Volume 111, Issue 8

The Spectator

“The Pulse of the Student Body”

The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

Volume 111 No. 8

December 23, 2020

stuyspec.com

FEATURES

OPINIONS

Stuyvesant’s Sick of Being Sick

Why Socialization Events are Unappealing

It has been nine months since NYC shut down due to COVID-19—and some Stuyvesant students have contracted the virus. How have Stuyvesant students been managing the coronavirus and other illnesses?

Freshman Opinions writer Nelli Rojas-Cessa discusses the limited success of Stuyvesant’s socialization events, which largely fail to form natural and long-lasting friendships.

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Alumni Association Hosts Discussion with New York City Mayoral Candidates Kathryn Garcia (’88) and Dianne Morales (’85)

By SAMIA ISLAM, ISABELLA JIA, and JAMES KANG

Courtesy of Colin Millet

Courtesy of Hadass Wade

As Mayor Bill de Blasio’s second term has begun to wrap up, the 2021 New York City mayoral election quickly approaches.

Two contenders for this year’s election are Stuyvesant alumni: Kathryn Garcia (’88) and Dianne Morales (’85). The Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association (SHSAA) hosted a virtual Zoom event on December 9, featuring a conversation between the two candidates and WNYC senior reporter Ilya Marritz (’95).

Throughout the pandemic, the SHSAA Committee has been organizing all of SHSAA’s virtual events, the mayoral panel being one of them. Though there was initial hesitance to host a talk that could turn political, the event was ultimately successful, according to SHSAA member Rachael Biscocho.

“When the idea was first proposed to our office, I was a little skeptical because I didn’t want it to turn into a debate, as that is not the goal of

Kathryn Garcia

Dianne Morales

the events the Alumni Association hosts for the Stuyvesant community. But the final event was great,” she said in an e-mail interview.

Several topics were discussed in the event, including handling the pandemic, defunding the police, and reshaping the school system. In addition, each candidate expressed their distinct campaign initiatives. Morales’s campaign emphasizes how the government can go beyond policy and how opportunities can be created when people take responsibility for their communities. Garcia’s campaign strives to establish an organized bureaucratic system and would foster openness to new ideas if elected.

Morales’s personal and professional experiences have made her aware of deeply rooted issues in education, police, and economy; thus her campaign is centered around equity and justice. She believes that various perspectives should be represented in leadercontinued on page 3

Students Take Covid-Era Tests and Competitions

NEWSBEAT

By JAKOB GORISEK-GAZZE, ISABELLA JIA, NEIL SARKAR, JANNA WANG, and PULINDU WEERASEKARA

Senior Eric Kim is a semifinalist for the prestigious Coca Cola Scholarship.

In light of the holiday season, the Stuyvesant community is hosting several holiday festivities, including a holiday card-making competition, a gingerbread house-making competition, a virtual holiday performance from the orchestra, a snowflakes crafting session, a holiday Sing-a-Long, and a winter concert and art show.

Spring semester course selections have been released via Google Forms. Unlike in previous years, the program office is not using Talos.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has changed standard testing conditions of various exams, each has had to adapt its in-person mechanics to be suitable virtually. Here are how three exams are adapting to the circumstances.

Math Team Competitions

Science Olympiad Competitions

For the Stuyvesant Math Team, all competitions, such as the American Math Competition (AMC), the New York Math League (NYML), and Continental Math League (CML), have transitioned to an online setting.

The AMC is a series of math competitions used to determine the United States team for the International Math Olympiad (IMO), has shifted online, and is scheduled for February 2021. The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) has put preventative measures in place to discourage and minimize academic dishonesty and are now holding the AMC through a student portal called Art of Problem Solving (AoPS).

In addition to an online AMC, there is a paper administration option, which involves taking the AMC in-person on paper, for schools doing in-person learning.

Though students took the AMC in-person last year, the American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME), the succeeding exam for candidates who score above a certain AMC cutoff, was held online and required an adult proctor, chosen by the examinee, to be physically present with the test-takers during the entire duration of the AIME to verify that no cheating took place. Though the MAA has not yet specified details over whether they will require the presence of an adult proctor for the

Due to COVID-19, the USA Biolympiad (USABO), USA Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO), and F=ma test will all be offered online this year.

F=ma will be offered in January 2021 while USABO and USNCO will be administered in February.

In the past, both the USABO and USNCO consisted of in-person competitions to select students. The USABO consists of two rounds of continued on page 4

Independent School Entrance Exam When applying to private high schools, many middle schoolers take the Independent School Entrance Exam (ISEE), an internationally recognized exam created by the Educational Record Bureau. This year, however, students were given the option to take the exam either at home continued on page 4

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2020: A Year Unlike Any Other

Few years in American history are so eventful they garner a reputation of their own. 2020 will certainly be one of those historic years. As the year comes to a closing, here are some notable highlights over the past 12 months. —Nada Hameed, Mahir Hossain, James Kang, Madison Kim, and Rebecca Kim

January

February

1/16: THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL OF PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP STARTS.

1/30: THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO) DECLARES THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK A GLOBAL HEALTH EMERGENCY.

The impeachment trial of President Trump commenced following his initial impeachment on December 18, 2019, for abuse of power and obstruction against Congress.

This announcement came at the heel of outbreaks in several countries beyond Wuhan, China, where the virus first emerged in late December 2019. A week before, Wuhan entered its lockdown period (later lifted on April 8). The first case in the United States was identified on January 20 in Washington state.

2/5: PRESIDENT TRUMP IS ACQUITTED BY THE SENATE. President Trump is found not guilty in his impeachment trial. The Senate voted to acquit him 52-48 on charges of abuse of power and 53-47 on obstruction of Congress. He would have been the first impeached president to seek re-election.

2/8: THE FIRST AMERICAN CITIZEN DIES FROM THE CORONAVIRUS.

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

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News Math Team Hosts Fourth Annual Downtown Math Invitational Virtually challenging to share information and collaborate virtually, especially under time pressure. “The competition and teamwork are […] a bit different, because you can’t just lean over and check someone else’s work or show them your paper,” Sterr said.

The competition was completely managed by Stuyvesant’s math team students and coaches, with students contributing to one of six different committees: contest writing, technology, proctors and volunteers, scoring, announcers, and media and communications. The team borrowed inspiration from other in-personturned-virtual math competitions, such

The Stuyvesant Math Team held its fourth Downtown Math Invitational (DMI) competition virtually on December 12. The Trinity School’s A team came in first; the Bronx High School of Science’s A team came in second; and Hunter College High School’s Barney team came in third. Junior Jake Berg from the Dalton School came first in the individual contest, with a perfect score of 10. Despite hosting the competition online to fit pandemic guidelines, the organizers hoped to make the event as similar to previous years’ as possible, with preparations starting in October.

The competition, which is open to all New York City high school teams, consists of four rounds: the Team Round, the Power Round, the Individual Round, and the Marathon Round. During the 40-minute Team Round, teams of six students worked together to answer 10 questions. Then the 70-minute Power Round required teams to complete a series of calculations and proofs. After a 45-minute lunch break during which they could chat on Discord, students participated in a 40-minute Individual Round, solving five problem sets with two questions each. In the final 90-minute Marathon Round, teams worked through two questions at a time with a maximum of 26 questions.

The organizers found the process of inviting other high school teams to attend relatively simple.

“We sent out [e-mails] to coaches across New York City schools.

The coaches asked the kids in their math team if they wanted to attend, and then they just filled out a Google Form, and they were registered,” senior and captain Madelyn Mao said. Each high school sent up to two teams of six students.

The event was organized and hosted using a combination of Zoom and Discord. Contestants were proctored via Zoom, and communicated in either Zoom or private Discord channels that were set up to facilitate smaller discussions among members of the team. All participants also joined a Discord server, meaning students were able to communicate with each other, “which is one of the benefits of competing in a math competition: getting to meet people from other schools who are also into math and problem solving,” math teacher and math team coach Brian Sterr said in an e-mail interview.

Though organizers and participants found Zoom and Discord effective means of communication, teams found it more

Courtesy of Madelyn Mao

By ZIYING JIAN, MARY LEE, MAGGIE SANSONE, and SAKURA YAMANAKA

as New York City Interscholastic Mathematics League (NYCML).

The contest writing committee wrote and arranged the problems used during the event. “We received many problem proposals from members of the Stuyvesant math team, and additionally wrote many of the problems featured on the contest,” juniors and Heads of Contest Writing Rishabh Das and Jerry Liang said in a joint e-mail interview.

Many Stuyvesant math team members solved sample problems after school, which helped in evaluating and balancing the difficulty of the problems. “One of the harder aspects is to find a way to balance the problems such that the difficulty is reasonable and such that there is no overwhelming amount of one topic tested,” Das and Liang said.

“The feedback and comments were instrumental in composing a well formulated contest.”

The technology committee set up the necessary online systems, as well as “making the in-person to online transition as easy as possible for both the competitors and volunteers,” senior and Head of Technology Mario TutuncuMacias said in an e-mail interview.

Junior and Head of Tech-

nology Edward Wu added in an e-mail interview, “I mostly set up and kept on track the DMI Discord, and [Tutuncu-Macias], the other head of the technology committee, worked with [Sterr] to make the submission forms and automatic scoring.”

Proctor and volunteer committee members were in charge of creating Zoom meetings in which they guided and monitored competing teams. “You basically get to read some instructions for the Power Rounds, and if there are any problems, just communicate as a bridge between the competitors and the teachers,” junior and Head of Proctors and Volunteers Xiaoshen Mao said.

Similar to the proctor and volunteer committee, the scoring committee relied on volunteers to help score problems that were submitted each round. This year, their job was made easier by using auto-grading features. “For the team, individual, and marathon round, we gather all of the answers and make sure they are inputted, and then we go over them and check if the computer graded them correctly. For the power round, we grade each problem ourselves,” senior and Head of Scoring Theo Schiminovich said.

The announcers committee oversaw the coordination of the rounds on the day of the competition. They supervised and made announcements on communication platforms, such as Discord. These announcements included information on when rounds started, time limits, and basic instructions.

The media and communications committee—along with other responsibilities—managed the DMI website, the event’s logo and T-shirts, and the introductory and closing slides. Unlike other committees who had to adjust their responsibilities and workload once the competition switched to an online format, “the competition being virtual didn’t really change [their] role or responsibilities,” junior and Head of Media and Communications Josephine Lee said in an e-mail interview.

There were a few aspects of the competition that were more challenging to organize due to the virtual medium, particularly involving the Marathon Round, during which students work on two problems simultaneously.

2/29: THE UNITED STATES SIGNS A PEACE DEAL WITH AFGHANISTAN. The U.S. signed a peace deal with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar; the negotiation is the beginning of an intra-Afghan peace process and brings an end to the 13-year-old war.

March 2/9: “PARASITE” MAKES HISTORY AS THE FIRST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TO WIN THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE.

The film, directed by Bong Joon-ho, ultimately won four of six Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film (the first film from South Korea to be nominated for such a category).

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and NASA

WORLDBEAT Congress agreed to a stimulus deal set to provide $900 billion to citizens and businesses.

The first round of COVID-19 vaccines was given to high-risk healthcare workers on December 18.

New York was hit with more than a foot of snow on Thursday, December 17, the biggest snowstorm in years.

Multiple European countries place travel restrictions to and from the United Kingdom as new virus variants emerge.

In past years, once a student answered one question, they would run to the front of the auditorium to hand it in and take the next problem. “We had to figure out how to do that virtually and come up with a complex system with a Google Form and a spreadsheet, where the spreadsheet would show them a new question every time they submitted an answer to previous questions,” Sterr said.

Additionally, some students noted that the online competition lacked the usual atmosphere of tension and excitement. “I’ve volunteered once before in the 2018 DMI. Then, you could feel the clamor in the air during orientation and awards, the intensity during tiebreakers, the calculations during the rounds. Of course, we can’t have the contest in person, so this was definitely a drawback effect of the pandemic,” Wu said.

Following the event, the team received suggestions from both contestants and organizers. Some wanted a shorter lunch break or recommended using either Discord or Zoom instead of both. Others suggested brainstorming better ways to monitor contestants in the future.

While the DMI did present its own unique set of challenges, it created a space for Stuyvesant math team members to interact.

“This year, there is less interaction between the upper and lower grade levels of the math team, so organizing the DMI was a great opportunity to come together as Stuy’s math team and work toward a common cause,”

3/16: MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO SHUTS DOWN ALL NYC PUBLIC SCHOOLS, THE LARGEST SCHOOL SYSTEM IN THE NATION.

The closures have affected the lives of 1.1 million children, 75,000 teachers, and over one million parents across the city’s 1,800 schools. The city moved to remote learning by March 23.

Lee said in an e-mail interview.

In addition, more students and alumni were able to participate, especially as proctors.

“Usually in real life, we never have enough proctors last minute. This year, it was easily filled up because of quick communication through [e-mails] and a lot of alumni that came back to help,” Xiaoshen Mao said.

The DMI serves as a tradition for the Stuyvesant math team and for teams across the city, one that organizers wished to maintain despite the pandemic. “It was important that we held a virtual version so students were still given this chance to compete, even though the competition cannot be held in person. Many students are graduating this year, and I feel it would be unfair to them if we skipped it this year,” Schiminovich said.

Outside Stuyvesant, students from other schools also appreciated the event. “I heard from many coaches that their students were really looking forward to the competition and really enjoyed their time. For a lot of schools, their math teams have been reduced due to COVID-19, so it was a great opportunity for them to compete,” Sterr said.

Organizers believed the DMI helped revitalize the math team culture and created an overall sense of community. “Through the DMI, we hope that students from across the city will have an opportunity to experience the joys of problem solving not only as an individual, but also as a team,” Das and Liang said.

4/9: SAUDI ARABIA DECLARES A CEASEFIRE IN YEMEN.

Saudi Arabia declared a two-week ceasefire in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, due to concerns regarding the coronavirus. This move is monumental, for these two countries had been in a five-year conflict.

April

3/13: TRUMP DECLARES COVID-19 A NATIONAL HEALTH EMERGENCY.

4/8: BERNIE SANDERS DROPS OUT OF THE 2020 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL RACE.

This decision made way for now-Presidentelect Joe Biden to become the presumptive Democratic nominee and came after several high-profile candidates such as Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Michael Bloomberg dropped out as well.

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

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News Alumni Association Hosts Discussion with New York City Mayoral Candidates Kathryn Garcia (’88) and Dianne Morales (’85) a politician during my career. I’ve been a public servant, and I know that everyone who wakes up every day depends on services whether or not it was dealing with garbage or snow,” Garcia said. “Really understanding how to make that work doesn’t happen overnight. It requires experience, and I have very broad experience knowing how you make the city work for people.”

Connecting to her experience with public service, Garcia’s initiatives center around homelessness, police reform, education, transportation, and recovery from the pandemic. Her COVID-19 recovery plan would make the vaccine accessible to all New Yorkers but prioritize essential workers.

“Distributing the vaccine has to be very transparent, and you can’t have anybody jump the line just because [they] have money. We need to make sure that healthcare workers are getting it first, essential workers. The grocery store clerks should get it before I get it [because] they are actually doing essential work,” she said.

continued from page 1

ship in the city. Her campaign initiatives focus on defunding the police, implementing basic income for all New Yorkers, and providing adequate housing for all.

Ceci Bachana (’20), who attended the event, had the opportunity to learn more about Morales’s campaign. “I learned that [Morales] comes out very strong on progressive ideals and policies, which I love. In response to the very first question asked about what she would do in office, she immediately listed defunding the police,” Bachana said in an e-mail interview. “I have never seen a local candidate so adamant about policies that are so left-leaning, [and] she seems like a very capable woman, with actions and determination behind her words, which is encouraging.”

Being a former Commissioner for the NYC Department of Sanitation, Garcia is experienced in public service. “I have not been

As an alumnus, Garcia’s experience as a Stuyvesant student has significantly impacted her personal growth. “Attending Stuyvesant High School was very competitive, but I think it prepared me more than anything else to manage [myself] in a situation that’s very competitive,” she said. “I was able to excel and really feed off of all of the intelligence around [me], [including] listening to folks who have phenomenal ideas that [I] never thought about. Everyone is bringing such different experiences to Stuyvesant from all over the city, and that I think was really a blessing.”

Students who attended the talk were able to learn more about the candidates and their policies. “I decided to attend the event because I had heard about [Morales] through a friend’s Instagram, and I wanted to learn more about her.

It was a plus that [Garcia], whom I had not heard of, was there as well,” Bachana said. “I thought it was cool that Morales and Garcia were both Stuy alumni. I already

thought Morales seemed great, [and] I wanted to learn more about her character and her platform beyond what I saw on Instagram, and this was the perfect opportunity.”

Sophomore Lex Lopez, who attended the event, was also excited to hear Garcia and Morales’s agendas. “I am very interested in politics and feel like national politics is too distant because it is too much of an analytical, methodical, cold calculated game to get the most money, votes, or fame.

Local politics and activism [are] where change starts,” he said.

The two alumnae have attracted the attention of Stuyvesant students who are enthusiastic to see someone from their high school become a leader in local politics.

“The fact that they graduated from Stuy makes me feel more connected to them, of course, as a Stuy kid,” Bachana said.

Students also felt that the candidates being Stuyvesant alumni will have an impact on their work in office. “A mayor who knows the school system not only from

the administrative side, like Garcia and Morales both do, but also from the perspective of a student, is a mayor who knows how to enact policies with students and teachers in mind,” Bachana said.

Attending the event has inspired Bachana to contribute to Morales’s campaign. “I intend to help campaign for Morales, a decision I made after attending the event and then talking to a Stuy friend who is friends with Morales and on the same activist team as she is,” Bachana said.

“She will be the first candidate I [will be] actively [campaigning] for, once I learn how, and I’m very excited [to do so].”

Overall, the event was a success as it related to students.

“The next mayor is going to be coming into office after tens of thousands of New Yorkers died, thousands of businesses closed, and much more so they have a lot on their plate,” Lopez said.

“Regardless, I’m excited to see more people represent Stuyvesant and new ideas at a local level.”

Student Union Hosts Virtual Speed-Friending Event

By CATHERINE DELL’OLIO, JAMES LEE, and RAVEN (RUIWEN) TANG “I thought it would be a lot of fun because quarantine is pretty lonely, and I just wanted to get to talk to people like myself,” junior Yaqin Rahman said.

Rahman was one of 170 participants in a virtual speed-friending event hosted by the Event Planning Department of the Student Union (SU) on December 11.

The event provided an opportunity for students, especially freshmen, to meet and get to know one another. “We’re always looking for events that we can do virtually, and we know that especially this year, it’s been hard for students to interact and talk to each other,” senior and Director of Event Planning Aki Yamaguchi said.

The participants were divided by grade into three Zoom calls: Zoom A and Zoom B for freshmen and sophomores and Zoom C for juniors and seniors. In each Zoom meeting, the SU shuffled students into breakout rooms of roughly three to five depending on their responses to a form gauging their interests and friend preferences. Each breakout room cycle lasted around eight minutes, with optional conversation starters.

“We put in a question for them to follow if they wanted to. But I think at the end, it seemed like they didn’t really need the question, because they already were talking

and [were] comfortable with each other,” Yamaguchi said. “I think at one point, a group was watching ‘Frozen’ for the eight minutes.”

Two student groups decided to stay beyond the scheduled 7:00 p.m. end of the event; Yamaguchi’s group, for example, called until 8:00 p.m.

“Throughout the night, it kind of evolved into a karaoke night, for my group a n y way.

There was this one guy who sang ‘Let It Go,’ and then t h a t kind of started a train of karaoke,” Freshman Caucus Co-President Unique Zhang, who was in Yamaguchi’s Zoom call, said. “It kept going from there, and it was really fun. We had flashlights, and we would wave them, as if it were an actual concert.”

The organizers were also able to make adjustments during the event to more effectively encourage student participation and community building. “We didn’t want

5/30: NASA AND SPACEX’S LAUNCH

May

In collaboration with NASA, SpaceX launched two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. It was the first crewed spacecraft launch in the U.S. since the end of the space shuttle program back in 2011.

5/13: HONG KONG PROTESTS RESUME.

Dormant since January due to COVID-19 concerns, Hong Kong protests against the government resumed after social distancing rules relaxed.

Around 230 people were arrested because of violations of social distancing laws.

anybody to not be talking at all just because they’re a little shyer,” Yamaguchi said. After several breakout cycles, she asked the participants in her call if they would like

Daniel Berlinsky / The Spectator

to have resized groups. “There was a participant who had their camera off, so maybe they were feeling a little bit more shy, but they put up their hand and asked, ‘Is there any

way we can do groups of eight?’

It was great to hear that everyone was giving feedback,” she said.

Many students responded positively toward the event. “I would definitely go to the next speedfriending event. I hope they have multiple of them this year,” Rahman said. “I genuinely liked the event because [there were] a lot of new people, new faces, [and] new stuff to talk about.”

Z h a n g added, “It gave me such great ideas for Freshman Caucus.

Personally, I didn’t expect it to be that successful.”

Some attendees, however, wished they had more time to get to know the people in each breakout room. “I don’t think we had enough time not just to discuss the conversation starters, but to discuss anything at all,” senior Jesse Hammer said. “It felt like maybe enough to speed acquaintance.”

Other participants would have liked to interact with a larger variety of students. Though students filled out a form about their hobbies and friend preferences, only

6/12: YEMEN HUMANITARIAN CRISIS

June

Described by the United Nations as “the world’s worst man-made humanitarian disaster,” Yemen’s humanitarian crisis was brought to light once again. In the midst of a civil war, the country’s population faces hunger and disease such as the cholera outbreak made complicated by COVID-19.

6/6: THE U.S.’S TWELFTH CONSECUTIVE DAY OF PROTESTS.

Countries across the world, such as Australia and South Korea, have participated in Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, following the protests that Americans have done for the past twelve days. These protests are part of a larger activist movement to shed light on the racial injustice and discrimination following the unjust deaths of African Americans such as George Floyd. His death ignited a rise of protests never seen before, first starting in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area and soon spreading throughout the entirety of the country.

July

the first round of breakout rooms could be pre-assigned according to this collected information. Later breakout rooms were generated randomly, occasionally creating repeated groupings of students.

“It’s not really in [the organizers’] control, but […] sometimes I would have the same person three times in a row,” Zhang said.

Additionally, some students felt that the format could be improved with additional activities.

“When I got put into my first breakout room, it was a little awkward […] they gave us a prompt to talk about, but we ended up taking three seconds with the prompt and talking about other things,” junior Tina Nguyen said. “Maybe [in the future, participants] could all play a game together on a website, so there’s something to bond over and not just someone trying to make conversation and everyone else responding once.” Students also suggested that the SU include an event-wide icebreaker before the breakout rooms during future events.

The SU is planning a followup event with revisions based on student reactions to the first event. “We want to […] figure out a way for people to get into contact with each other better after the event [and] have a little more structure […], even though we love how at the end, it kind of became a free going event,” Yamaguchi said. “In general, it seemed really successful, and I’m really happy that people enjoyed it.”

7/18: FIRE BREAKS OUT IN FRANCE’S NANTES CATHEDRAL.

The interior of France’s Nantes Cathedral was severely damaged due to a fire incident. It was later found that a Rwandan refugee who volunteers at the cathedral confessed to setting said fire. This incident came just over a year after a fire destroyed the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, raising concerns about the safety of historic church institutions.

7/9: NYC PAINTS A ROAD MURAL ON FIFTH AVENUE IN SUPPORT OF THE BLM MOVEMENT.

A road mural was painted on Fifth Avenue, across the Trump Tower, to support the BLM movement. The words “Black Lives Matter” were painted in yellow in the stretch of the road and many gathered in support, including de Blasio.

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

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News Students Take Covid-Era Tests and Competitions Science Olympiad Competitions continued from page 1

exams, which will be conducted virtually this year, and is used to identify four students to represent the U.S. team at the International Biology Olympiad (IBO). The USNCO consists of a local selection competition, from which students advance to a two-part national exam, and then onto the International Chemistry Olympiad to represent the U.S. team. All competitions and exams will be held online, with the exception for some local competitions for USNCO. Though many students have been limited in their studying methods, they are finding additional ways to supplement their studying. “It’s a shame we don’t get to participate in any classroom lab activities this year, since a hands-on approach really brings all the one-dimensional information from the textbooks to life,” senior Kristoff Misquitta said in an e-mail interview. “That said, there are still online alternatives and simulations that can teach the same lessons, and I think they do a great job of filling in the gaps.”

To accommodate, the Stuyvesant Biology Olympiad (StuyBO) Club has been focused on preparing its members for the competition. “StuyBO has been hosting weekly lessons on Sunday that teach material from the official textbook to prepare for the USABO. For the more advanced students who want to proceed further in the competition, we also host advanced lessons from other textbooks,” sophomore and StuyBO’s event director Fu xing Chen said in an e-mail interview.

For the F=ma exam, it is traditionally administered with an A and a B version of the exam. Both exams have the same length and topics but are conducted at different dates with different questions. For the 2021 exam, the American Association of Physics Teachers has combined both exams. Though the test has been converted to a virtual format, the test topics will remain the same. The approximate top 400 scorers on the F=ma exams will be eligible to take the USA Physics Olympiad exam (USAPhO).

Assistant Principal of Chemistry and Physics Scott Thomas believes students will prepare well for the exam, but he hopes to see an improvement in study resources for them.

“Almost all of the students who registered for the F=ma exam are taking AP Physics C - Mechanics. The AP Physics C - Mechanics course covers all the topics in the F=ma exam,” Thomas said. “It would be great if we could offer the students a prep class for the F=ma exam, but this is challenging at the moment.”

As these tests are online, some students have raised concerns about academic honesty. “[There will] be obviously cheating; there has always been to some degree,” senior Leon Ma said in an e-mail interview. “For olympiads that have always been online like USACO, stories of people having friends or even parents to do contests for them have been prevalent. The question is how severe it will [be] and how the cutoffs will be affected.”

To combat this, the administration has implemented preventative measures to mitigate cheating. “The school has an Academic Integrity Policy, and the teachers have adopted procedures to reduce the likelihood of cheating,” Thomas said. “All the tests will be taken online, [and] we will receive instructions for proctoring two weeks before the exam.”

Despite the shift in testing, Thomas remains optimistic. “We are doing the best we can given the current situation with the pandemic. Hopefully, things will return to normal when the pandemic is over,” he said.

Independent School Entrance Exam continued from page 1

on a device or in a testing room on a device or on paper. The final ISEE test took place on December 14.

As the ISEE is administered at four different levels, middle schoolers take the Upper Level exam that consists of five separately timed sections: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics Achievement, and an optional expository essay. Students receive a total of two hours and 40 minutes for the test.

Om Divan, an eighth grader at the P.S. 334 The Anderson School, took the ISEE on a device in a testing room on December 14. “Because there were no more seats left to take it at home, I had to go on-site to take the test on a device,” he said. “If we wanted to, or had to, take the test on a device, they said we had to download this platform, called Prometric, that basically prevented any cheating. We couldn’t do anything else besides answer the questions, not even copy and paste.”

Because students were testing on-site, many testing centers implemented extra preventative measures, including putting on a new mask provided by the center. “The whole time, I felt that they had done their best to prevent the spread of COVID, which was a helpful thing to have in mind, even if the restrictions made it a bit harder for me to take the test,” Divan said.

Divan, however, faced a few inconveniences when taking the ISEE due to the extra measures. “I need blue-light glasses because I get headaches if I’m looking at a screen for too long, but when I was taking the test, they asked me to take them off because they were not prescription glasses,” Divan said. “Also, because collecting them would be unsanitary, students were told to place any smartwatches and cell phones in plain view of their desk, but the desk was really small, and with the laptop and scrap paper on it too, I barely had space for my phone, and it kept almost falling off.”

Despite this, Divan felt a sense of relief after taking the ISEE. “I can relax and enjoy the rest of my year without worrying about COVID-amended tests,” he said. “The whole pandemic thing on top of everything else made the whole experience a bit nerve-racking, to be honest.”

Lauren Chin / The Spectator

Criminal Law Class Welcomes Guest Speakers Mark Berman (’82) and Judge Charlotte Davidson

By PETER GOSWAMI, KAI LI, FAHIMA MIAJEE, and CHRISTINA WANG Social studies teacher Linda Weissman hosted guest speakers Mark Berman (’82) and Judge Charlotte Davidson in her Criminal Law elective on December 2 and December 4, respectively.

Weissman’s Criminal Law elective focuses on the adult crimi-

nal justice system. Open to both juniors and seniors, the class often has guest speakers. “I try to set a foundation, and then afterwards, whatever a judge or a guest speaker brings up, I’m sure to try to use an example,” Weissman said. “I think guest speakers show their knowledge. I think they show their experience. I think they show their respect for law and what they do, and that impacts

8/12: BIDEN ANNOUNCES KAMALA HARRIS AS HIS RUNNING MATE. Biden announced now-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as his running mate.

August 8/4: EXPLOSION IN BEIRUT, TEARING DOWN CITIES AND STREETS IN LEBANON.

The explosion in Beirut, Lebanon was caused by large amounts of ammonium nitrate and fireworks in a warehouse. There was a set of two explosions that resulted in 204 deaths and 6,500 injuries.

September

a student in a high school class.”

Through guest lectures, students learn about law from professionals in the field. “Judge Davidson spoke about the criminal procedure and adjudication process. [She] explained the different types of juries there are and how the process of bail works,” senior Samia Islam said in an email interview. “The class also had a prior meeting with [Berman in

which] we got to hear more about his job, his experience running for [New York State Bar President], and his experience at Stuy.”

Berman, who is a partner at Ganfer Shore Leeds & Zauderer, has visited both Weissman’s fall Criminal Law class and her spring Civil Law class every term over the past decade. “I enjoyed my time at Stuyvesant, and as a lawyer, I feel I have an ethical and moral obli-

9/26: TRUMP MOVES FORWARD TO NOMINATE JUDGE AMY CONEY BARRETT TO THE SUPREME COURT. This follows the death of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Barrett was a federal judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, a position she was nominated for by President Trump. She would be confirmed on October 26, 2020.

9/1: DE BLASIO POSTPONES THE REOPENING OF NYC PUBLIC SCHOOLS FROM SEPTEMBER 10 TO SEPTEMBER 21.

This delay was made in collaboration with several educator unions in order to avert a teachers strike and allow educators more time to prepare.

gation to teach students about the law,” Berman said. “That obligation goes not just to high schoolers.

I taught law to my sons’ primary school classes, and I taught them about the Constitution and Brown v. Board of Education. I gave the students pocket Constitutions.”

Over the years, Berman’s talks have become an imporcontinued on page 6

10/20: MASS PROTESTS ESCALATE IN NIGERIA, OPPOSING THE SPECIAL ANTI-ROBBERY SQUAD (SARS) UNIT.

Originally established in Lagos by police authorities to combat armed robbery, SARS began operating without accountability. Since 2017, groups have been protesting SARS in an effort to dissolve the group.

Most recently, on October 20, members of the SARS unit shot at protests, killing at least 38 Nigerians and leaving dozens more injured.

October

10/2: PRESIDENT TRUMP AND MELANIA TRUMP ARE DIAGNOSED WITH COVID-19.

Over a dozen people in close relations to the President such as Rudy Giuliani and Kayleigh McEnany tested positive for the virus. President Trump and Melania have since recovered.

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

Page 5

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Page 6

News Criminal Law Class Welcomes Guest Speakers Mark Berman (’82) and Judge Charlotte Davidson continued from page 4

tant component of Weissman’s classes. “I wanted the students to get the benefit of getting to know [Berman] because of his relationship with coming to my classes, and I knew he had a lot to offer to the students,” Weissman said. “He spoke to the class about his own background, about having graduated from Stuyvesant, his own educational experience, and his experience in law.”

Berman’s status as a Stuyvesant alumnus further enhanced his appeal as a speaker to Weissman’s class. “Stuy alum[ni] are always excellent speakers, and that’s because they have an understanding of what it’s like to be a Stuyvesant student, and I think that experience brings a lot. I often ask a guest speaker who has graduated from Stuyvesant to spend the first five minutes of a class talking about what they did at Stuyvesant or what was special to them at Stuyvesant,” Weissman said.

Along with speaking, Berman usually chooses one or two

judges per year to visit with Weissman’s classes, especially looking for judges with connections to Stuyvesant. “He speaks to each of the classes, and then at the end, we

of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and found it awe-inspiring. Actually seeing the chambers of a judge accentuates the importance of the office of

Civil Court Judge. She previously worked as counsel to a former Chief Judge of the State of New York while serving in the New York State Unified Court System

“I enjoyed my time at Stuyvesant, and as a lawyer, I feel I have an ethical and moral obligation to teach students about the law.” —Mark Berman (’82), guest speaker go on a trip,” Weissman said. “We walk over to a judge’s chambers.

We sit in; sometimes we watch a trial. The judge speaks to us, and then we often do something else in the courthouse if we time.”

Berman added, “We observe their courtroom and sometimes are invited to visit the judge’s chambers […] in the past, students have toured the former chambers

being a judge and provides perspective to the importance of their job and the respect they deserve.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Weissman’s classes could not safely participate in a trip, meaning Berman had to come up with an alternative: having Judge Davidson speak with the class virtually. Since 2016, Judge Davidson has been an Interim

for 13 years. “Judge Davidson agreed to talk to us for the period on Zoom, and it was quite effective,” Weissman said. “She was excellent. She talked a little bit about her background, how she became a judge, and what it’s like to be a judge. The students in the class got to ask her questions, and she was very thoughtful in her responses, so I thought

it was a really good interaction.”

Students in Criminal Law found both speakers engaging. “The call with [Berman] and Judge Davidson [has] definitely heightened my interest in the subject because I was able to get an insider perspective on criminal law,” Islam said. “It’s interesting to see what those in charge of our justice system believe in.”

Outside of Berman and Judge Davidson, Weissman has invited a number of other speakers to her class this year, as she believes they introduce her students to the more personal aspects of law as a career. “If you’re in an elective law class and you’re a senior, you might have taken the law class because you’re interested in law. I try to bring experiences, discussions, foundations in law, but I think each of [the speakers] bring life experiences, and that is invaluable,” Weissman said. “They are able to talk about their careers in law, how they got where they are, what they do on a daily basis, and the impact they are having on their own lives, in the law profession and on the lives of others.”

Students Take Covid-Era Tests and Competitions Math Team Competitions continued from page 1

AMC, Stuyvesant students who plan to take it will be proctored through a Zoom call regardless.

Because of the online format, math teacher Brian Sterr, Stuyvesant’s competition manager for the AMC exam this year, will have to adjust the administration of the AMC accordingly. “Usually I would have to organize the answer sheets and return them to the MAA, but since we are using the online option this year, the answers will be collected automatically,” Sterr said in an e-mail interview.

