theMANE NEWS

December 11, 2006ST. ANDREW’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOLVolume 13, Issue 2

In this Issue:

Art: Kathryn Ticehurst

Beloved Teacher and Friend Passes Away, Page 2

You’ve just opened your acceptance let-ter to your top choice school. Welcome to Yale University’s Class of 2011, it reads. Congratulate yourself. Consider your high school career successfully completed. En-joy your last trimester in high school, sit back and cruise on through. Nobody will care if you fail AP Spanish Literature. Why not rob a liquor store? It doesn’t matter; you’re already into Yale. Perhaps you haven’t finished reading your acceptance letter. There is a line in every letter that says something similar to “your acceptance is contingent on your c o n t i n u e d academic suc-cess.” In other words, high school isn’t over yet. Senioritis is based on the misconcep-tion that those already into college can essentially stop caring about their school-work. Not true. Colleges may accept ap-plicants based on their academic grades up to the time of application, but they still will review your progress throughout the year, and you are required to submit your final transcript before you enter your freshman year in college. Director of College Counseling Randy Tajan urges seniors to “maintain the same grades under which you’ve been admit-ted.” Any sort of significant drop or arrest and your admission will be, in most cases, rescinded. Imagine finding out that you are not going to college during the sum-mer after senior year.

In 2004, the Washington Post pub-lished an article examining instances where colleges have retracted admission of students due to failing grades. Staff writer Valerie Strauss told the story of a National Merit Scholar who was accept-ed early to Dickinson College. However, during his second semester, his grades dropped significantly: he received two D’s and failed an Advanced Placement class. His acceptance was revoked. The Post article also serves to remind that admissions officers always review the transcripts of each new member of their freshman class in the spring. Every year, Mr. Raymond A. Brown, the dean of admissions at Texas Christian Univer-

sity, sends out about 110 let-ters which he calls “Fear of God letters.” While about 100 of these letters are rel-atively mild, about ten warn the

prospective students that their admission might not exist anymore. Unless there is a fantas-tic explanation, acceptance is usually re-scinded. Ms. Kiyoe Hashimoto, the Assistant Dean of Admissions at Stanford Univer-sity, reminds students to remain diligent in their studies for the remainder of their senior year. She says, “If a student shows what we find to be a very significant drop in grades, we might require that they take a year off. Of course, these cases call for a significant drop; we don’t retract ad-

The phrase “More Than Academic Rigor” has become ever-present, with stu-dents hearing it seemingly every day. The phrase was the creation of Mark Edwards and Company, a marketing consultant the school hired in 2004. The company has since done much for the school in helping with its marketing to the outside commu-nity. In 2004, the Board of Trustees complet-ed the school’s strategic plan and wanted to improve the outside community’s im-pression of the school and increase its vis-ibility. They believed that employing a marketing consultant would be beneficial, so they looked at several consultants and settled on Edwards and Co. because of its experience with independent schools similar to St. Andrew’s. The company, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, has worked for universities such as Harvard and Duke, and high schools such as Phil-ips Exeter Academy and, locally, The Ma-deira School, according to their website. Soon after being hired, the consultant surveyed students, their parents, and par-ents who had looked at St. Andrew’s for their children but decided not to attend. The goal was to find out their impressions of the school. The overwhelming re-sponse, according to Headmaster Robert Kosasky, was “if there was one word to describe St. Andrew’s it was ‘nice.’” But people had trouble believing that a “nice” school could be challenging as well. Kosasky and the board wanted to change this impression. “We needed to get a clear-er picture of St. Andrew’s out there in the wider community” so that people would have a better understanding of the school

After a long and drawn out wait, Hope Field will finally under-go renovations. The old field, filled with holes and grass spots, will be removed as the new turf is layed. These renovations will completely advance our school’s athletic facilities. The field makeover will involve recov-ering the baseball field, softball, and soccer field with artificial turf. This new installment was supposed to be made during this scholastic year’s winter break; how-ever, the date was pushed back to this coming summer. Hope Field will have Field Turf’s (a company which serves a huge part of the NFL and other leagues) synthetic grass put in. Field Turf calls itself the most nat-ural feeling and looking of the synthetic grasses, and therefore the best surface on

which to play. St. Andrew’s will not be the only school in the area with Field Turf, however: Sidwell Friends in D.C. also had their fields redone last year, as well as various other D.C. area schools. Senior Curtis Wilson said, “Laying Field Turf is great because it allows [the ball] to get true bounces.” “It’s really nice.”

Even though the installation might prove to be expensive to install, the new turf will eventually cut down on main-tenance costs. Field Turf is also much more comfort-

able for sports players. “It’ll be really awesome to have nice fields,” said junior softball player Maggie Roberts. Most student athletes are extremely excited about the new turf. The addition will only be beneficial to the school, and many are looking forward to it.

Hilary EisenbergMane News Managing Editor

We’re Sorry To Inform You But...

Katie NesmithMane News Opinion Editor

Senioritis May Not Be As Harmless As It Seems

Hope Field Gets A Makeover

The Origins of MTAR

William WhiteMane News News Editor

Continued on Page 4

Continued on Page 4

Honduran Students Arrive

Fall Award Winners and All-Confrence Athletes

pg. 11

Christmas in the Airpg. 6-7

Barenaked Ladies Rock The Patriot Center

pg. 8

On Sunday, November 26 ten ex-change students arrived at school for three weeks of homestay and academic study. St. Andrew’s has had a long histo-ry with this program, which is organized by Spanish teacher Mr. John Blount. The exchange students all stay with host families, which range from members of the freshman class to seniors. They are expected participate actively in host fam-ily activities as well as integrate them-selves into their normal daily routine. They attend classes four days a week, and must complete homework assign-ments, and spend the same amount of time studying as do their host students. On two Wednesdays, November 29 and December 13, the students attend all-day field trips in and around downtown Washington D.C. Destinations include points of interest such as the Holocaust Museum, the White House, Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln Memo-rial, and the Washington Monument. Junior Ashley Rogers of San Pedro Sula Continued on Page 4

Hilary EisenbergMane News Managing Editor

Obviously, these seniors think that the end of 1st trimester is the same as graduation.

NEWS the Mane News2 December 11, 2006 the Mane News

Whether it is sacrific-ing an hour of sleep twice a week for early morning meet-ings, staying after school to help sort cans or make post-ers, volunteering to run errands, or giv-ing up time at lunch to meet with the

administration about the hot topic of “freak dancing,” the members of the Student Government Association have stayed very busy this past trimester. Under the outstanding leadership of President Nick Bralove, this year’s SGA consists of many individuals who are en-thusiastic about promoting school spirit and dedicated to making this year as best as they possibly can. Highlights of the first trimester include the planning, preparation, and organization of events such as Home-coming, the Pep Rally, the Walk for the Homeless, the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive, and various class cup competitions. In addition, the SGA has been work-ing extremely hard to achieve open com-

munication with the administration. For instance, instead of submitting written proposals, the organization now meets with the administration during lunch ev-ery few weeks to discuss new ideas for approval. This approach has been suc-cessful so far by helping to achieve both a more efficient form of communica-tion and a better understanding between the administration and the student body. Currently, the SGA is working to re-vise its constitution in order to better define the association’s significant role in the St. Andrew’s community. Look-ing ahead towards the second trimester, other projects include planning the holi-day bow sale, upcoming class cup events, and continued school spirit. The SGA has also been working with the athletic de-partment to create pep rallies during both the second and third trimesters in order to recognize winter and spring sports teams and boost our school spirit even more. With the continuation of effective communication and enthusiasm from the students, the administration, and the en-tire St. Andrew’s community as a whole, the SGA looks forward to two more successful and promising trimesters!

On the outside, Mr. Brandt may ap-pear to be an ordinary history teacher who spends his days and nights at his desk reading history books and creating impossible tests to torture his innocent students. In truth, he is much more than that. While Mr. Brandt loves to study history and spend time reading historical texts, he also enjoys writing, running, cycling, swim-ming, and traveling to other countries. His love for the explora-tion of foreign lands has led him to visit coun-tries such as Thailand, Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Honduras, Mexi-co, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Canada, and nearly all of Western Europe. Mr. Brandt graduated from the Col-lege of Wooster in Ohio with a BA in History and received a MA after at-tending the University of Maryland. After completing his education, Mr. Brandt decided that, although he loved his-

tory, he was not ready for a career in teach-ing, and enlisted in the Peace Corps. His location in the Peace Corps was in Bataan, Philippines, where he was an agricultural extentionist and worked in a hands-on job with Filipino farmers from 1987 to 1989. While working in the Philippines, Mr. Brandt learned how to speak Tagalog, a language spoken by many Filipinos. Af-ter his work in the Philippines, which he

describes an “overall great ex-perience,” Mr. Brandt lived in Bosnia as an “elections observ-er with the Office for Security and Cooperation in Europe.” Mr. Brandt began his work as a teacher when he worked at the Hun School in Princeton, New Jersey, for six years in the 1990’s, and began working at St. Andrews in September 2000. Mr. Brandt is married, and immediately bonded with his

future wife when he discovered she had been in the Peace Corps in Honduras. He has two children who he spends most of his time with: Lydia, who is four years old, and Wesley who is one year old. Mr. Brandt is taking off again this spring on another journey, this time to South Africa.

