■ Writing/drawing prompt responses ■ Story illustrations ▲ Anna Downy Bethel Christian School, fourth grade ▲ Nelson Vera Wilson Middle School, sixth grade ▲ Elda Alicusic Perry School, second grade ▲ Nylejhia Jones Wayne School, fifth grade ▲ Ripley Blair Wattsburg Elementary Center, fourth grade ▲ Matthew Jewell Luther Memorial Academy, sixth grade ✄ Clip and save to create your very own book. ✄ Send us your writings: [email protected] Please send artwork to: Erie Times-News in Education 205 W. 12th St., Erie, PA 16534 All artwork should be in color and on 8 1 ⁄2-by-11-inch plain white paper. Be sure to include your name, school, grade and teacher’s name on the back of your submission! Each night the family is eating dinner together and traveling to some amazing locations, magi- cally. Last night they visited New Orleans during Mardi Gras and they learned the origin of gum- bo. They can’t wait to see where they’re going next. W hen Mom called out, “Game Night!” the next evening, every- one was confused. What did she mean? Wasn’t it dinnertime? But once they entered the kitchen, it was obvious to ev- eryone that she wasn’t kidding. There were lots of cards placed on the kitchen table and no food in sight. And no silverware. They sat down. Mom taught everyone how to play poker and casino and gin rummy. “Mom, I didn’t know you could play cards,” Joseph said. “My grandfather taught me all kinds of games,” Mom said. “We’d play all the time. He didn’t talk much, but he was a great teacher when it came to card games. I loved playing with him.” “How come you never taught us?” Jamie asked. “I wanted to, but you guys said you played solitaire on your computers and that was the only card game you want- ed to learn,” Mom answered, sadly. “But this is so much more fun,” Joseph said, as he placed his last card face down on the pile and announced loudly, “Gin! I win!” “It is fun playing together, but what’s going on?” Todd wanted to know. “Cards instead of food?” “Card games can lead to food,” Mom said. “They have before. Just look over there.” And they did. Jamie, Todd, Joseph, and Dad looked into the corner of the kitchen — or what they thought was the corner of their kitchen. Sud- denly it seemed as if they were in some kind of tavern. There were lots of men playing cards. “Boy, I’m exceedingly hungry, bring me some food,” one of the men called out to Joseph gruffly. “Me?” Joseph asked, pointing to himself and looking around to see if the man could have been talking to someone stand- ing behind him. “You there, boy,” the main said impatiently. “Bring me some food.” Joseph glanced around and saw a plate of meat and potatoes on a nearby table. He picked it up and hurriedly walked over to the man and placed the plate down in front of him. “Boy, do you not have eyes?” the man demanded. “Can you not see that my hands are oc- cupied?” In fact, Joseph could see that the man’s hands were occupied. He was holding a hand of cards and clearly was involved in a game with several other men. He just didn’t know what the insistent gentleman wanted him to do about it. “Can you not bring me some- thing with which to hold the food?” the man asked. “I don’t want to get meat grease all over the cards. It might bring bad luck.” Joseph looked around, but all he saw was a plate of bread. He noticed that Milton was bark- ing wildly and running circles around the plate of bread. The card-playing man was ex- asperated. He ordered Joseph to quiet the barking dog. “Why is that animal making so much noise?” the man de- manded to know. “He’s ruining my card concentration.” But he looked at Milton and then at the plate of bread, and his face lit up. He appeared to have developed an idea. Jo- seph’s family could almost see the light bulb illuminated over his head. “Here, boy, bring me two slices of that bread,” he called out. Joseph brought the plate of bread to him and handed him two thick slices. With that, the man picked up the bread and a piece of roast beef and placed the meat between the bread slices. “Now that’s better,” the man remarked, satisfied. “Now I can hold my meal and play my game without getting my hands dirty.” Joseph walked back to the family, grumbling about being hungry himself and not liking the rude way the man spoke to him. “I’d watch my tongue if I were you,” a man said as he walked by. “You don’t want to insult John Montagu,” he said as he pointed to the man Joseph had just served. “He’s a nobleman here in England, with a title and every- thing.” “Title?” Joseph asked. “I’ll tell you what his title should be — rude!” “Well that’s not his title at all,” the man said. “He’s the Earl of Sandwich.” “That explains a lot,” Dad said, as he pointed to the Earl, passing his newly invented “sandwich” around the card table. “So, I guess it’s good that Mon- tagu didn’t come from a place called Glockenshplitz, because ordering a tuna glockenshplitz on toast doesn’t sound so good,” joked Todd. “And the funny thing is,” said Dad, “that Montagu