Having interviewed a very busy and somewhat tired-looking Ms. Nelson, I learned some information that should be conveyed to the public.
First of all, the Black History Assembly was being planned since late November. At this time they did not know of the chance of fame with the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. They found out about meeting Her Honour about a month before the assembly.
Unless you are a total dunce, you probably know that the assembly was a hit with the teachers, students, and Hilary Weston. She was so impressed with the hip-hop that she got up and,"boogied down." She also suggested that the stepping should be taken to different schools. The reviews from all were great. The best summary of the assembly was spoken by a Shaw Cable reporter. He said, "... this show of African History should not be missed!"
What about the morale of the participants, you ask? The students learned teamwork, perserverence, co-operation, and a feeling of satisfaction. What will they get for all this work?
AN AFTER-PARTY THAT KICKS ALL AFTER-PARTIES!
Good job to all the participants from the MacNews Crew.
The investigative reporter cuju
P.S. Patricia Shirley the soloist was amazing
P.P.S. The dialogue in the rap and hip-hop songs were very carefully censored. It also was thematic with Black History Month.
Well, okay...maybe just of the term...)
Room 130 was transformed on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Is it just me, or was it hot in there?!! I'm not just talking about the temperature, which certainly made me feel like I might as well be waling on the sun (it wouldn't make much of a difference!); I'm talkin' about the mood, the atmosphere, the aura. By the time the last witness, the accused, Mrs. Evelyn Dick, took the stand, you could feel the tension, accumulated over the seven odd hours of gruelling court proceedings, bearing down on all present. The court, marked earlier by applause, cheers, and the occasional jeer, was utterly, and completely silent. You could have heard a pin drop. (I think I did!)
Despite the outcome, the glory of victory snatched away from the defence and prosecution by a hung jury, this case will definitely be one of the most memorable. Not really for the solid evidence presented by the Crown, or the lengthy cross of the Defense, but for the characters that graced the witness stand, (some of these people should go into acting if they haven't already!), and the amazing comebacks. Oscars should be handed out to Evelyn Dick, Donald MacLean, Mrs. MacLean (love the wig, love the glasses, love THE LOOK!), Amelia Dick, and Frank Boehler. Award for the most melodramatic role of all time goes to defense lawyer, Murtz (could you make it look any more contrived?). Okay, since I was on the Crown, I admit I am slightly biased, but how many times can one say "Not Guilty" in one breath? I was waiting for a commercial break at any point during the interrogation of Donald MacLean.
Overall, the lawyers (Stella Andonoff, Christina Nitsou, and Murtaza Jaffer for the Defense and Julie Harvey, Ameet Nathwani, and Olivia Lam for the Crown) were dazzlingly brilliant and the witnesses (at least those not cut due to time constraints) on both sides were spectacular. Drama and jumour abounded. (After a debate about the ownership of a particular book of Mr. Visheau's as it had previously been described as black in colour, the Prosecution decided to go for a blunt approach:
Crown: Is this your book, Mr. Visheau?
Visheau: Yes!
C: What colour is it?
V: Yellow.
C: Nothing further.)
There was also tension, eye candy (e.g. the stomach contents of John Dick...very convincing, Brie) and thrills! Nary a boring moment. Mr. Scott himself declared it to be the best Evelyn Dick trial ever to take place in the school. Quite an accomplishment.
To sum up, I would like to leave future generations of law students with a piece of advice. On their respective portfolios, the Crown Attorneys had a little yellow "Post-It" note. They read: "Don't make a mockery of a mock trial!" We didn't. Yay us!
nexus
"Guilty or Not Guilty?" That was the question asked of me as I was seated in the twelve member jury.
The Law Trials took place on February 24th and 25th, and were spectacular! I was on the jury for the Coffin case, and was able to see the entire trial from beginning to end. The jury was the only group of people to be totally unbiased of the trial and see the entire event.
The trial got off to a rocky start as both the crown and defense were nervous. After three hours of witnesses and no food, we broke for lunch. The whole morning had been pretty boring, long and made each of us hungry.
After lunch, the pace picked up as the provincial police officer who was in charge of Mr. Coffin's interrogation took the stand. The first questioning was okay, but than Richard Windross began the cross-examination. The way it occurred is impossible to put into words, but it comes close to "The atmosphere was so tense that you could only cut it with a chainsaw."
After the chief interogator stood down, the defence called their first witness.... Mr. Coffin himself (insert gasp here)!!!!!! This round of questioning was almost as interesting, but not quite as interesting as the previous witness, but provided some entertainment.
Since most of the evidence against Mr. Coffin was circumstantial, we found the defendant Not Guilty. Each side put up an interesting case, and I congratulate both. This trial was one of the largest farces in human history. For instance, a bartender named "Sam Malone" testified. The first question was, "Did you run a bar in Boston."
Although, someone attempted to bribe me.......
Smutton
Hello! Desperado here. Guess you're wondering why Stoopid Head's not writing this, right? Well, simple answer: I killed him. As the Germans would have us believe, that is. Anyway, on with the report! Forst off, I've gotta say that last week's episode was kinda disappointing. It really wasn't that funny. Except for the ro-sham-bo stuff, and that stupid Japanese guy who kept singing when MegaStreisand and Robert Smith were fighting. Also, they way they killed Kenny was creative, and somewhat cute, but it really wasn't that funny. D'ya think they're running out of ideas? Whatever. It was still a pretty funny episode, though. Anyway, tonight's episode's gonna be about how Cartman's mom slept with so many people, they don't know who his real dad is. It should be interesting, so watch it!!! WATCH IT I SAY!!! Yes. You will all succumb to my mental powers... Uhh, bye!
