After his stellar season last year, there are very high expectations for Harper this season. He showed that he would meet those expectations with a strong Spring Training. He hit three home runs and hit 15 batters in, while batting .478. “He started off well and that will carry through the season,” said freshman Michael Swisher.

Along with his Spring Training numbers, Harper started the season hot. In his first swing of the 2013 season, Harper hit a homerun to right field. Harper hit another home run in his second at bat with full count. Hitting those two pitches showed that he has improved on hitting the off speed pitches (both home run hits were on off speed pitches). Harper went in a slump mid-season last year when pitchers started to throw him more breaking pitches.

To be the player he is expected to be, he still needs to work on a few things. Harper can be a bit too aggressive at some points. He needs to be patient at the plate according to the JV Baseball Assistant Coach Matthew Norris. “Preparation will make him as good as he could possibly need,” said Coach Norris.

Coach Norris also described the “sophomore slump,” which could describe a possibility of Harper’s season. The “sophomore slump” is when a new player goes into his second year, not as experienced as everyone else, and pitchers start to figure him out. This could be a problem for Harper this year if he gets too aggressive at the plate.

Even with this possibility, past history has shown that there is also a good effect. One example of this is Al Kaline, a Detroit Tigers outfielder from 1953 to 1974. Kaline started playing in the MLB as a teenager, had his breakout year when he was 20 years of age in his third season of professional baseball (1955). He hit 27 home runs with over 100 runs batted in. He also batted a league high .340 batting average.

Harper has shown over the time he has spent in the MLB that he is unlike most of the baseball players. He has blinding speed, an overpowering swing and a strong respect for the game. All of those qualities combined make a player who plays the game right, just like Al Kaline, and will reach his expectations. Swisher said, “I think he’ll carry the team.”

Another perk is that this viewing of movies is completely free of charge. It is a good community event to go to with friends and family.

One interesting factor about this event is that not many students or other
residents from the area know about the event. The film fest is mostly
publicized by word of mouth, and a small space on the local Arlington website.

        In 2011, the film festival coordinators chose the films they showed on the screen on the green by picking movies that featured actors and actresses that the famous Saturday Night Live show had invited to appear on the show. The films chosen also seemed to be more provocative and most of them were rated R.

        Contrasting to this year, a lot of the movies that are scheduled to be shown are the timeless classics like Pretty In Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , and Grease.

        Depending on the flick playing, this event is definitely worth spending a warm summer night enjoying with friends and family.   

For more information please visit:

http://friendsofscreenonthegreen.org/

and http://www.rosslynva.org/play/calendar/film-festival

        At the six minute mark of the first half, Kevin Ware went to block a Duke player’s shot on the three point line in front of the Louisville bench. As he came down, his right leg contorted to the right and around in a way legs shouldn’t be able to rotate. He fell to the ground grabbing his leg, which had a compound fracture in the tibia and fibula, and part of the bone was visible outside the leg.

        On the telecast you can see Louisville’s bench look away in disgust, and Coach Rick Pitino comes to his aid. Players on the court fell to their knees. In the team huddle, Cardinal players were seen crying.

        Not long ago, there was injury that was similar to Ware’s. Freshmen Joe Langley said, “Marcus Lattimore’s injury (from South Carolina) was one similar to this, and that leg injury was hard to watch.”

        Louisville went on to dominate the second half and beat duke by 20 to advance to April 6’s Final Four in Atlanta. On Monday, April 8, the Cardinals beat the Michigan Wolverines 72-66 to claim a national championship. Ware even got his chance to cut the net down like the rest of his team.

        Ware’s injury inspired a “Win for Ware” campaign for Louisville. Many said Louisville’s response to his injury and the way they tried to help him showed a sense of love within a team not seen before. Freshmen Sean Haselby said, “They are the most tightly knit team in college basketball.”

        Numerous National Basketball Association players sent words of inspiration to Ware. Ware’s twitter follower’s skyrocketed with people giving words of comfort. The former Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theisman, who suffered an injury like Ware’s, offered his advice for Ware’s future.

        Doctors say that Ware will still be able to play basketball again. This is relief to many who saw his injury and his teammate’s reaction. And with a championship for Louisville, it is only fitting to end the season for Ware, who has been an inspiration for many.

The show started its first season in October of 2010 and has continued to progress and grow a large fan base. About 20 million people tuned into the first episode of season one; more than double the amount of the pilot episode.

In the final seconds of the last episode in season two, the camera pans into the distance, where viewers can see a prison in the distance. This becomes the “home” for the main group throughout season 3.

There were many new characters introduced in season 3, the most important being the “Governor”.  The “Governor” is the nickname given to the leader of another major group of people, possible the only other people beside the shows main character group. This is one of the first times that the main characters encounter another group of people who have also survived the apocalypse.  As the season progress, we continue to learn more about the Governor, who eventually becomes an insane killer and main protagonist of the show.

Other important additions to the show were the reappearance of Andrea and Merle. Both were part of the original cast that made up the Atlanta group. Andrea we had seen only briefly, but learn that she was surviving with the aid of another new character Machonne. Machonne is very mysterious character, known for her skilled killings of zombies with her katana. Eventually Andrea and Machonne are picked up by the Governor and begin to live in his colony, called Woodbury. Also living in Woodbury was another former character, Merle.

