Photos by Ann Isabelle BaronSeniors show off their spirit during Field Day. Below, Homecoming Queen Melissa Conde and Homecoming King Angelo Savastano stroll through the parade.

By Jackie NardoEditor in Chief

When asking for a brief description of 2011 Homecoming Week in Somerset Academy, senior Nicholette Nascimento ex-plained, “When senior year began, I felt as if it was like every other year, but after Homecoming Week I felt at home with all of my class-mates, more than I ever had in all my high school years.” As students began arriving to school, Somer-set Academy was no longer blue. Seniors engulfed the school entirely with red, consisting of middle and high school buildings along with the cafeterias. Red paint, stream-ers, cups,banners, papers, balloons covered all parts,

even teacher’s windows. Trying to compete with the seniors, the juniors attempted to accomplish the same amount of dam-age with the color blue. Rather than using paint specifically made for win-dows, permanent paint was used. As a result, the cost of painting over what they wrote will be over $100. Both juniors and seniors were tearing down each other’s decorations, which resulted in much ten-sion. One senior, Paola Rivera, donated a large “2012” sculpture to rep-resent her class which sits alongside the middle high school office. Juniors cre-ated a 2013 banner to put over the sculpture. Mr. Montero gave permission to both juniors

and seniors with one excep-tion: “as long as nothing is torn down or anything is put over another, then it ac-ceptable.” Although these regulations were stated, the majority of students partici-pated in the dismantling of the decorations. “Regardless of all the drama that has been

caused over two colors, I think it brought us closer together. Without juniors competing with the seniors, then there would be no fun for us,” said an upperclass-men who wishes to stay anonymous. After facing off in hoolahoop challenges and relays that determine speed and agility and tug of war

games determining team-work, a burst of loud chants and screams determined the winner: seniors. As the senior made their entrance to the pep rally, the “under-classmen” began to bow. Shortly after, sirens began to play and seniors poured from every direction of the building. From the top of the stairs, entrance of the cafeteria, side of the build-ing and in the front doors of the buildings. Seniors gave their grand entrance chant-ing in their new shirts and carrying posters “2012” posters. A student from West Broward claimed to have heard the pep rally from when he was walking outside. The next day stu-

dents put on their costumes in correlation to the organi-zation they were represent-ing. Floats were lined up along the road entertaining parents and children. Walk-ing side by side with their float, students distributed candy along with fun skits while passing the begin-ning of the school. When coming to-wards the circle located in front of the middle high office, they were asked to perform a skit, which deter-mined who won best per-formance/float. The decision was made: Seniors were once again victorious. “This week was the best week I’ve had in high school,” said Melissa Conde. “I felt so close to my class and I love them all.”

Seniors reign during Homecoming Week

What’s Inside

Homecoming pictures.......pages 4, 5

Classes go virtual.....page 2

Black and white art.....page 8

Club NewsBy Adrian CadavidJournalism Class Reporter SAFE If you are tired of seeing kids bullied, join the SAFE club. SAFE stands for Student Advo-cating For Equality. SAFE club was created by two students who were trying to make a difference. SAFE was known as the GSA or Gay-Straight Alliance. “Everyone, even the coolest kid in school, at some point in their life feel that they don’t fit in,” Mr. Mireles said. The club meets up every two weeks on Fridays in room 100 in building B.

Newspaper Club The goal of Newspa-per Club is to bring news to the school, said Ms. Ridal, the club’s sponsor. “Students need a voice and this club shows that specific voice,” Ms. Ridal said. “All stu-dents are welcome,” eighth-grad-er Matthew Bonachea, Chief of Web Design. The club meets at 2:30 every Thursday in 319, Mr. Ri-card’s room.

ONE Club ONE Club is an organi-zation that fights extreme poverty and preventable diseases, particu-larly in Africa. The club raises public awareness, promotes effec-tive policies, and runs programs that are saving lives. “Sponsors of the club are extremely proud of board members,” said Clau-dia Papadopolo, the club’s spon-sor. The club meets in room 410 or 411 in building F every other Monday.

