The Epistle, March 2012

The Epistle Volume 38, Issue 5

Staff

Editors-in-Chief Dylan Gibson Kyle Grace Mills Assistant Editor Danielle Williamson Staff Reporters Hannah Fruh Patrick Schulte Kourtney Wadkins Contributing Writer Brady Smith Journalism Adviser Dr. Laurie Shorter

EDITORIALS

SPREAD

FEATURES

SPORTS

St. Paul’s Episcopal School 161 Dogwood Lane Mobile, AL 36608 Phone: (251) 342-6700 Fax: (251) 342-1844 Email: Lshorter@stpaulsmobile.net Website: www.stpaulsmobile.net

March 2012

A profile in courage: Josh Cohen

by Kyle Grace Mills I must begin this portrait of Josh Cohen with a disclaimer: I am not writing an article on Josh because he saved my stock project after a virus infected my computer. I am not writing this article on Josh Cohen just because he is one of my mom’s closest friends. I am not writing about Josh Cohen because he is an inspiring alumnus of St. Paul’s School. I am writing this article because Josh Cohen is all of those things and more: a hero.

We had set the interview in his office, on the eighth floor of the Televox building. The interior of his office, despite a lovely view, was disappointingly sparse. When I mentioned this, Josh shrugged and said “Decorating was never really my thing.” Although I had a set number of questions, comprised of both the mundane and profound, we fell into an easy conversation about Josh’s life.

Josh was like most seniors graduating from St. Paul’s. He had enrolled to go to Auburn University and planned to room with his best friend from high school. There, he might have pursued a major in pre-med—but he was comfortably undecided. He had plans, albeit murky ones, for his life after high school.

A week in Japan

On May 31, 1996, Josh’s world changed. A week after graduation, Josh broke his neck while bodysurfing in the Gulf of Mexico. Instead of enjoying his last summer with his friends he found himself in a hospital fighting for his life. He would go on to spend five months in The Shepherd’s Rehabilitation Center in Atlanta, working

to recover movement above his waist.

The murky plans were no longer plans at all. But Josh’s story is not – and will never be – a cautionary tale.

Josh recalled that his stay in The Shepherd’s Center correlated with the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta. He remembers finding inspiration in watching a basketball Para-Olympic event. Here were men confined to wheelchairs hurling themselves with all their force at other men in wheelchairs. They were athletes,

catastrophic injuries or birth defects notwithstanding. Josh watched as one man fell out of his chair and pushed himself back into his chair with nothing but the strength of his arms. “I remember thinking, ‘You’re awesome.’”

After five and half months in rehab, Josh, 6’4”, weighed only 120 pounds. Josh was required to take counseling. There, he came in contact with paraplegics “who were completely beaten.” Josh couldn’t relate to these feelings. “These were people who were never going to move on. And I just didn’t feel that way. It was getting me down, so I stopped going. I would have kept going if I thought I could have made a difference for these people. But people have to decide for themselves when they’re going to be happy.” Josh consciously chose optimism over the pessimism that was eating away at others in his condition. “Many people don’t even make it out of the hospital. I was lucky to be alive.”

Josh decided to move on.

The first step was enrolling at the University of South Alabama.

There, he had to meet the demands of challenging classes and rigorous physical therapy. continued on pg. 3

E: Where will you be in Ja-

try. I am slightly nervous because I don’t speak any Japanese and it is my first time flying internationally.

CH: I’m really excited and scared at the same time. I’m excited because I’ve never been to Japan before, but I don’t know any Japanese.

E: What are you looking forward to the most? The

by Patrick Schulte Japan, the mystical land of ninjas, sushi, and Pokémon will host a little bit of St. Paul’s next year. Carter Albrecht and Chelsea Hubbard have been selected to spend a short while in Japan, living with a family and going to school with them. Carter and Chelsea were gracious enough to answer some questions about their upcoming trip.

Epistle: What exactly is the program you are taking part in?

Carter Albrecht: It’s the Mobile-Ichihara Sister City Association.

Chelsea Hubbard: Every other year students from Ichihara come here and student from Mobile The Epistle is published by go to Japan and get to experience the the journalism students of St. culture.

Paul’s Episcopal School.

E: How did you apply?

The opinions and views CA: I heard about it, then I expressed in this paper do not went and picked up an application necessarily represent those from Mrs. Thurston. After I filled it of our administration, the out, I went to a prospective student adviser or all members of The meeting and had an interview before Epistle staff. being selected.

pan?

CA: I’ll be in Ichihara, Chiba, Japan. Ichihara is a city about the same size as Mobile and is right across Tokyo Bay from Tokyo. I will be in Ichihara for most of the trip, but I will go to Tokyo too.

E: How long will you be gone?

CA: The dates haven’t been made exact but I should be in Japan for nine to eleven days.

E: Excited? Scared? Cloud 9? All of the above?

CA: I am incredibly excited about traveling to Japan because I really enjoy traveling domestically but have never been out of the coun-

least?

CA: The thing I am looking forward to the most in Japan is the food. From everything I have heard the food in Japan is incredible despite its exotic nature. I can’t say I’m looking forward to the 14 hour flight, and I doubt it will be anything other than miserable.

CH: I’m looking forward to being there and meeting new people, but I’m not looking forward to the flight.

Good luck Chelsea and Carter, and anzen’na tabi (bon voyage)! image courtesy of www.tokyoluv.com

2 Editorial Letter from the editor

Letter from the editor

With the rustling of spring comes the fifth publication of this year’s Epistle. In contrast to the new season, this paper is dedicated to all things retro. As I was setting up the new Epistle archive (two file cabinet drawers devoted to old Epistle papers), I was struck by a surprising sense of nostalgia. That’s when I formulated the idea of a reminiscent Epistle – a tribute to the past. There was that, and it just so happened that April 1st (when our April Fools’ paper would be released) fell on a Sunday.

We all mourned for our dearly departed April Fools’ paper.

