issue1NF

The SpectatorThe Stuyvesant High School Newspaper

Volume XCIX No. 3 October 6, 2008 stuyspectator.com

Hole-in-the-Walls: Tasty But DingyPut aside your claustrophobia, this food is too

good to miss.Sex, drugs and Rock and Roll... without the sex and drugs.

My Descent into the World of Fake Rock-StardomArticle on page 8.Arts and EntertainmentOpinions Article on page 6.

“The Pulseof the

StudentBody”

By NICOLLETE BARSAMIANand ANI SEFAJ

with additional reporting byARIANNA MOSHARY

As one of his main goals forthe school year, PrincipalStanley Teitel introduced a newschool-wide initiative calledWriting Across the Curriculum.This program will work toimprove students’ writing byhaving students learning andusing writing skills in everymajor subject class.

“We hear faculty complainthat students don’t have thewriting skills they should have,”Teitel said. “I’ve decided thatwe need to work harder on ourwriting skills in all subjects soI’ve stated that one of schoolgoals this year will be to incor-porate writing into every sub-ject.”

The three main goals ofWriting Across the Curriculumwill be to help students becomebetter overall writers by givingthem more opportunities towrite, to have students becomemore proficient writers in everydiscipline and to improve thequality of overall instructionthrough the use of writing inboth the classroom and as onemethod of assessment, accord-

ing to Assistant PrincipalEnglish Eric Grossman.

“You don’t write the sameway for different subjects, but ifwe don’t discuss these subjects,then you won’t know,” Teitelsaid. “We have to teach youhow to write in each of the dif-ferent subjects.”

This idea has the full sup-port of the Assistant Principals.“It’s important to know thatthis is more of a goal [than] apolicy,” Assistant PrincipalMathematics Maryann Ferrarasaid. “It is a good idea and aworthwhile thing to explore.”

“I wholly support this idea,”Assistant Principal Chemistryand Physics Scott Thomas said.“Stuyvesant has never hadsomething like this, thoughmany schools in the city have,and it has proven successful.”

“We have been teaching towrite all along. Now it is formal-ized and organized,” AssistantPrincipal Biology ElizabethFong said. “It’s important toknow how to write because ifyou are a scientist or doctor,you have to make observations,write clearly and concisely toformulate your hypothesis,gather and analyze data and

Teitel’s New Initiative:Writing Across the Curriculum

By RUCHI JAIN and KAITLYN KWAN

The Student Union (SU) dis-tributed copies of 'The SUHandbook for Dummies’ tofreshmen during the secondhomeroom of the new schoolyear.

“The handbooks were cre-ated to inform students aboutthe [SU]. A lot of people don't

realize all the differentresources we offer,” junior andSU Vice President Casey Griffinsaid. “We hope to spread aware-ness and to give people basicknowledge about what we do.”

‘The SU Handbook forDummies’ includes a map ofthe businesses in Tribeca thataccept the Stuy AdvantageCard, and descriptions of thedifferent SU positions.

This is the second year in arow the SU distributed thehandbooks. Last year, studentsin every grade—not just fresh-men—received the handbooks.

According to SU PresidentJames Kim, another mass pro-duction would have been tooexpensive. “It's sort of repeti-tive. The constitution hasn't

SU Distributes Handbooks to Freshmen

The SU used the popular "For Dummies" self help guides as a template for the new edition if their handbook.

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By RACHEL KIM with additional reporting by

KAITLYN KWAN

"Frontrunners,” a documen-tary about the 2006 StudentUnion (SU) elections, will bereleased nationwide on Friday,October 24 and in New York Cityon Wednesday, October 15 atthe New York Film Forum.

Director Caroline Suh start-ed filming “Frontrunners” inMay 2007 and completed theproject early this year. The filmcovers the elections of 2007alumni George Zisiadis, HannahFreiman, Mike Zaytsev and AlexLeonard, who ran for the SUPresident position.

Suh chose to film atStuyvesant because she was“looking for a good student bodyelection,” she said. According toSuh, the level of professionalisminvolved in the election process,such as the candidates’ debatesand The Spectator endorse-ments, was what compelled herto film at Stuyvesant.

"We had a great time film-ing,” Suh said. “Everyone waswelcoming and the studentswere engaged. I was veryimpressed.”

Suh and her film crew fol-lowed the four candidates forseveral days and interviewed

them about their respectivemotivations for running andcampaign platforms.

"[The film] really portrayseveryone in a good light,”Zisiadis said. “It was objectiveand had varied interpretations.”

Suh invited SU Presidentand Vice President James Kimand Casey Griffin to a privatescreening two weeks ago held atthe Channel Thirteen PublicBroadcasting Services building.

"It was inspirational,” Kimsaid. During the 2006 SU elec-tions, “the student body wasmore involved in the electionsand there was a lot more studentactivity,” he said.

Kim, who wants to show thefilm to SU members, said, “Thepast couple of years, the voterturnout was low.” He hopes thatthe film will encourage “stu-dents to be more involved.”

"I really enjoyed it from amovie critic’s point of view,”Griffin said. “It was sad seeing it[…] I wish Stuy students wouldget more involved in the elec-tions.”

"I would probably go see itbecause it sounds pretty inter-esting,” junior Charles Chansaid.

"I would be interested inseeing the movie but I’m notsure how much it would actually

impact the voting turnout forour current elections,” juniorMicah Wood said. “It’s an inter-esting topic for outsiders—peo-ple who don’t go to the school—but we’re not a school that is soinvolved in the Student Union.”

"Frontrunners” will bereleased in seven cities—LosAngeles, Berkeley, SanFrancisco, Philadelphia, Denverand Boston—on Friday, October24, eleven days before thenational presidential election onTuesday, November 4.

Suh did not intend on releas-ing the film during the sametime as the national elections,but “when we started filming,we realized it was perfect tim-ing. It’s amazing how thethemes of the national electionare projected in the film,” shesaid.

"[The SU elections] basicallyare national elections,” produc-er Erika Frankel said in an inter-view in Issue 3 of The Spectatoron October 4, 2007. “It seemedlike Stuyvesant students haveconsidered everything fromdemographics and the make-upof a ticket to strategic methodsfor running in a campaign.”

Zisiadis said, “Stuy is uniquein many ways because of thesheer ingenuity of its kids and itspassion.”

“Frontrunners” To BeReleased in Theaters

Stuy Alumni – Where are They Now?

By SHIVANI MITTAL and LILY PINCHOFFTeenagers are constantly being nagged with the question

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" After such a ques-tion, most feel overwhelmed and a noncommittal responseensues. But some high school students are inspired by theextracurriculars they participated in at school.

Alumnus Ian Ferguson(’05) spent his years atStuyvesant working with theRobotics team. For him, theteam was “a real community[with] lots of involvementfrom 30 or more studentsand parents,” Ferguson said.

“[The team] was well-fund-ed, organized and well-run,”he said.

His favorite moment withthe Robotics team was driv-ing the robot at the 2005 ForInspiration and Recognition

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Ian Ferguson ('05)

continued on page 3

The Spectator • October 6, 2008

News

reach a conclusion. Thatrequires critical thinking andgood science writing.”

“Writing is so fundamentalto every discipline and act ofthinking that it shouldn't just berelevant to English, but to everysubject,” Grossman said.

However, this idea is still inthe exploratory stage and it istoo early to tell the path that itwill take. The teachers and fac-ulty will hold a staff develop-ment meeting on Tuesday,November 4 (Election Day), inwhich they will discuss Teitel’sgoal. “We’re talking about it atthis point,” Teitel said.

“We’re still getting inputfrom the teachers on how tobring writing into the [math]curriculum. It’s not necessarilygoing to be writing a paper. Ithink it will be a lot of smallthings to improve both mathand writing,” Ferrara said.

It doesn't just mean morepapers, although some assess-ments should be written,”Grossman said.

The majority of the facultywas receptive to the idea ofincorporating writing in theirclasses. “It is shown that thebest way to make good writers isto have people write all thetime,” English teacher MarkHenderson said.

All biology classes already dothis. We are writing labs rightnow,” biology teacher AnneManwell said. “The more writ-

ing in any discipline, the betterthe student turns out to be.Organizing thoughts in a logicalmanner makes a better stu-dent.”

We do writing already, justin another language,” Japaneseteacher Chie Helinski said. “In

the upper levels, we write essaysin Japanese. Freshmen haveresearch papers in English. Aslong as students learn thebasics, it’s good.”

However, there is someapprehension among teachers.“There are faculty that do notfeel completely competent tograde writing, so we’re going to

have to talk about that,” Teitelsaid.

Writing Across theCurriculum drew a mixedresponse from students.“Writing a paper for each sub-ject is absurd. I’m expecting tolearn something about mathwhen I go to math class, nothow to improve my writing,”freshman Francesco Ferransaid. “That’s what English classis for.”

Sophomore Meiyi Shi said,“It's an alright idea because formath and science, there's a lotto write about and explore.”

Writing a paper for everyclass would be meaningless. Itwould have nothing to do withtopics like math and science. Itwould only take up more timeand build on the already largepile of work we have to do,”junior Petros Skalarinis said.

Personally, I wouldn’t enjoyit,” senior Faiyam Rahman said.“But I’d understand the materialbetter. If you can write an essay,it would prove that you knowthe material.”

Students think more deeplywhen writing about something.There's a big difference betweenasking the students if they haveany questions, and telling themto take a minute and write downtwo questions you have,”Grossman said. “The expecta-tion of the first is not as deepand thorough as ‘I want you toconsider what you know andwrite about them.’”

“Writing is so fundamental toevery disciplineand act of think-

ing that it should-n't just be relevantto English, but to

every subject.” — Eric Grossman,

AssistantPrincipal English

Teitel’s New Initiative: Writing Across the Curriculum

continued from page 1changed,” he said. “If anyupperclassmen want copies,they're available at the SUroom.”

“Last year, when the hand-books were first printed, wegave them to every student andhopefully they were read byanyone who was interested,”Griffin said. “It isn't logical oreconomical to give the sameinformation to students.”

Kim designed the hand-books this year. His format wasinspired by the popular Booksfor Dummies series.

Many freshmen found thehandbook useful, but said theyhardly referred back to it afterreading it the first time. "It waspretty helpful," freshmanRebecca Liang said. "I didn'tuse it that much, but it did help.The map [in the SU handbook]

was more detailed than the BigSibs [handbook] map."

“I read through it and while Ithought it was really helpful, Ididn’t really put it to use,” fresh-man Jessica Guo said.

Some freshmen hoped thehandbook would provide themwith information about schoolin general, not just the SU. "Ireally wish they gave me moreinformation," freshman ChrisHao said. "They could’ve givensome tips on how to study.”