Film Makers Club The Film Makers Club, also known as film club, is for students who have a passion for film making. “There is a film club because I wanted to open film in Somerset. I wanted to open the beauty of it,” says Albert Tong, president of the club. In film club, they throw out ideas and they make them come to life. The club enters video contests to help Somer-set as a whole. The club meets every Tuesday and Thursday in room 312. For more information, contact Coach Parker, the club’s sponsor.

Chess Club The Chess Club is where students meet regularly to play chess. “I think it is a wonder-ful idea and feel that there are a lot of benefits for students who learn how to play chess, however, it was really an idea created by a core group of students. I don’t even know how to play chess very well myself. I am just facilitating their grand plan. Their dedication and interest is what propels me,” said Ms. Sakay, the club’s spon-sor. The Chess Club meets from 2:45 to 3:45 every Wednes-day in the Media Center.

Classes go virtualBy Matthew BonacheaChief of Web Design

Ninth-grader Melanie Bustamante paints a nice picture of the library, otherwise known as the computer lab, stating “the library is extremely relaxing, [be-cause] we get to listen to classical music.” Other students such as sophomore Andy Beltran say the the library is “loud and uncom-fortable.” Ms. Prieto, who taught Introduction to Computers and other computer classes last year, is the supervisor for the library. After supervising more than 100 students in a single class, Ms. Prieto said she “typically feels outnumbered” but has an “incom-parable feeling by teaching our students independence and self-control.” “It’s an advantage for students to work independently and take online classes,” said Ms. Damonte, Ms. Prieto’s assistant. There are, however, some chal-lenges with more than 100 stu-dents in the library every period. “The fact that there are so many students in one place at one time can be troublesome. But we try to teach [them] coop-

eration so they can work together independently,” she said. Junior Samantha Mill-age, who takes Advanced Read-ing online, does not enjoy taking an online class in the lab. “[This is] absolutely ri-diculous because we go to school to be taught by a teacher,” she said. Ms. Harvey says that you do learn because “everything is there for you.” Students from other classes such as HOPE, AP Biol-ogy, AP Environmental Science, and Introduction to Computers share the same opinions. According to ninth-graders Amanda Gordon and Laura Gomez, taking HOPE on-line makes things difficult. In this class they can’t go outside like in a traditional course to complete physical activities. Sophomore Lauren Per-saud also said she feels the same way about her AP Biology class. “It’s not teaching you because there is no teacher,” she said. In these virtual classes, students are asked to take quiz-zes and research assignments. Additionally, students can make

Photo by Yasmeen FaineStudents work on their online classes in the Media Center recently.

up work. For example, if you get a bad grade on your assignment, you can redo the assignment and try for a better grade. Students can also con-tact their teachers if they have problems in regards to academ-ics. Ninth-grader Alexandra Ysme said “communication is hard with teachers.” When students were asked to comment on the com-munication with their teachers, nearly all said teachers some-times take days to respond to e-mails and phone calls. Ms. Ridal, who teaches Web Design online, said vir-tual school teachers have office hours, but Somerset’s virtual teachers also teach traditional classes during the school day.

“Having online classes gives stu-dents flexibility to complete work at their own learning pace,” she said, adding that she responds to students within 24 to 48 hours. Mr. Montero affirms that “in-school virtual classes, as well as Somerset Virtual Acad-emy, were created to innovate education and to keep up with the futuristic educational practices. Also, they were made for classes that don’t have enough demand or classes that would be point-less to schedule. If a class is only going to have 5 kids, it would be smarter to place them in a virtual class.” Students are required to take a virtual class before they graduate by a state law that was passed in June 2011.

Meet new science teacher Ms. Casablanca

News

By Kayla CuetoJournalism Class Reporter

New Somerset Panther teacher Alysha Casablanca de-scribes herself as an energetic person. If Ms. Casablanca was compared to an animal she said she would be a “dolphin because they are playful, smarter than they look and they love the water.” She takes that energy to the classroom by using interac-tive games and having a fun envi-ronment during Earth and Space Science, Biology, and Anatomy and Physiology classes. She plays the Animal Cell Game with her biology students. “It is a fun way to re-view and learn about the func-tions and parts of an animal cell. I got a lot of positive responses about the game from my students and they were very competitive while playing,” explained Ms. Casablanca. “The Animal Cell Game was a crossword puzzle com-petition between two teams on each side of the room. The game helped me understand the animal cell better,” said Thalia Garcia a student in Ms. Casablanca’s class.