Patrick Schulte fell into a crippling depression that jeopardized the newspaper.

But we roll with the punches here at The Epistle. Our staff took on the task bravely and supplied numerous groovy ideas.

For example, Danielle Williamson interviews Mrs. Bramlett for some insight into the seventies (and more appropriately, hot pants). Patrick Schulte recaps the big news on campus in 1993, the year of his birth. I likewise focus on an article written over a decade ago, an interview with a courageous young man named Josh Cohen. I pick up where the story left off, interviewing the courageous middle-aged man, Josh Cohen.

But there are plenty of new articles to be found as well! Han-

by Kyle Grace Mills

by Dylan Gibson

nah Fruh gives us the scoop on Pinterest, the website that is taking the blogging world by storm.

Kourtney Wadkins takes a closer look at the bloodlust that can accompany professional sports and why we’re addicted to it. Dylan Gibson muses on the issues of a society connected by technology and its damaging effect on our present culture.

We’re nearing the close of this school year and the last paper from the Epistle staff. Now is the time to stop and savor all that’s going around. To quote Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

I hope you enjoy this March edition of The Epistle, our little piece of nostalgia.

It’s that time of the year.

I’m fairly confident I’ve commenced every letter from the editor with that cliché line, but this is a super-special time of the year.

It’s that special time in the spring where I can celebrate my drinksodden ancestral lineage from the British Isles – that special genetic fluke which gives me an excuse to rock the flat cap and suspenders while sporting the ham-chops and blaring Flogging Molly CDs from the subwoofers on my horse and carriage rolling well over seventyfive down Old Shell Road (haters gonna hate, man).

But hey, who am I kidding. The closest connection most of us have to the Celtic strain is the pasty skin and that Bolshevik valet from the re-runs of Downton Abbey they’re playing on PBS. So while you’re gutting your way through that existential crisis and coping with the utter disconnect from your ethnic roots, feel free to enjoy our paper

Co-editor Kyle Grace Mills has interviewed Mr. Josh Cohen, a St. Paul’s alumnus whose triumph over adversity serves as an inspirational example of the courageous life properly lived. Heir-to-thethrone Danielle Williamson talks style with Mrs. Margaret Bramlett, providing an historical perspective on what it meant to be fresh down through the ages. And yes, I was looking for an excuse to say “an

historical.”

Hannah Fruh takes a deeper look at Pinterest, which is (from what I understand) an online shopping site. I should strongly urge all fellow males to keep Google Translate handy for this one – a little multicultural literacy never hurt anyone, I reckon. Patrick Schulte talks cars while Kourtney Wadkins talks sports, thereby hopefully cancelling out the heavy concentrations of estrogen which seem to emanate from anything pertaining to Pinterest.

Best wishes and enjoy this edition of The Epistle. I’ll be roaming the Crichton countryside with my PVC panflute piping the ballads of my forefathers; timeless classics like that tale of lost love and lamentation, “Where Da Gold At?” Cheers,

Generation nostalgia

by Kyle Grace Mills

Last week I read an article in Vanity Fair claiming that our present culture is a pale imitation of the nineties, a generation dedicated to nostalgia. I would disagree on only one point.

We are a generation preoccupied with the past.

But it goes past the nineties into to the past half century. Frankly, anything not “now” obsesses us.

Shows like 90210, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Nikita, and Hawaii Five-O all have the same thing in common – they’re remakes.

Even our modern clothes bear a striking resemblance to the silhouettes used in the 50s and 60s. Tom Cruise donned his Ray-Bans thirty years ago, but we’re still wearing them. Though we cast off NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, the boy band lives on through Justin Bieber and The Jonas Brothers. We admire vintage cars, retro jewelry, and antique furniture (which might explain the phenomenon that is Antiques Roadshow). In politics, Democrats cling to the Great Society and New Deal policies while Republicans cry for their old hero Ronald Reagan.

Nostalgia could even be seen in the Super Bowl ads as Matthew Broderick performed hijinks in his Honda CR-V in homage to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

America seems to echo an old dream.

We have consciously chosen to reminisce

instead of create. One wonders: what are we so afraid of?

With the birth of science fiction, authors like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells began to ask, “What next?” Technological innovations, alien invasion, something wondrous to behold—these were their answers. The future was never perfect—but it was met boldly and with creativity.

Now, current culture views the future almost entirely with an apocalyptic or dystopic distortion. In the book series Uglies, humans undergo plastic surgery that alters both their appearance and their minds, transforming them into beautiful, vacant creatures. In the television

series The Walking Dead, zombies prey on the remnants of the human race. The Book of Eli foresees a world ravaged by nuclear war; the remaining humans revert back to a primitive society without law or morality. The future is still being met with innovation and creativity. Yet, each of these works of popular fiction indicates a dreadful future. We are alarmed at what is quickly approaching. We are a culture obsessed with the re-runs and re-hashes.

This raises another question. Is our culture merely a reflection of another time?

As a society we seem unable to create something distinctly “ours.” With the exception of technology, we have yet to revolutionize our culture. It’s not for lack of ability or inspiration. When one views Facebook and Twitter it becomes obvious we do have something to offer. But it’s time to venture outside of technology and re-evaluate our culture. Our art, our fashion, our music—what makes it innovative, revolutionary, or even avant-garde?

The only thing crippling us is our fear.

Fear to do something never done before. Fear to possess an original thought that transforms the people around us. Fear to imagine a new world. image courtesy of atowninblackandwhite.wordpress.com

A profile in courage, cont’d from page 1

During these physical therapy sessions Josh began to regain feeling in his legs. It was then that he was faced with a choice that would decide his future. If he planned to walk again, he had to devote himself exclusively to the rigors of the physical therapy needed to rebuild muscle and nerve usage in his legs.

However, Josh could not meet the requirements of school in addition to the exhausting physical therapy.

