The Hilight: Fall 2023 Edition

the hilight. vol LXXXIX

510 13th St. Cullman, AL 35055

THE FALL EDITION The Newspaper of Cullman High School

issue 02 October 27, 2023

Table of Contents contents

staff list

Fall Survey 3 Murder Mystery 4 The History of Witches 5 The History of Pumpkin Spice 6 Dia De Los Muertos and Halloween 7 Ukraine Update 8 Homecoming 9 Champion’s Grand Gala: A Week of Legendary Celebrations 10 Theater 11 Band Football 12 Homecoming Pictures 13-15 Is Trick or Treating Dying?

16 Controversy Close to Home 17 Physician Residents: Overworked and Burnt Out 18 The Metamorphosis of Horror Movies 19 Food Truck Review 20 Fabulous Fall Melodies 21 Fall Book Reccomendations 22 Charlie Brown 23 How do Athletes Prevent Burnout?

24 Ballin’ With the Bearcats 25 ADS 26-27 Top 15 28

Co-Editors Elley Atchison Drew Williamson Staff Writers Anna Beth Burleson Claire Dossey Jonah Jarrett John Mark Johnson Reilly Johnson Sophia Lambert Blyss Murphree Mack Rudder Aubrey Shaddrix Advisor Jennifer Calahan Contact Phone 256-734-2923

Calendar:

October-December Oct. 31: Halloween!

Nov. 5: Daylight Savings Time Ends Nov. 8-9: Theater’s One-Act Performance (7 P.M.) Nov. 10: Veteran’s Day Holiday Nov. 20-24: Thanksgiving Holiday Week Dec. 9: ACT Dec. 10: Cheer Showcase Gym (7:30 P.M.) Dec. 13-15: Semester Exams Seniors, Only 124 School Days Until Graduation!

Address 510 13th Street NE Cullman, AL 35055 Member of Alabama Scholastic Press Association

Newspaper printed

by Alabama Web Press

FEATURES 3 Franken-pies

Bearcats answer fall questions

Sophia Lambert and Aubrey Shaddrix, Staff Writers

Favorite Pie Flavor

Classic Scary Slashers

Nig

Halloween htm

Other

are

Friday the 13th

Scream

Honorable Mentions: The Shining Chucky Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Apple

Apple: 34.1% Pumpkin: 21.5% Pecan: 20% Keylime: 13.2% Other: 11.2%

Ke ylim e

Scream: 37.3% Halloween: 24.7% Friday the Thirteenth: 15.7% Nightmare on Elm Street: 7.8% Other: 14.5%

Other

Pu

Pecan

mp

Honorable Mentions: Chocolate Cherry Black Berry

kin

Favorite Thanksgiving Sides

Favorite Fall Movies/ Shows Hocus Pocus: 28.6% Gilmore Girls: 20.7% Adams Family: 21.% Coraline: 18.6% Other: 10.7%

Coraline Hocus Pocus

Other

Adams Family

Gilmore Girls

Honorable Mentions: Harry Potter Nightmare Before Christmas American Horror Story

Stuffing r

Othe

Casserole

Mac n’ Cheese

Mac n’ cheese: 43.2% Mashed Potatoes: 23.4% Stuffing: 20.8% Green-Bean Casserole: 4.7% Others: 7.9% Honorable Mentions: Deviled Eggs Rolls Windex Potato salad

Style of Halloween Costume Cute: 51.6% Scary: 48.4%

Ham or Turkey?

Ham: 57.5% Turkey:42.5%

Scary

Turkey

Cute

Ham

4

FEATURES

Murder Mystery Cornfield kerfuffle

Blyss Murphree, Staff Writer I have prepared a hair-raising story for you all. This should be one of the most enticing puzzles you have ever completed. In this story, there will be a series of unfortunate events unfold, and YOU will be responsible for solving these mysteries.

Consider yourself a staff member of Mystery Incorporated. Scooby by your side, in spirit, and your wonderful brain full of wit, here are your characters: Character | Costume Heath Lolipop King Ernest Colonial Man Glen Wizard Naima Lolipop Princess Aubrey Masquerade Woman It is October 31st, 1997, when a teenage friend group gathered at Glen’s corn field for a corn maze his wealthy father has prepared for an upcoming gig. This maze was not made to be difficult; it is quite easy.

However, in order to escape this maze, you must find the underground bunker located in the dead center of the field, (no pun intended). Then you must proceed through the tunnels that lead into the main house.

You may be thinking, ‘That is so unfair!

Glen literally lives there, he’s obviously going to make it out first!’ No. Glen has no idea where the bunker is, and neither do any of his folks. At the entrance of the field, there are tables with a variety of snacks, drinks, and a few board games for the group members as they wait for stragglers to arrive. Glen is the first there, for obvious reasons. Aubrey is second to arrive, she is greeted by Glen.“Hello there traveler! Who art thou?” Glen asks.“Howdy Stranger! I’m supposed to be unidentified, but maybe you already know my identity.” Aubrey replies while cupping her face in her hands.

“Well, guess I’m flat out of luck,” Glen chuckles.“Hey! You already broke character. C’mon man, don’t you have a riddle for me? Am I gonna have to answer a mind bending question in order to go through

the gates to my doom? Ooooo…” Aubrey says while moving her hands to mimic a spooky ghost. SKIIRRTTT. Naima and Heath are here! “YOOO! How’s it going, Wet Blankets,” Heath exclaims as he hops over the door of his convertible. Naima follows close behind. The group begins playing a Halloween-themed operation while they wait for Ernest to arrive. BZZDD “NO!” Glen screams when he touches the edge of the board with the game’s metal prongs. “Dude, chill, it isn’t that big of a deal,” Aubrey mutters as she gets up and walks to the snack table. She returns with the gallon sized container of Cheese Balls.

Right when she sits down, Ernest’s mother pulls into the driveway of the house. Glen rises and goes to meet them. Glen talks to Ernest’s mother while Ernest walks down the driveway to the group.“Hey Ernie!”

Aubrey says while she stuffs her masked face with bright orbs of cheddar. “Alright guys, let’s get to the maze. I’ve got a feeling it’s gonna be a long night,” Glen shouts as he stands and simultaneously collects body parts of this fictional metal man. The group of teens head to the main entrance of the field. They walk in and are greeted with a mildew smell followed by the universal dirt smell. You know, the way it smells after the lawn just being mowed, or someone gardening. If you don’t know, just pretend you do. The group is not only greeted with a fragrance, but also with a temperature change. It’s oddly cool in this location, but no one bats an eye. They advance to their first fork.

“Do you guys want to split up? It’ll make it more interesting.” Aubrey suggests.

“Yeah, I’ll be with Aubrey!” Glen excitedly exclaimed.“Um, I want to be with Ernie, sorry bud.”Aubrey shrugs.“Me and Naima got it in the bag.” bag.”Heath says with full confidence. “Kay well, guess I’m alone.

Let’s get started,” Glen sighs as he turns

and goes down the left path.

“Where you wanna go, Ern?”Aubrey asks while she pets one of the corn leaves.“Let’s go right,”Erie says while he admires Heath.“Okie doke, see ya Heath!” Aubrey and Ernest head down the right path.

Heath and Naima stay and argue about which path they want to take. They never come to an agreement, but Heath heads down the right path and Naima follows closely behind. “Heath, wait!” Naima screamed at the top of her lungs full of unused air. She had lost Heath in the enormous mounds of corn surrounding them.

She came up to a fork and was met with the decision to go left, right, or advance straight forward. She turned right and continued on her way. Little did she know, she was going in the exact opposite direction Heath had chosen. You see, when Heath came across that fork, he tastefully decided to take a left rotation, and met Glen in his path. “Oh, what’s up Fart Face?” Heath shouts when he lays eyes on Glen.

Glen doesn’t respond, he just turns and faces Heath. “You good, Man? What’s got you in the dumps? You’ve been weird since I got here,” Heath questions. “Nothin, Man, just confused, that’s all,” Glen replies with no concern. “Alright well, you know the way outta this thing?” Heath asks in hopes to get step by step directions. “Nah Man, my Dad made this and didn’t tell me nothin.

We can split up though and make it a race if you’re down?” Glen suggests as he playfully twirls a stock leaf. The boys split up.

Glen heads left, and Heath heads forward.

Naima finds herself in the left quadrant of the field. She comes to that same fork Glen and Heath came to. She decides to go foreword. On her way forward she comes to another fork. Instead of this one being just left and right, forward or back, it’s organized sort of like a compass. North, North East, North West, etc. You get the point; just think of it as diagonals. She continues to go North West (right diagonal). Halfway down this path, she notices a small batch of disturbed corn. She proceeds with caution and decides to investigate. “HEATH?” Heath’s body has been found.

Heath’s body was found shredded into pieces. The only legible body part was his face,

your charisma and confidence to How to be a Cult Leader-A Parody Use establish your ideas into their minds,

Do you have what it takes?

Aubrey Shaddrix, Staff Writer You were put on this earth for a greater purpose. Are you prepared to save lives? Give those beneath you a place to belong. Turn them to the one true answer: you. Do you think you have what it takes to be a cult leader?

Of course you do. Here is the playbook, and the only one you will ever need to establish your power. Because remember, you were put here for a reason.

1. Establish yourself- Think of what kind of leader you want to be and who you want to affect. This is relatively easy, all you have to do is reinvent yourself. You’re no longer the sad no- name you used to be, at least not once you build your following.

2. Herd your sheep- Gather your following. You can’t build your flock without a welcoming charisma, convincing demeanor, an undeniable confidence, and belief in your own self, but once you have those qualities down, you

can do anything you want and control anyone you come across. Who better to look for than lost young souls? Young people who are searching for their own identity are the perfect targets. Make them feel important and make sure they believe you are a reliable source to turn to. After gaining the trust of the most vulnerable, swoop in and provide a sanctuary of self discovery and unity for your newfound friends.

3. Create your belief- Whether it be spirituality or a self help group on Facebook, your followers need something to believe in. To find your belief, you need to reflect on yourself. Research various philosophies and take inspiration from your own life and of course, make sure that your belief benefits you and ultimately just you. Once you’ve found your undeniably true faith, start implementing it into your followers.

ultimately leading them to believe they thought of it all on their own.

4. Reformation- After being accepted into your new community, why would you ever want to leave? Make sure to establish this new community as the only place your followers can ever turn to. How were they treated before they joined? Clearly not as well as they are now. All you have to do is completely change their perspective on life through a little manipulation 5. Chaos- Oh no! Some of you followers are starting to ask a little too many questions. What are you going to do? Well, don’t worry, this little guide has the answer to everything, and all you need to do is distribute a little fear.

Throw in an apocalypse or two, and make sure that your followers have nowhere else to turn to but their savior and leader. Creating false danger can establish your own security within the cult, and ultimately be your biggest profit.

somehow intact. I am now turning this mystery to you. You will find the answers of the following questions located in pages 7, 12, 5, and 14. In order to currently find these answers, you will have to pay very close attention to very small font changes, odd phrases, and look around the borders of pictures, articles, and the pages themselves. I wish you the best of luck.

1.)What was the murder weapon? pg.7 A) Corn Stock B)Combine Harvester C)Costume Robe 2.)Who was the murderer? pg.12 A)Ernest B)Naima C)Aubrey D)Glen 3.) What was the murderer’s motive? pg.5 A)Ernest - Ernist grew a liking to heath and decided if he couldn’t have him then no one could.

B)Naima - Jealous of aubrey’s realationship with Heath B)Glen - Has an underlying suspicion that Aubrey and Heath are closer than they say they are. Glen decides he needs to get rid of the threat.

C)Aubrey - Aubrey liked Heath and was jealous of Naima.

4.)When did the murder take place? pg.14 A)Before the party started B)After Glen and Heath met in the left wing of the field C)Right before Naima discovered the body D)During the duration of Naima and Heath being separated To check yourself, you will need to put each page number with the answers to the above questions in order, then find the letter of the alphabet that corresponds with that number.

