The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth" (1914) By Jennie A. Brownscombe

The end of November is upon us, and we all know what that means. We make the transition from the reign of the Scorpio to that of the oh-so-lovely Sagittarius, from the eleventh month of the year to the TWELFTH! State championships, flight delays, and Martha Stewart specials abound.

But before we can check November off our calendar, one more thing remains.

Thanksgiving. Or admissions.universityofcalifornia.edu.

Whichever way you prefer to look at it.

During one CSL block, I asked some upperclassmen about their Thanksgiving traditions. A few humored me with responses, which I have printed here for your daily dose of vicarious pleasure.

Each member of the Wiebe family brings a signature dish to their family gathering. Emily’s favorite is Uncle Chris’s mashed potatoes.

Rebecca Schantz’s family lets nothing go to waste. She and her sister awaken at 6am each Thanksgiving morning to join their aunt in the Los Osos kitchen where she is making pie. Rebecca and Abby use the leftover piecrust dough to craft cinnamon cookies. These confections tide them over throughout the mouthwatering day until the big meal.

Gabby Aleman’s family has a different approach to dessert. Instead of pie, she says, “My mom makes this traditional pastry. Straight up fruit and pastry. And we don’t have turkey.”

Alex Fong’s says “We make sticky rice. I don’t remember what it’s called in Chinese. Not wrapped.”

Stephan Bartz’s Thanksgiving tradition is shaped by his European heritage. In fact, his heritage is so European that he and his mother are the only members of his family who have yet made the journey across the Atlantic. They give thanks for the plentiful New World bounty by going out and meeting friends for a celebration.

Felicity Masa has a musical tradition. “We sing that song that goes, “we gather here together,” she said. “I can’t remember what it’s called.” Presumably, her family really does gather together. What an apt musical number!

Grace Filipski says the best part of her Thanksgiving is the sweet potato casserole. When I asked her what comprises a sweet potato casserole, she hesitated. “Sweet potatoes, butter…

“Love!” interjected Sydney Johnson.

“Oh, and sugar,” continued Grace, heedless of her friend’s interruption. “Brown sugar. Lots of it.”

Sydney, eager to have the final word as usual, concluded, “We have ham…lots of the time.”

Word, Sydney. Word.

The Image included in this article is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art. It is included in the Public Domain. For more information click here.

Senior Jonah Newman argues that although many Republican ideas are “sane,” it is simply not “cool” to be a conservative, especially in San Francisco. He further argues that Republicans and Democrats do not “compromise.” The Republican Party has been disappointing, yet the Tea Party movement offers a more passionate form of conservative principles. Occupy Wall Street, Eliot argues, is also a radicalized movement, but for liberals. Eliot sees the Republican and Democratic parties becoming more radicalized as the parties “wake up.”

Yet, there are other options for high school seniors besides the traditional two parties. As the Wall Street Journal reports, “Independent voters are now the largest and fastest growing segment of the American electorate.” Senior Pauline Ryan, a student in AP economics, considers herself an Independent. To Pauline, the Republican and Democratic Parties have political platforms that are very similar, and this has driven her to define herself as an Independent. She will be “looking at specific issues that apply to [her]” and voting on them as they present themselves.

The three seniors interviewed were then asked to place themselves on a Nolan chart. Basically, this chart plots one’s personal freedoms against economic freedoms, the bottom left corner being statist and the right upper hand corner anarchy. When Pauline and Eliot placed themselves on the Nolan chart, they found that personal freedoms were more important, which is generally a more liberal position. Pauline explained that most seniors favor personal freedoms over economic freedoms because the economic world is not yet part of their lives. Jonah placed America’s political center very close to Pauline and Eliot’s coordinates, also favoring personal freedoms. However, he also placed a point on the chart indicating where America “should be” — towards the upper right-hand corner, where both personal and economic freedoms are balanced. He also stated that “America hasn’t gotten the perfect balance yet.” The eighteen year olds of today seem to be independent but generally liberal-leaning. So how will this likely change as they grow older?

