***

A while back a number of Cobbler students earned the right to call themselves all-staters. Here’s a pic of the All State Band honorees. Congratulations to (in the order you see them in the photo) Micah Roubideaux, string bass, Spencer Gerdes, percussion, Brady Vandevort, euphonium, Molly Royals, clarinet, Ashley Frizzell, flute, Carleigh Klein, French horn, Sarah Hight, trumpet, Paige Werner, oboe, Tobias Rath, Director Rapid City Central High School Band. Molly Royals, we might note, is a four year member of the All-Sate band.

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Tickets went on sale this week for next week’s performances of Charlotte’s Web. Make sure you get your tickets down in the activities office soon, so you can experience another great performance in the new theater.

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The Pine Needle extends congratulations to Mrs. Enright, who, on Monday, gave birth to a beautiful little boy named Wyatt.  He was 6.10 pounds and 20.5 inches. We believe that gives him a density of about .3 pounds per inch, but we’ll have to ask Mrs. Enright when she comes back to teaching science if we’ve got our calculations right.

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Students from Central were featured in a KOTA-TV news story recently for their efforts to convince others to stop using the “r-word.” You can watch it right here.

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Over the past weekend the Central Science Bowl team participated in the National Science Bowl competition in Washington DC. Seniors Ryan Parks, Zachary Burdsal, Hannah Carroll and Captain Genevieve Kennedy represented South Dakota and Central High School in the premier academic competition in the world. While they did not win it all, the team was given compliments by other coaches, players and officials. The Central team was head and shoulders above many of the competition in behavior and professionalism as players and as individuals.

Filed under: News, Odds and Ends ]]> http://chspineneedle.com/2013/05/03/weekly-roundup-spring-sports-all-state-band-charlottes-web-and-the-science-bowl/feed/ 0 all state band G all state band http://chspineneedle.com/2013/05/03/photo-of-the-week-flowering/ http://chspineneedle.com/2013/05/03/photo-of-the-week-flowering/#comments Fri, 03 May 2013 16:42:52 +0000 Mr. Sheehy http://chspineneedle.com/?p=2757 ]]> This week’s photo comes from Paige Hendricks, and with the melting of the snow, we’ll take this flower to be a promise of truly spring weather.

If you have a photo you’d like to submit, please email the photo, your name, and the story behind the photo to chspineneedle at gmail dot com.

Almost everyone has that friend or is the friend that has a relationship in high school. How much of a relationship is it and can those in them see it lasting? Or is it just a way to be socially accepted and have someone to hold hands through the halls so you don’t seem like you are drifting around alone?

We all know the look, the absent minded look of holding someone’s hand seeming like you are there but your mind is actually a thousand miles away. It’s hard to believe that those relationships are much outside of social media. Since the creation of social media, and Facebook especially, there is little privacy in a relationship, where everything is out there for everyone to see. The feeling of late night texts and ‘I love you’ fights, the public posts on each other’s walls about how much you “love each other” and “will be together forever” every fifteen minutes when you’ve been dating a week or a month at most, shows the lack of maturity in those relationships.

As students develop relationships younger and younger I wonder how much of it is for show. Before you say, “No my relationship isn’t that!” think about the things you talk about. Do you trash people to each other constantly? Do you publicly string everything out on your Facebook? Every time you fight do you put ‘single’ as your relationship status? If you answered yes to any of these then that shows there is not much thought put into dating someone in high school. In a lot of relationships I have observed, most don’t even share common interests.

My challenge to you: when you are on Facebook and you are about to post another “I love you LOL” on your ‘significant other’s’ page, think about how far you could see the relationship going. I think if we all sat and thought about dating before we jumped in, it would save us from a lot of high school drama.

• Photo: Olin, Kris. “Social Media’s Growing Impact on Relationships – Infographic.” Flickr. Yahoo!, 13 June 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.

• Rapid City’s average annual snowfall for April is 8.8 inches. This month we have received 39.5 inches (so far), a new record.
• Teachers have to make up 22.5 hours of work that students do not. The students will finish school at 1:00pm on May 24th.
• The Rapid City Track-o-Rama was postponed for the second time, this time to be run on May 16th. Will it be cancelled? National Weather Service records show that on May 2nd, 2008 Rapid City received 12 inches of snow, setting a May record, so if Track-O-Rama is cursed with snow again, it will take another record-setting storm.
• This week marks the fifth week in a row Rapid City schools have not had a five day week.
• Students were released for an early release this Wednesday, the first time they’ve been released early since March 20th.

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Did you know that a single blood donation can save up to three lives? If you’ve never been asked to donate blood before consider this your first official invitation. Talk to Mrs. Linde or any of her Anatomy and Physiology students if you’re interested in helping to save someone’s life and making a difference. The blood drive is on April 26th so if you’re over seventeen or sixteen with a signed parental consent form and you’re interested talk to Mrs. Linde. Take a few minutes to donate; you won’t regret it.