Example: If I found number 1’s answer on page 1, number 2’s answer on page 16, number 3’s answer also on page 16, number 4’s answer on page 12 and number 5’s answer on page 5. My answers would spell APPLE Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Once your trusted followers get a hang of their new truth and life, you have finally become a successful cult leader. Congratulations! Following this guide will put you up with some of the greats like Jim Jones and Charles Manson, and if you’re really like one of the greats, maybe you’ll get your very own documentary (and life without parole)!

This article is not meant to be taken seriously...it is a parody in honor of spooky season.

FEATURES 5 The History of Witches

Hitching a broom into history Blyss Murphree,, Staff Writer During the October month, ghosts, goblins, witches, and everything spooky Becomes very popular due to Halloween. If you did not know, Halloween comes from the Celtic festival of Samhain. This festival was held yearly around 2,500 years ago. The intention of this festival was to ward off evil spirits from the new harvest. In order to do so, Puritans would dress up and hold large bonfires. Over time, the holiday changed its name multiple times but is still standing under a new name with even more participants than in the past.

Witches have been around since long before the Salem Witch Trials in the 1600s. The very first “witch” was Circe, an enchantress from Ancient Greece. This title, “witch”, mainly stems from The Odyssey, Book 10, when Circe invites sailors to her home and gives them a feast. She then turns the entire crew of sailors into pigs by poisoning their food with her magic.

Although Circe was the first “witch”, the name itself and the fear attached comes from a famous artist Albrecht Dürer’s print “The Witch.” Dürer’s print is responsible for making witches scary and unsettling.

The second witch scandal was set in 1485 in the Austrian town of Innsbruck. Helena Scheuuberin was accused of killing a man’s wife using magic. A man by the name of Heinich Kramer was responsible for accusing Scheuberin. Kramer accused her because she claimed that he sexually assaulted her. During any of the witch trials, if one was accused of being a witch, they automatically took them in, hoping for confession.

However, when Scheuberin went to trial, she was let go due to the lack of anyone knowing what a witch was and how to deal with one. Kramer then wrote the Mallevs Maleficarum, which translates to The Hammer of Witches (1486), which was a guideon how to capture, deal with, and find out the actions of witches.This book was written 40 years after the invention of the printing press (1440), so it was everywhere when it was first written. Most people owned two books: the Bible and this book, The Hammer of Witches.

Ever heard of the phrase “the hot seat?” Well, this phrase comes from a popular way to torture witches. After the writing and publication of Mallevs Maleficarum (The Hammer of Witches) people finally knew how to deal with these unholy beings. The book suggested that if a witch was captured, one must then torture her until she confessed. A very popular way of torture was to sit the alleged witch down in an iron armchair with spikes all over.

The capturer would then light a fire under the chair, causing the entire chair, especially the seat, to get so hot that anyone sitting in it, would begin to melt to the chair.

During the early 1590s in Scotland, King James VI was losing the faith in his people. In hopes of gaining back their trust, he made up a story about his ship maid. The story went like this: King James VI and his wife were on a ship for a honeymoon cruise. Their ship almost flipped and sank due to his shipmaid, Geillis Duncan’s witchcraft, but, luckily, it did not. Shortly after the close sinking of their ship, the ship turned around and headed back to Scotland. This story granted the result King James desired and he regained the trust of his people. Word spread that Duncan was a witch, and the folks of Scotland started saying they had seen her making at home remedies, ointments, and walking alone at night. She was arrested, stripped, shaved, and pricked. They believed that the devil lived in women’s hair, so they shaved her entire body, and they believed that if a witch was pricked and did not have a reaction, then Satan had desensitized her. However, sometimes capturers would prick the witch so much to the point she no longer had a response. They would then look for the “Mark of Satan,” which was a mole or birthmark found on any woman that was accused of practicing witchcraft.

All of the previous steps are found in the Mallevs Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches). They searched for the Mark of Satan on Duncan for a very long time. When they finally located the mark, it was found on her throat. This mark confirmed she was unholy. They tortured Duncan until she confessed, and named 60 other women who also practiced witchcraft. King James came to the conclusion that Duncan and the 60 other witches were from the same group, or coven. It was believed that this coven was sent by Satan to take King James out of rule. Duncan was

sentenced to a public execution in 1591.

King James was having a great time with this witch story and decided to keep it going. This is when Margaret Atkin came forward, confessing to being a witch. She proposed an offer that she could look into an individual’s eyes and tell if they were a witch or not.

King James accepted this offer, and the two of them paraded around town going door to door, accusing innocent women of being witches left and right.

When Atkin could not decide if someone was a witch or not, she would offer to use the “Sink or Swim method”. The “Sink or Swim” method was a method where they would tie the alleged witch to a chair and plunge her in a pool to see if she sunk or floated. If she floated, she was a witch. If she sank, she was innocent. When Atkin was found falsely accusing hundreds of people, mainly women, of being witches, she was burned at the stake in 1597 after confessing to making everything up.

After this perilous experience, all of the citizens of Scotland lost complete trust in the Catholic Witch Hunters.

In this process, King James VI also lost all trust from his people and wrote Daemonologie to try and re-spark the witch hunts. He was unsuccessful.

King James not only wrote Daemonologie ,but he also wrote the, King James Version of the Bible in 1611.

The biggest witch hunt under the Catholic Church was in 1600s Spain located in the small town, Zugarramurdi. This witch hunt was known as the Logrono Trials. The event that caused this was mass hysteria when a very large number of townswomen were having stillborn babies. They believed that the town was cursed because God was angry that someone among them was worshiping Satan. The women of the town were all worked up and decided to point their fingers at 20 year old Maria de Ximi. De Ximi then tells that she and her friends were practicing witchcraft during the prior 18 months leading up to the event.

De Ximi said that she was saved by a priest from confession, everyone believed her, and she was not killed.

The town started a mob and went after De Ximi’s friend, who was questioned and tortured and eventually said she learned witchcraft from her aunt. Her aunt was then questioned, and she ratted out someone else. That cycle continues until there is a collection of 7,000 alleged witches on the church’s hands. After this huge hunt, 10 individuals would come forward and confess to killing children and sucking their blood. They also confessed to using powders to kill a total of 29 people, ruining crops, and killing livestock.

The people of the town also believed that the 10 witches that came forward

participated in homosexual intimate relationships with each other. None of the witches were killed... until the church found out. This town holds a feast every summer in a giant cave called Cave of the Witches in order to remember what not to do.

This leads into the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The minister of Salem, Sam Parris, had a daughter named Betty and a niece named Abigail.

These two girls would disappear for hours at a time and then return acting strange. Turns out, the two of them were going to the woods and practicing fortune telling. Betty (9) and Abigail (11) both started acting odd.

They were hiding under furniture, barking like dogs, contorting their bodies in odd ways, and both had fevers. Sam Parris tried praying and attempted other ways of healing them but none of them worked. This is when a priest and a doctor were called to the house. The girls were then diagnosed with bewitchment. After the two girls told Parris they were practicing witchcraft, they told him they learned it from Tituba, the family slave. After Tituba was accused, she confessed to being the “Devil’s Servant” and said that a tall man dressed in black came to her and made her and other witches sign their name in a book. Other young girls started being diagnosed with bewitchment all over town. Most of these odd behaviors were, ironically, shown in church. There were two 12-year old girls who accused Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne for their bewitchment. Everyone believed them due to both of the Sarah’s low standings in society, and they were executed.

There was another group of women that were accused of witchcraft, one of the women being Sarah Good’s 4 year old daughter. They were all also executed. The Puritans not only used the Mallevs Maleficarum as one of their main sources for finding out who was a witch, but they also used “Witch Cakes”. Witch Cakes were cakes that consisted of only rye flour and the urine of the alleged witch. These cakes were then fed to dogs and if the dog mimicked the behavior of bewitchment, then the individual the urine belonged to was a witch. If the dog did not act strangely, then the individual was not a witch. In total, 13 women and 5 men were hanged. The real reason of bewitchment was not that anyone was possessed by Satan; it was because there was a fungus called Ergot found by historians, growing on the crops.

Ergot can affect humans and animals and exhibits the same symptoms they were calling bewitchment.

TO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

6

FEATURES

History of Pumpkin Spice Where did it come from?

Claire Dossey, Staff Writer

When the seasons start to change and the temperature drops, all of your local coffee shops will have items appear on their menu with “pumpkin spice” in them, all of your local grocery stores have pumpkin spice flavored ice cream and pumpkin spice scented candles, but while looking at these items, have you ever thought to yourself, “where does pumpkin spice even come from??” Pumpkin Spice is made up of the ingredients cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice, and is native to the Southeast Asian Islands.

The earliest known recipe including pumpkin spice dates back to 1675 and it was from a british recipe for pumpkin pie. However, archaeologists found nutmeg residue in pottery from almost 3,500 years ago proving that pumpkin spice could hav,e been used for years before there was a written recipe that included it. By the 1300s, traders came to the Banda Islands (Spice Islands) because that was the only place that was known for growing nutmeg. The want for spices in their food was even one of the reasons the Europeans came to the Americas. The Dutch were also so eager for spice that they traded the colony of New Amsterdam and took control of the Spice Islands in the

17th century. New Amsterdam is now known as New York, and without Pumpkin Spice we might not have New York In 1769, the earliest publicized recipe including pumpkin spice appeared in the cookbook titled “American Cookery” by Amelia Simmons. Later in the 1930s, Thomas & Taylor Spice Co and McCormick & Company came out with a pre-blended mix called “Pumpkin Spice Pie” for bakers to purchase just one spice instead of several when making pumpkin pie. In the late 90s, coffee lovers started a craze of pumpkin spice flavored coffee and over the years, it got bigger and bigger until 2003, when starbuck put the “Pumpkin Spice Latte” (PSL)s on the map. Nowadays you cannot go a day during the fall without hearing something about pumpkin spice. There are now recipes, drinks, candles, lotions, anything you want with pumpkin spice scent or flavor, and it’s probably out there because of Starbucks.

The History of Witches (cont’d)

Continuing to beat you with a broomstick of witch history Blyss Murphree, Staff Writer In modern day, witchcraft takes many different forms. If witchcraft is still being classified as it was in the 1600s, then doctors, pharmacists, any healthcare workers, teachers, anyone that drives, and anyone that is not extremely religious is classified a witch. Modern classification of witchcraft is distinctly different than it was in the 1400’s-1600’s. The exact definition of witchcraft is: the practice of magic, especially for evil purposes; the use of spells. The first thing anyone thinks of when the words “witch” or “witchcraft” are uttered, is an individual that worships Satan and plays with ouija boards 24/7. The different types of witches today are, the Garden/Green, Crystal, Cosmic/Lunar, Kitchen, Divination, and the Satanist ones. All of these crafts are usually used in positive ways, other than the ones that deal with Satan. Here is each craft, and what it means: Garden/Green- studies herbs, flowers, Garden/Green plants, animals.

Crystal- studies crystals and their energies.

Crystal Found in Western Christianity, Buddhism, and Hindu.

Cosmic/Lunar- fascination with skies, Cosmic/Lunar stars, and astrology as a whole.

Kitchen- bakes, cooks, uses herbs, spices, Kitchen and makes potions (usually medicines).

Divination- practices tarot, oracle, penDivination dulum, scrying, runes, tea leaf reading, meditation, and connecting to your higher being. Often found in ancient Mesoamerican religions.

The Amish are not talked about often.

However, the Amish in Holmes County, Ohio do have witches. The Amish in Holmes County speak Dutch and English.

The Amish call their witches Brauchau, who practice Braha (witchcraft). The Brauchau in Holmes County are often shunned by their communities when caught practicing Braha. However, they are not killed, they are simply moved to a house alone. The people from their communities still visit them, but only after dark because it is seen as an embarrassment to need help from a Brauchau. The most common type of Braha practiced by Brauchau, is really similar to Hinduistic Healing. Hinduistic Healing is healing with the natural elements provided by the earth, herbs, flowers, spices, and et cetera. These Brauchau are still allowed and able to do normal Amish things, they are just judged by their community.

