Day: October 17, 2010

Guy Fawkes Night

YourcupateaLeave a comment

Yes, it’s to early to be talking about the English celebration of Guy Fawkes Night, but surprisingly the celebrations have already begun.

“Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot”

The event is held primarily to celebrate the failure of the gunpowder plot.  The gunpowder plot took place in 17th century London. It consisted of a group of catholic conspirators planning to combust the House of Parliament, bringing down the English government and killing King James I.

The aim of the conspirators was not just to ruin the government but also to restore the country to Catholicism. Unluckily for them they were caught in the act and executed. The leader was said to be Guy Fawkes hence Guy Fawkes Night.

Read More »

The Mole People

vabenissimo2 Comments

Whenever I get on the subway in New York, I immediately and nervously position myself in front of a window with a hope of observing Mole People.

These people are quite different from other homeless ones: they live in abandoned subway stations under major cities. Surprisingly, this population includes a mixture of lawyers, doctors, and other people of highly respected professions.

But just why would such affluent people join this society? This question lingered in my head for years. My current best answer relates to the madness of the big cities.

Read More »

Mutants

yourgingerkidLeave a comment

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend or two while walking down the big hill to sports and it was pointed out how odd I am. As a ginger, I have blue eyes, and apparently that makes me rare.

As a child I’d always look as my parents as the people that created me, thus only having their traits. My dad had strawberry blonde hair and my mom had very dark, vibrant red hair, but I have an orangish tint in between. My mom had green eyes and my dad had grey eyes, but I have blue eyes. My my dad was 6’ft and my mom was 5’10, but I am 5’6. It never occured to me how odd my combination of traits were.

That makes me prefectly average when it comes to most everything but very strange when it comes to my eyes, hair, and skin. Here’s a statstic for it. 78.3% of red heads have green eyes. Hurray for be a mutant!

A.P.E.S. Goes Ape

sennymcflyLeave a comment

Last week the AP Environmental Science class took a 5 hour journey across to the Owens Valley. The trip was specifically meant to teach us about water and its own journey from the Owens Valley River into L.A.’s water system. We saw the river, we saw Mono Lake, we saw the aquaducts, but one thing that caught my eye out of all the things we learned was the relocation camp known to us as Manzanar.

In the early 40’s America was faced with yet another war which led to a nationwide paranoia. So, as a result we decided to avoid “danger” and contain all Japanese people – citizens and non-citizens of the U.S. – in one area (in several different states). It was a relocation camp. President Franklin D. Roosevelt argued that this “cleansing” was justified because the government  would go about establishing the evacuation using “the American way”. We all know that that was just a euphemism for “we won’t kill them”….(unless of course they don’t follow our rules). Three cheers for the American way!

In the end, a trip that started out as an informative, water discovery, week-long, field trip turned into a heart breaking, mind changing, discovery of ourselves and our history.  Thank you Mr. Wickenhaeuser and thank you Ms. Davis for that amazing – and amusing – camping trip.