The Candy Cane Story by Kale Cunningham

The candy cane is one of the favorite candies of Christmas. It goes on the Christmas tree beautifully, and it has a jolly mint-flavored taste. Here's its story:

In 1670, the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany handed out sugar sticks to his young singers to keep them quiet during a long ceremony. 

He made them just for that - the guy didn’t even know what he had made! 

In Indiana, a candy maker wanted to make a candy that could be a reminder of Jesus, so he made the Christmas candy cane. He started off with a stick of pure white hard candy. The white color symbolized the virgin birth and the nature of Jesus, and the hard candy symbolized the solid rock which was the foundation of the church, and firmness of the promises of God. The candy maker made the candy in the form of a J, which represented the name of Jesus. And so the candy cane was born. 

Today the candy cane is the one of the most liked candies in America. And, of course, it looks great on your Christmas tree.   

Run Run The Fox by Kale Cunningham

Puppys are so cute!  They run around and play. But something is strange about a family’s puppy in Lima, Peru. 

“Run Run” the “puppy” was adopted by a family in Lima, which seems like a nice happy story. He played with all the other dogs and ran around everywhere. Typical for a sweet thing like Run Run. 

But as he got older, Run Run started acting strange; he started hunting ducks and chickens. And eating Guinea Pigs.  But not only did he start acting a little bit “foxy,” he also seemed to turn into a strange dog that looked a lot like a fox.

The family soon realized that Run Run was no dog, he was Andean Fox!

Before the family could decide what to do next, “Run Run” ran away! The family tracked him down along with Servicio Nacional Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre (SERFOR - the Peruvian national forestry service) and was put into a zoo in Lima.  SERFOR says the people who sold Run Run to the family will be facing charges, which if convicted, could see them serve a prison sentence of up to five years. 

Source: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/family-discovers-puppy-bought-fox-230832918.html

Image Source: flickr

Minecraft Live by Chei Kang

On October 18th, 2021, Minecraft Live went live on Youtube.

Minecraft Live is an annual live event where the Minecraft developers talk about upcoming updates, the mob vote, and much more. 

Before the world pandemic hit, the event was in-person in different places around the world. It used to be called ‘Minecon’.

The most exciting part of the show is probably the mob vote. A ‘mob’ is any living creature in Minecraft, such as wolves or creepers. People can vote a mob they would like to be added into the game out of three mob choices.

This year were the Glare, Allay, and the Copper Golem.

1. Glare

The glare looks like a grumpy lettuce to be honest. This unique mob was shown at the Minecraft official YouTube page that it can detect dark spots hostile mobs can spawn in. This was the first mob to be introduced to people and ended up being the least voted mob.

2. Copper Golem

The Copper Golem is very interesting. It is somewhat a variant of the existing mob Iron Golem, but smaller and it has unique characteristics. This golem was shown to be able to fiddle with redstone components and eventually oxidize and become a statue. I personally rooted for this one.

3. Allay

The Allay was the last mob to be introduced and it was shown to be a little light blue fairy-like creature. When given an item from a player, it will go around searching for matching items. When it finds some, it will drop it off near a noteblock (it likes music) or the player. Many players misunderstood this as the Allay having the ability to duplicate items, but that is not the case.

The Allay ended up winning the vote this year and was announced to be added into the game in the 1.19 Wild Update. But this doesn’t mean the other mobs can’t be added! They still have the chance to be added in later updates if Mojang decides to do so.

Website source: Washington Post

Image source: Minedadia

10 Cheesy Halloween Jokes by Katherine Savitski

Although Halloween is a night for creepy costumes, scary tricks, and delicious candy, you might want to spice it up, and add some humor to your spooktacular night with these 10 jokes, made by me, Katherine Savitski. They might be bad, but isn’t that what Halloween is all about? Bad and scary monsters?

Q.1        Why did the skeleton cross the street?

A.1.       To go to Bones and Noble.

