The Wall Street Journal is a newspaper published daily by Dow Jones & Company in New York City. It was founded on July 8, 1889 and has won the Pulitzer Prize 33 times since its start. The paper covers both national and international business and economic news, as well as social and political issues. With a circulation of over 2 million, it is the second most popular newspaper published in America, with USA Today being the first. The Journal has been responsible for notable reporting for stories such as the ENRON scandal and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Currently, Les Hinton is the publisher and Robert Thompson is the editor.
Current events:
National Basketball Association playoffs!! Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, Thunder, Hawks, -dw
“Air search resumes for 11 missing in oil rig blast,” the search for the 11 missing workers from an explosion on an oil platform on the Louisiana coast continues. The explosion occurred late Tuesday. [SB]
Volcano shuts down European air traffic [KB]
Earth day turns 40 years old [KB]
Obama will pay a visit to Wall Street calling for the big businesses to work with new reforms to a financial bill being worked out in the Senate. His speech that will be delivered near Wall Street will address many issues within these businesses as well as the role of their (the businesses) lobbyists on Capitol Hill. (CC)
Flights are slowly beginning to take off in Northern Europe and to these areas after a week of grounded flights. A Volcanic eruption resulting in a cloud of smoke and ash grounded flights in Europe as well as all incoming flights for the past week. Ash can be the cause of engine failure on planes and it is unsafe to fly near such conditions. (CC)
Goldman Executives are going to testify before a Senate panel because of their current fraud scandal. (CC)
Catholic Church Scandal: A German bishop admitted to abusing children while still a priest and has resigned over it. While the abuse was not sexual, it comes at a time when the Pope and Arch Diocese are coming under heavy fire for allegedly covering up sexual abuse within the Irish Catholic Church. [ED]
Iceland Volcano: European skies re-opened to flights Wednesday after being shut down for a week due to volcanic ash being spewed from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano. British airports faced a loss of almost $800 million in the first few days alone and there has been a monumental increase in air traffic in an attempt to get everyone home. [ED]
Oil Rig Explosion: 11 workers are still missing after an oil rig explosion off the coast of Louisiana late Tuesday. The Coast Guard continues to search for the missing workers, even though the odds of finding survivors are growing slimmer. [ED]
Financial Reform: President Obama’s plan for financial reform has won the key backing of a Senate Panel, comprised of both Republicans and Democrats. The two parties seem to be working together on the issue. The overhaul would impose tougher regulations for Wall Street, and is focused mainly on overseas trading and the practice of using derivatives. Democrats are pushing for a procedural vote on Monday. [ED]
Goldman-Sachs: The bank has been accused of fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission by setting up loans that were deliberately intended to fail. [ED]
Mexico City-- offers bikes its clean air campaign (GRS)
Stocks headed lower at the open - Strong earnings have helped boost sentiment recently, although investors still remain wary about the economic recovery. President Obama will make another push for tougher financial rules Wednesday. He is due to give a speech near the heart of Wall Street. The government released reports on first-time claims for unemployment benefits, and inflation at the wholesale level before the market opened. (AS)
Court fight over Brain-Damaged Mom’s Triplets – Abbie Dorn always wanted children, however when she gave birth to triplets, she suffered severe brain damage. Now her parents and former husband are battling over whether or not Dorn is capable of being in the children’s lives. (AS)
iPad: the ipad is a tablet computer designed and marketed by apple. It is meant for internet browsing media consumption, gaming, and light content creation. It was released this monthm and has introduced a class of devices between smartphones and laptops. It is all touch screen and has specific applications tht you may find similar to those on an iphone and ipod touch. (BM)
Baseball player flips over catcher – A Fordham baseball player leaps headfirst over Iona’s catcher to score during the team’s 9 – run eighth inning. (AS)
Language Blocked and Music Outlet: This boy was told he had Autism so he was not able to talk. Later he was listening to music and started to say the word “head”. This later helped him learn other words such as “mama”. (MB)
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Fashion trends
New eyewear trend: Cat Eye Sunglasses. Models were seen sporting the new eyewear on every runway this spring. “The retro-glam shape screams 1950s chic.[SB]
Bold painterly prints were among many of the new spring fashion trends. Designers such as Michael Kors, Marni, and BCBG are just a few who highlighted bold prints in their shows.[SB]
Nautical trends [KB]
Bright colors [KB]
Knee high socks are something that is predicted to be a huge fashion trend for this fall (2010). It is said that people have already started layering them up, and when it once was that people search for the lowest socks possible, people will now be searching their sock drawers for the highest socks of all. (BM)
Traveling taxidermy- dead animals are being taxedermys into suitcases. (MP)
Zippers- Zippers can be found on many skirts and dresses being sold and have become very popular.(MP)
Fitted dresses- while a few years ago flowy was in now form fitting tiht dresses are the new thing. (MP)
Gel nail polish- Nail polish that lasts a month and doesn’t damage nails like acrylics. (MP)
Jump Suits: This is a full-length body outfit. It can be worn as pants, shorts, or a skirt. It looks somewhat like overalls. (MB)
Boy Pants: Shorts that are extremely short. They are not as long as the usual shorts. (MB)
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Social Issues
Bernie Goldberg of Fox News admitted Monday night on "The O'Rielly Factor" that John Stewart host of the "The Daily Show with John Stewart" was correct in saying that Fox News generalizes liberals into a large category. The feud between John Stewart and commentators as well as hosts on Fox News have been battling words for quite some time. (CC)
April 22: National Earth Day. Every year the United States celebrates the natural earth by cleaning up trash, planting trees, etc. [kp]
Tea Party Patriots are holding “Thank you Mr. President for Bankrupting America” outside a Walmart in NJ today. The intention of the rally is to demonstrate to Obama how he has ruined the nation. [kp]
American Idol: Tim Urban, the 20 year old college student from Duncanville, TX was eliminated from the ninth season of American Idol. It appears viewers were not inspired to vote for him. Joining him in the bottom three were 27 year old musician Casey James, and 17 year old Aaron Kelly. (BM)
Facebook Prayer for Obama’s death – there has been a prayer circulating on facebook that seemingly calls for President Barack Obama’s death as well as New Jersey gov. Chris Christie and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Facebook spokespeople say that while it is highly offensive it does not violate the companys policies. (MP)
Goldman sachs- They have been under investigation for fraud after their profits have nearly doubled in 2010(MP)
Muslim group warns ‘South Park’ creators of death for last week episode for depicting the prophet Muhammed in a bear suit (GRS)
“Obama Looks to Close Sale on Financial Reform.” Obama addresses economic issues. The financial sector is completely out of balance and has suggestions for how to fix this.[SB]
Chicago Schools urge parents to not take their children to the annual bring your son or daughter to work day (GRS)
40th Earth Day – The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970 and was an educational event. The environment movement has evolved dramatically over the past 40 years, the new concerns being sustainability and climate change. (AS)
Man Sheds 365 pounds through yoga – a Detroit man credits yoga and a proper diet with helping his lose 365 pounds. (AS)
Christian Group on Campus: The Supreme Court is deciding whether or not colleges can be known for having Christian groups that will not let non- Christian and gays join it. (MB)
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Roger Williams events
Free concert @ RWU: Four Year Strong to perform on campus in the fieldhouse for free this Saturday at 4. [kp]
Four Year Strong an alternative rock band from Worester, Mass. will play at Roger Williams University at 5:30 in the Field House. This event is hosted by WQRI. (CC)
S.E.X Week on Campus: A week at school filled with activities based on sex such as condom casino and a movement to get tested for STD’s [kp]
Roger Williams University was listed in Guide To 286 Green Colleges. RWU was chosen for its above and beyond method of greening the school and surrounding neighborhood. [kp]
Student body elections were held last week. The official winners for President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer were announced for each class.[SB]
Roving Eye Film Festival: Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) and Roger Williams University (RWU) are presenting the fifth annual Roving Eye Film Festival from April 22 to April 25. - dw
The Fray will perform on Wednesday April 28th [KB]
Spring weekend begins April 30th [KB]
Musician’s guild/CEN Expression Session “Art, Earth, and Music at 9:00pm--dw
RWU Baseball at Curry College 2:00 pm Thursday (GRS)
Woman’s LAX at Gordon College 7:00 pm Friday (GRS)
RWU sailing team 5 events Saturday and Sunday (GRS)
The Fray: On Wednesday, April 28th, Roger Williams University will be holding their annual “spring concert”. Last year they had the band OAR come play, and this year the band called “The Fray” will be performing. (BM)
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Prssa gala – On Saturday the PRSSA chapter at Roger Williams is hosting the annual gala at the Viking hotel in Newport. All proceeds from the silent auction are going to the music and arts department of public schools in the area. (MP)
Dance Theater Performing in May: The students will perform at the University’s Performing Arts Center and will be on stage the first week of May. The students will work with Sean Curran and Deganit Shemy. (MB)
State AbbreviationsMelanie Puckett
San Francisco, Calif. __ In San Francisco, it is easy to go through high school without having a driver’s license. It wasn’t until my senior year that I passed the drivers test and was able to declare my independence. At that time, the family car was a gray ’87 Mercedes Benz, which we named Baby Benz. My parents, being thrilled that I finally could be independent, let me drive Baby Benz almost everyday to and from school. During the last semester of my senior year, I was a part of the musical “A Chorus Line” and often stayed for late rehearsals at school. One night, when I wasn’t able to come home until about 9:30 p.m., I received a call from my mother on my way home. She said that she was at a bar downtown, called Martuni’s, with my sister and asked if I would want to meet them. Since it was not even 10:00 p.m. yet, I decided to take a trip downtown.
I drove through the Haight and down Octavia Street until I saw a neon sign with the word “Martuni’s” flashing green. I walked inside the bar to my mother on stage singing “Dancing Queen” alongside my sister. We made eye contact and my mother said into the mic, “Somebody get this girl a drink!” I was blushing as I strolled over to the bar and order myself a raspberry martini, trying to regain my cool. The drunken rendition finally ended and my mother and sister staggered offstage to meet me at the bar. After a few laughs and a few martinis later, the three of us decided to call it a night.
We left the bar and walked to Baby Benz, sitting perfectly parallel parked on Market Street. My sister opens the door to the backseat while my mother walks over to the passenger side and pulls the lever. I said, “Mom, do you seriously want me to drive?”
“You’ll be fine! I’m right here with you, sweetheart,” she slurred. I finally understood why she wanted me to come downtown. I opened the door of the driver’s side and sat down on the beige cushion. I turned the key in the ignition and gripped the wheel tightly. Please God, don’t let me crash. I looked over to find my mother with her eyes closed. Slowly, I eased out of the parking space.
I drove back up Octavia Street at 15 miles per hour that night. After about five minutes, I became acclimated with the roads and eased the tension in my grip slightly. It wasn’t until my mother shrieked “Oh my god!” that I noticed that I ran a red light. I pulled off to the side of the road with my mother screaming in my ear, “What were you thinking? You could have killed us!” She told me to get out and move to the passenger seat. She was going to drive home, with which I was not about to argue. My mother drove us home at the speed limit, no swerving.
CarsKat
Acushnet, Mass __ My first car was a car that has been in my family since I was in Kindergarten, and in its prime it was a great car. A 1994 red Volvo 850, and it was all mine. Although I was excited to have any car at all, I’ve always been a little paranoid that something would go wrong with it while I was alone, and knowing nothing about cars I would be stranded. The first few years with my car were fine nothing major went wrong with it so my confidence with it grew.
The boyfriend I had at the time lived out in the woods surrounded by farms, and long scary roads that lacked any kind of lighting. I usually never went to his house because of this reason and driving back home late at night wasn’t fun or too safe because I was usually pretty lethargic. One night I decided to go there for dinner though and ended up staying a lot later than originally planned. Around 1 am I got into my car and made the scary trip back home, which should only take about 20 min. I usually blast the radio to distract my mind from thinking about scary people jumping out of the woods at my car or anything else I can come up with.
My favorite song had just come on the radio and I was happy until I reached the longest, darkest, scariest road of the trip. As soon as I got halfway down the road my car completely stalled out. I immediately panicked and tried frantically to start the car again. It started for 30 seconds and stalled again. Sitting the in pitch dark surrounded by fields I officially began to freak out. I went to call my father and could not locate my phone in the pitch dark of the night, I was so panicked I forgot that even when the car is shut off the inside lights still work. As soon as I located my phone I called my parents in hysterics at 1:30am and told them where I was and what had happened.
My mom had to calm me down while my dad made the trip in the middle of the night to rescue me from what seemed like the scariest place on earth. It felt like it took my dad hours to get to where I was and every noise that I heard made me panic just a bit more. Finally my father got to where I was and the first thing he said to me was “wow, this place is creepy hu?!” Just glad to be back with someone and in a working car I stopped sobbing and began cracking up at the whole situation. We had to get the car towed the next morning. The bill to fix the plug that caused the car to stall was scarier than the experience itself, and im still driving around in my not so trusty 94 Volvo 850.Courtney
TRUMBULL, CONN. __ The thunderstorm just ended on June 2nd, 2007 and I just finished making the last touches to my hair before my boyfriend showed up for our senior prom. Our mothers took massive amounts of pictures of us before we realized that it was time to go to our friend Kristen’s, house where we would take more pictures and get into the limo.
My boyfriend and I hopped into my 1999 SAAB 9.5 sedan, dark ice blue in color. It looked perfect and brand new after the rain and I admired the newly stuck on Roger Williams University sticker on the back window, after choosing what school I would continue on to. I had just received the car from my uncle’s garage as a pre graduation gift since I would be driving more frequently when I went to school, my old 1994 gray shadow-like Volvo would not be able to make the 175 mile trips.
We left for her house and at the last leg of the trip, down the winding curves of Moose Hill Road that turned into a large hill, I was sitting at the bottom of it ready to make a left hand turn. At the moment I was about to cut the wheel I was struck from behind. My boyfriend looked at me with a look of not sadness or anger but concern because he knew what I would say to this person right as I stepped out of the car in my dark purple silk dress, hair done and fake nails, ready to go if this person wanted to live. I pulled my blue beauty to the side of the road and people drove by asking if I was all right, all I could do was nod. My mother was not too far behind, following us to take more pictures, which gave me ample time to get out of the car and confront the person who just hit me.