What would seem like a difficult decision for the rest of us was a simple one for Josh. Education would not wait—walking could. “Maybe one day there will be a medical breakthrough that will make it possible for me to walk again. And with a job, I can afford it. It all came down to the same thing: moving on. I was ready to go forward with my life, receive a diploma, and join the work force.”

At this point in the interview, a woman walked in with a form for Josh to sign. I introduced myself and explained to her what I was there for. She smiled and said, “Well that’s wonderful. You should tell Josh to go

back to physical therapy.” As she left, Josh and I shared a look. I smiled and changed the subject.

So what major would lead Josh to a managing position at Televox? Technology, at first, was a hobby. “I enjoyed discovering how things worked. Not just trying to get them to work.” Josh decided to major in technology and software. He would graduate in five years, “Which I am very proud of. It’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s hard to get all the classes you need in four years.” I commented that I didn’t think any of this sounded easy.

Josh leaned toward the more social of the technology professions. So computer programming was out. “It seems like a stereotype but computer programming really is a lonely existence. I want to be around people.”

A decade later, Josh has risen in his industry to manage sixteen people at Televox, a company that specializes in human-sounding automated messages. Josh was humbly hesitant to admit he both enjoyed and excelled in a leadership position.

Editorial 3

When I asked him about the future, he mentioned possibly running his own business with his own brand of software. So, as always, his future looks bright.

Toward the end of our discussion, Josh mentioned that he was initially apprehensive about the interview. “You know, I don’t really like talking about myself. I’m not a big fan of having the focus on me.” I told him that his story would mean a lot to people. He wasn’t skeptical of this comment, only uncertain.

Then I decided to make him even more uncomfortable and snapped his picture.

I finally asked him if there was anything else I should include in this article. He thought a moment, and then said “This may sound cheesy but never give up. Push forward or you won’t move forward.”

This mantra is simple and something everyone has heard. But that Josh Cohen consciously lives it gives this phrase new depth.

This article has been more than just a profile in courage. This has been a profile of a hero.

Poking ourselves to death

by Dylan Gibson

The internet has become a ubiquitous entity in a matter of years. The decades over which radio and television slowly entrenched themselves within the American psyche pale in comparison to the force wielded by the world wide web in the era of social media. The late novelist David Foster Wallace – of Infinite Jest fame – wrote a piece in the early 1990s about the depravity of a culture hardwired for television and its superficial self-mockery as meaningful satire loses its punch and complacency takes its place. Conscious voyeurism is an accepted motivator in media; we partake in the faux-private lives of others unabashedly.

Doubtless, Wallace would be horrified by the state of affairs here in the age of Facebook. We are no longer limited to espying Hollywood actors paid to enact whitewashed re-enactments of corporate America’s take on Joe Citizen’s life; we can now peer into the lives of our friends and acquaintances with uncanny ease simply by opening our web browsers. It is a dangerous and ultimately alienating connection.

First, there is the sheer overload of information. The vast quantities of unorganized and often non-validated data at our very fingertips makes for a daunting task: sorting through Google’s vast and barren wastelands in search of reliable and pertinent information overrides our desire for knowledge and opens the floodgates of defeatist apathy. What is left of America’s intelligentsia came by their formidable expertise through careful research without the aid of Google. This lack of information prioritization forms an unholy union with the natural human penchant for curiosity, which drives a headlong rush into those torrents of information and an utter inability to cope with it. Browse through three newspapers over your coffee one morning with NPR and C-SPAN running simultaneously on the surround-sound

system and you’ll get the feeling. The mind cuts off all connections and descends into apathy to maintain some semblance of psychological homeostasis.

Second – and here lies our focus – the internet borrows the depravity of televised re-

which we want to dominate at all times and in all places. Social media has not only allowed us to gaze at cardboard cut-outs of human beings, it has allowed us to attain popular culture apotheosis. No longer do we have to bow down at the altars of our pop-culture icons; we become them.

This desire for conformity, translated ality against which Wallace railed and takes it a step further. First it invaded our homes through into the (imprecise at best) medium of short hyperlinked linguistic bursts, comes at the a cathode-ray tube; now it invades our lives through little black touch-screen phones. Those expense of the deeper facets of our humanity.

Facebook does not give Joe Citizen the ability of us who have spent a few hours of our lives to qualify his EZ-Reader identity with those outdoors and interacting with real human beings – the few, the proud – have a rudimentary ineffable bits which can only be gleaned by understanding of the difference between a tele- human contact and intuition. Joe Citizen’s utter vision character and a legitimate human being. inability to offer up the qualia and unconscious Television characters have set and pre-ordained subtleties which dictate his life accomplishes the same task as his profile picture on a grandinterests. They conform to certain stereotypes er scale: it reduces a flesh-and-blood human prevalent in our culture and mold a rudimenbeing to a two-dimensional pixilated facsimile. tary faux-identity through it. In essence, they Facebook has, through its very exisare all caricatures of the patterns we tend to tence and purpose, proven that we are a corposee in society. To mold a fully nuanced human ratized generation. Everything about us must being on syndicated programming would be bespeak a brand name, from our sneakers to time-consuming for the producer and unnerving for the viewer; such trivialities are best left our politicians. Facebook’s marketing capabilities allow companies to sell their prepared to the perceived elitist circles of novelists and and glossed wares to us while we offer up our intellectuals.

Facebook picks up where television left glossed personal pitches to the world. Perhaps off and enables us to extend the grandiose sim- this is to be expected of the society in which media corporations can make a minor fortune plifications of human identity to our everyday from the sales of Guy Fawkes masks and Che lives. We can simply “add” those we admire Guevera T-shirts worn by college-age protesor show interest in and exchange our “vitals” tors, all of whom proudly declare themselves with them: the music we want people to think opposed to corporate control of American sowe enjoy, the books we want people to think ciety. Joe Citizen mustn’t blame Facebook for we’ve read, and in a larger perspective, the mask we want to wear at this stage of our lives his existential woes; he must blame the rules in order to further our standing in society. And by which his society plays. This post-industrial reality built in lieu of hard work and the gratithus, we conform to stereotypes. We are quick fication that follows consequently leaves us to don easily recognizable masks, most (if not patchwork people, assembled from myriad all) of them unconsciously picked up from television and popular culture. We wholeheart- pieces of the goods we own. It’s a strange sort of pre-prepared lifestyle in which both his fastedly reject that old Jungian proposition that a human identity is composed of many identities food meals and his diet books come ready for his eager and mindless consumption. The day residing within the same brain, all of which exchange salience at various points in response his information and identity come pre-packaged for him marks the day that those ineffable to various external stimuli. Instead, we all make steadfast attempts to put our interests and facets of his character begin to fade into disuse.

Image courtesy of benzinga.com characteristics in line with a singular identity

4 Spread Figments of years past

by Danielle Williamson

In the spirit of nostalgia, The Epistle dove deep into yearbooks from the ancient period of 1999 to 2003. The findings are assembled here for your viewing pleasure.

Picture Purr-fect

Bradley Padgett happily pets Mrs. Crane’s kitty, which she brought to class when the students were reading a story about a cat. Bradley said, “I liked playing with the kitty.”

Webb said, “Mom says it’s important to pray before special meals.”

Garret Benefiel: “I like the swings on the playground the best. I can swing so high!”

Fox Haas

Daniel Haas: “I like playing hideand-go-seek outside, because I’m a good hider!”

Grace Molyneux

Stack Up

Alex Fleet, Bren McMaken, and Douglas Proffitt play on the slide during recess. “Alex is my best friend and we love playing together,” Bren said. “The slide is the best!!” the boys said with glee.

Count Down Jay Walsh

happy to work on his arithmetic.

He said learning to count was exciting. “My favorite tim eof the day is math!” Jay said. “It’s my best subject!”

Parker Nall Brewer Kirkendall

Katie Motes and Hootie Hollister

“No talking while others do, it’s rude,” said Jackson.

Mills said, “Aaahhhhh!”

Libby Knizley, Kyle Grace Mills, Shelby Davidson, McKenzie Klyce

Old news from 1993

by Patrick Schulte

On a recent trip through the archives of The Epistle, I noticed a paper from October, 1993 – the first paper released on my birth year.

It was neat looking back at the news at the start of school eighteen years ago.

For the first time in sixteen years St. Paul’s had a new headmaster. Actually, two: Mr. Bob Rutledge and Mr. Pat Taylor were chosen by the Board of Trustees to run the school until a new headmaster could be selected. One hundred new lockers were bought and installed in the Bedsole building’s courtyard, across from where the Middle School science lab is today. These lockers were meant for the seniors, surprisingly.

These were the first of the two-stacked lockers seen around the school today; the school used to have four-stacked lockers instead. Imagine the hassle that would create today.

News was made before the school year even began. In the summer of ‘93, student Stanley Douglass won third place on an episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos with a video of his dog. The dog, Russell, discovered that a reflection in a mirror will, believe it or not, do exactly what you do! Stanley met Bob Saget,

host of the show, and had an amazing time.

Speaking of funny, Furious George got, well, furious at the walk up the hill. Furious George was a hand-drawn comic strip starring George the Saint.

Tragedy always makes the news. Early on September 22, an Amtrak train going from New Orleans to Jacksonville derailed over a damaged bridge just east of Saraland and into Big Bayou Canot, killing forty-seven people. The bridge had been hit by a barge, knocking it out of alignment with the rest of the track. It was Amtrak’s deadliest accident ever.

The entire student body made news as well. In September the student body voted not to implement an honor code proposed by the SGA. It would have been the exact same code as we use now, not the old paragraph required several years ago.

In sports, the Delaney Athletics Complex was nearing completion with the end of work on the baseball field. The Saints football team was having an amazing year, 5-0 by the time of the October paper. The Saints were division 3A at the time. The volleyball team had a 10-4 record, doing well at tournaments around the state but unable to overcome McGill-Toolen, fortunately, things have changed.

And finally, the sixth grade was looking forward to a trip to the Smoky Mountain Institute in Tremont, North Carolina. The trip was not much different from today’s trip to Kanuga.

Many things have changed in eighteen years. Things continue to change, raising the question, what will be different eighteen years from now? What will they think when they look back on us? Only time will tell.

image courtesy of www. tvlistings.zap2it.com

Spread 5

Furbie and the fight against boredom: 90s toys

by Danielle Williamson

At the peak of third quarter, with sports and Big Show in full swing and exams looming over the horizon, “boredom” seems like a foreign concept to most high school students. Free time is a joke. Sure, one may get on Facebook or StumbleUpon, but it isn’t during their “free time.” It’s during their “I really don’t want to start this English paper” time.

In the age of neglected naptimes (imagine—we regularly passed up opportunities to sleep in school!), boredom was an all too concrete reality. Understandably, parents began tiring of the constant echoes of “I’m borrreeeddd.” Suddenly, Santa Claus became much more generous. Do not be fooled—this is not because of amazing behavior on your part.

It is due to parental love. No, not for you-- for peace and quiet. Parents flocked to purchase child-distracters (or, as we know them, “toys”) to buy themselves a few moments of glorious silence. Among the most popular of these were:

1. Furbie: The flickering eyes, the tiny beaks, the piercing screech—Furbies were straight out of a horror film. The little buggers were never satisfied, wailing at random intervals at the most inconvenient of times. Worse, once you braved the monster under your bed to fetch the offender at 2 a.m., you found that the thing was immortal. No amount of blankets

could stifle it. Only with the aid of a hammer did one become the master of the accursed thing.

2. Polly Pocket: Two words—rubber clothes. And in such a variety of hues and patterns! Never mind that it was impossible to pull off Polly’s rubber outfit and change her clothes, or that the whole ensemble was an early-deathby-choking waiting to happen. Perfectly sized for toting to play dates, Polly and her friends (stored in the plastic case they came in) were an accessory to die for.

