen sharing, or even banning themselves from their own Zoom call.

But no class has suffered more during this period of change than physical education.

To see most of the class halfheartedly swinging their arms back and forth as a form of “exercise” as an unenthusiastic teacher halfway to blowing his brains out supervises is quite a sight. Not to mention, of course, there are the handful of students whose cameras are pointed so high it’s obvious they don’t want to be seen or so low they only want certain parts of their body to be shown. There are also students whose cameras “aren't working.” Clearly, there are many improvements to be made to virtual physical education that Stuyvesant P.E. teachers tried to tackle in their newest curriculum announcements for the third marking period:

• Square dancing: Students will participate in various traditional dances by either participating with family members to encourage some good, wholesome family bonding or through assigned partners in Zoom, in which they will practice their own parts of the dance and pin one another’s screen.

• Rollerblading: Students will be required to purchase rollerblades and skate in various shapes around areas in their homes. If students cannot afford the materials, they will simply pour water on their floors and slip and slide around or use socks on wooden floors.

• Softball: Students will practice hand-eye coordination by swinging objects in their homes in order to try and hit the ball be-

ing thrown by their teacher. Extra credit will be given for breaking computers. Students will also hold their hands in front of their webcam to practice catching.

• Weightlifting: Students will use overdue textbooks as weights to perform weightlifting movements like bicep curls, tricep extensions, and the overhead press.

• Basketball: Students will practice shooting by taking different designated objects and trying to make them land a certain distance in front of them. Shooting form will be monitored via spyware in order to determine participation grades.

Another addition to the curriculum hopes to solve the issue of students having their cameras off by encouraging alternate

means of participation. During physical education, students will now have the option to log into Talos on their laptop or phone and have the movement of their devices tracked and entered as participation. Students will be expected to pick up their devices in their hands and move them as they do physical activities. Another option is that students with no cameras will be required to turn on their microphone at all times so teachers can record every class and make sure students with no cameras are making the appropriate grunts indicative of exercise.

In summation, the curriculum thus far seems promising. Looking ahead, Stuyvesant hopes to see increased enthusiasm and participation in virtual physical education.

Page 24

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Humor An NYC Post-Covid Prediction

By LOGAN RUZZIER Imagine that, by some miracle, New York City is freed from the shackles of the pandemic the moment the Times Square Ball drops, ushering in 2021.

Across all five boroughs, elderly people leap from their hospital beds like Grandpa Joe to visit the magnificent chocolate factory.

Thousands of middle-aged adults instantly overcome what they had previously thought was a cold. No teenager or young child notices any difference, but their lungs take a sigh of relief nonetheless.

Doctors everywhere are baffled yet jump at the chance to send all their patients off with hefty bills for their fantastic treatment. Governor Cuomo, noticing that the rest of the world is not blessed with this arcane occurrence, immediately closes off every route of entry into the city. The city, though a safe haven from the virus, is now isolated by land, air, and sea. The Catholic Church hurries to transcribe January 1, 2021, as “Gooder Friday” in their calendars and missalettes.

Once word of this anomaly spreads all across the city, from Wakefield in the Bronx to Tottenville in Staten Island, the city starts to awaken from its slumber.

Like an overweight, balding man, New York City pulls back the covers and sits up in bed with a groan. Though city-dwellers were aching to leave their houses for many months, they are hesitant to return to their now ancient ways.

The fascists in the board of education, however, waste no time and make school attendance on Monday compulsory. It is surprising to nobody that kids must learn rational functions in the midst of the most baffling event in human history.

The social impact of Gooder America’s meanest city to its most Friday becomes immediately ap- awkward one. parent. Though the earliest cityAfter the initial confusion wide test scores following the subsides and the fog settles, event are the lowest on record, though, the streets of New York students report a massive im- City erupt with the biggest celprovement in their mood on back- ebration seen since the repeal of to-school surveys. Junior Dave the supersize drink ban of 2012.

“Littleshoes” Wu even speaks to By the end of January 2021, the the New York Post about this oc- stock market completely recovers currence. from the dive it took during the “Our social ladder has pandemic. Thousands of New completely collapsed. My York City restaurants timidly friends don’t like each other anymore since it’s been so long since we’ve hung out. I was on the lacrosse team, but none of us are fit enough to actually play. Okay, we were already not fit enough to play but still,” Littleshoes says. “Our Stuy volleyball team is too fat to serve the ball. Even though the virus is gone, everyone is too terrified to go near the swimming pool. I used to joke around in the back of my history class, but now we’re quieter Angel Liu / The Spectator open their doors, hopthan a morgue.”

After the reporter ing to score some busithanks him for his dialogue, she ness, and all are quickly packed to wishes him a good day at school, the brim with eager customers. A to which he replies, “You too.” crappy animated movie hits the This tale of social ineptitude theaters and rapidly rivals the box happens to be repeating itself office success of major blockthroughout the city, with many busters due to its exceptionally adults and teens’ conversational good timing. Every sporting event skills having been thrown off- down to the Little Leagues is met kilter. New Yorkers are searching with bleachers full of middle-aged to satiate their nine months of men donning face paint and foam social hunger yet find no commu- pointers. Strangely, Williamsburg nication skills to aid them. At this residents report no change in rate, New York may switch from their day-to-day life.

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As New Yorkers recover from their social idiocy, they gain a sense of unity and brotherhood unseen since the city’s founding.

The urban toxicity, however, is not to be dispelled, and it morphs what was a philosophical state of harmony into extreme New York City chauvinism. Examples of this nationalism include the banning of rival city cuisine, such as Philly cheesesteaks and Chicago deep-dish pizzas. French fries get renamed Empire State Fries.

Complaints begin to circulate that the United States government “wasn’t doing enough for New Yorkers.”