wasn’t even from Sandwich. He was re- ally from another English town, Portsmouth. His family got the Sandwich title because the first Earl in the family was the leader of a fleet of ships off the coast of Sandwich. They gave him that title to honor his lead- ership. I wrote an article about him once.” “I wish I had a title,” said Todd. “What do you want to be called?” asked Jamie. “Soccer King,” answered Todd. “The way you play, you’d be lucky to be called Soccer Court Jester,” said Joseph. “Gin rummy,” said Mom as she placed her last card face down on the dinner table. “Fin- ish your ‘glockenshplitzes’ and get started on your homework, please, so you can get to bed early. You’re going to need to rest up for tomorrow’s ‘egg-cite- ment.’” © Hot Topics Hot Serials 2007 Next week: Chapter 10: Africa Awaits The Magical Dinner Table — Chapter 9: Sandwich Stories Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Follow each new chapter as it unravels in our serial story, while enjoying student responses and artwork. “I would like to go to Italy to celebrate Saint Paul’s Festival. I heard that during the Saint Paul’s Festival, they sell Italian pastries, go to church, and have a good time. I would like to go with my grandma, dad and sister, because they are Italian, too.” — Sophia Lehman, sixth grade, Wilson Middle School “I would like to go to Florida because I have family living there, and I would like to cele- brate with them. It is a lot warmer there than Erie. I would take my parents and siblings.” — Elvis Gordillo, sixth grade, Wilson Middle School “I’d like to go to Florida. 1. It is warm. 2. I’d like to go to Disney World, because they have a holi- day special where they do lots of fun parades. I would go with my family.” — Vanessa Williams, fifth grade, Bethel Christian School “I would like to go to Florida because it’s cold here, and in Florida it is warm! I would like to go with my family. And we need to drive almost two days. I’d love to go to Florida.” — Jenna Sadchikov, fifth grade, Bethel Christian School “I would go to the First Thanks- giving because it would be cool to sit with the Pilgrims. It would be great to eat the first turkey ever. I would like to talk to the Indi- ans and Pilgrims.” — Ryan Miller, fourth grade, Wattsburg Elementary Center “I would go to the North Pole to have Christmas with the pen- guins and elves. I would take a lot of art supplies so that I could make bowties for the penguins.” — Hannah Devine, fourth grade, Wattsburg Elementary Center “I would go to Rio de Janeiro. I would go there for Carnival. I would take my family and some friends. I would enjoy the fes- tivities and the warm weather.” — Jameel Anderson, sixth grade, Luther Memorial Academy “I would go to Russia because I would like to know what it’s like there during Christmas. How do they celebrate? Do they cel- ebrate at all? My sister and my mom would go with me because they probably could speak Rus- sian better than I.” — Ammiela Agayev, sixth grade, Luther Memo- rial Academy “I would rather stay home than travel somewhere else. To me, family is the most important thing in my life. I would enjoy staying home, relaxing with my family than going to some big city or across the world. During Christ- mastime my family that I don’t get to see often comes up to visit. I go to family gatherings and love to just spend time with my family. To me, Christmas is about being with your family and celebrating the true meaning of Christmas.” — Kaylee Mulligan, seventh grade, Saegertown Jr./Sr. High School Chapter 8 discussion: Where would you visit during the holidays? This page brought to you by: Questions: The newspaper itself is a fairly important invention to the entire world. Think about how our lives and our society would be dif- ferent if we didn’t have the Erie Times-News in our community. Write a few sentences giving your opinion about the value of newspapers. Why is it important to you and your family? Your school? Artwork: Invent something! Think about things you do every day that might sometimes take more time than you want to spend doing them (homework, chores, etc.). Use your imagination to create a machine that would do that job for you. Draw a picture to illustrate your ideas. Responses:Send student responses to us! Material must be received by Dec. 5, to be published in the newspaper. Extra! Extra! Write all about it! By DEBBY CARROLL Illustration by ROEL WIELINGA The sandwich is a pretty terrific and often-used invention.You have probably made use of that invention many times. What other inventions do you think are really important in your life? Find examples of at least five great inventions in today’s Erie Times-News. Give a reason why each one is important to you. NEWSPAPER ACTIVITY Teachers: Get more online! Visit the Erie Times-News in Education website at NIE. GoErie.com to find lesson plans, classroom activities and student artwork and writing. Monday, November 24, 2014 | Erie Times-News | GoErie.com | 3D