Edison High School 21400 Magnolia St. Huntington Beach, CA714-962-1356

THE VOICE OF THE STUDENT

Est. 2006 Volume IV Issue V 20 February 2010

Talent Show a SuccessBY: ASHLEY SHINER, GUEST WRITER

he district-wide talent show held on February 9th at Hun-

tington Beach High School’s Auditorium was defi nitely a suc-cess. Several Edison students performed a wide variety of acts including musical performances, break dancing, and dog tricks. Adam Black and Brandon Nguy-en performed an acoustic gui-tar duet of an original song they wrote called “At Loose Ends”, easily winning over the females in the audience. Edison’s own break dancing group, “What the Funk” (including Brandon Lee, Duy Truong, Ryan Almiranez,

Students Take Part in District Talent Show

mom Stacy, showed off the tal-ents of her dogs Sketch and Flash as they caught fl ying frisbees and did other remarkable tricks. It was clear that the audience enjoyed this

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Andy Vu, Kevin Tran, Josh Chang, and Harrison Okine), showed off their impressive moves, all in matching attire as their slick atti-tudes wowed the audience. Also, Kirbey McIlven, along with her

Valentine’s Day Around the WorldBY: OLIVIA HAYWARD, STAFF WRITER

very year on Feb-ruary 14, couples

all over the world show their appreciation for one another by buy-ing millions of dollars of chocolates, fl ow-ers, jewelry, and other tokens of affection. This day is celebrated throughout the modern world, but the tradition is anything but new. So how did this special day come about? The roots of Valentine’s Day can be

traced back to ancient Rome dur-ing the fertility festival of Luper-calia, which honored the Roman goddess of women, Juno. The as-

sociation with love be-gan when the young women placed put their names into a jar for boys to draw from and select their “date” to the festival. Many of these young lov-ers spent the whole year together until the next festival, and

some even ended up married. St. Valentine’s contribution to this day’s name came when he defi ed

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Semiformal Snowball: A Snowy Success

BY: ERICA GLEASON, EDITOR IN CHIEF

espite early concerns about low ticket sales, Edison’s 2010 Win-

ter Formal Dance, held on Saturday, February 6 at the Seacliff Country

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Inside This EditionLanguage of Love -2-International Week -4-Lunar New Year -5-Sprinkles -5-Winter Sports Update -6-Belcher Interview -7-

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The BoltInternational

TALENT SHOW FROM (FRONT PAGE)act, impressed by the abilities of both dogs and trainers alike. In the second act of the show, students from our school as well as HBHS (Alyssa Bailey, Delaney Overton, Anthony Grisham, Austin Myers, and Jared Wilcox) performed the classic “All Right Now” as the band “Rock Brigade”. It was nice to see a few girls rock out for a change, and they did an excel-lent job entertaining the crowd. In the end, Ocean View’s James

Kim won the $300 prize, as well as love from the audience and judges as everyone went crazy for his beat boxing. Some fa-vorite parts of his act were daft punk’s “Harder, Better, Fast-er, Stronger” as well as Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow”. Due to the district-wide talent show’s great success, HBHS and APA have decided to make this an annual event. So make sure you sign up for it next year -- you could win $300!

impress that special some-one during this season of love. So if you are trying to catch the attention of that cutie sit-ting across from you, why not use a few words from this lan-guage of love? Here are somepossibilities to get you started:

Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?

BY : MEGHAN CASS, STAFF WRITER

nown by many as the lan-guage of love, French is full of

romantic phrases that are sure to

Je t’aime. --- I love you. Je t’adore.--- I adore you.Tu es ma joie de vivre --- You are the joy of my life.Tu es magnifi que! --- You are amazing!J’veux etre avec toi --- I want to be with you.Tendres baisers -- -Love and kisses

Or you could even step up your game by asking ques-tions that will be sure to get a positive answer, such as:Voulez-vous danser avec moi? --- Would you like to dance with me?On va chez toi ou chez moi? --- Your place or mine?Fait-il chaud ici, ou c’est juste vous? --- Is it hot in here, or is it just you?

