The Park School

POSTSCRIPTBrooklandville, MD Volume LXIVMay 28, 2004 Issue No. 9

Parents’ Healthy Food Committee bans soda sales on campusStarting next year, Park will ban

the sale of sodas on campus. This moveis the result of an April 14 proposal madeby the Park Healthy Foods Committee,a group that consists of faculty and par-ents. The proposal stated that the schoolshould not profit from the sale of suchunhealthy drinks and that they should notbe sold on school grounds. The ParkParents’ Association approved the plan;Dr. David Jackson, Head of School, andCaleb Karpay ‘04, former Upper SchoolPresident, also supported it.

Deirdre Smith, a parent and amember of the committee, explained thatthe number one disease among teenag-ers is obesity, a condition that is directlylinked to the consumption of sugary so-das. She stated that the recent trend ofsoda replacing milk in the diets of manyteens also puts them at risk for os-teoporosis, a disease that results in lowerbone density. Soda consumption hassimilarly caused increases in the numberof teen dental problems over the past 10years. By cutting down on sugary, high-calory products, the Committee believesthat Park could help solve these issues.

The main reason for eliminatingsodas is that students rarely meet their

daily nutritional requirements. It is stat-ed directly in the proposal that, “healthrelated behaviors are established early inlife” and the Committee believes that

eliminating sodas can only have a posi-tive influence on the community.

Here in Baltimore, the St. Paul’sSchools have switched over from sodas

to more healthy drinks. At Oldfields,many other junk foods have been elimi-nated as well. Almost 95% of what is soldin its vending machines are healthy

snacks such as granola bars, pretzels, andtrail mix.

According to a handout com-piled by Smith, the movement towards

healthier foods in schools is happeningall over the country. In New York Cityand Los Angeles public schools, sodaswere banned from vending machines. InPhiladelphia public schools, all soda saleswere eliminated. Other states taking astand on the foods sold in their cafeteri-as include Texas, South Carolina, NewHampshire, Washington, California, andMinnesota.

Next year, Park will discontin-ue its vending machine soda sales aswell. Unlike St. Paul’s, students will bepermitted to bring sodas on campus, butthe school does not wish to profit fromthem. Smith stressed that the Parents’Association and Park Healthy FoodsCommittee are working with studentsand faculty to find healthy alternativesfor the cafeteria. She says that now,there are almost 40 healthy products thatcome out each year, in addition to milkand juices, that teenagers enjoy. To iden-tify appropriate snacks, the Committeeswill be looking in stores such as WholeFoods and Trader Joe’s. They also planto meet with Sarah Raifman ‘04, UpperSchool President, who will serve as liai-son to the student body, to discussstudent opinion.

by Sarah Dunn ‘06

photo by David Al-Ibrahim

“Don’t look for a school; itdoesn’t look like a school, it looks like abeautiful park,” said someone giving di-rections to Park School. John Roemer,Park’s Upper School

SETA (Students for the Ethical Treatmentof Animals) advisor overheard this com-ment during Bark at Park, a day offestivities for pets and their owners heldSaturday, May 15 in the meadow.

Bark at Park was a success byall counts. At $3.00 per person, the stu-dent-run SETA activity earned $500 tobe donated to animal rescue organizationsand other local needy shelters. The dayincluded dog activites, among them awalk path, wading pool and agility con-tests. Face painting, magnetic fishingcontests and a scavenger hunt weregeared to owners. SETA member Bon-nie Kenney took pictures of pets andtheir owners.

The idea for Bark at Parkevolved from a plan conceived in Sep-tember to raise money for the BaltimoreZoo. Since then, SETA members spentevery Monday X-block plus other freetimes to get the event rolling. Instead ofdedicating the money to the zoo, they in-vited different animal shelters such as theHumane Society of Baltimore County,Greyhound Rescue, and German Shep-ard Rescue to set up kiosks and provideinformation for the public.

Members of SETA are ToniAdelberg ’06, Claire Brookmeyer ’06,Carly Donnelly ’06, Kiley Ford ’06,Rachel Kutler ’06, Rebecca Martin ’06,Emanuelle Noar ’06, and Ally Oshinsky’06, and Andrew Lillywhite ’07.

May Day, the Lower School’sannual end-of-the-year celebration, takesplace today. Previously, the event washeld on Tompkins Field, but this spring,the 17-year cicadas have driven May Dayfestivities into the Athletic Center. “Wehave no choice this year because wedon’t know what to expect,”said fifth grade teacher Lin-da Halpert. “I love MayDay outside; it’s so beauti-ful when the weather’sperfect and the ground isnot wet.The problem withbeing outdoors, however, isthat there are a lot of vari-ables that we don’t knowabout.”

May Day celebratesfifth graders moving on toMiddle School. As it has inyears past, the long-standingspringtime event will include songs,speeches, the May Pole dance, and anafternoon picnic with activities.

Many other traditions will bebroken. In normal years, students walkin a procession onto the risers. This year,they will begin their performance on thestands because the Athletic Center haslimited space. In another break with thepast, there will be no overriding theme.“Without a theme to the songs, we wereallowed to choose good music that didn’tlimit us to a particular topic,” said Low-er School music teacher Bruce Bryant,who, together with his colleague Emily

Liss, selected the music for the event.“We look for songs that are easily sungby all ages, kindergarten through fifthgrade.” As usual, the Park School an-them will be sung first.

“In the past, each grade or classperformed separately in some way,” said

Halpert, “but as theschool got larger, ev-eryone just began tosing together.” Thesongs are always ac-companied by Liss onthe piano, however, forthe song Tecolote, therewill be a small groupof fifth graders playinga variety of percussioninstruments, whilesecond graders dancealong.

After thesongs conclude, the traditional passing-of-the-flag ceremony, in which fifthgraders give handkerchiefs to fourthgraders to welcome them into fifth grade,will occur.

The Parents’ Association playsa large part in the planning and organiz-ing of May Day. After the May Daysongs end, activities will be held alongthe pond with booths offering face paint-ing and tattoos, beading, paper macheflowers, model airplane flying, and relayraces. The money raised on May Daywill go to the Parents’ Association as wellas to fund for other special events.

Cicadas force May Day insideDogs invade campus duringfirst ‘Bark at Park’ festival

photos by Rachel Kutler‘06

By Rachel Kutler ‘06

Benjamin ‘08 and Noah Carver 05, andAndrewSchaffer ‘05 with friends.

M. Izu, S. Imhoff, and N. Imhoff withTravi, winner of the Wet Mess Award.

Parents have voted to remove soda from the cafeteria line.

The almighty cicada changesMay Day locale.

Photo by Rob Piper

by Everett Rosenfeld ‘09

POSTSCRIPT Page 2May 28, 2004

“O brave new worldthat has such people in it,” pro-claimed Meghan McMahon, inthe ninth grade production ofShakespeare’s The Tempest.The play, which was performedfrom Thursday May 13 throughSaturday May 15, was the prod-uct of a new interdisciplinaryprogram combining English andacting. Upper School TheaterDirector Peter King and Englishteacher Kevin Coll team taughtthe class.

Maryland’s Mock Trial state champions pose with Judge RobertM. Bell, Chief Judge, Maryland Court of Appeals.

Rain did not preventteams of Upper School studentsfrom planting trees, cuttingvines, potting flowers and per-forming a number of indoor andoutdoor tasks designed to im-prove the campus on Arbor Day,May 19. Organized by the Stu-dent Government with helpfrom the Ecology Committee,the afternoon of community ser-vice activities also includedwindow washing, deliveringflowers to faculty, and moving

The new Lower School playground is springing up.Designed by Human and Rohde and installed by Outdoor Designwith Kinsley Construction, all components should be in place bymid-June. According to Facilities Director Jim Howard, therewere not sufficient funds to include everything desired in theoriginal plans, but with additional money, more components could

photo courtesy Todd Silver, Md. Court Info. Office

Students in the classhave been focused on preparingtheir roles through literary anal-ysis. The Tempest incorporatesa variety of characters, rangingfrom Miranda (McMahon), asweet and innocent young wom-an who has no recollection oflife beyond the island home sheinhabits, to the scheming Sebas-tian, (Lucy Silver), bent onnaming himself King of Naples.The comic characters include

Ben Goldstein, Caliban, the

native islander enslaved to Pros-pero, David Peck, as well asBilly Cooper and Mickey Mc-Cauley, who played Stephano,the drunken butler and Trincu-lo, the jester.

Prior to performing theshow, the cast worked on devel-oping their characters. Silvernoted, “My character had farmore dimension on stage thanon paper.” The expanded play-bill contained examples of workfrom the school year.

Ninth grade class performs Tempest

large numbers of picture booksin the library.

The largest activity forArbor Day was planting trees.Ecology Club activist Ben Pula’05 wrote and obtained a grantfrom the Chesapeake Bay Foun-dation for the purchase of treesand arranged for the school topick them up. Students and fac-ulty planted most of the saplingsby the meadow near thestreams. Emmanuelle Noar ’06planned and oversaw the beau-

tification of the courtyard nextto the old gym, where studentsplanted four trees and four largebushes. Eighty-nine trees wereplanted in all.

Other activities of theday included a Habitat for Hu-manity trip, cleaning up RobertE. Lee Park, non-indigenousplant removal, cleaning thetheater and striking the set. Fol-lowing the activities, there wasa 30-minute celebration, consist-ing of food and live music.

Arbor Day activities beautify campus

by Jen Webber ‘07

The Spectator, a new play dealing with racial segregation,opened this month at the Run of the Mill Theater in Baltimore. Theplay is written by R. Eric Thomas ’99 and is directed by DanielStudent ’99.

The play depicts Meadowview, a 98% white, suburbanschool. The school puts on a play commemorating the fiftieth an-niversary of Brown vs. Board of Education ruling on schoolsegregation. The play’s first performance was May 7 and it willrun until May 30.

Last night, Park’s musicians gave their annual Twilight Con-cert. It included performances by the various choral groups:Parksingers, Eightnotes, Vocal Chords, and the Madrigal, as wellthe Jazz Ensemble and the String Ensemble. The concert wrappedup a successful year for Park’s music program.

News in Brief

The Middle School Government turns over a newleaf next September when its four new officers take office. InMay elections, Katie Sherman ’09 won an uncontested race forMiddle School President. Mara Meyers ’09 is the next Vice Presi-dent beating Casey Sweren ’09 and Nanu Manu ’10. Amy Smith’11 won an uncontested race for Secretary and Daniel Malone ’10beat Coby Lerner ’09 for the position of treasurer.

Park groups perform in Twilight Concert

Park Alums write, direct new play

Upper School students elected Sarah Raifman ’05 Presi-dent of the Student Council. Brad Mendelson ’06 was elected VicePresident with Zach Gidwitz ’05 as Treasurer and Michele Mc-Closkey ’05 as Secretary. Breaking from past practice, voting didnot follow candidate speeches during assembly, April 21. Studentscast their ballots in X blocks the following Friday. The new pro-cess enabled voters to become more the nine prospective officersfor two days following the speeches.

Middle and Upper Schools elect new officers

Ready, Set, Play!

nual trip to Western Maryland,staying at the University ofMaryland 4-H Center. The tripis designed as a bonding timefor the students who participat-ed in various activities includingcamping, hiking and canoeingand milking cows.The studentsreturned on Friday May 21st.

