10
The Rain Dance Vol. LI, Issue 1 October 7, 2011 Oak Grove High School www.theraindance.com Page 2 Sports Page 10 Entertainment Jordan Disotell and Hanna Turnage (left) and Allen Jones and Aldraunna McNair (right) parade as part of the Homecoming princes and princesses at the pep rally on September 30th. Photos by RAVEN JONES By: Morgan Guess Staff Reporter Over the summer, Mallory Maples went to the Abbie Rog- ers Civitan Camp as a counselor and came home with an idea that would change Oak Grove’s homecoming for years to come. After meeting a girl with dis- abilities at camp who had been crowned homecoming queen at her school, Maples thought that Oak Grove should also include students with disabilities in all aspects of school, not just aca- demics. As the idea spread, peti- tions surfaced all around school, showing the entire student body’s support. What started as Maples’s senior project and small student petitions gained the attention of the school board. Maples sent a proposal to Principal Wayne Folkes as a part of her senior project that assured that one maid and one escort with disabilities, whether mental or physical, could participate in the school’s homecoming. Folkes then informed her that the pro- posal would have to be approved by the school board. However, the school board reported it was too late to change the school board policy for this year. Al- though the proposal couldn’t be put into action this year, it is a definite possibility for the 2012- 2013 school year according to the school board. The results of the homecom- ing elections showed that the proposals and petitions were never needed. All students nominated from the community-based classes won homecoming escort and maid for the homecoming court in his or her grade. Those students elect- ed for homecoming court from the community-based classes include freshman escort Josh Mixon, sophomore escort Cha Mar Booth, sophomore maid Sharnee Fairley, junior escort Ryan Hendley, junior maid Am- ber Williams, and senior maid Kaitlyn Fuller, who is also now in the running for Homecoming Queen. When the results for the homecoming court were an- nounced, there was much ex- citement throughout the school. When the parents of the newly selected court heard, they were extremely impressed with the Oak Grove student body and, as community-based teacher Mrs. Stacy Todd recalled, many cried. “I am so proud of our stu- dent body! They really rallied behind campaigning for these students, who normally are not given these types of opportuni- ties,” Todd said. Students not nominated were recognized as princes and prin- cesses at the pep rally for the Petal game. In preparation for homecoming, Maples and others are shopping for dresses, and the students will practice a day in advance for the big night. “The Junior Civitan Club is also helping with many of the preparations,” Todd said. The results of this homecom- ing election prove that the stu- dent body of Oak Grove High School has a huge heart. Like Maples, they all believe that the students with disabilities should be given the opportunities to participate in all aspects of school, including homecoming. The participants and audience alike will never forget Home- coming 2011. As Mrs. Swil- ley, another community-based teacher, exclaimed, “They will never forget this!” Student body’s choices make Homecoming special Student body’s choices make Homecoming special By: Mary Ryan Karnes Staff Reporter More crowded hallways, lon- ger cafeteria lines, and a fuller parking lot are all signs of the exponential growth at not only Oak Grove High School but also throughout the Lamar County School District. Last year school officials were in the midst of de- veloping a five-year comprehen- sive plan to deal with the influx of new students in the district. Thanks to the work of the La- mar County School Board, these plans will be carried out starting with the construction of a new Oak Grove kindergarten build- ing west of 4th Street and, hope- fully, other buildings, class- rooms, and cafeterias all over the district. School Board Presi- dent Mike Pruitt explained that construction for the new K-5 building is expected to begin this October and end in about a year. “This means a mid-year move, but we’ve proven that our administrators, teachers, stu- dents, and parents can do this as we moved into the OGLE and OGUE in mid-year of 2010,” Pruitt said. There has also been talk among school board mem- bers of a 9th grade academy, which could be located on the Oak Grove High School cam- pus and used for that grade only. Additional facilities that could potentially be built for the use of Lamar County Schools include a central track and field and tennis courts that would be used by all high schools in the district. For- tunately, no area of the Lamar County School District budget will be cut in order to pay for these new facilities; however, some debt will be retired over the next year or two to pay for the loan on this new school. Lamar County Schools Su- perintendent Dr. Ben Burnett has realized the rapid growth within the district and made the commitment to take action be- fore maximum school capacities were reached. “We conducted a ten year enrollment study a year ago to determine the long range needs of the school dis- trict,” Burnett said. “This study shows that our district could possibly double in size over the next decade and increase to as many as 17,000 students. We have to build new buildings and new campuses to keep up with the growth.” Both Burnett and Pruitt agree that without effec- tive expansion, safety, scores, and the well-being of the stu- dent body could be jeopardized. “When classrooms are over- crowded, it diminishes the en- vironment for learning, not to mention the comfort, safety, and convenience of using the pub- lic spaces such as hallways, the library, and the cafeteria. Our job as a school board is to continue to plan for our dis- trict in order to meet the needs of all our students,” Pruitt said. Expansion at Oak Grove is causing and will cause many changes for both students and faculty. Fortunately, the admin- istration is working to meet the needs of each individual. Pruitt asserted that one downside of Oak Grove growth is money that could be used for an auditorium must be used to expand class- rooms. This issue of prioritiza- tion, however, is outweighed by the fact that new learners are be- ing added to Oak Grove schools each year. Pruitt explained that many students are choosing Oak Grove over other nearby area schools because of all the awards it has received, which is an honor to the hard work of administrators, teachers, and students. “I believe schools are the most important component of a community’s economic devel- opment efforts and from that we have exciting new retail, res- taurants, and of- fices,” Pruitt said. Even though cer- tain aspects of expansion may be setbacks, the construction of new schools is expected to re- duce the burden of overcrowd- ing. “It will allow our students more room and will enable us to continue to increase our aca- demic scores and to keep all of our students safe,” Burnett said. The exapansion of the Lamar County School District is sure to broaden education opportunities for all its students. Jaylen Robertson (top) and Dalton Teck (bot- tom) greet the crowd at the pep rally. Red-hot Warriors off to 5-1 start Building better bonds... which one wins out? “They will never for- get this!” Mrs. Carmen Swilley, Community-Based Teacher “...our district could possibly double in size over the next decade and increase to as many as 17,000 students. Dr. Ben Burnett, LCSD Superintendent Page 4 Opinion

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The Rain DanceVol. LI, Issue 1October 7, 2011Oak Grove High Schoolwww.theraindance.com

Page 2 Sports Page 10 Entertainment

Jordan Disotell and Hanna Turnage (left) and Allen Jones and Aldraunna McNair (right) parade as part of the Homecoming princes and princesses at the pep rally on September 30th.

Photos by RAVEN JONES

By: Morgan GuessStaff Reporter

Over the summer, Mallory Maples went to the Abbie Rog-ers Civitan Camp as a counselor and came home with an idea that would change Oak Grove’s homecoming for years to come. After meeting a girl with dis-abilities at camp who had been crowned homecoming queen at her school, Maples thought that Oak Grove should also include students with disabilities in all aspects of school, not just aca-demics. As the idea spread, peti-tions surfaced all around school, showing the entire student body’s support. What started as Maples’s senior project and small student petitions gained the attention of the school board.