3. Pokémon: Gotta catch ‘em all. It wasn’t an option. With Pikachu (or Squirtle, Charmander, or Bulbasaur, depending on the version of your game) at your side, you navigated the long grass, ever wary that at any moment, a “wild pokemon” might “appear!” Some traded cards, some gamed on their Gameboy Colors, and some popped a squat in front of the

A blast from the fashion past

by Hannah Fruh

For this retro-themed paper, I decided to pull out yearbooks from ages ago. When I was looking through the old pages of the 1994 Halo, I saw several fashion disasters. Although I was hoping that Stacy London and Clinton Kelly from the television show What Not To Wear could travel in time, I was happy to see that a few things are still fashionable today.

The classic outfit for girls mirroring the oversized t-shirts and Nike shorts worn today were oversized t-shirts/sweaters tucked into very faded (mom-cut) blue jeans. While today the average pair of shoes worn are probably Nike gym shoes, then it would have been large white gym shoes or clunky black Doc Martens.

Actually a few shoe types have returned to our style--such as colorful neon high tops, roundtoed high heels and the jelly (plastic) sandals.

The nineties style had a focus on the baggy “grunge” look. Although our interpretation of grunge is a little different from theirs,

we still have a grunge style today. The 1990’s approach to grunge was usually a large plaid shirt worn loosely over baggy pants, jeans or over a loose baby doll dress. Today our approach to grunge is defined as bohemian. The Boho style includes cropped t-shirts, loose skirts or dresses. Historically, the Boho look came from gypsy women who didn’t care for fashion at all. Although Boho is meant to be a disheveled, careless style, it is now a fashion statement. The fashionistas trying to keep up

by Hannah Fruh

You’re looking for something to wear for prom. You really need a great cupcake recipe for that party Saturday night. You need new hair styling ideas. You find an adorable picture of a puppy or a great outfit online and you want to show your friends. The answer to everything is Pinterest!

Pinterest shares your interests with your friends and family in the form of pins on a board. People use Pinterest to plan and explore ideas for their weddings. It is a virtual pinboard that saves the many inspirations you find in the blog world or online. A connection with Facebook automatically follows your friends to see their pins on Pinterest. You share your

great ideas with others, then they can share that same idea with their friends and so on. Pinterest spreads trends and new ideas very quickly.

If you find a cool craft which you would love to make, people will see it and re-pin it if they want. That way, others can discover the same recipes, crafts and styles that you found.

Here’s Pinterest mission statement: “Our goal is to connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people.

With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.”

TV every Saturday morning to catch the show on WB Kids. Regardless, all lamented when the craze was eclipsed by Yu-Gi-Oh, a far inferior card game.

4. Little Tykes Cozy Coupe: This red and yellow car was the stuff of NASCAR. You sat in the little seat, shut the door, revved up your little feet and BAM. You were like, lightning fast! You sped down the cul-de-sac, cackling in your malicious five-year-old voice at sluggish passersby. As you grew older, the car transformed into a scooter of sorts when you pushed off and stood in the trunk (while your mom wasn’t looking, of course). It was a wild and crazy time.

As we look forward to the end of the year, we find many things have changed. Instead of using our feet to scoot along our Cozy Coupe, we use them to push the gas pedal of our cars. Our Pokémon and Polly Pockets lie in closets, collecting dust; our Furbies cheep erratically in dumps, their faces splintered by hammers. Yet we move on.

For when changes take away our boredom and threaten to overwhelm, we do the logical thing: we get in our Cozy Coupes and roll with them. image courtesy of www.kaboodle.com

with the “I don’t care” look actually do care.

In the nineties, girls had a funky bright and colorful fashion scheme as well as a modest approach to style. On a Friday night, you would have seen girls with their densely sprayed hair in a high ponytail with a big “scrunchie” rubber band.

That person would probably be wearing a tank top with a jean jacket, a colorful skirt, and bright leggings. On a Sunday or for a nicely dressed event, you may see that same girl wearing a long dress with a high collar and pearls.

When girls dressed up they were very modest as compared to girls today.

Fashion is just like history—it repeats itself. Soon girls could be following the 90s style of overly-hair-sprayed hair, dark lipstick and long dresses. Guys could follow the 90s style of parting their hair in the middle, wearing neon patterned shorts and Hawaiian shirts quite resembling Jim Carrey’s Ace Ventura. This is unlikely and hopefully doesn’t happen soon.

What’s your interest: Pinterest

So what is Pinterest really and how can I get it? It is an addictive and fun way to find out about new things. I began my first board while writing this article. A board holds a certain category of pins. For example, I named my board FruhBirdStyle because I wanted to pin fashion items on that board. I might add that writing this article gave me a perfect excuse to spend plenty of time on Pinterest.

You can join Pinterest by simply going to Pinterest.com and requesting an invitation.

After about a week, you will be accepted. You will find fresh new ideas for everything such as dorm room decorations, cooking inspirations, and other ideas galore. May the pinning begin!

6 Features Your next car

by Patrick Schulte

Once phones just let you talk to others.

Now, they do everything: from finding directions and checking the internet to slicing bread. Cars are following suit by going digital as well.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, Mercedes demonstrated a touch and gesture controlled windshield that can do many helpful things. It can give directions based on where you are and what you can see. It can show you deals nearby in your favorite shops. It can even let you know where your friends are and what they’re up to. The windshield is not ready for mass production, but it is the latest and most impressive technology designed for a car yet. Until now, all interactive systems in cars were placed in the dashboard – potentially out of easy reach. What makes Mercedes’s windshield revolutionary is its location – the windshield.

Cars have been sold with built-in navigation and entertainment centers for years, and these have been modified and refined as technol-

ogy improves. Ford has been leading the market in interactive car systems with Sync. Sync allows one to make calls, read texts, get directions, even control the A/C without one’s hands leaving the steering wheel or eyes leaving the road.