The annual seventhgrade trip to Camp Manodokinin Washington County, Mary-land ran from April 28 to 30.The group visited Antietam Bat-tlefield, Harpers Ferry and theCrystal Grottoes cavern.

According to MiddleSchool math teacher Larry Gil-ber, one of the highlights of thetrip was attending a minorleague baseball game.

Middle Schoolgrades travel west

by Everett Rosenfeld ‘09

Rachelle Work oversees Junior votingphoto by Jill Papel ‘05

The eighth grade lefton Tuesday May 18 for the an-

One group works on the stream bridge while Alex Goldberg ‘05 delivers plants to faculty.

NEWS

Park reigned supremein the Maryland State Mock Tri-al Championship, beatingRichard Montgomery HighSchool in the Annapolis finalsApril 30. The school’s MockTrial team, under the leadershipof History teacher Tina Forbushwon 55-52. In the semifinals,Park earned a perfect score of60, defeating Allegany County’s

Park team triumphs inMock Trial State Final

Bishop Walsh High School.The team is composed

of Ben Bloom ’04, Matt Rogers’04, Whit Cohen ’05, Vera Eidel-man ’05, Zach Gidwitz ’05,Dahlia Silberg ’05, Allie Brandt’06, Brad Mendelson ’06, AdamRogers ’06 Joe Rosenberg ’06,Alex Trazkovich ’06, Ben Wein-stein ’06, and Marta Dain ’07.

by Ben Hyman ‘06

POSTSCRIPTPage 3 May 28, 2004

Park says farewell to faculty, interns, administratorRobbye Horowicz, 20 years

by Lucy Silver, ‘07

After 41 years, JackBigelow is retiring. Bigelow’s isone of the longest faculty ten-ures in Park’shistory. Thoseyears werespent in boththe Upper andMiddle Schoolmath depart-ments, as thefirst principalof the MiddleSchool (forthree years),and adminis-trating SATand AP exams.

Bigelow is quick to saythat his favorite part aboutworking at Park has been “thepeople- faculty and students.” Abeloved teacher, many studentshave responded with sadnessupon learning that he is trulyleaving Park. “I’ve always beenhappy with my job”, said Big-elow, and that happiness alwaysshowed through. A class withBigelow was always insightfuland interesting, and his kind andcaring attitude has guided manystudents through Park’s mathclasses. “As both a student and

a colleague of Jack’s, I can saywithout question that ParkSchool has been the better be-

cause ofhisknowledgeand dedica-tion for thepast 41years”, saysDavid Golan-er ’96,Director ofA u x i l i a r yProgram In-come andPrincipal ofSummer Pro-grams.

Although he officiallyretired in 2000, he says he“couldn’t stand to be away.”Since then, he has continued tospend his days at Park, often asa substitute teacher in all threedivisions. His only reason forleaving is that he is moving toFlorida.

As Allie Stein ’07 put it,“Jack Bigelow has been a won-derful asset to the Parkcommunity. For years he’sshared his knowledge with us.It’ll be sad to see him go.”

When Robbye Horow-icz, Middle School LanguageArts and Social Studies teacher,taught her first class in 1958,Dwight D. Eisenhower waspresident, the Baltimore Coltswon the NFL Championshipsagainst the New York Giants,and Elvis Presley was in the U.S.Army driving a jeep in Germa-ny. In 1960, Horowicz was inGermany teaching teenagersabout the Holocaust. Since then,she has lived in various countriesin Europe and also found time toraise a family. She has gracedPark school with her teachingfor the past 20 years, but nowshe is leaving. This is her story.

Horowicz spent mostof her childhood living in Eu-rope, during the very end ofWorld War II as well as thepost-war era. She traveled withher father as he worked with theU.S. occupation forces. Her firstschooling was by a governess.She then went through the Brit-ish school system. All this time,she was accompanying her fa-ther around Europe while hermother and sister stayed in Ken-

tucky where she had been born.After school, Horowicz

returned to America where shemet her husband. The marriedcouple eventually moved back toEurope. Horowicz’s husbandwas working for the U.S., help-ing to interrogate illegal bordercrossers in Germany during theCold War. Horowicz raised her

four children in Germany. Shehas three sons, and one adopt-ed daughter.

Horowicz has beenteaching since 1958. She hastaught kids in Germany, and atan assortment of schools in thiscountry. She has been teachinghere at Park for the past 20years and has seen many stu-

dents come and go.At first, she came here

to teach Math. Then, she movedon to English and Humanities.For a while she taught comput-ers, but that was when veryfew people owned computersand the subject was pretty muchlimited to programming.

Now, Horowicz isteaching Language Arts and So-cial Studies. She is known forher unit on the Holocaust.

As for her retirementplans, Horowicz said, “I want tohave time to read, and visit mygrandchildren…I enjoy photog-raphy, I’d like to do more ofthat. I’d like to cook also.” Shehas been a department chair for18 years.

“Her course was one ofthe most amazing courses I haveever taken, and not only did sheteach it in a fun way, but in aninformal way telling us real lifestories and her experiences. Thework load really prepared me forthe upper school,” said 9th graderSam Althauser, one of herformer students.

Melpa Warres, 14 years

Warres is leaving Park Schoolafter 14 years here. Her firstclass is graduating this year.“It’s time now, I’d like to doother things, not to be workingfull time,” says Warres. “I might

substitute here or…help my hus-band in his office.” Warres

continues, “I’d like to do thingsthat I couldn’t do during theschool year, work on my gar-den, read all the books that arejust sitting around.”

“I’ll miss the children;with children you get immediatesatisfaction in what you’re do-ing. You don’t need the principalto tell you that you’re doing agood job. When they know thatyou’re someone that they cantrust, the relationship becomesmutual. Those are the things Iwill really miss.”

Says kindergartenerAnna Rose Leder about Warres,“She’s really nice and she’s gen-erous. She gives us presents andI’ll just miss that she’s not go-ing to be here next year.”

Jack Bigelow, 41 years

Middle School Faculty

Lower School Faculty and Interns

by Everett Rosenfeld ‘09

by Emma Gross ‘11

Kindergarten teacher Melpa

Toy Jackson, LanguageArts/Social Studies, and John

Schmidt, sci-ence are bothleaving Mid-d l e S c h o o lafter twoyears teachingat Park.Jackson will

be teaching English at St. Gab-riel’s College, a private K- 12school in Bangkok, Thailand.Schmidt’s plans include a moveto Laurinburg, NC order to be

closer to his grandchildren. Hemay also continue teachingthere.

First grade teacher MaliShaffer will also be leaving ParkSchool after four years. Shewill begin teaching at Chesa-peake Academy next year, a

school only10 minutesfrom herhome.

JaneBoarman willbe leaving

Park as well. Boarman startedin 2000 as an intern for formerfifth grade teacher Beth Casey.Boarman is moving to Wilming-ton, Delaware with her familybecause ofher hus-band’s job.Park wasBoarman’sfirst schoolt e a c h i n gposition.

Lower School Spanishteacher Regina Watson started

at Park School in 1995, butonly became a Spanish teacher

three yearsago. “I’mstill not surewhat I will bedoing nextyear,” saidWatson. “Iam lookingfor another

adventure!”Spanish teacher, Sara

Guzman will be leaving this yearas well. Guzman started teach-ing Spanish at Park School in thefall of 2000.She is movingto Mexicowith her fam-ily, includingUpper SchoolS p a n i s hteacher Hector. In Mexico,Guzman will be teaching at a bi-lingual school called TheAmerican School Foundation.

Two interns will beheading off to study at Harvard.Kerri Anderson will be attendingHarvard Law, and Farrah Mer-chant will be enter the School ofEducation.

AdmissionsAnderson and Merchant

photos by Rob Meloni

Upper School FacultySchmidt has been

teaching four different classes ofseventh grade physical science.His favoriteaspect ofteaching “…is when stu-dents givereally matureanswers, bet-ter answers sometimes thanmost adults would give.”

After three years asAssociate Director of Admissionhandling Upper School, JoeCheeseman willbe returning toSan Franciscoand to the TownSchool forBoys. He willbe an adminis-trator responsible for the athleticdepartment, secondary schoolplacement and participate in anadministrative mentoring pro-gram.

Cheeseman notes thathe has been “very grateful forthe opportunity to have had ad-mission experience and havealways felt a great sense of priderepresenting Upper School fac-ulty and Park School.”

After teaching UpperSchool Math, and taking spec-tacular photographs forPostscript for four years, Oliv-er Reid will return to working inbusiness, which he says is oneof his greatest strengths. Heloves to teach math at Park, andsays that one of his favoritethings about Park is the “colle-giality of the faculty, specifically

the math department and its con-stant desireto improvewhat we doand seeknew ways oflooking atmathemat-ics.”

Reid was also active inadvancing technology at Park.

photo by Michael Levy ‘06

NEWS

POSTSCRIPT Page 4May 28, 2004

May 28, 2004All-Columbian Awards in Coverage, Writing and Editorials, and

Graphic Presentation

We welcome letters to the editors: postscript@parkschool.netwww.parkschool.net/upperschool/postscript

Postscript

Editors-in-Chief Vera Eidelman, Laura Gordon, Peter Schamp

Abel Fillion, Willie Miller,Ben Ryugo

Commentary Editors Eric Gottlieb, Sarah Raifman

News Editors Allison Gross, Ben Hyman

Brad Mendelson, Sara Welinsky

Contributors

Reviews Editors Yohance Allete, Charlie Hankin

Photography EditorsDavid Al-Ibrahim, Jill Papel

Faculty Advisor Susan G. Weintraub

Sports Editors

Cartoonists

Jon Acheson, Maya Basik, Nicole Cameron, Noah Carver, Sarah Dunn,Kate Ewald, Cassidy Fein, Emma Gross, Rachel Katz, Zack Leacock,Calvin Lee, Nicko Libowitz, Andy Lillywhite, Lucy Silver, Everett Rosen-feld, Ben Warren, J.J. Wilner, Carrie Young

From drugs to outrageous e-mails, this school year hasbeen soiled with a variety of controversial issues. To start our tenureoff as the new editors-in-chief, the main topic of discussion in thisissue is next year’s soda ban. Many people came to us with arti-cles on this topic, using Postscript as a way to express their ideas,which ranged from satire to true outrage, to the community. Thesepeople weren’t the usual Dan Boscov-Ellens and Ben Rowlands,and we were excited to see new faces and writing. We hope moreof you will bring your opinions to the public as we continue ouryear at Postscript.

According to a survey filled out by the student body a fewmonths ago, not everyone felt that Postscript was open for themto participate in, or that the opinions in it were representative ofthem. That’s something that we, as a new editorial staff, hope tochange, and this recent outpouring of opinion and enthusiasm isreassuring.

Brooklandville, MD 21022

I went to see the Park-John Carroll lacrosse game atTowson University on May 21expecting to watch my team en-dure a painful loss. And I did.But less than 30 seconds afterplay had started, I had alreadystopped caring about the resultof the game.

As the players weretaking the field, several studentsfrom John Carroll in the rowsbehind me started screaming. Atfirst their comments were onlymildly offensive, and I could dis-miss them as mere pre-gamebanter. They said things like“F*** Park,” and “Kill ’em!”Suddenly, however, a John Car-roll fan immediately behind mebellowed –directly into my leftear— “F*** the Jews!” I stoodup, turned around, and kindly(OK, not so kindly) told him toshut up. Even though I am anon-Jew, I was perhaps morefurious than I have ever been inmy life. What shocked me mostabout the whole incident wasthat none of the other John Car-roll fans seemed the least bitsurprised or embarrassed bywhat their friend had just said.

