Click this to read the Valencia Bay-farer, Issue 39

Page
1
Issue 39: September/october, 2011
826 valencia street, san francisco, california
Written by students. Read by all.
Free to kids
R a in, W ind, a nd Wat er M a k e
a H u rric a ne I rene E x perien c e !
By K at ya Tar an, Age 10
taped each window. We also moved all
valuable items (family pictures, books,
cloth, etc.) from the first floor to the
second. All unnecessary appliances had to
be unplugged. Most importantly, we got
together as the family and stayed together
helping each other and supporting each
other.
KT: How many of your close friends and
family called and asked how you were doing?
PG: All of them, and we have many!
We got so many offers to move “inland”
that it was hard to choose from, so we
stayed home.
KT: How many people in Brighton Beach
evacuated? You can answer in a percentage.
PG: My best estimate is seventy
percent. There are many elderly living in
Photo courtesy of blog.aquanerd.com
the area, and it was in their best interest
to move out. Also, nursing homes and
Hurricanes, hurricanes, hurricanes!
KT: How much damage did you expect?
What do you expect from them—trouble?
PG: The Brighton Beach area was local hospitals were evacuated.
One of the most recent hurricanes was declared zone “A” with mandatory evacKT: How did you feel about the hurricane?
Hurricane Irene. It happened on the East uation, so we expected the worst to
PG: The answer is simple: What
Coast of the United States. The area that happen. To be exact, we anticipated ma- doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. I bepeople thought would be most hit was jor flooding that would paralyze the lieve this time revealed real values: your
Brighton Beach, New York. People were area for days, lack of electricity (in fact family, your friends, connections that
very concerned about their families and we had light all night long), and broken you have, and support that you can give.
friends and wanted to call. Many reached windows, flying debris, and a shortage of
KT: What does recovery mean to you?
them, but some phone lines were cut off. drinking water.
continued on p. 7
The person I interviewed was Polina
KT: Can you describe your experience of INSIDE:
Glikina. She lives on Brighton Beach Hurricane Irene?
and shared her experience with me.
PG: Extremely unpleasant and almost the world...............................................2
The earth................................................3
frightening.
Preparing for a hurricane was
KT: How much actual damage was there
presidents & profiles.............................4
quite an experience itself: we purchased technology.............................................5
in Brighton Beach, NY?
PG: The Brighton Beach area was not batteries, water, radios, candles, and food. food.......................................................6
damaged much. You could find lots of fal- Supermarket shelves were empty! We & fashion................................................ 7
secured our homes with sand bags, and hallow’s eve...........................................8
len trees along the avenues and streets.
the world
2
If you ever go
to Paris
Polar Bears
Rosaly n Wang, Age 11
The polar bear is not what you may expect
it to be; it is big and aggressive. They are
often referred to as marine mammals because they spend many months at sea
during the year. The polar bear’s preferred
habitat is called the “Arctic ring of life,”
and it likes to stay near where the sea ice
meets the ocean water.
The polar bear’s main source of food is
seal. They often eat ringed and bearded
seals. The polar bear has a great sense
of smell, which it uses to find the seal’s
breathing hole, and crouches there until
a seal appears. The Arctic is home to
millions of seals, so it isn’t hard to find a
seal breathing hole. When the polar bear
spots a seal, it first aims for the head of
the seal and crushes it, so the skull gets
crushed first. Then, the polar bear starts
feasting on the food it caught. Polar bears
often eat a lot of food in one day.
Polar bears are sometimes seen playfighting for many hours. Sometime they
just fight for a while to practice for the
bigger fights. The fights may lead to
major injuries. The fights leave scars or
The 2012 Olympics event featuring summer and winter sports, even broken teeth.
Polar bears have amazing features.
in which thousands of athletes participate
by Ian O’Haire, age 9
in a lot of competitions. The Games are They have thick fur and  hide to keep
held every two years, with the Summer themselves warm in the cold Arctic. Their
and Winter Olympic Games alternating. paws are thick to keep them warm.
