‘Hunger Games’ devours competition

by Andrew Lash and Avery Wohlleb

Families flock to the Regal Stadium 16 theater in hopes of getting a good seat for Catching Fire. Although this film has been in theaters for nearly a month, it still produces a large turnout of movie goers.
Photo by Allie Moburg.

Dominating the U.S. movie theaters, the famous book series entitled The Hunger Games stirs curiosity among teenagers and adults alike. The saga hit the big screens on Nov. 22 making over 67 million dollars. Viewers swept the box offices.

“Working a double shift that night was a little overwhelming, but well worth the excitement of running a show every 30 minutes,” said Regal employee Michael Clark.

As the online servers for Regal entertainment overflowed, eager students sat behind their phone waiting to purchase tickets for that evening.

“I had to wait a while to get my tickets for that night, but it was all worth it because the movie was amazing,” said sophomore Maddie Watts.

It seems students were not the only viewers enjoying the movie as “Catching Fire” was given a 90 percent by critics on the website Rotten Tomatoes.

“The next morning was a real struggle for me and my friends. The night definitely took a toll on us,” said Watts.

Teachers were also noticing the dragging feet throughout the hallways. “The students I had that saw the movie looked washed out physically but the conversation between them would not stop. I’m assuming the new movie was the cause of it all,” said math teacher Kim Haley.

Ninth grade-English teacher Natasha Finn said anytime a new series is introduced there is almost always an uproar because people enjoy following the continuous releases. “It seems to be a very appealing genre to people,” she said.

Both the books and movies have become extremely successful. “I like the books better because it puts you into the story more and it’s also much more descriptive,” said freshman Lauren Perkins

“The change in directors made the movie more intriguing,” said Perkins. Obviously the change in the directorship of the series caused a major inflation in ticket sales. This is reflected in the mass amounts of media hype surrounding the second installation of this popular franchise.

Possible ban on trans fats indicates turn for healthier nation

by Haley Palmer, Elise Kurk, Amber Bartley & Jeannine Barr

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in every four Americans dies from heart disease.

Heart disease can be a consequence of high blood pressure which is a caused by unhealthy eating habits or the intake of trans fats. According to science teacher Randy Hein, consuming trans fats starts a domino effect. It begins with clotting in the arteries which elevates blood pressure. Next is the hardening of arteries, which affects the whole body by making it harder for organs to get the blood they need.

On Nov. 8, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the possible ban on partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) due to health risks. This would ban companies from having PHOs in their foods, which are the main carriers of trans fats.

Trans fats are chemically made by injecting hydrogen into an oil or lipid. They can be found in many generic junk foods such as Twinkies, french fries, chips, muffins, cakes, and frying oils. However, in recent years, the amount of trans fats in common foods has decreased drastically. This ban would be the final push in the long battle make the United States a healthier nation.

Despite health complications, some companies continue to use PHOs in their foods. It increases shelf-life and affects the flavor and texture of the foods.

“The foods have a finer consistency and it gives the food that waxy texture that we desire,” said Hein. “It’s natural to crave those things.”

Due to the spread of awareness, many have begun checking food labels. Regardless of the care taken to be attentive to health, it is legal for companies to round down to zero grams of trans fats on the label, if the traces are 0.49 grams or below. So all of those “healthy” foods, may actually contain the very thing contributing to the leading cause of deaths in the U.S. Sadly some companies are just out to sell their product.

In spite of the difficulty finding delicious yet healthy foods, the cafeteria strives to provide wholesome fresh meals.

“School lunches are very healthy,” said food nutrition manager Jody Kramer. “We offer a variety of vegetables that contain vitamins, such as broccoli, which is full of antioxidants.” Kramer said that no foods served contain trans fat and even the oil used to cook french fries is trans fat free.

While some may disagree with the ban, many at FC feel very positively about it.

School nurse Earlene King said, “If there is something better [for our health] we can do, we should do it.”

Freshman Carson Conley agreed, “It’s a good idea to increase the standards of the food we eat.”

Although the ban may not affect the cafeteria food, it will stop the heart disease epidemic caused by trans fats in other foods.

“We have an obesity problem in this nation.  We have a heart disease problem in this nation. And the problem is the way we eat,” said Kramer.

Pre-show rituals among theatre community

by John Renfrow and Gus McRae

The echos of “break a leg!” ring through the hallways, students with their makeup half complete run about, and vocal warmups can be heard as soon as you enter the building. It must be opening night at FC. There is a lot more than what meets the eye “behind the curtain” as far as getting ready for each individual student.

“I always like to warm up before a show and go over my rough spots in my head, it really gets me focused and allows me to be comfortable on stage,” said senior Collin Jackson.

But “warming up” doesn’t always mean the same thing for everybody when getting prepared for a show. For senior Tyler Tuma, jamming to some music that is different from the tunes in the show gets him in the right mindset to be the best that he can be.

“I usually listen to music before the show, as well as vocal warmups and some meditation as well,” said Tuma, “It helps me get pumped.”

Many people believe that rehearsal is all that actors need to get ready to perform, but it is actually a lot more personal than that. Before every show, theatre students circle around for a prayer, followed by a group exercise that loosens everybody up and gets them excited. This exercise consists of “shaking out the nerves” mixed with loosening the vocal cords.

The theatre department at FC is a very tight-knit community that is notorious for superstition before shows, according to senior Savannah Wormley. The words “good luck” are not frequently spoken because of students’ fear of being jinxed prior to show time.

Also, for reasons unknown among the theater community, the word “Macbeth”, after the Shakespearean drama, is also forbidden to speak or acknowledge before the show.

Aside from not speaking certain words, there is a huge diversity in getting ready to on. For senior Clay Gully, he enjoys arriving to the show an hour early to help get himself “in the zone” for what he is performing that night. As for junior Mary Hayes, it’s as simple as going over lines while putting makeup on in the dressing-room.

No matter what student is doing what, it must be working to keep a consistent and successful theatre department. There is one tradition that everyone in the department stays true to: to have fun and put on the best show possible.

 

Rumors are reported

by Lindsay Sparrow and Maci Korfhage

It may be a surprise to FC but students at New Albany and Providence make odd assumptions about the FC student body. Whether the accusations are true or not is the real question. These students from other schools have spoken up about these stereotypes.

Many accusations have been made about FC’s student body.

“I have heard that they cheat on a lot of things and are all stuck-up, snobby wealthy people,” said Providence sophomore Aaron Flanagan.

“From what has been told to me through the grape vine is that Floyd Central is all rich and mostly arrogant, smart kids,” said Providence freshman Brooke Hayden.

Some people have different opinions on if FC is actually stuck-up wealthy kids or not. There may be some truth behind FC’s stereotypes but most of the time, students from FC would deny these stereotypes.

“There might be a few people from Floyd Central that are a little more blessed than some of us, but for the most part I don’t think these stereotypes are true for all of the FC student body,” said Hayden.

Providence freshman Jeffery Krieger said people from Providence go through the same thing with the wealthy kids assumptions, but they are more aimed at FC than to Providence.

Wondering how these stereotypes are brought up again during different sports seasons only one thing comes to mind- who has more school spirit? “I say students at FC  can be stuck up and have no spirit but when they put their mind to it they are all great people,” said senior Mike Springer.

This upcoming sports season should be a close one. With rivalry schools coming to play on FC’s home court for basketball and FC’s crazy student sections to fill up New Albany’s and Jeffersonville’s visiting student sections for football, this season will be a rowdy one.