Although Griffin is unsurewhether or not the distributionof SU handbooks will becomean annual trend, she said sheencourages “whoever has thepower to make this decisionnext year to continue printingand distributing handbooks.Students should always have aneasy way to obtain informationabout their government.”

SU Distributes Handbooks to Freshmen

continued from page 1

ADVERTISEMENTS

By ASHA BALOBASHA andKERYCE HENRY

A Friday night at StuyvesantHigh School after the last of thestudents have petered out isusually quite uneventful.However, at the Big Sib LittleSib Dance on Friday,September 19, the lobby wasfilled with excited studentsmoving to pulsing sound of hip-hop music. The dance was thefirst of the year, held by the BigSibs in collaboration with theStudent Union (SU) to getfreshmen acquainted with otherStuyvesant students. The dancewas promoted by the Big Sibsduring their Little Sibs’ home-rooms.

According to the corre-sponding Facebook invite’sdescription written by seniorand Big Sib Jack Fleming, theBig Sibs’ main goal was to makethe dance the “most clean fun[guests would] ever have.”Guests were admitted after pre-senting their Stuyvesant identi-fication cards, and their bagswere searched and any drinksor foods found were thrownout. Moreover, the school’s cellphone policy was still in effect,as guests were warned not touse their phones, or face confis-cation. Fortunately for the BigSibs, there was little inappropri-ate behavior to be reprimandedat the dance. The one exceptionwas a few juniors crowd surfing,an act that was quickly stoppedby the chaperones.

According to senior and SUChief Financial OfficerAlexandra Larsen, the danceraised 650 dollars. This sum wasa decrease from last year’s prof-it of 1000 dollars. Larsenattributed the difference to theBig Sib Chairs’ new policy thisyear that Big Sibs did not haveto pay the dance fee since theywere mandated to attend.

The only disappointment ofthe night was the cancellationof the Big Sib Auction. At previ-ous Big Sib Little Sib Dances,members of the Big Sibs wereauctioned off as dancing part-ners, with the proceeds going tothe Big Sibs. This year, mem-bers of the Big Sibs decided torekindle this tradition.Permission was granted to do soby Assistant PrincipalOrganization Randi Damesek.The Big Sibs started the auctionwith high hopes. Two Big Sibs

were announced as theyclimbed onto a table in front ofthe DJ and stripped off theirshirts. Shortly after a bid wasmade for seven dollars, thechaperones shut the auctiondown.

“Unfortunately there weresome safety issues with the auc-tion platform […] and the chap-erones didn't want anyone toget hurt,” senior and Big SibChair Dylan Tramontin said. “Itwas a very reasonable concernof theirs and the decision tostop the auction didn't bringthe mood of the dance down atall.”

Junior and Big Sib BeatriceMalibiran was not too upset bythe cancellation of the auctioneither. “Though I was kind ofsad to see the auction can-celled, I see their point. Shirtsare made for a reason,” shesaid, suggesting that the striptease was the reason for theauction getting stopped.

Nevertheless, the Little Sibsseemed to enjoy themselves.Freshman Elina Bysrititskayatook advantage of the socialatmosphere. She said, “Thepeople who I talked to werevery friendly [and] my [Big Sibs]were around to talk to.” Thedance also changedBysrititskaya’s perception ofStuyvesant, a school shebelieved to be “a school wherestudying was the main attrac-tion. This dance made Stuy looka lot more friendly and a tonmore fun.”

All in all, the Big Sib LittleSib Dance accomplished manyof its sponsors’ goals. However,as with everything, it could usesome improvement. A commoncomplaint was the music, aboutwhich Bysrititskaya said was“good, but sort of hard to danceto.” In terms of changes for nextyear, Tramontin suggested that“perhaps the Big Sibs and theSU could offer some sort ofincentive to encourage evenmore freshman to go to thedance. Perhaps a successful BigSib Auction will be included inthis proposed incentive.”

The Big Sib Little Sib Dancewas an opportunity for fresh-men to become more social,meet new people, and becomemore comfortable in a highschool environment. Hopefully,this tradition will continue to bea yearly welcome to new stu-dents at Stuyvesant.

The Cleaner Side of Fun


Features

Stuy Alumni – Where are They Now?

418Number of students in band

164Number of students in orchestra

1 : 20Faculty to student ratio

260Number of students in theConcert Chorus or Choir

Alumna Michele Balsam ('07)was inspired by theater. AtStuyvesant she was on the propscrew for all Stuyvesant productionsstarting in her sophomore year.

She was also a member of the cho-rus in Stuyvesant's productions of"Fiddler on the Roof” and "AChorus Line." Outside of school,she was an active member of herchoir. Her transition into the col-lege life of George WashingtonUniversity (GWU) has not sloweddown her theatrical ambitions.

Although she is not majoring intheater, "I've been trying out forlots of shows,” Balsam said, “and Iwas on props for ‘The Fantasticks’last year." She is currently a mem-ber of the George WashingtonUniversity Singers, GWU's concertchoir. Balsam also enjoyed takingballroom dance at Stuyvesant andhas joined GWU's ballroom danceteam.

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Stuyvesant alumnus RossBenson (’99) chose to pursue hislove for math in college. AtStuyvesant, he coached studentsas one of the co-captains of themath team. “It was my first realteaching experience,” he wrote inan e-mail. At the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology (MIT),Benson majored in materials sci-ence and engineering.

Today, Benson teaches at theCambridge Rindge and LatinSchool in Cambridge,Massachusetts. “I started tutoring[students] in eighth grade andhave continued ever since,”Benson wrote. “I am glad to be onthe other side of the [teacher’s]desk.” He finds his teaching careervery rewarding. He loves it whenrealization breaks across his stu-dents’ faces when they have finallyunderstood a topic in the curricu-lum.

Benson felt that Stuyvesanthelped him develop as a personbecause it constantly challengedhim to aim high. “I wasn’t just abig fish in a small pond. [I was] justanother smart fish in a large pondwith a lot of other smart fish,” hewrote. He believes this made histransition to college easier.

In addition to math, Bensonplayed on the soccer team atStuyvesant. Later on he played onan intramural team at MIT sincehe did not have enough time toplay on the varsity team

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Years later, FilippKotsishevskiy ('08) isstill pursuing a dreamhe explored in highschool.As a Stuyvesantstudent, he participat-ed in various produc-tions such as "Fiddleron the Roof," JuniorSING! 2007 and the OneActs Festival. His atten-tion has since turnedfrom being in the spot-light to being behindthe scenes as a f i lm-maker. "I first got intofilm when I was six andwent to go see ‘Aladdin’in Moscow,” he said.“When I was oldenough to hold a cam-era, I just let my imagi-nation go." He consid-ers technology teacherElka Gould to havebeen one of his men-tors while atStuyvesant.

Kotsishevskiy firstbreached the film mak-ing scene when hefounded Fil 'n'IlProductions with long-time friend IlyaSlukhov. Their first filmwas completed in 2004.However, Slukhovrecently turned hisattention away fromfilm making, causingKotsishevskiy to decideto go solo with a new

project. Since the split,he produced a success-ful film festival at theRiverdale YMCA calledthe Children of VisionFilm Fest this pastsummer. He hopes tohold another film festi-val next year.

Kotsishevskiy wasone of 18 acceptedapplicants nationwideto make it into the StateUniversity of New YorkPurchase’s film conser-vatory, and is nowbeing put through "filmboot camp," he said.He takes film-relatedcourses l ike FilmWorkshop andCinematic Expression,and is focusing ondeveloping his soloproject, Skiy Films. SkiyFilms has allowedKotsishevskiy to orga-nize the film festivalsand produce his ownprojects. "You maythink [New YorkUniversity] is the bestfilm school on the EastCoast, but it ’sPurchase," he said.

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At one point or another, high school students ask themselves the same question—what do they love most? What do they want to do? They’ll join clubs and teams, whetherit is for socialization, college applications or genuine interest. Many students ultimately find their passion, and follow it in their years ahead

Michele Balsam ('07)

Ross Benson ('99)

FilippKotsishevsky

('08)

of Science and Technology national com-petition in Atlanta, Georgia. He got tosteer the robot in front of “thousands andthousands of spectators,” he said, with aclose friend from third grade.

Ferguson’s enthusiasm for roboticsremained strong even after he graduatedand went to Princeton University. Duringhis freshman year in college, he workedfor NASA and developed a robot calledCosmobot to help autistic children withvarious social skills. The robot acted as aninteractive and social computer withwhich the socially inept children couldovercome their social difficulties.

Ferguson also joined the DefenseAdvanced Research Projects AgencyUrban Challenge team, in which he hadto develop a car that drove itself througha suburban-like environment. "It was amuch larger and harder problem thanwhat I had to do in high school,” he said.“It involved physically modifying a FordEscape hybrid in a number of ways andprogramming a very complicated set ofalgorithms.”

For the past few months, Fergusonhas been attempting to construct a robot-ic manta ray with a professor atPrinceton. The manta ray will be used forstudying the fluid dynamics. Besides hispenchant for robotics, Ferguson is alsopart of the Princeton marching band.


Ian Ferguson ('05)

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The Real Richard Realmuto

By EMMA ZIEGELLAUBEICHLER

Richard Realmuto teachesPrincipals of Technology:Energy Systems and Principalsof Technology: Mechanisms,otherwise known as woodwork-ing. In his energy systems class,

he engages the students in coolprojects such as seeing howmuch weight can be held usinga ring made out of a sheet ofpaper. First, he has the classmake predictions. Most stu-dents’ guesses were under 10pounds. When the class tried it,the average was in the 70-poundrange. And the maximum possi-ble weight was actually over130.

Junior Lee Kuhn said, “Ireally enjoy Mr. Realmuto’sclass. He has a nice direct wayof teaching, but it is not verylecture-like. All his lessons areoutlined on handouts and hefleshes them out in class. I alsolike that he very obviously caresstrongly about his subject.”

Realmuto’s favorite partabout teaching is working withthe students. “Otherwise, it’sthe same thing all the time,”Realmuto said. “It’s the studentsthat make it different.” He thenadded with a laugh, “Of course,that’s a double edged sword.”

Upon first introduction,

Realmuto seems like a typicalman with a naturally charismat-ic style of teaching. However, afeature that sets Realmuto apartis that he is blind.

“On the first day everyonewalked in and he seated us,”Kuhn said. “Then he asked ifanyone knew why he has anassistant. Not a single personhad realized that it was becausehe’s blind. He maintains controlof the class very well and has avery good spatial sense of theroom. It’s really astounding hownormally he functions eventhough he’s blind.”

