Vox Juvenis Journalism

We are finally presenting our first issue of the new year! We have been undergoing quite the transition with many new members and the older members leaving. So, one result is the time it has taken to rebuild a team. Another great result is added variety to the articles with many new personalities. This month’s issues includes articles from past members and the new writers as well. We will continue to add articles as the month progresses. Please leave us feedback in the comment section!

Articles:

New Year’s Resolutions By Jake

Psychological Reactions to the End of the World By Forrest

The Economy: How We Got Where We are Today By Julian

GOP Candidates’ Economic Policies By Jake

How Does New Technology Create Jobs? By Aaron

Oil Spill Costs By Robbie

In the spirit of the season, the Vox Juvenis team came to a consensus to write a holiday issue for December. However, we wanted to include any religions from any time of the year. This allowed our writers to explore diverse interests and to meet some really interesting people for different interviews. We hope you enjoy this holiday issue.

Happy Holidays!

Vox Juvenis Team

Christmas from a Jewish Perspective By Julian: For those who celebrate Christmas, the months of preparation before the holiday can be an exciting and joyous time. Decorations show up in store windows, radio stations start to play Christmas music, and icicle lights go up on houses. People who practice non-Christian religions, or grew up in non-Christian households, though, can have a different perspective on the Christmas season. Tracy Lerman and Amanda Lawrence are two Jewish women who live in different parts of the country and have their own unique perspective on their experiences with Christmas. Read More. . . . 

Soldier’s Holidays By Forrest: When soldiers are stationed overseas without family during the holidays, and families stay home without their children, it causes a lot of emotions and feelings like frustration, sadness, and loneliness.

First Lieutenant John Miller led a platoon of 41 soldiers stationed in Iraq. Lt. Miller was in Iraq for a year and a half. He was able to go home for Christmas but wasn’t able to leave for other holidays. He witnessed soldiers in the platoon not being able to see their families. For Lt. Miller’s soldiers, “The hardest times to be away are children’s birthdays; some soldiers didn’t get to see their children born.” Read More. . . .  

One Person’s Celebration of Day of the Dead By Cory: At first glance, the Mexican custom of El Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead) may sound much like the U.S. custom of Halloween. After all, the celebration traditionally starts at midnight the night of Oct. 31, and the festivities are abundant in images related to death. Read More. . . . 

An Interview with a Student who Spends Thanksgiving Away from Home  By David: Thanksgiving is often a time for family and friends to get together. However, for one person that does not happen. Forrest, a teenager in an alternative treatment program has not had that chance for the past three years of his life. He shares that experience. Read More. . . .

Small Business Holiday Marketing Strategies  By Steven: When you’re watching T.V or reading the newspaper after Halloween you may notice all of the holiday advertisements. Big businesses like Fred Meyers, Target, Macy’s, and even Petco spend millions of dollars to keep those advertisements going for two months. Local businesses try to compete with these big businesses and, often times they are struggling to do so. Charlie Christensen, a local business owner in Hood River, Oregon, has a store called The Book Stop. Read More . . . .  

Black Friday  By Kenny: Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Black Friday indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are “in the black”. Retail stores often open early, usually right around 4:00 AM or earlier, and they offer promotional sales to start the shopping season. November 26^th is often given the title “One of the busiest days of the year”, it’s so busy that it can be fatal. Unfortunately, a man was trampled to death on Black Friday in 2010 by a mob of 2,000 impatient shoppers at the doors of a Wal-Mart in Long Island, NY. Read More. . . .

Fun Facts about Popular Christmas Music  By: Luke: Have you ever wondered where songs like, “Jingle Bells”, “Silent Night”, or “White Christmas”, came from? Read More. . . .

December 2011 Student of the Month: Julian! 

This month, the students took on the topic of sports for the theme. After a democratic voting process decided the theme, students got to work on stories having to do with all aspects of sports. They cover topics from the NBA lockout to the issue of eating disorders in sports. Whether you are a sports fan or not, you are likely to find an interesting topic below. Let us know what you think!

Articles:

2011 NBA Lockout By Jake: The 2011 NBA lockout is the fourth lockout in the National Basketball Association (NBA) history. This lockout began on July 1, 2011 and was a result of labor negotiations between the players and owners of the NBA. A lockout is when the teams cannot trade, sign, or contact players, and players cannot access NBA team facilities, trainers, or staff. The dispute at the center of the lockout is how to split basketball related income (B.R.I). At the center of the lockout is also the collective bargaining agreement (C.B.A), a contract between owners and players regarding how they are compensated for their services. Read More. . . .