As always, with the additions of new characters comes the death or disappearance of others. The biggest loss was the death of Rick’s wife, Lori. She died while giving birth to the youngest character on the show, the new baby who is later named Judith. Rick, understandably does not take the death easy, and begins to show signs of depression.

Another big change between the three seasons, is the type of conflict. Before the characters were mostly battling the walking. In season three the conflicts shift to more interactions with other people, like the Governor. This plots have more development and probably will continue to the next season, airing in October.

“The season really picked up, ” said  sophomore Beth Ann Johnson. “The fights between the two groups were really exciting. I can’t wait for season 4.”

For the more cynical, the idea of a prosthetic tail “business” evokes images of an emaciated art school graduate, desperately praying for more orders as their humble home decays and their grandiose dreams of art-world fame die. However demand seems to be fairly good. Mertailor lists among their corporate clients; Mars, Sony, The Make a Wish Foundation, Disney, MTV, Saturday Night Live, Vitamin Water and Larry the Cable Guy.

As I perused the Mertailor website I was shocked by my lack of outrage. Mertailor had committed the twofold sin of being tawdry and weird, yet any criticism I came up with rang hollow. Perhaps the rags to riches story of Mertialor’s founder suppressed my rancor; 13 year old Eric Ducharme started Mertailor as a limited liability corporation and is now the leader in his industry.

So what if dressing up as a mermaid is a little weird? At least the people who do it fly under the metaphorical radar; it took a conscious effort for me an uninitiated individual with little interest in mermaids to discover Mertailor. Indeed these mermaids are very quiet, the fervent yet uncorroborated testimony of a few panicked sailors aside. Compare the rather demure carriage with which these “mermaids” carry themselves to the blatant cultishness of some other cultural movements. Justin Bieber fans have injured themselves by the dozens in anticipation of his shows. Not to mention the zombie-like fans of Apple products who gleefully purchase over-priced products and then try to justify their foolishness by touting “great” Apple programs like iMovie. These Mac mavens willfully promote the fiction that Macs are better for art and that PC’s should merely be used for business. This is a classic example of a false dilemma, PC’s are designed to run programs and there are many third party products for PC that provide superior functionality to Apple’s homegrown programs, not to mention that PC hardware is both cheaper and more customizable than Mac hardware. The more observant among you may have noted that this author has some fanboy allegiances of his own!

Recall all the times you were annoyed by a Belieber who wore their slavish affection like a badge of honor, or remember all the times you sighed inwardly as some bloviating Dr. Who fan engaged in a breathless rant over which “Doctor” is the best. Continuing in this vein, think about all the times you’ve been annoyed/disgusted/enraged by someone in a prosthetic mermaid tail… Go on I’ll wait. Less annoying than Apple, less repulsive than Doctor Who, not exactly a ringing endorsement but hey acceptable is acceptable.

Jayson Werth, the Nats right fielder has always had a lot of facial hair. However, he has recruited more players to the facial hair gang this year. Danny Espinosa started the year with a full beard, and has recently shaved it off. Bryce Harper, the youngest National, started the year with a full beard and still has it. Ian Desmond has a mustache in his picture that goes on the jumbotron when he bats.

The best beard on the Nats will always belong to Werth. Some say he looks like a caveman, yet he still has the most respected beard on the Nationals. The worst beard on the team goes to Bryce Harper. His blonde beard makes him look like a 17 year old playing high school baseball, trying to look cool for the district tournament. But if it works for him and he keeps hitting well, let the beard grow out.

The beards on the Nats call back memories of the best beards in sports. Two years ago, it was unanimous that Brian Wilson had the best beard in the league, however, that title may have been taken by his teammate, Sergio Romo. Maybe there is just good beard potential in the Giants’ bullpen.

Before Wilson, Rollie Fingers had the best facial hair in the bigs. His curly mustache was an icon that a couple tried to duplicate, but nothing was superior to his great ‘stache.

The facial hair in the league was dull before Wilson grew his. Perhaps his beard, along with Romo’s, is creating a resurgence of facial hair in the majors.

Communications suggest a North Korea missile launch is a possibility, a U.S. official says.

A U.S. State Department spokeswoman said Thursday the situation did “not need to get hotter,” reflecting efforts by the Obama administration to ease its rhetoric and cool tensions.

It is believed a missile launch would be a “test” launch rather than a targeted strike.

Wednesday the eleventh of May, the United States announced it was sending ballistic missile defenses to Guam, a Western Pacific territory that is home to U.S. naval and air  bases. North Korea has cited those bases when listing possible targets for missile attacks.

“I don’t believe anything is going to happen,” said sophomore Jennifer Perez. “I think the North Korean leader is just trying to show his people that he is a tough guy.”

“Pak Pong-ju is trying to show his military he isn’t afraid of the United States,” said history teacher Mrs. Root. “At this point the North Korean military feels he isn’t as tough as his father and they think he hasn’t shown any actions where they should believe otherwise.”