If you fell short this Valen-tine’s Day, just practice your French, and by next year, you’ll be sure to succeed. By including some of these simple phrases in your everyday lan-guage, you will be sure to win the affections of that special someone, or maybe just the re-spect of your French teacher.K

WINTER FORMAL (FROM FRONT PAGE)Club, was a snowy success. Hun-dreds of students squeezed onto the dance fl oor, dancing to the tunes of one of the best DJs Edison has hired in a long time. The fl oor was small and showed signifi cant signs of wear as tiles were ripped up by vigorous dance moves, but students danced around the debris with few complaints. In addition to the dance fl oor, the location also had a cozy lounge area where students could take a break from dancing to chat around tables, munch on snacks, cuddle on couches, or cool down with a refreshing cup of cold water. Due to the efforts of Edison’s ASB, the venue was adorned by wintry de-cor, with an impressive balloon arch, balloons above the dance fl oor, and well-made centerpieces decorating the tables. Unlike Homecoming and Prom, Winter Formal is put on entirely by ASB, and this year’s planning efforts were led by ASB Secretary Chris Landstrom and Treasurer Fouad Rider. “To cut costs the school doesn’t go through an events coordinator for Winter Formal, so everything had to be done on our own. We picked the site, DJ, decorations, food, and layout of the dance. Everything went pretty smoothly but it took a long time, be-cause we started about two months in advance,” Chris said of the dance. The rest of ASB also arrived early to the dance to help set up, including many who were at a Model United Nations conference all weekend before the dance, making for a very stressful weekend for many of them. Despite the stress, ASB members did what it took to put on a success-ful dance. All in all, the Winter Snowball was a satisfying experience for most who

attended. “I thought it went really well and everyone had a good time. There was a good turnout. The DJ played many good songs that ev-eryone enjoyed,” Fouad said of the overall outcome of the dance. The only downside, Chris noted, was that they couldn’t decorate or use the outside patio due to the rainy weather. Since the Winter Formal King and Queen, Luke Gane and Liana Hersh, were announced, some Edi-son students have been speculating about a possibly rigged vote. The voting process began with nominations in history classes (Eng-lish classes for freshman), which were then carefully tallied, making sure that no one tallied the nomina-tions for their own grade. The top 5 girls and boys from each grade were selected as nominees, and nomina-tions were announced after ensuring that each nominee wanted to partic-ipate. Voting took place by scantron in history classes, and Commission-er of Elections Zack Jezulin was re-sponsible for running the scantrons and tallying the fi nal vote. The Win-ter Formal King and underclassmen court were announced at the as-sembly on Friday, while the Winter Formal Queen was announced at the dance. Recently however, there has been a rumor going around that the vote was rigged because Liana Hersh’s name was written next to another crossed out name when the Winter Formal Queen was an-nounced. Clarifying the matter, Fouad said, “Our ASB advisor, Mr. Elliot, looked over the ballots and typed up the win-ners. On the other side of the paper, I wrote all of the senior nominees so I could announce them, but after real-izing they weren’t in order, I crossed them off and rewrote them in order.”

Verifying this, Chris said, “I watched Fouad write the names out several times, both so they were in alphabetical order, and so that he would remember how to pronounce them, which is why names were crossed out.” The crossed out names were a result of Fouad’s effort to ensure a fair and correct an-nouncement of the nominees and win-ner, not an effort to rig the outcome. Speaking for all of ASB, Chris stated, “None of us on ASB want to jeopardize all of our hard work by doing some-thing as stupid as rigging an election.” Clearly, this rumor is the product of a misunderstanding. ASB works hard to organize events for the student body, and has no intentions of tarnishing its efforts with lies or deception. Perhaps instead of spreading rumors, the stu-dent body should take note of and ap-preciate the often unnoticed efforts that ASB makes to create a fun and enjoy-able high school experience for all.

The Sprinkles Sensation

BY: KRISTINE THOMASON, STAFF WRITER

he moment I walk into Sprin-kles, I feel like I have just en-

tered entered heaven itself. The fi rst image that meets my eye is the mas-sive number of cupcakes before me

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VALENTINE’S DAY (FROM FRONT PAGE)the order of a Roman emperor that declared all marriages and engage-ments illegal in order to encour-age men to join the army. Being a hopeless romantic, Priest Valentine secretly performed marriage cere-monies, but when his actions were discovered, he was killed on Feb-ruary 14th. As Valentine began to be seen as a martyr and symbol of love during the 400s AD through-out France and England, Pope Ge-lasius declared that February 14th was to be his day of honor; this date become even more associated with love as people in the Middle Ages noted that this date is also when birds begin selecting their mates. Since the founding of Valentine’s Day, different traditions have been formed all over the world, many of which revolve around displays of af-fection. In the United States, Valen-tine’s Day has become an extreme-ly commercialized holiday, and the highest seller of greeting cards. The most common traditions are to give chocolates, fl owers, jewelry, and of course, conversation hearts. It has also become a popular prac-tice for children to share Valen-