So how does Realmuto dealwith his blindness? “It’s anadventure,” he explains. “It’s aproblem. You can solve it. I cantackle a problem.” He oftentells his students that solvingproblems is what it means to behuman. He goes one step at atime—and he’s said that’ssometimes a physical step.

Realmuto’s first encounterwith blindness was around theage of seven, when his Uncle

Jack lost his sight just after get-ting married. He recalls “seeinghim and freaking out.” But now,his uncle has five children, andRealmuto said, “He’s doingquite well.”

When Realmuto firstbecame blind, only about fiveyears ago, he said the first thing

he did was to educate himself.He now belongs to a NationalConfederation of Blind People.

Realmuto can differentiatebetween light and dark—whichhe considers lucky, since he hasfriends who can’t see anything.“You've got to use anything youcan,” he said. “I kind of feel likeBruce Lee.”

Realmuto even said thereare some advantages to beingblind. He feels more resilientand more focused than when hecould see. It has also helped himon his search for creativity. “Ifyou’re always in a good place,it’s hard to be creative, becausethings are going well and there’sless inspiration,” he said.

Kuhn’s favorite part aboutclass is that “[Realmuto] alwayshas an interesting tidbit to illus-trate a concept. One of thephrases he uses most often is‘We’re academic here.’ What hemeans to say is that peopleshouldn’t be scared to sharetheir ideas or go out on limbs.”

Realmuto said, “Nobody’sout there giving you the answersto who you are. You’ve got tofigure that out.”

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Stuyvesant's only legally blind teach-er, Richard Realmuto, teaches a num-ber of technology classes with a teach-ing assistant.

“Nobody’s outthere giving youthe answers towho you are.

You’ve got to fig-ure that out.”

— RichardRealmuto


Editorials

F O R T H E R E C O R D

• In Issue 2, Sean Gordon-Loebl’s name was misspelled in thephoto credit of the front page photo of Mayor Bloomberg.• Joel Sklaroff’s surname was spelled incorrectly in “Suri onSabbatical to Pursue Individual Study.”• David Schepard’s surname was misspelled in “Introducing theNew Faces of Stuy’s Faculty.”• Divya Dayal was misquoted in “Club Showcase.” She neverclaimed that Stuyvesant STRIVE was Stuyvesant’s first environ-mental club.• Sean Gordon-Loebl’s surname was spelled incorrectly in thephoto credit for “Fencing Teams Get Olympic Advice.”

The SpectatorWe are compiling an archive of

past issues.

We are looking for issues published before 1995.

Please send any newspapers to:

The Stuyvesant Spectator345 Chambers StreetNew York, NY 10282

If you have any questions, e-mail us at:

[email protected]

STAFF EDITORIAL

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Or speak your mind?

Write a letter to the editor and e-mail it [email protected] or drop it

in The Spectator box in the second-floor mail room.

E D I T O R I N C H I E FSam Gerstenzang*

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Rachel KimArianna Moshary

F E A T U R E S E D I T O R SDanielle OberdierAbby Schaeffer*

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E D I T O R SJames Dennin*

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P H O T O G R A P H YE D I T O R S

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The Stuyvesant HighSchool Newspaper

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We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity and length.© 2008 The Spectator

All rights reserved by the creators.* Managing Board Members

F A C U L T Y A D V I S O RKerry Garfinkel

OP-ART

Principal Stanley Teitel hasproposed a new writing initiative.Writing Across the Curriculum isbeing created with the idea ofimproving student writing by giv-ing students more opportunitiesto write in all of their classes. Thisis partly a response to facultycomplaints that Stuyvesant stu-dents do not have sufficient writ-ing skills. The policy aims both tomake students better writers andto ensure that they thoroughlyunderstand what they learn inclass. The plan’s final details havenot been worked out yet, butshould be discussed next monthin a staff development meeting.

Writing Across theCurriculum does have the poten-tial to improve our writing skills,but it could also create unneces-sary busywork. More writingdoes not necessarily mean betterwriting. Care should be taken totailor writing assignments to eachsubject. In physics, for example, avalid assignment might be toexplain a formula—not to write a

biography of Isaac Newton.Explaining the formula andanswering conceptual questionsin writing could help studentsgain a deeper understanding ofthe material.

If Writing Across theCurriculum is catered to eachsubject, it may work wonders.However, this will be difficult toimplement. Some teachers maynot have the necessary back-ground in English to assess writ-ing assignments. There needs tobe a comprehensive system forevaluation, not simply a checkthat the student has completedthe assignment. If we spend timewriting, it deserves to be readthoroughly.

An extension of the WritingAcross the Curriculum programshould also include improvingthe Freshmen Compositioncourse. The class is supposed tobe geared towards developing thewriting skills of incoming stu-dents, but it is often tilted moretowards reading and analyzing

literature. These classes shouldrenew their focus on teachingbasic composition and writingskills.

But even if the new policydoesn’t make students betterwriters, it is still a good idea.Writing about math probablydoes help one understand math,and, as long as students put effortinto their words, they should alsodevelop their analytical abili-ties—which is a valid, and vital,goal in itself. Analytical ability,like the ability to write well, is ageneral skill that can be appliedanywhere.

The Writing Across theCurriculum policy might be suc-cessful, but only if carried outthoughtfully. There's no instantcure to our current writing defi-ciencies – students will need towrite more effectively and teach-ers will need to invest time inreading these assignments. Ifimplemented incorrectly, thisprogram could easily cause moreharm than good.

Writers Wanted

As if seniors don't haveenough to worry about, manyadmissions officers—10 percentaccording to the Wall StreetJournal—are checking students'Facebook profiles when consid-ering them for college admission.

Facebook is a social network-ing Web site on which users canpost photographs, videos andmessages detailing the ins andouts of their lives. WhileFacebook is theoretically saferthan many other social network-ing Web sites, it is still a publicforum, for better or for worse.Anyone can create a profile andjoin networks. Colleges, too, caneasily create Facebook accountsand join networks.

This trend of using Facebookas another evaluative tool in thecollege admissions process is dis-turbing. Facebook was createdfor teenagers to interact online,

not for admissions personnel tosniff around for inappropriatephotographs. Admissions officersshould not be investigating thepersonal pages of prospectivestudents.

Many students change theirnames on Facebook in anattempt to disguise themselvesfrom investigation by collegeadmissions officers. However,this attempt is fruitless—yourprofile still appears when youroriginal name is searched,regardless of whatever clever sur-name you substitute for your trueidentity.

Facebook does have varyingdegrees of privacy settings. Theleast safe option is to keep yourprofile public, so anyone canview your information. After thatyou have the choice to let onlythose in your networks see yourprofile. The safest option is

“friends only,” in which only con-firmed friends can view your pro-file. However, even the networksoption can be dangerous becausethey are easily joined. In this cut-throat academic environmentwhere according to the WallStreet Journal students some-times send in tips to collegesabout their friends' inappropriateFacebook profiles, it pays to besafe.

Therefore, the only thing thatwe can do is be smart and protectourselves. You must set your pri-vacy settings so that only yourfriends can view your profile andbe careful of who you add to yourfriends list. But the safest way toensure that colleges only see theside you want them to is to bewary of what you put on the pub-lic domain. No matter what pri-vacy settings you use, Facebook isstill a public Web site.

Be Smart, Protect Yourself


Opinions

By SARAH KAPLAN

My sister is in eighth grade,the year of high school applica-tions. She can’t wait to go out tolunch and take the subway toschool, and have a week off atthe end of every term forRegents. But what most excitesher is choosing her own classes,and only learning about thingsshe is interested in.

But at Stuyvesant—andmany other high schools—it’snot that simple. Though ourschool offers many electives, theprogramming system preventsstudents from taking the coursesthey are interested in. Schedulesare either filled with the numer-ous additional coursesStuyvesant requires for gradua-tion, the class is full, or the com-puter that generates students’schedules simply decides to bedisagreeable.

Stuyvesant students mustearn 52 credits, eight more thanthe state requirement for a highschool diploma. Many of theseextra courses, though interest-ing, are superfluous. Studentsdon’t need to take drafting, com-puter science, and two technolo-gy electives—though the optionshould be available. IfStuyvesant’s administratorswant to make sure that students

are educated in technology, stu-dents should be able to chooseone or two tech classes thatinterest them, rather than four—two of which they have nochoice in.

In addition to filling up peri-ods in students’ schedules,required classes take awayteachers and funding from otherelectives, many of which aremore popular than the manda-tory courses. Because of the lackof resources, seats in electivesare available for only a very smallnumber of students. Over 200freshmen were unable to takemath team this year becauseStuyvesant couldn’t offer extraclasses at their level. 117 stu-dents were turned away fromCreative Non-Fiction. 43 wereunable to get into MedicalDiagnosis. Stuyvesant needs toexpand the capacity of its elec-tive programs to ensure that somany students are not rejectedfrom popular classes.

And in spite of all this com-petition, and in spite of howmuch electives mean to so manystudents, the process of assign-ing classes is random. A comput-er decides which of the 97 hope-fuls gets that last coveted spot inWall Street. Some students maychoose classes because theythink that they will look good ona transcript, or because theythink the teacher is nice, orbecause that’s what their friendsare taking. But if they get in, thatmeans there is one fewer spot forthe kid who has been lookingforward to that class since fresh-man year.

The policy for admission toelectives, especially highly com-petitive ones, should be basedon more than just the randomselection of a computer, orwhich students have inside con-nections. Students wishing totake a popular course shouldhave to write an essay demon-strating their passion about tak-

ing the class. Though reviewingthese essays would mean morework for teachers, this processwill work out better for them inthe end. They would have themost devoted and enthusiasticstudents possible in their class-es.

Students shouldn’t dreadclasses, and they should neversee any aspect of school as awaste of time. Stuyvesant’sgraduation requirements shouldbe based on what the studentsare interested in, not on whatclasses the administrationthinks students should take.Instead of requiring so manyspecific classes, students shouldbe required to take a certainnumber of electives within par-ticular subject areas, allowingthem to choose exactly whatthose electives will be.

The variety of electives is oneof the great things aboutStuyvesant. But because of theprogramming process, manystudents are unable to get themost out of it. Stuyvesant shouldlimit the number of requiredcourses, expand the elective pro-gram and make the process ofassigning classes less random, sothat all students will be able totake the classes they are interest-ed in.