Maples sent a proposal to Principal Wayne Folkes as a part of her senior project that assured that one maid and one escort with

disabilities, whether mental or physical, could participate in the school’s homecoming. Folkes then informed her that the pro-posal would have to be approved by the school board. However, the school board reported it was too late to change the school board policy for this year. Al-though the proposal couldn’t be put into action this year, it is a definite possibility for the 2012-2013 school year according to the school board.

The results of the homecom-ing elections showed that the proposals and petitions were never needed. All students nominated from the community-based classes won homecoming escort and maid for the homecoming court in his or her grade. Those students elect-ed for homecoming court from

the community-based classes include freshman escort Josh Mixon, sophomore escort Cha Mar Booth, sophomore maid Sharnee Fairley, junior escort Ryan Hendley, junior maid Am-ber Williams, and senior maid Kaitlyn Fuller, who is also now in the running for Homecoming Queen.

When the results for the homecoming court were an-nounced, there was much ex-citement throughout the school. When the parents of the newly selected court heard, they were extremely impressed with the Oak Grove student body and, as community-based teacher Mrs. Stacy Todd recalled, many cried. “I am so proud of our stu-dent body! They really rallied behind campaigning for these students, who normally are not given these types of opportuni-ties,” Todd said. Students not

nominated were recognized as princes and prin-cesses at the pep rally for the Petal game. In

preparation for homecoming, Maples and others are shopping for dresses, and the students will practice a day in advance for the big night. “The Junior Civitan Club is also helping with many of the preparations,” Todd said.

The results of this homecom-

ing election prove that the stu-dent body of Oak Grove High School has a huge heart. Like Maples, they all believe that the students with disabilities should be given the opportunities to participate in all aspects of school, including homecoming. The participants and audience alike will never forget Home-coming 2011. As Mrs. Swil-ley, another community-based teacher, exclaimed, “They will never forget this!”

Student body’s choices make Homecoming special

Student body’s choices make Homecoming specialBy: Mary Ryan KarnesStaff Reporter More crowded hallways, lon-

ger cafeteria lines, and a fuller parking lot are all signs of the exponential growth at not only Oak Grove High School but also throughout the Lamar County School District. Last year school officials were in the midst of de-veloping a five-year comprehen-sive plan to deal with the influx of new students in the district. Thanks to the work of the La-mar County School Board, these plans will be carried out starting with the construction of a new Oak Grove kindergarten build-ing west of 4th Street and, hope-fully, other buildings, class-rooms, and cafeterias all over the district. School Board Presi-dent Mike Pruitt explained that construction for the new K-5 building is expected to begin this October and end in about a year. “This means a mid-year move, but we’ve proven that our administrators, teachers, stu-dents, and parents can do this as we moved into the OGLE and OGUE in mid-year of 2010,” Pruitt said. There has also been talk among school board mem-

bers of a 9th grade academy, which could be located on the Oak Grove High School cam-pus and used for that grade only. Additional facilities that could potentially be built for the use of Lamar County Schools include a central track and field and tennis courts that would be used by all high schools in the district. For-tunately, no area of the Lamar County School District budget will be cut in order to pay for these new facilities; however, some debt will be retired over the next year or two to pay for the loan on this new school.

Lamar County Schools Su-perintendent Dr. Ben Burnett has realized the rapid growth within the district and made the commitment to take action be-fore maximum school capacities were reached. “We conducted a ten year enrollment study a year ago to determine the long range needs of the school dis-trict,” Burnett said. “This study shows that our district could possibly double in size over the next decade and increase to as many as 17,000 students. We have to build new buildings and new campuses to keep up with

the growth.” Both Burnett and Pruitt agree that without effec-tive expansion, safety, scores, and the well-being of the stu-dent body could be jeopardized. “When classrooms are over-crowded, it diminishes the en-vironment for learning, not to mention the comfort, safety, and convenience of using the pub-lic spaces such as hallways, the library, and the cafeteria. Our job as a school board is to continue to plan for our dis-trict in order to meet the needs of all our students,” Pruitt said.

Expansion at Oak Grove is causing and will cause many changes for both students and faculty. Fortunately, the admin-istration is working to meet the needs of each individual. Pruitt asserted that one downside of Oak Grove growth is money that could be used for an auditorium must be used to expand class-rooms. This issue of prioritiza-tion, however, is outweighed by the fact that new learners are be-

ing added to Oak Grove schools each year. Pruitt explained that many students are choosing Oak Grove over other nearby area schools because of all the awards it has received, which is an honor to the hard work of administrators, teachers, and students. “I believe schools are the most important component

of a community’s economic devel-opment efforts and from that we have exciting new retail, res-taurants, and of-fices,” Pruitt said. Even though cer-tain aspects of expansion may

be setbacks, the construction of new schools is expected to re-duce the burden of overcrowd-ing. “It will allow our students more room and will enable us to continue to increase our aca-demic scores and to keep all of our students safe,” Burnett said. The exapansion of the Lamar County School District is sure to broaden education opportunities for all its students.

Jaylen Robertson (top) and Dalton Teck (bot-tom) greet the crowd at the pep rally.

Red-hot Warriors off to 5-1

start

Building better bonds...

which onewins out?

“They will never for-get this!”

Mrs. Carmen Swilley,Community-Based Teacher

“...our district could possibly double in size over the next

decade and increase to as many as 17,000

students.Dr. Ben Burnett,

LCSD Superintendent

Page 4 Opinion

2 news/sports October 31, 2011

NewsbriefsBy: Miranda Rester, Copy Editor

AP World History students excel on exam

Juniors Morgan Eguia and Nick Stevenson both received fives on the AP World History test. “Seeing that score made all of the studying I did in AP World History worth it,” Eguia said. This test is a three-hour long exam which contains 70 comprehensive multiple-choice questions and three essay questions. Students earn scores ranging from one to five. “AP World His-tory covers nearly 10,000 years of human history. The course is fast and furious, to put it mildly,” AP World History teacher Christopher Rusco said. Sophomores in AP World History spend many hours doing weekly reading, writing history essays, and working AP exam practice tests. Rusco expected his students to do well on the multiple-choice portion of the test, but he was slightly nervous about the essay portion solely because the course wasn’t able to allow students to spend a large amount of time writing essays due to the semester time crunch.

Although time restraints forced students to retain a lot of information in a small amount of time, Rusco’s students all gave their best efforts on the exam. “There are many students who did well, and I am proud of all of them,” Rusco said. This year, however, students will get an entire year to prepare for the exam. Also this year’s AP World History students are learning from a new book which Rusco hopes will make the course more stimulating and hopefully easier for his students to understand.

Rhonda Crawford receives $5,000 grant

Last fall, STEM teacher Rhonda Crawford completed a portfolio to ap-ply for a grant to improve her class-room. Crawford received great news at the beginning of this school year. According to a letter from the Missis-

sippi Department of Education, due to her exceptional teaching, Crawford’s request for a grant was approved. Crawford was given $5,000 to improve her classroom which is a blessing for any teacher, but it is especially useful for any sort of technology teacher solely because technology is very costly. “I received an e-mail listing the specifications of what I can and cannot buy, so I’m still trying to decide what I want to use the grant for,” Crawford said.

As technology advances, the price of items of this genre increases. This grant will help Crawford update her classroom and in the long run, will provide a better teaching environment for her students. “Keeping com-puter technology up-to-date is expensive and requires grants,” fellow technology teacher, annual and newspa-per advisor Joy Davis said.