Witches have evolved and advanced in many different ways over time. Who knew, assumptions could lead to mass genocide for centuries? To this day, witches are still shunned daily, and forced to live their lives separate from society. The practices and beliefs of witches are still being practiced and are now careers and shown in religion.

Maybe making home remedies isn’t so satanic.

use traditional energy sources and don’t adopt more renewable energy sources.

Adding to this, cultivated meat isn’t exactly a healthy alternative to real meat. Experts have defined cultivated proteins as ultra-processed and could be linked to cancer along with other highly processed foods. The fact is that it’s too early to see the long term effects of eating these foods or the effect of using sterilized environments to create food.

With the concept of lab-grown meat being so new, especially here in America, how is the public responding to this? Well as expected people aren’t too fond of eating grown meat.

Many Americans express their fear and disgust for lab-grown meat. However, since lab-grown meat offers a more ethical choice many people, including vegans, would consider eating it. Labgrown meat may not offer an environmentally friendly choice, but does offer a more humane choice. The conditions of many slaughterhouses in America are great areas of concern, many being disease ridden, show extreme mistreatment of animals, and poor working conditions. Cases of mistreatment in slaughterhouses are well documented and morbid, there are numerous cases

of inhumane killings and even torture in slaughterhouses across America.

These animals are extremely vulnerable to the harsh environments of these facilities and are bred to die. The idea that we can create meat without killing has been one of the driving factors for this industry, and ethics may just convince people to grab the lab-grown over the natural in a supermarket.

Since this is a relatively new pass from the FDA, there isn’t yet a mass selection of cultivated meat. In fact, only two companies in the U.S. have federal clearance to sell these products, Good Meat and Upside Foods. Next time you’re shopping in the meat aisle at your local grocery store you could end up accidentally picking up something lab-grown, so with the rise in this groundbreaking field, reading labels will definitely be more handy.

The Rise of Lab-Grown Meat What are we eating?

Aubrey Shaddrix, Staff Writer On June 21, 2023, the FDA approved the sale of lab-grown meat in the United States. Here’s what you need to know.

When a person thinks of lab-grown or cultivated meat, they probably think of a heap of microplastics, but lab-grown meats actually have a much more complicated background. It all begins with a sample of stem cells taken from a live animal. Stem cells can be developed into other types of cells in an organism’s body, like muscle or liver cells. Once these cells are collected, they are placed in bioreactors, which are capable of supporting biologically active environments. The bioreactor takes the sample of cells and creates an environment similar to what the cells could find in an animal’s body, which allows the cells to multiply. Through this, the cells form into three different components of meat: muscle, fat, and connecting tissue.

These cells are then separated and used to build the meat being produced.

These complicated steps have led to the general public’s question: Is labgrown meat still meat? A short answer is yes, since these products are cultivated from animal cells they have similar structures as meat taken from a slaughtered animal. This means that we are

now capable of producing animal meat without slaughter. Although at the surface, the reasoning for this practice may be to just please some vegans, in reality mass production of meat and slaughterhouses as a whole have huge impacts on the environment. Slaughterhouses produce millions of pounds of pollution annually and are responsible for releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Although lab-grown meat is an eerie topic, it may become a more common thing in the future. Climate change and overpopulation have become some of the biggest reasons for new food production, and scientists predict that by 2050, our planet’s population will be too big to sustain and provide food for itself. Meat takes much more energy to produce compared to vegetables, and with rising populations, there will come a much higher demand. The fact is that the traditional slaughter of animals and production of meat contributes so much to climate change that it is an inefficient food source. Despite these industries marketing the idea of a more environmentally friendly food source, recent studies have suggested that cultivated meat could have an even bigger impact on the environment if the facilities producing these products

FEATURES 7 Dia De Los Muertos and Halloween A comparison of the two holidays Blyss Murphree, Staff Writer

It is finally spooky season! If you’re a spooky season lover, and interested in learning more about Spanish culture, this is the article for you! Halloween is one of the most celebrated holidays of modern day. In this article, light will be shed on not only American Halloween traditions, but also the Spanish holiday Dia De Los Muertos, also known as the Day of the Dead.

Our spooky holiday known as Halloween stems from the Celtic festival of Samhain. This festival was held around 2,500 years ago, before Pope Gregory III decided to try and distract priests from the spirits, and make the new holiday All Hallows Day, a day honoring saints. The Celtic festival of Samhain is a festival where Pagans dress up in order to scare off evil spirits. They believed that if they did not participate in this dressing up, then their harvest would go bad and they would have no food for the winter months. During the 8th century, Pope Gregory III made November 1st the day to honor all saints. Over time, the name was changed to All Hallows Eve, Hallowe’en, and now Halloween. The Samhain traditions held up and have continued to be practiced to this day.

The Day of the Dead also has a lot to do with spirits.

However, for the Day of the Dead, they honor spirits instead of trying to scare them away. The Spanish tend to have positive relationships with spirits. Dia de los Muertos is a Spanish holiday that spans over two days, October 31st to November 2nd. This holiday is to honor the dead, and reunite the living and the dead. In order to do that, Spanish families will make Ofrendas (altars) that contain photos of their passed ancestors, their ancestors favorite foods, a collection of different candles and, most importantly, marigolds. Marigolds are crucially important to have on your Ofrenda for Dia de los Muertos. These are important because it is believed that marigold flowers create a bridge from the land of the dead to the land of the living. Marigolds connect these two worlds and make it possible for Spanish ancestors to come and visit their living family.

There are many other factors that are important to have on your ofrendas. Lots of these objects hold key roles in making sure one’s ancestors make it across the golden Bridge safely. Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are very similar but they are definitely NOT the same thing.

Although these two holidays hold many similarities, please do not confuse the two. Hopefully, this article helped you gain a small understanding on the differences between Dia de los Muertos and Halloween.

Sugar Skulls— Skulls represent a departed soul -representa un alma fallecida Candles to welcome the spirits back to Candles– their altars -para dar la bienvenida a los espíritus a sus altares

Marigolds thought to attract Marigolds– the souls of the dead to the ofrendas prepared for them -se cree que atrae las almas de los muertos a las ofrendas

Traducción Española ¡Por fin es temporada espeluznante! Si eres un amante de las estaciones espeluznantes y estás interesado en aprender más sobre la cultura española, ¡este es el artículo para ti! Halloween es una de las fiestas más celebradas en la actualidad. En este artículo se arrojará luz no sólo sobre las tradiciones estadounidenses de Halloween, sino también sobre la festividad española del Día de los Muertos, también conocida como el Día de los Muertos.

Nuestra espeluznante festividad conocida como Halloween tiene su origen en el festival celta de Samhain.

Este festival se celebró hace unos 2.500 años antes de que el Papa Gregorio III decidiera intentar distraer a los sacerdotes de los espíritus y convertir el nuevo día festivo en el Día de Todos los Santos, un día en honor a los santos. El festival celta de Samhain es un festival en el que los paganos se disfrazan para ahuyentar a los espíritus malignos. Creían que si no participaban en este disfraz, su cosecha se echaría a perder y no tendrían comida para los meses de invierno. Durante el siglo VIII, el Papa Gregorio III hizo del 1 de noviembre el día en honor a todos los santos. Con el tiempo, el nombre se cambió a All Hallows Eve, Hallowe’en y ahora Halloween. Las tradiciones Samhain se han mantenido y se han seguido practicando hasta el día de hoy.

El Día de Muertos también tiene mucho que ver con los espíritus. Sin embargo, para el Día de Muertos, honran a los espíritus en lugar de intentar ahuyentarlos. Los españoles suelen tener relaciones positivas con los espíritus. El Día de los Muertos es una festividad española que se extiende a lo largo de dos días, del 31 de octubre al 2 de noviembre. Esta festividad es para honrar a los muertos y reunir a los vivos y los muertos.

Para lograrlo, las familias españolas harán Ofrendas (altares) que contendrán fotografías de sus antepasados​​ fallecidos, las comidas favoritas de sus antepasados ​​y una colección de diferentes velas y, lo más importante, caléndulas. Es de vital importancia tener caléndulas en su Ofrenda para el Día de los Muertos. Estos son importantes porque se cree que las flores de caléndula crean un puente entre la tierra de los muertos y la tierra de los vivos. Las caléndulas conectan estos dos mundos y hacen posible que los antepasados ​​españoles vengan a visitar a su familia viva.

Hay muchos otros factores que es importante tener en sus ofrendas. Muchos de estos objetos desempeñan funciones clave para garantizar que los antepasados ​​ crucen el puente dorado de forma segura. Halloween y el Día de los Muertos son muy similares pero definitivamente NO son lo mismo. Aunque estos dos días festivos tienen muchas similitudes, no los confunda.

Esperamos que este artículo te haya ayudado a comprender un poco las diferencias entre el Día de los Muertos y Halloween.

Ofrenda- acknowledges that the soul lives beyond Ofrenda the body of the deceased and is mobile betweenheaven, hell, and purgatory -reconoce que el alma vive más allá del cuerpo del difunto y es móvil entre el cielo, el infierno y el purgatorio

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FEATURES

Russia-Ukraine War Update

A New Deal Struck

Anna Beth Burleson, Staff Writer

John Mark Johnson, Staff Writer

What’s going on right now With everything going on in the world currently, it is no surprise that the Russia-Ukraine war has not taken an immediate precedent in media coverage.

U.S. speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted after a weekend deal of government funds being extended for 45 days, but no funds in the proposed deal was in effort to aid Ukraine. The removal of McCarthy has cast a shadow of doubt on American support for Ukrainian war efforts. President Biden has requested 24 billion more dollars to help aid in the war. His request is currently still pending, and the money allocated is running low. Pentagon officials have released multiple statements expressing that without congressional action, funds for military support will soon deplete.

Ukraine’s main military focus is air defense, artillery, and mine support, so the Pentagon is focusing on getting them those resources with the current money that is left. Along with fund exhaustion, ammunition is also running out. NATO and British officials urge bloc nations to up production in order to keep Ukraine in the fight against Russian forces. To help alleviate artillery shortages, the U.S. will transfer

thousands of seized Iranian weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. Ukrainian officials are criticizing “western conservative elites’’ for suggesting military aid should be suspended, and are being accused of reluctance to confront Russia.

President Zelensky traveled as far as he had since the start of the war, to Kharkiv. Kharkiv is under constant terror from Russian forces due to its proximity to the region. President Zelensky stated that Kharkiv is absolutely essential for keeping east Ukraine strong.

The end of the writer’s strike After 150 days of striking, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has made a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

The strike, since May, has been fought for better residuals from streaming media as well as the use of AI tools, such as chatGPT. Writers would like for these tools to only aid the writing process and not to completely replace writers. The cancellation of multiple film and TV productions as well as decline in TV quality and viewership during and after the COVID-19 pandemic created worsening conditions for actors and writers.

As of now, the WGA and AMPTP are in the midst of drafting the final contract; the details of the contract have not yet been disclosed but the WGA has told union members that “this deal is exceptional — with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” according to CNBC. Once the WGA and AMPTP have agreed on the contact, it will then be voted by the negotiating committee who will decide on whether or not to send it to the WGA’s West Council

and East Board for approval. The board and council will then vote on whether to authorize a contract vote

by WGA members. WGA leadership noted that the strike is not yet over and no members of the guild will return to work until the agreement is officially ratified. Members were encouraged to continue standing in solidarity with striking actors on the picket lines.

The attack on Israel by Hamas is unmatched on scale and tactics. This is believed to be one of the worst, if not the worst, civilian attacks in Israeli history.