It is difficult for me toimagine what my Jewishfriends must have felt when

they heard the John Carroll fanscream an anti-Semitic slurwithout the slightest hint ofshame or inhibition, but I doknow that we should not toler-ate such comments at ourgames.

Several friends of minehave told me that, while it wasa terrible thing for the John Car-roll fan to have said, I shouldnot have been so shocked. Ap-parently, anti-Semitic and racistcomments are commonly hurledat our players from the oppos-ing fans. But I don’t think thatbeing surprised by what I heardis a sign of naïveté on my part,rather a sign of a pervasive,widespread prejudice among theschools we play in sports.

Park was the first pri-vate school to integrate in theBaltimore area, and soon afterintegration began at Park a blackgirl joined the basketball team.When another school’s coachdeliberately hurled a ball at her,the rest of the team walked outand forfeited the game. Thiswas the act of a unified teamwho chose to do what was hon-orable instead of what waseasier. They did not conform tothe discrimination of their oppo-nents. It is time that Park once

again acts with honor. It is notour responsibility to adapt to ouropponents’ anti-Semitism. Weshould not have to listen to op-posing fans scream “F*** theJews.”When a Park player made an in-appropriate gesture during abasketball game this year, weacted immediately and stronglyto demonstrate that such actionsare unacceptable. I demand thatJohn Carroll now do the same.We should not have to sit backand accept verbal abuse just sothat we can watch our teamplay lacrosse.

The responsibility lieswith John Carroll to preventanything like the incident lastFriday from happening again.Until significant action is takenon the part of the administrationat John Carroll, Park shouldwithdraw from any competitionswith the school. By continuingto play against them, we wouldessentially be condoning thecomments that fan made. In-stead of doing that, we must takedecisive action to show that suchcomments are absolutely unac-ceptable and intolerable. That’sthe only way that the situationwill ever change.

Anti-semitism from the bleachersJohn Carroll fans shout obscenities, anti-semitic epithets at Park

by Alex Harding ‘04

Another serious issue of discussion in the Upper Schoolwas an anonymous hate e-mail received by a member of the Parkfaculty. In class meetings and other discussions about the e-mail,which was ridden with as much bad grammar as profanity, stu-dents and faculty discussed the significance of such anger in thePark community. The e-mail was not only a personal attack onthe teacher, but an inhumane and cowardly action. It is despicablethat in a place like Park, hate like this can develop and that a stu-dent is able to abuse the open student-faculty relations we are luckyenough to have. We at Postscript condemn such complete disre-gard for another human being, and hope that the author of the e-mailwill come clean and face the consequences of his or her actions.

Yes, Arbor Day was, infact, a success. Eighty-six treeswere planted in the meadow, in-vasive species were removed,many parts of the school werecleaned, and fence posts wereplanted. I tell you this in caseyou left at, oh, 12:00 onWednesday. But I understand. Imean, it’s not like this affectsyou, does it? You don’t have aresponsibility to the school orthe environment or all the other

Letter to the Editors:

--Emmanuelle Noar ‘06

Arbor Day: Success for Most

Staff: Ben Gamse, Wes Jamison,Jen Webber, Ezra Rosenberg,

Dan Wasserman

Staff: Rachel Kutler, Michael Levy,Andi Lichtenfeld, Lauren Schleider,Shanae Shephard, Allie Stein, Ben

Weinstein, Leah Wissow

students who put legitimate ef-fort into this. I mean, you don’tneed oxygen or equity or apleasing aesthetic experience.Well, okay, you do, you justdon’t want to have to lift a fin-ger for it. That’s for otherpeople. Mexicans and stuff, youknow. No, really, it’s okay. I un-derstand.

For everyone else: goodjob! Everyone worked veryhard, with very little complaint,

for a very respectable amount oftime. You may congratulateyourselves. You proved to beconscientious (or at least obedi-ent) inhabitants of the earth andthe school. The Ecology Clubthanks you, the biospherethanks you. You are a decent,intelligent human being.

CSPA Gold Medalist, 2001-2002,

Is it open to participate in?

EDITORIALS

Why juniors should not park in the upper lot

Under New Management

POSTSCRIPTPage 5 May 28, 2004COMMENTARY

In her recent researchpaper presentation junior SaraWelinsky ‘05 drew attention tothe rise of American obesity.One principal malefactor in therise of fat in children and adults,according to Sara’s research, isthe widespread and dramatic in-crease in corn syrupconsumption. Ubiquitous is theSAT word that describes thesweet-stuff’s presence in ourlives. Corn syrup is in nearly ev-erything that’s processed, fromthose doughnut holes at break-fast to your Doritos at lunch andespecially in that afternoon soda.

A recent article inHarper’s magazine, “The Oil WeEat” by Richard Manning, (2/2004) explains how Americanagri-business is run by multi-bil-lion dollars corporations (notsmall town farmers with thumbsup under their bibs) whose pri-mary product is corn. But thegiant’s share of the cornproduced is not for roadsideconsumption en route to thebeach house. The demand forcorn and soy is largely for twoother food chains: to feed cattleand other livestock, and to useas corn syrup in processedfood. And this set of links in thefood chain has grown phenom-enally in the last 30 years.

Manning reveals how

The Politics of SodaBanning Democracy

by Andy Lillywhite ‘07A number of parents

are determined to make Park’scafeteria a healthier place. Theywant to replace the candy-stocked vending machines withrefrigerated machines full of yo-gurt, sandwiches, and a varietyof fruits. This is a fine idea;healthy food should be servedin the cafeteria.

Unfortunately, the par-ents’ plans extend far beyondthis noble goal. Recently, theyhave convinced the administra-tion to ban soft drink sales aswell. They find it offensive thatthe school is profiting from un-healthy drinks. So, why notsimply reduce the prices so thatthey merely break even? Then,the school would be more vir-tuous and the prices morereasonable.

At a recent Senatemeeting where this issue wasdiscussed, one person in theroom was drinking MountainDew and another a fountainsoda. As for the rest, water wasthe drink of choice. Obviously,Park students do not drink sodaas a matter of habit. We can

Soda machines and war in the Middle East

CON: When I foundout that no soda would be soldin the Park cafeteria next year Iwas nothing short of violentlyoutraged. Well, first I wasskeptical, then, after I talked toone of the guys that works inthe cafeteria, I was violentlyoutraged. The only logical ex-planation would be that parentsare upset with the unhealthy eat-ing habits of their children. Ithoroughly enjoy soda and myheart would break if I couldn’thave it at school. Well, I forone am not prepared to let mypoor heart break because someparents blame the school cafe-teria, which provides one meala day to students, because theirkid looks like a Macy’s Day Pa-rade balloon. One, or even twosodas a day is not going tomake you fat. One or two so-das, plus a bowl of popcornchicken, plus a cup of fries, plustwo cookies, minus exercise isgoing to make you fat. Whydon’t they tell their kid to stopeating and drinking so much un-healthy food if that’s whatthey’re concerned about? Ifkids are fat, it’s not the school’sfault.

Clinical researchshows that healthy eating hab-its start before the age of five.Trust me, I saw it on a Gerbercommercial. But taking away

the opportunity for everyone elseto enjoy a little harmless soda atlunch is limiting our freedom asPark students. Pretty soon wewon’t be allowed to vote for stu-dent council, then when will itend? I’ll tell you when it willend: when we decide not to takeany more crap, that’s when. Ipropose that the governmentsell soda during X and maybeeven G blocks next year as afundraiser. But as more than afundraiser, as a way of saying,“we have the right to drink sodaand you can’t take away ourrights!”

PRO: Examine yourtypical Coca-Cola bottle. Abovethe nutritional information, thelabel proclaims, and I quote,“very low sodium.” This istrue; however, only when com-pared to a bucket of sodium.The 20 oz. bottle contains 67.5carbs. Now I don’t know any-thing about carbs, but thatsounds like a lot.

When asked to com-ment on his former soda habit,Park School jazz musician andrecovered cola drinker MattMorgan rambled on and onabout seemingly nothing: “Solike I had this problem yo…k?I used to drink massive amountsof super sexy Cola of the Coca.Every morning I’d get up, go tothe vendingo machino, and kick

Soda Ban: Pro and Con in one voiceby J.J. Wilner ‘05

the production of these fatten-ing additives to our foods isenormously expensive in termsof oil consumption. To makethose gallons of corn syrup forthe world’s processed foods re-quires large scale productioninvolving petroleum based fertil-izers, herbicides, and pesticides.Add to this the use of oil in farmmachinery and in the transpor-tation of not-so local packagedfoods to your local shop viatrucking, and you have the sin-gle largest use of petrochemicalsin the economic equation.

Energy can be trans-formed, our science teachers tellus, but it can’t be wiped out orcreated. What’s happened in theacceleration of globalization ofagriculture and transportationsystems is that oil energy – aprimary product of the MiddleEast – has been transferred intosweetener for that soda we pourdown our throat. Iowa’s farm-land alone transforms energyinputs roughly equivalent to4,000 Nagasaki bombs per year,according to the Agriculture De-partment (though they don’tquite word it that way).

If you follow the ener-gy flow backwards from thefat stored around our torsos, itleads, in many cases, to the sodamachine, the trucking company,

the bottling and processingplant, the farm, and eventuallythe oil fields of the planet. Inci-dentally, one success storycoming out of Iraq, amidst allthe gloom and horror, is thatsales of Coke are so far up now

that two new plants haveopened along the Tigris and Eu-phrates.

some ass (by buying the cola).Then I had a spiritualexperience…so I had starteddrinking another Cokeproduct…water! Now, I do notwake up and crave for the sexybrown liquid. Now I feel somuch more healthy and aliveand free.” I think what Mattwas trying to get at (whichwould have been more clearlyexplained, had he not sufferedserious irreversible brain dam-age from soda), was that oncehe stopped drinking soda, he feltmuch better about himself. Ididn’t ask him this, but I bethe’d say that he wished theschool had stopped selling sodayears ago. One time my broth-er in-law told me that if youleave a human tooth in a glassof coke overnight, it will havedissolved by morning. And hewould know, he’s a chef. Sodais the leading cause of obesity(badonkadonkitis) in the US.According to my research, theaverage Park student drinks be-tween 0 and 3 sodas daily.That’s like a million every year.This is an addiction. Sodaho-lism is an epidemic that isspreading like mayonnaise onthe turkey club of our health.And if you’re anything like me,you want to put a stop to theschool’s coke problem becauseyou hate mayonnaise too.

make our own decisions aboutwhat to drink, and, from myexperience, most people makethe right choice. Besides, ac-cording to its philosophy, Parkshould be preparing us to live ina democratic society, a societyin which we are free to drinksoda. Park should reflect thatfreedom by giving us a choiceof beverages. It shouldn’t shel-ter us from the junk food theworld has to offer.

In addition to the injus-tice of revoking our choice todrink soda, we should fear thatthis decision will set a precedentfor future restrictions. One ofthe leaders of this health-crazedmovement said that some parentsin the group want to get rid ofall chips in the cafeteria. What’snext? Serving us barley and wa-ter for lunch?