For the rest of America, however, coronavirus cases are still on the rise. Many residents of neighboring states falsely believed that they were all clear when the celebration bells were sounded at such an eardrum-bursting volume, and their preemptive celebration sends COVID-19 numbers skyrocketing.

A gory scene unfolds on the bridges and tunnels of New York City as hundreds of New Jerseyites, Connecticutters, and even people from upstate are mowed down as they seek asylum from their quarantine.

As the months pass, New York City becomes, in many ways, an independent state. The isolationist attitude of the city ushers in a new era of mechanized trade as swarms of drones deliver supplies from neighboring areas, avoiding human contact.

Cargo ships arriving in New York ports carry goods only for members of the city. Without outside influence, New York dialect noticeably drifts away from the English language, quickly becoming incomprehensible to anybody

outside city limits. Several corporations with offices in NYC, including Google and Chase, forgo their business with the rest of the world and begin to offer their services exclusively to New Yorkers.

Large protests calling for the total secession of New York City from the rest of the U.S. ensue.

By 2030, New York City (known commonly in Yorkese as “┼├╩╟╗└”) becomes something else altogether. Having long ago ceased all contact with any outside peoples, the city is entirely excluded from the rest of humanity. Mile-high steel walls surround the five boroughs, failing to obscure the futuristic obelisks that now dominate the skyline, which are now being called “spacescrapers.” Starting in 2033, New Yorkers begin to colonize the moon, and by 2038, stations on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are spotted by outside observers.

New Jerseyites start complaining about the deafening roar generated by the constant stream of spaceships and satellites being spouted out of the city. Last-ditch attempts of mankind to contact the New Yorkers are met with total silence, other than one phrase that is decoded to mean “BUG OFF.” By 2050, a peculiar phenomenon is witnessed by humans still living on Earth. On October 5 (later designated “New York Day”), the surface of the Sun appears to take the appearance of the now aged New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. He is said to have smiled briefly and waved at the Earth before taking a bite out of a hot dog and fading away to eternity.

In other news, the infection rate of the coronavirus briefly dips below 50 percent for the rest of the United States.

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Page 25

Sports Sports Editorial

USA Swimming Splashes in With 2020 U.S. Open

By LEAH D’SILVA When the pandemic hit in March, we experienced a complete shift in our day-to-day life: disrupted routines, constant mask-wearing, online learning, and more. Of course, sports were not immune to these changes, and many seasons across the board were either postponed or canceled entirely. In recent months, however, we’ve witnessed the momentous returns of several major sports against all odds, including the NBA, MLB, and NFL. Now, at long last, it’s swimming’s turn.

After the numerous postponements of practices, meets, and even the 2020 Olympics, American swimming has officially returned with a bang as some of the nation’s top athletes competed in this year’s Toyota U.S. Open. As the first major domestic meet of USA Swimming’s newly released schedule for 2020, the U.S. Open offers us not only an idea of what high-profile meets will look like in the COVID-19 era but also a glimpse at some of our 2021 Olympic hopefuls.

The U.S. Open this year was unlike any before because of the new COVID-19 restrictions put in place—for the first time ever, the meet was not held at a singular location. Instead, USA Swimming opted for a “satellite meet.” Competitors were split amongst the Open’s nine locations across the country, and all their times were compiled to make the official results report. In each location, four sessions were held over three days, and the usual preliminaries and finals format was replaced in favor of timed finals for all events. The new guidelines expanded further with the implementation of temperature checks, social distancing, and higher chlorine levels. USA Swimming also created desig-

nated schedules for warm-up and cool-down periods and removed the ready room, which is where swimmers typically stay prior to their events. Instead, swimmers came on deck and reported directly to their lanes, with masks worn up until they stepped on the blocks and carrying only gear that could fit into a small drawstring bag.

One of the most disappointing changes that occurred as a result of the new COVID-19 guidelines was the lack of a championship atmosphere that normally goes hand-in-hand with such a high-profile meet. With either limited or no spectators in all the locations, the deafening cheers that one would expect at almost any swimming com-

mers found themselves without any competitors in their region.

The lower energy and competitiveness, paired with the past few months of reduced training, led to many swimmers gaining time in their events.

The U.S. Open has always been an especially important meet, and even more so this year. This was the majority of swimmers’ first time racing since the start of the lockdown nine months ago. This meet gave them the opportunity to see their current performance and gear up for Olympic Trials. In addition, with Trials pushed back to 2021, the U.S. Open marks the beginning of the extra eight-month window during which emerging swimmers c a n get their trial cuts and

petition were gone, leaving the pool eerily quiet. Many swimmers thought that, in a way, it felt more like timed races at practice, simply because the energy of these huge competitions had disappeared.

Also gone? The competitiveness of the meet. The U.S. Open is not an easy meet to qualify for: only the best swimmers are allowed to compete. This year, however, with athletes in different meet locations, several of the top swim-

potentially become Olympians.

Of course, for this year, trial cuts are significantly faster than before, given that swimmers have had more time to train. Still, numerous athletes qualified in every event of the U.S. Open.

Several young swimmers made a splash over the three days of competition. Claire Curzan has proven herself to be a force to be reckoned with. Only a 16-yearold high school junior, Curzan

Chloe Huang / The Spectator

smashed both the National Age Group and U.S. Open meet records, recording a 56.61 second 100-meter butterfly. She is now officially the third-fastest American of all time in the event, placing her as one of the favorites for the 2021 Olympic team. Curzan competed in three other events as well, placing in the top five for all of them. Other notable young swimmers include Emma Weyant, 18, winner of the 400-meter freestyle, Gretchen Walsh, 17, winner of the 50-meter freestyle, and Arabella Sims, 15, winner of the 800-meter freestyle.