Recent North Korean threats contrast with some of its other state news reports. Now the missile put in firing position is a Musudan, a U.S. official tells CNN. A Musadan is an intermediate-range, road-mobile, liquid-propellant, single warhead missile based on the Russian R-27 and using adapted Soviet Scud technology.

Mounted on a wheeled transporter-erector-launcher vehicle, it could be launched within 15 minutes of the launcher being positioned.

President Obama says intelligence suggests that North Korea can’t build a nuclear missile.

   We missed the week of school before the break, leaving Friday, March 15. We arrived in Paris on Saturday but immediately headed for Reims, Arlington’s sister city, that is an hour and a half drive from Paris. The Lycee Marc Chagall school in Reims was hosting us, as we had hosted them when they came to the United States last year. The students who had hosted the previous year were staying with their students, but other students did not know who they were staying with. We were nervous, hoping that we would get along with our host family.

   Out of the two weeks we were in France, 11 days were with the host families.  Most days, our families would drop us off at the school and we would go on tours with the group of American students. We visited the city of Reims, with its famous cathedral and wine cellars. We also booked charter buses and went further away, such as to the castle forts of Bouillon and Pierrefonds, or to the cathedrals of Senlis, Amiens, and Laon.

   The tours, however, were not our favorite parts. Whenever we could, we tried to find food.

   We bought crepes from the crepes stands, baguettes from the boulangeries, fries from the friteries in Belgium and nutella paninis whenever we found any. Our host families would pack us a huge lunch, usually including bread, cheese and a dessert, but we would finish that and go looking for more.

   At times, we felt guilty about eating so much, especially those of us who played a sport back home and had not been exercising. One of the Yorktown students helped solved that problem by creating our catchphrase for the trip, ‘YANIFO’. Inspired by the infamous ‘YOLO’, ‘YANIFO’ was an acronym for ‘You are not in France often’ and was most often used before eating something, despite having already eaten a lot.

   Even though the food was our favorite part, the reason for travelling was to improve our French. Most of the students would say they would have. It is one thing to be in a classroom, learning French two or three times a week, but it is much more effective to be completely immersed in the language.

   Most students complained about how tiring it was to try and keep up in other language for the first couple days, but by the end of the trip, most found themselves being able to listen and respond more easily.

   Students also learned slang and other words that helped them seem more fluent. For example, MDR is the French equivalent to LOL, meaning “Mort de rire” or “dead of laughter”.

   Sophomore Emily Perrow enjoyed the French trip. “Getting to meet people from a different country and being to experience their culture was amazing,” she said. Her host family took her to see the special trees that only grow in that region and various cathedrals. She was sad to leave.

   I have been back for weeks, but am still not completely over the trip. I crave the food I had while there, as well as the freedom to go anywhere in the city by foot and public transportation. I miss the friends I made there-both the French and Americans.

   Mostly, though, I am completely grateful for being able to be part of such an amazing experience.

Such an assembly may be very necessary for the students. On April 11, 2011, a fatal accident occurred.18-year old Joseph DiFilippo was convicted of reckless driving that ended up killing 28-year old Alison Drucker and her dog on Quincy Street.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drivers aged 16-19 are three times as likely to get into a fatal car accident. Of course, this could also be due to young driver’s lack of experience. Unfortunately, many other factors are in place in teen car accidents. The CDC also says that 39 percent of teenaged males that get into car accidents are under the influence of alcohol. Also, it was reported in 2011 that only 54 percent of teens regularly wear seatbelts.

Of course, texting and driving is another matter entirely. In 2011, texting while driving was the cause for 23 percent of car crashes. 83 percent of teens own cell phone, making it very tempting for the use of your phone while driving. 13 percent of teens in car accidents admitted they were talking or texting on their phones at the time of the crash.

Many students argue that texting and driving isn’t a problem at all. 77 percent of young adults are confident that they can use their phones and drive safely at the same time.

Texting and driving isn’t even a problem inclusive to teenagers. 27 percent of adults talk and text while they drive. Children often see their parents talking on their phones as they drive.

It is very important for young drivers to learn how to drive safely, for their own safety and for others.

Senior Brent Diffee, as an Eagle Scout, constructed the benches and planted the tree as his Eagle Scout Service Project. The Eagle Scout Project is meant to demonstrate leadership while also performing a project for the benefit of the community.

Diffee chose to create a project that was helpful to one of the schools that he has been to. “I wanted to give back,” Diffee said.

Diffee visited all of the schools he attended here in Arlington: Taylor Elementary School, Swanson Middle School and Washington-Lee, to see if there were any service projects that could be done there, eventually deciding to do his project here.

After Washington-Lee agreed, Diffee set up the two benches and planted the state tree, a dogwood. “I thought it would be cool coming back in twenty years or so and seeing how the tree has grown,” he said.

Diffee had help on this project from his father, friends in the senior class and from other members of his troop.

While Diffee has not lead any other service projects, he has participated in many. He has scouted for food donations, reworked dog parks, refurbished laptops for a mission in Africa and many others.