The Truth Behind Mr. BrandtKelly TillotsonMane News Staff Writer

Alex AzzaraSGA Secretary

SGA Column

On November 25, the community lost a beloved member, Mrs. Barbara Thomp-son. A veteran English teacher, Thomp-son guided hundreds of students in both middle and upper school during her 16 year tenure at the school. Her passing ended a four-month battle with cancer. On Tuesday, Nov. 28, the school closed to honor her memory and to allow students, teachers, families, alumni, and friends to attend her funeral at St. Pat-rick’s Roman Catholic Church in Rock-ville, MD. Among the several hundred attendees were former students from around the country. Students have been quick to remem-ber Thompson’s energy, patience, and caring. Junior Cara Borelli said, “She took the time to help me understand my mistakes and fix them. She was very un-derstanding.” Freshman Ryan Coan was impressed that Thompson “was always caring and gentle--always there to talk.”

School Loses Beloved Teacher, FriendThompson leaves legacy of caring among students, colleagues, and families

Ms. Barbara Thompson, 16-year veteran English and creative writing teacher, passed away on Nov. 25.

Junior Patrick Sullivan, stated that, “Al-though I only had Ms. Thompson for the end of last year, she was still one of the greatest teachers I have had, and by far one of the kindest and sweetest people I have ever met. I will dearly miss her.” Ms. Sam Speier, an English teacher who taught with Thompson for eight years, said, “She was great because no matter what you needed...she was there. She was a quiet saint. She never made anyone feel silly about what they wanted to know; she took all questions seroiously.” Parents also had great praise. Ms. Ra-chel Ni, mother of 7th grader Ping Ni, remembers Thompson as “a dedicated teacher who loved her students. Her sen-sitivity and ability to understand others made her stand out significantly among the St. Andrews staff.” Another parent, Ms. Clare Herington, mother of 9th grader Noah Platt, said, “Barbara touched the lives of our three sons at St. Andrew’s. My most vivid memory is being a bunkmate on the 6th grade Chesapeake Bay trip. I really en-joyed spending that experience with her.” She is survived by her husband Leon-ard, daughter Tara Byrne, and sons Leon-ard, Jr. and Jeffrey.

Are Women Smarter? Marta Marino Mane News Asst. News Editor I believe it safe to say that we can all see the differences between males and fe-males. Physically, men tend to be stron-ger than women, but in the domain of academics, this all changes. As of late, test sores, grades, and dropout rates are all pointing to boys achieving at levels far below girls. In the United States, girls capture more academic honors, outscore boys in read-ing and writing and score about as well on math, as measured at the fourth- , eighth- and 12th-grade levels by the National As-sessment for Educational Progress exam. Internationally, fourth-grade girls sig-nificantly outperformed boys in the eight leading industrialized nations that took part in the 2001 Progress in Internation-al Literacy Study. And 15-year-old boys have been surpassed by 15-year-old girls among the 28 countries involved in the 2000 Program for International Student Assessment. Women are also significant-ly more likely to graduate. Overall, 63 percent of women who enrolled in four-year colleges graduate, compared to 55 percent of men. What is going on then? The answer many women believe, is that women are simply smarter than men. However, since this has not yet been proven, we are left with nothing more than the latest scien-tific information. The fact is that boys and girls simply learn and interact differently. While boys’ brains are more compart-mentalized, meaning that each section of the brain is used for one function, the girls’ brain functions are more broad-ly dispersed throughout the brain. For these reasons, women learn better with word based problems and are quicker to both volunteer answers and think things through, while men favor active learning. This would not be a problem if it were not for the increasing number of words in our lives (math word problems for example), and the 85% of female teachers nation-wide, who inadvertently teach in a more female-friendly way.

This information may come as a sur-prise to many considering all stereotypes about gender. Among these are that boys are “naturally” better at math and more competitive, while girls are “naturally” more emotional and collaborative. And until only some years ago, women were sometimes thought of as inferior students, so the idea that men are smarter than women is not completely unfounded. Now you may be asking yourself, ‘if women are so smart, why are men the leaders in the world?’ And here is where the problem to this whole scenario comes in. Because even though men are still more powerful than women in the work force, this is bound to change. With women earning better grades, and consequently getting a better education, it is only a matter of time until the bet-ter jobs start going to women instead of the men. And from then on, one must look to the families. With women earning the most money in a family unit, it can only be expected that the men be the ones to sacrifice their professional careers in ex-change for caring for their children. So it may very well be that the future will hold some major changes, and it is unknown how we will all be impacted. So my question is: is our school do-ing anything to correct the imbalances between males and females? Boys will be happy to learn that in fact, the adminis-tration really is trying to promote under-standing and awareness of this problem, including making all the teachers read a book titled Why Gender Matters. At many other schools, the gap is ignored, and in-stead of pursuing sound solutions, many educators merely advocate prescribing more attention-focusing Ritalin for the boys, who already receive four to eight times the rate of girls, according to differ-ent estimates. All in all, women are not necessarily smarter than men. However, if people still ignore the problem, then girls will con-tinue to develop in an environment more suited to them, while boys may not flour-ish.

Contributions can be made in Barbara Thomp-son’s memory to St. An-drew’s. In keeping with her family’s wishes, the funds will help support financial aid, especially tutoring and other learn-ing support.

NEWS the Mane News December 11, 2006 3NEWS

Mane Newsthe

The Mane News is a forum for news, opinions, and features by and for the students at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. It is a school-supported publication produced six times a year through the extracurricular work of its student staff and faculty advisor, as well as contributions from the Journalism class. The staff makes every effort to report the news free from bias and editorial slant; additionally, not all editorials reflect the opinions held by the newspaper staff and its writers. The Mane News reserves the right to restrict or deny publication of any stories it does not deem fit to print. Letters to the editor may be submitted via email to manenews@saes.org. The newspaper staff welcomes all letters, but reserves the right to edit or deny publication to any received. All letters must be signed, though writers may request that their names withheld. The Mane News is a member of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, and a proud recipient of the CSPA Bronze Medal.

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The Mane NewsSt. Andrew’s Episcopal School8804 Postoak Road, Potomac,

MD 20854(301) 983-5200

Staff WritersCo-Editors-in-Chief..................Chas Duvall .............Kate GoldbaumManaging Editor................Hilary EisenbergCo-Exec. Production Editors...Chase Felker Maneesha SakhujaFaculty Advisor..................Mr. Chuck JonesTech Support....................Mr. Nathan Kreps

Copy Editors.....................Lacey Gutierrez .....................William MoodieNews Editor........................William WhiteAsst. News Editor.................Marta MarinoOpinion Editor.....................Katie NesmithAsst. Opinion Editor..............Ted DunmireCo-Style Editors.................Callen Brenner ...........Mattie GreenwoodSports Editor.............................Amir Kahn

Jacob Baron Gabe Ellsworth Lucas GarrisonCharlie GillSam GoldenbergMolly GottJoey GottlibEmily HattonIan HendrieLexi Heywood

Jacob HornBob JefferyDaniel KhanBobby LewisLisa NashMaggie RobertsErich RomeroEmily SuttleMatthew Vaveris

Norris, an African-American man who lived on the streets of Greater Washington D.C., has overcome his addictions, and now lives a solid life in Virginia. This miraculous transformation, he believes, can be largely accredited to the effective programs offered by Samaritan Ministry.

Norris, who grew up with two sisters and three brothers in Buffalo, New York, was promised that a job would be available in Virginia by his sister, and he quickly left North Carolina to seize upon the opportunity. Norris never knew that a job would not be available to someone with his experience in Virginia. After finding himself unsuccessful in his job search, Norris became homeless. Nor-ris’ main problem was his drug addic-tion, which drained much of his money.

Norris’ life on the streets was hard. He slowly trudged along, finding shelter at Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shel-ter in Falls Church, VA, and frequently with his sister, who also lived in Virginia. “Occasionally, when I just couldn’t take the hunger anymore, I stole from the su-permarket down the street,” said Norris. Norris would sometimes sell drugs for money to pay for his everyday necessi-ties, such as food and water. Norris had no medical care during his life on the streets; he just hoped and prayed some-thing bad would never happen to him. The homeless community, as Norris stated, “does not necessarily feel a sense of loyalty towards each other. We would sometimes drink together, but we mostly shared information about where to get what we needed.” The homeless com-munity, according to Norris, uses each other as resources to better their own condition, a sense of an “every man for himself” kind of condition. He felt that although everyone was struggling to live off another person’s information, that he was a friend to many homeless people, and would share food with the ones in worse situations than himself. Norris felt like he was one of the lucky ones in

the homeless community, because he had the opportunity to succeed, and the willpower to accomplish his goals. After recommended by Bailey’s and one of his friends, Norris found a place to help him succeed -- Samaritan Ministry. With an office in nearby Ar-lington, Virginia, Norris was given a

second chance to turn his life around, and become a successful citizen. When accepted by Samaritan Ministry into their organization, he participated in the Next Step program, which lays out a timeline of the steps the partici-pant must follow to succeed. He was given the motivation to succeed, and the ability to find a job suited to his needs and abilities. “The Next Step program laid out goals for me, and made a step-by-step program that in the long term allowed me to succeed,”

On Saturday, October 22, students, par-ents, faculty, and friends gathered in front of the school for the first annual Walk for the Homeless. As the 416 participants, led by the cross country teams, walked two miles, they were cheered on by Mrs. Joanne Beach and Mrs. Mary Eileen Ste-vens at street corners. The $13,925 raised from the participants went to Samaritan Ministry, a non-profit organization that works to end the area’s homelessness. Last year, Samaritan Ministry got 10% of its money from walks such as the one at St. Andrew’s. The school is connected with this organization in other ways too. The food from the annual canned food drive benefits their food bank, and because it is a class cup point contest between the grades, the community collects thousands

of cans. This year students brought in 6,813 cans. Support from the participants in the walkathon was generally positive. Senior Bob Jeffery said, “I was impressed by the number of St. Andrew’s students who came to the walk. It was a real testament to our community.” His view is shared by ju-nior William Moodie, who says “I thought it was very successful. It was good to see all the people help the homeless.” In the Washington Metropolitan area there are 12,000 homeless people, half of whom are a part of a family, and a third of whom are children. Samaritan Ministry works to help the homeless turn their lives around by helping them find employment. Through their Next Step program, they help the homeless find housing, conduct practice job interviews, provide formal clothing for real interviews, run a job search, form a resume, and generally sup-port homeless looking for work. They try to achieve their goal by “promoting awareness of community needs, fostering partnerships at all levels, breaking down barriers imposed by poverty, and devel-oping participant’s abilities to help them-selves to better lives,” according to their mission statement. Every month, Samari-tan Ministries helps over 300 homeless, and at least 15 to 20 find a job. The walkathon is going to be added to the yearly activities in association with Samaritan Ministries. Hopefully next year the walk will be just as successful!