also very unique. Young lov-ers and singles alike visit the “Matchmaker” to pray for hap-piness or luck in love. In China, Valentine’s Day is also “Daugh-ter’s Day”, on which young, unmarried women pray for suc-cess in homemaking and intel-ligence, and often demonstrate traditional domestic arts and cus-toms, such as carving a melon. In the thousand of years of evolution of Valentine’s Day, traditions have been formed as each country has added its own unique cultural twist to the day of love. Although the mod-ern practices and celebrations scarcely resemble the original traditions and much of the his-tory has been reduced to leg-end, St. Valentine’s Day has remained a date to celebrate the timeless theme of love.

tine’s cards and candy with their friends and teachers at school. Japan’s Valentine’s Day cus-toms are interesting because it is celebrated on the tradition-al February 14th, but also on March 14th, known as “White Day”. On the traditional date, women give their boyfriends or other loved ones a gift, usually chocolates, and a month later on White Day men return the favor with showers of chocolates and other gifts. Chocolate products are such common Valentine’s Day gifts that more than half the chocolate sold in a year is sold around Valentine’s Day in Japan. In Denmark, young lovers fol-low the Valentine’s Day tradi-tions in order to ensure that they have a successful love life later. There are very standard traditions for the holiday, and the three most celebrated customs are the “lov-er’s card” (similar to the Ameri-can Valentines), the sending of white fl owers called snowdrops, and gaekkebrev, which are short rhyming and often humorous po-ems given by a man to his lover. The Chinese Valentine’s Day is

International Week 2010February 24th -25th

International Week: Celebrating

Cultural DiversityBY: ABBY KERFOOT, STAFF WRITER

nternational Week es una tradición para los clubes de Edison. Cada

año en la primavera, los clubes ven-den comida de culturas para ganar

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SPRINKLES, FROM PAGE -3- beckoning me to buy one. With the aroma of fresh baked cupcakes and the sight of these beautiful little des-serts, I am overwhelmed! Ever since the fi rst day I walked into Sprinkles, I have been hooked. Tucked away in a small shop-ping center in New-port Beach, Sprinkles offers the feeling of a small town bakery, yet provides a chic and modern atmosphere. Claiming to be the world’s first cupcake bakery, Sprinkles opened its debut location in Beverly Hills, where it quickly became a favorite among Hol-lywood stars and food lovers alike. Sprinkles was able to completely reinvent the cup-cake, transforming this classic little dessert into a fashionable delicacy. Since then, Sprinkles has expanded across the Unit-ed States, opening bakeries spanning from Newport Beach to New York City. So, what’s the Sprinkles craze re-ally all about? Well, the cute bakery en-vironment is a plus, but what keeps customers coming back are the mind-blowing cupcakes. The most popular flavor, and my personal favor-ite, is undoubtedly the red vel-vet cupcake, a southern style, light chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. Red velvet also comes in vegan and gluten free for health conscious and vegan customers who want

Happy Lunar New Year!

BY: ALLYSON BACH, STAFF WRITER

hen the date February 14th comes to mind, some may

think about the marketing holi-day, Valentine’s Day or in my opinion, “singles’ awareness” day. Anyways, this year, Febru-ary 14th means a little something more to me because it just so happens that it is also Lunar New Year. For those of you who are unfortunate enough not to know what this holiday is, it is the cel-ebration of a New Year based on the lunisolar calendar. In the Vietnamese culture, we call this holiday, “Tết Nguyên Đán”, or “Tết” (pronounced “thet”) for short. During this holiday, most Vietnamese families practice cus-toms such as ancestral honoring, wishing New Year’s greetings, cleaning the house, cooking and eating traditional foods such as Bánh chưng (a rich roll of sticky rice with meat fi lling packed tightly in banana leaves), and decorating the house with classic fl ower plants such as Ochna Inte-gerrimac and hoa đào, known as the Peach fl ower. Though these traditions are all important, there

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to enjoy the Sprinkles experi-ence. Plus, with over 25 dif-ferent flavors, there is some-thing to satisfy the taste buds of every customer. Keeping with the spirit of the holidays,