She stepped out at a mere 5-foot and blonde hair at a good age of sixteen. While I won’t describe what I said due to inappropriateness, she only could say sorry. I looked at the damage and it was a real fender bender to my SAAB, trunk pushed in and bumper cracked, while no damage was done to her daddy’s 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee. My mother pulled around and I had no tears, only frustration and anger towards this person who disrupted my prom experience. The house I was going too was on a hill that overlooked the road where the accident took place. The girl’s father arrived and my mother stood by my car as we waited for the cops to come to assess the damage.
Right as I was about to step in the limo the cop came out and explained I could have been arrested because I left the “scene of the crime”, cue water works. My mother boldly stated if any one was going to be arrested it was going to be the girl (I thank my mother for that everyday) and I skipped off to my limo and prom. Later did I find out that the girl who hit me, father, was best friends with the cop and said that to upset me. Hey- thanks for the 6,000 dollars to fix my car!
Lexi
Fairfield, Conn. __Looking up from my cell phone as I pressed the green button to send a text, all I can remember is the explosion from the right side of our car (my side) and the mixture of bright colored lights, before I passed out for what seemed like forever.
Waking up seconds later, my air bag was suffocating me into my seat and the windshield of the car was destroyed, with only little bits of glass still hanging together.
After a short movie night at our girlfriends’ house Laura and I decided to call it a night and head home. Gathering our belongings and saying our good byes, we headed to the door and made our way down the flights of stairs from the third floor apartment.
Laura found the car first after a few moments of forgetting where we parked on the long, packed, road, and reached for her keys. She pressed the unlock button that sounded the car with a quick and loud alarm noise and we both got in and simultaneously buckled our seat belts. Reaching to turn on the radio I find 106.1 BLI that’s ironically is playing the Black Eyed Pea’s latest hit, “Tonight’s Gonna Be a Good Night,” and raise the volume. Laura puts the car in drive and we begin our short drive home in her hunter green, Volks Wagon Jetta.
With less than three miles into our drive we go through our first green light and ascend up the huge hill leading to one of the towns largest intersections. At 11:00pm the lights at numerous intersections turn to either blinking yellow or blinking red, because the traffic tends to slow down. Making our way to the top of the hill I notice the yellow light at the bottom of the hill and in the middle of our cross into Down Town Fairfield. With Planet Fitness to my left and a BJ’s shopping center the size of any other town’s local mall, we make our way to the top of the long steep hill. Going back to whatever conversation I was engaged in on my blackberry, Laura continues down the hill in a slower progression due to the yellow light that shortly greets us. Coming down the hill and looking to my right I notice a ford Escape who is coming to the red blinking light at Kings High Way and Commerce Dr. that signals her to come to a complete stop. Assuming that we have the right away we make our way closer to the yellow beaming light just as the Ford Escape does the same. Inch by inch within the matter of 40 seconds and the assumption that the Escape will stop, Laura accelerates on the gas just a tad and we hit the cross point as the Ford takes out the right front end of the helpless Jetta.
The lights go black and the loud smash of the two cars takes over the loud beeping of the non-stop horn that is going off. I wake up to see my best friend still passed out and scream at the top of my lungs. Another 30 seconds goes bye and she turns to her left to look at me and in her squeaky voice and non-stop joking personality, she whispers “Can you please stop screaming,” and weirdly enough we both start laughing hysertically.
Eryn
NORTON, Mass. __ It was a dark, rainy night. The kind of night where you really can’t see where you’re going, but you pretend to keep the person in your passenger seat calm. The rain wasn’t heavy, but it was just enough to cloud your vision of the road, and the fog rendered your high beams useless. The only sign of life on the roads were the occasional brake lights flashing in front of you, always just in time for you to stop. I was 17, maybe, driving the car my parents had bought me. It was a 2003 Ford Escape with fabric upholstery, a leather steering wheel, a state-of-the-art sound system, and that new-car smell still lingering. But the defining feature of the car was its color. Bright yellow. Not gold. Yellow, like dandelions, or the sun. I never lost my car in a parking lot, and my friends could spot me from a mile and a half up the road. That kind of yellow.
My friends Allison and Katrina and I were headed back from a late night trip to the Target in Easton, where I had just started work. Truth be told, I just wanted to show off my employee discount and didn’t actually need anything there. On the way back, I was tasked with dropping Katrina off at her house off Grove Street in Norton, while Allison drove back to her house in her brand new, light gray, hatchback Toyota Matrix. Her mom worked for Toyota, so she got the car for free, and we were all a little jealous. Her car had some pep to it, but it was nothing rivaling my 6-cylinder SUV. Apparently Allison had never gotten the memo, because she thought it would be a wonderful idea to race me to the center of Norton. It was a fairly straightforward route spent predominantly on Route 123, which is known for its tight turns and high speed limits. It was an overconfident teenage driver’s dream come true, and that’s just what we were.
For most of the way home, Allison held the lead. She had exited the parking lot before us through a cheap move that had resulted in her scaring a poor soccer mom in the Target parking lot half to death. The road was a single lane until the highway I-495 overpass, where it split into two lanes to suit incoming traffic. Once you were over the highway, the lanes merged back down to one, although there was a dotted white line, meaning that passing, if within the speed limit and without oncoming traffic, was legal. I knew I had about one football field to make my move. I threw my Escape into overdrive coming up to the pass, and with all 6 cylinders pumping and straining, my nose edged up the side of Allison’s car, passing it completely as we went back down to one lane. I realized I had neglected to breathe that whole time, and let out a sigh of relief. I thought the race was over, and I had grossly underestimated the stupidity of my opponent. Instead of conceding defeat to the clearly better driver, she wanted to make one more go at it. So without looking, and obviously without thinking, she pulled her car into oncoming traffic in a vain attempt at passing me. Alarmed at this, I sped up, not willing to let her take the lead. Unfortunately, neither of us were paying attention to the road in front of us. Allison didn’t realize there was a car coming straight for her at roughly 40 miles per hour. Time seemed to slow down. I saw the oncoming car, I saw her car, and I saw the car I front of me, all at the same time. Without thinking, I slammed on the breaks, creating a space just large enough for the compact Matrix to slide in.
I was frozen. I could not comprehend what had just happened. My car was still moving, but I wasn’t driving. I was on autopilot. My phone was ringing, Allison was calling, but I couldn’t answer. I couldn’t do anything except stare at the car in front of me, without actually seeing it. The rest of the ride home was silent as my passenger and I contemplated just how lucky we were to be alive.
Bridget
ORANGE, CT __ My friend Stephanie had just gotten her license. Although she didn’t have her own car yet, her parents let her borrow theirs every so often. Steph’s mom is a nurse she works a few towns over from their home in New Haven Connecticut. Hr dad Carl also works in New Haven. This was convenient because when Steph finally passed her driving test after months of preparation Carl would drive her mom to work each morning leaving her moms 2005 Volvo Sudan home with Steph.
It was a Monday morning. We had the day off from school and were home alone at Steph’s while her parents went to work. Her mom, Gail, left the car home under one condition. “You’re only allowed to drive to Bridget’s house and back,” said Steph’s mom before walking out the door. Steph agreed, and promised her mom she wouldn’t drive anywhere else.
The day continued on, the sun was shinning and their wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Steph had had her license for about a week now and wanted to show me how good she had gotten at it.
“Let’s go for a drive,” said Steph as she picked up the chunky silver key chain off the fancy table in the front entranceway in her house. It was a nice day for a drive, and we were getting bored. She jumped in the drivers seat as I buckled my seatbelt next to her on the passenger side.
As we drove out of her long narrow driveway I can tell that Steph was still getting used to driving, but trusted that she knew what she was doing. As we cruised through town and passed all the local shops and restaurants Steph decided she wasn’t ready to go home just yet and came up with an idea that we both thought would be a great one.
“You’ve never seen the college I want to go to,” Steph yelled with much excitement. I responded with a simple no, and she said we must go see it.
“My parents wont be home until at least 6, and the school is only 2 ½ hours away,” Steph said. We knew her mom would never let us make the trip, but it was something we really wanted to do.
Steph told her mom she was at my house, while I let my mom know I was still at her house. Little did they know we were on our way to visit Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts The drive wasn’t that bad, and after driving through the woodsy campus it was getting late and we knew we had to go home.
The trip was fun so far, the music was blasting and the sun was still shining. Steph’s driving was successful, and we had made it home safe. We had made it, it was our first official road trip and besides the empty tank of gas we left her moms car on, we had gotten away with it.
Mae
SOUTH BOSTON, MA__ The first few days after receiving your drivers license you don’t know what to do with all the newfound freedom, at least I didn’t anyway. Before leaving the house my parents were sure to give me a lecture about not going over the Sagamore bridge yet in the rain and making sure I turn my lights on at night, as if I was some kind of idiot. A few hours later I would learn that I was indeed an idiot and was to have my first of many learning driving experiences.
After assuring my dad I would be safe in my mom’s car, a silver 2001 Passat, not drive too fast and god forbid pick anyone up while still on my JOL, I sped out of my neighborhood and picked up my friend Melissa. There was a party going on in Southie at one of our friends houses with a roof deck and although my dad had warned me about driving over the bridge in the rain I did it anyway. We got all the way up to the Braintree split with no problems, going ridiculously fast the entire way.
“I don’t know why parents are always freaking out about driving fast no one ever gets a ticket,” Melissa said to me, “Besides the speed limit for the fast lane is like, 85 MPH or something like that.”
Just as we merged right towards Boston we screeched on our breaks as we hit bumper-to-bumper traffic and I love tapped the car in front of me.
“You think they felt that?” I asked Meilssa, “ No, they’d get out by now right?”
So we kept driving an inch at a time excited for the party we came so far for and weaseled our way into lies with our parents for. My phone was ringing and it was my friend Duncan who was surely already at the party.
“Don’t talk on the phone when your driving, people are killing themselves out there! And your life won’t be worth a plum nickel!” I can hear my mother telling me in her screechy voice.
I picked up the phone anyway answered it and then dropped it down by the pedals.
“Mae, Mae, Mae, Mae!” Melissa said frantically.
Boom! I slammed into the car in front of me which happened to be a big moving truck. The entire front of my moms car was bent upwards and there was steam coming from the hood.
“Are we gunna blow up?” Melissa said
“Should we keep driving?”
I pulled into a burger king off the highway in Southie where my parents met me about an hour and a half later. I lost my license for 3 months for having a passenger in my car and needless to say my already high insurance went out the roof. My parents couldn’t trust me that I was going where I said I was going for a long time and I felt the worst about misleading them. I thought I had learned my lesson, but then again nothing compares to when I got a $ 350 speeding ticket.
Katlyn
Weare, N.H_ “Today the aqua-green color of your car is becoming ‘shimmery silver’,” said Dad. In my head, I couldn’t believe that a ’91 S10 Blazer could ever look cool. The two door “beast” had rust along the entire bottom of it. The inside carpeting looked moldy, and a handicapped shifter had been removed to create a coffee cup holder for me.
My parents bought this car for me when I was 16. I don’t think I drove it until I was almost 18. It took my Dad, two years to “customize” it. Little did I know that my Dad went out of his way to make it “cool”.
Parked outside of my house, it was shimmering away in the sunlight, along with a purple pinstripe down the side for added effect. In the rear were custom LED taillights to create a more bad-ass look, so people wouldn’t tailgate me. I must admit, it looked pretty cool to me, but stuck out like a sore thumb in my high school parking lot. amidst the oversized pickup trucks and plethora of mini vans. My blazer was petite but bad-ass.
Also, like I said, it looked cool, but didn’t drive so well. The nickname “the beast” was adopted as I drove my sister, Alexe, and best friend, Lauren, to school every morning. Some cars purred. My blazer growled, constantly. This wasn’t the type of car that you were afraid to take down the dirt back roads that practically make up my entire town. You could take this thing anywhere. In a comical sort of way, I grew to love this thing, and pretended like I had some sort of bragging rights.
“Yeah, well you might have an Audi, but let me see you take your car down Hodgon Rd going 40 mph. Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I could take “the beast” down any road. I attempted corners at 40 mph with no heed whatsoever to the fact that my blazer could tip over at speeds like that. When it snowed, everyone called me. The Blazer could get through anything: snow, rain (even though it leaked in the car wash), extreme heat, potholes, dirt roads, ditches, the woods, you name it.
The radio never worked. Eventually, the passenger side door and window stopped working as well, making morning and afternoon rides to and from school somewhat of a pain. The heat stopped working and the heating coolant leaked all over the passenger’s floor. I only knew that when Lauren’s backpack was ruined. The windshield wiper fluid hose wasn’t connected to the windshield wipers so I had to clean the windshield at the gas station. On one occasion, my friends almost blacked out after sitting in the backseat, inhaling gas due to a second gas tank leak. Only one time, did the blazer die. It always made it through the snow. It never got into an accident, which is good, because the seat belts didn’t work either.
Melanie
George
San Diego, Calif. __ The midnight-blue Audi A8 was loaded with two roller suitcases in the trunk and full with a Dad and Mom in the front seats and my sister and I sitting in the back. After a very short drive to the San Diego International Airport, we arrived at the curbside check in of American Airlines. I helped pull the luggage from the trunk of the car as my father and mother kept giving my sister and I the house rules for the week as they were off to travel to London. With lots of head nods and Okays we jumped into what was my father’s car and drove off.
I was riding passenger and my sister who was 18 years of age was driving. I quickly turned the station from smooth jazz to the local Hip Hop station channel 93.3 FM. Every day when we would come home from school in my sister’s Volkswagon Jetta, we would try to drive as fast as we could up a street called Xephone Street. It had one steep hill would flatten out and then continue back to another steep hill. In the Jetta my sister and I were able to catch a little air off the lip of the first hill, but still have full control.
As we drove my Dad’s car home, we realized that the Audi had more horsepower than the Jetta and this could be the day to really catch some sweet air off the lip of that first hill. With the music on we sat with our left blinker flashing waiting to be able to turn up the street of Xephone.
My sister goal was to turn the car at the right moment so we could start the acceleration during the turn and continue it as we climbed up the hill. When the on coming traffic cleared she quickly hit the peddle of the car down to the floor and we charged up the street.
