Verde Volume 15 Issue 1

verde

palo alto high school volume 15 issue 1

The Affordable Care Act and You The young perspective on the Affordable Care Act (p.55)

INDEX SHORT STUFF The Launch News

8 12

PROFILES Paly’s Yu-Gi-Oh Club

17 20 22 24

Saving Arastradero Mayor Gregory Scharff Kim Diorio: the first 100 days

FEATURES Political Turmoil in Egypt Transgender Students America’s Cup Paly Construction

30 36 42 45

COVER Claire Priestley

The Affordable Care Act and You

48

PERSPECTIVES The Perils of Anonymity The “Nice Guy” Syndrome Educational Television

53 54 56

CULTURE Food Trucks School of Rock Netflix “Originals” CREAM DIY Tacolicious Tacos Beignet Recipe Paly Grad Ari Taymor

59 60 62 64 66 68 69

Ana Sofia Amieva Wang

JAMMING OUT A student of Palo Alto’s School of Rock jams out. Read more about the School of Rock on p. 60.

THREE WISHES Students perform in Palo Alto High School’s production of “Aladdin.” Read more about the the show on p. 26.

EDITORIALS RECOGNIZE STUDENT JOURNALISTS’ PRESS RIGHTS

O

n Sept. 12, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved an amendment to the Free Flow of Information Act that, if passed, would broaden their definition of a journalist to include, among others, student journalists.

What an outstanding addition. Verde commends the Student Press Law Center for fighting to have the federal shield law include student journalists and their work. Even if the proposal would only explicitly extend shield protection to college student journalists, we are buoyed by language that suggests a court could on its discretion extend a shield to high school student journalists, too.

The need for a shield law for student journalists recently came into play nearby when three student journalists from Saratoga High School wrote about Audrie Pott, who was sexually assaulted at a party and subsequently cyberbullied as pictures of the event circulated through the student body. After peers cruelly attacked her on social media, Pott died by suicide. After publishing a story with anonymous sources who had seen the pictures, the student journalists received backlash from Pott’s parents, who, according to local news coverage, wanted to discover the identities — and possibly take to court — anonymous individuals involved in disseminating the photos. The students were issued subpoenas to release

THE COVER

the names but decided to fight back under California’s shield law, which protects journalists who wish to maintain the anonymity of their sources. Eventually, the subpoena was dropped.

The Saratoga students used a state shield law, but what is on offer in the Senate is a shield for federal courts. Student journalism doesn’t often end up in such courts, but it could happen, and it is important — for tangible and symbolic reasons — that student journalists around the country have access to such a shield. Journalism is about telling the stories that most need telling, the stories of those who cannot tell their own. If not guaranteed protection in a court of law, student journalists, who often represent a demographic omitted from professional media, will be unable to fulfill that purpose.

Verde agrees with the SPLC, which states on its website: “Common sense and experience suggests that some sources will refuse to share sensitive information with journalists if they are viewed as an extension of a law enforcement or prosecutory agency. … Reporter’s privileges encourage the active and vital exchange of information necessary to keep the public fully informed about the world in which they live.”

This law would give student journalists the protection they need and deserve. We hope to see the legislation passed.

THE STAFF Volume 15 Issue 1 October 2013

Art by Anthony Liu This issue, our cover image illustrates the sheer force of the Affordable Care Act. Recently, the bill has threatened to break through the walls of our legislature and cause the first government shutdown since the Clinton Whitehouse.

Now, the bill will crack the thick barrier between some of those previously unable to attain health insurance and the medical care that evaded them. See p. 48 for more.

Editors-in-chief Hollie Kool Noam Shemtov Managing Editor Jamie Allendorf Design Editor Daniela Ivey Section Editors Samantha Dewees, Features & Profiles Will Queen, Perspectives Alyssa Takahashi, The Launch News Editor Bryan Wong Business Manager Angela Xu

Art Director Anthony Liu Photo Director Ana Sofia Amieva-Wang Staff Writers Eliza Ackroyd Zofia Ahmad Jack Brook Lucy Fox Brigid Godfrey Alexandra Hsieh Jasper McEvoy Madison Mignola Tira Oskui Paul Promthong Claire Priestley Anand Srinivasan Lande Watson Adviser Paul Kandell

VERDE MAGAZINE

Charu Srivastava

SCHOOLS SHOULD ACCOMMODATE TRANS STUDENTS

T

hree days before Palo Alto High School students began their 2013-2014 year, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1266, a groundbreaking piece of legislation for transgender students across the state. The bill recognizes transgender students’ right to participate in sex-segregated activities such as sports and use facilities according to their own gender identity, irrespective of the sex listed on their records.

The bill is an important step for our schools.

Finally, the right to self-identify will be institutionally recognized. Verde commends the California legislators for passing the bill, believing systemic accommodation of gender nonconforming youth to be a major development with both symbolic and practical implications for the LGBTQ community and beyond.

Opposers of the bill see it as invasive to nontransgender people’s privacy, and fear the longterm repercussions of its nonspecific aspects.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly has pulled his son from class because of the law, writing on WorldNetDaily that AB 1266 is a “recipe for disaster.”

“The right to privacy enjoyed by every student will be replaced by the right to be ogled,” Donelly wrote. “It is completely unreasonable to expect teenagers ... to accept this level of privacy invasion.”

Verde believes teenagers are not only capable of acting responsibly with such sensitive issues as

gender identity in the balance, but that it is their responsibility to do so. If introduced to peers in diverse stages of self-definition, especially with regard to gender, youth will learn to treat them with the respect they deserve.

But students will not learn to accept the validity of transgender students’ gender identities as equal without guidance. Because of this, the implementation of this bill should extend far beyond the bathroom stall. California schools should begin teaching acceptance and equality at a young age.

Moreover, if implemented responsibly, the bill will affect a much-needed shift away from sex-segregation in education. The common practice of grouping students by sex for everything from sports teams to lunch lines is damaging to everyone. It reinforces a kind of gender normativity that is completely out-of-date, perpetuating gender stereotypes and divisions that continue to affect youth far past their days in the classroom.

What a victory it would be if boys and girls in our schools were taught acceptance and equality in practice, as well as theory.

If implemented correctly, the bill will be a game-changer not only for gender nonconforming students, but for all. We hope that with this bill in place, transgender students will be looked at as the gender with which they identify — the gender they actually are — and not the one on their birth certificate.

@VERDEMAGAZINE Publication Policy Verde, a feature magazine published by the students in Palo Alto High School’s Magazine Journalism class, is a designated open forum for student expression and the discussion of issues of concern to its readership.

Verde is distributed to its readers and the student body at no cost.

Letters to the Editors The staff welcomes letters to the editors but reserves the right to edit all submissions for length, grammar, potential libel, invasion of privacy and obscenity. Send all letters to verde-eics-12-13@googlegroups. com or to 50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, CA 94301. All Verde stories are posted online and available for commenting at http://verdemagazine. com Advertising The staff publishes advertisements with signed contracts providing they are not deemed by the staff inappropriate for the magazine’s audience.

For more information about advertising with Verde, please contact the Verde business manager Elisa Rerolle at 650-329-3837 for more information.

Printing & Distribution Services Verde is printed five times a year in October, November, February, April and May, by Fricke-Parks Press in Fremont, Calif. The Paly PTSA mails Verde to every student’s home. All Verde work is available at http://verdemagazine.com

COMMENT ON STORIES AT verdemagazine.com • Let us know what you think of our magazine.

• Discuss topics with other readers.

• Critique our coverage of events and news.

• Help us serve the community with up-to-date facts and insights.

• Help support our program with your donation at the Palo Alto High School webstore.

From the Editors The Affordable Care Act is a hefty piece of legislation. With the weight of its country’s medical well-being in its pages, it has been pushed back and forth between the houses of our legislature, threatening to cause the first government shutdown since 1995.

With their eyes toward the future, the bill’s supporters and opposers have battled it out over their country’s health since the bill was proposed in 2009. This October, the debaters will look on as the Affordable Care Act goes into effect.

In this issue, Lande Watson and Brigid Godfrey look into the Affordable Care Act’s effect on youth in their story “When a Band-Aid Doesn’t Cover It”(p. 48), covering everything from birth control to the future of health insurance and its accessibility to the young. But in this instance of healthcare-related controversy, the central figures wear backpacks and sneakers, not suits and briefcases.

Writers Jack Brook and Alyssa Takahashi explore another peice of legislation with serious social implications in “I’m a He, Not a Question Mark” (p. 36), in which they discuss the experiences of transgender students past and present at Palo Alto High School.

From dictatorship, to democracy, to a state of political limbo, the volatility of the Middle East and its effects on the U.S. has evaded us. In “The People’s Revolution” (p. 30), Jamie Allendorf and Zofia Ahmad turn to the Middle East with perspectives from three Paly students affected by the political turmoil that has overtaken the Egyptian street in the past two years.

On a lighter note, Verde would like to welcome Kim Diorio as Paly’s new principal. Take a look at her work so far in Bryan Wong and Alexandra Hsieh’s “The First 100 Days” (p. 24). Continue your tour of Paly’s future in Paul Promthong’s infographic, “Welcoming New Designs” (p. 45).

Finally, we would like to welcome our new staff members to the team. We are looking forward to the great work they are bound to put forth.

WAITING ROOM Under the Affordable Care Act, insurance providers are required to allow youth to stay on their parent’s health care plans until age 26. Read further in “When a Band-Aid Doesn’t Cover It” (p. 48).

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THE LAUNCH

October 2013

Photo by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

Compiled by ALYSSA TAKAHASHI

THE

Launch

Summer Adventures Text and photos by TIRA OSKOUI Art by ANTHONY LIU

Summer opportunities give students invaluable exposure to life and practical experiences. Take advantage of them whenever possible, because they can change your life.

Claire Eberhart

Phil Lewis

(freshman

)

is Owen Lew Photo by

Eberhart w ent to “Gre at Books,” a p rogram at Stanford, where she read litera ture, atten ded lectures a nd met peo ple from all ov er the wor ld.

(junior)

“Now I’m more conscious of what I do. I’m re ally into karma no w, always pic like I k up my trash and I’m really into natu re.”

Lewis we nt on a N ational Geograph ic Studen t Expeditions trip in Na mibia where he helped wit h conserva tion work .

Jensen Hsiao (senior)

Hsiao went to an environmental leader ship conference in Qu ingdao, China, where he taught a class on confid ence and effective bo dy language.

“Use your parent s, and get them to ask their friends to ask their friends to ask about opportuniti es for you ... There will be a connection for you, and you ju st have to reach ou t.”

Phot

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Torik a

Watt ers

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lace to a p o o g u n yo ave t “Whe re they h winwhe up their e ore) in th m o h p board h bricks are (so wit ere dows r, and th every e t o n t gs n wi h ay do ealize tha d wit r e t r s e 0 e r t 1 n s i n u A o u o vol t, y st s hip Scott l Leaders Peru, stree hing is ju re.” oba zco, t he eryt the G ion in Cu enhouse ev ignifican t e s r a i g psoc ing a the o build the town lants p e to giv ty to grow round. i r n a u e t y por

a Emm Scott

“If you are interested in reading, y ou love dis cussing to pics and y ou feel like y ou need to sa y some thin gs that you can’t neces sarily say in school, then it’s a grea t program to take.”

Vivian Laurence (senior)

Laurence inte rned with fashion de signer Alexandra Po enaruPhilp in Nadi, Fiji, in addition to mod elling for local compa nies and designers.

“You have to ta ke the risk. If yo u do the summer pr ograms where you really have the chance to pursue your passions, then th e only thing that can hold you back is fe ar.”

9

THE

Launch

What do your school supplies say about you?

What kind of student are you? School is upon us. Check out what message your supplies indicate about your personality. Take this quiz to find out!

Question 1

Results

What kind of bag do you have?

Mostly A’s

A. A patterned Jansport filled with all the essentials no one really needs.

B. A black Northface that looks empty.

C. A Longchamp that can barely fit my school planner, but I can always find room for my ac cessories. Duh! D. No bag. Why would I need a bag for school?

Question 2

In your pencil case, you can usually find ...

A. For every situation I always carry a ruler, scissors, pens, pencils, colored pencils and glue, obviously.

B. Maybe a couple pencils and a pen, if I remember…

C. My backpack is my pencil case.

D. Why would I need pencils when my friends could just give me one?

Question 3

On your binders/folders, you have...

A. Kittens and puppies galore!

B. They’re just solid colors, like black or dark grey.

C. Cute trendy designs that are floral or geometric.

D. My papers are loose in my bag.

Question 4 Your pencil is...

A. Mechanical, the kind that never fails.

B. They come to me. I can always find one on the ground, maybe under my desk.

C. Really pretty colored pens, or maybe those sparkly gel pens. You never go wrong with glitter.

D. What is a pencil?

10

Your eagerness for school is admirable. You do your homework when it is due, and you’re always the one to nag your group members to do the work you’ll probably end up doing anyway. We tip our hats to you.

Mostly B’s

You try really hard not to care about school, even though you’re really smart. You do well on quizzes and tests, and spend most of your time studying, but to your peers you make sure you appear apathetic. Just remember, you’re not any better than the rest of us.

Mostly C’s

You are cutesy and like to hang out with friends. Your projects are creative and colorful and your handwriting is loopy and pretty You make it through the day by talking about last night’s episode of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”

Mostly D’s

You are unprepared! School is not your biggest priority, never has been, never will be. You choose to focus on things you’re more interested in, such as sports, friends and other “recreational” activities.

Text by ELIZA ACKROYD Photography by ELIZA ACKROYD

THE

Launch

The Pearl of San Mateo Hailing from San Francisco, TPump’s popularity is as endless as its line halfway down the block. Despite the chipped paint on the walls, the shabby store has a lot to offer. With 19 enticing flavors, it’s hard to go wrong when ordering. Get creative by combining flavors with a choice of up to three.

If you’re claustrophobic, TPumps is not the place for you. The shop is crowded with people anxious to get their share of the hype.

The eclectic menu gives multiple options for the perfect, personalized tea. It is split into four different parts: the size, the flavor, the boba, and the level of sweetness. Unlike other boba cafes, the combination of silky smooth tea and honey boba create a perfect texture and distinctive taste that we can’t find anywhere else. The boba-to-tea ratio is perfect, just lasting until the final sip. The creamy tea complements the firm, but not-too-chewy boba. The blend of the different components of the tea was neither too bland nor too overpowering and was a perfect balance of rich flavor and sweetness. Best of all, it retains the creaminess of the milk despite being a sweet tea beverage.

TPumps is now located on 106 S B Street in San Mateo.

Text by ALEXANDRA HSIEH and MADISON MIGNOLA Photography by MADISON MIGNOLA

Answers :

ASB

What can students expect for Homecoming this year?

“We’re having a formal Homecoming this year. ... We’re going to be holding a contest for whoever has the best asking, and the winner will win a prize.”

— ASB Vice President KATE MARINKOVICH Interview and photography by TIRA OSKOUI Have a question for ASB? Email your question to verdelaunch@gmail.com and see if it gets picked to be in the next issue of Verde!

11

News

FUTURE CONSTRUCTION SITE CONGESTION COMING The shaded area of the Palo Alto High School’s parking lot will be closed off when construction of the new performing arts center begins. Drivers will be squeezed on the other side of campus by gymnasium construction. Pictured bottom left is the Paly Tower Building. Photo by Max Bernstein with The Paly Voice drone.

Parking nightmare approaches The Media Arts building and the math and social studies building are on schedule to be completed at Palo Alto High School

by January of 2014 and opened later in the year.

But that just sets up the next challenge for construction-weary students. The completion of the new buildings will trigger the

start of the next big projects — the new performing arts center and new gymnasium — which will lead to a collective reduction of more than 65 parking spots.

Student drivers will feel the pinch.

“We have a certain amount of spots that we are selling to students, and when we hit that number, the next 65 students would be

able to buy a parking permit with a caveat that at some point they may lose their spot during the year,” says Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson. “Prices will not go up, and students will get refunded how much they lose during the year.”

Text by Alexandra Hsieh

Saturday school to make comeback A new attendance policy will be implemented starting immediately, according to Palo Alto High School principal Kim Diorio.

A policy was approved by the Paly Education Council on Sept. 26. With four cuts from the same class, a student will now have to attend Saturday school. There is also now a 72-hour window for parents to 12

call in their child for missing class.

