Spreading Holiday Cheer and Warming Hearts Along the Way

by Erika Crampton

This season, millions of people are doing all they can to ensure that everyone will have their best holiday yet. Little things such as donating canned goods to your local food pantry can make a massive difference for your community. Some people however, are taking even bigger strides to help others.

             William Thomas, a 12 year old boy with autism, is asking for a different Christmas present than most kids are this year. Since he is severely autistic, he is unable to speak leaving him communicating through the written word. He is often excluded during social situations due to his disability. For example, he is never invited to a classmate’s house to hang out. Despite his lack of friends, William has never let his disability get in the way of living a normal and healthy life.

            When asked by his mother, Kay Thomas, what he wanted for Christmas, William responded by requesting letters through the mail. Unable to figure out how to give William letters, Kay posted his wish onto Facebook.

            “He has nothing but love in him and I want him to feel the love from others. If you want to help a kind soul this year, I am asking for strangers to send him mail. I want him to know the world loves and values him in a way that he understands and feels,” explained Kay.

             After she posted this, it went viral and millions of people heard about William and they did not hesitate to send him mail. Since the post, William has received thousands letters from all around the world. Some people are taking greater strides and mailing William presents along with letters. People are sending him movies and other items that William loves.  

            TD Bank is also participating in spreading Christmas cheer. In their #MakeTodayBetter campaign, they give one person each day $30,000 to help make their ideas on helping the community come to life. The people who fund community service projects truly spread kindness among the community.

            On man’s project was to build ramps for people in wheelchairs have made it easier for the impaired to get in and out of their homes easier. He said he understood how difficult it can be to live in a wheelchair since he is wheelchair bound. He used the money given by TD Bank to fund this project. One of his neighbors who received a ramp was unable to leave her house in almost four years until he built the ramp for her. She was extremely grateful and told everyone the people who helped were her angels.

            Another man who participated in the campaign used his $30,000 to purchase new sports equipment for a local school that was struggling financially. The reason he used it for sports equipment is that throughout his entire life, he has learned many life lessons through his participation in sports. If he never had equipment to play, he wouldn’t be the man he is today. The entire community thanked him for all he did. 

            Everyone has the power to make a difference in someone’s life. Making a difference does not have to be a huge undertaking like donating expensive sports equipment, or building handicap ramps.  But little things like holding the door for someone, paying for the coffee of the person behind you at Starbucks, or giving a homeless individual a few dollars are a few simple ways to spread kindness and put a smile on someone’s face this holiday season.

 

 

 

 

Storming through WMHS: Trivia Crack

by Michaela Zelandi
Trivia Crack has taken over Woburn Memorial High School one smartphone at a time.  Random trivia questions can be heard anxiously echoing across the school.  Students are only given thirty seconds to answer important, relevant questions.  Somebody has to know how the third czar of Russia died, right?

               Not to toot my own hipster horn, but I had downloaded the Trivia Crack app weeks before it infected Woburn High.  Toot toot!  After having the game for less than a day, I deleted it.  I thought it was boring, dull and not as addictive, as the name clearly promises.  Yet here I am today with Trivia Crack downloaded for the second time.  What is it that makes this game so hard to stop playing?  I have found that what makes this game so addicting is the chance to beat your friends.  When bragging rights are up for grabs, everyone wants in on the challenge.  Junior Nicole Vieira, a level 45 Trivia Crack addict, shared her input on the Trivia Crack.

                “It’s changed me.  I’ve become a much more competitive person than I was before.  I’ve spent countless hours on the app,” stated Vieira.

                And with six different categories – history, art, entertainment, science, geography and sports- almost everyone has some knowledge in at least one of those categories.  Therefore, everyone thinks they have an edge on their friends, promising a quick win.  People from every corner of Woburn High are now facing off for the sake of competition.

                The Trivia Crack phenomenon has its pros and cons, similar to basically anything else in the world.  Trivia Crack can be taken as either positive or negative, depending on one’s outlook.  

Pro - Trivia Crack is connecting people together, forcing people to interact with a world outside of their own. 

Con – Trivia Crack is allowing people to live through their phones even more, stifling an actual conversation.  People may rather play trivia than talk to other human beings.

Pro – Trivia Crack also has the ability to be a conversation starter.  Everyone wants to show off what they know.

Con – Answering a question wrong for your friend on Trivia Crack can lead to disaster, a tremendous break in trust.  Fighting over trivia may be one of the silliest reasons to have a fight.

 Pro – Trivia Crack is chalked full of facts for students to learn, so students are learning information while playing.

Con – In the grand scheme of things, these facts are useless; they are trivial (hence the “trivia” title). 

Pro – Trivia Crack is something to play when you’re bored and you are expanding your knowledge.

 

 Con – It is addictive and can take up the already scarce time and motivation to do important things.

                Whether being decidedly good or bad, Trivia Crack is the current fad of the school.  Along with silly bands, beanie babies, etc. Trivia Crack will go down in history.  No one knows how long this fad will last.  Fads can go as soon as they have arrived.  So for now, sit back, relax and cuddle up with a nice game of Trivia Crack while people are still playing. 

Mocking-yay or Mocking-nay?

Transcript:

The Hunger Games is the series of movies based off Suzanne Collins’ wildly popular written trilogy of the same name. Part one of the film adaptation of the final book, titled “Mockingjay” was just released recently, but does it live up to its predecessors?

The main problem of the whole movie is that it lacks a resolution to the problems that we encounter. Mockingjay Part 1 really takes its time to establish key scenes for the audience. The symbolism aside, the film could have done with a little less talking and a little more doing. It seems that the entire plot is solely about making a corporate video for Katniss’ allies. 

