February 2009

6 23 26 “Nickelsville” Teams Rebuild Roosevelt High Ink

The Roosevelt News

Volume 85 Issue 4 • February 2009 • 1410 Northeast 66th Street, Seattle, Washington, 98115

The Man IssueMANswers, 16

The “Man Purse,” 16

Man Love, 18

8 Viaduct Options

FebruaryThe RoosevelT News

News StaffEditor in Chief

Peter Jong

Staff ReportersElliott Amkraut Henry Berry

Elaine Colligan Emily Dugdale

Camille Esposito Ivan Ivashchenko Randall Keating Chris Nguyen

Thuc Nhi Nguyen Eric Pang

Stephen PerkinsBridget Reardon

Carolina Reid Karla Ruff

Andrew Sahl Emily Shugerman Jack ThompsonIndika Wright

PhotographersArianna Chiechi

Tiffany IpWill Nachtrieb

Maddie TullArtists

Sullivan BrownNick DrummondRachel Tonkovich

Xiaoran Yuan

The Roosevelt News aims to represent the diverse student population at Roosevelt. We strive to provide accurate, fair and unbiased news in order to increase reader awareness of is-sues apparent to the immediate and global community. We are a student-run publication serv-ing students, staff, parents and alumni and are an open forum for opinions of all those we serve.

Signed opinion pieces rep-resent the views of the writers and not necessarily those of the Editorial Board. The Roosevelt News accepts signed letters to the editor. Please submit them to Room 235 or Ms. Roux’s mailbox or by email to [email protected].

The Roosevelt News reserves the right to reject any advertise-ment deemed unacceptable for publication. The Roosevelt News does not run illegal, hateful, or inappropriate advertisements. If you are interested in placing an ad, call (206) 252-4880.

CoverJim McGowan

Business ManagerMiriam Bornstein

Photo/Graphics EditorJim McGowan

AdviserChristina Roux

Fun PageAndrew Sahl

Theme EditorsCate Gelband, Miriam Bornstein

Opinion EditorJamie Anderson

A&E EditorAmanda Morris

News EditorAllie Seroussi

Sports EditorsNikil Rao, Erik Kariya

Copy EditorTaylor Cross-Whiter

2

Brazilian ExchangE StudEntS

For months, we have watched the election, the

debates, and the campaign ads. When Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for the presi-dency, many of us made our choice. And when the day fi-nally came to decide on No-vember 4th, 2008, America made its choice.

But it was difficult to be-lieve. Has our country really come this far? Have we truly overcome this much since the Civil War? Have we fi-nally reached the goal, the dream, of the great Martin Luther King Jr.?

After witnessing the set-backs of our country, doubt seemed only natural. Lin-coln was assassinated. Ken-nedy was assassinated. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. How could we believe that this new figure

of change would endure? But on a Tuesday after-

noon, in the shadow of the Capitol, with two million faithful braving the cold, hope prevailed. Our 44th President was sworn in, and for many of us, our faith in our country was restored.

Walking down the streets towards the Mall, the ex-citement was resounding. Vendors selling Obama mer-chandise littered the side-walks and joy was the only word to describe it.

With thousands crowd-ed together, tensions could have easily run high. But no one was on edge. No one snapped. People let things go, and welcomed everyone around them. Never before have big city goers been so willing to accept tourists into their ranks.

Everyone bunched to-gether, scrambling for any type of warmth. Extra coats were willingly given to neigh-boring witnesses. Children got hoisted high to gain just a glimpse of our inspiration.

Cheers rose from the in-stant Vice President Joe Biden was sworn in. And when Barack Obama walked onto the stage, the roar of the crowd was deafening. But

when he spoke, silence was instant. No one wanted to miss it.

Obama’s speech was what everyone expected. His cha-risma shone through, and his inspiring words were felt more than ever. He didn’t give new policies or plans for the nation. But he showed that he truly is who the country thought he was, that he is the right leader for this country.

As he exited off the stage after his speech, his first as

president, you could see the meaning in the crowd. It was most prominently seen in the African-American commu-nity. The new generation, standing proud, hands held high in hope. The elder gen-eration, those old enough to have witnessed the horrors and atrocities of the 1960s’, fall to the ground, weep-ing. Screaming to the sky in thanks, in hope.

The message of the cer-emony does not need to be said. We are one.

RHS Student Attends InaugurationRoosevelt junior Nick Boriel-lo attended the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Hus-sein Obama. He reflects on his experience and the feel-ing and environment of the change that America has em-braced.

Arriving Wednesday, January 14th, seven Brazilian students spent a week

in Seattle, hosted by seven Roosevelt stu-dents. Our school has made connections with many other countries through the World Affairs Council and this short ex-change was a great success.

In addition to attending several class-es at Roosevelt, the Brazilian students toured Microsoft and UW, volunteered at a food shelter, participated in MLK Day events at Garfield High School, and “Rode the Ducks”. During their own time, host families showed their students even more of what our culture has to offer including bat mitzvahs, snow at Snoqualmie Pass, and the Space Needle.

Above: From left to right - Barbara Teixeira, Edson Oliveira, Raphael Coelho, Eric Silva, Victor Peixo-to, Giovani Santos, Pedro Araujo. Left: Some of the guys play foosball. Right: Exchange student Barbara Teixeira (right) poses with three host sis-ters from Roosevelt.

Spectators anxiously await Obama’s inauguration around the Washington Monument.

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The RoosevelT News News

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Numbersin the

News

Shorts, Shots and StatsPhoto of the Month

When Boeing first rolled out the 787 at its Everett assembly

plant on July 8, 2007, the aviation world took notice. Rival airplane manufacturer Airbus even sent out a press release congratulating Boeing on their newest aircraft. The world wondered how composites (carbon fiber) would hold up as an airplane body and if the final product would really look as futuristic as its early renderings. The aircraft no doubt looks futuristic but it has faced massive setbacks and is now slated to enter the airlines two years after Boeing’s initial delivery date. The 787 “Dreamliner” is now penciled in for its first flight in the second quarter of 2009.

Before the 787 Dreamliner was unveiled at its worldwide debut party, it had already become the fastest selling airliner ever. Boeing sold more than six-hundred 787 Dreamliners before the first prototype had even been released, let along flown. Launch customer All Nippon Airways (a Japanese airline) bought fifty 787’s in April 2004. Other airlines soon followed suit and the orders began piling up. However, Boeing still had to complete the first 787 and make it airworthy.

Boeing’s initial roll out was

held on July 7, 2008 (7/08/07) with its first flight scheduled for late September of the same year. But what the world saw roll out was more of a 787 shell than a flight-worthy aircraft.

Soon word spread that much of the internal systems didn’t work, or were simply not even installed yet. Much of the plane was held together with f a s t e n e r s that were o n l y

temporary so they could be taken

off and work could resume on actually finishing the aircraft.

Most of the problems originated from Boeing’s new strategy towards building and assembling the aircraft. Instead of using their contractors to make and ship parts to be assembled in the Boeing Everett plant, Boeing had the subcontractors, such as Vought, build and then assemble large parts (like the fuselage) of the aircraft at their factories. They would then ship the parts to Everett for the final

assembly. Boeing’s contractors were not working fast enough and began facing obstacles. Boeing also began running into other small problems with the space-aged carbon fiber body a n d

things just kept getting pushed back.

But Boeing seems to have righted the ship after the machinist strike ended in late October. Now there is no doubt the Dreamliner will change the way that we travel. It’s 20% more fuel efficient than airplanes of the same size and it will connect medium sized cities to the world. Better late than never.

Boeing 787 Still in the WorksJack Thompson

Staff Reporter

The approximate number of people who gathered at

the National Mall to watch the inaugura-tion of President Barack Obama. An es-timated 8,000 police officers, 1,000 FBI agents, and 10,000 National Guardsmen and women were also at the National Mall to ensure security.

1.5 million

Middle-aged men and women par-ticipated in a study that

lasted an average of twenty-one years. The study found that people who drink three to five cups of coffee per day have a 65 percent less chance of developing dementia. The study was conducted by Swedish and Danish scientists.

1,409

The number of Oscar nomi-nations the movie The Curi-ous Case of Benjamin But-ton received. They include Best Picture, Best Actor for

Brad Pitt, Best Supporting Actress for Tar-aji P. Henson and Best Director. Tune in to watch the Oscars on February 22nd.

13

The time it takes for the Japanese satellite Ibu-ki to circle the earth.

Ibuki was created to monitor greenhouse gasses and to help determine where most of the greenhouse gasses originate. The word “Ibuki” means “breath” in Japanese.

minutes100

The number of new judges on the TV show American Idol. Her name is Kara DioGuardi, and she co-owns Arthouse Entertain-ment, a music-publishing com-pany that has published several

top songs. She also has approximately thirty-nine albums that have been in the Billboard Charts’ top ten.

1

The picture above was snapped in late December 2008 by senior Jim McGowan, during Roosevelt’s two late arrivals and three days off due to frenzied weather conditions. Countless Seattle neighborhoods were blanketed in 10 to 12 inches over the near week, paralyzing Rain City commuters and residents alike.

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On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the

nation’s 44th President at noon on the steps of the U.S Capitol

building in Washington, D.C. He has gained power and influence as President, but that doesn’t mean he can do the job alone. Here are the nominees for his Cabinet, who will oversee different key positions in the government.

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The RoosevelT NewsNews

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The New Executive Branch

The confirmed Secretary of State is prob-ably the most familiar name out of this list, Sen. Hillary Clinton. She has been a Sena-tor for New York since 2001. Because she ran against Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, there is some ques-tion as to how these former rivals will work together, and the influence that former Pres-ident Bill Clinton will have in the relation-ship.

The Secretary of the Treasury is Timothy Geithner, who is president and CEO of the New York Federal Reserve. He has, and will continue to work on creating an appropriate and timely response to the financial crisis on Wall Street. After working in the Interna-tional Division of the US Department of the Treasury in the 1980s, Geithner took a posi-tion at the US Embassy in Tokyo,

The position of the Secretary of Defense has been selected, and will remain Robert Gates. Gates has served as the Secretary of Defense since 2006, when he was appointed by Presi-dent Bush, but Gates has spent the majority of his career in the CIA. This choice fulfills Obama’s promise to put a Republican in the Cabinet.

The nominee for the Secretary of Justice is Eric Holder, a former Judge of the Superior Court of Columbia. Mr. Holder is currently Attorney General Holder and the senior legal advisor to Obama. If selected Holder will be the first African American to hold this posi-tion. He attended Columbia Univeristy Law School, which is ranked in the top five law schools in the country by U.S. News.

The Secretary of the Interior is Sen. Ken Sala-zar of Colorado. Salazar is a rancher who has established several environmental reforms that forced mining and oil operations to take better care of the earth. He established the Great Outdoors Colorado Amendment which created a huge land reform conservation program.

The Secretary of Agriculture is former Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa. Originally planning to run for the presidency himself, Vilsack was chosen because he has governed a farm state as the position’s two previous appoin-tees have done.

The nominee for the Secretary of Commerce was Gov. Bill Richardson, but on January 4th he withdrew his position due to a grand jury investigation into state contracts. The position has yet to be decided.

An informative overview of Obama’s CabinetEmily Dugdale

Staff Reporter

Hillary Clinton

Timothy Geithner

Robert Gates

Eric Holder

Ken Salazar

Tom Vilsack

The nominee for the Secretary of Labor is Rep. Hilda Solis of California. In the past, Solis has steadfastly opposed efforts to in-stitute and enforce laws against employing illegal aliens. Her nomination has produced mixed reactions due to the economic crisis the country is in, as U.S citizens are strug-gling to find jobs.

The Secretary of Transportation is Rep. Ray LaHood, another Republican in the Cabinet. His goals as Secretary of Transportation are to create new jobs and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, as well as deal with several labor issues.

The Secretary of Housing and Urban Devel-opment is Shaun Donovan, who has exten-sive experience with housing issues which he learned when he headed New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. He will focus on more low and moderate income housing. Donovan attend-ed Harvard University for both his under-graduate and graduate degrees.

The Secretary of Energy is Steven Chu, an ac-complished American experimental scientist. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 for his work in trapping atoms and laser cool-ing. Chu is the second Chinese-American ever appointed to the Cabinet. The first was Elaine Chao who was Secretary of Labor for eight years under George W, Bush.

The Secretary of Education is Arne Dun-can, the current CEO of the Chicago Pub-lic Schools. He has earned a reputation for confronting major issues in education, like raising the standards for teachers, how to re-form troubled schools, and when this is im-possible, how to shut these schools down.

The Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs is retired four-star Gen. Eric K. Shinseki. He has been publically known for challenging the Iraq War strategies of former Secretary of De-fense, Donald Rumsfeld. In his new position he will have to dispel the current criticism of the lack of resources for taking care of vet-erans.

The Secretary of Homeland Security is Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona. She is Arizo-na’s third female governor, and was the first woman to win re-election. She is also the first woman to become the Secreteary of Hol-meland Security. She was named by Time magazine as one of the top five governors in 2005.

The nominee for the Secretary of Health and Human Services is former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota. He will be working closely with President Obama on a universal heath care plan. Daschle was considered for the position of White House Chief of Staff, but ended up as a nominee for the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Hilda Solis

Ray LaHood

Shaun Donovan

Steven Chu

Arne Duncan

Eric K. Shinseki

Janet Napolitano

?Tom Daschle

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Note: The information in this article is current as of January 27, 2009.

Financing education is a difficult business, especially in the Seattle

School District. Providing quality free schooling is difficult when the district is spending about $12,000 on every student each year, as well as paying hefty sums to occupy the school buildings.

One solution is to close old buildings, and these days it feels like Se-attle schools are closing left and right. The basis of the closures is simple: the school district needs to save money.

The Seattle Public Schools (SPS) District needs to close an esti-mated $25 million gap in their budget for the up-coming 2009-2010 school year. Closing run-down and low-attended schools saves operating costs, an average of $16.2 million over the next five years.

Superintendent of SPS Maria Goodloe-Johnson believes that the money used to maintain the schools that will be closed can be better spent in the class-room.

However, there are downsides to school closures. One significant down-

side is the large de-crease in student population. When a school closes, al-most 20% of students choose to leave the school district, The Seattle Times reports.

As of Goodloe-Johnson’s press re-lease on January 6, 2009, there are five buildings to be closed: Van Asselt, Gen-esee Hill, T.T. Minor, John Hay Elementary School, and the Hor-ace Mann building, which houses an al-ternative high school called NOVA. If the Horace Mann building is closed as proposed,

NOVA students will move into Meany Middle School. The district is hesitant to close Meany as a middle school be-cause of its popularity in the area.

The SPS trademark line ‘Excellence for All”, “establishes the framework for moving the district toward the goal of all students achieving at high levels and graduating ready for college, ca-reer and life,” according to Goodloe-Johnson. The district hopes that by closing schools, new investments can be made in existing environments that will increase the quality of education SPS provides.

The district’s plan is all about ‘ca-pacity management’, which means coming up with a policy, “that will help us not get in the position where every year we have to go through this pro-cess of closing schools.” In the end, five buildings will be closed, and eight programs will move between buildings. Five programs will be discontinued, and their students reassigned for the fall 2009 school year, Cooper Elemen-tary, TT Minor, Meany, and Summit K-12 are among them.

On the other side of the story, there is a surprising lack of schools in some

areas. For example, in Northeast Seat-tle, near Roosevelt, a new kindergarten through eighth grade school is going to be established in the Jane Addams building.

On January 25th 2009, a few hun-dred students, parents, and teachers marched from T.T. Minor to Garfield Community Center in protest of the school closures proposal.

The school district will vote on whether or not to go through with Goodloe-Johnson’s proposal on Thurs-day, January 29, 2009.

Most seniors can remember a time when anything from

a Twix to a can of Sprite was only as far from grasp as the nearest vending machine. But, beginning in 2006, the Seattle School District enacted its new nutritional policy, which served to effectively eliminate junk food from public schools and potentially encourage students to make healthier eating choices. However, students can still walk a block from school and indulge in whatever they please.

Before the nutrition policy was put into effect, vending machines were the student body’s easiest way of generating funds for the general ASB account. The money available in the general ASB account is used to help financially support athletics, drama, and all of the assorted clubs at Roosevelt. This is not the fund that the ASR class draws from to hold assemblies, dances, etc.

During the 2005-2006 school year, the last year before the nutritional policy was put into effect, the vending machines alone raised over $16,000 for the student body. The next year, however, after all the candy and pop was removed, the vending machines barely managed to raise a measly $2,000.

The vending machines are just one small part of the problem that schools are facing everywhere. Every year fundraising becomes increasingly difficult, while the cost of maintaining and supporting an active and successful student body rises. The bottom line is that schools are spending more than they are taking in.