According to Diorio, before the 20122013 school year, there was a rule stating if a student were to have five cuts in the same class they would be dropped with an “F” or “N/A” on their transcript.

When the district deemed this unreasonable, it was taken out of the handbook.

Without the risk of an automatic drop

from the class, students were more willing to cut classes.

With the new policy in place, Diorio is expecting positive outcomes.

“I’m confident that the Paly students are going to do the right thing and [that] they’re going to start coming to class more regularly,” Diorio said.

Text by Madison Mignola

News

All-digital transcripts available

ROLLING ALONG The Marguerite is a free, universally available shuttle service that runs throughout Stanford and the greater Palo Alto area.

Stanford to implement all-electric shuttle bus Stanford’s Marguerite shuttle system began testing three all-electric buses for its university-owned service to determine the efficiency and plausibility of converting the whole shuttle bus fleet to electricpower.

The recent implementation of the three electric buses into the university’s free shuttle service brings the total number of buses running on renewable energy sources up to eight.

“People really appreciate the fact that we’re taking steps [with the diesel-electric hybrid] to reduce our reliance on petroleum-based fuels, and with the electric even more so,” said Brodie Hamilton, the director of Stanford University Parking & Transportation Services. “We’re scheduled to do a six month trial on it [the electric buses] and during that time we’ll do a determination on whether it’s really going to VERDE October, 2013

meet our needs.”

According to Hamilton, the dieselelectric buses make it through a full day on one night of charge. During the trial run for the total electric buses, they will determine whether the full electric buses can do the same.

“If we can get the miles per charge that we need out of them, then I would see us changing over time to total electric,” Hamilton said.

The Marguerite is Stanford’s free public shuttle service, which travels around campus and connects to nearby transit, shopping, dining, and entertainment.

The vast majority of the Marguerite’s 57 buses are standard diesel buses. Five of them are diesel-electric hybrids, which the university introduced in March 2011.

Text by Lucy Fox

Transcripts are now a completely online process for seniors applying to Common Application colleges starting this academic year.

An agreement between the Palo Alto High School administration and Infinite Campus, the company that creates our transcripts, allowed the integration of the fully digital process. According to Paly Registrar Suzie Brown the change came after Infinite Campus announced it could make the stamping and signing of official transcripts a digital process.

“It’s a real innovation to be able to have an official transcript online,” Brown said. “The fact that it’s now a reality for our school is very exciting.”

According to Brown, students will no longer have to work through Parchment, the previous online application submission system, to ensure their transcripts are sent to Common App schools. The Common App will automatically have a transcript attached with other Paly documents.

This procedure does not apply to nonCommon App schools, which will still be sent transcripts through the Parchment.

However, Paly administration is currently working with Parchment in an attempt to provide two free transcripts for seniors. The guidance office urges seniors to abstain from ordering transcripts until the contract with Parchment is finalized if they wish to receive their two transcripts for free. According to Brown, if and when this contract is finalized, an email will be sent out to Paly students and parents.

Seniors still should have registered for Parchment through paly.net by Sept. 30.

Text by Daniela Ivey 13

News

Next for new stadium: Spirit Week rallies After the christening by Jim Harbaugh during the first football game of the season, administrators now aim to utilize the newly renovated track and football field for school-wide events.

“We can now hold 2,200 people, so say we wanted to get everyone on the bleachers and then make announcements from the middle of the field it would work,”

said Kim Diorio, the new Paly principal.

“We weren’t able to do that before.”

“It’s [The stadium has] been a good project and everything has worked out,” said Jason Fung, junior varsity football coach.

“I’ve heard nothing but positives out of it, but there’s some details that still need to be finished.”

Text by Claire Priestley

FAMILY OF ACTORS Betsy Franco aims to teach students the key to film acting. Photo by Claire Kirch.

The “Dave and James Franco method of acting” Betsy Franco, local author and actor and mother of actors James and Dave Franco, will be hosting an “acting for film” class series targeted at high school students this month.

“I noticed that a lot of high school students in the area have opportunities to learn how to act on stage, but there aren’t many ways to learn acting on film,” Franco said. “It teaches you a lot about what actors go through and makes you a much better filmmaker.”

Franco says that the program will benefit those who attend.

“It’s important to learn how to act on film no matter what part of the business you want to go into,” Franco said, “I think teaching film acting will bolster the film community in this area.”

The class will be held at the Palo Alto Children’s Theatre on Wednesdays in October, from 5-7 p.m.

Text by Lande Watson

By the

NUMBERS

14

WORK IN PROGRESS Mitchell Park community center will be open to public on the corners of Mayfield Avenue and Middlefield Road. Art provided by city of Palo Alto website.

Better late than never: Mitchell park opens soon The Mitchell Park community center on Middlefield Road is slated to open by the end of this year.

The project, which began in October 2010, will most likely take a collective 39 months to finish.

According to the website of the city of Palo Alto, the new community center will include classrooms and library spaces for public use. Snacks and beverages will be served by Ada’s Café, which won the bid for catering service.

“I really like the community center

0.1%

Percent of transgender adults in California p. 36

courtyard with the magnificent oak tree in the center,” said Robert de Geus, assistant director of the Palo Alto Community Services Department. “The courtyard will be a community gathering place for people to sit and spend time together.”

In addition to a living green wall, which can be seen from Middlefield Road, the center will also be home to several pieces of original artwork, one paid for by The Public Art Program and the others paid for by the Art Commission.

Text by Brigid Godfrey

2-3

Hours per week the Paly’s Yu Gi Oh community play p. 19

News

Student work honored in NY Times project

MAKING HER MARK Lina Awadallah was surprised when she discovered her selection for editor’s choice. “I actually found out that I was one of the editor’s picks from my friend because I hadn’t actually look at the blog,” Awadallah said. Photo by Ana Sofia Amieva-Wang.

Palo Alto to host annual film festival The Stanford Film Society will host the 16th annual United Nations Association Film Festival this month in Palo Alto, Stanford, East Palo Alto and San Francisco.

The overlaying theme for the festival this season is “Individual to Universal”.

On Oct. 17, three opening films will be screened at the Aquarius theater in downtown Palo Alto.

Founded by Jasmina Bojic, a Stanford educator and film critic, UNAFF recognizes the influential abilities of film, and chooses documentaries that can appropriately wield that power. The festival is one of the oldest of its kind that exclusively exhibits documentaries.

Text by Eliza Ackroyd

18% VERDE October, 2013

Percent of uninsured but eligible Californians for Affordable Care Act p. 47

Palo Alto High School junior Lina Awadallah’s work has been selected as an “editor’s choice” in the New York Times photo project “My Hometown.”

The project collected submissions from teenagers across the country for 4,289 photos to capture the unique community they live in. The photos from the project will be archived in the Library of Congress.

“I was actually so surprised,” Awadallah said. “I did not expect one of my photos to get chosen because there over thousands of submissions. ... The fact that I was one of those students, to me, it feels unreal. Just thinking about how many people actually submitted to this is probably why I find it so surprising that my photo was an editor’s pick.”

Text by Bryan Wong

Partners in Education funding to be announced

FUND ALLOCATION Terry Godfrey and PiE aims to provide funding to enrich classroom environment through the grant program. Photo by Susan Paul.

121

School of Rock franchises in the world p. 60

Partners in Education will soon be allotting funding to teachers for interesting projects and programs in the classroom through its teacher grant program.

“It [the grant] is meant to give teachers the opportunity to try new things, and to try new things,” PiE president Terry Godfrey said.

PiE Co-Chair Mudita Jain added, “we [the grant committee] care a lot about innovation, collaboration and sustainability.”

Grant applications were due Sept. 19.

Paly students should be on the lookout for new technology in their classrooms starting early November, when the accepted grants will be announced.

Text by Jasper McEvoy

7.25

The cost of a triple trio taco at 3-3-3 food truck p. 66

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YU-GI-OH CLUB CAYLA WANDERMAN-MILNE MAYOR GREGORY SCHARFF PRINCIPAL KIM DIORIO

18 20 22 24

It’s Time to Duel A DAY IN THE LIFE OF PALY’S YU-GI-OH PLAYERS Text by JASPER MCEVOY Photos by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG and DANIELA IVEY

T

HE SOUND OF THE lunch bell reverberates throughout the campus, calling duelers from all corners of the school to the field of battle. Already, Yu-Gi-Oh players have started to gather around the metal picnic tables in between the math building and the library. On a concrete ledge, Palo Alto High School junior Peter Nishimura and sophomore Christopher Cerpa sit facing each other, eyes locked on the cards laid out before them.

“I’m just saying, man, it is a pretty good card,” Cerpa says.

Nishimura nods his head in agreement, playing his own monster to counter Cerpa’s.

The game pits two players and their

decks of Yu-Gi-Oh cards against one another. Each starts with five cards in their hand, drawing one each turn. By playing the cards and following the descriptions on each one, they can inflict damage on each other’s life points. Once one player loses all 8,000 of their life points, their opponent is declared the winner.

As the crowd around the two players grows, so does the pile of discarded lunch containers, hastily emptied of their contents in the excitement of the duel.

Behind the tables, juniors Cooper Ganschow and Jacob Mucciaroni pace excitedly, discussing everything from girlfriends to their favorite card games, their speech punctuated with shouts and fits of laughter. A swift breeze blowing through the overhang catches the corners of cards,

THE PLAYERS From left: Shelton Cai, Christopher Cerpa, Peter Nishimura, Wilson Wangstreetcorner.

sending them spinning away from their respective battles.

On the concrete ledge, Cerpa curses as Nishimura destroys one of his monsters.

Rapidly moving his arms, Nishimura sends a merciless wave of attackers Cerpa’s way.

Cerpa shifts his hands, nervously surveying the beleaguered state of his troops.

“I need a miracle here,” Cerpa says.

His prayer is not answered. Nishimura finishes him off, finally breaking his focus and letting out a smile.

This is a typical scene for the unofficial Yu-Gi-Oh club that meets daily at lunch for some friendly dueling.

“It’s just fun and relaxing to play during lunch and stuff and to just get a break,” junior Shelton Cai says.

Although Cai lost interest in Yu-Gi-

Oh during elementary school, he picked it up again in eighth grade. Along with Nishimura, he started playing regularly, eventually bringing more friends into the group.

“When we started, it was mostly just us two playing, and then it eventually grew to about ten people,” Cai says.

Although originally devoted to YuGi-Oh, the group has expanded to other games as more people have joined.

“There’s Magic the Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, and a bunch of other games which people try once in a while,” Cai says.

As Cai speaks, a game of Magic the Gathering commences behind him. Similarly to Yu-Gi-Oh, the game involves the use of monsters and magic to attack one’s opponent. Senior Brian Santa Gadea simultaneously challenges two opponents.

“You get a close bond playing in person,” Santa Gadea says.

The variety of different card games seems to provide something for everyone, even the spectators, a feature which has allowed the group to expand to include new members.

“My friends hang out here so now I’m

here,” sophomore Gregory Syssoyev says.

Syssoyev glances back at the concrete ledge. In Cerpa’s spot, Cai is sitting down to challenge Nishimura.

“Okay, Peter, bring it on,” Cai says.

From the metal tables, junior Philip Green engages Nishimura in a Pokémon discussion.

“How would you level up this one?”

Nishimura says, showing Green a Pokémon card.

“Probably by dancing around a magical fairy shoe,” Green says with a laugh.

Nishimura turns to talk to Green, momentarily taking his focus away from the game. Cai capitalizes on the distraction, killing several of Nishimura’s monsters.

“Gotcha,” Cai says.

A smile across his face, Cai gleefully reminds Nishimura how the game is going.

“You’re down to 1,000 [life points],” Cai says.

Nishimura mounts a final rally, attacking Cai with as many monsters as he can.

However, the effort falls short and Cai is able to defeat Nishimura on his next turn.

“You got owned!” Cai says, exuberantly slapping the cement battlefield.

Nishimura humbly accepts his defeat.

Cai’s victory is acknowledged by a shout of “God bless America” from Ganschow and Mucciaroni.

Brought together by their common interest in Yu-Gi-Oh, the group has blossomed into a close-knit community.

“I’ve met a lot of new people,” Nishimura says. “If not for Yu-Gi-Oh, we wouldn’t have any reason to talk to each other.”

By bringing the group of friends closer together, Yu-Gi-Oh has had an impact on their lives.

“I’m becoming more and more of a nerd,” Nishimura says. “I’d rather stay here than go to a [school] rally.”

“It keeps my insanity to a minimum,” Cerpa says.

The bell rings, signaling the end of battle for the day. Players scoop empty lunch containers off the tables, leaving only a few wrappers as evidence of the dueling that took place there only moments before. As the cries of battle fade away, so does the mythical world of Yu-Gi-Oh, and the players pack their armies of paper monsters away into their cardboard boxes unil the next day. v

Player Profiles Text by ANAND SRINIVASAN

Brian Santa Gadea (Senior)

Peter Nishimura (Junior)

Shelton Cai (Junior)

Dueling origins: Began playing in elementary school, when his brother introduced him to Yu-Gi-Oh Dueling time per week: 2 hours Other: In addition to playing YuGi-Oh at school, Brian duels online and has even participated in online tournaments.

Dueling origins: Began playing in elementary school Dueling time per week: 2-3 hours Yearly budget for cards: No more that $50 Other: Creator of Paly’s Yu-Gi-Oh community

Dueling time per week: 75 minutes Yearly budget for cards: “I don’t spend as much as I did before, but back when I did it was a decent amount” Other: Creator of Paly’s Yu-Gi-Oh community

PROFILES

SAVING THE PRESERVE SAVING THE PRESERVE

Text by JASPER MCEVOY nity issue to work on at Arastradero.

“I talked to my mentor there and Photography by CAYLA WANDERMAN-MILNE she said that there’s this weed, Purple Star Thistle, that you can eradicate,” Wanderman-Milne says. “There’s enough of it that its a big deal but not so much that you can’t do it in one summer.”

According to Wanderman-Milne, invasive plants like the Purple Star Thistle kill off native plants by making it difficult for them to grow. Purple Star Thistle, named for its purple flowers and star-shaped thistles underneath, tends to grow in hard, compact dirt, making it a problem on the hiking trails at the preserve.

The preserve has over 10 miles of trails, and to eliminate the plant, Wanderman-Milne needed to find a way to map out every clump Purple Star Thistle.

“I had to hike every single trail in the preserve looking for the plant,” Wanderman-Milne says. “That way I had a map of the entire preserve and that made it easier to get rid of it in an organized manner.”

At each location, WandermanMilne used a handheld GPS to enter the coordinates of the plant. Later, she would use the GPS coordinates to come back and uproot each clump one by one.

According to Wanderman-Milne, mapping the plants proved to be one THE TEAM Cayla Wanderman-Milne (right) poses with volunteers. of the most difficult parts of the project and took her over 30 hours to comHE GOLD AWARD her passion for the natural sciences and plete. challenges High School help her community simultaneously.

Once she had created a complete girl scouts to identify and Wanderman-Milne began volunteering map of the Purple Star Thistle, Wansolve a problem in their at the Arastradero Preserve in the footderman-Milne began hiking each trail community. Cayla Wan- hills of the Santa Cruz Mountains last again to eliminate the plants, which derman-Milne, a Palo Alto High School year.

Through an extracurricular class at also presented a set of challenges to senior, chose to eradicate the Purple her.

Star Thistle from Arastradero Preserve. Palo Alto High School called Science “I didn’t have to go to every part Wanderman-Milne, who has been a girl Research Project, Wanderman-Milne of the preserve anymore but then you scout for 10 years, was drawn to this op- did field work with scientist Joan Dudhave to hack at it with a hoe to get rid portunity as she saw a way to express ney, who helped her choose a commu-

T 20 99

GIRL SCOUT WANDERMAN-MILNE WORKS TO ERADICATE PURPLE STAR THISTLE Text by JASPER MCEVOY Photography courtesy of CAYLA WANDERMAN-MILNE

of it,” Wanderman-Milne says.

However, she was able to obtain help from volunteers who took some of the weight off her shoulders.

“I had one volunteer event where I had maybe fifteen people and at the end of the day we just had bags and bags of Purple Star Thistle,” WandermanMilne says. “That was rewarding to see how much work we had done.”

Over 30 hours later, WandermanMilne finally cleared the last patch of Purple Star Thistle in the Arastradero Preserve.

“It was super satisfying when I drove home for the last time knowing it’s done, I did it,” Waderman-Milne says.

