Issue 10, November 21, 2014 Vol. 66

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Do you ever read CNN headlines about outra-geous assignments that teachers give to their students seemingly with-out thinking it through and just cringe? “What was he thinking?” you may wonder to yourself as you read articles with titles such as “Boston Teacher Forces Students to Justify Nazism,” or “Elementary School Teacher Fired After As-signing Essay on How to Get Away With Homi-cide.”

I very recently had this sort of experience, except it wasn’t from a

news article -- it was my younger sister’s science project.

When she asked me for help with her home-work, I didn’t think any-thing of it. That is, until I saw the premise of this assignment: the instruc-tions were for these sev-enth graders to explain how to build an atomic bomb.

They had to include a “recipe” of what materi-als go into making the bomb, how to obtain these materials, how to assemble these materials into a functioning weap-on, and the “delivery and usage instructions.” Before I inevitably sit

astride my high horse, let’s ponder the extreme difficulty of this project. Not only was I horri-fied at the concept of this project but I was also stumped on how to help my sister actually complete it. The logis-tics of the entire affair were overwhelming even for me, and I’m 18 years old and have high-er than a 4.0 GPA. One would think that, in the-ory, I would be able to help a middle schooler with a science project, but one would be mis-taken.

Online@ www.nw-tigers.org/the-octagon

Volume 66, Issue 10 November 21, 2014

 Today:

KBJR Parade Drama State

Competition  Next week:

No School  Monday (Dec. 1):

Basketball: Girls’ JV & V @ NHS vs. Washburn  Tuesday:

ASVAB Test-ing

Basketball:

Girls’ JV @ Ladysmith

Basketball: Boys’ V & JV Scrimmage @ Solon Springs  Thursday:

Basketball:

Boys’ C, JV & V @ NHS vs. Ladysmith

Albert Einstein’s paper explaining the relationship between matter and energy, and thus E=mc2, was published 109 years ago today.

Pg. 3 Senior Prof’s Pg. 4 Mrs. Johnson Pg. 5 Luke Rutten

‘Nuclear Reaction’

Continued Pg. 2

The forecast for

to-night, ladies and gentlemen, is for it to be cold -- straight up cold! The high school band (which is participating in their 56th consecutive Christ-mas City in the North Parade), will be march-ing despite the cold. Nicholas Johnson, a junior trumpet player, who will be marching in the parade for the third time, commented on tonight’s performance: “We (the band) didn't lose many seniors last year. We expect to per-form well despite our lack of knowledge of the new parade route. Last year’s parade was one of coldest ones we have performed in, but we performed admirably.”

“With every step the marching Tigers take,” says sophomores Lily Livingston and Laryssa Vik, “we will leave a trail of greatness be-hind.”

Lily was in danceline during the parade last year, and this year she decided to put on the

By Ricky Schiff

‘Bitter Cold’

Continued Pg. 6

By Brooklyn Smith

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Are you excited for Thanksgiving? The day

where you get to lie around all day, eat fla-vorful food, and spend time with family? Well many retail employees are not! Some of these employees won’t be spending as much time with their families as they would like to. Due to supposed cus-tomer demand and the general craze over Black Friday, many stores and malls are planning to open even earlier than usual this year, setting a record. According to a 2013 National Retail Federation survey of 4,464 people, 25.4% were at stores by 8 p.m. and 37.3% by midnight. Most of these early opening businesses are opening around 5 and 6

p.m. on Thanksgiving. It is thought that the fa-mous department store Macy’s started the trend, being one of the earliest openers, and other stores have followed suit.

Though it seems crazy to open this early, Walmart has announced that they will be hosting a five-day Black Friday event, concluding the day after Thanksgiving. There is much contro-versy circulating the ex-tended shopping “Black Friday” event. Petitions have started online, the most popular one being on Change.org; even on Facebook the topic of anti-early opening is

11/25

Taya McClure

11/26

Myriah Larson

11/29

Keilah Nelsen

12/02

Tyler Davis Justin Little Alex Tuura

12/03

Alicia Michaud

12/04

Jace Dickson

Happy

Birthday!

