Cracked & Battered Dads

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden and My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke are two deeply thought through, and intensely strong poems about similar, loving and hard working fathers. These are quintessential manly, wood chopping and alcohol drinking dads, "battered knuckles" and all. These poems lead us to believe that these dads weren't always easily lived with or understood, they seemed harsh, and disciplined, or undisciplined, but they still seemed to make time to fulfill their duties as fathers to their young sons. These poets, the sons, express nostalgic admiration for their fathers as they look back to their relationships with these dads.

"Sundays too my father got up early/ put his clothes on in the blueback cold,/ then with hands that ached/ from labor in the weekday weather made/ banked fires blazed." These few lines of the opening stanza are the most clear and important in the entire poem written by Robert Hayden. It captures the dads true essence. Even on his day off, he still works to keep his family comfortable and living. He makes fires in the excruciating winter mornings, not caring about the pain stabbing through his hands. "...fearing the chronic angers of that house..." the son "...spoke indifferently to him." The offspring didn't see his dad for what the man had to offer. He also "...polished my good shoes as well..."  The father may have been angry and hard core but he fulfilled all parental obligations in order to satisfy his indifferent son. In the end he, the father, is successful as the poet looks back on these melancholy days with regrets about the apathy he showed towards his father, and with a new felt respect for his love and help, "What did I know, what did I know/ of loves austere and lonely offices."

While the parental love in Robert Hayden's poem was as cold as the winter mornings in which he chopped wood, the love of the father written about in Theodore Roethke's poem was much more indulgent, with "...whiskey on your breath..." Throughout this composition, the son "clings" to his father as he ''hung on like death.'' The fathers inebriation lead to waltzes in which father and son bonded, but also lead to family turmoil, " We romped until the pans/ slid from the kitchen shelf;/ my mothers countenance/ could not unfrown itself." she could not pry the enraged look off her face. Even though the dad seemed to be an undisciplined, hard drinker, his "...Battered on one knuckle..." hand represents a blue collar work ethic, meaning he supplied for his family. This poet clings on to this memory as he clung to his dads shirt when put to bed.

These two poets loved their dads. In Hayden's experience, it took a while, he was indifferent to his father and didn't warm up to him for a long time, while in Roethke's experience, he loved his father right off the bat, he clung to his dads shirt for dear life, if he let go there was no telling what would have happened. These dads fulfilled their duty of loving and providing for their families despite their  manly hard souls. These two poems are depressing, yet touching and beautifully satisfying.

The Grimm Blog

Adam Gidwitz tells eerie and hilarious tales of mixed up kingdoms with equally mixed up people. He stirs together, like a witch stirs her brew, old stories and characters from The Brothers Grimm with new spine-chilling creations that make one's neck bleed of fright, and stomach churn from fear of gore. His first book, A Tale Dark and Grimm, is a version Hansel and Gretel in which their they set out on adventures after their heads get cut off and they run away from home. In a Glass Grimly, the second book in Gidwitz's trilogy, Jack and Jill need to find a looking glass in order to save their lives, after they too run away from home. The final book, The Grimm Conclusion is about a set of lesser known Grimm characters, the twins Joringel (Your-ingel) and Joringa (Your- ing a), who are sadly separated in the beginning of the tale and brought together again by surviving many scary dark adventures and through a deep loving care for each other. Through out this harrowing trilogy, these main characters make friends bizarre and frightening monsters of bed wetting caliber. Despite their horrifying looks, they turn out to be helpful and fight viciously for the protagonists of each book. Don't judge a book/person by his/her/its cover/appearance.

In  A Tale Dark and Grimm, lonesome and wandering,  Hansel and Gretel meet many a monster and creature. The Moon, Sun, and Stars in this story are creatures of day and night, and light and dark. The Stars seem elusive, not very bright (smart), small sneaky little critters and not trustworthy at first. However, the Stars prove themselves humble and modest, as well as extremely wise, and helped Gretel retrieve, save, and return seven swallows to their original human form, reuniting them with their wizard father. Goblins, mermaids (evil I tell you, evil), and some obscure fire breathing, burping Salamander that likes to ask a lot questions roam about in In a Glass Grimly. The beast that most stands out is Eidechse Von Feuer Der Menschenfleischfressende, the fire breathing, burping salamander, he prefers to be called Eddie. Foul smelling with a putrid appearance, see through skin, jet black bones and visible organs. Luckily, Jack and Jill were brave and didn't see Eddie for his appearance, they gave him a chance to talk and learned he was actually quite nice and extremely helpful. He burned downed the city that held Jack and Jill hostage with one overtly large flaming belch! Freeing Jack and Jill from the sneaky goblins. Free with their prize, Jack and Jill returned home. Malchizadek (Maul-kee-zau-deck), a gigantic hideous snotty ogre that keeps wild pets such as lions, wolves, black bears and hyenas, saved the Kingdom of Children operated by Joringel and Joringa in the final book of this trilogy, The Grimm Conclusion. As hideous as these beings looked, Hansel & Gretel, Jack & Jill, and Joringel & Joringa would not have completed what they longed to achieve without these characters selfless acts of courage.

"Don't judge a book by its cover" is the absolute theme in these three stories of the Grimm Trilogy. Something or someone may be ugly and frightening on the outer shell, but always give it a chance, show some respect, because you might be missing out on something extraordinary, something historical. Hansel & Gretel, Jack & Jill, and Joringel & Joringa all gave second chances to many gnarly imaginary and awesome monsters and the result was victorious and exciting.

Charles Mingus; Premier Bassist & Composer

For many months, my family and I were looking for a puppy Husky. Finally, we found a beautiful snow white one with sky blue eyes at a PetSmart in Jersey, we named him Mingus after Charlie Mingus. Before naming him, I didn't know much about the real Charlie Mingus, all I knew about him was that he was a large African American, famous jazz musician who played the deep deep Bass. Charles Mingus, "born 1922 in Watts, California and raised in Nogales Arizona on a military base, was an extremely important figure during the twentieth century." He was "a virtuoso Bass Player, accomplished pianist, bandleader and composer," I read from the introduction of the music book More of a Play-Along: Charles Mingus,  given to me by Mike McGinnis my Sax teacher. His first musical influences came, I found surprising, from church. He adored Duke Ellington and respected and played with many well-known musicians of his time. During his era he wrote many pieces inspired by astounding and historic musicians such as the acclaimed Charlie "Bird" Parker, and Jelly Roll Morton's repleted style. He was also influenced by specific places, such as overly lighted Time Square, or places deep in your body, as deep as your soul. Charlie Mingus was a grateful man, he enjoyed every aspect of his music.

"If Charlie Parker Were a Gunslinger, There'd be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats." is a classic name of one of his many songs. This clearly shows his respect for Bird and how influential the man was to him. Charlie Mingus himself played with Bird, along with other greats, including Bud Powell, Max Roach, and Dizzy Gillespie. Mingus was a deep thinker. He wrote many a song about the soul. "Better Get Hit in The Soul" is about how he reflects with his strong roots towards church and gospel. In this classic of his, he honors the days he hand-clapped, sang, and danced with his mother, hand in hand. This respect for the musicians he listened to and played with can be seen and heard within almost all of his compositions.

Despite the attention, respect, and love he gave to his music and his contemporaries, he never showed the same care for himself. He had a major drug problem, specifically heroin. His uncontrollable onstage temper led him to once destroy a twenty thousand dollar bass. He often dealt with clinical depression and obesity, as well as constant financial problems, he was vanquished from his West Village apartment. This passion led him to be both a great historical jazz musician, and also to be a great historical sad character as well. More of a Play-Along: Charles Mingus is an enjoyable, and fascinating look at the sad and deep life of a musician who lived a life of misfortunes and inspiration. Luckily my newly adopted puppy Mingus will not live this way. He has been saved from a kill shelter, has a roof over his head, home-cooked meals and a loving family with me blowing Mingus tunes on my saxophone.

Should College Athletes be Paid

Student athletes within the NCAA deal with very busy and tiring school schedules. Many of the participants of college sports have earned their Universities millions of dollars, yet they themselves do not receive any money in return. The performances on the pitch of these student athletes get their universities a great deal of pay helping to maintain and upgrade school facilities and support other departments. The participating athletes often work as hard as professionals that receive millions a year for competing their various sports. These college sports stars should in fact get paid. While college athletes do get a scholarship, and a chance for a free education, and a roof over their head, it is not equivalent to cash in your pocket or a meal, even as simple as sandwich and chips. According to NCAA rules, this is forbidden.  These strict laws should be banished.

When university players commit their lives to athletics, they limit the amount of time to study and gain the education they are in college for, they lack time for social freedoms, and most importantly they have no opportunity to earn money for ordinary living (even if the NCAA allowed it). Often, many kids and their families are in deep financial debt, “I think it should just depend on their financial situation. A lot of guys are blessed with parents who are still married, who are together; they have great occupations and are doing well off financially. Others aren't in such fortunate situations. I think it should just come down to the player and his environment.” stated Bruce Heggie in his twitter interview on USA Today, discussing the topic whether or not collegiate athletes should receive money for what they do. This is true because if parents have a good financial background, they can supply their child with what they need, but if a college student doesn’t have adults with enough income to support them, they definitely need the school to help them. “My freshman roommate worked a job at the university, earning about $7/hour. He would work his butt off all day, with two or sometimes three basketball training sessions, plus classes and homework, and go to that job for a few hours late at night. He would come back exhausted, but he needed whatever money they would pay him.” Stated Tyson Hartnett, an entrepreneur writing about this controversy on The Blog. In addition to this, he also states“once the season started up, he couldn't work that job anymore.” This is a prime example of regular students having time, but athletic students not having the chance to make money for a living. This supports the claim proving that most athletes do not have the ability to get a part time job and make a few bucks, enough to live, eat and possibly hang with friends at a movie.

It is not only the university itself that is making millions off these student athletes; it is also every organization that partners with university teams or the NCAA. Millions are made yet the ones making these programs possible aren’t getting paid. It’s not right and they deserve a little reward for what they do for the schools and their affiliated organizations. “Sky rocketing TV contracts, video game and merchandise sales, everyone seems to be cashing in. Athletic conferences, universities, coaches, everyone except the athletes themselves.” Stated Mark McKay, reporting for CNN Money Atlanta. Athletes are showing examples of wanting to be paid, “Johnny Manziel who won the Heisman Trophy Award as a freshman as a red shirt with Texas A&M last year is in now in hot water for allegedly accepting high sums of money for his autograph.” Again, stated Mark McKay for CNN Money. His autograph is worth hundreds of dollars. “The NCAA can make money off Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M can make money off of Johnny Manziel, the apparel companies can make money off of Johnny Manziel, and the only person that can’t make money off of Johnny Manziel is Johnny Manziel.” Stated Greg Bishop, also reporting for CNN Money Atlanta. This is not fair, and controversial, players are being exploited, they do not see a penny of it, let alone hear it jingling in their pockets.

Some may say that college athletes are already paid, they get a free scholarship that can be worth over $25,000 a year, an education which is priceless, and most get to utilize and practice in amazing state of the art sport complex’s, as well as get free meals. However, “most athletes don't last at a school for the whole four years. Once you get sport involved, there are politics, injuries, and a call to the office to tell the player, ‘Thanks, but we don't need you on this team anymore.’ Many players will get a scholarship for a year or two only. ” Stated Tyson Hartnett in his article on the Huffington Post. Because many sports, football in particular, are strenuous, injuries are expected and occur in nearly every game of every season. College athletes bring so much hard work to the field but don’t get reimbursed for any acts of dedication towards their school. Once badly injured, the player is no longer useful and is tossed away like an empty Gatorade bottle, and their scholarship is in jeopardy. The argument that these universities are giving all athletes top-notch educations is not always the case. In the Slate article Postdocs for Jocks, written by Rebecca Schuman, a study was done by Mary Willingham, a worker at the UNC Center for Student Success and Academic Counseling, her studies found “Some 8 to 10 percent of the students she worked with read at a third-grade level or below. She claims one student who came to see her could not read or write at all; another sought tutoring so that he could finally understand his own press coverage.” This study shows another example of schools exploiting the athletic talents of their students; the claims of a free education are often false.

