The Super Recess Gazette

Once upon a time, not too long ago, in a town called Liverpool, in England, a young man named John Lennon decided to start a band. He called it The Quarry Men, and he and a few friends that wanted some laughs started to practice together in their free time. John Lennon was the main one into the idea, as well as the bossiest, so he was the leader, and his band played as often as they could, wherever people would let them. One day, a friend of Lennon's named Ivan, invited a friend to one of the performances. After the Quarry Men played, Ivan took the friend behind the stage.

"John, this is Paul McCartney." After a few minutes of uninteresting introductions, it came out that Paul knew how to tune a guitar. He, like Lennon, loved Rock-n-Roll, and practiced constantly; he owned a guitar, and even better, could tune one. Soon, Lennon had invited McCartney to join the band. After that, the Quarry Men started sounding even better, but many of the members complained that the talented Paul was trying to teach them their own instruments! Paul wanted to invite his young friend George Harrison to join the band, but Lennon felt it would be rather embarrassing to have a 14-year-old in the band, even if he did have an awesome cutaway guitar, but after George offered that they could have rehearsals at his house, Lennon agreed.

Soon, McCartney and Lennon were composing their own songs, and performing them with the Quarry Men. British talent scouts noticed the band, and when a guy started sending some bands similar to theirs on tour, he took interest in the quarry men. They needed, he said, to come up with a suitable name. A famous band at the time was Buddy Holly's the Crickets, so a member of the Quarry Men jokingly suggested, The Beetles. John Lennon, wanting, as usual, to make a pun, said "How about The Beatles"? Everybody there agreed that this was a terrible name. They decided to name their band The Silver Beetles. After finding a good drummer; a 36-year-old man named Tommy Moore, they auditioned for a tour. They didn't win the contest, and a group called Cass and the Casanovas went on the tour, but The Silver Beetles did get to go on a two-week trip to Scotland, backing a singer called Johnny Gentle. Their poor drummer, Tommy Moore had to go to the hospital on the second night of their trip, after a drunk Johnny Gentle backed their car into a parked van, and Moore, sitting in the back seat, had his whole drum set fall on top of him. He managed to make it through the tour, but when they got back to Liverpool, he retired from the music business.

After their first tour, The Beatles, as they now called themselves, found a new, mediocre drummer, and went to Germany, where they played at the Kaiserkeller, in Hamburg. Their performances were a success, but they had neglected to get legal passports into Germany, and when the Police found out, they were hurried home to Liverpool. It was five months before they played again, but when they did, they found out that the news of their success had crept over to England, and now they were one of Liverpool's Hottest Acts.

They were sounding much better, now, and there were crowds wanting to watch them perform, but there was rivalry in the band. Pete Best, the attractive guy who played the drums for the Beatles was receiving much attention from the public, especially the females, and Paul McCartney was rather jealous. He started feeling resentful towards Pete. Soon, a man offered the Beatles a recording job, but he said that they would need a better drummer. He offered them a substitute drummer, for the recording, and Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney accepted. Pete Best is now known as The Beatle that nearly made it. After the recording, though, the Beatles were again without a drummer.

A man named Richard Starkey, or Ringo, as his friends called him, had recently retired from being drummer for Rory Storm. As John said, "Ringo was a professional drummer who sang and performed with one of the top groups in Liverpool before we even had a drummer!" They were all impressed. Ringo had a beard, and was all grown up, but they needed a good drummer, and when they asked him, he agreed. He shaved his beard, and brushed his Teddy boy hairstyle forward, and joined the Beatles. The Fab Four were finally together.

On a cold March day in 1931, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was born to a poor farming family in the primitive village of Privol'noye in Russia. Who would have guessed that he would one day become one of the greatest Russian leaders of all time?

Times were very hard for the people of the Soviet Union when Gorbachev was growing up. The common people had no power in terms of how the country was governed. They were not allowed to criticize the government. The people in power lived in luxury while the poor people starved.

