Why is Febrary so Short?

By Amanda Lawrence

We all know that old poem “Thirty days hath November, April, June and December…” We also know that the poem ends with February who does not have thirty or thirty-one days, like every other month, but twenty-eight. February goes even farther in differences by being the only month to change its number of days. Even with the addition of days, February still doesn’t meet the length expectancy of months. So what’s the deal with that?!?! Well I did some research. Our modern calendar is based off of the old calendar in Roman times which only had ten months, starting with March and ending with December. (Hint: September, October, November, December; Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten) However, the days for the year didn’t quite line up to the seasons so two months, January and February, were added to the END of the year. (Yes, January was the second to last month, not the first.) The Romans considered even numbers to be unlucky and made eleven months, seven with 31 days and four with 29. But there still wasn’t the correct number of days. So why is February so short? They added another month, at the end of the year, to get the right number, but it would have an even number of days. Because this was considered unlucky, they wanted to make it short so the unlucky month would pass quicker than the other months. So happy February and enjoy your unreasonably short month.

Childhood Crush

By Courtney Monzon

          Almost everyone has a childhood crush, and I was no exception. You could say I had a “love spell” over me when I was in preschool. I met him way back when I went to Cloud County Community College Children Center, and his name was Eli. When we were in preschool we hung out with Cody, Whitney, Olivia, and Zoe. We were a gang.

            Our parents were really good friends, so I spent a lot of time with him. It was a tradition to go trick-or-treating together, so every year our moms coordinated our costumes. When I was one, we dressed up as red and yellow M&M’s. Another year we dressed up as doctors. But my absolute favorite costume we did together was when I was Raggedy Ann and Eli was Andy. We were seriously adorable!

 

 

            At many high schools and colleges for homecoming they have kids do the crowning. Obviously Eli and I crowned together

 

           

This is by far my favorite picture of us two

           



















 It was a sad day for me when I found out Eli was moving to Salina. But I soon got over it as I went off to kindergarten with the rest of my gang. Eli and I lost touch, but I do see him every now and again.

How to Celebrate Valentine's Day in Other Countries

By Siri McGuire

This is how you would celebrate Valentine’s Day if you lived in….

Thailand- Single on Valentine’s Day? Getting that feeling of “forever alone?” Bring incense, roses, and candles to the shrine of Trimurti in Bangkok (the nation’s capital) and pray to find that special someone. Also referred to as the lover’s shrine, it’s a hot place for locals to venture to in order to fine true love.

Guatemala-You’d call it El Día del Cariño. Known as the day of love and friendship, the day is seen not only as a special day to celebrate your love for your honey boo-boo, but also for your friends and family. But you know, not in that way. You know what I mean, people.

Germany-How would you feel if your sugar-plum called you “Schatz” on “Valentinstag?” I know what you’re thinking, and no, it doesn’t mean that. It actually has a much sweeter meaning: that you are a treasure. Turns out that 70% of German couples have pet names for one another, even if they don’t exactly sound endearing to American ears. The Germans have a soft spot for the day of Valentines, complete with large heart-shaped gingerbread treats (and you thought gingerbread was just for Christmas…)

China-You’d be about six months behind the American Valentine’s day. Chinese Valentine’s Day, or the Qixi Festival, usually occurs in August (which to us, in Kansas, makes less favorable cuddle weather. Who wants to cuddle in Kansas summer humidity and heat?) Anyways, Chinese tradition of this day involves a cosmic love story between two star-crossed sweethearts who can only meet early in August every year.

Italy-What better place to celebrate the day of love than in the country where Shakepeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” takes place? To capitalize on this, Verona organizes tours of locations from the play.

 

My Love

By Cody Schmitz

 

Within the food spectrum, there are many foods that I love.

Okay, I probably don’t lovethem. I like peanut butter. I like bananas. I like Nutella. I like breakfast burritos. I like Haagen-Dazs Coffee Ice Cream. I like Jalapeño Cheetos.

I love cheesecake.

Cheesecake is the only food I can honestly say I love.

Cheesecake at its best is a dense yet fluffy, perfect balance of flavor and texture. It seems, however, that the only goal of some people in this world is to ruin the beauty of a good cheesecake.

Yes, I am a cheesecake purist, and yes, I’m right. Here’s exactly how cheesecake should be:

 

New York Style Cheesecake: You can see the dense, creamy texture of the cake. The crust is minimal but still present. The top is lightly browned. It has a full body flavor but not overpowering.

 

Bad Cheesecakes:

 

 

 

Let’s play eye spy: Can you see the cheesecake in this mess? No? That’s right. I don’t know what this monstrosity is, but I know it has the audacity to call itself a cheesecake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is this jelly? Jelly is on this cheesecake. And look at that texture; you just know it feels like soggy sour cream.

You know what’s the worst? Cheesecake Bars are the worst. Cheesecake bars ruin the sanctity of cheesecake and its perfection. Covered in canned cherries and filled with who-knows-what, cheesecake bars are the epitome of everything wrong in the world.

So to conclude, please, for the sake of the world, keep cheesecake pure. No more “cheesecake” creations. Keep the beauty of cheesecake as God intended.

Why Valentine's Day SUCKS!!!!

By Micah Fabarez

                In my opinion Valentine’s Day is one of the most worthless holidays that we celebrate in the United States of America. We, as a nation, could have picked any number of better things to have a holiday for! Come on, we could have a holiday for a much better reason than “love.” It has conditioned the women of our society to expect a gift for Valentine’s Day. They think that if they do not get a gift on Valentine’s Day, then they aren’t loved. I just think that in a relationship there should not be a day of the year where the guy gets the girl a valentines present. Instead the guy should be original and be giving gifts on other days and not be obligated to get gifts on only one day of the year. The whole concept is nice, but if you think about it, the guy should be giving gifts as a show of love way more than just one time a year. Hopefully I’m not in the minority on that opinion, but the amount of guys that do not appreciate and love their girlfriend or wife is depressingly on the rise. Plus, the surprise of an unexpected gift would make it even better for both involved in my opinion! I think the expectation for the guy has grown into something that wasn’t originally intended by whoever created this awful holiday!  However this is just my opinion and doesn’t represent the view of what a girl would think about valentine’s day.

Reasons Why I Hate Valentine's Day

 By Fernanda Santos

To start with, in Brazil Valentine’s day is celebrated June 12^th and is nowhere as big holiday as it is here. Call me cold-hearted. As a matter of fact I probably am. I just hate the fact that since we were little girls, people have been asking: “So who is your boyfriend?” or “Who are you crushing on?” Looking back,I can’t stop thinking how ridiculous this is. I just grew up thinking that I was supposed to always have a guy by my side and that is not healthy for a 10 year old girl (or any age to be honest!).
I hate Valentine’s Day because it always turns into a race or competition. Everyone is freaking out and worrying not to becomethe person that doesn’t have a valentine. It has become something completely commercial and no, I’m not one of those critics that use this excuse because I am single or whatever. I love Christmas, Easter, and birthdays, I don’t have anything against buying something special for someone you love. I’m the kind that does even more than I should to put a smile on the faces of people that I care about. Another thing that makes me really mad about Valentine’s day is that they even move some sections in Wal-Mart and other stores to put in all the stuffed animals, chocolate and red and pink “be my valentine” cards. Are you they kidding me? I am here to buy my food, I don’t need to be attacked by fluffy panda bears and heart-shape balloons.
The truth is I will never like Valentine’s Day just because I never had someone that was worthy to be call mine (valentine or not). If we don’t have a big holiday for “friends day’’ or “cute puppy day” don’t expect me to spend a whole day from my precious 365 showing off for having a boyfriend.

Ode to Peanut Butter

By Leyli Beims

Peanut Butter is my favorite thing in the entire world. I mean my favorite.  Yes, it’s even better than Christmas and love. Out of all of the months of the year, February is the best to write a blog expressing my absolute adoration for peanut butter. It’s Black History Month, which celebrates George Washington Carver (a.k.a. the most important man to ever exist ever), the man who invented the object of my affection. Also, Valentine’s Day is this month. Love, V-Day, peanut butter… it just makes sense. So, without further ado, here is my ode to peanut butter:

Oh,  my dearest peanut butter,

How do I explain my love for you?

You’re the only one for me, it’s true.

                                   

Your unique taste, your creamy texture,

You make my taste buds sing.

Of peanut products, you are truly king.

 

The bliss you provide

Cannot be measured.

Dearest, you’re positively treasured.

 

Alone or one of many ingredients,

Crunchy or creamy,

You are, simply put, dreamy.

 

You see, peanut butter,

I’d love you longer than forever if I could.

You just taste so darn good.

My First Valentine

By Janae Champlin

     It all started out during a Jr. Dance practice in the fifth grade. I was talking to one of my friends when she told me that one of the boys in our grade liked me, which in middle school that was a big deal. So I had to ask who it was and she told me it was James M. In middle school when a boy liked you, that meant he wanted to ‘go out with you’ which was long form for being your boyfriend. So the next day at school James and I started ‘dating’.

          From what I remember we were together around February so of course the whole middle school was going crazy over Valentine’s Day. My friends asked me what I was going to get James. I really didn’t know what I was going to do so it took a lot of thought. On February 13^th I took a cheesy bear that my sister got from her ex-boyfriend a few years back and some old Christmas candy and threw it in a bag. So on Valentine’s Day I threw the present in his locker and walked to the gym hoping that none of the teachers would see me. After the bell rang for all of us to go to class I went to my locker to grab my books. Once I opened it I was surprised with a chocolate rose and a red teddy bear. I was very excited and Valentine’s Day became my new favorite holiday.

 I loved that teddy bear with all my heart I took it everywhere. I even brought it on our plane trip to Arizona. I named it Jack and he sat with me the whole way.  Once we got off the plane I grabbed my bags and went outside. My mom asked me where Jack was and I looked everywhere then I noticed that I left the bear on the plane. I was crushed and imminently started crying. My heart was broken, but I soon got over it and had a wonderful vacation. That would have to be the best valentine experience I have ever had.