Homecoming dress-up days announced

Homecoming week will be October 12th, 13th, and 14th this year. “The only reason I’m not upset about homecoming week being only three days is because it’s right after fall break,” senior Brittain Allgood said. Since homecoming, October 14th, and fall break hap-pen to be in the same week this year, there will only be, as most students know, three days of Homecoming week. The theme for this year will be Warriors Cele-brate the Good Times with all hallways decorated as

creatively as possible with only black and gold colors. “The black and gold hall-ways will help raise school spirit during Homecoming week,” Student Body Re-porter Hayley Higgason said.

The theme for Wednes-day will be Twin Day,

which two students will dress exactly alike (expect to see a lot of Thing One and Thing Two costumes). Char-acter Day, a student body favorite, will remain this year and will be on Thursday. One can only wonder which teacher Anna Schwartz will choose to transform into this year. Friday will be Black and Gold Day as it has been for years. However, this Homecoming week may only be two days for the students who are signed up to take the PSAT because the test falls on October 12th, Twin Day. “I’m upset that I have to miss the first day of Homecoming week especially since it’s so short,” sophomore Morgan Guess said.

Warrior football off to fast start

Christian Chauvin, senior, leaves Purvis defenders be-hind at the Warrior-Tornado showdown on August 26th.

Photo by RAVEN JONES

By: Austin HeusserStaff Reporter

Oak Grove Warrior football stomped into the 2011-2012 games with a bang kicking off the season at home against the Sumrall Bobcats. The Warriors got their first hint of success in front of a screaming student section as they defeated the Sumrall Bobcats 52-0. After that victory, the Warriors traveled to their first away game against the Purvis Tornadoes where they con-tinued their success by gain-ing another win with a score of 35-21.The following week, the then 2-0 Warriors prepared for their next opponent, the Laurel Golden Tornadoes. Oak Grove defeated them 17-3. With a record of 3-0, Coach Barr began prepar-

ing his players for the hard-est game of the season yet. Just coming off of a victory over the infamous South Panola High School, Gulf-port High School set its cross-hairs on the Warriors. Little did they know what await-ed them on that Friday night. The War-riors, led by senior quarter-back Steven Swindle, forced Gulfport into a submissive defeat of 31-14. The War-riors then hopped on the bus and headed to Forest Hill High, where they brought their record to an impressive 5-0. The following week, the student body eagerly awaited the weekend game

against the Warriors fierce rivals the Petal Panthers. On that cool Fall night, the Warriors charged into the stadium amidst screaming fans. The Warriors fought hard in the first half achiev-ing three touchdowns and forcing a safety making the score at halftime 23-12 Oak Grove. Petal came back with a vengeance in the second half, expanding their score to a three touchdown lead. Oak Grove answered back with multiple touch-downs and increased their score to 37; however, the Panthers continued to score with an impressive 54

points.After losing to the Pan-thers 54-37, the War-riors held their heads high as they walked off

of the field. “We fought through the final whistle, and there’s no shame in that,” center Allen Cum-mins said after the game. Hopefully this mentality will go with the Warriors tonight as they travel to Me-ridian to face the Wildcats, ranked #3 in the state.

GOP candidates battle for nominationBy: Will PipesStaff Reporter

Americans are about to make the choice which plots the future of their na-tion. The 2012 presidential election is near. This means campaigns, polls, and spec-ulation galore about can-didates, nominations, and possible victors. On one side of the aisle, the Demo-crats have a returning candi-date, President Obama, who has officially announced his run for re-election. On the other side of the presiden-tial nomination field, the Republicans, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), have several contenders with numerous ideas to of-fer. However, as with all political races, a few front runners have distinguished themselves from the pack.

The first is Michele Bachmann, the Congres-sional Representative for Minnesota. Bachmann’s mindset is one of a conser-vative Tea Party member. This may hurt or help her in the long run, depending on how well Bachmann can relate to the people on cer-tain issues such as the lag-ging economy. Bachmann has started her campaign

with a win in the Iowa Straw Poll, which measures a GOP presidential candidate’s pop-ularity in the nation. Collect-ing attention from several media networks and maga-zines such as Newsweek, where she made the cover of the August 15th issue, has transformed Bachmann into a well-known public figure.

Next is Ron Paul, a for-mer Texas Representative and Bachmann’s polar op-posite. Although he is a member of the GOP, Ron Paul’s viewpoints consis-tently stray from those of his party and into more of a moderate standpoint, sup-porting a number of Demo-cratic ideas as well as GOP ones. With 4,671 votes to Bachmann’s 4,823, he came in a close second in the Iowa Straw Poll. However, with news outlets choosing to cover Bachmann and other potential GOP candidates such as Rick Santorum, Tim Pawlenty, and Herman Cain, Paul has been given almost no coverage in the media. While his media coverage may be lacking, Paul is pro-jected to have an advantage over the other candidates. Paul holds the lowest dif-ference in approval rating

against President Obama with 47.8% for Obama and 42.0% for Paul making for a difference of 5.8% .

Rick Perry is the last GOP front runner for the presidential nomination. Perry has served as Gover-nor of Texas since Decem-ber of 2000. While not as popular as the other two can-didates, Perry’s strength lies in his image of being on the opposite end of the political spectrum in relation to Pres-ident Obama. Perry recently suffered a loss to candidate Herman Cain in a Florida straw poll. Although daunt-ed, a CNN poll released September 26th cites GOP (and independents who lean towards the GOP) as still being largely in support of Perry, with his support rat-ing at 28%, 7% higher than his closest competitor, Mitt Romney.

These are the current front runners poised to chal-lenge President Obama for the presidential office. As always, anything can change in a political race of such importance. As the election approaches, the people can only wonder who will come to represent the nation for the next four years.

“We fought through the final whistle, and there’s no shame in

that.”Allen Cummins,

Senior

3news/sportsOctober 31, 2011

Morgan Eguia, junior, competes in the 100-meter Butterfly event at the West Jones Invitational on September 24th.

Photo by HAYLEY HIGGASON

By: Amelia PasserStaff Reporter

As Oak Grove athletes start off their new seasons, these Warriors are filled with determination and certainly with Warrior pride. And while most sports teams fight on the fields, others find a more aquatic approach.

The OGHS swim team dove into their new season leaving their rivals nothing but bubbles. So far the team has participated in four meets. Both boys and girls teams have placed in at least the top five at every meet.

But this is not at all surprising considering the amount of prac-tice the swimmers have had. In the past years, tryouts have been held during the beginning of the school year. Usually the turnout is close to 40 members. This year, however,

Coach Nora Rapetti decided to take another approach. Tryouts were held for the 2011-2012 swim team last April, and it was required for all team members to attend summer practices.

For a number of reasons, this turned off many former swimmers. The purpose was to eliminate kids who weren’t as dedicated or as gifted at swimming. This also gave members more time to get back into swimming shape. “It takes a lot to get back into the swing of things after not swimming for so long,” senior Emilee Asquith said. “The extra time really helped all of us improve.” Summer practices were held every Monday and Wednes-day from 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. “At first practices were really tough, but I just kept my eyes on the prize,” Asquith said.