Not knowing how fast we were actually going I could tell and feel that the car was moving a lot faster than the Jetta that we were so use to jumping the street with. We climbed up the first hill at a fast pace hit the lip and flew across the intersection street. The car landed on the bottom half of the second hill and we were pumped as we had just accomplished our biggest car jump.
Within moments later as our adrenaline was racing high we both heard an awkward noise. We got to the top of the hill pulled the car over and realized pieces of the car were left scattered in the street.
Freaking out we called Triple A and they estimated that we had created 3,000 dollars worth of damage to the car. Not knowing really what to do at this point my cell phone rang and my Dad’s name appeared on the screen. I answered it did not mention a word that after dropping him off at the airport my sister and I had crashed his car. We wanted our parents to enjoy a nice trip and that Sunday they returned my sister and I picked them up in the Jetta drove them home and when the garage door opened my dad asked “Where’s my Car?”
With lots of fear my sister and I told him the story and his response was simple, “I’m strongly disappointed in your actions.”
Alexa
SOMERS, Conn.__ On an ordinary day in the small farm town of Somers, my mom and I were driving in our maroon colored Ford Aero star minivan. This van had been in our family for about five years already, and after this day, would remain to be our family car for about five more. In the back it had two huge benches that felt like couches, and one very large sliding door. One of the coolest features about this van was that it had a radio control in the back seat so my brother and I could mess with my parents when we were all driving. We used to go everywhere in this Aero star. This van had been on countless road trips including Florida and Vermont, which is where it got stuck in a snow bank and took everyone hours to dig out. We were on the road so much in this van that, as a joke, we used to call ourselves Team A Star.
On this regular day, when it was just my mother and I, only 10-years-old at the time, decided to stop at Dunkin Donuts for a quick breakfast. I remember ordering, “the usual,” for me, which was a plain bagel, lightly toasted with cream cheese on the side, with an orange juice. After getting breakfast, we continued on our way, Mom driving with me in the front seat. Of course I couldn’t wait to eat my breakfast, so I dug right in and began eating in the car. My mom always told me never to eat in the car because a spill was bound to happen, and that’s exactly what did happen.
As I was going to put my orange juice back in the center console cup holder, it spilled everywhere. Immediately, my mom pulled over to the side of the road, which happened to be on a bridge, about 15 feet over a small river.
My mom opened her door, and instead of putting the car in the park, left the car in drive and only stepped one foot out of the car, leaving the other one to hold the brake. Meanwhile, I’m still buckled into the passenger seat. As she’s brushing the orange juice off her lap and cleaning the car as best she could, without thinking, she stepped both feet out of the minivan. As a result, the brake was released with the car still in drive, and me still in the front seat. The van went lurching forward toward the drop down into the river.
Luckily, there was a guardrail along the bridge, and although it didn’t look like it could stand up against a gust of wind, it miraculously stopped the entire vehicle from plunging to, what would most likely be, my death.
All I remember is my mom’s terrified scream and little bump. I didn’t realize how serious the outcome could have been, had it not been for that guardrail.
After getting the van completely off the bridge, my mom pulled me over onto her lap and wrapped her arms around me, kissing my head.
Dan
WALLINGORD__It was the ugliest thing I have ever seen. The outside was a dirty white with a black trim only on the right side. The wheels were small and airless as they laid flat on the ground. The back bumper held on for its life with some support from a bungee cord. The windows, well four out of the five windows, seemed to be the nicest thing about it. It looked like a broken down go-cart. But it wasn’t. It was a two-door 1989 Honda civic…and it was mine.
It was my first car. I was eighteen and for my graduation from high school my parent’s gift was a used, beat up piece of mettle on wheels. I ran over to it and slowly walked around the entire car admiring it slowly. I reached the handle to drivers side door and pulled the door open. The inside was totally black, with two giant rips in the passenger seat, had no radio, and smelled like they picked it right up from the junkyard. I couldn’t tell if it was a joke or not. I kept waiting for my Ford Tundra to pull around the corner, but it never came. So my brother and I stepped in to see if it would start.
I could hear here the igniter clicking but the engine would not start. My dad, standing out side watching, yells, “give it some gas!” So I did. There was a loud, obnoxious bang. I though for sure we blew up.
The car started, and my brother turned to me and says, “Rolling Thunder.” It was catchy. I was thinking more of a “white lightening,” but since the speedometer only reached 100 miles per hour, it didn’t fit. “Rolling Thunder” was its name. More appropriate of course once I could actually drive it. But for about a month until I took it to get some major repairs, every time I started the car, the same loud thunderous sound would be heard probably throughout the whole town.
The car lasted close to a year. In that time I grew pretty attached to my car. But like all great things, the car was way past its prime and died on me one afternoon when I was home visiting from college. I went to go start it, kept clicking the key over, but nothing. It wouldn’t start. I kept trying, hoping that the loud band would come and I would roll away, but it called the quits.
Notes for Class April 13th 2010 by George Saunders
Hank Williams "Hey Good Lookin" country singer "Hey good Lookin what you got cooking?" Williams received the Pulitzer prize. Wendy Ruderman won the Pulitzer for investigative reporting. Wendy wrote a story abot a guy who looks at bugs back in college when she atteneded school with Prof. Scully. 5 of Prof. Scully friends have recieved the Pulitzer Prize. Prof. Scully accepted a poetry award once upon a time. Ask the simple question what did she win it for? When accepting the award one gets a 10,000 dollar prize and a piece of glass.
Joe Pulitzer-owned a newspaper and ran the St. Louis Dispatch and New York World. He started the Columbia school of Journalism.
Nigel Jaquiss- won the 2005 Pulitzer Prive for investigative repoerting. Busted the Mayor of Portland who had a weakness for a 14 year old girl.
Jerry Springer Hired a prostitute in 1974.
Nelson Rockefeller died from a heart attack having sex with someone who was not his own wife.
Poll Tax- One would show up at a polling center and a person would decide because of race and gender how much it would cost you how much to vote. 1868 The US congress gave African Americans the right to vote. Currently for one to be able to vote you have to be 18, US Citizen, No felonies, and must register.
Pat Mullins started to tell democrats that they could not vote. He was fibbing to people in the parking lot to scare them away.
ACLU American Civil Liberties Union- ACLU organization been around for 175 years that consist of lawyers to protect the US citizen rights.
Notes for class April 8, 2010 by Alexa Stark
Schering-Plough - a pharmaceutical company who's most famous product is Coppertone Sunscreen. Benjamin Green invented sunscreen in the 1940's. Who was the celebrity who began the tanning trend? CoCo Channel (the Paris Hilton of her age, except with a talent). At first she was fair, then she got a sunburn that turned into a tan and everyone decided that they wanted to have that look. Culture shifted in the 1920's. The mansions in Newport had the bedroom on the street side instead of the water side because they thought disease came from the wind across the water and they didn't want to get a tan. Tanning bed was invented in the 1970's by Frederick Wolfe. Stats on skin cancer - 68,720 people will get diagnosed with melanoma and 8,650 will die in one year. (about 12%) From 1971 to 2007, melanoma has doubled in diagnoses. Started talking about skin cancer in 1975.
hawksherald@gmail.com
Sarah Bourbeau-
Ithaca College graduate; class '07
UVM graduate school; class '09
Hometown: Chapel Hill, NC
Current Employer: Roger Williams University Residence Life: CORE in Stonewall Hall since June '09
-Went to UVm for Higher Education.
-Very involved student while at Ithaca, advisor's encouraged her to persure a carrer like CORE.
-Very demanding job. On duty several days throughout the month. Sometimes doesn't go to bed until 5 AM on weekends
While at UVM she lived in a Fraternity, she is now in the process of trying to start Greek life on RWU campus
Courtney Costello
BRISTOL, R.I.__
Laurel Dreher is a 2007 graduate from Ithaca College earning a Bachelors degree in Journalism. She then attended the University of Vermont for a Masters degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs. At UVM she worked as a graduate assistant in campus programs. She also was the house mother of a Fraternity at UVM, Sigma Phi Epsilon where there were 20 males living. Laurel is 24 years old and currently a Coordinator of Residence Life or CORE in Stonewall residence hall at Roger Williams University She was apart of the Greek life task force at RWU and helped faciliate the talks of putting a Greek soriority on the RWU campus.
Dan Weidmann - Laurel Dreher, 24, RWU CORE in Stonewall. From North Carolina, graduated from Ithaca College and went to graduate school at U. Vermont. Was part of the Greek life at UVM, lived in the Sigma Chi house. Not married to Andrew Bernier facebook lies. Spends one weekend out of the month patrolling campus for rowdy college kids, sometimes is up to 5 am filling out paper work and or calling parents.
Bridget Murphy
BRISTOL_RI
Larel Dreher is a 24 year graduated in 2007 from Ithica College in New York. According to her facebook she majored in Journalism, Spanish and English.
She attended graduate school at the University Of VT.
-It was here that she decided she wanted to make her hobby of being involved into a full time job.
-She was very involved with the school and her advisor told her to get a masters where she would be able to get a job as a director at a College.
She is currently a Core in Stonewall
-loves her job gives her "experience, responsabilities, and a sense of leadership...good way to get your feet wet".
1 core on job for an entire weekend.
8 resident halls
her job is to roam throughout the night
From Chapel Hill, NC
Not married to Andrew Bernier
Sigma Phi Epsilon
-"house mother"
-lived with 20 guys in a house, but 40 guys were in the chapter
-worked hard to keep the guys in line so they wouldn't be kicked out
Kat Blanchard- Laurel Dreher is 24 years old and a graduate from Ithaca College in New York. She attended grad school at University of Vermont where she lived with a fraternity for 2 years and graduated with a degree in higher education. She is originally from Chapel Hill North Carolina. Laurel is currently a CORE in the Stonewall residence hall at Roger Williams University.
Maria Bresnahan-
Graduated:
Ithaca College Alum 07
University of Vermont Grad Student ‘09
Works at Roger Williams University
Lives on campus
From Chapel Hill, NC
She is 24 years old
Coordinator of Residence Education
-Stonewall (not Alameda)
Not married to Andrew Bernier
Sigma Phi Epsilon-
2 years
Lived in house
Keeps in touch with her brothers (some are current seniors)
She advised some of them
UVM
Fraternity
Lived over dance floor
Was on the Greek Task Force for Theta Phi Alpha
Looked up Literary things for it
Will co-op advising for next semester
Mae Planert
- Laurel Dreher 24
- Birthday May 15
- Graduate of Ithaca College '07
- Journalism, Spanish, english
- Employee of RWU ACutto-i Intern
- CORE at Stonewall
- Participated in greek life at UVM Sigma phi epsilon 20 in the house 40 in the chapter), VT Gamma
- she is single
- won the Kenneth peace sorbet award (students that best displayed academic achievement, professionlism, intelligence)
- Helped her fraternity stay afloat when they were going to be dropped from UVM
- "Married" on facebook ( not real marriage ) to Andrew BernieMember of NASPA
-Lived over dance floor
Alexa Stark - Laurel Dreher, 24 years old, will be 25 on May 15th. She is not married, and is currently a core in Stonewall. When she attended the University of Vermont, she was involved in a higher education program that focused on student affairs. Also, while at UVM, she lived with a fraternity as the "house mother." There were 20 men living in the house, and 40 in the chapter and Laurel lived above the dance floor. Before she lived with the fraternity, they were extremely close to being shut down. However, once she began living with them, Laurel says that, "they have done a complete turn around over the past two years." She began working as a Core at Roger Williams because the job offers good entry level experience and also has a good turn over rate. Laurel was on a task committee at RWU for organizing the possibility of Greek Life at RWU. On this committee, she conducted research on the effects that Greek life has on college campuses. Laurel says that, "Greek like of Roger Williams might be happening next year because we are still in the process of organizing things and getting things going."
Lexi Diaz
Involved in college
Interested in persuing a masters in Student Affairs
Very good entry level experience
Employee of RWU A Cutto-i intern
Originally from Chapel Hill NC
Single
Birthday is May 15, She is 24 years old.
Photo by Lexi Diaz
-
Roger Williams statue standing 5-foot-7inches tall is located in the "quad" of Roger Williams University. Holding a book titled " Soul Liberty, 1636" in his left hand and his right hand reacing out, following his stare right over Mt. Hope Bay. He is a sturdy statue made of bronze and his face was modeled after the late Boston Red Sox player Ted Williams. He is dressed appropriately for this era wearing a colonial looking outfit which includes mid calf boots, a button up shirt with a collar and tassels and a jacket that is long to the back of his knees. His forehead is wrinkled with thought and the man appears to be in his late 50's to early 60's. He is placed conveniently with all the main buildings of the campus surrounding him and is placed on a boulder that is high up
Sarah Bourbeau
Roger Williams stands at 5-foot-7 in on a platform in the middle of Roger Williams quad. His body, which is facing the Mount Hope Bay, has his right hand outstretched towards the water. In his left hand he is holding a book, "Soul Liberty 1636." He's adorned in knee length jacket, ruffled top with buttons, and baggy pants tucked into knee length boots. Roger has shoulder length hair with loose waves and a centered part. He looks roughly 50 years old, but has several forehead wrinkles. He has a prominent butt chin. The entire statue is made from bronze and was created by Armand LaMontagne, a resident of Situate, Rhode Island.
Maria Bresnahan
Roger Williams stands at a height of 5-foot-7. Roger is a replica of Ted Williams. The artist who made the statue did not know what Roger looked like so he made him look liked Ted Williams. The artist of this statue is Armand Lamontagne.
As Roger stands he is not looking straight ahead. He is looking to the right off of the Global Heritage building. While he is looking that way he is holding a book and holding his hand out. The name of the book is Soul Liberty 1636.
His attire is very wrinkly. As his trench coat drapes over his wrinkly shirt it is neatly pressed. The tassels hang separated from each other on his shirt. The buttons run down the middle of his shirt. As there are multiple creases on the sides of them. Then the flared bottom of the shirt falls over his pants.
His pants are tucked into his boots. They are however, not tucked in tightly. They look like sweatpants that are creasing every single time someone moves. His boots however, are very fashionable today. At the top of the boots they flip over. They then proceed down his leg. At the bottom of the foot they is a major heal. This gives him some height to the 5-foot-7 frame.
