“Some of the News That’s Fit to Print”
October 22, 2012
The VA Voice Vermont Academy, Saxtons River, Vermont 05154 “Discere verba et opera Dei”
Vermont Academy Holds Fall Cabaret By: Thomas Durnford Well, another year at Vermont Academy and another wonderful Cabaret. Yes, the Performing Arts are alive and well at VA, and this is no more evident than in the fall cabaret. Last Friday, the school got to see acts ranging from solo numbers to scenes of the bizarre. Holding down the stage were the Masters of Ceremonies Mike Reilly and Dave Persha. This dynamic duo made the great show even better by giving the audience wonderful anecdotes between changes of set. The steadfast appearance of the VA chamber, vocal, and jazz ensembles made it feel like a true VA performance. But the addition of more solo acts showed off the true depth of talent in the student body. Five of the twelve acts were solos from Molly Brennan, Aaliyah Olmo, Melanie Kent, Courtney Prentiss, and Liz Richards, all of Picture Courtesy of Vermont Academy whom performed touching and personal performances. Many of the solo acts featured back-up performances played by students and faculty alike, many of whom participated in three or four different acts. A new addition to the show was an original piece performed by the Advanced Theater Seminar class. This scene was both a visual oddity and mental stretch. And who could forget the trio fire power that was the vocals of Mrs. Christine Armiger, Ms. Julia Tadlock, and Dr. Erin Cohn. These three had the extra surprise of keeping their act so tightly under wraps that no one truly knew what was going to happen until that very night. It was a truly magical night, which was held together with a crew of all first timers in the back stage. They were members of theater tech and Mr. Cady’s Sound Lab class. They kept everything from mic levels to the moving of mics working smoothly. It was a great end to Parents’ Weekend, and was very well appreciated by all those who attended.
Volume 17, Issue 4
IN THE MARGIN The Second Presidential Debate President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney participated in their second of three presidential debates on Tuesday. The debate followed a town hall format where undecided voters asked questions of the candidates. An estimated 65.6 million Americans watched the debate. Iran Agrees to Nuclear Talks Iran has tentatively agreed to talks with the United States over their nuclear ambitions. Iran has made it clear that they intend to wait until the end of the presidential race. This could potentially prevent a US millitary strike on the hostile country. Cuba Lets Citizens Leave The country of Cuba has finally allowed its citizens to leave the country without the controversial exit visas that have been required ever since the communist revolution of 1959. The Cuban government still worries that this may cause talented Cubans to leave the country in search of better oportunities.
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The VA Voice
Vermont Academy Mountain Day: Great Success It was just a regular chilly Tuesday morning with autumn in the air. During the first period class in the morning, the four year seniors gathered in Fuller to ring the bell. Drama struck as we realized that Vanessa Kang was absent from our group. Select four year seniors ran and awoke her from a deep sleep in the haunted mansion that is Sturtevant. The bell chimed as the four year seniors ran around campus, but forgot to ring the bell in the upstairs of Fuller. Everyone gathered in Horowitz to hear the bus assignments. We departed for Camp Takodah. The school arrived to an exceedingly cold camp that had housed the freshmen trip in the beginning of the year. Everyone had fun playing Frisbee and Basketball on the fields or sitting around the campfire. Mr. Tesar, Mr. Maiocco, and Mrs. McCardle played music around the fire as students huddled to stay warm. Mrs. Parkhurst graded papers long into the afternoon with stapler and pen in hand. Hamburgers were grilled, and the end
of the day included a faculty versus seniors football game. While Mr. Brennan’s refereeing was questionable at best, the game was fun for everyone. The faculty managed to win thanks to a stellar performance from Mr. Williams himself. Mountain Day was as fun as ever despite the less than ideal weather.
You grow up eating an abundance of warm food, taking strikingly beautiful naps and, best of all, hot showers. I have realized that I cannot do without warm showers. Taking a hot shower is honestly the best thing about my day. Every time I feel that warm overflow of joyous drops of blessings from the water heater I close my eyes and feel internal and external bliss. I imagine I find myself in an enclosed underground ancient temple with a sagacious monk successfully teaching me how to tap into my soul’s ultimate peace. When I take a cold shower, however, that enclosed temple becomes an underground prison, a place of sheer torture, and the monk mutates into a massive ice dragon that craps frozen icicles on my naked body
the remainder of the day if I take a cold shower. I feel out of place at all times and in all circumstances I am in my most awkward social state. I think more slowly, act more stupidly, and speak more inelegantly all because the beatific warmth that typically resides right beneath my skin is nowhere to be found. Imagine if the power went out at night in the middle of winter; I might get pneumonia or at the very least a cold. That could very well lead to a hospital visit, something a cold shower could never do. Not only my day would be ruined, but maybe my week! Or month! It seems impossible, but hey, there are tons of “tests” in life. We call them adversity. People say your character can be measured by how well you respond
October 22, 2012 By: Eamon O’Keefe
Making Friends with Mac Haddad
Initiating is an important part of meeting people. Wear some flashy shoes and hope that someone makes a comment on them. Visit places with lots of traffic like the downstairs of Shepardson. Use this as Stephen Tapp on His Favorite Place an oppotunity to discuss the presiNow I do not want to sound like I am like it has some alien form of dysen- dential debates. If the conversation complaining, but sometimes it really tery. It ruins me. goes awry, pretend to take a call and sucks to live in a first-world country. It is almost as if I cannot function for nod with genuine interest.