Class Conflicts

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By ABBY SCHAEFFER

Last week, I came home tofind a daunting white envelopein my mailbox addressed to acertain Abigail of building num-ber 698. I was expecting thispackage with dread. Any possi-bility of confusion was shatteredwhen my eyes fell upon thereturn address of ThorntonStudio Photographers. “DO NOTBEND PHOTOGRAPHS,” thepackage commanded, leaving noquestion in my mind that I washolding the one of 10 picturesthat my classmates wouldremember me by for years tocome. Me, in all my disheveledand uneven eyebrow-ed glory.The one picture that my grand-kids will point at and wonderwhy my mom even let me out of

the apartment that day. To behonest, I can’t remember whyeither.

I do remember rolling out ofbed that fated morning andwishing I had a few extra min-utes to make myself presentable.It was September 11, 2008—as ifmy portrait sitting needed aworse omen.

When my information cardread that the sitting was to takeplace at one o’clock, I trulybelieved that I would go to thefirst floor, take my pictures andleave—all in under 15 minutes. Iwas horribly mistaken. Upondescending the steps to the firstfloor, I was met by a long andslow procession of seniors whohad already been waiting aroundfor a period or so. It was all verypeculiar and disorganized. The

photography staff attempted toherd the crowd of irritableseniors into a single-file line, butthat just wasn’t happening.

And so I began my three-hour wait for my yearbook pho-tograph. “I’m going to make mesome chicken tonight! Mmm,mmm,” one employee said. Isilently wished the line wouldmove faster.

When it was time to pose, Iwas quite underwhelmed by thewhole process. The photogra-phers shuffled us along in anassembly-line fashion throughthree stations. In speeding upthe whole process, weary seniorswere left disillusioned with thesupposed grandeur of gradua-tion photo day. Each photogra-pher was followed by anotherwho was more clichéd than thefirst, shouting lively peps like

“hello, sugar!,” “smile, darling!”and “bee-yoo-tiful” at me. I feltmy smile growing faker by thesecond.

One photographer claimed Iwas Hungarian upon seeing me.I couldn’t convince him other-wise. As he sat me down, Inoticed a ferocious mat of darkchest hair spilling out of hisopen dress shirt. I probablylooked horrified in this set ofpictures.

As Hairy Chest reachedaround my neck to secure grad-uation robes on my body, I real-ized that garment wasn’t evenreal. It was a smock! As I satthere in horror, he curled myhands around a diploma and agraduation hat to complete thegeneral awkwardness of thephoto. It wasn’t enough that Iwas wearing a smock—I had tolook like I had claws for hands aswell. All for the picture, I sup-pose.

I realized then that I hadbeen building up to this momentfor weeks. I expected the processto be more lavish and enjoyablebut left feeling as if a part of mysoul had been stored away intodigital film. I ended up missingthe last four periods of my day,though, so I suppose the sessionhad a few redeeming qualities.

When I opened the package,I could only imagine how awfulmy pictures came out. I remem-ber having horrendous zits thatday and being covered in sweat.My mom would be so ashamedof her only daughter. But as I

flipped through my prospectivetime capsules, I noticed that thezits were nowhere to be found.My skin had a healthy glow.Even my pink strand of hairseemed to fit in. Maybe all my

imperfections were airbrushedout; maybe it was just magic—I’ll never know, but my picturesturned out okay.

Aside from all my complain-ing, I have to admit—ThorntonStudio did an acceptable job.Not so much in terms of organi-zation, but they definitely didcomplete their task successfullyand they left me with at least onesatisfactory photo.

And when I showed my momthe pictures, she approved. NowI just pray the Indicator printsmy photo in one piece.

Say Cheese-y!

I truly believedthat I would go to

the first floor,take my picturesand leave—all in

under 15 min-utes. I was horri-

bly mistaken.

I expected theprocess to be

more lavish andenjoyable but leftfeeling as if a part

of my soul hadbeen stored awayinto digital film.

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expand the elec-tive program so

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not have to berejected from

popular classes.

By ROBERT VINLUAN

Here’s a riddle: what’s blackand white and read all over?No, the answer is not a penguinwith a sunburn. It’s the seem-ingly endless amount of flyersand advertisements that litterthe hallways of Stuyvesant.

Every day pages and pagesof plain black text on plainwhite paper are printed outand taped to the walls of ourschool, only to end up goingunnoticed, crumpled on thefloor, stuck inside the escala-tors, or thrown in the trash by acustodian.

It’s a vicious cycle. Studentscreate advertisements andwant them to be seen by asmany people as possible, sothey make many, many copies.The increasing quantity of adsthat are exactly the samemeans other ads get less space,and thus, less attention. As aresponse, their creators printout even more, and the cyclecontinues until the library’sprinter breaks.

True, the point of an adver-tisement is to get the messageto stick in people’s heads. Butdoing so by pestering them is alazy and unacceptable method.

For a message to be truly mem-orable, the advertisement itselfmust be creative and convinc-ing.

Black text on white paperhardly draws attention, espe-cially when an ad is drowningin a sea of similarly composedflyers. Adding color is a simpleway of making flyers more visu-ally attractive, as long as it’s notneon. Bright colors may attractthe eye, but too bright andnobody will be able to readyour ad before it starts causingmajor damage to their retinas.

Creative and unique adver-tisements not only stand outmore, but they also save a lot ofpaper. The hallways and stair-wells of Stuyvesant are a messbecause of ripped and crum-pled flyers. A lot of them arepoorly taped to the wall and falleasily. These flyers, when post-ed around the escalators, cansqueeze into cracks and cause ajam. Even harder to clean upare the small pieces of paperleft behind when a studenttears a flyer off the wall.

This paper problem seemsto be caused by a flaw in theway we think about advertisingat Stuyvesant: the audience isspread out over 10 floors, and itseems necessary to make vastamounts of flyers. But sacrific-ing quality for quantity is nevera solution. Make an ad creativeenough, and people will see it.Fail to securely tape it to thewall, and people won’t. Here’sanother riddle: If a flyer falls inthe hallway and nobody isthere to see it, does the mes-sage get across? The answer: itdoesn’t.

The Writing’s on the Wall (and on the Floor)

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OpinionsThe Spectator • October 6, 2008

By VARUN SHARMA

I stood in the back corner of room639, looking at the freshmen and somelate sophomores as they were listeningintently about what debate was andwhich of the several forensic teamswould suit them best. I looked at themand wondered what they could be think-ing at that moment. Which team wouldthey like most? Will they do even betterthan the Speech and Debate team didlast year? I faded out of the ongoingspeeches of the Public Forum andLincoln Douglas captains and began toponder about the school lives of thesenew debate hopefuls.

Flashback to last year: I was a littlefreshman at Stuyvesant and every dayseemed to be part of a rat race for thebest-looking extracurricular activities.Friends of mine would tell me abouthow they joined Model United Nations,

The Spectator, SING!, some communityservice club they couldn’t remember thename of and a Science Olympiad team.We were so confident about collegeapplications and what we could tell acollege interviewer without even know-ing what a Secondary Student Reportwas. We felt superior if we could claimmembershp to several academicallypowerful or challenging teams andclubs.

But now I realize what a misconcep-tion that was. I learned that it was quali-ty, not quantity, that matters. To have ornot to have isn’t the question at all; itwas more about doing well at what youwere working on. Friends of minebecame tournament champions indebate, national-level entrants in therobotics team, and prize winners, andnone of them had more than two orthree other extracurricular activities intheir stockpile at Stuyvesant.

Still, members of the debate teamdrop out slowly every year. Up to half ofthe members on a given division of theteam officially leave or go AWOL. Thisyear, a record 150 new members wereaccepted. Unfortunately, the numberwill most likely drop to 100 or 75 novicesby the end of the year because some joinsolely for the name or that they end upwith too many extracurricular activities.In the end, some debaters and “speech-ers” will have lost partners, memberswill end up paying for ghost teammates,and chaos and misery will ensue.

Back in room 639, noise and actionfilled the atmosphere as members of dif-ferent Speech and Debate teamsattempted to recruit as many freshmenand sophomores as possible. Some werestaring at me and I looked at them andsmiled like a father at his child. Ibelieved in them and hoped they wouldunderstand how they should remaindedicated and motivated to play theirroles in their clubs and school teams.

Take a Look at MyExtracurriculars

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By KIRAN SURY

The stage was dark. As I walked out toface the crowd, my hands shook in anticipa-tion. A lone beam of light illuminated myStratocaster guitar, the sunburst designgleaming as I raised my hand ready to strum.The pick went down and when I struck thefirst chord, I became a rock star.

Okay, the stage was really my room withthe lights turned off and the spotlight was aflashlight I had taped to the ceiling. Plus, theguitar was made of plastic.

Ever since the arrival of games like GuitarHero and Rock Band, thousands of musical-ly-challenged teens have been able to gettheir rock star fix without dying of a drugoverdose. The premise is simple: on the tele-vision screen, “gems” of different colors falltowards the bottom and when they reach it,you press the corresponding colored buttonson your controller and pretend to strum withanother button. The hook is that the con-trollers are shaped like actual guitars, eventhough they’re made of plastic.

When I heard of the concept, I was sold.Like all angst-filled teens, I had always want-ed to be a rock star, and here was my chanceto live the dream. My friends and I started afake rock band of our own and we playedevery day. But one by one, they dropped out,claiming they had better things to do thanplay a videogame. I alone stayed true to the

cause, forsaking friends and homework topractice my solos late into the night.

Before I knew it, I was unable to stop. Itwas More Than a Feeling; it was an addic-tion. I started seeing signs of the gameseverywhere. My first words of the day were“more cowbell!” and when I looked at mybowl of Fruit Loops in the morning, all Icould see were colored gems. I couldn’t crossthe street any more—I had to wait for thecolors in the traffic lights to fall to the bot-tom. My hands became stuck in guitar posi-tion, unable to relax, tapping out the solosagainst my leg throughout the day. I wasstuck In the Belly of a Shark and I neededsome Peace of Mind.

I tried to keep my Dirty Little Secret all tomyself, but eventually I had to Move Along,so I went to rehab. I went cold turkey with nogaming at all. I suffered the inevitable with-drawal symptoms: I was Paranoid andAntisocial but managed to Stay Clean. I hadgone Through the Fire and Flames of music,but I was Still Alive.

After escaping my fantasy, I bought a realguitar. It turned out actually playing musicwas a lot harder than pretending to. I missedthe reassuring click of the strum bar and Icould no longer blame the game when Imissed a note. Dealing with more than fivefrets was confusing and tilting my guitar ver-tically didn’t unleash my star power—it justmade it harder to play.

But I didn’t mind. The subtleness andintricacies of the instrument far outweighedthe familiarity of the fake. I was no longertied down to the game’s metronome, whereone stray note could lead to failure. I couldimprovise and experiment, making themusic my own. I learned to love my real gui-tar, though I still play a few songs on thegame every once in a while. Music becamemore than just colored notes and I learned toexperience it in two different ways.