Why is it that hate crimes have in-creased? Why is it that videos like “Bum Fights” even exist? Why is it that “teen violence” against Homeless individuals has increased? Take for example Holy Hill, Florida on May 28 2005 where “53-year-old Michael Roberts was beaten and punched to death with sticks and logs by a group of teenagers who admitted to beat-ing the man just for fun and to have some-thing to do”. Some might say that homeless people are just on the streets and don’t matter, but if they just looked, and they don’t have to look hard to see that those people who are homeless, that have been attacked, don’t have the comfort of having a locked door to rely upon to keep “unwanted guests” out. Outside without protection they are

subjugated to hate crimes and violence. And if that is not enough certain individu-als and groups who are the cockroaches of the film industry have used homeless people to make degrading movies such as bum fights. In these videos homeless people are forced to perform degrading and dangerous stunts for minimal reward. These videos “reinforce negative stereo-types about homelessness and homeless people by portraying them as drug addicts, alcoholics and bums”. Since 2002 the number of homeless deaths has increased by 67% and non-lethal attacks have in-creased by 281%. This problems needs to be solved soon before more people are killed by these hate crimes. To understand more about this increasingly frequent and deadly problem, I interviewed Mr. Mi-chael Stoops, who currently works at The National Coalition for the Homeless.

Interviewer: I have read that some of the hate crimes against homeless that lead to death were done in ways that are repulsive disgusting and an insult to rational thinking. How are politi-cians acting to end these outrageous acts now?Mr. Stoops: We have gotten 25 Mem-bers of Congress to endorse our request for U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) study on this Issue. On a state level, we have gotten two laws passed: 1. California--mandating that police officers be trained on the hate crimes/violence Issue: 2. Maine--law passed giving judges the discretion of adding a few more years on one’s sentence If you beat/kill someone just because they are homeless. Bills

Norris: A Samaritan Ministry Success

Michael Stoops: Fighting Against “Bum Fights”Carl CurrnanSpecial to the Mane News

Ben YeoSpecial to the Mane News

Continued on Page 4

Continued on Page 4

Sadie Davis Mane News Staff Writer

Help the Homeless

Michael Stoops is the Acting Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. He spoke during Chapel the week before the homeless walk. Norris is a successfui participant in the Samaritan Ministry program. For their final project, the ninth grade service learning class had to write papers about the homeless, two of which are reprinted below.

Mrs. Tracey Goodrich and Mrs. Ginger Cobb enjoy walking to help the homeless.

“Occasionally, I just couldn’t take the hunger any-more.”

“He was given the motivation to suc-ceed.”

In last issue’s “Sports Medicine” article on pg. 3, Mr. Al Hightower’s quote should have read “it will be good for the school because the student trainers will help out fellow stu-dent athletes, and we need to help out as much as possible at St. Andrew’s.”

CORRECTION:

TCID:BW

the Mane News4 December 11, 2006 the Mane News

Where MTAR Came Fromschool even before they have children ap-plying, Kosasky said. The tagline “More Than Academic Rigor” (now often shortened to “MTAR” by students and faculty) arose from this need. As experts in language, the con-sultants came up with the wording of the catchphrase. But both Kosasky and Mr. Mark Edwards, the founder of Edwards and Co., emphasize that the phrase really came from within St. Andrew’s. “It is a way of expressing what we heard in many internal conversations,” Edwards wrote in an email. The goal was not to change the school’s philosophy, but to convey it in a clear, succinct way so that outsiders would understand and internalize it. Some students and faculty dislike the phrase around which most addresses to the student body are now based. Many are annoyed by its seemingly ceaseless repetition. Sophomore Zach Atchison thinks it’s a good message, “but it gets old fast when you hear it every ten minutes.” One faculty member even jokes it should be called MTJAR (for “More Than Just Academic Rigor”), but figures the conno-tation of that acronym might be a little too negative. Still, others think it sends the wrong message or just doesn’t ring true. An eleventh-grade student sees it as a justi-fication “for not being the most academi-cally challenging school… I think it just looks terrible,” he says. Gomez argues that the “four pillars” of St. Andrew’s are not treated equally. He notes that there are not receptions after sports assemblies, though there are after academic honors assemblies. Eleventh grader Cara Borrelli similarly laments that there is not enough time during the school day for the arts, athletics, and extra curricular activities. Kosasky admits that the tagline has become somewhat cliché within St. An-drew’s. “Oftentimes we think, ‘I’m sick of saying that’ or ‘I’m sick of hearing it,’ and I’m very aware of that.” He says he is okay with the jokes and the shortening to “MTAR.” “It’s when you actually be-lieve in something when you start joking about it… It’s a little awkward to us, it’s

Continued from Page 1 a little clumsy to say, but I don’t think it’s untrue.” And while one teacher calls the wording “a little funny,” new history de-partment member Andrew Griffith says it is good to remember that teachers “see students just in the classroom—it helps us to understand that you are multifaceted.” Kosasky emphasizes that it is important to repeat the phrase within the St. Andrew’s community so that students and faculty, who are the school’s best marketers, have consistent language. “If we all describe [the school] in totally different words, it sounds to an outsider like we don’t know who we are,” he says. Edwards, the con-sultant, agrees: “To use it internally will bring consistency to the messages people hear and see externally.” The headmaster also had something to say to those who believe MTAR justifies a lack of academic rigor. The phrase states the school’s philosophy, which, he asserts, focuses more on the balance of students’ lives than the phrases of other schools. He doesn’t believe St. Andrew’s is less rigorous. “That might mean that a student at another school does five hours of home-work a night and the same student would do three or four hours here. I don’t think that’s less rigorous. I think it’s healthier.” The time saved might be used to play a sport or instrument that a student at an-other school would not. The school has unquestionably ben-efited from employing a marketing con-sultant, says Director of Admission Julie Jameson. Though it may take as much as three years for the results to be fully known, in the first year with the consul-tant and MTAR inquiries to the admission office were “way up.” The number of ap-plications increased slightly as well, and the school is fully enrolled. Though some students question the necessity of employing a marketing com-pany, Jameson and Kosasky insist that, in today’s school market and in this area, having a consultant is huge asset. Ac-cording to Jameson, “Everyone [all the schools] is trying to find their own place because all of the schools in this area are great. It is important to show people what makes your school special.” And that’s the whole point of MTAR.

Senioritis Could Cost YouContinued from Page 1

troduced in Massachusetts, Maryland and Florida. These bills failed for various rea-sons, but will be reintroduced next year.Interviewer: With a rising number of hate crimes and degrading movies such as “Bum fights” do you think that in certain areas, where hate crimes could be an issue, a spe-cial police group could be assembled just to protect the homeless from such actions?Mr. Stoops: If there is an Incident and the suspect is still at large, there should be ex-tra police patrols, and with homeless peo-ple organizing themselves Into “Orange Hat” crime prevention patrols. Home-less people should be given a cell phone and a whistle. Homeless people should also be encouraged to sleep in groups.Interviewer: Why is it, do you think, that the majority of individu-als who are committing the hate crimes are between the age of 12-20?Mr. Stoops: Teens attack the homeless for the following reasons: 1. they watch the bumfights videos and the next logical step is to go and beat up a local “bum.” 2. fun/entertaining 3. Bored 4. Teens are high on drugs or alcohol; 5. Group mentality 6. The homeless won’t fight back 7. They think no one will care If they beat up homeless people; 7. Crimes of opportunity; and 8. The homeless won’t report it to the police. So for whatever reason, beating up home-

provided him with the essentials to find-ing a job, such as a car and a form of ID. With the help of Samaritan Ministry, Norris found a job with a Safeway in Vir-ginia, and is now a manager in that job. Norris is still in contact with Samaritan Ministry, and believes in “giving back” to the organization, by teaching children about his experiences, and helping the participants of the Next Step program. Norris currently lives in Virginia, on ironically, Prosperity Lane. He attri-butes his success to God, to his family, and to the many volunteers and coun-selors at Samaritan Ministry that helped him along the way. “God uses people to connect to the homeless and the needy. Everyone that helped me along my path to success are one of those people.”

less people has become a teenage sport.Interviewer: Do you think that there is a particular reason why hate crimes are being committed? Mr. Stoops: The eight rea-sons I said in the last question.Interviewer: How many of those who commit hate crime are mentally ill?Mr. Stoops: I think you have to be somewhat of a disturbed Individual to go around beating up people. However, many of the perpetrators are middle class and upper middle class young peopleInterviewer: What can the general popu-lace do to help end these hate crimes before it becomes out of our ability to contain?Mr. Stoops: Adding homelessness to your state’s hate crimes law is a start, Inviting homeless/formerly homeless people to come speak to your class/school. We have a Faces of Home-lessness Speakers’ Bureau made up of homeless/formerly homeless people.Interviewer: Do you think that there is a way that could end hate crimes in the next few years? If so what is it? Mr. Stoops: The best thing to do is to pro-vide shelter and housing to everyone. Liv-ing outside is unhealthy and dangerous. There are more animal shelters in this coun-try than shelters for people. 40% of the na-tion’s homeless are forced to live outside.