Money Involved in College Athletics By Julian: The popularity of college sports has risen dramatically in the last fifty years, due in part to the expansion of televised games. With that rise in popularity, more money has come to the schools, coaches, recruiters, athletic directors, and the other people involved with college sports. The players, however, have been unpaid through all of this. Walter Byers, former Executive Director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), said in his book Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes that while some coach’s salaries have gone up twentyfold, “player earnings haven’t changed appreciably above the terms set [in 1956] for the athletics scholarship – tuition, books, room and board, and incidentals.” Read More. . . .

Competitive Ego versus Spiritual Connection By Jeff: According to the Scott Foresman Dictionary, the meaning of sport is all forms of physical activity, which, through organized or casual participation, improve or maintain physical fitness and provide entertainment to “players” or participants. The sport may by competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified, by objective means, and may require a degree of skill. Read More. . . .

Performance Enhancing Drugs By Katie: The role of performance enhancing drugs in the world of sports has increased steadily in the past 20 years. Operation Puerto, a police operation investigating a Spanish doping network implicated approximately 50 cyclists, and 150 other people in sports, which includes high profile foot ball players. The cyclists were punished by the law, but the football players weren’t, even though they were involved in the doping ring. George Mitchell, a congressman did a report on the use of steroids in Major League baseball. Mitchell reported baseball’s drug testing policies before and after 2002. He named approximately about 86 players in the report that had some sort of a connection to the usage of steroids. Read More. . . .

Oakland Raiders Drafting Strategy By Cory: The release of the film Moneyball has brought national attention to the unique recruiting strategies employed by the front office of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics. It has also had impacts in baseball and other professional sports, as many front offices look for things that other offices aren’t measuring to gain a competitive advantage. One such strategy employed for decades by the recently deceased Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, has been to draft track stars as wide receivers. Read More. . . .

High School Wrestling and Eating Disorders By David: High school wrestlers tend to focus on their weight, in order to remain in a desired weight class. Some even resort to spitting in a cup to shed the extra pounds. Because of this focus on weight, some high school students develop eating disorders. One high school wrestler talks about his experience with losing weight in wrestling. Read More. . . .

Sports Injuries By Kenny: Sports injuries affect kids and adults in numerous different ways on a regular basis. According to Safe Kids USA “more than 3.5 million children, 14 and under receive medical treatment for sports injuries each year.” Additionally, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injuries, “From 1982 to 2002, the total fatalities among high school athletes per sport are as follows: cross country-14, wrestling-16, baseball-17, cheerleading-21, football-22, soccer-31, track and field-47, and basketball-88.” Read More. . . .

Article by Robbie

On July 1st during a flood a tree severed a 12 inch oil pipe in the Yellowstone River spewing 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the river. In the 56 minutes it took to fix, more than 1000 workers were involved. The cost of the spill was approximately 135 million dollars. Even the smallest of oil spills can cost a lot of money. Not only do oil spills have a financial cost, they can also cost animals their lives. There is a great cost for what has been called black gold. We don’t like to think about the cost that we have to pay to fix what could be a 56-minute spill. Though important, there are some costs.

On April 20th British Petro- leum (B.P.)along with the cities and countries on the Gulf of Mexico suffered a hard hit when an oil rig ex- ploded, spilling 175 million gallons of oil into the water. Overall B.P spent 40 billion dollars on the clean up, 7.7 billion higher than its initial estimate. By the end of September, B.P had already spent 11.2 billion on the clean up. That’s not counting the 20 billion they spent on compensation funds toward the victims, some of the biggest impacts this oil spill had was on the food and fishing industry. According to Ewell Smith, head of the Louisiana Seafood promotion and marketing board “People lose sight that our fishing com- munities and our oil and gas communities are tied together at the hip. They both need to stay strong to keep our economy strong,” Ewell said. “So its good news that B.P is recovering finan- cially”. According to Associated Press (AP) business writer Jane Warell “The national oceanic and atmospheric administration has reported most federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico to commercial fishing, leaving just about four percent still closed. At the height of the spill, about 37 present of federal waters in the gulf were closed.” Tourism also took a huge hit and is still struggling due to this spill. Danielle Yarbrough, who owned Smokey Blues Barbecue, was forced to shut down her business due to fewer tourists. Due to her loss, B.P paid her compensation but it came a little too late. Though B.P is recovering financially, they still have a lot to do to recover environmentally. When the oil rig blew up, it killed 11 people and caused harm to hundreds of animals. It infected the food chain and some oil settled on the sea floor harming many more life forms. According to Earth Justice. “We aim to force federal agencies to do their jobs and stop being cozy with companies like B.P, which was allowed to drill recklessly without an adequate plan to handle even a moderate oil spill, let alone the monster it let loose on April 20th.”