Additionally, the AMC will be administered with specific measures to prevent academic dishonesty. “All students will be proctored via Zoom during the examination with video showing their hands, workspace, and computer screen. They are only allowed to have the questions open on their computer. The AMC also has an Honor Code that they will have to sign, which they also sign when the exam is in person,” Sterr said.

Despite preventative measures, many are concerned that an online exam will increase the likelihood of cheating and inflate cutoff scores. “Last year, during the online AIME, the cutoff for the [Junior Mathematical Olympiad] was absurdly high,” junior Maxwell Zen said in an e-mail interview. “Especially for combinatorics questions that usually involve a lot of grueling casework, it becomes so much easier when you’re able to write up a quick Python program to do the casework for you, so I’m worried that people will be able to do that and qualify for the next competition over people who decided not to cheat.”

Similarly, junior Edward Wu, who also took the online AIME last year, questioned the effectiveness of the anticheating mechanisms. “The way we were proctored last year was the camera would focus on your workspace and

hands. Otherwise, there’s not much stopping any cheating from happening, [other than] your signature and the signature of an in-person proctor who will be sitting near you,” he said in an e-mail interview.

Others feel that the online format lessens the importance of the AMC. “I personally prefer the in-person format to the online one. Taking a contest at home makes it feel so much more unprofessional and a lot less important than what it actually is,” sophomore Joseph Othman said in an e-mail interview. “Taking tests at home compared to at school or together with everyone else is just weird.”

The content of the AMC, however, has stayed the same, allowing students to prepare for it as they have in the past. “The content of the exam has not changed, so the math team teachers will continue to prepare students for the exam using past AMC exams as practice,” Sterr said. “Our curriculum for math team classes has practice for AMC integrated into it, so that has not changed.”

In addition to the AMC, the Stuyvesant math team has competed in several competitions, such as the NYML and CML. The contests, however, are now administered at the discretion of schools, with both in-school meets and online contests being available options. At Stuyvesant, this year’s CML was administered through a Google Form on Google Classroom.

The NYML is typically a six question test administered in person with paper. This year, it was administered through the Math League Contests website. Answers for each question, however, must be input in a specific manner, which opens up the possibility of formatting errors and has frustrated many students. “Online math tests […] are somewhat of a hassle at times [because they] often make it annoying to submit answers,“ freshman Henry Ji

11/29: DE BLASIO REOPENS 12/14: NYC SHUTS DOWN INDOOR PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS DINING ONCE AGAIN. AFTER AN ABRUPT DECISION It is a significant reversal of the city’s reopening and TO CLOSE ALL NYC PUBLIC SCHOOLS ON NOVEMBER 18. comes at a time when officials try to alleviate the Middle and high schools remain closed.

November

escalation of a second coronavirus outbreak. It is a blow to the city’s restaurant and service industry.

December

11/7: AFTER FOUR DAYS OF VOTE 12/11: TRUMP GETS SHUT DOWN COUNTING FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL 9-0 BY THE SUPREME COURT IN ELECTION, BIDEN AND HARRIS ARE HIS ATTEMPT TO OVERTURN NAMED PRESIDENT-ELECT AND THE ELECTION RESULTS. VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT. The Supreme Court declined to hear the Texas

Pennsylvania’s votes gave Biden the necessary Electoral College to ensure victory against the incumbent President Trump.

lawsuit seeking to overturn the election results in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

said in an e-mail interview. “Taking tests online isn’t the same as in person, as you have to spend more time submitting and formatting answers, and […] you don’t [have] the sensation of doing it with everyone else.”

Overall, some feel that the social aspect of in-person testing has been lost through virtual testing. “I do not prefer the online format, mostly because of the loss of the feeling of togetherness I tend to feel when taking a test with other people and just physically seeing/interacting with people,” sophomore Josiah Moltz said in an e-mail interview.

Despite the changes, students are continuing to prepare for their upcoming competitions. “The pandemic has disrupted all of our routines, but the preparation work remains the same: to keep on practicing,” junior Jerry Liang said in an e-mail interview.

Despite the online competitions, some still feel the spirit of the math team and hope to continue building up their math skills. “There’s […] a mutual understanding [within the math team] that while it’s pretty cool and impressive to get a high contest score, the contests are meant to be taken for fun and to stimulate our curiosity regarding math. That spirit has not changed despite being online,” freshman Eshaal Ubaid said in an e-mail interview.

Though many math competitions have had to adapt to online, Sterr appreciates that students still have the chance to participate. “Until we are able to gather large numbers of students in one place, we’ll have to be flexible and adjust to virtual competitions,” Sterr said. “There are a lot of students who look forward to these competitions and solving the problems, so the fact that we can participate at all is a good thing.”

12/14: SANDRA LINDSAY RECEIVES THE FIRST CORONAVIRUS VACCINATION IN THE U.S. OUTSIDE OF A TRIAL.

Lindsay, an intensive care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, is the first of many people deemed most essential or at-risk to receive the vaccine. They include health care workers, nursing home residents and staff, and long-term care facilities. This follows the approval of the Pfizer vaccine by the Food and Drug Administration on December 11.

12/14: CORONAVIRUS DEATHS PASS 300,000 IN THE UNITED STATES.

IN MEMORIAM: 1/26: Kobe Bryant 3/13: Breonna Taylor 5/25: George Floyd 7/17: U.S. Representative John Lewis 8/28: Chadwick Boseman 9/18: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg 11/8: Alex Trebek 11/23: David N. Dinkins 11/27: Diego Maradona 12/7: Chuck Yeager

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

Page 7

Features

Feminist, Femin-ish, and Femi-NO! Feminism at Stuyvesant

By SOOBIN CHOI, CHRISTINA PAN, SHIVANI MANIMARAN, SABRINA CHEN and JUDY CHEN

By ISABEL CHING, CALISTA LEE and CHLOE BOCCARA For most Stuyvesant students, free time is as foreign a concept as working escalators. On a normal school day in a non-pandemic year, students wake at ungodly hours of the morning, spend hours commuting, attend school and extracurriculars for most of the daylight hours, and finally make their way home. All these make for a jam-packed schedule with little time for leisure activities. However, the 2020 school year has been far different from any other. With a schedule that starts over an hour later than usual, half the usual amount of classes every day, and a drastically shortened commute that consists of only walking from bed to desk, daily routines have completely changed. Another major novelty? Spare time.

In senior Aki Yamaguchi’s case,

To Ohayon, however, eliminating gender associations is essential because of the depth of misogyny in our language and culture. “It’s really disturbing that our society has internalized the words ‘pussy’ as being weak and ‘having balls’ as brave,” Ohayon said. “And a lot of it’s been spread because of social media or other videos.”

Social media can be easily used to weaponize feminism, churning out artillery in droves. “Hyperboles like #KillAllMen (#KAM) often do more harm than good, even if it’s obviously not literal,” Simon

pectations and South Asian background have significantly affected her ideas as a feminist. “I come from a culture where […] it’s really expected for [women] to be housewives. So there’s like that cultural expectation. So you grow up with your mom being a housewife and your sisters being married off, and your sister is also going down the same path,” she described.

But some view these gender roles, especially motherhood, as an important principle to uphold. “[Motherhood]’s something that should be heavily encouraged.

orientation, it’s the same society.”

Ferencz believes that it is this same society that perpetuates toxic masculinity, leading to the rejection of feminism. “I think there’s an extension of how there is this curious element of patriarchal culture which tells young men that they can dictate other people’s experiences to them,” Ferencz said.

“If my masculinity is defined by my mistreatment of women or my using my privilege to have certain powers over women, I don’t want to be a part of that masculinity.”

The anonymous sophomore feels that feminism threatens masculinity by attempting to eliminate traditionally masculine gender norms. “Whether it’s about chivalry or fatherhood, like the hero myth of the male who goes on the quest to pursue his destiny, feminism wants to eliminate any type of association of gender with that,” he said.

said. “Malicious content creators can take statements like these and paint feminism as a nefarious, angry plot to destroy masculinity and the West.”

Simon’s point is crucial to understanding why feminism is often a polarizing subject. Almost invariably, mentioning the word “feminist” conjures images of an aggressive, man-hating lesbian and “the feminazi” or “the radical,” whose sole purpose is to create a society where men are crushed under the heels of women.

This caricature crosses industries and cultures alike. “I remember this excerpt from Taylor Swift’s doc[umentary], [in which] she explained, ‘If a man does something, he’s strategic. If a woman does something, she’s calculated. A man can react, but a woman can only overreact,’” Ohayon explained.

Similarly, senior Meril Mousoom finds that her cultural ex-

And if that means saying, ‘Don’t go to work, don’t participate in the workplace completely, and be a housewife,’ then that’s what the implication is,” the anonymous sophomore said.

Moreover, the anonymous sophomore believes that these gender roles apply to non-binary individuals. “Even if you don’t have the tendency to [be cisgender], and it’s not natural, then you should do it anyway out of an obligation to preserve the stability of the society,” he said.

Sexuality and gender roles are just two of the many societal factors that overlap in feminism. Current feminist ideology acknowledges the concept of intersectionality, the idea that social categorizations, including race, class, and gender, create interdependent systems that form certain advantages or disadvantages. “As a trans person, my definition of a feminist is someone

Sophie Poget / The Spectator

There has never been an equal number of female and male students at Stuyvesant. For 65 years, Stuyvesant was an all-boys school.

It wasn’t until 1969 that the first female students were admitted after 13-year-old Alice de Rivera filed a lawsuit against the New York City Board of Education for violating the 14th Amendment’s equal-protection clause.

“The morals of Stuyvesant are being corrupted!” one male student that same year wrote in an editorial for The Spectator. Yet the majority of students cheered de Rivera forward, and the first co-ed class graduated from Stuyvesant in 1972.

But sexist notions about girls’ roles within Stuyvesant and within the world didn’t simply break in two with one bang of the gavel.

Forty-eight years after the first girls graduated from Stuyvesant, people are still in the process of defining and understanding what, exactly, it means to be a feminist.

To sophomore and president of Stuyvesant Girl Up Lianne Ohayon, “feminist” is a title to be proud of. “It means you’re a changemaker, an upstander, and it’s honestly really frustrating that again, it has a negative or derogatory connotation to it. It’s a social movement, fighting for gender equity and leveling the playing field for women,” Ohayon said.

This positive interpretation of feminism is the spine of English teacher Eric Ferencz’s senior elective Women’s Voices, in which students examine contemporary issues surrounding women. “The most frequent definition of feminism that I know of […] is equal protection under the law for men and women,” Ferencz said. “In order for that to occur, there needs to be an acknowledgment of thousands of years of history of an unequal power balance that can influence the way that we perceive equality.”

Speaking on behalf of those who oppose feminism, an anonymous male sophomore asserted that feminism is nothing to be proud of and that equality is both undesirable and unachievable. “[Feminism] is something that cannot and

should not be achieved,” he said.

“If feminism means the complete equality of men and women, then I would say no because I would say that that’s impossible because men and women are different.”

However, to English teacher Lauren Stuzin, these differences are a product of societal norms rather than a reflection on substantive reasons. “People are just people,” Stuzin explained in an e-mail interview. “It’s society that tells us we are wrong for something about our identities, and in every case, whether its race, gender, [or] sexual

Free Time: Fantastic or Futile?

quarantine has brought greatly appreciated free time. “I have more free time during remote learning, and I definitely love it. I think it’s a combination [of the fact] that I’m a senior, so I have fewer classes this year, and the fact [that] we have half our homework load every day,” she said in an e-mail interview. Yamaguchi explained that she’s been using this time to destress, work on her college applications, and reconnect with some of her local soccer friends.

Junior Yaqin Rahman seconded this sentiment. “I spend that [free] time scrolling through Instagram and Facebook, watching anime, watching sports videos, and many types of videos on YouTube as well,” Rahman said in an e-mail interview.

Unlike Yamaguchi and Rahman, who are upperclassmen, freshman Erica Chen is still adapting to Stuyvesant’s rigorous academic schedule and, thus, does

not have as much free time. While Chen does believe that remote learning has been easier on her sleep schedule since she no longer needs to commute to school, the demands of Stuyvesant have more than made up for the time she used to spend commuting. “The amount of time that I spend on schoolwork has increased dramatically since I entered Stuyvesant, so this [workload] decreases the amount of free time that I have to myself,” she explained in an email interview. “In middle school, I would be able to finish all the homework I had for the week in about one or two days, but now in [high] school, I work almost all day.”

Chen’s heavy workload has not kept her from pursuing her hobbies, however. She’s been able to continue reading despite the constraints of quarantine. “I have been reading but definitely not as much as I did before. I prefer read-

ing an actual copy of the book, but as the libraries are still closed and I’m not really allowed outside, actual books are not available,” she said. “I’ve been reading more online books, though—usually translated Chinese novels.”

Yamaguchi echoed Chen’s ideas: she is a big reader too and has been borrowing books from an online library. She reads mostly at night and admits that her latenight literary sessions are part of the reasons for her delayed sleep schedule. “I’ve started reading manga as I started watching Haikyuu (it’s a Japanese anime), which is certainly interesting,” she said.

English teacher Eric Ferencz is no different. By his estimates, he reads about an hour every day.

He explained in an e-mail interview, “A few months ago, a friend and I decided to read the same books at the same time so we’d have something interesting to talk

who identifies, resists, and fights all oppressive and discriminatory forces, those that affect people of color, queer and trans people, disabled people, and women,” Stuzin said.

“We need to change the system for everyone—it cannot and will not change for only a few. Liberation for women is liberation for all oppressed people,” they explained.

Mousoom also prioritizes intersectionality in feminism. “We also have to realize not every single person [who] experiences sexism is binary because there are some non-binary people [who] look like they are AFAB, assigned female at birth,” Mousoom said. “So they do, or they did experience sexism, and it could even be worse, and it probably is worse than [for] most white women.”

Similarly, Ohayon believes that feminism must become more inclusive. “So what I want to emphasize is to pursue inclusion. That’s the only way we can move forward, and we have come a really far way since 100 years ago, whe[n] it was predominantly white women, and white women only who were included in feminism,” she said.

An anonymous male junior offered a similar perspective. “While a case can be made that perhaps [women] are the most prominent victims of gender inequality, I believe the perceived neglect, and sometimes actual neglect, of other groups [has] created a lot of enemies and can lead others to radicalize against gender equality,” he said in an e-mail interview.

From 1969 to 2020, Stuyvesant’s culture has come a long way in its willingness to discuss, share, and empathize with others, especially on stigmatized topics like feminism. It is fortunate that there seem to be fewer Stuyvesant students squealing about how female students corrupt the morality of Stuyvesant. After all, female students now constitute around 43 percent of the student body. We’ve moved onto a more intelligent form of discourse. “It does seem to be the standard among students of raising themselves up to a certain quality of discussion, and I really do appreciate that,” Ferencz said.

“There’s always respect; there’s always this perception of the importance of respecting the other person [whom] you’re talking to, and I think that that goes a long way.”

about outside of what we ate that day.” He continued, “So far we’ve read Patrick Radden Keefe’s ‘The Snakehead’ and James Gleick’s ‘The Information.’”

For librarian Christopher Bowlin, the time he spends reading hasn’t changed much since pre-quarantine. The material he is reading, though, is different: he’s been reading far more e-mails and e-books. Bowlin does miss his paperback pals: “I begin to miss the sensory kinship of physical books if I’ve read too many back-to-back e-books.” He went on to list some of the most compelling books he has read recently, which include “The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead and “The Mountains Sing” by Nguyen Phan Que Mai. Other folks with readerly aspirations haven’t been having as much luck. Guidance counselor continued on page 8

Page 8

Features continued from page 7

Sarah Kornhauser has found it difficult to maintain her prepandemic reading habits. “For so long, I was always a big reader, and I used to use the train to do a lot [of ] reading. For the first many months of the pandemic, I had a book by my bedside, but I could not read it.” She continued, “Instead of torturing myself with it, I started listening to audiobooks on my walks and runs. That’s something that is very pandemic related—I cannot read.”

However, Kornhauser has picked up some new habits. “I’ve been practicing cooking, and I’m cooking myself through a cookbook. It’s taken me a long time, but it’s leading me to do things that I’ve never done,” she said.

Cooking is not the only thing Kornhauser has picked up, though. “I do macrame, so I’ve been making wall hangings, plant hangers, and welcome mats, and I actually had a sale last week, so I’ve been selling some of the things I’ve been creating too.”

Reading and new hobbies aside, Stuyvesant students and teachers have found another incredibly productive use for their newfound free time: sleep. For the perpetually sleep-deprived, remote learning has presented a unique opportunity to catch some badlyneeded time in bed.

Yamaguchi has spent a lot of time napping. She’s been able to nap more often because school days are significantly shorter and because she is always at home.

However, these naps have adversely affected her sleep schedule. She said, “I usually [nap] right after class before I have a meeting or soccer practice later. The bad thing I started doing is napping after 10 [at night] or dinner and then waking up at midnight or 1:00 [a.m.] to do my work.” Her first class begins at 11:20 a.m., which has kept

ACROSS: 3. The clearly inferior video conferencing platform made by Google.

7. The website that the program office is NOT using for program changes this semester.

8. First name of the former Stuyvesant principal for whom the auditorium is named.

10. Last name of the singer of The Spectator’s pick for the best album of 2019.

11. Iconic Stuyvesant intergrade performance competition.

12. Title of The Spectator magazine that started online beef with the Big Sibs program.

13. The Spectator’s newest department.

14. A section in the Features department that includes personal pieces.

16. Bi-annual Spectator events held in the fall to welcome new students to The Spectator.

18. Floor number in which freshmen are told there is a pool.

20. The *best* sauce on Ferry’s sandwiches.

23. Train many Stuyvesant students take to get to school.

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

Free Time: Fantastic or Futile?

her up late into the night because used to do to make up for the lack she convinces herself that she will of sleep the night before. still get eight hours of sleep. But Similarly, English teacher Eric Yamaguchi is conscious of her Ferencz does not nap. He stated own sleep deficit. “This leads to frankly, “Usually when I wake up me staying up longer, and [I end] from a nap, I’m a crabby grump up sleeping less,” she said. who just wants to go back to sleep.”

Chen’s sleep schedule is far Ferencz maintains a routine sleep more structured. She always goes s c h e d to sleep before 11:00 p.m. at night u l e , on weekdays and wakes up at 8:00 a.m. “Before quarantine, I would sleep at around 11:00 [p.m.] or so and wake up at 6:00 [a.m.],” she said. She credits the increase of sleep time to the absence of a commute, which she estimates is almost two hours. Recently, however, Chen has been waking up even earlier. “Recently I’ve been waking up at 7:00 a.m. to start homework earlier [and have] more time to FaceTime with my friends during the day.”

Rahman, too, has been developing healthier sleeping habits. He said, “Right now, it’s actually really stable for the first time in forever, and I get a healthy amount of sleep now.”

This schedule is a stark contrast to what he had been experiencing before remote learning, when his sleep time would fluctuate frequently. “On school nights, I would get three to four hours of sleep and nap during the day to compensate. This would trickle down into the weekends [when] I would end up sleeping at 5:00 a.m.

Sab ri and wake up at 3:00 p.m.,” he na Chen / The Spe said. Rahman’s new sleeping arcta rangement keeps him energized which he tor throughout the day, so he doesn’t believes helps him fall a s l e e p nap. In fact, he views naps as a without difficulty. thing of the past, something he Despite these new sleeping

arrangements and somewhat productive use of free time, many feel there is still room for improvement in how they use free time.

Rahman is one of these students: “I wish I spent less of my free time on Instagram and more on media that’s more fulfilling.

Reading books is definitely something I want to pick up on, as well as spend[ing] more time w a t c h ing anime and reading manga or webcomics.” Physical activity is important to Rahman as well. “Working out is also something I want to spend more time on since I regularly did it before but started slacking recently. I plan on controlling all of these things in a timely manner so I still have time to do work.”

Chen also finds herself struggling with productivity. She noted, “I feel like doing remote learning makes me feel a bit too relaxed; it doesn’t feel like school.

I never used to procrastinate, but remote learning has definitely caused me to feel lazier and unproductive.”

In contrast, Ferencz feels pressure to work during any extra free time he has. He explained, “I tend to think that I need to be as productive as pos-

sible, every single day, and I need to remember how downtime is valuable for my mental health and the quality of work I hope to produce as a teacher.” This sentiment is surely applicable to many Stuyvesant students who feel that they need to leave quarantine with extraordinary accomplishments.

But for students feeling disappointed in themselves because of their (lack of ) productivity, Kornhauser has advice. Establishing a consistent routine and setting aside work time can help both students and teachers manage school and free time. She explained, “Make a ritual around what happens when the school day ends. Go outside, change your shirt.” She elaborated on the importance of structure as well: “Sometimes you just need focused structure because it takes so long to do things when you multitask. You have to carve out work time and not work time. Otherwise, it’s just one big blob.” She also offered a small tip for students who procrastinate or cannot focus: “Don’t look at your phone. Set a timer on your phone, and say, ‘I’m not going to do anything until the buzzer goes off.’ After[wards], you can resume your activities.”

In these difficult times, Kornhauser reminds us that it’s important to be kind to ourselves.

“Think about the little things that would give you a little pleasure, and think about if it is possible to give yourself them. Let yourself have them,” she said. “What else do we have?”

Kornhauser’s advice is certainly grounded. During a time of such hardship and uncertainty, it can be difficult to be productive and continue working at the same feverish pace that so many Stuyvesant students pride themselves in. So take it easy, Stuyvesant. Slow down. Be kind to yourself. Use that free time.

DOWN: 1. Remote learning Spectator magazine with a punny name.

2. “Wait I can’t hear you, you’re ____!”

4. A means of traversing between floors at Stuyvesant (in theory).

5. First word of “Ferry’s” real name 6. Annual Spectator published on April Fools’ Day. 9. Number of departments on The Spectator!

15. Stuyvesant’s go-to social media platform.

17. A common article format to present quotes. For the uneducated—examples include jam, peanut butter, and marmalade.

19. Most common first name aong assistant princpials (and former principals).

21. The symbol used in many outquotes in The Spectator.

22. “Please raise your ___ hand!”

25. Name for grade-specific student governments at Stuyvesant.

28. The “A” in “A&E.”

Tag us at @stuyspectator on Instagram with your completed puzzle to be featured!

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

Page 9

Features Voices

By CLARA SHAPIRO

By ARIANA DEVITO, ANGELA CAI and CHRISTINA PAN Perhaps Uncle Bill sings in the shower. Perhaps Grandpa, deafer by the day, puts the TV on full blast no matter who’s on what important Zoom call. And without a doubt, Mom is the one who keeps leaving black hairs on the bar of soap in the bathroom,

And for some, it may make it impossible.

It is also common for libretti to be sexist. In Mozart’s “Don Giovanni,” there is a coquettish village girl named Zerlina who sings an aria, “Batti, batti, o bel Masetto!” or “Beat me, dear Masetto!” to the sturdy peasant bloke she’s about to marry. The chance to wallop a woman may be just the thing for Masetto’s rattled masculinity— he has just seen Zerlina get seduced

PG: Opera takes a commitment.

You have to have time—operas are longer than Broadway musicals. They are mostly sung in foreign languages, so you have to have the patience and intellectual curiosity to actually take the trouble to read the subtitles if you actually want to know what’s going on in the story. Also, a lot of opera stories are very outdated, and they are not so relevant. Some of the greatest music written for operas have stories that are not very convincing, not very

by Don Giovanni, and a day before their wedding, at that. “I’ll stand here meek as a lamb,” sings Zerlina. “You can tear my hair out, put out my eyes, yet your dear hands I’ll gladly kiss.”

Opera is trying to move forward. But it’s difficult when characters like Zerlina and Monostatos cling to opera’s legs. I recently had the opportunity to speak to one of opera’s great revitalizers, General Manager of the Met Opera Peter Gelb, to talk about the predicament that opera is in right now.

And, even more importantly, what can be done about it. I was particularly eager to talk to Gelb because of the work that he’s already done to bring opera to a wider audience.

The abridged production of “The Magic Flute” that hooked me as a toddler was one of his initiatives.

He is also responsible for “The Met: Live in HD,” which brings live performance transmissions to movie theaters all over the world.

Gelb and I spoke over Zoom. Here is our conversation, cut down for clarity and length:

credible dramatically.

For today, my goal with opera is to try to make it as widely appealing as possible for different age groups and to work with the best directors and designers to create experiences that younger audiences, if they give it a chance, could really get into. And it’s also why, for extra young audiences, I’ve created that reduced English-language version of “The Magic Flute.” That was done expressly for the purpose of trying to introduce opera to younger people. It’s what I’m committed to doing, trying to make opera as widely accessible as possible without undermining its artistic integrity and what makes opera so beautiful and so appealing. My goal is to get people to be willing, whether they’re old or young, to come into the opera house and give it a chance. And then I hope what happens is that they will be overwhelmed by the power of the musical and theatrical experience, which can be incredible.

Sometimes there are themes in opera that clash with modern values, like “Batti, batti, o bel Masetto” or anti-semitism in the Ring Cycle. So how does the Met deal with this? And if an opera does have these sour notes, does that mean it shouldn’t be performed?

PG: Great art, over the span of

Shirley Tan / The Spectator

If opera dies, fate core—be brave—and plunge your sword into my heart! If not that, I’ll go the other “Così fan tutte” route and just find myself some arsenic.

Or I will bury myself alive in the tomb of my beloved. Or jump off the parapet of Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome. Or march to the guillotine while belting the “Salve Regina.” Or self-immolate on my lover’s funeral pyre. And if I have the patience for a slow burn, the tuberculosis will probably take me in the end, “La Traviata”-style.

As any opera character would, I come to desperate measures out of love. I first encountered opera when I was three years old and my mom brought home the Metropolitan Opera’s “The Magic Flute” on DVD. In Sarastro’s kingdom, no one can resist the sound of Prince Tamino’s magic flute. Even the huge white bears living nearby can’t help but come onstage and do a jig.

On the other side of the TV, I, too, must have perked up my cub ears and begun to dance.

But I worry now about opera’s future. Because of the pandemic, opera is in more danger than ever.

COVID-19 has cost the Metropolitan Opera over $150 million.

Approximately 1,000 members of the chorus and orchestra have been furloughed without pay since April.

Opera was ailing long before COVID arrived. In 2017, the New York Times reported that the Met had taken in only 67 percent of its potential box office revenue from the 2016-2017 season. This is a huge plummet from as recently as the ‘90s, when the Met consistently took in over 90 percent of its potential box-office income. The ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s were the golden age of opera. Now, that’s just the age of opera-goers. These goers, many of whom are older folks, also tend to be white (78 percent) and college-educated (93.4 percent).

It’s easy to see where opera gets its stuffy, eau-du-something smell.

Making opera relevant to a wider audience is difficult particularly due to the parts of opera that are not just benignly stale, but rotten. The character of Monostatos in “The Magic Flute” has his origins in the libretto as a lecherous “blackamore” lusting after the pure, beautiful, white Pamina. Monostatos is an outcast even in his name, which is Greek for “standing alone.” In the original libretto, Monostatos sings an aria called “Alles fühlt der Liebe Freuden” that includes one of the most hateful lines in opera: “I am supposed to avoid love. Because a Black is ugly.”

The Met’s English language version sanitizes this with something more innocuous: “I’m despised and ugly, too.” Nevertheless, knowing the origin of this character makes loving opera, or at least “The Magic Flute,” more complex and difficult.

I Give a Figaro! Why Opera Is Worth Caring About

What do you think accounts for the disconnect between young people these days and opera, and what might opera have to say to youth?

history, often reflects the values, or the poor values, that existed at the time when these great works were created.

And this is not just exclusively the case of opera. William Faulkner was terribly anti-Semitic in some of his great novels. But because somebody writes something that’s flawed or wrong, but the work itself is a creative work of genius, we should not throw out the baby with the bathwater. I think it’s really important that we should make note of the fact that opera librettos, or the way they were produced, conveyed unfortunate or blatantly racist stereotypes or antiSemitism. But that doesn’t mean they should be eliminated. They represent the great history of art. But also, going back to your earlier question, that can make it harder for somebody who’s young or not initiated to opera to want to be exposed to it, because they come to an opera and see that it’s blatantly racist. There were practices, historically, in opera, [like] using makeup to make singers Black, in the case of performances of “Otello,” or yellow in the case of performances of “Madama Butterfly” or “Turandot.” We stopped doing that. But you know it’s something we have to be very aware of, and anybody doing the job I’m doing has to be careful and has to ensure that proper contextual information is given for these performances. It’s also why I’m excited about commissioning new work. It’s a chance to address social change. And for example, in the 21-22 season, our very opening night is “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” which is an opera by Terrence Blanchard, and it addresses several issues, one being that the Met has lagged way behind in not having Black composers. This will be the first work by an African-American composer the Met has put on.

How do you expect that opera will change because of this pandemic?

PG: COVID has been devastating, not just for Met but for all the performing arts. Everything is shut down. The nonprofit performing arts were struggling financially to begin with, and now without performances, our company members are struggling because most of them have been furloughed without pay. We are ultimately at the mercy of how quickly the COVID crisis is cured. Until it goes away, we’re kind of stuck. What has been really important for the Met, in these months that we’ve been dark, is the way that we connect with our audiences both here and abroad through this vast vault of programming that we’ve released to the public. Free nightly opera streams, payper-view recitals we’re releasing in Europe—all these have had a really profound effect on the public. We actually have 30,000 new donors who joined because of the nightly streams, people who felt that the Met sort of came to their rescue, culturally, when they were stuck in their homes.

People have actually discovered opera through these nightly streams. Hopefully, that will carry over—that momentum that we’ve achieved winning

There’s No Place Like Home

even though she insists they’re too dark to be hers. It’s hard, or perhaps impossible, to recall a time when we spent so much time with family. Mannerisms become annoying. Siblings were already annoying, even before the pandemic started up. Yet this pandemic has also provided a rare chance for us to truly get to know the people we live with. This period has been a time for family members to share

things. Other than the soap, that is.

For sophomore Eugenia Ochoa, whose school and work schedule have always stood as barriers to bonding time, these past few months have provided her with an opportunity to foster a stronger relationship with her family. “The world right now is in a pretty strange state. We have been through it all together, sup-

porting each other how we can and trying to stay calm when basically the world is falling apart,” Ochoa said. “That has made us closer than we were before.” Time spent with her parents entails conversing, watching movies, and her favorite activity so far: walking their dog.

Junior Rachel Lin has also developed a routine with her family. “We eat dinner together and

the hearts of the public through the Met’s efforts to keep audiences connected to the art form, even when we’re dark.

It is true that opera is old and still resorts to some of its most outdated mannerisms, like bosomclutching and 20 gigatonne sets.

However, it is also true that opera, despite how its skin may sag and drag, has vital organs that are still pumping. “Fidelio,” Beethoven’s beautiful (and only) opera, is the story of the heroism of a woman called Leonore who disguises herself as a man and sneaks into prison to liberate her husband, Florestan.

“Fidelio” is also a story about justice. In his underground cell, Florestan, who has been jailed for speaking out against the evil Don Pizarro, sings, “I dared to speak the truth boldly, and these chains are my reward.” Perhaps this sounds familiar in 2020. Often, though, opera doesn’t strike any socially relevant chords. It doesn’t need to; it simply tells a good story.

In Donizetti’s “L’Elisir d’amore,” a bumpkin named Nemorino takes a swig of placebo with the hope that he will develop enough manly swagger to win the heart of the wealthy farm owner Adina, whose chief virtues, according to Nemorino, are that she is beautiful, expensive, and literate.

Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” is the story of a prank gone so wrong that two young women, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, start the day engaged and end the day about to be married. But not to the original men.

But what keeps opera a warm, breathing art form is ultimately not only the plotlines. It is the way that opera draws people together.

In a physical sense, opera brings people together in the opera house rows and on the subway ride there and back. People graze each other as they slip into their seats. During intermission, bathroom-goers bump elbows as they reach for the soap. There is a different form of closeness in the music. The music is the part of opera that everybody understands without the help of subtitles or costumes. The music is the part of opera that stays fresh, the part that affects people in the same ways as it did a century or two ago. The music cannot be dead because it calls out to all sorts of creatures—Prince Tamino, bears, and humans—and brings us all to life.

Clara Shapiro’s ‘Great Tunes from Opera’ playlist:

have game night with Monopoly and Chinese poker at least once a week. I’ve played games and spent more time with my family since the start of the pandemic, and we watch K-dramas and Netflix every day together,” she said.

Sophomore Angel Liu has grown closer to family memcontinued on page 10

Page 10

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

Features continued from page 9

bersover quarantine too, most notably with her grandmother.

Pre-quarantine, Liu visited her grandmother fairly infrequently, in trips that always felt more obligatory than voluntary. “I used to visit my grandma pretty much the same time every month or so,” Liu said. “Our schedules were pretty hectic, and so it felt weirdly formal.”

Ever since March, however, Liu’s grandmother has moved in with the rest of her family. Liu’s family lives in a house, and her grandmother used to live in a tightly-packed apartment complex. “With COVID, we thought

There’s No Place Like Home

it would be safer and more convenient for her,” she said. “She used to live pretty close to us, like a 30-minute drive, but quarantine’s been nice because I get to spend more time with her and really get to know her,” Liu said.

Similarly, junior Xiaoshen Ma’s grandparents, who she lives with, have been a source of strength for her during quarantine. “When I’m feeling sad, I ask my grandparents for a hug,” she said. Despite experiencing the quarantine blues, Ma acknowledges that there are some positives to not going to school, especially in terms of family bonding. “My grandparents are happy I’m home and safe. It’s winter, so my grandparents are always like

‘thank God’ she doesn’t have to go to school if it’s snowing.”

Family connections are not confined to New York City: students have also reached out to family members outside of the five boroughs. For Ochoa’s family, for example, connections with relatives outside of the city have cemented even further. “Before the pandemic, we didn’t really talk to them much. Now, we schedule reunions almost every other week,” Ochoa said.

However, managing family relations during these tumultuous times isn’t always smooth sailing. Some sibling relationships are barely staying afloat. “I hate siblings!” Lin, who has a sister and

brother, said earnestly. “I feel pretty alienated from my brother since he’s locked himself into his room and played games all day since the pandemic began.”

Junior Devin Deng finds himself in a similar predicament with his sister, though their clashes are a bit more heated. “We probably talk a single time a day, but we’re usually just screeching at each other. It’s usually just about random stuff she gets mad at for no reason,” he said.

In fact, Ma recalls a certain incident when she and Deng were in a Zoom call doing homework together, and she was startled after hearing a door abruptly slam shut in the background. “I heard

[Deng]’s sister say ‘Devin! Where are the cookies?! Why do you always eat the cookies?!’ [Deng] then responded by screaming back, ‘I’m a growing boy!’” Ma said.

Despite the rough patches, family gives the pandemic a silver lining. Whether it’s sharing a laugh in front of the TV or yelling at each other across the house, time spent with family can be cherished. “I’ve become so much closer with my family these past few months [by] just hanging out more,” Ma said. “I’m just thankful they’re happy and healthy.”