College students have athletic responsibilities within their colleges yet receive zero dollars and zero cents in return. The colleges themselves should have an equal responsibility towards their athletes rather than being responsible for making money off them for the NCAA and those who feed off the merchandise offered by their athletes. The NCAA rules don’t allow student athletes to earn enough to survive and live a life. This is wrong. All human beings should have the chance to live a life full of the opportunity to achieve. Money is essential to many athletes because too many of them such as Dj Fluker, the ex-University of Alabama offensive tackle (now in the NFL with the San Diego Chargers) were homeless or came from broken families’ neck deep in poverty. Money can’t buy everything, but it can give people a second chance and let them a healthy life full of hope.

Drums, Girls, Dangerous Pie, and a Literary Essay to go With it

A big sympathetic sigh: "awwwww", is what the reader may exhale when reading the heartwarming, touching and funny book Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, by Jordan Sonnennblick. Steven Alper, the main protagonist, is a typical eighth grader and an amazing drummer in the All-City Jazz Band, as well as a full time older brother to Jeffery Alper. Upon learning his brother Jeffie has cancer, Steven finds himself situated in a world of hardships, including many family issues that arise, money is tight and a cranky dad. He is at the same time dealing with  deep emotions for a particular girl he has adored for what seemed like centuries, Renee Albert, and another classmate that has a crush on him for his warm qualities, Annette Watson. Through the story, Steven will grow and learn from his experiences, and become a much more mature and sympathetic older teenager.

Personal growth within the main protagonist is the most important aspect of the story. Steven Alper begins this fascinating tale of adversity with a sarcastic, rude, and hateful attitude. He unquestionably dislikes his brother, Jeffery who is neither coarse nor does he possess the tornado like energy an elementary school student may possess, but because he idolizes Steven, he must be at his side and talk of all the "cool" stories about his rock star brother. "My brother practices his drum beats in his blue underwear every morning," Jeffie tells Steven's band friends. Steven is embarrassed by his brothers existence. Steven not only hates this brotherly aspect of life, he disapproves of the fact that Renee Albert doesn't pay attention to him, he loves her to the stretches of the galaxy, he is shallow and only likes her because she is beautiful, has long swaying blond hair, a fit slim body, and nice round healthy pink cheeks. He can't resist staring and drooling over her constantly, especially when she is sashaying in her tight revealing cheerleading outfit. One day in a band practice, Steven was flying through his drum beats, bip bop booty bop bop boodoo, his hands were lightning fast, however, Renee came in through the double doors and instantly drove Steven out of his boppen beat, his sticks went flying all over the place, one off the stage and the other into the fragile brass horn of the soloing trumpet nearby. He's got it bad. The beginning of this tale are prime examples of stereotypical teenage emotions.

This lasting unnecessary attitude towards Jeff comes to an abrupt stop when Jeffie is diagnosed with ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia). Steven begins feeling a sorrowful sympathy for his brother seeing what was happening to him with his very own eyes. Bone marrow transplants included gigantic needles being injected into his chest. Chemotherapy radiated his body freeing his head from hair. Constant doses of powerful medication regularly made him nauseous and vomit. The cancer weakened his skin and bone strength, leaving deep black ugly bruises in his skin. The pain of normal everyday activities such as brushing teeth or going to the bathroom were excruciating. This is a horrible sight for Steven who truly feels sorry for his little brother in a way he never had before.

The continued change of Steven Alper is immense. His admiration of his brothers courage and bravery during the eight months of pain, and all of the up's and down's lead to his new found sensitivity giving him not only to the ability to love his brother, but also to understand and respect girls in his school for what they can do and who they are, and not only pay attention to their outside appearances. He realizes whatever's on the inside matters most. Looking beyond beauty, he chooses to date the one girl, Annette, that likes and admires him for the qualities that make him unique, such as his amazing drum skills or his vow to stay by his brother at all times. Renee, on the other hand, only pays attention to him because his brother's leukemia.

Steven throughout the story deals with many tough conflicts and hardships, all of which lead to his transformation. Challenges he faces, such as whether or not to let Renee Albert into his house when she has a cold that may kill his brother, leave him conflicted. When word got out that Jeff had cancer, neither Steven nor his father took it very well. His father went into a state of deep depression, not giving Steven updates on his brother's condition in the hospital. Steven also was having unnatural nightmares and breakdowns, constantly crying in his fathers arms. At night when he fell asleep, he would dream the same dream of Jeffery bruised to death by snowballs. His only escape was his passion, playing drums. As the months rolled by, Steven began to go into a phase of hopeful bargaining, "if I brush my teeth well this morning, Jeffery might just get better." He also began failing his schoolwork and tuning out of class, he received a 39 on his Math Middle School Finals, he flat out failes it. However, through all these calamities, Steven matures and acts like a man. He sticks by Jeffies side all through the mornings, days, and nights, even sadly giving up his big drum solo, in Cubana Be Cubana Bop, to go to the hospital to be with his brother. It turns out to be a minor ear infection. No matter, he'd sacrifice his life, Steven does anything to help his brother.

