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Westchester News

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November 2014 — Westchester Intermediate School —Volume 1

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What is Thanksgiving All About? By Danny Vear

It’s easy to forget that Pilgrims were real and ordinary

people who wanted to live new and free lives. That meant being able to practice their religious beliefs without the fear of being fined, or even worse, imprisoned.

In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers. It took a lot of hope and great courage to set sail into unknown waters and leave behind their homeland. Not every member of every family could make the journey; so many families were separated from the only life they ever knew. Did you know? The Pilgrims and the Indians shared a feast that is acknowledged today as the first Thanksgiving celebration. They ate lobster, seal and swans at their feast. Unfortunately, they arrived during a harsh winter, where many were infected with contagious disease, so most of them remained on board the Mayflower. Only half of the Mayflower’s passengers and crew survived and in March, the remaining settlers moved ashore where they were greeted by a native Indian who surprised them by speaking in English. Because of this one person’s act of kindness, the Pilgrims learned how to live in a new land by learning new ways of life, like how to farm and prepare food, and fish. In many American households today, the Thanksgiving celebration has lost much of its original religious significance; instead, it now centers on cooking and sharing a meal with family and friends. Some traditional foods that are eaten at Thanksgiving include turkey,

stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Volunteering at food or homeless shelters is a common Thanksgiving Day activity, and communities often hold food drives and host free dinners for the less fortunate.

Why Do We Eat Turkey For Thanksgiving? By: Emily Lewis

No Thanksgiving dinner is complete without a turkey. So, why do we eat turkey as the main course for Thanksgiving, instead of chicken, roast, or other fowl? Nobody knows if turkey was even served at the first Thanksgiving, but here are a few theories, on how turkey became the main course. We were not at the First Thanksgiving, so we do not know what type of fowl was served, but a letter written by pilgrim Edward Winslow mentions

a turkey hunt right before the meal. Colonists started to engage in turkey hunts around 1621 the same year that the First Thanksgiving happened. Also turkey is a very American bird, and is large enough to feed a table full of people, it gained traction as the Thanksgiving meal of choice for Americans after President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. Another theory is about Queen Elizabeth. During the 16th century a bunch Spanish ships sunk on their way over to attack England. Queen Elizabeth was so excited that she had goose for dinner. Other people followed. But since goose was expensive, they had turkey instead, since turkey is cheaper. That is one of the reasons that we serve turkey for Thanksgiving, because turkeys are cheaper than geese and some other fowl. Thanksgiving is sometimes called “Turkey Day”. In 2006, American turkey growers were expected to raise 270 million turkeys, to be made into 5 billion pounds of meat, valued at $8 million. As you can tell, turkeys have a big population. That

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might be another reason that we eat them. They are big enough (so one can feed many) and we have enough of them in the world that they should not go extinct. Even though we have so many in the world turkeys, believe it or not, used to be endangered, from all the hunting. People used to hunt for turkeys, a lot more than they do now. But thanks to hunters and wildlife restoration programs the bird is safe. There are a lot of theories in the world about how turkeys got on the Thanksgiving Day menu. I believe that all of these theories put together are why we eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day, and other celebrations. These are all just some ways of why we should love turkey even more.

A New Twist on Social Media By: Jessica Mitchell How many of you have an Instagram or a Facebook? When you post all you’re doing is having fun or talking with your friends. Did you ever think, I put all this hard work into taking the perfect picture, finding the right filter, and typing the caption, why don’t I get paid? Keeping up with your social media is practically like a job. You post every day to keep your followers, just like when you have a job you work every day to keep your customers. Well, you can get paid! There are over 150 websites that will pay you to post and blog. All of the websites will pay you in various amounts from a penny to 80 dollars. Some people might say this is a positive thing, others might say this is a negative thing. People may think social media is for fun and only fun, others might think- wow, all I have to do is post well-written blogs and funny pictures and I can get paid. Some people could even quit their jobs because they can get paid for working at home. However, getting paid for social media could be dangerous if the website is a scam or unsafe. It could cause viruses on your computer, phone, iPod, etc. Be sure to have a parent’s permission or supervision when using these websites. This shows that being paid on social media could be positive, negative, and dangerous. What do you think? Should we pay to post?