***

This past Saturday was prom, with the miraculous transformation of the Civic Center Arena documented here. Around 1,200 students from Central and Stevens attended prom itself, with another 350 students coming to the official after-prom bash. While the event was for the most part law-abiding and fun, one incident was reported near the end of prom: the kidnapping of Humphrey Bogart. While historians might be quick to point out that Bogart died in 1957, Cobblers are aware that he has lived for the last seven years in cardboard form in Mrs. Mueller’s classroom. Mrs. Mueller and Mrs. Oldham, our Cobbler prom queen and princess, respectively, noticed that the Bogie had been abducted as the prom was winding down. With the help of Officer Hower, however, an image of the thief was obtained and word hit the street (or, more accurately, it hit Twitter). By Thursday, Mr. Bogart was back in Mrs. Mueller’s room, increasing the classy ambiance once again.

Caught in the act–here’s The Bogie’s illegal escort out of the Civic Center . . . It is clear that Bogart continues to have a powerful effect on women.

Filed under: News, Odds and Ends ]]> http://chspineneedle.com/2013/04/25/weekly-roundup-getting-snow-giving-blood-and-kidnapping-humphrey-bogart/feed/ 0 Kidnapper G Caught in the act--here's The Bogie's illegal escort out of the Civic Center . . . http://chspineneedle.com/2013/04/25/how-intermingled-are-our-family-trees/ http://chspineneedle.com/2013/04/25/how-intermingled-are-our-family-trees/#comments Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:03:31 +0000 Mr. Sheehy http://chspineneedle.com/?p=2728 ]]> By Trace Overby

Whether you realize it or not, we’re related. If you go back into the deep branches of your family tree, somewhere down the line, we will have an ancestor that is the same. It’s crazy to think about, but it is true.

Mathematically speaking, there are not enough ancestors for everyone to have their own set. There aren’t even enough for every branch in your family tree to be separate. That means somewhere in everyone’s family tree there are ancestors who show up more than once. And that means incest.

Could these Cobblers be more than friends? Photo by Kiani Krantz.

Every 25 years you go back in your family tree, the number of ancestors you have doubles. So if you were to go back 1,000 years, you would have 500 billion ancestors! That isn’t right, though. There have only been seven billion people to ever walk this earth, which means that your ancestors are showing up in more than one spot in your family tree.

A demographer named Kenneth Wechtel estimates that if there was a boy born in England in 1947, and you traced his family tree back to the time America was discovered, he would have 60,000 ancestors. Ninety-five percent of the people in his family tree were different individuals. Five percent would be ancestors that pop up in multiple places in his family three. At the time of the Bubonic plague, he would have about 3.5 million ancestors, and only 30 percent of those ancestors fill only one place on the family tree, which means . . . 70 percent fill more than one spot!

In royal families it was quite common that individuals were married off to a close relative. With the family of Charles II of Spain, it got so crazy that he would have been less inbred if a brother and sister would have been his parents. Needless to say, the branches in his family tree were very tangled.

So while it seem gross to think about, this incest is what makes us today. Some scientists believe that we are all at least 50th cousins. That seems weird (it could mean we’re related to Hitler), but in a way it is really cool.

Source:

• Wilkins, Alasdair. “Why Humans Are Much More Related than You Think.” Io9. Gawker Media, 13 April 2011. Web. 11 Feb. 2013.

Athletes have found their schedules being cut down significantly, though Mr. Paulsen has managed to reschedule a few events. Most prominent among the rescheduled events are the Track-O-Rama, which will be held on April 23rd, a Tuesday, and the the boys’ tennis meet against St. Thomas More, which will be held on April 22nd at the Parkview courts.

Of course, if it doesn’t stop snowing the state activities association might have to consider some new events for the state track meet. Perhaps a snowball toss or snowshoe sprint?

***

Mrs. Linde’s spring anatomy class is putting on a blood drive April 26th, so students and staff eligible for donating blood should start planning to use their open blocks for the cause.

***

The drama club may have lost a few days for rehearsal, but their situation was more fortunate than the Stevens drama club, whose opening night followed last week’s two snow days. Due to the time crunch their advisers needed to ask the superintendent for special permission to rehearse on Wednesday. Central students who went to the show, Oklahoma!, said the Raiders did a nice job with the musical. Meanwhile, the spring Cobbler show, Charlotte’s Web, is moving further along in its production. The publicity crew has put up their mysterious sayings in the hallways and actors are now moving “off book” (meaning they’ve got their lines memorized). Tickets go on sale for students and staff on April 29th and the shows run from May 9th to May 11th. Actors and crew should be completely exhausted by the 11th, as they will put on seven shows in those three days (three of which will be special performance’s for Central’s “feeder” elementary schools).

Students perform Gilligan’s Island for the winter one acts.

***

Eighth graders from East, South, and North have begun visiting Central High School in the mornings to see what things are like. Peeking into classes, hanging out in the hallway to watch a passing period, and lunch continue to be the highlight events of the tours. Current Cobblers continue to debate whether the incoming freshmen are taller or shorter than usual.

***

Registration finishes Monday after administration moved it back a day to adjust for Wednesday’s snow day. Students interested in adding classes will be able to do so on Monday, April 29th. Anyone interested in earning credit writing for the Pine Needle, by the way, should see Mr. Sheehy in room C200.

