Month: September 2021

Are you an avid reader and looking for something new to read? Well you’ve clicked on the right thing. I’ve interviewed one of our English teachers, Mrs. Vanlandingham, about one of her book recommendations. The book she recommends is the Natchez Burning Trilogy. She added that it was actually part of the Penn Cage Series by Greg Iles. I asked her to share with us what made these books so great. 

She loves murder/mystery books, but this books also incorporates history from Mississippi and The South. I wondered what made her select this book. She said that at the time she read this book, it was a book everyone was talking about. To persuade you to read this book she says that this is her favorite author. She also said it’s a book you can’t put down because the “plot flows seamlessly and one thing after another happens to keep the reader interested. It is also set in our area, so that is a point of interest. The author also incorporates real historical events and ties them to the events that happen in the story.”  I asked her to share a favorite quote from the book and why this stood out to her. She answered that her favorite quote wasn’t from the book but from a critic about Greg Iles. She said that the critic described Greg Iles’ writing in this book as William Faulkner “for the Breaking Bad generation.”

 I wanted to know if she had a favorite part of the book. She said that her favorite thing about the book ( book series ) is how the characters change and develop over the course of the series. I also wondered if she disliked a part of the book. She answered that she didn’t and loved everything about the book. As we got towards the end of the interview, I asked her about her thoughts on the ending. She said that she liked the ending. She added that the author left things open just enough that more could be written. 

To end the interview, she gives a summary of the book.  “Natchez Burning is a tale of the lasting horror that occurred in The South during the Civil Rights era. It shares the turmoil Natchez Mayor Penn Cage faces when his stoic father, a prominent physician and military veteran, is accused of murder. With the past bleeding into the present, Penn works with local journalist Henry Sexton and his fiance Caitlin Masters to solve not only his father’s case, but a litany of cold cases long abandoned by the rest of the world.” I hope this sparked your interest, and you give this book a chance. 

Staff Writer, Kalei Cassell

My journalism classmates and I went around the school surveying students. We wanted to see if they knew who said the famous quote. I gave them 2 options, one was a smart business person and the other was some type of musician or a person from pop culture. There were 10 quotes and the 5 of us each asked 10 people. If you do the math, 50 people from the school were surveyed. 

The first quote was by Dolly Parton, and a lot of people seem to know their Dolly Parton quotes. More than half of the people got her quote, “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain” right. Only 18 people chose the wrong answer, Nelson Mandela.

Also, more than half got The Weeknd’s song lyric right, which was, “If you try to play your luck, ain’t nobody gonna care enough to catch you fall. 13 people out of 50 guessed Martin Luther King over him. 

The famous Aristotle quote, “A friend to all is a friend to none,” got pretty much all correct guesses. Only 9 out of the 50 people got it wrong, guessing Justin Bieber. 

More than half picked Anne Frank over a Kurt Cobain quote from Nirvana’s song ‘Dumb’ that says, “The sun is gone, but I have a light.” I knew a lot of people probably didn’t know who Kurt Cobain was. Some people did guess right, but not a lot. 

30 people got Drake’s song lyric, “Life can always change, you just have to adjust,” right. It was almost a tie between him and Albert Einstein. 

More than half of the people guessed Travis Scott over Abraham Lincoln on Lincoln’s quote, “I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.”  This did not surprise me because the quote does sound like something Travis Scott would mumble in one of his songs. 

For Elon Musk’s quote, “Any product that needs a manual to run is already broken,” more than half got it right and guessed Elon over Rosa Parks. That makes sense since he does make cars and Rosa didn’t do anything technical as far as I know. 

Half guessed Harry Styles’ quote, “A dream is only a dream… until you decide to make it real,” right over the famous painter, Vincent Van Gogh. I didn’t think too many people would get this right, but it was half and half. 

More than half, 31 out of 50 to be exact, people got Shakespeare’s quote right, which was “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to no one,” over Elvis Presley. This did not surprise me, for we do live right next to Tupelo, where Elvis grew up. 

Almost exactly half got Logic’s quote right over Steve Jobs. The quote was, “How can the sky be the limit when there’s footprints on the moon?” Daniel, one of the other students giving surveys in my class, said that one of his people he interviewed said they didn’t know who Steve Jobs was. So, the person guessed Logic, and from this information I inferred that this was the reason why half of them got it wrong. This surprised me because I thought people would hear the name Steve Jobs and think smart, so they’d guess the smart person. That must’ve not been the case here, though. 

I was overall not that surprised by the guesses. Students at MHS know they’re singers, but they could brush up on their knowledge of famous people’s quotes.

Molly Murray

Everyone has some certain things that they love and dislike. From a teenager’s point of view, especially mine, Grace Eldridge, I feel very strongly on these certain school related topics.

4th block

Thumbs up:

I love having sports 4th block so I can still have time in the day to do other things after school. 

Thumbs down: 

 I dislike not being able to move my car to the spot we practice. It is an inconvenience because I don’t have enough time to get from my last class to practice which causes me to be late everyday. 

Dresscode

Thumbs up:

I also am glad we do not have to wear uniforms everyday, because it helps kids express themselves.

Thumbs down:

 Although, I hate the dress code. I would want to come to school and be happier if I was able to be comfortable in class. Of course I understand some types of clothing are inappropriate for a school setting, but telling teenage girls they are a distraction because their leg, shoulder or stomach is showing impacts the young girls mind that they have to dress to be accepted in society. In my opinion, kids should have the opportunity to explore and choose what they like and dislike.

Eating times

Thumbs up:

I am grateful we have a place to buy snacks during break and we get free lunches.

Thumbs down:

 I despise not having a longer time to actually enjoy the snack bought. I am always the last one to leave the lunch room because of the little time we have to eat our lunch. I always end up worrying about how I’m going to eat all my food in time. If you know me, you know I love to eat, but with so little time I’m too worried about eating fast enough more than enjoying the food i’m eating. 

Written by: Grace Eldridge