Winning a swim meet isn’t just about being the best swimmer; it takes lots of thought and strategy as well. “We’re still trying to figure out the best way to strategize the events,” Haley Higgason, girls’ captain, said. “Everyone on the team this year is a good swimmer, but the hard part is figuring out who’s best to put in which events.”

To score in a meet, the top eight of each event are given points. First place gets eight points; second place gets seven points, etc. Each swimmer on the team can participate in a max-imum of four events, which include two relays and two individual events, and no swimmer can participate in the same event twice. The events range from distances of 50 meters to 500 meters and include either one or all of the four strokes: Free Style, Breast, Butterfly, and Back Strokes. Events throughout the meet are num-bered with odd numbers for boys and evens for girls.

The main goal of this year, ac-cording to Higgason, is to win South State on October 15th.

“Last time we won was two years ago, and I think this year we have a really good chance,” Higgason said.

Swim meets are held mostly on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., and the season lasts until late October. Please come support the swim team as they splash their way to the state finals.

OG swimmers gear up for South State

Volleyball spikes Panthers, advance to playoffsBy: Jordan FarrarStaff Reporter

The Lady Warriors won Tues-day night’s game against the Petal Panthers. The Lady Warriors al-most had a landslide victory of 3-0, but the Panthers gave a fight and won one of the games. The game against the Panthers gave the Lady Warriors a final record of 13-5 for the season. The team surpassed last year’s record by winning four more games than last year’s team. Head Coach Renee McInarnay (Mac) added, “These girls are just fantas-tic, no, fabulous. They’ve brought something different, and it’s great.” Coach Mac commended the Lady Warriors on their teamwork as the season progressed. “They have quite the fluid communication and work well together. Each girl has her own talent that she uses to bet-ter the team,” Mac said.

For most Warriors, ringing a cowbell in the student section at the Warrior football field on Friday nights is the extent of school spirit. Volleyball, however, has not al-ways had the recognition like that

under the Friday night lights. For those who aren’t familiar with the game, it’s played with two teams, each with six players. The goal is to ground the ball on the opposite court or to make the other team fault.

To begin the game, one player, the setter, will set up the ball. An-other player will then come up be-hind to swat the ball over the net. The points are tallied by faults/kills. But volleyball requires much more than just hand-eye coordina-tion. One must be a leader on and off the court.

Senior Dana Marx is one of the Lady Warrior’s leaders and has played in all positions. One quick kill made by Dana Marx during the Brandon game had some of the spectators do a double-take to see which girl had the shot. These kills are explosive hits over the net that the opposing team cannot reach in time to recover. Marx ended the game with three spikes, four kills, and two line shots, a shot down the opposing teams’ boundary line.

“My team really loves playing

Photo by LAURA PREHNAnna Kate Carstens, freshmen, blocked a hit from the Petal Panthers at their matchup on October 4th.

volleyball. It’s amazing,” second year player Samantha Knowles said. “It’s a pleasure to watch all of them on the court in front of everyone.”

Oak Grove has a definite spot in the upcoming playoffs. The Lady Warriors will take on Hancock on Saturday, October 8th for the first round of the playoffs.

Warrior cross country off and running

Will Murphey, sophomore, and Jackson Shahady, senior, hustle to the finish line at the USM Invita-tional on September 2nd at Tatum Park.

Photo by RAVEN JONES

By: Allison SlusherStaff Reporter

Every afternoon around 3:40, the majority of the Oak Grove High School student body gets their daily exercise by running to their cars to beat the parking lot traffic. One group of students, however, the Warrior Cross Country Team, be-gins a different run at 3:40, one that involves rigorous training in order to become the best team they can be. The team’s training consists of difficult workouts including morn-ing and afternoon runs. With all of

this training, the team has seen its efforts pay off after receiving many top placings at meets and even gaining new personal records.

The team began the season with their annual Oak Grove Run-ning Festival which serves as both a fund raiser and the first meet of the season. Overall, this has been a busy year for the cross country team, seeing as they have com-peted in numerous meets including the Mississippi College Choctaw Relay Challenge, two USM Invi-tationals, the Mobile Challenge of Champions, the East Central Invi-tational, and the Gulf Coast Stam-pede in Pensacola. “My favorite meet would have to be the Mobile meet because of its course,” said Will Murphey, a sophomore on the team.

Many members on the team have even set personal goals for

themselves this year as they continue the season. “I hope to improve more than I have in the past five years on the team,” senior Lindsey Hardin said. When asked what he would like to accomplish as a team, Mur-phey said, “I would like to see us win state.” It is no doubt, though, that with all the determination the team has, these goals can easily be accom-plished.

The team has two more meets, the George County Invitational on October 15th and the Ocean Springs Invitational on October 22nd, before the Division meet on October 27th followed by the State meet on No-vember 5th. As the season comes to a close, however, it has become clear that the Warrior Cross Country team will be one to watch not only as a team but also as individual competi-tors.

By: Allison SlusherStaff ReporterEvan Sobiesk is currently the kicker for the Warrior football team and is being recruited by many Division I schools. This column follows him throughout his decision making process and allows us to see which college he will choose in the end.Warrior football has made many proud accomplishments in the past several years including two South State Championships, numerous awards, and many Division I recruits. One distin-guished upcoming recruit is Evan Sobiesk.Sobiesk’s performance as a kicker has now led him to the opportunity to play at a Division I university, an accomplish-ment every high school athlete hopes for. Many universities have already contacted Sobiesk including Southern Miss, Iowa State, Rice, Texas Christian, and even South Eastern Conference schools Mississippi State and Louisiana State. Even Ivy League universities such as Harvard, Princeton, and Brown have con-tacted Sobiesk. “I would like to go to a school with good academics, good ath-letics, and a good atmosphere,” Sobiesk replied when asked what he is looking for in a college. He also explained that one of the most important aspects to him in making this decision is playing time. “I want to be able to play early in college. I don’t want to spend my entire freshman year sitting out,” Sobiesk said. With all of these options, how-ever, Sobiesk said he has not yet ruled out a school. In turn, we are all left to guess where he will go. In the meantime we will just be, dare I say, kicking it with Evan Sobiesk.

4 opinion October 31, 2011OP

INIO

N

By MORGAN GUESSOver the past few years,

one social networking force has been connecting humans around the world in ways not seen since Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. That force is none other than the incredible Facebook. Created in a college dorm room by Mark Zuckerberg in 2005, Facebook has grown to encompass over 750 million people worldwide according to the Huffington Post. What makes Facebook so great is that it puts life online in a unique and interesting way. Users can have conversa-tions, respond to the thoughts of another, or even post pic-tures of some of the memo-ries they’ve made in order to show their friends all within a matter of minutes. Twitter tries to re-create the same effect, but the conversations aren’t the same when they are submerged in dozens of tweets from others. Pictures require several different sites to view while Facebook simply uses its own pic-ture viewing system. After all, a “retweet” just doesn’t amount to a like or a com-ment.