The majority of the money in the general ASB fund comes from Activity Cards which are usually purchased at the beginning of the year. This year approximately 1200 students bought activity cards, at fifty dollars a pop, bringing in about $55,000 for the general ASB fund. In total, the ASB

started off this school year with $282,000. Last year they started with $319,000.

Each year the amount of money the ASB has left decreases d r a m a t i c a l l y . Although it may not happen for several years, eventually we will be in serious financial trouble. The current $282,000 is certainly a healthy amount, but it dries up faster than one might think.

Let’s take the Homecoming game for example. Thanks to ridiculous gas prices at the time, three buses for the band cost upwards of $3,000. And that’s just the band. That single night ended up costing Roosevelt a lot more.

While we technically have $282,000 in funds, it’s not as though that money is literally sitting in a bank account. Instead, the state puts all the money from every public school’s general ASB fund into one big pool and invests it in the stock market. If the state’s big pool earns a 10% profit then each school receives a 10% dividend. For

example, let’s say the state

invested 100 million dollars total and one million dollars was Roosevelt’s. If the state earned a 10% profit it would have 110 million dollars and Roosevelt would end up with 1.1 million dollars.

In the past, this strategy would yield thousands of dollars in profits for Roosevelt and other schools. Due to

the recent economic crisis, however, our school funds have suffered tremendous losses. At the end of the 2007 fiscal year, Roosevelt received $22,000 in investment earnings. The following year there was only $7,000.

The Seattle School District has also been hit hard financially, resulting in less money for coaches salaries, buses, etc. Just recently the ASR had to approve the diversion of several thousand dollars from the general ASB fund to go towards JVC coaches’ salaries.

Even as RHS attempts to spend our money more conservatively, it is

likely that within a few years Roosevelt will be in a very tough situation financially. Unless we find some effective method of fundraising and the economy is brought back to life, we may find ourselves without some of the activities that students currently take for granted at Roosevelt.

This problem is incredibly difficult to solve. It seems every time the ASR finds a new way of fundraising there is some sort of legal issue, or the district manages to place heavy limiting restrictions. For example this year, as everyone knows, Roosevelt enacted the new parking lot policy which charged students for parking spots. Over the course of the year, it was hoped this could generate upwards of $7,000 for the general ASB fund. However, this entire practice is against district policy and will have to be discontinued next semester because school board policy doesn’t allow or approve of charging students money for parking spots.

“We will still implement parking passes to maintain control of the parking lot,” said Principal Brian Vance.

So what can Roosevelt do? Not a lot. The ideal solution would be to have the nutritional policy rebuked. Unfortunately, it would be almost impossible for the student body to

overturn a school board policy. Something must be done at a much lower level of the high school hierarchy.

The time has come for Roosevelt’s assorted teams and clubs to step up and manage more of their own fundraising. As mentioned above, the ASB had to pay for several JVC coaches’ salaries. This year that wasn’t a problem because no one anticipated the cut of district funds, so it shouldn’t have been the teams’ responsibility to cover them. However, if teams hope to have JVC programs in the future they might have to raise the money to pay for their coaches. The ASB just doesn’t have enough money to financially back teams that support such a small percentage of the student body.

In the end, Roosevelt will pull through and emerge stronger than before. Roughriders have never been ones to give up, and the student body won’t allow any clubs or teams to die right before our eyes.

A picture of the vending machines near the Green and Gold Exchange. These new vending machines lack sugary soda and candy in order to increase student nutrition.

Another fine shot of Meany Middle School.

Meany Middle School. NOVA High School, cur-rently housed in the Horace Mann building, might move into this building.

A shot of Nickelsville. This tent city is an organized community. Members must join and participate in a committee in order to stay in Nickelsville.

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By definition, a tent city is typically a gathering

in which people utilize tents for shelter. Many people of different situations have used them, from soldiers in Iraq to Darfur refugees. A tent city called Nickelsville now stands in the Southeast corner of 15th Ave NE and 50th Street in the University District.

Nickelsville is a tent city primarily used by those without shelter. It began as a simple group of homeless individuals working with various charities to form a special community. Through generosity, word of mouth, and street posters, it was established on September 22, 2008.

Since its inception Nickelsville has faced difficulties. While most are minor, such as maintaining a morally upright population, there is one constant threat to the very existence of Nickelsville. It is the namesake of Nickelsville itself: Mayor Greg Nickels.

Just like Bush and Hoover with the 1930s’ Hoovervilles and recent Bushvilles, Nickels is said to be detrimental to many of the unfortunate. “The economy is hard on us, but

Greg Nickels is fighting us,” said Bruce Beavers, a resident of Nickelsville.

By utilizing fines and claims of zoning violations, the Nickels’ administration has tried to remove Nickelsville. As a result, the tent city had to move away from its initial location of Highland Park.

The motives for such actions from the Nickels’ administration are in deep speculation. “The mayor doesn’t like the structure of Nickelsville,” said Beavers. Some suggest the mayor simply does not like the homeless since Nickels supposedly makes little efforts towards alleviating the homeless.

Regardless of Nickels, there is a growing population of homeless people on the streets. During the One Night Count in January 2008, aid volunteers counted 8,439 homeless people, an increase from previous counts.

Generally, more unfortunate circumstances bring about more support. However, the residents of Nickelsville have a different opinion because, despite the tents, it is more like an organized and autonomous society.

Like any community, certain groups of people do certain things to maintain order and

prosperity. In N i c k e l s v i l l e , there are s t r u c t u r e d c o m m i t t e e s for every c o m m u n i t y need. For example, one c o m m i t t e e h a n d l e s guard duty while another s e a r c h e s for vacant land. Such o r g a n i z a t i o n is rare among many of those without shelter. The homeless have often been viewed as a scattered and itinerant group of people, but this tent city proves otherwise.

Furthermore, every resident of Nickelsville is required to contribute to the committees. No one resident reaps the benefits of others. “This is a community, everyone looks out for one another,” said Beavers.

In addition to committee service, all members must act with proper conduct. Those

who participate in activities relating to drugs, alcohol, and other such behaviors, are not allowed in Nickelsville. The residents, for both safety and reputation, wish to distance themselves from the common stereotype of a bum.

Meanwhile, Nickelsville hopes to find a permanent dwelling that will be owned by

the residents. This permanent dwelling will not consist of tents, but rather permanent structures—similar to the Lake City Mennonite Church’s row of homeless housing.

This home may come sooner or later, but since 2009 is Mayor Greg Nickel’s re-election year, Nickelsville may soon change its name.

Chris Nguyen

Staff Reporter

ASR Faces a Serious Lack of FundsVending machines don’t bring in enough moneyHenry Berry

Staff Reporter

“

“

Even as RHS attempts to spend our money more conservatively, it is likely that within a few years

Roosevelt will be in a very tough situation financially.

Residents of Nickelsville Need Nickels

School Closures Could Save MillionKarla Ruff

Staff Reporter

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Financing education is a difficult business, especially in the Seattle

School District. Providing quality free schooling is difficult when the district is spending about $12,000 on every student each year, as well as paying hefty sums to occupy the school buildings.

One solution is to close old buildings, and these days it feels like Se-attle schools are closing left and right. The basis of the closures is simple: the school district needs to save money.

The Seattle Public Schools (SPS) District needs to close an esti-mated $25 million gap in their budget for the up-coming 2009-2010 school year. Closing run-down and low-attended schools saves operating costs, an average of $16.2 million over the next five years.

Superintendent of SPS Maria Goodloe-Johnson believes that the money used to maintain the schools that will be closed can be better spent in the class-room.

However, there are downsides to school closures. One significant down-

side is the large de-crease in student population. When a school closes, al-most 20% of students choose to leave the school district, The Seattle Times reports.

As of Goodloe-Johnson’s press re-lease on January 6, 2009, there are five buildings to be closed: Van Asselt, Gen-esee Hill, T.T. Minor, John Hay Elementary School, and the Hor-ace Mann building, which houses an al-ternative high school called NOVA. If the Horace Mann building is closed as proposed,

NOVA students will move into Meany Middle School. The district is hesitant to close Meany as a middle school be-cause of its popularity in the area.

The SPS trademark line ‘Excellence for All”, “establishes the framework for moving the district toward the goal of all students achieving at high levels and graduating ready for college, ca-reer and life,” according to Goodloe-Johnson. The district hopes that by closing schools, new investments can be made in existing environments that will increase the quality of education SPS provides.

The district’s plan is all about ‘ca-pacity management’, which means coming up with a policy, “that will help us not get in the position where every year we have to go through this pro-cess of closing schools.” In the end, five buildings will be closed, and eight programs will move between buildings. Five programs will be discontinued, and their students reassigned for the fall 2009 school year, Cooper Elemen-tary, TT Minor, Meany, and Summit K-12 are among them.

On the other side of the story, there is a surprising lack of schools in some

areas. For example, in Northeast Seat-tle, near Roosevelt, a new kindergarten through eighth grade school is going to be established in the Jane Addams building.

On January 25th 2009, a few hun-dred students, parents, and teachers marched from T.T. Minor to Garfield Community Center in protest of the school closures proposal.

The school district will vote on whether or not to go through with Goodloe-Johnson’s proposal on Thurs-day, January 29, 2009.

Most seniors can remember a time when anything from

a Twix to a can of Sprite was only as far from grasp as the nearest vending machine. But, beginning in 2006, the Seattle School District enacted its new nutritional policy, which served to effectively eliminate junk food from public schools and potentially encourage students to make healthier eating choices. However, students can still walk a block from school and indulge in whatever they please.

Before the nutrition policy was put into effect, vending machines were the student body’s easiest way of generating funds for the general ASB account. The money available in the general ASB account is used to help financially support athletics, drama, and all of the assorted clubs at Roosevelt. This is not the fund that the ASR class draws from to hold assemblies, dances, etc.

During the 2005-2006 school year, the last year before the nutritional policy was put into effect, the vending machines alone raised over $16,000 for the student body. The next year, however, after all the candy and pop was removed, the vending machines barely managed to raise a measly $2,000.

The vending machines are just one small part of the problem that schools are facing everywhere. Every year fundraising becomes increasingly difficult, while the cost of maintaining and supporting an active and successful student body rises. The bottom line is that schools are spending more than they are taking in.

The majority of the money in the general ASB fund comes from Activity Cards which are usually purchased at the beginning of the year. This year approximately 1200 students bought activity cards, at fifty dollars a pop, bringing in about $55,000 for the general ASB fund. In total, the ASB

started off this school year with $282,000. Last year they started with $319,000.

Each year the amount of money the ASB has left decreases d r a m a t i c a l l y . Although it may not happen for several years, eventually we will be in serious financial trouble. The current $282,000 is certainly a healthy amount, but it dries up faster than one might think.

Let’s take the Homecoming game for example. Thanks to ridiculous gas prices at the time, three buses for the band cost upwards of $3,000. And that’s just the band. That single night ended up costing Roosevelt a lot more.

While we technically have $282,000 in funds, it’s not as though that money is literally sitting in a bank account. Instead, the state puts all the money from every public school’s general ASB fund into one big pool and invests it in the stock market. If the state’s big pool earns a 10% profit then each school receives a 10% dividend. For

example, let’s say the state

invested 100 million dollars total and one million dollars was Roosevelt’s. If the state earned a 10% profit it would have 110 million dollars and Roosevelt would end up with 1.1 million dollars.

In the past, this strategy would yield thousands of dollars in profits for Roosevelt and other schools. Due to

the recent economic crisis, however, our school funds have suffered tremendous losses. At the end of the 2007 fiscal year, Roosevelt received $22,000 in investment earnings. The following year there was only $7,000.

The Seattle School District has also been hit hard financially, resulting in less money for coaches salaries, buses, etc. Just recently the ASR had to approve the diversion of several thousand dollars from the general ASB fund to go towards JVC coaches’ salaries.

Even as RHS attempts to spend our money more conservatively, it is

likely that within a few years Roosevelt will be in a very tough situation financially. Unless we find some effective method of fundraising and the economy is brought back to life, we may find ourselves without some of the activities that students currently take for granted at Roosevelt.

This problem is incredibly difficult to solve. It seems every time the ASR finds a new way of fundraising there is some sort of legal issue, or the district manages to place heavy limiting restrictions. For example this year, as everyone knows, Roosevelt enacted the new parking lot policy which charged students for parking spots. Over the course of the year, it was hoped this could generate upwards of $7,000 for the general ASB fund. However, this entire practice is against district policy and will have to be discontinued next semester because school board policy doesn’t allow or approve of charging students money for parking spots.

“We will still implement parking passes to maintain control of the parking lot,” said Principal Brian Vance.

So what can Roosevelt do? Not a lot. The ideal solution would be to have the nutritional policy rebuked. Unfortunately, it would be almost impossible for the student body to

overturn a school board policy. Something must be done at a much lower level of the high school hierarchy.

The time has come for Roosevelt’s assorted teams and clubs to step up and manage more of their own fundraising. As mentioned above, the ASB had to pay for several JVC coaches’ salaries. This year that wasn’t a problem because no one anticipated the cut of district funds, so it shouldn’t have been the teams’ responsibility to cover them. However, if teams hope to have JVC programs in the future they might have to raise the money to pay for their coaches. The ASB just doesn’t have enough money to financially back teams that support such a small percentage of the student body.

In the end, Roosevelt will pull through and emerge stronger than before. Roughriders have never been ones to give up, and the student body won’t allow any clubs or teams to die right before our eyes.

A picture of the vending machines near the Green and Gold Exchange. These new vending machines lack sugary soda and candy in order to increase student nutrition.

Another fine shot of Meany Middle School.

Meany Middle School. NOVA High School, cur-rently housed in the Horace Mann building, might move into this building.

A shot of Nickelsville. This tent city is an organized community. Members must join and participate in a committee in order to stay in Nickelsville.

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By definition, a tent city is typically a gathering

in which people utilize tents for shelter. Many people of different situations have used them, from soldiers in Iraq to Darfur refugees. A tent city called Nickelsville now stands in the Southeast corner of 15th Ave NE and 50th Street in the University District.

Nickelsville is a tent city primarily used by those without shelter. It began as a simple group of homeless individuals working with various charities to form a special community. Through generosity, word of mouth, and street posters, it was established on September 22, 2008.

Since its inception Nickelsville has faced difficulties. While most are minor, such as maintaining a morally upright population, there is one constant threat to the very existence of Nickelsville. It is the namesake of Nickelsville itself: Mayor Greg Nickels.

Just like Bush and Hoover with the 1930s’ Hoovervilles and recent Bushvilles, Nickels is said to be detrimental to many of the unfortunate. “The economy is hard on us, but

Greg Nickels is fighting us,” said Bruce Beavers, a resident of Nickelsville.

By utilizing fines and claims of zoning violations, the Nickels’ administration has tried to remove Nickelsville. As a result, the tent city had to move away from its initial location of Highland Park.

The motives for such actions from the Nickels’ administration are in deep speculation. “The mayor doesn’t like the structure of Nickelsville,” said Beavers. Some suggest the mayor simply does not like the homeless since Nickels supposedly makes little efforts towards alleviating the homeless.

Regardless of Nickels, there is a growing population of homeless people on the streets. During the One Night Count in January 2008, aid volunteers counted 8,439 homeless people, an increase from previous counts.

Generally, more unfortunate circumstances bring about more support. However, the residents of Nickelsville have a different opinion because, despite the tents, it is more like an organized and autonomous society.

Like any community, certain groups of people do certain things to maintain order and

prosperity. In N i c k e l s v i l l e , there are s t r u c t u r e d c o m m i t t e e s for every c o m m u n i t y need. For example, one c o m m i t t e e h a n d l e s guard duty while another s e a r c h e s for vacant land. Such o r g a n i z a t i o n is rare among many of those without shelter. The homeless have often been viewed as a scattered and itinerant group of people, but this tent city proves otherwise.

Furthermore, every resident of Nickelsville is required to contribute to the committees. No one resident reaps the benefits of others. “This is a community, everyone looks out for one another,” said Beavers.

In addition to committee service, all members must act with proper conduct. Those

who participate in activities relating to drugs, alcohol, and other such behaviors, are not allowed in Nickelsville. The residents, for both safety and reputation, wish to distance themselves from the common stereotype of a bum.

Meanwhile, Nickelsville hopes to find a permanent dwelling that will be owned by

the residents. This permanent dwelling will not consist of tents, but rather permanent structures—similar to the Lake City Mennonite Church’s row of homeless housing.

This home may come sooner or later, but since 2009 is Mayor Greg Nickel’s re-election year, Nickelsville may soon change its name.

Chris Nguyen

Staff Reporter

ASR Faces a Serious Lack of FundsVending machines don’t bring in enough moneyHenry Berry

Staff Reporter

“

“

Even as RHS attempts to spend our money more conservatively, it is likely that within a few years

Roosevelt will be in a very tough situation financially.

Residents of Nickelsville Need Nickels

School Closures Could Save MillionKarla Ruff

Staff Reporter

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OFebruary

The RoosevelT News oPiNioN

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Our Current Grading System Fails Students

Thuc Nhi Nguyen

Staff Reporter

The grades of many Roosevelt students

hang in the balance, when finals rear their ugly heads. Barely miss the cut on this giant test, and a big black B is im-printed on your tran-script for all colleges to see. Maneuver your way to a satisfactory score, and you’ve salvaged a picturesque A. Even though a high B and a low A look drastically different, they’re only separated by a miniscule amount.

In the current grading structure, ninety equals one hundred and the difference between an eighty-nine and ninety is ten. As high school students we don’t have

to take out our expen-sive graphing calcula-tors to see that these claims aren’t mathemati-cally sound. To patch up Roosevelt’s broken grading system, the ap-plication of pluses and minuses must be insti-tuted, in order to truly reflect the work done by students.

It doesn’t matter if you get a ninety percent or a one hundred percent at the end of the se-mester, it’s still an “A”. This margin of error, ten per-cent, is much too large between letter grades. Those who barely slide by with a ninety percent get the same credit as those who worked harder and achieved a perfect score. Stu-dents who don’t get one hundred per-cent should not be

awarded as if they had. Accompanying letter

grades with the appropri-ate plus or minus shows colleges and others the true effort and abilities of that student. If a student barely earns that coveted A, it would show, and if another student breezed through a class with a perfect mark then that would show as well.

Your eighty-nine is-essentially an eighty

in the current grading scale. Colleges cannot distinguish between stu-dents who just lost out on an A by a hair and those who are nearly ten percent away.

Last year, I missed out on an A by exactly one percent. My own mother called it “a waste” to put all that effort into the class, when I could have applied myself much less for the same outcome.

Using a plus/minus/average scale will allow colleges to see which students have achieved more than others in their letter grade grouping, as well as allow students to know that their hard work is accounted for.

Before last semester’s final, 675 students, or 54.7 percent of Roosevelt students, had higher than a 3.0 GPA, account-ing for the most students

in any grading group. These students will be hindered when applying to colleges because so many of their peers have GPAs on the same level. If you think you have a good GPA, know that over 600 other students have roughly the same GPA. Working pluses and mi-nuses into the mix will disperse the GPAs more and will truly show those college admission offi-cers who has done their work and is academically deserving of collegiate admittance.

Those who do possess flawless GPAs and are fly-ing through their classes have little incentive to apply effort towards the end of the semester. Ad-justing the grading scale to include an A+ grade would encourage these students to continually work hard.

Teachers often preach that you get out what you put in. Students putting in ninety percent don’t deserve to get that last ten percent given to them as a gift.

Seattle Faces A Fork in The Road

Will Nachtrieb

Staff Photographer

City selects tunnel, but dissenters take to the street

Change seems to be the slo-gan of 2009 and this year

has already started off with a big bang. For once, Seattle will actually commit to a bold, progressive decision: replac-ing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel. For a city with a less than miserable transpor-tation system, Governor Chris Gregoire, Mayor Greg Nickels, and King County Executive Ron Sims have finally agreed on something that will actu-ally improve downtown trans-portation. What a manly thing to do.

With the new tunnel, Seat-

tle’s unfriendly waterfront will be replaced with a welcoming, open tourist spot. The noise pollution will be significantly lower and Elliot Bay will once again be fresh and clean.

The current congested wa-terfront streets will be relieved by a state-of-the-art two-mile-long tunnel. The plan would in-clude more downtown bus routes, surface street renovation, and the expansion of the unused street-car line in order to connect Queen Anne to downtown.

Like all Se-attle improve-ments, the planned tun-nel is already being com-plained about by whiners. Groups have raised com-plaints re-garding the hefty price tag. Others

claim the tunnel would sever the link between the marine industry of Elliot Bay, the fish-ing boats in Ballard, and the markets downtown, thus kill-ing the maritime infrastruc-ture altogether. Governor Gre-goire admits that the viaduct will not be able to transport

paint, toxic chemicals, or flammable liquid.

Sure the plan

is risky and rash, not to mention expensive, but it is exactly why we elect-ed our officials. During times like these, the best officials are those who focus on long term im-provements. The tunnel promises a new future which includes more civic construction: more museums, more parks,

more schools, and maybe more monorails. Of course it’s expen-sive, but so

are F-16 jets and tanks. It’s just sim-ple Keynesian

economics. If we spend money

on projects we can create more jobs, while enhancing the infrastructure. Seattle has the potential to become a world-class city

and we can’t afford to miss this opportunity. True, this is

not a solution for tomorrow, but it is a manly one for the next hundred years.

The viaduct as it stands is a safety hazard to drivers, and, as this shot shows, is held up by large braces that cannot be a permanent solution.

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Grade Point Average Distribution (Not Including Class of 2012)

4.0 GPA10.9%

3.0 to 3.99 GPA54.7%

2.0 to 2.99 GPA30.8%

1.0 to 1.99 GPA

3.4%

3.0 to 3.39 GPA34.5%

3.4 to 3.79 GPA

39.6% 3.8 to 3.99 GPA25.9%

iNfoRMATioN couRTesy of Ms. McMilliN-helsel

3.0 to 3.99 Distribution >>>

Even though a “C” is supposedly average, over sixty-five per-cent of our school has higher than a B average.

3.0 to 3.99 Distribution >>>

Voice Your Opinion in

The Roosevelt News

Submit a rant, rave, or letter to the editor to room 235 or [email protected] along with your full name

and grade.

OFebruary

The RoosevelT NewsoPiNioN

9

Next Year’s Courses: By the Book?“Whoever set off that

stink bomb during finals is an idiot. I hope you failed whichever class you were trying to get

out of.”-Marie Umetsu

“Please put pants on! I can see through your

tights, and that shirt is not covering ANYTHING! P.S. do something about that transparent blouse,

your teal bra is blinding me.”

-Josephine Hoyne & Anonymous

“I am an avid reader of The Roosevelt News and love it. The articles are thought-provoking and often humorous. Though I don’t

always agree with the opinions expressed, I come away better

informed and impressed. The illustrations are awesome this year! I am an annual

subscriber - keep those newspapers coming!”

-Cindy Bouldin, Parent

Rants and Raves

The writing-on-the-wall says standard

Carolina Reid

Staff Reporter

It’s 1908, and Henry Ford has just announced that by standardizing

models of cars with his invention of the assembly line building cars will be faster and cost less for you.

It’s the 1950s and you no longer need to waste endless time at the tailor for a new pair of pants; now you can simply buy them according to the new American standard cloth-ing sizes.

It’s the beginning of the 2008 school year, and as a sophomore at Roosevelt, you must take AP Human Geography, Roosevelt’s standardized tenth grade social science class.

But now, it’s 2009 and the Se-attle Public School District is con-sidering abolishing Language Arts electives at Roosevelt and standard-izing eleventh and twelfth grade LA classes.

What would that mean? Well, instead of meeting with your coun-selor to discuss which four semes-ter-long LA classes you’d like to take your last two years of high school, the decision would be made for you. No more Speech or Modern World Literature. No Shakespeare, Poetry or Philosophy. No Short Story. Not even Creative Writing. Every single LA Option that Roosevelt currently offers to its eleventh and twelfth grade students would be eliminated. These students would be grouped with others in their grade for year-long standardized LA 11 and LA 12 classes. These classes would be similar to both the LA block class students took freshman year and the LA class students passed in their sophomore year.

Coming to a school where you might not know anyone makes this an ideal system when you are a freshman, because you see the same classmates throughout the day, which helps you make friends. Additionally, you’re prepared in the same way every other freshman is for the rest of high school. Your history teacher even synchronizes his or her lessons with what you’re learning in LA. This system continues through sophomore year, where you meet even more students in your grade. The preparation remains so that you can excel as a junior. Your LA

teacher probably even matches les-sons with your AP Human Geogra-phy class now.

But then you become a junior and the process changes. The ben-efits of a standard LA class no lon-ger apply to you. By this time, you know enough of your classmates to feel comfortable in a class with any mix of them. All of the LA Op-tions classes contain students who were taught the same material for their first two years of high school. Teachers should be given the op-portunity to use the material their students learned as freshmen and sophomores to lead them in a new direction, not continue to keep all students on the same path.

Not only would standardization keep students on the same monotonous, static path, but it would also detract from Roosevelt’s general

appeal as a high

school. Sure, the jazz program is one of the best in the nation. And our theatre department often re-ceives standing ovations. Let’s not forget our basketball teams have had some stellar seasons. Howev-er, since Roosevelt’s math, science, and history classes are already fairly standardized, doing this with our LA department would leave us with lit-tle, if anything, to “brag” about aca-demically.

Not only are the eclectic LA Op-tions RHS offers something the school can boast about, it’s also a way for students to express them-selves. Everyone knows that our brains work differently. Some stu-dents find that the right side of their brain is the predominant side, so they naturally focus on arts and creativity. Others see the left side of their brain meticulously push-ing them towards math and organi-zation. Some may even find a mix between the two. However, group-ing all these different minds into the

same class would give no room for development in different areas. This could also become an issue for stu-dents later in life.

Juniors and seniors need to start making choices. The same LA class for all students would show that the school doesn’t have confidence in our decision-making abilities. And students would start to believe that they haven’t developed enough in-dependence for later in life. Taking four one-semester classes is non-committal and gives students some leeway in finding out where they want to take this portion of their studies. It gives students a better idea of what they may want to pur-sue as career options.

And is it really LA that we need to focus on changing? Glancing at

the school’s WASL scores for the past four years, this hardly

seems to be the case. The percentage of students

who passed state require-ments in reading and writing has never dropped below 64.7 percent and in recent years has even reached as high as 92 percent. However, the number of students passing state requirements in the math and science portions of the same test have been as low as 47.9 percent and have only increased to 74.9 percent recently.

I can’t help but wonder why we would ever think of changing a de-partment that is running success-fully. Why would we sacrifice our self-expression and a variety of de-velopment options for boring classes essentially copied and pasted from the curriculum of earlier years?

The district has been frustrating-ly ambiguous on this topic, sending mixed messages to the L.A. depart-ment heads. As of now it is unclear if our beloved L.A. Options will be a thing of the past next year.

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Atheist Placard: Unfortunate Sign of the Times

Student Speech Unjustly

Emily Dugdale

Staff Reporter

Randall Keating

Staff Reporter

Although the Christ-mas season has come

and gone, the debate over religious expression still carries on vigorously.

In our state’s capi-tal, Olympia a placard promoting atheism and demoting Christianity stood beside a Christmas nativity scene in the cap-ital building.

The sign, sponsored by the Freedom From Re-ligion Foundation (FFRF), obviously stirred up con-troversy quite quickly.

Media outlets Fox News, The Onion, and CNN immedi-ately jumped on the story. Bill O’Reilley decid-ed to state his opinion (no sur-prise) and took a stand against this scrooge-like attack on Christ-mas. Though Mr. O’Reilley’s inten-tions may have been good, his delivery was not. O’Reilley even said that Gover-nor Gregoire had permitted an at-tack on Christ-mas.

Although the placard was offen-sive and an un-

called for attack on a peaceful holiday, it was none the less legal. If Chris-tians are a l l o w e d to display their be-liefs, then it should be fair for dissenters to display their disbeliefs as well. How-ever, is it fair for the FFRF to use their right to freedom of expression as a means of at-tacking some-one else’s right?

It is fine and fair to express one-

self about controversial topics. It is, in essence what makes America

a great country. But if there is one ideal that sets this country back-

wards, it is discrimina-tion. The FFRF sued to remove the word “God” from the inaugural ad-dress. It is understand-able if this organization wants less religious in-fluence in public institu-tions, but the question is: do any of the positions that the FFRF is fighting against truly discrimi-nate against them, or are they just trying to cause trouble for publicity?

How much harm has been caused by “In God We Trust”, or “One Na-

tion Under God”? Is a large cross interpreted as a war memorial hon-oring fallen soldiers, or is it somehow an encroach-ment on Americans and their rights?

This country was founded on ideals of pro-tecting individual rights, but those who fight for such rights need to re-alize that their causes are often not in anyone’s best interest.

Recently, several events in local schools created a sud-

den and shocking awareness of the insufficiency of student freedom of speech and press. At several schools, news pub-lications have been suspended or unfairly censored, because of published content in ar-ticles. These situations often escalated to the point where legal action was taken.

In Puyallup, Emerald Ridge High School’s newspaper, The Jagwire, published an article about students sex lives us-ing the names of four students involved in an accompanying survey. The students claimed that they were told they would remain anonymous, though the news staff reporters insist-ed that consent was given. The students sued the school dis-trict, claiming that they were harassed after their names were published, and their at-torney insists that the fault is due to an “unsupervised”

journalism class where the instructor is letting the stu-dents create their own paper. This makes it seem like the idea of the students writing and running their own paper is absurd and wrong. As a re-sult, the school administration must now review all articles and news related work that is meant to be published, which basically shatters the students rights to free speech.

The City Collegian, Seattle Central’s bi-weekly newspa-per, is closing after their for-mer advisor, Jeb Wyman, re-signed in June 2008. Wyman states that he resigned after the Publication’s Board ruled that students who have less than ten credits at the col-lege could not work for the newspaper. He is con-vinced that the college was trying to make the more risqué journalists (who the Board has had previous ongoing dis-agreements with) leave the news staff. The col-lege won’t say for sure, but Wyman’s resignation seems to me like the perfect justification for closing the student run pa-per and returning with a new staff-edited version.

A humorous case arose in Walla Walla when the school district suspended a student, because of profanity on her car’s bumper sticker. While the

l a n g u a g e may not have been school ap-propriate, the bumper sticker was never proven to dis-rupt education or the school pro-cess in any way, shape, or form, so the punish-ment was ex-cessive and, quite frankly, a waste of time and money.

Lastly, one of the newer and more heated free

speech controversies centered around one of our own Roos-evelt grads. John Fay, a junior at the UW wrote an opinion column for The Daily that ran late November and sparked much controversy because it implied that allowing gay mar-

riage might one day lead to legalizing polyg-amy, incest, and, yes, “sex with sheep”. I took the time to peruse the article and the hundreds

of responses to the article, and found that many

were extremely nega-tive and demanded that no more articles of this kind should be allowed in the paper. Currently, there is even a 1,295 member

Facebook

group lobbying for a “Hate Free Daily”.

What all of us must re-member is that free speech is a protected right under the First Amendment. Without the ability to voice opinions or dis-play facts, however controver-sial, immature or uncomfort-able they may seem, society

loses its unique blend of voices. For young people

especially, who are just starting to discover themselves and under-stand the truths in the world around them, this freedom is vital to a healthy mind-set and education.

Remove the truth, remove opinion and you have a generic response to life’s many issues, or pos-sibly no response at all. While I person-ally do not agree

with the opinions of John Fay in his debat-

ed Daily column, I can respect his right to free speech and realize that

what he says is only his opinion. No one should

tell you what’s right to say, or what’s okay to write about. True, there are times when you should think about the appro-priateness of your actions. But some of the greatest cover-ups in American history were revealed through a few brave journalists and their willing-ness to stir up controversy.

Give up our right to publish our thoughts and discover-ies, and you remove our right to know and think about the world we live, work, and play in. Now that seems like the most juvenile action of all.

This atheist sign, placed in the our state’s capital, drew national attention when Bill O’Reilly voiced his objections against it on his talk show.

A similar case, Pleasant Grove City v. Sum-mum, is now in front of the Supreme Court. Summum, a religious group, requested to place a religious monument in a nearby city park, but was denied access by the city. The case focuses on the difference between pub-

lic and private freedom of speech.

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iMAGe couRTesy of seculARRiGhT.oRG

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To Hell With Your Hell!Camille Esposito Nick GillinghamGuest ColumnistStaff R

eporter

VS.

Religious issues have spilled chalices of blood across the

pages of history, and the blood trail has lead straight into RHS. Okay, maybe not so much a blood trail as a clashing of opinions as to whether or not religion in schools is valid. Students have the right to fulfill their religious duties during class. To some, this is an unnecessary disrup-tion of the learning environment; in my opinion, it is perfectly in keeping with the values of America and the reputa-tion of RHS.