Polars bears are endangered, and if
The last Summer Olympics were  in
continued on p. 7
Beijing. The U.S swimmer Michael
Phelps won seven gold medals. Most
Image courtesy of guardian.co.uk
people who went to the 2008 Beijing
Olympics
liked it. The Olympics is for
The 2012 Summer Olympics will be held
in London, England from July 27 through all ages. The first modern Summer
August 12. There will be about two hun- Olympics were in Athens, 1896. This
dred and five countries participating in will be the 27th Summer Olympics.
the three hundred Olympic sports. One Heineken is the official beer of the
hundred and forty-seven countries will Olympics. B.M.W is the official car of
the Olympics. The 2012 Olympics has
play in the Paralympic Games.
The Olympics are a big international twenty-six exiting, mind–racing sports.
by Diana Galvez, age 11
A good time to go to Paris is in spring or
summer. If you go around that time, you
should take lots of light clothes, shorts,
tees, skirts, blouses, and dresses. In summer, the weather is hot. In spring, the
weather is fresh, cool, and nice. You can
see the flowers blooming and see nice
gardens and parks. Some nice places to
stay are near Place Monge in the fifth
arrondissement (neighborhood). There are
a lot of affordable places to eat things like
escargot (snails) and french onion soup.
It’s also good to go to Place d’Italie Photo courtesy of www.eiffel-tower.us
1. Bonjour, comment allez–vous?
in the thirteenth arrondissement. It’s not
(Hello, how are you doing?)
very touristy. It’s a great mix of old and
2. Parlez–vous anglais?
new architecture and a great way to see
(Do you speak English?)
how a lot of Parisians live. At the Eiffel
3. Excusez–moi, Madame/Monsieur où
Tower, you can go up to the top and see
a great view. You can also take pictures se trouve le/la...?
(Excuse me, Madame/Sir, where does
with your family and friends. Another
thing is it lights up at night. These are one find the...?)
4. Non merci, je suis bien mangé/e!
things that Yalie Kamara told me.
(No thank you, I’m full!) ✺
If you ever go to Paris you can use
these French phrases:
✺
Photo courtesy of stanford.edu
the e arth
How to Save
the Environment
3
bill and means you use less energy.
2. Unplug your power sources like
kitchen
appliances, phone chargers,
by Fatima Santos, Age 10
video
games,
and computers.
We want our environment to be safe.
3. Walk or use public transportation
Pollution from factories, cars, household
chemicals, and landfill waste impacts whenever possible. This saves money
our quality of life every day. It is not and keeps your body healthy.
4. Instead of turning on the air conjust affecting nature, but our homes,
offices, and schools. You can improve the ditioner, open a window.
5. Reuse water bottles, and refill
environment around you by using these
tips from the tutors and students here at them with tap water.
6. When you go to the grocery store,
826 Valencia.
1. Turn off the lights when you’re not bring your own bags.
7. Look at the labels on food you buy,
using them. This reduces your electricity
and make sure you only buy products
packaged in recyclable materials.
8. If you bring lunch to school, use
a reusable lunch bag. If you buy lunch
at school, avoid plastic plates and
silverware. Try to only use one napkin.
9. When possible, buy cleaning products that aren’t toxic and don’t harm
your health. There are a lot of natural
cleaning products that keep you safe and
work just as well.
10. Above all, only use what you need.
You can pick a new tip and try it out
every week. See if it makes a difference. ✺
Starbucks Coffee
Reduces Waste
that have been recycled. Since the cups
are made of paper, using PCF has saved
78,000 trees in the first year alone.
Instead of using two cups to stop your
hands from getting too hot, they have
started using coffee cup sleeves which are
made of post-consumer fiber.
Twenty-three billion coffee cups
were thrown away last year. Of these,
Starbucks used 1.9 billion. In 2003,
Starbucks found out that coffee drinkers
started using reusable cups an estimated
13.5 million times which kept 586,800
pounds of garbage out of landfill.
We are happy that they are helping to
save the planet and encourage everyone
to follow their example. If you drink
coffee, check if the cups are recyclable.
If they aren’t, buy your own reusable cup
and take it with you to your favorite café.
Imagine what the world would look like
without twenty-three billion coffee cups
in the landfills. ✺
swim. Shark finning is not specified to
one
species of shark. The fisherman will
Roland Wang, Age 11 &
Albert Liu, Age 12
catch any species of shark they get their
Did you know cows kill more people each hands on, even if it is illegal.