This fall, the next installment of GuitarHero and Rock Band 2 will be coming out.Although playing a real guitar has changedthe way I view music, inside, I still want to bea rock star. So I will be there—on stage, fakeguitar in hand, waiting.

My Descent into the World of Fake Rock-Stardom

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Cartoons


Arts & Entertainment

By NICOLE LEUNGwith additional reporting by

SADMAN ISLAM

As part of The Spectator’sreporting on New York City’s“Best Hole in the WallRestaurants,” one of ourreporters sat down withacclaimed chef and restaurantowner Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez. Rodriguez oper-ates Lassi, an extraordinarilytiny and trendy, restaurantnamed after the belovedIndian yogurt-shake.

The Spectator: What are themost popular foods anddrinks at Lassi?Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez:The mango [lassi] is the onemost people know. The onethat most people are mostnervous to try but come backthe most for is the cardamom.It is a lemony peppery flavor.The Shahi chicken is probablythe most popular. Americansall love chicken. Studentscome here from NYU—thedorms are right here and wedo a lot of delivery. But we’rebusiest during dinner.

TS: What’s different or sospecial about Lassi?HCR: One of the things we dovery differently is we use localfarmers. [The food's] reallyfresh and we don’t use anyextra gage, which is the melt-ed butter. We don’t reallyhave any cream unless it real-ly calls for it.

TS: After being a chef for solong, since you started, whatwas the hardest thing youhad to take on?HCR: The hardest thing wouldbe owning my own business

because here I am not justmanaging the kitchen, I amalso the bookkeeper, the CEOand the repair person. Whensomething’s wrong, it’s myresponsibility […]. The firstyear was probably the hard-est. It takes time to get thingsgoing.

TS: Is there a trick to how tocook or create food?HCR: Practice. There arealways tricks, but the bestthing is until you know how todo it perfectly, don’t botherwith the shortcut. The onething I always have to wrestleis blown sugar, to make it looklike glass. It’s fantastic; it isreally amazing. I don’t get alot of practice at it—when Ihave to make it for a weddingcake, it’s a headache.

TS: Do you have advice forstudents who want tobecome chefs? HCR: My biggest advice wouldbe don’t expect this to besomething that happens overnight because really trulygreat chefs take years to cre-ate. Being a chef is not justcooking—it’s managing peo-ple, learning science, cultureand it’s also extremely longhours. It's very demanding.

TS: Which high school didyou go to?HCR: I got kicked out of a lotof high schools. I started atHorace Mann for elementaryschool years—got kicked outthere and then I went toColumbia Prep—got kickedout of there. […] Then I endedup at Kennedy in the Bronx,which at the time was a reallygood public school. I loved it,I did really well there. I likedmy teachers a lot more thanthe teachers in privateschools. I was not comfortablewith like, Horace Mann. It’svery classist, and we weren’teven bad off. I just hated it.

TS: What schools do cooks goto?HCR: The thing with cooks isyou don’t have to go toschool. But if you don’t, youbetter get rid of your ego, andbecome a prep cook, cleanfloors and dishes. You can’tbecome a good manager untilyou’ve done everyone’s job.Nothing can hurt, just learn itall.

TS: How did it feel to go allthe way to Paris [for culinaryschool]?HCR: It was hard. It was not

typical for an Americanfemale to go there. I was 19and didn’t know anybody andI didn’t speak the language.Well before that I went to artschool and dropped out afterthe first semester. I called mymom and I needed a reason toleave college or she was goingto kill me. So I’ll go to culinaryschool—nobody goes to culi-nary school. […] When I got toculinary school, I loved it. But

I originally wanted to be ajewelry designer. I found outthat I’m a high energy person.The pace of art school wasjust not for me. In culinaryschool, you have to work hardall the time—it’s physical andI like to handle the devil ’splayground.

TS: What did you do duringhigh school that made youwant to do art?HCR : When I was in highschool, I did silver smithing. Iwent to art camp. I used tohave LPs—big records. One ofthe things that everyone hadwere denim jackets—and theywould get painted on theirback their favorite albums. Icould copy anything, so that’swhere I got my money in myhigh school.

TS: A lot of students in highschool don’t know wherethey want to go.HCR : That wasn’t reallyprevalent in my family. I amlucky that way. They justwanted to make sure I had ajob. And in the restaurantworld you can work anywherein the world, but you have towork really hard. You have tobe everything. It’s not a glam-orous job, you just have tolove it.

Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez is the owner and manager of Lassi, a five stool Indian restaurant in Tribeca.

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By HYEMIN YI

Despite its rather dimappearance, Jerry’s Café is oneof the wackier restaurants onChambers street. Offeringinnovations on typical dinerfood and friendly—but slow—service, the place is certainlyan experience.

A neon-blue “Jerry’s” signadorns the façade of the diner.Upon entering Jerry’s Cafe,one immediately notices thered leather boots, close-upphotos of instruments andmodern art on the walls. TheRolling Stone’s “Honky TonkWoman” play in the back-ground.

Previously located onPrince Street in SoHo, Jerry’shad to close last year whentheir rent skyrocketed. TheChambers Street location,which opened on Monday,September 15, preserves mostof the old location’s décor andmenu.

Jerry’s still maintains itsneighborhood-friendly atmo-sphere on Chambers Street,with a hospitable, thoughsomewhat aloof, staff .However, slow service meanslong waiting times at Jerry’s.Ideally, Jerry’s is the place tobe with a few friends afterschool—eating at Jerry’s dur-ing one’s 40-minute lunchperiod will probably result inagitation rather than enjoy-ment.

Jerry’s is most famous forits brunch menu, offering areasonable selection of salads,omelettes, sandwiches and afew entrees like steamed mus-sels ($15) and grilled spicedrubbed skirt steak ($15). Whilemost dishes are reasonablypriced, sandwiches are pricey($8 to $12), as are omelettes($9 to $11). Brunch is servedfrom 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

After 5:30, only the dinnermenu is offered. The dinnermenu includes small platessuch as pulled pork spring rolls($8), grilled pizza ($12 to $14)shaped into small rectangles,and a variety of other entrees.The macaroni and cheese

remains one of the more note-worthy dishes. It includes far-falle pasta rather than maca-roni, and the cheese is creamybut not overbearing. The quali-ty of Jerry’s brunch offerings isgenerally better than its dinnerofferings, as often occurs whendiners overestimate their owngourmet innovations.

The sides offered includeJerry’s signature truffle fries($7), seasoned with a few herbsand garlic. However, the crisp-ness of the fries varies on occa-sion—going from crunchy tosoggy in the same day.

On both the brunch anddinner menus is the fried cala-mari plate ($8), served withimpeccable chipotle aioli androasted tomato sauces. Themixed greens salad ($7), thecheapest salad on the menu,has a nice balance of shallots,chives and balsamic vinai-grette to add taste.

Vegetarians having dinnerat Jerry’s may find themselvesconfined to gri l led pizza.However, portions are gener-ous—splitting a meal with afriend is an excellent idea atJerry’s.

Jerry’s offers only f ivechoices for desert (all $7)—cobbler, berries and crème,molten chocolate cake, crèmebrulee and the classic icecream. A dessert special of theday is also offered—keep aneye out for the blueberry peachcobbler with peach gelato. Theberries and crème, usingberries marinated in whitewine, is also an excellentchoice.

This stylized diner hasquality food, but stays simple.All of their dishes are subtly(but delectably) innovative.Everything goes down well—the food, the music and theatmosphere. “It’s an Americanbistro,” manager Toi Tracysaid. “It’s a casual environ-ment.”

Jerry’s Cafe90 Chambers Street (btw.Church St and Broadway)Hours: 11 A.M. - 11 P.M.

Opening of anAmerican Bistro

Jerry's Cafe, distinguished by it's eclectic style and menu, opened on Chambers streeton Monday, September 15, relocating from SoHo because of skyrocketing rent.

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An Indian, or Not So Indian Chef

“In the restaurant world youcan work

anywherein the world,

but you have towork really hard.”

— HeatherCarlucci

Rodriguez, Lassiowner and chef

“I am not just managing

the kitchen, I amalso the book-

keeper, the CEO and

the repair person.When something’s

wrong, it’s myresponsibility.”

— HeatherCarlucci

Rodriguez, Lassiowner and chef


Arts & EntertainmentTasty Hole-In-The-Walls

There are two locationsof Chinese restaurant WoHop on two consecutivefloors of their building.Turns out, Wo Hop needsevery bit of flooring they

can get, due to theirimmense popularity. Theone upstairs is bigger and alittle higher-classed—thedining area looks more likea proper restaurant—whilethe one downstairs is forcustomers who are lessinterested in ambiance,but want the same greatChinese food. Like mostsecrets, this one is very wellkept. Most customers areonly aware of the largerestablishment upstairs,while true Wo Hop fansknow of both restaurants.Their wonton soup, brim-ming with little strips ofroast pork, is phenomenal.The wontons are freshlyrolled and stuffed with soysauce covered roast pork.In fact, they are on the list

of Wo Hop favorites, alongwith their roast duck, cold-sesame noodles, frieddumplings, roast pork andegg rolls. The prices arecheap—anywhere from $2to $10. The wontons andfried dumplings are mostpopular, probably becausethey are the least expen-sive. With such deliciousfood, it's easy to ignore thetacky decor of the restau-rant. The walls are coveredin photos of customers inWo Hop T-shirts, who formpeace signs with their fin-gers.

Wo Hop17 Mott Street

Manhattan/Civic Center NY 10013

212 962-8617

Wo Hop

Vietnamese restaurant Pho Banglooks like nothing out of the ordinary onthe outside, but its many branchesacross the country must serve some-thing special. The chefs take dishes assimple as beef noodle soup and makethem incredible. A single bowl of it isenough to silence its lucky recipientuntil the last bite is consumed. At PhoBang, anyone can be a chef. The restau-rant allows their customers to add to

the taste of their broth. Plates ofbasil leaves, lemon juice, seafoodsauce, hot sauce and pepper aregiven to guests to season their noo-dles with. Variations of the beefnoodle soup are also offered. Thereis a mix and match of beef andnoodle with fresh brisket, tendonor navel. The portions are huge andpriced at $5.50-6.50. Pho Bang'sspring rolls serve as a perfect com-plement to their noodle soup. Thecrispy rolls wrapped in dark greenlettuce leaves and dipped into an

exotic sauce are wonderful. A plate offour spring rolls is $3.75 and a plate ofeight costs $6.45. Light on the wallet,but heavy on the flavor is clearly thetheme at Pho Bang.