Wanderman-Milne believes that the program has given her an opportunity to make a difference in the com-

munity and have a positive impact on the environment.

“I think it’s really important to stay connected to ecology and preserving the Earth, because it’s one of the most important things that everyone has the ability to do,” Wanderman-Milne says.

“It’s definitely something that I care about that I think others should care about too.”

Dudney agrees, stressing how important it is for students to be aware of how they can make an impact.

“It’s very easy to ignore nature when living in manicured urban areas,” Dudney says. “It’s imperative to remind students of this connection and show them how they can help the environment.”

Wanderman-Milne hopes that through her work she has inspired

others to help make an impact at Arastradero.

“The gold award is all about inspiring others,” Wanderman-Milne says.

There are tons of volunteer opportunites up there [at Arastradero]...if I can just get more people into volunteering at Arastradero that would be awesome.”

While Wanderman-Milne’s project has allowed her to realize the importance of protecting the environment, her biggest takeaway from the project is what she has realized about herself and her ability to make a difference.

“I feel like I learned that basically I can make things happen,” WandermanMilne says. “Before, I kind of felt like ‘Oh I’m just a high schooler,’ I can’t really do anything thats a big deal. But I realized that I can think of something really cool and make that a reality.” v

The Purple Star Thistle Text by PAUL PHROMTHONG

Purple Star Thistles are invasive weeds that infest pastures and roadsides in the Pacific Northwest. Like most other invasive species, Starthistles harm the environment around them by replacing valuable forage species.

The Purple Starthistle is native to the Mediteranean region, southern Europe and northern Africa. The plants stand to around one to four feet tall, have stout taproots, and are densely and rigidly branched in appearance. The colors of Purple Star Thistles vary from lavender to deep purple.

Found along the coast from San Diego to Humboldt County, in the northern and southern Coast Ranges of California, it is particularly abundant in the San Francisco Bay. Picking them and removing them from their roots is the best way to getting rid these invasive species.

21

MAYOR SCHARFF MEET GREGORY SCHARFF, PALO ALTO’S NEW MAYOR Text by ANGELA XU Photography by ANGELA XU

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G

REGORY SCHARFF, the new mayor of Palo Alto, sits in his office on the seventh floor of City Hall with numerous papers fanned across his desk.

“You can go around Palo Alto and say to yourself, ‘What would make this place better’ or ‘What things [do] we need to fix or what are we not doing,’” Scharff says.

Scharff, a lawyer and former vice mayor, was voted mayor on Jan. 7 by the city council to replace former mayor Yiwah Yeh, who recently moved to Texas.

Scharff first entered the city government as a city council member in 2009.

“There are a lot of policies that are important to me ... That’s really why I joined the city council,” Scharff says. “There [were] a whole host of issues that are very important to make the city better and [being a part of the city council] allows you to do that.”

One of of Scharff ’s priorities is fixing the streets.

“We really focused on infrastructure, on how we’re going to get new infrastructure in Palo Alto,” Scharff says. “We make sure people have really well paved streets, people have complained for years.”

Scharff has already resolved an array of issues during his time as mayor.

One of the solutions that Scharff and the city council brought about was banning smoking in public parks. Scharff also found funds to improve and add public services throughout the city.

“We instituted a percent [fund] for an art program,” Scharff says. “[It] is going to create more public art in Palo Alto.”

In the future, Scharff hopes to improve parking and traffic congestion in Palo Alto.

“One of the things I think we’re going to do is put in a residential permit parking system,” Scharff says. “We’re going to allow any neighborhood that feels that they need it to make a decision as a neighborhood [regarding regional parking permits].”

WORKING HARD: Work as the mayor of Palo Alto keeps Gregory Scharff’s desk piling with papers. However even with another job at his law firm, which he spends about 60 hours a week on, he maintains optimism. “Yeah, oh I am busy. It’s holding up well, it [the work] is really fun, I enjoy it,” Scharff says.

Scharff predicts the neighborhoods that will opt into the residential permit parking system will be those around downtown, Crescent Park and California Avenue.

He also hopes to construct more parking garages in Palo Alto.

Scharff first came to California when he was five and returned his last semester of law school when he transferred to University of California at Berkeley.

“I knew I really wanted to come to California. When the opportunity came, I came as a visiting student, and it was a good experience,” Scharff says.

To Scharff, California remained the positive place that he had encountered during his childhood in Los Angeles.

“California is much more entrepreneurial than the East Coast,” Scharff says.

“I think there’s far more opportunity here I think it’s just overall a much, much better quality of lifestyle here.”

Scharff then went from Oakland to

Cupertino to San Mateo, until he came to Palo Alto in 1988.

To Scharff, Palo Alto represents the pinnacle of innovation in the Silicon Valley.

“We are Silicon Valley, there is no ‘there’ in Silicon Valley. If there is a ‘there’ in Silicon Valley it’s here in Palo Alto ... You combine that with all of the things you do as a city, it’s really exciting,” Scharff says.

“One of the nice things about Palo Alto is the whole range of things you can look at, how can we be good to the environment, how we can have innovation. There’s never a dull moment around here.”

In 1991, Scharff started his own law practice on California Avenue where he currently works in addition to his job as mayor.

Scharff first felt the urge to pursue a law career when he was in high school.

“When you’re in high school, it’s the things you’re good at,” Scharff says. “My interests really were really much more in

terms of the verbal skills and that kind of stuff so law seemed like a natural fit.”

Little did he know, such skills would come in handy later on in the pursuit of a public administrative job.

At the same time in high school, Scharff explored his interest in public policy by participating in school government activities.

“I was in student government in high school, student council and Youth and Government,” Scharff says. “All those things drive you to become a lawyer. That’s the sort of path that you start to take, thinking about the things you really like to do.”

From city council member to vice mayor and finally to mayor of Palo Alto, Scharff has tried to keep improving the city of Palo Alto and to keep it in tip-top shape.

“It’s really important to me that we protect the neighborhoods, that we keep the quality of life really high in Palo Alto,” Scharff says. v

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FEATURES

THE FIRST 100 DAYS PRINCIPAL KIM DIORIO SHARES HER THOUGHTS ON THE 2013-2014 YEAR Text by BRYAN WONG and ALEXANDRA HSIEH Photography by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

A

S OF THIS FALL, FORMER assistant principal Kim Diorio replaced Phil Winston as Principal of Palo Alto High School.

Verde got a chance to interview her about her life before Paly, during Paly, and even outside of Paly. Here’s what she had to say: WHAT DO YOU DO AS PRINCIPAL?

“Essentially, instructional leader, coach, teacher, counselor, mentor, budget developer, construction planner, spokesperson, figure head, goal-setter, and “Mom-in-Chief ” to the 1940 students, their parents, the 200 staff members and the Paly community at large.”

WHAT ARE SOME SKILLS UNIQUE TO YOU THAT YOU CAN APPLY AS A PRINCIPAL?

“My counseling background from Gunn makes me uniquely qualified as a principal. I can see the values and the good in people. … It [counseling] helps me see everything in a unconditional, positive regard.

Every person is a good person. It’s not always easy to keep this point of view, but for every person that comes through the door, every counselor just needs to think, ‘How can I help them?’”

WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES?

WHAT ARE SOME GOALS FOR THIS YEAR?

“Looking at school culture and school climate, I want to create a physical and emotional safe space, [to] focus on preventing bullying and harassment by reaching out to students. I also want to be approachable to students. My goals is to also enforce the 3Cs Connected, Capable, and Counting, as in every student counts. …

I’m more about letting people know that I care and letting them know they have a voice. ... I try to make decisions in the best interest of students. I’m here to make the right decision. It might not be the most popular decision, but definitely the right decision.”

DID YOU EVER SET OUT TO BE A PRINCIPAL?

“I didn’t wake up one morning and decide that I wanted to be a high school principal, but it’s something that I found out I loved to do.

I knew I wanted to work at a public school. My father was an administrator [at public schools] for 33 years so I grew up in that mindset. I loved kids and I wanted to work with teenagers. A public school has a lot of diversity and I wanted to help people.”

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE MEMORY SO FAR?

“My favorite memory was when I made the speech to the staff on Aug. 14. I got a standing ovation, which was really nice. It was great knowing that the staff had my back.”

WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO OUTSIDE OF PALY?

“I’m empathetic, a good listener, “Because I’ve got young kids, most goal-orientated, organized, tech-savof my free time is spent with famvy, self-aware, caring and most imily. Going to the park, reading and portantly, passionate about student playing games, puzzles, watching learning and the future of education.

Star Wars, Pixar movies, Yo Gabba Weaknesses – I’m working on being Gabba, Bubble Guppies, Jake and more responsive with email. the Neverland Pirates, listening to The volume I receive makes it a chalthe Beatles, and just spending time STEADY FOOTING Newly appointed Palo Alto lenge to keep up given I’m in classat home is what I do when not at High School principal Kim Diorio is prepared to take rooms or meetings throughout the Paly. I’m also currently enrolled in on the challenging role day, so this is a growth area for me. a doctoral program with Fielding This job requires you to be an extroGraduate University. I’m on track to receive my Ed.D. In Eduvert, but I definitely have an introverted side. I’m not as out-going cational Leadership and Change in April 2015. My dissertation is as Mr. Winston...but I’m trying to get better at saying hi and bestill evolving but I’m currently researching women in leadership ing the one who initiates friendly conversation with people I don’t roles in education, specifically, how can we encourage and support know. Deep down, I’m a little shy.” women to take on more leadership opportunities.” v

24

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O

N SUNDAY, SEPT. 29, THE PALO Alto High School Theater Department presented two show times of “Aladdin.” While most of Paly’s past performances have dealt with topics directed at audiences high school age or older, “Aladdin” is meant to be light, humorous and colorful. The show, which has been advertised as “kid friendly,” had a run time of 45 minutes. The cast of 15 and their director, Nancy Sauder, the mother of a Paly alumnus-, have been rehearsing since the beginning of September for their two matinees last weekend. Unlike past years, the Paly Theater Department will be performing two fall shows: “The Twelfth Night” and “Aladdin.” v TOP LEFT Peter Maroulis as Aladdin BOTTOM LEFT Peter Maroulis as Aladdin, Riley Burt as Baki, Claire Eberhart as Persia, Johnny Rohrback as Nasib, Matt O’Reilly as Omar and Zoe Sego as Geewiz TOP RIGHT Maggie Schmit as Isar, Johnny Rohrback as Nasib and Ayah Chakmakchi as Faris BOTTOM RIGHT Peter Marou lis as Aladdin and Adele Bloch as Geinie

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FEATURES

POLITICAL TURMOIL IN EGYPT TRANSGENDER STUDENTS AMERICA’S CUP PALY CONSTRUCTION

Photography by DAHLIA SALEM

30 36 42 45

The people’s STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON THE CRISIS IN EGYPT

Text by JAMIE ALLENDORF and ZOFIA AHMAD Photos Courtesy of DAHLIA SALEM

ountry c e h t n e h w t p y g BROKE out in E S T S E T O R P D N A S CHAO three years. ly n o in n io t u l o econd rev Experienced its s was there. m e l a s ia l h a d r hool senio Palo alto high sc port against terrorism by the leader of the Living here in Palo Alto, we have the comfort of knowing that we can stay out past 7 p.m. without worrying for our lives or being locked out of our home for the night. We can practice any religion we like without a threat of persecution. We don’t hear reports everyday about people being killed by our government.

The conflict in Egypt may seem a world away to us here, but it has very real effects for many Palo Alto High School students. Senior Dahlia Salem, junior Lina Awadallah and senior Mary William have all been deeply affected by events in Egypt.

Chaos and protests broke out in Egypt when the county experienced its second revolution in only three years. Salem, who traveled to Egypt during the summer break to visit family and friends, could not resist the opportunity to participate in the protests.

On Friday, July 26, thousands of Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square in support of the military, responding to a call for sup-

1978

september 7 Camp David Accords

30

1981

Egyptian military. The general’s speech was in response to pressure from international governments calling his actions against the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, a coup.

“That day, instead of going to Tahrir square I went to Rabaa [the headquarters for Muslim Brotherhood supporters],” Salem says. “I just wanted to see and tell them [supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood] that what the military is doing is wrong.”

When Salem arrived at Rabaa with her father that day, she was confronted by hordes of Muslim Brotherhood supporters. The crowds were overflowing into the streets, which caught the attention of the local military patrol.

october 14 Mubarak Elected

2011

February 11 Mubarak flees egypt

Revolution Text by JAMIE ALLENDORF and ZOFIA AHMAD Photography by DAHLIA SALEM and REEM BAHER Art by ANTHONY LIU

As more and more people joined in the protests, the military took action.

“Late at night, they started spraying us with tear-gas,” Salem says. “People were telling us, ‘Go inside more,’ but we didn’t want to, we wanted to get our car [and get] out of there and go home.”

Salem’s car was parked behind the makeshift barricade that the army had set up. While her father went to go get the car, she waited at a pre-arranged spot, veins pulsing with adrenaline.

“I know they were spraying in the air where I was, but I didn’t even feel it,” Salem. “The adrenaline, it was just, like, the terrifying situation: when you’re in it, you’re just blinded, you’re just running. You don’t know what to do, you’re just so afraid. It was just tear gas, but it was just the possibility that they could shoot.”

Protesters retaliated by throwing rocks at the police. During the mayhem, Salem was hit across the brow by a rock, leaving a faint scar. Eventually, Salem’s father managed to get their car and drive to safety, just before the military opened fire.

2012

june 24 Morsi elected

2013

“They fired at people, about 150 died that day,” Salem says. “It was like God’s mercy that we got out of there before the shooting started, its just, that could easily have been me.”

Although the conflict in Egypt may seem far away to us here in Palo Alto, it has very real consequences for many in our community. Salem, along with senior Mary William and junior Lina Awadallah have all been deeply affected by the events in Egypt.

Egypt has been in a state of political disorder since January 2011, when protesters swept through the Egyptian streets, calling for the resignation of dictator Hosni Mubarak. The Mubarak government tried several times to shut the protests down, but the Egyptian military took over on Feb. 11.

“I was there during the 25th of January revolution,” Salem says. “That really affected me. … It was like a string of hope. I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is it. This country’s going to change, we’re not going to be the same anymore.’”

After much turmoil and bloodshed, the Egyptian people held their first presidential elections in nearly 30 years. A new president was elected, Mohamed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, in June of 2012. There were no improvements in Egyptian living conditions after being in office for 13 months, according to Salem.

“He [Morsi] was trying to force his political views on everybody,” Awadallah says. “That’s not what they [the citizens of Egypt] wanted. They wanted to be listened to.”

Salem attests to some of the horrors that occurred during Morsi’s presidency. During a soccer match in Port Said, a city near Cairo, supporters of one of the teams attacked opponents fans

2013

July 1 July 3 gen. el-sisi Morsi ousted delivers 48- Military gains power hour ultimatum 99 31

many believe that only ance of the military. Although defi in s flag e wav aa Rab at Brotherhood.

Demonstrators r the military nor the Muslim the nei t THE EGYPTIAN STREET por sup ny ma t tha at Rabaa, Salem found pro-Morsi supporters gather with clubs, bottles and knives.

Seventy-nine people were killed during this tragedy, but that figure does not represent the pain that Salem went through when she discovered that a school friend was among the dead.

“They found him dead eventually and in the hospital,” Salem says. “He became a really big martyr symbol because he was the youngest person to die.”

This friend was part of the reason behind Salem’s decision to protest against Morsi’s regime.

“It was one of the things that kind of shook me a lot because that guy, although we weren’t best friends, I knew him,” Salem says.

June 30 of this year sticks out for Salem as one of the most memorable days this summer. It is the day that protests began against the Muslim Brotherhood, the party in power.

Salem, along with a friend, took a taxi cab to Tahrir Square, but were stopped short when the cab faced a wall of people surging forward toward the square, the epicenter of the protests. Going an alternate route, the pair made their way down a street packed with people on all sides, buying flags and posters to hold up.

According to Salem, groups of protesters often clump together and start chants that echo across the entire square. At one point, she herself began a chant that was picked up by the people around her.

“We all had hope that we were going on for the same cause,” Salem says.

On the second day of protests, Egyptian Army Chief Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi faced the Muslim Brotherhood with an ultimatum: The government would either meet the demands of the people within 48 hours, or the military would depose the ruling party.