Senior Editor / Formatter:

Nik Sauer

Text Editor

Brooklyn Smith

Staff Members: Katie Johnson

Emily Gaare J. Gaare Lilli Kovaleski

Molly Niven Kaleb Scharp Richard Schiff Luke Rutten Mena Lindquist

Advisor:

Mrs. Thompson First off, the fact that

your average, everyday civilian probably should not know how to make a quick and dirty version of an A-bomb means that the government is not exactly sanctioning free classes at your local YMCA on the process. This information is fairly hard to come by. Every single source we looked at had different instruc-tions, or used different materials, or didn’t ex-plain the mechanics of it at all.

The project also called for a sketched blueprint which had to be in the metric system and be drawn to scale. We could barely find a reliable way

this ridiculous task. There’s also the matter of describing how to ob-tain the correct ingredi-ents to build a weapon of mass destruction. That’s a Google search that will get you flagged by the Powers That Be if there ever was one.

Despite these obsta-cles, we’re a pretty astute adult/child duo. I figured that it would be awful, but we could figure it out -- and then I saw the last specification: “Assembly and usage instructions must be in sequential or-der with approximate timelines.”

That, friends, is what unbalanced me. This was not, as I have said, a pro-ject that one could

com-tioned, is not the worst aspect of this assign-ment. I can’t believe I have to say this, but at no point while helping my 13-year-old sister with school work should I be reduced to yelling “Let me explain to you a con-cept called ‘moral integ-rity!’” like a crazy per-son.

But seriously, how dare anyone assign something like this? We’re talking about atomic bombs, the weap-ons so destructive that a handful could wipe out all life on the planet, with the exception of the goblin shark, probably, because hell is real. These are the bombs that stopped watches, that

and that caused one of the biggest moral contro-versies of our time. I’m not claiming to be some ancient, omnipres-ent being that is cogni-zant of all that occurs in the universe, but I do know that 200,000 inno-cent people did not get incinerated so that a group of seventh graders could have a fun little project calculating exact-ly how one would or-chestrate such a slaughter again. This isn’t just a matter of bad taste -- it’s the sort of mindset that encourages something much more dangerous than basic ignorance in our youth: it fosters apa-thy.

Editor’s Note: The Octagon staff spoke to the middle school science teacher who told us that the

purpose of the assignment was to integrate subjects such as history and science to help students make connections with real-life events. After running the project for the very first time and receiving questions and feedback from parents and students, the assignment has been revised.

By Molly Niven

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Where do you see yourself in five years?

I see myself as an English teacher somewhere in southern Wisconsin.

If you were lost in Siberia, with which person would you most like to be? Why?

Benedict Cumberbatch because Benedict Cumberbatch.

Advice for underclassmen?

Life changes; deal with it.

Favorite quote?

“Just because you move on from a thing doesn't make it suck less. But you just keep going anyhow. It’s this funny thing called life. It hap-pens sometimes.” - Matt Stai

What is your favorite cartoon?

Powerpuff Girls.

Favorite high school memory?

Getting the nickname “Monty” from Alex Bobo at a football game.

What is the most underrated movie you have ever seen?

Easy A. It has some amazing themes that our generation needs to learn. And there was a random mu-sical number. You can never go wrong with that.

What will you miss most about high school?

Being Monty the Tiger.

From left to right: Ellen Stoll, Zach Davis, and Heather Montavon.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Having just graduated from Colo-rado Christian University, with a degree in business management and youth ministry and getting a job as a Bible camp director.

Calvin from the Calvin and Hobbes comics -- we could build the world’s largest army of mutant snow goons.

Don’t take advice from upper-classmen, we’re probably lying.

Favorite quote?