Various big names also appeared at the meet. Ryan Lochte, 36, who is looking to compete as the oldest American male swimmer in his fifth Olympic Games next year, swam five events. His best was his 200-meter individual medley (IM), which he won in his location, though he took third overall with Chase Kalisz, 26, winning by over a second. However, Lochte’s performance and rankings in all his other events were not nearly as remarkable, as he continuously gained time across the board.

Famous competitors Kathleen Baker, 23, and Regan Smith, 18, battled it out in the 100-meter backstroke in their respective pools.

With several records to their names, their races were highly anticipated, and they did not disappoint. Baker came in strong with a 59.82, out-touching Smith by a mere 13 hundredths of a second and securing first place in the event. Smith and Baker faced off again in the 200-meter backstroke, with Baker prevailing once more by 36 hundredths of

a second. Outside of backstroke, Smith performed well in her three other events; she even placed first in the 200-meter butterfly by a full two seconds.

Cody Miller, a two-time medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, also competed at the meet, swimming the 100 and 200-meter breaststroke. In both, he came second to rival Andrew Wilson, who won the overall event by 0.07 seconds in the 100-meter breast and .39 seconds in the 200-meter breast. Wilson ended up setting the new record for the U.S. Open 100-meter breast, beating Miller’s record from last year, and his 200-meter breast time placed him in the top 10 swimmers in the world for that event. Madisyn Cox, a former member of the U.S. National team, also had a fantastic meet, performing well in all three of her events. She placed first in both the 200-meter breast and 200-meter IM and second in the 200-meter freestyle. With overall stellar performances, all of these athletes have effectively placed themselves in the pool of most likely members of the 2021 Olympic team.

The U.S. Open provides a positive outlook for future domestic meets in the COVID-19 era, such as the first meet of the TYR Pro Swim Series, to be held in Knoxville, Tennessee, this January, where even more past and future Olympians will compete under similar guidelines. By holding this top-level championship meet with effectively-incorporated COVID-19 restrictions, USA Swimming has proven that it can come back successfully and safely in America. The return of swimming allows the nation’s top athletes to get back to training and competing as they prepare for Olympic Trials and hopefully secure their spot in Tokyo.

Sports Highlight

Diogo Jota: Portugal’s New Soccer Star

By SHAFIUL HAQUE Portugal has always been a home for soccer. The sport is undoubtedly the most popular in the country, with a history dating back to the 19th century. Many soccer superstars have emerged from Portugal—legends such as Luis Figo and Eusebio and players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani have dominated and changed the global soccer scene. However, there is another Portuguese soccer player currently taking the soccer world by storm: Diogo Jota. After making a $50 million move to current Premier League title-holder Liverpool, Jota already has nine goals to his name in 14 appearances. Many pundits have praised his attacking play and believe he is the missing piece of the puzzle that Liverpool needs. How has Jota established such acclaim and completely transformed his game in just a few years?

Jota was born on December 4, 1996 in Massarelos, Portugal.

He began his youth soccer career at the age of nine, playing for Gondomar SC. Jota later moved to F.C. Paços de Ferreira’s youth setup in 2013. He eventually played for the first team, making his senior debut at the age of 17. Jota predominantly played as a second striker or a center forward, dropping behind to assist in attacking plays. He scored four

goals and assisted four times at only the age of 18. In the 201516 season, Jota broke through the starting 11, playing almost every game for Paços. He established himself as the team’s left winger and ended the season with 14 goals and 10 assists in 35 appearances. Many clubs were intrigued by his incredible performances, and it was soon rumored that Jota would move to Atlético Madrid and Arsenal. This early success was crucial to Jota’s career as he gained well-deserved recognition and had the chance to play in more notable competitions.

In the summer of 2016, Jota transferred to Atlético for $8 million and was then taken on a loan

by Portuguese club FC Porto for the 2016-17 season. Unlike his performance at Paços, he was not a prominent figure on the field, only joining matches as a substitute and often sitting on the bench. Since Jota didn’t play frequently, he suffered a drop in form. Once Jota’s loan ended, Atlético sent him out again to the Wolverhampton Wanderers on a season-long loan. During his loan spell, Jota regained his confidence and put effort into every game. Subsequently, manager Nuno Espírito Santo took a liking to the Portuguese and played him frequently. Jota enjoyed a thrilling 2017-18 season, helping Wolves win the EFL Champion-

ship, resulting in its promotion to the Premier League. He skillfully played at his left-wing position, ending the season with 18 goals and six assists. His failure to break into the Atlético squad was key in his development as a player: the loan deals helped Jota find the right club for him, and he continued working hard to improve his game.

Wolves agreed on a permanent $14 million deal with Atlético for Jota, who was now eager to establish himself in English soccer. Jota dealt with a rough first few months during the 2018-19 season, but quickly picked up his form. He created a formidable partnership with center forward Raúl Jiménez, who came to Wolves on a loan deal from S.L. Benfica. Wolves stunned many Premier League fans when they ended the season in seventh place, qualifying for European soccer for the first time in 40 years. Jota was a crucial player for the English team, scoring 10 goals and seven assists in 37 matches. His chemistry with Jiménez also proved to be crucial: the pair scored the majority of the goals throughout the season.

Jota became a better player with his experiences in different clubs and was playing his best soccer for Wolves.

In his final season at Wolves, Jota alternated as a center forward

or winger, with manager Nuno Espírito Santo switching between a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 formation. Jota formed a strong connection with Adama Traoré, a Spanish soccer player who improved Jota’s game significantly. Many Premier League defenders feared the Jota-Jiménez-Traoré trio for its quick pace, decision-making, and attacking ability. In Wolves’ long-awaited Europa League season, Jota scored back-to-back hat-tricks in their quarter-final run. At this point, many analysts considered him a skilled player with the potential to improve at a Champions League club. He became more familiar with playing on the wing to make inways to the final third and playing as a center forward to link attacking play.