“Some people were skeptical definitely because we have seen very bad things from the military,” Salem says. “During the 25th

32

of January revolution they killed a lot of people, they shed a lot of blood.”

This thought was in the back of many people’s minds, but many others, including William, who has family in Egypt, believe that without the military, the situation could have escalated even further.

“If he [Morsi] did not step down from power, the protesters would have not left,” William says. “More people would have died, so essentially the military took action to save their citizens.”

Despite the many differences in opinion concerning the military’s direct attack on the Morsi presidency, many Egyptian people were given a new hope of unity. “[I thought] if the military ousts the Muslim Brotherhood this is going to be a uniting thing, the Egyptian people are going to have more trust and faith in the military once they take out the Muslim Brotherhood,” Salem says. “It’s going to be a positive thing, it’s going to unite us.”

This hope turned into a reality when on July 3, after the 48hour window, el-Sisi declared that the Egyptian military would assume control over the government and suspend the constitution until early elections could be held. Morsi’s ouster started a bloody conflict between the supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of the army, a conflict that still rages today.

Again, Salem and her friends traveled to Tahrir Square and celebrated with other military supporters, while Muslim Brotherhood supporters gathered in Rabaa, a different area in Cairo.

Soon, supporters of the Brotherhood took to the streets and began tagging buildings and burning down churches. William’s own church was defaced by Muslim Brotherhood supporters, but these extreme acts are in no way representative of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood as a whole, according to Salem.

Despite Salem’s liberal leanings and anti-Muslim Brotherhood

A PALY PERSPECTIVE Salem at protests in Tahrir Square on July 3, the day President Mors i was deposed. deposed by the Egyptian military. Salem and her friend went to celeb rate the removal of Morsi and the Muslim Broth erhood from power. stance, Salem’s father, a Muslim Brotherhood supporter, convinced her to visit the main stronghold for those in support of the Muslim Brotherhood at Rabaa.

Stereotypes perpetuated by anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters claimed that Rabaa was an unkempt, even disgusting place, according to Salem, but when she arrived, she found a modern headquarters. Some supporters had their laptops open and plugged into sockets in the wall of the building.

Salem believes that the military has retaliated too harshly against the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters, many of whom are like the people Salem found in Rabaa.

“They [the Egyptian military] took out any political holding office person who was part of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Salem says. “I don’t like the political philosophy they [the Muslim Brotherhood] have, but that’s their right and they shouldn’t be punished, this is not democracy at all. It’s just ridiculous what they [the military] did.”

The military took its actions a step further when they encouraged Egyptian news channels to publicize the names of politicians who were members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

“They’re looking for them to basically jail them,” Salem says.

“They didn’t give any reasons, the reason they gave was they’re accused of promoting violence.”

Newspapers and news channels run by the Muslim Brother-

hood have been shut down since June 30 when the military closed many of their offices, leaving the Egyptian people without the voice of a major political party.

“You didn’t hear any of the Muslim Brotherhood opinions, you didn’t know about them,” Salem says. “The only channel that you could watch that you could actually see Rabaa was Al-Jazeera, because Al-Jazeera is a Qatar channel, but [on] any Egyptian channel, it was wiped out.”

For Salem, these actions do not represent the democratic government that Egypt deserves. Elections are the only answer for many, but the question remains of whether or not Morsi would have the opportunity to be re-elected despite widespread distaste for his past actions in office.

“They said … if he came in through a ‘box,’ he should be out through a box,” Salem says. “You really don’t want him, okay, let’s have an election and see who wins.”

Re-election of Morsi may seem like an outlandish proposition to some, but according to Salem, many of Egypt’s citizens are uneducated and easily swayed by the religious appeal of the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The majority will be for Morsi, but part of that majority, they’re not even educated,” Salem says. “They don’t know anything about politics, they don’t know anything about the Muslim Brotherhood, all they know is that its religion, so they’re going to do it.”

The military has become a state within a state, according to

p down, e t s t o n id d “If he [Morsi] not left. e v a h d l u o w rs the Proteste ave died.” h d l u o w e l p More peo lliam, senior il w y r a M —

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Salem. The military owns its own advanced hospitals while the people are forced to wait in long lines for treatment. Military supermarkets are well-stocked, while the shops dedicated to the people are often barren.

“I’m strongly against the military — for them to kill people who are peacefully protesting, to spray them and try to disperse them,” Salem says. “They’re just killing random people who are just protesting peacefully, it’s terrible.”

Egypt has been struggling to create a democratic government for the past three years, but as the military seems to gain greater control over the population many are unsure of what is truly best for the country.

“The situation has just gotten so complicated. If you had asked me in 2011, I would have been able to answer — Mubarak is going to be toppled, and we’re going to have democracy — but right now, the situation is just so complicated,” Salem says. “The military is really overpowering, they are not going to give up their power that they have had for a really long time. They used people to get what they want” The events in Egypt are complicated and controversial, but for Awadallah, the goal is simple.

“Egypt … should have a way for the whole country to be listened to,” Awadallah says.

Media coverage in America fails to report the true extent of the happenings in Egypt, according to Awadallah.

“What people in America are being exposed to isn’t really what’s happening in Egypt,” Awadallah says. “A lot of people here are in support of the Muslim Brotherhood ... and they’re [the Muslim Brotherhood] not telling the US what they’re actually doing, they’re actually doing much worse. To keep it simple, they’re [the Muslim Brotherhood is] lying.”

Ever since the Camp David Accords, Egypt has been one of

the most important countries in the Middle East, from the American point of view. Aside from the $1.5 billion given to Egypt every year by the United States, the U.S. also supplies the country with weapons, including tanks, some of which were used against protesters.

“I think at this point a lot of the violence has been really troubling to the United States,” says Palo Alto High School’s foreign policy teacher Adam Yonkers. “And because a lot of these tanks and weapons are U.S. made, and U.S. bought.”

Many of the members of the Egyptian army are also trained in the U.S. in military schools such as West point, according to Yonkers. This relationship is crucial to the stability of the Middle East and losing such an ally would be detrimental to U.S. foreign policy in the region. As a result, the United States has been slow to address the situation in Egypt. By labeling the uprising as a political transition rather than a coup, the American government is still allowed to give the country its yearly aid packages.

“I don’t support foreign intervention at all, because any foreign intervention would come with its consequences,” Salem says.

“A lot of people, especially in the Middle East, think the U.S. shouldn’t be the world’s policeman… The U.S. has taken advantage before, and used up the land and stuff just like what happened in Iraq.”

According to Salem, the issue in Egypt should be solved by the Egyptians and the Egyptians only. A new round of elections would allow the country to take further steps along the road to political freedom and democracy.

But for some, the political instability has taught them a lesson.

“I think Egypt got what they wanted in a sense,” William says, “where they assumed the Brotherhood would do good to Egypt, being that a lot of them [Muslim Brotherhood] are Egyptians, but I think that we learned our lesson.” v

a Square. They wave the RHOOD Anti-Military protestors gather at Raba THE BRO LIM MUS THE OF S TER POR SUP Muslim Brotherhood. the actions of the military against Morsi and the Egyptian flag and hold up posters demonstrating

34

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I’M A HE, NOT A QUESTION MARK

THE TRANS COMMUNITY REFLECTS ON IDENTITY, SEX AND GENDER Text by JACK BROOK & ALYSSA TAKAHASHI Photos courtesy of JACE JAMASON, RAE MARCUM, ANTHONY ROSS and JED BELL

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65

Editor’s Note: This story switches from using female pronouns to male pronouns for the main subject. The change is intentional.

girl? I wasn’t really sure, so I didn’t change [for P.E.].”

Cameron always felt like her body was a nuisance, an incessant reminder that deAMERON WAS THE spite all her attempts to alter her appeargirl with the unshaved legs ance, she was still a girl, at least physically; and the close-cropped hair, wearing boy’s clothes and binding her the one who wore basket- breasts could not change that. The very ball shorts and played sports, act of undressing in front of others would who elicited the question: Is that a boy or be exposing the feminine body which she a girl? sought desperately to ignore.

For much of her life, Cameron, now “It felt wrong,” Cameron says. “It was a Palo Alto High School student whose a new school and I didn’t want people to name has been changed for purposes of see me and ask questions. I didn’t want this story, struggled to answer this ques- people to know [I was a girl].” tion, fending off unwelcome interrogation Cameron started with her sixth grade about her gender and her own feelings of counselor, but was hesitant to reveal her ambivalence. At the heart of her conflict confusions about her gender identity until lay a division which arose between her a month of board games and small talk had body and her inner self. The majority of passed. Finally, she confessed that she felt Cameron’s life has been one long passage, uncomfortable changing in the girl’s locka search for acceptance, not only from oth- er room. From then on, Cameron began ers, but from herself. meeting with an Adolescent Counseling She was adopted at two and brought Services counselor, who helped her deal to Palo Alto, never knowing her biological with the complicated issues regarding her parents. In her new home, she was raised gender and to form a long-term plan of by a loving family with two older broth- action. The meetings allowed Cameron to ers who gave her become aware of boyish hand-methe underlying indowns to wear, tuitions she had al“People would say, ‘So complementing the ways felt about her dark hair she kept gender and enabled you want to be a guy?’ trimmed short. her to ultimately And they just don’t Cameron liked the embrace the masget that I am. To me, look, a remnant culine pronoun she it’s like a slap in the from her days in always identified face.” the orphanage. Bewith: He. sides, short hair He. His. Him. ­— Cameron, Paly student was easier for her The words felt to manage. natural, authentic “People knew and genuine, at last me as a tomboy, and someone who just providing the tangible sense of recognition met me would usually call me a ‘he,’ but that had evaded Cameron for years. Now, my friends would correct them,” Cameron having fully accepted his male identity, he says. “I would always sigh to myself be- faced the arduous process of reshaping the cause I wanted to be known as a ‘he.’ I had way others perceived his gender in light of this voice in the back of my head whisper- his sex being female. ing ‘he’ whenever someone would call me “I was finding out who I was and peoa ‘she.’” ple were finding out what my new identity Then came middle school, a turbulent was,” says Cameron, who says that many period. It was in the forced intimacy of the of his peers did not comprehend the serigirl’s locker room that her path came to a ousness of his desire to change his physical crossroads. appearance to match his gender.

“It was like my whole life came down “People would say, ‘So you want to be this decision, where I had to decide wheth- a guy?’ And they just don’t get that I am. er I wanted to change in the girl’s bathroom To me, it’s like a slap in the face,” Cameron or not,” Cameron says. “Was I a boy or a says. “Sometimes I wish nobody knew. But

C

0.1%

Percent of California adults who identify as transgender

3.2% Percent of LGBT community which identifies as transgender

700,000 Estimated transgender population of United States

37

people do know, so I just have to deal with it. I just wish one,” Bell says. “There was no telling how people would react.” people knew to call me a guy.”

Bell didn’t know he was trans at the time, just that he varied in His parents thought it was a phase, a product of teenage his sexual orientation. angst and confusion, an attempt at self-expression which would “All I knew was that when I fell in love, it was with girls,” Bell fade away, like acne or hormones or any other unsavory aspect of says. adolescence.

However Bell, who was, in his own words, “a very butch” Soon, their denial gave way to a belief that they were at fault. lesbian before he transitioned, considered himself to be innately “My parents thought they messed up and caused me to be male, even from a young age. transgender,” Cameron says, referring to the short hair and boy’s “I thought people were stupid because they were seeing me clothing. “But I think I was this way from the start.” wrong and describing me wrong,” Bell says. “They didn’t underEven though he has officially changed his gender, Cameron stand the way I wanted to be thought of.” still feels in transition.

Like Cameron, he dealt with frequent interrogation about his “It’s hard to accept the fact that I’m transgender,” Cameron gender from his peers. says. “I feel I like shouldn’t have to say it. I’ll be thinking I’m a guy “From my first day in school, kids were asking me, ‘Are you a and then something will happen and I’ll remember that I’m trans- boy or a girl?’ and it never stopped,” Bell says. “There were some gender, it’s like a reality check.” times where I was really depressed.”

However, transgender students no longer have to worry about Yet due to society’s lack of LGBTQ awareness, Bell had no changing in the wrong locker room, due to Assembly Bill 1266, way of knowing what he was going through and so, for him, taking passed by California legislature on Aug. 12. The bill, designed to any sort of action was nearly impossible at the time. cut down on sex-segregation, states among other matters that “Back then, transgender, going female to male, was simply transgender students may “use not on anyone’s radar,” Bell says. facilities consistent with his or “It was not understood as thing her gender identity, irrespective that existed. It wasn’t until the 90s “It was like this nebulous, cloudy, of the gender listed on the puthat somebody could realistically all-consuming weight had been pil’s records.” transition.” lifted from my shoulders. I didn’t This means that CamerIt was not until 1993 when know there was a word, or should on, who identifies as male, can Bell read “Stone Butch Blues” by be a word, for what I felt like.” now legally change clothes in Leslie Feinberg, a book portraying the boy’s locker room, use the ­— Jed Bell, former Paly student the struggles of a young lesbian, boy’s bathroom, and play on that he became aware of another the boy’s team in school sports. person with whom he could idenCalifornia is now the first state to provide transgender students tify. Several of Bell’s lesbian friends recommended the book to legal rights to use sex-segregated facilities and participate in sex- him, telling him the book reminded them of him, almost as if they segregated activities. were reading his diary.

Furthermore, by acknowledging and supporting the basic In the midst of perusing through “Stone Butch Blues,” Bell rights of transgender students, AB 1266 ensures that schools will underwent a moment of profound clarity. legitimize the premise presented by the trans community: that gen“When I saw the word transgender, I put the book down and der identity is more important than sex. felt a chill run down my spine because I realized that’s what I am,” “We [transgender people] are not trying to be the opposite Bell says. “The whole time I was reading the book I knew it was gender,” Cameron says. “We really are like that. “People don’t get an experience that was changing my life. It was like this nebulous, that I’m not trying to be a guy. I am a guy. That’s what confuses cloudy, all-consuming weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I them.” didn’t know there was a word, or should be a word, for what I felt Along with the bill, there have been other current events sug- like. And I thought to myself, ‘Now I know. This is a thing that has gesting an increasingly positive reception towards transgender a name and this is what I am.’” students, most notably the attention surrounding Cassidy Lynn Campbell, a male-to-female senior who was crowned homecom- Gender Identity ing queen of Marina High School, in Huntington Beach, on SepJace Jamason, a Paly 2013 graduate and Female to Male transtember 20th. gender, starting thinking about his gender identity during Living The passing of AB 1266 may signify how far society has come Skills in 10th grade. in accepting the LGBTQ community, yet there was a time when “It’s funny because everyone thinks of living skills as a joke there was much less liberality regarding these issues. class,” Jamason says. “I had Ms. [Letitia] Burton and there was this final project we did which caused me to think about it [my own Flashback to the 1980s gender identity]. Through online research for the project, I was Jed Bell, a Palo Alto High School graduate of 1987 and female introduced to the idea of being transgender.”

-to-male transgender, recalls that, in his four years of high school “I was nurtured to be female, and as a result I am very effemias a girl, there were no openly lesbian or gay students. nate, yet I’ve always identified as male,” Jamason says. “But I was “I had two gay male friends and they discussed it with no never the monster-truck, macho kind of guy.” [Continued on P. 40]

338

AB1266

On Aug. 12, Gov. Jerry Brown of California approved Assembly Bill 1266. This bill allows students to participate in sports, programs, activities and facilities based on their gender identity. The current law prohibits public schools from discriminating based off of sex, sexual orientation, gender expression and gender identity.

Additionally it protects students from harassment based on their transgender status.

Many have labeled AB 1266 as a “bathroom bill” however calling it as such understates its significance and has caused anger among the LGBT community.

“It’s so much more than that,” says Anthony Ross, a staff member of Project Outlet, an LGBTQ Youth Organiation. “It [the bill] is about being inclusive of trans and gender nonconforming people in a public school and understanding that when people want to go to the bathroom they shouldn’t have to be stressed out about it.”

Not only is this bill about being inclusive, but understanding that everyone from a young age should have the right to use whichever facilities they feel comfortable with.

“If you have the privilege to be able to walk into the bathroom and not care about it, and not even think twice,” says Ross “As compared to a young child, that is not sure which bathroom to go to, which one will be safe, what people will say, or what do you do in the bathroom.”