One can even use the car as a wireless hotspot for passengers. Audi and Kia have taken notice and are planning to update their own interactive systems.

The mysterious Gatsby

by Hannah Fruh

Her silk gown met its doom that night after it was caught on a chair. Her delicate dress had been compromised, but the party went on anyway. With Cole Porter, the most well-known pianist from the twenties at the piano, she quickly forgot about her ruined dress and continued to dance. She had been looking forward to this night all week. She actually had no clue that the infamous Mr. Gatsby owned this house, a glorious mansion constantly filled with vitality. A Rolls Royce was parked out front and a swimming pool in the back overlooked the lake.

It seemed strange to her that the host gave so freely. There was always a fresh glass of orange juice and great food ready to be served, and always live music for dancing. A few people shared gossip about the mysterious host. One man said that Gatsby once killed a man in cold blood. Another person whispered that Gatsby was a spy for Germany during World War I. The conversation ended when a jazz band began playing blues music on the lawn outside. Everyone joined the band and danced to jazzy tunes with the foxtrot, waltz, tango, Breakaway, and,

of course, the Charleston. Many hours later as the music faded and the sun began to rise she and her friends left the mysterious mansion. The next morning she was sent a brand new dress from Mr. Gatsby. This dress was much finer than the last one. She then recalled seeing a man standing alone on the edge of the shore staring across the water his eyes fixed on a light across the lake. And so goes one of the tales of the mysterious Great Gatsby.

Although we cannot travel back to the time of F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote The Great Gatsby and take part in the parties of the roaring ’20s, we can recreate the ’20s atmosphere at prom this April. The clothes from that era were interesting. The flapper girls wore feathers or hats on their head with dresses completely different from the generation before them. The 1920s dresses were bold in color with higher hemlines and were made from luxurious fabrics.

With this style, their generation broke away from conservative life styles and displayed their independence. The men wore tailored suits—many favored pinstriped suits.

This leads to concerns with interactive cars. The main worry expressed is that all the feature of these systems will lead to distracted drivers, increasing the risk of crashes. Car companies have addressed these concerns by trying to create systems that require very little attention to be taken from driving. Such systems use voice commands to navigate, open, and operate the programs, but Mercedes’s new gesture windshield may revolutionize the market.

In some ways, cars have been the last bastion against the increasingly connected and digital world. But that’s changing. Ford has been leading the push to make cars more interactive, and Mercedes is upping the ante. The general trend in cars is to make them more like cell phones, devices to keep you connected to the online world. image courtesy of www.intelematicstoday.com

Jazz music was necessary for a great ’20s party. At prom we should have a bit of jazz music to set the ’20s tone. Their music fit to their dancing styles—fast-paced with a bouncy rhythm. At the parties there was plenty of dancing. Let’s try their dances at prom.

The prohibition of the 1920s not only ended the legal sale of alcohol, but also began the huge production of soft drinks and fruit cocktails. Fruit punch and carbonated fruit cocktail would be perfect drinks for prom. The prohibition also brought Italian food to the forefront. Many Italian Americans opened speakeasies (for illegal sale of alcohol) and were able to sell their gourmet meals because they had wine.

The twenties saw an increase in exotic and creative sweet foods such as fruit cocktails, Jell-O and pineapple upside-down cake. Delicate foods such as fancy salads, deviled eggs and small tea sandwiches were in style. All of these foods would be perfect for prom.

So hopefully this year, prom will give us a taste for what a 1920s party would be like and will recreate The Great Gatsby atmosphere.

Writing on the wall: Priest, Mobile’s Banksy

by Dylan Gibson

In the not-too-distant past, my daily drive down Old Shell Road after school featured an odd spectacle; a feature of the Crichton landscape which seemed as though it belonged in another time and place. Atop an apparently abandoned car repair shop sat a derelict angel with the words “ANGEL DUST 4 SALE” spraypainted over her head.

The stenciled image was akin to the work of “Banksy” – the moniker of a now-worldfamous anonymous street artist based in England whose witty and inflammatory stencil work has earned him the admiration of Londoners and the ire of local government officials.

Although Banksy’s work elevated street art to a new level of popularity (his work has sold for thousands at various auctions), the street art scene has been incredibly vibrant in major cities throughout North America and Europe for decades. The work of French urban artist Xavier Prou (“Blek le Rat”) revolutionized graffiti, taking it from a predominantly free-form work of glorified vandalism to a level at which it might

be considered not only art but a reclamation of the urban landscape by the artist. In the following decades, artists such as Space Invader and Shepard Fairey (of Obama campaign poster fame) became urban fixtures and their art began to take on an ideological identity all its own.

After finding two or three other stencils marked with the same tag (a street artist’s defacto signature) in the downtown area, I put on my press (read: try-hard) cap and began poking around in an effort to dig up what little information was circulating about Priest. He stenciled a number of pieces onto the side of the Crescent Theater in July 2010, shortly before the debut of Exit through the Gift Shop (a documentary of sorts focused on Banksy’s dealings with an aspiring documentary maker in Los Angeles). The Downtown Alliance was less than amused – in an interview with local news site ModMobilian, Downtown Alliance PR director Carol Hunter was quick to equate Priest’s work with petty vandalism.

Having uncovered this much background

information, I began mulling over the possibility of somehow getting in touch with Priest and gaining a first-hand understanding of his work – an occupation which has been described in terms ranging from Mobile’s masked crusader to the anarchist Antichrist incarnate. Of course, two problems present themselves when trying to snag an interview with an anonymous figure whose trade is by nature illegal: first, the issue of snagging an interview with an anonymous figure; second, the ever-recurring mental image of myself standing stupidly with a pen and notepad as the interviewee vaults over the side of a building, leaving yours truly at the mercy of a portly little night-shift representative of Mobile’s finest, half-eaten glazed doughnut in one hand and charged taser in the other.