ians with her students in that sub-ject. Ms. Casablanca was in-troduced to Somerset Academy when she came across the school while researching job openings on the computer. She has been teaching for three years. “I enjoy the family set-ting, support from employees, parent interaction, diversity, and the safeness and organization of this school (Somerset),” Ms. Cas-ablanca said. “She is an outgoing, nice, funny, and talkative person,” said Thalia Garcia. “She lets us talk and she gives a lot of examples about the subject.” Ms. Mercier is another new Panther here at Somerset. “She is a very nice per-son and I think she is going to end up being great teacher at Somer-set,” explained Ms. Mercier, who teaches Physical Science, Marine Science, and Earth Science next door to Ms. Casablanca. When Ms. Casablanca is not in school she said she “loves going to the movies, doing out-door water activities, dancing to Spanish music, and styling outfits for her friends.”

Ms. Casblanca is teach-ing Biology students about the history of a cell and how micro-scopes aid in the history of biol-ogy. But school is not all fun and games for Ms. Casablanca. Some challenges she faces are classroom management, time managing, lesson plans, and meeting all the needs of her di-verse learners. “My favorite grade to teach is the 11th- and 12th-grad-ers. I feel like it’s more of a re-sponsibility to lead them in the right direction. I get to leave a last impression before they go to college and start setting goals for their careers,” she said. A quote Ms. Casablanca used when she was in high school was “fail to plan, plan to fail.” “It made me realize you have to have good organization skills and time management in or-der to accomplish goals that may seem far from reach,” Ms. Casa-blanca said. What got her interested in biology was that she was a pre-med student at Barry University. Ms. Casablanca also enjoys dis-secting small insects and amphib-

Her favorite color is turquoise, and she enjoys eating Asian food. “I like listening to the song ‘L.O.V.E.’ by Frank Sinatra and watching the movie ‘The Color Purple,’” said Ms. Casablanca, who is from Brooklyn, New York. Her background is Puerto Rican. She is excited about the new school year, and she insists on any students that seek advice to see her. “My main focus is for my students to succeed in and out of the classroom,” said Ms. Casa-blanca.

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By Ashton BryanJournalism Class Reporter

New Somerset math teacher Mr.Fields says he is a “fun, loving teacher” and loves teaching kids. Delano Winston Fields is from Kingston, Jamaica, and has been teaching since he was 19 years old. He counts tutoring while at-tending Florida Atlantic Univer-sity. He said he became a teacher “coincidentally.” When he was a teacher’s aide, they asked him if he wanted to teach is own class he said yes, he loved being the center of attention, everyone listening to him. Mr. Fields taught at four dif-ferent schools: Math Unlimited and HolyChild Hood in Jamaica and Everglade’s high school and Palm Cove Elementary in Pem-broke Pines. He says he is “loving Somerset Academy.” He doesn’t have children of his own, but “It would be kind of hard to have children and be a teacher.” His favorite subject is

not math, but biology. The hardest part of his job is “keeping students on task,” and his favorite thing about teach-ing is when he sees his students understand their “awe” moment. He creates a fun, funny and com-fortable environment for his stu-dents, and he tries to incorporate their interests such as fashion and music -- things that are relevant. “He creates a fun and ac-tive environment, I have learned so much and it is only the be-ginning of he year,” said eighth-grader Yasmeen Faine.

Mr. Fields creates fun, active environment

Mr. Mireles transitionsto counselorBy Nicole LageContributor

Mr. Mireles has transi-tioned from being a teacher to being a counselor and is tempo-rally taking over Mrs. Estomba’s job just until Mrs. Bermudez gets back from finishing her master’s degree. He said said he chose to be teacher because he loves children. He loves to help kids in their life. What he loves about counseling is that he gets to help kids out. Mr. Mireles says that he felt he had something to offer kids and that he had gone through things that he can help other kids with. “You kids make me feel young!“ he said. Most students who have had Mr. Mireles say they love him as a teacher and they also talk about how awe-some he is. “Mr. Mireles is one of the most amazing teachers that