Courtney Costello
The replicated statue of Roger Williams located on the seaside campus of Roger Williams University, stands tall at a mere 5-foot-7 in the university’s D’Angelo Common. Darning a knee length coat, as well as knee high pleated top boots, a ruffed vest and a tasseled neck tie, looking as if he just stepped off the ship into New England 400 years ago. His bronze figure stands on a platform a top a petite boulder holding a booked entitled Soul Liberty dated 1636. Roger Williams has shoulder length straight hair and his eyes look out to Mount Hope Bay. His right hand is held out as if to welcome all, including students looking for some good luck before an exam. Armand LaMontagne who resides in Scituate, Rhode Island sculpted him in 1997. Roger Williams dates back to the 1600’s so a face was never recorded, LaMontagne used his Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox sculpture to create the look of Roger Williams for the Bristol, R.I. campus.
Eryn Dion
A statue depicting Roger Williams stands in the quad with his right hand generously outstretched and his kind eyes gazing past Mt. Hope Bay and towards Portsmouth, which used to be known as Rhode Island. His left hand is gripping a book, Soul Liberty 1636, a reference to the idea he pioneered focusing on liberty of consciousness, far before the founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence.
He was sculpted in 1997 by the American sculptor Armand LaMontagne. Lacking an actual model, LaMontagne drew from a previous statue he had sculpted of famed Red Sox baseball player Ted Williams for the face. The statue stands about 5-foot-7 with a 1 1/2 – foot base. Cast in bronze, and hollow, he is a dark brown color, with knee-high boots, a long coat, and a buttoned shirt. His hair is shoulder length and reflects the fashion of his time.
A distinguished part of the campus, students at Roger Williams University have taken to dressing him up for certain occasions, such as Spring Weekend and Spirit Week. Most recently students turned him into a large snowman after a snowday.
Alexis Diaz
BRISTOL RI__ If you are visiting Roger Williams University, in the middle of the D’angelo Square you will come across the thirteen-year-old statue that stands 5-foot-7, upright upon a rock. The statue of a man made of bronze, looks out toward the ocean in the direction of an Island that was once named Aquidneck Island, or what today is known as Portsmouth, RI. Dating back to the 17th century, this man who went by the name of Roger Williams, found the land that today is known as Rhode Island. Standing with his right arm raised high, the statue portrays a man about the age of 50 years old, with hair that falls to his shoulders, and a look of concentration upon his face. In loosely fitting clothing and tall knee-high boots he holds a book titled “Soul Liberty 1636” close to his side. The statue, created by Armand La Montagne in 1997, is a symbol of the Universities profound admiration to Roger Williams. It also exemplifies the symbol he stands for to the history of Rhode Island and even more importantly to the University that is named after him.
Mae Planert:A bronze statue of Roger Williams stands at 5-foot-7 In D'angelos square on Roger Williams University campus. He looks out toward Aquidneck Island, formerly known as Rhode Island, wearing traditional colonial garb and dons long straight hair. His face, modeled after the late Red Sox player Ted Williams, looks as though he is weathered and the wrinkles in his forehead are pronounced. His right arm is extended out toward Aquidneck and his left arm clutches a book entitled "Soul Liberty 1636" to his chest. His knee high colonial style boots are connected to a two foot bronze square engraved "Armand Lamontagne, Scituate, RI, 1997". Armand Lamontagne is the sculptor of Roger Williams and is a well known sculptor throughout the East Coast. He is a graduate of Worcester Academy and Boston College and now has a humble stone ender farm in Scituate, RI.
Melanie Puckett:
The Roger Williams statue stands in the D'Angelo Commons of Roger Williams University. He stands 5-foot-7, on a 9-inch platform, with his right hand splayed out in front of him and his right foot planted forward. He is a hollowed out bronze statue modeled after the late Red Sox baseball player Ted Williams because of the lack of physical history on Roger Williams. On his person, he wears folded riding boots with a small heel, a three-quarter length coat, and cloth shirt and pants. His hair flows passed his shoulders and his chin has a small cleft, appearing to be around 40-years-old. Under his left arm, Roger carries a book with the words "Soul Liberty 1636" and looks out across Mount Hope Bay towards the original "Rhode Island", now Portsmouth. The sculptor is Armand Lamontagne, who is known for his wooden and bronze sculptures throughout the East Coast.
George Saunders:
The Roger Williams University campus has a statue of Roger Williams located in the center of their quad. The statue was placed on a pile of rocks with trees surrounding it. A path with red bricks that have individual names of school donors takes you right in front of the school symbol Roger Williams. The bronze statue has Roger Williams standing in a position of him facing Mount Hope Bay and over looking Portsmouth, Rhode Island. He himself is sculpted at 5-foot-7 inches wearing boots to his knees, pants tucked into his boots, a button down shown shirt, and a long jacket. Placed in Roger Williams left hand is a book titled “Soul Liberty 1636.” His right hand is sculpted in such away that it appears Roger Williams is preaching to a crowd and using his hands to help demonstrate on a speech. Roger Williams was sculpted by Armand LaMantagne of Situate Rhode Island in 1997.
Alexa Stark -- In the center of the Roger Williams University's campus, stands the 13-year-old, bronze statue of Roger Williams. He looks to be about 5-foot- 7, but stands on a one foot block, atop a tall rock, looking over every student that passes, his eyes staring off towards Mt Hope Bay. Showing no teeth and with hair down to his shoulders, his creased forehead and somewhat wrinkled face makes him appear to be around 40-years-old. A small book titled, "Soul Liberty, 1636," is tucked between his torso and his left arm while his right arm is out stretched in a hand-shaking position. He is wearing loose-fitting colonial clothes that consist of an eight-button shirt with a tassel tie, a cuffed-sleeved coat down to his knees, a pair of puffy pants, and tall heeled boots. The artist is Armand LaMontagne, who currently lives in Situate, RI. Everything about Roger Williams sounds perfectly normal, however the story does not end there. Roger Williams first came over to New England in 1630, and because no cameras existed at that time, no one knows what he actually looks like. So who's face is on the Roger Williams statue? At the time that LaMontagne was creating this statue, he was also in the process of creating a statue for the Boston Red Sox's Fenway Park, of one of their most famous players, Ted Williams. Having no idea what Roger William's face actually looked like, he decided to use Ted William's face for the statue. Both men just so happened to have the same last name; coincidence or not?
Dan Weidmann:
The statue of Roger Williams in the center of the campus's quad stands proud overlooking the campus mounted atop a foot high base on a rock. The statue itself stands around 5-feet-7 inches, made out of a dark bronze material, in a position as if he was preaching to the people below. He stands direct holding a book in his left arm and extending his right arm out as if he was acknowledging the crowd. The statue portrays an older gentlemen with long hair and a wrinkly face. He is wearing boots with a buttoned up shirt and a jacket with a back that hangs down to the knees. The statue was built in 1997 and has a striking resemblance of Boston Red Sox hall of famer Ted Williams.
Arik Hesseldahl - Katlyn
Mr. Hesseldahl is a technology writer and an American journalist for the BusinessWeek (now Bloomsberg BusinessWeek). He is a columnist who covers "Byte of the Apple" and "Tech 101"He formerly used to work at Forbes.com and Electronic News. On his personal blog page, he told onlookers to not contact him until they have researched him enough to be familiar with what he writes. his email is arik@arik.org and his AIM screen name is ahess247. Chances are, he won't respond unless he feels intrigued.
Sources: bloomberg.com, arik.org
Christopher Allbritton -- Melanie
Sources: Wikipedia, Back to Iraq Blog, LinkedIn, Insurgency Watch Blog, Christopherallbritton.com, Googleprofiles.com
Christopher Allbritton is a web blogger and journalist. He is the creator of various blogs, all for which he traveled to the Middle East. He has worked for the Associated Press and Ny Daily News but has mostly done freelance projects. He was just recently a fellow of the Knight Fellowship at Stanford, which is a program concerned with the future of journalism and printed news. He grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas and attended graduate school at Columbia University for journalism and taught a blogging class at NYU until 2003, when he traveled to Iraq to write for his own blog, "Back to Iraq". He then contracted with Time Magazine to do reports from 2004 to 2006 concerning the conflicts there. He currently lives in Pakistan, where he reports through his own blog "Insurgency Watch" and is the Bureau Chief at Thomson Reuters.
Skype: ctbritt
Phone: + 92 300 500 1081
+ 1 415 602 7637
Email: chris@insurgencywatch.com
callbritton@mac.com
William Egbert -- Mae
Sources: LinkedIn, Ny daily News,
Bill Egbert is a journalist at the New York daily news. His beat is breaking news.
Juliet Macur -- Alexa Juliet Macur is a reporter for The New York Times. She used to work for the Dallas Morning News and while working there, had a story published in the book, "The Best American Sports Writing," edited by Buzz Bissinger. She is a sports writer that is currently covering the Olympics in Vancouver. She currently lives in New York, NY. She has a Twitter account that anyone can follow. All of her tweets consist of updates about the Winter Olympic Sports. She used to compete in rowing for the U.S. Olympic team and just recently got engaged.
Christopher Taylor
Nigel Jaquiss -- Courtney - Nigel Jaquiss is an American journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 2005. His winning story broke the news of Oregon's governor, Neil Goldschmidt, who abused of a 14 year old girl when he was mayor of Portland, Oregon. The story was published in the Willamette Week in May, 2004. Before earning his Master's in Journalism from Columbia in 1997, Jacquiss was an oil trader for big names like Morgan Stanely and Goldman Sachs. He also earned his Bachelor's degree in English from Darthmouth College. (Wikipedia) Nigel Jaquiss started working for the Willamette Week in 1998. Besides winning the Pulitzer, he has won three national Education Writers Association First Place Awards and the 2004 IRE Award for weekly newspapers. (Proquest)
Soterios Johnson
Jon Patrick Barta
Raynard Kington
Barry Lank -- Lexi
Barry Lank was born in Diamond Bar, California in June, 1960. He attended high school in Claremont, California and earned a bachelors degree in English Literature from the University of California, Berkley 1983, a masters in creative writing from San Fransisco State in 1996 and a masters from the Columbie of University Graduate School of Journalism in 1997.- Wikipedia
Currently works in Broadcast Media in Greater New York City Area- Linkedin
Began performing as a stand-up comedian in San Francisco in 1982, and three years later formed the comedy team "Lank and Earl" with his high school friend Jim Earl. After the team broke up, he worked as a reporter at The Hour in Norwalk, Connecticut, a comedy writer at Court TV, night editor and columnist at the Herald News in Passaic County, New Jersey, and editorial writer, editor and columnist at the Courier-Post inCamden County, New Jersey, before joining Air America.- Wikipedia
Created the Radio Show- The Obscure County Election that Changed Nothing (this is available for people to download on Itunes)
Pod Cast Description:
A reporter steals from dogs, a happy-go-lucky heroin addict downsizes a company, the world's first fully functional computerized reporter tries to make good, one bakery owner runs everything, and a county's last major newspaper goes out of business. It's a 7-part satire about the fictional Keene County, New Jersey.
Review From Itunes:
This is literally one of the very most outstanding podcasts available on iTunes.
It recalls some of the greatest creations of radio from the last century
with up to the minute relevance within the current times.
It contains elements of political, social and psychological satire and farce,
mixed with science fiction and cynicism.
I await each new episode with ever-increasing expectation,
which, to date, has not been disappointed.
My only doubts concern the way in which I must struggle to go on,
once this series is ended. But such is life.
David Mark
Brian McDonald -- Eryn
Eric Adelson -- George Eric Adelson-
Adelson is a senior writer for ESPN magazine and also a freelance writer. He is graduate of Greenhills High School in 1992. He continued his education and graduated from Harvard University, and Columbia University’s School of Journalism. He currently lives with his family in Orlando, Florida. Adelson is most known for his book The Sure Thing. The book is about woman golfer Michelle Wie. He was the first person to ever interview her when she was only 10 years old. SOURCES: ESPN, Random House Inc, MichelleWiebook.com,
Mark Beech -- Dan
Sports writer for SI.com. - sports news from CNN and Sports Illustrated. Covers mainly college football, nascar, and horse racing. Been with Sports Illustrated since 1997. spent five years in the Army, reaching rank of captain in the 84th Engineer
battalion. Received a B.S. in civil engineering from the U.S. Military Academy. Then received a M.S. in Journalism from the University of Columbia Journalism Grad school in 1997. Has a wife, Allison Keene, a son Nathan, and lives in Westchester, NY.
Bill Nack's story "Pure Heart" in a June 1990 addition of Sports Illustrated inspired him to become a sports writer. Writes a weakly racing auto racing column for SI.com and his favorite sport to cover is college football.
Source: SI.com archives.
Jennifer Jordan -- Bridget
She is a staff writer for the Providence Journal covering education. Se has just recently wrote an article with Linda Borg on February 13, entitled "Central Falls to fire every high school teacher."
She started working for the Providence Journal in July 2002 in the South County Bureau.
She covered politics, health and town news for the Eagle Tribune in Lawrence, Mass., for 2 years. Before that she was a city reporter at the Keende (N.H.) Sentinel.
She has freelanced for Boston are dailies and weeklies and life magazine
Graduated from Columbia University of Journalism in May of 1997.
Shira Boss -- Kat
Shira Boss grew up in Flint, Michigan she was an undergrad student at Columbia University studying economics and political science. She decided to return to Columbia University for her masters in journalism and international affairs. Boss has worked all around the world including editing for the main english paper in Russia, writing fiction (which she would rather not do) in Paris and has been a correspondent in the Middle East. She has been an idependent journalist for 12 years and has contributed work to The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Crain's New York Business, Forbes.com, Good Housekeeping and National Public Radio. Her book Green with Envy is about personal finance and takes an indepth look at how to live happy with your own financial situation. She currently resides in New York's upper west side.
Wendell Edwards -- Sarah
He is a native Texan, born in Dallas but grew up in Tennessee Colony, Texas. Edwards attended Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. Edwards earned a full athletic scholarship for track in college. He is a Division II champion hurdler and qualified for the Olympic Trials in 1992. Edwards made it far into the trails, but Edwards chose journalism over track. He later attended graduate school at Columbia University's school of Journalism.