“For I am not ashamed of the Gos-pel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.” -- Romans 1:16

What is your favorite band?

The Classic Crime.

Being the World’s Greatest

Danc-ing Bear at drama state.

HERO!: The Rock Opera; I’ll ad-mit that there are some cheesy parts, but it is a great story with incredible music.

Spending time in the tenortorium (tenor practice room) and spending time with the fantastic casts and crews of one-acts and musicals throughout my four years.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

In a round room with a piano.

Dobby! As soon as I realized I was lost in Siberia (having had no wish to be in Siberia whether or not I knew where I was or not.) I could disapparate straight to Hog-warts.

Have enthusiasm.

Favorite quote?

“If I were John and John were me,

He’d be six and I’d be three. If John were me and I were John, I shouldn’t have these trousers on.” - A.A. Milne

What is your favorite cartoon?

Bugs Bunny.

Hopefully I’m making it right now!

The Princess Bride. It can’t be overrated.

The amazing teachers and the wonderful people!

By Ricky Schiff

Zach

Davis

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I could of borrowed you some moneys yester-day; I could care less if you reimbursed me of it, but I literally would of like died if you went far-ther in to debt even for intensive purposes. This is one of the worst sentences I’ve ev-er had to write, with eleven mistakes includ-ing the ones I re-used. I hear and see these mis-takes quite frequently in my daily life, and conse-quently decided to do something about it. 1.When you say you “could of done” some-thing, the reality is that you “could have” done the thing. Or even “could’ve.” I hear this mistake daily with “could of,” “would of,” and “should of.”

2. You don’t borrow someone money, you

lend it to them. I could

lend you money, and if I did, you would have

borrowed it from me.

That is the correct use of these words. I will never, ever “borrow you” any-thing. If you ask me to “borrow you” something I will surely withhold it from you even if I would’ve lent it to you otherwise.

3. More than one dollar isn’t moneys, it’s mon-ey. Money is already plural. This one may annoy me most of all. It even sounds wrong.

Moneys. You can’t even use the traditional rule of replacing the Y with an IE unless you want “moneies,” which is not a word.

4. “I could care less.” If you think about this phrase, the issue be-comes quite clear. You could care less? Well that would mean you do care. This common phrase is a derivation of

“I couldn’t care less”

which does, in fact, state that you don’t care at all. 5. Literally. Another of

“Her brownies are scrumptious,” says Jared “Football” Antila. “She’s fun but very in-teresting,” says Matt Lindsey. “Mrs. Johnson is super nice,” adds Wy-att Nevin.

But wait, just wait. Who is this super nice, fun, and very interesting lady who makes scrump-tious brownies? Who is Mrs. Johnson?

Mrs. Laura Johnson grew up in Ely, where she attended high

school. When she was in high school, she was re-ally involved in a variety of activities, including tennis, cheerleading, Na-tional Honor Society, speech club, and class leadership, acting as her senior class president. She then pursued a

teaching degree at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and majored in business education at the University of Minnesota. Mrs. Johnson said that

The Philae comet lander found organic molecules in the

comet’s atmosphere.

By Nik Sauer By Lilli Kovaleski

Russia is testing a device that may be capable of destroying or disabling orbiting satellites. Indonesia will raise their

fuel prices by more than 30% in an effort to save

money.

A large snowstorm dumped five feet of snow on northern New York this week, killing eight people. Two new subatomic particles

were discovered by CERN, and are reported to be six times as massive as protons.

By Ricky Schiff

‘Grammar’

Continued Pg. 5

‘Mrs. Johnson,

Continued Pg. 6

Anonymous hacked into the KKK’s web-site on Tuesday and released information

about its members.