In alignment with the sentiments of the transgender students and changing a culture around Paly has been working on creating a safe environment for transgender students to feel included and

comfortable using facilities, even before AB 1266 passed. Paly offers additional help for students, trying to offer more options in regards to professional guidance.

Creating the blueprints of the new media arts, math and history departments under construction, Paly has plans to add additional unisex bathrooms, according to Kim Diorio, which will allow students to have the option as to what facilities they’d like to use. Until then, Paly has created gender-neutral facilities throughout campus for students who aren’t comfortable going to the bathroom or locker room they identify with.

“We want to provide transgender students options,” Diorio says. “Some of our students have come out as transgender and so we want to give them options to make them feel comfortable. Such as a smaller locker room space for them to change, so they don’t have to worry about changing.”

As there is more open discussion in the community, there’s an understanding and awareness of LGBTQ people’s needs. Just by allowing people to have resources to speak to and confine in makes all the difference. Paly living skills teacher Letitia Burton integrates a lot of community building in her class to allow students to not have preconceived notions about each other.

“We have lots of community building, lots of dialogue ... just to reminding people that you don’t know the who’s in the room, you don’t know our experiences, so you have to be mindful of what we say,” Burton says. “We don’t have to agree with everything everyone says but we can agree in a way that we disagree with ideas and not putting down the person.”

39

When Jamason came out to his parents, he noted mixed feelings in their reactions.

“While they were generally supportive, they wanted me to be sure and to explore the thought,” Jamason says. “My mom wants to be supportive, but she still doesn’t understand the difference between my gender and my sex.”

Burton, Jamason’s Living Skills teacher at Paly, notes the way different individuals perceive their social identity.

The difference between sex and gender is essential to understanding the perspective of trans individuals: Whereas sex reflects itself through the body, gender lies beneath the surface.

“There’s your social identity, which is how the world see’s you, and it looks at issues of race, economic status, sexual orientation, whether you’re a man or a woman, your gender identity, religionthese are all social identity pieces.” Burton says. “Seeing how one relates to another, you look at which one you feel most connected to. Some people don’t feel connected to their social identity at all, and other people feel like their social identity is a big part of their personal identity.”

Jamason stresses the contrast between his internal and external selves.

“I’ve always been very separated from my body and withdrawn to my mind, it’s like they’re two different entities but very much a part of who I am,” he says.

Jamason spoke at length with former Principal Phil Winston about how the school would deal with his gender, and as a result of the direct communication between Jamason and the administration, his gender never proved to be much of an issue.

“I had to use staff bathrooms though,” Jamason says. “I would’ve liked to have been able to use the boy’s bathroom, but I didn’t feel that comfortable with myself yet.”

Still, in other aspects of his life, Jamason’s transition was not so uncomplicated.

“I identify as a gay male, but I’ve had experiences with both boys and girls,” Jamason says. “I’ve had hook-ups, and one of them I wanted to turn into a relationship but the other person didn’t want to; they needed to grow into themselves more before they were ready.”

On the other hand, Rae Marcum, who attended Palo Alto High School from 2009 to 2011 (through 10th grade), began transitioning from female to male during 11th grade, while in the middle of a relationship.

Anthony Ross For over a decade, Ross has worked to provide with Project Outlet to provide a safe place for LGBTQ youth. “You just need to open the space and make it easy for them [LGBTQ youth] to explore,” says Ross, who transitioned from female to male a few years ago.

40

“My girlfriend doesn’t care. She loves me for who I am as person, not for my gender,” says Marcum, who has been dating for over a year and a half.

Marcum knew he was attracted to girls while still in middle school, but it took him several years before he discerned that he was transgender.

“I finally started to understand what was going on and I learned there were other options than from what you’re assigned at birth,” says Marcum, currently a freshman at Humboldt University.

Project Outlet Many gender-nonconforming youth, also known as “queer and questioning,” struggle to find a safe environment where they can try out new identities and explore their feelings.

One such setting can be found through a local organization, Project Outlet, on West El Camino Real at View Street in Mountain View. Outlet seeks to empower LGBTQ youth and, according to its website, “build safe and accepting communities through support, education and advocacy.”

For Marcum, and other gender-questioning youth in Palo Alto, Outlet served as an inroad to the LGBTQ community. Marcum began trying out male pronouns during Outlet sessions.

“Outlet was a place where I could ask questions and be myself,” Marcum says. “If I felt different each week it would be fine, I wouldn’t feel like I was being judged by others.”

Anthony Ross, 41, has worked at Outlet since 1997 and acts as a facili- tator for Outlet’s weekly youth meetings. Ross stresses the importance of allowing kids to discover for themselves what gender they identify with and not pressuring them to conform with certain standards.

“If you just open the space for them and make it safe for them they will just kind of explore,” Ross says.

“They’ll let us know what feels best for them and that can change as they grow… they feel more comfortable this way or that way.”

Most children begin to differentiate between male and female around the ages of three and four, Ross says. Around this time, young children begin to express their nonconformity and variance in gender identity.

“Sometimes a male-bodied child will say ‘When do I get my vagina’ or ‘When do I get to wear dresses?’ A female-bodied child will start to say ‘When do I grow my penis?’ They’ll actually ask their parent’s these questions,” Ross says. “It’s because they’re starting to realize that while they may feel one way, their bodies are different. It’s an internal thing, what feels best for them, which they may need help trying to figure out.”

Ross says that in many primary education settings any attempt at merging gender boundaries, such as a boy who wants to wear a dress, can be met by parents and teachers with resistance or at the very least concern. However, Ross believes the key to dealing with nonconforming children is to give them room to develop their own unique identity.

Jamason suggests a similar approach to dealing with gender ambiguity.

“As humans we naturally like to put things in boxes, but people can be anywhere on the sexuality spectrum, either very gay or very lesbian or anywhere in between and likewise, people shouldn’t be gender-labeled,” Jamason says.

Zander Davis, a history and sociology teacher at Palo Alto High School, echoes Jamason’s statement.

“You look at school, look at what you get at home, what comes up in the media,” Davis says. “There’s an understanding of society based on the perception of what it means to be a man and what is means to be a woman. I think a key part of diversity that we’re missing is mutual understanding and open conversation among people of all different classes and different types.”

Davis believes that prejudices develop when people create generalities based on limited experiences to compensate for their lack of understanding regarding a specific group, such as the transgender community. The danger of labels, Davis says, is that it causes unfair assumptions to be made.

“When we live among them [people different than us], and have our kids play together and go to school together and have conversations together, we learn about them and then those prejudices fall apart and those labels fall apart,” Davis says.

“When we don’t have diversity and we don’t interact then that’s when labels acquire a lot of power.”

Ross says that it can be difficult for young children or teenagers in the middle of the gender spectrum to identify with a specific group. To fill this vacuum, a new word, genderqueer, has emerged as an umbrella term to include gender variant individuals in the LGBTQ community, without forcing them to choose a specific label.

“It [Genderqueer is] a newer generation word for gender nonconforming or androgynous,” Ross says. It’s for people who are more in that middle spectrum of gender and not really pushing to those extremes of male or female. It’s a term that a lot of youth use because it works for them more than transgender.”

To help educate schools and make the learning environment a safer and more accepting place, Outlet offers free staff workshops.

Bill Overton, principal of Ohlone Elementary school, takes advantage of Outlet’s support, having used the organization for staff clinics twice in the past four years.

“We need to be on top of anything our students are experiencing,” Overton says. “We know that kids at this age are starting to identify with gender, some kids question their identity early and so we want to be able to help as much as possible.”

Overton says that Ohlone implemented the workshops through their own initiative and adds that he often taps Outlet for advice whenever gender-related situations arise in school.

However, Marcum, an Ohlone graduate, says that despite AB 1266 there is still room for improvement in schools to create a safer environment “Teachers should not separate students in any class by gender,” Marcum says. “It happens a lot in P.E., but also in lots of other classes, where they’ll say things like, ‘Line up boy-girl, boy-girl’ or ‘Boys on this side of the room, girls on that side.’ It’s very uncomfortable for someone who is transgender but not out.”

However, regardless of their surrounding environment, Marcum emphasizes the need for youth (or adults) questioning their gender to stay in touch with their emotions and not inhibit themselves due to perceived societal constraints.

“Let yourself question, let yourself feel whatever you’re feeling, don’t box yourself in,” Marcum says. “Find resources and people to talk to and have conversations with them.

You are the most important person, you are around yourself everyday, and so if you’re not happy with yourself, you’re not going to be happy with anything.” v

“If you’re not happy with yourself, you’re not going to be happy with anything.” ­— Rae Marcum

41

THE BAY’S

CUP

SAN FRANCISCO HAS LEFT ITS OWN UNIQUE MARK ON THE 34TH AMERICA’S CUP Text by WILL QUEEN Art by ANTHONY LIU

I

N SEPTEMBER, THE biggest sailing event in the world took place right here in San Francisco Bay. The America’s Cup, the oldest international sailing competition in the world, was hosted by the Golden Gate Yacht Club, the yacht club of Oracle Corporation C.E.O. Larry Ellison.

Ellison’s team, Oracle Team U.S.A., won the Cup in 2010 in Valencia, Spain, and as the defending champions, they were given the privilege of choosing the location for this year’s contest.

In an effort to clean up the waterfront and generate money for the city of San Francisco, Ellison wanted the races to be visible from the shore by hosting them in the San Francisco Bay. This was new to a competition that has traditionally been held miles offshore in open ocean.

He also aimed to fuse cutting-edge technology with the generally old fashioned sport of sailing, creating the largest and fastest racing catamarans (boats with two hulls) ever built to be used in the competition.

To the chagrin of many San Francisco residents, tax money went towards paying for the America’s Cup.

42

At least the America’s Cup has positively influenced the sport of sailing, at least in the Bay Area. Despite controversy, the races have drawn a large amount of media attention to the Bay Area and the less discussed sport of sailing.

“People that may have lived right next to the water but have never actually gone on it except maybe in a speedboat are now seeing these cool, $8 million boats going against each other, and it has created excitement about sailing,” said Molly Vandemour, a 2012 Olympic sailor who also participated in the America’s Cup as a commentator on Marina Green.

This year, Viewers saw the most radical boats ever used in competitive racing.

Named AC72s, the boats used in the Louis Vuitton Cup and America’s Cup Finals were 72-foot-long catamarans with 131-foot-tall masts.

Instead of traditional sails, the boats had “wings,” which are rigid, hollow structures, optimized for aerodynamics.

They have a joint in the middle which allows for flexibility. These boats are designed to move at about 35 to 40 mph, but have been recorded moving at almost 51 mph, an incredible speed, especially for a

yacht.

Built to travel on average 1.8 times faster than the wind, these boats perform incredibly well even in light wind. From a technical standpoint, the boats are loaded with senseors and all sorts of state-of-theart tools and materials.

Vandemoer, who is also the director and coach of the Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation in Redwood City, discussed the way these radical boats are changing the face of sailing.

“If you look at our own learn-to-sail program, we do a ‘build-your-own boat’ race, and the boats that these kids make have to be made of recycled materials and stuff they find in

RACE RESULTS Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4 Race 5 Race 6 Race 7 Race 8 Race 9

WINNER EMIRATES EMIRATES EMIRATES ORACLE EMIRATES EMIRATES EMIRATES ORACLE ORACLE RACE 19

1-0 2-0 3-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 6-0 6-1

Race 10 Race 11 Race 12 Race 13 Race 14 Race 15 Race 16 Race 17 Race 18

WINNER EMIRATES EMIRATES ORACLE ORACLE ORACLE ORACLE ORACLE ORACLE ORACLE

7-1 8-1 8-2 8-3 8-4 8-5 8-6 8-7 8-8

ORACLE WINS THE 34TH AMERICA’S CUP

their trash bin,” Vandemoer said.

“All the sboats these kids make look like the America’s Cup catamarans. That’s a pretty cool sign.”

To prepare themselves for sailing these massive boats, the America’s Cup crews first raced AC45s, 45-foot versions of the AC72s. They are slower, but provide the same type of experience as the AC72s.

Despite all the excitement surrounding the AC72s, not everything went as

planned. On May 9, during a practice run, Artemis Racing’s AC72 capsized, trapping team member and Olympic gold medalist Andrew Simpson underwater. He was submerged for about ten minutes, and despite efforts to resuscitate him, he died.

Controversy surrounded this year’s America’s Cup. Many were critical of the fact that sailors did not have to be citizens of the country they sailed for, making the competion feel mercenary. A majority of the sailors who took part in the competition were from New Zealand or Australia, both of which are hot-beds for sailing talent. Only three of the 24 members of Oracle Team U.S.A. were from the United States.

The America’s Cup also faced legal setbacks. Louis Vuitton originally helped fund the Cup with a sponsorship of $10 million. But there was a clause in the contract that stated there must be at least six competitors in the Louis Vuitton Cup. If fewer than six teams entered, the America’s Cup would have to repay Louis Vuitton $1 million for every team under six. Of the original 15 teams expected to take

part in the competition, only three teams vied in the Louis Vuitton Cup to face Oracle Team USA: Emirates Team New Zealand, Artemis Racing of Sweden, and Luna Rosa Challenge of Italy.

In addition to underwhelming number of teams, the defending champion, Oracle, was found to have placed lead in their hulls to increase stability. This was an intentional violation of the rules, and due to this infraction, Oracle was given a two-race handicap. In order to win the America’s Cup Finals, they needed 11 victories instead of the regular nine.

Emirates Team New Zealand was victorious in the Louis Vuitton Cup, and faced Oracle Team USA in the America’s Cup, a best-of-17 competition. In the first several races, it appeared as if Oracle Team U.S.A. was no match for Emirates Team New Zealand. From Sept. 7 to Sept. 18, New Zealand had a commanding lead in the competion, winning eight of the 11 races.

This put the score at 8-1, accounting for Oracle’s handicap.

Miracurously, Oracle went on an eight race win-streak, eventually defeating Emirates in race 19 and defending their title in the America’s Cup. v

43

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MAP OF CAMPUS: Image provided by Tolbert Design Architects.

A D C B

Welcoming New Designs MODERN ADDITIONS TO GREET HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Text by PAUL PHROMTHONG Images by DLM ARCHITECTS and TOLBERT DESIGN ARCHITECTS

O

N SEPT. 22, 2009, the Palo Alto Unified School District approved the conceptual designs for two new construction projects. “We wanted the buildings to complement the existing buildings on campus, like the Tower and Haymarket buidlings,” said Dana Tom, current president of the Board of Education.

Now, four years later, with the workers on the cusp of completing the Media Arts Center and the math and social sciences building, while embarking on several more major projects, the final view of the future campus is taking shape.

The architects have worked closely with the school administration to create designs to meet the anticipated needs of the school.

Erwin Lee from DLM Architecture is the architect for nearly all the construction at Paly, including the Media Arts building, math and social studies building, while Jeremiah Tolbert of Tolbert Design Architects is responsible for the new Athletic Facilities.

Here’s what they came up with. v

MATH/SOCIAL SCIENCE BUILDING

A

- Boiler and pump room - Roof mounted air chillers - Sloping tile roofs - Window fenestrations The budget of the new building was approved for $7.7 million for a twostory building of 38,300 square feet. The Board of Education visited a two story school with similar configurations to determine the layout. The construction is expected to be finished by January.

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B

SCIENCE ADDITION

- Four science labs -SRC renovation - Mini prep area -Project room - Staff room -Tutorial meeting room The project budget of the new science addition was approved for $5.5 million. The total new construction area will be approximately 8,750 square feet, with another 1,400 square feet of renovated space in the existing building.

GYMNASIUM

C

- Hall of fame corridor - Training room - Athletic store - Wrestling room - Yoga room - Secondary volleyball courts

A Paly family donated $5.4 million in school district funds to create a state-of-the-arts athletic center. Construction, which could begin as soon as June 2014, is expected to finish by August 2015.

D

MEDIA ARTS CENTER - Central atrium/forum - Outdoor seating area - Television Studio - Overlooking balcony The center will feature media production facilities for photography, journalism, and english classes. An atrium will also be included with clerestory windows to accommodate large meetings for multimedia presentations. Construction is expected to be finished by January.