Because Wolves failed to make a place in European soccer, many people believed that Jota would transfer to a different club. The public was correct: he signed a $50 million transfer to Premier League champion Liverpool F.C. Many speculated that he would play a minor role in the team, providing backup for attacking trio Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané, and Roberto Firmino.

However, with Salah and Mané out after testing positive for COVID-19, Reds’ manager Jürgen Klopp played Jota. Jota scored in his Premier League debut for Liv-

erpool in a 3-1 victory over Arsenal F.C. He then continued his scoring spree in the Champions League and the Premier League.

Many pundits praised his good form, asking themselves, “How did he manage to make the starting 11 with a full squad of worldclass players?”

Jota shocked the soccer world with his experience in multiple attacking positions and his ability with the ball. With Salah and Mané out during their quarantine period, Jota had to adapt to multiple positions, each of which he was fortunately familiar with, to the benefit of the team. Additionally, Jota can progress the ball and transition from midfield to attack, a quality that he shares with Firmino. However, unlike Firmino, Jota has an eye for goals and is dangerous in the final third of the field. Jota can score with his left foot, right foot, and even with his head. These overlooked abilities are what have really allowed Jota to thrive at Liverpool.

And with this in mind, Klopp has begun to play a 4-2-3-1 with Jota playing as a center forward, Firmino as an attacking midfielder, and two holding midfielders dropping back to defend. There are many details to consider when analyzing Diogo Jota’s move to Liverpool, but it is almost certain that he will become a superstar in the next few years.

Page 26

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Sports Sports Editorial

The 2020 NBA Draft: Who Won, and Who Lost?

By JEREMY LEE This year’s NBA draft was like no other, as young NBA hopefuls watched commissioner Adam Silver announce picks through TV screens in their living rooms, surrounded by (hopefully not too many) family members and friends. Following a delayed NBA season that stretched into October in the Orlando bubble, the long-awaited NBA draft finally took place on November 18 and was held virtually from ESPN facilities in Connecticut. As with all drafts, some teams found themselves headed in the right direction, while others strayed a bit too far from the intended path.

Winner: Philadelphia 76ers Following 14 years as general manager of the Houston Rockets, NBA executive Daryl Morey signed on to be the President of Basketball Operations for the Philadelphia 76ers at the end of October. Since then, he has made multiple moves in order to overhaul the roster of a disappointing 76ers team that resulted in a first-round playoff exit this past season. Prior to the draft, Morey managed to unload Al Horford’s overpriced contract to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Danny Green and Terrence Ferguson. In order to get rid of 34-year-old Horford, who is

owed $81 million over the next three years despite averaging just 11.9 points and 6.8 rebounds per game, the 76ers were forced to pay the steep but necessary price of two first-round picks.

They acquired premium shooter Seth Curry in exchange for Josh Richardson and the 36th overall pick via a draft-day trade. Philadelphia also landed talented combo guard Tyrese Maxey with the 21st overall pick.

Through free agency as well as draft night, new executive Morey was able to transform the Philadelphia roster. A new supporting cast characterized by players such as Curry, Green, and Tobias Harris will help to better space the floor for the dynamic duo of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid as the 76ers hope to make a deep playoff run in the East this upcoming season.

Winner: Sacramento Kings Holding the longest active NBA playoff drought, the Sacramento Kings’ front office is looking to make significant changes after finishing at 31-41 last season. Much of the King’s success in this year’s draft actually came from the board and the way in which the selection of players played out.

Previously believed to easily be a lottery pick in this year’s draft, Sacramento was lucky to have Iowa State Cyclones point

guard Tyrese Haliburton fall to them at the 12th overall pick. A prolific passer and ball handler, Haliburton will be a welcome addition to a roster consisting of impact players such as De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, and Marvin Bagley. In addition to being the best player available on the board, Haliburton presents a perfect fit to a team in dire need of improved spacing. The rookie is able to compliment Fox’s explosive speed and slashing ability with intelligent passing and capable shooting, combining for a dangerous backcourt that will hope to make an impact for the Kings next season.

Loser: Minnesota Timberwolves Despite scoring the number one overall pick in the NBA draft, the Timberwolves were underwhelming in numerous aspects, partially due to the lack of a clear number one overall prospect. It is clear that the Timberwolves hoped to do more with the assets they had entering the draft. There were rumors that the Timberwolves were attempting to trade out of the number one spot before and on draft day, in hopes of acquiring a win-now player to pair with big man KarlAnthony Towns and point guard D’Angelo Russell. With the first pick, the T-Wolves ended up selecting arguably the best overall

player in Georgia, small forward Anthony Edwards.

While not to say that Edwards will not make an immediate impact on a Minnesota team hoping to make the playoffs, there are always many questions about a teenager who chose to go one and done in college. In addition to questions about his commitment, Edwards will need to increase his defensive efforts if he hopes to play a large role on the team. Not to mention, it will be interesting to see how Edwards plays off the ball offensively as a third option scoring guard on a crowded team of ball-dominant scorers. In college, he was a much more prolific scorer with the ball in his hands, so Edwards needs to learn how to contribute to the offense without possession of the basketball if the Timberwolves want to sneak into the Western Conference playoffs.

Loser: Houston Rockets Powered by a stacked backcourt with the superstar duo of James Harden and Russell Westbrook, the Rockets aimed to make a deep playoff run in the West once again with a roster characterized by small ball and stretching the floor. However, we once again witnessed the Rockets eliminated in the second round, this year at the hands of LeBron James and Anthony

Davis. LAfter numerous reports of trade demands from both of their stars, the Rockets looked to make a push with a disgruntled roster and took to transforming their team. First, they notably traded away recently-acquired wing Robert Covington for Trevor Ariza and two firstround picks. Many considered this trade was done in order to restock their assets following the Russell Westbrook trade and to acquire some younger talent on an older roster.

