The Final Chapter in Harry Potter’s Story Was a Great Success

On Friday, November 19, one of the most anticipated movies of the year premiered here in the US: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Several die-hard fans even attended the midnight showing of the seventh installment of one of the most successful movie franchises in history.

Because of its immense popularity, the new film grossed over $49 million in its first weekend alone. The cumulative total for the movie was over $219 million by November 26, dominating the box office for the second weekend in a row. In addition to achieving financial success, most Harry Potter fans were pleased with how it compared to the extremely popular novel by J.K. Rowling.

With some good laughs and almost non-stop action throughout, part one of The Deathly Hallows is a very enjoyable movie. When chaos descends on the wizarding world, Harry, Ron, and Hermione must venture out into the world to destroy the horcruxes (pieces of Voldemort’s soul) in order to defeat the Dark Lord once and for all. On the day of the premiere, theaters were packed with teenagers that had grown up with the books and the movies. The audience cheered and clapped for its favorite characters. Though the other movies are not known for their ability to live up to the books, part one of the Deathly Hallows gave audiences everything they expected and more. The main three actors of the film – Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson – have matured in their acting and portraying their characters seems very natural to them. Not only did director David Yates and writer Steve Kloves stick to the novel’s plot, he added a few laughs to brighten up the very dark story. Even though the movie runs for a full 2 hours and 26 minutes, the plot moves quickly and leaves audiences hanging on, waiting for the premiere of the final chapter in Harry’s story on July 15, 2011.

Elf the Musical by Marisa Sehested

On November 2^nd, 2010 the musical Elf made its Broadway debut. The play begins with Santa (George Wendt) telling us the story of “Buddy the Elf”. The audience witnesses Buddy’s upsetting discovery as he finds out he is not an elf, but a human being. Buddy than travels to New York City to find his real father (Mark Jacoby) and during his trip he falls in love with a saleswoman named Jovie (Amy Spagner).

When asked about Will Farrell who played Buddy in the 2003 Elf movie, Sebastian Arcelus, who plays Buddy in the musical, answers “I had to do him justice.” Areclus was put under a lot of stress to live up to Farrell’s acting. “I had to be true to myself in this role and kinda’ self edit with it. Even though Buddy is funny, he is serious,” he adds. Sebastian’s hard work did pay off in this play as well as his singing skills. From singing songs like “Sparklejollytwinklejingley”: and calling people “cotton headed ninny muggings” he really nailed this role. After joking about his costume, a green suit and bright green tights, he replies, “It actually felt natural after all of the rehearsals. I felt like I really fit the character.”

Loosely based on the movie, the plot is slightly different. The musical does introduce new scenes that were not in the movie. A big scene that will be missed is the “fight” between Buddy and his father’s short boss after Buddy called him an “elf”. Many people were displeased with the removal of this funny scene. Thankfully, the scene with Buddy telling the Santa in the mall that “he sits on a throne of lies” and is an imposter is still in the play. The play does feature some cheesy songs that can get a little annoying even though they are trying to satisfy the holiday mood. The elf’s costumes are cute, but are bright and loud. A few things to look forward to during the play are the synthetic ice rink and when the snow begins to fall in the theatre at the end of Act II.

Seeing Elf is a perfect outing for any family. Children will love the cheery songs and funny scenes as the adults will love the “adult jokes” shared during random scenes. Hopefully these innuendos will fly right by the kid’s ears.

Overall Elf is a must-see for this time of the year, especially since it will end on January 2^nd 2011. Buy those tickets fast and get your Christmas sprit going! As Buddy always says, “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is by singing loud for all to hear!” And in this case, seeing the musical!

Helmet-to-Helmet Hits and the New Uncle Sam by John Vincente

            Fine after fine after fine. That has been one of the big headlines of this great 2010 NFL season, but it has been one of the more negative ones. It all started during week 6 when 3 defenders (James Harrison PIT, Brandon Meriweather NE, and Dunta Robinson ATL) dealt out huge hits on so called “defenseless players”. Each of those defenders was fined for a combined $175,000 for the deadly hits and has brought attention to the NFL on helmet-to-helmet hits to promote player safety. Now you would think that this is a great thing that the NFL is trying to protect its players, but when double standards, terrible officiating, and a fining system that makes no sense are put together, they mean trouble for the league.