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COVER WHEN A BAND-AID DOESN’T COVER IT

48

Photography by ANA SOFIA AMEVIA-WANG

WHEN A BAND-AID

DOESN’T COVER IT. THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT HIT MARKETS OCT. 1 Text by BRIGID GODFREY and LANDE WATSON Art by ANTHONY LIU Photography by ANA SOFIA AMEVIA WANG

E

for two years. He was no longer able to stay on his parents’ plan MRICH STOVEL, A 2004 PALO Alto High School alum, has eleven scars, across the after his 26th birthday and, because of his pre-existing condition, sides of his body from surgery that removed the companies have rejected all of his applications for new insurance. top of his left lung. Two episodes of spontaneous In October, when the Affordable Care Act Marketplace opened, pneumothorax (collapsed lung) in his senior year at Stovel joined more than15,000 Californians with pre-existing conditions who bought insurance after Sept Paly left Stovel in the hospital twice in 2013, who have already gained coverage two weeks after attempts to re-inflate his through the Pre-Existing Condition Insurlung. After leaving Palo Alto to attend “I am both hopeful ance Plan, since the program began accordcollege in Oregon, his left lung collapsed and skeptical that the ing to the U.S. department of Health & Huagain and then several more times in the new laws and health man Services. following months. Finally, Stovel went Stovel is one of the nearly 2.3 million through surgery to remove a small part care exchanges will uninsured Californians between the ages 18 of his lung. bring cost down ­— and 35. On Oct. 1, everything changed. The Dealing with long hospital stays and Emrich Stovel, Paly alum beginning of October marked the opensurgery is not the only reason Stovel’s life ing of California’s online health care Maris more difficult as a result of his conketplace, Covered California, an interactive dition; at the time of his lung collapse, Stovel was still under the age of 26, covered by his parents’ health website that allows around 5.6 million eligible California residents care plan. There was no increase in rates before he reached this to compare comprehensive health insurance plans and choose one age, and his three surgeries were covered without complications. that best fits their needs. The health care benefits begin on Jan. 1, This was made possible by the early implentation of the Afford- 2014.

“I am both hopeful and skeptical that the new laws and health able Care Act’s 26 and under section.

Now, Stovel is 28 and has been unable to purchase insurance care exchanges will bring costs down,” Stovel says. “If they did

JULY 2007

In first Democratic primary debate, Sen. Obama proposes a health care plan to cover 45 million

48

NOVEMBER 2008

FEBRUARY 2009

MARCH 2009

In General Election, Sen. Obama lists universal health care as a top four priority

In Joint Session to Congress, President Obama announces goal to construct plan for health care reform

Obama White House holds first health care summit

COVERAGE The Affordable Care Act will make it easier for students to acess healthcare. They will no longer be able to be denied coverage based on pre existing conditions come down to the same ballpark as what I pay for car insurance, I would jump at it.”

Economists speculate whether young people like Stovel will actually enroll in health care, or pay the $95 penalty for failed compliance with the law instead. In 2015, that fee will jump to $315 and in 2016, $695.

The Affordable Care Act will impact young people and their relationship to health care. Today, thousands of children are unable to enroll in health care because of pre-existing conditions like asthma, diabetes, or the lung collapses Stovel dealt with, as insurance companies reject their applications, favoring lower-risk customers.

With the implementation of the law, insurance providers will no longer be able to charge more or deny coverage of conditions that millions of Californians have dealt with since birth.

In the past, health care companies have had the legal right to take people of their family’s health care plan as early as their eighteenth birthday. The Affordable Care Act allows young people to stay on their family’s health care plan until they turn 26. People can join or remain on a plan even if they are married, not living with their parents, attending school, not financially dependent on their parents or eligible to enroll in their employer’s plan.

This part of the law went into effect for plans beginning

Sept. 23. Those under 26 often referred to as “young healthies,” have traditionally been less likely to purchase health care because of lower incomes and lesser predicted need. Under the law, it will not only be easier for young people to gain coverage, but it will be mandated that they have some type of health insurance.

An alternative to the traditional health care plan, the catastrophic plan is available to people less than 30 years old and those with limited incomes. The catastrophic plan requires payment of most medical bills, under a specified amount, while still covering three primary care visits per year and cost-free preventative care.

The monthly premiums and out of pocket costs for catastrophic plans is much lower than that of traditional comprehensive care. However, premiums and other costs are based on income. This alternative care option is ideal for “young healthies” as it provides only bare essential coverage for a more affordable price.

Insurance companies also have to provide preventative care free of additional cost, excepting grandfathered plans purchased before March 23, 2010. This includes contraception and a variety of women’s health screenings including those for cervical cancer and anemia. The preventive care section of the law applies to plans beginning after Sept. 23.

As with many bills introduced in Washington D.C.’s currently

AUGUST 2009

NOVEMBER 2009

DECEMBER 2009

During August recess, Tea Party takes to town halls to fight health care reform bill

House passes its version of the health care bill (220-215)

Senate passes its health care bill (60-39)

MARCH 2010

President Obama signs health care bill into law

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partisan political climate, the Affordable Care Act faces back- clogging up Emergency Rooms and reducing the efficiency of urlash. This backlash travelled across the country in 2009’s August gent care facilities.

Recess, when members of the Tea Party flooded town hall meetAccording to Einav the law will have the greatest effect on ings to protest the legislation, after it passed in the Senate ear- young people. lier that year. In 2010, the bill was passed and signed by President “Many [young people] are uninsured; if you look at the people Obama. that will be most affected, it’s the people who were previously unHowever, the Obama Administration and the Democratic insured,” Einav says. “Now they will have to be insured or pay a Party have yet to win the fight to implement the Affordable Care big fine. The biggest group that’s uninsured was young adults.”

Act. The Republican house has voted 42 times to kill the AffordUninsured Americans are now faced with the with the dilemable Care Act legislation. na of buying health insurance and complying with the law, or payA budget bill passed the House in late Seping an often less expensive fine? tember with no funding for implementation of Daniel Bennet of The Atlantic the Affordable Care Act included. The bill is Wire writes, “In order for the plan to unlikely to pass the Democratically dominated work, we need some people (especially “We need to Senate, and even less likely to be signed by Presyoung, healthy people) to pay more into ident Obama. If the bill is passed and signed, the health care exchanges than they remake DC listen. the Affordable Care Act will receive no funding ceive in services for the risk pool math Make them listen for implementation and be largely obsolete. to work.” to the single mom Disagreement over budget bills is common Dan Gorenstein for Marketplace. working in the in D.C., and Congress often votes to temporarorg writes, “Estimates show a majority diner” — ­ Sen. Ted ily to fund the budget until a bill is proposed of the uninsured signed up for coverage on which both parties can agree on. However, within a year and a half of the law passCruz major members of the Republican party have ing.” Some surveys claim that as many threatened to vote against a postponed budget as 10 percent of Americans will pay the vote, which would lead to a government shutpenalty over buying health insurance. down if a compromise is not met.

Einav does not like the general tone of the media surroundIn a shutdown, the government stops providing all but “es- ing the law. sential” services which will include health care. The United States “People want to read about next year’s check as opposed to has not experienced a shutdown since 1995. the check we’re going to have to pay when we’re 55,” he says.

On Sept. 24, 2013 Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas began “Someone needs to take a long term view and the government his attempt to pseudo filibuster the budget vote in the Senate. No is doing it. It’s a general long term plan,” proceedings were in progress, and the Senate was largely empty at According to Einav the law will have the greatest affect on the time. Cruz spoke for 21 hours without stopping young people.

“We need to make DC listen,” Cruz said. “Make them listen “Many [young people] are uninsured; if you look at the people to the single mom working in the diner, struggling to feed her that will be most affected, it’s the people who were previously unkids who has just been told she has to take a cut in hours due to insured,” Einav says. “Now they will have to be insured or pay a Obamacare.” big fine. The biggest group that’s uninsured was young adults.”

Stanford Professor Liran Einav, who teaches and writes about Einav does not like the general tone of the media surroundthe economics of health insurance, says the problem with the old ing the law. health care system was rising costs which led to a large swath of “People want to read about next year’s check as opposed uninsured people. This in turn put pressure on the government to the check we’re going to have to pay when we’re 55,” he says, health system, because uninsured people, with no other way to “Someone needs to take a long-term view and the government is see a doctor, would go to hospital emergency room for treatment, doing it. It’s a general long term plan.”. v

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SEPTEMBER 2010

AUGUST 2011

NOVEMBER 2011

JUNE 2012

Several pieces of law go into effect including coverage for childhood immunizations

11th Circuit Cour of Appeals rules parts of the law unconstitutional

US Court of Appeals in Washington rules health care law unconstitutional

Supreme Court upholds individual mandate part of health care law under Taxing and Spending clause

The Affordable Care Act by the Numbers *Data taken from voluntary anonymous survey of 275 Paly students.

3 in 4

18% of California citizens are uninsured and eligible to be covered through the ACA

Paly students know what the Affordable Care Act is. (77%)

15,223 Californians with pre-existing conditions have already gained coverage through the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan since the program began.

435,000 young adults under 26 in California will be covered under their parents’ plan

1 in

Source: HHS.gov/HealthCare

4 Paly students is sexually active. The ACA will make contraceptive methods more accessible, my eliminating co-pays. (24%)

1 in 3 Paly students have a condition health care companies would consider pre-existing.

The ACA makes it illegal for companies to reject applicants or raise cost based on pre-existing conditions. (35%)

OCTOBER 2013

Healthcare Marketplaces open in states across the United States

1 in 4

Female Paly students use birth control, either daily or on occassion. The ACA will make contraceptives more readily available as well as provide a larger range of women’s health coverage. (24%)

JANUARY 2014

JANUARY 2015

JANUARY 2016

Health care benefits start for those enrolled in plans through the Marketplace

Fine for not complying rises to maximum $975 per family or 2% of family incom (whichever is greater)

Fine for not complying rises to maximum $2,085 per family or 2.5% of family income (whichever is greater)

51

PERSPECTIVES ASK ME (ALMOST) ANYTHING WELCOME TO THE FRIENDZONE BETRAYING AUDIENCES

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Ask me (almost) anything TEENS LOWER THEIR MORAL STANDARDS BEHIND AN ANONYMOUS SHIELD Text by ELIZA ACKROYD Design by DANIELA IVEY

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Ask me anything...

Ask

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The creation of these pages begs the question: is it necarlier this month, 12-year-old Rebecca Ann Sedwick of Lakeland, FL., died by essary to have more supervision in a youth-oriented internet suicide after a year of receiving abusive messages community?

There is now a growing technological gap between paron the internet. Rebecca had been constantly bombarded with malicious messages by roughly 15 girls ent and child. It’s a new phenomenon, where parents are althrough her Ask.fm account along with other social media sites, ways one step behind their kids; by the time parents and other telling her to kill herself. Rebecca eventually complied with the adults find out about one site, their children are already using anonymous messages, went to the roof of an abandoned build- another. This gap can make it difficult for parents to step in when bullying occurs. It also can make it hard for parents ing and jumped. to empathize, many times because they are so detatched or Ask.FM is the most recent iteration of oblivious that they fail to understand what the the now-defunct bathroom wall or Formtrue sources of the bullying are, or how it all spring. Hailing from Latvia, Ask.FM allows works. users to receive questions from both fellow “With anoPublic backlash, especially from parents, account holders and anonymous users. The nymity comes resulted in the recent addition of the “report” idea is to allow people to ask the questions responsibility button. It allows any user or viewer to report they could never dream of asking in person, ... we have the bullying, spam, violence or pornographic conor to say things that both should and should tent. In theory, problem solved. In reality, the power to do not be said. report button’s entire premise is flawed. It conUnfortunately, Ask.FM’s promise of so much good, tradicts the whole point of the site, which is to anonymity creates opportunities for bullywe just need enable people to be extremely honest. Moreing. Criticized for the superfluous amount to use it.” over, no voluntary reporting system can make of abuse that happens on their site, Ask.FM a dent in the large amount of hateful messages. has been accused of negatively contributing If they report it, they’re being disingenuous to to teenage depression. the spirit of the site and breaking their promWith anonymity comes responsibility.

An anonymous message can penetrate much deeper than many ise to answer any question. If they don’t report it, they leave people realize. Without a name attached to the message, people themselves open for endless abuse and questions worthy of often perceive it as their peers’ general consensus. Instead of report online.

Although Ask.FM allows all forms of honesty, one that belonging to one person, the idea belongs to the majority. These misconceptions, while untrue, can be devastating to one’s self- is often neglected is positive reinforcement. People are quick to forget that Ask.FM also provides an opportunity to make worth.

Palo Alto is no more immune to the allure of brutal hon- someone’s day. It’s so easy to deposit hate in the ask box and esty. The Ask.FM account Palo Alto Hate accepted many sub- to ignore that the page wasn’t created with the intent to harm; missions before finally being suspended in the last couple of it was to allow peers to ask those burning questions that we months. Posts would range from hurtful but witty to just abu- are too afraid to voice out loud. Next time you’re about to sive. The purpose of the page was to deal exclusively with nega- drop hate in someone else’s ask box, think about what the tive opinions of others. The creators thought they vindicated possible effects could be for them. Instead, tell them they their behavior by insiting cyberbullying was a myth. Toward have a brilliant mind, or that they can always make you laugh. the end, the page itself received hate in response to submitting We just have to remember the fact that we have power to do harsh comments about the people they discussed. so much good, and we need to use it. v

Meet John. John wears a fedora. John is a nice guy, and he wants people to know it.

John bought his female friend Amy a Double Chai FrappaLatte, hoping to get some action later that night.

WELCOME TO THE

FRIENDZONE

CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, IT MAY BE A MAN’S FAULT HE HAS NO GAME Text by WILL QUEEN and LANDE WATSON Art by ANTHONY LIU

K

INDNESS + TIME + providing a shoulder to cry on = a romantic relationship.

This equation is not one you would expect someone to use in explaining a healthy relationship, but the same connotations and expectations exist in the form of a cultural phenomenon called the “Nice Guy Syndrome.”

A typical male with this syndrome creates an oversimplified explanation for the lack of female attention he attracts, usually surrounding his unfortunate status as a “nice guy” when all his female friends date “jerks.”

He often complains of his exile to a not-so-enjoyable world called the “friend

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zone” where acts of kindness are not returned with romance.

Within any community, there exists an abundance of kind human beings, both male and female. The problem with the “nice guy” is that he is not actually nice; he feels entitled to a reward for every good deed.

The reason a woman may not seek a romantic or sexual relationship with a “nice guy” is usually not as simple as the man would like to believe. The list of reasons for the potential failure of romantic endeavors is longer than could fit in this magazine.

However, blaming this failure on a woman and her inability to see a male friend’s positive attributes is unfair and un-

productive in creating lasting and meaningful relationships.

The “friend zone,” where these men often claim to be stuck, is used to describe a situation in which a man has missed what he saw as a romantic opportunity with a girl.

Once in the “friend zone,” the highest status he can achieve in that girl’s life is one of “close friend.” In the eyes of the “friend zone” prisoner, he has only one hope of escape. He must continue with his efforts until the target of his affections finally gives in to his manipulative wooing methods.

Such a mentality is destructive to relationships between members of both sexes. Men might feel that friendship with a

Later that day, to John’s dismay, Amy chose to make a public display of affection with another guy (not wearing a fedora).

Despite his status as a nice guy, John was exiled to Planet Friendzone, the loneliest of places.

KINDNESS + TIME + PROVIDING A SHOULDER TO CRY ON

=

ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP

woman is inferior to a romantic incidence or relationship, and may abandon the friendship. In their minds, there can be no positive outcome of the relationship if the woman is not interested in sex or romance.

The concept of the “friend zone” promotes the misogynistic view that women exist only for men’s pleasure, and if sex or romance is seen as unattainable, the female friend is unimportant.

In certain circumstances, a man could be entirely within his rights to claim that a woman has “friend zoned” him; for example, if he was blatantly led on by a woman, only to discover that there existed no real romantic interest.

This scenario is not gender specific.

It happens to women as well. This kind

of situation is not our focus. Men who claim they are owed romantic involvement for their interactions with women are the subject of this article. Those who act like relationships are transactions where good deeds are traded for sex and affection.

This mentality helps no one. It fuels men’s sense of entitlement and furthermore, when a “nice guy” places the blame for failed romantic endeavors on a woman, he fails to evaluate his own actions and behavior that made him a flawed romantic companion.

There is no equation for a successful relationship, because no two people are the same.

Perhaps the man mistook friendship as a natural lead-in to a romantic relation-

ship, when engagement in such is never guaranteed and should not be expected.