Picture courtesy of Mac Haddad
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The VA Voice
October 22, 2012
Food Thoughts with Erik Nielsen: Weekly Food Critic The Community Lunch for October 18th, 2012, was a great meal to come back to after Long Weekend. It was a hearty lunch consisting of a tasty Shepherds Pie that was a very good compliment to the rest of the meal, but needed a bit of hot sauce for that extra kick. It still contained juicy ground beef and moist mashed potatoes that exhibited unparalleled texture. Next was the Caesar Salad, which was agreed upon as being a fantastic addition that should be made available much more often. The salad’s dressing was a bit overpowering, but the feta cheese provided a taste explosion that made it a very tasty and healthy lunch option. On the subject of healthiness, the green beans were described by Billy as being, “perfectly soft.” What a culinary imagination! They surely left a smile on my face. A majority of the people at my table thought that the most unique aspect of the meal was the mini bread rolls; they were perfectly warm and crisp. They were cute and begged to have butter globbed onto their succulent wheat crispiness. Fellow foodie Mrs. Brennan agreed that the rolls had, “a nice consistency with perfect warmth.” I know you are all now reminiscing back to those succulent mini rolls after Picture Courtesy of Erik Nielsen Mrs. Brennan’s review. The mini delicious department also included the Cupcakes. They were very good with a perfectly mooshy to sweet ratio that made everyone fight over the last one. All around, the lunch was a solid way to come back from Long Weekend. I would give the meal a 9 and I hope that I can expect such a delicious meal every time I come back from a break.
Questions Around Campus???
Mr. Nelligan
Mac Haddad
Craig Calhoun
What are your thoughts on the movie Jurassic Park? Greatest scene ever: Man taking poop eaten by dinosaur.
By: Ross Holzschuh
Do you wear a belt with jeans?
Only if you want to be respected by the Canadian community. It’s realistic fic- (Shakes his head tion, I’ll tell you and laughs) No that. I wouldn’t want that to happen to me. I was homeI have to beschooled when cause my legs I was a kid so I are so long that never watched I can’t get jeans Jurassic Park that fit very well
Family Guy, South Park, or The Simpsons? All of the Above.
Arrested Development
South Park. There’s more intellectual jokes.
VA VOICE STAFF Editor in Chief Eamon O’Keefe Assistant Editors Ross Holzschuh, George Atkins Student Contributors Matt Gendron, Mehmet Eroglu, Mac Haddad, Mike Reilly, Jack Torre, Erik Nielsen, Catherine Kaminsky Faculty Contributors Mr. Hearon, Mr. Corkery Faculty Advisor: Mr. Frey, Dr. Cohn
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The VA Voice
Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife, It’s Election Time By: Miller Charman The 2012 Presidential Debate was the wildest bout since Mike Tyson v. Evander Holyfield II. To accompany the Presidential boxing match, Centre College hosted the vice-presidential debate which was not as heavy handed but very odd. The main highlight from the Presidential debate at Hofstra was Mr. Romney’s remarks regarding the U.S. consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya, and President Obama’s handling of the situation. Romney claimed that President Obama originally blamed an anti-Muslim video and did not call it terrorism until weeks later. Moderator Candy Crowley interjected “he did call it an act of terror.” She referred to the Rose Garden talks and the President saying, “no acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation…” This was a large step in the wrong direction for Romney and the Republican Party; it brought to light the very real issue of the candidates using false information to forward their agenda instead of the facts. One final issue with this year’s presidential debates was the massive failure on the part of the moderators. They had almost no control over the candidates in both the Presidential debates and the Vice Presidential debate. To top it off, Good Morning America’s legal analyst Dan Abrams tweeted in regards to the first presidential debate that “regardless of who is winning this debate, Jim Lehrer is losing.” We can only hope that the October 22nd debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida, is handled better than the previous two.
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Candy Cane the Cat
By: Mike Reilly Has anybody seen the cat that has been frequenting campus recently? His name is Candy Cane. It seems that only the most hard core cat haters take issue with this feral cat roaming our beautiful campus. Ross Holzschuh was quoted as saying “at first, I was hesitant to like Candy Cane because he is a cat, but his charming antics were too much for even this cat hater.” Other members of the community were even more accepting of the cute gray cat. But Nate (Rico) Goldman had no clue that the cat even existed. It seems that he has taken 25 House as his new home. According to his collar, Candy Cane lives in downtown Saxtons River, but in truth, he lives in all of our hearts.
October 22, 2012 Stephen Tapp: Showers Cont. to adversity. If I, on the other hand, were to get pneumonia I most likely would pout like a child until my symptoms went away. Most people in my situation would, right? Surprisingly, though, most people are not in such a situation. There are millions of people throughout the world who would not be able to pay for the medical bills, much less have a hospital anywhere nearby to receive treatment. Talk about adversity. I wonder how much character those people must have. Technically speaking, they face more “tests of life” than I do: hunger, cold, sickness, poverty. So there is a chance that if they tally up all their adverse situations, they probably have more character than I do. But wait, just because they face more adversity than I do does that mean I am “less of a man” than they are? Can all these things like hunger, cold, and sickness really be considered a test for them if they experience it every day? A cold shower is considered a test for me because I am not used to it. Now that I think about it, I am pretty sure a malnourished child in Yemen resents taking a cold shower just as much as I do. Both he and I are humans after all. He probably would get out of a cold shower and say, “wow that sucked” in Arabic with the same emphasis that I would say it in English. I do not want to make anybody feel badly because they were born into a FirstWorld American Family. I certainly do not want you to take a cold shower on purpose and say to yourself: “I MUST ENJOY THIS BECAUSE OF THAT LITTLE KID IN YEMEN THAT TAPP SPOKE ABOUT IN THE VA VOICE.” Trust me, I fully understand if you do not enjoy it. We just need to learn to count our blessings and be grateful for what we have. As cheesy as it sounds, we sort of owe it to our fellow man across the ocean. This is an example of a cat
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