            Of the three players mentioned, James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers has been a victim of these fines four times and these fines have totaled $125,000 all together this season. All four of these fines have been unfairly ruled and one could see this if they watched all of the plays that Harrison was fined for. The NFL commissioner, Rodger Goodell, and the officiating crew of every Steelers game has put the Steelers under the microscope this season and the officials have been calling just bad penalties on Steelers players for roughing the passer, helmet-to-helmet hits, and various other penalties that never happened during the play.

 It is very clear that Goodell is picking on the Steelers this season. This can easily be shown when you compare some of the other league fines to Harrison’s this season. For example, Tennessee Titans cornerback, Cortland Finnegan, and Houston Texans wide receiver, Andre Johnson, started an ugly brawl in which both ripped off each other’s helmet and threw in blows to the head. Both of these players were flagged, ejected from the game, and fined only $25,000 for their vicious fight without a suspension. James Harrison was fined $75,000 for a hit on Cleveland Browns wide receiver, Mohamed Massaquoi; a hit in which was during a play, not flagged by the officials, nor was he ejected from the game for this hit.

Another example was when Oakland Raiders defensive end, Richard Seymour, was only fined $25,000 for sucker-punching Steelers quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, in the head; a play in which Seymour was penalized for, ejected from the game for, and took place after a play was over. There was another incident in which Denver Broncos head coach, Josh McDaniels was fined $50,000 for taping a San Francisco 49ers practice; a fine that is still less than Harrison’s un-penalized hit. This fining system that Rodger Goodell is using here is clearly unbalanced, unfair, and always seems to work in favor of any player who’s name is not James Harrison. An article about this matter, published on NFL.com, got a statement from Harrison regarding the fines and he said,

 "It's starting to look like it's OK to cheat, it's OK to fight, but if you hit somebody too hard, we're going to fine you a whole bunch. Maybe it's because I play for the Steelers. Who knows?”

What it’s really starting to look like is the NFL is trying to protect its big name players, players who drive up their revenues, and players in which fans go to see at the games. Let’s break it down and see who exactly the “victims” of these hits were and how the NFL only really cares about money, not player safety. One of the “victims” was New Orleans Saints quarterback, Drew Brees. Well I don’t know about you but Drew Brees is a name I see a lot on the NFL commercials that advertise their merchandise and this is probably why Harrison was fined for barely laying a lick on him. Another big name is Houston Texans wide receiver, Andre Johnson. As you know already, he got into a fight with a Tennessee Titans defender and was only fined $25,000. If this were two no-names fighting each other, you can guarantee a suspension would be warranted to both of them. But why suspend a star player that is playing the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday Night Football and why suspend this player when you know he is the reason that some people are even watching or going to this game? The NFL didn’t suspend Andre Johnson is because they don’t want to lose any money from the NFL Network’s Thursday Night football game. Lately Rodger Goodell has been dealing out a wave of fines this year for “illegal hits” and the NFL is quickly starting to look like another branch of government and Goodell is resembling Uncle Sam to a frightening degree. If the fines continue the way they are, it will slowly tarnish the game of football. To prevent this, this fining system needs to be more consistent, more accurate, and it needs to have an EXACT definition of what is and what isn’t an illegal hit. When soft-spoken and quiet Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers speaks out against the fines, then you must be doing something wrong. An article published on NFL.com took a statement from Polamalu regarding the fining system and he said,

“I think 99.9 percent of the players would agree that we need to come up with a better system on how we fine players. I think current players should be involved, coaches should be involved, as well as front office people, including the commissioner. I think a more democratic approach to these fines would be better.”

It cannot get any clearer than that. Clean up your act Goodell and please maintain the integrity of the game of football in this league or the NFL will slowly wither away at the cost of these fines.

           

Black Friday: A Holiday Itself by Delia Brengel

            Despite the few who stayed home as they feared for their lives and their wallets, many people did go out and brave the crowded parking lots, long lines, dehydration, and all other perils that come along with the dreaded Black Friday shopping.

For some, though, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is a holiday itself.  People see it as a challenge to be the first person at the mall or outlets, lining up as early as they can, even the night before, just to get in and score the best deals as fast as they can.  In fact, I myself went for the first time and found the rush of nabbing the perfect item at a low price exhilarating.

Joanne Ardizzone, a local mother of four, trekked to Best Buy and P.C. Richard & Son in search for good deals on Christmas gifts.  “Best Buy was very crowded and P.C. Richard was very crowded [as well],” the avid shopper relayed, “Best Buy was worth it [tolerating the crowds], but P.C. Richard was not.”

This year, people seemed to have embraced the sales and coupons and decided to loosen their budgets slightly.  The International Council of Shopping Centers’ Index (ICSC) reported an increase of 5.8% in profits of stores open for at least one year compared to last November.  According to the LI Press, Macy’s CEO, Terry Lundgren released that there were 7,000 people waiting in line Friday morning for the 4:00 a.m. opening of the Macy’s in New York City, compared to only 5,000 people in 2009.  Hopefully this means that the recession is making a u-turn and that there is now more money in people’s pockets, since they were more willing to spend it.

Even with the suddenly cheerful wintry air weaving between frantic bargain hunters, a whisper of grief could still be heard.  Just two years ago in 2008, a careless tragedy occurred when a stampede of shoppers charged into a Valley Stream Walmart store and killed one worker who was attempting to manage the extreme line of people.  Due to stricter security of stores, no casualties occurred this past Black Friday.

Whether you’re going for the great deals or just to burn off all those extra Thanksgiving calories, Black Friday is definitely the biggest shopping day of the year, but who wants to deal with crazy people and aggravatingly long lines? So the question is: to shop or not to shop?

Miami Heat Lukewarm At Best by Anthony Aprile

            Perhaps the biggest sports story of the summer, the NBA’s Miami Heat acquiring LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh through free agency, doesn’t seem to be paying the league or the team any great dividends just over a month into the season.

The South Beach Super Team that was supposed to be dominating the league by this time is trudging along at 12-8 leading up to a big game Saturday night against the Atlanta Hawks that will most likely be a battle for 2^nd place in the Southeast Division.  This group is certainly not looking like the Heat that everyone expected to be instant champions or the team that Jeff Van Gundy predicted would break the Chicago Bull’s regular season win record of 72.  To achieve that at this point, the Heat would have to lose only 1 of their next 62 games.  Simply put, that’s not happening.

            Plagued by injuries and less-than-stellar performance from the new Big Three, the Heat are a mere 3 games above .500 and currently sit in 5^th place in the Eastern Conference.  All of that hard work in free agency hasn’t quite paid off yet.  With Wade battling minor injuries, Bosh getting beat by opposing centers in the post, and role players Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem lost to more severe and long-term injuries, the depleted lineup is having great difficulty molding together.  To be fair, the Heat are under unprecedented scrutiny from the media, the league, and the fans, but this was something the players knew would happen before they signed.

            What makes this situation most interesting is the fact that two players who spent the summer pouting that they wanted to join Amare Stoudemire in New York to form their own All-Star triumvirate have seen their teams perform better than the Super Friends of South Beach.  Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, playing for the New Orleans Hornets and Denver Nuggets, respectively, have gotten off to great starts with the teams they so desperately wanted to leave this summer.  Paul’s Hornets began the season with an shocking 8-0 run, and haven’t lost much momentum since then, boasting a 13-5 record that would take 3^rd place if they belonged to the surprisingly weak Eastern Conference.  The Nuggets are sitting in 7^th in an incredibly strong Western Conference with an 11-6 record, which gives them a better win percentage than that of the Heat.

