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Middle School Newspaper

Madison Kahn and Kayla Waterman Take the “Ghouled” Medal at the Costume Contest

Jack Tien-Dana, Grade 7

The Falcon Times

FOR THE 15th annual Halloween contest held on October 29, the traditional goblins and ghouls took a backseat to more modern costumes such as pop stars, machines and—scariest of all—a chronically depressed donkey. The co-winners of the grand prize were 7th grader Kayla Waterman, who took Lady Gaga to new creative levels by attaching herself to a giant homemade Vogue magazine cover, and Madison Kahn, an 8th grader who transformed herself into a working vending machine and later (for a second costume), a Cheerio from Glee. Milton Sipp, Head of the Middle School—and wearer of a remarkable Eeyore onesie—said that his favorite costumes were the ones that showed a lot of effort and hard work (no wonder he liked Madison’s costume: She worked on it for three weeks, cutting wires and pounding nails and building the skeleton of the machine!). Charlie Davis’ white trash costume, which involved walking around in a giant white garbage can filled with tissues and other white trash, and Kayla Waterman’s Lady Gaga costume were also creative frontrunners for Mr. Sipp. “The best part, though,” said Mr. Sipp, “was the participation of everyone in the community.” The judging panel consisted of four teachers: Ms. Cohen, Ms. Shapiro, Ms. Pitassi, and Ms. Kaplan. This year the grand prize had not yet been announced beforehand. Madison speculated that the prize was a Barnes & Noble gift card but added, “I didn’t really care about winning; I just wanted to make something creative that people would enjoy.” Additional specialty prizes such as Best 7th Grade Group—the Sesame Street gang—were given out in the form of free breakfasts. If making the winning costumes was challenging, getting them to school only added to the degree of difficulty. “It was actually pretty funny,” said Madison. “We put the vending machine in the trunk [of my parents’ car] and my mom drove me to school. When we made our first left turn, the whole vending machine fell over and all the candy fell out. Luckily nothing broke. I reached over the seat and fixed it.” The road to Riverdale was paved with pitfalls, however. “A little later, we switched lanes and again it fell,” recounted Madison. “It was very annoying because it took, like, 10 minutes to put all the candy back into the vending machine. I finally decided to sit in the trunk to keep it up.”

Continued on Page 4…

Mr. Sipp showed his Halloween spirit in an Eeyore onesie!

V O L U M E 2 , I S S U E 1 N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0

Editor-in-Chief

Rebecca Thau

Staff Writers

John Cicco Olivia Corn Oliver Chemtob Jake Klores David Silverman Matthew Slater Jack Tien-Dana

Faculty Advisor

Ms. Huggins

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Chemicals Found in Pennsylvania Wells

Rebecca Thau, Grade 7

Water testers found that the chemicals ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, and toluene were present in wells in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. The cause is believed to be hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” This is a process used to get natural gas from underground. Many people claim that the chemicals used in this process can seep into the ground water. “For anyone to say this was occurring prior to drilling is ludicrous. The water was not like this before,” Daniel Farnham, President of Farnham & Associates based in Scranton, Pennsylvania said according to cnn.com. In fact, the chemicals found in the water are on a list of chemicals used by hydraulic fracturing companies in Pennsylvania. The drilling companies, however, have a different view. George Stark, the spokesman for Cabot Oil and Gas Corp., says that his business does not use ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, or toluene. The fact is that these chemicals are used in common household things like toothpaste, but when concentrated, they are toxic and lethal. The Department of Environmental Protection is going to try to match the results that were found by Farnham. “We want to see if we can duplicate it,” said Tom Rathbun, the spokesman, according to cnn.com. They will make an announcement about their findings soon.

Community Action Day Matthew Slater, Grade 6

Save the date! On November 20, The Middle School will continue to help at the 2nd Annual Community Action Day where there will be lots of fun to be had. We will help kids and others in need of our help and support. There will be food, games, and charity stands in the cafeteria.

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Dollar Stores Grow in Popularity Rebecca Thau, Grade 7

Stores are now cutting down prices all over the USA because of the recession. The once disregarded low-end shopper has now become the main focus of most stores around America. People are looking for cheaper things in smaller packages as they continue to live paycheck to paycheck. So where do these shoppers go? The answer is dollar stores. These dollar stores have shown the largest increase in shoppers over the last year. In fact, the number of visits to dollar stores has increased by 2.6 percent from last year, according to the New York Times. Shoppers at such dollar stores and places like Wal-Mart or Target have very modest budgets. Some of these budgets are so miniscule that at the beginning of the month (when most paychecks arrive) the amount of spending is at a normal amount but when it gets towards the end of the month, people are buying only one roll of toilet paper or other products instead of many in a package. These dollar stores are also becoming more and more attractive to middle income families as well. They are beginning to sell items that are more popular. In fact, when I was listening to Z-100 the other day, there was an advertisement for “Gain” brand fabric softener. At the end of this advertisement there was a sub-commercial. It was for Family Dollar, a popular dollar store chain. It stated that Family Dollar now has many Gain products. So why does this matter to a bunch of privileged kids in New York? How does the exact same recession affect us? These were exactly the questions that I was going to find the answer to. Where did we shop? How much did we spend on food and other necessities a week? Did we get an allowance? For the seventh graders I interviewed (who preferred to remain anonymous), they got their food supplies at Fresh Direct and Fairway. One of the eighth graders was confused and responded, “My refrigerator?” and then realized I meant where her family bought food. The answer was then the Food Emporium and Fresh Direct. All of these places have good quality food products that are expensive. So this brought the question of how much money each of their families spent on food a week. The range was from $300-$700. That is not a huge sum of money for food but for a large amount of people in America, that is as much money as they get in a month. So where do people get toiletries? Duane Reade or CVS is the answer for the seventh grade interviewees and the eighth grade ones as well. These stores have toiletries going up to around $17. So how would prices like this be possible for so many Americans? The answer is that it isn’t. One eighth grader said something very interesting. She said that while her family used to shop at CVS, they no longer did because they discovered that over stores had the same products for less money. So my final question. Do you get allowance? The majority said that no, they did not get allowance. However, instead of getting a weekly amount, they just got whatever sum of money they asked for. I am sure that for most readers, this seems normal. But for a second, pretend that your parents are working as pizza deliverers. Would you be able to just get money whenever you asked? Or how about if your parents were unemployed altogether? That would change your lifestyle completely. That is what many Americans are finding.