This ban is taking it toofar. It’s great that the parentswant to give us different choic-es for our lunches, but Parkshould give us new optionswithout eliminating the existingones. After all, isn’t Park allabout choice?

Why am I so Fat?I’m walking through

the line in the cafeteria. I don’tknow what to eat. There arebrownies, chicken, fries, icecream, pretzels, and chips. But,um… I might need something alittle healthier. Summer’s com-ing up and I am actually the sizeof a hippo. So, I’m thinking noto brownies, chicken, fries, icecream, pretzels, orchips; maybe a lightsalad instead. So Istart my quest for asalad. Finally I findit, hiding on a highshelf in the corner.But there arecucumbers. I hatecucumbers. Andyou know oncethey’re on there,there willalways be that lin-gering cucumber taste; it’s liketaking a spider out of your sal-ad and eating it anyway. If onlythere were a salad bar where Icould make my own salad.

I reminisce back to myMiddle School days at RPCSwhere there was a lovely saladbar. It had everything from fruitsalad, to peppers, to tuna fish.

Here at Park, salads have onlya few vegetables on the top, andthe body of the salad is built pri-marily of lettuce that has almostno taste unless you load up ondressing, which is ultimately notgood for you. Salads here don’tjust lack variety, but they areexpensive as well. Last year, atRPCS, every salad I got for

lunch was under a dollar. Sal-ads at Park can be over fourdollars. A salad bar at Park couldalso be a good solution to manyof the nutrition issues that par-ents have with the cafeteria.After all, it’s common knowl-edge that salads are healthierthan chicken strips.

by Carrie Young ‘07

by Jon Acheson, History Department Chair

The salad bar at RPCS: healthy food for less.

photo by D. Al-Ibrahim ‘05

POSTSCRIPT Page 6May 28, 2004 COMMENTARYPoint and Counterpoint: Student Government

Noah Carver ‘05 and Nicko Libowitz ‘05

We must of course be-gin by examining the debacle oflast year’s shoddy excuse for astudent government. Jokespeeches won the round there.Clearly everyone enjoys the hi-larious antics of Carrot Top, butno one would want him makingimportant decisions that couldaffect our lives. So this year,through some masterful schemeto make us take the electionsmore seriously, the actual votingprocess was pushed back totwo days after the speeches.Regrettably, like most seeming-ly clever schemes, it failed. Thepresidential and vice-presidentialcandidates preached nothing butcrowd pleasers. More dances!Don’t we hear this crap everyyear and still we have what,maybe two dances a year, witha prom thrown in for juniors andseniors? Are you chumps stillbuying this?

So why do joke candi-dates carry the day? Quitesimply, because the governmentperforms no valuable function.Its members serve as nothingmore than middlemen, regurgi-tating the wishes of Mr. McGill.What better example is therethan the Community Board de-bacle? The government officers,who theoretically representedus, overwhelmingly supportedthe proposal that McGillcrammed down their throats.What a surprise. The studentbody came out with its usual in-decision, culminating in a 50-50vote.

One of the officers inour fresh new Student Counciladmits that the position is noth-ing more than an empty platitude

to put on a transcript. It seemsclear that the government doesnothing. McGill tells its mem-bers what he wants us to hear,but he could just as easily comedirectly to us. Not even the Con-stitution ascribes them anoticeable role. The Vice-Presi-dent’s duties consist of“[executing] the responsibilitiesof the President if the Presidentis unable to.” And the Presi-dent’s duty is to report to theBoard of Trustees. Now those

are certainly important; how everwould we survive without them?And, we apparently need a thirdofficial to “take notes of the Sen-

ate meetings and post them in acommon space.” Wow, thatmust surely take up a hugeamount of time seeing as hownothing happens in Senate meet-ings anyway. The treasurer getsto take the money, which con-sists of nothing more thanconveying financial requests tothe student government. He isnothing more than a superflu-ous middleman. Why then dothese offices exist?

Point: Student Council is Useless, I Tell You! Counterpoint: No, It’s NotIn mid-April, once the

seniors are sent off, the studentbody is gripped by a topic of de-batable importance: elections.

Candidates submit statementsfor the positions of President,Vice-President, Secretary, andTreasurer. The candidates givetheir speeches, and we getpassed slips of paper to circleour choices. These elections arethe rising freshmen’s first act asmembers of the high school,but some may take it less thanseriously.

This is a sad reality, butnot an unexpected one. At first,it does appear that the officers

by Noah Carver ‘05 by Nicko Libowitz ‘05

photo by Andi Lichtenfeld ‘06

Park School wasfounded on the principle thatstudents are not learning simplybecause we are forced to, dayin and day out with a proverbialsword over our necks, livingfrom test to test. No, Park

School was founded with theidea that students find joy inlearning. Obviously this methodof teaching has repercussions:instead of becoming the emptyhusks of human beings that theother schools churned out, we

began to think. Suddenly stu-dents had opinions aboutanything and everything, fromthe color of the drinking waterto the shoddy living conditionsin Iraq. Surely in a school withsuch a different student base

we’d expect two articles: Oneon the joys of smoking pot, andthe other countering with whysmoking pot is bad. We at Pointand Counterpoint see the valueof this type of arguing. There-fore, each month, two highly

trained and opinionated peoplewill argue about the merits andflaws of whatever the currentissue is; it should more thancover your monthly dose ofopinion. So join us for this firstedition of Point, Counterpoint.

It always seems as ifthe student senate is an elusivegroup that meets behind closeddoors and accomplishes noth-ing. That needs to change. Thefact is everyone and anyone canand should go to senate meetingsand contribute to discussions.And the fact is that the senateaccomplishes more than youthink. As President of the coun-cil, I will dedicate this columnto informing you of the currentissues, failures, and successesof the new student senate.

The day after the stu-dent council elections, whichtook place only two and halfweeks ago, we were somewhatbombarded with the responsibil-ity of planning Arbor Day for the

Upper School. The date had al-ready been set for WednesdayMay 19, but the rest was up tous. After five bowls of fruit, 20emails to teachers, 300 stuffedmailboxes, and 500 conversa-tions, Arbor Day was a success.While one group of studentsplanted 86 trees in the meadow,others cut vines, picked uptrash, potted flowers to deliverto teachers, and designed a mu-ral to be painted in the stairwayleading up to the Upper Schoolcommons. The mural will mostlikely be painted during arts im-mersion week next year.Contrary to prior anxiety, thewidely feared cicadas did not in-hibit any of the activities,outdoor or indoor.

Since I was elected,everyone has asked me what Iam going to change about theschool, what I am going to fix.Change and fix aren’t the rightwords; they place the focus onwhat is ‘wrong’ with theschool. The truth is I didn’t runfor president because of what Idislike about Park, I ran becauseof what I like about it. Althoughit is natural, so many peopleseem to emphasize Park’sweaknesses and undermine itsstrengths. While it is importantto establish goals and recognizewhat can be improved, it isequally important to appreciatethe positive aspects that Park al-ready has.

The senate does have

some new ideas for both thisyear and next year. A Bookswapcommittee is now taking Abel’sidea to the next level by planninga swap for the last week ofschool. The committee has spo-ken to almost all of thedepartment heads, gaining fullapproval. The committee is noworganizing the final details of theSwap for next week.

In addition to the Book-swap, we are hoping to workwith both the student body andthe parents committee to estab-lish a healthy food plan that willbring healthier and better tastingfood to our cafeteria in a waythat both kids and parents willapprove of. After all, the par-ents are not attacking students;

they are simply attacking an ex-tremely unhealthy soda.

The council is hoping tohave a party during the last weekof school to celebrate the end ofthe year. If you have any ideasor want to help out, come askus.

I hope this column willallow for a more open studentsenate so that you know whatis going on and have many op-portunities to contribute. Inthese short two and half weeks,the student council has workedhard to produce Arbor Day andhas begun planning much more.If you have any ideas for stu-dent senate, please feel free totalk to me, Brad, Michele, orZach.

President’s Column

by Sarah Raifman ‘05

New student government members McCloskey, Mendelson, Gidwitz and Raifman got right to work.

have no duties besides listingtheir accomplishments on HighSchool transcripts. Everythingthey discuss eventually comesto the rest of the school to dis-cuss in equal detail. TheCommunity Board proposal wasa fitting example of this. But thegovernment does in fact serve avaluable purpose.

These large matters docome to our attention, but amyriad of less noteworthy taskscome to them. Two years agothere was a wing-a-thon, lastyear a crab-a-thon. These activ-ities didn’t jump fully clothedout of Zeus’s head like PallasAthena. The organization ofthese and other events is entire-ly due to the hard work of theStudent Government.

The matters that cometo our attention, like the Com-munity Board, are the tip of theiceberg. For every matter thatcomes to the student body, thereare many more issues that arecarefully scrutinized only by thegovernment. The Secretaryfaithfully writes them up for theschool, but does anyone actual-ly read the minutes? Meanwhilethe Treasurer carefully manag-es our monetary accounts, andthe President speaks for all of usto the Board of Trustees.

In short, the StudentGovernment does the dirtywork, the things the general stu-dent body wouldn’t be botheredto do. So why not give them areward for their largely unsungservice in a note on collegebound transcripts?

Student Council Runs Full Steam Ahead

POSTSCRIPTPage 7 May 28, 2004COMMENTARY

Who...can say that they have never been violated by the wind’s bel-ligerant disregard for loose clothing?

The whim of a collegeadmissions officer can be one ofthe most controlling forces inour high school experience. Inresponse, we take the classesthat look good on a transcriptrather than the ones that inter-est us. We take SAT prepcourses ad nauseum to boostour scores. We participate inmore activities than we are in-terested in so we can brag tocolleges about how much initia-tive we have. And our gradesbecome the be all and end all ofour existence. To some extent,this outside force constricts usand takes away our individuali-ty. But, on the other hand, itallows us to grow in ways thatwe otherwise might not.

Consider, for example,students who join activities topad their transcripts. Some willbe members of those activitiesand will not benefit. Obviously,their presence, or lack thereof,is nothing more than a waste ofother participants’ time and theyshould rightfully be criticized.But, if they become genuinelyinvolved and interested in theactivity, they and their peers willbenefit greatly. The initial motivequickly becomes irrelevant.

This is not to justifystudents creating sham activitiesor joining other ones without theintention of actually participat-ing. For example, at FriendsSchool last year, several seniorsformed a Business Club, whichpromised to include meetings,discussions, and other activities.By June, however, the club hadonly completed one activity.

With regard to acceler-ated and AP courses, there is a

Applying to College:Skills for Life

by Eric Gottlieb ‘06

As the weather makesits awkward and graceless shiftfrom winter to summer in thespring months, we are facedwith a problem we see everyyear, but no one ever has theguts to do anything about.

A few days ago, as Iwalked from the parking lot tothe front entrance of the school,I suddenly became over-whelmed by a gust of thatmenacing invisible force, thewind. This gust of wind was sodramatic that my cap flew offthe top of my head, and carriedby the wind, it flew over threeyards from where I was stand-ing. This of course upset me,but I walked over to pick up my

cap with out speaking a word,the wind had made its return,and what was I to do about it?Nothing. But as I bent over toit, up another gust of wind blew,and my shorts flew up towardsmy waist, revealing my delicateinner thighs to all the studentsand faculty entering the school.