The value of shark fins vary, one cup
year than sharks do? Well then why do
we kill sharks until they are endangered, of cheap shark fin soup that you can
but not cows? The reason behind it all is find at any Asian buffet, costs about ten
that the shark finning industry is rather dollars. However, an entire shark fin may
big. It is also very cultural to the Asian cost up to $750. Most people agree that
people because of the brothy soup, shark they’re overly expensive. We think that
fin soup. But not all Asians agree. In fact, the taste of the actual soup is particularly
some Asians think that shark finning is nasty. It tastes like salty water with rough
meat in it. And for some salty water we
extremely cruel.
Shark finning is when fishermen kill a shark? How unnecessary.
Most shark species are endangered.
catch sharks and cut their fins off. They
then throw the sharks back overboard. If we keep killing sharks for their fins,
The shark eventually dies, because of they will go extinct, and there will be no
the loss of blood and not being able to more sharks in the world. So, we should
protect sharks. If sharks are gone, there
will be more fish that aren’t eaten. If
there are more fish, the balance of nature
is disrupted. So, killing all the sharks is
not a very good idea.
I know some of you might be thinking
that if there are less sharks, everyone is
safer at the beach. But, sharks actually
don’t harm humans until provoked, as
most people know. So no, it is not less
dangerous if there are no sharks around.
In San Francisco, there is a law banning shark finning. According to the New
York Times, shark finning is “a brutal,
bloody practice of the global trade in
which the fins are typically hacked off
a live shark, leaving it to die slowly as it
continued on p. 8
Br ianna Galvez, age 9
Starbucks is doing a great job of saving
the earth. They have been looking for
better ways to recycle for more than
ten years. According to Anthony R., a
customer relations employee, Starbucks
was the first company in the USA to use
ten percent post–consumer fiber (PCF)
in hot beverage cups. PCF fiber is good
for the planet because it uses materials
Shark Finning
4
pre sident s & profile s
2012 Presidential Election***
Emmet t Cohen, age 12
Image courtesy of ipdragon.blogspot.com
It may seem all too soon for a new presidential election, but the 2012 elections
are on the horizon. Even though the
actual election still won’t come for over
a year, the campaign is already in session.
The economy is only getting worse; we
are at war in Libya, and we have the ozone and global warming to deal with.
These are just a few of the problems the
candidates will have to address if they
get elected. But the presidential candidates aren’t the only ones working on
the elections; they have staffs of people
working hard to get them elected or reelected.
I was lucky enough to get an interview
with Mia Ragent, one of Obama’s campaign managers for California in the
2008 election and Nevada in the 2012
election. In 2008, she was in her freshman year of college and was working
with an organization called Students
For Barack Obama, a project on college
campuses that was mainly focused
on making Obama the focus of the
Democratic party as opposed to Hillary
Clinton. California is a Democratic state,
so John McCain was obviously not going
to win our vote. However it was very
hard getting people to vote for Obama
as Hillary had her family name backing
her up and had been in office for longer.
“We were the underdogs, but there was
so much spirit and tenacity and passion
from the volunteers, and I think that’s
what made the difference,” said Mia.
They worked hard getting people to vote
for Obama, and as we know, he ended up
as the Democratic candidate in the 2008
presidential election.
An election where someone could be
reelected is very different from one where
all the candidates are new, mainly because
the previous president has to have done a
good job and fulfilled most of his campaign promises even to be considered
Profile: Miranda
Tsang
by Oscar Ticas, age 10
Miranda Tsang is the Programs Coordinator at 826 Valencia. 826 Valencia
is a program for students to get help with
their homework and to read; they also
write and publish student stories. Miranda has straight black hair, and she
wears glasses sometimes. She was twentyone when she started as an intern at 826
Valencia in 2008. She started here because
she loves to work with kids.