Israel has not seen a battle this large and on their own territory since the 1948 Israeli-Arab war. This confrontation has taken the lives of an abundance of civilians and Hamas has even captured people such as children and the elderly. Hamas has called this operation “Al-Aqsa Storm,” and states that this was a response to the Israeli attacks on women, the destroying of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and the ongoing siege of Gaza. In response, Israel has declared war, launched an operation called “Operation Swords of Iron,” and have struck suspected targets in Gaza.

Hundreds, including children, have been killed in Gaza, and the IDF is now urging civilians from Gaza to leave their homes for their own safety as Israel is cutting off and cutting out Gaza as they prepare for a ground invasion.

Now, Israel is mobilizing troops for an impending ground invasion as they say Hamas will pay the price, and they intend to get the hostages back. The IDF is attempting to gain control of Gaza as a whole and end Hamas authority there. As of October 9, 2023, the following countries released a joint statement pledging their support to Israel: United States, Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

In their joint statement, they expressed their support for Israel and recognized the

aspirations of the Palestinian people. In saying this, they also stated how Hamas is an extreme terrorist group who does not represent the Palestinian people, they only represent terror and pure bloodshed.

These countries’ leaders support Israel in their fight against these horrors, and are there to aid them as allies and friends of the State. Other countries such as Australia, Norway, Austria, India, Canada, Poland, Spain, and even the collective European Union have also expressed their support and have also supported Israel’s right to self defense.

Israel is such an important country to religious people. For Christians, it is the “Holy Land” because it is where Jesus’ life and death occurred. For Muslims, Jerusalem is where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. For the Jewish, Israel is the land bestowed to them by God. This place bears faith, culture, religion, and identity. Israel and Jerusalem hold the deepest significance and meaning for the Jewish community. The ancient Judea is now the modern day Israel. The State of Israel is incredibly vital to religion and history alike. The International Red Cross is now accepting donations to help people in Israel and occupied territories. An abundance of humanitarian groups around the world are now taking donations to aid those affected. The Bible reads, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28 NKJV).

The Israeli-Hamas War An update on a tragic event Anna Beth Burleson, Staff Writer The Israel-Palestine conflict is nothing new. There has always been tension between the two countries. This dates all the way back to before Israel’s establishment in 1948. The British Mandate of Palestine was seeking to divide into Arab and Jewish states. On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was created, and the first Arab-Israeli war broke out immediately following the announcement, as 5 Arab nations invaded.

The war ended the following year, Israel won, 750,000 Palestinians were displaced, and the British Mandate of Palestine was divided into 3 parts: the State of Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

Tensions have once again risen between Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria since the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel gained territorial control over the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. The Camp David Accords in 1979 improved relations between Israel and its neighbors, but the question of Palestinian self-determination and self-governance remained unresolved. The Oslo I and Oslo II Accords set up a framework for the Palestinians to govern themselves in the West Bank and Gaza. In 2000, Palestinians launched the second intifada, which lasted until 2005. Factionalism among the Palestinians flared up when Hamas(Palestinian militant group deemed terrorist ) won the Palestinian Authority’s parliamentary elections in 2006, deposing longtime majority party Fatah. After a series of failed peace talks and deadly confrontations,

Fatah entered into a unity government with Hamas in 2014. In 2014, clashes precipitated a military confrontation between the Israeli military and Hamas in which Hamas fired nearly three thousand rockets at Israel, and Israel retaliated with a major offensive in Gaza. The skirmish ended in late August 2014 with a ceasefire-fire deal brokered by Egypt.

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, the Hamas group carried out an unexpected attack on Israel by land, air, and sea. This surprise attack has left at least 900 dead in Israel. Israel then retaliated by the use of airstrikes, which killed at least 765 people in Gaza. As Hamas withdrew back into Gaza, they took at least 100 hostages with them, and threatened to kill the hostages if airstrikes target Gaza unknowingly again.

Extremists from Gaza launched thousands of rockets into Israel towns, broke through the border, then sent extremists into Israel territory. Hamas killed hundreds of civilians and soldiers and took hostages. It took Israeli troops 2 days to regain control, as fighting went rampant through streets.

This attack was made up of several more assaults. While other attackers were doing rocket attacks, dropping in on paragliders, assaulting civilians on the streets and in their homes, there was an attack on the Supernova music festival. The 3,500 young adults in attendance became the first targets of the Hamas gunmen. During this attack about 260 people died and captives were taken back to Gaza.

CAMPUS NEWS 9 HOCO Dress-Up Days

What CHS wore to celebrate HOCO Mack Rudder, Staff Writer

This year’s homecoming dress up days followed a connecting theme of “Champions’ Grand Gala” with each day being a “legendary celebration.”

Thursday was Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Day, and students dressed up in an assortment of their favorite characters that are seen on floats in the Macy’s Parade.

Melissa Sears and Karina Harris dressed in their favorite Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade floats.

Tuesday was Kentucky Derby day and extravagant hats were worn by students who paid a dollar, all proceeds raised this day went to United Way.

Dayton Ristine, William Collicott, and Janea Randolff dress in their favorite team’s gear for SuperBowl Sunday.

To end homecoming week on Friday, students dressed up in black and gold to show their Bearcat pride.

Karalynn Kallhoff, Ashlyn Dannecker and Persia Ashley in their black and gold attire.

LJ Turner and Claire Dossey wear their best country fits for Rock the South day.

Wednesday was Rock the South day and students dressed up in RTS concert attire.

Jayce Johnston, Lily Abbott, and Amelia Allred dress in their best attire for the Kentucky Derby.

Monday was Super Bowl Sunday day and students were encouraged to dress up in their favorite team jersey.

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CAMPUS NEWS

Champions’ Grand Gala: A Week of Legendary Celebrations

A recap of homecoming

Anna Beth Burleson, Staff Writer

It’s everyone’s favorite week of school…Homecoming week. Filled with dress up days, activities and more, homecoming week 2023 was nothing short of a complete success. All students who participated had a blast and expressed their school pride. Remember to thank your SGA officers and representatives, Coach Barnett, Mrs. Elliff, and your class sponsors for their hard work on making this such a fun week for students.

Superbowl Sunday Kicking off homecoming week was Super Bowl Sunday, and students were instructed to wear their best gameday attire. The seniors had a miraculous 4-peat win in men’s volleyball (saying they were excited is an understatement).

Event: Men’s Volleyball Placings: 1st: Seniors 2nd: Juniors 3rd: Freshmen 4th: Sophomores

Sophomores- 1st

Kentucky Derby Tuesday’s theme was Kentucky Derby, students went all out in their best derby gear wearing fascinators, fun prints, and fancy attire. Students showed up and showed out during Tuesday’s Equestrian competition and demonstrated their knowledge in Trivia.

Event: Horse Race/Equestrian Competition/Trivia Placings: 1st: Seniors 2nd: Juniors 3rd: Freshmen 4th: Sophomores

Seniors- 2nd

Rock the South SGA brought summer to the school year with Wednesday’s theme of Rock the South. Students wore country inspired outfits including, but not limited to, boots and cowboy hats.

Event: End of Coin Drop Placings: 1st: Seniors 2nd: Freshmen 3rd: Sophomores 4th: Juniors

Juniors- 3rd

Freshmen- 4th

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Gobble! Gobble! Gobble! Campus was feeling like a parade come Thursday.

Students took this theme and really made it their own with costumes from turkeys to smurfs. Students showed their multitude of talents at the talent show, and we wrapped up the night with the bonfire and powderpuff following right after.

Event: Talent Show/Face Painting Competition/ Bonfire/Powderpuff Placings: 1st: Freshmen 2nd: Seniors 3rd: Juniors 4th: Sophomores

Black and Gold The day we had all been waiting for had finally arrived…Friday. Black and gold flooded CHS with everyone demonstrating their school spirit. The pep rally was filled with tons of fun activities and lots of school pride. We finished the night with a football win and the crowning of our 2023 Homecoming Queen, Kate Bradberry.

Event: Pep Rally/Mega Relay Homecoming Placings: 1st: Seniors 2nd: Juniors 3rd: Sophomores 4th: Freshmen

CAMPUS NEWS 11

Stay In Cullman; Watch Leaving Iowa An update on Theater

Elley Atchison, Co-Editor and Blyss Murphree, Staff Writer Cullman High School Theater Department will be performing Leaving Iowa on November 8 and 9 at 7 PM in the Cullman High School Auditorium.

This comedy will feature the following: -Older Don- Jameson Inscho -Younger Don- Caden Fales -Dad- Colter Drake -Younger Mom- Ava Fales -Older Mom- Kate Bradberry -Younger Sister- Bailee Henderson -Older Sister- London Phillipo -Fruit Cart Guy/Gal- Reggie Warren and Hayden Brown -Grandpa- Tyler Hannah -Cart Chaser- Alex Renteria -Shopper- Victoria Sims -PA Announcer- Ashlin Schulte -Joe Hoefingers- Julian Skinner -Fred- Slade Turbyfield -Jamie- Reid Bradberry -Hotel Clerk- Rees Sheffield -Jessie- Lily Abbot -Bob- Grahm Waldrop -Judy- Mallory Baldwin

Want to know more? Read this synopsis from 2023 Dramatic Publishing: The spark behind Leaving Iowa comes from being children of parents from the now dubbed “greatest generation.”

The story is a toast to their idealism and character and a little roast of their undying dedication to the classic family road trip. More specifically, it is the story of Don Browning, a middle-aged writer, who returns home and decides to finally take his father’s ashes to his childhood home, as requested.

But when Don discovers Grandma’s house is now a grocery store, he begins traveling across Iowa searching for a proper resting place for his father. This father-and-son road trip shifts smoothly from the present to Don’s memories of the annual, torturous vacations of his childhood. Don’s an existential journey leads him to reconcile his past and present at the center of the United States. Leaving Iowa is a postcard to anyone who has ever found himself or herself driving alone on a road, revisiting fond memories of his or her youth.

Premiered at the Purple Rose Theatre Company.

Band Exhibition

A collaboration of Cullman County bands Anna Beth Burleson, Staff Writer Once a year, there is a gathering of Cullman County and Cullman City School bands. Cullman High School hosts this event annually as a showcase for all the high school bands in the county to showcase their musical talents. There are a total of 9 participating bands including West Point, Hanceville, Holly Pond, Fairvew, Good Hope, Vinemont, Cold Springs, Cullman Middle School, and Cullman High School.

Hanceville High School played the opening cadence for the rest of the bands to march into. The playing of the cadence alternates between schools every year, this role is on a volunteer basis. The Cullman Middle School 8th grade advanced band kicked off the night, followed by county schools and Cullman High wraps up the night.

There are no judges at this event; it is simply to share musical talent amongst schools.

Our very own Cullman High School Band performed in their first competition on Saturday October 7th. Cullman was the only one in their class, making them ineligible to place because there was no one to compete against. Our band, danceline, feature twirler and percussion scored all ones (a superior

rating) and our colorguard scored a 2.

We were in a division against one other band, Ringgold from Georgia. They won grandchamps.Their second competition was on Saturday October 14.

They got all superior ratings and best in class danceline and featured twirler.

If you see members of the band, be sure to tell them how much their music is appreciated.

Dance Team Update

A collaboration of Cullman County

Katelyn Bowling, Guest Contributor Cullman High School has three dance teams. The junior varsity and varsity teams are made up of students from both Cullman Middle School and Cullman High School. Our junior varsity team will provide sideline, quarter, and half-time performances at all CHS junior varsity basketball home games.

Our varsity team will provide sideline, quarter, and half-time performances at all varsity basketball home games.

Our varsity dance team attended the Universal Dance Association’s team camp this summer, where four members were named All-American, which qualifies those individuals to perform at events across the United States.

Our junior varsity team participated in a team camp in Cullman, where a choreographer worked with the team to learn routines for the upcoming basketball season.