Steven Alper, once an uncaring selfish superficial being, becomes a mindful full-time brother to an unfortunate little brother, a prodigious drummer for the All-City Jazz Band, a deep thoughtful person that can look beyond beauty, and one who has learned to deal with adults who are emotionally and financially impaired. He has now matured greatly, over the past year, and he has learned to cope with very difficult issues within his depressing, insane, and dramatic year of learning the essence of life and what it has to offer whether or not it is good or bad.

The Divergent Games

ZZZING! goes the arrow of Katniss, SSHHING! goes the knife manipulated by Tris, WHACKKK! Katniss pelts a head with the side of her bow, THUNKKK! a jaw gets bruised  after a fore-arm shiver from Tris. These heroins of The Divergent Games showoff their  indispensable skills and talents in combat. Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire, is a sharp-shooting rebel that plans to overthrow the ruling regime called Panem. Divergent, Tris Prior, firebrand, wants equality for all factions, Dauntless Abnegation Erudite Candor and Amity, no hate and killing amongst every one is her goal. These superhero phonemes cannot be tamed or dissuaded from their goals of changing their societies for  better futures.

Katniss and Tris share a mutual mistrust and disgust towards the governments that rule over their societies. Indignant towards the people in power, these two super women are hideously disliked and wanted dead or alive by the authorities whom are capable of inflicting deep hurt and offense upon these saviors and their loved ones that live within their totalitarian states. Katniss and Tris are extremely brave and have sharp survival skills, both are great hazards to their nations of tyranny. FLLLING! Knives fly, ZOOOM! arrows let free, these acts lubricate their crazed rebellions for justice.

Troops of Divergent Games, come cater to our needs for safety!! The villains of the century called the NRA (National Rifle Association) are creating weapons of mass homicide that are destroying our communities. They ain't no customary masked villains. They hinder the growth and happiness of the next generation. Schools such as Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT have been bombarded with bullets from semi-automatic rifles, students that should have been allowed to attend classes and return  home unscathed, were scarred by the loss of their friends, some by the loss of their lives. Transparent shards of rigid glass mixed with scarlet red blood splattered across the pink, purple and blue flowers abstractly painted on the walls. Katniss, Tris, are you there, are you available to help us fight this fight of insanity? Please help us defeat these greedy, power hungry NRA entrepreneurs. They are a massive plague of death that must be stopped before the next victim is claimed. In America, there are too many people that are indifferent to this subject, it's up to you to help us rise up against and fight for non-violence and sanity. POWOWOWOWOW!! Are you poised for my rebellion?



This is another creative writing based on another set of 20 vocabulary words of the week. It is a 20 sentence story using one vocabulary word per sentence.

Divergent

Divergent, a fast-paced science fiction thriller by Veronica Roth that takes place in a futuristic totalitarian society, is about a sixteen year old girl named Beatrice Prior, later known as Tris. She used to live a noble, respectful, and unadventurous life in the faction Abnegation. In this warped society factions are the way the government separates communities of people by their emotions and personalities. To decide upon this, they place the citizens into a deep simulated sleep induced by drugs, they then place scenarios into the contestant's head to examine how the initiate acts. This test is called the Aptitude Test. Newborns are  immediately placed into the faction of their parents, but as the sixteenth year of life comes around, the Aptitude Test must be performed, and in Tris' case, her test results were inconclusive, meaning she has no exact faction given to her while she was in the simulation. Therefore, the government classifies her as Divergent. This is Tris' dilemma. The inquiry question my reading club developed, based upon the books we are reading individually, is how does the main character overcome and deal with his/her conflict throughout the story?