As part of Miranda’s job, she goes to
schools in San Francisco to teach kids
Illustration by Justin Carder of 826 Valencia
how to write. Miranda is the editor
of Everett Middle School’s newspaper
for  a second term as president. In order
to get people to vote for someone like
this, you need to tell them about what he
will do during his second term, how he
did well and fulfilled his promises during
his first term, and most of all that his
beliefs and ideas for the future coincide
with theirs.
Not only do you have to have a unique
strategy for each election, but you also
must have a different strategy for each
state, be the state Democratic or Republican. In 2008, people in Nevada were
worried about nuclear waste being stored
in Nevada. Obama’s campaign team in
Nevada soothed their fears and told
them Obama would not put waste there.
However, in California, people were not
worried about toxic waste. “We weren’t
thinking about nuclear waste in our
mountains in California, but we are concerned about the San Francisco Bay, or our
redwoods, so politicians and campaigns
explain platforms in site-specific terms,”
Mia Ragent explained. Every state has
unique political problems.
Overall I think Obama has fulfilled
most of his campaign promises, and he
stands a good chance in 2012. ✺
Straight–up News. “My favorite thing is
to go to the schools and get to know the
students over the years,” said Miranda.
One day Miranda was late to work
because her alarm clock did not ring.
Miranda hasn’t missed many days of
work.
When she is not working, her hobby is
knitting. Her favorite things to knit are
hats, and the coolest hat she ever made
had ear-flaps.
We would never survive without
Miranda because then we would have no
one telling us what to do. ✺
technology
5
Something You Should
Know About Cyberbullying
stay calm. Then, tell a parent or trusted
adult. Then, if possible, have a positive
conversation. But someone who is
By Calista Nicholson, Age 8
cyberbullied should never respond to
of technology among youth. Dr. Walker their bully directly, just like Nancy Drew
says that it’s important for young people does in the book Secret Identity.
I asked Dr. Walker if she was familiar
to talk about cyberbullying before it
happens. We need to be “proactive and with Moshi Monsters, a gaming website
learn about it because it can be very where you can make your own avatar
harmful.” Has it been mentioned at your and play puzzle games to win money. I
school? It hasn’t at mine. Dr. Walker heard that there was cyberbullying on
Photo courtesy of webpages.scu.edu
wants that to change, so that bullies can that website. Dr. Walker said she had
not heard of it, but that this was where
A cyberbully can hurt someone’s feelings be friends with their victims.
There should be more movies, cyberbullying can take place. “Wherever
a lot. Cyberbullying can be texting,
can be on the Internet, and it can be websites, posters, and commercials about people gather, we need to make it clear
anywhere. You should remember that cyberbullying. There should be those that bullying can take place there,” said
little kids are on the Internet having fun, kinds of things because this way people Dr. Walker.
Dr. Walker and I would like you to
and you might be bullying them when can help and NOT cyberbully because
you think you’re having fun, disguised they’re more aware of the problem. I also remember that most people are using
as a different avatar or personality. learned that Dr. Walker had videos on the web in fun, positive ways. But
Cyberbullying is a dangerous thing and the Internet about cyberbullying. These the bullies are the ones getting in the
a growing problem as people spend more videos taught me about what to do if I way, and I learned that even adults can
cyberbully. But if young people can have
were cyberbullied.
time on the computer.
From these videos and from Dr. a conversation about cyberbullying, and
For my story, I interviewed Dr. Jenny
Walker—she is a speaker, consultant, and Walker, I learned that if a young person find out more about it, then I think that
expert on cyberbullying and positive uses is cyberbullied, he or she needs to first this problem is solved. ✺
Pottermore!
Insider blog at insider.pottermore.com, this
was one of the clues:
by Sy dney Sadler, age 11
How many breeds of owl are featured
Are you disappointed that the Harry Potter
books and movies are all finished? Well on the Eeylops Owl Emporium sign?
Answer: 5
now you have something more to look
Multiply this number by 49.
forward to!
Solution: 245
Pottermore is a free online Harry Potter
As you can see, these questions could
experience where you can relive the Harry
Potter books and movies. It is endorsed by only be answered by a hardcore Harry
J.K Rowling, sponsored by Sony, and Potter fan.