A Swedish study has found that drinking milk may not have as many health benefits

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my pet peeves is when you literally died yester-day because you were so excited about something. No. Literally means that it actually happened. You could say Hitler lit-erally invaded Poland. Obama literally got elect-ed for two terms of presi-dency. But if you tell me

you literally died yester-day I’ll run and hide be-cause I’m actually afraid of ghosts. In fact, I’m literally afraid of them. 6. Next we have farther vs. further. This confus-es a lot of people, as it did for me, until I did my research. To use “further,” you should be speaking metaphorical-ly. To make it further in life, to go further into debt, etc. As far as

“farther” is concerned, your subject should be material. Go farther down the road, Duluth is ten miles farther than Maple, etc.

7. If I went inside of a store, I went into it. This indicates movement, the coming or going of something. If I walked in to hear something, the word “in” is part of a dif-ferent sentence fragment than the word “to” is. 8. Intensive purposes? No. You don’t use some-thing for “all intensive purposes,” you use it for all “intents and purpos-es.” This is a misunder-standing I was dragged into by society. These aren’t force-ful or intense pur-poses; they’re both intents and purpos-es.

9. Like, I know it’s all, like, cool to use like in like every place possible, but it gets like really an-noying. I am guilty of doing this, and I cringe whenever I

do. It’s so ingrained in our minds that like is meant to be used this way that we can’t stop it. 10. The last object of my rant is the Oxford com-ma. I personally believe that the Oxford comma, also called the serial comma, is necessary in writing. You only need to look to the picture that accompanies this article to see its importance. Another example is to say you should be kind, just, and loyal. Or, you should be kind, just and loyal. Some may call the serial comma redundant, but I call it correct, per-fect, and vital.

trending, causing even more uproar over the subject.

A mall employee is leading a protest in La-Crosse, Wisconsin, and has collected over 250 signatures to try to keep the mall from opening early.

However, it’s not just the employees that are upset: 50% of the sur-veyed general population thinks that stores open-ing

earlier detracts from the

holiday and 33% think it’s a good idea. It

is thought that since Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday, there is not as much criticism of the stores that are opening early.

On another note: there are two people already camping out for Black Friday in Lee County, Florida outside of a Best Buy. They are hoping to purchase a 50” television for only $199. They use the “buddy system” so when one is at work, the other camps out. People and local businesses ac-tually bring them food,

‘Black Thursday’

From Pg. 5

‘Grammar’ From

Pg. 4

It’s beginning to look a lot like… No. It’s only Thanksgiving, not that you could tell by the 18 inches of snow we have on the ground, the cold weather, or the shopping centers’ chosen decora-tions and music.

Have you been shop-ping for groceries or gone to K-mart and all you saw were Christmas decorations? “When does this start?” you may be asking yourself. Well, let me tell you.

November is supposed to be a “fall” month and we’re supposed to be

thinking about things like Pilgrims and giving thanks a.k.a. Thanksgiv-ing (or, in most cases, eating food on Thanks-giving and going deer hunting for the rest of the week). Unfortunately, that’s not what

Thanks-giving is about, though, is it? Before Hallow-een is even over there are Christ-mas decorations everywhere. So what hap-pens to Thanks-giving in this strange passing of the torch be-tween Hallow-een and Christmas? It gets swept under the rug, just like Labor Day. Once Thanksgiving actually comes, however, everyone wants to be a part of this holiday. I mean, who doesn’t want to stuff their faces while

it’s socially acceptable? If you say “Not I!” to that I think that you are lying to me, yourself, and the entire world. If you go into your favorite chain store over

the next week

(particularly Walmart), pay attention to what percentage of that store is attempting to fill you with Christmas cheer be-fore you can enjoy gath-ering with your family at Thanksgiving dinner. You may be surprised at all of the holiday spirit you come across, and the lack of Thanksgiving-themed festivities.

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You never know how hard something will be until you actually give it a try -- while it wasn’t my intention to spend the next few weeks with only one effective hand, that is the fate with which I am stuck.

The reason I have been put into such a one-sided (ha) predicament is because of a car accident that I was in. The impact broke my right collar-bone, putting me into an immobilization device that has rendered my right arm useless.