America was founded on the princi-ples of freedom. According to the First Amendment, adopted in 1791, “Con-gress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit-ing the free exercise thereof; or abridg-ing the freedom of speech, or of the press”. In plain English, everybody is entitled to practice their religion, and to voice their opinions. You see it ev-eryday on the streets: people wearing logos across their chests, protestors campaigning for this and that, strang-ers shoving religious leaflets in your face. Why should it be any different in a public school? To break it down, public means open to everybody. And since Roosevelt’s “everybody” is so di-verse, the only logical choice is to allow each and every student to freely prac-tice what they believe in.

A school is an institution for edu-cation. Education is the sharing and learning of knowledge. Knowledge can be gained through the religious diver-sity of Roosevelt. Allowing students to openly display and practice their reli-gion, whether it be by wearing a neck-lace in the shape of a cross or praying in a designated room at lunchtime, is crucial to every student’s education.

Imagine RHS if students weren’t al-lowed to even mention what religion they follow; to me, it’s the equivalent of taking out colors from jellybeans, or mashing the rainbow up into one giant blob of grey. No religion equals less di-versity. Knowing that Roosevelt is filled with everything from Taoists to athe-ists supports the idea that you can be whoever you chose.

The implications of removing reli-gious rights from school are serious. Take Islam for example; would the Muslim population be forced to be

home schooled so that they can ful-fill their duty of prayer five times a

day? Would Muslim females not be allowed to wear head-coverings? These would both be serious breaches of their reli-gious beliefs, and thus, students wouldn’t feel comfortable and secure at RHS.

You might be think-ing that a melting pot of religion would only result in conflict. That might be the case, if we were talk-ing about religious ex-tremists be-ing forced to engage in other i deo log i ca l p rac t i ces , but obvi-ously that’s not the situation at hand. No-body is forced to participate in religious practices; it is solely the decision of the student. Roos-evelt students are not wild animals, and I have not once seen or even heard of stu-dents fight-ing over a re-ligious issue. If someone really did have an issue with another student due to religion, they could simply chose not to associ-ate with that individual.

Roosevelt is more diverse than a box of crayons. Everybody should feel like they belong, like they can show their true colors. Presuming that a school’s goal is to provide a comfortable learn-ing environment, religious freedom in public schools is a must. If we’re look-ing at what American ideals dictate and what would benefit the RHS com-munity, it’s right.

I am a devout Pastafarian. My whole family is Pastafarian, and have been

as long as I can remember. Now, Pas-tafarianism is a relatively unpopular religion, especially compared with the Big Three. However, my own religion is not so different; just as Jews, Muslims, and Christians all worship Yahweh, ev-ery day I worship His Noodliness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Every early-morning, mid-morning, mid-day, early-afternoon, late- afternoon, and

e v e n i n g ,

I say my prayers to FSM. I used to say these prayers out loud, because speaking them out loud helps me connect with His Noodliness. However, when at school, I would always get reprimanded by my teachers and fel-low students for “disrupting class” with “that damned murmuring and chant-ing!” At first, I was utterly shocked! You see, I was home-schooled by my mother through eighth grade, and I was eager to go to a real school in ninth grade. Imagine my dismay when I was not allowed to freely practice my beliefs at my new school! I asked my teach-ers and the administration if I could be excused from class to pray if my prayer and incantation were disruptive to

class. “Look at the Islamic students!”

I cried, “they get to get out of class to pray! So

should I”. Alas, the administration just laughed at me, and refused to al-low me to leave class to pray, as if my religion, Pastafarianism, were in some way inferior to the religion of the stu-dents who are allowed to pray! Now I pray silently; it gets the job done, but it’s not the same.

Since then, I have matured greatly, and I have come to realize something

very important: religion really does not belong in school. It’s a personal belief; most people don’t share my Pastafarian beliefs, but that’s OK! There are hundreds of practiced religions on Earth, and some have much more extreme rituals than mine. For example, Rastafarians smoke cannabis as part of a spiritual exercise, and

past religions have even made use of animal and human sac-rifices. Either the schools al-low all religious practices, in the spirit of religious tol-erance, or they allow none. Any in-between is inherently

prejudiced against the reli-gions which are not allowed to practice their beliefs at school. It is impossible for any school

to allow *all* religious practices, such as Rastafarians smoking cannabis, Native Americans con-suming peyote, or any of many re-ligions of the past several millen-

nia carrying out spiritual animal, and sometimes human, sacrifice to their respective Gods. Therefore, to avoid this issue, the only solution is to keep school and religion sepa-rate. I realize now that my ululat-

ing incantations every early-morning, mid-morning, mid-day, and early-af-ternoon, were indeed quite disruptive. Likewise, I see now how leaving class to pray out loud would disrupt my own vital education, and would disrupt the work of my schoolmates. Have you ever been half-way through an AP Calcu-lus group test when your partner an-nounces that he or she urgently needs to depart for fifteen minutes to say their prayers? No? Well, it surely would be disruptive, would it not?

You

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PrayingReligion on CampusPosed PhoTos by M. Tull

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The RoosevelT News oPiNioN

12

RSVP Sheds Light on Conspiracy

Jamie Anderson

Opinion Editor

Awaken from your Tacoma of induced lies

Log of covert qualities 1F01: if you are reading this,

that can only mean my mis-sion was a success… unless of course you work for Microsoft. If that’s the case, then I still have 37 more uses of Word, so stop alerting me that I haven’t registered my software. If I owned a legal copy I would have registered already; take a hint. Anyway, getting this in-formation to you was no easy task, so heed this warning, as it may come back to save your life. And by save your life

I don’t mean save your life in the Dr. Phil let-me-plug-my-book kind of way (as if drug addiction ever killed anyone); I mean save your life in the actual preventing-your-de-mise literal interpretation of the phrase.

Recently, during the ASR’s school-wide summit, one brave soul, who shall remain anonymous (because I don’t know who it was), alerted the student body to a startling crisis: the city of Tacoma. If you aren’t like me, you may not have every past summit suggestion catalogued in the back of your mind (still wait-ing for foodsoda, ASR), so let me refresh your memory- somewhere between widening the school halls and increas-ing the temperature in Puget Sound hid the phrase Tacoma Proximity.

At first this seemed like someone’s shameless exploi-tation of the summit, but then I realized no one could ever

embody evil to that extent. With every other suggestion so well thought-out and sin-cere, it couldn’t be possible for one person to ruin the entire event for a quick laugh. That left only one viable option. And thus Tacoma became my Mount Everest, and I took the natural next step and started digging. The more I dug the higher up this conspiracy went. I was going to get to the bottom of this, no matter how high the stakes were, but soon it became very apparent I was in over my head.

My first lead didn’t pan out, forcing me to reevaluate the merit of this undertaking and call into question my own worth, but I was able to pull through and con-tinue. This time I spelled Tacoma correctly and Google took me right into the heart of the scandal… or well not quite to the heart, but to one of those

organs that’s important but no one really cares about. Kind of like the spleen? Yeah I went right into the spleen of this case.

As any true journalist knows the first place to look for sources is Google News, so that is where I started dig-ging. What I found was a cover-up that had rooted itself around the neck (and the spleen to be consistent) of Seattle. A search of the Seattle Post-Intel-l i gencer ’ s

database shows 88,155 matches for

the word Tacoma. And isn’t the P.I. on the verge of going out of busi-ness? If I’ve taken anything away from my A.P. Statistics class, it’s that cor-relation ALWAYS

proves causation, which means that only Tacoma could be behind this attack on freedom of speech.

If that isn’t proof enough for you, then here’s another little tidbit: Circuit City, which sells Toyota Tacoma parts, has gone out of business. What does that have to do with Se-attle, you ask. Well let’s play a little word association game: Circuit City, Circuit Breaker, Wind Breaker, Wind Storm, Dust Bowl, Kansas, Wizard of Oz, Emerald City a.k.a. Se-attle. If that’s not enough to convince you, then I’m afraid to say Tacoma has already infected you with their “logic” and “reality”.

If you have any question or leads on the city of Tacoma, know what exactly the spleen does (comedy rule of three), or have a Microsoft Word acti-vation code you aren’t using, please report to me immedi-ately. This conspiracy is big-ger than all of us, but together we can take down the city of Tacoma. Stay tuned for parts two and three of this investi-gative report, where I may or may not make sense of this article’s graphic.

This message will now self-destruct in under fifteen sec-onds, but no need to worry- you’ve already read the best section of the paper, the Opin-ion Section.

–Your Dear Opinion Editor

Nick & SiNN wRiTTeN by J. ANdeRsoN illusTRATed by N. dRuMMoNd sPeciAl ThANks. P. JoNG

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Nick’s Room on January 20th

NickSinn

OFebruary


13

Dear News Staff,

Although I enjoyed your annual “Roosie” awards, I have to say

that two of the awards where rather displeasing. The first is your choice of Election Day as the most thrilling event of the year. Although election day was exciting, I must disagree that an event of which the outcome is fairly easy to predict should be considered more thrilling than Mi-chael Phelps’ .01 second victory in the Olympics. Phelps’ split second desperation attempt was visual proof that he truly is the greatest swimmer of all time. Any experi-enced swimmer will tell you that one should lunge to the wall, rather than take a last half stroke. But it was this move that Phelps made in a last effort to save his gold medal streak, and a move which could have cost him the race as well. Let us not also forget Jason Lezak’s amazing finish in the 4x100 meter freestyle relay, when he out-sprinted the arrogant Bernard in the final 25 meters, after Bernard had guaranteed a victory for the French.

My main disapproval came from your choice of greatest Hollywood loss. Although I agree that Heath Ledger was just at the beginning of a brilliant career, it was Paul New-man who had completed a spectacu-lar career in acting, as well as hu-manitarian works. Throughout his

career Paul Newman donated mil-lions of dollars to charity, including every cent of revenue from his “New-man’s Own” food label. Not only did he contribute to the film industry, but to the rest of the world as well. These reasons and more, I believe, are why he was Hollywood’s greatest loss. It was a disgrace, in my opin-ion, for such a great man to be put behind Bernie Mac, who’s only good performance was as the worst actor in Ocean’s Eleven. Why he was even on that list is beyond me.

Joe LambrightSophomore

Dear Joe Lambright,

We did not say Heath Ledger was the “Greatest Loss for the

World,” we said he was the “Saddest Loss for Hollywood.” With Ledger dy-ing at such a young age, his future contributions would have easily outnumbered 83 year old Paul New-man’s future endeavors. Ledger was only a third of Newman’s age when he passed. In that regard, Ledger’s death was a much larger tragedy. For example, which would be more tragic: if you died, or if your father died? Your father has done more for others and for the community, but your death would be more tragic be-cause you are younger. Both Bernie

Mac and Heath Ledger died at rela-tively young ages.We would also have to disagree with you completely as to the most thrill-ing moment of 2008. Michael Phelps is a swimmer. Barack Obama is the President of the United States, and his victory will affect just about ev-ery American for at least the next four years. Did you not see the ex-citement on Election Night? The

countless parties and celebrations in the streets? That magical night signified the beginning of the whole new era of change, and you cannot compare that with the victory of a swimmer. We’re not saying Phelps’ victory was dull, it just cannot be compared with the victory of Barack Obama. Sincerely, The Roosevelt News

Letter to the Editor - The 2008 Roosies


14

Elliott and Henry Expose 25 Tips

Manliness is necessary in everybody’s life, and those without manly abili-

ties quickly find themselves in deep trou-ble. From opening a pickle jar to gather-ing and chopping firewood when you’re

lost hiking in the mountains, everyone has to be manly at

some points in their life. Staff Reporters Elliott Amkraut and Henry Berry provide some tips and methods for being manly at all times. For those of you who already think you’re a real man, you might want to think again and read these 25 tips. And for those of you girls out there, you’ll need these tips too.

What is more savage than roaming the wilderness, destroy-ing the environment, carrying a heavy arsenal of axes

and saws, and growing an unsanitary amount of fa-cial hair while subsisting entirely on meat killed with your bare hands and cooked over an open fire (made with wood you chopped down yourself)? There’s a reason they don’t call it a lumberjill.

Lumberjacks aren’t the only ones who should wake up with morning wood.

Leave all of her favorite ac-tivities like cleaning and laundry to her.

#1 Be a lumberjack. #2 Have awe-some dreams.

#3 Use only one square of toilet paper. Not to save the rainforest, but to save time.

#8 Pretend to be sports savvy even if you aren’t. A notable exception would be the

WNBA (Women Not Be-ing Athletic).

#4 Always have a good reading se-lection in the bathroom. If you’re eating like a man you should be able to read a copy of Sports Illustrated cover to cover. Unless of course you’re an illiterate lumberjack.

#10 Open tough-to-open jars. Do jars have biceps? No. That would be men.

#5 Hunt. Carrying a gun is what sepa-rates us from animals- and women. Bo-

nus: using a crossbow while poach-ing an endangered species earns +5 manly points.

#6 Settle conflicts with your fists. Did words invent tools? NO. Men did.

#11 Don’t buy a powerful lawnmower. You’re a man, and should be able to mow your lawn with a rusty push mower, while letting your grass grow to a foot tall before you cut it.

#7 Be your own doctor. There’s a reason these people went to medical school rather than pursing careers as

professional boxers.

#9 Be resourceful. If nec-essary, a sink can always dou-ble as a urinal.

#12 Watch Steven Seagal movies. Steven Seagal has been robbed of

an Oscar so many times it’s sur-prised anyone even watches the Best Actor Award anymore. It’s basically an award for second

place.

illusTRATioN by R. ToNkovich

#13 Don’t ruin a woman’s Day.*

The Man-ual: How to be a Man

PhoTos by A. chiechi


15

Of Meat and MenMan Tonkovich

Manly Man

Many people believe that fire was, and still is, the

greatest invention of man, but it is time that you learn the truth. It is unclear when the real greatest invention was invented, but the scientist I talked to thinks it occurred during the Jurassic Era. No one knows exactly how it hap-pened, but my guess is that someone threw a rock and hit a dinosaur on the head. Their invention? Meat, and a process we now take for granted called ‘eating meat’, one of the cor-nerstones of man.

At the time, many people thought that meat was a

fad and went back to eating

grass. These people, known

as Neander-thals soon died out,

due to a lack of manliness. The people who did start to eat meat, known as Homo sapiens continued to become more and more manly and eventually be-came the dominant species on the planet, killing out all the groups of animals that did not support the eating of meat in-cluding herbivore dinosaurs, the wooly mammoths, Homo erectus, and soon, PETA.

Meat has almost unlimited uses, from a food to a self heal-er, from a cleaning agent to a makeshift punching bag, even an aphrodisiac in extreme cas-es. Meat dominates in all as-pects of eating, a meal is not legit unless it contains meat. It transcends the spectrum of food by currently holding the award for the fanciest dish (fillet mignon) and least fancy (bologna). Whatever the case though, meat will be around for as long as people are, and it will be a staple of manliness for even longer. So next time someone says that fire was the greatest invention ever, just laugh and think of that brave caveman who first threw a rock and hit a dinosaur on a head.

You know you’re manly when you are capable of eating off a zebra carcass or drinking fresh yak’s blood. Bear Grylls from Discovery Channel’s Man. vs. Wild does all that, plus more. He is alive, stron-ger, and manlier than ever, so obviously these foods are completely safe and ben-eficial to manliness.

#2 Have awe-some dreams.

- Fist sized goat testicles (must eat both)- Fluid from a camel’s stomach bolus- Frozen sheep’s and yak’s eyeballs- Live tiger scorpions and trout from a river- Juice squeezed from fresh elephant dung

A clean man is halfway down the slip-pery slope of getting a sex change. Brush your teeth every few days and shower on special occasions only.

God gave us sharp teeth so we could eat meat, not veg-etables. Use your teeth for what ithey were intended for.

#20 Never trim body hair. It’s like trimming off a piece of your soul - not to mention, it’s what women do.

#19 Don’t ask for, or read, directions. Your manly in-stincts will lead you in the right direction and teach you how to think on your feet. You also save valuable time which you can use for hunting or chopping down trees.

#17 Shave like a man. Never use shaving cream, and certainly don’t use those “Venus” razors. A butter knife from the kitchen will do just fine.

#18 Follow bull riding on ESPN2. Nothing sounds more manly than referenc-

ing a rodeo in casual conversation.

#16 Eat Hungry Man TV Dinners. Eating a Hungry-Man meal in front of the TV brings you closer to your natural hunter gatherer state. It’s good to be full.

#23 Eat Raw Eggs. Rocky did it, and look where it got him. As far as we’re concerned, salmonella smells suspiciously like a womanly creation.

#14 Forget about hygiene. #15 Become a carnivore.