Option 1: Cobbler Batman  (Note: Triskadekaphobia is the fear of the number 13)

Option 2: Triskadekaphobia (Note: Triskadekaphobia is the fear of the number 13)

Option 3: Senior Time

Option 4: The Class that Adds Up

Option 5: Cobbler Style

Option 6: Odds in Your Favor

Option 7: 2013 Large

Those are your choices. Examine them closely, and then choose your favorite!

The man was loading a gun, his gun that he had just bought that morning after visiting his wife.

She hated guns and he knew it, just as he knew that his wife was dead and visiting her grave wasn’t going to help him much. He had long ago given up on the idea that she listened to his apologies, his pleads for forgiveness.  “You need not worry;” he said stroking the grass by her headstone. “We’ll be together, as we never were,” Looking over at the much smaller headstone where their child lay.

His wife had been skeptical about having children, but he had pushed for it and when the doctors had advised against it at her age, that too much could go wrong, he just smiled and pretended not to hear.

The man thought about it now as he loaded his new .22 and chastised himself for his foolishness, his utter disregard for the concerns of his doctor, friends, and his wife. Giving him responsibility for not one, but two new angels in heaven. The man scoffed at the thought of God and heaven, but even so if there was the slightest chance of joining his wife… the man snarled and put his now loaded gun in the back of his jeans as he saw many do on TV, and he began to prepare. He cleaned the dishes, gathered all the empty gin bottles and threw them away, and opened the windows to get rid of the foul odors left behind after nine months of not giving a damn.

The man continued till all was well and the house looked the same as it did when his wife had been the one to do the household chores. He was now ready, so he picked up the photo album from the coffee table and headed to the bedroom. As he sat down on the dusty bed– for he hadn’t entered since his wife had died– he thought about her and how there was no one else like his wife. Flipping through the glossy albums pages covered with pictures of landscapes, family gatherings, and yes, his beautiful wife.

She was strawberry-blond beauty with eyes like he’d never seen before, the left eye Hazel, the right sky blue. She always seemed to by dancing and swaying about, as though she was listening to something only she could hear. Then the man wondered if their child would have been as beautiful, would have had her strange eyes. As he reached behind him for the gun, the pages began to blur, and he realized he was crying. With one hand holding the gun to his temple, the other wiped the tears away. Then he noticed a small movement in the doorway.

He turned swiftly, gun raised in alarm towards the door way.  It took him a second to register what he saw: a small, big belled cat staring at him, tail waving slowly, as if to say hello. But how did it get in here? Then he remembered: the window. He had left it open. The man, more angered than relieved, pushed the photo album off of his lap, trying to scare it away, falling off the bed in the process, the gun skidding under the dresser. The man groaned and crawled towards the gun, then slumped down; defeated and broken, he sobbed in earnest with tears he had left unshed for these nine months.

Slowly the man began to regain his control and quiet down enough to hear a raspy breath above his ear. It was the cat, tail still swaying, ears perked, hazel and blue eyes shiny with her reddish-blond paw atop his hand. The man didn’t know how long he lay there with this creature, nor how he found the strength to follow it into the kitchen. Setting down a bowl of milk for the cat (whom he saw was a she), he sat down and stared. He didn’t know if it was possible and he didn’t want to even think on it, lest he wake up for this has to be a dream.

So he just reached out and petted the cat’s scruffy neck, migrating slowly down to her belly. He stopped short. Then he began to laugh till he was just crying, then laughing, then both. For there was a reason this cat had such a big belly.

Spring is right around the corner and I think everyone knows what most girls have on their minds: the latest fashions, of course. Weather-wise, in the spring it will usually be sunny and warm, with some showers here and there. It can also get pretty hot during the days sometimes and cooler at night. This means dresses, shorts, t-shirts, capris, sandles, and light jackets. I don’t know about you, but I am pretty excited and have taken the time to look up some of the latest 2013 spring fashion trends.

Olive and oak print are on an upward trend in fashion this spring.

Online on the Seventeen Magazine’s website it showed the top 10 spring 2013 fashions. The first one they showed was bright dresses. Olive and oak print dresses were the second. Along with a few other dresses, graphic leggings are a huge style these days. Plus galaxy print is all the rage.

Pinterest is another way I keep up with the latest trends. You can search whatever you want and it will always come up with something! A quick examination of Pinterest revealed that the latest spring fashion statements are super cute. I saw things such as loose shirts tucked into high waisted shorts with a simple cardigan over the top. It also seems that some girls have been into the high-waisted, pleated-type skirt with a different color tank tucked in, with another different colored blazer over top. It seems that coral is a favorite color this year so far, and there are a lot of random colors being paired together. Some skirts and long dresses are also in, mainly the high to low bottoms. Even denim jackets and vest are back in sometimes. As far as shoes go, a lot of girls are wearing colorful or patterend wedges, or lace up boots with thick heels. Combat boots are also very in. Spikes have been added on to a lot of the shoes these days to give them a little extra pizzaz.

All of these styles are super duper cute. You can find them pretty much anywhere. You can even make some of them! I hope this article helps you find the latest trends that you love! Have a great trendy Spring!(: