NewsMENTORtheMJan. 29, 2013 Manhattan High School, Manhattan, Kan. Volume 100 issue 16

Club NotesScholars Bowl

Members of Scholars Bowl will be on TV soon. The team filmed their first episodes for QUEST on Jan. 19.

“I am not supposed to say how we did but I will say that will be our only show this season,” Scholars Bowl coach Ted Dawdy said. “This year I was a veteran so I sort of knew what to expect, regardless of if we won or lost, it was a fun ex-perience,” Varsity team mem-ber Logan Sutton said.

The episodes are set to air sometime in March.

The Varsity team competed at a Robin Varsity tournament Jan.17 at Washburn Rural and the team went 8-3 to finish in third place. The J.V. team competed at Flint Hills Chris-

Naomi McClendonEntertainment Editor

There was no further dis-cussion at last week’s Board of Education meeting regard-ing the proposed high school schedule. The meeting, how-ever, was still heavy with Man-hattan High School issues.

During the special recogni-tions portion of the meeting, MHS Thespian Troupe #941 was recognized by the board for their award from the Kan-sas Thespian Conference -- the Gold Honor Troupe Distinc-tion Award. The award is based on several categories, including number of produc-tions, number of community services, fundraisers and social service plays. Head of Drama Department Linda Uthoff ex-plained that the board has been generous in the past in giving the Thespians recogni-tion for their contributions to the community.

“We’ve been recognized in the past for things like becom-ing a Blue Ribbon Group and for the Gold Honour several times,” Uthoff said. “They’ve also invited us to perform little bits or scenes from upcom-ing productions, just to make people aware of what we’re doing.”

The board also heard an update on the Bishop Stadium Artificial Turf project. The five-year-long campaign for an artificial turf approved its first reading last fall. According to the board, Manhattan is the only 6A high school that has a natural grass surface. The turf, which would cost $400,000, has a 10-15 year life expectan-cy and would be funded by the district, private donations and business donations. At last

Dheepthi PerumalMultimedia Editor

Science Olympiad domi-nated at their Regional com-petition Jan. 16. The team traveled to Salina to par-ticipate in the Division C Senior High Regionals. Placing first place in 16 out of 23 events, MHS demolished the other 11 schools.

“Our overall score was the best one we have had yet,” adviser Dick Nelson said.

Thirteen schools from all over Kansas went to Kansas State University-Salina to compete in the Regional Science Olym-piad competition. The schools had students who competed in 23 events, includ-ing Astronomy, Forensics, Wa-ter Quality, etc. MHS had all

John RiforgiateStaff Writer

The Brown Bag lunch se-ries is back. On Wednesday, Jan. 30, during first and sec-ond lunch, Manhattan High students will have the chance to learn about the world of business.

BBLS is a short speech hosted by the Career and Technical Education depart-ment. CTE is hosting this event to prepare students for the world outside school.

“The greatest benefit is that they can hear from people in careers already,” CTE coordi-nator Dawn Lindsley said.

Dean Youngers, the con-struction manager for the re-cently finished MHS renova-tion project, is speaking this week. Youngers had to col-

Sarah ShiNews Editor

Labor Force statistics of the top 16 Kansas cities by popu-lation show that Manhattan is ranked third in employment growth over the past decade. With a net employment gain of 23 percent from January 2002 to November 2012, Man-hattan only falls behind Over-land Park and Olathe.

For seniors attending Kan-sas State University this fall, the stats are optimistic for those who plan to support themselves through off-cam-pus jobs while in college.

“It’s a great thing that K-State has one of the highest employment rates because you have to pay for school somehow,” senior Mikayla Barth said. “It’s better to find a job now than pay interest in student loans later. I’m not too worried about finding a job in college.”

Barth’s parents will give her a set amount to pay for part of the tuition, but it is up to her to pay the rest through either scholarships or money from

Liz LogbackFeatures Editor

Twenty-eight smiling new faces left the intense school-ing in China and entered the American high school expe-rience. The delegation from Luhe School from Beijing, China, arrived in Manhattan on Jan. 19 with 26 students and two teachers for a three-week stay with host families from Manhattan High.

The program was set up by professor Jishu Shi who works at Kansas State as a recruiter. Shi travels to China numerous times a year and had previ-ously set up a similar program at a school in St. Louis. All of the students selected to come to MHS have an interest in attending college in either the United States or another English speaking country after high school.

Junior class counselor and American Field Service advi-sor Tony Wichmann hopes the experience will be a positive one for the visiting students.

“The main goal is for the students to work on English

tian on Jan. 15 where they went undefeated and won the tournament.

On Jan. 17, MHS hosted a novice meet with 14 teams participating -- MHS had two teams. The first team consist-ed of Joshua Schwartz, Luke Wuri, Ben Broxterman and James Walters. They went 6-0 in pool play and defeated Jeff West in the semi-finals but lost to Lawrence Free State in the finals. The second team con-sisted of Grant Urban, Joseph Trujillo, Lindsey Hageman and Sterling Edgar. They went 4-2 in pool play but failed to advance past pool play.

Scholars Bowl will compete at regionals on Thursday at Lawrence Free State. Eleven teams will be participating. The top four teams will ad-vance to the state tournament

hosted Feb. 9 at Washburn Rural.

-Julith Perry

Medical ExplorersWith a small group of 12

members, the Medical Explor-ers got a tour of Pederson’s Lab on College Ave last Fri-day.

Pederson’s Lab is a facility for different services includ-ing Cytology, the microscopic study of cells, Surgical Pathol-ogy and Laboratory Director-ship. The lab handles running different tests including fluid testing, results from gyneco-logical pap smears and prepar-ing specimens for microscopic examination.

The tour was conducted by Jennifer Torrey, a laboratory consultant and client represen-tative for Pederson’s Lab. She led the club through the dif-ferent exam rooms that were used for researching and test-ing and explained all that is

done in each area.In addition to the different

medical departments in the building there were different fields of business including ad-ministration, billing, transcrip-tion and courier duties.

The members all got a look into another big part of the medical field that isn’t just about doctors or nursing.

“I like how this tour shows that Medical Explorers aren’t just for people who want to be doctors. It can also be for people who want to do other work in the medical field like the technicians,” club presi-dent Mohana Chakrabarti said.

Thursday, Feb. 7, Medical Explorers will meet to hear from a guest speaker who will discuss new medical proce-dures and will demonstrate a robotic arm that is to be used for surgery.

-John Rockey

GiftedA frequent guest of the

White House, Israeli Ambas-sador Michael Oren, paid a visit to Kansas State Univer-sity today in a Landon Lecture entitled “Israel, The Ultimate Ally.” Gifted facilitator Carla Johnston took a group of around 30 students to watch the lecture in Forum Hall.

“[The lecture] gives expo-sure to speakers that the stu-dent might not normally get to see,” Johnston said. “The speakers always cover a vari-ety of topics and it also gives us an opportunity to be on the K-State campus.”

Students that attended the event each had different reasons for attending, but all seemed very interested in the Israeli speaker.

“I thought it would be in-teresting to hear what one of the ambassadors from one of our most important allies

would say because there is a lot of trouble in that region right now,” senior Benjamin Carter said.

When senior Taylor Bates heard about the lecture, she realized the great opportunity it was, considering her pro-spective major.

“I decided to go to this Landon Lecture because I’m going into international cor-porate tax law and I thought that having a lecture with an international figure would be very instrumental to my stud-ies,” Bates said. “I’m hoping to learn more about the relations between the two countries and how that affects policy deci-sions and things like that.”

Oren’s visit makes the this the 162nd presentation to take part in K-State’s Landon Lec-ture series.

-Kaitlin Wichmann

and class materials. We want to expose them to the Ameri-can culture,” Wichmann said.

Sophomore Yang Shuyi, who is going by the American name Stark while here, is stay-ing with the Ian Miller family.

“I love it here,” Yang said. “[It’s] different than China. It’s free.”

The Luhe students were each assigned a mentor from AFS who they could shad-ow and travel through their school schedule with. After a week and a half, mentors will be traded to give the students an opportunity to experience new teachers and work. Yang’s mentor, junior Ethan Schmidt, is finding the program benefi-cial.

“It’s fantastic. I learn about his culture while he is learning about mine,” Schmidt said. “It’s great to be the one who makes their time in school worthwhile.”

The Luhe school is an un-usual sight in China. Private boarding schools are practi-cally unheard of, especially ones that focus on teaching English. Students who attend

the school are expected to fo-cus on their studies and have a rigorous schooling schedule. A normal day is 10 hours of studying, with a goal of pre-paring the students for a suc-cessful life after high school.

“There’s more pressure [in China]. It’s way more easier here,” Yang said.

Some of the Luhe students are feeling more “relaxed” during their stay and have come to enjoy the community events in Manhattan.

The students attended a K-State women’s basketball game last week and plan on taking some tours around the region and Ft. Riley in the weeks to come. The Luhe stu-dents will continue to experi-ence life outside of their own culture, while MHS students are exposed to a lifestyle that’s unique from their own.

“It’s very important to broaden your mind and ex-tend your senses beyond those of your own border,” Schmidt said. “It really gives you a sense of respect.

their students compete in the all the events, and when a school does not participate in

an event they get a score

of how m a n y t e a m s are in t h e c o m -

p e t i -tion plus

one, so 13 points at the re-g i o n a l compe -t i t i o n . T h e g o a l as a team is

to get the least amount

of points in an event and end working. “I will probably keep

babysitting and work at my church nursery here and keep whatever job I’m sure to get this year through college,” she said.

For senior Carly Tracz, having connections within the Manhattan community gives her confidence that finding a job here won’t be a problem in the future. “I used to work at Bed Bath and Beyond. When I left they told me that if I ever wanted to come back that they would find something for me,” Tracz said. “It’s all about the connections.”

With the prospect of new businesses coming into Man-hattan, senior Emmianne Jag-osz is not worried about find-ing a job.

“It’s good that Manhattan is growing. It means the lo-cal economy is getting better and the possibility of more job opening is greater,” Jagosz said. “I’m pretty sure I’ll get a job. I really want to work at a clothing shop like Dillard’s or Gap because I want to go into apparel marketing in college.”

week’s meeting, the board was informed that the necessary funds have been secured for the project. According to the report, the new turf should be installed and ready to use by the first home football game of next year’s season.

Sophomore football player John Rockey thinks the new turf will be a great thing for Manhattan. “I’ve heard about getting a new field for the past year,” Rockey said. “It’s a great idea.”

Rockey suggested that the new turf will provide both ath-letic advantages and long-term benefits. “Every other team and their sister plays on turf. We can adapt to playing on any kind of field, but to play on one kind of field would be much easier,” Rockey said. “And the financial costs for keeping up a grass field is $50,000, so to put in a syn-thetic field for a little bit more would save money.”

After the report, superinten-dent Bob Shannon presented a Resolution on the Appropri-ate Funding for the educa-tion of Our Nation’s Military Dependents. The program is aimed to help students, partic-ularly at the high school, who have family members in the military. The program is one of many in place across the nation’s educational laws to serve military families in edu-cation. This particular grant has been a joint project be-tween Geary County and Fort Leavenworth School districts to continue support in Kansas legislature, and it equals about $500,000 for our district. The current resolution is set to ex-pire at the end of this budget year. The new resolution was approved by the board.

laborate with a wide variety of people to finish the three-year construction project. He is a local businessman with expe-rience in the world of enter-prise.

Last time there was a speech, 60 students from both lunches combined signed up, but because this was a new phenomena, many people didn’t know what to think. Lindsley expects a better turnout this time around and is enthusiastic about helping students learn about the cor-porate world.

This special opportunity is only open to the first 50 stu-dents from each lunch who sign up in Lindsley’s room, E-106. Those who take the initiative by deciding to attend will be entered in a drawing for the latest Kindle Fire.

with the least amount of points. MHS ended the competition with 38 points, second place Salina South with 85 points and third place with Ell-Salina High with 135.

“I was impressed with the students,” Nelson said. “In the end their hard work paid off.”

Although MHS’s team did dominate in certain events they got second place for five events and sixth place for two events. Science Olympiad has only one more meet until State. Their goal for State is to improve in all their events, and see what they did wrong

Chinese exchange students make for a cultural exchange

1

and improve. “My only issue is that be-

cause we did so well our stu-dents will be overconfident for state,” Nelson said. The next competition for Science Olympiad is scheduled to be an invitational at Kapaun Mt. Carmel at Wichita and all the students on Science Olympiad are excited.

“My goal for the compe-tition is to do better and fix things that went wrong at Regionals,” junior Sriramana Sankar said.

Graphic by Dheepthi Perumal

Career Expo provides students with information on possible careers

Science Olympiad breaks school record BOE disscusses community changes, high school recognition

Low unemployment rates in Manhattan prove beneficial for upcoming K-State students

Brown Bag lunch series returns

On Jan.22, Manhattan High hosted its first Career Expo where MHS classes set up their own booths ex-plaining their ciriculum and future career choices. Eisenhower Middle School recieved a tour around the high school and visited booths as well.

Jordan Morris, photographer

OpinionsMENTORthe2

Question of the Week

editor in chief/opinions -- Ben Shields

news editor -- Sarah Shi

entertainment editor -- Naomi McClendonsports editor --

Nick Bandyfeatures editor --

Liz Logbacktrending co-editors Connor Bliss Maddie Rossphoto editor --

Kaitlin Wichmanncopy editor --

Kayla Diekermultimedia editor -- Dheepthi Perumaladviser --

Kristy Nyp

the Mentor staff

The Mentor is published each Friday that school is in session at Manhattan High School, 2100 Poyntz Ave. Manhattan, Kan. Tele-phone (785) 587-2114. More than 1,800 Mentors are printed each week and distributed free of charge to all faculty members and students. MHS journalists are members of the Scholastic Press Association. The Mentor is an open forum that accepts contribu-tions from the public. E-mail us at mhsmentor@gmail.com.

staff writers -- Tre Fuentes Julianne Harkness Tristan Knott John Rockey Seth Runyan Maddy Sparks Derrek Williamsphotographers -- Jordan Morris Derrek Williams Kaitlin Wichmanncartoonist -- Halsey Cameracontributing writers -- Eli Redeker Tim Higleycirculation -- Stephan Shimkus Kristyn Baker Pixie Khan Austin Tatum Andrew Klimek

It’s official. After 21 weeks in the NFL, only two teams remain. The San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ra-vens will face off in the Super Bowl this Sunday. Both teams are incredibly deserving to be the champions of their respec-tive conferences with some of the best players in the NFL and two of the premier coach-es in the NFL in Jim and John Harbaugh. And now, the two teams will put their whole season on the line with an estimated 111 million people watching.

The hype leading up to the game will be historic, as never before have the two coaches in the Super Bowl been broth-ers. I’m sure by the time the Super Bowl actually begins,

ESPN will have interviewed everyone in anticipation, from their parents and other sib-lings to their third and fourth cousins. Whatever happens, and as long as the Harbaugh brothers remain coaches, the Ravens and 49ers will become one of the most intense rivals in the NFL. So, without fur-ther ado, here is my analysis and prediction for the big game.

Ravens: Ray Lewis, the face of this storied franchise, is on his last breath and has announced he will retire at the end of the season. Most people (including myself) thought his career was over after a tricep injury in the middle of the season, but mi-raculously he made it back in time for the first game of the playoffs. Ever since, he has been romping the field like a mad man, leading the team in tackles in all three of their playoff victories. He has given the entire team newfound en-ergy, as everybody is stepping up their game. Terrell Suggs, the other Ravens linebacker who also missed a majority of the season with an injury, is also playing unbelievable.

On offense, they have Ray Rice, one of the best running backs in the league. Ray Rice’s ability to break the long run at any given moment along with the fact that he is pretty good at catching the ball out of the backfield makes him a dual threat. And quarterback Joe Flacco is playing.... like a quarterback! He originally has been criticised for not being as good as some of the other elite quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady, but this year he’s going to the Su-per Bowl.

49ers: Collin Kaepernick is playing like a hybrid of Mi-chael Vick in the good ol’ days on the ground and Aaron Rod-gers through the air. There is literally no safe way to play him. With only 11 men on the field for each team, it’s impos-sible to defend the entire field. You stack the run, you’ll leave someone open in the field for a deep pass. You defend the pass, then Kaepernick will gain 40 yards through the ground. No exaggeration.

And that’s just one player. Frank Gore is one of the most physical running backs in the game. Not to mention the fact

the 49ers have one of the best offensive lines in the league, leaving him plenty of holes to jump through.

On defense, the 49ers are stacked. Patrick Willis and Aldon Smith are probably the best linebacking duo in the league. They are going to get to the quarterback. And the quarterback is going to remember it. This team has so much talent and depth, they have a serious shot at the Lombardi trophy.

Final Verdict: Both teams are worthy for being where they are, but in this instance, I have to give the nod to the Baltimore Ravens. Ray Lewis is going to go out on a bang following his retirement, and the entire team is willing to play hard for him. Also, on a side note, Michael Oher, the main character in the movie “The Blindside,” is also going to suit up in the Super Bowl for the Ravens. And he is actu-ally really good. I would love for his family to see the very kid they adopted end up be-ing a Super Bowl champion. Could we possibly be looking at a Blindside sequel?

Super Bowl Preview

Tim HigleyGuest Writer

While I think Logical Posi-tivism is a perfectly reasonable approach to life, language and logarithms and that Bertrand Russell’s notion of happiness is based solely on the projec-tion of enlightened self-interest certainly makes sense -- I have to admit that I think Russell’s argument in his little book Why l Am Not A Christian is more or less laughable. It is an exercise in straw man demo-lition, pure and simple; that is, possibly, the philosopher’s intent. Sadly, though, many a stray reader is apt to succumb to the unfortunate possibility

that the book represents some sort of logical refutation of theistic faith or conviction.

The fact of the matter is, quite simply put, that Russell is not a Christian because he doesn’t believe in God; he is, by his own rights, an atheist. The harvest home gathering of sheaves he brings into play in this debate with his own projected backward Pilgrim are hardly necessary to ex-plain his disbelief in anyone’s conception of the Judeo-Chris-tian God, or any other postu-lated divinity. What’s more, the counterargument Russell lays low throughout the book is no argument any thoughtful or spiritually astute believer

would ever offer. Now, I real-ize that a good many believ-ers are let off the hook by this qualification, but that isn’t what I’m trying to discuss. To those whom Russell is able to engage with his parody, I say: enjoy the fight. But for a good many of us who do not call ourselves atheists, the issues Russell addresses have little if anything to do with our in-ability to embrace the term.

The difference -- phenom-enologically speaking -- be-tween being a theist and an atheist plus a couple of dol-lars can buy you a latte mac-chiato at Barnes & Noble. It is no more logical to believe in the non-existence of the

empirically indemonstrable than it is to believe in the ex-istence of it. Of course logic is precisely what’s not at issue as regards belief. For myself, I would say that none of the nonexistent Gods that atheists believe in are worthy of my belief; therefore I am not athe-ist. By the same token, there are no doubt a multitude of Christians who will find me wanting when weighed in the balance of their own belief. That, however, is none of my concern.

Tim Higley teaches AP Language & Composition and Comp 101 at MHS

‘Atheism’ a meaningless word

The phrase “student-ath-lete” is what society calls ath-letes who are still in school. People will bring up how the student is first and the athlete is second and that’s how they should live their lives. But maybe it’s time to have “stu-dent-athlete” flipped on to the teachers so that it becomes “teacher-coaches.”

At Manhattan High these teachers exist. Instead of be-

ing teachers first and coaches second, they end up being coaches first and teachers second. Most of the teach-ers at MHS are nothing at all like this. They spend long hours after school helping stu-dents and grading papers but some forget what they were first hired for. The teachers who don’t get their priorities straight have students who are forced to switch out or else face a bad report card.

On my first day of this school year I had one of these teachers who was confused about what their job descrip-tion really was. As he was giv-ing the regular “what to expect for the school year” speech he literally told the class that he was not as good as the other teacher who was teaching the

same subject. This did not help with my already scary suspicions of the teacher that I had gotten through horror stories of his teaching skills. The teacher was willing to help answer questions but would sometimes ridicule stu-dents if they asked too often. He did not create a healthy learning environment, which did not help when paired with his subpar teaching skills.

As a result, my grade plum-meted and I had to jump ship or else go down with the class. I wasn’t the first one to switch out, either, and my new class is still receiving transfers from his class.

Before this class, the sub-ject was the one I had the least confidence in, and the teacher lowered my confidence in that

subject even more. If there were any good side effects it would have to be loving my new class and teacher twice as much as I would have loved him had I not gone through a bad teacher first.

We’ve come to the point now in society where athlet-ics rule, and that philosophy is encroaching on our schools. For instance, Bill Snyder is the highest paid person on staff at Kansas State Univer-sity. Thankfully, at MHS the coaches are teachers and only get a small bonus for coaching a team. But if this teacher were to be fired, people would not regret losing a teacher; they would regret losing a coach. It’s not just teachers and ath-letes but society, too, needs to get its priorities straight.

Coaches must remember they are teachers first

America is not what it used to be and isn’t looked up to any more. This should not be be taken as anti-patriotism; I am patriotic and that’s why I feel so strongly about this.

We used to be the country people wanted to be in be-cause we were successful. Yes, we are more successful and better off than many other countries, but right now we are at one of the worst economi-cal situations in U.S. history. Our country has a debt of just under $16 trillion, about $2 trillion to China alone, and we keep ‘’borrowing’’ more and more and not paying any back. The money that we owe

is being used on a lot of need-less spending, like running bases that are in countries that we do not need them in, sup-porting other countries when we need to worry about our-selves first and paying money to other countries for supplies that used to be made here.

One simple solution would help a lot -- move factories to America, giving jobs to Americans, which helps with unemployment. Because the money would be staying here in America instead of going to China, we could use it to pay off the debt.

Another factor is how much is being wasted on needless spending. If we stopped or cut down the needless spend-ing then we would be able to pay off a lot of our debt really fast. Most of the debt we have is a little bit to many differ-ent countries and groups. If we paid off the smaller debts first that could show that we are trying to pay off the debt and then maybe release some of the pressure that China has been putting on America.

If the debt was paid off then

that takes care of one of the big problems with our coun-try and then we can slowly work on other problems. One of them is inflation of the U.S. dollar. The government is hav-ing more money printed than there is to back up the value of it. It is basic rules of sup-ply and demand; the less of the product there is the more it is worth, and the more there is the less it is worth. It is not hard to see that prices on most things have gone up lately -- for example, gas prices. Some prices are due to shortages of the product, but for the most part it is because of the fact that the value of the dollar is not as strong as it used to be because of over-printing caus-ing inflation.

I feel the biggest problem that causes the problems is the leaders of our country. I know that they get blamed for so many things that they did not have a part in but there is a lot that is their fault when it comes to the economy. They can control how much money is being printed, but they do not change anything. They

control the needless spend-ing that uses the money being “borrowed,” but they keep spending. They control mon-ey given to big companies, ex-ample airlines, when they do not need it because they are so successful but just want more money. But then they don’t give money to the businesses that do need it. They refuse to take blame and accept the consequences of their actions, but then when something goes wrong with a citizen, example the Newton shooting, then they are quick to then blame and penalize citizens.

The problem is that the pol-iticians are just looking out for themselves. The average U.S. senator gets a yearly income of just under $200,000, and the president gets $400,000 every year for the rest of his life after being elected. The average citizen gets a yearly income of about $34,000 and has to work hard everyday to look out for themselves. But the average citizens are the ones who get the consequenc-es from something the govern-ment has done.

Politicians cannot be trusted to fix economy

Would you rather be smart and appear dumb or be dumb and appear smart?This question appeared in the last edition of The Mentor. These selected answers were chosen from submissions on the website, mhsmentor.com

Americans left in the dark on the quest to rebound

This week’s question...

submit answers at mhsmentor.com and it may appear in the next issue. Be sure to leave your full name and grade.

Are you more yourself with your best friend or when you’re alone?

“I would rather be smart but appear dumb. That way, when the smart people discovered that I was truly smart after all, they will be the ones who would look dumb!”

- Alan Brown, freshman

“Smart and appear dumb so nobody really bothers you or sets too high of an expecta-tion.”

- Breana Brooks, sophomore

Derrek Williams

sta� writer

ConnorBliss

trending co-editor

TreFuentes

sta� writer

“I would rather be dumb and appear smart. I would like the appearance of being smart but still be able to have “people skills” which most smart people lack a lot of. But having great intelligence and having no where to use it would drive people crazy! They have to have a chal-lenge or else the intelligence might be used for something unproductive.”

- Ben Stonebraker, freshman

Jan. 29, 2013

Halsey Camera, Cartoonist

Entertainment MENTORthe3

Sarah ShiNews Editor

The Big Blue marching band put on their last per-formance of the year, Turf Tunes, as part of a celebra-tion of their 10th consecutive year getting a superior rating at the Fort Hays Festival. Held on Jan.17, the band performed their pregame sequence as well as a conglomerations of songs they played throughout the fall semester.

“It was excellent,” march-ing band director Joel Gittle said. “We got a standing ova-tion.”

The performance was orig-inally scheduled for Dec. 20, but due to the snow day, the event was cancelled and put up for discussion on whether the band should still have the performance.

“The students still wanted to have it so we decided to re-schedule but it was such a has-sle finding a date that didn’t

have any conflicts,” Gittle said. “You know, the spring semes-ter has so many things going on with sports and even when we performed Turf Tunes we had people who couldn’t make it.”

The band performed their Home of the Brave routine as a conclusion to the end of the marching band season and a performance for the parents who couldn’t make it to their Friday night shows or their

festival.“I think we did fine,” junior

Lane Sorell said. “We played the same tunes as before so we expected to do well and we did.”

I definitely miss being cold in the morning,” Sorell said of what he would miss the most about marching band. “It’s a good wake up call.”

Awards were also given out that night which included, Section of the Year, Big Blue’s

Most Valuable, and Most Im-proved Band Member.

“It was a good night. It provided c l o s u r e for some of the se-n i o r s , ” G i t t l e said. “For [seniors], it’s the last time they will be able to wear the uni-

form.” For junior Madi Fellers, it

was bittersweet night as she realized it was the end of march-ing season. “It was like closing a chapter and starting of a new one,” she said. “I real-ized that I’ll only get to do marching one more year when I’m

a senior. Marching season just goes by so fast.”

Drama students get made-up

Bands Battle it out at Auditions

Missoula make-up experts show Manhattan their tricksBen Shieldseditor in chief

Last week, two makeup ex-perts from the Missoula Rep. Theatre troupe visited dra-ma department head Linda Uthoff’s Stagecraft to pass on some wisdom. Missoula sends teams like this around the country for six to nine weeks at a time and typically spends one week in each town. Be-fore their stop in town, Grace

McGeogh and Vicky Siegrist were approached by the Man-hattan Arts Center about tak-ing some time to go to an area school, and they agreed.

McGeogh and Siegrist cov-ered areas of basic straight makeup (makeup that makes the face look natural from the audience), highlighting, shad-owing (important to make features stand out) and sanita-tion.

Student , teacher judges determine which groups perform at Battle of the BandsNaomi McClendonentertainment editor

After four long hours of chaos, four acts emerged victo-rious from Battle of the Bands auditions last Thursday. Of the five that auditioned, two bands and two solo perform-ers were selected to perform on the Feb. 22 show: Nearly Flightless, Fuma, Summer Time and Eli Redeker. The auditions, which consisted of a three-song performance by each band, were judged by a panel of Manhattan High School teachers and students.

“We had to change our band’s line-up, so we weren’t really prepared,” said senior Andre Middendorf, bassist of FUMA. “I’m really glad we

got in though; it’s always fun to play on a big stage.”

The comedic rap duo Leopard Print Mafia was the only band that didn’t make it past auditions. Although they didn’t make it into the show as a band, the dynamic duo of Andy Hodges and Gavin Sed-lachek will get their chance to entertain the crowd as Battle of the Bands’ emcees.

While only five bands were allowed to audition, six bands showed up. The five-piece metal band White was told that their performance would not be judged because they didn’t meet the Battle of the Bands requirements. Ac-cording to the rules, a band is allowed to have one member who does not attend MHS, as

long as they are enrolled in a high school. Since one out of White’s five members is an alumni of Manhattan High School, the band was not al-lowed to compete.

It wasn’t just White that was upset by the rules. Af-ter auditions, a group of stu-dents organized an effort to allow the band to play at the show. After discussion with administrators, it was decided that White could play at the show, but not compete for the prize, as the band, regardless of all else, does not meet the event’s requirements. Each of the competing bands agreed to give up five minutes of their stage time in order to open a spot for White to play a set.

Marching band takes the stage “It was like closing a chapter and starting

of a new one.” -Madi Fellers

Jan. 29, 2013

Senior Summer Senn (Summer Time) sings a heartfelt original tune about falling in love.

Senior Eli Redeker covers Bob Dylan’s “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, it Takes a Train to Cry.”

Senior Andre Middendorf, freshman Nathan McClendon, junior Albert Cochrane and senior Naomi McClendon ner-vously test out their band’s new line-up. FUMA won the 2012 Battle of the Bands.

Ben Shields, Photographer

Junior Gavin Sedlachek performs comedic raps about various fruits, kites and splashing in the pool. His band, Leop-ard Print Mafia, was the only one to not make the cut.

Top: Cecilia Potts-Moore is subject to some stage makeup demonstration. The face is whitened and then applied with powder to separate the black and whiteBottom: Potts-Moore checks out her new look.

Junior Sierra Newberry gets some work done. “It’s always good to reinforce what we’re teaching in class with outside speakers,” Uthoff said.

Sophomore Kelsi Weston gets a Black Swan mask painted on her. “They went step by step,” she said. “It was easy [to learn] with the strokes she did.”

AFS-KAYLA McCLINTOCKANIME CLUB- AKITRA PORTER(JR)ART CLUB- REBECCA KENSA (JR)BLUE M-KAYLA DIEKERBPA-CAMERON GARWOODCHEERLEADING KATHRYN EVERRET & KRISTEN QUEENDANCE-HOLLY ORRISEARTH CLUB-NICHOLAS DONOHOUEFCA BRITTANY JONES & CAITLYN WEBBFCCLA-TYLER HENRYFFA-RYAN WILLIAMSFRENCH CLUB-SOPHIA HARMSGERMAN CLUB-ABBY SARVISHERITAGE PANERL-ROSHNI SINGHKEY CLUB-SOPHIE WANGMENTOR-BEN SHIELDSNHS-PAT ZENK&AMY FANSADD DRE’VEL TAYLORSKILLS USA-WADE STRODA(JR)

SCHOLAR’S BOWL-LOGAN SUTTONSPANISH-JOE COONROD&MADDIE WINKLERTHIS IS HOW I SCREAM-LORA PELLEGRINSTUCO-PATRICK DAY & EMMA MILLERTHESPIANS-DA’MERIUS FORD & ILANA BUDENOSKYTLT-ALYSSA FREY(SOPH)TRIBE-EMILIE LIEBE&KYLIE SMITHBOWLING-ALLAN CABANATUAN &MIRANDA DOOLEYBOYS BASKETBALL-BLAKE SAVILLE&JONATHON TAYLORGIRLS BASKETBALL- ELAYNA SPILKER & KRISTEN THOMPSONSWIMMING &DIVING- BRETT BANDY & RILEY RATLIFFWRESTLING- DAVIS MATTHEWS & JASE STONE

2013 Winter Homecoming Graphics by Dheepthi Perumal

2013 WINTER HOMECOMING KING & QUEEN CANDIDATES

TUG-O-WARJUNIOR BOYS vs. SOPHOMORE BOYS

SENIOR GIRLS vs. JUNIOR GIRLS

Dress up DaysMonday-Basketball DayTuesday- Football DayWed.- Baseball DayThursday- Soccer DayFriday- MHS Game Day

FRIDAY Feb. 1PEP RALLY

GIRLS & BOYS BASKETBALL GAMESTUG-O-WAR FINALS

SportsMENTORthe4

Jan. 29, 2012

Monday 1/14Stiff Competition 44 ...................................................T Icicles 17Team Pain 58 ....................................... Coconut Bangers Ball 32eLemonators 71 ....................................... Bandy of Brothers 41My Dixie 41 ......................................................... The Monstars 40Los Grande Basquetbolistas 7 .........Flyin Flamingos 0 forfeitVatos Locos 37 ............................................Dumbledie’s Army 22Yao Know What I Ming 7 ................................... Beaches 0 forfeitTeam Meatballs 48 .........................................Dirty Cheetahs 16Hoopers 7 ............................................. The Pink Ladies 0 forfeit

The Basketball Team 7 ......................The Runner Ups 0 forfeit

Tuesday 1/15Dino Might 46 .....................................................................Elite 37Honey 7 .....................................................Hydro Circus 0 forfeitJED 7 ..................................................... Rainbow Nation 0 forfeitBaked to Perfection 52 ..............................................Badgers 44Flyin Hawaiians 46 ............................Dirty Troy & the B Boys 35Hot Pockets 43 ..................................................Sucks to Suck 30Brickz 48 .............................................................. The Lolipops 28Balling for Soup 64 ..................................... Flying Squirrels 39The Jack Jacks 7 ................................................. Swag Masters 0

The VPs 23 ..................................................... The Whistle Pigs 22

Wednesday 1/16Swagon Dragons 42 ................... Hunter & the British Gents 10Par’s Team 39 .............................................. Quidditch Rejects 13Par’s Team 7 .............................................Free Ballers 0 forfeitDumbledie’s Army 7 ....................... Divalicious Devils 0 forfeitVatos Locos 7 ................................................... Beaches 0 forfeitFlying Squirrels 7 .................................Swag Masters 0 forfeitTeam Pain 50 ................................................................T Icicles 40Coconut Bangers Ball 42 ..........................Stiff Competition 31My Dixie 68 ................................................ Bandy of Brothers 63

eLemonators 69 ................................................ The Monstars 38

Thursday 1/17Dino Might 7 ........................................Flyin Flamingos 0 forfeitElite 7 ............................Los Grande Basquetbolistas 0 forfeitJED 40 ................................................................................Honey 29Hydro Circus 0 ....................... Rainbow Nation 0 double forfeitBadgers 39 ................................................ Flyin Hawaiians 39 tieBaked to Perfection 7 .......... Dirty Troy & the B Boys 0 forfeitBrickz 38 ...............................................................Hot Pockets 28Sucks to Suck 7 ........................................The Lolipops 0 forfeitThe Jack Jacks 36 .......................The Manhattan Ballers 36 tieDivalicious Devils 0 ...........................Beaches 0 double forfeit

IntramuralsWeek 5

Wrestling takes first out of 15John Rockeystaff writer

Continuing to improve and learn from meets and mis-takes, Manhattan High wres-tling shows that they work as hard as ever to compete every moment on and off the mat. Over the past two weeks, Var-sity traveled to Blue Valley Northwest and J.V. competed at Seaman and home.

On the Jan. 18 and 19, Varsity headed to Blue Valley Northwest for a tournament against 15 other teams. The team took over and took first place with 194 points, with several people placing in their classes. Jase Stone (113), Dal-

las Vesta (126) and Michael Leeper (152) all placed first in their classes with Kian Clem-ens (120) and Davis Matthews (126) each taking up second place and Austin Chauncey (160) placing in third.

“We lasted longer in our matches and weren’t getting as tired,” senior wrestler Jase Stone said. “We were also get-ting first takedowns.”

The meet marks the most important turning point in the season as the team has a month until the State tourna-ment.