On March 24th 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez was on its way from Val- dez, Alaska to Los Angeles, California when it ran aground spilling 10.9 million of its 53 million gallons of crude oil. The spill impacted 1100 miles of coast line in Alaska. Some of the greatest losses during this time were the sport fishing and tourism income. In 1989, the fishing industry suffered a great loss estimated to be up to 580 million. In 1990, the situation had improved but the state still lost 3.6 to 50.5 million dollars because people didn’t want to go for guide fishing tours where an oil spill was being cleaned up. The tourism industry was also impacted because resident and nonresident vacations were cut down because people feared the oil and no one wanted to go see an oil spill. According to the Exxon Valdez oil spill trustee council, “Fifty-nine percent of businesses in the most affected areas reported spill- related cancellation and 16 percent reported business was less then expected due to the spill. However, the oil spill did do some good, it gave some animals some attention they needed. The marine mammals, such as otters, whales, sea lions, and seals were relocated and 20,000 to 300,000 dollars were given to help nurse them back to health. Those were not the only animals that were helped, bears, river otters, mink, and deer were aided after the spill. However, oil spills are harmful and greatly expensive; they can help get our atten- tion to areas that may need it.

In moments prior to the interview with Fred Walasavge the thought was oil spills on land were little and unimportant. According to Fred Walasavge, an environmental specialist for Bonneville Power Association in Oregon, cleanup of oil is quite difficult; it may be absorbed into the ground and spread. A short release of oil can absorb into the first five feet of soil where it can be removed by excavators. The shut down of the equipment during a spill is one of the intangible costs. Then upon release, an environmental firm is contacted to send an environmental response contractor. The company that had the spill has to pay for the excavation, transportation, and disposal site. On a general scale, removal would be about 20 dollar per ton transportation is about 40 dollars per ton. Prices can range from five to twenty thousand dollars on a smaller release, 20 to 40 thousand dollars on a moderate to a large release. Some of the things companies have done to keep spills from spreading and doing more damage include requiring detailed spill plans that show fault lines and the best places to catch the oil. These spill plans tell the workers exactly what to do and where to go. Some companies also put in oil spill containment units around their equipment. That is like a membrane that surrounds the equipment that then channels the oil in to vaults. Within the vaults, there are different containment units that hold the oil until it can be disposed of properly.

Oil spills can be very expensive and harmful. The more we prepare for them, the faster they can be cleaned up leading to less damage to our environ- ment and economy.

Article by Aaron

As technological advances increase, the impact of this technology is inevitable. New technology includes iPods, iPhones, iPads, cell phones, computers, televisions, and even cars.

Every year each car manufactured has more technology inside of it. The clear examples are movie screen and GPS units, electric doors and windows, security, and heated seats. Inside the engine the cars are run by computers, which have replaced alternators stick shifts, heating coils. The more a car’s engine is governed by computers the fewer people are able to work on them.

Since technology has been introduced into the workplace, it has reduced or eliminated many jobs. Years ago there were record keepers for files, runners for mail and phone messages, calls and dictation was done by secretaries. Now much of that is done on com- puters. Technology impacts factory jobs as well. Assembly lines for cars and other prod- ucts used to be manned by actual people, now they are “manned” by robot arms.

Foxconn, who makes Apple products, in 2012 moved from 10,000 automated assembly line roles to 300,000. Their goal is to move to 1 million by 2014. According to the J Rank Encyclopedia, “In the 1980s, Japanese and Italian automobile manufactur- ers so successfully automated their assembly lines that certain of their factories consisted almost entirely of robots regularly doing their jobs. On one particular Italian Fiat, only 30 of the 2,700 welds were done by human hands. In principle, they are Henry Ford’s assembly lines carried to their ulti- mate conclusion. Starting again with the bare chassis, major components (which themselves have been automatically assembled elsewhere) are attached by robots, and the computer keeps track of exactly what is to be added to each. Each vehicle is considered unique and the central computer assures its total assembly.” According to Paul Krug- man, a professor of economics at MIT, “The new technology will begin destroying jobs instead of creating them.” Supply and demand can still have an impact on jobs. Significantly, unemployment will drive down wages because there are a large number of people looking for work and, therefore, employers do not have to pay very high wages. At that point, things will get worse.