What’s even more im-pressive about Facebook is how it has invaded our soci-ety. Today a message sent on Facebook is more likely to be responded to than a message on an e-mail account.While checking an e-mail account is seen as a chore by most, people find checking their Facebook more instinctual as Facebook is an extension of themselves. You can’t find that kind of personalization

on Twitter, being limited in what your profile can have on it and having only 140 char-acters, spaces included, to express your thoughts. Even teachers have been looking into using the social net-working site to post assign-ments via a Facebook group tailor-made for that class. Not only is Facebook useful for socializing, the site is also more than adequate for edu-cation.

Possibly the most amaz-ing aspect of Facebook, how-ever, is the reasoning behind this rethinking of social in-teraction. Mark Zuckerberg, along with partners Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, changed the way we look at the world by creating a world of so-cial interaction that is, to borrow from Tron a bit, for the Users. When they made Facebook, they didn’t know what it would become, only that they wanted to make something amazing. And ac-cording to 750 million plus people, Facebook is quite amazing indeed.

So at the end of the day, Facebook has more of a per-sonal feel, a better way to display some of your favor-ite moments for everyone to see, and an easier method of interaction between users. So when I update my status tonight (and invariably com-ment on something funny I read while doing so), I’ll remember the uniqueness of the site of which I’m on, and I encourage you to do the same.

Five years ago, Twit-ter was just another word in the dictionary. What was once defined as “a series of short, high-pitched bird calls” has since taken on a whole new meaning. In the world of social network-ing, Twitter seemed to be a humdrum, copycat version of the popular Facebook. Of course, I came to this unfa-miliar knockoff and refused to join. I considered myself above the Twitter fad and would tell you so with pride. Facebook had satisfied my social needs for years. What did Twitter have to offer? Basically, nothing new. One simply logs on, “tweets” a message in 140 characters or less, and posts it for oth-ers to see. “Following” re-placed friending. “Retweets” were essentially “likes,” and replies were another way to comment on a status. Spring semester of my junior year, I was required to tweet once a week for my AP Statistics class. Kicking and scream-ing, and for the sake of my grade, I began to tweet. My world was forever changed.

Twitter was the answer to my pent-up Facebook frus-tration. It had all the atten-tion-getting and knowledge-sharing ability of Facebook without the bells and whis-tles. There aren’t any flashy sidebar ads promising a low-er credit score, perfect love life, or free college tuition. Unlike Facebook, Twit-ter isn’t plagued by risky, lawsuit-inducing privacy is-sues.With that said, Twitter has been gaining momentum

among current Facebookers.

Twitter, uncorrupted by col-

lege recruiters and nosy rela-

tives, is a form of freedom.

Change the privacy setting

on your account and write

without inhibitions. Com-

plaints, teenage love quotes,

and awkward moments are

encouraged. You can say

what’s on your mind, but

you can also see what oth-

ers are thinking. Celebrities,

politicians, and journalists

have been creating Twitter

accounts to accompany their

already popular Facebook

pages. However, Twitter is

not just a publicity tool used

by the elite. On May 1st of

this year, President Obama

announced the death of Osa-

ma bin Laden but not before

the news was leaked through

a tweet by Keith Urbahn, a

former Navy intelligence of-

ficer. The news spread like

wildfire across Twitter’s

website, and soon the rumor

was confirmed. Twitter has

nonetheless proven itself to

be an efficient communica-

tion tool.

Of the 106 million Twit-

ter users, around 742,000 are

high school students. Start

your tweeting. Follow me,

@jgunnufsen.

The Rain Dance

The views and opinions expressed on this page are

of an editorial nature and do not necessarily repre-sent the views of The Warrior Beat

staff, advisers, school faculty, or administrators of Oak Grove High

School or the Lamar County School District.

Oak Grove High School5198 Old Highway 11Hattiesburg, MS 39402601.264.7232www.theraindance.com

Editor - Sydney Sanders

Copy Editor - Miranda Rester

Staff - Brittain AllgoodAnna Kate BaygentsNan ButiJordan FarrarMorgan GuessJoanna GunnufsenAustin HeusserRaven JonesMary Ryan KarnesElizabeth Lee

5opinionOctober 31, 2011

An apple a day keeps the debt awayUncle Sam has met his match. According to the latest updates, Apple has become the new top dog.

By MORGAN GUESSBy: Jenny TranStaff Reporter

Watch out, President Obama! According to the June statement from the U.S. Treasury, com-pared to the U.S. government’s op-erating cash bal-

ance of $73.8 billion, Apple has a whopping $76.2 billion in cash and marketable securities. In oth-er words, the world’s largest tech company now has more money than the world’s largest sovereign government. This symbolic feat - the world’s most highly valued tech company, surpassing the fiscal strength of the world’s most pow-erful nation - is just the latest pin-nacle for Apple, which has been on an unprecedented roll.

This feat comes to no surprise seeing as Apple has been roll-ing out new electronics every few months. The federal government could probably learn a thing or two from Apple’s success. For the past few months, Congress has contin-ued to remain embroiled in a de-bate over spending and whether the

debt ceiling while implementing a concrete plan to get the nation’s fi-nancial house in order. In a recent address to the country, President Obama seemed to have the answer to such a crisis. Obama proposed the American Jobs Act to save the United States’ economy. “The pur-pose of the American Jobs Act is simple: to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working,” President Obama said. Essentially, he plans to increase consumption within our economy through job growth. While I do agree that we must focus on job growth within the economy, how do we know this act will work when the 2009 stimu-lus package did not? In February of 2009, Obama proposed $787 billion in economic stimulus when unemployment was around $25 million. Now, more than two years later, unemployment is still around $25 million. Why, therefore, should Obama’s latest proposals to create jobs, consisting about half

the size of the 2009 stimulus, ex-pect to create jobs when the larger stimulus did not?

Compared to the government’s budget and spending money, Apple is valued more than $363 billion. With the rise in Apple’s spendable wealth, experts believe the com-pany may use the money to secure more technology patents or make strategic acquisition of other busi-nesses such as Hulu and Netflix. However, one thing is for sure: this news of Apple having more money than the U.S. government has not fazed the company at all. “We don’t let the cash burn a hole in the pocket or make stupid acquisitions. We’d like to continue to keep our powder dry because we think there are one or more strategic opportu-nities in the future,” former CEO of Apple Steve Jobs said. Offering Uncle Sam a short-term loan, how-ever, is probably not one of them.

government, whic currently owes trillions in debt, should be allowed to borrow even more. Not only that, international credit rating agencies have downgraded the national debt for the first time in the nation’s history if Wash-ington doesn’t come up with a solution to lift the $14.3 trillion

That’s AllFolke’s

INSIGHT FROM YOUR WISE PRINCIPAL, MR. WAYNE FOLKES

VIDEO BONUS COVERAGE:www.theraindance.com

Q: Why do you feel that it is neces-sary to have flat screen TVs in the cafeteria?A: It is not necessary that we have flat screens in the TV. We’ve survived this long without them, but I thought it would be educational, fun, entertaining, and informational. We could work them in a way where we could run announce-ments on them eventually. We don’t have the funding, so if there is money out there that someone wants to donate, we’ll take it.

Q: Besides being everyone’s favorite princiPAL, what are some of your other hobbies?A: I have a 1966 Mustang Convert-ible that I like to show and work on. I haven’t shown it in a while, but I like to work on it. I like reading. I also like things that interest me like motivational stuff. I like going to the beach and the farm place we have. We have horses.