And in case you need another thing to be thankful about: Uncle Bill may be running up the water bill, but at least he bathes.

Virtual Physical Education: “A Whole New World”

By SAMMI YANG, ANGELA CAI, OLIVIA WOO and LIANA WU

know that our students [didn’t] have that opportunity for the last eight or nine months,” Miller said. Senior Victoria Yu agreed, revealing that she preferred inperson class for that reason. “It’s just more comfortable, and I get to see my friends and talk to them so that I don’t feel as awkward as I’m doing the exercises,” she said.

Though PE class may have lost its interactive aspect, teachers have added new topics to the curriculum. Teachers have introduced health-related topics that students encounter on a daily basis such as stress, meditation, flexibility, and sleep. These lessons are not only informative but also add a new dimension to the average online PE class. “Sometimes I’ll think back to the stuff I watched in class and think, ‘maybe I should sleep more’ or ‘maybe I should start stretching more,’” Yu said.

Other new additions to the curriculum include introducing discussion questions that students answer and share at the beginning of class. These discussion questions, used to take attendance, range from lighthearted to serious (examples include “what is your favorite drink?” to “how many hours of sleep do you get per night?”). Miller especially looks forward to this part of class.

“I get to know the students on a different level rather than just seeing them physically,” he said.

While virtual PE has brought teachers closer to students through the newly implemented discussions, the physical distance between them has brought up a new concern: academic integrity.

PE teachers assign “Fitness Logs” for homework, which lists different sets of workouts and stretches for students to complete. Students then check off which days they exercised, with a requirement of two days per week, as well as which stretches and exercises they completed.

Because teachers have no way of guaranteeing that students actually do these workouts, students can easily check off the assignment without completing them. “I feel like even the most hardworking teacher’s-pet-type students don’t even do them,” the anonymous sophomore explained.

An anonymous senior echoed this sentiment: “Maybe if I had to show some proof or something, then maybe I would try to do them. I’d rather not spend 30 minutes looking through a Google Form, trying to do these

exercises.”

But for some students, the struggle to meet these expectations extends beyond a lack of motivation. Many students live in apartments or small spaces where they do not always have the freedom to jump or make big movements. As a result, they need to exclude certain exercises in their workouts or find alternatives. “Personally for me, when I do things like mountain climbers, I stomp on the ground, and it isn’t realistic right now. So I feel like I try to pick up exercises that are easy to do in this environment or ones that I can actually do properly,” Igarashi said.

In response to these challenges, the PE teachers have devised exercises that can be done easily in difficult environments. “I’m really trying to have the students be as creative as possible,” Barbin said. “I’ve taken exercises that handicapped people or seniors use, and I try to incorporate that for students who don’t have the room or are worried about making noise. I had to be creative too.”

Despite efforts to accommodate students in special circumstances, some students find that these restricted activities have become monotonous. “It seems kind of circular since we do very similar workouts constantly, whereas in normal PE, you have different units for stuff,” an anonymous freshman said.

“The highlight of pre-quarantine gym classes would be getting the hands-on experience and playing with a group of friends, but this year, the best situation is to play with the wall and hope that it is sturdy enough to bounce volleyballs back,” freshman Rebecca Bao added in an e-mail interview.

The removal of electives for this year added to the monotony of PE that some students described. Yu was one of the many upperclassmen who looked forward to taking a PE elective this

year. “I wanted to take roller skating this semester, but I was kind of bummed that all the gym classes were the same now,” she expressed.

Presenting a different point of view, Igarashi feels that current circumstances have introduced greater diversity into the curriculum. “We just did kickboxing in the air the other day, and I feel like it’s more diverse, the things that we do, because we can’t just do the more generic options like playing basketball or practicing for the FitnessGram,” she said.

Barbin, who usually teaches a boxing elective to upperclassmen, had a similar take. With PE electives cut this year, he tries to instead incorporate exercises from those electives into his regular classes. “It’s not boxing per se, but I try to incorporate some of the exercises and counterstetics that we did remotely,” he said.

In fact, Moran revealed that students can expect more aspects of the electives to be brought into the class. “In the spring term, we hope to introduce some lessons in our elective areas (kickboxing, cycling, rollerblading, etc.) just to give students a sampling of the classes they can choose when we return to in-person instruction,” he explained in an e-mail interview. He also added that freshmen are not yet exempt from swim gym. “When we are permitted to do so, swimming will return to Stuyvesant. Freshman will be given the proficiency test at some point,” he revealed.

While in-person PE undoubtedly remains the more popular choice between two formats, virtual PE has come a long way from when schools first shut down. The opportunity to engage in physical activities—whether that is via arm circles or air boxing—is invaluable. As Igarashi said, “I think it’s good to, every other day, have a chance to just exercise and be forced to exercise in a good way.”

Francesca Nemati / The Spectator

Running laps. Floating in the cool waters of the pool. Rollerskating in the first floor lobby.

Under normal circumstances, the school gym was one of the liveliest rooms in the Stuyvesant building. Whether students were participating in a fierce volleyball tournament or spectating a soccer match on the sidelines, physical education (PE) was a class period unlike any other.

But since COVID-19 forced schools to adopt a virtual platform in March, PE classes have become nearly inactive due to the sudden change and absence of a cohesive department-wide curriculum. With such short notice between the transition from inperson to virtual learning, figuring out an online format for PE was no easy feat.

Over the summer, PE teachers became resources and motivators for each other as they collectively tried to jog classes back to life. “My department has been tremendous, kicking ideas off of each other during this time.

We’re working Saturday night.

Look at this lesson. It’s great. And everybody’s been pulling together during these difficult times, and we’ve really been resourceful as far as that,” PE teacher Howard Barbin said.

Rather than teachers devising individual solutions themselves, the Health and Physical Education department teachers have collaborated to develop a plan for the start of the academic year.

“We did a ton of planning those first two or three weeks in September as a department. We really came together as a group,” PE teacher Vincent Miller recalled.

“We really put our heads together and tried to come up with […] lessons for the whole course of the semester, being that we were going to see each class every four days.”

With remote learning leaving students without many opportunities to get out of their chairs, the PE teachers have made it their mission to get their students up and moving. Assistant Principal of Health and Physical Education Brian Moran believes that the pandemic has reinforced the importance of health and PE. “We are giving students the tools needed to go out and continue physical activity, sport, fitness, and mental health—to find an activity that they enjoy and can

continue it for a lifetime,” he said.

One aspect of achieving this goal is having a synchronous portion for live workouts during PE classes. Students are expected to turn on their cameras and follow along with the exercises demonstrated by the teachers. “Some of [the students’] parents are really strict about not going out [and] mingling with groups,” Barbin said. “The [PE] class that you’re getting right now might be the only exercise you get. Especially during a pandemic, it’s really important to keep moving and stay strong.”

Miller has recognized the importance of exercise during these times through his own experiences as well. After staying home more frequently and often sitting in a stiff chair for hours, his back started hurting. “I felt like I was 20 years older than I was […] It was because I was getting so stiff and not moving around that I just started going out and running. And every day that I ran, my back felt better and better,” he recalled. Miller also told this story in his own classes, hoping to inspire his students to look for ways to stay active as well.

In fact, many students feel that their health has greatly benefited from these live classes.

“When you’re in Stuy, and you’re actually running up and down the stairs; you get exercise. But right now, it’s so rare to actually be able to walk around and exercise in your own room. And it’s hard to motivate myself, so I’m taking the opportunity to be motivated by Mr. Miller,” senior Yume Igarashi, one of Miller’s students, said.

Though there are some positives to virtual PE, there are also many drawbacks. Some students find themselves struggling to actively engage in PE. “We all know PE is a […] class with no real weight, so that doesn’t encourage participation, and most people don’t really care,” an anonymous sophomore said. “I really only do what [my teacher] says for the grade, though. I still need to pass.”

In addition, the transition from in-person to virtual PE classes often forgoes many enjoyable aspects of in-person PE. One of PE’s most appealing features is its relaxed environment which allowed for—and even encouraged—social interactions between students. “[PE class is] where people develop their best friendships, and it’s upsetting to

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

Features

COVID Couture

By KHUJISTA UMAMA, ARIANA DEVITO and MELIA MOORE Fashion is a mode of nonverbal communication to transmit our dispositions in the blink of an eye. Throughout history and in the modern world, clothing has evolved from a basic necessity into an art form. The psychology behind making a fashion statement is to establish an identity, boost confidence, or find a clique. One might think, therefore, that quarantine has prevented students from developing their fashion sense.

And, yes, while many of us have been wearing our pajamas on the daily, quarantine has also opened up a new door for students to experiment with their tastes.

Sophomore Julia Williams, for example, has seen a drastic shift in her fashion from pre-quarantine.

Her pre-pandemic style involved plain clothes and virtually no makeup. “I just think I was kind of insecure. I didn’t feel like I wanted to experiment,” she commented.

Now, on the other hand, Williams describes her style as full “goth with punk influences,” which she incorporates with the low-rise silhouettes characteristic of the Y2K era. Williams attributes this transformation to increased free time and inspiration from social media. “It definitely started out as more of just your basic TikTok indie style,” Williams recalled. “But then I started to thrift a lot more, which I think definitely helped me

By ISABEL CHING and JENNIFER JI

quarantine, I really had nothing to do. I was like, ‘Oh, let’s just go online and look for some new clothes.’ […] I suddenly found this treasure trove of [all] sorts of button-up shirts, and I really liked every single one of them,” he said.

Sophomore Kate Alvarez also attributes her fashion change to the Internet and social media. “Before the pandemic, I was just starting to discover fashion and began to branch out into my own style as I became more independent as a freshman,” she explained in an e-mail interview. But her growth has continued during quarantine as she draws fashion inspiration from social media and streaming platforms. “Apps like Pinterest and TikTok let me know what might look good on my specific body type, and TV shows give a contextualized version of fashion as well,” she said.

Senior Aki Yamaguchi echoed this statement. “I often found myself on Pinterest or on TikTok, and my feed is full of outfits [and] jewelry suggestions,” she explained.

“That [inspiration]’s added on to my newfound interest in improving my style.”

Aside from the social media influence, another major reason for this shift in Yamaguchi’s style is her attempts to maximize each outing.

“I feel like, now that you’re not going out as much, you feel the need to dress a little nicer than before,”

she explained. For students, simply leaving the house is a special occasion, though this activity was once routine.

Yaqi Zeng / The Spectator

Junior Ashley Tian’s experience in early quarantine is very different than Yamaguchi’s: rather than feeling the need to dress-up, she found herself dressing down quite frequently. “I was just wearing what I had at home, like sweats, sweatshirts, you know, baggy clothes, and then I just started going out in those clothes because I was too lazy to get dressed,” Tian said.

Despite this difference, Tian and Yamaguchi experienced similar increases in makeup usage;

Stuyvesant’s Sick of Being Sick

tion.”

Though his teachers were compassionate, Lin found that keeping up with school work was still a struggle. He explained, “I didn’t want to fall behind. Being sick in a pandemic is different because school is online; you have to be more diligent. You have more leeway, but you have to focus regardless.”

Lin’s sentiment was echoed by junior Kripamoye Biswas, who believes she contracted the coronavir us last semester. Fighting sickness in the midst of the transition to remote learning was the ultimate uphill battle for Biswas. “I had a lot going on second semester.

Many of my family members were sick as well, so it was a bit difficult to manage all my classes,” she said in an e-mail interview. However, Biswas found that the burden of her ailment was lessened by the format of her virtual instruction: “Luckily, most of our live meetings were optional and only for a few classes.”

The coronavirus is not the only sickness Stuyvesant students have contracted—its introduction has not stymied the relentless stream of winter illnesses that plague students every December.

Junior Lina Khamze is one student who contracted the yearly stomach bug. “I could not attend my first-period class because I was throwing up,” Khamze said. Ini-

tially worried that the mysterious sickness was the dreaded coronavirus, Khamze was relieved to find that her symptoms disappeared after a day and that she did not have to get tested or worry about infecting others.

to COVID and other similar diseases. Second, my dad is a frontline worker, so it’s really stressful to know that my dad and I can be infected, and it could be really dangerous.” Despite initial challenges, Lopez found that his teachers were accommodating and shared Lin’s positive experience: “My teachers were very understanding. There was really only one class that I missed work in, and I was more or less able to complete work,” he said. “My teachers were […] very understanding, and they were very accommodating with accepting late work if I missed work or anything.”

Khamze had a markedly different experience with teachers than Lin and Lopez because her teachers were not as understanding of her situation. She explained, “My teacher [didn’t] respond to my absence email [and] wouldn’t let me make up the graded work in class.”

From the teachers’ perspectives, they have been doing their best to mitigate the pressures of online learning as much as they can and urge students to consider their teachers. In the words of math teacher Brian Sterr, “On the other end of Zoom, it’s nearly impossible to tell how someone is feeling, unlike in the classroom, so telling the teacher at least lets them know why you may not be participating or why you are handing in work late,” he said.

To try and relieve the miscommunication gap the Internet wedges between teachers and students, Sterr advised transparency. “Communication is important. If you’re sick, let your teachers know […]

If you feel you cannot complete your work on time, reach out to your teacher. They will probably be

Delia Qiu / The Spectator

“Please wait, the meeting host will let you in soon,” you read. The scintillating light of a computer greets your tired eyes. 9:10:22.

You’re qualmish, and your body has succumbed to a raging fever.

You could just leave the meeting and sleep, but the thought of falling behind in your classes is more damaging to you than any harm a sickness could inflict.

Your teacher’s cheery “Good morning class!” startles you. You’re dizzy. On a regular day, you would have mustered a gawky smile and prepared yourself for the next 50 minutes of lecture, but today is different. Your aching body and snotty nose have made it impossible to move without feeling as if every part of your body is on fire.

But you power through.

Unfortunately, this experience is not uncommon. A number of Stuyvesant students have been afflicted by the coronavirus and other illnesses as the pandemic rages on. The already uncomfortable experience of being sick is only exacerbated by the difficulties of remote learning, especially as teachers and students struggle to adapt to an entirely remodeled learning system.

Junior George Lin is one student who contracted the coronavirus. “My whole family had it, and I felt really bad for a week. I had a fever, felt really lightheaded for a while, and I had no appetite,” he said. As for school, Lin found that most of his teachers were quite understanding. “I informed all my teachers, even my guidance counselors. They were all really receptive,” he described. “I went to all my classes while being sick even though I couldn’t really pay atten-

develop my own personal style.”

Williams also names music as a huge fashion influence, as well as new friends who are also interested in experimenting with their looks.

Most importantly, dressing herself the way she does makes her happy. “Like this eyeliner took me like 20 minutes to do, and it’s crazy, all over my face, but it’s really cool,” she commented.

Freshman Dinah-Luba Beylison has seen a similarly drastic transformation in her fashion choices. Limited to a simple Tshirt and jeans by her middle school dress code, Beylison could not truly express herself. During quarantine, though, her family encouraged her to experiment with new styles. “Because of quarantine, both of us [my brother and I] were home for a while together for about five months. I would also absorb his style. He was also not basic, so I absorbed that,” she explained.

Sophomore Kevin Xiao’s style has taken a different route. He reported not particularly caring about clothes back in March, before the pandemic. “I pretty much just wore a hoodie and some sweatpants I guess, or jeans to school, really casual.” Since then, Xiao’s clothing choices have taken a complete 180. “I really like button-up shirts, I like formal pants, and I like dress shoes as well […] I just really like stuff that you would usually wear to debate tournaments,” he said.

Xiao’s transformation was a product of his new free time. “Over

Sophomore Lex Lopez had a similar experience. He suffered from a bug with symptoms similar to the coronavirus: headaches, shortness of breath, and constant coughing. “My family thought I possibly had COVID because I had been out seven days ago to go to the grocery store and because my dad is a frontline healthcare worker,” he said. To make matters worse, Lopez’s symptoms began right before a big debate tournament, which he ultimately had to withdraw from due to his sore throat. “It became more of a nuisance as time went on, not necessarily because it was painful […] but more so because it disrupted my ability to do schoolwork and other events such as debate,” he explained.

Lopez’s personal situation has made things difficult as well.

“The scary part is that I have some pre-existing conditions that would make me more susceptible

Page 11

both Tian and Yamaguchi lightly dabbled in makeup prior to quarantine, wearing the bare minimum of concealer and mascara. With quarantine providing more time at their disposal, both were able to experiment and learn to do makeup that best suits them and their style.

Yamaguchi, for one, loves a natural everyday look, but when it comes to going out with her friends, she puts in a little more effort. Tian, on the other hand, uses her downtime to further her usual makeup look by accentuating her lashes. “Now [that] I have more time, I [find] myself investing time into makeup, and I really like it.

Now, I still don’t wear foundation or anything. I just use concealer and then I contour. I do my brows, eyeliner, and lashes. Lashes make such a big difference, like, I can’t go out without lashes,” Tian described.

Ultimately, fashion is a powerful force that can instill confidence in individuals. Whether it is pajamas 24/7, streetwear, cuttingedge, or commando, the home is your runway. Williams hopes to inspire others to embark on their own fashion journeys. She said, “I’d encourage anyone else to really start experimenting with their style since it’s how people view you. It’s the first thing they see when they meet you in person. It’s a really good way to give off an impression of who you want to be or how you want other people to view you.”

understanding about it,” he said in an e-mail interview. Though it may seem nerve-wracking to reach out to teachers, Sterr reassures students that teachers appreciate such communication: “I do not feel there is a stigma around sickness when it comes to Stuyvesant and teaching. I think most teachers are well aware of the situation,” he said.

English teacher Lauren Stuzin agreed with this sentiment. For them, understanding the varying needs of students and teachers is the key to creating a positive environment—one where everybody can succeed. But this definition of success has changed with the pandemic. “Personally, I am shifting focus from grading and testing to learning, understanding, and growing. If you try and want to grow, and you bring that with you to class every day, I will see that, and that is success in my book,” Stuzin said in an e-mail interview.

Requited empathy is crucial.

The trials of a global pandemic have struck everyone in their most vulnerable moments. Stuyvesant students must also consider the situation of teachers: as junior Biswas elaborated, “Most of my teachers were really understanding, but there were a few [who] weren’t as kind. Nevertheless, I understood that they may have been going through a difficult situation, so I didn’t really mind.”

Adapting to online learning is difficult, and Stuzin urges students to consider their peers and know that in the face of such adversity, we can find solace in those around us. “We are in this together academically, and we are in this together personally and emotionally,” they said. “We need to hold each other and ourselves accountable and make sure we have solidarity in the community.”

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

Page 12

Editorials A Virtual Semester In Review

This semester has been one for the history books. After a somewhat disjointed virtual spring semester, faculty, students, and teachers alike found their footing for Fall 2020. Many successful changes were implemented, like office hours, mandatory zoom sessions, and the cameras-on policy. And there is still more room to continue improving—increased engagement with freshmen, more project-based assessments, and clearer grading breakdowns. Read our evaluation of this semester of remote learning:

Working with Technology Adapting to the new technology in remote learning has, undoubtedly, been one of the biggest challenges—and most notable successes—for teachers. Beyond simple usage of Zoom and its features (“raise hand,” reactions), teachers have been implementing breakout rooms to mimic “turn and talk” discussions in live instruction.

Breakout rooms have, for the most part, been successful: despite occasional awkward Zoom moments, having the chance to speak with peers is refreshing.

Perhaps one method to improve on Zoom breakout rooms would be pre-assigning groups, so that students meet with the same two or three peers during every class session. This consistency would allow students, especially underclassmen, to grow more comfortable with each other and develop friendships that could develop into out-of-class studying.

In addition, teachers’ use of different technological platforms has been engaging for students.

Desmos activities for math, Peergrade for science, and Perusall for history all allow for remote interaction. As long as teachers centralize all of these platforms with links on Google Classroom, they are, for the most part, useful and beneficial to the virtual learning experience.

Grading & Transparency Remote learning has heightened an ever-present need for transparency about grades. Despite public department-wide grade breakdowns, students have encountered difficulties and inconsistencies surrounding grading. First, it is often unclear which category certain assignments fall into. For example, many teachers share that “homework” makes up 20 percent of a students’ final grade. But students are left wondering if 10-minute JunoPods are considered “homework” or “assessments.” Sharing the category of every assignment—whether through a key on Jupiter Ed or through a syllabus on Google Classroom—is immensely helpful to students.

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Second, especially given the virtual environment, teachers should try their best to frequently update students’ grades.

This way, not only will students be aware of all their grades come third marking period, but students will also be able to identify the subjects and units with which they are struggling early on and nip these difficulties in the bud.

Third, many students have encountered a lack of transparency surrounding the meaning of certain grades. For example, Jupiter Ed allows teachers to submit a word—like “good” or “ok”—as a grade out of 10 points. While the intentions of such strategies might be to “humanize” the cold reality of numbers, they often cause unnecessary stress and confusion among students, who do not know if “good” is full, three-quarters, or half credit.

Similarly, grading participation can sometimes feel arbitrary in the virtual class setting where it is more difficult for teachers to measure engagement and for students to take part in class discussions.

Finally, the newly introduced “preparation” grade seems twofaced. On face value, the “preparation” grade appears to be generous to students who might be submitting homework late due to extenuating circumstances. But in reality, the grade simply transitions the weight of such missing assignments from “homework” to “preparation,” thus not achieving its intended effect.

Communication from Teachers The communication between many teachers and students is truly commendable this semester. Teachers have discussed problems students have faced— and potential solutions—during class. Moreover, many teachers have reached out to students to survey their experiences with remote learning: some teachers sent out forms at the beginning of the year to gauge students’ preferences with virtual learning; some sent out anonymous feedback forms mid-semester to receive information on the pacing of the class, material, and additional suggestions; and others asked students to e-mail them with a “virtual check in.” Such initiatives from the teacher’s end have allowed students to share honest feedback with their teachers without fear of repercussions.

We hope that all teachers formulate a feedback form, especially for annualized classes before the end of the semester, to hear student input and adjust their class accordingly to their needs.

Mandatory office hours have also been a prime forum for communication between students and teachers. The ease with

On the first day of Christmas Stuyvesant sent to me: 1 slightly cheesy quote of the day On the fifth day of Christmas Stuyvesant sent to me: 5 minutes to get from 1 to 10 On the ninth day of Christmas Stuyvesant sent to me: 9 old Spectator copies lying on the floor of the bridge

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The Spectator

which students can transition between Zoom rooms makes it easy to meet with multiple teachers in one afternoon. At the same time, however, some teachers simply do not have a Zoom meeting open between 2:30 p.m and 2:50 p.m every single day and require students to e-mail and schedule a meeting with them in advance.

To ensure that communication between students and teachers is seamless, all Zoom rooms should stay open for these full time periods without prior scheduling on the students’ part.

Remote Testing Even in in-person school, testing is a hefty task for teachers and students alike. In a remote setting, many additional questions have arisen: “Should tests be timed?”, “Should tests be open-note?”, “How can cheating be prevented?” All teachers have answered these questions differently, resulting in a plethora of testing methods, ranging from in-class tests over Zoom to takehome exams to no tests at all.

These testing methods have been met with varying degrees of success. Live testing on Zoom, for example, has created unnecessary stress for students and seems to expend valuable class time. In addition, when students have a question during these live exams, they often have to ask their question out loud, thus distracting their peers. Administering tests outside of class time—whether timed or not—has been far more successful: students can take the test whenever is most convenient for them (perhaps, when their apartment is the quietest) and teachers are able to use class time for instruction. As for academic dishonesty, open notebook tests and quizzes are most effective in preventing students from cheating: if students can reference their own sources (notes, the textbook), they are less inclined to reach out to the internet or other students for help.

Surely, though, the best way to avoid cheating is assigning more project-based-assessments.

Rather than relying on take-home exams, or short, unannounced quizzes as the sole source of the “assessments” part of one’s grade, teachers should make use of more creative projects. While such projects are, of course, more easily implemented in humanities classes, they can be applied to STEM subjects as well: projects, such as powerpoint presentations and labs, effectively convey information to students and are nearly impossible to cheat on.

Enthusiasm & Engagement Throughout the past few months, the school community has seen a massive increase in

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On the tenth day of Christmas Stuyvesant sent to me: 10 percent discount with Stuyvantage

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A RT S & E N T E RTA I N M E N T E D I TO R S

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engagement from both students and teachers. One contributing factor to this shift was undoubtedly a more cohesive policy concerning live classes—the requirement for every teacher to hold synchronous instruction for at least 25 minutes ensures that students actively engage with the material and do not fall behind.

And even seemingly small changes, like requiring that students keep their cameras on, have had an overwhelmingly positive impact: seeing one’s teacher and classmates serves as a major motivational factor, further encouraging students to tackle their classwork and homework. New projects that take advantage of our remote setting, like Flipgrid videos, also work to successfully engage students.

The administration and Student Union (SU) have also implemented measures to promote school-wide engagement. Principal Seung Yu’s daily e-mails, for example, help create a sense of community while we all inhabit separate bedrooms across all five

On the third day of Christmas Stuyvesant sent to me: 3 SING! shows

On the seventh day of Christmas Stuyvesant sent to me: 7 working escalators

On the eleventh day of Christmas Stuyvesant sent to me: 11 days of winter break

boroughs (and beyond). The SU has also hosted numerous events, most recently a “speed friending” via Zoom. While these efforts have been marginally successful for upperclassmen who are already aware of the dynamics of Stuyvesant and have a set of peers with whom they are well acquainted, they have not been as positive for freshmen.

Many members of the class of 2024 have yet to set foot in the Stuyvesant building and have struggled to engage with their peers remotely while also acclimating to the academic pressures that Stuyvesant presents. The Big Sib program has put an admirable step forward in hosting biweekly homeroom meetings for freshmen, though to a seemingly similar effect. To bolster attendance and engagement at these events, Big Sibs should create more dynamic programs for these Zoom calls by expanding beyond the standard Among us and Skribbl.io and work with the guidance department to encourage freshmen to attend.

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On the fourth day of Christmas Stuyvesant sent to me: 4 crowded staircases

On the eighth day of Christmas Stuyvesant sent to me: 8 minutes staring at the Talos loading screen On the twelfth day of Christmas Stuyvesant sent to me: 12th-grade students slacking in the new year

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

Page 13

Opinions Please…Just Switch to Zoom

By ERICA LI

edu”) will be able to join certain meetings. Waiting rooms, which are necessary to curtail “Zoombombing,” are thus extraneous for Google Meet users. In addition, Google’s meeting codes are complex to the point where Meet is not vulnerable to simple brute force hacks.

In fact, Google Meet is so secure that the Department of Education (DOE) even banned Zoom back in the spring term of 2020. For a period of time, Zoom’s privacy issues were so

sell user data in any way, nor do they allow anyone to directly access the information users share during their meetings. They have also clarified that they only collect this information to ensure the high functionality they are known for. And though Zoom still has a long way to go, they have admitted that their encryptions were lacking and have completed their 90-day plan.

They have been implementing new system updates and better privacy mechanisms. They have

easy, and secure. Google has been able to integrate both Gmail and Google Classroom with Meet. Google Meet links can be found directly under the class names on individual Google Classroom sites and on the bottom left in Gmail.

Teachers also don’t have to waste time admitting students one by one, made possible by the fact that Google Meet is more secure than Zoom.

Google has confirmed that only people with Google accounts or with a given organization’s domain (such as “stuy.

severe that teachers were only permitted to use Meet or Microsoft Teams. The terms and conditions you agree to when you use Zoom may not be as simple as you think. On the surface, Zoom collects and stores your personal information similar to apps like Facebook and Google. Unlike them, though, Zoom is also entitled to collect “customer content”—which includes the videos, chats, documents, and names of everything that is shared on call.

However, Zoom has clarified that they do not mine or

started hosting weekly webinars that provide updates on new security details. They are also continuing to administer more penetration testing and new security hires, even offering “end-to-end encryption” for everyone, not just the paid users. This also ensures our safety and privacy while using their application.

In addition, thanks to the collaboration between Zoom and the NYC DOE, the platform is more secure than ever.

Students, teachers, and other staff members are allowed to

Emily Young-Squire / The Spectator

Online schooling is tough.

We’re all struggling out here.

I, for one, have sat at my desk crying angrily as I pressed the same key on my MacBook over and over again when my Algebra 2 exam refused to submit. I couldn’t contribute to class discussions because my teacher couldn’t see the “raised hand” feature, even though my already-fragile grade in Spanish is held up solely by my participation. And despite having engaged in remote learning for nine months now, I still don’t understand why my laptop lags so much when I use Google Meet and not when I use Zoom.

What I can grasp, though, is that by simply switching between video platforms, our lives could be made a whole lot easier.

Zoom, a platform everyone knows and loves, was quickly taught to most teachers at the start of the pandemic. However, certain Stuyvesant teachers, including some of my own, have continued to use Google Meet over Zoom.

Google Meet glitches, lags, and doesn’t provide half the features that Zoom offers. My laptop gets so hot to the point that I am unable to even unmute myself to participate because it lags so much. I can’t view everyone in my class all at once when I go to gallery view because it automatically kicks me out of the meeting. The audio is glitchy too, especially when I use Google Meet on Safari instead of Chrome.

Many other students have echoed these concerns: Messenger class chats are regularly flooded with complaints and meltdowns about the usage of Google Meet for synchronous instruction.

They bemoan how Google Meet when used on any browser other than Chrome lacks the virtual backgrounds and filters that help Zoom users whose surroundings are extremely messy or who don’t feel com-

fortable exposing their homes.

They lament the fact that there’s no option to mirror their video or touch up their appearance to ease the anxiety they feel about being on camera. They tout even more basic concerns: you can’t change your name on Google Meet,go into breakout rooms, or even private message the teacher.

So why have some teachers continued to use Google Meet over Zoom?

The answer: it’s convenient,

use all of Zoom’s features for free with no limit so long as they sign in with their assigned DOE account. Students can also only join the Zoom meeting if they are using said DOE accounts. Even though teachers still have to admit students into the call (unlike in Google Meet), it is still only one drawback for the many benefits Zoom offers.

Zoom is still actively making efforts to improve—they have just released their newest update. Nonetheless, the honesty and transparency Zoom gives to the public allow us to see that they have not taken criticism lightly and that their security and privacy details have improved.

Beyond the improved security and the evidently more positive student experience that Zoom provides, the platform has also recently developed a great deal of new features, one of which allows students to actually choose which breakout room to go into. This further mimics the classroom setting, especially for the freshmen who don’t know anyone and are still trying to transition to Stuyvesant life. Another such feature is the ability to spotlight someone if you are the “host,” which forces everyone’s screen to focus on the person that is “spotlighted.” This function emulates the experience of students giving presentations or teachers giving announcements in real life.

To our teachers: technology is hard; one of my teachers has recently made the transition from Google Meet to Zoom, and she was only able to do so with the help of a student. But the switch to Zoom is necessary for everyone’s benefit. So even if you don’t know how to create a Zoom meeting, you can check the instructions here, or just ask any of your students! We’re more than willing to help and promise to remain understanding as we all adapt.

Now let’s meet together and zoom our way out of here!

Sinophobia: Otherization and Orientalism

By MATTHEW QIU From the Yellow Peril to the model minority, the position of the Asian body within the American consciousness has shifted across generations.

However, one variable has remained consistent in the United States’s relationship with the perceived non-Western world: a neo-colonial undercurrent has been pervasive in U.S. foreign policy toward Asia and more specifically, China.

Sinophobia exhibits itself at both the macro and micro levels of American politics.

The anti-Asian violence witnessed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and politicians’ use of phrases such as “Chinese virus” has been manifestations of Orientalist rhetoric during this crisis.

More broadly, however, Orientalist thought has underpinned the United States’s rationalization of its approach to foreign policy with China. Hegemonic discourse essentializes nonWestern countries into a single monolith of the Orient. Such discussion about the non-Western world reproduces norma-

tive epistemologies that calcify imperialist conceptions of the Global South. This Orientalist discourse constructs a sliding scale that places Western actors at an apex from which they can objectify the Orient and place it in opposition with the West as a method of self-affirmation for Occidental—that is, Western— superiority. The implication of this discursive constant is the endless reproduction of threats from the Orient through images and perceptions that place non-Western peoples and groups under a process of otherization, reinforcing the binary between a rational Occident in negation to an irrational Orient.

The effects of this discourse on Chinese representations in Western international relations theory is clear: proponents of this Euro-Americocentric model have placed the United States in direct opposition to China. They are diametrically opposed within geopolitical models. Peaceful coexistence is supposedly a fantasy, despite the increasing inevitability of an international community under a system of multipolarity.

They are apparently primordial enemies, locked in an endless conflict over the East Asia region.

Realism, as one of the dominant schools of thought in international relations theory, has dominated the decisionmaking behind the United States’ approach to foreign policy. It posits that states and sovereign entities are locked in a reciprocal regulation of one another’s actions. It asserts that all states pursue self-interest, condemning international politics to a zero-sum game. This Machiavellian point of view is often purported by realists as an inevitable result of human nature. Detractors are crushed as examples of naïveté, but realism in and of itself develops out of a frame of reference entirely seeped in Western conceptions of sovereign politics.

Orientalism formulates itself through these very discursive interactions that echo through academia.

The way the United States has conceptualized China has been a project of the Western self-imagination in which others can only be constructed in

relation to the Euro-American framework. The West imposes characteristics and meaning upon the Orient, always ensuring it can identify itself in negation to the other. Demonization, or an extremely harsh portrayal, of China is rooted in this analysis, as China’s power is seen as a failure on the West’s part to restrain the Orient. It can only be perceived in the Western gaze as a shattering of the weak-willed caricature imposed upon it. China’s refusal to adhere to this stereotype serves as the primary driving force behind the reining in of China by the United States.

One can take a look at the paternalistic role that the United States has taken on when forming its relations with East Asian allies. Many argue that the loyalty of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan to the United States is a necessary exchange for the U.S. nuclear umbrella.

With that being said, one can still see a master-subaltern relationship emerge between these individual relations, especially when we examine the United States’s declawing of Japan’s military and ensuring it only

acts bilaterally with U.S. direction. These relationships impose a sort of mimicry onto these nations, causing them to internalize Western rhetoric and embody cultural representations that reflect themselves within the image of the West.

These bastions in East Asia become the boundaries of the postcolonial U.S. metropole, establishing themselves as anchoring points around China’s influence on the region. Their protection is guaranteed only insofar as they remain sentries for the United States to have a foot through the door next to China.

This threat construction is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The invocation of the Yellow Peril in modern international relations justified through frameworks of realism attempts to cultivate a hegemonic discourse on China from a Western gaze.

The nexus of Western knowledge production about the East has consecrated Orientalism in international relations discussion, propping up a caricature of China as a diametrically opposed entity in the reflection of the Occident.

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The Spectator • December 23, 2020

Opinions The SHSAT: Is There Anything Wrong With It?

By ALEX CHO The time-honored controversy of the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) has erupted again during these past few weeks.