Meanwhile, though technology has taken many menial jobs it has created jobs such as graphic designers, software designers, game and web designers, and a range of new engineering jobs. The jobs that new technology has taken away do not require a college degree. The jobs it has provided, however, do. Therefore, theoretically, modern technology favors highly intelligent people and rewards them the greatest. However, requiring a college degree, it also favors those with more money. Those people with money have more opportuni- ties to further their education and have more access to the jobs created by technological advances.

Article by Jake

The GOP race is about halfway through and all the above candidates are vowing to stay in the race. The results of the race so far are Mitt Romney in first place with 563 delegates, Rick Santorum with 261 delegates, Newt Gingrich is in third place with 135 delegates, and in fourth place is Ron Paul with 50 delegates. The candidates are all vowing to stay in until the end, which will end at the Republican National Conven- tion in August in Tampa Bay, Florida.

This Year candidates Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich are running for the GOP candi- dacy. Ron Paul is a Libertarian from Texas who wants to leave aspects of the govern- ment to the states. Mitt Romney is the for- mer governor of Massachusetts, Romney is a person that is living the self-proclaimed American Dream by running his own busi- ness and being a part of the upper class. Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the house During the Reagan Administration, was Time Magazine man of the year Rick Santorum is a former senator of Pennsylvania, previous member of the United States congress and a social conservative.

Ronald Ernest Paul was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the Texas 14th district. Ron Paul has a plan to cut economic spending by 1 trillion dollars in his first year in office and 10 trillion by the time, he is out of office. Paul has pledged to never raise taxes and believes the U.S. can abolish the individual income tax. Paul Regularly votes against government spending and believes we need to cut back spending. Paul believes we need to decrease the federal government substantially and stop voting to increase taxes. Ron Paul’s stance on the economy is to cut back on the things we already have rather then to add taxes.

Mitt Romney the former governor of Massachusetts has created nearly 120,000 jobs for office supply company Staples. Romney supports tax relief for all Americans and vows to eliminate the capital gains tax. Romney put forth a health plan that allowed every Massachusetts citizen to have health insurance and for it to be affordable. Rom- ney opposed Barack Obama’s “Obama Care” health plan as soon as he signed it in March of 2010. Romney supported $20 billion for energy research and new technology. Rom- ney vetoed the budget control act of 2011; Romney signed the cut, cap, and balance pledge, in which the federal debt ceiling would be contingent on severe cuts to spending. Mitt Romney vows to “believe in America” and that job creation is his way to do that.

Rick Santorum has introduced a policy to drill everywhere for oil saying we have “enough oil, coal, and natural gas to last for centuries. Time magazine explains a syn- thetic fuel tax credit that would be a multi billion-dollar fraud; this would benefit a small group of well-connected politicians, this plan was proposed by Santorum. Santorum supported raised funds for social service grants and organizations like healthy start and children aids association financing community centers. Santorum is considered a social conservative and believes that he is the candidate that will bring America back.

Newt Gingrich is the former speaker of the house when Reagan was in office and considers himself similar to Reagan. Gingrich is generally involved in making policies for job creation, such as reducing government rules and federal taxes. Gingrich co-authored the book Con- tract with America, which involved the job creation and wage enhancement act. Gin- grich submitted a plan that involves tax cuts and completely abolishing the estate tax and the capital gains tax.

Article by Julian

It’s no secret the United States economy has been suffering the last few years. The Housing market crashed, people are out of work, and Wall Street has yet to recover. But recover from what? While most Americans know the economy is hurt- ing, a lot of them don’t know why. There is debate about what caused the economic downturn from Main Street to Wall Street. There are some facts, though, that tell us what happened.

The main contributor to our current economic rut is shown on what is called a Bank Balance Sheet. Every bank has a balance sheet, and at all times, the sheet must, well, bal- ance. On one side of the sheet are a bank’s liabilities and capital. Capital is what the bank owners own. The profit they make each year is added to their capital. Liabilities are what customers put into the bank; the money they deposit. Capitals plus liabilities must equal the other side of the sheet: a bank’s as- sets. Assets are what banks lend out, such as home mortgages or small busi- ness loans. Meaning that, the amount a bank lends must equal its capital and li- abilities, making sure the banks have enough money to a) stay in business and b) have money for their customers.