Sprinkles also offers seasonal cupcake flavors, like this month’s “red HOT velvet” in honor of Valentine’s Day. This new twist on the popular flavor is

said to set your mouth on fire, with spicy cinnamon mixed into the classic cream cheese frosting. When asked about this limited time flavor, a customer replied, “The red HOT velvet cupcake tingles my senses in a way they’ve never been tin-gled before.” Surely Sprinkles has achieved its goal to satisfy every customer, and at $3.25 a cupcake, it is well worth it! Looking at the menu, you will find that cupcakes are not the only thing that Sprinkles of-fers. If you are in the mood for

a quick fix to satisfy your sweet craving, you can purchase a shot of your favor-ite frosting flavor for a mere $0.75. You can also buy Sprinkles cupcake mix and attempt to recreate these de-licious desserts at

home. Sprinkles even vies to satisfy your furry friend, of-fering Sprinkles dog treats. Clearly, Sprinkles is the quint-essential modern bakery, and as any fan will tell you, you have not lived until you’ve tried a Sprinkles Cupcake!

W

LUNAR NEW YEAR (FROM PAGE -5-)is one custom that I personally think tops them all and that is lì xì (pronounced “lee see”). Most commonly, lì xì, or a tiny red envelope containing mon-ey, is given to children by their elders, though elders often re-ceive them too. Now, in order to receive lì xì, one must wish goodness for the new year to another with such sayings like, “Chúc mừng năm mới va Sức khoẻ dồi dào” which means “Happy New Year and have plenty of health”. These say-ings may be tongue twisters if you are not fluent in Vietnam-ese, but they are sure worth the time to learn, especially for those tiny, red envelopes. As much as people love lì xì, Tết is about more than just money giving. Though it is a cliché, Tết is all about family time. The first 3 days of Tết, families are reunited and connected through events which include street pa-rades, like the one on Bolsa Av-enue in Westminster, parties, and games. In my household,

we participate in an original Bach family game called Hai Loc, which tests the luck we’ve received in the new year. Hai Loc is when we put lì xì on a tree (think Christmas Tree but instead of ornaments we put little red envelopes filled with money ranging from $1-$100) and one by one, we pick an en-velope off the tree. It’s a simple game and the only thing you need to win is luck, although everyone walks away a win-ner of some quantity of money. I hope what I’ve just told you about this traditional Vietnam-ese holiday inspires your fam-ily to celebrate it, even if you aren’t Vietnamese. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have two New Year’s parties, especially if the second one involves tiny, little, red envelopes?

Edison Sports UpdateBoys SoccerEdison’s soccer team which is 19-4-2 on the season has won its last three games in consecutive shutouts beating Marina 2-0, Esperanza 1-0, and Fountain Valley 1-0.Boys BasketballDespite losing star guard Kyle Bo-swell, the Chargers have managed to stay strong and have won 4 out their last 5 games. Edison has de-feated league opponents Marina (66-62), Esperanza (45-34), Foun-tain Valley (62-55), and Newport Harbor (55-52). Girls SoccerThe Lady Chargers have won 4 out of their last 5 games and they tied Esperanza 0-0 during that stretch. Like the boys, the girls also defeat-ed rival Fountain Valley at Fountain Valley 2-1. The Lady Chargers are 12-5-3 for the year.Girls BasketballEdison’s girls basketball team is currently on a tear winning their last 14 games dating back to De-cember 19th. They are 20-4 on the season and 10-0 in league play. The Chargers recently displayed their dominance against Newport Harbor who they crushed 74-36 and against Fountain Valley who they also de-stroyed 78-41.Girls Water Polo The water polo team is 19-6 this year and 3-2 in league play. The Chargers recently defeated sunset league foe Marina 17-0.

INTERNATIONAL WEEK (FROM PAGE -5-)dinero y promotar extrañeras para ganar dinero y promotar la diversi-dad cultural entre los estudiantes de la escuela. Siempre es un gran éxi-to: los clubes ganan mucho dinero para fi nanciar sus actividades, y los estudiantes pueden comprar comida que no es usualmente disponible en Edison, o que nunca han probado. También, les da a los estudiantes que se encargan de los clubes una oportu-nidad para demonstrar su capacidad para organizar y dirigir un evento importante. Quizá lo más importante de Inter-national Week es que es una ocasión para aprender. Los estudiantes apren-den sobre la comida y las costumbres de otras culturas. Es muy impor-tante que los estudiantes de Edison puedan apreciar las diferencias en-tre nuestra cultura y las del resto del mundo. International Week nos da la oportunidad de probar comida rica, ganar dinero para las actividades de los clubes, y celebrar nuestras difer-encias. International Week is a tradition