From there, however, Houston made the puzzling decision to get rid of Ariza, along with a first-rounder, for the Pistons’ first-round pick. Ariza had a low guaranteed salary, and despite his age, is still a talented player that the Rockets could have gotten more value out of. While an attempt to make the roster younger makes sense for the Rockets’ front office in cutting costs, all of this logical thinking was thrown out the window when the Rockets purchased a second-round pick for $4.6 million. With only one draft pick, outside of the top-50 overall, the Rockets had an awful draft night that revealed nothing about the direction of the team. If they want to remain contenders, they need to learn to build a roster around Harden, or simply move on from them altogether and enter rebuilding mode.

Sports Highlight

The Life of a Legend: The One and Only Maradona

By SUSIE MCKNIGHT and ROXIE GOSFIELD

Noah Taylor / The Spectator

The English Premier League When news broke of Diego Maradona’s death, soccer fans across the world were shocked and saddened by the loss of a legend. At only 60 years old, Maradona suffered from heart failure, which led to his death in his home on Wednesday, November 25. The Argentine soccer player, deemed one of the best in history, has left his mark on fans of all generations. Maradona’s home country,

Argentina, went into mourning for three days and is now continuing to honor both his life and death. From his first professional appearance in 1976 to his retirement in 1997, Maradona forever changed the game of soccer and will continue to live on in spirit.

In fact, Maradona was transforming the game far before his first professional appearance.

After displaying a knack for soccer, he joined the boys’ team Las Cebollitas. Maradona led his team through 136 consecutive wins, and ultimately to a national cham-

pionship, the first of many championships for Maradona—and any team lucky enough to sign him.

The Argentinos Juniors, a sports club from Maradona’s hometown, was the first of those teams. After his first division game in 1976, Maradona started his professional career in which he played 581 games and scored a total of 293 goals throughout 21 years. While he was a member of the Argentine National team, he played on six different clubs as a midfielder: Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, FC Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla, and Newell’s Old Boys. Throughout his time playing at the national level, Maradona led Argentina to a FIFA World Cup in 1986 and was awarded the Golden Ball, signifying that he was the tournament’s best player.

He was most known for his time at Barcelona and Napoli, where he helped the clubs win numerous titles and played with a salary that was higher than ever seen before.

During his time on these teams, he became recognized as the best soccer player in the world due to his fast and powerful technique that left his opponents in the dust.

This was reaffirmed when he was awarded FIFA Player of the Century, along with Pelé, permanently establishing him as a legendary figure in soccer. One moment he will always be remembered for is his amazing goal in the quarterfinal match of the 1986 World Cup. While playing against England, the Argentine scored a fantastic goal, now called the “Hand of God” goal after Maradona used that phrase to describe the feat, giving the team a 2-0 lead. The so-called “Goal of the Century” was scored after Maradona sped down the field while getting past multiple English players. Along with his success on Argentina’s national team, he made history

on the club team Napoli, which he led to multiple titles. During his seven years on the team, he scored 115 goals and generated a large fanbase that resulted in the club retiring his number 10 jersey.

His prosperous career inspired many across the world and left a lasting impact on the culture of soccer.

Maradona, however, was more than just a top football player of all time—his determined spirit followed him off the field as well. Maradona hailed from Villa Fiorito, one of the poorest areas in Argentina. His working class origins made him a role model for many, an image he preserved with his stance on social issues. He was good friends with Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro and even had his name boldly tattooed on his leg.

Kaveh Boveiri, in “Remembering Diego Maradona: The Idol of the Poor,” described the working class views of Maradona: “‘Look,’ we said, ‘he has Che tattooed on his arm and Castro on his leg.’ He never forgot where he came from, and he identified with these champions of the poor.” Maradona is often considered the best to ever play the game of soccer—and for good reason. His story is one of unexpected triumph, determination, and inspiration, and his legacy will continue to inspire future generations. Those who were alive to watch him play throughout his career certainly learned from him and took note of his sheer talent as he led his teams to countless victories. Despite not being able to see Maradona play live, younger generations are still influenced by this legend, from watching his documentaries and game recordings to learning the famous soccer skill, “The Maradona.” This difficult move, taught at a young age, takes years to master, let alone use in a real game. “The Maradona,” as well as Maradona’s incredible

feats on the field, demonstrates the talent that this superstar possessed and his influence around the world.

Despite playing some of the toughest teams out there in his thorough soccer career, Maradona’s toughest opponent came in the form of cocaine addiction. He struggled throughout the majority of his years as a soccer player with addiction, and began to develop a notorious reputation among soccer fans and teams. The height of his notoriety came when he was charged with cocaine possession and received a 15-month ban from soccer. Maradona once said about himself: “I was a drug addict, I am a drug addict, and I always will be a drug addict in everyone’s eyes. Because drug addicts aren’t forgiven for anything.”

However, there was one thing that could pull Maradona from the clutches of drugs and addiction: his daughters. He attributed his daughter and ex-wife begging him to stop using as the single most significant factor in his decision to get clean, once reflecting: “I was left without a cent, I went back to work, my youngest daughter, who was four, convinced me.

When I was in a coma and she touched my bedsheet to wake me up.” For the last 15 years of his life, Diego Maradona stayed away from cocaine and other drugs, proving to the public and himself that he was truly able to defeat any rival.

Unfortunately, Maradona was taken far too soon. For years, he grappled with his heart problems and ultimately fell victim to them just over a week ago. Maradona’s story is undoubtedly a tragic one, plagued by addiction and struggle.