Once you get in, you get sorted
created By TH_NK. Pottermore opened to
early access between July 31 and August into one of the four Hogwarts Houses
6. It’s planned to open in October, 2011, (Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or
to the general public. The early access Slytherin) by answering a series of perprocess had fans answer questions about sonality questions. When you’ve been
Harry Potter and then find the Magical sorted, you start Harry’s journey. You can
brew potions, wizard duel, and interact
Quill in order to get into Pottermore.
According to the Official Pottermore with scenes from the books.
I interviewed Malaya Sadler, a Pottermore beta testing user. She said she got
into Hufflepuff and was disappointed
she wasn’t in a different house. I asked her
what she didn’t like about Pottermore and
she said it’s a little repetitive. However,
she still likes parts of it. “I like finding
all the hidden objects, and I like how J.K.
Rowling posted a lot of written material
that wasn’t in the novels,” said Malaya.
 This is just one person’s opinion but
there are 999,999 more. Early access was
open to one million people, but soon it
will be open to everyone. Pottermore is
designed ideally for Harry Potter fans, so
if you are one, see you on Pottermore! ✺
6
food
THE RISE OF BEAUTY’S BAGELS!
Lucy Stoll, Age 9
Warm, soft, sweet, and crispy. C’mon,
you know you want one! Want what, you
ask? Well, you want a delicious, warm
Montreal–style bagel! But not just any
Montreal–style bagel. A Beauty’s bagel.
You don’t know what a Beauty’s bagel
is, do you? Well, they’re just about the
best bagels in the history of the world!
They have the slightest taste of smoke in
the crust, which is crispy and sweet. The
inside is soft, but not doughy, sweet, but
not so sweet you wanna throw it out or
anything like that.
The owners are Blake Joffe and Amy
Remson, who both worked at restaurants
before deciding to open one of their
own. Blake worked at Pizzeria  Delfina,
(owned by my parents, Annie and Craig
Stoll) and Amy worked at Addie’s Pizza
Pie.
Montreal–style bagels are smaller and
sweeter than regular bagels. They are
handmade with malt, egg, and no salt,
and then baked in a woodfire oven. They
are also boiled in honey water. The
bagels will be $1.15 each. They will
also offer sandwiches. They have a bit
of char on the crust. They will only be
serving sesame seed, poppy seed, and
plain bagels. They will never, EVER
offer fruit bagels. EVER.
When I started writing this, Blake
and Amy didn’t have a shop, but on
September 29, 2011, they... GOT A
SHOP! dun dun dun dun... It’s located
in Oakland.
I asked Blake some questions, so I’ll
share the answers with you people out
there, sitting there, hearing me say this,
or reading it at a coffee shop somewhere.
LS: Why did you choose to start making
bagels?
BJ: I chose to start making bagels
BJ: I think I was too young to
remember.
LS: Did you and Amy meet before you
started Beauty’s Bagels?
BJ: Amy and I met when we lived in
Philadelphia. We decided to move out
here for a change of scenery.
LS: What is the difference between New
York and Montreal–style bagels?
BJ: New York bagels are denser,
sometimes steamed and most of the time
they are formed by machine. Montreal–
style are always hand rolled, boiled in
honey water, and baked in a wood–fired
oven. The result is a sweeter, lighter
bagel with personality.
LS: Why Montreal bagels?
BJ: My father is from Montreal, so we
would take family trips there, which gave
me an appreciation for them.  We also
wanted to bring a bagel to the Bay Area
that not many people have seen before.
I also think that the Montreal bagel is
more interesting and more delicious.
LS: When did bagels become a big part
Photo from facebook.com/beautysbagelshop
of your life?
because on the East Coast, where I’m
BJ: When I was young, I really enjoyed
from, there are many great bagel shops. those Sunday mornings with my family.
When I moved here from Philadelphia
LS: How did the idea of opening a bagel
two and half years ago, the first thing I shop come to you?
asked people was, “where can I get a good
BJ: Amy and I have been working in
bagel?” Their response was that there the restaurant business for many years
really weren’t any great bagel shops in and we wanted to own something, but
the Bay Area. Since my girlfriend Amy not a restaurant.  Opening a bagel shop
and I have a passion for food service and really got us excited because it’s casual,
food in general, we decided to open a but to many people, bagels are a special
bagel shop.
thing.