Perhaps he spends all his time talking about how nice he is instead of doing community service or helping a teacher when she drops her papers or providing a friend a shoulder to cry on without a predicted sexual reward.

Perhaps when talking about girls who are not his friends, he uses derogatory language to describe their physical appearance.

Or maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.

Healthy and enjoyable friendship can exist without romantic pursuit. Aggressively trying to make relationships what they are not, and seeing kindness as an input only beneficial for an output of romance is definitely not nice. v

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PERSPECTIVES

BETRAYING AUDIENCES Educational television must stick to its claimed purpose Text by TIRA OSKOUI Art by ANTHONY LIU

I

MAGINE A 60-FOOT-LONG, 60-TON, Adding to its offense, the Discovery Channel did not even whale-killing monster with 9-foot-tall jaws more than 10 warn viewers of the documentary’s fictional nature until after times stronger than those of an alligator. the two-hour show ended. A brief disclaimer flashed across the This horrific creature, a monstrous prehistoric shark screen: “Though certain events and characters in this film have named Megalodon (literally meaning “giant tooth” in Lat- been dramatized, sightings of ‘Submarine’ [Megalodon] continue in), has been extinct for 1.5 million years and has inspired awe and to this day. Megalodon was a real shark. Legends of giant sharks fear through findings of its fossilized hand-size teeth. Although persist all over the world. There is still debate about what they this beast is awesome to envision, virtually all scientists accept might be,” the disclaimer stated.

Megalodon’s extinction as an irrefutable scientific fact.

Not only does this disclaimer not directly admit that the However, the Discovery Channel abused this reality when it documentary bases itself on falsehoods, but the placement of the aired a “documentary” on the increasing “evidence” that this long- disclaimer at the end of the show put viewers in the position to be lost shark still lurks in the ocean, even though no actual scientific duped by the lies. proof exists to support this ridiculous claim.

Christie Wilcox, a PhD candidate in cell and molecular biolThe special, titled “Megalodon: The Monster Shark That ogy at the University of Hawaii who has written posts addressing Lives,” kicked off the channel’s popular August week of program- this issue on her blog, Science Sushi, lost all trust in the Discovery ming dedicated to sharks, dubbed “Shark Week.” It claimed to fol- Channel after this fake documentary. low marine biologists on a hunt for the extinct shark, using CGI “They didn’t let their audience in on the joke,” Wilcox says. graphics and actors that fooled To make matters worse, audiences into believing the the Megalodon episode rehoax. ceived the highest ratings ever The documentary betrayed for a Shark Week special and “They didn’t let their audience in on the educational credibility of succeeded in convincing over the joke.” the Discovery Channel. Its slo­— Christie Wilcox, biologist 70 percent of voters in a poll gan, “The World is Just Aweon the Discovery Channel’s some,” seems to suggest that website to vote, “YES! The evithe channel provides entertaining content that teaches about the dence for Megalodon can’t be ignored. This monster shark lives.” wonders of the world. A show about Megalodon would fit this Erik Olah, an AP Biology and Marine Biology teacher at Palo claim, but the false way that the channel presented the material Alto High School, believes the Discovery Channel acted irresponabandoned any educational purpose. sibly in airing this program.

The Discovery Channel’s audiences trust that it is a source for “They’re just doing it for ratings,” Olah says. “Shark Week’s quality educational material, so when the channel betrays that trust been going for years, and they’re just trying to find new ways to it loses itself valuable viewers. keep people coming back.”

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channels. Unfortunately, educational channels often find it difficult to compete with the more than 1,700 television channels in the USA. It is crucial for educational television to survive because it is the modern media. It provides easy access to factual information displayed in an appealing manner. It allows those without extensive educational backgrounds to learn about the world.

For children, watching television can be one of their first educational experiences.

“Educational channels have an important role, especially for children, as a source of wholesome, quality content that the kids can watch and get really inspired about the world around them,” Wilcox says.

A channel publically funded as educational holds an obligation to its funders to stay consistent. For a privatelyUnfortunately, it appears that the funded channel, the rules loosen up. Still, viewers deserve clarity Discovery Channel feels that lies and de- on where a channel stands between fact and fiction. ception will increase its viewership when it “People just need to be more aware that not everything should entertain and hold audiences with legitimate they’re seeing on TV — just like the Internet — can be trusted,” and scientific material. Portraying science in a false and deceitful Olah says. manner does it an injustice.

Thankfully, Discovery Communications is not getting let off So-called “mockumentaries,” intentional depictions of leg- the hook. According to Wilcox, many of her colleague scientists ends in a creative light, can be okay if they warn audiences of their have been turning down offers to work with the Discovery Chanfictional nature beforehand. When a channel that claims to provide nel. viewers with scientific fact airs a program that abandons science “People are saying ... ‘We don’t want to work with you because and truth, the fun goes too far. we don’t know what you’re going to do with it [any scientific infor“We hold our educational channels to a higher standard be- mation we provide],’” Wilcox says. cause we know that they’re supIn addition, the Discovposed to be telling us the truth,” ery Channel’s Facebook page Wilcox says. “If we found out overflowed with negative and “People just need to be more aware our news programs were lying accusational comments in an that not everything they’re seeing on immediate response to the to us, we’d be really pissed.”

Sadly, this issue of an “edMegalodon scandal.

TV — just like the Internet — can be ucational” network airing misWe consume educational trusted.” leading material has turned into information every day, and for ­— Erik Olah, Biology teacher many of us much of that ina trend that extends far beyond the Discovery Channel. formation comes on a screen.

Other channels owned by Discovery Communications such We deserve to know the factuality of what we watch. The future as TLC, the History Channel, and Animal Planet, have received of scientific television must not follow the precedent set by gag criticism from scientists, educators and general audiences for airing shows like “Megalodon.” false or misleading information.

People must stay aware of what constitutes fiction and what TLC originally stood for “The Learning Channel” and was they can trust. We all love to indulge in reality show drama, but sponsored by the government in an effort to increase educational educational television must keep its credibility and not allow these content shown on television. Now, most know the network for its guilty pleasure shows to spill into their realm. ditzy reality shows like their runaway success “Here Comes Honey Many legitimate educational channels do still exist, including Boo Boo.” Public Broadcasting Service, National Geographic and the Science Last year, Animal Planet aired a documentary claiming the po- Channel. Hopefully, by choosing to watch the channels that do tential existence of mermaids. Last Spring, the channel aired a fol- education right and avoiding the ones that don’t, audiences can low-up show titled “Mermaids: The New Evidence.” Though the pressure the unfaithful channels to work towards regaining their series had disclaimers, it still managed to convince some viewers. educational value and trustworthiness.

This transition to non-educational material in recent years Until then, you won’t find me wasting my time watching prolikely stems from increased competition between commercial gramming that does nothing but mock the value of education. v

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CULTURE

FOOD TRUCKS SCHOOL OF ROCK NETFLIX CREAM TACOLICIOUS BEIGNETS ARI TAYMOR photo by Samantha Dewees

59 60 62 64

66 68 69

Keep on Truckin’ Text by LUCY FOX and MADISON MIGNOLA Art by ANTHONY LIU Photography by MADSION MIGNOLA

T

HE PARKING LOT OF A CAR DEALERSHIP MAY NOT SEEM LIKE THE MOST APPEALing place for a lunch crowd to congregate, but food trucks 3-3-3 and Mobowl give diversity to the usual Palo Alto lunch options. Every Wednesday at 1766 Embarcadero Road, in the Honda dealership parking lot just past 101, food trucks convene from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. v

Mobowl The varied menu at Mobowl offers every type of food from garlic noodles to their signature dish, pulled pork. The tanginess of the meat exceeds the expectations of standard American barbeque flavor. The pork is spicy and slow-cooked to perfection, and the white rice that accompanies it accents the meal perfectly.

Drowning in dressing, the fiery salad that comes with the meal was a little soggy and unsatisfying.

Mobowl also offers grilled umami tofu and garlic herb peanut pesto chicken.

A LA TRUCK From left to right, the 5 spiced pulled pork comes in a small, convienient container. A lime is being squeezed over the triple taco trio to add zest.

3-3-3 3-3-3’s surprising Mexican-Indian-Korean fusion piques interest with an unusual combination of flavors from across the globe. The triple taco trio comprises of one chicken taco, one carne asada taco and one chile verde taco ($7.25).

Carne asada, chicken, or chile verde burritos are also available, for $9 each.

Each individual taco is small, but the three of them make for a filling meal. The warm tortillas are cooked so the edges are crisp and soft in the middle. The meat inside the tacos is juicy and salted just the right amount. The pleasant combination leaves you wanting more even after the last bite.

Dabbling in the Indian third of the menu, the lamb curry burrito was divine and loaded with rice, vegetables, spices, succulent lamb and a sweet green sauce that accompanies created a great balance within the burrito. Unless you have a hearty appetite, the lamb curry burrito is difficult to finish on your own, but certainly worth a try.

The Korean options include short rib, spicy BBQ chicken and mushroom tofu, also available in a burrito or a taco combination.

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CULTURE

Young rockers

PERFORMANCEBASED SCHOOL FOR YOUNG MUSICIANS PLACES FOCUS ON CLASSIC ROCK Text by CLAIRE PRIESTLEY and LUCY FOX Photography by CLAIRE PRIESTLEY

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HE MUTED SOUND of an electric guitar echoes through the hallway from one of many rehearsal rooms, adding to the cacophony of The Who drum solos, Pink Floyd basslines and Led Zeppelin falsetto.

Young students crowd the lounge area to convene and converse as the overwhelming sound of guitar and drums fills the small building.

School of Rock, located at 2645 Middlefield Road, provides a program for aspiring musicians to improve their musical skills through performance-based learning.

Owner and amatuer musician Hansel Lynn fell in love with music twelve years ago when he and his friends started a cover band.

“Every one of us sucked, but we were really good at the marketing and bringing in all these people [fans],” Lynn says. “It was probably the best time of my life.”

Lynn got the idea of starting a School of Rock franchise in Palo Alto when he stumbled upon a newspaper advertisements promoting the school.

The School of Rock was founded in 2002 by Paul Green in Philadelphia,

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and now has locations all over the United set as a gift.

States, as well as seven other countries.

The talent brought in by this program Lynn opened the location in Midtown Palo has allowed a community of strangers to Alto in January of this year. form lasting bonds with others who share Alan “Al Showbiz” Bendit, a School common interests. Kids gain confidence of Rock instructor, has taught rock for and learn communication through perforover 30 years in San Francisco. He takes mance-based learning. a different approach to teaching that var“The kids start off really shy but ies from the classic training in music theory. within a couple months they are rocking “I like to try to teach people songs out on stage,” says Matt Pharisien, a Palo because that is the most interesting way to Alto High School graduate who works at learn,” Bendit the front desk at School says. of Rock.

According Lynn tells of a ten“The kids start off re- or-eleven-year-old boy to Lynn, a lot ally shy and then a who began playing the of the kids at School of Rock couple months later drums in January havstart off interthey are rocking out on ing a great performance ested primarily while playing a Green stage.” ­ in pop music, Day song at the School — Matt Pharisian, Palo Alto of Rock’s recent concert which allows High School alumnus at Illusions, a club in students to become more Palo Alto. comfortable with their instruments.

“He did completely awesome,” Lynn “[The kids] see how easy it is and says. “All the other kids were saying ‘aweget them into classic rock, which is more some job dude’ and everyone in the back nuanced and there are lot more difficult was … so stoked and it was his big, proud things to do,” Lynn says. day.”

Zach Chang, an 11-year-old student When it comes to show lineups, School drummer, describes himself as self-taught. of Rock does things a bit differently than He explains how as a kid as young as four some of its local business competition inyears old he would bang on objects and as cludes the Riekes Center and other private his interests grew he was then given a drum instructors. School of Rock put together different combinations of musicians with different skill levels for each song, rather than forming locked-down bands.

“They get to learn from the advanced kids down to the novice kids, so there’s that diversity sort of mixing together,” Lynn says.

One benefit of being a part of the national School of Rock community is the All Stars program. This exclusive opportunity is only open to the most experienced musicians.

“You get on a bus to do the whole rock tour thing; you’re staying in dorms with 200 other kids that have the same inHOUSE BAND Members of Palo Alto terests as you and everyone wants to rock,” School of Rock’s house band practices says Lynn. “This all star concert they just for their next show. had over the summer was in Bedrock with Above Caley Vaheli socializes with her 9,000 people in the audience and when fellow band members during a rehearsal. you’re like 14 or 15, that is confidence.”

Left Jeremiah Poblete, Rebecca Segars, The Palo Alto location opened too late Sebastain Lemoncheck, Gabe Cohen and to send anyone to the All Stars program Joshua Poblete practice their various this year, but plans to do so in the future. instruments.

Palo Alto School of Rock formed an-

GUITARIST Zach Chang hangs out while bandmates rock out to “Pride” by U2.

VOCALIST Rebecca Segars belts out a long high note during Wednesdays house band rehearsal. other, similar opportunity called the Band Competition.

“It’s sort of like All Stars for the kids who were not able to make All Stars,” Lynn says. “I did send six of my kids and they all came back saying experience of a lifetime, and they’ll never forget it.”

Lynn knew upon opening the School of Rock franchise in Palo Alto that he wouldn’t make a lot of money, but he has found that there are immense emotional rewards.

With top-notch instructors and motivated staffers, students become ultimate rockers.

“A lot of kids come in totally shy, totally in the corner, they get drawn out in the band, because there is a lot of energy in the rooms,” Lynn says. “I have just so many stories of these kids getting into it.” v

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THE

House of Cards: 7/10 Arrested Development: 5/10 Orange is the New Black: 7/10

Originals Text by ANAND SRINIVASAN Art by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG

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ETFLIX HAS BEEN PARTICULArly busy this past year, especially with the releases of “House of Cards,” “Arrested Developement” and “Orange is the New Black,” a few of the TV “originals” produced by the company. Known for its TV streaming website, Netflix is now trying to make its own shows (might as well, right?). Straying from the pack, Netflix allows for instant gratification with the ability to watch any episode of the entire series at any time upon its release. Now viewers are given the opportunity to binge-watch their hearts out ... or at least eliminate the process of waiting in anticipation each week. Whether it’s all at once or in moderate viewing sessions, Netflix still has to lure the viewer into clicking “watch next episode” through good old quality TV. v

FRANK UNDERWOOD Played by Kevin Spacey this ruthless Congressman manipulates his fellow politicians to escalate in the political ranks of the Democratic party.

HOUSE OF CARDS Opening with protagonist Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) strangling a dog to death, “House of Cards,” sets the mood fast and effectively — it’s serious, grim and not for the faint-hearted.

This show is entertaining, but nothing revolutionary (almost like watching a dramatic documentary). The plot revolves around American politics, which is sometimes confusing or unrelatable.

The series illustrates vividly how corrupt and cutthroat the fictional U.S. government is through parties, scandals and murders. One unique aspect of the series is its similarity to Shakespearean plays, in that is has monologues and asides. This can be awkward at times, because Underwood will stop in the middle of a discussion and talk into the camera. However, the monologues are actually quite effective when it comes to the development of Underwood, giving the audience insights into his ulterior motives whenever he

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coerces the politicians around him. Spacey’s acting is convincing “There are two when it comes to the types of pain: the fake smiles, ruthless atsort of pain that titude and hyperbolized makes you strong depravity that are so ... Or useless pain.” definite of Underwood’s ­— Frank Underwood character. With the pro(Kevin Spacey) gression of the show, Underwood becomes more and more callous and the line between ambitious and psychotic becomes blurred.

The show is dramatic, captivating and entertaining.

MICHAEL BLUTH an unfortunate member of the Bluth family, who tries, with no success, to keep his family together, fighting their insatiable hunger for money and material things.

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT Claiming to be an “original” series, “Arrested Development,” is in fact a continuation of the original Fox creation. After seven years, Netflix answered the long lasting prayers of the many devoted viewers riveted by George Michael’s unfortunate luck, Tobias’s antics, and Buster’s goofy innocence. Continuing from where the series left off, Netflix’s first episode finds the Bluth family at the local dock in their town. Note that the Netflix-pro“What do we always say duced, “Arrested Development,” is the most important takes a differthing? Family? I tried ent approach at that. It doesn’t work for plot construction than previous me.” seasons.

