BHS
April 15, 2011
Page 5
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Simmons vs. Stimely rivalry continues
“I have no idea Photos by Mary Beth McAndrews
Left: Stimely stuffed Simmons’ overhead with potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day.
Right: The rivalry between the Irish Stimely and British Simmons has been going on for years
Mary Beth McAndrews
Assistant editor-in-chief ‘11
“A Modest Proposal” is required
reading for a majority of high school
students. For those who haven’t read it,
it’s a satirical piece that emphasizes the
cruelty of the British to the Irish in the
1800s.
Since then the conflict has been resolved (kind of) but a small part of the
Irish anger lingers at Broadneck High
School.Here arises the ongoing battle of
Ross Stimely and Rosemary Simmons.
Stimely is of Irish descent and Simmons
is obviously from England.
So thus began the battle, or
at least attacks, on each other.
Simmons said it began soon after she
arrived at Broadneck.
what I did to offend him!” she said.
From then on, it has only escalated.
Every year on St. Patrick’s Day, Stimely
does something to remind Simmons of
the oppression her country inflicted
upon his. It has ranged from simple
heckling to full-on displays of contempt.
“One year he made a documentary, a very good one actually,
about the Irish,” Simmons said. “It
was about 10 minutes long.” But
the best prank happened this year.
Stimely denies involvement in the event
but all evidence points towards him.
First period on March 17, Simmons entered her room to find her desk covered
and drawers full of potatoes.
Even the inside of her overhead was
filled with potatoes, which she discovered after it wouldn’t work and a baked
potato smell was coming out of the ma-
chine.
And while she was cleaning up,
Irish music blasted from hidden
speakers. This was the last straw.
Simmons has never retaliated before
but “enough was enough.”
With the help of her first period
students and permission from head of
the English department Dionne Harris,
Simmons filled up her recycling bins
with the potatoes and headed to Stimely’s room.
Then, the potatoes started to fly.
Her students threw all of the potatoes back into his room and ran back
to class. “A potato left a dent in my
SMARTboard,” said Stimely. “It could’ve
killed me.”
Stimely denies any attacks on Simmons whatsoever. “I don’t know why
she hates me,” he said. “All I know is
that I love her and forgive her.”
“Forgive
me?
For
what?”
said
Simmons.
All
he
replied
with was an unreciprocated hug.
Who knows how long this rivalry will
last?
From the looks of it, Stimely is
seeking revenge for Simmons’ retaliation. One thing is for sure: it doesn’t
look like it’ll end anytime soon.
mmcandrews@tribruin.org
Fourth marking period slacking shows
Ryan DiGirolamo
Staff writer ‘12
The year is ending, and it’s starting to show. Many students, especially seniors, are starting to feel summer coming
closer and closer. Prom and spring break are right around the
corner and more and more Broadneck students are shutting
down completely over the next few weeks. However, fourth
marking period is arguably the most important marking period of the whole year. With AP tests, HSAs and finals, students
that are slacking off may not be too happy with their grades
come June.
Sophomore Kate Cumberpatch said, “Usually my grades
are actually a lot better in the fourth marking period. At this
point I’m used to the way that my teachers do things, and I
settle into my routine with new teachers again. It’s hard transitioning from one teacher to another because you’re introduced
to two completely new teaching styles. So by the time fourth
marking period comes around, I’m usually settled in pretty
well.”
However, for obvious reasons, many seniors’ grades do
exactly the opposite. Senior James Meyers said, “My grades
generally get worse because instead of putting in the effort for
that A paper, I’d really be fine with a B. I still want to do decently, but straight A’s isn’t quite a priority I guess. It doesn’t
help that I’ve already gotten into college, and getting a few bad
grades isn’t going to hurt as long as I do at least decently.”
Junior Rose Dunn can seewhy students’ grades may be
dropping during the marking period. Dunn said, “I think that
there is definitely that feeling of slack at the end of the year,
most juniors may feel like they have gotten through one of
their hardest years in high school and they may be just done
with it, and with reviews taking place in most classes they have
the chance to do so.”
Cumberpatch believes that fourth marking period isn’t
necessarily harder grade-wise. “Well, I find that fourth marking
period is a lot easier, which could be why I do better. AP classes all finish teaching you the material a little ways through this
marking period, so that eases the workload. Teachers don’t assign many projects because they don’t want to have everyone
scrambling to get those done by the end of the year. The work
load is just a lot lighter it seems.”