Anti-SHSAT and pro-SHSAT protesters clashed in the streets in a spectacle more befitting the collapse of some Eastern European dictatorship than a fairly technical disagreement over a measure of academic performance. However, a significant number of people seem to feel that the test is not only an inadequate justification for entrance to New York City’s most selective public high schools but also actively biased and racist. Of course, it’s evident that insufficient numbers of African American and Latino students gain admission to places like Stuyvesant—only seven Black students were admitted this past year.

Nonetheless, angry critics of the SHSAT may have drawn the wrong conclusions.

Let’s consider what the SHSAT would be replaced with. It wouldn’t be some magically fair system that allows everyone to succeed in spite of the social injustices they may have faced. Without the test as a gatekeeper, what you have is “holistic” admissions (as in college admissions). This means a consideration that’s based on a mix of grades, extracurriculars, essays, and other subjective factors by which officials determine who gets in

and who doesn’t. The simple fact is that those people are often biased. The entire system of “holistic” admissions, it turns out, was created by elite universities: by just relying on the SAT, too many Jewish and, later on, Asian people, were being admitted (the writer Malcolm Gladwell documents this effect in his essay “Getting In”). Considering general factors of “personality” and “culture” allowed institutions to restore the balance, which in practice meant letting more white Anglo-Saxon Protestants in. Harvard continues to fight a lawsuit that states that their practices discriminate against Asians. According to none other than Harvard’s own newspaper, The Crimson, Asians who were admitted between 1995 and 2013 had SAT scores that were 22 points higher on average than that of white students.

This translates to white students needing 22-point lower scores on the SAT to get into Harvard, a seemingly clear-cut case of disadvantage.

But what about the other claims that standardized tests like the SAT and SHSAT don’t really measure aptitude for academic achievement? Some people point out that the way that students achieve high scores is by preparing a lot for the test. In particular, there is a culture of test prep among Asians, though they are not the only ones who take it. But does this mean that the test isn’t a good measurement? This logic

clearly doesn’t stand up. A basketball contest is still seen as a pretty good measurement of basketball skill, even though teams spend a lot of time practicing for it. If you think about it, the idea that practicing for anything should be disqualifying is pretty strange, which says a lot about people’s attitudes.

It would be one thing if the evidence showed the test had no relationship to academic performance, but the actuality is different: a Department of Education study from 2013 showed “a strong positive relationship between doing well on the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test and high school academic performance.”

In short, there is no evidence that the test itself is biased or that it is a poor indicator of academic performance.

And there is plenty of reason to think that a subjective, unstandardized admissions system would be worse. However, the extremely low admissions rate of Black and Latino students certainly needs to be addressed. The actual problem is rooted in the poor education system of the United States, which systematically denies opportunities to non-white and low-income students. By scapegoating the SHSAT, the city government is failing to take responsibility for the ineffective system that is actually causing the disparity in academic outcomes. As some journalists have pointed out,

the inequalities begin early on in elementary and middle school: school districts in, say, Brownsville, lack the kind of “gifted and talented” programs that schools in Park Slope would take for granted. A twotiered sorting happens from the get-go, whereby students from wealthier (and whiter) areas are encouraged to pursue advanced topics while those in poorer (and less white) areas are not.

All the energy spent protesting the SHSAT would be better used on addressing the fundamental educational disparities that cause the lack of diversity at top NYC high schools. For starters, there should be a true mandate of the equality of educational facilities and training between lower-income, mainly minority schools and higher-income, predominately white schools, including gifted and talented programs. If this plan sounds overly radical, it shouldn’t: similar laws have been in place for decades under Title IX, which requires equal facilities for boys and girls (for instance, on sports teams).

Only racism and classism seem to prevent similar applications of these kinds of laws. While NYC’s Fair Student Funding formula, in theory, is designed to correct the problem, in practice, the city government refuses to implement it. As Chalkbeat New York reported, “When it was first adopted, city officials wanted to avoid taking money from wealthy

schools, so instead they promised to raise poorer schools’ budgets. However, around the same time, the Great Recession hit, causing New York State to roll back planned increases in school aid to districts.”

Since the “Fair Funding” equation exists to resolve the problem of some schools receiving more money than others, for New York officials to say that they don’t want to take money away from wealthier schools is equivalent to saying that the policy is simply not going to be enforced. Instead, they substitute empty promises of funding magically coming from elsewhere at a time when budgets are tighter than ever.

The reality is that the education budget isn’t of infinite size: if you want to expand the resources available for poorer schools, you have to take it from somewhere, and that place is wealthier schools. If we don’t want to do that, we have to ask ourselves how committed to equal opportunities we really are.

Addressing the root causes of inequality requires owning up to uncomfortable truths about our education system and actually fixing the problem.

Blaming the SHSAT sounds easier but only opens the door to other kinds of discrimination while doing nothing to actually improve educational outcomes. Next time people take to the streets for education, they should think carefully about what sign to hold.

The Coat Controversy: A Wild Goose Chase

By RAE SEONG JEONG At Stuyvesant, the arrival of December marks the annual reappearance of New York City’s quintessential winter outerwear: the Canada Goose parka. On cold, snowy mornings, in walk the Chads and Kevin Nguyens—clad in Langfords, Expeditions, and Chateaus—through the familiar bridge doors.

Flexing a price tag in the ballpark of $1000, the Arctic-grade parka has taken cities like New York and Chicago by storm (blizzard?). Donned by celebrities like Bradley Cooper and Rihanna, featured on countless magazine covers, and even incorporated into Drake’s own clothing line—October’s Very Own—starting in 2010, the Goose rides a hype comparable to the rise of the streetwearturned-luxury brand Supreme or when the AirPods first came out in 2016. It gives its owners a status of some kind—one of affluence, perhaps, superiority, even.

It’s for that reason that some schools have banned Canada Goose jackets altogether. In England, for example, Woodchurch High School made the move to forbid their students from wearing any Canada Goose, Moncler, or Pyrenex coats. According to headteacher Rebekah Phillips, the ban was made to protect students from “poverty shaming.” Given the U.K.’s high child poverty rate, which is predicted to be as high as 40 percent by 2022, “poverty proofing”—or the act of auditing schools to protect poorer students from being stigmatized by their peers—is becoming increasingly popular. Woodchurch

High School is neither the first nor the last school to employ “poverty proofing”: it follows the example of St. Wilfrid’s Primary School, also in England, which “poverty proofed” students’ stationery when it banned designer pencil cases; Merseyside

Sophia Li/ The Spectator

school did the same not long after, adding expensive coats alongside designer book bags to their list

of banned school items.

The danger of Canada Goose’s price tag isn’t just limited to classroom classism—on top of “poverty shaming,” the Canada Goose craze sends an open invitation for crime. Last winter, for example, Chicago police reported an increase in robberies targeting people wearing the luxury coat. In just one week, six people had their Canada Goose coats taken at gunpoint. And the same happens at college campuses—back in 2016, campus police at Boston University reported several Canada Goose thefts of their own.

The problems with Canada Goose don’t stop there. Since the brand’s inception, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has been protesting Canada Goose’s fur— which lines the hood of each parka—and arguing that its sourcing is inhumane.

According to a statement by PETA, “Animals trapped for their fur can suffer for days and face blood loss, frostbite, gangrene, and attacks by predators,” and “if they aren’t dead when the trapper returns, they may be shot, strangled, stomped on, or bludgeoned to death.”

The advocacy organization launched a full-scale campaign against Canada Goose in 2016—it has since organized massive protests and erected anti-Canada Goose billboards at every new store opening and even gone as far as acquiring

stock in the company to voice their demands as a shareholder.

But as of this year, the battle against Canada Goose’s fur seems to have taken a turn for the better. According to their latest sustainability report, Canada Goose will no longer buy new fur from trappers and, instead, use only reclaimed fur— fur that already exists in the marketplace. To facilitate this transition, Canada Goose plans to begin buying back fur ruffs from customers in the coming months in order to recycle them.

Canada Goose, however, will not abandon the use of fur altogether. According to PJ Smith, director of fashion policy at the Humane Society of the United States, “switching to ‘reclaimed fur’ feels like an unnecessarily long goodbye for this company’s outdated relationship with fur; ultimately their future must be fur-free.”

But according to Canada Goose chief executive Dani Reiss, despite the demands of animal protection advocacy groups like PETA and Humane Society International, the fur is here to stay. In fact, Mr. Reiss argued that their move to fur recycling didn’t have to do with “external pressure” at all. “We’re still using fur,” he clarified. “And the fact that we’ve been targeted did not factor into this decision.”

Instead, he cited functionality, noting, “It’s important to us that our products work.”

In terms of his company’s success, though, Mr. Reiss seems to be making the right call. Among customers, satisfaction with the quality of the jacket seems to be the biggest factor. According to the top review

under the Expedition Parka, a Canada Goose bestseller, the jacket “has performed wonderfully in very windy [and] cold conditions.” Indeed, the functionality of the jacket is what makes the Canada Goose brand a favorite; according to the company, the fur disrupts airflow, doesn’t freeze, and doesn’t hold water, making it perfect for extreme weather.

And yet, the company’s decision has divided the fashion industry. Though major fashion brands like Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Gucci, H&M, Zara, Versace, and Gap have taken strides in condemning the use of fur, the Canada Goose parka remains a symbol in the fashion world. In addition to Drake collaborating with the brand, Marc Jacobs has also displayed models flaunting Canada Goose on his runway, and Sports Illustrated featured Kate Upton with the brand’s clothing as well. In spite of the controversy, the company’s revenues have continued to grow at a significant rate—as of 2019, Canada Goose stock trades at a staggering 77 times earnings.

So, to the relief of the Chads and Kevin Nguyens, it’s safe to conclude that despite the “poverty shaming,” uptick in violent crimes, and backlash against unethical fur sourcing, Canada Goose isn’t going anywhere. As temperatures start to dip, you can expect to see the Geese filling the streets once again—and though we won’t be present at Stuy to see it on our classmates, it’s important to read the fine print. Yes, the parkas are warm, fashionable, and flashy. But there’s a story behind the swagger.

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

Page 15

Opinions Women v. Women?

By SHIVANI SHAH

dustry. Most of the criticism these two amazing artists face is rooted in the way they go against the messages that have been relayed through society.

Women are constantly told how they can and cannot act.

These standards are so ingrained in society that women start to believe that they correctly define how women should act and perceive the world. Society imposes the idea that women are supposed to be dainty, quiet, submissive, and focused on being good mothers and wives. Gloria Steinem said, “Not one study has proved that women talk more than men, but numerous studies indicate that men talk more than women. Women are thought to be more talkative than men because they are being measured against the expectation of female silence.” When a woman does not stick to these stereotypes, her qualities are perceived as male-like. When a woman is in power, she is seen as bossy, difficult, and obnoxious, rather than portraying leadership qualities. When women look at women with so-called male-like attributes, they reject them because they go against the messages that have been so internalized, as described in “horizontal hostility,” a phenomenon where one member of an oppressed group reinforces the system that oppresses the group.

My grandmother grew up in India during the mid-1900s.

Though there had been many advancements for women, like outlawing child marriages and the Dowry Prohibition Act, my grandmother still grew up in a patriarchal environment where men were worshipped and got to pick their wives from a line of women, while

Cadence L / The Spectator

A couple of months ago, I was talking to my grandmother about the presidential elections. As a female Indian American immigrant, I thought that she would be proud of the achievements of a fellow South Asian woman—an Attorney Generalship, a seat in the Senate, and now the vice presidential nomination of a major party.

However, my grandmother stated that she didn’t like Kamala Harris and that she would much rather vote for Trump.

She was not alone. Fifty-five percent of Caucasian women and 42 percent of all women voted for Trump in the recent election. I was very confused and embarrassed that my own grandmother’s statement, but I was also intrigued. In the eyes of my grandmother, Kamala Harris did not have enough experience compared to the opposing political party. Why wouldn’t my grandmother support a younger version of herself ? This question led me to wonder: why don’t women support women in power?

We witnessed Hillary Clinton run to be the first female president and Kamala Harris rise as the first female vice president. Though Kamala Harris aims to be a role model for young girls around the world, many women are against her and not just for her political beliefs. Twelve percent of women who support Joe Biden believe that Kamala Harris will weaken Joe Biden’s campaign.

There are a couple of reasons behind this adversarial dynamic between women.

First, there is the mindset of “I went through it, why shouldn’t they? Why should these wom-

en be in power when I had to suffer through constraining gender norms and lack of social mobility?” There is a similar mindset among first-generation Asian American immigrants. Many Asian American immigrants believe that because they were able to overcome hurdles despite the systemic racism against them and their economic disadvantages, other minority groups should face the same challenges and overcome them as they did. Older women have an analogous mindset when looking at younger women: the Queen Bee Syndrome refers to when women in power treat their female subordinates worse than they would treat their male subordinates. This mindset ought to be replaced with that of “I suffered these problems, but younger generations shouldn’t have to.”

Along with the “I went through it, why shouldn’t they?” mindset another contributing factor is envy: “If someone looks like me, faces the same obstacles as me, and has a similar background as me, why and how were they able to forge through the barriers while I couldn’t?” 70 percent of female executives feel as though other women in the workplace bully them, thus stunting their professional growth. Five to nine percent of women were more likely to receive hostility from women than men in the workplace.

But why do women feel the need to compare themselves?

Our society has created an environment where women are compared all the time.

For example, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B are always pitted against each other in the media because they are both female rappers in the music in-

women cooked and cared for the extended family—my grandmother’s own mother took care of nine children— and there were absolutely no women in power. Despite these barriers, she received a graduate degree in Hindi literature and was one of the earliest AIDS/HIV researchers in the United States. That she has internalized this sexism is understandable.

The accumulation of

How De Blasio Stole Christmas

By ELIZABETH BLACK Rockefeller Center lit its renowned Christmas tree in the heart of Midtown Manhattan on November 2, carrying on the 90-year-old tradition through this bizarre year that could not end sooner. While the lighting ceremony was conducted virtually, the tree is now open for in-person visitation. Rockefeller Center can easily be made COVID-19-safe, giving everyone the joy and normalcy of seeing their favorite pine tree again.

Unfortunately for us, Mayor Bill de Blasio is set on stealing Christmas.

De Blasio has a history of making Rockefeller Center visitation harder than it needs to be, but he has really outdone himself this year. In past years, it would take about 20 minutes to walk the three blocks from the 47th Street Station to the tree because of the maze of borders set up by the city. However, that obstacle won’t matter in 2020: not only has the mayor completely closed Center Plaza, where the tree stands, but he is also determined to make a complete mess out of viewing areas nearby. He announced the implementation of a reservation system on November 31 that actually creates more problems than it solves.

Ticketing an area requires a perimeter to be set. At the moment, areas from which the tree

is visible are included in this perimeter. This demarcation may seem like a fair rule, but the tree is 75 feet tall. It’s visible from almost any point between 49th and 50th Street. This means that no vehicles are able to pass through one of the most critical

there to see the Rockefeller tree.

However, the tree is very much visible from there, so the city has restricted that area as well.

If they hadn’t, people would eventually begin to crowd there to look at the tree. Now that Fifth Avenue is included in the

Altogether, the “crowds” in Midtown, despite being slightly larger than they were a few months ago, should be completely manageable. areas of Midtown without buying tickets to Rockefeller, even if that’s not where they’re going. Apparently, the city doesn’t know that not everyone goes to Midtown to see the Rockefeller tree—people work and live there. Even though the tickets are free, they’re available in limited amounts. This inconveniences New Yorkers who have to buy tickets just to pass through Midtown and takes away tickets from those who do want to see the tree.

The reservation system also creates massive problems for Fifth Avenue. On Fifth Avenue are some of the city’s most visited stores, including Saks, Macy’s, and plenty of designer boutiques, and its eateries offer a festive attraction for nonshoppers. Most people don’t go

ticket perimeter, it’s a disaster— no one is happy about having to buy tickets to go shopping or to go to the Fifth Avenue Saks Show, which is not a ticketed event. Additionally, the Fifth Avenue stores that have already been decimated by the pandemic are losing their remaining business.

Before the plan was enacted, all of its downsides were just speculation. Yet not even 10 days after the tree was opened to the public, Midtown has become a ghost town because of the ticketing or, as de Blasio calls it, the “queueing” system.

No one bothers to participate now that the system is actually in place. The profit losses of Midtown’s businesses are through the roof. While the empty holiday center is a shock-

ing sight, it’s unsurprising that these useless rules discourage people from going there. An empty Midtown was de Blasio’s goal all along.

The mayor pursues crowd control but he fails to consider the dramatic drop in New York tourists and Rockefeller Center visitors this year. The Rockettes, who average an audience of 30,000 every holiday season, have canceled their show. The ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center has reduced its capacity, limited skating time to less than an hour, and mandated masks.

Travel regulations have made tourism to the city practically nonexistent. Most NYC residents are staying home in fear of the virus, or because someone in their household is infectious or at risk. Altogether, the “crowds” in Midtown, despite being slightly larger than they were a few months ago, should be completely manageable.

To put it in perspective, numerous outdoor Black Lives Matter protests broke out in late May all over the country, including in New York City, and continue to this day with virtually zero interference from the government. In fact, de Blasio even supports these protests.

While this situation may seem dangerous, studies and research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Bureau of Economic Research, and other organiza-

the “I went through it, why shouldn’t they?” mindset, internalized sexism, and stereotypes has resulted in women failing to support each other.

The environment that brews these problems has been created by society and is a barrier to the advancement of women. Once we overcome these obstacles, as Gloria Steniem said, “an army of gray-haired women may quietly take over the earth.”

tions show that there was little to no spread of COVID-19 at the events. Additionally, these crowds were significantly denser than the maximum estimates for Rockefeller Center crowds.

Therefore, the installment of standard COVID-19 safety regulations at the tree, similar to the ones at the Rockefeller ice rink, would be more practical than de Blasio’s ridiculous plan.

Face coverings should be made mandatory, with masks available for those who don’t have any on hand. Social distancing should be achievable due to immensely shrunken crowds but if not, the center’s capacity can be reduced. With officers or employees of some sort present to enforce these regulations, there shouldn’t be any problem; wreaking havoc on Midtown is unnecessary.

While de Blasio was right to cancel the lighting ceremony and have it streamed online instead, it’s beyond senseless to ticket casual visitation to the tree. The unnecessary reservation system will make a catastrophe of Midtown Manhattan, destroying the New York City holiday experience many have been looking forward to after a 2020 filled with fear and, for some, loss. As the year draws to a close, the least the mayor can do is use his head and create a solution that will be efficient and comfortable for all.

Page 16

The Spectator • December 23, 2020

Opinions Why Socialization Events are Unappealing

By NELLI ROJAS-CESSA

event that happens every now and then, but one of the glaring issues is how it doesn’t seem to have long-lasting effects.

Friendship doesn’t occur instantaneously for many people, including myself, and I tend to forget most of the names of the people I play Among Us with.

This also is a potential issue in the Speed-Friending Event— because there’s so little allotted time to connect with new people, it’s difficult to form lasting bonds.

Another common failure in all of these events is that an hour-long Zoom call does not even begin to compensate for

ed to make breakout rooms of about five to seven people and the event became more chaotic and comfortable.

Some of the conversations were clearly thoughtless and dull—like people were just talking in fear of silence. These felt a lot more empty and pointless.

If anything, I enjoyed the torture of an awkward group much more than the mindless discussions because it felt ironically more eventful. When the larger breakout rooms began, the socialites would shout over each other, each engaging in topics even more unproductive than the previous ones. Nonetheless,

an entire lost school year of socialization. “We are in a difficult and unprecedented time,” these meager efforts seem to say.

“And there is nothing we can do about it.” Even after all this event planning and coordination, we end up back at square one and realize we never got anywhere in the first place.

It’s unfair to judge an event you’ve never been to, so of course, I went. For a brief explanation of how it works, you join a breakout room with around one to two people and every couple of minutes you’d be scrambled into another breakout room. These first few rounds were beyond painful and awkward, but if I was lucky, there was an extrovert who dominated the conversation and relieved me of my agony. After an hour passed, the host decid-

people still seemed to be enjoying themselves, since they were mostly extroverts.

In conclusion, the “SpeedFriending Event” was more of a get-together for people who already knew each other or didn’t seem to have a loneliness problem, and I don’t have any new friends. I wasn’t really expecting to, so it was a fine experience overall, but that means it has failed its purpose. There is no harm in continuing this event in the future, but there is a limit to how exciting the next one will be after it has already happened once. To be brutally honest, I doubt that the Student Union can foster natural and true friendships at all, so it should not market its events as if it can.

That’s just misleading. Instead, it should sit in the background and let students make friend-

Joanna Meng / The Spectator

As a freshman, the issue of socialization is ever-present in my mind. There’s this empty feeling—knowing how different, how much better, my life could be right this moment in an alternate universe where COVID-19 doesn’t exist. I often wander back to this feeling, imagining myself meeting new people in all my classes and clubs. I envision myself taking exams with other freshmen, and that moment right after the bell rings, when we complain about how difficult the test was. I also imagine suppressing my laughs from the whispered comments made by funny classmates in between teachers’ words.

In every situation that I’ve fantasized about, though, there were other people who made light out of the wearisome Stuyvesant workload. To be deprived of these encounters has reduced school to a miserable, deadline-ridden experience.

As a result, when opportunities like the “Speed-Friending Event” pop up, they garner lots of attention. I am sure many extroverted people will gleefully flock to the event, but I also feel as though the way the event is structured would repulse other students. In the Student Union’s defense, it is a fresh and original idea that I have never heard before. In addition, they planned everything out and made a valiant effort to help students socialize during quarantine. These concessions, however, do not shield them from criticism. That the entire focus of the event is simply talking to people makes me question how productive it was and whether or not the participants genuinely expected to find friends from it.

First off, though it’s an overused trope that Stuyvesant students are swamped with homework and have no time for silly socializing games with strangers online, there’s some truth to it.

“What’s the point?” A freshman might ask themselves. “There’s an upcoming test the next A1 day, and I need a full score to save my average from plummeting into oblivion, so why would I waste my time for an awkward Zoom call where you basically do nothing?” Like Animal

Crossing, the main point is that the misleading lure of friendship is not enough to cover up for the fact that the entire event is pointless small talk.

I have never been keen on making friends for the sake of making friends. Often, it makes the basis of a friendship superficial to the point where it’s not really a friendship at all. I know many people in my life who are my friends just because they want a friend out of me. I’ve chatted and giggled with them from time to time, but after those discussions ended, the feeling of emptiness lingered.

People like that don’t really care about me as an individual—they simply labeled me as their friend and only act like ones on the surface level. They’ve said they felt sorry for me when I was upset, and they’ve helped me out on difficult homework questions, but they’ve never made an effort to talk to me during quarantine. They were never there when I was in need. Over time, we avoided each other until we were back to being strangers.

There is nothing wrong with wanting people to relate and be close to, but the idea of just wanting someone leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Every individual has their own equally unique life, and to turn the idea of a friend into a pet is selfcentered and ignorant. So does that mean I shouldn’t desire any friends, especially when my entire social life is on a screen?

Not exactly, because it is important to differentiate between wanting to talk more to someone because you relate to them or because they make you feel happy, and wanting someone to fill a role you’ve predetermined for them.

Similar events include the “Homeroom Mix-and Match Sessions.” I admire all the Big Sibs for wanting to help us inexperienced freshmen, but I speculate that this particular activity is not as effective as it was intended to be. This event has essentially the same purpose as the “Speed-Friending Event,” but is nonetheless very different. We usually play a few rounds of Among Us with new people and our Big Sibs, so that glosses over the productivity problem. It is a recurring

Lessons From Moving to New York

By JINSEO HONG I distinctly remember walking through a playground near my new home in New York and seeing snow for the first time. Its soft icy touch amazed my seven-year-old mind. I scratched my skin constantly the first few weeks after I arrived in New York, my body adapting to the cold, dry weather so unlike the humid Hong Kong air. Every scratch reminded me of the sheer distance between the country I left and my new home. Snow was not the only novelty I experienced—life in America forced me to change my idyllic view of Hong Kong and revealed how disconnected the life I lived there was.

Hong Kong to me was a calm and tranquil city of large houses and massive malls. I lived in a small but comfortable apartment in the mountains with a view of the South China Sea, and the only sounds I heard were the occasional car

traveling by the road and birds chirping outside my window.

Because my father was relocated to Hong Kong by the company he worked for, my family was isolated from the local people in a few ways. Since neither of my parents were from Hong Kong, I did not speak Cantonese, leaving me linguistically isolated from the local population. I was also geographically isolated. I attended an international school for fellow children of expatriates from countries all over the world such as England, Germany, Korea, and America. Most of my friends lived in large houses outside the city. Along with school, I would go to the same few malls, clubs, and sports complexes, since Hong Kong proper is very small, with most of the island being mountainous forest. My experience inevitably led to me not being aware of the lives of most who lived in the same city as I did. It never really came to my mind that a whole fifth of

the population lived below the poverty line—I just lived my life day by day. I only realized that my experience was one of privilege when I moved to America.

I noticed a few differences upon arriving in New York.

One huge difference was my new school. Suddenly, our recess area was a simple yard, not a large playground as it was in my school back in Hong Kong.

The people I met came from a more diverse set of backgrounds and locations than in Hong Kong, where all my friends came from similar situations as I did. This diversity opened me up to more cultures and perspectives. I also now rode on the unhygienic MTA subway system and no longer had a car to comfortably drive me places.

I slowly realized I had lived in a bubble when I lived in Hong Kong, shielded from many of the problems in the city. One day, I saw a video

about Hong Kong’s cage homes and how the limited land in the city has created horrible conditions for many people. Around 210,000 residents live in tiny, subdivided apartments, with their rooms being so small that they were dubbed “cage homes.” Soon after that day, major protests known as the Umbrella Revolution began, and it became a major global issue and the first thing one heard associated with “Hong Kong.” Though the protests appeared solely as backlash to China’s new law that challenged Hong Kong’s democracy, the underlying causes involved socioeconomic factors. Though rent has gone up in housing, wages have stagnated, with the city having the longest working hours. Many middle-class citizens felt as though there was very little progress in addressing the wealth disparity and lack of affordable housing. In fact, Hong Kong has a few familyowned companies based on

ships themselves. They can still help people connect by developing fun ideas, but not in a way as forward as putting people in a breakout room and expecting them to bond instantly.

The issue of isolation and lack of socialization should be addressed discreetly. It should be hidden under the premise of something more productive and enticing. The main focus of any bonding event should never be the friends part, rather, it should be an activity like a video game or just anything else, like the “Mix-and-Match Sessions.”

To be as blunt as possible, if you want to make friends, then you should not want to make friends. You should want to do a certain activity, and if you just so happen to meet someone that you like, you should decide to talk to them more.

On an even broader scale, though, I propose that individual students take a deep breath and push themselves out of their comfort zone. In an ideal virtual world, people would freely direct messages to each other, and plan smaller scale “events” amongst themselves. Though social anxiety makes it difficult to take the initiative, we should take advantage of the fact that our social lives are virtual. Technology might be able to relieve the pressure of being judged by our fellow classmates. When we are online, we have the ability to manipulate how the world sees us by editing photos of our faces, having more time to think of appropriate responses to text messages, and hiding parts of ourselves that we are not comfortable sharing with others.

From the comfort of our own control, we can find confidence to be ourselves and liberation from our personal histories.

If third party organizations can’t hand out real friendships, us freshmen have to take matters into our own hands. We can’t rely on an hour of Among Us to solve our social problems, and we can’t expect to bond with other people just because we are in a breakout room together for three minutes. I understand that reaching out to others is daunting, but it’s either a harmless “Hello” or waiting until a world pandemic is over.

It’s up to you.

real estate wealth which control almost everything from retail stores, restaurants, and bus services to telecom and utilities.

Because of such concentration of wealth, social mobility has become harder to achieve, and people eventually took to occupying the central area of the city where most of the big corporations and government buildings are located to express their frustration in an attempt to enact change. I had been shielded from these socioeconomic issues and struggles of the populace while living there.

Sometimes, we need to take a step back from our lives and reflect on our position in society. It is incredibly important to be aware of our surroundings and how our communities are affected by them. In Hong Kong, I was quite literally geographically isolated from the local communities, and now that I live in New York, I understand the importance of interconnectedness and coexistence.

The Spectator ● December 23, 2020

Page 17

Science How Do Our Brains Manage Information Overload?

By DONGNI (HELLEN) LUO Have you ever experienced a phase in your life when you were overloaded with an endless amount of work? This situation is undoubtedly a shared experience within the Stuyvesant community.

It is a common phenomenon to see individuals struggling to decide which assignments are more relevant than others, how to stay on task, or how to schedule time wisely. Well, it is definitely not an easy problem for the small creatures inside our brains to deal with, either.

All things considered, it’s actually quite impressive that our brains are capable of processing all the information we receive.

The main cause of brain overload is fairly simple: our brains are limited in the amount of information they can store at once.

When our brains are constantly distracted, the percentage of overstimulation that occurs will dramatically increase as more information continuously updates in the data stream. Daniel Levitin, one of the most notable neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists in this field of research, wrote that “...multitasking causes the brain to burn through fuel so quickly that we feel exhausted and disoriented after even a short time.” The depletion of oxygenated glucose, the fuel for brain function, occurs at a much faster rate when we repeatedly switch our attention from one activity to another. As more individuals become influenced by the distractions of our modern world, brain fatigue may lead to severe consequences; we can end up making unsatisfactory choices for significant decisions.

Professor Robert Desimone,a brain researcher and director at the McGovern Institute at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, carries out investigations to explore how human brains are able to use

selective attention, or the ability to focus on a particular object, while ignoring other irrelevant stimuli in the environment; process an excessive amount of information simultaneously; and stay focused when distractions are present. According to research conducted by Desimone Lab, relevant messages are amplified in certain regions of the brain, while the irrelevant ones are suppressed. The neurons acquiring relevant information are generally synchronized with each other, producing the rhythmic activity that contains a chorus chanting, or unified reaction, in order for the information to be prioritized by other regions of the brain.

The prefrontal cortex is a region in the brain that covers the front portion of the frontal lobe and is responsible for executive functions, such as planning, decision-making, problem-solving, and self-control. Desimone showed that the prefrontal cortex plays an important role in regulating and balancing brain activities; in other words, it is the conductor of the chorus and controls the rhythmic activity in certain parts of the brain.

Furthermore, distractions can sometimes be beneficial to brain activity as long as they are balanced with the need to stay on task. If this balance is disrupted, different aspects of life will be impaired. Desimone suggests that if the simultaneous oscillations of our neurons are altered, brain diseases, including attention deficit disorder, Parkinson’s disease, and schizophrenia, can emerge. By strengthening this synchrony, researchers may be able to develop treatments for these attention-related illnesses.

Fortunately, it is possible to improve our brain’s ability to process information. Rather than reflecting on all prior activities, reflecting on what just happened sharpens the brain’s ability to handle more

information and perform more tasks at the same time. The two mechanisms for filtering information are proactive and reactive: “proactive” filtering refers to the preparation for brain overload beforehand, while “reactive” filtering focuses on dealing with too much information in real time. To utilize the proactive filtering method, we can make decisions ahead of time and eliminate the irrelevant information that may otherwise fill up a great portion of our memory tank.

For instance, I usually turn off the notifications of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram: they are something I can ignore to control the environment I am exposed to while working.

As mentioned earlier, a deliberate number of distractions may not be as intimidating as they appear to be. These distractions can remove the unnecessary information inside your short-term memory and increase productivity by utilizing a technique called spaced learning.

Spaced learning is founded on the principle that information is more easily absorbed when it is divided into short time intervals and repeated several times with breaks in between these repetitions. A study showed that interspersing 10-minute passing times over a 24-hour period is much more effective than what we call “traditional” learning, which offers a deluge of information over a prolonged period of time. This is mainly because shorter sessions stimulate the right amount of attention to achieve long-term memory retention and minimize the forgetting curve.

There are several other recommended ways to retrain your brain to handle information overload: represent tasks externally, make decisions in the morning, and organize your physical environment.

By categorizing and prioritizing tasks in a logical order, you can get all the information out of your head and see them objectively.

Levitin claimed: “If you spend your day making a bunch of little decisions and it comes time to make a big important one, you’re neurologically depleted.”

Because your brain’s resources are generally maximized in the morning, you may consider all the major decision-making after a good night’s sleep. Evidence suggests that we respond to acute psychological stress more efficiently in the morning than in the evening because the concentration of cortisol, the main stress hormone in your body, is maximized during the day and minimized at night. Cortisol is also known to aid in the fightor-flight response as it provides an energy source to handle stress and restores balance afterward. Especially given that our classes start at 9:00 a.m., it is feasible for Stuyvesant students to wake up earlier and accomplish more in the morning before our first class.

Additionally, the organization of your physical environment can serve as reminders to lessen the burden on your brain, which can also reduce the pressure on your brain to recall information. Personally, small actions, such as leaving an umbrella on the table so I don’t forget to bring it with me the next day, can prevent me from forgetting things and are especially helpful when I am in a rush or when my brain is overloaded with other information.

Even though these methods seem conventional and require only a small amount of effort, it is challenging to create new habits.

Information literacy, the ability to find, evaluate, organize, use, and communicate information in various forms, is a helpful way to approach these tactics. One research study demonstrated that information literacy has become one of the most crucial abilities in both academic performance and career development, and people are encouraged to train their informa-

SCIENCEBEAT At least six allergic reactions to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine have been documented out of 272,000 shots. The ingredient polyethylene glycol is suspected responsible.

The first radio emission from a planet beyond the Solar System was detected in the Tau Boötes System, 51 light-years away. It offers a new way to determine exoplanet habitability.

New analyses of Neanderthal skeletons strengthen the theory that they, like modern humans, buried their dead.

A new class of cathodes has the potential to replace the costly and more inefficient cobalt-based cathodes used in lithium-ion batteries. tion literacy capabilities to locate which content is more worthy of time compared to others. Therefore, brain overload effects can be greatly mitigated when individuals are able to acknowledge the importance of appropriate information consumption practices. While experts and researchers proposed a number of techniques to improve your brain’s ability to manage information overload, it is important that you decide which ones are the most effective based on your own experiences in order to reach a satisfactory outcome.

One Flu Vaccine May Soon Just Be Enough

By SATHIRTHA MONDAL

solution, therefore, would be to produce a vaccine that triggers an immune response to the stalk domain. But doing so is not that easy.

Targeting the stem structure is challenging. Immune memory cells in our bodies are habituated to producing antibodies that target the HA’s head, because the shape of the antibodies specifically matches with that of the head portion. To produce antibodies that match with the stalk, researchers sought to use only the HA stalk in the vaccine.

But they realized that this was impossible, as the stalk on its own i s immensely unstable.

To circumvent this issue, Krammer and his colleagues developed synthetic chimeric HAs, or artificial head and stalk combinations, allowing the team to use stabilized stalk portions.