Manly Foods (tested and proved safe by Grylls)

#25 Imitate survival expert Bear Grylls.

#24 Cook like a man. A George Foreman Grill can be used to prepare a variety of meals. An open fire will suffice if your grill is still in the mail, or if you’re a lumberjack and always on the move.

#21 Hope that the ultrasound scan reveals your unborn child to be male. Otherwise you wasted all that money on sports equipment!

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The Man-ual: How to be a Man

#22 Drive like a man. Not because men are good drivers but because women are bad drivers. Bug convert-ibles and minivans are a big NO-NO. Instead, go for the F-150, Ram, or Ex-cursion.

The Roosevelt News is not responsible in any way for consequences resulting from anyone utilizing any of these tips. We also love women deeply, and do not mean any offense to them whatsoever. *#13 - This tip is provided for humor only, cleaning and laundry are men’s jobs too.

Bear Grylls eats off a rotting zebra carcass in Kenya. The manly feat helped him reach civilization.

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16

FebruaryTheMeThe RoosevelT News

The man purse, a.k.a. murse, is a source of great desire for most manly men. Although it is frowned upon by the same conservatives who disapprove of man-crying, it’s as useful and poppin’ as a fresh pair of kicks. Don’t think that the murse is too girly for you; if anything, it’ll raise your macho levels. Man up and sling a murse over your buffed up (or scrawny) guns, and you’ll have the ladies rolling in.

The Basics

The man purse is as much a science as it is an art. Not just any old purse will do- and certainly not your father’s tweed bag from the fifties. Go for leather; it’s a time-less classic that screams Euro-chic and won’t have the ladies’ geek radars going off. Messenger-bag styles are definitely highest on the masculinity gradient. The strap should cut across your chest, may-be even causing your perfectly cut pecks to protrude ever so slightly. Under-the-shoulder bags are out

of the question, unless you prefer re-pelling women like bug spray. And don’t even consider fanny packs; Boy Scouts are less butch than Paris Hil-

ton.

The Look

Now that you’ve got the perfect murse, you need to get the look. Sorry, but basketball shorts and a tee don’t exact-

ly fit in with the whole Euro-chic thing. Think Jude Law- slightly v-necked tops (no man cleav-

age), lightweight sweaters, and classy jeans.

Hit the gym and get a little bi-cep action going on, and voila, you might as well have hopped out from the pages of Vogue. When you find yourself being stared at by some nineteen-year-old body builder wear-ing a ripped up wife-beater, don’t shy away. Look him in the eye- take pride in your murse, knowing that you’re about seventeen times more macho than he’ll ever be.

The Conditions

Murses are definitely not everyday accessories. You may be more manly than Arnold Schwarzenegger, but that’d still be no excuse for bringing your murse to the gym. There’s a time and a place for ev-erything, and this golden rule applies more than ever here. At all costs, a v o i d m a t c h -ing your murse with your girlfriend’s purse. In any case, if you have a girlfriend, your murse should be hidden in the back of a closet somewhere; one of the primary purpos-es of the murse is to be a chick-magnet, so once you have the chick, don’t scare her off with your murse obsession.

1. Q: How do you manage to look so ruggedly

handsome everyday?A: Now I don’t want to give away all my secrets but the key is to only comb your hair in the morning if it looks horrendous,

then ruffle it up a little so it looks like you didn’t comb it and you just woke up with your hair looking that good.

2. Q: There’s this girl I really like but how should I go about getting

her to notice me?A: It’s essential to do something different. Here’s my advice: wear the exact same thing

everyday for like two years and then all of a sudden, just wear something completely different. Like go from a blue sweatshirt to a red one. For more tips on how to pick up the lady-friends see Ryan Heller.

3. Q: Who gets your vote for manliest man? A: Bear Grylls, period, end of story. Only a guy named Bear could drink liquid from elephant feces, drink warm yak blood and eat live scorpions. To Bear, salmon swimming in the river 30 seconds ago = man sushi.

4. Q: How do men k e e p themselves from crying at sappy movies?A: We’re just really good at hiding our feelings and there are only two excuses for real men to cry. One is when your team loses the Super Bowl, The Stanley Cup or the World Series. The other is when, by crying, you increase your chances of getting a girl (very unlikely).

5. Q: My girlfriend says that I play too many video games. I love my Gears of War II so what should I do? A: I saw this on a TV show once. What you do is buy a treadmill and put it in your garage or downstairs. Really just anywhere your girlfriend doesn’t go that much. Then bring

your video game in there and play while the treadmill runs. Once you’re finished gaming, spray yourself with some water so it looks like you just had one heck of a workout, but you were really pwning noobs.

6. Q: I have five o’clock shadow by 11AM. How can I keep my facial hair under control?A: Grow it out. Don’t be a baby. Women love all that hair up in their face, it tickles.

7. Q: As a girl, I have a hard time telling if my boyfriend is listening to me. Is there an easy way to tell if a guy is listening to what I really have to say? A: Huh?

8. Q: Any secrets to building strong muscles and bones? A: Women’s Caramel Calcium Chews and Luna Bars. They actually contain a lot of beneficial manhood nutrients.

9. Q: I have a friend that is a girl and I’m starting to like her as more than a friend. What should I do? A: You’ve just got to walk up to that girl and be like, “hey, I like you. Let’s go on a date.” Wait wait, hold up a second, this article is called “Manswers”, not “I’m a loser who can’t

talk to girls or tell them how I really feel-sers.”

How To Rock A Sexy Man Purse

-Giggle while in possession of the murse-Ask if the murse makes you look fat-Fix or play with your hair while holding the murse-Wear diamond earrings with the murse

Camille Esposito

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Jack Thompson

Don’t:

Staff Reporter

The Manswers To Your ManquiriesStaff Reporter

As men, we constantly ask ourselves stupid and often very off-color questions. Unfortunately I cannot answers them in

a funny sarcastic way here like the TV show Manswers can.

What I can do though, is answer questions that are very close to being extremely insensitive and share some of my man

knowledge with you.

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TFebruary

The RoosevelT NewsTheMe

This lazy buzzed-headed senior strolls down the hall and tells us about his opinions on ladies.

What is the first thing you think girls notice about you?My guns.How do you attract women?I whisper in their ears.What guy at Roosevelt do you think gets the most attention from the ladies?Tyler Hanson.

Malek Haffar, senior

Brooks Christ, freshman

Bryce Woodcock, senior

Tom Flenniken, juniorHe used his “amazing, cool, beautiful, hand-some” and, not to mention, humble mind to answer what the ladies like about this mock trial nerd.

What is the first thing you think girls notice about you?My stellar physique and my kicks.How do you attract women?When I speak, I lower my voice to sound more manly.In order to make girls like you, do you lie about your interests?Yes, I don’t really rock climb or BASE jump.

This “awesome chick-magnet” gives us the inside scoop on what he believes the ladies like about his long-statured freshman bod.

What is the first thing girls notice about you?My ass.How do you attract women?I’m a smooth talker.Have you ever dated more than one person at once?I never date just one girl.

This stud wraps up his life in the following ten words: “eloquent, whimsical, turtles, stellar, lin-guistic, happy, that’s, all, I, think.”

How do you attract women?I show them my bra strap.What is something about you that girls don’t like?My back hair.What guy at Roosevelt do you think gets the most attention from the ladies?Mr. B.

Erin Antovich, junior says

Jill Ivertson, freshman says

Sophie Turnberg, junior says

What is the first thing you notice about a guy? His face.What is something you cannot tolerate in a guy?B.O. or too much cologne.Does the guy you’re dating have to have interests similar to yours? No.Who is your dream man? Adam Brody or Jim Sturgess.

What is the first thing you notice about a guy?Size of his muscles, face.What is something you cannot tolerate in a guy?Being needy, it’s so annoying, weak is lame, emotional guys shouldn’t cry!Does the guy you’re dating have to have interests similar to yours?Yes, because otherwise you just want to punch him.Who is your dream man?Brad Pitt (he’s a sexy man beast).

Really Want a Girlfriend? Read OnThe secrets to seducing Roosevelt bachelorettes

Leah Pollock, junior says

What is the first thing you notice about a guy? His smile and eyes.What is something you cannot tolerate in a guy? Someone who is too cocky and/or a huge flit.Does the guy you’re dating have to have interests similar to yours?Yes.Who is your dream man? I don’t know... Prince Charming.

Carolina Reid & Bridget Reardon

What Girls Like in Guys

The Guys Talk about GirlsStaff Reporters

What is the first thing you notice about a guy? If he’s ugly or not.What is something you cannot tolerate in a guy? Body odor.Does the guy you’re dating have to have

interests similar to yours? Yes f’sho.Who is your dream man?My boo, Leonardo DiCaprio.

TFebruary

The RoosevelT News TheMe

18

Man love is often looked down upon in society. While girls can freely

tell their friends, “I love you,” there are certain unwritten rules among men about how far showing affection towards one another can go. As junior Liam Munro puts it, “if men show affection to one another, people often see them as being feminine and not macho men.”

Girls often refer to their female friends as “girlfriends” without any awkwardness. If a guy were to refer to his male friends as “boyfriends” homosexual implications would be inevitable.

When guys are feeling a little blue, male friends have different ways of consoling each other than the “you know I’ll always love you,” that you

may see among girls. According to Munro, bear hugs are one of the more manly ways for men to show endearment towards one another.

A common place for men to express affection towards each other is on the sports field. It is not unusual for professional athletes to be seen slapping each other on the butt, and teammates often embrace

in ways they would not off the field. Sophomore Riley Peschon says he and his teammates often shower

each other with comp l imen t s after big plays. H o w e v e r , Peschon says

that there are still lines that shouldn’t be crossed, even on the sports field. “When people start slapping each others’ butts, that’s a little too much for me.”

When men cross the line it can often get awkward. For example, Munro was coaching first-base for the RHS

freshman baseball team two years ago in a game against Skyline. After the inning, the Skyline first baseman randomly ran up behind Munro and

patted his butt. Munro described the experience as “embarrassing and uncomfortable.”

Although man love is sometimes seen as unmanly, men who care for one another are real men because they are manly enough to tell their friends the truth and not care what others think. “I love when guys aren’t afraid to show each other some love,” says senior Caryn Berley. “I think it’s hot.”

It is also perfectly OK for guys to share beds on band trips and at other camps. Those guys who sleep on the ground or the chairs because they are too afraid to share a bed with another man need to man up.

Society needs more men like sophomore Tom Ianelli and recent 2008 graduate Neil Davis. This pair of friends is not shy about showing affection for one another. “I could write a 24 page paper on my love for Neil Davis,” says Ianelli.

It’s fine for guys to show affection to each other Stephen Perkins

Staff Reporter

The remodeled Roosevelt, along with its new bathrooms, is only a

few years old and generally in great shape. However, the men’s restrooms are a completely different story. The moment the door of a boys’ bathroom is opened, the stench and ghastly sights instantly make the bathroom seem like a rest area restroom in the middle of Montana.

Walking into the men’s bathrooms, odds are that one will find the floors soaking wet and caked in soap. The paper towel dispensers are usually either broken or empty, forcing hand washers to shake their hands dry or wipe them on their precious clothing. With such a high-tech school and environmental community, the lack of electronic hand dryers is shocking.

Excluding the bathrooms by the gym and the commons, all men’s restrooms at this school have two urinals and one toilet. Now, this is a fair appropriation, were it not for the fact that one of those urinals sits uncomfortably low to the ground. If

someone goes into a bathroom and the normal urinal and toilet stall are occupied, using the small urinal becomes an awkward situation, in which the occupier must squat if they are average or above average height.

The urinals also lack partitions between them. While partitions are not absolutely necessary, they provide a much more comfortable situation and help prevent “talkers”, who awkwardly start conservations in the bathroom. Partitions also allow users to stand at a more reasonable

distance from the urinal, instead of having to almost get inside the urinal in order to hide body parts they are afraid of others seeing.

The structure of the bathrooms may have their faults, but they come nowhere near to the absolute mess that guys leave the restrooms in. Graffiti covers most tiles and stall walls and, despite the custodians’ best attempts at cleaning and covering up these marks, the culprits and their tags remain. Many mirrors are also missing, leaving weird empty rectangles.

However, the most common problem with the men’s restrooms is that hardly anyone flushes after using the toilets. Therefore using the toilet stall becomes a dangerous gamble since, chances are, one will come across a toilet seat covered in urine, or the putrid remains of an un-flushed deuce.

Paper towels are also often stuffed inside the toilets and urinals, along with other objects. Sometimes if you’re lucky, you may find a quarter or a piece of candy in the urinal, but actually getting these treasures presents a whole new problem.

Man-y Woes Of The Men’s RoomRHS boy’s bathrooms are a scary place indeed

Randall Keating

Staff Reporter

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The towel dispensers in the men’s room are often missing or empty

“

Girls call female friends “girlfriends” while most guys would never call

male friends “boyfriends.”

Guy Love is OK, Shows Strength

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SThe RoosevelT NewssPoRTs

19

Give Me a Moment: ‘08 in Sports

My heart is deeply rooted in the sports teams of Se-

attle. I thrive off these teams: they are my life. As it has been well documented, we all know of Seattle’s 2008 sports woes. Just mediocre sports mo-ments were hard to come by, let alone those worthy of the BEST sports moment of 2008. Although I could not count on the professional sports teams of Seattle last year, I found sol-ace in the surprising Roosevelt football team. T h e team’s 22-10 H o m e c o m -ing victory over Ballard solidified a winning r e -

cord for the Riders and was the highlight of the season.

After 2007’s poor showing against Ballard, 2008 proved to be friendlier to the Riders. Although not a nail biting, last second Hail Mary victory, the first Anchor Bowl was definite-ly a game to remember for all Rider fans and players alike. And for those who have the game fading from their mem-ory, just take a visit to the An-chor downstairs and I’m sure that memories of a 65 yard touchdown pass, a 2 point conversion and a couple of inter-ceptions will c o m e

flooding back.A piece of my heart will al-

ways belong to that game and the fact that the Riders will forever be the first winners of the Anchor Bowl. The Riders will eternally be in the history books and the plaque will al-ways bear the name of our be-

loved school as 2008 Anchor Bowl Champions. -Thuc

Nhi Nguyen

Shawn Johnson wins gold! Yeah

you GO SHAWN!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO. I don’t care if you’re a 4’10 Io-wan, call me please! -Jack Thompson

While most of America and NBC’s attention was on

Michael Phelps and his eight gold medals, my eye was drawn into the fastest event in the Olympics: the 100 meter dash and the confident Jamai-can who wore gold shoes.

While Phelps kept up his All-American attitude, Usain Bolt added flair and electricity to the Beijing Olympics. Bolt is a physical specimen that track and field has never seen, towering over fellow competi-tors at 6’5 and possessing legs that are too big for a television screen to capture. When Bolt stepped up to the blocks after his signature lighting bolt pose I knew that track and field would never be the same. He dominated the race and easily broke the world record; Bolt even slowed down and em-braced the moment before he crossed the finish line. While IOC President Jacques Rogge ridiculed him for celebrating early, Bolt was only asserting his dominance over the rest of the field, making him an instant star across the world. Then Bolt went on to win the 200m and help Jamaica win the 4X100 relay, completing a gold medal sweep for the first time since Carl Lewis in 1984.

Most importantly, in a day and age of athletes who hold back their personalities so

they can’t lose any endorse-ment deals or be criticized, Bolt danced his way around the track after his wins, add-ing a much needed bolt to the Olympics. - Nikil Rao

Stories about the Olympics are the best, and that of

Jason Lezak was the best one of Beijing 2008. Lezak, swim-ming the anchor leg of the U.S. 4x100-meter freestyle re-lay team, hit the water a half-second after Alain Bernard of France with Michael Phelps’ goal of eight Beijing golds on the line.

Bernard, who came into this race as the world-record hold-er in the 100-meter freestyle, held a comfortable lead. Trail-ing Bernard for the entire leg, Lezak put his head down and surged to the wall, touching .08 seconds before the French-man. Lezak’s 46.06 second swim was the best relay split in history.

With all of his Olympic medals, Phelps’ legacy is now secure and so, now, is Lezak’s. -Eric Pang

Look on the bright side Hus-ky fans, at least the Dawgs

are good at something: losing. As the only FBS team to lay a goose egg in the wins column, the Dawgs have free fallen into the realm of irrelevance and have a long way to go to earn even the slightest shred of re-spect back.

As a devout Husky fan, I watched week after week as the Huskies bowed down to any opponent they lined up against. Critical miscues tore my heart out, over and over and over again. With ev-ery loss, my soul broke more and more. Few things in my life bring me to tears (and I mean FEW) but a certain one is a game changing mistake from those young pups. Sure enough, on any given Satur-day that fall, I lay curled up in a ball, tears streaming down my face.