Our competition dance team is made up of 13 of our varsity dance team members who auditioned to participate in our competition team. Our competition season begins on October 28, when our team will compete at Dance Team Union’s Regional Competition in Nolensville, TN. Our team will be competing in two categories, jazz and hip-hop. We also have five dancers who will be performing solo

routines at Regionals. It is the team’s goal to l be offered a bid to compete at Dance Team Union’s National Competition at Universal in Orlando from February 8-12.

Varsity: Anelise Wilder (Captain) Abbi Black (Co-Captain) Sophia Flanigan (Co-Captain) Brooklyn Earnest Brooke Ellard Cary Fuentes Kyleigh Gobble Davis Hackbarth Campbell Kent Allie Killett Lillie Livingston Kaila Rasmussen Mary Claire Ray Brooklyn Schlosser Taylor Schultz Delanie Stracener Aaliyah Taylor Sadie Wood *The dance team also has a JV and competition team.

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CAMPUS NEWS

What is “Band Football?”

A long-standing CHS Band tradition Mack Rudder, Staff Writer

For decades, the unsanctioned, and game last Saturday on the 21st, with One day we were talking and decided what some may describe as illegitiQuick and Free’s team winning. it would be a good idea to have an mate, sport of “band football” has been Band football is more than just a organized game to play together. We going on. In 2012, Landon Mcafee, a football game played between band haven’t done this every year, at least as Hilight staff writer, described band members, it is an example of how far as I remember. I don’t really know football in an article as not being the history repeats itself through small and why it’s more prevalent this year; we “conventional scheme and method in big things and the organic revival of it really just honed in and made band which football is known as and played” over and over again exemplifies that. football a reality. but as still very much being “legitimate When asked the following questions football” and that it is “not the sport Owen Moore, Jay Lee, and Ethan Jay Lee (Junior) played by days gone by in elementary Quick had this to say.

1) Band football to me is simply a fun school with brightly colored flags.”

Sometime after this article though, “band football” disappeared. No one can pinpoint exactly when and why it stopped being played either. CHS Band Director Mr. Smith said that what has been deemed “banD football” has been going on since he was in the CHS band program, telling of how they played until one student dislocated his shoulder before a game, leading Mr. Taylor, the former director, to ban it. This ban did not last long though, and band football was revived and this cycle of playing until a band director stepped in continued.

The last three years, “band football” has not been played, but during fall of this year it unexpectedly came back. None of the members who are participating in the current game of “band football” even knew that they were participating in a long -standing Cullman band tradition.

Ethan Quick, a senior drumline member, says that they were not Pictured above from left to right and top to bottom is Nicoloas Cox, Owen playing to try and bring Moore, Will Free, Ethan Quick, Jonah Browning, Benjamin Abney, Dylan Tisback this tradition and dale, Noah Moore, Zane Tran, Cayden Brewer, and Chasten Hawkins. that they just wanted to have fun with their friends.

1) What does band football mean to What “band football” is you today, according to Owen Moore, a 2) Why did it make a comeback this CHS senior tuba player, is, “two teams year? comprising anywhere from 3 players to 6 players. It really just depends on who Owen Moore (Senior) all can show up to play. We go out to 1) Band football is definitely something the band practice field near the tennis sport between friends. We don’t that I do for fun. I have grown up courts and play a game of football. play for real points or rewards, always playing a sport, but now I am We have participation from people all we simply play to have fun and just in band. I don’t have too deep of throughout the band, and even some that’s something that means a reason to play other than I enjoy the people who don’t play instruments. a lot to me. sport, and I am the best athlete the We usually go out on the weekends to 2) I don’t really know much on Cullman band has ever seen. play our games. It is just hard, somehow it came about this year but 2) It came back because Ethan Quick times, getting our schedules all lined kept bringing his football to school and I believe it started during the earup.” Owen Moore and Nicolas Cox ly football games when some of the band rehearsal. We would always toss are co-captains of one team, while Will band would throw a football around it around here and there during our Free and Ethan Quick co-captain the with each other outside the bandroom. water breaks. other one. They played a two hour It just kind of grew from there into the

band football we have right now.

Ethan Quick (Senior)

1) Band football means building grit. It means beating Owen 35-21.

2) The intent wasn’t to bring it back at all, it started because Mr. Smith let us play football during homecoming, and it just kept going.

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EDITORIALS

Is Trick or Treat Dying?

The Decline of of Halloween

Claire Dossey, Staff Writer Growing up in the 2000s most children looked forward to picking out their halloween costume at the local spirit halloween and going around their neighborhood dressed up as things like barbie all the way to things like spiderman. However after the pandemic hit the amount of trick or treaters has gone down tremendously. Nowadays there has also been a large number of parents and children who have switched from trick or treating as an annual tradition to TRUNK or treating their annual tradition. Many believe the switch has been caused by not only the pandemic but it also being easier and more convenient for parents and the children still being able to have fun dressing up and getting candy. Another cause of trick or treating dying is the parents fearing that their children will re-

ceive candy that has been laced after many stories about parents finding their children’s candy to actually be some sort of drug. There have been accounts of fentanyl pills being concealed in candy packagings.

However these pills are not disguised as differnt candies they will still be very clearly not skittles even though they are in a skittles packaging.

With all of these things combined, trick or treating is becoming increasingly less popular. An interview with a 6-year-old girl done by Villages-News, states, “‘Do you like

trick-or-treating?’ I asked a little girl, around my grandson’s age, the other day while we were looking at Halloween costumes in the store.

‘Don’t you mean TRUNK or Treat?’ she questioned.” Hearing this as someone whose favorite holiday used to be Halloween truly breaks my heart.

Kids now will never know the true magic and fun of halloween.

Although trunk or treaking was around during the earlier years it has had a huge increase in popularity. If your hoping to attend a trunk or treat this year, they usually take

place at local churches, hospitals, schools, and some assisted living homes offer opportunites for children to come visit and recive candy on halloween nigh or the weekend before. A poll was done that found only 35% of Americans will be handing out candy and only a small 16% will be participating in trick or treating.

John Mark’s Fair Hot Takes Please just hear me out

John Mark Johnson, Staff Writer

The county fair is a fall staple here in Cullman, amassing quite the number of attendees from year to year. With its abundance of fun rides and games, friendly competitions, and stunning pageants, what’s not to love? I, John Mark Johnson, as well as a brave few others, do not like the fair, and avoid going at all costs. Now, before you ready your pitchforks and torches, please just hear me out.

One thing people fail to realize about the fair is how sketchily put together it is. I mean, nothing that can be taken apart and put back together in a matter of days by a legion of people who do not seem to be engineers.

It just doesn’t seem all that safe. In addition, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Comission (CPSC) estimates that over 4,400 children are injured on fair/carnival rides every year; however, this could also be attributed to defiance

of safety precautions by the children/ caregivers. Despite my fears, I am certain that these workers are well qualified with the hard work and time put into setting up the fair.

If the structural integrity of the rides doesn’t harm you, then what we don’t see most certainly can. As much as we do not want to think about it, the fair is an absolute superhighway for germs.

Just think about it: hundreds of people every day, some that may or may not wash their hands, touching and using the same surfaces and appliances day after day. Additionally, the large number of livestock and comically large crops brought in for competitions, putting out who knows what into the air. Also, the fair also attracts a large number of children; what’s so bad about that? you may ask, well…children are filthy! With their snotty little noses and sticky little hands grabbing, touching, and picking up everything they see, they also contribute to fairground’s filth. The circumstances, audience, and conditions of the fair all add to its large amount of germs, coupling all of this with the height of cold and flu season is the icing on the cake. Here’s something to look out for: take note of how many people at school are out sick during/ post-fair. I guarantee you there is some correlation.

Another point I would like to make is how costly the fair is, charging eight dollars for general admission, $1.25 each for individual ride tickets, as well as twenty five dollars for the All-In-One

Pass. Granted, the All-In-One pass does grant free admission as well as unlimited access to rides, but it still seems a bit steep. Once inside the fair, after a small fee, there is an abundance of games to play that offer prizes. These games are not included with the AllIn-One wristband; instead, they cost extra. For instance, with one game you get 3 darts for ten dollars with an wide variety of stuffed animals as a prize. My point here is why pay a consistent ten dollars for the mere chance at winning a stuffed animal when you can just buy the same stuffed animal for a few dollars extra?

All of these questionably safe rides and not-so-great value games can really make a person hungry. Luckily the fair offers culinary marvels such as deepfried oreos, deep-fried twinkies, and deep fried snickers as well as comically large turkey legs and porkchops. To tie this in with a previous point, some of the prices for fair foods are also a bit steep. For instance when I went with my dad, we bought a candy apple.

Now, I want you to pause your reading here and guess how much it was….. if you guessed seven dollars then you would be correct. I will give credit where credit is due, the street taco stand smelled and looked heavenly.

With most of these foods being disgustingly deep fried, which would not pair well with the chaotic motion of the rides, cholesterol adds to the multitude of issues the fair has.

These points I have made are not to

discredit the fair and/or the people involved, most of these points are just my personal opinions. Do not let this stop you from going to the fair or impact how much you enjoy it.

EDITORIALS 17 Controversy Close to Home

How book bans are affecting Alabama Mack Rudder, Staff Writer Censorship takes place in many ways, including book bans. Many states, governments, libraries, and school systems do not use the term “book bans” because it has a mostly un-democratic history and is perceived more negatively by the public.

Instead, they use terms like “pulling books from the shelf” and “restricting access.”

When it all boils down though, restricting access to a book or hiding it away from the public is still censorship,” they are just using different terms to try to make it easier for the public to digest.

public meeting,” saying that she cannot “defend the ALA’s position on ‘intellectual freedom’’’and that she is, “entirely sympathetic to calls to disaffiliate our Alabama libraries from the ALA.” Gop Chairhead John Wahl told Alabama.com that the ALA secured Alabama public libraries, “$293,200 in grants since 2021, which were doled out to 36 libraries throughout the state.” In Kay Ivey’s initial letter to Pack, she asked for an itemized list of all expenditures paid to the ALA over the last five years. Pack responded saying in total $38,011 was spent. Ivey asked Pack how much the APLS had paid the American Library Association over the last five years.

Pack wrote that the total was $38,011, which included annual membership fees, and fees for conferences, workshops, and other services. This means the ALA has provided Alabama libraries with $255,189 in the last two years. Money is also not the only resource that the ALA provides for Alabama libraries though, but through the grants they help Alabama libraries receive, it is indirectly paying for itself.

There are books listed on the Clean up Alabama website for immediate removal from libraries that not only pass the Miller Test, but also many of the books are not sexually explicit and they have even admitted that themselves. One book

APLA Director Peck as she defended the libraries selections while being interviewed for “Capital Journal”

In Prattville, Alabama, a group that was once locally known as “Clean up Prattville” has grown into a statewide movement, now being called “Clean up Alabama.”

Their website details that they are calling for the immediate removal of books from Alabama public libraries that are “pornographic, obscene, and indecent” stating they are violating state law by providing “children access to pornographic and obscene materials.”

How do you legally decide what should be deemed obscene or indecent? The primary legal way is to use a three step system called The Miller Test. It is named after the U.S Supreme Court case Miller V. California that happened in 1973. In Miller V. California, Marvin Miller mailed unsolicited explicit pictures to his mom and a manager of a restaurant. Miller was prosecuted for violating a California law by “knowingly distributing obscene material.”

After this case, Chief Justice Warren Burger outlined guidelines for the jurors on obscenity cases. The guidelines are listed on Cornell Law School’s website as, “(1) whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’ would find that the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ appeals to ‘prurient interest’ (2) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (3)

source that they normally have “no — as in zero — or maybe one request to reconsider a book purchase” but that in the last three weeks alone they have had, “three requests, each with a book list, totaling some 55 books,” and that she feels like this is some sort of “coordinated and targeted attack on the library.”