Dunn and Cumberpatch both advise students that struggle with keeping their focus during fourth marking period to
wake up and realize that finals and AP tests are coming up, so
they need to pay attention and be as prepared as possible for
the exams. However, Meyers sees it differently. “My advice?
Keep slacking off. As long as you can control how much you
slack off and make sure you don’t go too far, it’s kind of expected that nobody wants to do anything fourth quarter. Don’t
do anything stupid that will make you fail a class or anything,
but you should enjoy your free time a little more.”
As much as we want summer to arrive and school to be
finished, we have to remember what is more important in the
end. Believe it or not, the clichéd line “schoolwork comes first”
actually means something more than just a punishment from
parents.
rdigirolamo@tribruin.org
Sophomore Ingvar Jacobson rocks out
Meghan Cook
Staff writer ‘13
Photo courtesy of Ingvar Jacobson
Ingvar plays instruments ranging
from guitar to electronic techno.
Ingvar Jacobson may only be a sophomore,
but he is already an accomplished musician.
He’s mastered five instruments, written
original musical scores and performed at pep
rallies, talent shows and a concert in Carnegie
Hall. “My goal musically is to master as many
instruments as I can,” Jacobson said.
“I don’t care too much about being rich
and famous. It’s a nice perk, but going out,
performing music that people love and having
a good time is what this is all about. If you’re
doing this for the money, find a new passion.
You gotta be in it for the love of the art.”
Jacobson’s inspiration not only stems
from successful musicians and songwriters
like Foo-Fighters front man Dave Grohl and
Muse singer Matt Bellamy, but from local
students as well. “Andrew Bilbrey and Evan
Cooper are also some good role models,”
Jacobson said.
“They prove that young local kids can
have the potential to make it big. I look up to
them and strive to reach the excellence that
they are at.”
Jacobson said that he enjoys almost every
form of music except for country and opera
music. “I focus mainly on post-hardcore, hard
rock, indie, alternative and the many genres
of electronic music such as dubstep, techno,
house, trance, etc. Some bands that inspire
me are Muse, Brand New, Attack Attack!,
Basshunter, Good Charlotte and Chiodos.”
Jacobson also likes to be creative when
he plays. When singing and performing “New
York State of Mind” by Billy Joel at last year’s
talent show, the sheet music didn’t include a
solo, so he wrote one in himself.
“It opened me up to expanding my
improvisational piano skills,” he said, looking
back on his musical epiphany. “Whenever I
play it, there’s always something new to the
solo and now I also add solos to other songs
I play.”
Although playing music is something he
is passionate about, he doesn’t just play for
his own love of music, he also plays to benefit
others as well. Every Sunday for the past two
years he has played piano at the Atria Manresa
retirement home.
In eighth grade he also played in a concert
at Carnegie Hall, and he’s going to audition to
play there again this year. Jacobson said that
his love for music is directly connected to his
self-expression. “No matter what mood I’m in,
either sad, angry or happy, there’s always a
song to play to let it all out. If I have a bad day
or something, I just go on my piano and just
play until I start feeling better.
Music also crosses boundaries. No matter
where you are from and what your beliefs are,
people are always listening to music.”
SAT essay topic
sparks controversy
GemmaAnne Hanrahan
Photo editor ‘12
One of the many parts of a college application is the student’s SAT scores. The SAT is a somewhat lengthy test which
has three parts to it: critical reading, writing and math.
The critical reading section consists of sentence completion and passage-based reading.The writing section
consists of improving sentences, identifying sentence errors and improving paragraphs. The math section consists
of number & operations, algebra & functions, geometry &
measurement and data analysis, statistics, & probability.
On the writing section of the SAT, the essay is not a required portion. For the SAT offered March 12, scores on the
essay seemed to be lower than normal as a result of a confusing question. The prompt asked the student’s opinion on
reality television shows. The main issue was that many students either didn’t have access to reality TV shows or just
misunderstood the question.
College Board says the prompt gave enough information for any student to fully answer the question, but many
students, parents and teachers beg that it is unfair because
not everybody has a television, watches reality television or
watches enough of both to find the difference between them.