Mockingjay doesn’t quite live up to such high expectations set by its fans. The movie was incredibly hyped up and for what it was, but I just wasn’t impressed.

I felt that the movie had taken a step back in terms of directing. It seems that nearly every book-to-movie adaptation follows the trend of breaking the last book into two parts. Mockingjay follows this trend and it completely breaks the pace of the movie. There are some instances when the action had me on the edge of my seat, but at other points the movie felt drawn out and far too long. And there were other parts of the movie that I felt could’ve used more explanation. There were jumps in the movie from one scene to the next that left me confused.

But what the movie is lacking in directing, it makes up for with acting. The acting throughout the movie was great, as with past movies in the series. Cast members like Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson return to reprise their roles while there are even a few newcomers like Julianne Moore, who plays President Coin. I felt everyone worked great in their roles and the dialogue rarely felt cheesy or unneeded. 

Mockingjay accurately follows the book for the most part, however there are some small discrepancies found throughout the movie. The movie is full of suspense and romance just like the book, but takes comedic turns from time to time.

Something surprising and entertaining was definitely the inclusion of Effie. Her cattiness towards her situation is incredibly entertaining. Although Effie did not appear in the Mockingjay book, her sly comments and wittiness break the seriousness and stiffness in this film for the better.

The music throughout the movie always felt appropriate. Suspenseful moments cued stress inducing music and serious, emotional moments brought on mellow more quiet music.

The music fits into the movie well by essentially becoming a symbol of rebellion. “The Hanging Tree” written by James Newton Howard has become so popular lately due to its single appearance in the film. 

Mockingjay is in no way, shape or form a bad movie, but it’s definitely the worst of the three. It simply feels like a giant set up for a conflict we won’t get to see until next year in Part 2. Despite it’s shortcomings, I really do believe that Mockingjay hasn’t reached its full potential and it’s setting up for an amazing part two. 

Sources:

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Trailer –
“The Mockingjay Lives”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Tsj_wTJkQ 
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Final Trailer – “Burn”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXshQ5mv1K8 

A star is born

Publicity photo of Maria Callas

 (1923 – 1977)

 as Violetta in La Traviata at

 the Royal Opera House (1958) 

photograph by Houston Rogers

On this day, December 2, in 1923, one of the world’s most naturally talented and most famous opera singers was born. Maria Callas, born Sophia Cecelia Kalos and christened as Anna Maria Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulou at age three, was the daughter of two poor Greek immigrants who had moved to New York City to find better lives. Callas’ innate musicality was discovered at the tender age of three, and due to her mother’s failed dreams of her own success in the arts she pushed her youngest child to sing constantly and work tirelessly to improve.

            The strain of her intense focus on one of her daughter’s life led to the demise of her marriage, and Maria’s mother chose to take her two children back to her home in Athens, Greece in 1937. By this time the sole outlet for her mother’s intense ambition, Callas was brought to the best music schools in Greece and was initially turned away from them all. After much prodding by her mother, Maria, or Mary as she was known at this time, was reluctantly accepted into the Greek National Conservatoire under the guidance of Maria Trivella. After hearing Callas perform however, all of Trivella’s concerns vanished and she offered to train her young pupil for free in order to hone her natural talent into something much more powerful.

            Although the training that Callas received under the wing of Trivella helped develop her blossoming talent, her largest growth as a performer occurred under the leadership of Elvira de Hidalgo at the famed Athens Conservatoire. While working to support herself and her family, Maria took classes with her mentor for nearly ten hours a day, every day. This tireless work and practice led to Callas’ professional debut as Beatrice in Franz von Suppé's opera Boccaccio. From the moment she set foot on stage, she was met with rave reviews and critical acclaim. As the years went by and her many successes grew in number, even those who disliked Maria’s voice or style referred to her as a God-given talent, or even more simply, “La Divina.”

            Not all those that heard Callas sing were so smitten with her voice, however. While most acknowledged that she was indeed talented, many argued and continue to argue that her voice lacked the velvety, sweet tone of more traditional singers, and that place of those qualities was a brassy, ugly sound. While Maria herself was apt to agree with those who disliked her voice, hers is one of the most distinctive and well-known in the world of opera.

            As well-known as her voice is in the world of opera connoisseurs are her personal struggles. Along with her difficult relationship with her mother, the public watched with rapt attention as Maria began an affair with the shipping entrepreneur Aristotle Onassis. Leaving her husband and renouncing her American citizenship in order to be with him, Callas was completely devastated when he left her for the grieving widow Jacqueline Kennedy. The loss she felt from this desertion coupled with her constantly fluctuating weight damaged her health as much as it damaged her voice, and in 1977 she died in isolation with her formerly glorious voice reduced to a mere shadow of what it once was. 

            Despite the tragic end of her life at the age of fifty four, Maria Callas is still known above all else for the power her voice. Her voice could move an audience to their feet and even move them to tears, and her many accomplishments can still be seen today – she was awarded a posthumously awarded a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2007, and in that same year was voted as the greatest soprano of all time by the BBC Music Magazine.

The good that Callas left the world with her voice should be what she is remembered for most, not any personal difficulties she may have faced in her time. After all, as Italian director and producer Franco Zeffirelli said, “The magic of a Callas is a quality few artists have, something special, something different. There are many very good artists, but very few who have that sixth sense, the additional, the plus quality. It is something which lifts them from the ground: they become like semi-gods. She had it.” And, she should be remembered for it.

Sources

"Maria Callas." - Wikiquote. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.

"D I V I N A || The Maria Callas Official Web Site || Chronology." D I V I N A || The Maria Callas Official 

          Web Site || Chronology. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.