U l t i m a t e l y, Krammer found that using the chimeric HAs in the vaccine effectively produced antibodies against the stalk. Thus, the response against the stalk was able to dominate over the response against the head because

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Let’s face it, you probably dread receiving the flu shot. The long wait, the painful needle, and the subpar band-aid combine to create a truly unpleasant experience. Worst of all, you need to redo it every year.

Unlike other diseases that are preventable with a single vaccination, an annual seasonal flu vaccine is the only option available to the public to combat influenza due to the virus’s ability to quickly evolve.

However, in a study conducted at Wuhan’s Tongji Hospital to investigate the correlation between getting the flu and getting COVID-19, scientists discovered that 11.8 percent of patients who contract COVID-19 also contract influenza co-infections. The effects of these co-infections were far more catastrophic for the patient, including an increased risk factor of prolonged hospital stay. Thus, battling the flu season has become more crucial than ever before and scientists fear that the current flu vaccine, with its inadequacy to trigger immune responses against virus strains besides its designated target, may no longer be adequate.

The vaccine’s limitations are due to its contents, which include three or four specific strains of the weakened virus in addition to haemagglutinin (HA) proteins. HA, an antigenic glycoprotein, triggers the production of antibodies in an immune response and is found on the surface of the influenza

virus. The HA protein comprises two structures: the head and stalk.

The current vaccine triggers an immune response, producing antibodies that neutralize t h e “head” of the HA protein on the virus’s surface.

Notably, the head is variable between different strains of the virus and is able to mutate and evolve rapidly. As a result, healthcare personnel must reformulate and readminister the flu shot annually.

For years, scientists have been attempting to create a universal flu vaccine, a single vaccination that would grant lifelong immunity against all the strains of influenza.

Though this goal has long been labeled an unattainable fantasy, the promising results from a recent trial suggest that the aspiration may soon become a reality.

A team led by Dr. Florian Krammer, professor of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, hypothesized that shifting the vaccine from the variable head to the uniform stalk could yield promising results. The team found that the stalk domain is well conserved between different strains, as it possesses neutralizing B-cell epitopes, the portion of the antigen that triggers the immune response, and these epitopes are constant among the various viral strains. The obvious

the antibodies produced were specifically tailored for the stalk. Furthermore, because the vaccine targets the conserved stalk domain, it is able to effectively prevent infection from many different strains. Theoretically, this ability would eliminate the need for revaccination in one’s lifetime as it would result in absolute immunity against most emerging strains of influenza. In addition, the vaccination could be a groundbreaking preventive measure against existing strains of influenza, thus preventing future influenza pandemics and eliminating the hassle and expenses associated with revaccination.

Krammer and his team conducted a Phase 1 clinical trial, a test of a drug’s safety and ability to trigger an immune response, on their vaccine. The trial had two groups: 51 participants who received the vaccine and 15 participants who received placebos.

The results concluded that a single vaccination produced antibodies against the stalk domain.

Still, this trial did not test protection against influenza, as the humans were not subjected to the virus itself. Notwithstanding, in a follow-up test, the human antibodies created during the trial were transferred to mice which

were then exposed to the virus.

The treated mice lost insubstantial weight and did not contract the flu, suggesting that the antibodies were effective because weight loss is a symptom of influenza infection.

As promising as the results are, the vaccine awaits a long process before being approved and available to the public. While the “first step” is completed, Krammer aspires to develop additional chimeric HAs that would render the vaccine truly universal, a process that will require at least two years to accomplish. In addition, once the vaccine is complete, it awaits Phase 2 trials to further evaluate its safety, and Phase 3 trials, which compare it to existing treatments to determine effectiveness. The results of these future trials will decide whether the vaccine is approved by the FDA and ultimately, whether it can be available to the public. As revolutionary as this creation is, the project’s primary impediment is its lack of funding due to a lack of interest in the matter. Krammer surmises that the lengthy development procedure and slow progress cause a lack of interest and funding from pharmaceutical companies. Nonetheless, as the universal flu vaccine continues to advance, its successes will be recognized and the project will gain more momentum. Today, we are closer than ever to achieving the universal flu vaccine, and soon enough, just one flu vaccine will be enough.

The Spectator ● December 23, 2020

Page 18

Science A False Promise: Sweden’s Disastrous Bet on Herd Immunity All eyes were on Sweden in April 2020. Students attended school mask-free, families gathered at large parks, and businesses remained open. For the most part, people kept to their daily lives, despite the crisis brewing around them. Life was good.

Meanwhile, nearly 4,000 miles away, most New Yorkers were too scared to go outside. Many stayed shut indoors and distanced themselves from strangers, friends, and even family. Schools and businesses were closed, screeching ambulances became the norm, and police officers leaned out of blaring cars with big megaphones, urging everyone to pull their masks up, keep to themselves, and stay away from others. We watched bitterly from behind closed doors as Sweden turned a blind eye to the pandemic. We couldn’t help but wonder what a momentous mistake they were making, and what this naive blunder would cost them in the long run.

While the rest of the world was enforcing mandatory lockdowns, business closures, and mask-wearing, Swedish authorities ensured that life within the nation’s borders continued as if it were any other year. Their strategy was aimed at building a vast base of immunity in Sweden’s general population while protecting the more vulnerable groups. In other words, by allowing a sufficient percentage of

By ARYANA SINGH You look up at the stars. They stand 245 light-years away from the puffy clouds and blue skies of Earth. The Sun is merely a yellow dot. Most prominent in the sky is a big, puffy planet on the horizon.

You take out your phone, snap a picture, and post it online; the location is tagged as “the moon of Kepler 16b.” Kepler 16b is a real planet that orbits a binary star system, much like the fictional planet Tatooine from “Star Wars.”

Kepler 16b is not the only planet that we have recently learned about. In fact, more than 4,000 planets outside our solar system have been discovered since 1992. They range from as close as 4.25 light-years to as far as 13 thousand light-years away. These planets are called exoplanets, and astronomers have been discovering a few each month. Most stars have, on average, at least one exoplanet. Of course, some star systems, such as HD 10180, host up to nine. Exoplanets are vastly different from each other. While one exoplanet is covered in diamonds (55 Cancri E), another is darker than coal (TrES-2b).

The different types of exoplanets include Neptune-like planets, gas giants, super-Earths, and terrestrial planets. Neptunelike exoplanets, as the name suggests, are similar to Uranus and Neptune, containing hydrogen, helium, water, ammonia, and methane in their atmospheres.

The immense surface pressure of these planets makes them unlikely to possess life.

Meanwhile, gas giants can take on one of two different forms: cold gas giants, like Jupiter and Saturn, or hot gas giants. While both are mostly composed of helium and hydrogen, hot gas giants are extremely warm due to the proximity to their star, unlike the ones in our solar system. The astonishing gas giant J1407b, dubbed “Super Saturn,” is renowned for its ring system that’s 200 times more

the population to become infected with (and ideally, be immune to) the virus, those who lacked immunity would have a lesser chance of getting sick, and all of this would be achieved without “radical” measures like social distancing.

This approach, known as “herd immunity,” is quite controversial.

Some health experts have even commented that Sweden’s actions are comparable to “playing Russian roulette with public health.”

Herd immunity is usually achieved once some percent of the population, around 70 percent for COVID-19, becomes immune, either through vaccination or prior infection. However, without an approved vaccine, Swedish epidemiologists justified their strategy by suggesting that exposure to and recovery from COVID-19 would lead to long-term immunity (“natural herd immunity”).

Of course, the fact that people can become reinfected with COVID-19 renders this theory false.

Moreover, researchers warn that without an effective vaccine in widespread use, attaining herd immunity against the coronavirus is practically impossible, mainly because levels of immunity simply won’t be high enough to guarantee protection for everyone.

Still, Dr. Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist at Sweden’s Public Health Agency and face of Sweden’s “strategy,” tirelessly defended herd immunity during the preliminary months of the pan-

demic. “In a few weeks’ time we might reach herd immunity, and we believe that is why we’re seeing a slow decline in cases, in spite of sampling more and more,” Tegnell commented back in April.

Other epidemiologists supported Tegnell, noting that herd immunity has proved successful against other diseases throughout history, such as measles, and that Sweden’s statistics would continue to worsen before they improved.

But based on the data, this theory failed. In the spring, the number of cases in Sweden (15,332) was nearly double that in Finland (4,000) and Denmark (8,108), both of which had imposed strict lockdowns. Moreover, Sweden’s death toll (1,938) was far higher than that of its neighbors.

Another main facet of Tegnell’s argument was that building up immunity in the spring would result in a much milder second wave. When confronted by skeptics, Tegnell assured them to wait until fall before judging how Sweden had addressed the pandemic.

That time has arrived.

The second wave of COVID-19 is hitting the nation hard, with nearly 19,000 new cases recorded on December 8. One in five people in Stockholm even tested positive for the virus. Hospitalizations and per capita death count are rising more rapidly than those in Sweden’s neighbors, including Denmark, Finland, and Norway. Authorities are pressed to

decide whether or not to abandon Sweden’s first-wave strategy and play it safe.

While several virologists are warning against “pushing through” the second wave with supposed herd immunity, Tegnell asserts that citizens’ adherence to the rules will save Sweden from more tragedy and disaster. He reasons that Sweden’s vigorous social safety net and widespread trust in the country’s public agencies would effectively encourage citizens to stay home if they needed to.

However, other experts, like Frederik Sund, head of the infectious disease clinic at the university hospital in Uppsala, Sweden, believe that Tegnell is once again unnecessarily putting the population in grave peril. Sund suggests a widespread lockdown across Sweden, like those enforced in several other countries.

Furthermore, keeping local enterprises open and running did not save Sweden from the financial recessions experienced by the rest of the world. Despite the absence of restrictions within Sweden, its economy has suffered considerably during the pandemic due to its dependence on global value chains. With Sweden’s financial state in shambles and its death toll rising, those opposed to herd immunity warn that continuing to seek this unreasonable goal will be fruitless and not worth the risks. These critics argue that Sweden’s “trial run” for herd im-

Exoplanets and the Search for Earth 2.0

massive than Saturn’s. But don’t be fooled by the spectacle; with toxic gases and the absence of any solid surfaces, there’s no way life as we know it would exist on any gas giant.

On the other hand, superEarths are terrestrial exoplanets that are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. There is evidence suggesting that Kepler22b, a super-Earth, may be covered entirely by water. Terrestrial exoplanets, however, are rocky and of an equal or lesser size to Earth. Both super-Earths and terrestrial planets are at the focus of studies because they have similar compositions to Earth. The seven planets in the TRAPPIST-1 star system are believed to be rocky, making them prime subjects of investigation.

Each of these planets orbits a star (or maybe even two). Just as there are many different forms of exoplanets, there are various star types. Our Sun is a yellow dwarf star. From what we know, yellow dwarfs make up just 10 percent of all stars.

Conversely, the most prevalent and longest-living star is the red dwarf. Though not visible from Earth by eye, our neighboring star, Proxima Centauri, is a red dwarf. Other star types include brown dwarfs, orange dwarfs, blue giants, red giants, and white dwarfs. White and blue stars are the hottest, while red and brown stars are the coolest. However, research suggests that the most ideal hosts for life are the orange dwarfs, thanks to their low UV radiation and high stability. Giant stars have short life spans, making them highly unstable.

So how is it that scientists have found and approximately mapped so many distant planetary systems?

For stars visible from Earth, a shift in the star’s brightness indicates an orbiting planet. Scientists can measure the amount of change to determine the size of the planet through the transit method. Unfortunately, this method only

works for planets whose orbit paths are between the star and Earth. Another technique called the radial velocity method relies on the gravitational tug planets have on their star. Both the planet and star orbit a common center of mass called the barycenter. This pull makes the star appear “wobbly.” Because it’s difficult to see, astronomers utilize the Doppler Effect by examining the change in wavelengths. The same effect

starshade are used to block light from the star, making it easier to image the planet(s). There are also more methods used to discover exoplanets, like microlensing, astrometry, and pulsar timing. Telescopes and spacecraft that have helped make these findings a reality include the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and Kepler Space Telescope.

Nonetheless, what’s the use of discovering these diverse exo-

is observed when an ambulance passes an observer. The siren has a higher pitch when passing the observer as opposed to when it’s traveling away since the sound has a smaller wavelength. Likewise, when a star moves closer, the wavelengths compress and appear blue. When the wave stretches, it appears red. Naturally, the planets discovered using the radial velocity method are usually gas giants with great gravitational force.

Many other large exoplanets are found by direct imaging. Devices like the coronagraph and

planets if we can’t travel that far?

For one, scientists hope to use their discoveries about young and old celestial objects to understand how life on Earth developed and what the future may hold.

Ultimately, the prime goal of NASA’s Exoplanet Program is to search for life on other planets. By analyzing light waves in a process called transmission spectroscopy, astronomers can determine the components of an exoplanet’s atmosphere and the planet’s mass.

These characteristics are vital in determining whether an exoplanet

Vivian Teo / The Spectator

By SONYA SASSON

munity should immediately come to a close and that the government should mandate harsher restrictions.

Heeding this advice, bans on large gatherings, curfews, and other protocols were finally put in place in early November. Prime Minister Stefan Lofven even exhorted citizens, “Don’t go to the gym, don’t go to the library, don’t have dinner out, don’t have parties—cancel!”

It is no doubt that this shift in attitude was an apt decision. Tegnell’s approach to the pandemic was unique, but it cost thousands of civilians their lives. Rather than abiding by the guidelines laid out by the World Health Organization, Swedish authorities chose to take a gamble on public health and jeopardize the lives of citizens. Despite the warnings of experts and the release of studies that demonstrated the possibility of reinfection, daily life in Sweden continued with nothing more than a wish for immunity that had yet to be fulfilled.

With a COVID-19 vaccine on the horizon, Swedish authorities made the right decision to abandon the “Swedish model” and protect civilians until a vaccine arrives.

The end of this tragic, disasterworn year has nearly arrived, and researchers have still seen no evidence that Tegnell’s laissez-faire strategy is worth pursuing, only making Sweden’s next steps in approaching this crisis more crucial to the nation’s future.

is habitable or not. It’s also essential in the search for “Earth 2.0,” if we ever plan to move to another planet. Looking for an Earth 2.0 also means that there’s a greater chance of finding life. Imagine if these foreign life forms were just as developed as we are. The best candidates for life as we know it would lie in a star’s habitable zone, also known as the Goldilocks zone, where water can exist as a liquid. For hot stars like blue giants, the habitable zone would be far from the star; for cooler stars, like red dwarfs, it would lie much closer. So far, astronomers consider the TRAPPIST-1 star system the most likely to host life, having a total of three Earth-sized exoplanets in its habitable zone. Even our adjacent star system (Proxima Centauri) hosts a planet (Proxima Centauri B) in its habitable zone.

Located four light-years from Earth, it will likely be the first exoplanet humans visit. But even traveling at the speed of light, it would take us a lengthy four years to complete the journey. Besides, it may be decades until we engineer technology to make that possible.

Simply determining which exoplanet has the potential to become Earth 2.0 will be extremely challenging due to the lack of knowledge about the discovered exoplanets. On top of that, finding an exoplanet with the same conditions as Earth is highly improbable. Earth 2.0 will need to have a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere, have a Sun-like star, and be Earthsized. Despite that, scientists have found planets better than Earth in terms of habitability. The stars they orbit are more stable, the planets contain more water (a key ingredient for life), and the planets are slightly warmer (Earth’s warm and moist climates comprise the most biodiversity).

The hope is that, in the future, a stronger familiarity with other worlds will improve our understanding of ours too. We may even uncover some aliens along the way.

The Spectator ● December 23, 2020

Page 19

Science Is More Really Merrier?

It was 3:20 in the morning when Winston Moseley stabbed Catherine “Kitty” Genovese in Queens on March 13, 1964. Genovese’s screams for help went unanswered, and, following her murder, a sensationalized New York Times piece reported that though 37 neighbors in a nearby building heard her cries, not one of them interfered. Though such details had been exaggerated, it was true that only a few neighbors took action in response to her pleas for help. The indifference that many witnesses showed to the fatal stabbing frightened Americans, spurring anti-urbanist movements and driving the development of the 911 emergency response system.

Genovese quickly became a symbol of public apathy, sparking the theory of the bystander effect, a social phenomenon in which the likelihood of bystander interference during an emergency decreases with more bystanders. Decades of research followed the introduction of this theory, attempting to explore the mechanisms responsible for such dangerous behavior. Even after nearly 60 years, the bystander effect plays a significant role in many crimes.

For example, a recent stabbing case in New York on September 16, 2019, resulted in the death of 16-year-old Khaseen Morris. He was stabbed in the chest by Tyler Flach in broad daylight during a dispute that 50 high school students witnessed. Onlookers did little to help Morris, with some even filming the fight and uploading the footage to social media.

The inaction shocked many, including NYPD Detective Lieutenant Fitzpatrick, who called the videos “egregious.”

The killings of Genovese and Morris are prime examples of the bystander effect. Princeton social psychologists Bibb Latané and John Darley postulated a five-step model

that bystanders follow before intervening in an emergency: (1) register that an unusual occurrence is happening, (2) recognize the event as a problem, (3) feel responsible for helping resolve the situation, (4) plan how to interfere with the conflict, and (5) execute the course of action.

Of course, many bystanders don’t accomplish these steps. Several factors hinder bystanders from completing this model, which provides an explanation as to why most do not take action.

The diffusion of responsibility is most cited as the reason for the bystander effect. With an increasing number of bystanders present, each individual feels less of a need to take action. Guilt experienced from passiveness is also distributed amongst bystanders. A 1968 Latané and Darley experiment involved asking participants to complete a questionnaire about urban living in a room that was filled with smokelike steam. 75 percent of lone participants reported the “smoke.”

When working with two other participants, this number nearly halved—only 38 percent of participants responded that there was smoke in the room when working in groups of three.

The knowledge that others are witnessing the same emergency as themselves may also lead bystanders to assume that someone else would act. In another experiment

by Latané and Darley, participants were placed in a room alone and instructed to talk with other participants over an intercom. One of these “participants” was a tape that played the sounds of a seizure and a call for help. 100 percent of participants who were told they were the only one talking with the “participant” reported the incident.

When they were talking in groups of five, only 62 percent of participants reacted.

Theoretically, when bystanders notice an abnormal situation, they

may identify it as an emergency and take action in response, no matter the reaction of other bystanders.

However, in some instances, the ignorance of others prompts some to question their evaluation of a worrisome situation. Often, the inaction of others leads these people to conclude that the circumstance at

response in the confederates: in the scenario with three participants in a room, only 38 percent of participants reacted due to their assumption that another had already taken action. But when one participant was surrounded by two confederates who did not even acknowledge the gas, the participant began to

hand is not an emergency and thus does not require their involvement.

Such a situation is called pluralistic ignorance. Another version of the smoky room experiment exemplifies this theory: when participants were placed in rooms with two confederates (research team members who pretended to be participants and ignored the smoke), only 10 percent of them reported the smoke. This was lower than the 38 percent of participants in rooms with two other real participants who reported the smoke. This discrepancy stems from the lack of

doubt him or herself, resulting in only 10 percent of the participants reporting smoke.

A look at neuroimaging provides us with clues as to why these different permutations of the bystander effect exist. Magnetic resonance imaging found that as the number of bystanders present in an emergency increases, decreased activity is observed in participants’ precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, and medial prefrontal cortex, regions of the brain associated with drawing conclusions about others’ desires, decision making, and pre-

Christina Jiang / The Spectator

By OLIVIA ZHENG

dicting the outcomes of actions.

Additionally, an increase in functional coupling of the medial prefrontal cortex is observed in participants who helped in an emergency compared with participants who didn’t. The results of this study indicate that the medial prefrontal cortex may be responsible for interfering in emergencies.

Today, the documenting of violence on social media, where such content quickly attracts attention, further contributes to bystander apathy. Morris, for example, was stabbed and died as bystanders recorded him instead of coming to his aid. Onlookers, who may have otherwise helped Morris, did this in the hopes of garnering views on social media. Social media can also introduce the concept of digital bystanding, in which people online witness a crime but don’t take any action. The sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl in 2017 was streamed on Facebook Live with over 40 viewers, but none contacted the authorities.

Digital bystander apathy isn’t limited to being silent when presented with real-life emergencies shared online. Most social media users have witnessed, experienced, or perpetuated cyberbullying. While cyberbullying can inflict the same mental and emotional damage that in-person bullying can, it is far more normalized, presenting itself as comments on Instagram posts, duets to TikTok videos, or Twitter threads mocking people. As most users scroll through post after post, it is rare that they stop and make an effort to stand up for someone.

This effect, of course, applies to Stuyvesant students as well. Infamous for our usage of Facebook, we are no strangers to demeaning social media posts. So the next time you scroll past one of these posts, ask yourself if you want to fall into the same psychological pitfall as Genovese’s neighbors who closed their curtains on her.

Genetically Engineered Spicy Tomatoes?

By LOY HASHIMOTO

remains to be determined whether the transcript levels achieved will be sufficient for the capsaicinoid pathway to be functional because the expression could either be too low and thus insufficient to activate the capsaicinoid pathway, or too high,

Sammi Chen / The Spectator

Everyone knows that the two main ingredients in salsa are tomatoes and chili peppers. But what if you could combine those two ingredients into one? Not only would this invention make preparing salsa a whole lot easier, but it would also represent a major scientific breakthrough.

Genome (or gene) editing is a group of technologies that gives scientists the ability to change an organism’s DNA—genetic material can be added, removed, or altered at specific locations in the genome.

In fact, thanks to developments in genetic engineering, scientists are able to genetically modify crops, such as grains and fresh produce, in order to yield certain desired traits, which can range from larger size to enhanced taste. A team of plant physiologists in Brazil and Ireland recently explored the possibility of engineering spicy tomatoes using gene editing. But how exactly is this possible?

It all begins with capsaicinoids: the molecules responsible for the spiciness in chili peppers. Capsaicinoids are also used as low-risk painkillers in creams for arthritis and are the main component in pepper spray. However, there are many agricultural challenges in chili pepper cultivation, such as intolerance to elevated temperatures and susceptibility to viruses. Moreover, capsaicinoid levels are highly dependent on environmental conditions, so the pungency of the peppers can differ even within the same species.

In response to these difficul-

ties in pepper cultivation, a team of plant physiologists led by Agustin Zsögön at the Federal University of Viçosa in Brazil proposed using gene editing to engineer spicy tomatoes. They were aware that the chili pepper and tomato shared a common ancestor before separating 19 million years ago. So when comparing the chili pepper genome to that of the tomato, it was no surprise that the tomato plant contained all the necessary genes for capsaicinoid production in its genome; the genes were just inactive. Furthermore, the tomato is a model organism that has already been the subject of several genetic modification studies: the first genetically modified (GM) crop was a delayed-ripening tomato that was introduced in 1994 as “Flavr Savr.”

Another type of genetically modified tomato is one that contains antifreeze proteins from coldwater fish. This was meant to increase the tomatoes’ tolerance to frost, a key culprit that compromises the quality of fruits and vegetables through damaging effects of ice crystal growth within frozen tissue.

Zsögön and his team were hoping to create another GM tomato, one with capsaicinoids in larger quantities.

According to Zsögön, two gene-engineering strategies could be used in tandem to activate capsaicinoid biosynthesis in the tomato.

One is the use of transcriptional activator-like effectors (TALEs), a suite of proteins secreted by pathogenic Xanthomonas spp. bacteria when they infect plant hosts, to upregulate the expression of genes necessary to make capsaicinoids. It

which could trigger gene silencing in which previously active genes are rendered inactive.

The second strategy is using gene engineering for the targeted replacement of promoters, which

are DNA sequences that determine where transcription of a gene begins. The feasibility of this method has already been demonstrated in tomatoes. Promoter regions of the inactive genes in the capsaicinoid pathway could be replaced to produce transcriptionally active genes.

What remains to be determined, however, is if the genes are fully functional, biochemically active, and catalyze the appropriate reactions. By utilizing both of these strategies, Zsögön and his team believe that a “hot” tomato containing active capsaicinoid genes can be engineered.

However, with genetic engineering comes ethical questions.

Multiple concerns have been raised about GM crops, the first being the potential harm to human health.

Many are worried about what toxins they would ingest by consuming GM crops. To add to this concern, the effects of GM crops on the human body are not well characterized because the crops are generally tested on animals (another ethical issue by itself).

Second, environmentalists believe that GM crops could cause potential damage to the environment because of increased herbicide use, pleiotropy, or the alteration of DNA that can change a cell’s composition, and contamination. GM crops can cross-pollinate with wild and non-GM plants, contaminating wild plants and affecting their natural genetic makeup, which can seriously compromise any organic or non-GM farming system.

Next, GM crops could have a negative impact on traditional farming and promote excessive

corporate dominance. Specifically, farmers traditionally save their seeds from previous harvests to reuse them and save on costs. With the advent of GM seeds, however, businesses have increasingly bought out seed companies and control seed availability, forcing farmers to buy their GM seeds.

Fourth, one major factor that has interrupted the success of many GM crops is high production costs. For example, Golden Rice was invented by scientists from Syngenta, an agricultural chemical company, to help malnourished people suffering from Vitamin A deficiency. However, this type of GM rice took almost 20 years to produce and cost millions of dollars. In fact, Flavr Savr never made it to grocery stores because of its high production costs.

Due to ethical questions, there hasn’t been an update on the progress of engineering spicy tomatoes from Zsögön and his team. It cannot be denied that their proposal is beneficial for making capsaicinoids easily and in larger quantities and can significantly help businesses that use capsaicinoids in their products. While the thought of eating spicy tomatoes is certainly appealing, there are many concerns regarding GM crops that remind us to step back and evaluate the effects of genetically modified organisms, including spicy tomatoes.

Nevertheless, the fact that spicy tomatoes could even be possible is an indicator of how developed gene editing has become, and it could pave the way for engineering other biosynthetic pathways using the tomato fruit as a biofactory.

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The Spectator ● December 23, 2020

Arts and Entertainment Kwanzaa: Traditions Mixed With Modern Culture

Culture

also family and humanity.

While the celebration of Kwanzaa is centered around African values, the interpretations and culture that have evolved from it are what make this celebration so special. People dance to African drums, exchange gifts and hugs, and hold parades to celebrate culture. The streets are filled with African vendors selling jewelry, fruits, Pan-African flags, and other cultural symbols.

African jewelry can range from extremely minimal (small, shiny earrings or rings) to more elaborate (vibrant beaded necklaces that are often heirlooms or handmade), but the overall style—especially during Kwanzaa—is vibrant and bubbly.

Decorating the Pan-African flag is a popular activity for Kwanzaa celebrations. The flag was created as a symbol of Black freedom and liberation in the U.S. and has since evolved into a symbol of Black pride. While the core colors—black, red, and green (as seen on the Kinara)— are preserved, children often decorate the flag with stickers and various designs or create their own interpretation of the Pan-African flag. Houses, places of worship, and wherever else one celebrates are decorated with the flag and other symbols of

By KAEDEN RUPAREL Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Hanukkah!—we know all of these greetings. But how often does one acknowledge the lesser known, yet just as beautiful, celebration of Kwanzaa?

So what exactly is Kwanzaa?

The holiday is a Black American celebration that honors African heritage and ancestors in various ways by different families, with gatherings of immediate family members, extended family, or even as many as hundreds of people. In major urban areas, there are large Kwanzaa gatherings daily, especially on the first (December 26) and last (January 1) days of the holiday. New York City, Chicago, New Orleans, and Philadelphia are all well known for their Kwanzaa celebrations, and many Black people will often come to stay in these major cities.

During the seven-day celebration, a candle on the Kinara—a wooden holder—is lit every day.

Each one symbolizes a major African value that builds and preserves community in African culture. The most important of these values are Ujimi, which represents unity and community, and Imani, which represents faith in not only ancestors and fate, but

Black culture, such as kente cloth and sacred fruits which represent heritage or ancestry. In recent years, many families have also begun decorating their homes with contemporary Black art—think Basquiat, Kara Walker, and Jacob Lawrence. These artists are known to depict images of Black pride and struggles of the African American race through abstract art.

The evolution of Kwanzaa can be seen in the dances performed during the celebrations.

While Kwanzaa was originally meant to be celebrated with traditional African music, it has since grown to include more modern African American-dominated music styles, including rap and hip-hop. Some more traditional families, however, choose to stick to the traditional African music, believing that modern music doesn’t fully encapsulate the struggles that African Americans have faced and still face.

Other families believe that the world is evolving; that these new genres are a way of expressing this pain; and that the pain often heard in traditional African music has turned into anger, something these artists communicate. Still other families believe in a mix, celebrating heritage, origin, and evolution of Black pride in music

By ROXY PERAZZO The stand-out Netflix animated series “Big Mouth” released its long-awaited fourth season on December 4, following in the footsteps of its previous three seasons, improving upon

Julia Shen / The Spectator

By SAMIRA ESHA

Television

gather around a table, worshipping ancestors, recognizing African heritage, and celebrating newer, less traditional aspects of their culture.

Those who celebrate Kwanzaa have often described the holiday as life-changing and soulhealing. The appeal of Kwanzaa lies in the familial bonds as well as its emphasis on community and positivity. It’s meant to be a vibrant celebration, full of love, energy, and culture mixed throughout. It’s a recognition of Black culture and pride, the obstacles Black Americans have overcome, and the path forward as individuals and as a whole.

This year, as expected, there will be no large city gatherings or parades for Kwanzaa. There will, however, be local celebrations, in which dancers, speakers, and artists perform over Zoom.

Additionally, there will be plenty of social media competitions for everything, from the most uniquely designed Pan-African flag to the most decorated Kinara to the best hand-crafted African jewelry. If anything, Kwanzaa celebrators are coming together this holiday more than any other year. Even during the pandemic, you can be sure that the spirit of Kwanzaa will not be lost.

Joyous Kwanzaa, everyone!

Euphoria’s First Special Bridge Episode: Stripped Down and Emotional

Television More than a year after its debut on HBO, the hype around “Euphoria” hasn’t died down.

In fact, the show’s been accruing more avid viewers since the early months of quarantine. Many teenagers resonate with the show’s willingness to depict the grittier aspects of adolescence, such as drug addiction and toxic relationships, and relate to its complex characters. It’s been more than a year since viewers last saw Rue (Zendaya) trying to navigate her way through life while battling mental illness and addiction. At the end of season one, she plans to run away with her best friend Jules (Hunter Schafer), who she happens to be in love with. Just before they leave, however, Rue panics, not wanting to disappoint her family. Jules leaves town without her, causing Rue to relapse in the season finale.

Since then, a lot has happened, and I don’t mean in the show; I mean in the world. The highly anticipated second season of “Euphoria” was set to start filming in early March. Production, however, was pushed back a week before it was scheduled to begin due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

For those early months, nothing could be filmed or released, but as COVID-19 guidelines loosened, producer Sam Levinson came up

(such as Beyoncé!).

On the penultimate night of Kwanzaa, gifts are exchanged between immediate family members. Unlike Christmas gifts, which could be anything, these gifts should relate to the themes of Kwanzaa: heritage, culture, and family. The first gift should be a book or a story signifying a major moment in African history or a major aspect of African culture. The second gift is slightly more ambiguous: a handcrafted gift celebrating family. This can be anything from a handmade toy to an article of clothing to a family memory book. The core idea of the gifts is that they are not expensive and that they celebrate what Kwanzaa is all about.

To close off Kwanzaa on January 1, a massive feast is held.

Originally, this meal was meant to serve traditional African food— from Swahili food (Kenyan, Tanzanian, Ugandan) to Ethiopian to West African—but it has since, like many other Kwanzaa traditions, evolved into any African or African American food—comfort food for Black Americans.

The meals can be as intricate as a 12-dish Ethiopian meal, combined with baked Kraft Macaroni and Cheese on the side. Many people regard this as the best part of the event, when families

with an idea. To tide viewers over before the release of the second season, Levinson decided to release two special bridge episodes, the first titled “Trouble Don’t Always Last” and the second yet to be released.

The 50-minute episode opens on Rue, who’s gently waking a sleeping Jules. The pair live together in an apartment and seem to be in a relationship. Jules goes to fashion school, while Rue’s life and career are unclear. Rue seems content and stable, and her relationship with Jules seems to be flourishing similarly. This all seems a bit confusing, especially because the two characters did not leave each other on the best terms at the end of season one. It is quickly revealed, however, that

Rue is imagining all of this, as the scene shifts to a diner.

At the diner, sitting across from Rue is Ali (Colman Domingo). Ali makes only a few appearances in season one after his and Rue’s initial meeting at Narcotics Anonymous. He often provides an outlet for Rue to air her grievances and attempts to offer her advice. Their conversation covers a variety of topics, including social injustice, Rue’s mental state, and her relationship with Jules.

Ali’s advice is extremely impactful due to the fact that he is a recovering drug addict himself.

For the remainder of the episode, we never leave the diner setting. The whole episode consists of only two scenes, the majority of it taken up by the conversation

between Rue and Ali. Fans of the show are likely accustomed to the highly dramatized plotlines of “Euphoria,” which unfold at breakneck speed. The structure of this episode, however, is drastically different than previous ones and left many viewers dissatisfied, calling it boring and too long. The episode solely focuses on Rue’s addiction and struggles, and though her storyline is vital to the show, there’s little plot development present to carry the viewer through the heavier themes discussed. Viewers also lamented the lack of focus on the show’s side characters, many of whom are fan favorites. Several of their stories were left off on a cliffhanger after season one, and fans were eager to see their plotlines followed up on. Without the draw of the many distinct and vibrant characters that the show normally bounces between, the bridge episode left many unfulfilled.

Considering that the production of these bridge episodes was very limited due to COVID-19 guidelines, some viewers may have had unrealistic expectations.

The comparison of the bridge episode to season one of the series is somewhat of an unfair one and neglects the many unique merits of the bridge episode. The script is raw and includes one of the most heartbreaking scenes in

the entire show so far. Rue opens up more than ever before and sees the reality of mental illness and drug abuse. She talks about how drugs distract her from thoughts surrounding self-harm.

Rue even goes on to discuss how she portrays herself and her behavior toward other people in her head. The scene was displayed far more realistically than the previous ones. In season one, Rue’s hallucinatory drug trips are glamorized and dream-like, with the color purple and glitter plastered all over the screen. In contrast, this episode goes more in-depth about how her addiction truly affects her life and her relationships with her loved ones, including her mother. The stripped-down nature of this bridge episode is still meaningful and engaging, despite not following the standard structure of episodes from season one.

Levinson has gifted “Euphoria” fans a heartfelt episode, despite his lack of resources. We get to see Rue’s struggle with addiction in a completely different, and arguably more realistic, way.

It serves as the perfect transition from Rue’s relapse in the first season to her storyline in the second.

The next episode, titled “[EXPLICIT] Anyone Who’s Not A Sea Blob,” is set to premiere on January 24 and will be from Jules’s perspective.

Season Four of “Big Mouth”: Same Show, Lots of Growth its faults, and maturing with the characters. With puberty and sexuality constantly being stigmatized by essentially everyone in our society, “Big Mouth” makes a unique effort to normalize the embarrassment we all feel during our teenage years and gives us the

ability to laugh about it—this is not the “Miracle of Life.”