“It’s kinda where we’re starting to really click,” wres-tling coach Devin Schwartz said. “Most of our teaching is

done at this point in time.J.V. had a tough time com-

peting at Seaman for a duel. They started off good and

well, but faltered midway and would finish the meet at a split decision, 20 to 20 matches, leaving the team with motiva-

tion to improve.“We didn’t listen much to

the coaches much and we were needing to get off the bottom more,” sophomore wrestler Ben Gorman said.

“I personally felt that we could have done a whole lot better,” freshman wrestler Dalton Jueneman said.

All that remained was the Manhattan invitational that hosted several other teams close to Manhattan Friday evening.

Of the wrestlers to place, Dalton Jueneman (106-B), Ethan Hemmert (132-C), Este-ban Foster (138-B), Derek For-rest (152-A), and Kaden Frasi-er (152-C) all placed first.

Ethan Bartel (138-D), Ken-drick Riveria (145-C), and Glenn Bennett (160-B) placed in second.

And then Sterling Shimp (132-A), Ben Gorman (132-B), DeShawn Horton (138-C), Er-ick Sanchez (145-A), Nick Ad-ams (160-B), Nathan Shank (160-C), Anthony Renteria (195-B), and Florian Thelsen (285-B) all placed in third for their classes.

Coming up this week, both teams will head off for the Washburn Triangular on Thursday; and then to finish the JV season, the team will compete in the Junction City invite this coming Saturday.

Junior Eric Sanchez wrestles an opponent last week. MHS finished first out of 15 teams at the Blue Valley Northwest tournament.

John Rockey, photographer

Nick Bandysports editor

Normally in a high school basketball game if a team scores 60 points they usu-ally come out on top, but the Manhattan High boys basket-ball team lost a high-scoring matchup 73-60 last Thursday against Emporia, their first loss at home. Before that, Jan. 17-19, they traveled to the McPherson tournament and went 1-2 -- placing 6th over-all. They are now 6-6 on the year and 2-3 in the Centennial League.

They started out the tour-nament with a 55-45 loss to

Blue Valley West, but they beat Maize the next day, get-ting their first road win of the year.

“It’s been a long time com-ing, but I think it shows us how intense we need to be on the road,” head coach Tim Brooks said.

That win put the Indians in the 5th place game against Lawrence Free State. They led by one after three quarters, but gave up 21 points in the fourth and were defeated 59-52.

“We had a lead and got comfortable. We quit doing the things that got us there,” Brooks said.

Senior Jacob Holloway and

sophomore Peyton Stephens led the way in scoring with 15 each, and Jonathan Taylor filled out the stat sheet with 10 points, seven rebounds and two assists.

MHS returned home to play Emporia last Thursday in an important League match-up. The Indians jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, but Emporia answered and cut the lead to two after the first quarter.

“They made some runs, we made some runs, we just needed to pick it up defen-sively because offensively we were fine,” junior Darian Tay-lor said.

Emporia led 39-30 at half-time, but the Indians came out strong and tied the game at 44 late in the third quarter.

Things fell apart on the de-fensive end for the Indians as they allowed Emporia to score 22 in the fourth quarter, and MHS lost 73-60.

“We haven’t won a game when we’ve given up more than 50. We need to fix up the defensive end,” Brooks said.

On the bright side, 60 points is the third most the Indians have scored all year. Hudgins led the team with 15 points.

“He can step out and shoot the 15-footer, he shoots free-throws well and he can attack the glass,” Brooks said.

Next up for MHS is an-other league rival Washburn Rural, who they will play on Tuesday.

Boys get first road win, first home loss MHS Girls stay strong, finish second at Mid American ClassicTre Fuentesstaff writer

The Manhattan High Girls Basketball team finished a challenging week competing at the Mid American Classic Thursday, Friday and Satur-day night, topping it all off by finishing second at the tourna-ment. The Lady Indians faced off against Valley Center, An-dale and Olathe respectively, losing only to Olathe at the competition. After the tourna-ment, the MHS girls are now 10-3 on the season and 4-2 in the Centennial League.

The Lady Indians started the tournament facing off against Valley Center with-out their leading scorer on the team, Elayna Spilker, who missed her second straight game with a leg injury. How-ever, the Lady Indians didn’t seem to miss a beat, taking control of the game early on and enjoying a comfortable lead into the third quarter. Valley Center attempted a comeback but fell short as the Indians stayed cool and calm on their way to 48-44 victory. Caroline Ballard led the team with 14 points and eight re-bounds. Kristen Thompson also had an impressive night for Manhattan, tallying 13 points, including nine from three-point range.

“I am really happy with

the way the entire team per-formed,” Thompson said. “I think we all just want to try as hard as we can and have no regrets, and I think we did that.”

Friday night the Lady In-dians faced off against top ranked Andale and capped off another game with another victory, 49-41 in Manhattan’s favor. For the second straight game, the entire team played well by playing together as a team and playing with con-fidence. Ballard and Darby Price led the team with 13 points apiece in a well fought effort. What is especially im-pressive is the Lady Indians’ ability to play so in big games without one of their best play-ers on the team.

“Some of the more expe-rienced girls have willingly taken on new roles for the team,” head coach Scott Mall says. “That and the fact that some of our new girls have also stepped up in the tourna-ment has been big factor in our success.”

The Manhattan High girls finished the Mid American Classic tournament on Sat-urday against undefeated Olathe South, the number one team in the state. The Lady Indians were behind for a good portion of the game but came from behind and led going into the fourth quar-

ter thanks to a buzzer beater by sophomore Par McNair. Olathe South ended up win-ning the game and taking first in the tournament after the 51-48 win over the Indians, but it wasn’t easy. Ballard had 13 points and seven rebounds. Price had 12 points and eight rebounds. Price was also named to the all-tournament team after leading the Mid American Classic in rebound-ing. And with their victory over Andale and almost-win against Olathe South has prov-en that the Lady Indians can compete with the best teams in the state on any given day.

Ballard, the leading scorer for the Lady Indians since Spilker has been out, has espe-cially been impressive. Ballard has led the team in scoring in the Mid American Classic, and has been a key part of their success.

“I just want to do my part for the team by giving every-one confidence and to just go out there and perform,” Bal-lard said. “I think we all played well, we just fell short a little. The loss to Olathe South has helped us to see what we need to work on hopefully we can learn from our mistakes and get better from here on out.”

The Lady Indians get to rest until they take on Topeka High on Friday at home.

Maddy Sparksstaff writer

Alex Huerta He is one of the best bowlers in Manhattan High School. He has been one of the most consistent bowlers on the team.

Q: What inspired you to start bowling?A: My dad got me into it. It’s a leisure sport.

Q: What individual goals and team goals do you have for the rest of the season?A: I plan on breaking the individual record at 714, and I’ll try and get 20 pins above that.

Q: What contributions do you think you bring to the

team, that makes the team better?A: We’ve already broken last year’s record for team score, so if we can up that, that’d be nice, and I’m just a great team leader and more consistent than any-one else.

Q: How do you think your teammates help you be the best you can be?A: They push you to pick up easy spares, hard spares, anything that helps, really.

Q: Who do you want to win the Super Bowl?A: 49ers.

Q: Who is your favorite athlete?A: I play baseball so it has to be Albert Pujols.