As I struggled to bothpick up my cap and shield mybody from the eyes of the by-standers, I remembered theHolocaust. I remembered AnneFrank, and her diary. I remem-bered Ellie Wiesel and histriumphant life story. And I re-membered those who did not

speak out, until there was noone left to speak out for them.Who reading this article, can saythat they have never had theircap blown off by a gust ofwind? Who reading this articlecan say that they have neverbeen violated by the wind’s bel-ligerent disregard for looseclothing? Well I for one will notlive in fear any longer.

I ask all of you readingthis article to consider your fi-

Bullied by the WindBen Warren ‘05

So here’s my questionto you: why, if you tend toshop towards one “style” ofclothing, do you harass peoplewho shift towards your polaropposite? Aren’t Abercrombieand Fitch and Hot Topic ownedby the same monopoly?

I was immersed in thefashion world at a young age.My mother volunteered me toparticipate in a fashion show atMacy’s with my best friend atthe time, where we both worefluffy, red, velvet dresses,which I absolutely hated. Afterthat, I considered myself learnedin the fashion field. I showed offmy expertise at the JCC kinder-garten by heckling other littlegirls when they didn’t tuck theirshirts in, or when they woreblack with navy blue. Soon, Iwas reprimanded by my teach-er, Mrs. Plotkin, for beingdisrespectful of others feelings.

Clothing is what makesa clique (as well as wealth and

Fashion Defines the Cliquesby Rachel Katz ‘06

nal few weeks of this schoolyear. How much of that time doyou plan on spending outside?Most definitely, it will be a lot.Any psychologist will tell you,the way to deal with bullies isnot submission, it’s confronta-tion. If blood must be shed, thenlet it flow. This year, we will nottake it anymore. This year wewill speak out. This year we willnot be forced to put on a jacketin the morning, then have to takeit off in school, then back onagain to go home. This year wewill not have to put rocks on thecorners of our picnic blankets.And this year we will not hold

books on both ends to make surethat the pages don’t flap whenwe’re reading outside, rather wewill hold them with one hand, bythe binding at the bottom.

I have taken the firststep, now it is up to you, thestudents and faculty, to put anend to the chaos and destruc-tion. Bob Dylan said the answeris blowin’ in the wind, but withso much blowin’, can anyonereally hear it?

attitudes, but the clothing youwear also depends on wealth;some of us aren’t prosperousenough to own ten differentpairs of Miss Sixty jeans). It’swhat separates youfrom them. They arethe ones who don’t“roll with yourcrowd,” the oneswho are differentfrom you. So youdon’t accept them.They are the oneswho wear pink rib-bons in their hair orthe ones who havepink hair instead.They are either the“clones” or the“freaks.” But if weare all giving ourmoney to the samepeople (and HotTopic is just asexpensive as Aber-crombie) can’t wejust get along?

Even in thehallways, the loca-tions of the groups are polaropposites: the end of the mathscience wing or the stoop. I findit ridiculous that people are sopretentious about their appear-ance that they can’t associatewith anyone who doesn’t slight-ly resemble them, or like thestyle of their clothing.

At my old school, Iused to be considered the “re-bellious type.” I painted myfingernails black and my hairwas fire engine red. Yet my best

friend wore Limited Too to theextreme. When I came to Park,the first things I noticed werethe different cliques. I didn’tknow which crowd I wanted tobe in, or who would accept mefor who I was, or if I neededto change to be considered“cool” with a certain group. I did

temptation to have a more inten-sive, rigorous schedule in orderto impress a college admissionsofficer. But the end result iswhat matters, and if it helps thestudent get into college, then allthe better. If he puts his full ef-fort into the course, he willcome out more educated andenlightened. If he does not, hisgrades will reflect that and therewill be no added college successas a result. But whether hetakes the course out of pure pas-sion or to get in to Harvarddoesn’t matter.

Finally, standardizedtesting has the potential to be themost miserable part of the col-lege admissions process, whilestill being very important. Manystudents are drawn into SATprep courses that promise tosignificantly enhance scores.Setting aside the correlation be-tween wealth and scores as aresult of the courses, test-takingis another valuable skill andwhether we learn it for the SATsor the MCATs, we should not becriticized for it.

At an idealistic schoollike Park, we feel uncomfortableadmitting that so many of ourdecisions are made with regardto college rather than the purevalue of education. However,legitimate efforts to expand one’sresumé can be very valuable andshould not be criticized. Thedriving force of college in a highschool student’s life is a factthat should be taken in stride, ifnot appreciated. And if nothingmore, trying to get into the bestpossible college shows a contin-ued commitment to education.

change. I began to wear allblack and I even dyed my hairblack. My own mother consid-ered me weird. But mypersonality is still the same nowas it was then, and now I evenwear bright orange Ralph Lau-ren polos or light blue Lacosteshirts.

I know the stereotypes.I know that while some aredeemed totally dim and thick-

headed, another group isthought to be full of depressedemo kids who think about deathtoo much.

I consider everyoneunique. Everyone has his or herown fashion sense, even if it’sjust “I like the black polo in-stead of the red one.” I may liketo make my own clothing rath-er than buying it, but I don’tdetest anyone who’d ratherspend their money.

photo by Michael Levy ’06N. Brown ’06 and E. Bruun ’07 show their ownsenses of fashion.

POSTSCRIPT Page 8May 28, 2004 REVIEWSIf you’ve watched an

hour of MTV in the past tenyears, odds are you’ve seen atleast one of the videos in thenew three-DVD set from theDirectors Label. The set con-sists of The Work of DirectorSpike Jonze, The Work of Direc-tor Michel Gondry, and TheWork of Director Chris Cun-ningham. These are arguablythe three most influential andimportant directors currentlyworking in the idiom of the mu-sic video.

Spike Jonze (“BeingJohn Malkovich,” “Adaptation”)has received the most criticalacclaim out of the three direc-tors, and the majority of thevideos on his disc have becomenearly legendary over time. Hepasted Weezer into an episode of“Happy Days” for their song“Buddy Holly,” forever estab-lishing himself as a leader in hismedium. Also included are hisvideos for Wax’s “California,”featuring a stuntman on fire run-ning in slow motion (greatconcept, great video), FatboySlim’s “Weapon of Choice,”featuring Christopher Walkendancing through an empty hotel,and Björk’s “It’s Oh So Quiet,”featuring several dozen hyperac-tive Broadway-musical-style

dancers, which keep things in-teresting. There are also manylesser known videos and someshort films, including the docu-mentary “Torrance Rises,”about the dance group from theVMA-winning video for FatboySlim’s “Praise You.” All the vid-

eos on this disc are inventive,and all are entertaining, butJonze falls short of the standardfor genius that Michel Gondrysets in his DVD.

I do not use the termgenius lightly. Gondry, theFrench director of “Human Na-ture” and “Eternal Sunshine of

the Spotless Mind,” seems tohave kept a youthful imaginationand appreciation for all the pos-sibilities of film. He has directedvideos for The White Stripes,Chemical Brothers, Björk, FooFighters, as well as manyothers, and his videos contain a

few common themes. Gondryloves dreams and dream-reali-ties. Again and again, he blursthe line between the wakingworld and the inner world of themind, as in Foo Fighters’ “Ev-erlong” and Chemical Brothers’“Let Forever Be.” He also ap-pears to be in love with

repetition and mutations. Butperhaps more stimulating thanhis portfolio of videos from thepast 16 years is thedocumentary, “I’ve Been 12Forever.” Gondry’s is the onlyDVD to contain extensiveinterviews with the director, and

his is the only one that reallyneeds it. The documentarygives us a glimpse into Gondry’schildhood and thought process-es, attempting to answer thequestion viewers ask themselveswhile watching his work: Howdoes this guy come up with thisstuff?

Jonze’s and Gondry’svideos are generally lighthearted.Chris Cunningham’s videosprovide a stark contrast. Atmo-spheric and creepy, his videosgive you the feeling that youcould be punished for watchingthem. Cunningham has onlybeen making videos for sevenyears, so his body of work ismuch smaller than Jonze’s andGondry’s. His is the only one-sided disc in the set. Though byno stretch of the imaginationcan it be called uninspired, thework of Chris Cunningham hasan unfortunate feeling of same-ness to it, from Aphex Twin toPortishead to (again) Björk.Cunningham never went to filmschool, and sometimes it be-comes a little too obvious thathis directing career was born outof his previous career as a spe-cial effects artist. This DVD isgreat for Cunningham’s fans,but outside of that circle, it ismerely a self-contained curiosi-ty, entertaining only for itssurface appearance.

The three DVD’s areavailable individually or as a set.Depending on where you shop,buying all three DVD’s can costthe same as just buying two.These discs are essential for themusic video collector.

Director’s Set collection displays genius of MTV directorsby Charlie Hankin ‘05

Michael Moore returnsby Jake Lowentheil ‘05

Unlike many sequels,Michael Moore’s Dude, Where’sMy Country is not a rehashingof his first book, Stupid WhiteMen, but rather a well fortifiedand superbly fact-based frontalattack on President Bush and hiscadre. With a light and often hu-morous tone, Moore’s bookbegins with a tirade on the Bushadministration’s “Whoppers”,the series of interwoven lies thatled up to the Iraqi war. Each sec-tion is headed by a Whopperfrom a Burger King menu withan accompanying statementfrom Bush. Moore explores notonly such famous issues as the“weapons of mass destruction”but also lesser known mistruthssuch as the myth of “yellowcake” uranium ore. He also goesinto detail about the way Sadd-am and America traded in thepast, with a series of inventorylists of both biological and me-chanical goods transferred toIraq by America or Americancompanies.

After a solid foundationof facts, including quotes thatmany times show the contrarynature of statements differing bytime or person, Moore does notneglect his duty to offer solu-tions. Starting again from thebasics, he presents ideas onhow to talk to so called RINO’s,republican voters who only be-lieve they are conservative, and

persuade them to vote other-wise. Following these steps onhow to change those voters whoare somehow misled by Bushand his cronies, Moore offers acampaign of broad ideas tooverthrow the burgeoning Bushregime in the coming election.

He offers each idea seriouslyand provides support. With suchsuggestions as Oprah for presi-dent, a coalition of greens anddemocrats, and a list of dailysteps that take under 10 minutesto advance the cause, Moore’spolitical agenda is both attractiveand lucid, with an underlyingsense self-humility that onlylends more seriousness to hisclaims. As a humorous bookthat makes a point, Dude suc-ceeds.

The more I think aboutthe movie Troy, the more disap-pointed I get. A classic storydeserves a classic movie, andthat is one thing Troy definitelyis not. As far as I’m concerned,and the people behind Troy ap-parently don’t hold the sameview, there is no screenwriteralive able to write dialogue thatwill even closely resemble thatof Homer’s, nor any directorwho can recreate the descriptiveimagery and action of the Iliad.But those hooligans in Holly-wood sure did try.

The Iliad is an epic.That’s what it’s known for;that’s almost what defines it. Ittells the story of a month or twoin the last year of a ten-yearwar. Ten years. In the movie,I’d say the war lasts about threedays, subtracting the time ittakes to bury Hektor (12 days)and build the Trojan Horse. Inaddition to the ten years of thewar itself, there are ten years ofgathering the armies of Greeceand sailing to Troy. A 20-yearepic is thus reduced to about amonth and a half, totally ruiningone of the core features of thestory.