Interview with NorrisContinued from Page 3

Stoops Works to Help HomelessContinued from Page 3

Honduran StudentsNEWS

mission if a straight- A student suddenly gets a B in one subject.” Seniors: first trimester may be over, but do not immediately start partying as soon as you get an acceptance let-ter. “After all,” Hashimoto says, “we don’t want to be taken advantage of.” Tajan agrees, reminding students: “col-leges accept students for a reason.” Senioritis may not only put your ac-ceptance in jeopardy, it may also weaken your academic performance permenantly. Excelling in high school takes an amount of scholarship, and once one loses that self-discipline, it is difficult to regain successful study habits. “We think of college as a step upwards in academic rigor”, says Hashimoto, “so expect that taking it easy during the remainder of your senior year will do nothing but toughen your transition into college.” First trimester may be ending, but that does not mean any senior’s academic career is. Sorry, Class of 2007, but keep on studying.

Continued from 1

is traveling alone for the first time, and she sees this as an opportunity to grow. “I’m ea-ger to prove to myself that I can do this in a very independent way, and make it [some] of the best weeks of my life,” she says. Leonela Mateo, a sophomore also from San Pedro Sula is excited to “learn more about other peoples’ culture and way of living.” Along with most of the other Honduran students, she hopes to see and feel snow for the very first time. To the Hondu-ran students, their stay in America is not only cultur-ally different, but also the education system is com-pletely unlike our own, as sophomore Francisco Somoza

tells us. Neverthe-less, this is a welcome adjustment, since many of the students hope to attend col-lege in the United States. Ninth grader Diana Valladeres of Honduras’s capital

Tegucigalpa hopes to study engineer-ing at Texas A&M, and Somoza plans to study medicine at an American college. The exchange students attend all sorts of classes, ranging from Geometry to Creative Writing. If their host hap-pens to have an after school commit-ment, participation in a sport may be ar-ranged, or a study area will be provided. On December 2, the Hondurans and

their host fami-lies went on a chaperoned shopping trip to the mall. Says ninth grader Emy Ewens, “I always like to go shopping!” The exchange students do not

stay long, but their visit is celebrated on

December 9, when St. Andrew’s hosts a party for host families, exchange students, and invited friends. We will be sorry to say goodbye to our Honduran friends on December 16!

The Honduran students as they experience their first snowfall.

Students pictured from left to right. Front: Ana Lucia Mancada, Ashley Rodg-ers, Gloria Handal, Diana Valladares, Vanessa Stein. Back: Paulina Lanza, Emy Ewens, Francisco Somoza, Maria Fernanda Gauggel, Leonela Mateo.

TCID:BW

StyleDecember 11, 2006 5the Mane News

“I like...” BoratMovie Reviews

Last week, while watching the new movie Man of the Year, I realized that a good comedy is hard to find. I don’t re-member seeing a good comedy--I mean a really good comedy--since Office Space which was released in 1999. I can now say that I have found the Holy Grail of comedies. Sacha Baron Cohen’s third movie, Borat: Cultural Learnings for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakh-stan, sets a high standard and will revolutionize the way Hollywood makes comedies. Before you see the movie, you may have a little work to do: talking your parents into letting you go see it. I sug-gest focusing on the humor of the movie and telling them that it is one of the greatest modern day political satires. Of course it helps to be able to tell them that you have to see it so you can write a re-view for the school newspa-per. Once you get their per-mission, all of the begging and whining will be worthwhile. This is the funniest

movie you will probably ever see. Every single scene has at least five jokes that will have you on the ground laughing harder than you’ve ever laughed before. The movie starts out with Borat, a Ka-zakhstani television personality, telling movie viewers about his hometown in Kazakhstan. He announces that he is “go-ing to the U, S, and A to make a movie film.” The rest of the movie follows Bo-rat and his producer on their journey all

over the United States to film a documentary about American culture. From Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles and several hys-terical stops in between, Borat learns a few things about American ways and even tries to marry (kidnap) Pamela Ander-son. Some of the jokes and events can be a little racy, but you’ll be laugh-ing too hard to care. Plus, the movie actually has an important message about bigotry and racism. So, if you’re ready to laugh harder than you’ve ever laughed before, go see

Borat and enjoy the wild ride.

Good Bet at This CasinoCharlie GillMane News Staff Writer

Not since I saw Diamonds Are Forever have I been so disappointed by a Bond movie. Sorry Bond fans, Casino Royale may just be one of the worst ones yet. Its biggest problem lies in the fact that it tries to be different from its predecessors. It is like taking a great recipe and trying to make it better with the addition of some new and possibly interesting in-gredients. How-ever, the end re-sult is something completely dif-ferent than the original recipe. And, you know what? Some-times the new recipe bombs. Casino Royale, the 21st official Bond movie, is based on Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel by the same name. The book was adapted into a television show in 1954 and then into a movie in 1967. This older version was trouble from the very be-ginning. Its star, Peter Sellers, was fired half way through production and replaced with David Niven. While fun to watch, the movie is messy and disorganized. Columbia Pictures had a great oppor-tunity show how Casino Royale should have been made, to right the wrongs, but I guess the company forgot it was actu-ally making a Bond film. While seeing the movie, I had to keep reminding my-self I was watching a James Bond movie. The movie starts out with Daniel Craig

(I refuse to call him the new Bond) kill-ing the two people he needs get rid of in order to reach the 00 rank. He kills them without any cool tricks, or gadgets, or cheesy one-liners. All he does is take orders from “M” and lurch around like a modern day caveman. He then receives a mission to take down a psychotic, mon-ey-laundering criminal, Le Chiffre, who happens to cry blood (I don’t know why).

After failing to de-stroy a huge multi bil-lion-dollar plane and losing a ton of money in the stock market, Le Chiffre tries to win it all back with an illegal high-stakes poker game. Craig is sent in to make sure he doesn’t win. The first thing you will notice is that there are no cool gadgets in the movie -- no laser watches, no safe crack-ers, no x-ray sunglasses, and most importantly, no Aston Martins with rocket launchers. Hel-lo, why else do you see a James Bond movie? The second thing is that it is really, re-

ally boring. There are about three short fight scenes, and a frustratingly bor-ing poker scene that takes up about half the movie. If you’re a die-hard Bond fan, you should still see Casino Royale

but don’t expect the royal treatment. If you’re not a big Bond fan but in need of a little adventure, save your money and rent Mission Impossible III instead. It’s much better and far more interesting. Shaken or stirred, Casino Royale is not the recipe you’re looking for.

As the holiday season approaches, the need to get all the newest and cool-est trends is overwhelming. TV ads, newspapers, and magazines proclaim the holiday “must haves” and “it” items. In the world of fashion this trans-lates to leggings, Ugg boots, North-face jackets, and many other hot trends. Many women feel compelled to buy as

much of these trendy items as possible to show that she is fashionable and cool. In wealthy areas like Potomac this means that girls do own all the coolest things because

they can afford to buy new clothes each season. But in an attempt to surpass peers, girls will wear head-to-toe trendy outfits. These girls can be seen wearing Uggs or stacked platforms with leggings, a sixties inspired mini-dress, designer hand bag (or a fake one), and a Northface. Though fash-ion road kill comes in many diverse forms it is always easily spotted. Some girls fall victim once or twice, but other girls don’t realize that this is them day after day. How can one avoid such a fate? Here are some simple steps to guide the savvy holiday shopper and help you to always be a fashionable--without the overkill. 1.When picking out outfits, decide on one or maybe two trendy items to wear. Then pick out more nondescript but classic pieces so that the highlight of your outfit will be those key trends rather than wearing head-to-toe trends.

Don’t Be A Fashion VictimCallen BrennerMane News Co-Style Editor

2.If you find trendy pieces in a magazine or at a store and think that you have to own them, then buy them in a neutral color like black; this will let you enjoy your pur-chase even when it is no longer in fashion. 3.Try to find interesting or unique pieces that are not trendy but still in-teresting, like one-of-a-kind or vintage jewelry. These pieces will help you to stand out in a good way from your friends (though jewelry from urban out-fitters is not vintage but mass produced, even though it may say “vintage”). 4. Lastly, balance out your wardrobe with classic pieces. Button down shirts and jean jacket are two examples of wardrobe essentials that you can wear with anything. Buying classic pieces in wild or bold colors or prints can increase their uniqueness without being trendy. A great idea for the holidays is a bright winter coat. Because you might spend more money on a coat and because you most likely intend on wearing it for more than one year, it is a great idea to get it in a shocking color, though avoid season- specific prints and colors like leopard. Have fun with trends; that is what they are for. However, do not succumb to the temptation to revamp your ward-robe around them. Create a personal style that people will compliment you on and will remember you by. Everyone has seen an embarrassing photo of someone from the eighties, where you can tell it is the eighties by their leggings and big hair. Though the eighties are back, de-fend yourself from being defined by it. Look to Kate Moss and Sarah Jessi-ca Parker for inspiration, as they throw together stunning outfits defined sim-ply by their handbag, giving the ef-fect of effortless chic. Trendy girls look like they spend their whole lives shopping. Don’t be a victim! Surpass.