This is where trouble ensued in 2008. Banks were giving loans to people who could not pay them back. An asset that is not getting paid back becomes what is called a toxic asset. Toxic assets are an issue for banks because, if they continue to be toxic, the banks will lose money. This is what happened: banks had too many toxic assets and risky loans that they could not get rid of, so the banks started to lose money.

There are a few options to fix this situation at this point. The first is to let the banks go under. They made poor loan decisions; therefore they can take the fall, so to speak. The other is to help out the banks, which can be done in a few ways. First, the government could nationalize the banks, which means taking ownership over the bank and cleaning it up, hopefully to sell it to a private investor down the line. The last option is to bailout the banks.

Article by Forrest

December 21, 2012, is the predicted date of the end of the world. The end of the world as we know it has been predicted many times, most recently in 2012 due to the end of the Mayan calendar. Three different apocalyptic events such as 2012, the alien invasion, or the rogue black hole. Paul Woolery, a therapist from Hood River, talks a little bit about the ways people might feel or act when the predicted apocalyptic event grows closer, also his thoughts and feelings.

Sometimes people believe what others do not. Paul Woolery says, “I think that it is all pretty crazy.” Fearing the end of the world, people look to their religion for what to do, the most common reactions are both stocking up with food or water, growing, canning there own food, and staying “off the grid.” “A couple of years ago, a group of people had taken poison together because they thought the world was going to end,” said Paul.

Many people have beliefs about how the world may end; there are many different predictions for the end of the world. The most recent prediction is 2012, the day the Mayan calendar ends and where a series of natural and unnatural events will oc- cur, killing humanity and then new humankind will begin, while god’s kingdom will fall to the earth. Or an- other prediction is an Alien invasion when aliens would convert to human bodies and then killing all hu- manity. And or the Rouge Black Hole was predicted to pass thorough the sun and make x-rays while the sun would ring like a bell possibly destroying the sun and freezing earth solid. Paul says, “Sometimes people grab on to beliefs and some times they are crazy beliefs because it gives them a sense of control.”

Article by Jake

New Years resolutions are an important time for people to reflect on the past year, what they did wrong and how to fix those things. Many people all over the United States use January first as a day to reflect and fix their physical, financial, and mental health.

Kieran Connolly spoke of his experiences with resolutions saying, “New Year’s resolutions are really im- portant”. Connolly also said, “I made some really huge resolutions a few years ago, like life changing resolutions”. Con- nolly’s resolution was to “Get into better shape physically, mentally, & finan- cially”.

Others think of New Years as a traditional holiday. Shalynn Lathrop said, “I set two resolutions this year and one was to say yes to activities not involving work”. Lathrop said she is not always motivated to do resolutions but says, “It’s good to be open to new ideas like resolutions.” Lathrop said she made one good resolution, “When I was in my early thirties I set a resolu- tion to be more active and I really got in a lot better shape.” Lathrop likes the idea of New Year’s resolutions but is not a person who sets them every year.

Others think of New Years as a holiday to wait for the New Year and stay up late like Nikki Stefani. Stefani said, “I don’t really do New Years resolutions all the time but sometimes I do if I feel I need it”. Stefani does not feel as if she has really ever succeeded on any resolu- tions. Stefani said, “I will set resolu- tions if I feel I have things that I need to change or want to change but it’s not a tradition.” Stefani said that she feels that New Years “resolutions are a good thing for others because I start seeing my yoga class fill up.”

Earlier this year, the student council students decided to put together various efforts to raise money to support our student-led programs, such as the Vox Juvenis journalism class, and to fund service-learning projects. These projects enable the students to learn valuable life lessons while giving back to a supportive community. When the council heard about budget cuts, they decided to try and raise the money themselves and received the full support of the rest of the school. So far they have put on a Fashion Show featuring recycled and reused clothing, a silent auction, a museum gift shop and are now promoting 2012 student created calendars and winter cards.

The calendars were made using photography and Photoshop Art. Each month represents a different core value of the school. For example, February is a picture depicting Trust. The students put a lot of effort into creating, budgeting for and printing the calendars and are excited to share them with you.

In addition to the calendars, the students started making post cards depicting program activities and are now creating non-holiday specific winter cards for people to send with gifts. Every project they take on requires collaboration, input from the school community and partnerships with community businesses to help promote and sell what they have created.