When the Apple Cup rolled around, victory slipped through our fingers with Trip-

per Johnson’s inability to cov-er and Ryan Perkins’ epic fail-ure as a kicker. You can be sure that I was curled up in a ball bawling my eyes out that night.

With one more shot to sal-vage any last bits of pride, the Huskies again showed what little they’re made of in the last

game of the season. Jahvid Best and the Cal Bears put on their best track show and ran all over the Huskies’ ridiculous excuse for defense. The final fiber that barely held my heart together snapped that day as the clock ticked to zero.

Twelve games, twelve losses, the Huskies delivered 2008’s perfect season at its worst. -Thuc Nhi Nguyen

Wild West Clay Bennett Stole the SuperSonics.

After an abysmal 2007-2008 season, the city of Seattle set-tled its lawsuit against a guy who married into money, Clay Bennett. Apparently 45 million dollars is enough to offset the Sonics. I don’t think so Mayor Nickels. -Jack Thompson

The 2008 Seattle Mariners, what a team. Where do we

start? Well, that trade for Erik Bedard in the off-season defi-nitely worked out.

We gave better prospects for a pitcher who had never thrown more than two hun-dred innings and never been to the All-Star game than the Mets gave Minnesota for Jo-

han Santana. Naturally, Bedard got in-

jured and only threw 81 in-nings with sporadic results, hardly the ace everyone imag-ined him to be.

After every baseball writer and their mothers’ predicted a playoff appearance for the M’s, they went out and proceeded to get smacked. The team ba-sically became baseball’s ver-sion of Murphy’s Law.

McLaren going crazy at press conferenc-es, every starting pitcher beside Felix Hernandez getting absolutely destroyed, team-mates wanting to knock Ichiro out; the Mariners had more problems than a mother looking for her child’s father on Maury.

Here are some stats to show how bad the Mariners were; for the month of July Hernandez had as many

home runs (1) as the starting first baseman and designated hitter. Miguel Cairo actually played in 108 games while batting .249 with zero hom-ers. Kenji Johijma hit .227 in 122 games. Obviously, the team was out of contention by the All-Star break and fin-ished with a record of 61-101, becoming the first team with a payroll over 100 million dollars to lose over a hundred games. -Nikil Rao

illu

sTRA

Tio

N b

y N

ick d

RuM

Mo

Nd

Note to Tripper Johnson: stick to baseball.

2008, like any other, was a year full of highs, lows, and Miguel Cairo groundouts. From Terrell Owens’ “That’s My Quarterback” performance to the Kelvin Sampson texting drama, last year was full of memories. We’re already headlong into 2009, but the sportswriters decided to make sure no one forgets the best & worst of ‘08.

Note to Bill Bavasi: DO NOT, under any circumstances, stick to baseball.

THE WORST

THE BEST

Sportswriters weigh in on best and worst of ‘08

The area’s top high school basketball prospects and

teams were put on display for MLK Day’s King Holiday Hoop-fest at the Bank of America Arena. The formidable crowd included dozens of college scouts and even Washington coach Lorenzo Romar was in attendance. There were a total of seven games on the sched-ule, but most of the audience‘s focus was on the final three games of the event.

#10 (CA) Dominguez def. #2 Rainier Beach 90-84, 2OT

In a game filled with turn-overs, sloppy play, and missed free throws, one team had to eventually win. Compton’s Dominquez High School sur-vived a fourth-quarter melt-down to pull away with a double-overtime victory over Rainier Beach, ending the Vikings’ 35-game winning streak.

Dominguez, led by four se-niors ranked in ESPN.com’s California Top 90 (and missing their top player - America’s #1 SF Jordan Hamilton, current-ly ineligible), easily outsized Rainier Beach. The two teams, both freakishly athletic, strug-gled with finishing at the rim, turning the first three quarters into a defensive struggle.

Despite trailing by six go-ing into the fourth quarter, Rainier Beach kept the game close. Dominguez Guard Rob-ert Mandingo keyed Beach’s comeback when he compound-ed an off-ball foul with a tech-nical at the 1:16 mark. Since technicals count as personal fouls in high school, Mandingo recorded his fourth and fifth fouls simultaneously, fouling him out of the game. Beach, in the double bonus, got four free throws plus possession.

After making two of the four throws, they turned the ball over and still trailed by one. Dominguez made a layup but missed the and-one free throw, leaving Beach down by three with 17.3 seconds left.

With the clock winding down, Beach swung the ball around the perimeter until they found SF Aaron Dotson, who knocked down the tying three with two hands in his face. Regulation ended, send-ing the previously quiet crowd into a frenzy.

In the first overtime, neither

team could close the door. The teams combined to shoot a col-lective 2/13 at the free throw line and the game was sent into a second overtime. Nor-vel Pelle, a highly ranked 6’10 sophomore, began to block ev-erything Beach put up, leading to easy fast breaks for Domin-guez’s über-athletic forwards to finish. Dominguez finally ran away with a 90-84 win.

Rainier Beach had to be kicking themselves after the tough loss but the overall ath-leticism of both teams made passing and attacking the rim extremely difficult. Beach compounded this loss later in the week with losses to O’Dea and Franklin.

#3 Bellevue def. Bellarmine Prep 52-43

UW recruit Abdul Gaddy, America’s #14 high school se-nior, was expected to control this game for Bellarmine Prep, but Bellevue’s Alex Schrempf had other ideas. Schrempf, the son of Sonics’ legend Detlef Schrempf, posted up Gaddy on the low block and combined with Colton Christian to help Bellevue control the boards.

Since the departure of ESPN.com’s #15 senior Avery Brad-ley to prep school in Nevada, Gaddy has been counted on to shoulder the load for Prep. Bellevue gameplanned accord-ingly, double and sometimes even triple-teaming him, forc-ing Prep to use other players to score. Fortunately for Prep,

Gaddy, the #2 point guard in the country and the Huskies’ top recruit for 2009, is a ter-rific passer; unfortunately for Prep, he’s sometimes too ter-rific a passer. He threaded the needle numerous times only to watch his teammates fumble the ball out of bounds. Abdul went scoreless in the 1st half, finishing with 11 points, 8 re-bounds and four assists.

Despite the solid line, Gad-dy disappointed many who ex-pected the Washington pros-pect to dominate. The phrase “Gaddy’s going to take over” was mentioned many times by several fans in the stands in the second half, but never came true.

With the twin towers of Christian and Schrempf and the solid outside shooting of Aaron Bright and Matt Olson, look for #3 Bellevue to make a deep run in the 3A State Tour-nament.

#1 Franklin (3A) def. #1 Garfield (4A) 75-60

The final game of the night was easily the most anticipat-ed game of the event and some would even say the year. With Franklin’s move down from KingCo 4A to Metro 3A, the in-tense rivalry between the two teams was in jeopardy. Luck-ily, the game was scheduled into the Hoopfest and could become a new tradition on MLK Day.

With a crowd full of gradu-ates and students of both

schools, both teams fed off the energy. Garfield super soph-omore Tony Wroten, the #2 sophomore in the country, hit back to back three pointers to start the game while rival se-nior, Peyton Siva of Franklin, answered with a three and a layup.

After a furious start, the game slowed down when Franklin inserted senior guard Vonchae Richardson to hound Wroten. Richardson played suffocating and physical de-fense for the rest of the game, pushing Wroten and keeping hands in his face at all times. Richardson didn’t even let Wro-ten stand by himself during free throws. The former mid-

dle school teammates b a n g e d knees and hit the floor too many times to count.

M e a n -while, Siva was eas-ily cutting through the Garfield de-fense, at-t a c k i n g the basket and dish-ing out to teammates for outside shots. How-ever, both Siva and Wroten got into foul trouble in the third q u a r t e r ,

leaving their teammates to pick up the slack.

Franklin’s supporting cast ran past a shallower Garfield bench building a six point lead that only expanded in the fourth quarter when Siva returned. Wroten, continu-ously bothered by Richard-son, struggled just to make it up the court throughout the quarter. In the third quar-ter, he was called for a tech-nical for not peeling himself off the ground and was later charged with defensive three seconds after being knocked down in the paint. Most of Garfield’s shots were taken be-fore Wroten even reached the three-point line. He eventu-ally collapsed in frustration at the end of the game, angry at his performance and the offi-cials, keeping Garfield winless against their long term rival.

Other games of the day in-cluded #2 Kentwood’s defeat of Bothell, Bellevue Christian’s annihilation of Kings, Kent-wood girls’ drubbing of Bellar-mine Prep, and a rivalry game between Decatur and Federal Way. EWU-bound Decatur PG Marcus Tibbs and star sopho-more Jerron Smith couldn’t overcome Michael Hale III’s barrage of fadeaways and run-ners as #3 Federal Way beat #4 Decatur, 71-63.

Darrel Montzingo, Roos-evelt’s universally liked

Individual Sports teacher, now has a KingCo 4A Coach of the Year Award to add to his tro-phy case.

After years of dedication to educating students in the sport of golf, Montzingo re-ceived some well-earned rec-ognition at the KingCo Golf Tournament. A great golfer, jokester, teacher and coach, no one deserves this award more than Montzingo.

Mr. Montzingo has been coaching golf for the past 21 years, and is the coach of both the boys’ and girls’ golf teams

at Roosevelt. A man known for his wisecracks, Montzingo was surprisingly serious and to the point when asked about his passion: “the teaching aspect is my favorite part of golf,” he said.

After a few dry seasons for boys’ golf at Roos-evelt, the team has fi-

nally hit its stride this year.

“Last season we only had 1 win. This season we were 5-3, and were third in our division. Our team is young; mostly sophomores, but they

have heart. (We’ve) come a long way from last year,” said Montzingo.

Although Montzingo has been coaching golf for 21 years, he has been playing for an impressive 35. Most people might not know that, to Montz-ingo, golf is more than a fun and relaxing hobby.

“I got to play in the National Little People’s Tournament for 10 years, and I was the nation-

al champ for 5 years. It took me places; I met people I wouldn’t have met if I didn’t play. I went to Australia for the Games Down Under Competition.” Montzingo believes that golf

can be an opportunity to both try something new and travel. “My favorite course that I’ve

ever been to was Pebble Beach,” said M o n t z i n g o , as he recalled his time at the California spot famous for hosting four US Opens.

Mr. Montz-ingo is cur-rently recov-ering from a back opera-tion, but plans to continue teaching Indi-vidual Sports and coaching golf for Roos-evelt.

20

SFebruary

The RoosevelT News sPoRTs

21

February


[ed.’s note: kirkwood has a really hot sister]

Nikil RaoSports Editor

Area Teams Showcased at HoopfestRandall Keating

Staff Reporter

KingCo Shows Love for MontzingoLong-deserved recognition for beloved coach

Mr. Montzingo instructs his Individual Sports class in the fine art of racquetball.

Inside The Winter Athletes’ (Floating) Heads

Tony Wroten was knocked over repeatedly and spent much of the game on the ground, watching the Quakers’ offense at the other end.

“

“

I was the national champ for five years.

Pho

Tos b

y w. N

Ac

hTR

ieb

PhoTo couRTesy of dylAN kouTsky, GARfield MesseNGeR

- Kentwood C Josh SmithThe 6’9 junior dominated the post for Kentwood, lift-ing his team over Bothell earlier in the morning with 15 points, 18 rebounds and 3 blocks. Smith, who has national powerhouses UCLA, Duke, and Texas on his radar and has schol-arship offers from every school in the Pac-10, had to deal with Bothell play-ers literally hanging on his shoulders (and getting no calls) but still led the SPSL 4A leaders to an easy vic-tory.

- Bellevue PF Alex SchrempfThe 6’5 son of Detlef out-muscled the smaller Bel-larmine Prep defense and dominated the boards with 16 rebounds to go along with his 25 points. Expect his reputation to grow with performances like this.

- Franklin PG Peyton SivaThe Louisville signee slashed and dashed his way through the defense and put on a show for the crowd with 15 points, 4 as-sists and 2 steals in his win over Garfield.

- Rainier Beach PG D’vonne Pickett Even in a heartbreaking loss, Pickett continued charging. One of Beach’s senior leaders, Eastern-bound Pickett was contin-ually pounded on his way to the basket but mus-cled shots up to get to the line. He finished with 17 points.

Best nickname you’ve ever had?

Hood Thug Short Stuff Buddha Child N/A The Pimp of Backstroke

TV marathon you could watch all day?

Chappelle Show Desperate House-wives

24 The Office Time Warp on the Dis-covery Channel

Teacher you’d really like to dance with?

I’m good, thanks Montzingo Ms. Grace Karlovich? Haha Mr. Louie

Actor/actress who would play you in a movie?

The Game Probably Tascha Mack

Jake Gyllenhaal N/A Um... Me...

____________ really makes me nervous.

Cops Tascha Mack Karis Anderson Small spaces Swim meets

Funniest teammate? Johnny Taylor ChristensenPast: Leanne Dudley

Elliott Amkraut Frannie (because she’s a doof ass)

Andrew McAferty when he’s pissed off

I wish I knew how to ________

speak Mexican. Tascha Mack Attack. speak (not speak?) sign language.

whistle. drive stick without the clutch.

What is your guilty pleasure?

? Tascha Mack Project Runway Fast food Picking people up in mid-sentence and carrying them 70 feet away, then dropping them and run-ning away before they can get up.

Paxton FarrarCatherine KillianDillon ChatriandBecca BoydGus Hohlbein

Wrestling ‘09

Gymnastics ‘10

Stephen PerkinsStaff Reporter

Pho

To b

y T. i

P

Basketball‘09

Basketball‘11

Swimming‘10

Players of the day

Note: the views of these athletes do not necessarily reflect those of The Roosevelt News.

The area’s top high school basketball prospects and

teams were put on display for MLK Day’s King Holiday Hoop-fest at the Bank of America Arena. The formidable crowd included dozens of college scouts and even Washington coach Lorenzo Romar was in attendance. There were a total of seven games on the sched-ule, but most of the audience‘s focus was on the final three games of the event.

#10 (CA) Dominguez def. #2 Rainier Beach 90-84, 2OT

In a game filled with turn-overs, sloppy play, and missed free throws, one team had to eventually win. Compton’s Dominquez High School sur-vived a fourth-quarter melt-down to pull away with a double-overtime victory over Rainier Beach, ending the Vikings’ 35-game winning streak.

Dominguez, led by four se-niors ranked in ESPN.com’s California Top 90 (and missing their top player - America’s #1 SF Jordan Hamilton, current-ly ineligible), easily outsized Rainier Beach. The two teams, both freakishly athletic, strug-gled with finishing at the rim, turning the first three quarters into a defensive struggle.

Despite trailing by six go-ing into the fourth quarter, Rainier Beach kept the game close. Dominguez Guard Rob-ert Mandingo keyed Beach’s comeback when he compound-ed an off-ball foul with a tech-nical at the 1:16 mark. Since technicals count as personal fouls in high school, Mandingo recorded his fourth and fifth fouls simultaneously, fouling him out of the game. Beach, in the double bonus, got four free throws plus possession.

After making two of the four throws, they turned the ball over and still trailed by one. Dominguez made a layup but missed the and-one free throw, leaving Beach down by three with 17.3 seconds left.

With the clock winding down, Beach swung the ball around the perimeter until they found SF Aaron Dotson, who knocked down the tying three with two hands in his face. Regulation ended, send-ing the previously quiet crowd into a frenzy.

In the first overtime, neither

team could close the door. The teams combined to shoot a col-lective 2/13 at the free throw line and the game was sent into a second overtime. Nor-vel Pelle, a highly ranked 6’10 sophomore, began to block ev-erything Beach put up, leading to easy fast breaks for Domin-guez’s über-athletic forwards to finish. Dominguez finally ran away with a 90-84 win.

Rainier Beach had to be kicking themselves after the tough loss but the overall ath-leticism of both teams made passing and attacking the rim extremely difficult. Beach compounded this loss later in the week with losses to O’Dea and Franklin.

#3 Bellevue def. Bellarmine Prep 52-43

UW recruit Abdul Gaddy, America’s #14 high school se-nior, was expected to control this game for Bellarmine Prep, but Bellevue’s Alex Schrempf had other ideas. Schrempf, the son of Sonics’ legend Detlef Schrempf, posted up Gaddy on the low block and combined with Colton Christian to help Bellevue control the boards.