I have ever had. He touched my life in a way that no other teacher has,” said eighth-grader Matthew Bonachea. He said his secret is to just love your job and to teach not what you find interesting but what the kids find interesting. Mr. Mireles misses be-ing a teacher and misses seeing kids every single day. The most challenging things he thought while being a teacher was do-ing things that the administration required. He didn’t really like it because it would stop him from teaching. He taught Civics and Career Planning last year and has also taught African-American

History, Law Studies, and U.S. History. Before becoming a teacher, he worked down the street in Taco Bell for a few years. When he was studying to become a youth pastor, he went to col-lege for 5 years, 1 year in Virgina in Liberty University 2 years in Miami-Dade College and 2 more years at Florida International University. While talking to differ-ent kids, Mr. Mireles said he has gone threw every emotion you can think of. If you ever need to go talk to Mr. Mireles, his office is in the main office upstairs, the last door to the right.

School traffic woes cause jams for everyone

By Sara BrownJournalism Class Reporter

Peer Counseling is a new class at Somerset Academy taught by Ms. Milagros Lopez during fifth period. The purpose of the class is to train the students on what to do so that eventually in high school they can become peer counselors. Most of the students in this class are specially selected, but some of them switched into the class at the beginning of the year with approval. Qualities of leadership and how influential these students are in the lives of

their peers determined whether they were selected by administra-tors to be in the class. Ms. Lopez is highly qualified for the position as the teacher of peer counseling be-cause she minored in psychology in college. In addition she pos-sesses the ability to empathize with students and to help them with problems; therefore setting a good example for her students. Eighth grade peer coun-selor Matthew Bonachea agrees that Ms. Lopez is the right teach-er to teach the class. “Ms. Lopez has the right attitude. She has the

will to help others more than most teachers do and I feel she really wants to make a difference in stu-dent’s lives.” The subjects that peer counselors are able to discuss with students are somewhat lim-ited. For example, if a student wants to discuss things like abuse and suicide the student must be referred to adult school counsel-ors. “Even with this limi-tation, all students are encour-aged to speak to one of us,” said Matthew Bonachea. The stu-dents counsel on a case by case basis which means they cannot

just counsel anybody they want without approval. The purpose of these counselors are to help their peers by providing someone to listen to their problems, most importantly someone that is in their age group that doesn’t feel as comfortable talking to a guid-ance counselor. The class activities con-sist of things that help the stu-dents to discover themselves, grow in leadership, and to train in peer counseling. Every month they sponsor character traits. The posters all over the school about responsibility, the character trait for the month of October, are

an example of their handiwork. They also have group discussions in which they first write about a topic and then they discuss what they wrote with their classmates. “The class shares a spe-cial bond and everyone is very comfortable with one another” said peer counseling student Nicky Macias. The students in Peer Counseling are happy with the class. Although it replaces physi-cal education for some of the stu-dents in the class they agree that having the opportunity to be in peer counseling is well worth the sacrifice.

Peer Counseling class offers place to share concerns

News/Features

By Zachary Hernandez& Larry Rodriguez Journalism Class Reporters

Anyone arriving at school around 7:15 a.m. or any-time after that can see the line of cars from the main office all the way out of school and onto the street. If you are to be picked up anywhere past 2 p.m, the line will take about five minutes just to move a little. Mr. Montero has had an idea to connect the middle/high office using a sidewalk with the Panther Zone (known as the cafe-teria) so students can walk around instead of crossing the street. He said he wants to do this so he can decrease traffic by making kids walk around the main circle, keeping traffic moving and the flow of cars moving constantly. Carpooling would not only

alleviate the traffic but also help use fewer cars and less gas. An-other solution would be to have more lanes on the street avail-able so that more cars would fit. The more students who are able to walk or take the bus, the fewer cars there will be in the car lanes. The traffic at Franklin Academy affected our school’s traffic during the first week, but now after about eight weeks of school, the traffic situation should have improved. The lack of parking spaces due to the gym construc-tion also contributes to the traffic nightmares. It is important for all cars to follow the street rules and the school speed limit adds to the traffic situation since the cars can only go 15 miles per hour. More parent volunteers to direct traffic would probably speed up the traffic.