Edwards, worked for a variety of places, including the Burnet Bulletin in Burnet, Texas, and the Corsicana Daily Sun in Corsicana, Texas.
In January of 2009 Edwards is leaving Texas and planting his roots in Oklahoma City, OK. His new position is as anchor and general assignment reporter for Eyewitness News 5.
Wendy Ruderman-- Maria
40 years old
Works for Philadelphia Daily News
News Reporter
Won the award for Distinguished Writting Award for their local accountability reporting
David Cho
Jonathan Dube
Theo Francis
Interviewing Drills
Courtney
BRISTOL, RI __ Pull, squat, raise and repeat, the only thing he knew how to do well and alone. If anyone asked him where a machine was he would just point, not saying a word. Not because he was shy, because he barely had a grasp on English. Chi-Thanh (CT) Nguyen moved to Washington, D.C. with his family from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam at the age of 14, the prime time of starting freshman year high school.
His mother and father were diplomats who were assigned to spend 4 years working for the Vietnamese Embassy in America’s Capital and he and his brother had to uproot from their friends at home and make a new base in a foreign country.
“I expected high school to look like those scenes out of Baywatch in sunny California,” said CT, “D.C. schools were different, diverse and for my 1st 2 years, lonely, until I was approached by the football coach.”
Woodrow Wilson High School, located in the NW district of Washington, D.C. is one of the city’s best public high schools, yet Nguyen still found it hard to find a niche.
CT Nguyen’s size makes him stand out of the crowd. Asians are typically known for being of short stature and he rises above this. Standing at 6’3” and weighing a good 275 pounds in high school gave the coach of the football team something to question.
Being picked on freshman and sophomore year of high school made Nguyen work out even more, staying quite as he did so. Although he did complete ESL before the age of 16 with the help of his brother, CT usually didn’t have much to say.
“Friends didn’t come easy for me,” said Nguyen, “I think they were scared of my size or just thought I was a weird foreigner, but playing football changed that.”
As the football coach approached CT at the end of his sophomore year, he knew things could only get better. The coach asked him to come to a few summer practices and CT Nguyen’s life changed after that moment.
“Football broke me out of my shy shell and my language barrier, being able to speak English with people of my own age and style, it was amazing, I finally felt like an American,” said CT.
Playing football for his last 2 years of high school after spending countless nights at the gym, the only place where Nguyen found sanctuary, he was recognized as the 1st Asian to ever play football in the D.C. Public School League.
Nguyen never followed his football career in high school to college, but his legacy follows him, even though he hasn’t been on the turf in over 3 years. He still works out, no matter what country he is in, as his family now lives in Rome, Italy and he has a gym membership in Rome as well as in Florence where he studied abroad.
“Working out and being fit makes me who I am, no matter where I am,” said CT.
Maria
Maria Bresnahan
Bristol, RI_ As the interview starts Caitleen wears her Theta Phi Alpha Shirt along with a great big smile ready for the interview. Caitleen Evers is a senior here at Roger Williams University. She is majoring in Accounting and a minor in Spanish. She is a sister of Theta Phi Alpha. Before Caitleen transferred here from Saint Leo in Florida she belonged to Theta Phi Alpha. As a woman from Medway, Massachusetts she is very ecstatic that we are able to colonize Theta Phi Alpha on this campus.
As a sister of Theta Phi Alpha, Caitleen wanted to give more opportunities to every girl on campus. She brought this idea to Roger Williams because she wanted the girls to have a great college experience. She felt that some of the girls, especially freshman, may have a hard time making friends on campus and wanted the girls to have that special bond. Another reason why she brought Theta Phi Alpha to this campus was to get people more involved on campus. “Everyone needs to find their nitch on campus,” she says.
Theta Phi Alpha was a pleasure in Caitleen’s life but also a hardship to get on the Roger Williams campus. The process first started out with Caitleen Evers. After she realized how much work it was going to be she recruited two other people. The names of these people were Carolynn Klipfel and Brittany. After she asked them for their help she went to her Boss Tammy Von George. Tammy is the Dean of Student Programs. She introduced the idea of Theta Phi Alpha to her. Tammy told Caitleen that it has been proposed to her in the past and that it was a disaster. However, Tammy told Caitleen to present the idea to Senate. Caitleen would need the approval of Senate along with a proposal.
In order to make the proposal work Caitleen and the girls would meet once or twice a week. They would also practice with Senate what they would present to the administration. Senate would give them feedback and it would apply to the proposal. Due to the administrations involvement they formed a Greek Task Force. This educated them on Greek life. They would have weekly meetings and discuss Greek life. During the first week of February the administration and Greek task said yes to Greek life.
“The thing that made them say yes was that we did more then any club would do in one semester and we kept pushing to get Theta Phi Alpha,” Said Caitleen Evers. As she says this her friend Carolynn Chimed in “I also believe it was Michelle Coppollas meeting that made this idea happen,” she says. As they go back and forth they discuss the negative ideas the administration had about this process. They go are saying we do not discrimate, haze or kick people out of the group. “The only way we would kick someone out would be based on their gender or GPA requirement,” Caitleen says.
Sarah
Bristol, RI__ At 8:30 am Lyndsey LaBontee’s day is just beginning. She currently lives off campus on Bradford Street in the quaint New England town. She gets to her feet, knowing that her day will not be over until after midnight. Thinking about her busy day is almost as exhausting as actually going through it.
Lyndsey is a junior at Roger Williams University, a small liberal arts on edges of the Mount Hope Bay. Entering spring semester she knew that the semester would hold great challenges for her. Lyndsey, an accounting major and math minor, is surrounded by numbers and figures all day. For her extra curricular activities she enjoys doing things that are completely different from her sometimes monotonous schoolwork.
Roger Williams strongly encourages students to be involved and active members of the school’s community. Lyndsey is definitely a model Roger Williams student. She was a Residence Assistant her first semester junior year, she is vice-president of the dance club, a student ambassador, and works for WQRI, the school radio. On top of all of her activities, she has an on-campus job and worked as an orientation advisor over the summer.
Among the highest rankings of her extra curriculars is dance club. She has been dancing since she was a child and it has always been something she enjoyed. Dance is not work for her because she loves it so much. While some might think that the tremendous time commitment that the club demands is strenuous, Lyndsey finds that is it a stress reliever. Often times, her dance practices are until 11 o’clock at night, multiple days a week. It’s a great escape from her schoolwork, which can be dry at times.
“I like staying busy, if I didn’t like staying busy than I wouldn’t do all of these things,” said Lyndsey. While her schedule might be a busy feat for some, it is what makes her happy. She gets gratification from being able to accomplish all of these extra curriculars as well as getting good grades in a demanding major.
Competition does not intimidate Lyndsey. Three of her activities had stiff competition. For her summer position as an orientation advisor, 80 students interviewed and only 40 of those applicants were hired. Lyndsey was one of those 40 students. Orientation advisor was an extremely fulfilling experience for her. Through all of the actives she does, she has met people that she might not have met otherwise, for her, that is one of the biggest rewards. For the most part Lyndsey enjoys the decisions she has made in her college career. She has a full life as a student and contributor to campus. In order to get what you want you have to go after it, regardless of the possibility of rejection. While Lyndsey’s hectic schedule is not for everyone, she is perfectly happy. While at the end of the day she feels exhausted, “I’m tired, but I’m happy,” says Lyndsey.
Kat
BRISTOL, RI __ Today Lisa Fealy, a 20-year-old junior at Roger Williams University has her regular 6-month cleaning at her dentist. Although this is not too fun for anyone, Lisa has to add one more bothersome step to the routine of dentist visits, she must call her heart doctor and pick up medication before sitting in the dentist chair.
Lisa is able to lead a considerably normal life and no one would be able to tell she has undergone major surgery upon first meeting her. Amongst the frequent phone calls to the doctors to make sure she is able to do certain things, the scar in the middle of her chest is the only sign that this brave woman underwent open-heart surgery when she was just 3 years old due to an anti septal defect that was detected at a routine physical. The defect was a hole in the spectrum wall that divides the chambers of the heart, and if left uncorrected could lead to more complications in her adult life.
To fix this problem, the doctors had to operate, which included breaking her rib cage to be able to close the hole in the spectrum, and adding a metal plate so when she grew there would be no complications. While her daily routines are not often broken things that most 20 year-olds would be able to do on a whim she must speak to her doctor about first. She needs to get cleared to play any sport, has to take specific medications to visit the dentist to block infection, and it would be very dangerous for her to get a tattoo or body piercing without first consulting her heart doctor. Also if Lisa has any type of infection on her body she must visit the heart doctor to make sure it will not affect her heart negatively.
“Having heart surgery has made me realize something as small as playing sports or just running around with my friends should really be appreciated,” Lisa said “ There may come a day when my heart doctor says that I can’t do those things anymore.” Because of her age her doctor’s visits have become less frequent. She only has to see her heart doctor twice a year, but does have frequent contact with them.
While Lisa did not have a typical childhood and had to undergo a surgery that most people don’t experience in their lifetime she still does everything she can to excel. Lisa is double majoring in Chemistry and Secondary education at RWU. She has been a student ambassador, is involved with Alternate Spring Break which involves building houses for those in need or have suffered a disaster, and tutors chemistry a few nights a week. “I don’t take life for granted, or wake up everyday expecting things to be handed to me,” she added “ I enjoy each day and am thankful to be living what I consider to be a very healthy life.”
Lexi
Eryn
BRISTOL. RI __ The Senate Chambers are unusually quiet. Various clubs and organizations have held their meetings there all day, and while the room sits empty now, remnants of these meetings still remain. There is a flyer for CEN, minutes to the WQRI meeting, and an agenda for Student Senate. The agenda is filled with roll calls, reports, open floor, and committees. The desks are arranged in a half rectangle with eight chairs on each side, with 14 chairs in the back for observers. Parliamentarian Noor Alaweyat, 19, sits in her usual spot, at the top of the rectangle, where the E-board sits and presides over the meeting.
Noor joined Student Senate in her first semester sophomore year. Now in her second semester, she serves as its parliamentarian, the duties of which include keeping time and making sure the senators stay on topic and follow the senate by-laws. The job sounds similar to a referee, although according to Noor, it’s more like being a babysitter.
While the title of parliamentarian does not sound as prestigious as President of Executive, there is actually a lot of work involved. “On paper it may sound like a silly job,” she says. “But juggling a lot of things is tricky. I have to know all the by-laws and procedures.” She also has to be willing to call out senators who are not playing by the rules, which, as demonstrated on C-SPAN, happens quite often.
Noor is a currently a double major in Communications and Political Science at Roger Williams University, but she grew up in a country called Bahrain. Without any prior knowledge, Bahrain is almost impossible to find on a map. In fact, most graphics on the news just lump it into the Saudi Arabian landmass. It is a small island in the Persian Gulf, squeezing 791,000 people in an area encompassing a mere 290 square miles, less than half the area of Rhode Island. Bahrain is a constitutional monarchy, ruled by the Al Khalifa family, which has ruled the country since 1783. Even though it lies off the coast of one of the most conservative countries in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain is quite progressive, allowing women to vote and its Christian and Jewish minorities to hold a seat in its Parliament.
Despite its progressive attitude, Noor admits that certain pressures still exist. “In any religious society, you need to conform to expectations, and I’m not a conformist.” It wasn’t always like this. She refers to Middle School as her “religious years” when she was persuaded to follow traditional Islamic thinking. This ended abruptly when she became a teenager. “I’m a child of the media,” she says. “I saw movies and television shows from the West and I wanted that. I wanted a life.” She claims her independent, non-traditionalist attitude comes from her parents. Her mother worked as a very well respected travel agent while her father worked his way up from bellboy to Director of Sales in a hotel near their home. After she was born, her parents quit their jobs to open their own clothing business. The business was very time consuming and Noor was often left alone with the servants, forcing her to not only learn how to provide and entertain herself, but her little siblings as well.
After being away from her country for over a year, Noor was surprised how much it had changed. “Before I came here, I would wear Western style clothes at home and be in the minority. Now I go home, and I change into traditional garb, while there are more and more teenagers wearing leggings and miniskirts.”
Bridget
BRISTOL, RI __ The plane took off and there was no turning back. It would be a long thirteen hour journey, but one that would be remembered for a lifetime. The small windows on the plane which once looked out to a city like environment back in Istanbul Turkey were now filled with a totally different scenery as the plane prepared to land in Boston, Mass.
Alex Bahceci is foreign student from Istanbul, Turkey who attends Roger Williams University as a business major. He began his journey to the states two years ago after his parents decided it would be a great idea for him to study abroad hoping he would gain the best education possible. They have high hopes that he will someday be able to run the family business before perusing his own dream of opening up a restaurant.
“Going home isn’t weird to me, its just different since I’m now so used to living on my own,” Said Alex while talking about the two visits he makes home every year. He chose to come to Roger Williams mainly because one of his advisors who he had a close relationship at home used to work in the admissions dept. there. “I call home everyday, the close relationship between my parents and I is still there,” said Alex. But apparently just a phone call each day wouldn’t be enough, “My parents wanted to make sure they would can keep tabs on me while I was away,” added Alex, “I was excited about being 18 and completely on my own, but because we had already known someone here my family made me come to this particular school because they knew if I wouldn’t talk to them, the man they knew would always have a way of looking out for me through other people in the area.”
While it might not have been his first choice as much as it was his parents, he made it clear that he has “no regrets” in the decision that was made. Being one of the few foreign students here may not have been an easy task to take on. However, Alex used his strong accent as an advantage. “It’s not an easy thing trying to understand what I’m saying”, Alex said, “At first people were constantly asking where I was from, and what I’m here for. It was a great conversation starter, and I was easily able to make friends because of it.”
With all the great friends he has made here at Roger Williams, Alex says “the rules suck, although the drinking age was 18 in Turkey and I left there at 17, they didn’t care about anything back there.” He continued on with how he and his friends would stay out until 7am back home, “2am,” questioned Alex with a confused look on his face, “2am is just the start of the night for me and my friends at home.” Alex loves his life in the States and cherishes all the great friends he has made, however after he graduates he plans on returning back to Istanbul, and living the life he and his family have always dreamed of.