Since the departure of ESPN.com’s #15 senior Avery Brad-ley to prep school in Nevada, Gaddy has been counted on to shoulder the load for Prep. Bellevue gameplanned accord-ingly, double and sometimes even triple-teaming him, forc-ing Prep to use other players to score. Fortunately for Prep,

Gaddy, the #2 point guard in the country and the Huskies’ top recruit for 2009, is a ter-rific passer; unfortunately for Prep, he’s sometimes too ter-rific a passer. He threaded the needle numerous times only to watch his teammates fumble the ball out of bounds. Abdul went scoreless in the 1st half, finishing with 11 points, 8 re-bounds and four assists.

Despite the solid line, Gad-dy disappointed many who ex-pected the Washington pros-pect to dominate. The phrase “Gaddy’s going to take over” was mentioned many times by several fans in the stands in the second half, but never came true.

With the twin towers of Christian and Schrempf and the solid outside shooting of Aaron Bright and Matt Olson, look for #3 Bellevue to make a deep run in the 3A State Tour-nament.

#1 Franklin (3A) def. #1 Garfield (4A) 75-60

The final game of the night was easily the most anticipat-ed game of the event and some would even say the year. With Franklin’s move down from KingCo 4A to Metro 3A, the in-tense rivalry between the two teams was in jeopardy. Luck-ily, the game was scheduled into the Hoopfest and could become a new tradition on MLK Day.

With a crowd full of gradu-ates and students of both

schools, both teams fed off the energy. Garfield super soph-omore Tony Wroten, the #2 sophomore in the country, hit back to back three pointers to start the game while rival se-nior, Peyton Siva of Franklin, answered with a three and a layup.

After a furious start, the game slowed down when Franklin inserted senior guard Vonchae Richardson to hound Wroten. Richardson played suffocating and physical de-fense for the rest of the game, pushing Wroten and keeping hands in his face at all times. Richardson didn’t even let Wro-ten stand by himself during free throws. The former mid-

dle school teammates b a n g e d knees and hit the floor too many times to count.

M e a n -while, Siva was eas-ily cutting through the Garfield de-fense, at-t a c k i n g the basket and dish-ing out to teammates for outside shots. How-ever, both Siva and Wroten got into foul trouble in the third q u a r t e r ,

leaving their teammates to pick up the slack.

Franklin’s supporting cast ran past a shallower Garfield bench building a six point lead that only expanded in the fourth quarter when Siva returned. Wroten, continu-ously bothered by Richard-son, struggled just to make it up the court throughout the quarter. In the third quar-ter, he was called for a tech-nical for not peeling himself off the ground and was later charged with defensive three seconds after being knocked down in the paint. Most of Garfield’s shots were taken be-fore Wroten even reached the three-point line. He eventu-ally collapsed in frustration at the end of the game, angry at his performance and the offi-cials, keeping Garfield winless against their long term rival.

Other games of the day in-cluded #2 Kentwood’s defeat of Bothell, Bellevue Christian’s annihilation of Kings, Kent-wood girls’ drubbing of Bellar-mine Prep, and a rivalry game between Decatur and Federal Way. EWU-bound Decatur PG Marcus Tibbs and star sopho-more Jerron Smith couldn’t overcome Michael Hale III’s barrage of fadeaways and run-ners as #3 Federal Way beat #4 Decatur, 71-63.

Darrel Montzingo, Roos-evelt’s universally liked

Individual Sports teacher, now has a KingCo 4A Coach of the Year Award to add to his tro-phy case.

After years of dedication to educating students in the sport of golf, Montzingo re-ceived some well-earned rec-ognition at the KingCo Golf Tournament. A great golfer, jokester, teacher and coach, no one deserves this award more than Montzingo.

Mr. Montzingo has been coaching golf for the past 21 years, and is the coach of both the boys’ and girls’ golf teams

at Roosevelt. A man known for his wisecracks, Montzingo was surprisingly serious and to the point when asked about his passion: “the teaching aspect is my favorite part of golf,” he said.

After a few dry seasons for boys’ golf at Roos-evelt, the team has fi-

nally hit its stride this year.

“Last season we only had 1 win. This season we were 5-3, and were third in our division. Our team is young; mostly sophomores, but they

have heart. (We’ve) come a long way from last year,” said Montzingo.

Although Montzingo has been coaching golf for 21 years, he has been playing for an impressive 35. Most people might not know that, to Montz-ingo, golf is more than a fun and relaxing hobby.

“I got to play in the National Little People’s Tournament for 10 years, and I was the nation-

al champ for 5 years. It took me places; I met people I wouldn’t have met if I didn’t play. I went to Australia for the Games Down Under Competition.” Montzingo believes that golf

can be an opportunity to both try something new and travel. “My favorite course that I’ve

ever been to was Pebble Beach,” said M o n t z i n g o , as he recalled his time at the California spot famous for hosting four US Opens.

Mr. Montz-ingo is cur-rently recov-ering from a back opera-tion, but plans to continue teaching Indi-vidual Sports and coaching golf for Roos-evelt.

20

SFebruary

The RoosevelT News sPoRTs

21

February



Nikil RaoSports Editor

Area Teams Showcased at HoopfestRandall Keating

Staff Reporter

KingCo Shows Love for MontzingoLong-deserved recognition for beloved coach

Mr. Montzingo instructs his Individual Sports class in the fine art of racquetball.

Inside The Winter Athletes’ (Floating) Heads

Tony Wroten was knocked over repeatedly and spent much of the game on the ground, watching the Quakers’ offense at the other end.

“

“

I was the national champ for five years.

Pho

Tos b

y w. N

Ac

hTR

ieb

PhoTo couRTesy of dylAN kouTsky, GARfield MesseNGeR

- Kentwood C Josh SmithThe 6’9 junior dominated the post for Kentwood, lift-ing his team over Bothell earlier in the morning with 15 points, 18 rebounds and 3 blocks. Smith, who has national powerhouses UCLA, Duke, and Texas on his radar and has schol-arship offers from every school in the Pac-10, had to deal with Bothell play-ers literally hanging on his shoulders (and getting no calls) but still led the SPSL 4A leaders to an easy vic-tory.

- Bellevue PF Alex SchrempfThe 6’5 son of Detlef out-muscled the smaller Bel-larmine Prep defense and dominated the boards with 16 rebounds to go along with his 25 points. Expect his reputation to grow with performances like this.

- Franklin PG Peyton SivaThe Louisville signee slashed and dashed his way through the defense and put on a show for the crowd with 15 points, 4 as-sists and 2 steals in his win over Garfield.

- Rainier Beach PG D’vonne Pickett Even in a heartbreaking loss, Pickett continued charging. One of Beach’s senior leaders, Eastern-bound Pickett was contin-ually pounded on his way to the basket but mus-cled shots up to get to the line. He finished with 17 points.

Best nickname you’ve ever had?

Hood Thug Short Stuff Buddha Child N/A The Pimp of Backstroke

TV marathon you could watch all day?

Chappelle Show Desperate House-wives

24 The Office Time Warp on the Dis-covery Channel

Teacher you’d really like to dance with?

I’m good, thanks Montzingo Ms. Grace Karlovich? Haha Mr. Louie

Actor/actress who would play you in a movie?

The Game Probably Tascha Mack

Jake Gyllenhaal N/A Um... Me...

____________ really makes me nervous.

Cops Tascha Mack Karis Anderson Small spaces Swim meets

Funniest teammate? Johnny Taylor ChristensenPast: Leanne Dudley

Elliott Amkraut Frannie (because she’s a doof ass)

Andrew McAferty when he’s pissed off

I wish I knew how to ________

speak Mexican. Tascha Mack Attack. speak (not speak?) sign language.

whistle. drive stick without the clutch.

What is your guilty pleasure?

? Tascha Mack Project Runway Fast food Picking people up in mid-sentence and carrying them 70 feet away, then dropping them and run-ning away before they can get up.

Paxton FarrarCatherine KillianDillon ChatriandBecca BoydGus Hohlbein

Wrestling ‘09

Gymnastics ‘10

Stephen PerkinsStaff Reporter

Pho

To b

y T. i

P

Basketball‘09

Basketball‘11

Swimming‘10

Players of the day

Note: the views of these athletes do not necessarily reflect those of The Roosevelt News.

Many athletes at Roosevelt struggle with being able to find the right

balance between athletics and academ-ics. Although the thought of having fun playing a game might be more enticing than studying late into the night for a huge final, there are those students who have achieved excellence in the

classroom, as well as on the playing field. A true scholar athlete, Florida State Seminole Myron Rolle postponed an immediate seven figure salary in the NFL to study medical anthropol-ogy at Oxford University after winning the Rhodes Scholarship last November. Here at Roosevelt we have our own fair share of scholar athletes.

22

SFebruary

The RoosevelT News sPoRTsFebruary

Roosevelt’s Elite: Scholar AthletesThuc-Nhi Nguyen

Staff Reporter Michelle WoodworthSophomore volleyball player Michelle

Woodworth is setting a firm foundation for her future as she aces her classes and opponents on the court. This 4.0 scholar athlete is looking for a spot on a Division I team and as a two time varsity play-er at Roosevelt, she’s well on her way to her goal. After her col-lege career, she’s looking forward to coaching a club team to con-tinue in her field of expertise. She has also won the Candice Carter Award at the Em-erald City Clas-sic, which honors outstanding and inspirational play and is given to only 3 people out of 128 teams.

Woodworth’s high aspirations for the future as well as a strong desire for a skyscraping GPA drive her excellent academic achievements. “Maintaining a good GPA [motivates me] because it is a key factor for college,” she says. Woodworth does, however, acknowl-edge that with volleyball eating away

at her time, it’s difficult to stay on the academic road of excellence, “it is hard to be motivated at times when volley-ball is very busy,” she comments.

Although Woodworth’s high aca-

demic and athletic accomplishments have given her “a strong sense of achievement and pushes [her] to do even better,” it can be problematic as well. “Sometimes, when I’m playing defense I will be thinking about how much homework I have, instead of the hitter,” she says.

David FanthamEagle Scout, varsity soccer

player, and 4.0 student senior Da-vid Fantham is a scholar athlete if there ever was one. This senior prides himself on “keeping [his] 4.0 all the way through high school (while) taking hard classes” and is currently flying through classes like AP Calculus and AP American Gov-ernment. But he claims his classes “are all pretty easy”. In addition to his flawless GPA, Fantham has also been playing select soccer for six years and has gotten as far as run-ner up in the state tournament with his teams.

To Fantham, sports and school weigh in evenly, but at different times. “Soccer is after school then at night I get my school work done,” he says. Getting good grades fuels Fantham’s hard work in the class-room.

Since he has already been ad-mitted to the University of Wash-ington as well as Western Washing-ton University, Fantham is reaping the benefits of his academic efforts, “now all of the work that I have put in throughout high school is paying off (by) getting me into colleges,” he says. His application to Stanford University is still pending, but he is hoping to get into UW’s Michael G.

Foster Business School as a fresh-man next year. The Foster Business School is ranked among the nation’s top business schools.

Excelling in the classroom is a walk in the park for Fantham, “(get-ting good grades] is just what I do,” he says.

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Bang ZhengWith three

sports on his plate, it’s a wonder that junior Bang Zheng has any time to even catch a breath of air. Not only does he have the pressures of cross country in the fall, wrestling in the winter and track in the spring weigh-ing him down, but AP Spanish, AP Calculus and AP US History are constantly breath-ing down his neck as well. Apparently none of these time consuming activi-ties present much of a problem. “I’m trying to keep my 4.0 and it hasn’t been very difficult yet,” Zheng says. The struggle between school and sports is always won by the former in Zheng’s mind. “School is number one, and then sports,” he says. This junior still has time to decide his ex-act future plans, but he’s looking to college, medical school and being a surgeon. “[I intend to] go to a good college, get into medical school, cut some people up, then retire,” Zheng

explains. Although not planning to wrestle in college, this 2007 KingCo 4A Champion does have some future wrestling ideas, “if someone wanted to fight me at a party, I could just wrestle them to the ground.”

Although Zheng’s academic and ath-letic excellence have given him a great GPA and the ability to pin opponents in seconds, he does lack one thing: social prowess. “I have no social skills what so ever,” he acknowledges.

Matt NicholsDual sport athlete, Senior

Matt Nichols, is no slouch when it comes to the field or the books. He has held a 4.0 GPA throughout his years at Roos-evelt, as well as balanced cross country in the fall and Ultimate in the spring. The Ultimate captain is taking challenging classes including AP Latin, AP Statistics, and AP American Government, and passing them all with flying colors.

“I do my best to put a lot of effort into both [school and sports],” says Nichols, but when push comes to shove, school is at the top of his list. The col-lege application process keeps Nichols on his toes in the classroom in order to one day reach his goal of studying computer sciences. Colleges like Brown, Yale, Willamette, Pomona, and Oberlin are on this scholar ath-lete’s educational radar screen. Along with his studies, Nichols is “greatly looking forward to playing Ultimate at the college level.” Nichols also takes

his achievements into the community as an officer of the National Honor So-ciety at Roosevelt, as well as a volun-teer at the fair trade retailer Ten Thou-sand Villages.

Putting sports on the back burner has left Nichols with no regrets, “pri-oritizing school definitely pays off as far as grades are concerned,” he says.

Dominating both the field and their field of study

23

February



Seattle Teams Focus on RebuildingA brick by brick reconstruction of our teams

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Erik KariyaSports Editor

Jack Thompson68 pts

Chairman Rao66 pts

Stephen Perkins63 pts

Thuc-Nhi Nguyen61 pts

Eric Pang58 pts

Erik Kariya48 pts

Guest: Jamie AndersonOpinion Editor

Last Month 24 pts 17 pts 17 pts 19 pts 28 pts 11 pts Mr. Malcolm: 15 pts

Super BowlSteelers vs Cardinals

Steelers 38-21 Steelers 28-20 Cardinals 24-22 Steelers 28-21 Cardinals 21-20 Steelers 27-13 Cardinals 31-21

NBA Dunk Contest Dwight Howard Dwight Howard Dwight Howard Dwight Howard Dwight Howard Rudy Gay Dwight Howard

Girls’ Basketball Roosevelt vs. Garfield

Roosevelt 61-47 Roosevelt 58-52 Roosevelt 70-69 Roosevelt 54-41 Roosevelt 56-42 Roosevelt 59-46 Roosevelt 57-49

College BasketballHuskies vs UCLA

UW 67-65 UW 75-70 UCLA 70-69 UW 82-68 UW 79-75 UCLA 84-71 UCLA 81-73

The Dynasty Speaks: Sportswriters’ Predictament

The Seahawks and Mariners stand at two roads diverged in the hor-

rible wood of sub-mediocrity. One path leads eventually to the playoffs, the other in a circle right back to more Mariners’ teams with .318 on-base percentages and Seahawks’ teams so abysmal that just complaining about how bad they are is more hackneyed than Obama shirts. In simple English: Seattle sports need to rebuild.

After abandoning the Mariners at mid-season last year, how many of you jumped on the Tampa Bay Rays’ bandwag-on? It was a great story: pe-rennial doormat in strongest division finishes last in the ma-jors, signs a new coach, removes the Devil from their name, and goes to the World Series the next season.

But what was the REAL reason everyone jumped on the band-wagon? The Rays were an excit-ing, young team; the team that was always “two years away” fi-nally making the jump.

What I’m getting at here is that both the Seahawks and the Mariners are in a decent position to become young, exciting teams in a couple of years. Rele-vance is only a few steps away.

The SeahawksStep #1: Build the foundation.

Michael Crabtree looks pretty in the slot and would probably sell quite a few jerseys, but really? Look at the offen-sive line. Walter Jones is 68 years old.

Mike Wahle was a good investment for attempting to keep Matt Hasselbeck in one piece for a few more years, but he isn’t exactly youthful either. Chris Spencer has been a flop of monumen-tal proportions.

Chris Gray retires after this year and Pork Chop Womack won’t stick around long enough to back up every position on the line and have the designated fat guy nickname. Also, Sean Locklear decided not to pass block this season, making him a prime candidate for the Michael Boulware Memorial “Player

Who Decides Not To Be Promising Anymore” Award.

“But Michael Crabtree! He’s the

best athlete in the draft!” you say. Alright, draft

a receiver. But I hope he can run block, be-cause Julius “Change Of Pace” Jones will produce even less than usual with a line made of cheese-cloth.Step #2: Re-sign key cogs. LeRoy Hill sticks

out to me as a guy we must retain. Julian Peterson is getting

old, and we don’t want to get caught without our OLBs in order. 2010

free agents include Lofa Tatupu and Darryl Tapp - the Hawks should start early on those two, with contract extensions this spring. The Hawks will avoid using the franchise tag, which saves tons of cap space.

Otherwise, we could end up like the Patriots, paying Matt Cassel fourteen

million a year when they could have signed him for one million and a clip-board back in August.Step #3: Draft that franchise quarterback!