Brian Dainger of the Faith Family Freedom Coalition

Chief Justice Warren Burger

Kay Ivey reading to students at a Birmingham elementary school. She was quickly slammed for this “photo-op” when she posted the picture on Instagram

Recently in Alabama, the controversial subject of what should be allowed in public libraries has been at an all time high in the news. Kay Ivey, current Alabama governor, is calling for books to be “reallocated” from the teen and children sections of public libraries across the state to strictly the adult sections. Ivey states the reason for restricting access to these books for children under 18 is because they are “sexually-explicit,” but Ivey gave no examples of books that she says includes this unacceptable, sexually explicit content. She has also said she would like for funding for Alabama’s public libraries to be based on what she calls “sensible policies” regarding restricting access to books. According to CBS42 News, Kay Ivey said that, “the Alabama Legislature last gave $6.6 million to the APLS this past fiscal year to distribute funds to libraries,” and in a letter Kay Ivey wrote to Nancy Pack, the director of the Alabama Public Library System, she says that “Going forward, the Library Service should amend its requirements for state aid to include the submission of written policies covering (a) ‘physical location (and relocation) of material deemed inappropriate for children or youth’ and (b) ‘advance approval of materials recommended, displayed, or otherwise actively promoted by library staff.’”

In Kay Ivey’s letter to the APLS director she also questions the state’s relationship with the American Library Association.

ALA was founded in 1876, and their website states their mission statement as being “to provide leadership for the development, promotion and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.” In Ivey’s letter she also calls to “require all expenditures of public funds to the American Library Association be approved by the relevant governing authority in an open,

whether the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” This protects books that pro vide some type of value to society. No one is arguing against safeguarding children from viewing age-inappropriate and sexually explicit content, but the books they are calling to remove pass the Miller Test with flying colors.

In response to all the outcry about inappro priate content the executive board of the Alabama Public Library Service voted and agreed unanimously to create a list detailing books with content that could be deemed inappropriate for children under 18. This does not mean anything currently for libraries though, as the list only serves as a resource for public libraries to use to take into consideration when deciding whether a book is appropriate or not for younger audiences. John Wahl said this in regards to the new policy, “We rate movies.

We rate video games. And this is just one of those areas where we are looking for a way to be able to share with local libraries that there may be inappropriate material in books, and flag it for them so they have some guidance as they’re looking at their collections.”

Angie Thomas

named on Clean up Alabama’s website is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.

They state the reason for calling for the removal of this book is “inflammatory racial commentary; excessive/frequent profanity; and inexplicit sexual activities.” They list the reason for the removal of this book because of inexplicit sexual activity, but say that they only want to remove books from public libraries to better protect children from sexually explicit content. How does removing a sexually inexplicit book protect children from sexually explicit content?

In Fairhope, Alabama, people calling for book bans in their public libraries are now taking it a step further and are calling for the removal of the city’s librarian.

Someone representing the Faith Family Freedom Coalition of Baldwin County at the September 11th Fairhope City Council meeting said the reasoning behind this is that, “Her views do not represent the ideals of the majority of Fairhope residents.” Fairhope’s library coordinator Anne Johnson told a local Alabama news

An APLS board meeting

No official solution has been agreed upon in Alabama on what to do with books that some concerned citizens may argue are “obscene,” and this issue will likely carry on. Majority Leader of the Alabama House of representatives, Scott Stadthagen said in a letter to the APLS board members saying that the “Controversies surrounding the APLS and local libraries remain on the radar of our Republican House members,” and that if it is not resolved soon they, “stand ready, if necessary, to take action through legislation, our budgetary authority, or both.”

18

EDITORIALS

Physician Residents: Overworked and Burnt Out

What are the effects of the laborous physician residency hours?

Elley Atchison, Co-Editor

Imagine you are in your late twenties. You want to hang out with your friends, spend time with your family, or stay in and read a good book. However, you cannot do those things because you are a resident physician finishing up your 80-hour work week with a 20-hour shift. You are supposed to be saving lives. You are supposed to offer emotional comfort to your patients.

Would you be able to provide those vital things if you had not slept in 18 hours and knew there would be little rest in your subsequent weeks and years?

The idea described above is the reality numerous resident physicians in the United States have faced for years.

Many residents work 80-hour weeks, leaving them little time for themselves.

Moreover, it is not surprising that nearly 60% of residents reported feeling symptoms of burnout. They predominantly spend their time in the hospital with little to no respite in between.

How can we expect resident physicians to provide standard care to patients when they are utterly exhausted?

Additionally, in 2003, hospitals were mandated to limit their residency work weeks to a maximum of 80 hours.

Many physicians trained before this work cap refute the mandate, claiming it renders the new residents quality training. The study completed about patient mortality rates disavows this claim, though. Harvard Business Review discussed this study, explaining that “spending fewer hours in the hospital during training had, on average, no effect on internists’ hospital readmission rates or costs of care.” Thus, residents receiving 80-hour work caps did not negatively affect patient care.

Even if the quality of care is unchanged by the cap on residency work hours, the percentage of residents who feel burnt out from their jobs is a facet that needs to be evaluated further by the medical council. We should care about their work hours not just based on the quality of care they provide but because of the quality of life they receive. Nobody wants to work constantly, hardly ever getting to spend time for themselves. Yet American residents have followed this exhausting act for years.

Why is Alien News So Often Overlooked?

The truth the government (might be) hiding

Jonah Jarrett, Staff Writer In the past year, there’s been a torrent of alien news falling upon us like crashed spaceships upon countless rural farms in the midwest. But like these spaceships, this news just seems to slip away from the mainstream acceptance that poor farmers seem to think they deserve. Ever since the invention of the UFO sighting, conspiracy theorists have put on their tin-foil hats and declared that aliens are real - and their anecdotal or otherwise-hazy evidence will prove it for sure this time. Recently, however, the standards of evidence for alien sightings seem to have improved. No longer are we in the days where hillbillies with straw hats and a few teeth missing are the typical reporters of alien sightings.

Recent oracles of alien news are instead high-ranking (usually ex-)government officials. Respected individuals with hardto-deny evidence have become the new standard for extraterrestrial reporting. But how did we get here?

The first widely-reported UFO sighting occurred in 1947 when a businessman claimed to see a group of nine crescent-shaped objects moving at an incredibly high speed while flying in his plane, describing their movement like “saucers skipping on water.” The news mistakenly reported that the objects were saucer-shaped, which led to the common term “flying saucer.” Around the same time, overall sightings of UFOs began to increase.

The government blamed this on a potential new aircraft by the Soviet Union, but I think we all know the real truth. Since then, evidentiary standards for alien or UFO reports have slowly but surely risen.

In 1952, a strange series of radar blips and visual sightings occurred around Washington D.C. This was blamed on temperature inversions over the city, but yet again, I think the real truth is pretty obvious. From 1952 to 1969, a U.S. government operation known as Project Blue Book catalogued over twelve thousand sightings of aliens, but somehow the government managed to explain all this away. Counterpoint - if the government really thought aliens weren’t real, why did they wait ten whole years to release their findings from Project Blue Book? The end of Project Blue Book in 1969 marks what I think of as the modern era of alien sightings with the end of widely-reported firsthand sightings from questionable sources.

As the amount of alien reports increased throughout the late forties and fifties, the public began to think that just any old eyewitness wasn’t good enough for them.

In response, the traditional narrative of an alien sighting began to change to what it is today- no longer can just any stranger report the news on aliens. Strangers in suits and behind lecterns do it instead.The first case of an ex-politician bringing to light what the government is likely hiding from us that I would like to examine is J. Allen Hynek. Hynek and other members of Project Blue Book and related government agencies came together to found the Center for UFO Studies which still exists today. Since then, the US has done one more major study of UFOs from 2007-2012, called the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP.) When the information from this study was

released in 2017, there was a report that the U.S. Government is in possession of unidentifiable alloys and compounds from UFOs, but scientists were skeptical of this claim like always. So why haven’t we found aliens yet? Scientists will try and trick you with their big words like “evidentiary standards,” but it’s all smoke and mirrors to stop you from seeing what should be obvious - the government is hiding them. Who knows what really goes on in Area 51?

Recently, however, some big alien cases have defied the typical narrative and presented evidence that seems to be very real.

Back in July, ex-Air Force intelligence official David Grusch testified to the House of Representatives that he had conversations with unnamed officials which led him to believe that the U.S. is in possession of alien spaceships- with dead aliens included.

Although these claims seem reputable at first coming from government officials, it all seems to come down to a case of what the University of Rochester professor of astrophysics Adam Frank describes as “a guy says he knows a guy who knows another guy who heard from a guy that the government has alien spaceships.” Claims like these also require hard evidence - which curiously Grusch is incapable of providing.

However - where Grusch fails, Mexican journalist Jaime Maussan picks up the

slack. On September 12 2023, Maussan came to Mexican congress with what he claimed to be the bodies of two creatures of unknown origin, found in a mine in Peru. Maussan claims that scientists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) found that the bodies are “not part of our terrestrial evolution,” that around one third of their DNA is of “unknown origin,” and carbon-dated at over 1,000 years old. That’s a lot of information with seemingly credible sources.

The aliens also look somewhat convincing, although it is left unclear why they look so humanoid for something supposedly originating from a far-flung land of stardust.

Maussan provided x-rays of the aliens. The x-rays were analyzed, and it was found that their bones were a mixture of human and non-human bones that were positioned so poorly that the creature would fall apart if it were to stand or walk. Despite the abundance of his ostentatious evidence, many of these claims are nothing more than simple fabrications solely designed to put no one and nothing other than Maussan in the spotlight.

The university studies? Physics researcher at UNAM Julieta Fiero stated that the university never supported such claims and said that Maussan’s claims “made no sense.” The university itself republished a statement from 2017 stating that they did not make a conclusion

about the sample sent to them for carbon dating. This might lead you to ask, “From 2017? I thought that the hearing was in 2023?” What you don’t know is that 2023 wasn’t the first time these skeletons have been seen by the public. In 2017, Maussan appeared in a video hosted by Gaia. If you don’t know, Gaia is a popular website known primarily for hosting a wide range of conspiracy theories ranging from harmless alien theories to reptilians hiding in world organizations. The website has also come under fire for hosting more harmful conspiracies related to the anti-vaxx movement and for hosting a variety of videos and content by David Icke who has been deplatformed from most major media sites and banned from the Netherlands for spreading misinformation and conspiracies that widely hailed as anti-semitic, blaming 5G cell service and Jewish organizations for Covid-19. The website also received more mainstream attention when Demi Lovato joined as an ambassador back in 2021. It is on this website that Maussan first showed off his “aliens.”

Maussan has been making farfetched claims for years now and this alien seems to be yet another one of his desperate attempts at putting the spotlight on himself.

In 2020, Maussan promoted a COVID-19 treatment with a 96% effectiveness named “Hydrotene.” This “natural remedy” was widely regarded as nothing more than snake oil, which shouldn’t be surprising considering Maussan’s involvement.

Further into the past, Maussan has actually shown two more alien mummies to the world. In 2015, Maussan held an event which unveiled a mummified alien- which was later revealed to be not an alien, but an old mummified human child. The exposure of this grim mockery didn’t dissuade Maussan from trying again - just one year later Maussan revealed two specimens, the “Metepec Creature” and the “Demon Fairy.” The “creature” was made of a skinned monkey, and the “fairy” was crafted from the remains of a bat, sticks, epoxy, and other materials like a DIY Fiji mermaid. It’s safe to say that Maussan isn’t very trustworthy (or moral), yet he is the one who informs our modern understanding of aliens.

So why does nobody care about alien news? Sure, most people that report alien news have no proof and/or are eccentric conspiracy theorists like Maussan, but I think there’s another, simpler reason that alien news is overlooked: simply put, it doesn’t really matter. If aliens visited Earth 10,000 years ago or yesterday, you still have to wake up at 7 AM and go to school or your depressing day job. The existence or nonexistence of aliens does not inform your day-to-day choices and does not have a prominent impact on your life. I personally do not care about the existence of aliens and I will not pay the subject much mind until the day that they break down my door or introduce us to revolutionary new technology. And if that does happen, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

ENTERTAINMENT 19 The Metamorphosis of Horror Movies This isn’t your grandma’s horror movie Drew Williamson, Co-Editor Horror movies have been a staple of film genres for many years now, and it seems like new ones are always hitting the theaters. In 2023, there are many radically different kinds of horror movies. Just this year, we’ve had Renfield, a horror-comedy, Scream VI, a classic slasher movie, Beau Is Afraid, a surrealist/psychological horror film, and countless others. However, there wasn’t always such variety in the genre.