For those unfamiliar with the raunchy animated original “Big Mouth,” it follows the lives of a group of middle school students who are constantly put in uncomfortable situations typical of

adolescence. The show centers around the friendship of Nick Birch (Nick Kroll), Jessi Glaser (Jessi Klein), Andrew Glouberman (John Mulaney), and of course, the terror that is puberty.

In the first three seasons, the show deals with a huge range of

taboo but important topics such as menstruation, drug use, and harassment. The fourth season puts a unique spotlight on anxiety by depicting both the little voice continued on page 21

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Arts and Entertainment Season Four of “Big Mouth”: Same Show, Lots of Growth

Television

Jessi’s life.

While the major new character this season is Tito, “Big Mouth” doesn’t shy away from its usual abundance of subjects.

This season features the first transgender character, Natalie (Josie Totah), and while she is first used as a lesson on what it means to be transgender, “Big Mouth” does not keep that pace for long.

Almost immediately after introducing herself, Natalie is bombarded with rude, transphobic comments and questions from her peers and has to navigate that while maintaining a complex personal character arc.

Matthew (Andrew Rannells), another LGBTQ+ character, has a storyline involving him coming out as gay to his parents. In a twist of events, Matthew’s mother, who seemed slightly more accepting of him than his father in the first few seasons, is the one who is actually in denial about Matthew’s

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in our heads and the aftermath of acting on those anxious thoughts.

At the start of the season, Nick and Andrew are forced to attend summer camp together despite being in the midst of a fight, in which Andrew shuns Nick and befriends Seth (Seth Rogen). Nick’s lack of friends at camp leads to the introduction of a new character, Tito the Anxiety Mosquito, who buzzes in the character’s ears telling him to be anxious and describes his fears in overt detail. Tito also zeroes in on Jessi, who moves to New York City and attends a prestigious private school, making her feel less intelligent than the other students despite desperately trying to fit in. Tito continues to appear throughout the season, often accompanied by the Depression Kitty, a cat from previous seasons who periodically weighs down on

The light, graceful tone of the 25-year-old California native belies the album’s darker sentiments. On “Chinese Satellite,” she laments her inability to find her place on Earth. “Savior Com-

By JAEIN KU It seems like every other week there is a news article about the next popular movie or TV show that’s leaving a popular streaming service. Though it’s easy to blame the company if our favorite show from the “Continue Watching” list on Netflix is gone, this is just the way licensing deals work. We can’t help but accept our fate as our favorite TV shows leave, such as when “Friends” (1994-2004) left Netflix last year. That said, this holiday season marks the end for some of Netflix’s best titles, as they leave by the end of the year.

The Office (2005-2013) “The Office,” an all-time fa-

Iris Lin / The Spectator

By YASMINE CHOKRANE and JENNY LIU

Television

Nelli Rojas-Cessa / The Spectator

the closet, which is really helpful for young people with those exact fears. Season four of “Big Mouth” also delves into Missy (Jenny Slate and Ayo Edebiri)’s identity as a mixed person after a visit to her Black cousins’ house, and in later episodes, codeswitching, which is when a person (in the U.S., Blacks are the standard example) alternates between ways of speaking in different situations, as taught to her by Devon (Jak Knight). Missy also asserts how her parents “haven’t taught [her] anything about being Black” and how her white mother especially doesn’t know how to treat her hair properly (she uses a six-in-one shampoo, body wash, dish-soap, and more).

What is different and not necessarily bet-

ter about season four of “Big Mouth” is the childlike subject matter of many of the jokes (feces, vomit, urine, and the like).

The manner of the jokes, however, does work to balance out the more serious plot lines of the season. Though some of the previous comedic integrity is sacrificed, as the show progresses and deals with deeper and more complex issues, the simplicity of the humor maintains the funny and childish aspects of an increasingly grown-up group of characters.

In just 10 episodes, “Big Mouth” successfully manages to display so many pubescent struggles in a comedic manner and create so many loveable yet hateable characters that we can all laugh with and at. Season four of “Big Mouth” is a great watch (not in front of your parents, of course) that does an exemplary job at progressing its classic plotlines while simultaneously introducing new ones.

Phoebe Bridgers’s Haunted House With a Picket Fence

Music The world has slept on Phoebe Bridgers, but not anymore.

Not to be confused with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who has been active in the film industry for some time, Bridgers is a recent musical sensation and icon in her own right. While 2020 was a letdown in many ways, this year was a renaissance in terms of musical releases, from singles to EPs to LPs. If you’re Bridgers, you’ve released all three.

Her sophomore album “Punisher” (2020) was preceded by singles “Garden Song,” “Kyoto,” and “I See You,” all of which are indicators of the album’s complex, otherworldly sound. Meticulously fingerpicked guitar riffs supplement Bridger’s delicate, wistful voice. The confessional lyrics pour out in slow rivulets, with certain syllables dragged on in the midst of the background harmonizing before trickling into the next verse. A steady pulse made by the unassuming drums always cements itself in the songs before rising, becoming dramatically loud in certain ones such as “I Know The End,” the final track on “Punisher.” Apparently, she’s a sucker for a good outro.

sexuality. It’s important for shows like “Big Mouth” that are marketed toward teenagers to show these painful moments because, though it shouldn’t be the case, they often play out in reality and need to be represented in the media we all consume. “Big Mouth” provides a “you’re not alone” sentiment in so many ways, especially with the reaction to Matthew coming out of

plex” embodies the stony tone her dark songwriting can take on: “I’m a bad liar / With a savior complex / All the skeletons you hide / Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.” The topics are wide-ranging but threaded by Bridgers’s ability to juxtapose the beautiful, the sad, and the deadpan. The product is a mesmerizing balance of candid emotions.

Bridgers’s has honed this ability since the very beginning of her career. In an effort to investigate what makes a “sad song,” she began building her name through the production of her

2017 album, “Stranger in the Alps.” Through songs like “Motion Sickness” and “Funeral,” she experiments with how melody engages with lyrics and how the two communicate to create spaces for introspection and maintain the sharpness of her unique perspective.

Bridgers was inspired by some of her favorite artists to pose such a pointed question. In her interview with BandCamp, she cites Mark Kozelek and Elliott Smith as inspirations. The effects of these artists—known for their poignant and desperate lyrics, songs that spotlight the mundane, and emotionally resonant moments—are clearly seen in the delicate tempo and somber lyrics of songs like “Smoke Signals” or “Georgia” that showcase her strengths as an artist.

Her abilities have certainly grown since she first started playing music in her hometown of Pasadena and deepened her love for music through the sounds of bluegrass and folk. She began as a busker at the Pasadena Farmers Market but quickly worked to legitimize her craft, attending the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. It was no surprise when she started playing guitar and singing lead vocals in

Einstein’s Dirty Secret and went on to play bass in Sloppy Jane soon after, though neither band reached dramatic success.

At least not to the degree that Bridgers would, especially in 2020; she has picked up four Grammy nominations this year: Best New Artist, Best Alternative Album, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Performance for “Kyoto.”

While her previous bands were not fruitful, she found success in current groups such as Better Oblivion Community Center and Boygenius. Most recently, she collaborated with Kid Cudi on his album “Man on the Moon III: The Chosen” and was featured on the track “Lovin’ Me.” But that’s not to understate her success as a solo artist, which is undeniably warranted. She’s had a profound impact on the rock genre, introducing a haunted gentleness that’s been sorely lacking for the past two decades.

Bridgers refuses to rely on crashing snares or heavy beats: she whispers her melodies and gently strums her guitar, forcing the listener to lean in and pay more attention to what is being said.

It’s difficult to characterize Bridgers with just one sound.

Though she holds contempt for the phrase “experimental,” there’s

no doubt that her departure from whatever her perceived sound may be is quite characteristic. You never know what you’re going to get, and that resonates as one of her main appeals—her willingness to try out different sounds.

In an interview with Guitar. com, she affirms, “I think of myself more as a producer than a musician.” She admits to writing “15 versions of the same song,” messing them up over and over again. Courage is one of her many defining characteristics and one of the aspects that makes Bridgers stand out as an artist.

But, while the sounds may oscillate—from the deeply colorful and synthy sounds of “Kyoto” to the timid minimalism of “Smoke Signals (Reprise)”—her poignancy remains.

“And when I grow up / I’m gonna look up from my phone and see my life,” she reflects in her most recent hit, “Garden Song.” The quivering of her voice, the muffled sound of the electric guitar, and the modest beat of the drums leave us hanging on every word, every breath, every note. And we’re thankful, though it may take her a while to make sense of her life, that we’re able to so vividly remember and witness it with her.

A Farewell To the Best Titles on Netflix vorite mockumentary sitcom, is a series that captures the journey of typical office workers at a mediocre paper company in 20-minute episodes. Throughout nine seasons, “The Office” landed 42 Emmy nominations and won a whopping total of five. Due to its tightly-packed jokes in the lowstakes background, the show has an irreplaceable quality. The show has an accessible kind of humor, offering comfort when people need a reprieve from their busy schedules. Yet, the show is unfortunately leaving Netflix by the end of 2020 for NBCUniversal’s new streaming service, Peacock.

The show’s concluding episodes, “Michael Leaves,” “Finale,” and “Jim and Dwight have Heart to

Heart” are especially bittersweet, pulling at the heart strings of avid viewers, especially now that the show is about to leave.

Though no TV show is a perfect replacement for “The Office,” there are still alternatives that are as lovably goofy. If you enjoyed Erin’s cheerful, optimistic, and childlike naivete in “The Office,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (2015-2019) features the same actor, Ellie Kemper, as Kimmy Schmidt with a similar personality. “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” transforms an abuse survivor narrative into a light-hearted comedy showcasing Kimmy’s sunny but tough character that inspires us to see good in the world.

Pride & Prejudice (2005) Filmmaker Joe Wright’s “Pride & Prejudice” is by far the best film on Netflix. The overflowing chemistry between the main leads, the nuanced face expressions and body language, and the captivating use of color craft an ideal Jane Austen film. The film utilizes the Kuleshov effect, when viewers derive more meaning from the interaction between two sequential shots in a film rather than a single shot alone. When a close-up of Mr. Darcy’s heartfelt face is followed by Elizabeth Bennett’s, the viewers sense Mr. Darcy’s love for Elizabeth though no words are spoken. This film editing technique vividly encapsu-

lates the romance, satire, and wit of the story. Along with the editing, the soundtrack of “Pride & Prejudice” is one of a kind. The soundtrack’s elegant melodies accentuate the visuals, adding another layer to the romantic and dreamy atmosphere. With this adaptation leaving Netflix at the end of the year, there are only so many nights left to fantasize about true love and happily-everafters.

“Pride & Prejudice” is the most memorable period film to watch on Netflix, but “Lady J” (2018) comes at a close second.

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Arts and Entertainment Television continued from page 21

which a widow assembles a plan to get revenge on a marquis who breaks her heart. Though the heartwarming tone of “Pride & Prejudice” doesn’t match the manipulative one of “Lady J,” the beautiful scenery from both films draws a wide audience.

Gossip Girl (2007-2012)

Music

A Farewell To the Best Titles on Netflix “Gossip Girl” is a series outlining the lives of privileged teenagers on the Upper East Side.

Though the dramatic series ended eight years ago, it still remains iconic on Netflix today. From unrealistic family drama to manipulative relationships, “Gossip Girl” is able to encapsulate the recklessness and immature actions that exemplify the teenage years.

Though most can’t help binging the series every once in a while, it

lenge head-on and thrive under these unique conditions.

2020 has been a year to remember. Outside of the chaos and turmoil that plagued so much of the world this year, the music scene faced significant upheaval of its own, reviving genres, reckoning with race and identity, and responding to the world’s disarray in a number of distinct ways.

A few albums, however, stood out as exceptional depictions of 2020’s musical potential and as markers for the future of music once the year comes to a close.

8) “It Is What It Is”

by Thundercat

With bright lights, bombastic synths, and punchy delivery, Dua Lipa has done the unthinkable: completely revamp the disco genre for a 2020 audience. Oozing with Lipa’s infectious personality and vintage flare, “Future Nostalgia” takes the listener on a trip through the cosmos with the novel pop star, immersing them in an old-school timbre and retro groove. Lipa, however, isn’t just calling back to the disco jams of decades past––she’s pushing the sound forward, as the name of the album suggests. Her music is undeniably TikTok-ready, spawning several trends, dances, and viral phenomena in recent months. “Future Nostalgia” has had an immeasurable cultural impact in 2020, drumming up some of the year’s biggest hits without sacrificing any quality. The secret lies within Lipa’s delivery: it truly sounds like she’s having as much fun as her music invokes.

9.) “3.15.20”

by Childish Gambino In typical Childish Gambino fashion, “3.15.20” is an unpredictable series of events. The album consists of songs ranging anywhere from three to eight minutes, swapping genres and tones seamlessly like the outfits of a magician. Many of his songs feature repetitive phrases and lackluster lyrics, but the instrumentation and sonic creativity are what keep the listener engaged throughout the 57-minute album. He begins the roller coaster with “0.00,” a three-minute track with soft synths, cascading keys, and the simple phrase “we are” repeated 30 times. In “32.22,” Gambino panic-raps over a chaotic electric beat, overloading listeners with cacophony. The next track, “35.31,” is on the opposite side of the spectrum: Gambino croons over the sound of a spirited guitar, smooth drums, and tropical soundbites that leave listeners with a smile on their faces.

Somehow, though, Gambino makes these songs work together.

While this album takes a risky and experimental route, it’s characteristic of Gambino to face the chal-

“Dawson’s Creek” is an American teen drama television series about the lives and journey of a close-knit group of friends from high school to college. The show was released over 20 years ago but brings back the innocence and simplicity we can hope to feel today. The 10-episode “Outer Banks” series is also about a closeknit group of friends from high school. From soapy romance to a heart-racing treasure hunt, these

shows are bound to keep you on the edge of your seat.

As 2020 draws to a close, these are the movies and TV shows to watch before you are forced to buy a subscription to another streaming service. Though our time on Netflix with these popular and nostalgic titles are coming to an end, we’ll always remember the life-long lessons, romance, and laughter they offered.

The End of Days: 2020’s Best Albums

By MORRIS RASKIN and SHIVALI KORGAONKAR

10) “Future Nostalgia”

by Dua Lipa

looks like Netflix is finally texting XOXO to our favorite drama. All six seasons are leaving by the end of the year, but rumor has it that the next generation of Manhattan elite teens will be back on TV by 2021 on HBO Max. “Gossip Girl” has long been a staple for Netflix, but we can instead turn to similar movies and shows such as “Dawson’s Creek” (1998-2003) or “Outer Banks” (2020-). Like “Gossip Girl,”

“It Is What It Is” is a clear development in contemporary funk artist Thundercat’s musical maturity. This album eloquently blends numerous genres, from jazz to rock to R&B, into one continuous flow of dreamy vocals and soulful beats, featuring Steve Lacy, Ty Dolla $ign, and more. Track four, “Black Qualls,” with Lacy, Steve Arrington, and Gambino, meshes a classic colorful jazz sound with modern R&B lyrics. “How Sway” only consists of two words: “ayy” and “yo,” yet displays Thundercat’s uncanny ability to gracefully move between genres and influences. The track begins with an electric beat but ends in a cascading riff that moves the album in a complete 180. “Funny Thing,” one of the few songs that gained mainstream recognition from this album, is another example of a one-minute transition piece that moves from dreamy soul to contemporary R&B. Thundercat does an incredible job of bringing classic pieces of jazz, rock, and R&B into a modern psychedelic sound, while maintaining his unique artistic style.

7) “Circles” by Mac Miller “Circles” by Mac Miller arrived as a uniquely tragic album.

Less than two years after the passing of Malcolm James McCormick (Mac Miller) due to an accidental overdose, his family and team released “Circles,” the artist’s final project. Listening to the album in the wake of this tragedy gives not only insight into the rapper’s final days, as he alludes to the mental health issues plaguing the end of his life, but also the joy and hope that was lost too soon. “Circles” thrives on its rich instrumentation, masterful lyricism, and deep emotional impact that comes with any posthumous product. “This is what it looks like, right before you fall,” Miller croons on the opening line of the album over beautifully layered keys, one of the many stark examples of foreshadowing that the artist uncannily delivers throughout. While other tracks show off more jovial or defeated sides of the artist, “Circles” has a tragic consistency that flows throughout the album, illuminating the rapper’s untimely demise.

6) “Ungodly Hour”

by Chloe x Halle Despite being in their early twenties, the sister duo, Chloe and Halle Bailey. has had a career nothing short of impressive: they’ve starred in the sitcom “grown-ish” (2018-present), performed at the 2019 Super Bowl, and opened for Beyoncé

and JAY-Z on tour. Between all this craziness, they were still able to produce an album filled with energy and passion that puts a youthful twist on 2000s R&B. The duo displays variety in their sound throughout the album, switching between slower and faster beats, while still maintaining a classic R&B love story. In “Tipsy,” they sing, “I might be a little tipsy on your love / Makes me a little crazy but so what? / You’re strumming on my heartstrings, don’t be dumb.” This song, like the rest of the album, has a clear message of strength for women in relationships, good or bad. If shown anything less than respect, they will seek revenge. Chloe and Halle take a basic theme of empowerment and put their own youthful twist on it, creating a tone unlike any R&B album in 2020. Needless to say, their voices complement each other in a way only a sister duo could accomplish. With more albums like this, Chloe and Halle could be on track to become this generation’s Destiny’s Child, and for good reason.

5) “RTJ4” by Run the Jewels Run the Jewels, Killer Mike and El-P’s duo group, reunited in 2020 to denounce the country’s social state with their album “RTJ4.” Collaborating with iconic artists like 2 Chainz and Pharrell Williams, the duo provides listeners with a refreshing hip-hop call-back to the early 2000s. In a musical era oversaturated with monotonous rap, Run the Jewels connects with listeners seeking real substance within the lyrics, especially those who have been looking for new outlets to uplift their voice in accordance with the Black Lives Matter movement.

In “walking in the snow,” Killer Mike raps, “And you so numb, you watch the cops choke out a man like me / Until my voice goes from a shriek to whisper, I can’t breathe / And you sit there in the house on couch and watch it on TV,” frowning upon the tragedy of George Floyd’s death and the period of performative activism that followed. “JU$T,” featuring Williams and Zack de la Rocha, touches on America’s foundation built on racism, as Williams sings, “The Thirteenth Amendment says that slavery’s abolished / Look at all these slave masters posin’ on yo’ dollar.” While each song on “RTJ4” boasts unique instrumentation and a compelling rhythm, this album stands out by virtue of its lyrical content and as a musical protest to America’s current political climate.

4) “Punisher”

by Phoebe Bridgers Phoebe Bridgers has been quietly creeping into the music scene for several years now, but she finally broke through with

her sophomore effort “Punisher.” This project is truly one that knows its own worth; rarely does Bridgers raise her voice beyond a soft cry, yet she packs one of the biggest emotional wallops heard from an up-and-coming star in recent history. Psychedelic plucks and soft drum patterns elevate Bridger’s uniquely gentle voice and give the album a cosmic presence. Whether she’s breathing her wistful lyrics softly over a wispy groove or building to a triumphant, drum and guitar-packed climax, her impact is the same.

She’s a born balladeer and gifted lyricist destined for more mainstream appeal in coming months, and “Punisher” is only our first taste of what Bridgers is truly capable of.

3) “After Hours” by The Weeknd In his fourth studio album “After Hours,” The Weeknd transports listeners into the shoes of his alter ego, Tesfaye, a dysfunctional sinner looking to alleviate the despair and rage he feels after heartbreak. In this theatrical performance, he sets the scene with a suspenseful and electric introduction (in a similar lane as Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”), utilizing a long synth note to draw readers into the apex of the song, when the tone abruptly shifts and accelerates into a fast-paced hiphop beat. In this foundational track, “Alone Again,” Tesfaye takes off his “disguise,” creating a dreamy sensation for the listener. The Weeknd continues this electrifying theme in songs like “Too Late” and “Faith,” but as the album progresses, he shifts focus to his musical specialty: an eclectic blend of R&B and pop. In “Escape From LA,” The Weeknd brings this fictitious album back to reality through his soulful voice as he sings, “Got everything I wanted / But I’d be nothing without you.” He boasts his range by jumping to pop with “Blinding Lights,” whose inclusion of a modern yet unique synthetic tempo makes it a radio stable hit one can’t help but tap a foot to. “After Hours” is The Weeknd’s most vulnerable performance, carrying a consistent theme of loneliness and regret.

While hiding behind the mask of Tesfaye, The Weeknd unveils listeners’ own grim and fiery alter egos they never knew they had.

2) “Fetch the Bolt Cutters”

by Fiona Apple Fiona Apple’s 2020 comeback project “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” is the equivalent of a musical punch directly to the face. What separates Apple from so many of her peers, however, is that her punches land. Viciously tearing through ex-lovers and abusers alike, “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” feels like a concentrated outlet for

the tenured vocalist to let loose on record. Tracks like “For Her” and “Newspaper” rip into these manipulative men with a fervor and carry a sense of catharsis as Apple tears them down in the same way they did her. Other songs like “Cosmonauts,” “Rack of His,” and the titular “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” take more melodic routes but still build to a similar percussion-driven, grinding peak.

The consistency of “Fetch” is remarkable and allows the project to bring a steady kick throughout the 51 minutes, drawing the listener in, and then setting them on fire. A rare project that received a 10/10 score from Pitchfork, this album is a truly once-in-a-generation trip down the psyche of a vocalist who’s been used one too many times.

1) “folklore” by Taylor Swift Quickly emerging as the world’s quintessential quarantine album, “folklore” by Taylor Swift presents a brand new side to the weathered pop star. Maneuvering away from the glitz and glam of celebrity life, Swift presents “folklore” as a stripped-back antidote to the trappings of daily life in 2020. Filled with delicate strings, soft keys, and Swift’s classic Americana delivery, “folklore” managed to introduce a completely new audience to alternative indie stylings and succeeded at both maintaining quality and achieving rampant chart success.

Swift interweaves several different narratives within the project, extending the storyline of “folklore” beyond her own experiences and creating a more universal album. In songs like “august” and “betty,” she describes the melodrama of a high-school love triangle, and on the clicking “the last great american dynasty,” she tells the story of Rebekah Harkness, a 1960s oil baroness whose life uncannily mirrors Swift’s in many ways. Whether she’s poetically describing her own experiences or immersing the listener in fictitious folktales, Swift’s quarantine-inspired project solidifies her place as one of the most versatile artists in the mainstream right now and provides an ethereal kick to a year that couldn’t have needed it more.

Honorable Mentions • “Alfredo” by Freddie Gibbs and Madlib • “YHLQMDLG” by Bad Bunny • “Gaslighter” by The Chicks • “evermore” by Taylor Swift • “Women in Music pt. III”

by HAIM • “Man on the Moon III: The Chosen” by Kid Cudi • “Plastic Hearts” by Miley Cyrus • “Good News” by Megan Thee Stallion • “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon” by Pop Smoke

The Spectator ● December 23, 2020

Page 23

Arts and Entertainment Binge Instead of Browse: Some of the Best Shows to Put on Your Radar

Television

in strenuous challenges without breaking a sweat may not be the most enriching activity out there, but it sure is mindless entertainment. The idea of watching 20 strangers on an island compete for $1 million may seem unappealing, even pointless, but the physical challenges, as well as the strategic component of the series, are very well done. The annoyance (or thrill) of seeing certain competitors get voted off at tribal council is weirdly mesmerizing, and despite the obvious insincerity of the production, “Survivor” is insanely addictive, hence the 40 seasons out right now.

By ADELE BOIS

“Little Fires Everywhere” (Hulu) The adaptation of Celeste Ng’s novel opens on a still of a house set on fire. At first glance, “Little Fires Everywhere” is a mystery, but the story has much more depth. Ng depicts the intertwining stories of two mothers from seemingly different lives: Elena Richardson (Reese Witherspoon), an accomplished socialite and mother of four children who prides herself on her picture-perfect life, and Mia Warren (Kerry Washington), a talented, albeit struggling, artist and single mother.

It is not a light watch, as this series focuses on issues of race, socioeconomic status, and other difficult topics other shows generally avoid. Filled with drama and unexpected plot twists, “Little Fires Everywhere” is the perfect escape from the monotony of daily life.

“Ratched” (Netflix) Starring Sarah Paulson as the head doctor of a mental institution, Netflix’s newest horrorthriller creates a startling backstory for Nurse Mildred Ratched (from the Ken Kesey’s acclaimed novel and Miloš Forman’s film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”), consisting of an abusive household, a murderous brother, and an unexpected love interest. The show shifts between her memories and the present, depicting her struggle with her humanity and identity. Paulson is perfect in this role: intimidating yet likable, and the development of her character through each episode is fulfilling. The show, with its unpredictable (and sometimes

Fashion

By JULIA PANAS We all have those days when we open our closet looking for the perfect outfit and end up with a pile of discarded clothes on the floor, exclaiming “I have nothing to wear!” So, here are some tips on how to always look your best, whether it’s to get dinner with family, study at school, or go shopping with friends in SoHo. 1. Focus.

The easiest way to start your outfit is to pick a focus piece. This can be anything from flashy jewelry to oversized colorful pants to a bag with a unique shape.

The rest of your outfit should remain simple in contrast, using solid colors or basic patterns. An outfit with too many focal points

Laurina Xie / The Spectator

The “Tiger King” (2020) hype has died down. “Schitt’s Creek” (2015-2020) is funny, until it’s not.

And when you’ve seen “The Office” (2005-2013) about a thousand times, watching TV feels as dismal as the time Kevin dropped his pot of chili. Browsing through Netflix becomes a chore, and looking up “best TV shows” feels hopeless, with the same shows appearing over and over again.

But if you’re searching for something new and exciting to bingewatch over winter break, here are 10 of the most underrated—yet excellent—shows out right now.

messy) plot, is engrossing and thoroughly entertaining.

“High Fidelity” (Hulu) For everyone missing live shows and record shopping in quarantine, “High Fidelity” is an excellent substitute. In this gender-bent adaptation of Nick Hornby’s hit novel, Zoë Kravitz plays Rob, the ultimate music fan whose inner monologues make an otherwise cheesy rom-com effortlessly cool. The episodes focus on different moments in Rob’s life, recounting her “Top Five All-Time Most Memorable Heartbreaks” as well as the cultivation of her perfect playlist, which she has down to a science.

The soundtrack of “High Fidelity” is the show’s pièce de résistance, perfectly matching Rob’s search for her identity, with classic tunes from David Bowie to Fleetwood Mac to Prince.

“PEN15” (Hulu) Comedians Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle are the writers and stars of this comedy series, depicting their lives as middle schoolers in the early 2000s. The two are best friends, each other’s “rainbow gel pen in a sea of blue and black writing utensils.” From the beginning of seventh grade to their first experiences with drugs,

viewers follow 13-year-old Anna and Maya, portrayed by their adult counterparts. The sometimes embarrassing, yet always endearing situations that Anna and Maya face together feel relatable and nostalgic and might make you reminisce on simpler times.

“Trinkets” Season 2 (Netflix) Following the recent passing of her mother, Elodie (Emily Meyer) copes by shoplifting and eventually lands herself in a Shoplifters Anonymous group. There, she unexpectedly befriends two of her classmates: Moe, a cynical outcast, and Tabitha, a popular and wealthy it-girl. With their newfound friendship, the girls support each other through the ups-and-downs of teenage life.

“Trinkets” is a story not only of identity and individuality, but also of finding solace and comfort in others. It is deeply relatable, even if, unlike Elodie, you’ve never run away from home to be a roadie.

“The Haunting of Bly Manor” (Netflix) Though maybe not as underrated as the others, “The Haunting of Bly Manor” is a drama-horror series well worth watching. Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) finds herself as an au-pair for a strange family, living in a haunted man-

sion with a grim history. As the series progresses, new plotlines unfold, and a multitude of creepy secrets are revealed. It may not be as scary as its inspiration, “The Haunting of Hill House,” but the relationships developed between the characters have much more depth and honesty than those of its predecessor. Despite being based on the supernatural, “The Haunting of Bly Manor” has a sincere, human touch that makes the series more powerful than expected.

“Alice in Paris” (Hulu, YouTube, Amazon) Searching for a more authentic story of life in Paris? Alice is a twenty-something French student who arrives in Paris to put her “absolute taste” to the test. Each episode is only a few minutes and consists of a simple storyline, in which Alice experiences the city through local food. It may sound cheesy, but the series is beautifully done and features real Paris landmarks. “Alice in Paris” is the perfect show to mindlessly watch, whether you’re craving delicious French pastries or want a change from your daily scenery.

“Survivor” (Netflix) Yes, watching a group of beautiful contestants compete

“East Los High” (Hulu) Finished with “Grand Army” (2020) but craving more high school drama? Head to the West Coast, where a group of Latino high schoolers deal with the difficulties of their teenage years, including violence, pregnancy, and horrible boyfriends. Though the acting is dreadfully mediocre (to say the least), the cast of characters is witty and charming. Like in “Grand Army,” the producers successfully portray what it’s like to be a high schooler in the current day, with a unique and interesting story.

“Wentworth” (Netflix) Netflix has a multitude of prison TV dramas, but “Wentworth” is one of the best. The show takes place in a women’s high-security prison in Australia, and the first few seasons mostly follow prisoner Bea Smith as she navigates friendship, love, and violence. In contrast to “Orange Is the New Black,” (2013-2019) also on Netflix, “Wentworth” seems much more realistic; it’s gritty and vulgar and doesn’t sugarcoat the experience of prison. The series is also supported by a compelling cast of characters, whose experiences and backgrounds are explored in depth. Once you start “Wentworth,” it’s hard to stop; by the fourth season, you’ll be invested in the suspenseful plot and lovable cast of characters.

Whether you love high school dramas or prison narratives, these distinctive shows may be just what you’re looking for. With the cold weather coming, now’s the perfect time to stay home, stay safe, and start what’s sure to become your new favorite series.

Stuyle Corner: HOW TO FASHION can look chaotic and messy, while one which is solely composed of “basics” will be boring and unnoticeable. For example, we could use a statement jacket: an oversized nylon bomber jacket with a bright blue lining, cropped at the waist with an elastic hem.

A focus can also give you the opportunity to highlight certain parts about yourself: large earrings will draw attention to your face, while bright shoes will emphasize your height.

2. Silhouette.

The key to establishing a silhouette is to combine fitted and loose pieces in each outfit. Skinny jeans, stretchy tops, and slimfitting mini skirts are all examples of fitted items, while oversized tees, wide-cut trousers, and flowing dresses exemplify looser ones.

It’s possible for a single piece to fulfill both characteristics, like a blouse with a body-hugging bod-

build around the focus piece you already picked. For example, a fitted top, like a cropped high-neck

Just remember to pick a focus, maintain a dynamic silhouette, coordinate your colors, and always add that final touch.

ice and oversized puffed sleeves.

Mixing and matching these garments allow you to stay comfortable while still producing a dynamic look.

To decide on a silhouette,

sleeveless piece, would work well with a loose, oversized jacket.

Since we already have the small top, we can pair it with something looser on the bottom, like cargo pants. Though we will have

two loose items when the jacket is zipped up, the cinched waist of the top and cargo pants will provide an overall semi-fitted silhouette.

3. Coordinate.

Once you know the general shape you’re going for, it’s time to select the clothes which will complement your focus. When doing this, the most important thing to keep in mind is coordination. The colors of the garments should match in tone, as if they were part of the same color palette: soft pink pairs well with muted browns and other pastels, while bold colors match with black, white, or other bright hues. Coordination is also imcontinued on page 24

Page 24

The Spectator ● September 10, 2020

Arts and Entertainment continued from page 23

portant when considering patterns or graphics in our clothing.

While layering multiple patterns can create a fashion statement, the patterns shouldn’t clash and should instead work together.

Using a recurring texture, such as leather or satin, is yet another way to coordinate your outfit, which will also make it more memorable. To continue our previous example with the black and blue bomber, black nylon cargo pants that match the jacket mate-

Television

By NICOLE LIU It’s that time of year again: sleigh bells are ringing; candy canes are being excessively consumed; and snow is finally falling!

Okay, so maybe the Christmas spirit isn’t at an all-time high this year due to obvious circumstances. Many of us won’t be seeing relatives or friends like we usually would, and for some of us, Christmas plans consist of staying home and eating ourselves into a sugar coma. Luckily, Netflix has us covered with its new rom-com, “Dash and Lily.”

This show was adapted from the young adult novel by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, following the lives and blossoming romance between Dash (Austin Abrams) and Lily (Midori Francis) in New York City over Christmas break. Their relationship sparks at the Strand bookstore, where Lily leaves a red notebook with a dare in one of the shelves in hopes of finding somebody to connect with on Christmas. Dash finds this notebook while browsing and decides to take her up on her challenge. Thus begins a series of dares and written communication through the shared

Music

By THEO KUBOVY-WEISS Amid the stress of early applications and growing fear surrounding increasing COVID-19 rates, one respite from the chaos brightened our past few weeks: Spotify Wrapped. Whether you’re a diehard music fan or a casual listener, you’ve probably looked at Spotify’s statistical recap of your music listening history for the past year. I’m here to dissect what your top artists say about you.

DRAKE Come on, add a little spice.

There’s nothing wrong with listening to a lot of Drake, but unless you’re an avid listener of the “So Far Gone” (2009) or “Take Care” (2011) eras, you probably don’t put much time into your Spotify selection. And you know every lyric to “God’s Plan” (2018).

ARIANA GRANDE/ MEGAN THEE STALLION You spend more time on TikTok than you should, and your most-listened to playlist is the Top 100. You don’t spend a lot of time listening to music, but you enjoy it when you do. For the Grande fans, do everyone a favor,

Stuyle Corner: HOW TO FASHION rial could provide cohesion.

As for the color theme of our outfit, simple monochromatic colors—like grey and black—will easily complement the rest of the look. The crop top can be a dark grey so that when the jacket is taken off there will be a variation in color.

Finally, you can use an accent color to coordinate your outfit, by selecting a color and using it in multiple pieces. In this case, the bright blue lining can be an accent by adding a pop of blue eyeshadow, which will expand on the ‘80s theme of the bomber jacket.

4. Accessorize.

A good accessory is the finishing touch to an outfit and can elevate it by pulling the look together. Adding delicate goldtoned jewelry will make a simple look more classic; a scarf tied in your hair will create a vintage vibe; and a patterned leather belt can enhance your street-style aesthetic. When accessorizing, keep in mind Coco Chanel’s advice: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror, and remove one accessory.” It’s easy to stack up on bracelets and bags, but it’s

necessary to strike a balance and let your accessories shine on their own. For our example outfit, silver jewelry—like stacked rings and small hoops—will be a good addition because they’ll match with the cool-toned palette of the ensemble. For shoes, we can wear black high-heeled booties to complement the cargo pants.