            Who knows when this team will find their rhythm, if ever?  We all thought we would see the high-flying trio that won gold at the 2008 Olympic Games, but it seems to be taking longer than expected.  Only time will tell what is in store for Miami’s Big Three, but the end result might not be what we all thought it would be.

Smithtown Bowl-A-Thon is a Smash Hit by John Vincente

After a day of strikes, spares, gutter-balls, and a lot of fun, the Bowl-A-Thon held at our local Smithtown AMF bowling lanes, on Sunday November 14, was a major success. After constant promotions, Smithtown West DECA reeled in over $2,500 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and gave donating to a cause a new meaning. This fundraiser showed that people in our community can get together, have fun, and promote a good cause all at the same time. The 95 bowlers that showed up at the event did just that. The tickets to this event were $15 for each person and that was their ticket in for unlimited bowling for 2 hours and the price included the shoe rental. DECA managed to raise additional funds for the Make-A-Wish through a 50/50 raffle, a Chinese raffle, and by having people at the event willingly donate directly to Make-A-Wish with no incentives. Being a member of DECA, I must say that this event was very well organized and a lot of fun for people of all ages. We shared a lot of laughs as we watched our friends get multiple gutter-balls or get a convincing strike. And all at the same time, raised money for this great foundation and did something great for the Smithtown Community.

Smithtown West Student Organizes 5K Run in Honor of Fallen Coach By Anthony Aprile

            Smithtown School District teacher Patrick Harmon, or simply “Coach” to many, passed away on July 17^th after a long battle with brain cancer.  He had a huge impact on many students, athletes, and faculty members across the district, and he will be remembered on October 10^th at the 1^st Annual 5K Run/Walk in his honor.  All proceeds will go to the American Cancer Society for brain cancer research.

Mark Valentino, a senior at Smithtown High School West, created this 5K run to honor Harmon, his former coach.

            Harmon was a gym teacher and JV football coach at the Smithtown East campus, and a winter and spring track coach at the West campus.  He was respected and loved throughout the district and was a symbol of courage and fortitude as his bouts with brain cancer continued to worsen over the years.  His loss was felt equally on both campuses, and he was a major influence and motivation for countless people.

            “What made Coach [Harmon] so special to me was the fact that he never gave up on us, no matter how bad things got during the season,” said Matt DeCicco, a 2-year football starter under Harmon at Smithtown East.  “He would always pour his heart into making us a better team, and more importantly, better people.”

Chris Ingram, a Smithtown West track runner, added, “He always put his players first.  It was about the team as a collective and the individuals in it more than anything else in the world.  It would always seem to bear more on his mind if a kid hurt his hamstring than him having to go in for chemo[therapy] that night.  He put the team above his illness no matter what, and I feel like that’s why people tended to gravitate towards him.”

            Valentino, a cross country and track standout, took it upon himself to honor his former coach while raising money to help find a cure for the disease that took his life. 

            “The reason I wanted to do this run is because Coach Harmon was such an amazing and dedicated coach,” Valentino said, “who, through his disease, never missed a practice or a meet for anything.  He was always there for us.  Some people [on the team] thought of him as a father figure.  I thought I would do something special to honor him and everything he meant to us.”

            Valentino is responsible for organizing the street closures, finding sponsors, creating flyers, setting up online registration on active.com, and all other aspects of the race.  He did so independently of any assistance from parents or other adults, a difficult task.

Valentino’s online registration page uses the slogan, “We can make a difference, one stride at a time.”  The creation of this race is doing just that.

            “I think that Mark is doing an awesome job with the race and he’s honoring Coach [Harmon] in a really special way,” said Patrick Harty, a standout sprinter for Smithtown West.

            The 1^st Annual 5K Run/Walk for Pat Harmon will go off at 9:00 on the morning of Sunday, October 10^th.  Online registration at www.active.com/running/smithtown-ny/5k-runwalk-for-pat-harmon-2010 is $18.25, and closes on September 30th.  Day-of-race registration is $20, with all of it going to support brain cancer research.

Safe Halloween: A Night of Fright (And Candy) by Delia Brengel and Marisa Sehested

“You there, off with your head!!” 