Tris' conflict, being a Divergent, is that it is very risky and dangerous because Divergent's have no rightful place in society. To cover up this treacherous situation, from the world in which she lives, she chooses a faction she thinks will divert attention from this perilous fate. At the Choosing Ceremony, when one's desired faction becomes reality, the chosen faction must be honored, and the initiate will train hard to their fulfill their potential and take their rightful place in society. They are ranked based on how well they train in comparison to everyone else in the faction. Firstly, Tris chose Dauntless, the faction of the brave, hoping to hide her true nature. She surprises everyone, even herself, by being so brave for a "stiff", what the Dauntless call people from Abnegation, people of selflessness. Secondly, to enter this realm of the undaunted, two death defying obstacles lie in the initiates path. The first interference to be overcome is to jump out of a full speed moving train and onto a building five feet away with a ten story drop above solid rough concrete pavement. The next obstacle takes a lot of guts, lots and lots of guts. She has to jump off the same building and into a decent sized abyss, not knowing what awaits her on the bottom. Impressively, she was the first jumper and this took attention away from her sketchy personality that could potentially give away the fact she is a Divergent. Another way Tris covers her identity is by beating up Molly, a mean and nasty bully. This act of brutality and anger, not only sent a message to Molly and her cronies, but also showed the Dauntless leaders that she is not worth nothing and they should never give up on her, "I may have underestimated you Stiff" the head leader Eric says to Tris, finally accepting her for the first time. This incident proves that she is finally able to fit into Dauntless and effectively hide who she really is.

I relate Tris Prior and the Divergent story to Katniss Everdeen and the Hunger Games Trilogy. Both of these tales include heroic teenage girls that live in futuristic Sci-Fi worlds. Both have trouble conforming to their controlling and dictator like societies. I have only read half of Divergent thus far and do not have any knowledge of the end, however, the strength shown by Beatrice leads me to believe that she will start a rebellion just as Katniss did in Catching Fire. These two characters are strong and will fight to the end to achieve what they believe is right for a better society. They are cool.

Dragonwings

Dragonwings by Laurence Yep is a fascinating story about a young boy named Moon Shadow from the Middle Kingdom, also known as China. Moon Shadow's father, Windrider had moved to San Francisco, California, to get a job so that he could raise money for his family. Moon Shadow's only real knowledge of his dad was that he is a maker of magnificent kites. When the fatherless son moves to California to be reunited with his father he experiences many hardships. He must not only learn who his father is as a person and how to relate to him, but he must also deal with the fact that he's a Chinese immigrant in the US during the early nineteen-hundreds. These struggles were also accompanied by a desire to accomplish and turn into reality the dream of flight. This is a story of how the hopes of the Tang family came true because of the opportunities given by life in America.

Windrider was forced to leave his family because money and jobs were scarce, he moved to San Francisco and got a job as the laundry boy for the "City of Demons", what they called white people.  When Moon Shadow travels to the United States, Windrider began taking him on these laundry trips into the dangerous city " I was treated as a man, not a boy," he says, helping his father earn money for his family.  However, life is not so simple, he gets picked on by the American white kids of the neighborhood because of his Asian features, his small size, and his Chinese accent and broken grammar. The main character had to grow rapidly throughout the story, in order to stand a chance against the natives, and live the American dream. The devastating and famous San Francisco earthquake of 1906 allowed the two honorable Tang men to help the community that once stood strong, but whose fate crumbled at the hands of Mother Nature. They heroically gathered many people to dig out the unfortunate people that were piled under endless mounds of rubble and dust, they found medics that weren't injured to heal the wounds of those those who barely made it, and selflessly offered shelter to those in need. These helpful actions and sacrifices, led to the townspeople agreeing that the Crazy Chinamen up the block aren't so crazy after all. Finally accepted by the community, life begins to improve for the Tangs. Gaining the respect and support of their neighbors, and the money saved from being launderers, led to their having the ability to pursue their wildest dream and their deepest passion, making an aeroplane and flying like a "dragon king". Inspired by, and helped by, the Wright Brothers, who had just recently flown around North Carolina, Windrider and Moon Shadow build their own plane that actually flies. Had it not been for the US, they never would have had the opportunity to take to the skies and  equal the great feat of the Wright Brothers.