Many studies have been conducted on the relationship between age and political leaning. The first perspective was well summed up by Winston Churchill: “Show me a young conservative and I’ll show you someone with no heart, show me an old liberal and I’ll show you someone with no brains.” This point of view argues that young people are focused more on civil liberties (freedom of expression, etc.). The other study suggests that a generation is shaped by the events of its time (9/11, the recent recession, the Iraq war, etc.), this theory argues that as the generation ages, it maintains the values it acquired in youth. Only time will tell how this generation’s politics will evolve, but for the upcoming elections Eliot predicts that 2012 will be “nasty.”

At the time of 9/11, the Taliban government in Afghanistan was believed to harbor al Qaeda terrorists, so five weeks after the terrorist attack on U.S. soil, American troops went into Afghanistan to dethrone the Taliban. Today, it is estimated by the U.S. military that the Taliban fighters number in the low thousands yet there are 98,000 American troops along with 40,000 NATO troops. One may ask: Why can’t the world’s strongest military defeat a few thousand Taliban fighters? One of the problems the U.S. military is having is locating the Taliban fighters. The Taliban fighters also use mines and roadside bombings, keeping U.S. troops off-balanced. The Taliban avoids traditional warfare to make up for their lack of troops.

The U.S. troops are faced with building a peaceful society amongst people much more accustomed to war. Another task the U.S. military faces is taking over Taliban-controlled villages and creating a free society with schools and markets there.  Currently, before any Afghan children go to school, U.S. military personnel must convince the village elders that the school is safe to go to. Taliban leaders tell local villagers that if their children go to school, they will be killed.  Even though the Taliban’s numbers are relatively small, the threat of the Taliban is great. What the U.S. forces are trying to do is develop counter-terrorism methods that can be used by Afghan troops so that the Taliban do not return to power. This is very difficult and requires the U.S. to continue to fight in Afghanistan.

Ten years after the U.S. first invaded Afghanistan, the ambitious goal of making Afghanistan into a peaceful and secure nation is still a challenge. This war has cost 1,800 American lives and almost 500 billion dollars or 2 billion dollars a week. Despite this enormous cost, there have been some positive results of the war in Afghanistan. For example, when the Taliban was in power, Afghan women weren’t allowed to vote or go to school. Now that the Taliban is not in power, Afghan women vote and go to school. Nevertheless, Afghanistan is still a very primitive nation with widespread illiteracy and a corrupt government. Therefore, the U.S. strategy of democratizing will be ongoing.

Mmm. Yummy Potato Biscuits. Photo courtesy of Ted Major.

For those of you too naïve to know: I am incredibly passionate about Thanksgiving. In my family, Thanksgiving is a holiday based in tradition. These traditions range from those more general, such as the massive gathering that takes place at my house every Thanksgiving Day, to more specific, such as the type of marshmallows that top the yams; from events actually on Thanksgiving Day, such as kickball in the park, to those the Sunday after, a hike and dinner with my god-family.

But like any other family, we also like to mix things up. We once had an entirely kosher Thanksgiving meal. Last year, we had Burmese guests who brought Burmese Tea Salads to our Thanksgiving meal. This year’s Thanksgiving will hopefully top all others. My aunt, a baker, is making pies, and per usual, my sister and cousin will be in charge of their legendary mash potatoes and gravy. So far, our guest list is nearing fifty people. This year, I will be trying a new twist on traditional ingredients with Sweet Potato Biscuits:

From GOOP (from weelicious):

(There are also YouTube video instructions: search “weelicious- Sweet Potato Biscuits”)

Ingredients:

• 2 Cup All-Purpose Flour
• 2 Tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 1/4 Cup Butter, chilled and cubed
• 1 Cup Sweet Potatoes, cooked & mashed
• 1/3 Cup Milk
• 2 Tbsp Honey
• Cooking Spray

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Place the first 4 ingredients in a food processor and pulse to combine.
3. Add butter and pulse till it resembles coarse meal.
4. Add sweet potatoes, milk and honey and pulse till dough comes together.
5. Place dough onto parchment paper and knead 5 times together and shape into a flat disk.
6. Place another parchment paper on top and roll out 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick and cut into biscuits.
7. Place biscuits on a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
8. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden.