Finally, for the bag, a small boxy crossbody will complete the look; its structured shape will contrast with the looseness of the jacket without detracting from the focus.

These guidelines can apply to any outfit for any occasion, so next time you’re stuck staring at your closet, don’t give up! Just remember to pick a focus, maintain a dynamic silhouette, coordinate your colors, and always add that final touch. Of course, these tips are merely suggestions, not rules. Fashion is unique to each person and their style and can be expressed in many different ways.

In the end, it is most important to wear what you personally feel confident in, as your confidence is the key piece to making any outfit look inspirational.

“Dash and Lily”: Early Christmas Present or Chunk of Coal? notebook. The dares that Dash and Lily give each other verge on the bizarre. From making mochi with Japanese grandmothers to attending a Jewish rock concert, there is never a boring moment with the two teenagers. Each dare serves a purpose, changing the way that either Dash or Lily views the world. As their relationship develops and they open up to each other however, the duo has to face issues that result

they share a common struggle of trying to fit in. While their dynamic is a bit cliché, there is something endearing about their relationship—once you get past the cheesiness factor, that is.

While the pair’s bond is charming, the timeline of their romance leaves something to be desired. Dash falls head over heels for Lily almost immediately after finding the red notebook, and from there, their relationship

From making mochi with Japanese grandmothers to attending a Jewish rock concert, there is never a boring moment with the two teenagers. from the transition of their relationship from writing to real life.

The two characters are an unexpected pair. Dash is a pessimist with family problems, a real-life Scrooge; in contrast, Lily is an eternal optimist and an extreme lover of the holiday season, who goes caroling and wears ugly Christmas sweaters.

Despite these glaring differences,

escalates in the span of a week.

The progression isn’t very realistic and only contributes to the tooth-aching sweetness of their relationship. If you’re a fan of the overly saccharine, then this show is definitely for you. For everybody else however, starting the series might be difficult.

And while Abrams and Francis play their characters well, they

lack a certain physical chemistry, likely due to the fact that they don’t meet face-to-face until the last two episodes. Despite this, I could appreciate how their budding relationship propel their respective character development: Dash and Lily push each other out of their shells and bring out the best in each other.

And the show sports a diverse cast, with Lily’s mother’s half of the family being Japanese and her classmates coming from a wide range of backgrounds. Unfortunately, these side characters don’t have much presence apart from pushing Lily and Dash together, as they mainly facilitate the passing of the notebook between the two lovebirds.

While the characters themselves might be unmemorable, the show’s setting is what really brings it to life. “Dash and Lily” offers a realistic depiction of New York City, complete with grumbling passersby, and strays away from the usual touristy spots like Times Square. Dash and Lily explore various nooks and crannies of the city. The show even includes references and spots that I recognized, like

the Dyker Heights Christmas Lights and of course, the Strand bookstore. The familiarity of the setting adds to the cozy and warm feel of the show.

“Dash and Lily” also excels at bringing the Christmas spirit to life. Christmas trees, wreaths, lights, mistletoe, even Santa Claus and his elves are all tucked into the background, and it is always snowing. The soundtrack is atmospheric, consisting mostly of classic Christmas songs like “All I Want For Christmas Is You”(1994). There’s no better time for some Christmas cheer, especially considering the many challenges that 2020 has brought.

To no one’s surprise, Dash and Lily are able to overcome their initial disagreement, get together, and presumably live happily ever after. It isn’t the most unique ending, but it’s a satisfying conclusion nonetheless, much like the series as whole. While “Dash and Lily” doesn’t attempt to subvert the usual rom-com tropes, it certainly fulfills its purpose. It’s a fun, cute love story told with a wintery backdrop, and I’d recommend it to anyone in search of some holiday cheer!

Spotify Wrapped: What Your Top Artists Say About You and stop trying to hit the high notes when we pass you the aux.

We all know you can’t.

PHOEBE BRIDGERS/ ELLIOTT SMITH Turn that frown upside down!

You talk about economic theory at parties and spend your free time pondering existential questions. You listen to “Kyoto” (2020) when you’re happy and “Between the Bars” (1997) when you’re sad. You’ve considered dying your hair a bright color multiple times but never had the guts to go through with it.

CAR SEAT HEADREST You’re lonely but confident it’s “by choice.” You’re a pretty chill person, but underneath the nonchalant facade, an insatiable teenage angst bubbles within you.

You probably have a journal that you never write in.

FRANK OCEAN A popular choice, but you think you’re edgy despite that.

You belt “Crack Rock” (2012) at the top of your lungs but stay away from iced coffee because you’re scared of getting addicted.

You know every lyric to “Solo

miss the old Kanye. You still have hope that “Yandhi” will come out or that “Donda” will be a resurrection of his prime (spoiler alert: it won’t).

NAS/BIGGIE/ DR. DRE/TUPAC You think ‘90s rap is the pinnacle of hip-hop, and you’re probably right. You have a very strong opinion on the East Coast/West Coast debate, and you’re never going to change your mind. You think these gosh darn mumble rappers don’t deserve the popularity they have, and the only albums from the past decade you’ve listen to are by Joey Bada$$ and Run the Jewels.

Eleanor Chin / The Spectator

Fashion

(Reprise)” (2017) but don’t know a single other André 3000 song.

You also repost ironic Facebook memes and use the phrase “mental illness” too much.

KANYE A safe pick, but a good one.

You become livid whenever someone says that “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (2010) isn’t his best album, but you still

THE BEATLES Either you know every lyric from “Rubber Soul” (1965) to “Abbey Road” (1969), or you just like “Strawberry Fields Forever” (1967) and “Yellow Submarine” (1968). Either way, your music taste is pretty good, and you respect the classics. Your dad would be proud. So would all the middle-aged humanities teachers at Stuy. Please stop calling everyone else posers. Oh, and you probably also hate Yoko.

EARL SWEATSHIRT You’re either super chill, or super not and nothing in between. You think that “Some Rap Songs” (2018) is his best album, though you listen to “Doris” (2013) the most, but his Odd Future days have a special place in your heart.

MAC MILLER You’re one of two Mac Miller fans: you enjoy the uplifting vibes of “Knock Knock” (2010) and “Self Care” (2018), or you cry yourself to sleep listening to “2009” (2018). Either way, you recognize his underrated talent and miss him dearly. Also, summer only lasts from June to August: no need to keep posting pictures from it.

TRAVIS SCOTT/ LIL UZI VERT Take off your resale Bape hoodie, and pull up your XXS Adidas track pants cuz this one’s about to knock your Astroworld socks off. You haven’t grown physically or emotionally since middle school, but it’s okay because you’re compensating by using words nobody’s ever heard of.

The Spectator ● December 23, 2020

Page 25

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

Stuyathlon: The Best Sport Stuyvesant Has to Offer Earlier this year, breakdancing, or “breaking,” was officially recognized as an Olympic sport.

It is expected to appear at the 2024 Summer Olympics, assuming the world is still around at that point. This occurrence has invigorated Stuyathletes, who now hope to take their place among the other Olympic athletes in Paris four years from now.

The Stuyathlon, which gets its name from the wellknown TriBeCa high school in which it originated, is a grueling multistage contest incorporating elements formerly unseen in sports.

The first leg of the race has gained notoriety in the Stuyathlon community for turning off potential Stuyathletes from the sport. It serves as a filter for those unwilling to commit—and boy is it one hell of a sieve. Before they can advance to the subsequent sections, Stuyathletes must endure what is commonly known as “the liquid mile.” This first portion requires competitors to down a hideous cocktail of caffeinated beverages from a brimming S’well thermos, courtesy of the Department of Education. Though the precise composition of the liquid has varied throughout the long history of the Stuyathlon, the most traditional and widely accepted blend of substances is one part coffee, one part green tea, and one part Red Bull. An extra-strength shot of 5-hour Energy is then added to top it off.

Many Stuyathlon champions started out as speed drinkers, and for good reason: running the liquid mile quickly provides an incredible advantage. Being able to finish the loathsome fluid without your stomach voiding or your heart exploding doesn’t matter if your competitors did so minutes ago. Professional Stuyathletes are known to chug lime juice or Caesar dressing in order to hone their disgust tolerance and up their speed. Gus Ullet emptied his horrid thermos in an eye-watering 5.37 seconds one cold morning in March 2014.

The second portion of the relay is no less trying than the first. Once competitors gulp down their entire bottle, they must enter a 10-story building and make their way to the top using only the staircases. Once they reach the top, they must retrieve two standard number two pencils. They then return to the first floor, again using only the stairs, and begin the third and final step of the race.

This middle leg of the Stuyathlon has been subject to much controversy. Undergoing such a grueling physical challenge with half a liter of jungle juice in your body sounds like it violates the Geneva Conventions. There have been tens, if not hundreds, of recorded injuries in the history of the Stuyathlon, with the vast majority having been inflicted by unforgiving flights of stairs. Even more controversial is the fact that there are no strict guidelines for athletes to follow

in regards to sportsmanship.

Seeing as the Stuyathlon has the world’s briefest rulebook, competitors are bound only by the laws of the nation in which the race takes place. On numerous occasions, athletes have been charged with aggravated assault.

Stuyathlon legend Steve Tretch has been given the pseudonym “the lord of lap two” for his adeptness at traversing the stairs. A lofty 6’5”, Tretch and his trunk-like legs have been known to skip four steps at a time going up and full flights at a time going down. “If there was someone in my way, I just went over them,” Tretch said in a 2018 interview.

Once the Stuyathletes have made it back to ground level, they must use the pencils they retrieved to complete a brief math test. The questions are all based around the Advanced Placement Calculus BC curriculum and are fiendishly written by math teachers with too much

slammed down his elixir in under 10 seconds and was out of the building by the four-minute mark. He utilized the forbidden technique and called time at an impressive 4:24 (which was really 6:04 due to the penalties for not showing work on his wrong answers). Ryder, on the other hand, choked the liquid mile and stumbled down the stairs, sitting down to take his test at a less-than-great 6:01. Braun was confident as he sat straight up in the summer heat. What he didn’t know was that Ryder was on the math team. Ryder laid his pencil down, breathing heavily and almost crying at 15:57, and Braun’s face was as bright as the sun. When the news broke that Ryder had achieved a perfect score, Braun passed out and fell onto the sizzling sidewalk, defeated.

As I previously mentioned, the rules of the Stuyathlon are few and far between, and they deal specifically with the pen-

choice that, at the time, was perfectly legal: he broke the tips of Canny’s pencils before taking his own. When Canny sat down to take the third step of the race, he noticed this, and in a move as ingenious as his opponent’s was malicious, snapped his pencils in two. He proceeded to take his test using the mangled wood and lead objects he had just created and defeated his enemy by several seconds. The act of sabotaging your opponents’ pencils has since become grounds for not only disqualification but also being banned from the sport.

I would be remiss, however, in my recounting of Stuyathlon history, if I omitted what has been often cited as the sport’s greatest tragedy.

The Stuyathlon was invented by Leroy Riats in the fall of 1970. It evolved from a petty competition between Riats and some of his friends over who could run up and down Stuyvesant’s five floors twice the fast-

free time. There are typically 10 questions on this exam, all of equal and extreme difficulty, and the competitor’s grade will affect their overall time. For each question answered correctly, a minute will be deducted from their overall time. If they answer incorrectly, however, they will receive no time reward and lose the time they have spent on that question. A safeguard against Stuyathletes receiving unearned bonuses is a 10-second penalty for not showing work on a question.

There is, however, another way to approach this final leg.

Some Stuyathletes have been known to purposely fill in wrong answers on the test as fast as possible so they can escape with a guaranteed minor time loss instead of risking a major time loss by solving questions incorrectly. This technique is often looked down upon and has its faults.

One such case was the nearmythical Stuyathlon match between Nelson Ryder and Josh Braun in August 1999. Throughout the entirety of the showdown, Braun built his lead. He

cils that are retrieved. There can only be two pencils in a Stuyathlon match—if there aren’t, it’s a wildly different sport. If an athlete fails to retrieve both pencils, they may not receive another, cannot proceed to leg three, and are disqualified. If an athlete is unable to write an answer for every question on the test, they are disqualified. Every pencil shall be from the same pack, specifically Dixon Ticonderoga pencils, and are to be handled by a single person, a third party, who personally sharpens each one.

These pencils are to be laid out in a line at the very top of the 10th-floor stairs so they may be accessed easily by the athletes.

Perhaps the most famous Stuyathlon match ever recorded was between Tom Canny and another person whose name has been intentionally wiped from the annals of history. The match, which occurred sometime during spring break in 1987, caused a change in the Stuyathlon rulebook. When Canny’s opponent reached the top of the 10th-floor stairwell just seconds ahead of him, he made a particularly heinous

est. It quickly gained popularity and was the talk of the school for months. Over winter break, Riats’s friends largely forgot about the newly born sport and put it out of their minds. Riats, though, spent those weeks in training. He chugged liter after liter of lemon juice, ran up and down thousands of flights of stairs, and crammed his calculus books until their spines were broken. On the first day back to school, his classmates noticed that a dark transformation had befallen him. Riats spent every class with his head down and didn’t speak to a soul.

He marched through the halls between classes with a sinister look in his eyes and shoved everyone out of his way. At the end of the week, he strode up to Stuyvesant’s then-gym-teacher, Greg Fats, and challenged him to a Stuyathlon duel. Now, it has been frequently debated why Riats targeted Fats in particular, but Stuyvesant alumni who attended the school in this period have attested that the gym teacher was a particularly robust and capricious individual who earned the scorn of many a stu-

Cindy Yang / The Spectator

By LOGAN RUZZIER

dent. Fats, not to be shown up by some ballsy upperclassman, accepted his proposal.

The fateful day arrived on January 16, 1971. Fats showed up to the match in his work clothes, which were tie-dye, of course. Riats wore a heavy coat to the site but tossed it off at the starting line, mimicking the swagger of a WWE champion.

Though Fats was perhaps in the best shape of his life with an afro fit for a disco king, he seemed wimpy next to the freakishly muscular Riats. The crowd that had gathered released a gasp when they saw his physique and were convinced they’d been witness to the return of the Greek gods of antiquity.

In order to discourage such an event from ever occurring again, the records that Riats set that day are discounted from the official rankings but are recorded nonetheless in memory of the student. According to the frenzied scribbles of the reporters attending the match that day, Riats performed at an inhumanly perfect level.

He is said to have burned through his thermos in no more than three seconds and proceeded to crush the bottle against his head like a beer can.

It is rumored that he then dashed through all 20 flights of stairs with such a ferocious intensity that he left burn marks on the pavement exiting the building.

According to the account, which by this point had descended to the level of hieroglyphics, Riats sat down to take the third leg with only three minutes on the clock.

From the oral tradition of the story—since the written account past this was indecipherable—Riats’s skin began to glow as he raced through the written portion at such a rapid pace that a dust storm was kicked up.

Once he finished, he stood up from his desk and looked from side to side at the large mob that had gathered, and his image began to shimmer. He then rose high into the air and dissipated with a blinding blast of blue light.

The time was then called, at precisely 10:00. Accounting for Riats’s test results, he had achieved a time of 0:00.

Nobody remembers what happened to Fats that day, but from then on forth, he was described as overweight, timid, and balding.

In conclusion, Stuyvesant High School should formally recognize and celebrate the sporting tradition that Leroy Riats and his pals started all the way back in 1970. It is very important that we as a school not only acknowledge our history but also keep it alive. This is why I will personally be hosting the annual Stuyathlon tournament this coming spring, coronavirus or not, for it is of the utmost significance to our institution.

If there is one thing you should take away from this long-winded tale of poor choices and daredeviling, remember to never overcommit to something, for it will become all that you are.

The Spectator ● December 23, 2020

Page 26

Humor What Does the Humor Department Want for Christmas?

By THE HUMOR DEPARTMENT

As one of the final touches to our absolutely special experience of 2020, the holiday season has arrived! We’ve had an entire year to contemplate what we could possibly want as our perfect gift. The Humor department presents our own record of desired gifts in hopes that Santa Claus will read our humble list and make our wishes come true.

Ethan: All I want for Christmas is a winter to wipe out the invading German forces.

Kelly: All I want for Christmas is for my writers to get their articles in on time. <3 (Just kidding. Love you all!) Also, if someone could get me either expensive Kyoho grapes or a nice skin for my game that would be cool.

Krista: All I want for Christmas is a bucket of motivation and a frog (and/or any frog equivalents). :D

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Eshaal: All I want for Christmas is a kazoo: the world’s most annoying, blatant, obnoxious qualities packed into one neon plastic vessel. I think it's very representative of me as an individual. Or, even better, two kazoos. Coolest kid on the block coming through.

tator

Spec

Nora: All I want for Christmas is a new MetroCard, like the good old times.

Erica: All I want for Christmas is some REAL people, not the ones that live on my screen.

Lily: All I want for Christmas is bacon, avocado, and chipotle on a roll. #FerrysIMissYou

Liesel: All I want for Christmas is divine right… or a farm, I don’t know.

Oliver: All I want for Christmas is stew…

(Stewwww, baby!)

Tiffany: All I want for Christmas is Trader Joe’s entire stock of Mini Dark Chocolate Mint Stars.

Asa: All I want for Christmas is to feel something—anything. I yearn for the mundane again, to enjoy the minor victories of narrowly making it on the train as the doors almost close on me or realizing it’s a conference day. I’d even settle for getting a chicken over rice only to realize the chef filled up the lid instead of the main part of the container, and so I get significantly less chicken over rice for the same price. But despite being scammed, I’d feel oddly proud.

Logan: All I want for Christmas is a pack of exclusively grape Fla-Vor-Ice freezer pops.

Arshia: All I want for Christmas is snow that isn’t yellow because the neighbor’s dog peed on it and refused to clean it up or that disgusting mushy stuff at the side of the road that’s gray and brown and halfsnow, half-water—the thing New Yorkers call “sludge” or “slush” after slushies.

And I don’t want that sad excuse for snow that’s half a centimeter high that you can’t do anything with either. You can’t sleigh, build snow people, or make snowballs.

And if the snow is powdery and dry, I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL SCREAM. I just… I just need some normal snow…

A Fruitcake Recipe—and a History

By KRISTA PROTEASA

Had a Candy Cane.” Right before they went to sleep, the oldest child had the grand honor of setting this monstrosity on fire. Then, they woke up bright and early on December 25 to the sounds of jingle bells and the smell of burning fruitcake.

Anyway, I’ve given you enough Christmas past for today. Let me fast forward to

once more and sang to it annually on December 24. They sang all sorts of tunes, like “She’ll Be Coming Round the Christmas Tree” and “Old MacDonald

present-day Christmas. A few months ago, I was diagnosed with stage three boanthropy, the psychological disorder that makes one believe he or she is

Anna Ast / The Spectator

Before I give you the recipe for the best fruitcake in the world, I think some backstory would be nice. About 300 years ago, my great-great-great-greatgreat-great-great-great-grandmother came up with a fruitcake recipe. She was born in postRevolutionary Massachusetts, so naturally, her fruitcake was a great yuletide-themed weapon against the pesky British, who just refused to leave. Though this fruitcake was able to feed her and the village for the whole month of December, nobody ever actually wanted to eat it; instead, they’d usually sit around it and tell stories while chucking rocks at it. The children even made a game out of it: whoever cracked the candied berries got five extra minutes with the raccoons before Father had to turn them into hats for all the Davy Crockett fanatics. How fun! I’ve always wanted a bloody animal hat for Christmas.

After the children got their nightly story fix, they played the game we now know as “catch the fruitcake.” Unfortunately, the cake never turned out sticky enough to allow for harmless fun—instead, the leaden, doughy mass and rock-hard, fruit-like lumps made any and all fruitcake games definitively harmful. Every now and then,

someone got a raisin in the eye, and since the cake was close to two-weeks-old by the time the raisins became soft enough to fall out, the unlucky child usually had to make do with one good eye for a couple of months. Who knows what was up with those raisins?

All the people of the village gathered around the fruitcake

a cow, so I decided to do some digging in my late wife’s attic in her old house in Iowa. I didn’t know how much time I had left as a mostly human-acting figure, so I decided to start baking some more while I still could. I always had a suspicion that she still had some of my old things that she stole in her attic, hence my snooping. As I rummaged about, I noticed what looked like the corner of a piece of parchment sticking out from under a cardboard box. Lifting the box carefully, I removed the fragile paper, and I found none other than my GGGGGGGGG-Ma’s worldfamous fruitcake recipe. Seeing the recipe I had heard so much about brought tears to my eyes.

My late wife must’ve snatched it out of jealousy that my family history was more interesting than hers. But hey! Talk about a Christmas miracle. I called all my cats up to the attic so they could witness the moment.

Sniffles let out a sniffle. My oldest cat, Mr. Fluffles, wasn’t very considerate: he scratched the recipe straight down the middle, splitting the aging paper in two.

I had to do some tedious tape repairs to read it again. You know how the oldest children can get.

Once I got home, I realized that there was no better way to honor my late wife’s memory

and celebrate in the Christmas spirit than to make the cake.

I will admit, it did get a little messy, mainly because Madame Buttercup would not stop eating all the flour. I practically had to duct-tape her to the wall.

First things first (or after 600 words of backstory), let me walk you through the ingredients. You’ll need: - A heap of flour - A little bit of butter - A dollop of sugar - A dram of molasses - A pottle of brandy - A smidgen of egg whites - A dash of Himalayan pink salt - An inkling of grass (yes, you read that right) - Your favorite peppermint anything Once you’ve lined up your ingredients, you’ll want to whip out your air fryer (I know, greatgreat-great-great-etc.-grandma didn’t own one of these, but I do!). Turn it to the highest setting, mix all your ingredients straight into the air fryer, and let them cook until you see a dense smoke come out of your little trinket. That’s when you’ll know it’s really ready. Then, take it out of the air fryer (if you can) and enjoy! You can do loads of cool things with this bad boy. I hope you enjoy it as much as Snuggles did before he was smothered by falling prunes! Happy Holidays!

The Spectator ● December 23, 2020

Page 27

Humor Lesser-Known Variants of the Tooth Fairy Everyone has had encounters with the good ole Tooth Fairy.

Your teeth fall out, and you exchange it for a crisp dollar bill in the morning (except for Stuy kids, who get Barron's AP flashcards).

You might even know what she looks like if you watched “Rise of the Guardians” (unless you were too busy staring at Jack Frost, and honestly… who wasn’t?). Setting aside the troubling truth that this is a treacherous slope to selling your organs*, I’m here to tell you that you haven’t been capitalizing on your body parts enough.

Yes, there is more to life than using your teeth for monetary gain: if you know where to look, there are fairy markets for hair, bones, and even a very small underground network that deals with shed skin cells! And for every tooth fairy, there is a “dentist.” “Dentists” are nothing more than people who mess around in your mouth, make your gums bleed, and then have

Cindy Yang / The Spectator

By JASMINE WANG

the audacity to take your money.

THE AUDACITY! If our teeth

are worth a dollar apiece, these dentists should be paying us to

have this experience. Here’s my theory: dentists and tooth fairies are in on it together. They fund each other. Health insurance is so expensive (at least according to your parents), and for what? So it can all be redistributed to you when you finally get these godforsaken tiny bones out of your mouth.

Speaking of tiny bones, virtually no one has met the Bone Fairy and lived to tell the tale. Oh yeah. It goes deeper than “haha dentists.” If you’re that one cursed kid who lived in a house built on top of a corpse, consider yourself lucky because if you start digging right now, there’s probably a whole 30 dollars waiting for you. Where do the bones go? Yes. Find a dollar in your dryer?

That’s the lint fairy thanking you. Unless it’s a sock that’s gone missing too—at that point, you might as well update your will because you’re never getting that one back.

Oh yes, your parents will tell

you otherwise. They’ll say, “Bone Fairy? Have you been reading The Spectator again? Don’t be silly. Only the Tooth Fairy is real.”

They are lying to you. Don’t even get me started on their misguided beliefs on Santa Claus! Your parents have outgrown the childlike wonder of the holidays and now work for the dentists. Don’t let the dentists win.

The underground market for discarded human parts runs long and deep in our society, rooting you in from childhood and having you trust these minions of evil and baby teeth. The Tooth Fairy is merely propaganda for those taking your teeth, hair, and socks. Don’t be fooled—make the most out of this situation!

Let the evil little gremlins under your bed know that you are there.

Make them fear you. Make them work for you. *Meet me behind Ferry’s if you’re interested. I can have you in and out in three hours tops.

Apple Unveils Its Innovative New iPhone 13

By ETHAN LAM Apple showcased the all-new iPhone 13 on December 22, 2020, a highly unusual occurrence given the recent release of the iPhone 12. Due to the timing of this event, Apple CEO Tim Cook was unable to attend as usual, as he only emerges from his den during the fall to attend yearly product unveilings, hibernating for the rest of the year.

This new iPhone boasts a host of revolutionary features, including the “Flow Battery.” The Flow Battery features an extended battery lifetime of 66 hours, nearly one percent greater than its predecessor. But perhaps its most impressive function is that it’s completely wireless. CEO MechaTim Cook stated, “With the new Flow Battery, wires will be a thing of the past. To recharge, simply mail your phone to your local Apple charging station after paying a nominal fee, where it will be charged and returned to you within four to six weeks.”

By NORA MILLER Ahh, Christmas. The time of joy, togetherness, and having a strangely dressed elderly man reverse burglarize your home. We all love Santa, but who really knows anything about him? If the truth about Father Christmas is so dangerous that we must hide it from small children, let’s just be real here: this guy’s pretty sus. Fortunately for all of us unenlightened ones, the conspiracy theorists have our back.

One of the most popular conspiracy theories regarding our dear Kris Kringle is that his secret identity is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

“Just think about it,” one anonymous Reddit user said. “Who else knows each and every one of our addresses and unfailingly sends us stuff we didn’t think we needed?”

In response to criticism that the theory does not explain the existence of Santa prior to the rise of Amazon, some have also denied the existence of humanity before Amazon entirely. As the same user put it, “Rousseau said, ‘I buy, therefore I am,’ didn’t he?”

A variant on this theory is that Bezos kidnapped Santa, and in a macabre imitation of “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” is

Perhaps the most controversial part of the iPhone is not its internal hardware, but rather the default external design of the phone itself. Instead of the typical sleek, metallic chassis that Apple is known for, printed on the back of the phone is a bevy of racial slurs and hate symbols.

There have been many angry comments from consumers and violent riots near Apple stores across the U.S. since the iPhone’s release. “It is outrageous how this kind of barbarism can exist in this day and age,” complained protester Journalism Bronchiole.

“My mother didn’t come to this country to be treated like this.

Everyone deserves to be treated equally—to have an equal opportunity to buy an iPhone. But they’ve already run out of stock, and I only managed to buy 12 of them. The way Apple is depriving us of iPhones is disgusting and cruel.”

Our sources report that the iPhone 13 sold out across the nation in record time, with riots oc-

curring in the streets due to the lack of supply. According to our on-site reporter Jargon Bicarbonate, scalpers have already managed to put them up for auction.

“I had to punch a grandma for mine,” said Bicarbonate.

Moreover, many people are upset over the design changes. “I don’t care about the lack of supply—what’s really disgusting is Apple’s choice of design,” said Joergen Bronchitis, a disgruntled customer outside of the Apple Store in New York City. “These racial slurs on the back almost completely cover the Apple logo.

How am I supposed to flex on my friends if they can’t see the logo?

I sold my kidneys for this, and I want that brand recognition, godamnit!”

Taking advantage of the shortage, notorious scalper Jormungandr Bacitracin managed to intercept an iTruck on its way to an Apple Store, procuring nearly 200 units. Holding the phones hostage with his iRocket Launcher Nano, Bacitracin posited that

should his demands not be met within 24 hours, he would destroy the phones. Bacitracin demanded either the legalization of systemic oppression against Samsung and Android users, the blood of a virgin, or a written apology from God himself for God’s various transgressions against Bacitracin.

However, Bacitracin soon found himself overwhelmed by sustained heavy fire from multiple iAssault Rifles the bystanders had purchased from the Apple Store, and he eventually died from extreme blood loss. (Incidentally, this fulfilled his demand for the blood of a virgin.)

Many call Apple’s failure to meet demand (with only 16 billion units produced, which is less than three phones per person on Earth) the greatest blunder made by the company since 2007, when every doctorate holder fled Earth in fear of the company.

Apple has since released an apology statement regarding the situation:

The Truth About Santa?

pretending to be him. According to some sources who will not be named due to their inability to coherently state their names, Bezos hates Christmas. Resenting the fact that Santa was undercutting his prices on happiness and holiday spirit markets, he resolves that as soon as he could trap Americans in their homes with nothing

rywort suggested that Bezos flew to the North Pole in his private jet sometime in April with a cargo full of some 300 bewildered Amazon employees. He then forced Santa to be the operations manager of what he is calling “Christmas Prime” (obviously in contrast to Christmas Subprime, the 2008 project of Goldman Sachs).

a different story—what if all of that unity and good get to their heads and they all go on strike?”

Such cataclysmic sentiments were shared by another set of Santa theorists: environmentalists. Biologists at the Center for Study of the Obvious claim that given most humans have neither the supersonic speed to visit ev-

“Rousseau said, ‘I buy, therefore I am,’ didn’t he?”

—Anonymous but their Alexas, he’d replace the old man.

Theorists disagree on how he kidnapped Santa or what happened to him thereafter. But as former Amazon employee Michael Werrywort said, “A few years ago, Bezos tried to see if he could sell his moral compass on Amazon for a million dollars.

Apparently, some idiot actually bought it, so yeah, I don’t think this is going to go very well.” Wer-

Allegedly, he plans to cut the pay and benefits of the elves, which has many worried, even those who don’t normally care much about anyone else’s life or livelihood. As United States Senator Mitch McConnell told The Spectator in an e-mail interview, “See, normally I’m quite happy when I receive gifts made by children working in sweatshops because at least the kids aren’t unionized. But these elves, they’re

ery house in the world in one night nor the agility to slip down chimneys narrower than their own girth carrying more than their weight in gifts, Santa Claus must be of another species—most likely some sort of insect. The same argument can be made regarding his reindeer, which distinguish themselves in their ability to fly, as well as his elves, given their talent for essentially reliving the month of December twelve times each

“We are deeply sorry for failing to produce enough iPhone 13 devices and depriving many of you of such a fundamental necessity of survival. To apologize, we have started the ‘Apple Gives Back’ initiative. This is a program in which we collect your old iPhone 13 devices after the iPhone 14 comes out next month and ship them off to poverty-stricken areas, where children and pregnant mothers will smash the phones for their rare earth elements while inhaling birth-defect-inducing fumes.

This influx of phones will see an increase of unskilled labor in the area, making the children more disposable and allowing us to cut their wages as a result.

The money saved with this initiative will be used to fund yearly repairs of the iPhone factory suicide prevention nets in low income neighborhoods of China.

We are extremely sorry for our transgressions, and we hope to make things right.”

year without going insane.

Unfortunately, according to a report by the Polar Communities Initiative, the ecosystem they call the Winter Wonderland is rapidly melting. Without slowing climate change dramatically, in less than a decade, we will have to have Amazon workers replace elves entirely since Amazon workers are one of the few life forms hardy enough to survive in such cold, harsh, and unforgiving climates. A recent photo by the same organization depicted a stranded St. Nick on a block of ice, which was published in The Washington Post. This caught the attention of both wildlife lovers and parents of small children, who, after their initial shock of discovering that Santa is an insect, reached out with donations.

Given the number of potential explanations for the existence of Santa Claus and the potential threats to him, it is easy to feel confused about your own beliefs in Santa. However, this need not be the case. Personally, I think that as beliefs go, it’s best to keep things simple. If you don’t know what to believe, don’t believe in anything. As far as I’m concerned, Santa doesn’t exist. Neither does Christmas.

Page 28

The Spectator â&#x2014;? December 23, 2020

Photo Essay Holiday Cheer

By THE PHOTO DEPARTMENT

Sabrina Li / The Spectator

Zifei Zhao / The Spectator

Julia Lee / The Spectator

Sabrina Li / The Spectator

Athena Lam / The Spectator

Zoe Oppenheimer / The Spectator

Sasha Socolow / The Spectator

Sequoia Rabinovich / The Spectator Julian Giordano / The Spectator

Francesca Nemati / The Spectator

Mumtahana Islam / The Spectator

The Spectator ● December 23, 2020

Page 29

Sports A Glance at the MLB Free Agent Market

By MAYA BROSNICK With the MLB Covid-shortened season having ended almost two months ago, free agency has begun to kick off. The majority of free agents are holding off signing until they have a better understanding of the market.

However, some players have already decided which teams they will be joining. The most sought after free agents still have yet to sign, but here are some of the meaningful ones who have: James McCann to the New York Mets: McCann signed a four-year deal for $40 million on December 12, 2020 with the Mets. It’s a perfect fit for both sides as his strengths lie in shutting down the running game, something that the Mets pitching staff, including Jacob DeGrom, has struggled with for some time now. After J.T. Realmuto, McCann was the best free agent catcher on the market, and the Mets signed him for what could be less than a third of the price that Realmuto will want. Saving money at the catcher spot will also allow the Mets to go after more lucrative free agents, like Trevor Bauer and George Springer.

Charlie Morton to the Atlanta Braves: Morton, one of the best pitchers on the market, signed a one year, $15 million contract with the Braves. Though Morton had an injury-shortened 2020 season, when he posted a mediocre 4.74 ERA, in 2019 he made his second all-star team and posted an ERA of 3.05. The biggest worry with Morton is that he turned 37 in November, which means that his 2020 injury could mean the end of his career as an effective starter. Signing Morton is a risk, but the Braves can afford it, and if he plays like his 2019 self, then the money will be well worth it. The signing is especially useful to the Braves because they are in position to try to win the World Series, and Morton has been effective in the postseason pitching to a 2.20 ERA in 2020 and an ERA of 0.90 in 2019.

David Dahl Texas Rangers: Dahl signed a one-year, $3 million deal with the Rangers on December 11, 2020 after being non-tendered by the Rockies. He will become arbitration eligible, meaning that he will need to be paid more, in the next two seasons and a free agent in 2023.

Dahl struggled in 2020 but was

an all-star in 2019. He’s also only 27 years old, so it is reasonable for the Rangers to hope to get that version of him back. While Dahl as an offensive outfielder is a good move to make, he has had frequent injuries in the past, so the Rangers run the risk of obtaining him for nothing.

Most of the highest profile free agents are still on the market, however. Among these are: Trevor Bauer: Bauer won the N.L. Cy Young award this season and is the most sought after player on the market. He boasted the best ERA in the league at 1.73 and came second in strikeouts and third in fWAR (wins above replacement).

Bauer is an especially interesting free agent because of his social media presence. He has been extremely vocal with the Astros sign stealing scandal, and he live streamed his commentary during each World Series game on his YouTube channel. He could truly go to any team, and though he has expressed a penchant for one-year deals in the past, he has recently walked that back, meaning that he could go anywhere for any length of time.