Q: Why don’t any of the clocks in the hallway work?A: We are looking into what it would cost us to put in digital clocks to replace them and stuff like that. That would be even better or just take them out. They are just there. They were put in the building when it was built, and they have never been real efficient.

Q: If Oak Grove’s mascot were not a Warrior, what would we be?A: I went through a list last night of all mascots at different high schools. There are a lot of crazy names out there. The Warriors have been with Oak Grove for a long time. Before the Warriors, someone had given the old annual the Acorns, but what we would have to do is vote on a mascot through the student body. However, if I had my choice, off the top of my head, it would be the Gro-vers. But I like the Warriors because they are winners in many ways.

Q: If you were President, what would be your first act?A: That would be an awesome responsi-bility to be the President of the United States. My first act would be to really look hard at employment and jobs, but I’m glad I don’t have to fool with the politics in Washington because they’re horrible. They’ve got to find a way to get along together and work together, so we can accomplish great things. I think that if you have people working and you have income and prosperity, the country runs better.

If you’d like to submit a question to Mr. Folkes, please e-mail it to [email protected].

E-MAIL

8 opinion October 31, 2011

Kriste Lewis and the 1st block girls’ fitness class shimmy and shake their way through the morning. Photo by BRITTAIN ALLGOOD

and I knew she would do a great job at Oak Grove,” Weeks said.

Lewis has been teaching Zumba for a little over eight months and normally teaches at her church. “I have enjoyed instructing the girls here at Oak Grove. It is giving me the opportunity to work with many different age groups,” Lewis said. Zumba is a dance fitness program created by dancer and choreogra-pher Alberto “Beto” Perez during the 1990s. The program combines Latin and international music with dance in an effort to make exercise enjoyable. Zumba is Spanish slang for “to move fast and have fun.” In these classes, participants are in constant motion. It incorporates hip-hop, samba, salsa, mambo, martial arts, Bollywood, and belly dance moves. Squats and lunges are also included in choreography in order to tone muscles; participants are burning calories while having

Most students dread P.E. fitness class at Oak Grove because they know what awaits them each morn-ing: push-ups, jumping-jacks, and of course lifting weights. Strenu-ous activities, such as these, are not something that most girls qualify as fun; however, girls who enroll in P.E. fitness can now look forward to a lively Zumba class every other morning. Kriste Lewis began teach-ing first and second blocks Zumba classes around the end of August. The coaches, who normally teach the fitness classes, were looking for something new and fresh to keep the girls entertained while main-taining their health. Anna Lauren Weeks, a freshman in the first block class, knew that the coaches were looking for an instructor and did not hesitate to ask Lewis. “She teaches Zumba at Heritage United Method-ist, a church that I go to sometimes,

fun. Zumba has been referred to as a party rather than a workout, which is probably why over 12 mil-lion people of all shapes and sizes take part in weekly Zumba classes in more than 125 countries.

Many of the girls have found Zumba to be a new and exciting ex-perience. “I actually look forward to first block now that we have Zumba classes,” senior Su-sannah Carpenter said. “It’s a fun way to stay in shape!” The girls are begin-ning to memorize some of the choreography and get excited when they hear one of their favorite songs begin to play. Even other groups such as Golden Spirits and the community-based classes take part in the Zumba classes.

Lewis’s goal is to show girls that fitness can be fun rather than

stressful and strenuous. “Statistics prove that Mississippi is one of the fattest states, as well as one of the laziest states, so I want people to know that they don’t have to run laps or starve themselves in order to lose weight,” Lewis said. “The classes are easy and something new to take part in.” Lewis plans to con-

tinue her instructing at Oak Grove for the re-mainder of the year and hopefully for years to come.

Freshman, sopho-more, and junior girls: talk to your counselor

about next year’s schedule for “an exhilarating, effective, easy-to-follow, Latin-inspired, calorie-burning dance fitness-party that’s moving millions of people toward joy and health.”

By: Brittain AllgoodStaff Reporter

“The classes are easy and some-

thing new to take part in,”

Kriste Lewis,Zumba Instructor

umbadances into OG

Susannah Carpenter: fashionista turned drill sergeant?By: Julie RobinsonStaff Reporter

Susannah Carpenter is that girl at school who looks cute every single day. Last year when the new dress code was implemented, she was the first one to figure out how to make the dress code look nearly fashionable. Even in weightlifting class, Carpenter’s hair and makeup are flawless. Usually, when Car-penter wears something new or dif-ferent, everyone else starts wearing it; she’s a trendsetter if there ever were one. How would a girl like Carpenter be expected to spend her summer vacation?

To everyone’s shocked sur-prise, Carpenter accidentally spent a week of her summer at boot camp in Maryland at the United States Naval Academy. What many peo-ple don’t know about Carpenter is that she is very interested in study-ing engineering and more specifi-cally aerospace engineering in col-lege. She thought she was going to get a week of classes on aerospace engineering when she signed up for the Summer Seminar at the Naval

Academy. When she got there, she realized

that she would be spending a week in boot camp and had seriously mis-interpreted the Naval Academy’s brochure. A few of the other ill-in-formed girls left early, but Carpen-ter chose to tough it out. Carpenter sharply stood out from the remain-ing girls and guys at the Summer Seminar who were built for the army. She noted that the girls were probably all in the heavy division on their high school weightlifting teams. While Carpenter is athletic, she would never fit the criteria for a heavy division weightlifter. If the girls were muscular, then the boys might as well have been already in the army, and the ratio of boys to girls was four to one. There were 750 at the Summer Seminar in all.

An average day for Carpenter consisted of waking up at 5:00 a.m. to 30 minutes of physical activity, classes, and more physical activity. She did 300 push-ups a day for a total of 1,500 push-ups in five days. She was forced to run everywhere she went and totaled 35 miles for

the week. One of the many activi-ties Carpenter participated in dur-ing the week was called Sea Trials; this activity was comprised of 12 hours of non-stop physical exer-tion. Carpenter’s maximum num-ber of push-ups, sit-ups, and chin-ups were tested and recorded, and her fastest mile was clocked. She had to wear a uniform of boy shorts and tucked-in t-shirts all week long.

When asked if, given the op-portunity, she would participate in the Summer Seminar again, Car-

penter replied, “I would definitely do the seminar again because I gained so much from it. The Naval Academy’s campus is beautiful. I am strongly considering going there for my undergraduate degree next fall.” Carpenter’s example warns us to carefully read the bro-chures we are sent advertising sum-mer college camps but also proves that misinterpretations can lead to new challenges and new experi-ences that can shape who we will become.

Susannah Carpenter, senior, (middle) and friends relax after a grueling twelve hours of physical activity at the Naval Academy’s Summer Seminar.

9opinionOctober 31, 2011

From the big screen to the school scene, By: Miranda ResterCopy EditorMORGAN

Oak Grove is full of ambitious and talented students such as for-mer Warriors model Andie Arthur, star athlete Steve McNair, Jr., and singer Lindsay Lee. Jake Walker’s name can now be added to this list. Walker is an established actor and singer at the age of 14, and he is now a freshman at Oak Grove. While Walker has spent seven years in California, he was born right here in Hattiesburg. “I was born here, and I’ve made a lot of great friends here. I’m a normal kid. I love going to the movies, hanging out at the mall, and ringing the cowbell at the

football games,” Walker said.At the age of eight, Walker’s

acting career surprisingly began with a singing performance at Tal-ent Rock in Orlando, Florida. “The singing was okay, but I choked up. So, they handed me a monologue, and I memorized it right off the bat. I went in there, and they loved it,” Walker said. After Talent Rock, Walker got a manager and moved out to California.