Desperado
As we approach the last Critic column for term 2, I think it's about time to reflect on the past 2 months.
A lot has happened in the last two months, not only to this school, but to me personally.
Hilary Weston's dancing was memorable...I don't think I'll get over that one. Team Canada lost in the semi-finals in a shootout, and then proceeded to lose to those Fins in the Bronze medal game. I'm not going to say anymore about this. It's a soft spot. Olympics are over...thank goodness! I was sick of staying up late to watch speed skating and stuff like that...
It's also been a controversial 2 months at Mac. Some people found a new way to use the SAC office. I'm not allowed to talk about it. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Music kicked some serious booty at Kiwanis and MusicFest again, and now there is discussions of planning a trip to Orlando for Nationals next year - of course they plan a cool trip after I'm done.
Good luck on exams everyone!! See you on the flipside.
The Critic
On Wednesday Febuary 26th, 1998, the grade 10 and (much more superior) grade 11 medallion English classes went to a puppet show! No, that's not a typo, we went to a puppet show! Honest! Before you start laughing it was a pretty good puppet show! No, that's not an oxymoron. It was called Old Friends , it was held at YPT and the puppets were really cool and life-like.
Three words can describe what many people felt after this performance: The dog ruled! It kept peeing on the bench on the stage! It also moved it's bowels on stage, the puppeter then threw the waste in the depths of Hell, (which really was Hell, not "the earth opening" as the effeminate "puppet master" said.) Well, the play (I guess you could call it that) was pretty cool and the only downside was that our classes felt really out of place amongst all the tiny little children (who some thought were cute).
The marionette show had a pretty good storyline in which a bag lady leaves "magic dust"in a park so that it can help people remember their past. For a puppet show that's pretty deep. There were also some touching points like the couple and camera which caused certain members of the audience to give a sympathetic "awww" and caused others to tell the "awwers" that "they're puppets, come on". Overall though it was a pretty good play.
After a lunch during which my friends (or at least the people I pretend are my friends so I don't look like so much of a loser in public, although I still do) and I were called "Squeegie Kids" (which was an insult to some and a compliment to others) we went to see Molly Sweeney at some theatre called like The St. Lawrence something or The Canadian Stage thingy or something like that.
I spent most of the first half of play...um...resting my eyes but from what I saw it was pretty boring. The story was pretty good but THEY HARDLY EVER MOVED! No, they walked up and down a ramp and told a story. All I got out of it was something about Iranian goats. I dunno.
I'll end this article with the dumb little kid question of the day, "Do your hands hurt?"
See ya!
( )Stoopid Head
Insert what you want into the brackets.
Congratulations to the Junior Math Team which defeated Pearson on Wednesday. The team did this even without the help of their star player, who was occupied at the time and could not attend the math game.
Mac's score was over 60% higher than Pearson's. This meant that it was a definite Mac victory and not just a fluke.
GO TEAM!!!!!
Nony LaSouris
MAC Spirit was at its best last Monday as MAC rolled out the red carpet for our Lieutenant-Governor, the Honourable Hilary M. Weston.
Greeted by an honour guard of MAC Reps and by all the "MAC In Action" (MIA) volunteers, Her Honour was following through with an earlier promise she made to visit MAC. The promise was made last April during a chat with MIA coordinators at a downtown function.
In an address to the student body, Her Honour told the packed auditorium that she was here to "spy" on MIA, which had received city-wide attention after being profiled in the Toronto Star's "young street" section earlier this year.
During the same speech, she also expressed her hope that MIA would become "a blueprint for voluntary action amongst young people (as a way) of breaking the cycle" of youth unemployment.
After her speech, Her Honour and the rest of the school enjoyed the African Heritage Assembly. It soon became apparent that she was having a wonderful time. During the rap act, both of her hands were seen swinging in the air even after the audience had calmed down.
Dressed in a violet suit, Her Honour later attended a reception in which MIA volunteers, members of the administration, and Toronto School Board District members were also invited.
In an interview with MacNews that was held during the reception, she also expressed her aspirations to be "a proactive rather than a reactive Lieutenant-Governor". As the "mother of two young people", she hoped that by "showcasing organizations like MIA throughout the province, (...) dialogue on how the current situation for young people could be improved" would be initiated.
The interview was conducted prior to her visit to Fairglen, where she viewed MIA volunteers "in action" before leaving for her next engagement.
Kathy Tam
Two words: exams suck. Why? I don't quite know, but they just suck. I hate exams. Well, doesn't everybody? Everybody puts all this freakin' pressure on us about the exams, and then they tell us not to worry about it. Right. Not worry, eh? Well, gee, I think it would concern me somewhat if my exam was worth about half of my term mark, ya know. Okay, whatever. That's my beef for today. Exams suck. They suck a lot. They really, really suck. They're almost as bad as politicians. So they suck. Yeah.
Desperado
Colin Lane and Frank Woodley are two Australian comedians who star in a show called The Adventures of Lano and Woodley. This is a very funny show, and everyone will enjoy it. The two main characters go around, losing their job every single day, burning down their neighbour's house, trying to meet girls, and doing many other things.
Lano and Woodley both act, direct, and produce their show. They have many talents, making their show filled with fun, entertaining slapstick.
Nonviolent Lashing