The many different styles of scary movies that exist today are the products of years of changes and evolution in the horror genre.

When filmmaking was first being developed in the late 19th century, scary movies were one of the first popular genres. Le Manoir du Diable (translated to English as The Haunted Castle), was released in 1896, and is widely regarded as the first horror film. While only lasting three minutes, it was revolutionary in the way that films had not previously included these horror elements. This film, as well as other short films by the same director, Georges Méliès, paved the way for many more scary silent movies. However, horror films never really took off until the 1920s and 30s. These years saw the final great horror films of the silent movie era, such as 1920’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and 1922’s Nosferatu, both of which are still regarded as masterpieces and listed on Rotten

Tomato’s Top 200 Horror Films list.

These films were groundbreaking in their portrayal of the supernatural and filmmaking styles.

At the end of the 1920s, improving technology led to the rise of the talkies and decline of silent movies in popularity. This new technology led to even more groundbreaking films, including the first film adaptation of Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Werewolf, and many other movies, some of which have unfortunately been lost to time.

Throughout the rest of the 20th century, a common pattern emerged of horror films portraying the widespread fears of society at the time. For example, during the Cold War, radioactivity and mutations were the driving fear factor of movies such as Godzilla and The Incredible Shrinking Man. In the 70s and 80s, films such as The Exorcist and The Omen became popular after the widespread “Satanic Panic” swept across America. Also in the same time period, as serial killers such as Ted Bundy became national fears, slasher films became more popular such as Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Moving into the 90s and the end of the century, the horror genre was as varied as it had ever been. Scream kicked off a wave of self-aware horror-comedies parodying the genre, and

films like the Night of the Living Dead remake revived the zombie craze. Entering the 21st century, many different subgenres of horror films continued to be established, ultimately leading to the movies we know and love today.

However, more than just the plot of horror movies has changed over the years. On the technical side, there have been even more changes over the years in horror filmmaking. Arguably one of the most important is the evolution of visual effects over the years. Visual effects in horror films in the first half of the 20th century mostly relied on simple but effective techniques such as stop-motion film, make-up, miniatures, and et cetera. When the 70s and 80s came around, makeup and visual effect artists took things to the next level to create body horror movies such as Alien and The Thing. With the start of the 21st century, computer-generated imagery became used more and more for visual effects, for better or for worse. Today, most horror films rely primarily on CGI for effects.

One of the most important technical components of making a film truly scary is the music. Horror filmmakers have understood this since the early days of film, with 1931’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde prominently featuring Bach’s now-iconic “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” throughout the film to reinforce its eerie atmosphere. Up

until the 1960s, orchestral scores were the norm for horror films. However, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, released in 1960, rocked the world with its tense and terrifying score. The shower scene, arguably one of the most iconic scenes in any horror movie, is scored with repeating, high pitched violin notes, skyrocketing the tension of the film. Future horror films piggybacked off the musical ideas of Psycho and incorporated more dynamic, tense soundtracks. In the years leading up to the 80s, composers began to cut down on costs by ditching the traditional orchestras and going for more synthesizer-based soundtracks instead.

Halloween, released in 1978, is an iconic example of one of the first synthbased horror soundtracks. Today, horror soundtracks are all over the place. Some modern films even opt for no traditional soundtrack, but rather atmospheric ambience to set the mood.

As you have hopefully seen by now, horror films have changed drastically over the past century. Whether it be the subject matter, effects, or soundtracks, it is undeniable that many aspects of the horror film genre have evolved and changed dramatically.

After all, we wouldn’t have 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s movie if not for the groundwork laid by 1896’s The Haunted Castle.

20

ENTERTAINMENT

Food on Wheels

Highlighting some of the best local food trucks Drew Williamson, Co-Editor Food trucks are perhaps one of mankind’s greatest inventions. One uninitiated into food truck culture may think that food made in a cramped trailer that has an area of less than 15 square feet would be inferior to food prepared in a proper kitchen. However, this is often far from the truth. To me, something the heart and soul poured into food truck food automatically makes it taste many times better than fast food.

An even bigger misconception is that Cullman doesn’t have very many food trucks. Cullman is full of delicious food trucks that are often set up in town or nearby, and with this article I wanted to shine some light on some of the best local food trucks. Keep in mind that this list is nowhere near exhaustive, as there are many more amazing food trucks in Cullman. I may even make a second part to this article in a future edition to highlight some other amazing food trucks.

The Street Kitchen food truck frequents many community events all over the county. It serves some fantastic dishes, such as their Barnyard Burger, which owners Hannah and Jackson Chambers cite as the “fan favorite” on the menu. The young couple always wanted to start a business together,

and in 2021, when they were just 21 years old, they opened the Street Kitchen. According to Hannah and Jackson, they chose the name in order to have flexibility in their menu. That proved to be a good choice, as they serve everything from breakfast quesadillas to Philly cheesesteaks. They say their favorite aspect of operating a food truck is “being able to work together and be creative with our menu options” and “having an outlet to help people when we can.” They also mention that “on Thanksgiving, we like to help feed people that wouldn’t get that meal otherwise. It’s nice to be able to use our business to both make money and give to the community.” Their schedule can be found on their Facebook page, so make sure to stop by and give them a try sometime.

Blessed Burgers is one of the newer food trucks of Cullman. It opened in October 2023, and is operated by Bradley and Tiffany Hunt, two Cullman locals who also serve as youth pastors at the Church at the Well. According to Bradley and Tiffany, they chose the name Blessed Burgers because it “goes back to how this food truck is a blessing to us and how we want it to be a blessing to others.” They also

mention that “We pray before the start of each day asking God to bless those who come to eat with us. We have a great church family at Church at The Well who has prayed and helped us all along the way in this process, and we’re excited to use the food truck at our events to bless others as well.” The owners said that their favorite part of operating a food truck is “meeting all the different people” and “getting to work with our family.” The items the owners recommended the most, other than the burger, were the Southwest egg rolls and banana pudding. Make sure you try them out at their frequent location in the lot next to Culpepper Auto Sales.

Mom and M’s is another one of Cullman’s beloved food trucks. The truck is operated by Megan Harris and her mother, Linda, hence the name.

They started their business in January 2020. The owners said that they have had many amazing experiences in Cullman, including being able to come speak to Cullman Middle School students and serving the community.

According to Megan and Linda, their most popular items are their Nacho Mama’s fries, and their personal favorite is their fried chicken pimento cheese

taco. Be sure to check them out next time they’re nearby.

ther, he had gotten a holiday bonus the previous year for almost that exact amount. The police grew suspicion from the ransom letter because of how lengthy it was and its theatrical wordings.

Twenty-six years later, although many theories have been made, still no one has been arrested for the murder of JonBenet.

she had used her credit card.

Tiffany’s mom went into the house to get Tiffany’s father. One minute later, at 9:29 PM, Tiffany was gone. Her phone was found off the side of the road right down from their house about 5-8 feet away from the curb. At 12:00 AM her uncle saw the police by the train tracks and the police said that someone had been struck by the train. It was confirmed to be Tiffany and ruled as a suicide after only five days of investigation. Later, they found her shoes on the side of the road 1.75 miles from where her body was found. Her parents are still trying to figure out what truly happened; all they know is that their daughter did not commit suicide.

Unsolved Mysteries

Diving deeper into three cold cases Claire Dossey, Staff Writer

never confirmed that he did it.

Years later, people are still interested in this case and believe that she could possibly still be alive.

Madeleine McCann May 7th, 2007, at the age of 3 while on a family holiday in Portugal, Madeleine McCann disappeared from her bed. Her mother discovered she had vanished at 22:00 (10:00) when the parents got back from dinner with a family friend. Although many investigations have been done the only person who was ever convicted for the murder of Madeleine was sex offender who public prosecutor Hans Wolters was convinced had abducted and murdered the child. Even though this man was convicted, it was

JonBenEt Ramsey The day after Christmas in 1996, JonBenet was reported missing.

At 5:52 AM JonBenet’s mother dialed 911 to report her daughter missing. The police came and searched the house, soon after a detective came and decided not to check the room that her body was later found in. While searching they found a two page ransom letter which included a demand for $118,000. According to Jeff Ramsey, JonBenet’s fa-

Tiffany Valiante July 12, 2015, Tiffany Valiante was hit by a train at 11:12 PM. Leading up to this Tiffany had just left a graduation party at a friend’s house. At 9:28 PM her friend came to her house and was getting mad at Tiffany because

ENTERTAINMENT 21 Fabulous Fall Melodies

A few nice songs to comfort you this fall

Elley Atchison, Co-Editor and Claire Dossey, Staff Writer

• “Season Of The Witch”-Donovan • “Ivy”- Taylor Swift • “Need 2”-Pinegrove • “All Too well (10 Minute Version) (From the Vault) (Taylor’s Version)”-Taylor Swift • “Reflecting Light”-Sam Phillips

•

“Friday I’m In Love”-Phoebe Bridgers • “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”-The Smiths • “Stick Season”-Noah Kahan • “Donna”-The Lumineers

• “There She Goes”-The La’s • “Young Folks”-Peter Bjorn and John • “Margaret”Lana Del Rey • “Louise”-TV Girl • “Jonny”-Faye Webster

• “Maple Syrup” -The Backseat Lovers • “Silver Spring” -Fleetwood Mac • “Cherry Wine” -Hozier • “Dreams”-The Cranberries • “From the Dining Table”-Harry Styles

Crossing Into a New Season Fall crossword

Mack Rudder, Staff Writer

Across:

4. unofficial holiday the day after thanksgiving (2 words) 5. 1993 Disney movie featuring three iconic witches (2 words) 6. last name of this iconic spooky family featured in this 1964 sitcom 9. leaves ____ from trees during this season 13. tenth month of the year 16. very popular fall flavor (2 words) 18. november 1st and 2nd (4 words) 20. cereal named for halloween (2 words) 22. main thanksgiving dish

Down:

1. popular fall sport 2. popular halloween activity for kids (3 words) 3. “it was a graveyard smash” (3 words) 7. October 31st 8. a winter squash 10. another name for fall

11. the only time of the month a werewolf transforms 12. a bit cold 13. a place where apples are grown 14. season of the ______? (song) 15. a place where pump-

kins grow 17. webmaker 19. one thing to do with pumpkins 21. a maze that is a popular fall activity

22

ENTERTAINMENT

Fall Book Recommendations

Fall Book Recommendations

Elley Atchison, Co-Editor and Mack Rudder, Staff Writer

The Goldfinch By Donna Tartt

Persuasion By Jane Austen

Jane Eyre By Charlotte Brontë

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue By V.E. SCHWAB

Kira-Kira By Cynthia Kadohato

Looking For Alaska By John Green

Twilight By Stephenie Meyers

If He Had Been With Me By Laura Nowlin

Cullman Scavenger Hunt

Can you find these local landmarks?

Jonah Jarrett, Staff Writer

1

2

This bespoke figure is an important part of Cullman’s past

This monument is an important part of Cullman’s heritage

See page 27 for locations!

4

3

Game, Set, Match

5

This tin man has a heART of steel (and a body of steel, the whole thing is steel)

6 You probably drive past this mural every day, but do you know what building it’s attached to?

This door has a signature color

ENTERTAINMENT 23 Is Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving Fantastic Fall Binges Some fall shows to view this season Controversial?

Elley Atchison, Co-Editor Is your favorite Thanksgiving cartoon racist?