Mae
Mae Planert
BRISTOL, RI __ The Baypoint Inn dormitory is home to over 400 members of the class of 2012 and one member of the class of 2009. Megan Dumaine sets out a bowl of candy to hold her door open and greet the IRHA members called for a meeting in her apartment style bedroom. Living alone in a sophomore year residence hall is certainly not how she imagined her first year in the “real world” but she looks at home going over rules and regulations to a crowd of twenty. After a traumatizing experience, helping others is a passion of hers. After the crowd has filed out Megan greets a sophomore girl with a smile and settles into her couch to help spell check a resume.
It is not common for an alumnus to work as a CORE RA on campus but Dumaine had not been a common student at Roger Williams University. She has been extremely involved in the University and has held jobs in the athletics building, admissions, the bookstore, housing, and student advocacy. Student advocacy is what she claims she got the most out of. Her traumatizing experience as a freshman influenced her decision to help others.
“My freshman year I was placed into a ‘party’ room,” says Megan “and I don’t mean the normal amount of college partying, it was really bad.” Megan’s first night of college was a major shock compared to her quiet life at home. “I just wasn’t used to it. My roommates kept pressuring me to drink and do drugs and I stood my ground but the teasing didn’t stop.,” says Megan “I had no problem with them doing drugs an drinking but I was uncomfortable with the pressure.”
After only one night of college Megan told her parents she was coming home and that she couldn’t handle being on her own. She left that Sunday and e-mailed her Student Advocate about her choice to withdraw. Instead of writing Megan off and saying “good luck”, her Student Advocate got involved and pushed for housing to get Megan a single in Maple as well as counseling for Megan whenever she needed it. “Thanks to my Student Advocate I returned to Roger Williams the following Tuesday and moved into my single.”
Megan quickly lost touch with her party animal roommates and they eventually dropped out of school their sophomore year. Megan went on to be very successful at the University and she earned deans list every semester. She is forever grateful that she stood her ground her first night of college. “I stood up for what I believed in and what I was comfortable with,” Megan says “ A lot of young people get lost in the crowd and try to fit into what others think is ‘cool’. That’s why I loved being a student advocate, I could help people that were like me be themselves and find their niche.”
Katlyn
Katlyn Proctor
BRISTOL, RI __ The average person who suffers cardiac arrest has at most, seven minutes to be revived. Firefighters, EMT’s, emergency medical technicians, and ambulance drivers are trained to react in certain situations to help save the lives of sick and seriously injured people. Volunteer fireman, Christopher Meier, did just that.
He called it his first “save.” In the medical world, a “save” is bringing someone back to life and having them survive for at least 24 hours. Being the first to arrive at the scene of his neighbor’s house, Meier reacted quickly. Medical bag in tote, Meier began to enable CPR, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a move that saved the victim’s life. The victim, who suffered from a heart attack, had already been dead on the bathroom floor for at least three minutes, leaving Meier with only four minutes to revive him. The amazing part is, he succeeded.
“As a non-emotional person, it was very emotional for me because it was the first time that I really helped someone. Like really helped. I made a serious impact on this man’s life,” said Meier. As a volunteer fireman for the Somers Volunteer & Ambulance Corporation in Somers, Conn., Meier deals with these heart-wrenching situations on a regular basis.
Meier is not only trained in EMS, emergency medical services, but also fire rescue and ambulance driving. He is trained to react and respond to anything ranging from house fires to car accidents. On the eve of the fifth anniversary of a firefighter killed in the line of duty in his town, Meier speedily responded to his first fire.
“The house number was 666 Main Street and it was on the anniversary of one of our fallen men. The entire department thought it was all very strange,” said Meier. Turns out, the fire was started by the homeowner in hopes of collecting insurance money. Ironically, after doing all they could, the fire resulted in a total loss, and the homeowner failed to collect any insurance money.
Back at the station, Meier removed his 75 pounds of gear that firemen are required to wear including, fireproof pants, a coat, thick boots, helmet, gloves, mask, air pack and a variety of tools. After cleaning and restocking everything on the fire trucks and ambulances and after detoxing and sterilizing all the safety equipment, the volunteers retire to their favorite chairs, waiting for the next alarm to go off. Meier’s favorite spot is a ratty, dark green recliner that faces the main road, but also sits next to the wall with all the ‘Certificates of Recognition’ his department has received.
As a 21 year old, Meier has seen a lot more than most people his age. He has seen people suffer from brain damage and people lose all their possessions to a haunting fire. But for Meier, it is all in a days work.
“Every day, you go to the station never knowing what the day will bring,” said Meier. “But the mystery is all part of the job.”
Melanie
Melanie Puckett
BRISTOL, RI __ Mary Kate Burns’s room is located on the corner bottom floor of Willow 42. The window overlooks the snow-covered Willow courtyard and has a glimpse of the water. The walls are covered in movie and band posters and art show promotions. It is a room built for one person but contains two beds, just in case one of her residents is “sexiled” and needs a place to stay. “I like to look after them. I feel very close to all of them.”
Burns, 19, a junior from Long Island, is the resident assistant (RA) for Willow 42. She has a total 22 residents in the unit, all freshmen. “I like to think of myself as their safety net. That’s probably my favorite part of my job. I like to take care of them.”
Burns applied for a position as RA her freshman year. “One of the main reasons was because I hated my roommate and I liked the idea of having a single [room],” she says. “But a also got along really well with my RA and she was very encouraging. It seemed like the right thing to do.”
Over 100 students apply for RA every year at RWU. The process is often drawn out and can be very competitive. Each person is picked with precision and it is considered an honor to be chosen for such a position. But despite the competitiveness and rigor of the leadership program, Burns says she was almost positive that she would be chosen. “It seemed like something I had the capability to do. I knew I had a great shot from the beginning. My parents were thrilled when I got it,” says Burns.
Growing up, Burns almost never rebelled or broke the rules. “I did sometimes get in trouble for being sassy,” she said, laughing. “But when it came to the rules, I always was very responsible. I got along well with my parents.” Even high school came fairly easy to Burns.
Burns’s mother worked as a teacher at St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School in Long Island – the same high school that Burns attended. “A lot of people ask me how I put up with it, but I saw it as a plus,” she says. “Everyone loved my mom and it was nice when a teacher was able to speak directly to her, telling her how well-behaved I was.”
Today, Burns sees herself completely different than who she was when she applied to be RA her freshman year. “This job forces you to set goals, and not just go through the motions,” she says. “It puts you into situations where people are going to get upset and it can be emotionally overwhelming.”
Being a resident assistant has taught Burns the responsibility that she needs for what she wants to do eventually, which is to work in the public relations department for the Special Olympics. “I know that I am where I am supposed to be at this point. I know that what I am doing now will help me in the future.”
George
Bristol, RI __ Geoff Moore, a junior at Roger Williams University, sits on a couch wearing a all black T-shirt with a Boston Bruin logo on it, a RWU club hockey jacket, and watching women’s 2012 Olympic Hockey on TV, shouts out, “Man that is one ugly goalie mask if I have ever seen one,” remarking on the team Switzerland goalie. He is not only a huge hockey fan but also loves to partake in the sport. Moore began his hockey career at age five in Belmont, MASS. The reasoning for wanting to play hockey was because of his all time child hood idol Mario Lemieus, the center for the NHL Penguins.
By 7th grade Moore dropped all other youth sports in which he played and focused only on hockey. He continued is hockey career as he played all throughout high school on the Belmont Varsity High School team for three years. He was proud to play for a High School hockey team who had never lost to their rivals Watertown High since 1983. With college hockey being the next step in his career, Moore did not think he could peruse a college hockey.
Moore decided to attend RWU and study criminal justice as his lifetime goal is to become a Boston police officer. When he thought is own hockey career was over and he was going to be stuck as just a passionate Boston Bruin NHL fan everything changed during his junior year. The University decided to start up a club hockey team that would play other college club hockey teams. Moore joined the hockey team and skated under the new RWU coach Pat Desire. Being in their first season of college club hockey the team took awhile to get unified and play as a team, but after practicing twice a week, long drills, working on how to break out of the zone, and power plays, the team won six games. Some highlights from their first season included victories against Coast Guard Academy, and Connecticut College.
For the next season “It’s a guessing game right now, however with a few seniors leaving, and a few new kids joining the club team, overall there is going to be improvement from this season,” said Moore. Moore playing right wing throughout the season had his best game against West Field State. He had one slap shot goal from the blue line that flew by the goalie on the short left side of the goal.
With RWU starting a club team Moore is pleased that he can continue to skate on the ice and be part of what might become a varsity sport one day at RWU. He finds himself looking for revenge next season, as he got open iced checked by a Coast Guard player that it snapped one of his sticks. “I hope during my senior year I can become a captain and lead my team to more than six victories,” Moore said.
Alexa
Alexa Stark
BRISTOL, RI __ It’s the first day of summer vacation and whereas most four year olds are on their way to their first day of summer camp, Britton Rose is on his way to his first sailing lesson with his six older siblings. Little did he know that by the age of five, he would be sailing competitively.
Britton Rose, 18, grew up in Long Island, NY in a house that has a bay for a back yard with his three brothers and three sisters, all who know how to sail. Britton’s father, now retired, owns the 23rd largest beverage distribution company in the U.S., Clare Rose Inc., and mainly distributes Bud InBev, Heineken, and Monster Energy. The family got into the beverage distribution market because of Britton’s grandfather who was a rumrunner in Long Island during prohibition days. Brit’s mother is also retired and although both parents don’t sail themselves, Brit has them to thank for first getting him started with the water sport.
Britton then began describing his favorite sailing memory, which one would expect to be something along the lines of winning a regatta or getting a new boat. However, he told a story of how he was sailing in the bay behind his house with his best friend, Brendan, when a storm turned into a nasty hurricane. The sailboat was being tossed around like a feather by the intense waves and swells and did a complete cartwheel motion. Both Brit and Brendan somehow remained in the boat and amazingly enough, the boat continued sailing. To anyone else, this would be horrifying, but to Brit, it was his favorite and most memorable experience on the water.
“I consider myself a man of the water,” said Britton, “I plan on sailing for the rest of my life.”
Britton decided to attend Roger Williams University because of the size, location, and most importantly the division one sailing team. What he enjoys most about sailing at Roger Williams is the relationships that sailing creates with fellow teammates. “Some of my best friends I’ve met because of sailing,” said Brit.
When asked to describe sailing in one word, Brit’s answer was, “Euphoric.” He continued on to describe sailing as an extremely freeing experience, unlike any other activity.
“Sailing isn’t a sport to me, it’s a way of life,” said Britton.
Dan
By Dan Weidmann
BRISTOL, RI __ The season was over. He took one final look at his jersey, packed up his equipment and lacrosse quickly became a distant memory. His joy for the game ran out and that final game was surely his last.
No more pre-season, no more practices, and more time to do what ever he wanted. Those were things crossing Mitri Najjar’s mind as he exited his high school locker room at the end of his junior lacrosse season. He made the decision not to return for his senior year.
“It just wasn’t fun any more,” Najjar said. “I wanted to do other things.”
Three years later Mitri finds himself playing the game he once loved, on a level he never thought imaginable. He is in his sophomore year at Roger Williams University, and it took only a late night bet by his friends that has Mitri suiting up for the Men’s Lacrosse team.
“They said I couldn’t do it,” added Najjar. “No one believed me when I said I played lacrosse growing up.”
Mitri is not your typical lacrosse player. Standing in at a less impressive five feet, four inches with a hundred-sixty pound frame, he’s not your everyday division three defensemen. It was this that led his friends to believe that he could never have played Lacrosse. So the bet was on – he could not make it through one pre-season captains practice, and if he did he would have to try out for the team.
He made it. Barely.
“It was the worse hour of my life,” said Najjar. “I was so out of shape it was bad.”
However, it only took that hour to make Mitri realize that he missed the game. He missed the pre-season, missed the practices, and decided he wanted nothing more to do with his time than play lacrosse.
Mitri started attending all the pre-season practices, and with the help of his teammates and friends, got himself back into shape, and back into enjoying the sport. He won the bet.
“He’s great for the team,” said Collin Schmitt, a sophomore on the lacrosse team. “He has a great work ethic and that just helps all of us too because we’re good friends.”
Mitri plays long stick middie, a defensive position that he has adjusted to playing for the hawks. He played offense in high school but decided to try out for defense.
He has every intention on playing through out his next two years at Roger Williams, and says quitting won’t be a problem because fun is definitely involved.
“It’s a lot of fun playing lacrosse here, said Najjar.” “No, practices aren’t fun but the team atmosphere and being friends with all these guys, it’s a different experience playing at the college level, but it’s definitely fun.”
So as the season gets underway for the Hawks in 2010, Mitri finds himself back in the locker room, unpacking his equipment, and putting back on that jersey, which he says is the greatest feeling of it all.
Veteran's image haunts patriotic painter
'This Fourth of July, I ask you to find a way to thank the men and women defending our freedom….'
-- President George W. Bush, June 28th, Fort Bragg, N.C.
By Michael Scully
For the Times Herald-Record
Warwick – On an easel inside Robert Fletcher's studio sits a work in progress, a portrait of a man he remembers only as "Sgt. Leach," a nearly forgotten veteran of World War I.
The image is stark and distant and the work is only half done. In it, Sgt. Leach sits upright, leaning against a building. His khaki Army uniform appears nearly pristine, but his face is pinched and streaked with ashen gray and blue-gray watercolor brush strokes. Before him is an empty tin cup. And in the foreground is a little boy – about 7 – staring at him.
"He used to just sit there ramrod straight … right there in the middle of the city," Fletcher said. "I remember his face was kind of bluish and pockmarked like those marks you get after smallpox … and I asked my mother what happened to this man and she said, 'He was gassed.' "
Nearly seven decades later, that encounter in Paterson, N.J., continues to haunt the Warwick painter so much that he's taken brush in hand to capture the image. After nearly a year of work, Fletcher has finished only portions of Leach's face and uniform and the clothes on the little boy.
Today, at 73, Fletcher continues to dedicate his life to painting. His work includes Hudson Valley landscapes and "scenes of Americana" but his real passion is for images featuring military traditions.
"His work does great justice towards honoring our veterans and their sacrifices," said former Rep. Ben Gilman, who owns at least two of Fletcher's paintings. "He's got the Rockwell touch."