I predict that Bauer will sign

a three to five year deal for about $30 million per year, enough money that he would be set if anything happened but short enough that he could join a new team while near his prime. Bauer has expressed the desire to go to a team that is a contender, but within those limits, he really could go anywhere.

J.T. Realmuto: Not only is Realmuto the best free agent catcher, but he is also the best catcher in the game.

Realmuto is in the 95th percentile in pitch framing, controls the running game extremely well, and is an overall impressive player.

Now that the Mets have signed McCann, Realmuto is really the only option for teams looking for a catcher. His contract is most likely going to look something like $130 million over five or six years, but with so many teams in the market, Realmuto could push for even more.

I think that Realmuto will stay with the Phillies. A week ago I would have said the Mets, but now that they are out of the running, staying in Philadelphia seems like his best option. That being said, Realmuto will probably go to wherever offers the most money, and Philly is in a

position to do that.

George Springer: Springer has been constantly improving throughout the years, decreasing his strikeout rate and developing his power. He’s played right and center field, and ranks above-average defensively in both. A factor in deciding whether or not to sign Springer is how much his numbers were influenced by the Astros cheating scale. However, while he did push his strikeout rate to a career low in 2017 when the Astros were cheating, Springer lowered it even more in 2020, presumably without cheating, meaning that teams will likely have the same interest in him as they would otherwise.

My prediction is that Springer will go to the Mets. With a new owner, there really isn’t a track record to look at, so there’s no way of knowing what kind of moves Steve Cohen will make. However, having saved so much money on their catcher, the Mets are set up to make a move for Springer or Bauer, and their outfield is lacking way more than their pretty great pitching staff, especially if Noah Syndergaard can make a quick recovery from Tommy John surgery.

From #SaveTheCrew to MLS Champions

By MATT MELUCCI As the final whistle blew, the lucky 1,500 fans at Mapfre stadium in Columbus, Ohio exploded into celebration. Masked staff and players embraced each other, and Columbus Crew head coach Caleb Porter ran around the field, cheering with the gleeful fans in attendance. After a chaotic season plagued by COVID-19 and postponed matches, the Crew secured their second league title ever, defeating the former champions, the Seattle Sounders, in a 3-0 final.

Crew fans were relieved, to say the least. In 2017, former Crew owner Anthony Precourt explored the possibility of relocating the Crew to Austin, Texas if he could not create a new stadium for the squad in Columbus. His reasoning for such drastic changes was understandable: at the time, the Crew had one of the lowest average attendances in MLS, and moving the team would lift them out of financial struggles. However, Precourt’s plans received widespread backlash from fans, who started a campaign against the team’s movement with the hashtag “#SaveTheCrew.” The Haslam family, which owns the Cleveland Browns, took notice and bought the Crew from Precourt, saving the team with plans for a new stadium in Columbus.

Last winter, one of the

Haslam family’s first moves was hiring former Portland Timbers coach Porter to manage the Crew.

Porter dashed Crew fans’ hopes in the 2015 MLS Cup Final when his Timbers emerged victorious over Columbus. Once he arrived at Columbus, Porter was determined to lead the Crew’s unified fan base to a second Philip F. Anschutz Trophy.

The excitement of victory was only heightened with the triumph of finishing the MLS season during a global pandemic. The league had only started regular-season matches a few weeks before nationwide lockdowns in March but had to put the season on an indefinite pause as COVID-19 cases continued to rise. In July, the MLS is Back Tournament restarted the season, but multiple games were postponed as the season progressed. Prior to the MLS Final, in fact, key Crew players Darlington Nagbe and Pedro Santos tested positive for COVID-19, which lowered hopes for the title and forced the Crew to adjust. However, the team fought hard throughout the entire season to reach the MLS Cup Final and would not let up so easily.

The Black and Gold showed great improvement from their first games in March to their playoff run. Before the suspension of MLS in mid-March, the Crew had defeated NYCFC in their first

game and, surprisingly enough, tied 1-1 against the Sounders, whom they would soon face again in the MLS Finals. After a disappointing defeat by a penalty shootout in the MLS is Back Tournament Round of 16, the Crew continued their season as fierce competitors. They pushed to the top of the Eastern Conference early on and led the race to the Supporter’s Shield, awarded to the squad with the best regular season record. Toward the end of the season, however, the Crew placed third in the Eastern Conference.

The Crew started the 2020 MLS Cup Playoffs against the New York Red Bulls in Round One. They cruised by in a somewhat close 3-2 victory against the Red Bulls and moved on to the Conference Semifinals against Nashville SC. The two squads fought for 90 minutes and started extra time, in which the Crew swiftly put two goals up, ending Nashville’s playoff run in 2-0 victory. Columbus was confident as they played the New England Revolution in front of 1,500 supporters at their home field, MAPFRE stadium, for the Eastern Conference Final. The Crew secured a 1-0 victory over New England. The Philip F. Anschutz Trophy was in sight for the squad, which was up against the powerful Sounders in the 2020 MLS

Cup Final.

The first dangerous attack in the final match came from the Crew. In the 17th minute, the Crew’s Gyasi Zardes blasted the ball off of a corner kick at Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei, who saved the shot with quick reflexes. The ball deflected back to Zardes for a bicycle kick attempt, which bounced off of the Sounders’ defense. While they hadn’t scored, the Crew had already set the precedent for the rest of the match.

Only nine minutes later, the Crew’s Lucas Zelarayán, an Argentinian MLS star who signed with Columbus last winter, saw a beautiful cross courtesy of Harrison Afful right at his feet. In a swift one-touch strike, Zelarayán smashed the ball at Frei, who made an error as it slipped through his hands and into the back of the net. In the 31st minute, Zelarayán assisted Derrick Etienne, who curved the ball around Frei into the bottom right corner, solidifying the Crew’s lead.

By the start of the second half, the Columbus squad was putting on a clinic for the Sounders. The Sounders, who were finalists for the fourth time in five years, would not give away an MLS trophy so easily, however. They stepped up the pressure in the second half, beginning with Sounders midfielder Cristian Roldan’s header

that went just over the crossbar.

The Sounders had yet another attempt in the 71st minute, when midfielder Nicolás Lodeiro hit a weak shot off of his left foot that landed just wide of the goal post. Gustav Svensson was the next Sounder to try to score a header, hitting the ball wide of the goal frame. Towards the end of the second half, it was time for the Crew to seal the deal. After a stellar run up the wing, Luis Diaz found Zelarayán in the box, who placed the ball with precision into the top left corner of the Sounders’ goal, sealing the game.

While the Sounders maintained 65 percent possession in the match, the Crew’s attacking ability was unmatchable and unstoppable. The Sounders put all of their effort into the second half, but the Crew were too hungry for their second MLS trophy in club history. The Crew were playing at their home stadium in front of over a thousand ecstatic fans who gave them the confidence and aggression necessary to win.

The MLS victory will help finance the construction of their new stadium in Columbus, cementing the team’s home and likely boosting game attendance next season.

The club has made an admirable journey, from #SaveTheCrew to MLS Champions, and could soon prove dominant again in the 2021 Concacaf Champions League.

LaVar Ball - Best Father in the NBA?

By SALMAN RAHMAN LaVar Ball should be crowned father of the year. The father of Lonzo, LiAngelo, and LaMelo, LaVar Ball has what few have others possess: three sons in the NBA. This milestone was achieved this year in the 2020 NBA Draft when LaMelo Ball was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets with the third pick in the draft. LaMelo and Lonzo Ball are the only two brothers in NBA history to get drafted in the top three of their respective

drafts. LiAngelo Ball went to the D-League first, and this year, he signed his first contract with the Detroit Pistons. However, the journey was not easy and LaVar Ball had to work extremely hard to give his sons the best chance for a spot in the NBA. LaVar Ball ensured that his sons got the media attention they needed to become ranked high school players. The Chino Hills High School team in which the three sons played is considered one of the best high school basketball teams in the country. The

team consisted of extremely talented prospects who put on a show for their crowds. One memorable performance was LaMelo dropping a 92 point game en route to an undefeated run to the California State Championship.

After his sons graduated high school, LaVar decided to take a unique approach for LaMelo and LiAngelo. He took his two younger sons to Lithuania to play professionally and later took them to Australia to play professionally there. LaVar decided to not take the conventional college

route so that LaMelo and LiAngelo can improve. LaVar decided to do this so that his kids could go to a new country and focus on only basketball.

Lavar said that he was going to have Lonzo get drafted by the Lakers, and he made it happen.

Lonzo had the chance to start for the Lakers and play with Lebron James in his second year with the Lakers. Lonzo was then traded to New Orleans, where he played alongside Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson. Lonzo is already one of the elite passers in

the NBA and is poised to have a breakout season this year.

LiAngelo is less known than his two brothers but shouldn’t be underestimated. Due to an incident in China, he wasn’t able to play for UCLA during the season and played overseas with LaMelo.

After playing overseas, LiAngelo played for the D-League and has finally signed a contract with the Pistons allowing him to play this season with his brothers. continued on pagae 31

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The Spectator ● December 23, 2020

Sports Racism Ruins Sports Yet Again

By VERNON HUGHES Tensions were high when İstanbul Başakşehir visited Paris Saint Germain (PSG) for the final qualifying game in the group round of the UEFA Championships League on Tuesday, December 8. The stakes were high as PSG, last season’s finalists, knew that they could be eliminated from the competition with one more loss. Meanwhile, Başakşehir knew that they were already bound to be eliminated as they were too far behind the other teams in Group H—PSG, RB Leipzig, and Manchester United—to progress to the knockout stage. However, the Turkish champions, riding off an unlikely win against English heavyweights Manchester United, were still eager for another taste of victory before ending their Champions League campaign. On a night that should have showcased the desire and talent of two great teams, an act of alleged racism resulted in a premature ending to the match.

In the 13th minute of play, PSG defender Presnel Kimpembe fouled Başakşehir rightwinger Fredrick Gulbrandsen, which was met with backlash from İstanbul’s sideline staff.

The fourth official, Sebastian Coltescu, subsequently told the main referee, Ovidiu Hategan, to “go and give it [a red card] to the Black one [Pierre Webo, the assistant coach of Başakşehir].

This is not [tolerable]. Go and identify him. Go verify—the Black one over there.” Ovidiu proceeded to show Webo a red card, but Webo, clearly bothered by Coltescu’s words, was

in a state of frustration. After hearing the fourth official mutter the word, “negru”—“black” in Romanian—Webo leaped off his seat, pulled down his face mask, and ran over to Coltescu. Standing in front of the Romanian official’s face, Webo repeatedly exclaimed, “Why [did] you say ‘negro?’” while being ushered off the pitch for receiving a red card. Despite the growing crowd of players from both teams who gathered around the sidelines, Coltescu had no response.

The players and managers had different reactions to this incident, but at the forefront of the confrontation was striker Demba Ba, a substitute for Başakşehir that night. Ba exclaimed, “When you [are] mentioning a white guy, you never say ‘this white guy’—you say ‘this guy.’ So why, when you mention a Black guy, do you have to say ‘this Black guy’?”

Later, Okan Buruk, the head coach of Başakşehir, told Coltescu, “You are a racist. You are a racist. We don’t want you.”

A visibly nervous and shocked Coltescu tried responding to the numerous players and coaches who were berating him. He argued that he had used “negru” only to refer to the color black, but his meager attempt to defend his inappropriate actions failed to convince anybody. Instead, it demonstrated that Coltescu remained ignorant over the significance of his wrongdoings. Coltescu has since told Prosport, a Romanian newspaper, “Anyone who knows me knows I’m not racist. At least, I hope that’s the

case.” Though his intent may not have been to refer to Webo with a negative connotation by calling him black, this racial profiling is not acceptable. Coltescu could have easily walked over to Webo and identified him by asking for his name or physically pointing him out. Instead, he exhibited a dangerous lack of awareness of acceptable behaviors. If he is found guilty of racism by UEFA, he will face a 10-match ban.

In what would have been the 23rd minute of the match, the İstanbul players and staff left the field of play in protest of Coltescu’s mishandling of the situation. Then, the PSG players and staff also left the field, followed by the referees, leaving the reporters and journalists in the stadium in shock as they tried to recount the controversial events to viewers at home.

The walk-off was especially significant as it signified that all the players, coaches, and referees at the match stood in solidarity with Webo and felt passionately about the situation. The incident attracted even more attention from fans around the world, shedding light on Coltescu’s wrongdoings and sending the powerful message that racial profiling in sports cannot and will not be tolerated.

The game resumed from the 14th minute the next day, with Coltescu forbidden from being present in the stadium and Webo’s red card rescinded. The players took a knee on the field and wore shirts that displayed the message “No to Racism” prior to the match. The match ended up being a blowout, as

PSG ran out 5-1 winners. Under ordinary circumstances, that match would have been remembered as a great day of celebration for PSG. Instead, PSG’s victory was overshadowed by the events of the previous day.

UEFA has been running a “Say no to racism” campaign since 2016, but the fact that one of the organization’s very own officials displayed racist tendencies proves that UEFA’s effort to combat internalized racism through the mere use of slogans has been largely ineffective. Shockingly, this occasion was not the only act of racism in the past 10 days of European soccer. After a strong performance in a match at the end of November, Manchester United forward Edison Cavani responded to a post his friend, who was Black, had made about him on Instagram. While this seemed like a fine gesture, Cavani captioned his response, “Gracias negrito.” The post was quickly deleted, and a statement was later released by Manchester United, stating that Cavani had no “malicious intent” and that “he deleted it as soon as he was informed that it could be misconstrued.” While Cavani likely did not have racist intentions, this incident again highlights the issue in which members of the professional soccer community have not been properly educated about the use of racist terms. This endless stream of racist behavior is unacceptable, and it is clear that something must change.

For starters, UEFA and other sport organizations need to invest in providing proper edu-

cation to their own employees about the use of racist and dehumanizing terms. Within the curriculum, employees should be taught to never identify people based on race, regardless of the situation. Additionally, as was shown during the PSG game, employees cannot use the language barrier as an excuse to be racist, and stricter fines and bans should be put in place to firmly cement the gravity of such actions. Sport organizations should even consider implementing an idea Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling proposed in 2019, in which soccer leagues “call for an automatic nine-point deduction for racist abuse” and clubs “have to play three games behind closed doors.” Under Sterling’s approach, teams “lose revenue as a direct consequence of racist behavior.” Of course, taking away points would not apply to referees like Coltescu, but alternate methods of dealing fines and bans could be established as a substitute.

The decision by both teams to pause the game sent the powerful message that racism will not be tolerated in sports.

Nonetheless, there still exists an alarming lack of awareness and education regarding the severity of racist behavior. All members of the sports community, officials, coaches, players, and even us fans, must actively work to promote an inclusive environment that does not stigmatize anyone based on race. But for those of us at home, the question is: when will it happen, and what can we do to help?

Why Cricket Struggles to Grow in Popularity

By NAKIB ABEDIN Cricket is the second-most popular sport in the world, with an estimated fanbase of over two and a half billion people. It has some of the most passionate fans, ones who travel all around the world to support their favorite players. However, the sport isn’t popular in North America or mainland Europe and is struggling to expand its reach. This difficulty is in part due to the complexity behind the sport as well as an exclusive mentality that has existed within the sport since its inception.

In order to fully understand why cricket struggles to spread, it is important to have a basic understanding of the rules of the sport. The game is played in two halves; two teams (with a roster of 11 players each) bat for one half and bowl for the other. The goal of the batsman, similar to the batter in baseball, is to protect the wicket, which consists of three stumps behind the batsman, and to simultaneously score as many runs as possible. The goal of the bowler, similar to the pitcher in baseball, is to score a wicket, which refers to striking out a batsman. The fielders are spread across the entire field, and their goal is to try to catch the ball before it lands on the ground, which is another way to take a wicket. There are many different ways to take a wicket, and some of these rules can be very complicated for beginners.

The complexity of the rules

makes cricket a hard sport to understand by simply watching it. Often, one needs a friend or family member to explain it, or they need to read the rulebook themselves. Learning these rules can be somewhat discouraging to people new to the sport, and it creates an unfortunate barrier that curtails cricket’s growth. I experienced this firsthand when it took me weeks to gain a good understanding of how the game works. In fact, even though I have been a fan of the sport for over a year, I still do not fully comprehend all of the rules.

Additionally, cricket matches are notoriously long. The shortest of three formats of the sport, Twenty-20, lasts four hours long.

The second shortest, One Day International, lasts eight hours, and the longest version, Test, is played across three to five days with at least six hours of cricket per day. In comparison, the average basketball game lasts about 150 minutes. It is much easier to watch a sport like basketball, whose games last a reasonable amount of time and follow a schedule that rarely changes, than cricket, in which games are frequently rescheduled and last for long periods of time.

Amateurs of the sport will often play with fewer batsmen allowed

and fewer overs, which are sets of six consecutive bowls, in order to try to make it more schedulefriendly. Another alternative is to play the overs out over the course of a few days as cricket is a sport that can be paused and played at a later time. Still, the sport isn’t very viewer-friendly because the games take place over such a large timespan.

Moreover, cricket is often a very exclusive sport, and this exclusivity stems from the fact that it was a sport for the elite. Both soccer and cricket were invented in England. Soccer was the sport of the common people, whereas primarily the elite played cr icket.

where. Cricket, therefore, did not spread as easily as soccer in most of the English colonies. However, cricket was taught in schools in India as a way of imposing British culture. It became a source of pride for Indians, who showed that they could compete with their English rulers and beat them at their own sport. That reason is why cricket is very popular across the Indian subcontinent: it was their way of standing up to a bully. This perspective eventually transformed cricket from a sport of the elite to a sport of people from all social classes.

Though the sport has expanded to more social classes, the elitist and exclusive mentality pres-

Adrianna Peng / The Spectator

ent in cricket at its inception still exists to this day. The International Cricket Council (ICC), which oversees all official cricket matches, hurts the popularity of the sport by restricting member countries from being able to play certain formats or being able to play in certain tournaments. Only 10 countries play in the ICC Cricket World Cup, and only 12 are al-

As the English empire expanded, many of the natives in their colonies picked up soccer because it requires little equipment to play and can be played nearly any-

lowed to play Test. Excluding the vast majority of the world’s countries slows the growth of the sport, but the teams already playing cricket support this exclusive model because of the money distribution in cricket. The ICC takes all the TV revenue from broadcasting the games and splits it among the teams based on how they place in tournaments. The teams already part of the ICC prefer to only let countries play if their addition can produce more profit. Unfortunately, this system curbs the growth of the sport in countries outside of the member countries in the ICC. Despite many hurdles, cricket is gaining some traction in the United States. Immigrants from the Indian subcontinent and the Caribbean, another region where cricket is very popular, are bringing their cricket tradition with them. It is very slowly beginning to diffuse into American culture. I’ve seen this diffusion while passing by local parks where teams are playing cricket or when I see cricket on TV in local restaurants. Players are starting leagues across the country, including a PSAL cricket league for high schoolers in New York.

Cricket has the incredible ability of bringing people together, and the growth of cricket will only benefit the world. The sport has a promising future, but unless the ICC changes its system to make cricket more inclusive to other countries, it may never grow to its full potential.

The Spectator ● December 23, 2020

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Sports A Look Ahead to the Playoffs

these are three of the five best lineman in the league. At wideout, the Steelers have arguably the best trio with stars JuJu Smith-Schuster, Chase Claypool, and Diontae Johnson. This team just seems to always find a way to win behind the leadership of Mike Tomlin and Ben Roethilsberger, (albeit given a relatively easy schedule) an extremely valuable asset come playoff time.

By BENJAMIN HAMEL and YAQIN RAHMAN Even with all of the uncertainty of 2020, the NFL has persevered and managed to complete three quarters of an NFL season with only two COVID-19 outbreaks within two teams, the Tennessee Titans and the Baltimore Ravens. We must all tip our hats to Roger Goodell and the NFL for persisting and giving us a season during these tough times. Looking ahead to the playoffs, there are many possible contenders for the Super Bowl and potentially a few dark horse teams that can win a couple of games in the playoffs.

Green Bay Packers: With an elite rushing attack and a top three quarterback in the league, this Matt Lafleur led offense is an all around success week in and week out. Rodgers has only five turnovers all year, and the greatness of Davante Adams is on display week in and week out, now securing a touchdown in a franchise record eight straight games. The Packers defensive line is an elite unit led

by Preston and Za’Darius Smith on the outside and Kenny Clark on the interior, a truly formidable unit. The Packers also have a true shutdown corner in Jaire Alexander and an emerging safety in Darnell Savage. While the offense is the clear focal point of this unit, the defense can also make huge stops when needed. All in all, this team may be the most complete in the NFC, so don’t be surprised if you see them in Tampa Bay on Super Bowl Sunday.

New Orleans Saints: Led by a stellar all around defensive unit headlined by D-lineman Cameron Jordan, the Saints are a top team in the NFC. The offensive unit, led by future Hall of Famer Drew Brees, is also top tier with two superb weapons in Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas. Though Brees went down with a rib injury a few weeks ago, New Orleans hasn’t missed a step, and under the leadership of Sean Payton and Drew Brees, the sky is truly the

The Heavy Favorites: Kansas City Chiefs: The defending champions may be even better this year than they were last season, and that’s saying a lot. As Patrick Mahomes said during the offseason, he has just started learning how to read defenses, which is resulting in him at the forefront of the MVP race, and the addition of Clyde Edwards-Helaire has greatly improved the running game. On defense, Chris Jones has the most QB pressures on the year and is arguably the second best interior defensive lineman behind Aaron Donald. Overall, the Chiefs may even go down as one of the best teams of all time and are most certainly the odds on favorite to be crowned Super Bowl champions at the end of this season.

Pittsburgh Steelers: The Steelers started out going 11-0, a top 15 win streak of all time, behind the best defensive unit in the league. The trio of pass rushers in T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward, and Stephon Tuitt make the best defensive line in the league. According to Pro Football Focus,

Seattle Seahawks: The Seahawks offense is loaded with offensive weapons, led by a top tier QB in Russell Wilson. With a top three wide receiver duo, DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, in the

season. Quarterback Josh Allen is having a career year, already surpassing his passing yards last year in only 13 games. Wide receivers Stefon Diggs and Cole Beasley prove to be deadly for opposing defenses, and Devin Singletary is there to cement the Bills’ run

Looking ahead to the playoffs, there are many possible contenders for the Super Bowl and potentially a few dark horse teams that can win a couple of games in the playoffs. league and the great physical running and pass-catching abilities of Chris Carson, the Seahawks offensive unit has all the tools to lead them to the Super Bowl. Defensively, the Seahawks have a great linebacker duo in the league with Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright, as well as a great playmaker Jamal Adams, who just broke the sack record for any safety. Though the defense is quite honestly a poor unit and the weakness of this team, it has potential in their stars, and Russell Wilson has the ability to put the team on his back. Overall, the Seahawks have both the offensive and defensive firepower to make a deep run in the playoffs.

Underdog Teams That Could Make A Super Bowl Run: Buffalo Bills: While Buffalo hasn’t been great nor successful in recent years, their revamped team has been outstanding so far this

game. On defense, cornerback Tre’Davious White, safety Micah Hyde, and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds are cornerstones for a solid defense that puts the team in first place in the AFC East. However, the Bills aren’t the best team, as they have lost three games to the Titans, Chiefs, and the Cardinals at the last second, but Bills’ fans have something to be excited about this season. They’re no longer a top team on defense nor do they have the flashiest run game, but the Bills made it up in their passing game. The Bills haven’t seen this much success in years, and have made a strong case that they could go to the Super Bowl either this season or sometime in the future.

Los Angeles Rams: The Rams, after a 13-3 loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl 53, have come back two years later for their shot at the prestiged title once again.

The Real-Life Iron Man

ing words, citing all the activities he would no longer be able to do.

This doubt, however, only pushed Nikic to work harder to achieve

Nikic began training for the triathlon in 2017. Starting with a single push-up, his father motivated him to become “one percent

goals that had seemed almost impossible at the time.

fitter” every day. Nikic worked closely with coach Dan Grieb as

Courtesy of Chris Nikic

By YOONAH CHANG At just 21 years old, Floridanative Chris Nikic made history as the first person with Down syndrome to complete an Ironman Triathlon. On Saturday, November 7, Nikic ran through the finish line with 14 minutes to spare before the 17 hour cut-off mark (participants who take longer than 17 hours to complete the contest receive a “did not finish”), having swam 2.4 miles, cycled 112 miles, and ran 26.2 miles. His impressive feat was officially recorded in the Guinness World Records last month and garnered massive support from many celebrities and athletes on social media, including tennis athlete Billie Jean King and Special Olympian Chelsea Warner.

From a very young age, Nikic faced several medical complications in addition to Down syndrome, which in itself had already caused severe learning disabilities and bone growth complications.

Nikic had open-heart surgery at five months old due to a pre-existing health condition, and as a result, he could not walk properly until age four or eat solid food until age five. Doctors and scientists flooded his family with discourag-

limit with this team.

the two strived to prepare Nikic for the Ironman Florida.

According to Nikic’s father, finishing the Ironman Triathlon would prove that Nikic could accomplish something he’d always dreamt of: a normal life. Nikic was motivated both by a desire to achieve something that had never been accomplished before and by a genuine love for sports. Memories of doctors repeatedly saying discouraging messages, such as “he can’t” or “he will never,” only fueled Nikic’s hunger to work harder.

His grueling practices, often starting as early as four in the morning, paid off, as his incredible Ironman performance was met with tears of joy and proud smiles from his family.

The 16 hour, 46 minute, and nine second triathlon tested Nikic’s limits, as he suffered minor cuts and bruises from a bicycle crash and even endured several ant bites.

The sheer support from his family, friends, and strangers cheering on the sidelines, however, willed him to the finish line. Throughout the race, his father helped him with his equipment and handed him refreshments during the event transitions. Cameras captured a beautiful moment in which Nikic’s family

Effective play calling by Sean McVay, a deadly wide receiver corps in Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp, and an up and coming run game all contribute to a successful offense reminiscent of the Super Bowl contending team. On defense, however, is where the Rams shine the most, with Aaron Donald still dominating offensive lineman and imposing fear into quarterbacks as the best defensive tackle in the league while Jalen Ramsey shuts down opposing wide receivers. They’re one of the top teams in the competitive NFC West for a reason, and they aren’t afraid to show opposing teams how complete they are on the gridiron.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: The Buccaneers were one of the more hyped-up teams coming into this season with the arrival of Tom Brady, but they haven’t proved to be the dominant team they were supposed to be. However, their superb roster shouldn’t be overlooked just yet. Brady is still showcasing the talent that brought him six Super Bowl rings at 43 years old. Tom Brady isn’t alone, as the three wide receivers he’s throwing to, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and the infamous Antonio Brown, are effective at creating separation to catch passes from the future Hall of Famer.

The defense flourished this season, with dominant linebackers in Devin White and Lavonte David, a talented safety in Antoine Winfield Jr, and solid pass rushers in edge rusher Jason Pierre-Paul and veteran defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh to cement one of the best man-coverage defenses in the league. With this much talent on the roster, the only question is if head coach Bruce Arians and the rest of the coaching staff can use this talent to win games.

offered him encouraging words as he paused for a brief break. His father proudly told him: “You are almost an Ironman, buddy. You’re two-thirds of an Ironman.”

Nikic’s story has inspired many: children born with disabilities striving to accomplish their goals, aspiring athletes training to get fitter, and everyday people looking for motivation. Parents of children with disabilities flooded Nikic’s Instagram page with similar stories of perseverance shortly after his performance blew up on the interview, thanking Nikic for his courage. I am excited to see the impact Nikic’s story will have on athletes with disabilities as they begin their journeys to becoming future Ironmen and Ironwomen.

Since breaking this historic barrier, Nikic has used his platform to inspire other athletes to achieve their goals. He currently runs a website named after his motto, “one percent fitter,” where he conducts most of his outreach. As for the future, Nikic has his mind set on the 2022 USA Special Olympics in Orlando, Florida, where, armed with his new Ironman title, he will continue to embody the strength, resilience, and willpower of the iconic Marvel character.

LaVar Ball - Best Father in the NBA? continued from page 29 LaVar is known for making ridiculous claims and acting a clown on TV. However, his personality on television helped his sons gain publicity. For instance, on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, LaVar

Ball made the ridiculous claim that he could beat Michael Jordan in a 1v1 basketball game. We will never know whether he was being serious or whether he did it for the publicity, but he had everyone talking about him and his sons after his night on the show.

The Ball brothers are a part of an exclusive group of brothers who have played in the NBA together. It’s hard enough to get one child into the NBA, but LaVar Ball made the necessary sacrifices and worked his children so that they could achieve athletic

success: he accompanied his kids to the gym while they were working hard perfecting their craft and even opened up his own reality TV show to try and gain publicity for his children.

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that LaVar had a very

short career in the NFL. But it seems as though he has decided to live his athletic dreams through his children. Lavar Ball might not have been the best athlete back in his day, but he certainly will become one of the best basketball dads in history.

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The Spectator ● December 23, 2020

THE SPECTATOR SPORTS How This Libero Sets Up His Team you’re going to improve, might as well have fun doing it.

By AIDAN LOOK Nicklaus Yao Grade: 12 Height: 5’9” Hair Color: Black Eye Color: Dark Brown Date of Birth: April 22, 2003

4. What’s one of the biggest obstacles you’ve faced while playing volleyball?

One of the biggest obstacles would be rehabbing after tearing my PCL. Rehabbing meant spending a lot of time off the court while watching my teammates play. The physical elements of re-strengthening my knee involved strengthening each individual section of the knee. It was a time-consuming but effective process—making progress from walking to finally jumping was very fulfilling.

However, the mental element was much harder to deal with.

Now, there’s always the small fear in the back of my mind that I might have to go through the entire process once again.

1. How long have you been on the Stuyvesant team?

Three years.

3. What is your strategy for constantly improving yourself ?

Going back to the fundamentals and breaking each movement down, but most importantly, enjoying myself and having fun during practices. If

Courtesy of Nicklaus Yao

2. Do you play volleyball outside of school?

Yes, I do. I’ve played for the NYC Impact Volleyball Club.

5. What position do you play, and what skills and strengths are involved?

Libero and Outside! Libero is the defensive specialist (someone who never gets to spike), but is the cornerstone to every team’s defensive scheme. Outside is one of the most versatile positions—someone who needs to do everything: blocking, passing, spiking, and setting the ball.

6. Funniest teammate?

Nikkie Lin—a weird combination of happiness, clumsiness, and size. He is not afraid to show you affection and certainly has jokes.

Drink of Choice: Canada Dry Favorite food: Buffalo chicken pizza Motto to live by: “Work hard, play hard.”

Fun fact: I used to dance in elementary school.

Youtubers Step Foot in the World of Boxing

By TAEE CHI and SHAFIUL HAQUE One does not simply decide to box professionally on a whim. The sport of boxing isn’t like soccer or basketball, where there is a relatively small chance of physical harm.

Three-time NBA Slam Dunk champion Nate Robinson learned this lesson the hard way on Saturday, November 28, on the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. undercard. Making his professional boxing debut against YouTube star turned professional boxer Jake Paul, Robinson showed his lack of experience as he leaned right into Jake’s punches, culminating in three total knockdowns.

Besides the fact that Robinson should have never entered a boxing ring, the event proved

come in the future, let’s take a few steps back to February 3, 2018: the start of YouTube boxing.

The idea of two YouTubers facing off in a ring originated in England. Two of the biggest British YouTubers, KSI and Joe Weller, began an Internet feud that would be settled by an amateur boxing match in 2018.

While the fight resulted in a technical knockout (TKO) victory for KSI, it was a major success for both parties due to the immense popularity boost they gained. The first-of-its-kind contest drew over 1.6 million live viewers and an additional 25 million over the next several days, becoming the biggest white-collar or amateur boxing fight in history—at least temporarily. After the fight, KSI challenged Logan Paul as his next opponent, and the pair faced

trained almost every day with his team. The fight began in favor of Logan Paul, but KSI took control in the latter stages.

Much to the disappointment of the fans, and despite the two fighters’ best efforts, the match ended in a majority draw.

Consequently, a second bout between the two was set for November of 2019. This time, Logan Paul came better prepared and hoped to emerge victorious in the much anticipated match. However, at the end of the night, it was the Brit, not the American, who came out on top. Facing public humiliation, Logan Paul looked to heal from the fight and continue to improve his game. It was important for Logan Paul to face his first loss, as this experience allowed him to learn from his mistakes and become a better fighter. With his upcoming

a fight against YouTuber Deji on the co-main event of KSI and Logan Paul’s first fight.

Jake Paul soon began to dominate the fight despite Deji’s heroic start, and he emerged victorious in a fifth-round TKO. Jake Paul eventually made his professional debut in the ring against yet another fellow YouTuber, AnEsonGib. Jake Paul demolished him easily, knocking him out in the first round while displaying his impressive boxing skills. This moment was crucial for Jake Paul, as it was when he began to gain recognition for his perseverance and talent.

It’s no secret that boxing’s popularity has declined in the past few years. The emergence of the UFC combined with the inability of boxing promoters to properly market fights were both major factors. As interest in boxing was subsiding, social media and online video platforms became an integral aspect of everyday life. According to former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, it was these platforms that helped resurrect the dying sport. “Boxing owes these guys some kind

of respect,” he said during the press conference following his exhibition bout. Other professional fighters such as Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder, and Tyson Fury agree, supporting the rising trend and highlighting the benefit it could bring to boxing in terms of growing the sport’s audience.

Looking ahead, the sport of boxing will only continue to expand onto other platforms.

YouTube personalities such as the Paul brothers are taking the boxing world by storm and completely transforming the sport. “I’m not fighting to make money,” Jake explained to Insider’s correspondent Alan Dawson in an interview. “I’m fighting because I want to and I love it.” Their involvement in the sport has led others to venture their own paths into boxing. Though you may not like some of the social media stars as people, you must admit that they are working tirelessly out of love for the sport. With Logan’s upcoming match against Mayweather, the older Paul brother might be able to break the barriers between boxing and YouTube.

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that there is a place for social media personalities in the sport of boxing as long as they train like real fighters. “I’m taking this seriously,” Jake Paul said in the post-fight interview. With Jake Paul calling out big names such as Conor McGregor and Dillon Dannis, the future of boxing for Internet personalities looks bright. But before we take a closer look at what’s to

off in the first of two eventual matches in August. Along the way, several other content creators hopped onto the trend, and YouTube boxing made its way into mainstream media.

Logan Paul’s first amateur boxing match against KSI took place on August 25, 2018. Despite not having previous experience with the sport, Logan Paul, Jake Paul’s older brother,

match against boxing legend Floyd Mayweather, Logan Paul has a slim but feasible chance to redeem himself.

Much like his brother, Jake Paul was among the few who popularized boxing in the YouTube bubble. He had no prior involvement with the sport, so he assembled a training team to prepare for matches. He began his amateur boxing career with

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