Q.2.      What did the zombie eat for dinner?

A.2.      Spookghetti!

Q.3.      What did the zombie kangaroo throw into a tree?

A.4.      A boomerang!

Q.4       What did Archimedes say on October 31st?

A.5.      Eurshrieka!

Q.5.      Why is it so hard to come up with Halloween jokes?

A.5.      I don’t know, it’s just tricky.

Q.6.      What did the vampire eat for dessert?

A.6.      Bite sized cupcakes.

Q.7.      What did the werewolf teacher ask his colleague after a test?

A.7.      Howl will I ever grade all these papers?

Q.8.      What did the mummy manager tell it’s band?

A.8.      Come on guys, let’s wrap this rehearsal up. We have a concert soon!

Q.9.      What did the scarecrow zombie from The Wizard Of Oz tell Dorothy?

A.9.      If I only had a brain- to eat!`

Q.10.    What was the most popular vampire children's book?

A.10.    The Day The Crayons Bit!

Insecurities by Anna Long

I know for a fact that almost everybody has an insecurity. It may be about your body, the way you dress, the way your voice sounds, the list goes on. I know everybody is insecure about something and that sometimes is kind of weird to hear because you may see someone who you think is perfect and think they could never be insecure, but even they are. I know that I can relate that to me because I feel I am very insecure and that is pretty hard to talk about. I see people who I think are perfect and when they tell me they are insecure I feel almost angry. Angry that they don’t like the way they look when I’m there wishing I were them. 

The same thing is present for social media. You could see someone on Instagram and think, Wow they probably are never wishing they looked different, but that is the toxic thing about it. They are insecure and they may feel happy with all the, “Oh, you can’t be insecure! You're so pretty!”  But sometimes there are people saying, “Why are you insecure? You just want attention” Also for Tik Tok, there may not be things that make you feel insecure, but there are lots of “body positive” videos. Seeing those can sometimes feel good, but for me, I get jealous when someone skinny makes videos saying, “All bodys are perfect! Never be insecure!” The first thing I think of is, Easy for you to say. 

So all I’m saying is you can be insecure. No matter who you are, everybody has those feelings, but when you have those insecurities stop thinking no one will like you because I can tell you at least one person wants to be you.

The Best Christmas Stuff by Kyana Burrage

In my opinion Christmas is the best Holiday because of the decor, movies and music.

For classic decor, wreaths ary a very popular decoration that has been a tradition for lots of families throughout . Most wreath decorations are pine leaves with a bow and ornaments of some kind. Most people put wreaths on their front door, or a wall. Another classic decoration is Christmas lights. Many put them on a Christmas tree or outside on their lawn or roof. 

Next we are going to talk about Christmas movies. Some classic christmas movies are: Christmas With the Kranks, The Christmas Story, Home Alone, Nightmare Before Christmas, Mickey's Once upon a Christmas, The Grinch, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and SOOO many more.

Finally, how about Christmas MUSIC. One of the best songs (in my opinion) is Rockin Around The Christmas Tree, or Run, Run Rudolph. Christmas is an AMAZING holiday if you ask me, now go find your true Christmas things to love.  

Troops Withdraw from Afghanistan by Michael Maruzak

After 20 years at war due to the events of September 11, 2001, President Joe Biden withdrew the last 14,000 troops out of Afghanistan.

On August 30, the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan, but a week after the withdrawal the Taliban, which is the terrorist group the United States were fighting, took over Afghanistan in a week. And there is a difference between the Afghanistan army and the Taliban. The Afghanistan army was trained by the United States.  And the Taliban is a rebel group harming the civilians that live in Afghanistan. Due to lack of food and supplies the Afghanistan army was not able to keep the conflict going and lost the territory.

Here is an NPR article you can listen to and follow and along and read too.