So I did something unbecoming of any wannabe-journalist worth his salt: I looked Mr. Priest up on Facebook. continued on pg. 7

Features 7 Writing on the wall, cont’d. from page 6

Lo and behold, “Iam Priest” accepted my friend request. While it is difficult to verify the identity of a man who intentionally withholds his identity, the cache of images showing half-finished stencils lit only by street lamps led me to believe that were this not Priest himself, it would be indicative of a much larger conspiracy. My theories regarding Illuminati world domination notwithstanding, I messaged Priest in hopes that he might take the time to answer a few questions for me.

To my surprise, he agreed to do so, noting that “my opinions are less valuable than my paintings. However, if this means I get to be inside the walls of St. Paul’s (legally)…I’ll answer your questions.”

Priest’s initiation into the street art scene appears to have been innocuous, to say the least: “I was already painting freights but I never saw them again and the ideas in my head weren’t just my fake name in calligraphy. They were much worse.” He goes on to detail a few of his chance encounters with the Mobile Police Department.

“I was painting a building rooftop and as I was finishing, I heard my police band radio crackle, ‘guy on the roof stealing copper.’ I saw him and he saw me, I jumped down a fire escape and as I got down felt a hand on my backpack and heard the cop squeal, ‘did you really think you were going to get away from me?’ Forty-five seconds

later I was trudging through a sewer scot-free.

I can almost guarantee he didn’t write that one up.”

Be it noted here that this reporter cannot confirm the veracity of the above anecdote, although he does find it quite amusing. Call it media bias.

From here, we moved to a topic more pertinent to the St. Paul’s population and perhaps more obstructive for Priest’s line of work: the disdain with which the more conservative moneyed segments of Mobile society seem to view him. “It’s funny how a mother of three, whose kids attend an über-exclusive private school, will ignore her daughter’s performance in a basketball game to write me a scathing e-mail blasting me for a fake girl on a wall she’s never seen.”

While the identity of the “fake girl” is not speci-

fied, one might speculate that Priest is referring here to one of his most controversial stencils: that of a UMS-Wright cheerleader posing with cigarette in hand, strongly reminiscent of photographer Sally Mann’s famous “Candy Cigarette” piece. This unabashed vitriol is perhaps best summed up by the artist himself: “…people in Mobile like their skeletons in their closet, not on abandoned eyesores.”

Mobile is a city with a rich and storied past but an uncertain future. In the throes of economic recession and local political corruption, the thriving culture which downtown Mobile is slowly cultivating faces threats from all sides: conservative political interests want to see the town remain an emblem of the “Old South” model which the arts and commerce sectors in cities like New Orleans and Atlanta have been quick to shed in recent years, while corporate interests keep delving further into West Mobile, threatening to leave what is left of downtown Mobile victim to the ever-growing sprawl of urban decay. The very premise which drives street art – that the urban landscape must be reclaimed from corporate banality – offers respite as the fabled city of six flags struggles to reclaim its identity in the 21st century. image courtesy of www.mymodernmet.com

History of a history teacher

by Danielle Williamson It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

It was the age of feminism, it was the age of hot-pants, it was the epoch of long and straight, it was the epoch of feathered, it was the season of China, it was the season of Watergate, it was the spring of peace, it was the winter of Vietnam, we had Skynyrd before us, we had disco before us, we were on the stairway to heaven, we were on the highway to hell--in short, the period was so far from the present period, that some of today’s noisiest authorities insist on its being received, for groovy or for grody, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

Some of yesterday’s authorities, however, take a different spin on the seventies.

Mrs. Margaret Bramlett, AP teacher and seasoned veteran of the decade, chooses to define it instead as a period of transition. “The seventies didn’t really have a definite style,” she said in an interview with The Epistle. “It was more about adjusting from the ‘60s to the ‘80s.”

This is logical, considering that the ‘70s’ predecessor, the ‘60s, wasn’t easily outshined.

The ‘60s had been the host of such phenomena as the Beatles, the Civil Rights movement, Kennedy’s assassination, a man on the moon, Woodstock, and the bulk of Vietnam. The first end of the decade was tasked with tying up the ends of such monumental events. To the joy of soldiers’ mothers across America, Vietnam ended in ’75.

But its bitter legacy lived on.

“In the beginning, everyone was fine with the war,” Mrs. Bramlett said. “You would turn on the news, and they’d show a reporter in Vietnam. He would talk to the head general, who would say everything was fine, that we were winning the war and it was almost over, and you believed him.” As the war progressed, however, it became more and more evident that

America was fighting a losing battle. Young people expressed their discontent through the counterculture movement: VW vans, long hair, and hippies abounded. They stayed clear of Mrs. Bramlett, however-- or, rather, Mrs. Bramlett stayed clear of them.

“I grew up on army bases. My dad was an officer, and when I went to college, my husband was in the ROTC,” said Mrs. Bramlett. “He wore a uniform to school every day.

Furthermore, I was in the South. You didn’t see many protests there.”

Though the hippies were a regional occurrence, their long, straight hair was not: it was a universal fad that lived throughout the early seventies. Not everyone had naturally straight hair, however. In an age before flat irons, these trendsetters turned elsewhere—namely, the laundry room.

“You would lay your hair out on the ironing board and you’d put wax paper over it so you didn’t burn it. Then, you would take the iron and iron it out. You had to be careful you didn’t burn yourself, though.” Mrs. Bramlett, stylish as always, partook in such laundering, but her participation was limited by her climate. “I lived in Houston, and as soon as you stepped outside, your hair would frizz right up!” she said, throwing up her hands in exasperation. This frustration confirms the hypothesis that humidity is, and always will be, out to ruin

fashionable hair.

Toward the latter half of the decade, ironing boards were put away as a new, voluminous style arose. Feathered hair, the precursor to the explosion of body that was ‘80s hair, claimed the heads of women everywhere after showing up on Farrah Fawcett’s crown. This craze was made possible by the appearance of the curling wand, revolutionizing hair styling forever. Gone were the days of hot rollers and sleeping with curlers. The curling wand gave women the freedom to style their hair the morning of. It was a liberating piece of equipment in an age where hair driers took the form of a billowing bonnet attached via tube to a plastic base.