The Daring Walk in the Night Sky By: Olivia Renko

On November 2, on a windy night in our very own Chicago, one guy walked one of the most daring of high-wire walks. This person broke two world records, and his name is Nik Wallenda. I am sure many of you have heard about Nik Wallenda's daring walk, but this is one night to be remembered. As I said, Nik had broken two world records. One of the world records was for the steepest tightrope walk between two places. His first walk took him across the Chicago River on a cable stretched between two skyscrapers. This walk took exactly 6 minutes, 51 seconds. The cable was hung at a slight angle so that he would be walking uphill. Nik Wallenda's second walk was set as the highest blindfolded walk

ever. Nik had walked across two buildings over 500 feet above the ground, while blindfolded. Many people came from all over to see him walk the tightropes. The Discovery Channel showed his dangerous tightrope stunts on television. Since he did not use safety equipment, the channel had a plan. The plan was to have a 10 second delay. They had planned to cut away from the live broadcast if he fell. Nik also had a plan of his own. The plan was that if he lost balance or tripped, that he would grab on to the wire and hold on for his life. His crew would be able to get to him in about 90 seconds from anywhere on the wire.

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World News: Ebola By: Sarah Browne

What is Ebola? Ebola, also known as Ebola Fever, is an infectious, and generally fatal, disease, marked by severe internal bleeding. Ebola is spread through contact with infected body fluids. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that there have been 4,922 out of 10,141 known cases in eight countries. Food has been affected. As many as 200,000 people are having trouble gathering food because of Ebola. If the disease continues to spread even more, about 750,000 people could lose access to affordable food, by March 2015.

Cases of Ebola in the United States:

Aid Worker -------------------------------------------- recovered Missionary --------------------------------------------- recovered Doctor---------------------------------------------------- recovered Doctor---------------------------------------------------- recovered Visitor --------------------------------------------------- passed NBC Cameraman ------------------------------------ recovered Nurse --------------------------------------------------- recovered Nurse ---------------------------------------------------- recovered Doctor --------------------------------------------------- recovered

Doctor --------------------------------------------------- passed

Halloween: Did You Brave the Cold? By: WIS Newspaper Staff Did you go Trick or Treating this year? Maybe you did. Or maybe, you passed out candy in a warm house, wrapped in a soft blanket, drinking hot chocolate, and eating chili. I don’t know about you but that’s what I did and still had fun. If you went out of town or didn’t experience the frigid Halloween we had I will tell you all about it and then you will agree that staying inside was a great idea. Where do I start it was all hectic and crazy… but let me start at the beginning, I was at school counting down the hours until the bell rang throughout the halls signaling that the time had come to go home. I happened to see that it was the last hour of school and I was so excited when we all heard the bell ring. I walked outside for my usual pick up and realized how cold it was. I was freezing! Finally, when I reached home, I put on my Halloween costume that I had been dying to wear and go trick or treating. But after experiencing the cold I wondered if all of the candy worth it? I had decided, “YES!” It would all be worth it and the cold had not stopped me yet. I had decided to put on a warm Halloween costume and head outside I met up with some of my friends and spent part of the night with them. Soon, my fingers started to go numb and my hands felt like blocks of ice. When my nose turned red, I decided that it was time to go home and help pass out candy instead. I assumed that no one was going to show up with the blustering cold weather, but I was wrong. One after another, they rang the doorbell and yelled “Trick or Treat!” As time passed, the sky became dark and the air became even colder. I was relaxing on the couch when the sound of rain caught me by surprise. I looked out our bay window to see hail. I knew at that moment, without a doubt, that Halloween was over. But what were we going to do with all of this candy? A knock on the door made me wonder, trick-or-treaters in the hail? We opened the door and I gave out massive handfuls of candy to anyone who braved that frigid Halloween night.