But, more than that, this legend’s story is a glorious one, filled with improving social status, facing demons, and, of course, lots and lots of victory.

The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

Page 27

Sports Sports Debate

Who Is the NFL’s Best Quarterback?

By AIDAN FINGERET and BEN HAMEL

The Best We’ve Ever Seen

By BEN HAMEL The superlative adjectives I could use to describe Patrick Mahomes’s ability to play the game of football are endless: the best football player I have ever seen, the best arm talent of all time, and the best winner all come to mind.

Patrick Mahomes makes throws that I didn’t think were humanly possible, and his talent in just his third full season is unparalleled by anyone in the NFL. While Russell Wilson is one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and his ability to come back in the fourth quarter of games and lead his team to victories is outstanding, he cannot even be compared to Patrick Mahomes.

Patrick Mahomes had record-breaking numbers in his first starting season, becoming the second player in NFL history to throw 50 touchdowns, one of eight quarterbacks with 5,000 passing yards as well as winning the prestigious NFL MVP award. Then, after a crushing loss to the Patriots the year prior, he went on to become a Super Bowl MVP the next season and cement his legacy as a Super Bowl champion. While these accolades are phenomenal, they are only a glimpse as to why Patrick Mahomes is the best player in the league.

If Patrick Mahomes is in the game, no matter what the score is or how much time is left, the Chiefs always have a chance of winning. Take last year’s AFC Divisional matchup, for example. Down 24-0 against the Texans in the second quarter with little sign of life, Mahomes ignited a flame within the Chiefs and led them to a 51-31 victory.

In that game, Mahomes quarterbacked the Chiefs to seven straight touchdown drives. Seven! Mahomes furthered his quest as the comeback champion when

Patrick Mahomes is also the most creative quarterback in the league. While the jaw-dropping no-look passes and off-hand throws are picture-perfect, it’s not just the SportsCenter top 10 highlights that portray his creativity—it’s the difficult throws he makes every drive.

Mahomes can extend plays with his legs and then proceed to throw a ball 20 yards downfield into a four-foot window with ease. Then, the very next play he may lead the ball into space for one of his receivers to run down. While this may sound like something most NFL QBs can do, it most certainly isn’t. Just ask Carson Wentz! The creativity and consistency with which Mahomes can obliterate a defense are unheard of in the modern game.

With the greatest arm strength of all time, Mahomes can additionally throw the longest distances. While his completion rate is not the highest at 66.4 percent, this number is largely a result of the Chiefs pushing the ball downfield and Mahomes oftentimes throwing the ball away to avoid sacks. Mahomes even led the league in the 2019 season with a 56.7 percent accuracy rate with throws into tight coverage per Pro Football Focus, easily the best mark in a season of all time. This statistic clearly proves that Mahomes is the most accurate quarterback of all time, as he consistently throws accurate passes to his receivers, even in the toughest of situations.

Mahomes is simply out of Wilson’s league. Mahomes has led the Chiefs to back-to-back AFC Championship games with one Super Bowl victory, and Wilson has not been to the NFC Championship game since 2014, where he lost in the Super Bowl. While the argument that Mahomes has a fantastic coach in Andy Reid, a top two tight end in Travis

Patrick Mahomes makes throws that I didn’t think were humanly possible, and his talent in just his third full season is unparalleled by anyone in the NFL. he came back from double digits in both the conference championship against the Titans and against the Niners in the Super Bowl. A 24 point deficit is never enough to be comfortable when playing against the most talented quarterback of all time, and it can even affect the way opposing coaches manage the game. Take Mahomes’s most recent game against the Chiefs: Derek Carr took the Raiders down the field and put them in the lead 31-28 with a touchdown pass to Jason Witten with 1:43 left in the game. Mahomes was given no timeouts to drive the length of the field to either win the game in regulation or force overtime, an unlikely feat given the circumstances. However, Mahomes is a different breed, and there are video clips of Raiders’ defenders having to get back onto the field as they knew it was inevitable that Mahomes would drive the length of the field. Sure enough, he capped the drive with a beautiful 22-yard effortless pass to Travis Kelce as he was on the run.

Mahomes is like the Michael Jordan of football: his teammates love having him, and opposing defenses are flat-out scared of him.

Kelce, and a great deep threat in Tyreek Hill who may all make Mahomes look better, anyone can see with their own two eyes that Mahomes actually makes his receivers look better, not the other way around. In fact, there was once a viral clip in which Mahomes made a fantastic left-handed throw to Travis Kelce after running around in the pocket for what felt like 10 years, and Andy Reid looked just as amazed as everyone in the stands. In an apples-to-apples comparison, when Wilson had one of the best defenses and running backs of all time, Wilson won only one Super Bowl in about four years, and Mahomes has already won one in two years. The two are simply not comparable.

Russell Wilson is without a doubt a great quarterback as he leads his team to the playoffs year in and year out, but Patrick Mahomes’s ability to lead his team to victories in any situation is unmatched by anyone, possibly even of all time. The real comparisons will be between Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady at the end of their careers, and even then, I think Mahomes will cement his legacy as the greatest player to ever play the game of football.

Russ Is Cooking

By AIDAN FINGERET One of the loudest movements that has been brewing in Seattle and throughout the NFL during the past few seasons is “Let Russ Cook.” The Seahawks have one of the most talented quarterbacks the NFL has ever seen in Russell Wilson, and, for his entire career, he has been held back by being forced to lead one of the most run-heavy offenses in the NFL. In all of Wilson’s seasons in the league, prior to this season, the Seahawks had only

in the NFL right now not named Tom Brady. No one would make the argument that Wilson has more victories than Brady, but Wilson did just break Brady’s record for the most wins through the first nine years of a quarterback’s career. Wilson’s crowning achievement as a winner is definitely his Super Bowl XLVIII win, and if the Seahawks are able to put together a competent defense, more Lombardi trophies will be on their way to Seattle.