It only took a few seconds to realize that this place was a walk through Halloween horror.

However, all other attractions aside from the haunted houses at Smithtown High School West’s annual Safe Halloween event were simply the opposite: a walk through a candy-crammed, fun-filled, decked-out Wonderland. 

The evening of safe trick-or-treating for young children is an annual joint effort by the extracurricular clubs at West, organized by the Leadership Club and their head honcho, Mr. DeMatteo.  The admission ticket to this fun night is not only a cool costume, but also the donation of canned food to help our community. 

Among the dozens of clubs who generously donated their time and effort into creating various booths with different activities for the trick-or-treaters to engage in, the most popular seemed to be the “Interactive Candy Land” run by the National Honor Society. Other different activities were the National Media Art Honor Society’s cool green screen, the yummy crêpes and toppings from French Honor Society, and the unique fortune-teller booth set up by the Sophomore Class Council. This year we even had a human dartboard from the Math Honor Society.  Penumbra and English Honor Society teamed up to help kids create crafty bookmarks while SADD made a station for cookie decorating. Along with visiting the tables, kids could listen to the distinctive style of the Jazz Band ensemble.  These areas were the most crowded, and by the end of the night, the messiest. 

Even so, the biggest attractions, as always, were both of the haunted houses.  The National Art Honor Society created an “Alice in Horrorland” themed haunted house, which, if nothing else, showcased some killer artwork made by hard working and dedicated student artists. Thankfully we didn’t need to fall in a hole or drink weird potions for this attraction. Positive Edge put together a dark, bloody house in E cafeteria serving three levels of scariness. All three were crowded throughout the three-hour event.  Kids expressed fright before entering, but most exited with a smile and a handful of candy. After viewing several reactions, it seems that Positive Edge definitely won the “scare factor.”

“We came last year with all of her [her daughter’s] friends,” stated one mother who brought her daughter, Princess Aurora, to Safe Halloween.  “We come here to have fun.”

 “This year was definitely high quality,” Mr. Solomon, one of our assistant principals at West replied when asked about Safe Halloween. After seeing all the booths and haunted houses, every student must agree with him. The previous weeks of hard work each club took to create such entertaining and festive booths most certainly paid off. “It’s great to see students help the community,” he adds happily.

Seniors Escape with a Victory at Junior-Senior Sports Day by Anthony Aprile

     

            This year’s Junior-Senior Sports Day took place on Tuesday, and the seniors once again pulled out a close win over the energized Class of 2012.

            The annual event brought in over 200 juniors and seniors to participate in the one hour activity.  Several athletic contests were held, and pizza was served afterwards.

            The event began with Mr. Sill firing up both classes with a spirit yell.  The Class of 2012 was awarded points for the louder cheer.  The juniors continued their strong start with a victory in the Push-Up Contest.  Just as the junior class began to gain some momentum, the seniors began to fight back.  They took the Mummy Wrap, the Wheelbarrow Race, and the Three-Legged Race to quickly put pressure on the juniors.  Unwilling to back down, the tough juniors fired back with a compelling victory in the first game of Dodgeball.  After that, the Class of 2011 seemed to put it out of reach with impressive wins in the second and third rounds of Dodgeball and a completely one-sided sweep of the girl’s and boy’s Tug of War.  However, the juniors finished the way they started, taking the Dance-Off in dominant fashion.

            Despite this small slimmer of hope for the junior class, it wasn’t enough to pull out the upset.  At the close of the final event, Mr. Sill announced the winner, “by knockout,” as he phrased it, to be the seniors.  The senior class, no matter how narrowly, retained their bragging rights over the juniors, but it is safe to say that next year’s juniors will have big shoes to fill once they enter the competition.