Young Mikhail survived, though, and began attending the local high school. There he proved to be a bright, interested student, and he was accepted at the University of Moscow. He majored in law and also fell in love with and married Raisa Maximovna, an attractive and intelligent fellow student.

Mikhail went into politics and rose quickly in the Communist party. He was appointed General Secretary, the most powerful position in the USSR, in 1985 and set about making much-needed changes for the common people of the USSR.

He introduced perestroika (restructuring). He wanted to change the government of the Soviet Union to give the people more power and believed that this could only be brought about through democracy. The first free elections in the USSR were held in 1989, and Mikhail Gorbachev was elected president. Secondly, he believed in glasnost, or openness. He gave the people freedom of the media and press, permitting them to say whatever they felt about the government.

Internationally, he withdrew the unpopular Soviet troops from Afghanistan and said that the USSR would no longer help Communist governments of other European countries to stay in power. He began peace talks with President George Bush, ending the long and frightening Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

Finally, Gorbachev was supportive of the demands of many of the republics for independence. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, allowing each of the republics became its own country. The USSR was no more, and all over Eastern Europe, newly independent countries rejoiced. A new life had begun for millions of citizens of the former Soviet Union.

Gorbachev resigned his position as president of the Soviet Union, since there wasn't a Soviet Union any more.

Mikhail Gorbachev will be remembered as a great peacemaker, and as the man who brought democracy to Russia and freedom to the oppressed republics.

The expedition four crew's work was disrupted on the fourth day of this month. That morning a Russian computer (that controlled a living quarters module) went offline. It caused the system that controls the spacecrafts orientation to go offline for a few hours. Russian controllers haven't figured out what caused the computer to go offline, but they are still looking into it.

The crew had to align the solar panels manually to receive solar energy while the Russian computer was offline. By 9:30 a.m. flight controllers had restarted their computer, and a couple hours later the orientation systems for the station were back under computer control.

After their busy day the stations crew went to sleep around 3:30 in the afternoon. They were to awaken around midnight.

If you would like to learn more about the international space station, and its crew's activities, please visit http://spaceflight.nasa.gov. The site will even tell you times when the station is visible in your night sky. Status reports from the station are available automatically via-email. If you want to get the automatic status reports send an email to majordomo@listserver.jsc.nasa.gov, and write, "subscribe hsfnews" (no quotes) in the body of the message, not in the subject line.

Dear Harriet, I live in an apartment in Los Angles and I am having some animal trouble. A herd of daffodil-eating baboons has taken up residence in my home. I have no recollection of inviting them and need guidance on how to be a good hostess. -Monkey Trouble

Dear trouble, you should call the animal shelter to get a better understanding of the species. Then it would be wise to call a caterer to provide food for their special diet. Find out what they like to play and arrange for game times. After a couple of days you will grow to like them and will really enjoy their presence. Hope that helps and good luck.

Dear Harriet, My baby brother has been watching television for several hours and his face has been permanently attached to it. I've tried everything, even a demagnetizer to release him from its ever-increasing pull. What else can I do? -Stuck Brother.

Dear Stuck, In the back of your TV you should find a long cord. If you pull the TV out of the wall it will release your brother long enough to allow you to carry him away from it. Place him in his cradle until finally recovered. I would suggest reading to him from now on.

The Apostle ***** out of five stars (PG-13) The Apostle is a recently made sleeper about the works of a charismatic evangelist. The evangelist, played by Robert Dival, although having his own sinful nature accomplishes good in the lives of many. The movie portrays God in a good light and is a wonderful renter. I cannot recommend this movie for younger children for its adult subject matter.

Shrek ***** out of five stars (PG) Shrek, a DreamWorks production, is a comedy/fairytale that anyone will love. The story is about an ogre named Shrek (Mike Myers) who thought he liked being alone until he met a talking donkey (Eddie Murphy) and a crowd of other " fairytale creatures". They had all been forced to come to his house by the king. In an effort to send them back where they came from the ogre and the donkey get sent on a mission to rescue a princess. How the movie ends is for you to find out. I recommend for everyone over seven.