TheOtherWoman, hey, if he’s cute and into you then go for it. Its every girl for herself out there and don’t let some chick you don’t know stop you from be-ing with this guy. It’s hard to f ind a good guy out there so take what you can get. I bet his current girlfriend is clueless and annoying and had it com-ing anyway. The fact that he can’t break up with her shows that he is a sensi-tive guy, which is good!!—RealityChk

Dear LovinSpirit and RealityChk, I’ve been seeing this girl for about a month and I don’t know if I should get her a Christmas present. I definitely want to keep seeing her and maybe even date her. What if I get her a present and she doesn’t get me one? I don’t want to spend my money or seem like I’m moving too fast. She’s been hinting that she wants one, but I really don’t feel like getting her one. Is that okay? –PresentDeboggle

Deboggle, is that a serious question… of course you should get her a present! Especially if you want to keep seeing her,

you better make sure she has a memorable holiday with you. A present shows that you really care about her and want to show it. It’s also a step in the right direction of becoming a couple. If she were to get you a present and you didn’t get her one, she would feel embarrassed and angry. Even if she doesn’t get you one, a girl always loves a present and shell probably get you one later! Some good present ideas would be jewelry or a cute wintry scarf. If you want your present to be more personal, mak-ing her a CD is a cute idea. –LovinSpirit

Deboggle, if you have only been “see-ing” this girl for a little over a month, I do not think you need to get her a present. She will feel awkward if she hasn’t gotten you one and may think you are rushing things. Coming on too strong can scare a girl away. You need to play hard to get. Also, you will have a lot of presents to buy and don’t want to waste your money on some girl you do not know well. Since you want to keep seeing her, I would sug-gest getting her a card. -RealityChk

Advice ColumnContinued From Page 8

Charlie GillMane News Staff Writer

the Mane News6 December 11, 2006 the Mane News

“The Best Way to Spred Christmas Cheer is Singing Loud for All to Hear”Best Holiday Activities

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without rib-bons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ‘till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christ-mas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

“We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.”

“I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel.” - Elf

“It’s in the singing of a street corner choirIt’s going home and getting warm by the fireIt’s true, wherever you find loveIt feels like Christmas” - A Mup-pet Christmas Carol

“’I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.’” - A Christmas Carol

Making Snowmen

Making Ginerbread Houses

Caroling

-Vail-The Atlantis -Greek Islands-Cancun-New York City

Top Five Vacation Getaways

-Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer-Jingle Bell Rock-All I Want for Christ-mas (Mariah Carey version)-Baby, It’s Cold Out-side-Feliz Navidad

Top Five Christ-mas Songs

Baking Cook-ies

Dressing Up Your Pet

Ice Skating

Seeing The Nut-cracker Ballet

Decorating the Christ-mas Tree

Sledding

“Well isn’t that a pretty picture? San-ta rollin’ down the block in a Panzer. Well, kids, I hope you have been good this year, ‘cause it looks like Santa just took out the Pearson home! IN-COMING!” – The Santa Clause

“Don’t cry, Karen, Frosty’s not gone for good. You see, he was made out of Christmas snow and Christmas snow can never disappear completely. It some-times goes away for almost a year at a time and takes the form of spring and summer rain. But you can bet your boots that when a good, jolly December wind kisses it, it will turn into Christmas snow all over again.” – Frosty The Snowman

Snowball FightsMaking Orna-ments

“You know, I think this Christmas thing is not as tricky as it seems! And why should they have all the fun? It should belong to anyone! Not anyone, in fact, but me! Why, I could make a Christmas tree! And there’s not a reason I can find, I couldn’t have a Christmas time! I bet I could improve it, too! And that’s exactly what I’ll do!” – The

Nightmare Before Christmas

Make Deco-rations

December 11, 2006 7the Mane News

“The Best Way to Spred Christmas Cheer is Singing Loud for All to Hear”

Marta: A new iPod.Kate: A pool filled with non-newtonian fluid.Mattie: My boyfriend to come back to highschool.William W.: A 300-foot mega yacht.Chas: The Republicans to regain power and a football coach for the University of Alabama.Lacey: A pair of Coach shoes.Maneesha: The Oral History Project to be OVER.Chase: An “A” in French class…hint, hint Mme. Cas-san…Hilary: An acceptance letter from Syracuse.Katie: A bootlegged copy of OJ’s new book.William M.: An Aston Martin.Ted: Money. Lots of Money.

Mane News Staff Wish List

This Season’s Best Gifts

Ugg Australia

iPodJuicy Cou-ture Jewlery

Jessica Simpson Shoes

“Let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip”-Gary Allan

“Buddy the Elf! What’s your favor-ite color?”-Elf

“First we’ll make snow angels for a two hours, then we’ll go ice skating, then we’ll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cook-iedough as fast as we can, and then we’ll snuggle.” -Elf

“With a thankful heart, with an endless joyWith a growing family, every girl and boyWill be nephew and niece to me Will bring love, hope and peace to me Yes and every night will end, and every day will startWith a greatful prayer and a thankful heart”- A Muppet Christmas Carol

What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic.

Benifit Lip Gloss

Panasonic TH-42PHD6UY Plasma Flat Screen TV

Burberry Signature Scarf

Pepper-mint Hot Chocolate

“Rats. Nobody sent me a Christmas card today. I almost wish there weren’t a holi-day season. I know nobody likes me. Why do we have to have a holiday season to emphasize it?” - Charlie Brown

“Seeing isn’t believing...believing is seeing. Kids don’t have to see this place to know that it’s here. They just...know.” – The Santa Clause

Holiday Boxers

XBox 360

“From what I see now, that will cut through the murkiest storm they can dish up. What I’m trying to say is, Ru-dolph, with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?” – Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer

The OC Season 3

David Yur-man Jewlery

Chocolate Phone

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Starbucks GiftcardRainbow 6: Las Vegas

Roses are reddishViolets are bluishIf it weren’t for ChristmasWe’d all be Jewish.- Benny Hill

the Mane News8 December 11, 2006 STYLE the Mane News

On November 4, 2006, the Barenaked Ladies came through the DC area to rock the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA. The opening act was the Mike Doughty band, whom I had never heard of, and they were able to give the show an upbeat feeling right from the start. After their brief 25 minute set, there was a short video pro-

moting the new Barenaked Ladies CD, Barenaked Ladies Are Me, after which the band instantly came on to start the show with their new single, Wind It Up. They played one more song and then began to banter about the Borat film that came out days prior, some-thing the band absolutely loved. Before long, this little talk evolved into an im-

Zach AtchinsonMane News Staff Writer

provised song whose subject changed with each verse, continuing until singer Ed Robertson ran out of things to say. The show continued, with the BnL playing a variety of songs spanning their entire catalog. Halfway through the set, the band gathered around one mi-crophone in the center of the stage for

a small acoustic performance of older tunes, which featured a small amount of percussion, a stand up bass, guitars and mandolins, and an accordion to back up the vocals. After this, they went back to their original places around the stage where they started off the second half of the show. The remainder of the show was a mix of new pieces from the new album and hits from the past. They ended the perfor-mance with a trio of songs, includ-ing “One Week,” the hit from 1998 that featured Steven Page’s melodic choruses broken up by Robertson’s improvised ‘rapping.’ The encore

included a 10 minute rendition of “If I Had $1,000,000,” as well as an unreleased track titled “Get In Line.” The concert was a great showcase of the Ladies’ ca-reer, as it showed modern songs as well as those dating back to the late 80’s, and the band had a good time while sound-ing great, and pleasing the audience.

Barenaked Ladies Concert Review

What is “In” and “Out” of StyleIN OUT

Democrats Republicans

Dress Boots Boots

Laguna Beach The O.C.

Borat Quotes Ricky Bobby Quotes

Chocolate Phones Razr Phones

Nintendo PlayStation

Britney and Paris Britney and K-Fed

Dear LovinSpirit and RealityChk, I really like this guy. He is so nice and funny. He isn’t bad looking, except for his small teeth, but my friends always make fun of him. Whenever I start to think he is good looking, a friend of mine will make a rude comment, and I will be too embarrassed to talk to him. I can’t help liking him but I feel so uncomfort-able being with someone who people do not think is attractive. Is that shal-low of me? What should I do? - Beauty

Beauty, you should definitely go for it! You’re friends are probably teasing you, because they feel comfortable around you or are jealous of your relationship with this guy. If you think his person-ality is enough to shine through his bad teeth, then you will be happy with him. Guys like that are hard to come by, so don’t miss your opportunity! I bet you are hesitating, because you are nervous, not because of his looks. Once you two are together, your friends will get used to it and stop teasing you.-LovinSpirit

Beauty, Ew. Ew. Ew. Why would you date someone with bad teeth? You know you will have to kiss him eventu-ally, don’t you? Take a hint from some-one who knows. Listen to your friends. They are your friends for a reason; they have your best interest at heart. You may think they are teasing you, but it is real-ly their way of getting their point across without hurting your feelings. Ditch

him and don’t look back. - RealityChk

Dear LovinSpirit and RealityChk, I met this guy over the summer, and we really clicked. We only hung out a couple times, because we both went on vacation, and then school started. He recently friended me on facebook and I couldn’t help but notice it said he was in a relationship. Despite this fact, the guy continued to text me! Finally, I asked about his girlfriend and he said they were taking a break. I just learned this past weekend that they are not taking a break and that he is too nervous to break up with her and is using me as a way to do it. I also learned that he does genu-inely like me. I don’t know the girl so is it wrong to hang out with him? I don’t know what to do? - TheOtherWoman