And why remake aclassic story if you aren’t goingto stick to the plot? I guess thecreators of Troy assumed Hom-er’s version of the story wasmeant for interpretation. Maybe

they figured that, since everyonedies at some point, it won’t mat-ter if they change the way ithappens in the film. The resultof this befuddled reasoning is astory in which main characters

drop like flies, killed by thewrong people and at entirely thewrong times.

Let’s not forget aboutthose characters. Achilles is oneof the greatest heroes in the his-tory of literature, but in thismovie he appears sullen, dark,and almost reserved (except forthose times he flips out for noreason), a stark contrast to thefiery depiction of him in the Ili-ad. Brad Pitt’s portrayal of thefamous warrior pulls off thephysical aspect of his power, but

falls short in attitude. He seemsespecially weak surrounded bythe rest of the cast, made up ofpowerful British actors whodon’t have to fake their accents.Orlando Bloom is almost comi-cal in his puppy dog depictionof Paris, and Brian Cox’s Ag-amemnon comes off as moreof a buffoon than a connivingwarmonger. The director decid-ed to eliminate any subtlety,making it perfectly clear whateach character’s motives areand overplaying Achilles’ defi-ance to the max. And DianeKruger (as Helen), although abeautiful woman, doesn’t strikeme as having the kind of facethat would launch a thousandships.

The only good news isthat, if you’ve already read thebook, there are still some sur-prises left in the film. The battlescenes, although not so epic asin the book, are fairly well done.Bronze Age warfare was somebrutal stuff- in his “account” ofthe Iliad Christopher Logue de-scribes the blood as “like acarwash”- and I suppose themovie pulls that bit off. Still, thegrandeur and sheer enormity ofit all is lost in the translationfrom page to film. It’s a shame,really- the Trojan War is nowspent as a film topic, and on amovie that isn’t good at all. Fi-nal rating: one star.

Troy: An adaptation nightmareby Peter Schamp ‘05

photo courtesy of Warner Bros Productions

photo courtesy of The Director’s Label

photo courtesy of Warner Books, Inc.

POSTSCRIPTPage 9 May 28, 2004REVIEWS

Though not the mostprominent name in the music in-dustry, Ghostface Killah is a rapveteran. After making his en-trance in 1993 on the Wu-TangClan’s now classic Enter theWu-Tang: 36 Chambers, Ghosthas made countless memorableappearances over the years onWu-Tang and Wu-affiliatedrecords, and he has droppedthree critically acclaimed albums(Ironman, Supreme Clientele,and Bulletproof Wallets) alongwith a greatest hits album (Sha-olin’s Finest). Having such animpressive rap resume, it is sur-prising that his big recordshaven’t translated into bigrecord sales. Ghost evenaddresses this on the song“Love”, saying “…love my lastalbum though the joint wentwood.” His lack of platinumplaques has been attributed topoor record label promotion, buthaving moved from EpicRecords to Def Jam, he shouldnow finally have the backing hedeserves as he releases some ofhis strongest material to datewith The Pretty Toney Album.

One thing aboutGhostface Killah is thathe never follows the cur-rent trends and formulasthat dominate radio andtelevision airwaves. Hehas always been an inno-vator, one step ahead ofthe rest of the game. Forinstance, highly choppedand sped up samples ofclassic old school R&Bsongs have been madevery popular by KanyeWest, but Kanye himselfeven admitted to model-ing his style of beatmaking after Ghostface’sSupreme Clientele. Nowthat Kanye is popular andmany are imitating him,Ghostface has moved onand become even morecreative with his selectionof musical backdrops.For instance, on “Holla”,the ever-creative Ghostdoesn’t chop or speed up thesample at all, but raps over agood portion of the actual songinstead. The soulful breakdownsof the song are perfect for

Ghost to exclaim humorouslines, such as “Like an angrycripple man, don’t push me”.For those who are fans of soul-ful, old school sounding songs

Ghostface Killah’s innovative rhymes break hip-hop trendsby Zach Leacock ‘05

Grown as an artist,grown as a vocalist, grown asa man, Usher has become awhole new person. Usher re-veals this new person in hislatest CD entitled Confessions,which hit stores late March.Over the course of his five al-bums, Usher has grown froma lover boy to a lover man,embracing harder hittingsounds and subjects withouthurting his soulful sweetness.

The 25-year-old soulcrooner has changed since his2001 multi-platinum album8701. Confessions displays alyrical truth based on Usher’srecent experiences with love.He demonstrates a new levelof maturity with his gorgeoussmile, sexy voice, and lyricalendowments. Usher says,“This is the best I’ve eversang before,” while trying tolive up to the standards set byR&B legends like Marvin Gayeand R. Kelly. He isn’t quite ontop of the industry yet, and itwill take a lot of work to getthere, but he is surely on hisway.

This CD comes com-plete with 17 hot new songsranging from the classic balladsof heartache and break to theever so sensual tunes describinglove making, and of course, thesong that has been remixed asmany times as a Whopper. Thetale of the CD is summarizedthrough three of my favoritesongs. He begins by going to theclub with his cool crew Lil’ Jon

and Ludacris with the upbeatbouncy rhythm of “Yeah!” Hesings about indulging in the ma-terialistic life and winds upgetting a groupie pregnant.Then, his heart, full of guilt and

remorse, forces him to comeclean to his girlfriend in thechart-topping hit “Burn,”followed by the title track, “Con-fessions.” Recovery is all tooeasy for this sexy crooner whenhe goes back to the beautiful lif-estyle in the straightforward andsexy (sex) song, “That’s WhatIt’s Made For.”

The vocals of the songson Confessions are exemplary,far better than many of the art-

ists of today that he has beencompared to for his vocal talentand his dance moves. After lis-tening to this CD, I can safelysay that Justin Timberlake “ain’tgot nothin’” on Usher.

Production for the al-bum comes from Bobby Avila,Just Blaze, Jimmy Jam and Ter-ry Lewis, Andre Harris, and ofcourse, Jermaine Dupri. WithUsher, they kick it off with amore mature, “reflecting on thethings that are” type of ap-proach, which is what makesthis record as sexy as it is. Ush-er sings with power, openness,and a voice that could make agrown woman cry.

by Tahira Taylor ‘05 I know that when Ithink of Baltimore, I definitelydon’t think of a bustling metrop-olis jam-packed with artisticopportunity. The first thingsthat come to mind are “dirty”and “heroin-filled.” Fortunatelyenough, though, I was luckyenough to experience a true di-amond in the rough – a live,‘Inside the Actors Studio’-es-que session with film guru JimSheridan as part of the sixth an-nual Maryland Film Festival.Sheridan’s reputation as an Irishwriter-director-producer pre-cedes him; known for realisticwriting and directing, his mov-ies include My Left Foot (forwhich Daniel Day-Lewis wonan Academy Award), In theName of the Father, InAmerica, Bloody Sunday, andnumerous others.

Held at the MarylandInstitute College of Art’s newBrown Center and hosted byBaltimore Sun film critic Micha-el Sragow, the conversationwas interspersed with film clipsfrom Sheridan’s vast repertoire.My only complaint was that, inthe two-and-one-half-hour pre-sentation, the audience barelyheard Sheridan talk. Sragowwas truly annoying, constantlyspinning his index finger in cir-cles and mouthing, “roll it” to theprojection booth as soon asSheridan would develop a point.It seemed as though the conver-sation was more about Sragowkeeping to his schedule thanabout praising Sheridan’s in-credible achievement in film.

But as soon as Sheridanbegan to speak, the audiencecompletely forgot aboutSragow’s overbearing natureand simply shared their passionfor film. Sheridan, an older,somewhat rotund man, has asurprisingly high voice for hissize. Full of anecdotes about hispast, Sheridan is extremelywise, something that comesthrough in his films and how hetalks about them. When hespeaks about life and filmmak-ing, it’s obvious that he sees apurpose and a need to show cer-tain things. He chooses hiswords carefully, often stoppingmid-sentence to revise and clar-ify what he means.

Sheridan’s ultimate goalseems to be conveying reality aswe experience it. Althoughknown for his ability to make thecamera disappear, Sheridanhates choreographing cameraswith complex cranes. Frustrat-ed with Sragow’s questionsabout camera work, Sheridanreplied in his thick Irish accent,“put a camera anywhere, so longas it’s the truth.” For Sheridan,the camera isn’t the eye of God.It conveys something much,much more. For him, “cinemais about…capturing the invisi-ble,” the more complex nuancesof emotions and situations. Theemotions that are truly existentin life, you just can’t see them.Yet Sheridan has found someway to convey these feelings,through his dialogue and theincredible performances he ex-tracts from his actors.

A night with Jim Sheridanby Kate Ewald ‘05

Usher gets romantic on Confessions

like “Holla” there aremany more on The PrettyTony Album, such as “BeThis Way”, “Save MeDear”, and others.

Of course, agood album should beversatile, and Ghostface,with help from Missy El-liott, heats up dance floorswith “Tush”. On “Tush”he proclaims that he canget you moving “Like thePuffy and Jay-Z’s, Dre’sand J.D.’s” of the rap in-dustry, and along withMissy he does just that.The Pretty Toney Albumalso has its fair share ofhype songs. The RZA pro-duced “Run” featuringJadakiss makes you wantto do just that when youhear Ghost scream“RUN!” over policesirens. Similarly, whiledriving around listening to

the blaring horns of “Metal Lun-gies”, it is hard not to push yoursound system and your acceler-ator to levels that warrant bigfines. Be careful!

Luckily for drivers,Ghostface does slow thingsdown a bit, as songs like theMusiq Soulchild assisted “Love”and “Tooken Back” featuringJackie-O show a more emotionalside that you wouldn’t expectfrom someone named GhostfaceKillah. “Love” has the Killah ex-pressing his love for everythingfrom his family to Martin Luth-er King and Malcolm X, saying“Love is Essential”, and on“Tooken Back” he sings “Babywon’t you take me back?” Onthese songs he shows that eventhe hardest rock and the mostghost-faced killer have a softerside.

The creativity and vari-ety of different types of songsare what make The Pretty ToneyAlbum so strong. This is thetype of CD that you can listento from start to finish withoutskipping, even if you might notlike a song that much. At 18tracks, this is quite an accom-plishment, which will hopefullytranslate into a long overdue soloplatinum plaque for the oldschool vet.

photo courtesy of Arista Records

photo courtesy of Def Jam Recordings

POSTSCRIPTPage 10May 28, 2004 NEWS/SPORTS

by Cassidy Fein ‘07

Seniors complete six-week projects, finalize college decisionsClasses ended for seniors in April, but they are still learning. Each spring, seniors may elect to spend six weeks doing an internship of their choosing,

anything from aeronautical engineering at the Goddard Space Flight Center, to television news broadcasting at WBAL Channel 11, to learning management ofthe Improv Comedy Club.

Eventhough some of the work sounds more like fun than a job, it’s one of the hardest things students will go through.“A lot of the work students do is really an introduction to the ‘real’ world,” said Upper School Principal Mike McGill. “But no matter what project they

take on, it’s obviously going to be harder than any average school day.”Once they have finished their internships, seniors are required to report on their projects to faculty, students and parents, and provide details about their

experiences and what they learned. This year’s senior project presentations will take place June 2.In addition, most seniors have made final selections for college next. Those decisions are listed in italics below.

Success eludes V Tennisby Wes Jamison ‘05

After a strong season,the Boys JV Lax team lost to itsrival John Carroll in the finals.Seeded second in the confer-ence, the Bruins proved they had

talent and drive by defeatingmost opponents; however, theylost 16-5 in the championshipgame.

When facing Archbish-op Curly on May 6, the teamcame out strong, with a lead of3-0 at the half. Forward DiaClark ’06 had twelve shots ongoal and three goals, while TomKlassen ’06 had four shots and

three goals during the game.Olav Goelet ’07 was called foran illegal stick, as the pocketwas too deep, and was forcedto sit out at the start of the sec-

ond half.At the start of

the third quarter, howev-er, the team suffered “adefensive breakdown,”says Willie Miller ’07, andseveral goals were scoredby Curly going one on oneto the goal. Jesse Harlan’06 asserted that theteam’s lack of focus wasa result of exhaustion, say-ing, “It’s impossible towin games when youdon’t sub.” But theypulled it together again andplayed an exciting fourthquarter. When Curly tiedwith Park 5-5 in thesecond half, the Bruins

stepped it up and pulled aheadseven to five. Curly then wonthe face off and scored off afast break. With 13 seconds onthe clock, Curly ripped a shot,missed, but quickly recoveredthe ball, and with two secondson the clock scored, tying thegame at 7-7.

Going into overtime,the Bruins were frustrated. Ul-

timately, they lost. However, thiswas not a playoff game and so,they continued into the champi-onship.

When Park met JohnCarroll in the B-Conferencechampionship, the Bruins wereanxious and ready to play hard.However, because John Carrollis a championship team, therewas a sense of defeat even be-fore the game. The Bruins feltthat John Carroll would inevita-bly win, and it showed in thegame. At the end of the firstquarter, the score was 0-7. The

team put forth a lot of effort inits season and overall it was asuccess, but there was no doubtwho the better team was and thefinal score reflected it, 14 – 6,John Carroll.

by Jen Webber ‘07

Lena-Kate Ahern: Baltimore TheatreProject; OberlinAlexandra Azrael: Classic Catering;IndianaRae Bacharach: John Archer School,teacher’s assistant; BatesCaroline Barry: Weber ShandwickWorldwide, advertising; St. John’sElena Baum: Center Stage; St. Mary’sCollege of MdJessica Berney: Maryland EquineCenter; Penn StateBenjamin Bloom: Baltimore OriolesFan Services, Ticket Sales; EmoryJonathan Bookstein: JohnThurston,Guitar & Instrument Repair;GettysburgDaniel Boscov-Ellen: Star Auto; Vas-sarAndre Brasser : Merritt Athletic Club;BucknellVitaly Briskin: WZBA, Music Radio;DePaulAnna Brown: Falls Road Animal Hos-pital, St. John’sRebecca Brown: Gertrude’s at theBMA, Chef ; Baltimore Inst. CulinaryArtsVernon Camphor: Eddie’s of RolandPark, Chef; WidenerDavid Carlton: Centerline Construc-tion Co.; DelawareMeaghan Cassidy: Make-A-WishFoundation; UMBC

Jenny Cooper: Baltimore City, Officeof the Public Defender; UC BerkeleyRebecca Derry:Baltimore City, Dept.of Recreation and Parks, Office of ParkConservation and Community Out-reach; OberlinVitaliy Elbert: Moy/Zaft ConsultingGroup, Investments; PrincetonMolly Englund: Run of the Mill The-ater/Center Stage, EmersonDrew Fidler: Sheppard Pratt, ChildPsychiatry; SkidmoreMarco Fontana: Chesapeake Habitatfor HumanityKatie Frankel: UMD Trauma Radiol-ogy; SkidmoreDaniel Friedman: Sound Print Re-cording Studios; OhioMeredith Friedman: Stone Mill Bak-ery; LehighAndrea Gensler: Hord Coplan Macht,Architecture; Washington U. St. LouisTess Gilbert: Maryland Athletic Club;Lewis & ClarkEvan Goodman: Trahun Burden andCharles, Advertising; BostonEdwin Gordon: Baltimore City, Pub-lic Defenders; undecidedDaniel Gorham: Baltimore OperaCompany; UMCPEvan Groth: Ms. Desserts; UMBCAlex Harding: The City Paper, writ-ing/editing; Yale

Nikki Hasselbarth: Ragdolls, Cloth-ing Design; ColumbiaAllison Heath: Millman SearchGroup; RoanokeJosie Hendler: Mural Project; TulaneJamie Hoffberger: Mt. WashingtonPediatric Hospital; VermontSpencer Horsman: The ImprovComedy Club, BaltimoreTamara Ibrahim: Documentary Film-making, The Baltimore Arts Scene;British ColumbiaMilan Jordan: Columbia Flier; BostonU.Richard Kandel: Wine Merchant; In-dianaCaleb Karpay: Senator Sarbanes of-fice; BrownAlexandra Khachatryan: PlannedParenthood; St. Mary’s College of MdAbigail Kolker: Charles Levine Ca-terers; U. PennKira Lanier: Digital Video; DickinsonSarah Lerman: National Aquarium;Washington U. St. LouisJayne Levinson: PRS Guitars; TowsonJoseph Levitan: Linder Automotive;BrandeisSarvnaz Lotfi: Advocates for Survi-vors of Torture and Trauma; OberlinNicole Love: Unruly Productions:Clark AtlantaTiffany McClaskey: National Aquar-ium; Cornell

Jack Meyerhoff: The Family Tree(Parents’ Anonymous); U.PennJeffrey Moy: Anne Arundel Commu-nity College, Japanese tutor/TeachingAssistant; USCScott Ness: Federal Public Defenders;HaverfordAiyana Newton: Legg Mason; DukeNicole Oidick: Union MemorialSports Medicine; ArcadiaLydia Parrott: Reservoir High School,art teacher’s assistant; DickinsonThomas Perkins: Old Bay Marina;year offThomas Pettit: RBC Dain Rauscher/Schaeffer Investment Group; SkidmoreMaximilian Polsky: Four West Bras-serie; USCJoshua Richmond: Sisson Street Au-tomotive; Wentworth ITMatthew Rogers: William Buie, At-torney at Law; RochesterBenjamin Rosen: WNST Sports Ra-dio; College of CharlestonBenjamin Rowland: Wine Making,Boordy Vineyards; UMCPJulie Scherr: The Baltimore Ravens;BrandeisErica Schleimer: Baltimore City, Of-fice of the Public Defender;NorthwesternJon Schneider: Upper ChesapeakeMedical Center, asst. surgical tech;Bucknell

Devona Sharpe: Johns Hopkins Bay-view, Obstetrics/Labor & Delivery;OberlinJeremy Silver: PW Feats, Event Plan-ning; AmericanJames Slatkin: WNST Sports Radio;IndianaClaire Slesinski: Living ClassroomsFoundation; St. Mary’s College of MdCaitlin Stephens: Vineyard Theater,NYC; Sarah LawrenceDarryl Tarver: Ashburton Elementary,teacher’s assistant; Washington U. St.LouisArnau Villabai: Research on ZebraFish, Carnegie Institute of WashingtonDC at JHU/HomewoodMaxwell Wagonheim: Digital MediaCenter, JHU; AlbrightCaryn Washington: Linwood’s Res-taurant, Catering; GuilfordElizabeth Webber: Ceramics/Pottery;Franklin and MarshallJonathan Weese: Piano Craft; Chi-cagoJeffrey Weinstein: Freedom Acade-my; U.PennAmy Weintraub: Rutland Beard Flo-rists; RochesterElizabeth Zack: Public Justice Center;MacalasterRachel Zack: Baltimore Sun/Photo-journalism; Bates

Its record may not havechanged from last year, but theBoys Varsity Tennis team’s atti-tude and poise greatly improvedthis year. Led by second yearcoach Yon Armstrong, theplayers’ skill also improved dra-matically throughout the season.

Unfortunately, they failed to wina team match in the 2004 sea-son, but players did win multipleindividual matches. “It was adisappointing season,” said Jer-emy Silver, “but we improvedfrom last year and had a lot offun out on the court.”

The team competes in

the MIAA A conference withsome of the best players in thestate and was often dominatedby opponents. The team’s goalto bring home a team match winwas unsuccessful. At midsea-son, they came off a verycompetitive match againstFriends, but lost 3-2.

Their dream of winninga match never solidified. Theplayers’ improvement wasshowcased during the individu-al playoffs. In the first round,both doubles teams won theirmatches. The number one dou-bles team, Ben Gamse ’05 andcaptain Jeff Weinstein ’04, wonits first round playoff matchagainst Calvert Hall. Seconddoubles team Tamas Szalay ’06and David Schneider ’07 alsowon its first round matches.

The team is graduatingall three captains, Vitaliy Elbert,Silver, and Weinstein, but hascreated a positive culture for theupcoming tennis stars. “CoachYon has instilled in us the valueof hard work in practice andboth physical and mental strat-egy,” said Weinstein. Look forMichael Levy ’06 and BenGamse ’05 as well as a few im-pressive upcoming freshmen inthe upcoming season.

Boys JV Lax ends second in conference

photo by Jill Papel ’05photo by Ben Weinstein ’06

photo by Ben Weinstein ’06

T. Szalay ’06 and D. Schneider’07 team up.

J. Press ’07 dodges tough competition.

Dan Ryugo ’07 dodges defender.

POSTSCRIPTPage 11 May 28, 2004SPORTSBoys Varsity Lax loses to John Carroll in championship

by Ezra Rosenberg ‘06

The Varsity Softballteam, drastically different fromyears before, ended its seasonwith a record of 5 – 4. Withfreshman rookie pitcher MadisonElliott replacing All Star Ally Sit-ton ’03 on the mound, the teamwas forced to heighten its levelof play. Park was forced tostrengthen both its game and itsdefense. This was a difficulttask at first, as the team lostgames to Arlington Baptist, St.Timothy’s, and Towson Catho-lic. Fortunately, the team made

its mistakes early on in the sea-son, and by the second half, thegirls were reaching the successthey had worked for.

As they picked up theirplay in the second half of theseason, the team came out withwins against Chapelgate, BethTfiloh, and an especially pleas-ing win over Roland Park witha score of 21 – 6. “This gameagainst RPCS,” said coachBruce Hamilton, “was the bestdefensive game in four years.”The team’s last game of the sea-

son was against Friends, themost competitive team in theconference this year, and al-though Park played an amazinggame, the Bruins lost with ascore of 10 - 13. The girls werestill “proud of the progress [theyhad] made over the season,”said Eliott.

The team approachedits playoff game against Arling-ton Baptist on May 4 withconfidence and enthusiasm. Ear-lier in the season, Park had lostto Arlington Baptist 4 – 9, but

Girls Varsity Softball improves throughout seasonby Sara Welinsky ‘05

the girls came into their playoffgame with tremendous determi-nation. As Park entered the lastinning of the game, the team waslosing with a score of 6 – 9. Thegirls made a surprising come-back by scoring two runs in thelast inning. When Park got itsthird strike, there were two peo-ple on base, which could havewon Park the game.

The team was proud,despite their loss, and satisfiedto have had such a great seasonwith such improvements. “We

got a lot better at the end,” saidElliot, “and although we startedoff inexperienced, we grew to-gether as a team.” This year’sVarsity Softball Team developeda true bond, and the girls’ sup-port of one another was pivotalto the improvement of their sea-son. “There is not [a single]player to highlight,” says CoachHamilton. “There is just a lot ofyoung talent, and a lot of play-ers that will be leaders in thefuture.” Watch for this team inupcoming seasons.

Despite the Boys Varsi-ty Lacrosse team’s nine winstreak, it finished the seasonwith a loss at the championshipgame against John Carroll. The

semifinal game, however, wasone that the team will always re-member. Halfway through thefirst quarter of the semifinalgame against St. Vincent Pallo-ti, the Bruins realized they hadto step up their game to keeptheir championship hopes alive.Trailing 3-0 after a slow startagainst St. Vincent Pallotti, cap-tains Jon Schneider ’04 and PaulWeitz ’05 took control of thegame.

“We came out flat; thegoals they scored showed weweren’t invincible,” statedSchneider. Before the game,Coach Lucky Mallonee ’62stressed the importance of stay-ing focused during the game.After winning their firstface-off, the Bruins sparked acomeback, with goals scored bySchneider and Weitz. With 30seconds remaining in the firstquarter, Weitz scored his thirdgoal of the game after a penaltyfor unnecessary roughness, giv-ing Park a man up advantagethat the team was able to

capitalize on.The Bruins hadn’t

played for 12 days prior to thissemi-final game due to a firstround bye, which might explain

the slow start to the game. Thenumber six seeded St. VincentPallotti Panthers earned the right

to play Park after a 15-14 winover the third seed St. Johns atProspect Hall.

The Panthers returnedthe Park outburst by tying thegame at 4-4 on a goal by #12

Brett Leonard. After a levelingbody check by Schneider to stopa fast break, the Panthers wereforced to call a timeout. TheBruins tore back onto the fieldscoring three more consecutivegoals. At the end of the half,Park left the field to deafeningapplause with a 7-4 lead.

In the second half, theBruins continued to open up thegame by outscoring Pallotti 5-2in the third quarter with the helpof goals by Joe Levitan ’04 andJ.J. Baylin ’05.

A key moment in se-curing the win came midwaythrough the fourth quarter. Parkcontrolled the clock for overfour minutes, and after getting6 shots, the Bruins went downtwo men from penalties in tran-sition. The defense held strong,allowing only three shots tobreak the penalty.

Paul Weitz ended thegame on a memorable note withan assist from behind the goalover the goalie’s head to Tarver‘07 for the score. The finalscore was 13-8, sending Park onto the championship. Park’s lastappearance there was in 2002

against Spalding.Following the game,

Coach Mallonee attributed thewin to the team’s perseverance,noting especially their comeback from the 3-0 deficit.

Pallotti’s coach ChrisLombardi was impressed byPark’s offensive performance:

“It is hard to stop a team withsuch great control of the ball onoffense,” he said. He also point-ed out the performances byattack-men Weitz and Schneider.Mallonee named Weitz the game

MVP. He had a career game,scoring six goals and makingtwo assists, leading the Bruins tovictory. Weitz commented onthe game saying, “We workedhard and knew nothing wouldcome easy, but we stuck togeth-er and it has paid off.”

In the championshipgame against John Carroll atTowson University on May 21,2004, the Bruins got off to aslow start they could never re-cover from, a 6-1 deficit. Thefinal score was 12-4. Parkplayed a solid game, but JohnCarroll proved too strong for theBruins. “This season far exceed-ed my expectations,” saidMallonee. This year’s incrediblenine game win streak was thelongest of Mallonee’s career,and was one of the reasons thatmade the season “an overall suc-cess” considering the adversitythe Bruins fought through.

photo by Oliver Reid photo by Oliver Reid

photo by Oliver Reid

B. Earley ’05 and J. Levitan ’04 double team John Carroll opponent.

Paul Weitz ’05 takes a block, cradling past John Carroll opponent.

David Berman ’05 fights for the ball.

POSTSCRIPTPage 12May 28, 2004 SPORTS

The Park SchoolBrooklandville, MD. 21022

Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. PostagePermit No. 2

Boys Varsity Baseball finishes third in competitive seasonby Dan Wasserman ‘06

The Girls VarsityLacrosse team finished their reg-ular season with a record of 6-4in the IAAM B conference, andfound itself seeded as the thirdin the playoffs. The squad

opened up the playoffs with aquarterfinals match against Pal-lotti. Park completely dominatedand won the game with a highscore of 19-2. The game fea-tured 10 different goal scorersfor the Bruins, seven of whichhad a multi-goal game. AlthoughPark had easily beaten Pallottiearlier in the season, the teamdid not take the tournamentgame for granted.

The squad played as atrue team, working the ballaround the field, cutting forpasses, and sending the ball toopen players as they ran to goal.Thirteen of the 19 Bruins’ goals

came off of assists from otherplayers. The tremendous winagainst Pallotti sent Park into thesemi-finals to play second-seed-ed Archbishop Spalding. Withfull potential to beat a team thathas been in the championship forthe past few years, Park pre-pared rigorously both physicallyand mentally for a game thatwould last for almost twohours, continuing into quadruple

overtime.The Bruins had lost to

Spalding in their two prior meet-ings, falling with scores of 16-7and 11-5. But each and everyplayer on the team knew that thegames drastically misrepresent-ed them; in the two previousgames, Park had kept Spaldingon their toes for a majority ofthe game, yet seemed to let thegame slip away near the end.The girls knew the game wouldbe physically exhausting, butthey also knew how much itwould test their mental endur-ance and stamina.

On May 7, the teamtraveled to Archbishop Spaldingready for what was to come.The game started out strong,both teams fought hard for theball and passed with skill. Thegame was close for the entire 50minutes; after Park scored agoal, Spalding retaliated, andvice versa. Those who playedon the field gave their all, andthose on the bench stood on theedge of the field, cheering fortheir team mates. In the last fewminutes of the game, Spaldingscored and was up by one goal.Robin Cardin Lowe, Park’s headcoach, called a time out with 30seconds left in the game. After

Girls Varsity Lacrosse loses in quadruple overtime, 8 - 9it, the Park team jogged backonto the field with new determi-nation and came up with the ballafter the draw. With five sec-onds on the clock, Jen Reis ’06had the ball and went for goalbut, on the way, was fouled bya Spalding player. With two sec-onds left, Jen took her penaltyshot, sending the ball flying un-der the goalie’s stick, betweenher feet, and into the net. Thescore was 7-7 and time was up.

In the first overtime,Spalding took the lead, and onceagain, the Bruins would not giveup. Late in the second overtime,sophomore Sarah Goldstepped up and tied thegame at 8-8, sendingthe battle into suddendeath. Both sidesplayed hard, prevent-ing any goals andforcing a second sud-den death—the game’sfourth overtime. Bothteams continued tofight, but after a fewminutes Spalding re-ceived the ball and putit in the goal, endingthe never-ending semi-final game. Overcomewith exhaustion andheartbreak but proud of their in-

by Brad Mendelson ‘06exorable efforts, Park’s teamgathered together for its lastcheer. The players supportedone another as they mourned fortheir loss, yet admired each oth-er’s efforts and excellent play.

Park certainlybrought the Spalding players’confidence down a notch andgave them a run for their mon-ey, wearing them out for theweekend’s championship gamein which they lost to Friendsschool. Team captain JennyCooper ’04 said of the Spaldinggame, “It was the best game oflacrosse I’ve ever seen.”

photo by Lawrence Raifman

photo by Lawrence Raifman

photo by Jill Papel ’05

Maggie Sachs ’07 dodges Spalding defense.

Sarah Raifman ’05 heads to goal.

The Boys’ Varsity Base-ball team achieved several of itskey goals this season. The teamwas 12-3 and was one of thecontenders in the MIAA B-Con-ference. Coach Scott Lowenotes his team “rises to the oc-casion” each week. A game planof throwing strikes, good de-fense, and clutch hitting hasallowed the team to compete inevery game. This strategy, alongwith a lack of key injuries, hasworked to near perfection asPark finished the season in thirdplace.

The coaching staff,Lowe and assistant Foye Mint-on, stresses the basics. Theteam builds off of repetition: run-ning many drills during everypractice. Lowe considers thefundamentals of the game, espe-cially “throwing and catchingthe ball,” key elements to a win-ning ball club, this attitude hasrubbed off on the players.

Co-Captain Jon Gill ’06believes that the coaches have“definitely been a large factor byhelping keep the team organizedand working to improve us.”Gill added, “it all starts with thelittle things; those are what mat-ter most.” Thedefense has prov-en itself on thefield: committing19 errors throughthe first 13 games,while their oppo-nents havecommitted 39 er-rors during thesame span.

A f t e rwinning its firsttwo games, theteam struggled inits next three, falling to 3-2 onthe season, including a 2-0 de-feat vs. Mount Carmel. Thefollowing game, the teambounced back when Jon Book-

stein ’04 threw a completegame five-hitter against AACS,while allowing just two earnedruns. Bookstein doubled andscored on an infield-single byEzra Rosenberg ’06. Rosenbergpromptly scored on a two-run

homerun by Ben Hyman ’06,and gave Park a 6-3 victory.

Park completed a five-game winning streak before aconfrontation with top-ranked

Severn. Bookstein was on fire,once again, throwing a two-hit-ter with eight strikeouts. Hehelped himself out, hitting two-extra base hits including threeruns and an RBI. Dave Carlton’04 drove Bookstein home in the

fourth inning and add-ed another RBI in thefifth. Brad Rifkin ’05was three for five witha key leadoff doublestarting a four-runfifth inning. The Bru-ins added two moreruns in the seventh,giving them a 10-0 vic-tory.

After a forfeitvictory over the St.Frances Academy, theteam battled for second

against Pallotti. Park startedstrong, jumping out to a 4-0lead. Pallotti scored in the third,Gill allowed only one hit, but anerror and a wild pitch kept theinning alive for the Panthers.Park added two runs in thethird. Matt Rogers ’04 scoredBookstein on a double. Rogerslater scored on a throwing er-ror. Pallotti scored three in thefourth and never relinquished thelead. Park lost the game, 13 to6.

Following a 13-5 victo-ry against Lutheran, the teamfinished in third place in the BConference. The Bruins openedthe playoffs with a 7-6 victoryagainst Chapelgate, before an-

other match up with second-ranked Pallotti. The Pantherswent scoreless through the firstthree innings of the game beforescoring five runs in the fourthand seven runs in the fifth. Thegame ended in five innings. Parklost 12-1.

The double eliminationbracket kept the team alive.They beat Friends for the sec-ond time this season in their nextgame, 7-4. The next eliminationgame matched Park againstChapelgate, who the Bruins al-ready beat twice this season.Park took the lead 2-1 with asolo-home run by Bookstein.The Yellowjackets scored fourruns in the next inning. Chapel-gate won the game 7-2, whichknocked the Bruins out of theplayoffs.

There have been manyother contributions to the team:As of May 12, Stefano Calvello’05 has led off with an outstand-ing .646 on-base percentage,which has allowed Rifkin, Gill,and Hyman to knock in manyruns. Bookstein has thrown 30.1innings with 2.77 ERA and 33strikeouts. The team achieved itsprimary goal by making theplayoffs. The season on a wholewas very successful by finish-ing third in the conference.Laying the foundation for anoth-er successful season, the Bruinshave taken a large step towardsachieving a championship in thenear future.

Jon Bookstein ‘04 exhibits perform pitching form.