Living in New York City, also known as the Melting Pot, I relate to the immigrant story of Moon Shadow and Windrider, probably many students in my class have parents or grandparents that are first generation immigrants. I wonder why their families came. My mom is an immigrant, she's from Tainan, Taiwan, she came because she felt trapped as a women because of cultural obligations. She is now free to do as she wants and have the loving family she has today, I am extremely lucky to have her as my mother. Moon Shadow unfortunately had to leave his mother behind, however, the book ends with  the Tang men saving enough money to bring the mom over to San Francisco, reuniting their entire family. Family is more powerful than anything else, even more powerful than flying.

Laugh

The new family that just moved into the magnificent house adjacent to ours are eerily strange. Wailing out of key broken violin screams alight the nights since they have occupied their newly painted pink polka-dotted mansion with dusty black windows. It looks like they are from a clown dynasty. Sour milk and rotten onion odors seep out of what must be their  kitchen, finding its way to interrogate my sensitive nostrils. After the "Wackos", as every one calls them, moved in, gossip about them quickly began to germinate like vines with an overdose of fertilizer.

Their faces, so pale with mile thick glasses, cracked lips, crooked teeth and vicious, long finger nails is how I imagine their appearance. Their house, as pink and as odd as it is on the outside, must have renovations on the inside that are spine-chillingly creepy as well. Dangerously hung chandeliers in barren rooms, booby traps and trip wires, with victims of crimes hung from their feet by ropes from red ceilings full of constellations and war scenes. As I fall asleep, the everlasting rhythm of trickling water, drip drip, from my broken faucet drives me out of bed. When I hop out of bed to stop the interminable annoyance of the water droplets, I hear an unthinkable noise, a genuine laugh from the house, the new families house! A laugh so true and joyous, one that insinuates such happiness that I suddenly feel an urge to meet this family. A foretaste that our first encounter won't be so bad.

Once frightened by the fact of meeting these people, I am strangely excited enough to disrupt my own sleep and greet them with a fresh baked pie. My baking résumé is Hall of Fame quality. I hurtle myself down the stairs, to the pantry to collect ingredients for my special recipe for bourbon pecan pie. Bang! I stub my toe on the edge of my table, I guess that's recompense for judging them so much. This pie cannot be any regular humdrum pie. This meeting must not be trivial, we will potentially be great friends and neighbors. As I walk up to the front door, the sour milk and rotten onion smell over power my magnificent pie, I get nervous again, my steps get sullen, and my heart starts pounding out of control. Will we ever need a truce between us?

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This creative writing was based on the 20 vocabulary words of the week. It is a 20 sentence story using one vocabulary word per sentence.

adjacent, alight, dynasty, interrogate, germinate, vicious, renovations, barren, trickling, interminable, insinuates, foretaste, disrupt, résumé, hurtle, recompense, humdrum, trivial, sullen, truce.

President John .F Kennedy

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, our thirty-fifth president, represented hope for our countries future in 1963. However, a man named Lee Harvey Oswald set back these hopes in a major way. In Dallas Texas's Dealey Plaza, Oswald shot Kennedy in the head and neck from a near by building at twelve-thirty PM, November 22. The possibilities of our future, once held tight and promising under the stronghold of JFK, were now lost in the deafening silence of gunshots. These gunshots may have killed John Kennedy but his dreams for a better America, his accomplishments, and his legacy live on.

Our current president, Barack Obama, the first African American president in our history, is a product of President Kennedy's fight for civil rights, in which he appointed African-Americans to higher level jobs of more importance and responsibility, giving them more chances to succeed and achieve the dreams they dreamt of. These Civil Rights are the most important part of his legacy. If it weren't for this legacy of our thirty-fifth president, Obama wouldn't currently hold office. John F. Kennedy also encouraged the race to space. He funded the technology and effort of the Apollo 13, under Kennedy's leadership NASA put the first man on the moon, and furthered scientific exploration. This push for scientific knowledge helped our nation maintain its position of dominance in the world.

Hope. John Fitzgerald Kennedy showed himself, proud and charming, young and ambitious. JFK was the beginning of a new generation, one of equality for all the men and women of different races. Life seemed to be supreme, until the fateful day Oswald shattered those humanitarian dreams once dreamt by so many citizens. Despite this deadly act, JFK's ideals and beliefs for a more fair future continue. Today, we are a better nation for it.  Thank you President John .F Kennedy, how much more would our country have accomplished had you lived a full life?