TheOtherWoman, personally I do not approve of stealing anyone’s boyfriend, even if you do not know the girl. How would you feel if someone did it to you? If this guy really likes you, then he will know he has to break up with his girlfriend before he moves on to you. He would not use you if he really wanted a future with you. Plus, if he’s being gross and trying to cheat on his current girlfriend, how do you know things will be different when he dates you? Frankly, I think its pitiful that he cant get up the guts to break up with a girl. This guy does NOT sound like a winner, you could do better. -LovinSpirit

Advice ColumnQuality Advice From LovinSpirit and RealityChk

Continued on Page 5

OPINIONDecember 11, 2006 9the Mane News

LANGLEY, Virginia, Nov. 21—In a groundbreaking discovery exclusive to this journal, an unnamed Mane News operative discovered in the vast archival vaults of the Central Intelligence Agency a former-ly top-secret document, declassifi ed just this week, which we have reprinted here: Date: Dec. 19th, 1961 To: CIA Field Operations Offi ce From: Special Agent Jack Sterling Message: Just decoded stolen Kremlin docs. MTAR. Await further communica-tion. It is unclear at this point whether Spe-cial Agent Sterling survived his mission. However, the content of the message led our unnamed representative to dig deeper. After gaining a Level 5 Security Clear-ance, said representative viewed classifi ed satellite footage of seven dark-clad fi g-ures stealing furtively into the CIA vaults the night before the St. Andrew’s MTAR campaign began. The seven fi gures bore a striking resemblance to our own Mr. Kosasky, Mr. Holden, Ms. Beach, Mrs. Cobb, Mr. Brown, Mr. Segal, and Mrs. Macomber. Mr. Kosasky appeared to have led the mission as Mrs. Macomber and Mr. Holden stood watch outside and took out two CIA guards. For her part, Ms. Beach performed a series of gymnastic moves with baton and all to dodge a laser grid. All this begs the question: what

did MTAR originally mean? We know students have had their share of amusement wondering at this awe-in-spiring slogan, but what if MTAR really stands for Missiles Transferred to Army Reserves? Or Murmansk Training Acad-emy Revolution? Does our school re-ally value More Than Armenian Rebels? Our specu-lations began here, but the experts whom we consulted suggested other possible mean-ings. “It’s defi -nitely ‘Myopic Tartars Await Rebellion,’” declared Russian history expert Mikhail Konstantin Romanovich Petrovich Ivanovich Stravinsky. “No, no!” cried St. Andrew’s’ pet historian Howard Zinn when we presented him with Stravinsky’s point of view. “It’s ob-viously Made-up Tales of American Righ-teousness, although I hate to disagree with a Communist.” For his part, President Bush declared that the acronym stood for “Many Thanks to American Republicans.” Despite these inspired propositions, we found other compelling theories such as “Mutant Turtles Armed Riot.” Could MTAR really refer to some newly devel-oped Soviet chemical weapon composed of meitnerium (chemical symbol MT) and argon (chemical symbol AR)? Could Agent Sterling have foreseen the inven-tion of the MTAR-21 assault rifl e, not in-vented until 1991? What about “Modus Tollens Always Rectify,” or “My Teacher Attends Raves”? The Mane News has yet to reach a conclusion on this matter, so in the meantime we will continue to be dis-tracted in class by wondering whether our rallying cry supports Tartars, the Com-munists, Geometry, or Mutant Turtles.

Gabe Elsworth and Lexi HaywoodMane News Staff Writers For those of you who do not know, The Red Onion is a satiric writen by two seniors, Gabe Ellsworth and Lexi Heywood. Each issue you will fi nd The Red Onion right here in the opinion sec-tion. This article is not meant to offend anyone, nor is it meant to make fun of anyone. This article is a take off of the hit website, www.theonion.com. So for your personal enjoyment, here it is...

The Red Onion

Teenagers often obsess over expensive fashion trends and try to conform to what they believe a “normal” high school student should be like. Things are no different here. The Potomac area is extremely affl uent, and money does not help reduce the pres-sure. Clothes are often important for the popular and preppy kids. Senior Curtis Wil-son, a former employee of Abercrombie and

F i t c h c o m -mented on this, “People w h o shopped at Aber-crombie thought t h e y w e r e b e t t e r than ev-e r y o n e e l s e .

It’s just a status symbol.” Status symbol or not, students are still going to great lengths to fi t a certain profi le. As one stu-dent says bluntly, “If you’re not preppy, you don’t fi t in. The preppy kids with a lot of money are defi nitely in their own little bubble, and they don’t want to let other people in. The more money you have, the more popular you are.” But why are teens so desperate to fi t in? The desire to be popular is a driving force for many teens. According to Rosalind Wise-man, author of Queen Bees & Wannabes, “Popularity conveys an illusory sense of power. Some think that if they can achieve

it, all their problems will disappear.” Teens, and especially girls, can have a diffi cult time dealing with the pres-sure to be popular and to fi t in. Some-times this can result in depression, eat-ing disorders, or bullying. According to Wiseman’s book, “Beauty and style are so important to the Girl World that it wouldn’t exist without it… Girls strug-gle to survive in a painful world where the value of self-worth is too often tied to an impossible standard of beauty.” School sizes can also change the pres-sure to fi t in. With just over 400 students in the upper school at St. Andrew’s, there is not much room for being different. While many people have unique qualities about them, it sometimes feels as though it is impossible to break away from the “typical” St. Andrew’s student image. Churchill, on the other hand, has over 2,000 students, and there are defi nitely more places to fi nd a diverse group of friends. This is not to say that Churchill does not have wealth and preppy stu-dents. There are simply just more people. According to Churchill senior David Zamkov, “Everybody wants to be accepted by somebody, whether it’s dressing in all black with make up and such to fi t in with the ‘emo’ kids, or wearing light colored polos to look preppy, everybody cares and wants to be accepted. Despite everybody’s best wishes, physical appearance has a large bearing on who you hang out with, and it plays a crucial role in the social ladder.” Pressure is always going to exist no matter who you are or how you pres-ent yourself. Dressing a certain way does not guarantee your way into the popular crowd, and so it is important to do what you believe in before you are ready to change yourself just to “fi t in.”

Teens Deal With Body Image IssuesGreat Amount of Pressure to Fit inLaura WitowskyMane News Staff Writer

“Math is the last thing in your life you’ll ever need to know.” “Math will give you the knowledge to look at the world with an analytical and logical perspective.” No matter what people say, there can be no hint, of a shadow, of a sliver, of a whisper, of a doubt that math is alive and thriving in school. I, having had my ups and downs with the subject, took it upon myself to ex-plore just what a school like St. Andrew’s thought about the subject of mathematics. When I began my investigations that in-volved interviews with assorted students and faculty, I unearthed two opposing fac-tions that had subconsciously organized themselves to be what I termed “The Axis Powers of Humanities,” and the “ Allied Powers of Sciences.” Indeed, I had ex-posed a hidden war zone within the school, a war centered on math. Math! The math that comprises one third of the SAT; the math students learn in the lower levels of St. Andrew’s. Could such a simple thing really be a source of confl ict? The an-swer: yes. With the tremendous burden of discovering an ongoing and heated battle

The Math WarTwo Opinions on Math

within the very foundations of SAES edu-cation, I set myself with the new task of fi nding out the mentalities of both sides. “Math is the last thing you’ll ever need

to know.” That just about says it all for the Axis Powers. The primary members of this group are the assorted humanities teachers, students with D’s in Math and A’s in English, and others that have had some awful or traumatic experience with the subject. These are the ones who will go

on to write books, attend liberal arts col-leges, and join the Facebook group “Stu-dents against Math!” And yet, students in St. Andrew’s, no, the American school

system, are required to toy with, laugh at, and suffer through 14 years of math (counting pre-school and kindergarten). Why then, with such an emphasis on math, is there a rebellion against numbers? Mostly, it boils down to person-ality. Those of the Axis Powers are the more theo-retical than the logical, and fi nd more pleasure in the completion of specu-lative debates than in the joys of solving a calculus equation correctly. Disap-

pointed as I was with fi nding it was most-ly a matter of preference, I decided to turn to those who must know why people love math: the math lovers of St. Andrew’s. The Allied Powers: math teachers, fast track math students, and lovers of undeni-able logic and calculation. I asked one of

Joey GottliebMane News Staff Writer

the soldiers of the Allied Powers why he loved math, and his reply was, “I really love completing a problem, and the sat-isfaction you get from taking in informa-tion and using it to acquire further knowl-edge.” In addition, he added such things as “all the high paying jobs that you can get if you know a lot of math.” So now I was very confused, was it the money they loved, or the pursuit of scientifi c knowl-edge? With a little more digging, I discov-ered that the great majority of math lov-ers have an innate ability for the subject, which no doubt helps with the organizing of numbers and shapes. They are also the complete opposites of Humanities lovers. They favor good, strong reason that cannot be argued with or disputed, for it simply is. More preference? What this war boils down to is what people like and don’t like, nothing more? “Well,” I thought to myself, “How anti-climactic. I have gotten myself all excited about a secret confrontation in the school, and for what? A discovery that it is not much more than saying ‘I simply do or do not like math.’” Well, what I have discovered is: it makes for a good story.

www.etsy.com

the Mane News10 December 11, 2006 OPINION the Mane News

Originally this article was in essence a rant about how I felt about extended time. In the beginning I felt that extended time was a luxury that was given to students who had something wrong with them. However, realizing that I really did not know very much about extended time I went to speak with Mrs. Judy Lorb-er, who is the person who assigns students with extended time once they have been diagnosed. Her most important point was, “In real life, life gives you extended time. In the work place you can work through the nights or lunch. School is the only place where there are tests.” I never really thought about it that way. Her statement made a lot of sense: real life is a lot more flexible than a school condition. Lorber went on to say that most students use about 10-20 extra minutes to get their ideas on paper and check their work. At first I had thought that, “Oh, well, it just takes

me longer to think,” was a lame excuse. I had thought, “Tough, you need to learn to think faster and get your work done.” But Lorber pointed out to me that there are a lot of students who actually do take

longer. These students re-ally do need to take a lon-ger amount of time to do their work. She also pointed out that extended time helped to remove the anxiety about time. I

personally would have liked to know that I had an extra 40 minutes if I needed it on that history test. When every second counts, having a few additional min-utes can really help on a psychological level as well as helping with your grade. Overall I have learned that there is a lot more to this issue than just people who want to take a few ex-tra minutes. There truly is a lot more depth to this than I had ever thought.