On the other hand, the biggest

It is hard not to get excited about the idea of Russell Wilson being in Mahomes’s position and putting up the same, if not better, stats and

absurd highlights.

one season in which they were in the top half of the league in percentage of pass plays. But the supporters of the “Let Russ Cook” movement believed that if Russ was put in an offense that maximized his talent instead of having him hand the ball off most plays, he would thrive. These supporters were proven correct when Brian Shottenheimer, the Seahawks offensive coordinator, decided that this season, Russell Wilson would be allowed to cook.

The results were immediate.

In only three weeks, Russell Wilson threw for 308 yards per game along with 14 passing touchdowns and only one pick. Though only one of the three defenses Wilson played that week ranked in the top half of the league in yards per game, those three games are astounding regardless of the opponent. While Wilson has definitely slowed down since his insanely hot start, he has still been great.

In Wilson’s single game against the 49ers, one of the top defenses in the NFL, he still threw for 261 yards and four touchdowns. Heading into the Seahawks’ Week 12 matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles, Wilson is on pace for 48 passing touchdowns and 4778 passing yards, which would put him in the top five for passing touchdowns and top 30 for passing yards in a season. When you pair those numbers with the fact that this is Wilson’s first season cooking, it’s hard not to think of the absurd heights Wilson could reach.

Even though Wilson is just reaching his statistical bests this season, we must not forget that Wilson is the most proven winner

reason against Mahomes being the best quarterback is something that he is not even in control of: how absurdly lucky he got with the situation he was drafted into. Mahomes was seen as a raw prospect coming into the NFL, and while that definitely was not true, he still was able to learn the ropes for a year behind former first overall pick Alex Smith. Mahomes’s coach, Andy Reid, is a top two offensive coach in NFL history, behind only Bill Walsh, who created what we now know NFL offenses to be. Also, Mahomes has the best supporting cast in the league. His number one receiver Tyreek Hill is arguably the best wide receiver and deep threat in the NFL right now, as well as the fastest player in the NFL right now and maybe even of all-time.

His “safety valve” Travis Kelce is the best receiving tight end in the league and probably a top 10 tight end in NFL history. When you put all of these talents together, you get one of the best situations possible for a quarterback. While Mahomes’s career feats so far have been astounding, we must not forget that he has been working with quite possibly the best supporting cast a quarterback has ever seen.

It is hard not to get excited about the idea of Russell Wilson being in Mahomes’s position and putting up the same, if not better, stats and absurd highlights.

When the most under-utilized quarterback in the league finally gets used properly, he puts up the insane stats that Russell Wilson has. With this season, it has become clear that Russell Wilson is not just better than Patrick Mahomes, but is the best quarterback in the NFL.

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The Spectator ● December 11, 2020

THE SPECTATOR SPORTS Sports Highlight

Celebrating Kim Ng, the First Female General Manager in Sports History MLB Chief Baseball Officer Joe Torre said in 2015: “At some point, somebody just has to ignore the fact that [Kim Ng] is a woman and just make a baseball decision.” Five years later, Derek Jeter, co-owner of the Miami Marlins, made “a baseball decision” and hired Ng as the team’s new general manager.

Growing up in Queens, Ng played both softball and tennis.

As a young athlete in a maledominant field, she developed immense perseverance from an early age, an asset she credits to the array of strong female athletes in the 1970s (an era of outstanding female empowerment in the sports industry, featuring trailblazers like tennis stars Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova). Her athletic abilities and leadership skills eventually landed her a spot on the University of Chicago softball team, which Ng later captained. After graduating with a degree in public policy in 1990, she took her skills straight to the MLB, where she worked with the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Beginning in the early 2000s, Ng applied for numerous posi-

tions as general manager, but she was rejected, very publicly, from all of them. While the humiliation was overbearing, she knew she held a great responsibility in

flected on this period in her life, explaining, “There [was] no other choice but to keep going on.”

Her journey to success, however, was not straightforward.

representing women in the MLB, so she never stopped working toward her goal. In an interview with the TODAY show, Ng re-

In 2003, Ng attended a baseball conference in Phoenix, during which the Mets’ special assistant, Bill Singer, mocked Ng’s Chinese

Emily Chen / The Spectator

By SHIVALI KORGAONKAR

ancestry at a bar. While he was immediately fired, Ng was reminded of the sheer discrimination she had continuously faced in her career over aspects of her identity she could not control.

Despite these setbacks, Ng was finally offered the role of General Manager of the Miami Marlins this year—nearly 30 years after entering the MLB as just a low-ranking intern. Her feat is especially significant as she is the first woman in North American professional sports’ history to ascend to the title of General Manager. Beyond that, Ng is only the second Asian American to lead baseball operations in the MLB. Though Ng’s promotion is clearly an accomplishment to be celebrated, it carries heavy baggage. Unsurprisingly, Ng’s promotion was met with backlash from baseball fans who claimed that her achievement was simply the team’s way of garnering “diversity points.” Though Ng’s extensive resume speaks for itself, this false assumption unfairly dismisses the success of people from minority backgrounds, like Ng, on the baseless claim that their identity makes it easier for them to rise within their respective organizations. In addition, Torre, who has worked

closely with Ng throughout her career, elaborated on Ng’s success to The New York Times: “It was just a very comfortable conversation all the time… You could talk to her the same way you’d talk in the clubhouse. She was one of the group.” While well-intentioned, Torre’s comment reinforces the expectation that women must fall into a certain niche to be accepted in the sports industry. Their femininity must be tamed and altered to make their male counterparts more comfortable with having women around. Rather than being a sports industry, the MLB has become a men’s industry, in which women, in their true form, are rarely accepted.