In fact, like Norman Rockwell, Fletcher is an American realist who likes to work in watercolors and pencil. His work is honest and sober and reminiscent of works by other American realists, like Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth.
These days, his workspace is inside a renovated barn. His studio is on the second floor with a northern exposure that overlooks a large, moss-green pond.
He keeps his easel perpendicular to the windows to catch the light. He uses a Russell Stover candy box to keep a collection of 20 or so sable brushes organized, and he arranges his watercolors by pigment inside the 12 cups of an aluminum muffin pan.
Beyond that, the space is simple but cluttered: There are etchings and photographs of pending projects.
There's a loosely folded 48-star American flag stationed upon an antique filing cabinet. Nearby, a tailored World War II Marine uniform awaits attention behind the studio door.
And then there is his work.
Like the portrait of Sgt. Leach, the focus is more on the enlisted man and less on famous American officers such as Washington, Lee or Patton.
"My work focuses more on the average guy … the sons of farmers and so on."
His body of work covers all the American conflicts from the Revolutionary War to the present, and he draws inspiration from events and people both near and far. Often, his faces are those of friends, neighbors and local veterans.
One portrait features Warwick veteran Sgt. Robert P. Stewart Sr., his six sons and one grandson, all in military uniforms. Six of the men are in Army uniforms; the others are Marines.
"That's three generations in the military," said Ralph "Chip" Stewart, one of the sons. "That's over 140 years of military service in my family."
These are just some of the 63 paintings and illustrations included in a book Fletcher co-authored with his son, Robert B. Fletcher, entitled "Remembrance: A Tribute to America's Veterans."
And his work continues. He's painting a landscape of a friend's farm. And then there's the unfinished portrait of Sgt. Leach.
It's not clear who Leach was. Fletcher said Leach served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and it was there that a mustard gas attack scarred his face and blinded him. Fletcher remembers him as the lost veteran sitting and waiting for handouts.
"I don't know what I'm going to do about that (painting) yet," Fletcher said. "But I can't forget him."
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Feature Writing Spring 2010NotesFebruary 9th Reporting, or the fine art of talking to strangersFebruary 4th Fowled AwayStory process
1. idea
2. research
3. sources
4. interviews
5. writing
6. editing
7. thinkingFebruary 2nd:
Current events:
1. Toyota
2. Howard Zinn
3. JD Salinger
4. Federal Budget
5. Grammies
6. Groundhog's Day
7. Super Bowl Sunday
Hard News, General News, Features
AP Style: just the facts
Feature story: Takes the reader on a journey
90% of news comes from the Associate Press wires, who are stationed in every major city around the globe
AP wire has been around since 1850, which is a long time
Reuters is the other major news wire, located in jolly old England
AP story style:
1st 3 paragraphs: headline and important information
Nut Graf or graph-sense of perspective on the story. any backgound information that would be useful for the reader
EXAMPLE:
Headline- Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States died in a car crash in Kentucky. He was driving at night when he swerved to avoid a deer and struck a tree after losing control of the car. In Washington, Vice President Joe Biden was sworn in at 8 am
Nut Graf- President Obama was the first African American President yadda yadda
All stories answer Who What Where When Why and How
Features cover all EXCEPT When, it doesn't really matter
Every feature has a face.
A face is a person that the story revolves around, that takes the reader on the journey, and that they can relate to
They represent a source for the story
A feature story should have a minimum of 3 sources. These include people, records, books, articles, anything that you can use to provide depth and legitimacy to your story
January 28th:
AP Style, JFK Assassination (Cultural Literacy), Jimmy Breslin, Feature Writing, Writing for an audience, Top 3 papers in the United StatesSomeone FamousBy Kat Blanchard
Providence, RI__ My boyfriend and I heard on a local radio station that there was a contest to meet maroon 5. We both knew it was one of my favorite bands at the time and being known as having great luck I decided to place a bet on it. He bet me 20$ that I wouldn’t win a silly radio contest and I bet him 20$ I would.
The contest consisted of sending text messages to the radio station, so everyday, multiple times a day that is exactly what I did. The weeks following were full of taunting and doubting my true luck, until one afternoon in February when I got a call that proved it once and for all. The woman on the other end of the line calmly told me I had been chosen to meet Maroon 5 for their in studio performance and meet and greet, not so calmly I responded with disbelief and shock.
After making sure this wasn’t just a prank being played on me I immediately called my best friend and told her she was my guest and off we went to meet the band. When we got there we had to wait an hour for them to arrive but once we did we realized it was completely worth the wait. We met Adam Levigne the lead singer and James a guitarist. We were able to request a song for them to play acoustically just for us and ask questions. For once in our lives my best friend and I were speechless.
After we said our goodbyes, of course not without photo documentation we were on our way back home to tell everyone. My first phone call on the ride home was to my boyfriend, I was 20 dollars richer and most importantly kept my title as queen of good luck.
By Sarah Bourbeau
Freeport, Bahamas__ I was 13 the first time I saw a celebrity in person. I was sitting in the hotel lobby at the Atlantis Resort waiting for my parents when a five-foot, bleached blonde girl with dark roots walked by. At first glance there was nothing entirely unusual about her, aside from her bad hair dye job and the giant bodyguard that was walking next to her. I knew exactly who she was though.
My dad had waited in line for over two hours the day before to get my sister and I tickets to her concert. Christina Aguilera was performing a free concert for guests of the Atlantis. I had never been to concert so this was an incredibly big deal to me. She just continued to walk along the resort lobby when I got to my feet and started following her.
I had never been near anyone famous before and wanted to take full and complete advantage of this luck. I was feeling in my pockets for something I could potentially ask her to autograph for me. My eyes kept shifting towards the end tables surrounding the lobby for napkins and loose pens for me to take; I was unsuccessful. She kept walking and I kept following. I followed her for about five minutes until she walked into the high-end store Gucci. Her bodyguard stood outside of the store entrance staring at passersby suspiciously. I knew that a 13 year old, dressed in a beach cover up and flips flops that were falling apart could not nonchalantly walk into Gucci and browse the racks of clothing.
I turned back towards the lobby where I told my parents to meet me. As I approached the couch I had been lounging on when I first spotted her, my parents walked towards me.
By Maria Bresnahan
New Hampton Beach, NH __ As my friend Emily and I were going to the All American Rejects concert we were very excited. On the way there we got lost for a total of 15 minute. Due to being lost, we were in a lot of traffic. As we waited in traffic we watched all the people in their cars. Some were people our age and some were teenagers with their parents.
As we entered the parking lot it was empty. We parked in the back of the concert hall. As we took a wrong turn to get to the front of the building we noticed a big tour bus. We thought it might have been the All American Rejects tour bus. We waited there for an hour just to get a glimpse of anyone from the band. All of the sudden as the anticipation set in Chris, the drummer from the band came out. We asked him for an autograph and he said “yes”. After that I asked him to take a picture with me. He also did that. He talked to us for twenty minutes about finding a channel that played the Cardinals game. After that various bass and guitarists came out. They were with their girlfriends and it looked like they did not want to be bothered. So we watched them as they walked around the back with nothing to do. Then Tyson Ritter came down the stairs and jumped half way through them. He then ran to his tour bus. That was the last sighting of him, besides the concert. He had a secret elevator he ran into to get into the building.
During the night we saw various people from the opening bands. Some of the people included their stage crew and friends. They did not come and greet the crowd.
By Courtney Costello
WASHINGTON __ Meeting Senator Christopher Dodd changed my hope forever. My mother has been overcoming her juvenile diabetes since the age of 12. Growing up in our tiny apartment in Bridgeport, Conn. I would marvel at the needles and the smell of insulin. I knew that one day I wanted to become doctor and cure diabetes to help people like my mother live an easier life.
That day never came.
At the age of 20 my internship took me to Washington D.C. to report on various events and briefings around the city and on Capitol Hill. The summer of 2009 was the summer of Obama, as many called it, and it was also the summer that people believed health care reform legislation would pass.The first trip I was awarded to the Capitol brought me to Dirksen where Christopher Dodd (D-CT) gave a moving speech with three women battling Diabetes without health care. As I stood in the back of the hearing room, all I wanted to do was run up and embrace those women.I knew that would never happen. All I could think about was how much harder my childhood would have been if my mother did not have a job with insurance to pay for all of her diabetic supplies. When Senator Dodd walked out of the hearing room his eyes had a glaze to them. I was not sure if he had tears or if it was old age. The three women who pleaded their cases to get health care followed him; one a 20 year old who had to drop out of college to continue to pay for her diabetic supplies.I walked out of the Senate building and called my mother in the summer heat. I told her I missed her and asked how she was doing that all I could do, Senator Dodd reassured me.By: Eryn DionMANSFIELD, MA__ Neither rain, nor snow, nor, in this case, searing heat, would keep me from meeting Snoop Dogg on that fateful July Day. The rapper was playing a show at the Comcast Center for the Performing Arts in Mansfield, MA with reggae/ hip-hop band Slightly Stoopid, and I, a lowly parking attendant, had requested the earliest shift possible, hoping for a glimpse of the legendary artist. I had been working at the Comcast Center for two years now. One of the main reasons I took the job was the free concert admission and the hope of running into a super-star. Two years later, and I had met some “famous” people: Jimmy Buffet, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, but the earth-shattering celebrity encounter had still eluded me. I was jealous of the people bragging about eating pizza with Lil’ Wayne or having drinks with Taking Back Sunday. I wanted that. So I toiled in the sun, wind, and rain, suffered verbal, physical, and automobile abuse for 12 hours every concert, earning a mere eight bucks and hour. Such was the life of a parking attendant. Until I saw the name Snoop Dogg on the schedule. My heart skipped a beat; I knew this was my chance. Finally an artist I cared about, someone I would be willing to sacrifice my job, and my dignity, to meet. The day finally arrived, and I was placed in the split, the heart of the Comcast Center, from which all traffic was directed. Here I was in prime position to get a look inside the tour bus, or catch a glimpse if he decided to take a pre-show stroll. So I waited, and waited, while my insides cooked like steamed broccoli in the 95-degree heat. There was no shade, and in my short-sleeved shirt and shorts my skin had no protection and quickly surrendered to sunburn. But I didn’t care. I would wait diligently at my post, rigid as a member of the Queen’s Guard, until I got the signal that the bus had arrived.But I never got the call. Apparently the bus had arrived even before I clocked in to work at nine in the morning. At the time I didn’t know that. Waiting in the split, I could hear the whine of dirt bikes in the next lot. Annoyed, I looked over as one came to a stop near the barrier where I was standing. My jaw dropped. I instantly recognized the slim face and French braids of none other than Snoop Dogg himself, blowing off some pre-concert jitters in the Comcast Parking lot. He looked at me; smiling, and suddenly all those hard days at the Comcast Center were worth it.By Alexis Diaz:
LOS ANGELES__ When I met Ashton Kutcher for the first time I was sitting in the front row of the Nokia Center for the 2010 Peoples Choice Awards. I was visiting California for the first time with my University on a public relations field trip and the day had finally come to an end, after strenuous note taking and constant lectures.
My Friend Jordan and I entered the Nokia center thrilled that the day had finally ended and we were entering the building so many A-lister’s had walked through once before. With excitement we marched up the three long flights of stairs right to the mausoleum section. When we arrived at the doors the short, olive skinned man, with the nametag that read Marvin, informed us that our seating had been changed and handed us two new tickets. Jordan’s eyes quickly met with mine with disbelief. He pointed to the stairs going down and headed back in the direction we started from.
When we came to the end of the stairs we marched through two huge doors that led us to our new section, “C”. As we found our seats, which now put us, only 50ft. away from the stage we sat down and immediately began discussing what had just happened. The lights eventually dimmed down a bit and the music began to echo within the arena. All of a sudden a man with excitement was yelling to our section of the audience, “Anyone interested in moving up closer to the stage!” Jordan and I looked at each other for one split second and shot our hands up in the air, yelling “ME! ME! ME!”
By Bridget MurphyGREENWICH, Conn.__ Let me tell you how I met Frank Gifford. When my boyfriend went away to University of Southern California for school I was devastated, however many exciting things came out of it that I had never expected.
When he told me he had become good friend with a kid by the name of Cody Gifford I didn’t think of it as a big deal. Over winter break however when Cody invited us to his house I was pleasantly surprised.
As we drove down the street lined with massive homes, we pulled up to a huge gate where we were then instructed to push the button and wait to be let in. It didn’t take long after driving down the long driveway and parking in front of his massive home that I started questioning Mike as to who this kid was, and what makes him stand out from any other kids he had met over his first semester.
Before getting out of the car Mike finally broke the news that his mother was the well known today show host, Kathy-Lee, and his father is Frank Gifford, a retired New York Giants football player.
At that point I did not know weather I should be mad that he hadn’t told me this sooner, or to be excited about being a guest in their home.
I quickly got out of the car and walked with Mike toward the large front doors. An older man answered the door and greeted us with a large smile on his face. We introduced ourselves and he replied saying, “Nice to meet you, I’m Cody’s dad, Frank”. He was wearing a plain T-shirt and baggy pajama pants. It looked as though he was headed to bed.
I had never met anyone famous, so this was exciting for me. What made it more special to me was the fact that I was able to be a guest in their home.
By: Mae PlanertNEW YORK__Let me tell you about the time I met Adam Sandler. My mother had planned a family trip to New York City that I had lukewarm emotions about. Being the bratty pre-teen that I was I didn’t want to spend extended amounts of time with just my family even if it was in New York. I went through the motions following my family around to tourist locations and checking my brick of a LG phone that I thought was the coolest thing ever.By the second day I was dying to go home. We decided to go to a diner my mom saw on the food network for breakfast that just happened to be around the corner from our hotel. As we were waiting in line and my older brother and sister were taking turns beating me up, a man walked in behind us. He looked so familiar wearing a hoodless grey sweatshirt and navy blue baggy sweatpants. As soon as he said “Hey how ya doin’” to the hostess I knew. “ It’s Happy Gilmore!” my brother said. Adam Sandler then patted me on the head and proceeded to cut us in line and be seated, but that was expected.For the rest of the Breakfast I sat at our table star struck and sneaking glances. This family weekend getaway was turning out to be pretty exciting. Although Adam Sandler was approachable and friendly my brother was the only one able to muster up the courage to ask for an autograph. I returned home feeling guilty for being a brat and with my first celebrity citing story.By: Katlyn Proctor
BOSTON__This is how I harassed Mike Timlin.