Extended Time: Not for EveryoneTed DunmireMane News Opinion Editor

This year has truly been a landmark in St. Andrew’s history. The creation and increase in activity of clubs such as the Gay Straight Alliance, the Black Student Alliance, the Diversity Club, and the Jew-ish Culture Club shows growth in the community and also provides a way for students to use their collective voice and come together to support one another. Every time we hear a speech about what we strive for, diversity is always empha-sized. Our admissions staff strives to bal-ance our school’s religious, racial, and ethnic diversity, but once we have as-sembled our “melting pot” how easy is it to maintain our individuality and religious roots while living in an environment that may challenge our core beliefs? Five years ago, when I began school here, I was a naïve eleven-year-old who just knew that her parents wanted her to get a better education than she would at her local public school. Although I had looked at other schools, my parents and I decided that this school was the right fit for me. At that time I was the only Jewish student in my class of 29 students. I dutifully attended Hebrew school every Sunday and went to synagogue on the holidays because my parents did and I knew that was what I was expected to do. When I was asked about my religious affiliation, with no hesitation, I would an-swer that I was Jewish. The significance of the switch from a non-secular environment didn’t really af-fect me during the first few years. I en-joyed explaining why I brought lunch ev-eryday during Passover and occasionally correcting the Rev. in religion class. I felt special and unique. But as I got older and my Bat Mitzvah was approaching, chapel began to feel like

An Episcopal School from a Jewish Perspectivea chore and I had to learn to fight the urge to just stand up and walk out. My feelings were not caused by a dislike of Christi-anity or a disrespect of other people’s be-liefs, but more by a feeling that my Jewish identity was being challenged. The intru-sion of another set of beliefs and rituals, which I didn’t share, left me feeling con-

fused and lonely. This feeling of separation continued through the end of Middle School and even when there was an increase in the number of other Jewish students in my grade. The big leap from middle school to high school was more of a shock than I expect-ed. I knew that my friends and I might drift apart, but I always really believed that my grade’s identity wouldn’t change much. Happily, while I found this to be true, with the arrival of some less “main-stream” individuals and with more racial, religious, and ethnic diversity, the class of 2009 now has a new dimension. At the same time that I was meeting the new students, some of whom are Jewish,

and establishing new school-based rela-tionships, I joined a Jewish youth group where I felt immediately at home. As the year progressed, I established myself for the first time as a practicing, responsible member of the Jewish community. These new feelings of loyalty to my religion and culture began to conflict with

my connection to the St. Andrew’s commu-nity. Some of my new school friends found my religion intriguing, and I still enjoyed the occasional chance to clear up myths about Judaism, but at the same time I didn’t know many Jewish students outside my grade, so my feelings of loneliness contin-ued. My friends from

outside of school, who are predominantly Jewish, asked me, “Why do you go to a Christian school if you’re Jewish?” When I told my youth group friends where I went to school they too seemed confused. Other students would assume I was only half Jewish and when I corrected them they would ask; “Why here?” The problem was that I couldn’t give a reason that I came to this school; I was so young when the decision to come to St. Andrew’s was made four years ago. Things have changed recently and now I am a member, in good standing, of the Jewish Culture Club, the GSA, and the Diversity club. In addition to my youth group, I have made connections with Jew-ish students in other grades and the dis-covery of other like-minded Jewish mem-

bers of the SAES community, including the faculty, gives me more of a feeling of belonging. With the community that the Jewish Culture Club is planning to estab-lish inside our St. Andrew’s family, things seems more hopeful and change is on the horizon. The JCC can now join the other clubs in supporting students and giving them a place to talk about anything and every-thing, but especially about the challenges they face. In addition, the role of these groups will be to organize students to take their concerns to the administration to be heard, and hopefully to make changes in school policy when appropriate. Being part of this newly established club helps me by just knowing I am not the only one who is a bit different. When looking back on my middle and high school experience I know my character will be strengthened by my experiences. Right now I know that going to St. An-drew’s has caused me to commit to my Jewish identity and “wear” it in ways I wouldn‘t have at a totally secular school. I feel fortunate to have discovered this about myself, because I know that other young Jews may not find that pull to faith until later if their lives and some might never find that path at all. While I am here at St. Andrew’s, I hope to do everything I can to educate, connect, and share in the different cultures and customs of the stu-dent body, which I believe is solid prepa-ration for living in our complex world. I would also like to reassure anyone who is in a minority that they have a place and a support system at St. Andrew’s and I hope that these students won’t feel that they have to blend in just to make things easier.

Another LookAlex Lis-PerlisMane News Staff Writer

If there is one word that summarizes the 2006 midterm elections, it is change. The Democrats won majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. There are 232 Democrats and 199 Re-publicans in the House of Representatives, and there are 49 Democrats, 49 Republi-cans, and 2 Independents (who will prob-ably vote Democratic) in the Senate. At the very least, President Bush will have a harder time of passing his own legislative agenda. This shows that the American people (including me) are upset with the Administration’s inability to deal with Iraq, spiraling health costs, and ille-gal immigration. Perhaps the biggest news is the resigna-tion of Donald H. Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. This should have happened sooner—Rumsfeld is a senile man who forgot that he gave Saddam Hussein most of his armaments.

Key Local Races:

Governor in Maryland: Democratic can-didate Martin O’Malley soundly defeated incumbent candidate Robert Ehrlich by 7%.

Senate in Virginia: Democratic candidate

Jim Webb narrowly defeated incumbent candidate George Allen by 0.3%. This one was perhaps the most important be-cause, along with Jon Tester’s victory in Montana, it gave the Democrats the ma-jority of the Senate. In truth, I am glad for this. There needs to be a balance between the two parties in Congress and I truly believe that the Bush Administration has made a huge mess. I hope the Democrats can force Bush to make compromises on his bills.

Senate election in Maryland: Democratic candidate Ben Cardin (Gerblah!) defeat-ed Republican candidate Michael Steele (Huzzah!) by 10% in the closest Mary-land senate election since Maryland be-came a state. I liked Michael Steele when he spoke at school. He was a leader and a good man. In all of Cardin’s negative advertisements I saw numerous reasons to not-vote for Michael Steele but absolutely none to vote for Ben Cardin. Cardin’s en-tire platform is: Withdrawal from Iraq. Oh wait, I’m sup-posed to represent the state of Maryland?I want out of Iraq too, but a senator should not be elected just because he wants out of Iraq. Critics of Steele say, “He’s such an Oreo.” Oreos are delicious! Well, if Steele is an Oreo, Cardin is a peanut shell without a peanut.

2006 Midterm ElectionsChange in the Air (and the Polls)Matthew VaverisMane News Staff Writer

Tune in to the Mane News Podcast Hosted by Jacob Baron and Katie Nesmith. Open iTunes, search “Mane News,” click

Subscribe and the latest episode will download.

Members of the newly formed Jewish Culture Club

Seniors Beat Juniors 70 to 7 in the Class Cup Football

Game to Win the 1st Trimester Class Cup on

November 27th.

What appeared to be a strong start for the Washington Capitals quickly turned into a false sense of hope as they sud-denly dropped from 7th to 15th place in the Eastern Conference, after losing six straight games. During the losing streak, they were outscored 15-2, due to injury to crucial goal-scoring left wing, Alexander Semin. The two goals during the streak were scored by last season’s rookie of the year, Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin has consistently been one of the league’s top scorers throughout the season. The los-ing streak was broken in an impressive 5-2 victory against Tampa Bay, although Tampa Bay out shot the Caps 50-22 with goalie Olaf Kolzig setting a new person-al record during the game with 48 saves in one night. With the end to the losing streak, along with the improvement on offense, and Kolzig playing as he did against the Lightening, things are hope-ful for the Caps the rest of this season.