Despite the criticism, Ng has gracefully persevered through each challenge in her career and has inspired a new generation of young athletes, both male and female, to stand strong in the face of adversity. Though Ng has undoubtedly broken a long-standing barrier, her promotion only touches the surface of a greater systemic issue within the sports industry. The sports industry still has plenty of room for diversity in leadership with future trailblazers who can follow in Ng’s footsteps.

Sports Highlight

Fred Vanvleet: The Player Who Bet on Himself

By PHILLIP PHAN As the confetti fell from the rafters, the undrafted Fred VanVleet held up the Larry O’Brian trophy triumphantly. The 6’1” guard who was all but written off was now an NBA champion.

VanVleet became a key player off the bench for the Raptors in the 2018-2019 season, averaging 11.0 points, 4.8 assists, and 2.6 rebounds per game. He was crucial for the team’s championship run, coming up with numerous clutch shots and big plays down the stretch en route to the Raptors’ first championship in franchise history.

In the following season, with Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard leaving the Raptors, VanVleet played a much larger role on the team.

He averaged a career high 17.6 points per game, which was the most by an undrafted player since 2006. He was also a key distributor, averaging 6.6 assists per game.

Though he lacks height, VanVleet is a tenacious defender and averaged 1.9 steals per game, good for third in the league. VanVleet has proven to be a top point guard and one of the most coveted free agents this offseason.

But VanVleet’s road to the NBA was anything but easy.

VanVleet played four years at Wichita State, a top basketball school, where he greatly contributed to the team’s success.

During his senior season, he was an AP All-American honorable mention. But, NBA scouts overlooked VanVleet because he was 6’1”, a bit chubby, and, compared

to other players, not the fastest..

Though VanVleet was never the tallest or most athletic person in the gym, he proved his place in the league. He recalls: “I had at least six to eight really, really, really good workouts where I was the best player in the gym.” He thought some teams would draft him, possibly even in the first round.

On the night of the draft, VanVleet and dozens of his friends and family waited for his name to be called to celebrate a monumental night in his career.

Instead, VanVleet went undrafted. There were teams who wanted to draft him in the second round.

Interested teams told him that he would likely be stashed away in the G League and that he probably would not make the main

THE SCOOP: Dynamic Between MJ and the Balls

By TAEE CHI The highly-anticipated 2020 NBA Draft, hosted virtually by ESPN, took place on November 18.

Among the many exciting headlines to come out of the draft, third pick point guard LaMelo Ball was undoubtedly the biggest storyline that night.

Now that LaMelo Ball is a member of the Charlotte Hornets, a team owned by none other than Michael Jordan, some basketball fans are hoping that the one-on-one game between LaMelo’s outspoken father, LaVar Ball, and MJ will finally happen.

By selecting Ball with the third pick, the Hornets gained a talented, flashy player who will help fill the arena stands and bring immediate notoriety to the franchise. Ball’s immense popularity can be attributed to his last name and flamboyant personality, both of which he inherited from his father, LaVar. LaVar has never shied away from media at-

tention, and his rise to fame can be credited to his outlandish and controversial statements. One such statement was made on national TV in 2017 when he claimed that in his prime, he could beat Michael Jordan in a one-on-one. The clip immediately went viral, garnering millions of views and putting the father-of-three in the national spotlight. Whether it was a genuine claim or just a marketing strategy, the mass attention gained by LaVar and the Ball family ended up being beneficial for the Ball clan, who now have all three brothers in the league, becoming one of the exclusive families to have siblings in the NBA. However, now that LaMelo is a member of the Charlotte Hornets, LaVar might regret his brash statements. Whether or not we get to finally see the one-on-one between Jordan and Lavar, the dynamic between the Balls and MJ will be fun to watch, and only time will tell what the future holds for the trio.

roster. They told him he wouldn’t be competing for a roster spot in training camp if they picked him.

So what did VanVleet do? He told some teams not to draft him. Instead of settling for little money with a team that didn’t believe in him, he requested to opt out of the league, insisting that he would prove everyone wrong.

“Let’s roll the dice,” VanVleet said. After the draft, he went to Las Vegas for the 2016 NBA Summer League. VanVleet led the Raptors 905 to a G League Championship and managed to earn a contract, a two-year minimum, from the Raptors in 2017.

VanVleet finished the season averaging 8.6 points, 3.2 assists, and 2.4 rebounds in 76 games and signed a two-year deal for $18 million. By going undrafted, he

likely made more money in his first four years in the league than many of the first round picks.

VanVleet could’ve easily taken the safer route by being drafted late in the second round, but instead bet on himself, and it paid off. He went from a solid bench player to one of the most coveted players in this year’s free agent class, winning a championship along the way.

VanVleet inked a four-year, $85 million deal to stay with the Toronto Raptors this offseason and now has the most expensive contract for an undrafted NBA player in the history of the league.

To most, VanVleet’s story is an underdog story of a player struggling to make a roster. In reality, it is a story of a confident player who bet on himself.

SPORTSBEAT The Pittsburgh Steelers lost their first game of the year to the Washington Football Team on Monday, December 7, so there will once again be no undefeated teams in football this season.

Youtuber Jake Paul KO’d former NBA point guard Nate Robinson in an exhibition match. Afterward, Mike Tyson returned to the ring, where he fought Roy Jones. The match ended in a draw.

The Michigan vs. Ohio State game has been canceled, marking the first time in over 100 years that the two rivals won’t face off in the NCAA season.

Former MVP Russell Westbrook was traded to the Wizards in exchange for former all-star John Wall, creating two new duos in Washington and Houston.

Lebron James and Anthony Davis both signed big extensions with the champion Los Angeles Lakers, meaning that duo isn’t going anywhere for the next few years.