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If you love...

The Vampire Diaries, Wizards of Waverly Place, Sabrina the

Teenage Witch

Raising Hope, HowI Met Your Mother,

Modern Family

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, ANT Farm,

The Nanny

... then you’ll love...

The Secret Circle New Girl Jessie

Producer and Writers of the Vampire Diaries cre-ate a new series strictly on the magical world of witchcraft and the di-lemmas that come along with a newbie witch who must ‘bind’ herself with 5 other witches so their powers are to the fullest. The con of the ‘bind’ is that powers of the witches only work in pairs or more, which becomes a big issue for this group of teen witches.

Jessica "Jess" Day, bubbly young woman in her late 20s who is trying to get over her sudden breakup with her boyfriend. She eventu-ally finds a new place to stay when she moves in with three single guys and meets a new friend, CeCe. Together, this group tries to help Jess learn a lot about love, life and mostly about herself, while at the same time they learn a lot about themselves.

Jessie is an 18-year old girl from Texas who moves to New York City. She suddenly finds herself becoming the nanny of four adopted diverse children living in a multi-million dollar mansion after being thrown out of a taxi.

The CW/WSFL9pm Thursdays, after The Vampire Diaries

FOX9pm Tuesdays, after GLEE

Disney Channel8/8:30/9 on Fridays or Saturdays

Channel and Time

TheProwler

Staff

Matthew Bonachea

- Chief of Web Design

- Page Designer- Editor

Sheri RidalAdvisor

Ms. Ridal’sJournalism Class

and a special thanks to the

parents for their financial support

Have a comment for The Prowler?

Voice your thoughts. Send a letter to the editor

at sridal@somersetcademy.

com

Visit us online at theprowler.org

HomecomingPage 4

Photos byAnn Isabelle Baronand Jazlyn Viera

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Hispanic Heritage MonthBy Katrina Fernandez & Nyska DumornayJournalism Class Reporters

Each year Americans cel-ebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, which starts Sept. 15 and ends Oct. 15. During this celebration people get to understand and celebrate Hispanic cultures and histories. This started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage week but was expanded to Hispanic Heri-tage Month by former president Ronald Regan in 1988. For some cultures, they celebrate their holi-days during the same time such as Independence Day on Sept. 15 for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guate-mala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. If you want to learn more about Hispanic heritage, why don’t you join the National Span-ish Honor Society? They created the club because they want stu-dents to know the importance of Hispanics and establish connec-tions between their cultural val-ues and those of other countries in order to generate a unified en-vironment. The sponsors are Ms. Medina and Ms.Ortiz and they meet every other Tuesday from 2:45 to 3:30 p.m. “Hispanic Heritage Month means to me all the Hispanics joined together as a group cele-brating our language, culture, and history,” said Ms. Medina, one of our Spanish teachers who helped organize the events this year. The pep rally celebrates students’ heritage with singing, dancing, drama acts, and cultural clothing. The middle school stu-dents had a dance competition, and the eighth-graders won this competition. Students in Spanish class made posters on a Hispanic coun-try and brought food from that country. Teachers were invited to have lunch with them and cel-ebrate the culmination of the His-panic Heritage Month. “I feel that Hispanic Heri-tage Month should be celebrated worldwide because they made positive contributions to history and influence us to learn more about their culture,” said sixth-grader Lindsey Emery.

Photos by Justin Laughton Simpson and Dulce Olivo

Universal Studios transforms old rides into new adventures By Jazlyn Viera &Katrina FernandezJournalism Class Reporters Universal Studios and Island of Adventure has changed drastically over the past 5 years. Such changes include replac-ing Back to the Future with The Simpsons Ride, adding The Wiz-arding World of Harry Potter, and now, bye-bye Jimmy Neutron and hello Despicable Me. Wow! We bet you’re wondering what all the rides are all about. Now dive in to the amazing world of Universal Stu-dios and Islands of Adventure. Marge, Lisa, Homer, Bart, and Maggie go from the screen on your T.V to a ride like no other. The Simpsons ride is about the family going on a ride at the cheap amusement park Krusty-land but the ride they go on gets sabotage by Side Show Bob. As they go through the ride they have action pack drops, fire, explo-sions, and baby Maggie? You’ll be amazed and want to go again after you experienced this and