Hasselbeck probably has 2 or 3 years left on his arm, but what about his back? Knees?

Don’t get me wrong: if Seneca Wal-lace took a knee (or spiked the ball on third down, you choose) in front of me and proposed marriage, I would seri-ously consider it. But. The man is a good three inches shorter than Nick Foster, and quarterbacks who can’t see over the linemen aren’t great in a West Coast scheme.

Draft a pocket passer to fit in Jim Mora’s ball-control offense and move Seneca to receiver already.Step #4: Get that playmaking, ballhawking, big-hitting, super-athlete safety.

Safeties are the foundations for to-day’s NFL defenses. Just look at the premiere defenses this year. All fea-ture elite safeties, who can play both the run and stop WRs from running past them on deep routes (talking to you, Deon Grant and Brian Russell).Endgame: We win some ball games, hopefully with more flair than the Shaun Alexander “four yards and run out of bounds” Hawks of old.

The MarinersStep #1: Trade Ichiro.

Yes, the Ichiro. He does not fit with the Mariners’ plans for the future, and his trade value is still very high. If the M’s can unload him - perhaps at the next trade deadline - for one or two top prospects, they will have officially started the rebuilding process.

Obviously, there is much to lose by

dealing Ichiro (namely, our fan base). Solution: sign Ken Griffey Jr. and in-stall Jay Buhner, Joey Cora and Edgar Martinez in the coaching staff. Nothing puts butts in seats quite like the old-bring-back-old-fan-favorites gimmick.

Besides, the quality of coaching won’t matter that much; it’s not like we’ll be winning while we rebuild.Step #2: Don’t throw money at expensive free agents.

Don’t do it. Pleeease. Mistakes are meant to be learned from! Besides, money will be necessary down the road for filling in missing pieces. (Griffey would be fine.)Step #3: Learn about the draft’s compensatory pick system.

It’s exciting and can be found on Wikipedia. Long story short, when our good players sign with other teams via free agency, we get mad first round picks out of it. So when the time comes, for goodness’ sake, let Beltre go. (Hint: this is how Billy Beane built the “Mon-eyball” Athletics.)Endgame: Fans go to Safeco Field to actually watch the baseball game in-stead of to enjoy the experience, and the baseball world likes Seattle again.

The decision to punt the present and plan for the future is one that re-quires a charitable owner and a patient fan base that sees the whole picture. So what’s the fans’ job throughout all this?

Stick with your team, no matter what. If people hadn’t stopped coming to KeyArena, Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka would be wearing green and yellow in the 2013 playoffs instead of… whatev-er colors the Thunder decided to steal from the Knicks.

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RHS Daters Speed Date Like Mad

Name: MaggieGrade:

SophomorePick: Dave “Because it seems like it was meant to

be!”

Name: Emily Grade:

SophomorePick: Martin “He plays the guitar and I

really want to

play guitar!”

Name: AndyGrade:

SophomorePick: Emily “She was really nice and it was

easy to have a conversation

with her”

Name: IsabelleGrade: Junior

Pick: Martin “Seems well traveled and plays guitar”

Name: Martin Grade:Senior

Pick: Maggie “She was the most

interesting and the first

to know The Big

Lebowski!”

Name: NoahGrade:

FreshmanPick: Isabelle

“She was interesting

and had good hobbies”

Name: BrittanyGrade:

SophomorePick: Dave Why? We

don’t know, she was

speechless.

As the contestants surveyed the room, they were surprised to find not one, but seven other

people waiting with them. After the participants of

each gender were corralled into chairs on opposite sides of a desk, they were enlightened with the details of this new blind date: it was to be a speed

date. They had 12 minutes, 4 dates and only 3 rules to follow.

Although not all the contestants had their feelings of love reciprocated, true love was born between Maggie and Dave. Both contestants felt a strong connection to each other, and in doing

so became the only match of this blind date speed round. When they were informed of the match, the contestants smiled sheepishly, but showed real chemistry when posing for a photo. As they walked down the hall, back to their respective classrooms, they exchanged witty banter and flirty glances. Who knows what will come of these speed dating soul mates? All Mr. Karlovich had to say was, “thank God I’m married, I don’t have to deal with this crap anymore!”

Eight nervous students filed into the room. Each one looked around suspiciously. Each one carried a Request to Report.Each one would find their soul mate in the next 12 minutes.

••••

Name: Dave Grade:Junior

Pick: Maggie “She was

the best one because we

had a normal conversation...

kinda”

Isabelle: “I play basketball for Roosevelt.”Andy: “Oh! Are we pretty good?”Isabelle: “Uhh, no…”

Girl: “How was your winter break?”Guy: “It was okay, but I had my wisdom teeth pulled and I threw up a lot.”Girl: “Oh that’s okay! I throw up like every day!”

Dave: “So what movies do you like?”Emily: “I really like…”Dave: “Just don’t say Twilight!”

The Rules:

1) You must talk to the person across from you for three minutes. During this time you must ask them what their favorite movie is and what their hobbies are.

2) You may not see the person across from you, or anyone of the opposite gender. You may not ask them their name, but you can ask them what their number is.

3) After you have talked to everyone, you will be asked to turn in your selection for your favorite partner. Write your name and their number, along with a reason why you chose this person, on a piece of paper and give it to the blind date officials.

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Emily Shugerman & Elaine Colligan

Staff Reporters

AFebruary

The RoosevelT NewsARTs & eNTeRTAiNMeNT

25

While everyone else is bundling up and trudging through the snow this winter, the world’s top

fashion designers congregated in Milan, Paris, Lon-

don and New York to show off their collections for… spring. That’s right – it’s time to get ready for a whole new season of styles and trends. Don’t worry though,

this guide will give you a leg up on the newest looks for spring and how you can pull them off.

Big Belts~Runway~

Big, bold belts made a statement on runways across the globe. These ver-satile accessories were seen wrapped around everything from dresses to sweaters, and helped provide a stream-lined shape. Designers such as Marc Jacobs used them extensively in their collections, making them the season’s must have accessory. Take a tip from the designers and don’t be afraid to go big.

~Roosevelt~

This accessory transitions easily off the runway to everyday wear, as junior Jessa shows here. The clever addition of a chunky belt over the checked top adds a fashionable flair to the outfit, and chinches in the otherwise bulky top. You can also use belts to put an up-to-date spin on last season’s fash-ions, saving you money!

Polka Dots~Runway~

Polka dots are making a comeback this season. During Fashion Week, design-ers paid attention to scale - the size of each dot can dress up or down any outfit. Designers also paired them with other prints. As seen above on a Chris-tian Lacroix model, combining a piece with large dots and a piece with small dots makes for a busy but sophisticat-ed look.

~Roosevelt~

Sophomore Mia, below, gracefully mod-els a polka-dot dress. The blocky shape and high neckline of this shift-dress are reminiscent of the sixties, and the conservative cut makes the childish print seem more grown-up but still summery,

Mixing Prints ~Runway~

Designers mixed it up this season by putting together pieces with all differ-ent patterns. The result? An effortless “I just threw this together” look that still packs a punch. The look was seen all over runways this season, from Badgley Mischka to Chloe. Patterns ranged from small polka dots to big, flashy flowers.

~Roosevelt~

Roosevelt sophomore Celia wears this look bravely with a brightly patterned top and skirt. The key to pulling off dy-namic pairings such as this is to have one unifying color that is present in both pieces. For those not as daring, you could try wearing a patterned skirt or top with a patterned accessory, such as a scarf. This look is sure to get you noticed in all the right ways.

Pleats ~Runway~

If worn correctly, pleats are very flat-tering - no wonder Versace decided to feature them in their spring fashion show. Be careful when you try this trend at home, though- pleats are tricky because the cut of a pleated skirt can add pounds to your frame.

~Roosevelt~

What to do? Imitate the cut seen above with a fabric that flows loosely from the torso, somewhere between the waist and ribs. A perfect example of this look is worn by freshman Gillian, below. The pleats on the skirt draw attention to her waist and legs. Matching them with calf high boots and stockings adds warmth during the chilly early Seattle spring months.

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Roosevelt’s 2009 Fashion Runway

AFebruary

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There Is Ink In The Halls Of RHSFor most RHS students gaining independence, graduating, and turning that magical age of eighteen is a long way off. But some Roosevelt seniors decided to celebrate their new-found adulthood by getting a tattoo. Parents usually try to

brainwash their children into believing that tat-toos are not the ‘cool’ thing to get, but these daring seniors have gained the kind of respect only a few students at Roosevelt are able to achieve. The follow-ing students decided to be the first of their kind at RHS to get tattooed and The Roosevelt News wanted to inves-tigate their stories.

Yasi Firoozi~Two Mystical Birds~

As a birthday present to herself Yasi de-cided to get a a pair of birds tatooed on her back. The entire tattoo took over four hours to complete.

Yasi described getting the tattoo as an ex-treme painful experience which sent sharp jolts down her arms. But Yasi also said “the experience was liberating,” and she “might even consider getting another tattoo in the future.” She figured that going all out was much better than getting tiny tattoos some-where on her body.

Yasi was adventurous with her tattoo be-cause her tattoo artist only draws free hand,”I didn’t even know what the tattoo would look like until after I got it” Yasi said.” Scary.

Karis Anderson~A bird with her sister’s name~Karis has always had a special bond with

her sister, Natalie, and, unlike most siblings, the pair have become best friends. When Karis made the decision to get a tattoo she knew that her sister’s name needed to be in-cluded in the design. Karis claims she could have gotten a tattoo before she turned 18, but wanted to wait until her birthday.

“Originally Natalie and I made a deal to get tattoos of each other’s names, but she was too scared,” Karis explained. Even though her sister never found the courage to get a tattoo, Karis is still glad about her own de-cision, “I feel the tattoo shows how much I care about my sister and it represents the special connection we share”.

Meg Burgess-Hull~Stars~

Ever since Meg can remember she has been drawing stars on her body. So when she turned 18 getting a tattoo of stars was obvious. At first she got some stars on her ankle, but that wasn’t enough. She sched-uled a second procedure where she got more stars tattooed on her hip flexor. “The second time was definitely more painful than the first,” Meg said when she described getting the tattoo. ”I even got a little teary eyed.”

But why stars? Meg’s response is very in-telligent. She has always believed stars have a lot of meaning and they can be interpreted in many ways. Stars also help guide people through their problems and are used for ori-

entation.

Bridget ReardonStaff Reporter

If you haven’t heard of Paul Baribeau yet, picking up his albums should go to the top of your to- do list. His new self-titled album is load-ed with an assortment of tracks, all of which make great listening. “Tablecloth”, “Jordan” and “Things I Don’t Do” feature nothing but Ba-ribeau’s scratchy voice. Listening to nothing but raw lyrics can take some getting used to, but after a few listens it is easy to get hooked.

If you are more into cutsie love songs, there are tracks on the album for you too. “Strawber-ry” is short and sweet, guaranteed to make you tear up on t h e first lis-ten. “Blue Eyes” is the per-fect Paul B a r i -b e a u s o n g , t h e g u i -tar is n o t t o o complicated, but the lyrics and the melody have depth that is unexpected and beau-

tiful.Baribeau’s lyrics are

chock full of emotion, but the songs are easy lis-tening. The twang of his guitar can be enjoyable for in-depth listening or just as background

music.Paul Ba-

ribeau is a great art-ist who has

been record-ing for a re-

ally long time, and if you are

up for some-thing a little

different, you should definitely

give him a listen.

Fab or Flop; Paul Baribeau’s Self Titled Album Carolina Reid

Staff Reporter

One can imagine that Paul Baribeau prob-ably just buttoned the top button of his flan-nel shirt, smoked his tenth cigarette, and re-moved chunks of tofu from his untidy beard, before recording this al-bum. Nonetheless, this self-titled release is just what any listener needs to plaster a smile on their face for the rest of the day. It’s the combi-nation of acoustic gui-tar and smooth vocals (with the implied rasp of a chain-smoker) that

drives the album. This simple mixture makes for a commitment-free listen. By using only one i n s t r u m e n t , B a r i -

beau is l e f t with little room for variation in the sound of his songs. Because of this, you have to hear

the album several times before you are able to actually identify each track. Lyrics-wise, how-ever, each track is load-ed with supreme analo-gies and fantastic quips of advice. “Strawberry” complicates beauty and reveals a probable crush, while the stac-cato strokes of “Brown Brown Brown” have a stronger pleading feeling. If you can’t manage to fly to the Midwest to catch a

live performance of Paul Baribeau, you’ll just have to keep your eyes open for a secret perfor-mance in some rundown basement in a neighbor-hood in Seattle.

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Andrew Sahl

Staff Reporter

AFebruary

The RoosevelT NewsARTs & eNTeRTAiNMeNT

27

Taylor Cross-WhiterCopy Editor

Award season is upon us and the highlight of the season, the 81st Academy Awards, is less then a

month away. The ceremony is the biggest night in Hollywood and this year promises to be extremely nail-biting since 2008 produced some truly great contenders for the little golden statues. While Hollywood counts down the days until the glitzy

star-filled event, The Roosevelt News decided to put our two-cents in and bring you our predictions for who will win this year’s most prestigious awards in the world of acting.

This may be one of the most contested categories in the Oscar race this year and the Academy has many fine cinematic works to choose from, but perhaps the strongest contender is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Brad Pitt stars in this buzzed about film as a man who ages in reverse (i.e. he gets younger every day). This poignant film has generated wide critical acclaim and seems like a logical pick for Best Picture. However, after its success at this year’s Golden Globes, Slumdog Millionaire shouldn’t be disregarded either.

Best Actor Sean Penn for Milk

Sean Penn’s portrayal of Harvey Milk, who was California’s first openly gay man to win public office, has received rave reviews by most critics and it seems likely that he will pick up his second Oscar for his lead role in the tragic real life drama of Milk.

Best Actress Meryl Streep for Doubt

Meryl Streep has done it (again) in the much-talked about film Doubt, in which she plays a nun who accuses a priest of molesting a young boy. Streep is universally regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation and it would be surprising if she didn’t win another Best Actress Award for her role in this electrifying drama.

Best Supporting Actor Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight

While many might claim that Heath Ledger’s tragic death is the only reason he’s become part of the Oscar buzz, no one can deny that his performance in The Dark Knight is anything but outstanding. He haunts the audience with his portrayal of The Joker and it seems likely that he will win an Oscar nod for his work in perhaps the biggest movie of 2008.

Best Supporting Actress Penélope Cruz for Vicky Christina Barcelona

Vicky Christina Barcelona is considered one of Woody Allan’s best films in recent years and Penélope Cruz’s performance as the unstable ex-wife of one of the main characters was praised by many critics. In 2007 Cruz was nominated for a Best Actress Award for her role in Volver but she lost out to Helen Mirren, so this could be the year she finally takes home the Oscar gold.

Best Director Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon

This film adaption of a play by Peter Morgan dramatizes the now infamous interviews English television presenter David Frost gave to the disgraced former President of the United States, Richard Nixon. The film’s director, Ron Howard, won Best Director in 2001 for A Beautiful Mind, and, judging by the critical acclaim which has surrounded Frost/Nixon, it seems likely he will repeat his success this year.

RHS News 2009 Oscar Predictions

Best PictureThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button

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Your Monthly Mix of

Enhancements for Jaunty Roughriders

Roosevelt High School

1410 NE 66th Street

Seattle, Washington 98115

1.Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s name literally translates to “Ed Smith.”

2.To date, SkyMall has sold $18.95 worth of merchandise.

3.One inch of rain equates to 36 inches of snow.

4.The Chicago Cubs briefly signed a black bear to a minor league contract. He went 1 for 8 for their AA affiliate.

5.Albert Einstein was the first to coin the phrase “bro’s before hoes.” He wasn’t much of a gar-dener.

This issue was MANufactured entirely on tightly woven male chest hair.

testosterone & hormonesFun “Facts”Man Crossword

Comic of the Month

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Puff ’S firSt Birthday

Got Talent?A sign up list for

The Roosevelt News sponsored Talent Show is waiting

outside room 235.

Put your name down today!

Across3.Men make up 80% of this group in Amer-ica.5.Generally bigger in men; weighs more than fat.7.The second man to visit the moon.8.Most men have two of these.10.Hair below the lip.12.A man who could easily win Fear Fac-tor.13.A body part; the bigger, the deeper.

Down1.An organ unique to the male body.2.The animal in which the males are impregnated.4.Men can’t live without them, can’t live with them. 6.He can slam a revolving door.9.A position only men can hold (no sexism intended).11.Part of the body where hair is often found.

February 2009

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