The Howard Johnson directly across from Fenway Park is not that clean. Rooms are cheap and the swimming pool is always empty, no matter what time of year. Regardless of its appearance, fans of the Boston Red Sox always gather for a weekend of home games, my family included. Surrounding the HoJo is Van Ness Street and the one and only Yawkey Way. After the games, fans would crowd along Yawkey Way to watch the players exit the stadium’s parking garage in their Hummers, Escalades and occasionally a Volkswagen Bug.
Most players would exit with a frantic disregard to the fans and a worry of their fine expensive cars acquiring fingerprints from ecstatic fans. My sister and I would watch this pathetic attempt of fans trying to grasp the sensation of being noticed by an all-worldly baseball player. With a reluctant shrug of the shoulders, we headed back to the HoJo.
Also boxing the HoJo is a “safe” alley, as safe as alleys get for Boston. We were alone aside from the tall, blonde walking with quick strides a few paces ahead of us. It only took us a few moments to realize it was the one and only Red Sox pitcher, Mike Timlin. We started to run and quickly morphed into the pathetic fans who believed that the moment of an exchanged handshake would change our lives. His stride quickened and just when we were so close, he hailed a cab and quickly disappeared from sight.
Defeated, my sister and I turned left into the parking lot of the all to comforting Howard Johnson, with its floral, brown patterned rug and faux pool. We dropped our souvenir size cups on the bed table. With a widening grin, we looked at each other with a realization. We just creepily chased Mike Timlin, down an alley.
By Melanie PuckettSAN FRANCISCO, Calif. __ Growing up in San Francisco, there were a limited amount of celebrities that I expected to see. There are only a select few who have grown tired of the glitz and glam of Hollywood and have chosen to go north to the Bay Area. One of the few celebrities include Robin Williams.I was living in Laurel Village, a shopping center in the city and going to school in Marin County. On this specific day, my car was in the shop so I was forced to take the school bus back that afternoon. I got to the city thirty minutes after I normally would have had I drove my car—around five o’clock.Getting off the bus, I thought to myself that all I want to do is lie in bed and sleep after a long day. Walking along the edge of the Starbucks on the west end of the shopping center, I look up to see a man coming around the corner with grocery bags. As he approached me, I began to recognize his face. His height and his smile gave him away and I knew that it was Robin Williams.Without thinking, my mouth began to move but I did not know exactly what sounds were coming out. I was so star-struck that I slowed down as though expecting him to stop and let me revel in his stardom. He kept going passed me.I suddenly heard myself say, “You’re Robin Williams!” To this, he laughed and responded, “Yeah, you’re right.” Giggling uncontrollable and heart beating incessantly, I walked passed him with a feeling of satisfaction. I think I played it cool, I thought to myself. I turned around to get one last look at him; he walked on, not caring to turn around and get one last look at me.By George SaundersSAN DIEGO, CALIF. __This is how I met Bill Walton. The summer in between 4th and 5th grade my father asked me to join him and his college roommate to go on an afternoon bike ride around Mission Bay in the San Diego area. Not knowing what I was getting myself into I surely agreed to go on what I thought was going to be a minor bike ride on the boardwalk. My Dad strapped his road bike to the top of the station wagon and tossed my small one speed bike into the trunk of the car.We drove from our house in Point Loma across a few bridges until we got to the spot where my Dad and his college friend meet up to ride together. I hopped out of the car and looked straight up into the air as a seven ft. one inch white man greeted me wearing a ty-die grateful dead t-shirt. The bike itself that he road was huge as his bike seat was far above the ground. I shook his hand introduced myself and rushed to the back of the station wagon to pull out my own bike.My father placed me in the middle of his roommate and himself to make sure that I would not fall behind or take off in the journey around Mission Bay. As we road down the crowded beachside of the board walk others who passed us would ring their own bike bell, or shout out “Go UCLA.” At the end of the long bike ride I asked my dad how come people shouted at us. He replied. “Bill Walton, his freshman roommate was one of the greatest basketball players during the John Wooden era at UCLA.”By Alexa Stark
HARTFORD, Conn. __ This is how I had dinner with the band, Simple Plan. When I was in seventh grade, I used to be a fan of Simple Plan. When I heard they were coming to play a concert in Hartford, I knew I wanted to go. My cousin’s fiancé, Stephen, works for Ovation Guitars and lives in West Hartford. He had mentioned that he was friends with the owners of the venue that the band would be playing at so rather than getting tickets regularly, I called Stephen to see if he could hook me up with some tickets. Turns out that he was also good friends with Simple Plan because he had been selling guitars to them for some time and that he was going out to dinner with them before the show.
Not only did Stephen get me into the concert, he took me out to dinner with the band before the concert. I got to sit down face to face with the band and ask them any question I wanted. Unfortunately, I was somewhat star struck and could only think of, “Do you get nervous before shows?” which is probably a question they’ve only been asked a billion times by shy fans. After dinner, I got to go onto their tour bus, which was parked outside the venue. This is when I got a glimpse into the tour life of a rock band. I wasn’t surprised that the bus wasn’t as neat as it could be, however it did surprise me to see that they were watching Sponge Bob Square Pants. I then followed them backstage, watched them chug a few Coronas, and got to watch the concert from the VIP section with their platinum blonde girlfriends.
Being in seventh grade at the time, this was epic for me.
By Dan Weidmann
EAST RUTHEFURD, NJ __ This is how I met Jason Kidd.
I remember the reporter coming up to me after the game while I walked out of the locker room after a big win. After answering a series of questions, the reporter asked me, “who do you like to resemble your game around?” I smiled, thought about it a minute, and answered, “Jason Kidd because he does everything.”
Three weeks later was Christmas and my only present was a small envelope sticking out my stocking. I wasn’t expecting much for Christmas but something more than a card was in mind. I opened the envelope with nothing more than a slight grin to try and portray to my parents that anything they got me was good enough. As I took the card out of the envelope a piece of paper fell onto the floor. Lying at my feet was a ticket to the New Jersey Nets versus the New York Knicks.
I was speechless. One because I had no idea why they got me tickets to a Nets vs. Knicks game, and two because that was pretty damn good present compared to the socks and underwear they got me last year.
So with a big smile I looked up at my parents and said, “Why Nets tickets?”
My dad laughed and said, “Jason Kidd is your favorite player, it would be nice to watch him in person.”
I didn’t ask any more questions, thanked them a thousand times, and watched Jason Kidd highlights the rest of the day.
The game was two weeks later, and my Dad and I had great seats. The game now is just a blur, however, leaving I’ll never forget.
As my father and I started walking down the steps the players were exiting under us. Jason Kidd was a mere twenty feet away.
As any sports fan would, I screamed his name and held out a program for him to sign. He looked up at me, looked down, and kept walking right underneath me, not a word.
In one of my games laer that season, the same reporter interviewed me at the end. After we were done, I looked at him and said, “oh yeah, Jason Kidd is a jerk, I love this new guy, Lebron James. He’ll be pretty good in the NBA.”
Katherine Blanchard is a communication major with a concentration in journalism, class of 2011. My hometown is Fairhaven, Mass. After graduating i would like to continue my education in a city and write wherever i can. My brother is in the US Navy on the aircraft carrier the USS nimitz and is currently deployed. Playing tennis is my favorite thing to do and i've been playing since age 7.
Sarah Bourbeau is journalism major with a minor in Italian Studies and is part of the class of 2011. She is from Somers, Conn., a small town a half an hour outside of Hartford. She enjoys travel and photography. She just spent a semester abroad in Florence, Italy and cannot wait to continue to travel. Her favorite book at this moment is "Naked" by David Sedaris. She took a few creative writing classes and was introduced to his short stories there.
Maria Bresnahan is a sophomore at Roger Williams University. I am from Peabody, Mass. This town is north of Boston. I am undeclared at the moment. I love to write stories about anything. Aside from writing stories I like to listen to music. In high school I played field hockey and basketball. I also volunteered at my local library. I do a lot of community service at Roger Williams University. My favorite book right now is "Twilight". I am not a fan of their movies, but I enjoy the books. I am always at the movies. I will see any movie possible. I plan to go abroad to Ireland. I have lots of family in Greece, but I plan to go there with my family. I enjoy visiting Florida, New York and Mexico. If I could I would live in Florida or New York. I would like to write for a magazine company.
Courtney Costello is a junior at Roger Williams University studying communications with an emphasize on journalism, political science and a minor in French, she is also apart of the class of 2011. Her hometown is Trumbull, Conn. but was born and raised in Bridgeport, Conn. Her family has 8 cats but they are not crazy. In high school her activities included colorguard and winterguard and she continues to teach colorguard at New Bedford High School in New Bedford, Mass. She spent the past summer interning in Washington, D.C. for Talk Radio News Service and the past fall semester studying in Florence, Italy. She loves to travel and cannot wait to explore the rest of the world. Ideally, she would love to continue her education and become a political journalist, traveling journalist, or work in the public service field. She has a subscription to Rolling Stone Magazine and an online (free) subscription to The Washington Post. She is currently reading "God is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens who came to visit Roger Williams University last spring.
Alexis Diaz is a Communications major with a focus in Public Relations at Roger Williams University. Her hometown is Fairfield, Conn.; a small suburb an hour out of New York City. She enjoys traveling and experiencing different places/cultures and plans on studying abroad in Florence, Italy sometime within the next year. She prides her self in past volunteer projects, such as traveling to New Orleans for several years in hopes to help Katrina Victims and plans on continuing to help others in need. Upon graduation she has a desire to work in Entertainment Public Relations based somewhere in the Los Angeles area. She enjoys reading both fiction such as the Twilight Saga while also keeping up with what's going on in the world with New Papers such as the Connecticut Post and/or The New York Times.
Eryn Dion is a Communications and History double major, with a focus on journalism. She grew up in the sleepy town of Norton, Mass., with four Dunkin' Donuts and only one stoplight. After going through most of highschool wanting to work for the FBI she discovered that she enjoyed writing and decided to pursue this. She entered college a Creative Writing major; however, after a semester of writing poems and analyzing narrative, she decided this wasn't for her and changed majors. Still wanting to write, she entered the Communications program and hasn't looked back since. An avid reader, she is most often seen reading historical non-fiction about World War II; however at the moment she is reading "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick, which is still about WWII, although is fiction. She carries a subscription to National Geographic, which she hopes to contribute to in the future. Through reading the New York Times and several other publications she stays abreast of world events and the realm of politics. Hoping to travel around the world as a correspondent for a major publication, she is looking to expand her horizons by studying abroad in India next semester.
Bridget Murphy is a communications major focusing on public relations. Although she lives in the town of Stratford, Conn. she attended a small private high school in Trumbull, Conn. a few towns over. She grew up playing many different sports throughout her childhood, but cheerleading was always something that she favored the most. She comes from a large family with 4 other siblings, including an identical twin sister who also attends Roger Williams University.
Mae Planert is a communications major with an emphasis on Public Relations. Her hometown is Sandwich Mass. and went to high school in Braintree Mass. at Thayer Academy. She grew up playing ice hockey on both girls teams and boys teams and enjoys occasional pond hockey in the wintertime. In her spare time she enjoys reading books such as Are you there vodka? its me chelsea, and My Horizontal Life By Chelsea Handler. She also spends her free time on Perezhilton.com and Peopleofwalmart.com. Her dream job is to either work for Ogilvy PR firm in Boston or New York or become an event planner.
Katlyn Proctor is a double major in Journalism and Creative Writing and is a part of the class of 2012 (hopefully). She is from Weare, N.H., not to be confused with Weirs Beach. Her skills include a high caffeine addiction which result in insomnia to no end, as well as being trained in multiple computer programs. For her entire high school and college career she has worked at Shaws Supermarket, which is not as appealing as it may seem, but this part-time job has taught her a professional manner in dealing with people. Upon graduating, Katlyn would like to work for the National Geographic Magazine while traveling the World and to publish a book of poetry on the side. Her favorite author is Jodi Picoult and she enjoys reading memoirs and poetry. She has a subscription to The American Poetry Review and The New York Times.
Melanie Puckett is a communications major and creative writing minor and is a part of the Roger Williams University class of 2012. Her hometown is Abilene, Texas which is about four hours outside of Dallas. She moved to San Francisco, Calif. when she was three-years-old and attended a small Catholic School in the center of Chinatown. In her spare time, she likes to play the violin and guitar. She enjoys reading Food and Wine magazine, the American Poetry Review, and novels by Junot Diaz. She will ideally go on to become a food critic and journalist.
Michael Scully is a professor of journalism at Roger Williams University. His hometown is Warwick, NY; a place he remembers as a small apple-farming community. He studied literature at the University of Washington and Ithaca College. He holds a Master's Degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and has over 18 years of professional journalism experience. During his career, he worked for CNN, Fortune Small Business magazine, New Century Networks and a host of other publications and news outlets. He has been teaching at the college level since 2004 and is developing an expertise in Digital Media.
George Saunders is a student at RWU that us a Public Relations/Comm major. My hometown is San Diego, Calif., which is 15 miles north of Mexico. I sail for the RWU Sailing team, and also the US sailing team. I have sailed since I was 7 years old. I like going to the beach and surfing in the summer. I came to college to recieve a education and continue my sailing career. I hardly enjoy reading, but like flipping through magazines.
Alexa Stark is a sophomore that is a Public Relations/Comm. major. Her hometown is Somers, Conn. which is in northern Conn. She played lacrosse for 8 years and was captain of her high school team. She recently did a PR internship over winter break and plans on studying abroad next year, most likely in Florence, Italy. She would like to work in a city after college, and she doesn't really care which one. She enjoys reading novels based on true stories.
Dan Weidmann is a first semester sophomore at Roger Williams University majoring in Communications with a concentration in Journalism. His hometown is Wallingford, CT right out side of New Haven. After graduation he plans on becoming a sports writer. His dream, of course, is writing for ESPN or Sports Illustrated one day, but he plans on starting at his hometown newspaper, The Record-Journal, where he has worked as an intern for the sports department the last two summers. He loves basketball and plans on re-joining the men's basketball team at RWU in his Junior year.