don’t forget to stop by the Kuik-E-Mart afterwards. With a wave of your wand you’ll appear in the Wizard-ing World of Harry Potter! You can go on the Dragon challenge, which is a fire and ice dragon du-eling against each other as they go in loops and drops. Harry Pot-ter and the Forbidden Journey, which is an extravegent journey around Hogwarts as you and Harry get into some trouble along the way with things popping out of you when you least expect it. Beat that Disney. The Flight of the Hip-pogriff, which you learn how to ride and the proper way to ap-proach a Hippogriff, which has the head of a giant eagle and the body of a horse and soar around Hagrid’s hut and through the pumpkin patch. Don’t forget to go to Honeydukes, where they have candy just like in the mov-ies! From going on rides to dining at the mystical restaurants, you’ll have a magical time here! Say welcome to the soon to be newest member of the univer-

sal rides, Despicable me! In 2012, Gru,his yellow workers, and his daughters are going to appear where Jimmy Neutron was. You get to see Gru’s secret lab, em-bark on an adventure, and show off your best moves with the in-teractive dance floor! So much fun is coming your way and you

won’t be able to resist this ride! Don’t these rides all sound like fun? Well you can be able to go to them at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure in Or-lando! Well what are you waiting for? Go to Universal for the time of your life.

Features

Rockem’ Sockem’ Robots punches back from the past

By The Prowler Staff

Football The Somerset varsity football team started off the sea-son with a preseason win over Hi-aleah Gardens with a 47-0 blow-out but ended the season 2-7. “We have to get stron-ger and faster. The new gym and weight facility will help with that process,” Coach Walker said. “We have to become more com-mitted to success, which means we have to become more disci-plined in the classroom and on the field. We are still very young, and need to learn how to win.” The Panthers brought the fire and defeated Pine Crest 17-10, which was their first of-ficial win of the season. Coach Walker said the goal for next year is to make the playoffs and win the district. According to football player Jonathan LaFountaine, a junior who plays linebacker, tight end, and punter, ”We have a a new team full of heart and skills and we are excited for the games to come.”

Boys Basketball Panthers are 2-0 and hope to keep the wining streak alive. They played a nail-bitter against the powerhouse American Heri-tage after losing to them two years straight. After going back and fourth, the Panthers defeated the Patriots 29-27. In their second game, they crushed Abundant Life Christan Academy 69-14 with the help of 8th-grader Alexandro Cruz’s 22 points 7 rebound and 3 blocks. After the game, Coach Caldwell said, “What do you want to know? They played a per-fect game nothing bad to say.”

Baseball As of Oct. 4, the Somerset Academy varsity baseball team is 2-0-1 with wins against West Broward and University. Coach Onel Garcia said he expects the team to “Play hard and represent their school with character and respect.” He said “pitching is doing pretty good.” He noted that “I don’t expect one person to stand out, I expect the whole team to step up.” He thinks the leader will be the person who gets the team fired up. “They will be title con-tender if they would really win it would be next year,” said Casey Onel, the coach’s son who plays on team. “They will be stronger than ever.”

Volleyball The Somerset girl’s vol-leyball team made a turnaround with the help of a new head coach Rick Caldwell. Their final record was 6-7. Coach Caldwell said he is proud of the team and can’t wait until next year. “This season was a challenge but I received a great amount of satisfaction just by seeing how good these girls really understood the game of volleyball,” he said. Though he has coached other teams before, this was his first time at Somerset Acad-emy coaching an all-girls team. “All I want to do is win,” Coach Caldwell said.