Athlete of the Week

Alan Brownstaff writer

Last week, the Manhattan High School Boys swim team once again prevailed in their meet, cruising with a first place finish over opponents Newton and Emporia. The Indians finished with 244 to-tal points and 8 first place fin-ishes.

“Our guys have been work-ing hard all year,” coach Jerry Carpenter said. “We have developed a deep and strong team.”

A few standouts that placed highly included Brett Bandy, Matt Bandy, Cameron Beauregard, Evan Olson, Levi Jones, Jordan DeLoach, Da-vid Woods and Jack Hubler-Dayton. Several swimmers improved their times as well.

Senior Brett Bandy, one of the most consistent producers for the team this year, is cur-rently in the hunt for breaking the state cut in the 100 meter butterfly. As a junior last sea-son, he finished just three sec-onds away from the cut.This year will be his final chance to compete at the state level.

“[It would mean] a lot,” Bandy said. “It’s been my goal for three years now.”

Bandy has pushed himself in practice to get his goal, and participated in early morn-ing practices with a few of his teammates DeLoach, Beaure-

gard and Riley Ratliff. Bandy plans to rest for the rest of the week, and then hopefully beat the state cut at the Manhattan Invitational on Feb. 2.

The season appears to have started out slow for the Indians, who now are now consistently placing first in each of their meets. Carpenter gives credit to hard work and discipline as the main reasons leading to the recent success, but also is quick to point out that MHS competed against very strong teams during the beginning of the season. He thinks that this week’s Man-hattan Invitational will have quality competition as well.

“The Wichita schools are traditionally strong, as is Maize,” Carpenter said. “We will have a great challenge ahead of us.”

The remaining schedule for the Indians will be a bit hectic, but as the schedule shifts to meets at the end of the week, it gives the team much more opportunities to rest. It is this time of year when the swimmers start to gear more toward speed drills and it is also the time when se-niors will be looking to final-ize their swimming legacies.

MHS will host the Manhat-tan Invitational this week at K-State. The divers will com-pete on Friday, Feb. 1 and the swimmers will compete on Saturday, Feb. 2.

Swimming takes firstDanielle Cookstaff writer

On Thursday, the MHS bowling team travelled to Junction City for a tourna-ment at JC Bowl. Both the Girls Varsity and Girls J.V. took second place, the Boys Varsity took third and the Boys J.V. placed first, improv-ing their scores and rankings since the Topeka tournament. The team has been working

hard to improve their skills so they can continue to move up placements in each tourna-ment.

“We’re continuing to im-prove by the day, so it’s all going really well,” sophomore Katherine Eimer said of the team’s practices.

The next bowling tourna-ment that the MHS team will compete in will be held by Sa-cred Heart.

Bowlers compete at JC Bowl

Jan. 29, 2013MENTORthe5

I taly former home to studentLiz Logback Features editor

He has lived almost every American’s dream. With an apartment that overlooked beautiful scenery, more than enough pasta to eat and a four-hour school day, junior Chris Mack lived in Naples, Italy, for six years and is now adjusting to American life.

Mack’s mom is in the military, forcing the family to move often, but when the family found out Italy would be their home, they couldn’t help but be excited. The new culture they found in Naples took some adjusting to, though. Mack and his family had left South Carolina and entered a country with new language, pizza so gooey the cheese always fell off and a town where stores and houses were crammed together on narrow cobblestone streets. Everything from school to the way the government was organized seemed different in Italy.

School days were four hours long, starting at eight and ending at 11. And although they had to attend school on Saturdays, Mack’s school was

still given a summer break. “People didn’t really care

about their grades,” Mack said. “It was a lot more relaxed than [Manhattan].”

He ran on his school’s track team and was a member of the football team, and although Italy plays a lot of the same sports as America, golf and tennis are almost nonexistent.

The clothing was also an unusual part of the Italian culture for Mack. Everything was tight fitting, and name brands or chain stores found in the U.S were hard to come across.

“JC Pennys and Sears are all new to me. They didn’t have that in Italy,” he said.

Mack feels Italy is a free spirit. The police often don’t make arrests or “get into people’s business.” When Mack was 14 he went to a club for the first time where he met up with some sailors that weren’t concerned at all with his age and gave him a few drinks.

“The police are more nosey here. They don’t care in Italy,” Mack said.

The driving is unique, too. With narrow streets and no stop signs or stop lights, the

roads can get kind of messy.“Driving there is crazy.

They really don’t know how to drive,” Mack said.

Although a lot of the other laws are relaxed in Italy, driving is prohibited until 18 years of age.

“It’s weird how many kids drive here,” he said.

Mack enjoys the two countries quite a bit and finds dislikes and things he likes about both of them. He likes the food better in America, but the loose laws better in Italy. And although the people in Italy were outgoing, Mack is confident that he misses their bold personalities the most.

“People in Italy usually think for themselves; little kids up to old men are always yelling and screaming,” Mack said. “But they are pretty laid back.”

Mack plans to join the MHS track team and possibly go out for football next year. He is also excited to explore places like Chipotle and the mall and to get a little more familiar with the American lifestyle.

Derrek WilliamsStaff Writer

A day out of school could have meant a fun day spent trout fishing for a group of Manhattan High School FFA members, but cold weather limited the number of participants.

After a couple of months of planning, the chapter hit the lake together on Jan. 21 but only two members and sponsor Doug Muller were able to attend.

The trip was originally scheduled for December but the members wanted to wait to buy their fishing stamps until January. Even though most members of the chapter bought their stamps, not many attended because of the cold. The trip was supposed to go from 1 to 4 p.m. but didn’t get

started until 1:30 and ended at 3:40. Junior Megan Lundin and senior Ryan Williams showed up, but Williams was only there for a few minutes and ended up not fishing.

“Ryan shriveled up from the cold weather and had to leave,” Muller said.

Gordon Thorton, another MHS teacher, happened to be at Willow Lake at the same

Fishin’ for fun: FFA casts their poles

time and ended up fishing with Lundin and Muller.

Results of the day were as slim as the member turnout.

“I had got a total of four rainbow trout, Mr. Thorton had five, and Mr. Muller had a bunch of bites but didn’t catch anything,” Megan said.

The fishing trip was intended to be an opportunity for some of the members to talk to each other and to be able to just mess around, but the trip did not go as planned. Still, it may be something the group continues to do.

“I think we should do another trip,” Muller said. “The weather should be getting better so more people should come and we should be able to catch more fish when the ice thaws and they are more active.”

Junior Christian Mack admires the many ancient buildings and structures in his former home of Naples, Italy where he lived for six years due to his mother’s placement from the military. Many of Italy’s buildings have been preserved through the ages with minimal reconstruction.

Courtesy photo

Junior Megan Lundin, FFA sponsor Doug Muller and MHS teacher Gordon Thorton scout for fish at Willow Lake on Jan. 21. The trip was supposed to give FFA members a chance to bond. Although the cold weather kept some students away, the trip was still considered a success.

Derrek Williams, photographer

Features

“I think we should do

another trip.” - Doug Muller

TrendingMENTORthe6

Jan. 29, 2013

With season two of “Amer-ican Horror Story” finished, it is clear that showrunner Brad Falchuk took a risk. Rather than continuing the highly

acclaimed storyline from the first season, he lead it to a new direction -- “American Horror Story: Asylum.” A new sto-ryline and setting were imple-mented while using many of the first season’s actors. While it became easy to overlook these small complications, there are many larger issues lying underneath.