SportsDecember 11, 2006 11the Mane News

Girls JV TennisMVP: Christine Sim Chrissy Goldbaum

Coach’s Award: Rebecca Hyde

JV VolleyballMVP: Tory Johnson

Coaches Award: Julie Norris

Girls JV Cross CountryMost Improved Elana Taub

MVR: Diana BrownCoach’s Award: Victoria Bodnar

Boys JV Cross CountryMost Improved: Gevon Madrid

MVR: Ben NaughtonCoach’s Award: Bob Jeffrey

Girls JV Soccer MIP: Claire HansenMVP: Sarah Kontos

Coach’s Award: Dannie Moore

Boys JV SoccerMost improved: Ben YeoMVP: Jonathan Burket

Coach’s Award: Matt Toch

Girls Varsity Cross Coun-try

Most Improved: Emily HattonMVR: Yaa Addison

Coach’s Award: Lisa Nash

Varsity GolfRookie: Aidan BundyMVP: Chas Duvall

Coach’s Award: Stephen Lanpher

Girls Varsity SoccerMost Improved: Lisa Rokoff

MVP: Becca BeckerCoach’s Award: Hannah Davis

Boys Varsity Cross Coun-try

Most Improved: Dylan ThayerCoach’s Award: John Taylor

MVP: Joe Peterson

Varsity VolleyballMVP: Maggie Roberts

Coach’s Award: Alaina Carr

Girls Varsity TennisMost Improved: Maneesah Sakhuja

MVP: Leili Doerr

Fall Sports Award Winners and All-Confrence Athletes

The Wizards have gotten off to a rocky start, after losing their first game to the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team which knocked the Wizards out of the playoffs only a year ago. Gilbert Arenas, the team’s all-star point guard, looked about as ugly as the Wizards new, alternate gold and black jerseys back (which they will sport for a handful of games). However since his disappointing debut, Gilbert has bounced back, and has scored over 20 points in all but 2 games, marinating a scoring average of 25.9 points per game. Despite Gilbert’s strong scoring average, the Wizard’s have struggled to put W’s in the win column. Their record is 6-10, are in fourth place in their division, and they are yet to win a game on the road. The only key injury this season so far has been to new Daruis Songaila who had back surgery before the season, which has kept him out for three months, but he has been practicing and should return to the line up soon. New addition DeShaun Stevenson has played well and been a solid defensive player for the wizards. Struggling in the beginning of the season is not uncommon for the Wizards, who went 9 and 11 in their first 20 games last season and they finished the season 42-40. While the Wizards are in fourth place and 6 games back from the 12-4 Orlando Magic, they are still in close running with the second place, 6-7 Atlanta Hawks. With 61 games left, it is too early to talk about the playoffs, but with a weak Eastern division, the Wizards shouldn’t have any trouble getting back on track and have a chance to make the playoffs.

Sports Wrap Up from the Verizon CenterLucas GarrisonMane News Staff Writer

Colin MacDougallMane News Staff Writer

All MAC Cross-Country:Joe Peterson (Senior)Dylan Thayer (Soph-more)Tom Belikove (Soph-moreGolf:Chas Duvall (Senior)Lee Miller (Junior)Soccer:Ian Hendrie (Junior)

All ISLSoccer:Becca Becker (Senior)Allie Connelly (Senior)

the Mane NewsSPORTS12 December 11, 2006

St. Andrew’s is a small independent school in Potomac, Maryland, which is known for everything but its athletic pro-gram. A school with only 468 students has a serious lack of school spirit and support for its athletics. In an attempt to raise support for the athletic program, students have recently discussed a pos-sible fan club that would come out and support sporting events by painting their bodies in “the bloody red of a lion’s prey,” senior SGA representative Tim Rogan stated. Rogan believes that “by having a fan club, the community will come together as one, outside of the rig-orous classrooms, as well as it will be a good way to cheer our teams to success.” Many stated that it would be a good addition to the school as well as a good addition to the school’s tra-ditions. Although many people said that it would be a good idea, SGA president Nick Bralove disagreed, “Although St. An-drew’s athletes and students would benefit from hav-ing this club, the school is reluctant to push the thought of it because the school does not want to gain the reputation of being a school spirit pow-erhouse in the Potomac community even though it contradicts the school’s

Lions RoarCurtis WilsonMane News Staff Writer

Last summer, leading up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, there was a lot of hype in the U.S. about the National Team. Everywhere you looked you see posters about how the U.S. is ready to go even further than they did in their magical run in the 2002 World Cup. The truth is that 2002 was pure luck, and it will never happen again unless the U.S. makes some changes on the youth level. At the disaster that was the 2006 World Cup, America had plenty of big, fast, strong, athletes, but the prob-lem was that they had no creativity. This starts at the youth level. Carl-ton Briscoe, a former Jamaican national team player, who is currently coaching both the Bethesda Mavericks, and the Bethesda Mavs, says that a big problem is that the only soccer that kids are play-ing is structured with coaches. This may not sound like a problem but, according to Briscoe, kids need to be able to just play pickup soccer as well as organized team soccer. In pickup soccer kids are able to experiment and try out different moves without the pressure of winning. But in America, the pickup games don’t exist. Briscoe says that coaches are

overemphasizing winning at too young an age, and sacrificing player skill and development in order to do so. Coaches just tell kids to kick and run, and always get the ball to the biggest, fastest play-ers. Any creativity involving skill is dis-couraged because it is too risky. “They just can’t conceptualize that I can pull the ball over this guy’s head, or I can put the ball through this guy’s legs.” The problem is that changes do not appear to be being made, second grader

Colin Hendrie says that when he goes to practice, “My coach tells me to do beef kicks, so I do beef kicks.” When asked whether his coach teaches him any moves, his response was “Ummm…well, no.”

Something that can be done in order to improve American soccer is to sim-ply get kids playing more. At best, kids from a young age are practicing about 2 to 3 times a week. In Europe things are much different. According to coach Massimo Ciarla, a former professional club player in Italy but now a coach of several U.S.: “ In Europe, if you look at the Dutch program, the Ajax pro-gram, the kids after school go play for two hours, then eat, study, and play for two more hours.” This means rather than a couple of hours twice a week, Dutch children are playing 4 hours a day! No wonder they are better than us. Another huge difference between the U.S. and Europe, is that in the U.S. in order to play for a top level club team, and play for ODP teams, money is re-quired. It costs players a lot of money just to be able to play, and if you can-not afford it, then you do not play. Due to the high costs of playing competitive soccer, there are many great players that never even get looked at by college or national team coaches. In Europe, it is the exact opposite, the clubs invest in each individual player, paying for the costs of their training, and some-times housing and education as well. Also in Europe, players do not have to

go traveling to other states to play for bet-ter club teams or Region I tournaments several hours away from where they live on the weekends. To use the Ajax pro-gram again, they cannot recruit any play-ers that live more than 15 miles away from Amsterdam, because that would be moving into the recruiting grounds of other club teams, yet they still man-age to turn out player after player that are capable of competing at the highest lev-els of club and national teams. As Ciarla puts it “In Europe, you stay in your com-munity, then they spend money on you.” Although some of these much need-ed changes will not come easy, they are necessary steps that have to be made in order to prevent any more World Cup disappointments in the years to come.

Photo Credits:

Kimi Hugli Lacey Guitierrez Viveka Jahn Thea Klein-Mayer Ruth Faison starbucks.com bloomingdales.com verizon.com espn.com saes.org

saying ‘More Than Academic Rigor.’ It is a phrase that you can hear numerous students throughout the hall making fun of.” There is school spirit but it is lim-ited by our administration, who believe that in order to support our athletic teams we must obtain “etiquette and behavior in MAC and ISL sporting events. But who classifies what etiquette is? The ad-ministration. According to Mr. Brown, “If done well a fan club would be a good idea and would encourage more people to come out and support our teams espe-cially in the winter when most students are not involved in an after school event.”Basketball and football sensation Max McRoy of St.Alban’s School stated that they have had a fan club titled “The Bulldog Bandits” who have been to all

of their home games and most of their away games. He fur-ther states that by this fan club being in at-tendance it seems to raise his competitive spirit. McRoy claims, “When walking down to the football field or out of the locker room and seeing my classmates dressed and in paint ready for war pumps me up and alerts my killer instinct to go out and com-pete like there is no tomorrow. Our club has numerous cheers and chants to taunt the opposing side

even though it is all good fun we also have two to three drums that people bang on in the middle of the football game.”

After what appeared to be a promising start, the Redskins have self destructed, losing 5 of their last 7 games including two blowouts by the Eagles and Colts. The two wins came against arch-rival Dallas Cowboys, and the dangerous Carolina Panthers. The Redskins were able to steal the game, thanks to new-ly acquired safety Troy Vincent, who blocked a potential game winning field goal attempt by ex-Cowboy kicker Mike Vanderjagt. After a questionable face-mask penalty against the Cowboys to go along with great fumble recovery and re-turn by Sean Taylor, the Redskins were able to set up new kicker Nick Novak to kick the game win-ning field goal. Novak c o n n e c t e d on a 47 yard game win-ning field goal, which made the fi-nal score 22 to 19 Red-skins. The next week, the Redskins were blown out by the Eagles, by a score of 27 to 3. D e s p i t e the pa-thetic per-

formance and the season ending injury to running back Clinton Portis, the Redskins were excited because they received what they had been demanding for nearly the whole season: Coach Gibbs announced that Jason Campbell would replace Mark Brunell as the starting quarterback. Al-though the Redskins lost 17 to 20, Jason Campbell looked very strong in his first game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, completing 19 passes for 196 yards and 2 touchdowns. The next week, the ‘Skins defeated the Carolina Panthers 17 to 13. The Redskins defense, ranked 30th go-ing into the game, returned to its usual form from the past two years, forcing 2 interceptions, and shutting down the Pan-

thers sturdy running game. Sean Taylor, who was named NFC defensive player of the week, had one game-end-ing interception, as well a number of great tackles, includ-ing one that stopped a Carolina drive late in the fourth quar-ter. Now at 4-7 and ranked fourth in the NFC East, the Red-skins, with a tough schedule ahead, look as though they will miss the play-offs. However the emergence of Jason

Campbell has Red-skins fans looking at a bright and successful future.

U.S. Youth Soccer DevelopmentIan HendrieMane News Staff Writer

Redskins: Sink or Swim?Lucas GarrisonMane News Staff Writer

Student Booster Club to Invade SAES

Seniors Cheer for GVS Banner Game. Pictured Above: Sam Goldenberg, Ste-phen Lanpher, Patrick McKelvy, Chas Duvall, Tim Rogan

Will Campbell Lead the ‘Skins to Victory?

Is the US Doing Enough to Prepare the Youth for Future Glory?

Jason Campbell Prepares To Lead The Skins Back To The Super Bowl.