Unfortunately I’m a right-handed person, so adapting to this new way of life has certainly been an interesting experi-ence. All of the things in life that I normally find easy are now obstacles, and every day is one challenge after the next. Everything is strange now. When I open doors, I find myself reaching

for the side without the doorknob. Brushing my teeth and combing my hair feels backwards and upside down. Let’s not even start on my handwriting.

Other tasks, such as opening bags, are among the hardest to do. The most annoying side ef-fect of being one-handed is my inability to easily get toilet paper. I never thought of how hard rip-ping a piece of paper with one hand would be, but now that I have to do it I’ve realized how much it sucks.

In conclusion, be-ing one-handed is difficult; it forces you to do things you wouldn’t normally do and makes things way harder than they need to be. Although it has been a learning experience, it is one that I would rather not repeat.

By Luke Rutten

she wanted to become a teacher because she would be the first in her family to do so.

Before moving to Poplar last year, she taught for 15 years at Holmen Middle School in southern Wisconsin. Following her move, she took a year off from teaching. This year she took over for Mr. Bruch, who is now teaching at Proctor High School. At Northwestern, she teaches many classes, such as accounting, soft-ware apps, personal fi-nance, desktop publish-ing, and business law. As the business teacher, she is also the FBLA ad-visor, which is looking

cause “it’s never the same and it’s always changing.”

She says that a good student is someone who tries and puts forth effort on assignments and learns the material, and a good teacher is someone who cares about teaching and realizes that each student is very different. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her children (names, ages?), attend-ing sportattend-ing events and activities, reading, and gardening.

If you would like to meet Mrs. Johnson, swing by Room 2075 to learn more.

“cloak of honor,” that is the Northwestern Tiger marching band attire. Freshman Sydney Bo-dendorfer, who will be marching in her first pa-rade tonight, expects it to go well.

“This will also be my first Christmas City of the North Parade, as well as my mom’s. We will be attending this year in support of my sister, Ca-sey, who, as a senior, is marching in her last Christmas City parade.” The Tiger band will be playing “Christmas Car-ols on Parade.” When Mr. Hintzman first came to Northwestern as the band director, the band played “Winter

Wonder-the need to change it for 15 years.

If you’re attending, be aware of the new parade route: the parade will be on Superior Street for its entirety, beginning at the Fitger’s complex and proceeding downtown to 4th Avenue West. Pa-rade spectators are wel-come to watch the pa-rade from anywhere along the route.

According to KBJR Northland's Newscenter, tonight’s high is sup-posed to be 24 degrees and a low of 18, with partly cloudy skies and a 12 mph southwest wind. When asked what band students should wear for the parade, Mr. Hinzman bluntly replied, “layers.”

Six people were killed in a Jerusalem syna-gogue in Israel during a time of prayer on Tues-day of this week. Four rabbis, three of whom were American, the oth-er British, woth-ere killed by two Palestinians armed with guns, knives, and axes. Along with these four, a soldier, who was fighting the men, and a baby were murdered. As reported in the Huffington Post, the leader of a religious emergency-response

team, Ye-huda Meshi Zahav, said “I won-dered if I was imag-ining scenes from the Holo-caust... It was a mas-sacre of

Jews at prayer.” This was the deadliest attack on Israel in three years; in Jerusalem, it was the most lethal massacre since 2008.

In a less technical sen-tence, two men from Palestine entered a Jew-ish place of prayer and killed four religious leaders, a baby, and a soldier fighting for his country, friends, and re-ligion. That’s right; these two men, both about 20 years old, knifed an infant.

A relative of the at-tackers who gave his name, again to the Huff-ington Post, as Abu Sa-lah said, “They carried out this operation be-cause of the fire in their hearts -- they were under pressures, pressures, pressures, and in one ripe moment, the explo-sion took place.”