On the website College Confidential, a student under the
user name r1905 said, “I never thought the Kardashians
would play a role in my SAT essay, but I wrote how the Kardashians create the impression that one can be rewarded financially for doing nothing (i.e. can just buy a storefront for
whatever new product they feel like), whereas some of the
most successful Americans came to this country with nothing and only saw results after years of hard work, like Andrew Carnegie.”
Many test takers answered the essay question as if it had
a correct or incorrect answer and really it was just “an opportunity to demonstrate their writing skills,” said Angela
Garcia, executive director of the SAT program in an interview
with the New York Times.
PSAT prep teacher Elizabeth Coronado said, “What I suggest to students is to consider their audience. They need to
think of who would be assessing their piece. Who gives up
time to grade SAT essays on a weekend? What is their social
life like? What might their objective be in grading student
assessments?”
Coronado continued, saying, “I think that re-teaching
skills is important, but I also work on the strategy side. You
pay money to take this test, and these scores are used for college entrance...so you need to know how to ‘own your test.’”
In SAT essays, students definitely need to remember to
not get too nervous or overly confident. Remember to read
the essay prompt carefully, decide on a strong thesis, brainstorm three to four examples for the essay, and write a conclusion using an analogy or metaphor.
Research shows that 90 percent of essays over 400 words
in length receive the highest score of but the test taker must
always keep their strengths in mind because strength does
not always come with length.
ghanrahan@tribruin.org
Actual prompt: “Reality television
programs, which feature real people
engaged in real activities rather than
professional actors performing scripted
scenes, are increasingly popular. These
shows depict ordinary people competing
in everything from singing and dancing to
losing weight, or just living their everyday
lives. Most people believe that the reality
these shows portray is authentic, but
they are being misled. How authentic can
these shows be when producers design
challenges for the participants and then
editors alter filmed scenes? Do people
benefit from forms of entertainment that
show so-called reality, or are such forms
of entertainment harmful?”
mcook@tribruin.ogr
Local coffee shop, City Dock, brews up good grades and good drinks
GemmaAnne Hanrahan
Photo editor ‘12
Chicago, LA, Brooklyn, San Francisco,
Baltimore, DC, Phoenix, West Palm Beach. What
do these cities all have in common? Well, not
a lot. I have tried coffee in every single one of
these cities and none of the coffee shops can
compare to my favorite local shop. Originally
known as Seattle Coffee Company, the store
eventually changed their name to City Dock
Coffee. Owned and operated by Grover and
Karen Gedney, City Dock has been in the area
since 1993.
As soon as the words “City Dock” ring
through the air, you’re sure to hear students
chime in within a few seconds to tell you their
favorite drink. “Caramel Latte!” “Jamaican
Iced Tea!” “Black, no room for cream!” Drink
requests can be heard from all over.
The store has bagels and many other
delicious pastries delivered fresh daily,
but you’d better hurry because the store is
popular and options dwindle quickly. Pastries
are baked fresh in the store overnight and the
bagels come from Bagels And... downtown
Annapolis.
Former
Broadneck
student
Rachel
Franceschini was a City Dock employee from
May 2008 until recently when she relocated to
Baltimore and had to step down. Franceschini
said, “I loved working at City Dock. I didn’t
want to leave but I didn’t feel like commuting
there every day at 5 a.m. It is just super laid
back, very community oriented, and I get to
work with all my friends.”
Some other current and former Broadneck
students who can be found at City Dock
are Taylor Sturm (‘09), Zach Hollon (‘09), RJ
Dawson (‘09), Kevin Muhitch (‘10), seniors
Boomer Mazanec, Samantha Durling, and Mary
Wilson and junior Lizl Hartlein. Hollon has
been working at City Dock since October 2009
and was recently promoted to co-manager.
Even when Hollon isn’t working or doing his
other managerial duties, he can often be seen
in the shop reading or chatting with friends.
Not only is City Dock home to many locals
both young and old, it also has a very friendly
and welcoming atmosphere. In the small
café you can find people of all ages doing
homework, working on laptops or playing the
occasional board game.
On the weekends, an AA group uses City
Dock as a meeting place. Franceschini says
when she closes she notices kids coming in
for little study groups. If you’re there at the
right time, you may even catch some teachers
getting their daily dose of caffeine. Science
teacher Shonda Payne and music instructor
Mathew Heist are just two of many Broadneck
regulars in the store.
ghanrahan@tribruin.org