For women, the ‘70s were about just that—liberation. The focus of civil rights shifted from African Americans to women as feminism gripped the nation. Women rallied around the Equal Rights Amendment, an amendment guaranteeing equal rights for women that met an early death in Washington. The women were not to be dissuaded, however. They expressed their newly found freedom through fashion choices such as “hot pants”--very short, very tight pants.

And yes, Mrs. Bramlett did own a pair. “Oh, everyone had them,” she said, smiling. “They didn’t last long, though. They were in for six to nine months, and if you had them after that, you were… well…” she concluded, putting on a face of distaste.

It was in this six to nine month window that Mrs. Bramlett tied the knot (sans hot pants).

Thus, she experienced one of the biggest transitions of her life in the decade she would later define as a period of transition: the ‘70s. image courtesy www.ngamperblog. blogspot.com

Sports 8 Happiness and hysteria: the conundrum of sports

by Kourtney Wadkins

Sports are a huge and influential part of our society. Thousands of athletes have made millions in advertisement deals with Nike, Under Armour, Adidas, and random products like pantyhose, shaving cream, and sub sandwiches. These athletes are some of the highest paid people in the world. Some are outraged over the amount of money athletes make, but they can’t be blamed.

We are the ones who value their services so highly. And why is that? Because sports are an escape from our everyday lives—even if we aren’t the ones playing.

Have you ever noticed Soccer riot in Egypt that sports seem to bring the best and Sox in the 2004 American League Championworst out of all of us? Take the Olympics for ship, Red Sox fans took to the streets terrorexample. Almost every country is represented izing Yankees fans and violently celebrating. as Americans, Germans, Pacific Islanders, One young woman was killed after police in and Mongolians all band together in support the area were forced to take action. However, of their best and brightest in the athletic comthis isn’t what sports are about. munity. It can be a beautiful thing that unites

Children who play sports are less likely entire countries. to be obese. Additionally sports encourage

Sometimes the opposite happens. This good sportsmanship and the ability to work past January at a soccer game in Egypt, over with others. Kids are given the opportunity to seventy people were killed in a riot. Riots often try their hand at something that could potenoccur after a major victory or defeat. After the tially have very positive effects on their lives.

New York Yankees were defeated by the Red

Athletes can get scholarships for colleges and universities.

Sports give many people who might not have been able to have any type of higher education the chance to better their lives, even if they don’t make millions in an ad for Puma or pantyhose. Sports can teach valuable lessons and provide vast amounts of opportunities for education and self-improvement.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to force everyone to love football or soccer or track.

Sports are an option that can pay off. Yet, there are many upsides and downsides to the wide world of athletics. There are huge cases of corruption, steroid abuse, and even death. Nevertheless, some athletes overcome these obstacles to be great influences. Overall, sports provide an escape. It’s a chance to get together with friends and cheer for a person or team that really means something to you.

You can take the focus off of yourself for a minute. image courtesy of www.ibtimes.com

Looking back at Jake Peavy

by Brady Smith `

Jake Peavy was just a regular South Alabama kid. He liked to hunt, fish, and drive a rusty pickup. Peavy was born on May 31, 1981 in Mobile, Alabama to Debbie and Donny Peavy. Jake’s dad was a skilled carpenter around the Semmes area who worked out of a shop in his backyard. Although Jake loved his dad, his true idol was his grandfather, Blanche Peavy. He drove Jake to school every day in his el Camino and practiced baseball with him in the afternoons.

One day in 1994, Jake’s grandfather turned on a fan in his shop. The blade snapped and went through his eye and into his brain. He fell into a coma and later his family made the tough decision to let him go. Jake was devastated and from this day forward he always felt like he was pitching for “PawPaw.” When it was time for Jake to go to high school, his parent’s decided to send him to St. Paul’s. The school had a tremendous sports program and seemed to fit Jake just right.

Since St. Paul’s was a private school, Jake’s mom Debbie had to take a job in the post office so they could afford tuition. Even though Jake was ineligible to play his freshman year, he still practiced with the varsity throughout the season. As a sophomore he was one of the top pitchers on the team, along with Spencer Wiggins and Jason Glasscock. In 1998, Jake helped lead his team to a state title. In Jake’s three varsity seasons, he went 31-1, and proved to be one of the best pitchers in St. Paul’s history.

When it was time for Jake to go to college, he had a wide range of options, including

talking, and Jake’s grandfather said Jake had all of the key aspects to become a star. It seems that Mark Wasinger had some of the same ideas and in the fifteenth round of the June draft, Jake was signed by the San Diego Padres. In 2000, Jake led his AAA team with ninety strikeouts and a 1.94 ERA.

Jake got the surprise of his life in late June when the Padres head coach called him to make an emergency start against the New York Yankees. Jake almost never made it to the game. His plane blew an engine and had to make an emergency landing. After arriving an hour late, Jake rushed to the game and made it just in time. Jake let up two hits and two runs in the first inning. Once Jake got Jake Peavy, bottom left, with St. Paul’s 1999 State “warmed up” he was unhittable for the rest of the game. Even though they lost the game Championship team three to two, Jake had earned a permanent spot on the Padres pitching rotation.

In 2007, Jake got his 1000th strikeout and he was also given the Cy Young award for the best overall pitcher in the National League. From his start playing baseball in the backyard with his grandfather, he is now one of the best pitchers in the MLB. In 2010, Jake signed a three year, fifty-two million dollar contract with the Chicago White Sox. Jake loves what he does, and he does not plan on stopping any time soon.

Jake Peavy’s jersey

college and pro teams. Auburn University was image courtesy of www.wkrg.com one of the top colleges offering him a full ride.

What he didn’t know was that his grandfather was a long-time friend of Mark Wasinger, a scout for the San Diego Padres. They had been