Cool and serve. Enjoy!

While many UHS students probably take our current schedule for granted, it has a huge if subtle impact on our daily lives. We have more or less homework depending on how many classes we have per day, and a well-placed free period can mean a significantly shorter school day or an extra hour of sleep. The meetings period at the end of the day gives time for activities as well as meetings with teachers, establishing a kind of student-teacher communication that could be one of UHS’s greatest strengths in terms of academics as well as school culture. Weekly advisor meetings, which can give students a chance to talk with a trusted faculty member or just be reduced to a 45-minute break on Fridays, are also on the table for revision.

Five years ago, the administration went through a review process similar to this one. The final products include the star and L blocks and the meetings period. Before these changes were implemented, there were seven class periods in a day and athletic conflicts were so widespread they would happen countless times every day, according to Kate. With the construction of new classrooms in South Campus, the school was able to condense the same number of classes into only six periods and set aside the seventh as a Meetings period, which gave time for athletics or other activities as well as encouraging students to meet with teachers. This current system seems widely accepted. “The schedule’s fine. I have no problems with it,” says Patrick Chong (’14). “Meetings on Monday would help, but then you’d have to move CSL somewhere else.”

The current schedule is accepted by most students and seems to be working well. So what would the administration change? They don’t have any unified plan yet, but they’re in the process of gathering faculty and student opinions. Kate says that a survey has already been sent out to the UHS faculty, and sometime in early November the administration plans on sending a similar survey out to the student body. She also said the faculty generally agreed on a few points. They liked the current star and L system, how periods rotate so a given class isn’t first or last on every day, and the after school meetings period. They would like to make Mondays and Fridays less hectic, create a Monday meetings period, move the CSL block, and establish more time for advising.

Changing the schedule would greatly impact the day-to-day lives of the entire student body, for better or for worse. Daniel Schrader (’13) said he would like it if six-class days were removed. “Thursday nights can kill me sometimes,” he said. “I don’t really have an opinion one way or another–it has ups and downs. But it would be nice to have four classes every day.” Four classes a day means four classes of homework a night, a point which will resonate with lots of students. “I would love that,” said Nathan Amin (’15). “Mondays are tough enough after the weekend, but having all my classes on the same day is overload.” On the other hand, some students prefer the relatively painless short blocks of Monday and Friday, such as Alissa Huntington (’14), who said, “I really don’t want long periods on Monday and Friday.”

All of these factors will, we hope, be considered over the next few weeks, as the administration’s plans develop. We have yet to see the details in the new schedule, but it will be certainly interesting to find out the student body’s response to the upcoming survey, as well as how the final changes will impact students’ daily life.

Several ads made recently by political candidates, although wide ranging in subject matter, share a common trend: they want your attention and they’ll do anything to get it. Ads made by respected candidates like Ed Lee and Herman Cain are intended to attract audiences, and are drifting further and further away from actual political substance. Some of the ads possess so little in terms of an actual message, that they seem ridiculous and pathetic. But, ultimately, this method may actually be effective. Will these ads sway the opinions of voters who know little about candidates and base their decisions on memories of empty entertainment? Does the absurdity of these ads contain shock value that will influence a large range of voters, or are well-funded, popular, and respectable political candidates suddenly terrible at making ads? Will they reach a larger quantity of viewers through the spread of videos on YouTube and other websites? Finally, what does this mean for the future of political advertising and politics in general?

Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO who once campaigned for a Republican Party Senate seat, is a prime example of how ridiculous political advertising can get. During the 2010 Senate election, she released a campaign ad bashing Tom Campbell, another Republican candidate for the same seat. A sheep representing Capmbell is raised up on a pedestal, and then lightning strikes, leading into a frightening montage of images while the narrator questions Campbell’s qualifications and character. Later in the ad, Campbell is depicted as a man crawling around in a sheep outfit, with glowing red eyes. The so-called “demon sheep” ad, while ultimately harming Fiorina more than it helped, demonstrates the sometimes over-the-top nature of political advertising. It is still whether Fiorina designed the bizarre ad as a ploy to attract more attention, or whether she simply thought that a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” analogy would be the best way to communicate her message. While the video did garner Fiorina significant media attention, and was viewed many times on YouTube, the vast majority of reactions to it have been negative, and she has been blasted by outlets such as the San Francisco Chronicle for her barely believable advertising techniques. Overall, it seems that Fiorina’s goal in producing the demon sheep advertisement was to catch people’s attention with the shock value of her analogy, but that she genuinely felt that it was the best way to communicate her message. Clearly, however, the ad’s shock value was overridden by how ridiculous it seemed, as the Chronicle reports that Tom Campbell said that the ad resulted in the most online contributions in a single day throughout his campaign. Despite the shameless political advertising, Fiorina’s attack ad ended up seriously backfiring, demonstrating how pointless this level of shock-focused advertising often is. Still, Fiorina won the Republican primary for the senate seat, though she lost in the general election.

One other ad that had gained media attention recently is by Herman Cain, a Republican presidential candidate. Cain is the current frontrunner in the primaries, and is known for his straightforward approach to politics. His recent ad, however, has drawn criticism for being a little too odd. It features his campaign manager, Mark Block, speaking on Cain’s merits as a candidate. The ad seems normal until the last 20 seconds, which displays Block smoking a cigarette and staring intently and Cain’s face smiling in slow motion, with Tea Partier/pop singer Krista Branch’s single “I Am America” playing in the background. The ad has almost a million views on YouTube and counting. Its odd themes and sudden popularity have led many to question: what is Cain trying to do? On an interview with Sean Hannity, Cain said that he was just trying to depict himself honestly, saying, “Herman is Herman,”  and adding that “There was no hidden message there other than we were in Vegas and we wanted to put something new out on the Internet because I was inundated with other requests, and I trusted Mark Block, which I still do, and I thought he did a great job with the ad.” His attitude was summarized by Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post, who wrote, “It’s horrifying. It’s magnificent. It’s the kind of ad you could only make if you were not taking this seriously. It’s Cain.” The ad may be bizarre, but it is also successful. It has drawn more attention to Cain’s growing campaign and it shows off Cain as a populist candidate who does his best to enjoy he otherwise boring game of politics. Still, the success of ads like these puts into question the values of American voters.

Another example of this type of political advertising is Ed Lee’s newest ad, featuring Ashkon, MC Hammer, Biz Stone (Co-Founder of Twitter), will.i.am, Ronnie Lott, Willie Brown, and even Brian Wilson wearing a “Fear the Mustache” shirt. Ed Lee’s ad is campaigning towards young people and he is painting a picture of himself as a hip young person who hangs out with MC Hammer and Brian Wilson. The ad was not funded by Ed Lee himself but by Sean Parker’s campaign finance group, who is a cofounder of Napster and one of the primary leaders of Facebook (you may remember him as Justin Timberlake’s character from The Social Network). That may explain its shameless pandering. For Ed Lee, who is currently the front-runner in the San Francisco Mayoral campain, it will be interesting to see whether this will help his polls.

All of these ads share common traits: they’re strange, over-the-top, pandering, completely unconcerned with actually providing information, and they all have hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of YouTube views. It’s true that these ads seem empty and pathetic, but they are also incredibly difficult to stop watching. Because of the immediate appeal that they contain, they are effective at a certain level. While some of them go a little too far, this trend of substance-less and entertaining political ads must be successful, considering how common they are. Maybe political advertising is taking tips from ads for beer, soda, and car insurance. That’s disheartening to say the least, and doesn’t do much to help American politics, American voters, or American democracy. As major media forms become increasingly focused on competing for attention, will politics follow?

Post Secrets is an anonymous forum at UHS for sharing secrets.  Most responses from UHS students have been positive, but people feel that it is taken as a joke.

Also many UHS student believe that the restrictions on what can be posted should not be in place.

By Olivia Barnett, Madi Lusk, Veronica Henderson, and Nikki Kang.