Sophia Lambert, Staff Writer While Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving was never meant to be historically accurate and just a kid’s cartoon, it has sparked some extensive controversy over the last few years.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving first aired in November 1973. The character Franklin was created in a time when it was not common practice to have black characters in comic strips. Even though many people credit the creators for this by saying that they are being more inclusive Franklin is still very noticeably stereotyped and seemingly distanced from the rest of the cast. The first scene that some people see as Franklin being stereotyped is when he walks into Charlie’s house at the beginning of the special, and he and Charlie do a special handshake while everyone else just walks by normally. Some people see this as just a sweet interaction by two good friends, while others see it as Franklin being stereotyped that he has

to have a cool handshake with everyone because he is black. The next scene that people view as off is when they are having their iconic Thanksgiving dinner and everyone is sitting at the table.

While many people do not notice it at first, Franklin is sitting all by himself on one side of the table, while everyone else is on the other side which many people view as segregation. Another reason people are perturbed is because Franklin is given an old lawn chair that ends up collapsing in on itself, while everyone else was given regular dining chairs, which also makes people upset because Franklin is being noticeably treated worse than the other cast members.

This controversy has been going on for a while, which has caused many stations to stop airing the episode.

Many people have different opinions on what they think the intentions were behind this episode.Watch and decide for yourself.

Make Some Fun Fall Food

Stranger Things

Midnight Mass

Gilmore Girls (the fall episodes) “Kiss and Tell” Season 1, episode 7.

“The Ins and Outs of Inns” Season 2, episode 8.

“A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving” Season 3, episode 9.

“The Festival of Living Art” Season 4, episode 7.

“You Jump, I Jump, Jack” Season 5, episode 7.

What We Do in the Shadows

Fall Recipes

Reilly Kate Johnson, Staff Writer ture; toss to coat. Bake, uncovered, at 250° for 1 hour, stirring mixture every 15 minutes. Cool completely. Stir in 1 package candy pumpkins and 4 cups chex mix.

Pumpkin Snack Mix 12 cups popped popcorn 4 cups Cheerios 4 cups Corn or Rice Chex 2 cups salted peanuts 1 cup packed brown sugar 3/4 cup light corn syrup 1/4 cup butter, cubed 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 package (16 ounces) candy pumpkins In a large greased roasting pan, combine 12 cups popcorn, 4 cups cheerios and 2 cups salted peanuts. In a large saucepan, combine 1 cup brown sugar, ¾ cup light corn syrup and ¼ cup cubed butter; bring to a rolling boil. Boil for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat; quickly stir in 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and ½ teaspoon baking soda until mixture is light and foamy.

Immediately pour over popcorn mix-

Turtle Chips 1 package (11 ounces) ridged potato chips 1 package (14 ounces) caramels 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream 1 package (11-1/2 ounces) milk chocolate chips 2 tablespoons shortening 1 cup finely chopped pecans Arrange 1 package of whole potato chips in a single layer on a large platter.

In a large saucepan, combine 1 package caramels and 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream. Cook and stir over medium-low heat until the caramels are melted.

Drizzle over chips.

In a microwave, melt 1 package chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons shortening; stir until smooth. Drizzle over

caramel mixture; sprinkle with 1 cup finely chopped pecans. Serve immediately.

Cool on pans for 1 minute. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate in airtight containers.

Cheddar-Pecan Crisps 2 cups unsalted butter, softened 4 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese 4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted In a large bowl, cream butter and cheese until light and fluffy. In another bowl, whisk flour, salt, garlic powder and cayenne; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Stir in pecans.

Shape into eight 10-in. long logs. Wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until dough is firm, 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Unwrap and cut dough crosswise into 1/4-in. slices.

Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until the edges are crisp and lightly browned, 12-14 minutes.

Chewy Caramel-Coated Popcorn 1-1/2 cups butter, cubed 2-2/3 cups packed light brown sugar 1 cup golden syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 24 cups popped popcorn Line two 15x10x1-in. pans with parchment. In a large heavy saucepan, melt 1 ½ cups cubed butter over medium-high heat. Add 2 2/3 cup brown sugar and 1 cup golden syrup, stirring to dissolve brown sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil. Boil and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat and quickly stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Pour caramel mixture over 24 cups popcorn; stir lightly to coat. Using a rubber spatula, press popcorn into prepared pans. Cool. Pull apart into pieces. Store in airtight containers.

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SPORTS

Keep a Good Mindset

How to prevent athletic burnout Aubrey Shaddrix, Staff Writer Feeling tired? Unmotivated? Just can’t find the strength to get back to your three hour practice right after school? You may be experiencing burnout, and here’s how to power through it. Burnout for athletes is a stage of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion which could cause you to lose hope or interest in some of your favorite activities especially near the end of the season. A typical reason for burnout is too much practice and not enough recovery. Overtraining and exerting yourself can do more harm than good when it comes to your performance causing lack of motivation and tiredness. Although practicing is vital for sports, so is recovery and treatment after highly demanding physical tasks.

Some of the best ways to prevent your burnout are as follows.

•

Rest- It sounds simple, but giving your body enough time to replenish itself could make a world of a difference in your performance and mental health. A minimum of eight hours of sleep can help with muscle recovery, competitive success, and overall mental health.

Burnout is not just caused by tiredness and exhaustion, but also by boredom. If you find yourself growing tired of something you once loved, try giving yourself some variety. It’s good to try new things and experiment with what you enjoy. Try adding new training techniques and including some friends in your practice. It’s easy to lose motivation when you’re not surrounding yourself with positive people, by involving friends you can bring joy back into your sport. Although we should bring passion and determination into sports, we should also focus on our mental and physical health in order to effectively improve upon ourselves.

•

Diet- Maintaining- A balanced diet during stressful seasons can also improve your mental health. Processed foods can cause inflammation throughout the body, including your brain which could result in mood disorders. By cleaning up your diet with fruit and vegetables, you can increase cognitive function and mental health.

•

Focus- It’s easy to get stressed and put too much on your plate to appear perfect to others. It’s good to focus on the fun aspects of your sport instead of trying to perfect everything. Don’t get hung up on your mistakes, and keep a good balance of improving yourself and having fun.

Continuing Your Career

Playoff-Bound

John Mark Johnson, Staff Writer

Coach Pitzing, Pitzing Guest Contributor

How to become a college athlete College sports are a beloved pastime enjoyed all over the the world, with many young athletes picturing themselves playing for their dream school.

With the countless sacrifices young athletes will have to make, many do not realize the large commitment college athletics is.

There are many attributes that college coaches look for in potential recruits. Athleticism is a significant factor in the recruiting process, with coaches looking for skilled players to either add depth to their roster or to replace talent that is graduating.

Versatility and well-roundedness is also important with a recruit’s athleticism, with coaches also in search of players who can fill multiple roles. Leadership skills are also important for a potential recruit to have. These skills must be demonstrated in games, as well as practices and studying. Being a team player who motivates their teammates is important to creating a strong team dynamic. Coaches look for athletes who display these qualities in all facets of their life.

College athletics require a lot of strength and motivation, so having a solid mindset and work ethic is also important. It is almost a prerequisite for college athletes to have a strong

work ethic due to the rigorous training they undergo, often requiring breaks to be spent on campus, which allows for little to no free time.

While on-field and athletic abilities are key to becoming a college athlete, academics is also important. Showing that one works hard both in and out of the classroom demonstrates to coaches that you are not only serious about your sport, but your education and future as well. Aside from skill, college athleticsrequire dedication, hard work and may other stand-out attributes.

An update on football The Bearcat Football Team wrapped up region play on Friday, October 20th, playing host to Muscle Shoals. The regular season will come to a close with a final home game against the Blue Devils from Etowah.

The Bearcats own a 14-5-1 record against Etowah and hope to extend the lead by one more game. Following the game with Etowah will be a bye week for the Bearcats before they suit up on the road against one of the top teams in the state, Clay-Chalkville, for the first round of the playoffs.

Cooper Ogstad, junior

Crossword Answers (pg 21) Down: 1. Football 2. Trick or treating 3. The Monster Mash 7. Halloween 8. Pumpkin 10. Autumn 11. Full moon 12. Crisp 13. Orchard 14. Witch 15. Patch 17. Spider 19. Carve 21. Cornmaze

Across: 4. Black Friday 5. Hocus Pocus 6. Addams 9. Fall 13. October 16. Pumpkin spice 18. Day of the Dead 20. Count Chocula 22. Turkey

SPORTS 25 Ballin’ With the Bearcats

Dribbling into the upcoming season Mack Rudder, Staff Writer The Boy’s Basketball team will start their 2023-2024 season at home this year on November 7th with a game against Hayden, and they will follow their first game with the Veterans Day Tip-off Classic at Wallace State Community College on November 11th.

When asked, Coach Stu said this about the team’s upcoming season: “I am very excited about this year’s version of our basketball team. We are a very connected team with a lot of internally motivated players who have been in the system for 3 years now.

They have been committed since day 1 to becoming the best version of themselves and reaching their potential as a unit. It should be another exciting season of Bearcat Basketball.” Everyone on the team seems to have a very positive outlook on the season. Here is what some of the team has to say about their upcoming season.

Questions asked 1) How do you guys prepare for the season as a team? Is there anything specific that you do personally?

2) What is your favorite part of the

season?

3)What are you most looking forward to?

4) What can we expect and what can we watch for going into this season?

Preston Gay 1) We start preparing for the season in June. We practice and play games throughout the whole summer. We then start fall workouts where we lift, condition, and practice. Coach Stu does a great job getting us mentally and physically prepared for practice

The Great Gatsby Party

and the season.

2) My favorite part of the season is playoffs. I like the competition we get to go against and getting to play at Wallace and the BJCC. 3) I’m most looking forward to the Hartselle game. I love the atmosphere and the energy everyone brings.

4) A state championship.

Evan Wilson 1) We practice all the time and we watch film and go over the other team’s plays before a game.

2) Playoffs.

The 2023 AP Lang Gatsby Party was a ball!

Blyss Murphree and Aubrey Shaddrix, Staff Writers

3) Winning lots of games.

4) We have a new offense and expect to be better than last year.

Kade Vincent 1) A lot of practice and lifting to get our bodies ready for the long season.

2) I just try and make everything fun to push through some of the hard days.

3) Just being around the team and having fun playing ball.

4) A lot of excitement and just great basketball.

26

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Page 22 answers: 1.) Heritege Park 2.) Cullman County Museum 3.) Cullman High School Tennis Courts 4.) The Art Park 5.) Grace Episcopal Church 6.)Newman’s Drycleaning

THE BACK PAGE TOP 10 MISTAKES TO AVOID ON HALLOWEEN! How to have the best Halloween night!

10. Never think that you’re “too cool” or “too old” to go trick or treating.

What kind of psychopath would pass up free candy?

9. Make sure you put thought and effort into your costume.

The better the costume, the higher your candy profit margin will be!

8. Make sure you roll with the right crowd.

Nothing’s worse than having an unambitious crew of fellow trick-or-treaters.

7. Make sure you have a plan in advance.

The last thing you want is to be scrambling to put together a sad, last-minute costume at 6 PM on Halloween night.

6. Be careful on the roads!

There are many maniacs on the roads, and Halloween night is no exception!

5. Use your common sense!

If you happen to get candy that seems mildly suspicious, maybe don’t eat it! Better safe than sorry!

4. If you’re giving out candy, don’t be a cheapskate.

You don’t have to give out all king-sized chocolate bars, but there’s a good middle ground.

3. Don’t be a litterbug!

It’s perfectly fine to eat some candy while trick-or-treating, just make sure to dispose of wrappers properly!

2. Be creative with your costume!

It might be tempting to follow the trends each year, but it can be much more rewarding to come up with a unique costume idea!

1. Have a buddy!

Even if it’s a safe neighborhood, you never know what’s going to happen, and it won’t hurt to be safe! Most importantly, have fun!