By Nicholas RileyInformative EssaySpeech & Debate

Nothing is as good as knocking one’s block off in some good ol’ Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Ro-bots. This little plastic toy was one of the most successful toys produced in the 1960s, 1964 to be exact. An unpopular company, the Marx Toy Company, created the toy and boy was it their best invention yet. The company made many toys, but nothing as good as this classical piece of work. The toy was simple to set up and featured two control-lers that made robots function. The two robots, the Red Rocker and the Blue Bomber, battled it

out on a plastic square ring. The robots attempted to win rounds by “knocking their block off” or by popping one robot’s head up. The robot who’s head pops up first looses. This toy is classically one of the best-sold toys in his-tory as we know it. My dad had one when he was 10. My dad said it was popular because of it’s complex design and high level of entertainment. Even though it’s not as popular anymore because of new toys and games that have come out, it’s still selling well because collectors and people from that generation are wanting to pur-chase this nostalgic item. People from this generation are buying

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them because they are kids at heart, wanting to fall back into good ol’ memories of popping a robot’s head off. The original prod-uct sells on eBay for about $65 though it can go for more or lesshuip;. Mattel, the creator of the still popular Barbie doll, sadly has stolen the toy idea and made a smaller and less moveable knock-off. The original was pro-duced in the United Kingdom as well under the name “Raving Bonkers.” Anyway, the Marx company remade it later with an updated version called “Clash of the Cosmic Robots” in 1977. One of the funny things about the up-dated version was that it had an

orange robot head that resembled Robo Cop. They also created a Transformer one featuring Opti-mus Prime and Megatron. They also made a game for the Game-boy Advance. This toy wasn’t just a toy but rather a big mark on the history of toy making. It was a toy asked for by many kids for the holidays. It was a great in-vention that comined entertain-ment and fun, redefining the toy making industry. This was a toy that ade other toys feel sorry for themselves. This was not just a piece of plastic and metal sitting in someone’s closet, it was a toy of success. It was, in one word: re-markable.

Sports Briefs

By Matthew BonacheaChief of Web Design

The taste of crisp, warm thin noodles, the sound of Chinese music playing in the background mixed with the sounds of people talking about their day, people coming over and filling up glass-es with cold water. This is the ev-eryday dinner service of Dragon Gate: Authentic Chinese Res-taurant located on the southwest corner of Hiatus Road and Pines Boulevard. As you walk in you are greeted by seeing fish flapping their tails happily in the water. To your right, you can see some of the or-nate dishware that this restaurant has for sale.

After speaking with the host/hostess, he/she happily walks you to your table. Before I could blink, I had someone coming over to fill my glass with water. Mo-ments later, our waitress came over to the table. I ordered the wonton soup for $2.25. My family and I love Chi-nese food, and this one for sure, is the best wonton soup I have ever had. There was a perfect balance of salt in the soup. For my entree I ordered 6 BBQ Ribs for $9.15. The rest of my family ordered Chicken with De-luxe Vegetables, $9.50, Sweet and Sour Pork, $10.25, and Chicken Lo Mein, $9.15. Something that I re-ally liked is when my Grandma

ordered her Chicken with De-luxe Vegetables and asked for no MSG, the waitress said, “I’m sorry but that dish only comes with MSG.” My grandma was so happy that she didn’t just say OK and walk away, so this way she knows to go light on other high MSG foods. When our entrees ar-rived one of the first things I re-alized was that my ribs needed more sauce. Even though it was my fault to not ask for more sauce on my ribs, I still feel that the amount that was on there was a little low. Besides that, the meat was amazingly cooked with a per-fect tenderness to the meat. The rest of the table summed up their meals with

words like “Amazing.” and “Fan-tastic.” The only thing is that my Grandma said that her Chicken with Deluxe Vegetables could have used more of the white sauce. So what do I say about this restaurant, well based on the fact we have ordered in from Dragon Gate twice already, it was really good. I would say 4.5 out of 5 stars. The atmosphere was well kept, unlike many other Chi-nese restaurants. The food was amazing, and the staff was friend-ly and informed. So if you get the crav-ing for some Chinese food, go to Dragon Gate: Authentic Chinese Restaurant.

Dragon Gate offers savory Chinese food but skimps on sauce

Official Press Release PhotoHogwarts Castle in Universal’s Islands of Adventure features the ride, The Forbidden Journey.

Black & White Art

Jeana Lindo, 11th Grade Lydie Marcelus, 11th Grade

Shantiera Miller, 11th Grade Tiffani Charleston, 11th Grade

Karen Ramirez, 11th GradeKrystal Pepeta, 12th Grade

Lydie Marcelus, 11th Grade

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