“I don’t know what I am allowed to say…” commented Albert Boyle, the director of technology. This seems to be the common response from the faculty when asked about the iPad Symposium tomorrow. This event has been highly secretive throughout the school, and according to Colton Valentine (’12), the teachers only found out about it this Wednesday. Demond Walker says, “I don’t think there is any conspiracy or anything like that going on.”

Although no one really knows the answer, that has not stopped students from speculating. “We’re just going to play iPad games,” says Kabir Parekh (’15). Another student says, “We are gonna hit people with iPads.” The most common idea, however, is that tomorrow will consist of a bunch of “iPad games.” While no one seems to know what we are going to do tomorrow, students have even less of an idea as to the point of tomorrow’s iPad symposium. When asked about why we are doing this, E’mani Davis (‘15) says, “Yeah, why are we doing this is my question! You got me here on a Friday doing iPad games till 1:30!”

Even Catherine Houston (’12), one of the captains of an Olympic Team, has no idea what will happen tomorrow. She had just attended a meeting for captains and apparently, all the iPad Symposium organizers told them was to be there at 8 o’clock sharp. Mysterious.

Many seniors seem to have the same idea and, in fact, are not attending. Demond Walker, hearing that seniors might skip, replied,  “if they choose to skip, it will be just like skipping a class. There will be consequences that follow.” But it is not just seniors who plan on skipping, many other students, who are unimpressed by the idea of an iPad Symposium, do not plan on attending.

Whatever the case, Albert Boyle says that “it will be fun.” Guess we will all find out tomorrow…

World Champions...for at least another few days.

As I watch this year’s World Series, I can’t help thinking about what it was like to be at UHS exactly one year ago. The whole school (other than a few stubborn Yankees fans, whom I will not deign to name [andythompson]) was caught up in the Giants’ magical postseason run. And I remark to myself: why the hell can’t that happen every year? Here are a few bits of advice for the Orange and Black that may help them return to the top of the baseball world next year.

1. Get Buster Posey a suit of armor. The 2010 NL Rookie of the Year and Bay Area local hero tore three ankle ligaments in a horrific collision with the Marlins’ Scott Cousins on May 25, and the effect of this event on the Giants’ playoff bid—mathematically as well as psychologically—was colossal. Before Posey’s injury, their record was 27-19, a winning percentage of .587. Assuming they would have maintained that pace with Posey still in the lineup, the Giants would have ended the season with a better winning percentage than four of this year’s eight playoff teams (Detroit .586, Arizona .580, Tampa Bay .562, St. Louis .556). However, in reality, the Giants’ record after May 25 was a mediocre 59-56. Simply put, the Giants need Buster Posey, and the solution (duh) is to insure him against injury by decking him out in a medieval-style iron suit of armor. Hot and stuffy, yes, but protective.

2. Keep all Showtime cameras out of the clubhouse. At first, the idea of a reality show about the Giants really appealed to me. I thought it would be fascinating to gain insight into the interactions, backgrounds, and personal lives of the players. But in hindsight, letting Showtime make The Franchise: A Season With the San Francisco Giants was a huge mistake. For five months of the season, cameras followed the Giants not just on the field, but in the dugout, in the clubhouse, and even in players’ homes. And people act differently—whether consciously or subconsciously—when they know they’re being recorded on video. Were the chemistry and focus of the Giants ruptured by the presence of the cameras? There’s no way to prove it for sure, but the The Franchise certainly couldn’t have caused any wins.

3. Send Brian Wilson to the barber. Is it better to be loved or feared? According to Brian Wilson’s notorious beard, the answer is: both. Loved by San Francisco fans and feared by everyone else, The Beard wields a power that none of us are capable of fully comprehending. Unfortunately however, its power seemed to consume its owner over the course of the year. The black hedge on Wilson’s face was the most major factor in his devolution from one of the best closers in baseball to a mere cartoon character. In 2010, Wilson was a baseball player with a streak of comic genius; in 2011, he was a comedian in a baseball uniform. So it was no surprise that his walks and number of TV appearances were up in 2011, while his strikeouts and number of saves were down. My suggestion? Keep The Beard, but just trim it down to its reasonable 2010 length.