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Haiti is facing yet another difficulty: a cholera epidemic that has already killed over 724 people. These people survived the earthquake and now they are facing one more hardship. Cholera can kill within hours of getting the intestinal infection. It has symptoms that can range from being almost nothing to severe reactions. These include watery diarrhea, vomiting, and leg cramps. It can lead to dehydration and shock. From a count done on Thursday, November 11, 724 people are dead and 11,000 people have become ill. Millions more are at risk of the disease. This is the worst epidemic of cholera in 100 years. A worry for some is that people in the capital city of Port-au-Prince will become infected with cholera. There are four confirmed cases of it already. Volunteers and doctors are trying to teach citizens of Haiti how to protect themselves. They are telling them to wash their hands very carefully and not to dry their clean hands with dirty towels. This is one of the most important things that can be done right now.

Costume Contest

Jack Tien-Dana, Grade 7

Kayla’s journey to school was somewhat less harrowing but equally uncomfortable. “Although it was difficult, I actually rode the school bus in regular school clothes, with my costume in a bag because I was freezing,” Kayla said. She rode with a giant, ungainly cardboard Vogue cover behind her on the seat, which, she said, “was honestly NOT very comfortable.” When she got to school, she changed into her costume and affixed herself to the cover. Kayla and Madison chose their costumes for various reasons. “I tried to think of a costume I could make that was a part of Riverdale students’ and teachers’ daily lives,” said Madison. She ultimately chose a vending machine because she thought it would be “fun to make and a cool concept.” Kayla chose to be Lady Gaga because she admires the singer’s boldness. “I chose this costume because I love fashion,” Kayla explained. “I've always been into Lady Gaga's keen sense of what to do next—how she never cares what anyone else thinks, but just does what she wants to express herself properly. That is what a true fashion icon is all about.” Was the victory worth the effort? “It was definitely worth it,” said Kayla. “The night before, I was actually thinking about not going over the top and just wearing the costume without the board. Then I realized that I should just go for it. I am so glad I didn't give up!”

Cholera Epidemic in Haiti Rebecca Thau, Grade 7

(Continued from Page 1)

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Movie Review: The Social Network John Cicco, Grade 7

The Social Network is not really about Facebook; it’s more about a Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. Mark is a social mess. He ever so desperately wants to be popular, but he just can’t interact with other people. He does and says what he wants and he never regrets it. He has a smart comeback to everything and just thinks he is right all the time. It’s weird that through all of this he created probably the most socially active website in the history of the Internet. But did he really? That is just one of the many questions posed by The Social Network. Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark and gives a phenomenal performance; Andrew Garfield plays the Facebook co-founder and Mark’s ex-best (and only) friend Eduardo Saverin who gets kicked out of Facebook when the conniving co-founder of Napster, Sean Parker, (played by Justin Timberlake) entices Mark with fame and glory; and Armie Hammer (yeah, one guy) plays the Winklevoss twins who claim that Mark stole their idea for Facebook. Both Eduardo and the Winklevosses sue Mark when Facebook takes off and the cases are shown in little bits as kind of a flash forward while the story of the creation of Facebook is being told. The movie is beautifully directed, wonderfully written, and superbly acted. It is a movie that anybody with an active Facebook account can appreciate and it’s definitively the must-see movie of the year so far.

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Ugandan Newspaper Calls for Hanging of the People on Their “Gay List” Rebecca Thau, Grade 7

The week of October 17th was Ally Week at Riverdale. In fact, on Wednesday, October 20, many students and faculty members dressed in purple to show their support for the gay and lesbian students who are still afraid of “coming out of the closet.” In Uganda, however, a newspaper called Rolling Stone (with no relationship to the American magazine) recently had a list of pictures of Ugandan’s gays and lesbians. Next to this list, it said in large letters: “Hang them.” In Uganda, there is a death penalty for any person who participates in a homosexual relationship or activity. Both those named in the story and those who have not been named are equally terrified. They have to get new jobs and move to new places out of fear. The newspaper’s editor, Giles Muhame, defends his lists. He said that he made these lists only to expose the homosexual people so that the Ugandan authorities could arrest them. Many countries around this area are still intolerant of gay and lesbian people in their countries. In many places, these laws were put into place during the country’s colonial period. After the list was published, the federal Media Council told the newspaper that they had to stop operating. This had nothing to do with the recent list of homosexuals in Ugandan, but rather because the paper was publishing without the proper permits. “Until they fill out the paperwork, they are breaking the law,” said Paul Mukasa, secretary of the Media Council, according to cnn.com.

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Halloween 2010

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Sudoku

Fill in the blanks so that each row, each column, and each of the nine 3x3 grids contain one instance of each of the numbers 1 through 9. Solutions can be found in First Class under “Student Bulletins.”