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/20/1029451594/the-afghan-army-collapsed-in-days-here-are-the-reasons-why

TikTok Challenge Thoughts by Ani Aghakhanyan

Tiktok is one of the most popular social media platforms right now. A lot of kids and adults use that app. TikTok says 1 billion people use the app each month.

And one of the things that stands out about it is that there are new trends and challenges almost every day, like dances, food making, arts and crafts, and singing challenges. 

But the one challenge that has been occurring a lot lately is the “Devious Lick Challenge.” It’s when kids damage or steal school property like lockers, water fountains, toilets (I don't even know how people manage to steal that!), etc. 

While some people see it as a bit funny,  it's also pretty serious. Imagine if someone needs to go to the bathroom really badly only to find out that the toilet is missing. 

The school already paid a lot of money for lockers, toilets, sinks, etc., as well as having to spend for things such as school supplies and books, so they can't use it all on repairing sinks.

Students in some schools have gotten so out of hand that they minimized the time allowed in the bathroom to seven minutes, which is still a lot of time to use the bathroom, but not enough to rip a  toilet off the ground. 

As for the lockers, well, what's the point of an actual lock if you can just rip the door off? That would be even worse if it was someone else's, and not yours .

From a headline off of Google News: “Devious Liks TikTok challenge: 6 arrested, 2 more caught, thousands of dollars worth of damage to Marion County schools”.

Headlines like this show that the “Devious Licks” challenge is definitely getting out of hand. And it's definitely getting more serious if people are getting arrested for it. 

The Pink Tax by Paula Engel-Herbert & Madeleine Ko

Cartoon created by Callista Murray-Wright

What is the Pink Tax?

Have you ever walked into a store and found two products, one for men the other for women? When the price for the men's product is $5.84 while the one for women is $6.84?  This is the pink tax where women on average have to pay more for being a woman, even if they're buying the same thing!

This Pink Tax is not necessarily a tax but rather a system of discriminatory pricing on products based on gender or color. The Pink Tax costs the average woman over $1.3k a year and impacts all aspects of daily life from shopping for necessities to even dry cleaning. This is  because a few years ago, there wasn’t equality between men and women. Men were valued more than women.

 One of the most accurate product comparisons are merchandise of similar quality from the same company and in these comparisons, gender bias is prevalent among many top clothing stores. For example, the average cost of a woman’s pair of jeans at one popular retailer is $62.75 while the same jeans ment for men at the same store cost $57.09 a 10 percent price increase for the woman just because of the pink tax. 

Depending on where she lives and by the place you work, by the time a woman turns 30, she will have paid about $15,600 dollars more for the same products!( this is counting from the average amount paid more per year, starting at age 18.) And, if this wasn't enough, the wage gap between men and women is so big it will take over 100 years to fix it! 

Sources

New York City Department of Consumer Affairs

Study of Gender Pricing NYC

Why Do Leaves Turn Colors In Autumn? by Kale Cunningham

As it turns to autumn the tree's leaves turn different colors but why?

As the air becomes more chilly the trees know that soon the sun will disappear so they hibernate like bears. They don’t try to soak up sunlight, they stop all procedures. And the leaves are connected to the trees. They need photosynthesis and water from their tree. When the tree stops doing all the things the leaves need, the leaves start to die. First their green color starts to drain out, then they turn a yellowish and reddish color to show they’re dying, then they pop off the trees and fall to the ground. Slowly they turn a brownish color. Over the next three years, the leaves will slowly turn to soil. 

Nature's helpful advantages

The leaves can be helpful in many different situations. Many animals can use them as cover or a place to hide. The red fox uses the leaves to hunt. Mice, rats and voles also use the leaves to hide if something is after them.        

When do the Leaves fall? You may think the “Fall”

But what's the range? The leaves will start to turn different colors in mid September. Then fall in late September to mid October. By late October/early November they turn to a brownish color and crumple up.

Source: Nature.com

For more information please visit

https://www.britannica.com/science/leaf-plant-anatomy