Each ep­— George Michael (Michael isode is dedicated Cera) and Michael Bluth (Jason to the happenBateman) ings of one character in a single time frame, the show taking on a cyclical pattern over the course of the series. In this way, you get the points of view of all the characters, but it also causes repetition. I was disappointed by this approach. The first three seasons were arguably the funniest, most entertaining seasons I have seen of any series, but with the fourth, my loyalty is wavering. Another reason I was not happy with this addition is that the bar for humor was lowered significantly. Most of the jokes were blatantly forced and contrived. Also, the plot in general grew old, and like the jokes, seemed to try too hard to emulate previous seasons in being random and bizarre. Attempts like these were too detectable to be funny, and were thus unappreciable, making this is one of the least “original” TV shows created by Netflix.

PIPER CHAPMAN Imprisoned for drugs she smuggled years ago.

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK With a gripping introduction, this show starts off hot and steamy — seriously, it’s a shower scene. From the beginning, the makers of this show make it clear that they are gunning for ultimate transparency, showing a prison bathroom completely uncensored.

Slow at parts, “Orange is the New Black,” as a concept is intriguing. Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) is a pretentious middle class white woman who accidentally offends the cooks’ food on the first day despite having researched prison life prior to incarceration (all the studies stating not to anger powerful figures like chefs). Because of this, most of the plot focuses on Chapman’s struggles to simply survive in prison, literally being starved out by the cook in the first couple of episodes. This makes the progression of the series particularly “Other people captivating, because aren’t the scariest Chapman’s only goal part of prison ... It’s is survival (survival alcoming face to face ways being a fascinating topic). As a side with who you restory, outside the prisally are. The truth on walls, Chapman’s catches up with fiance, Larry Bloom, you in here ... and is a struggling writer. it’s the truth that’s Their relationship is put to the test over gonna make you and over again as both her bitch.” ­— Piper Chapman parties deal with the separation, and staying (Taylor Schilling) honest with each other — which they are not.

When their little white lies do begin to catch up with them, the fate of the young couple becomes precarious.

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WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM CREAM BRINGS THE CLASSIC ICE CREAM SANDWICH TO PALO ALTO Text and photography by SAMANTHA DEWEES

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T’S NEARLY 10 P.M. ON A FRIDAY three a.m.,” she says.

However, the long wait doesn’t seem to discourage customers night and I’m immersed in a mob of excited people surrounding Palo Alto’s next big thing: CREAM, a newly- from coming to CREAM. “Part of standing in line is kind of the experience of going to opened walk-in restaurant dedicated to the creation of ice cream sandwiches to satisfy our sweet tooth. Expand- CREAM,” Mignola says. “Anyone could easily make [an ice cream ing to Palo Alto this past summer, CREAM, which now has three sandwich] at home, but I think it’s just like, you’re in line, you’re locations and counting in California, was an instant hit. Who knew standing with a bunch of people, and you feel like a part of somea tiny specialized Berkeley-originating restaurant could attract a thing.”

I have to agree. It’s worth a good wait, on the first visit, at two-hour-long line every night since its opening? I certainly didn’t.

But when you think about it, this isn’t a new thing. CREAM least. After a considerable amount of time, I finally made it has joined the California trend of super-specialized dessert restau- across the threshold and was greeted by a glowing ceiling-drop rants: first it was Sprinkles Cupcakes, several years ago. Later, Ka- menu boasting an extensive collection of ice cream flavors and cookie varieties. Here are a few flavors you ra’s, followed by an innumerable line of frowouldn’t expect: matcha green tea, white zen yogurt places. And now this, a growing pistachio, soy mint chip and Golden Gate franchise devoted to ice cream sandwiches. caramel swirl. Very Californian. You can And according to manager Matthew Peter“Part of standing in even go so far as to order an M&M or capson, CREAM’s popularity never dwindles. line is kind of the expuccino cookie. Being the less adventurous “Berkeley’s been busy for three years perience of going to person that I am, I chose double chocolate now, they’ve always had lines,” he says.

Cream. You feel like a chip cookies with coffee ice cream for the And the lines are simply enormous. affordable price of $2.50.

There are some who wait for up to two part of something.”

On the whole, I was pleasantly surhours for the chance to enjoy a CREAM ­— senior Sydney Mignola, prised by CREAM. Before arriving, I ice cream sandwich. Senior Sydney MignoCREAM employee couldn’t help but expect to have to pay a la, who works at CREAM, says there have weighty sum for a mediocre ice cream sandeven been complaints about congestion on the sidewalk outside from the immensity of the customer queues. wich, as I’ve become accustomed to at other dessert places over “We used to have people stand outside the line, and have peo- the years. But this was not the case. The ice cream was creamy, the ple, almost like a bouncer, shuffle people in, so it wouldn’t crowd cookies were very satisfying and the sandwich was tasty and wellprepared for a good value: far better than what one is required to the sidewalk,” Mignola says.

Mignola works an 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. shift every Saturday, pay at comparable dessert restaurants. A memorable feature was that the cookies really were freshly baked. They were still warm and says this is the busiest time.

“Sometimes it’s like 12:30 or near closing, and there’s still a when served, amplifying their rich flavor.

Mignola says that due to the small size of CREAM’s Palo Alto ton of people, and you want to go home and they want to close down, so we have to work really fast so we’re not there until like location, the cookies and ice cream are not prepared on site.

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“We have companies that make the ice cream for us,” she says.

“It’s our recipe … it’s manufactured locally but we don’t make it on site … we have the cookies made; it’s our recipe as well, but … we don’t make the dough physically in our store.”

In addition to ice cream sandwiches, CREAM offers a variety of other dessert options: brownies, fruit bars, ice cream, and ice cream tacos, to list a few.

“The ice cream taco is a waffle cone shaped into a taco shell and you get three different types of ice cream,” Mignola says.

CREAM also provides dairy-free, gluten-free and vegan options for those who have allergies or eating preferences.

“We offer vegan and gluten-free options, so it’s not just like for one kind of person,” Mignola says. “It’s very accommodating.”

According to Mignola, the two vegan ice cream flavors are soy cherry chip and soy mint. The sandwiches are available for $2.50 each and $1.75 for a half sandwich.

Peterson says the restaurant began in Berkeley, some three years ago, by a family who brought their own ice cream and cookie recipes to the store.

“They were baking cookies and it became like a staple of their house so everyone would go to their house for cookies and it became an ice cream sandwich,” Peterson says. “So they were like, ‘let’s open it up and see what happens.’ So they opened up a store and it was a hit immediately.”

CREAM now has four established locations in California, with a fifth on it’s way to San Jose.

“We thought Palo Alto would be the perfect location to having like a downtown scene with traffic, the night life,” Peterson says. “Stanford being really close, you know Berkeley’s right near the campus as well, and in the Silicon Valley too, so there’s a lot of catering.”

He says that although CREAM only has California locations currently, the company would like to expand across the country in the future.

“CREAM is expanding a lot right now,” Peterson says. “The plans are to go pretty big with it, so across the nation eventually.”

CREAM’s Palo Alto location is currently open until 2 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and until midnight the rest of the week.

The restaurant itself is small, bright and clean with welltrained staff and limited seating. There are an upstairs and a downstairs, each equipped with a few tables and stools, but on the whole, it’s more of a walk-in-walk-out establishment than a sitdown restaurant. On weekend nights, CREAM is a great place to go for dessert, and if the lines ever begin to subside, I think it will be especially convenient any night of the week.

Peterson explains that the main purpose of CREAM is to provide the public with quality ice cream sandwiches at an affordable price.

“The owners started this, and they wanted to do it a certain way,” Peterson says. “They wanted a fun atmosphere and they wanted to have really quality ingredients, but at the same time not have it where it’s so expensive.”

He says that so far, these goals have been achieved, and CREAM has become extremely popular among its Berkeley and Palo Alto locations.

“People really seem to like it,” he says. “They will have one ice cream sandwich while some people will be like, ‘oh my god, can I just get another one cause it’s so cheap.’”

Mignola enjoys working at CREAM, as she finds the fastpaced vibe exhilarating.

“You get to meet a lot of cool people, you see a lot of people at CREAM,” she says. “You get to learn how to interact with customers in a kind of crazy environment. A lot of people think it’s like the coolest job in the world to work in CREAM … [and] you obviously get to eat ice cream and cookies all the time.”

CREAM is located at 440 University Avenue in downtown Palo Alto. v

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TACO TIME

A DO-IT-YOURSELF CARNITAS TACO FROM TACOLICIOUS Text by CLAIRE PRIESTLEY and ZOFIA AHMAD Photography by ANA SOFIA AMIEVA-WANG, ZOFIA AHMAD and NADINE PRIESTLEY

TACOS GALORE The inside of tacolicious gives off a modern feel incorporating orange and turquoise into its décor.

LEFT The booths at the far end of the restaurant encompassed by the kitchen and the front glass window.

MIDDLE Two carnitas tacos lay upon the middle counter separating the bar from the seated areas within Tacolicious.

RIGHT The open-kitchen gives us a glimpse of the chefs hard at work preparing the mexican cuisines.

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ACOLICIOUS, A NEW restaurant located at 632 Emerson St in Palo Alto is known for its twist on traditional Mexican food.

The restaurant houses a variety of taco filling choices including nopales (cactus), asparagus, cod and filet mignon. They are accompanied by a trio of special homemade salsas varying in heat.

In addition, a weekly taco is offered depending on the seasons. Other offerings

include an Aztec chicken soup, enchiladas suizas, albacore tuna tostadas “contramar style” and an assortment of salads.

Tacolicious’ tostadas are one of their biggest hits offering a combination of fish, cheese, tostada and leeks. This delicacy, though quite expensive ($10.95), offers a great appetizer or first course.

Their soup combines a rich broth with shredded beef creating a filling combination of spice and warmth perfect for cold fall evenings.

The overall atmosphere of the restaurant offers a classic Mexican feel with a twist. The mosaic floor tiles were specifically brought in from Mexico for the restaurant. There signature color, orange, pleasantly accents the overall décor.

Although the price of the items offered on the menu are rather expensive, they offer an assortion of unorthodox Mexican food. This urban restaurant taqueria, reinvents the taco offering new possibilities for those searching for a quick Mexican fix. V

VERDELICIOUS VERSION OF TACOLICOUS TACOS INGREDIENTS 1 tablespoon dried or fresh oregano Salt and freshly ground pepper 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1/2 tablespoon olive oil 1 cup chicken broth 2 cloves garlic (chopped) 1 small jalepeño (chopped) 2 tablespoons orange juice 1 tablespoons coriander 1 bay leaf 1/2 onion (chopped) 1 Ib boneless pork shoulder 6-8 4-inch tacos 1 tablespoon olive oil cilantro & red cabbage (optional)

RECIPE all ingredients except the pork 1 Mix (and assembly materials). pork in a slow cooker, and pour 2 Put the mixture on top. Cook on low for 7 hours. for meat to cool a little, then pull 3 Wait apart with a fork. in a pan on the stove until the 4 Cook liquid has evaporated, and meat is slightly crusty.

assemble, fry the tortillas in the oil 5 To for a couple seconds so that they are more flexible.

put a little of the meat in the 6 Then, center, add some cilantro sprigs and red cabbage, and enjoy!

VERDELICIOUS TACO A replica of Tacolicious’ carnitas taco with a granish of cilantro, red cabagge, and chopped onions.

EDITORS NOTE This recipe is our best guess on replicating Tacolcious’ carnitas tacos. On target? Only the tongue will tell.

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BEIGNETS A TASTE OF NEW ORLEANS Text by ZOFIA AHMAD Photography by SUBUTAI AHMAD

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NYONE WHO HAS VISITED NEW ORLEANS WILL TELL YOU THAT THE ONE thing that you absolutely MUST do is try a Beignet. Beignets are a traditional New Orleans sweet akin to a donut but far more delicious. These cinnamon-infused pockets of bliss are drizzled with honey and buried under a drift of powdered sugar. If you start right now, you’re only 2 ½ hours away from paradise. v

INGREDIENTS: 1 ½ cups warm water 1 packet active dry yeast ½ cup plus 3 tablespoons honey 2 eggs, slightly whisked 1 ¼ teaspoons salt 1 cup evaporated milk 7 cups flour ¼ cup shortening 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon nutmeg non-stick spray Oil for deep frying Powdered Sugar to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.

Mix water, yeast and 2 tablespoons of the honey in a small bowl and let sit for 10 minutes, or until the top of the yeast mixture starts to look bubbly.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, salt and evaporated milk together.

Pour the yeast mixture into the egg mixture and mix together.

Add three cups of flour to the yeast mixture and stir until combined. Add shortening, two tablespoons of honey, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Add remaining flour while stirring. Pour dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth.

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2. Spray bowl with non-stick spray, add dough, cover and let sit for 2 hours

3. Pour oil into a deep pan (about 1-2 inches deep) and preheat

to 360 degrees.

Roll the dough out to a 1/4 inch thickness and cut into 2-inch squares. Fry the squares, flipping often, until they turn golden brown. Keep the oil around 360 degrees, or inside will not cook.

Drain, and lay out on a serving dish or plate.

4.

Move Beignets on to a serving dish, then drizzle remaining honey and cover with powdered sugar.

ARI

Paly Graduate

Taymor GRAD WINS PRESTIGIOUS RESTAURANT AWARD Text by BRIGID GODFREY Photos courtesy of BRAIN MCGINN and MADRONO

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RI TAYMOR, PALO ALTO HIGH School Class of 2003 graduate, was voted both “Most Dramatic” and “Biggest Gossip” by his classmates. Now you would be more likely to find 28-year-old Taymor preparing charred octopus or chicken liver on toast in his Los Angeles restaurant, Alma, which was recently named “The 2013 Best New Restaurant in America” by Bon Appétit magazine. Verde caught up with Taymor in a recent email exchange. This is what our new gourmet grad had to say: VERDE MAGAZINE: What activities were you involved in at Paly?

ARI TAYMOR: “I played tennis and was on Campanile. I did mediocre in school and more or less underachieved.”

VM: Who was your favorite teacher at Paly?

AT: “[History Teacher, Steve] Foug, 100 percent my favorite teacher”

Photo by: Brain McGinn

VM: Did you want to be a chef in High School? What path did you take to become a chef ?

AT: “I did not want to be a chef, I thought I wanted to be a diplomat so I studied international affairs in college. My path in cooking was not the usual one. I went to George Washington University, studied international affairs, and became interested in philosophy and public health. From there I became interested I sustainable agriculture and access to healthy foods in under served communities.

I found two things as well, firstly that I can’t sit still, and secondly that the people supporting small farmers the most were chefs. So I begged and lied my way into restaurant kitchens, fell in love with it and haven’t looked back. Lucky enough to have cooked in San Francisco, France, Denmark and now Los Angeles.”

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Photo by: Brain McGinn ALMA Patrons dine at Ari Taymor’s restaurant, Alma. One of Taymor’s top priorities is taking care of his customers.

VM: What kind of training did you receive when becoming a chef ?

AT: “I learned to cook at first at home on my own, then in restaurants. Starting at the bottom, working hard head down every day. [I] got better quickly but [it] took a lot of work. If you are really thinking about a career I recommend skipping culinary school and working in kitchens instead.”

VM: What is your favorite part of cooking and food?

AT: “[My] favorite type of cooking is what we do at the restaurant.: vegetable driven food based on emotions, experiences and memories. I use food to tell a story and express myself, while being very mindful of the fact that people are putting this inside of their bodies, so [I have] a constant eye towards nutrition as well.”

Photo by: 2003 Madrono

TAKE A BOW In addition to winning “The 2013 Best New Restaurant in America” by Bon Appétit magazine Taymor was also voted Most Dramatic and Biggest Gossip in his class’ senior polls. Before he became a chef, Taymor enjoyed history class and wanted to be a diplomat.

VM: What do you believe is the most important part of cooking and food?

AT: “Most important part is integrity. Taking care of the product, of yourself, of the guest and of the members of the team. In food, the hard way is always the right way, so making sure not to cut corners.” v

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Photo by: 2003 Madrono

VM: What’s the most enjoyable part about being a chef ? What’s the hardest part?

AT: “Most fun? Everything. Being able to do what I love every day, creating, motivating, leading, all of it. Hardest part: the lifestyle. I work 90 to 100 hours a week. I miss birthdays and weddings and family events. It is hard to miss the important parts of the lives of the people I care most about. In the end, I love what I do, but understand it comes with sacrifice.”

Palo Alto Unified School District Palo Alto High School 50 Embarcadero Road Palo Alto, CA 94301

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