Good Karma Thrift store of Hood River, OR has been our main partner and contributor so far. They donated most of the clothing for the Fashion Show, helped to sell tickets, and supported the message of sustainability. They are now promoting the calendars and helping to sell them in their shop. The students have really learned a lot from this partnership and have hopefully helped Good Karma with its business at the same time.

Future fundraising plans are in the works. The council met with the rest of the school about how to continue to raise money while putting on meaningful events in the community. After getting input from the school students and staff, they are now discussing organizing an Art Show featuring student art as well as work from a local artist. They are still in the planning phase, but look forward to presenting the official plans soon.

If you would like to extend your support to the student fundraising efforts, you can help by purchasing a 2012 calendar or get in touch with Sarah Cullington or Kieran Connolly about what you can do. The calendars are just $10 each. That money goes directly to supporting future education projects at our non-profit school. You can buy a calendar online at www.voxjuvenis.com, or place an order by emailing Sarah Cullington at sarahc@nextdoorinc.org or Kieran Connolly at kieranc@nextdoorinc.org. Thank you for your support!

The Klahre House Student of the Month for the month of December is Julian. Some of the reasons given by staff and students were that he does consistently well in class, shows good leadership, and is positive and helpful. The Student of the Month is selected through both a popular vote that determines the top three students, and then a democratic discussion process. The top three students are each scored on four criteria: Education, Treatment, Leadership, and Something Extra. This month, Julian, Cory, and Steven were the top three, but Julian was ultimately decided as Student of the Month. The following is an interview with Julian.

VJ: Why do you think you were chosen as Student of the Month?

J: I think I was chosen because I am at a really good place in my treatment and my life, and that shows. I’ve stepped up in a lot of areas recently, and I’m feeling good about everything.

VJ: How do you feel about being Student of the Month?

J: I’m sort of on the fence about it. I’m glad that people see me as Student of the Month, but I also think other people deserve it more than I do.

VJ: Who do you look up to at the Klahre House?

J: I probably look up to Terry or Kieran the most. I feel like I can have awesome conversations with both of them, and they are the kind of people I want to emulate in my own life. In terms of who’s helped me out the most, though, I’d have to say both Rebecca and Michelle.

VJ: What do you think you need to work on to improve your leadership?

J: I think I need to become more self- aware. I’ve never felt like a leader, so when I’m in a leadership position, I feel uncomfortable. I need to be more okay with myself as a leader.

VJ: What comes to mind when you think of the word ‘leader’?

J: Someone who has influence on their surroundings; someone people look up to.

VJ: How do you think your peers see you?

J: Well, I can’t speak for them, but I hope they see me as helpful, approachable, and funny. Someone they want to be around.

VJ: What’s an interesting fact about you?

J: I’m completely and totally obsessed with Justin Bieber.

VJ: What’s your favorite food?

J: I love Thai and Indian food, but any Mexican dish is a close third.

VJ: What do you do for fun?

J: I love music, so I listen to a lot of different music. Going to shows is probably my favorite thing to do. I also read a lot.

VJ: What’s your biggest pet peeve?

J: When someone says something and you don’t hear it, so you ask them to repeat it, and they won’t. That drives me crazy.

By Luke

Have you ever wondered where songs like, “Jingle Bells”, “Silent Night”, or “White Christmas”, came from?

“Jingle Bells” was originally composed in 1850.The song was published by James Lord Pierpont in 1857.The song was originally written for Thanksgiving, and published under the name, “One Horse Open Sleigh”. The song was inspired by the popular sleigh races in Medford Massachusetts in the 1800’s. The song’s popularity started to pick up when Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded the song in 1943.

“White Christmas” was written by Irving Berlin about an old fashioned Christmas. There is no true record of when it was written. This song held the record in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the best selling single of all time. There was an estimated fifty million copies worldwide.  This song was sung by many people, including; Bing Crosby, Darlene Love, and the vocal group, the Ravens.

“Silent Night” is a popular Christmas carol, with the lyrics to the German song “Stille Nacht.” The song was written in Oberndorf Bei Salzburg, in 1859. It was written by priest father, Joseph Mohr. The rhythm of the song was composed by Austrian headmaster Franz Xavier Gruber. The carol was first performed in the Nikolaus-Kircle (church of St. Nicholas) in Oberndorf, Austria, on December, 24, 1816.