for the clubs at Edison. Every year in the spring, the clubs sell foreign food to earn money and promote cultural diversity among the stu-dents of the school. It is always a great success: the clubs earn a lot of money to fi nance their activities, and the students can buy food that is not usually available at Edison, or that they have never tried. Also, it gives the students in charge of the clubs an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to organize and direct an important event. Perhaps the most important aspect of International Week is that it is an opportunity to learn. The students learn about the food and customs of other cultures. It is very important that the students of Edison be able to appreciate the differences between our culture and those of the rest of the world. International Week gives us an opportunity to try good food, earn money for club activities, and celebrate our differences. Look for the Bolt and other clubs at lunch on February 24th and 25th during International Week!

Teacher Spotlight: Mr. Belcher

BY: ERICA GLEASON, EDITOR IN CHIEF

Known for his intimidating de-meanor and unbeatable Charger

pride, Bruce Belcher has been a

prominent fi gure on Edison’s cam-pus since 1974. The current athletic director, set to retire with the class of 2010, will be remembered by gen-erations of students for his tendency to get fi red up, whether it’s on the football fi eld, in history class, or at Fountain Valley pep rallies. Though Mr. Belcher’s passion for sports and politics may inspire fear in some, he has been known to show a softer side, especially at end-of-season banquets. His care and respect for the athletes and students he has coached, taught, or even watched are evident in the words he uses to honor them. As he retires this year, Mr. Belcher will leave a legacy of raising Chargers with class, creating an impact that has shaped the suc-

cess of Edison’s athletic program. Curious about Mr. Belcher’s experi-ences as a teacher and coach, I asked him a few questions. His answers provide insight into his career here at Edison, as well as some words of wisdom for all Chargers:

Q: What have you enjoyed about teaching in your years at Edison?A: First and foremost I have always considered myself a classroom teacher fi rst. Over my 36 years at Edison I have taught a number of subjects including U.S. History, World History, Health, Child De-velopment and Physical Education. I have my B.A. in Political Science and my M.A. in Health & Safety. I only taught Physical Education when I took over both A.D. jobs as a way to better do my job. Howev-er, I missed the intellect that is used in challenging students in History classes. My favorite subject is U.S. History and [I] would like to teach it on the collegiate level after I retire. I enjoy the interaction and connec-tion you have in the academic class-room. It is the part of my job I will miss the most.

Q: What have been some of the highlights of coaching at Edison? A: As a coach (I coached football for 23 of my years at Edison) I will always cherish the CIF Champion-ships I was a part of in 1979 and 1980. There are many athletes from those teams that I still have contact with today. In fact, one of those cur-rently teaches in my department and serves as our department chairman, Rick Meyers. Q: Do you have any advice for cur-rent and future athletes at Edison? A: As a teacher and Athletic Director

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BELCHER INTERVIEW (FROM PAGE -7-)I have always encouraged students to work hard to become a better person, then a better student and finally if ap-propriate a better athlete. This has been a mantra at Edison since its inception and I am proud to have continued its tradition. Q: Is there anything you would like to say to the class of 2010?A: What would I like to say to the Class of 2010?....”Thank you!” You have

Go ahead and throw some seeds of your ownAnd sometimes between the time you arriveAnd the time you goMay lie a reason you were alive That you’ll never know.

Thank you for all you’ve done for Edison, Mr. Belcher! We will miss you, and we wish you the best in the years to come!

been a shining light in my 36 years at Edison. I can’t think of a better group to fi nally graduate with.

To all former and future Chargers I would like to leave you with the lyrics from one of my favorite songs For A Dancer by Jackson Browne:

Into a dancer you have grownFrom a seed that someone else has thrown

THE BOLT 2009-2010 STAFF

Erica GleasonMegan KabreJosh FrancisAllyson BachMarie ChengMatt NguyenAbby Kerfoot

Olivia HaywardJoohi Kasliwal

Kristine ThomasonZach Daus

Devyn Molina Devin RamelbMeghan Cass

Alina CarnahanFaris Barudi

Brianne MurrayChrsitine Nguyen

Shannon Nye Brandon Whalen

ADVISOR

Lori Chlarson

Remember to check out www.theboltonline.com for all the latest news at Edison and also stay in touch by visiting our Twitter and Facebook Pages.