One of the biggest con-flicts that this season had is the amount of branches the storyline took. While you can give credit to the show for be-ing ambitious by doing this, it ultimately fails in having a strong central plot. When the

first season ended, there was a definite sense of closure. The burning questions that view-ers had were answered dra-matically and even built on those ideas.

“Asylum” introduces such intriguing situations such as the fantastic Bloody Face storyline, then takes a steam-ing dump on the viewer with scenes such as Sister Jude’s confrontation with an alien and treats it as if nothing oc-curred throughout the rest of the season. This is why this season’s consistency re-ally holds it back from being amazing. Characters such as

Lana go against their feelings; she began to develop some emotional connection to her lost son through flashbacks and her interview. Then sud-denly she kills her son with no remorse, even though he was crazy and the son of Bloody Face through rape. Since there are many of these scenes that inhibit the viewer from becoming truly absorbed into the show. Since they lack com-plete knowledge, it becomes difficult to look back without overall frustration.

However, there are some great things that can be found in this season. Jessica Lange,

for instance, is what defines this show. Her acting in this season sets an extremely high bar not just for television, but any media. “Asylum” is eas-ily one of Lange’s best perfor-mances as she makes you hate her, then suddenly feel the pain she’s been through.

As mentioned earlier, the Bloody Face storyline is the best writing used for the en-tire season. Other than the lackluster ending to Lana’s story, there are some great emotional and unexpected scenes that keep you begging for more. The aliens that were used during “Asylum” never

really fit into the storyline, nearly everything about the aliens were never mentioned again so viewers could under-stand.

With so many burning questions that fans have after this season, it would be an in-justice if Falchuk didn’t push the show’s writers to answer them in some format for next season.

Danielle’s Hits and Misses

Hit: Homecoming Week.... fun!Hit: It’s almost Super Bowl time!

Hit: Season 11 of Project Runway just started!

Miss: American Idol. Between Nicki and Mariah, there’s way too much diva in one room.

Miss: The whole Manti Te’o thing. Enough said.

Miss: The Kansas weather is going crazy. One day it’s freezing, and the next feels like spring.

New at the library

The following novels are now available to be checked-out from the MHS Library in the new books section.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Conspiracies and top secrets are what author Seth Graha-me-Smith brings to the table with his novel “Abraham Lin-coln: Vampire Hunt-er.” Despite the dull summer flick and ridiculous name, Grahame-Smith gives a very clever fiction book while staying true to such a histori-cal figure. He takes readers through Lincoln’s emotional childhood and seamlesslyin-tertwines actual events with the vampirical world. The en-tire book is based off his sup-posed secret journal which a failed writer is forced to make a book out of after an encoun-ter with a vampire. Through-out the novel, there are many excerpts from this journal, which can easily be interpret-ed as Lincoln’s own writing.

Grahame-Smith takes his readers through every hard-ship Lincoln faces, from death of loved ones to failures which makes it impossible for the reader to not feel the same emotions. Readers will read about how vampires nearly took over the country in the

dark times of the Civil War. Grahame-Smith also cleverly shows the involvement of vam-pires in the war on both sides. If you happen to be interested in a very pleasant twist on history, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” is for you.

The Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor

“How far would you go to survive?” is a common theme found in Robert Kirk-man’s “The Walking Dead” franchise. “The Rise of the Governor” does not shy away

from that idea and even pushes that theme to if you’d be able to recognize yourself after all that has happened. Being the first novel in the franchise’s history, Kirkman proves that “TWD” can be thor-oughly enjoyed in

many formats.This novel, which is the

first in its trilogy, is used to give a history of how Phil-lip Blake became known as “The Governor.” Kirkman shows Blake as an ordinary man who has a daughter to protect and a childish older brother to keep watch over. Blake and his brother, Brian, constantly clash with their thoughts throughout the novel in very satisfying ways. Kirk-man uses these characters to ponder on whether or not killing the undead is truly a good-moraled act. Being part of “TWD,” there is of course some great character develop-ment, action and one of the biggest twists at the end. “The Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor” is an amazing, must-read for any “TWD” fan or any zombie-genre fan.

MANHATTAN930 Hayes Drive, Suite DManhattan, Kan. 66502

P: 785-539-2020 785-539-5105

WAMEGO1405 W. Highway 24Wamego, Kan. 66547

P: 785-456-8900

www.visonsource-opticalperspectives.com

KITCHEN CAPERS

FREEOne Small Cup of Gourmet

Coffee

Manhattan Town Center Mall (Next to Dillards)785-776-9860

“Community” is set to start its fourth season on Feb. 7, af-ter originally being set to air Oct. 19 of last year. This ex-ample shows the tribulations that “Community” has gone through since its premiere on NBC Sept. 17, 2009.

One issue that “Commu-nity” has had since its concep-tion is its ratings. The ratings started at 7.9 million in its pi-lot and have never surpassed that mark. Just 2.48 million viewers tuned in to the finale of season three.

As viewers have moved away from their televisions to watch “Community” their

eyes have shifted to their com-puter screens. This is proven by their winning of last years Hulu “Best of Show” award.

However, ratings may not be as large as the titans of the industry. The fan base is small but vocal and has saved the show on occasion. In the 2011-2012 midseason, “Community” was pulled and put on hiatus and replaced with “30 Rock.” The fanbase responded on Twitter with #SaveCommunity and #OccupyNBC. Their presence was not just seen on the Internet, though, when fans gathered outside NBC’s headquarters. They sang songs from the show and chanted “Go Green-dale.” Their pleas for continu-ation were successful and got response from NBC saying that it was not cancelled and would return. “Community”

returned after the hiatus on March 15, 2012.

“Community” has also suffered from the loss of key members of the show. Many members of the cast and crew departed after the third sea-son. Season four will be with-out showrunner Dan Harmon,

as well as several ex-ecutive producers. Chevy Chase, whose relationship was re-portedly rocky with Harmon, left during season four and will only be in 11 of the 13 episodes.

The show has been almost can-celed before so any

episode could be its last. If Greendale is to remain open people need to watch -- and not on their comput-ers. Jeff Winger and his study group will start school again at 7 p.m. on Feb. 7.

‘Community: ’ the life and times

‘American Horror Story ’ doesn’t answer questions it poses

W E AT H E R F O R E C A S T Tuesday: After yesterday’s heat it’s now 20 degrees. That’s Kansas for ya!Wednesday: Who cares?Thursday: Cloudy, with a chance of meatballsFriday: Dennis Quaid must save his son (Jake Gyllenhal) who is trapped in New York following a global superstorm. (2 out of 4 stars)Saturday: Locusts.Sunday: Super Bowl Sunday. The game is being played in the New Orleans Superdome. Gee, I can’t remember the last time there was so much media attention on the Superdome. Oh, wait, I can. Sorry.Monday: Rain refuses child’s request to go away and return another day. Graphic by Dheepthi Perumal

Photo courtesy of imdb.com

Photo courtesy of imbd.com

Photos courtesy of cnn.com, and stadiumsofprofootball.com

Salon Essentials121 S. Seth Child Road

785-539-5752

Please enjoy 5 free tans with purchase of any of the following:pedicure

spray tanshellac mani

or updo