Pho Bang157 Mott Street

New York, NY 10013212 966-3797

Pho Bang

Anyone who fears a little dirtand grunge will never set foot inKabab King Diner. The floor couldbe vastly improved by a mop, andthe seating area on the first floorcan only accommodate 10 people.The cheap furniture, plastic flow-ers and fluorescent lighting makesthe place feel like an old schoolcafeteria. Nonetheless, it is lovedamongst its fan club of customers.Eating off a paper plate at a dinerdoesn’t feel as bad after tastingthe kebab, hot off the grill. The

explosion of flavor is hard to get ascheaply anywhere else. The kebab sand-wiches with chicken, lamb or beefwrapped inside naan is so mouth-water-ingly crispy on the outside and tender onthe inside. Best of all, it only costs $2.50.The weekend buffet is only $8 for thesame food and is available upstairs.

Another Kabab Diner special is GulabJamun, a fried milk ball in rose-scentedsyrup. It introduces unusual but still deli-cious flavors to customers. The lassi, apopular yogurt drink, is the perfect wayto wash down a delicious meal.However, Kabab King Diner’s meats are

what keep their customers coming. Thesavory seasoned beef and the juicy,smoke-charred chicken in biryani riceare usually best when eaten with bread.The lamb Indian kababs and gosht—goat— biryani are favorites among din-ers. Curries filled with lamb and vegeta-bles are draped with thick sauce andaccompanied by mountains of rice.

Kabab King DinerElmhurst, Queens 73-01 37th Road

Jackson Heights NY 11372718 457-5857

Kabab King Diner

By NICOLE LEUNG

The most popular restaurants in New York City are not always the grandest or the biggest. Despite the glamour associated with the city, many of its restaurants consist of noth-ing more than a cramped room, a shabby kitchen and numerous tables and chairs shoved into every square inch of available space. The lights are dim, the walls are dark, andthe restrooms are proof that using the bathroom before leaving home is an excellent rule to live by. These hole-in-the-wall places continuously attract customers because of

their delicious food, regardless of the dining environment.

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By TARA ANANTHARAMand JENNY CHE

Several well-kept secretsremain hidden along the decrepitstreets of Tribeca and SoHo,almost obscured by themonotony of dark doors andpainted railings. Adorned only bya small plaque on the window,these art galleries are easy to passby, inconspicuously blending inwith their residential neighbors.All of the galleries discussedbelow have free admission andare only minutes away from thebusy traffic of Chambers Street.

The Sasha Wolf Gallery, onLeonard Street, is only five blocks

north of Chambers. This gallerycurrently features its first soloexhibition, “Provincial Japan,” byItalian photographer GuidoCastagnoli. “Provincial Japan” isthe lonely depiction of variouscities across the Japanese main-land. Only the faded, droopingtrees remind us that there is stilllife in the photographed towns.

Ironically enough, the dejectionapparent in every image is under-mined by pastel-colored awningsof small shops and entertainmentcomplexes. The cartoon animalspeeking above store signs almostseem to mock the barrenness ofthe landscape. "Provincial Japan"offers a view of modernized Japanthat is very different from whatwe are used to.

“There’s no particular audi-ence we hope to reach,” galleryowner Sasha Wolf said. “Wealways hope that museums, cura-tors are interested, but mostly wejust want people to enjoy it.” Ingeneral, the Sasha Wolf Galleryisn't frequented by a high school

crowd—the youngest visitors areusually grad students. “You getpeople in here in their 20s, their70s," Wolf said.

For those looking for moremovement-inspired photogra-phy, the Winter Garden in theWorld Financial Center is nowpresenting an exhibition byAmerican photographer Frank

Capri titled “Capri’s Camera onDance.” The exhibit focuses onprofiles of ballet and moderndancers against backdrops rang-ing from Times Square to a sim-ple classroom setting.

As you move around thegallery room, however, themonotony of the photos begins tosink in. Capri seems to find nohigher joy than setting up hissubjects in the over-the-head,heel-grabbing stance. Thedancers, frozen in their archesand stretches, seem to have beenplastered onto the background.“There was one photographwhere the dancer looked com-pletely stiff,” junior KinariSakamoto said. “She didn’t lookinspired at all. It made me sosad.” Whether the stiffness waspart of the artist’s intent remainsfor the viewer to decide.

Crossing the borders ofTribeca into SoHo, one stumblesupon the Conceptual Figuresexhibition, hosted by DeitchProjects. Immediately after pass-ing the stark white lobby, audi-ences are thrown into a conglom-eration of color and texture. Thecheckered floor, bright walls andlarge range of paintings can be ashock at first. Following recovery,one’s eyes are automaticallydrawn towards the flirty colorsand playful lines of the first set ofpaintings. They are placed next tocontrasting grey and polygonalpieces as well as shamelessly real-istic nudes. In an adjacent cham-ber, one can find somewhat lessextravagant watercolor portraitsand intricate sketches, all main-taining a serene character. “I’mused to seeing Deitch host a lot ofcolorful and animated pieces,”said Caroline Wellesly, a Sohoresident. However, she prefers“the more conservative black andwhite watercolors in [that room].”

For the more adventurous art

lover, there's the Tiam O’Shian IVexhibition (named after a prize-winning show cat), just a fewsteps across the street fromDeitch projects. A solo projectpresented by the unconventionalartist Tam Ochiai and hosted byTeam Gallery Inc., the exhibitionis rather unorthodox. The bleakand barren walls are decorated bya sole line of childish Crayola-col-ored cat-themed cartoons. “It’sall very childish but you can’tstop wondering what the artistwas thinking,” said visitorRichard Levy, while observing thestretch of drawings. One will alsofind an abstract sculpture con-sisting of two cardboard barrelsand a television displaying videosequences of kittens.

Just wandering the streetsbelow Houston will lead one tounexpected collections of art-work. Almost all of the galleries inTribeca and SoHo are free andopen to the public, just not onMondays. Whether you want tobroaden your creative horizons,impress a certain significant

other or just had a long day atschool, at least one of the con-stantly changing galleries ofLower Manhattan will be able tofit your taste.

Sasha Wolf Gallery, 10Leonard Street, Tribeca. Open

Tues-Sat 11 a.m.-6 p.m.“Provincial Japan” runs through

November 1st, 2008

World Financial CenterCourtyard Gallery, Battery Park

City. Open Tues-Sat noon-4 p.m.“Capri’s Camera on Dance” runs

through November 15, 2008

Deitch Projects. 76 Grand St,SoHo. Open Tues-Sat 12 noon-6

p.m. include the hours“Conceptual Figures” runs

through September 27, 2008

Team Gallery. 83 Grand St,SoHo. Open Tues-Sat

10 a.m.-6 p.m.“Tiam O’Shian IV”

runs through October 4, 2008

An Eclectic Array of Tribeca Secrets

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Kitten-themed Tiam O’Shian IV at Team Gallery utilizes juvenile mediums through-out its intermittent cartoons.

Art gallery Deitch Projects hosts the Conceptual Figures exhibition, featuringpaintings vibrantly bursting with color.

Hole-in-the-walls have started a trend for people who want to enjoy good food at cheap prices and are willing to trade in silverware for plastic. Students will adore these eateriesfor their cheap prices. Not the place for “germaphobes,” but for anyone who values food over ambiance, these places are sure to be a hit.


Arts & Entertainment

By ERICA SANDS

Broadway is without adoubt one of New York City’shottest attractions. At any timeof day, crowds of people swarmthe streets and the theaters. Nomatter what show, the searchfor the right seat is vital. Everyaudience member struggles tohave the most intimate experi-ence, to feel as though they area part of the performance.

That’s how the entire audi-ence felt on Monday,September 22 when composerNeil Berg’s “100 Years ofBroadway” showcased inStuyvesant’s own Murray KahnTheater as a fundraiser for theParents’ Association. Admissionwas 75 dollars per person, butstudents were able to get a freeticket to the show by presentingtheir student ID cards.“Originally, I wasn’t gonna gobecause of the $75 seats,” saidjunior Tasso Bountouvas, whoattended the fundraiser.

“As soon as I found outabout the free tickets, I toldeveryone to go,” said senior EllaGibson, who helped organizethe event. “The guy from ‘SouthPacific’ – his voice – I want it.”The show featured numbersfrom classic shows such as“South Pacific,” “Jersey Boys”and “Funny Girl.” Althoughthere were no costumes or set—only a piano and drum set—theperformers filled the entire the-ater with their stage presenceand enthusiasm.

The evening was filled withrecreated versions of songs thestars had previously performedon the Broadway stage in showssuch as “South Pacific”, “ThePhantom of the Opera,” “LesMiserables” and “Jesus ChristSuperstar.” Danny Zolli teamedup with Roosevelt Credit for abrilliant performance of “FeedMe” from “Little Shop ofHorrors” with Credit’s dread-locks swinging as the evilAudrey II and Zolli as the naïveSeymour. Charles Bergell did acharming performance of “If Iwere a Rich Man” from “Fiddleron the Roof”—a productionthat was recreated at

Stuyvesant in 2006.The show came to

Stuyvesant as a way to fight thebudget cuts which had beenplanned for this school year andhave since been cancelled. NeilBerg’s sister Rona Berg said,“My daughter graduated [fromStuyvesant] in 2007. Wethought of it back then as agood source of revenue. But itwasn’t until the budget cuts[that we decided to make theshow happen].”

Neil Berg, who has com-posed various shows such as“The Prince and the Pauper,”premiered the song “HowOthers Feel” from his upcomingBroadway show “Grumpy OldMen.” He made slight adjust-ments to the show specificallyfor Stuyvesant, such as havingCalvert and Harvey learn “For

Good” from the Broadway show“Wicked”. By the end of theshow, the stars were pullingStuyvesant students onstage tosing “Seasons of Love” from therecently closed show, “Rent.”

The production had a cer-tain amount of energy that isonly attainable when both theperformers and the audienceare truly enjoying the perfor-mance. “Since my niece hadsuch a positive, wonderfulexperience here, it alwaysmeans that much more becauseit’s personal. This was a joyputting together,” Neil Bergsaid.

“One word. Awesome. It’slike performing for a very largefamily,” Credit said. “You couldtell that the audience appreciat-ed the arts, the Broadway genre,and I loved it when [the stu-dents] came on stage.” Giventhe fundraiser’s popularity andsuccess, students can only hopeit will become an annual occur-rence.

“We hope that we’ll be ableto come back again, help theschool out,” Credit said. “We’reselfish. We want to sing with thestudents again.”

Broadway Fundraises for Stuy

“Since my niece had such

a positive,wonderful

experience here it always meansthat much more

because it’spersonal.