Waking Up Early Takes a Toll on Students’ Grades and Attendance by John Vincente

BEEP! BEEP! There goes your alarm clock and once again it’s very early on a Monday morning and you have to be up and ready for a class that starts at 7:20 am. You are not alone. In fact, according to a New York Times article published in January 2010, there are over 17 million high school students across America that are waking up for school so early that they are barely awake enough to get little to nothing at all out of their first class, especially if this class starts earlier than 8 am. A new sleep study done by researchers from the University of Rhode Island has shown that the amount of sleep that students get, correlate to their grades and attendance records. Therefore, what exactly is the reason for waking up that early for a class in which students are constantly dozing off and are unfocused for? There actually is no educational reason at all to be up that early for school as it takes a toll on student attendance and grades.

                        For many years there has been a false impression that waking up early for school helps students stay more focused on their school work since people have said that the mind is more focused and opened up more to learning bright and early. This couldn’t be farther from the truth as most would agree. According to the New York Times article, teenagers have different body clocks and their sleep schedules are very different from younger kids and even adults. Teenagers on average usually fall asleep at 11pm which is when their bodies produce the sleep inducing hormone called melatonin. When school districts across America force students to wake up as early as 5 or 5:30am, they prevent the students from getting the full 8 hours they need of sleep.

                        Can you imagine if we could have all those 8 precious hours to ourselves? Well the researchers from the University of Rhode Island took on this idea to test how the time change would affect the students of a New England boarding school. They conducted this test by bumping up the time the first class started from 8am to 8:30am; just a small half hour of a difference. This small difference had a positive impact on the students and the even teachers. One teacher from this boarding school commented on the matter and said,

                         “On a more personal note, I have found the 8:30 start to be the single most positive impact to my general quality of life at [the school] since I started 12 years ago.”

                        The Rhode Island researchers found that the grades and attendance improved slightly, not enough to make a huge impact, but they still improved. Although grades and attendance improved, there were still a large number of students who got less than the recommended amount of hours of sleep. As a result of this, 66% of students said they became drowsy while doing their homework, 18% continued to fall asleep during morning classes and 36% relied on naps to get through the day. Now, what if the time of the first class was 9:20am perhaps? I think it’s safe to say that grades and attendance wouldn’t just improve slightly, they would improve GREATLY.

Secretary of Education Supports Twelve Hour School Days by Emily Doveala

Though most people in the United States are disagreeing on political matters these days, most people can agree that the election of Barack Obama to the presidency has caused many changes in the political world. One of the more influential changes on people in the U.S. is Obama’s appointment of Arne Duncan to the position of Secretary of Education. Duncan’s thoughts on education reform may soon have many drastic impacts on us kids. Duncan told the Daily Caller that he believes, “schools should be open 12, 13, 14 hours a day, seven days of the week, 11-12 months of the year.”

For high school students, this sounds like their worst nightmare come to life. Smithtown High School West student Shannon Elari said, “It’s too long. Students will not be able to concentrate. Our brains will be on overload.” High school students spend 30 hours a week at school and approximately 10 hours a week or more on homework. All this adds up to a 40 hour work week, which is equivalent to the average full-time job. The above average students also dedicate about 10 hours a week to afterschool sports and activities. Adding another 30 hours to school per week would give the average teenager practically no time for anything other than working.

Secretary Duncan’s opinion is that 12 hour school days would allow students to be more successful later on in life and would keep them off of the streets. Duncan grew up in Chicago, where some kids that lived on the streets were killed in gang disputes. His firsthand experience with this definitely influenced his perspective on education. However, twelve-hour school days wouldn’t stop the small percentage of kids in Smithtown from doing drugs.

Another problem with Duncan’s plan is that the funding for this would be tremendous. Teachers would either work double time and receive a double salary, or new teachers would have to be hired. For either option, schools would need double the amount of money for teacher’s salaries and would most likely require more funding. This funding comes from the taxpayers, who, during our current economic situation, can’t afford to pay more taxes.

An alternative to Duncan’s drastic idea would be to use school funding for new technology or programs. Smartboards could be installed in every classroom; new instruments could go to the music department; equipment could go to sports teams; and funding could provide the means for electives for every interest of every student. Getting students more involved and enthusiastic in school could be the solution to give students a brighter future, not overworking them.