“I’ve been on at least a thousand auditions,” Walker said. Walker auditioned constantly in California, and he is still continuing to do so.

He premiered in his first movie at the age of ten, Front of the Class in which Walk-er played the child-hood bully. While he has performed in five movies and ten televi-sion shows, Walker’s first movie in which he was a main char-acter was The Chap-erone which he filmed only last year. “My favorite by far is this movie I just finished called No One Lives. I got really bloody and shot up, and that was a really cool experi-ence,” Walker said as he joked about the fact that his character is one of the first murder victims.

While many young performers develop an

inflated ego from all of the atten-tion, Walker makes it clear that his family is, and always will be, his first priority. “Family is first. With-out my family, I wouldn’t be in the acting business. Without my mom and dad keeping me confident, it never would have happened. I think the only reason someone can be an actor or is allowed to do something like this is because of their family,” Walker said. Walker knows how much money and effort his family had to put into making his dream come true, and he expressed ex-treme gratitude for them.

Oak Grove is the first public school Walker will have attend-ed for an entire year. “The only real difference between here and California is that everyone in high school has their own little groups. In California, no one cares who you are. There, everyone got along be-cause we realized we’re just people. No one is better than anyone else,”

Walker said. Walker makes the point that

while he loves acting, it is not easy. He uses Bella Thorne, star from Disney’s hit show Shake It Up and a friend of Walker’s, as an exam-ple. “Bella Thorne’s been at this for nine years, and she just became a star. This shows that you don’t go straight out to California and get a role on a show or in a movie. It just doesn’t happen,” Walker said. Walker is currently waiting to hear the results from his latest audition for The CW’s new show Charlie’s Angels.

BONUS VIDEO INTERVIEWwith Jake Walker available at

www.thewarriorbeat.com.

Hattiesburg gets a blast from the past

By: MORGAN GUESS Staff Reporter

Rocket City Diner has launched as the new dining hot spot in the West Hatties-burg area. Social networks buzzed with anticipation for the opening of the local diner months in advance. The diner was made popular in the early 90s and has been missed ever since its closing. Before the big lift off, crowds of invitation-only guests filled the diner for the soft opening of Rocket City on Tuesday, September 13th.

Guests enjoyed rounds of hula hoop contests and dancing to the “Hokey Pok-ey” while others snapped memorable pho-tos in the photo booth and enjoyed some of Rocket City’s diner style food. Hun-dreds of locals gathered outside the diner for the long awaited grand opening the next day. Employees and customers of the original RCD were among the hundreds of local guests anticipating that the new diner would have the same fun atmosphere and

as good food as the original. New custom-ers were eager to get a taste of the famous milkshakes and classic burgers they had heard so much about.

“There was no better place to work where you could have a little fun with the customers at the same time! I met my husband there so we are having a blast returning to the new Rocket City Diner,” Stacy Odom, former Daisy Mae, said about the new RCD. The outgoing wait staff and the bubbly hostesses added to the energetic 50s theme as they dance around to 50s music in between serving. Just like the original RCD, the wait staff wears 50s style uniforms and goes by fake names from that decade such as Daisy Mae, Peggy Sue, Opie, and Bubbles.

The main staples of the original Rocket City Diner menu such as wet fries, classic hamburgers, and blue plate specials are all offered at the new Rocket City. The blue plate specials include red beans and rice, chicken fried steak, pork chops, burger steak, fried chicken, and pot roast. The blue plate specials also include a choice of two sides: mac n’ cheese, mashed pota-toes, corn, black eyed peas, green beans, fried okra or turnip greens. Even some of the desserts, including strawberry short-cake, fudge brownie, and pies, are offered in addition to some newer options such as

bread pudding. For the health conscious, RCD offers some of Season’s former famous salads and Rocket City Grilled Chicken Sandwiches. Since many of Rocket City Diner’s fans are kids, there’s also a special menu for them that includes the famous Hailey’s Hot Diggity Dog.

Because of Rocket City Diner’s unique atmosphere and good food, it is assured to be enjoyed by people of all ages! The new Rocket City Diner is located at

Newpointe Shopping Center and is open

Monday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Also, there’s good news for Oak Grove War-rior football fans, Rocket City stays open late after all home football games!

Many Oak Grove students are experiencing the 50s lifestyle as servers, soda jerks, and hostesses. Go say hello to Alexa Martin (Lola), Carley Robertson (Rizzo), Rachel Rogers (Bets), Dylan Carpenter (Jeb), Andrew Adams (Opie), Jacob Creel (Duke), Michael Shannon (Slick), Amelia Passer (Mary Jane), Willie Jean Lewis (Billie Jean), Mary Taylor Jones (Trudy), Cassidy Crampton (Frenchie), Caitlin Osborne (Ozzie), Brooke Carney (Pinkie), Will Glenn (Scooter), Jade Willis (Thelma Lou), Cole Lang (Fonzie), Sean Thomas (Frankie), Garneisha Jones (Wanda), Ty Creel (Bud), Addison Arroyo (Rosa Lee), and Hannah Coursey (Roxie).

Be sure to try an

original Cherry

Coke with your

burger!

10 entertainment October 31, 2011

movie One Day By: JoAnna Gunnufsen

Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley first meet on the night of their col-lege graduation. After just one day together, they begin a 20-year friendship that withstands the tests of time, dis-tance, and miserable life choices. Clearly, Dexter and Emma are made for each other. However, like most love stories, their relationship just never seems to work out in a picture perfect way. Through life’s ups and downs, their only hope of happiness appears to sim-ply be with each other. David Nicholls wrote two novels before finding tremendous popularity with One Day. The book takes a different route than most romantic beach reads. He chronicles the anniversary of their college graduation for 20 years to see where life has taken Dexter and Emma.Surprisingly, Nich-olls manages to write a complex relation-ship between two main characters who seem like total opposites. At first, Dexter and Emma are frustrating. Dexter, a party-loving womanizer, spends his younger years chasing after a superficial career and abusing many mind-altering substances. Aspiring author Emma just wants to publish her

own novel. They refuse to become romanti-cally involved with each other because they want different things in life. Once they grow closer, the reader can’t help but finish. To all those who get emotionally attached to their main characters, One Day will leave you feeling heartbroken with its unexpected and tragic ending.Like most best-selling novels, One Day was quick to sell out into big screen adaptation. The movie features Anne Hathaway as smart, headstrong Emma and Jim Sturgess, known for his role in Across the Universe, as the proud Dexter. The chemistry between them seems unrealistic, and their di-alogue falls flat, coming across as simply scripted words. The movie’s director Lone Scherfig worked with Nicholls to write the screenplay, but I was shocked at how far the movie strayed from the book. Emma is made out to be the predictable

good girl who is wait-ing for Dexter to finally fall in love with her, even

though the novel shows her faults.Scherfig’s film falls short of the book’s high standards. To those who see the movie, beware: One Day will seem like a boring eternity.

Did You Know...

• that Anne Hathaway was born in New York but raised in New Jersey, has a seven-year-old chocolate Labrador named Esmeralda, and is lactose-intolerant?

•that Jim Sturgess has played in three bands: Dilated Spies, Tragic Toys, and Saint Faith; and his breakthrough role was in the musical, Across the Universe?

music Cold Play Live - Piedmont Park, Atlanta, GA By: Allison Slusher

On September 24th, the Music Midtown Festival came back to Atlanta, Georgia, for the first time since 2005. The event was held in the city’s Piedmont Park in order to house the expected 50,000 audi-ence members witnessing the festival’s reprise. In a successful attempt to bring back the excite-ment the festival once held, the event created a line-up featuring many big name artists includ-ing Young the Giant, The Black Keys, and Cage the Elephant to name a few. The festival’s headliner, however, was a band MTV puts in the same commercial category as U2: Coldplay.

Coldplay’s appear-ance was one of few in the United States until the upcoming release of

their new album Mylo Xyloto on October 24th. The band took advantage of this opportunity by pulling out all the stops. Coldplay began the night with “Yellow,” one of the songs on their first album. They kept the night rolling by play-ing many songs from their upcoming album including “Paradise” and “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall,” but of course the band continually impressed its audience by playing some of its fan favorites including “Viva La Vida” from the same name album. The band even paid tribute to the newly dissembled band R.E.M. by covering their song “Everybody Hurts.”

In order to add a spe-cial touch to what could have been an average concert, the band added many unique features

to make the concert unforgettable. The first of these features was a surprising firework show that captured everyone’s attention. Secondly, the band displayed the most incredible light show. Coldplay made each song more memorable by presenting a light feature for each particular song. During the song “Yel-low,” for example, huge yellow lights streamed across the audience, mak-ing the song reach out to even those in the last row of the crowd. Another light effect came during the song “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall” in which fog machines dispersed clouds that were high-lighted by an assortment of laser lights. With all of these special effects, the energy level at the con-cert was quickly lifted, and it became evident that this was no ordinary show.

Unfortunately, at concerts of any size, there is no way for every audience member to feel as though they were on the front row, right in the action. However, Cold-play’s efforts were obvi-ously to include everyone in the audience during their performance by

constantly mentioning the people in the back of the crowd and making sure they were enjoy-ing themselves as much as the people closer to the stage. Coldplay even ended the night by claiming the audience at this event was one of the best audiences they had ever played for; however, whether or not that statement is true remains to be decidedly undetermined.

With all of the build-up of the festival’s return, the concert could have easily been over rated and somewhat of a let-down. Fortunately, the event wound up be-ing anything but. After all was sung and done, the event was definitely one to be remembered, and with results such as these, the Music Midtown Festival and Coldplay will be around for many years to come.Did You Know...•Chris Martin, Coldplay’s lead singer, majored in Ancient World Studies at the Univer-sity of London?

•On May 18, 1998, Coldplay released a three-song EP entitled Safety. The band only made 500 copies of the album that were given to friends and family members.

with Julie RobinsonMany people eat to live, but

I live to eat. Food brings me the utmost joy, so writing about it comes naturally. In this column, I will document all my glorious food-related adventures.

One of my favorite foods is ice cream and, until Twist and Taste frozen yogurt opened, I believed there was no substi-tute for it. Then frozen yogurt became the new fad. I jumped on the band wagon and raced over to Twist and Taste to pick my frozen yogurt flavors, the amount of yogurt I wanted, and my toppings. In my ignorance, I was blissfully happy.

My world was yet again rocked upon the opening of 32 Degrees, a Yogurt Bar. 32 De-grees seems so much more mod-ern and all around better. The yogurt seems better, and there are so many more toppings. Surely, 32 Degrees is the all-around better frozen yogurt sup-plier, right?

As the hype about the open-ing of 32 Degrees, a Yogurt Bar settles down, I have to ask the question, is it really all that much better than Twist and Taste? They both sell frozen yogurt at 45 cents per ounce, so the price isn’t any better. Origi-nally, I argued that the yogurt at 32 Degrees tastes better than the yogurt at Twist and Taste. I decided to test my theory by getting the same flavor yogurt at both 32 Degrees and Twist and Taste. I concluded that my French Vanilla yogurts tasted exactly the same.

Since price and flavor are the same at both 32 Degrees and Twist and Taste, the two yogurt suppliers were tied un-til I polled the newspaper staff to find a winner. They voted on customer service, environment, and toppings. Their results are as follows:

After adding up the statis-tics, I have come to the conclu-sion that all the hype about 32 degrees really is warranted. 32 Degrees won by only a small margin but really is a better yo-gurt bar.

11entertainmentOctober 31, 2011

OCTOBER 2011Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

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SPOTTEDSwim Meet @ BiloxiCross Country @ Gulf Coast Stampede

9th/JV Football Home vs. Hattiesburg,5:00/6:00

Volleyball vs. Petal (Home) 5:30/ 6:30First PrioritySEA Research Papers Due

Football @ MeridianEnd of Term OneBand FestivalForensics Tour. @ OG

Band FestivalForensics Tour. @ OG

Drama State Fair Festival9th/JV Football @ Petal, 5:00/6:00

First Priority Football vs. TerryForensics St. Andrews Tourn.

Drama FestivalCross Country @ George Co. Inv.Swim South StateForensics St. Andrews Tourn.

School Board Meeting6:00 - 7:00@ PHS AuditoriumMSPA Fall Workshop @ OG

First PrioritySEA Project Compo-nent Due

Check yourpriorities...

Football @ Brandon Cross Country @ Ocean Springs Inv.Swim State Meet

First PriorityBasketball Meet the WarriorsDodgeball TournamentLog #1 SEA Due

Football @ Hattiesburg Band ChampionshipBasketball Jamboree @ OGPetal ForensicsInvitational

College Fair6:00 - 8:00OGHS CafeteriaCross Country Division Meet

Petal Forensics Invita-tional

MadHatterDay

HOMECOMING

AntwainDuncan

A TrueWarrior

You Will be Missed

Greatly

Serenity Nails & SpaWe provide profesional and friendly service

24 Turtle Creek CrossingHattiesburg, MS [email protected]

Store Hours:Mon.-Wed. 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM

Thurs.-Fri. 9:30 AM - 8:00 PMSat. 9:30 AM - 7:00 PM

Indulge, relax, and pamper yourself to our upscale full-service salon.

Fall Break

Name Your Car Day!

End of Term One

Twin Day Character Day Black and Gold Day

Halloween!

Robert SuttonOGHS History

Teacher

He was also spotted:•shopping at Target•tailgating at USM football game•shopping at New York & Co.

playing war games after school in the library

Sunday 1:00-5:00 PMMYSTERY SKATE

Like our FACEBOOK page andcheck our page for specials.

Tuesday 5:00-8:00 PMDOLLAR ADMISSION (for everyone entering)*FREE regular skate rental included

Friday 7:00-11:00 PMOPEN SKATE

$6.00 Admission & $1.50 regular rental

SATURDAY 1:00-11:00 PMOPEN SKATE$6.00 Admission & $1.50 regular rental

5272 Old Hwy 11Hattiesburg, MS 39402