This was a joyputting together.”

—Neil Berg, composer

By JACOB SUNSHINE

It sounds like a likely story.Young teenager gets into amusical genre that he has nocultural or musical connectionto. He begins to make thismusic, generally churning outmusic that’s not quite as goodor authentic as his forbearers.However, make no mistake—Sri Lankan reggae artist DimitriWijesinghe is the real deal.

Wijesinghe released hisdebut album, “Revolution,” thissummer, after many years ofhoning his craft as a reggaeartist. He produced it, sang andplayed all the instruments fea-tured in the album. “I have theworld’s cheapest recording stu-dio in the basement of myhouse,” Wijesinghe said. “It’sliterally just a computer, a key-board and a few mics.” T h eprocess of making the albumwas a long-term project, and hepieced together and perfectedthe songs over a long span oftime. “I’m always writing,” hesaid. “Music is an addiction forme. If I’m not writing songs I gointo withdrawal.” He some-times begins by writing a beatwith his computer (he uses themusic software “Reason” to getsamples), and then writes lyricsover that. On other occasionshe writes a beat to go alongwith a lyrical idea.

After finishing the album,Wijesinghe had his album pro-cessed and manufactured—he’s now selling his CD throughCD Baby, an online music sell-ing service. However,Wijesinghe is more concernedwith “Revolution”’s contentthan with its price. “I partlymade this album so that musiclovers out there could see whatI had to offer, not to makemoney,” he said. “If I ever get

signed to a record label, I wantto continue to make the musicon my own terms.”

Wijesinghe also had somehelp with the album. He was intouch with local hip-hop artistsand producers, who gave himtips along the way. As of now,the album has even receivedsome airplay on Power 105.1(the station randomly selectedthe song “Corrupt Society” toplay), as well as many onlineradio stations.

“Revolution” is a sprawling10-song set of tight reggaegrooves and intense chanting.Throughout the album,Wijesinghe’s lyrics remain hismajor appeal. Despite thediversity of the topics dis-cussed, a few common themesemerge. In many songs he com-bats the hypocrisy of society. In“Corrupt Society”, he chants“Set up all these rules, y’all notwant to abide them.” And in“Politician”, he speaks out,claiming that “You walk likethis, but you talk like that” and“You got your nice and fancycar, and chauffeur driver, redcarpet wherever you go andarrive, some people starvingand barely surviving.”Wijesinghe aims to show "howthe other half lives, not just thepeople you see on TV," he said.

Wijesinghe’s flow is anotherlure. Surprisingly, his unbeliev-ably laid-back, calming voicecomplements his lyrical attackson the excesses of society,encouraging the listener toconcentrate on the messageand enjoy the music, ratherthan frustrating audiences bybludgeoning them over thehead. Lyrically, his rhythmsseem influenced by DamianMarley, acclaimed reggae artistand son of Bob Marley, and hischanting is an effective rhyth-

mic device. His voice is at itsfinest in the love song “Inna meHead,” in which his voice trans-forms into a lustful growl andpropels the lyrics forward.

The album’s weakest aspectis probably its shoddy produc-tion. Wijesinghe clearly has anear for catchy instrumentalparts, but most reggae tracksmostly rely on authentic instru-mentation. Wijesinghe wouldhighly benefit from having stu-

dio musicians play with him.The instrumental tracks on thealbum are largely very simple,and are all in the same key of Aminor.

Nevertheless, Wijesinghe’ssmooth reggae flow and lyricsmore than compensate for this.Wijesinghe’s new album ismore than a worthwhile listen.He has a very distinctive lyricalstyle and a flow that many reg-gae artists would dream tohave. If Wijesinghe works a lit-tle on his production element,we could be seeing his name onthe cover of music magazinesone of these days.

The Sri Lankan Sensation Strikes Again

“Music is anaddiction for me.

If I’m notwriting songs

I go into withdrawal.”

—DimitriWijesinghe,

senior and reggaeartist

“As soon as Ifound out

about the freetickets,

I told everyoneto go.”

— Ella Gibson,senior


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SportsBoys’ and Girls’ Cross Country


By EDDIE CYTRYN

With school in full swing, theboys’ and girls’ cross countrytrack teams are looking to contin-ue last season’s successes. “Wewon the city championships lastyear,” said Mark Mendes, whohas been coaching the boys’ crosscountry team since 2002. “But, onthe varsity, of our top eight run-ners, six were seniors. So it’s basi-cally going to be a year of rebuild-ing our team.”

Although the team may havelost important seniors to gradua-tion, it still hopes to come close torepeating last year’s achievement.“As a team, our goal is to make itto the state championships whichwould mean we have to be one ofthe top four teams in the city,”senior and captain Eleazar Jacobssaid.

Rebuilding begins with thisyear’s freshmen and sophomores.“This year we are potentially verystrong,” Mendes said. “Last year’sfreshmen ran hard over the sum-mer and we picked up a few newsophomores so it is conceivablethat they will win the sophomorecity championships.”

McKee/Staten IslandTechnical High School, the run-ner-up in the city championships,lost only one runner to gradua-tion, making them one of thefavorites to win the city champi-onships this year.

The girls’ cross country teamshares the goal of making thestate championships. This yeartheir most notable loss was for-mer captain Eva Sadej, who wonthree of the four 5K races she ranin the regular season. But withfew other significant losses, theteam finds its biggest obstacle isstaying healthy. “We have a lot ofpotential on the team. The thingis just keeping everyone healthyand avoiding injuries that havegotten in our way in the past,”senior and co-captain IrinaStarkova said.

Starkova is no stranger toinjury. She had three anklesprains during her first year ofcross country as a sophomore.Because they run races on anuneven route, cross country ath-letes risk to spraining their ankles.Starkova is also coming off a kneeinjury this season which has kepther out of practice for a week.

Because the team practicesevery day, it finds that injuries arealmost inevitable, but membersbelieve that stretching is the bestway to prevent them. This year,sophomore Shilpa Agrawal hasbeen sidelined with shin splints, acommon condition the runnerssuffer from. “We do have girlswho get shin splints, but there isreally nothing you can do aboutit,” junior and co-captain VanessaVentola said. “We always stretchbefore we run and then againafter, but running is one of thosesports you do every day so youget used to injuries.”

The team this year is largelymade up of juniors and seniorswho lend much experience andability. Starkova said, “We havemany promising runners so thisyear we are hoping for betterresults.”

Both cross country teams arelooking optimistic about theupcoming season. While theboys’ team is focusing on rebuild-ing and the girls are focusingmore on staying healthy, theyboth have the same goal: to makethe state championships.

Cross Country Teams Battle Age and Injury

tion, the Stuyvesant Birdies—which currently doesn’t have cap-tains—teed up for its first evermatch against John F. KennedyHigh School on Tuesday,September 23, at the VanCortlandt Park golf course. TheBirdies rode victories by fresh-men Sarah Soo Hoo and JessicaPlotnikov, as well as junior JaneChoi, to a 3-0 win in their inaugu-ral match.

The team has members at allskill levels. Some, like Hoo,Plotnikov and Choi, have beenplaying for many years and havelots of competition experience.Others, like Min, have some expe-rience. The rest have very littleexperience. Nieves believes thatthis is one of the major differ-ences between coaching the boys’and the girls’ teams. “With thegirls it’s a lot more teaching thanwith the guys, because the guysusually have more golf experi-ence,” he said. “So with them it’s

more guiding, and with the girlsit’s more teaching.”

Since school began, the teamhas practiced most Fridays andsometimes on another day at thedriving ranges at Chelsea Piersfrom the end of school to 6 p.m.Lauren Shaman is one of theteam’s six seniors and has very lit-tle golf experience. “The practiceshave been going well. I know Ihave personally been getting bet-ter,” she said.

Nieves has worked with theplayers to improve their swings.He has also invited players fromthe boys’ team to come help out.“They have a solid line up thatwill definitely hold their ownagainst the other veteran teams,"said senior Alex Robinson, a cap-tain of the boys’ team who hashelped at the girls’ practices.“They seemed more consistent,”he said, and he definitely sawimprovement.

In addition, Nieves arrangeda professional lesson for the teamat the Mosholu Golf Course in the

Bronx. So far, Nieves has beenimpressed by the girls’ commit-ment. “One thing I like so far isthat the girls seem very motivatedand dedicated. It’s a tough sport,it’s time consuming, people havehomework and stuff, but they’vedone a good job of maintaininginterest and dedication,” he said.“Every day I see improvement.Golf is repetition and the moreyou repeat that swing, the betteryou’ll get.”

Since this is the opening sea-son for the team, Nieves thinksthat they should set small goals.He believes that a winning recordwould make this season a suc-cess, since Bronx Science hasdominated the division for manyyears and has a well establishedgirls’ golf program. Meanwhile,Shaman hopes that the teammakes the playoffs.

No matter how they do thisseason, this year’s Birdies willhave set the foundation for futuregirls interested in golf atStuyvesant.

Birdies Take Flight Girls’ Golf


swim practice. But her passionfor swimming and coachingmakes it “worth [her] time andeffort,” Sabala said.

Sawicz juggles a heavyschedule as well in which shespends the day working atEverlast Worldwide in sportsmarketing, before going topractice and then returninghome around 7:30 p.m. only togo to the gym.

This strict regiment isextended to the members of theswim team, who do dry-landworkouts during 10th period.This consists of running,crunches, pushups, stretchesand other conditioning exercis-es. By 3:30 p.m., they jump intothe pool for a two-hour work-out.

Like many members of thePenguins, the coaches’ passionfor swimming began at an earlyage. Although Sabala grew upacross the street from the LongIsland bay, she learned how toswim only after realizing howboring it was to just watch herbrother swim. By the time shewas five years old, she wasalready competing as a memberof a team. Although sheexplored other extracurricularactivities such as travel soccerand dance, her true loveremained the pool. “I ended upswimming on a club teamthrough high school and on myhigh school team,” Sabala said,“and then went to NYU where Iswam for all four years and wascaptain my senior year.”Although she no longer swimscompetitively, she keeps up herskills through recreationalswimming, teaching and coach-ing.

Sawicz started swimmingcompetitively when she turned

eight years old for the FlushingFlyers, a team she swam forthroughout high school andserved as captain of during hersenior year. Like Sabala, Sawiczparticipated in additional activ-ities, including tap dance, bal-let, gymnastics and tennis butkept swimming as her mainfocus. She also swam for NYUfor all four years and was cap-tain during her senior year.