MLS Quarterfinals by: Liam Grimes In the Major League Soccer Quarterfinals, the Los Angeles Galaxy played Real Salt Lake and the New England Revolution played Columbus Crew. Each match was a two game series. In the first game of the L.A. and Salt Lake City series, Jaime Penedo from L.A. Galaxy had 6 saves throughout the match. The game ended with a 0-0 scoreboard. L.A. Galaxy held on to the tie with Real Salt Lake. In the second and final game of the series, Landon Donavon helped in every goal. He either scored or assisted for the L.A Galaxy. Real Salt Lake got demolished 5-0. In the second series, New England came up with a big first game. New England demolished Columbus Crew 4-2. Let’s just say that the Crew didn’t expect this game to end so badly. Charlie Davies started the New England Revolution with a brace (a brace is two goals). Chris Tierney and Lee Nguyen also got a goal for New England. The Columbus Crew still put two goals on the scoreboard, put in the net by Kelyn Bowe and Justin Meram. Columbus Crew lost the second and final game of the series 3-1. While they scored a goal in both games, they still ended up losing. The L.A Galaxy and the New England Revolution will move on to the semifinals. New England will play the New York Red Bulls and L.A. will play the Seattle Sounders.

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Movie Review: Maze Runner By: Abbey Wilcox Maze Runner is a dystopian movie. Dystopian means a future place that is undesirable or frightening. The main character is named Thomas. This movie takes place in the Glade. A new person comes to the Glade once every month with supplies for all who live there. The person is always a boy. At least it was. Once you first come to the Glade, the only memory you have is your name. Sometimes, it doesn’t even come right away. In the Glade there is no way out. But, the people of this place believe otherwise. They believe that in the maze, which is part of the Glade, there is no way out. So, the people of this place send the fastest runners out in the every morning to try and find a way out. The maze is a very dangerous place, and every night it changes. If you want to find out if there is a way out of the Glade then you should watch the movie, Maze Runner!

Lego Star Wars Game Review By: Seamus Heneghan In this video game review I will discuss the game Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga. I have played through this very amazing Lego video game many times for a very long time. If you like the Star Wars trilogy I suggest playing this game. It’s an amazingly well laid out mix of the amazing Star Wars trilogy and my favorite brick building Lego system. Inspired by the original Lego Star Wars building sets, this video game is fun filled for kids of all ages. Its rated E for everybody so don’t worry if you are not allowed to play M rated video games. Lego Star Wars is available for Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii, and IOS. It is also available for Nintendo DS although, the graphics are not as good and the levels may be different. Lego Star Wars the complete saga may sometimes be split into Lego Star Wars the video game for the first 3 episodes, and Lego Star Wars 2 the original trilogy for last 3 episodes.

Taltree Arboretum: An Awesome Place to Visit By: Tyler McCarthy Taltree Arboretum is an awesome place to visit! It is a large garden and nature area in Valparaiso, Indiana. The people there will help you learn by teaching you about horticulture, botany, conservation, restoration, ecology and nature history. They also have classes and educational programs that you can sign up for. If you’re tired and need to relax and get away from it all, come here because it is so beautiful and peaceful. The scenery is beautiful. Taltree is also a great place for animal watching. There are birds, butterflies and many endangered species of plants and animals. In fact, there are over 60 different plants there! The types of areas there include prairies, wetlands and woodlands. They have several different gardens that they have you to go in including the Adventure Garden, Meyer Memorial Pavilion, Native Plant Garden, Oak Islands Exhibit, Railway Garden, Rose Garden, and the Welcome Garden.Take a trip to the Taltree Arboretum next time you are looking for something new to do!

Oreo Pudding By: Jack Furmanek

Ingredients: • 8oz of softened cream cheese

• 1 cup of powdered sugar

• 3 cups of milk

• 1 tablespoon of vanilla

• 8oz of whipped cream

• 1-2 pounds of crushed Oreos

• ½ stick of butter

• 2 packages of instant vanilla pudding

Directions: Mix the cream cheese, butter, and sugar in large bowl. Add the milk, vanilla, and pudding. Mix until the lumps are gone. Fold in the whipped cream. Put ½ of the Oreos on the bottom of the serving bowl. Fill mixture. Then add the remaining Oreos. Refrigerate. Makes 8 servings. Enjoy!

Railway Garden at Taltree Arboretum