4. Don’t let Aubrey Huff anywhere the batter’s box. After an outstanding 2010 campaign in which he batted .290 with 26 home runs and 86 RBI, Huff had a line of .246/12/59 in 2011. Giants fans cringed whenever he stepped to the plate, since the outcome—a strikeout or a grounder to second base—was basically predetermined. However, Huff’s anemic offensive production would have been almost acceptable (after all, a .246 average is decent by Giants standards) if he weren’t being paid $11 million a year. Giants fans expect him to live up that salary, so my advice to Bruce Bochy is to keep Huff on the pine until he gets the motivation to achieve up to his 2010 standards.

5. Don’t let Barry Zito anywhere near a pitcher’s mound. Barry Zito is a nice guy, and I like him as a person. That’s why it’s so sad that he has shown Giants fans almost nothing but failure since 2007. And like Huff, he was paid way too much for his failure in 2011 ($18 million, in fact). Injuries sidelined him for most of the season, but the few opportunities he did get to pitch resulted in an abhorrent 5.87 ERA and 1.40 WHIP. Brian Sabean’s first priority this offseason should be to get rid of Zito—perhaps by including him in a deal for a new CF/leadoff hitter to replace the disappointing Andres Torres.

And last, but not least…

6. Don’t let Jeremy Affeldt anywhere near frozen burger patties. Relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt badly gashed his right hand with a knife on September 8 trying to separate frozen hamburger patties, requiring surgery to address the nerve damage. This bizarre incident put an exclamation point on the Giants’ injury-wracked season. Obviously, Affeldt is much better at striking out left-handed hitters than he is at slicing beef. Thus, the Giants should invest in pre-cut patties to send specially to Affeldt. Maybe they could even use part of Zito’s salary to pay for them.

Matt’s first app was Spin the Bottle. He admits it was not very sophisticated or high quality and moved on from that initial experiment to creating another app called Alien Invasion, which involved shooting alien ships. Matt demonstrates that developing apps is a fun way to create personalized games. He taught himself this craft by searching on Google because, according to Matt, there are some handy web tutorials that can help anyone interested in becoming an app developer.  He recommends just taking a stab at app developing because “it is free to download the iPhone SDK (software development kit)”. However, it does take a lot of determination to create an app because, according to Matt, he spends approximately 18 hours of programming time to make a new app.

App development is a process that involves both creativity and technical skills. Combining these two skills is a challenge, but Matt encourages anyone who has an idea to try app development.  His recommendation for getting started in this process is to think of the big idea first, rather than the specific details behind the app. Matt says, “I just try to think of apps that could be helpful, and then I make them.”  In fact, he made the Devil’s Advocate app over Labor Day weekend. Matt makes app development look easy, but he believes it is approachable to anyone who feels less technically savvy but wants to make apps.

Matt learned how to use the programming language that is widely acceptable for the apps by himself based on information that can be found on the Internet. A potential app developer does not need to know the slightest detail about developing apps to become proficient – it just takes inspiration and dedication to go online and get started. Matt uses the computer language Objective-C, which is an outdated language but is still used by Apple. At his middle school, Matt took a course on HTML, the computer language that is the norm for making websites.

Given Matt’s talent for app development, one might infer that he might make this his career.  However, he says that he doesn’t see this as his career because “it is hard to program all day everyday.” Instead, he enjoys being a creative app developer as a hobby and a way to express himself. He does envision himself applying for an Apple developer registration, which costs $99 and that would allow him to post unlimited new apps on the app store. In the meantime, he is just developing these apps for fun.

Given the number of schools that are using iPads, knowing how to make apps is becoming a very valuable skill. Thanks to Matt, we now have insights into how one person goes about creating apps. He has explained some of the fundamental elements behind the process of app development. He has made app development a more widely known skill and has let it reach a broader number of students at UHS. Unlike the image of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network of the lonely programmer up all night, Matt shows us that app developers are a diverse group with many different interests.