Even after graduating fromcollege, which ended their com-petitive swimming days, theystayed involved in differentaspects of swimming. Sabalahas coached and taught swim-ming while Sawicz has helpedcoach the Flushing Flyers. Likethe rest of the world, they alsospent much time this pastAugust watching the Olympics,especially all of the swimmingevents. “I love the Olympicsespecially because swimminghas its chance to shine andeveryone becomes more awareof the sport for at least a littlewhile,” Sawicz said. “I was root-ing for Ryan Lochte [all the way]because he is a friend of afriend, and she trained with hisdad’s team one Christmas breakin Florida,” Sabala said.

With their passion for swim-ming and coaching so evident,Sabala and Sawicz “jumped atthe opportunity to work withthe Stuyvesant team,” Sawiczsaid, when Singer asked thecurrent women’s coach at NYU,Lauren Beam, if she knew ofanyone interested in coaching.Sabala and Sawicz hope to winfirst place this year with thePenguins, a feat that has notbeen accomplished in recentyears. Although it may not bebefore an Olympic televisionaudience, they still plan on win-ning their own gold.

Swimmers from Start to Finish


Girls’ Swimming

formance, I take note of my sur-roundings. Everything from dietto the color of my socks must berepeated. Likewise, all aspectsof a bad race must be thorough-ly purged. Every meet, my ritualbecomes even more complexand highly choreographed.Here’s a look at my current“pre-game” habits.

1. Mentally Prepare. Thefirst step in any pre-game ritual.My parents do not really knowwhat mental preparationmeans. The only thing theyunderstand is that for the last 24hours before a meet, any formof studying is out of the ques-tion. My favorite places to getprepared: house parties, movietheaters and in front of my tele-vision.

2. Eat a breakfast ofCheerios and eggs. This is pret-ty much the limit of my culinaryabilities. Anything more com-plicated and I risk food poison-ing.

3. Miss the first train at thesubway station. Being able toslowly descend the stairs at thesubway station is a nice con-trast to the mad rush which ismy morning school commute.Miss a train on a weekday? I am20 minutes late to band class.Miss a train going to a meet? Noproblem, I left the house anhour early anyway. While my

fellow commuters yell outexpletives at the departingtrain, I calmly sip my Gatorade.

4. Arrive 45 minutes early tothe venue. Maybe I want tohelp set up the tent. Or maybe Iwant to get in an early warm-up. Actually, I just want to sit inone of Coach Mendes’s fourwildly popular foldable chairs.

5. Eat half a chocolatePowerbar before a race, theother half after. Eating a fullPowerbar is a one-way ticket tocramping, so I eat them onehalf at a time. Sadly, unprotect-ed Powerbars tend to go miss-ing at track meets. So I bring themost heinous, obnoxious andrepulsive flavor of Powerbarknown to man—a molten con-coction often mistaken forfeces. Yum, chocolate.

6. Get Yelled at by CoachMendes. This is just too hardto avoid. At one point this was ascary ordeal, but now it is a signthat everything is going asplanned. In the absence of awatch, this becomes an effec-tive tool for telling time. Verbalbarrages rain down at fiveminute intervals before eachrace.

When the pre-game ritualsare finished, athletes need to beready to perform in clutch situ-ations. With my routine, con-quering the five-kilometercourse at Van Cortland Park iseasy.

The Method to My Madness


Cartoons

October 6, 2008

THE SPECTATOR SPORTS

SPORTS CALENDAR

Boys’ Bowlingvs. Food andFinance H.S.Leisure TimeRecreation—

Lane 253:45 p.m.

Monday, October 6

Girls’ Golf vs.

John F.Kennedy H.S.Van Cortlandt

Park 4:00 p.m.

Tuesday,October 7

Girls’ Bowling vs.

Chelsea H.S.Leisure TimeRecreation—

Lane 13:45 p.m.

Wednesday, October 8

Boys’ Footballvs. George

WashingtonH.S.

Pier 40Junior

Varsity— 4:30Varsity—6:30

Friday, October 10

Boys’ Soccer vs.

The BeaconSchool

Central Park—North Meadow

4:00 p.m.

Tuesday, October 14

Girls’ Volleyballvs. Seward Park H.S.

StuyvesantHigh School

Gym5:30 p.m.

Tuesday,October 14


Lane 253:45 p.m.

Monday, October 6


Lane 253:45 p.m.

Monday, October 6

Girls’ Swimming

By WHITNEY KO

With the departure ofLeonard de Virgilio as the varsi-ty girls’ swim team coach,Assistant Principal Health andPhysical Education MarthaSinger put the word out that shewas in need of more experi-enced swim coaches. Whencoaching applications for the

team came in at the end of May,Singer found two qualifiedwomen for the job. Despite hav-ing only one opening, Singerhired two coaches who werefriends already and who wouldwork well together—head coachKristen Sabala and assistantcoach Kasia Sawicz. As formercompetitive swimmers andcoaches elsewhere, the twoseem to be natural fits forStuyvesant’s growing need foruninterrupted guidance andexperienced coaching.

With the assistance of someveteran swimmers on the team,the transition has been seam-less. “They helped in showing usthe ropes in the beginning,especially with tryouts by get-ting the word out,” Sabala said.

“I thought that it would takethe coaches some time to getused to everything since it’stheir first year coaching atStuyvesant but they are on topof everything and are doingsuch a great job,” senior co-cap-tain Kei Okochi said.

After getting a feel for theteam, the coaches made a fewadjustments of their own.

“Tryouts this year was not justabout timing like it has been inprevious years,” Okochi said.“The girls were chosen based ontheir work ethic, attitude in andout of the pool, ability to keepup in practice, and times whichwere determined from ourweeklong swim workouts.” Theonly timed trials for Penguinhopefuls occurred on one day inthe middle of the tryouts.Essentially, this year’s tryoutwas the opportunity for inter-ested swimmers to practice withthe team for about a week. Withthese changes—including lessfocus on yardage and morefocus on small details—Sabalaand Sawicz plan to exceed theirvery high expectations and pushthe team to its limits.

However, there is a price topay in order to fulfill such loftyexpectations. For Sabala, thisincludes leaving her housebefore 6:30 a.m. in order to getto her job in Brooklyn where sheteaches pre-K and kindergartenspecial education at the LeagueTreatment Center, and return-ing home at 8:30 p.m. after

Swimmers from Start to Finish

With new coaches, Kristen Sabala andKasia Sawicz, expectations are high forthe girls' swim team, the Penguins, thiscoming season.

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By SCOTT CHIUSANO

After a grueling tie and ahard-fought win in theirfirst two games, theStuyvesant boys’ soccerteam dragged itself onto thefield Tuesday, September 16against AP Randolph HighSchool. The team gained aquick lead, scoring eightgoals in the first half, andcruised to a landslide 13-0victory. Yet with their nextgame against the top-ranked and undefeatedBeacon High School loom-ing only two days later, theBallerz immediately began

planning for the bigmatchup.

The team came into thisseason with high hopes.Although they lost four keyseniors last year, there issome promising young tal-ent in the sophomores andjuniors. “With the numberof underclassmen receivingstrong [playing time] lastyear, and with the experi-ence of three playoff games,I believe that we are betterpositioned to succeed thisyear than last year,” coachAdam Goldstein said.

Beacon and MartinLuther King Jr. (MLK) are

the Ballerz’s fiercest com-petition each year. MLKsports a top five ranking inthe country, as well as adefending PSAL champi-onship title. Beacon is theonly undefeated team left inManhattan A, the toughestPublic School AthleticsLeague (PSAL) division.This year, Stuyvesant ishoping to break its losingstreak against these twoteams. “Most of the playersbelieve that we have anopportunity to pressBeacon and MLK in aneffort to compete for thePSAL title,” Goldstein said.

Although their 1-0 lossin Thursday’s game againstBeacon was a letdown, theteam was even more disap-pointed by their tie to JuliaRichman EducationComplex in their first gameof the season on Tuesday,September 9. This was ateam that the Ballerz easilybeat in the past, but theydid not perform to the bestof their ability that day.“We didn’t play our bestgame. Our forward line canbe improved and all weneed to do is execute,”sophomore forwardOluwatobi Idowu said. In

that game the team record-ed only seven shots on goal,and only three in theBeacon game.

The Ballerz are hopingto learn from the Beaconloss, as to not make thesame mistakes in theirupcoming game againstMLK on Friday, October 10.“We gained a lot from ourloss to Beacon, where wematched them for effortand attitude, but fell justshort on execution,”Goldstein said. The twoteams will square off onceagain on Tuesday, October14, at Central Park’s NorthMeadow.

Save for their routeagainst AP Randolph, theBallerz have fought hard inextremely close games,proving that this seasoncould be an uphill battle.There will be no easy gamesfor the varsity soccer teamthis season, and to achievetheir goal of beating theirtwo biggest rivals in theplayoffs, they have to workfor it.

“Like all teams we arehoping to win a champi-onship, but it will be a verytough journey,” Idowu said.

Ballerz Fall to Beacon, But Step Up to the Challenges Ahead

Boys’ Soccer

Despite holding high hopes for the season, the boys' Soccer team, theBallerz, had a disappointing start when they tied their first game and losttheir third to the undefeated Beacon High School.

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By YIFENG ZHAO

During her sophomore year,Jung Yun Min, who is now asenior, approached Englishteacher and co-ed varsity golfcoach Emilio Nieves about start-ing a golf program solely for girlsat Stuyvesant. Although the regu-lar golf team was co-ed, the boys’high skill level prevented manygirls from making the team. That

year, only one girl, then juniorJoan Park, made the team.However, Min, who missed thecut, was not discouraged.

“I still wanted to play andlearn and be on a team and havesome sort of support system,” shesaid. "I knew that some girlswanted to play golf, but didn'thave the opportunity to, so Idecided to ask Mr. Nieves if wecould start a girls’ team."

Nieves agreed to coach theteam, and, after rounding upenough girls to join the PublicSchools’ Athletic League (PSAL)sponsored-team, took the idea toAssistant Principal PhysicalEducation Martha Singer. "Thegirls wanted to have a fully girlsteam, and we had enough girls sowe applied to PSAL and theyapproved us having the girls,"Singer said. An interest meetingwas held right before the 2007summer break, so they didn’t getthe application filed before thefall of 2008. As a result, theyweren’t able to participate inPSAL competition until the fall2008 season.

After its long road of prepara-

Birdies Take Flight Girls’ Golf

continued on page 11 continued on page 15

By SHALIYA DEHIPAWALA

Superstitions are an important part of athletics.No two professional basketball players prepare forfree throws the same way. Each baseball slugger hashis own habits at the plate. Every athlete has theirown routine.

As a track athlete, after every breakthrough per-

The Method to MyMadness

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