LS: When did you start liking bagels?
LS: Why did you choose the name Beauty’s
BJ: I grew up with bagels.  Every Bagels?
Sunday morning, my family would gather
BJ: There is an old diner in Montreal
around the kitchen table to eat fresh that’s named Beauty’s, we wanted to pay
bagels, smoked salmon, pickled herring, homage to Montreal and the diner for
cream cheese, tomato, onion, hard boiled being a casual place to eat that has given
eggs, and plenty of coffee.
so many people great memories.
LS: When did you first try a bagel?
continued on p. 8
food & fa shion
The Best Ice Cream in
San Francisco!
by Andrea R a mos, age 9
work the cash register, and run the store.
During our conversation I asked Juana
what her favorite ice cream f lavor
was. She said that saffron ginger was her
favorite.
At SF Week ly’s website—www.
sfweekly.com—I found out that the
Xanath store is ranked fifth for best ice
cream in San Francisco. In fourth place
Photo courtesy of kristanlynn.com
is Bi–Rite Creamery. In third place is
Delise
Dessert Cafe. In second place is
Ice cream is the best food in San Francisco!
Ice cream cools people down when it’s Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous. In first
hot. There are a lot of ice cream shops in place is Humphry Slocombe. I have only
San Francisco. One ice cream shop is the been to the Xanath store, but I wish to
Xanath store, located on Valencia Street one day go to a different ice cream shop
like Bi–Rite.
between 20th and 21st Streets.
Now if you come to San Francisco and
I was lucky because I got to talk to
Juana Medina who works at the Xanath it is a hot day, you know where to go for
store. Her job is to scoop ice cream, the best ice cream! ✺
7
Handmade
Headbands
and Mexican
Culture
Michelle Santos, Age 8
Photo courtesy of howtobetrendy.com
I’m interested in my aunt’s hair crafts because she’s really creative. She’s creative
because she makes shirts, scarves, headbands, and flowers. All these things are
made of yarn. The headbands are colorful, sparkly, and you could wear them to
go out to parties. She also makes them
for her daughters. Her daughters love to
wear them when they go to school in the
morning.
These headbands are the fashion.
Other people like to wear handmade
When low pressure areas form in the headbands too. In Mexican culture, a lot
Hurricane Irene
skies
over the warm ocean waters, this of people know how to make headbands
continued from p. 1
is
what
causes hurricanes. This process and other things by hand. This is a
PG: I believe “recovery” is getting back
to routine life and it’s not an immediate usually happens in the summer and fall popular tradition because people like to
share what they make with their family.
process. I must say we are still recovering. months.
Now you’ve probably learned enough They are proud to wear something that
There are a few things that remind us
of the hurricane: broken roof, sand bags about hurricanes, and specifically Hur- was made by somebody they love.
More grown–ups know about knitting
around the house, outside furniture is ricane Irene in Brighton Beach, New
than kids. My aunt is teaching her
still tightened together, etc… but  this is York. ✺
daughter how to knit also. Teaching kids
not so important. We have each other in
how to knit is fun. More of the grownhealth and happiness!
Polar Bears
ups should teach their kids how to knit.
To help you understand more about continued from p. 2
hurricanes, I’ll tell you how they are the climate temperature continues to I would love to learn how to knit. People
named and how they form. Hurricanes change, they will become extinct. The should teach their kids so the tradition
are named at an annual meeting of the extreme melt of sea ice and the pollution can keep on going.
Like knitting, women in Mexico
World Meteorological Organization. make a huge impact on the polar bears’
They decide whether to retire a name. In survival. So, if you can, help the polar weave on a loom and make lots of things.
recent years, for example, Ivan, Frances, bears! Pick up trash instead of littering, They also spin their own thread. The
Katrina, Felix, and Gustav have all had and don’t drive your car if you can walk headbands come from a long history of
their names removed from the pool as a instead. Walking instead of driving can tradition. Knitting would be a fun hobby
for me. When I’m big, I think I would
result of their magnitude.
help a lot. ✺
love to knit like my aunt. ✺
8
hallow’s eve
Is Presidio Really Haunted?
Sandr a Solyanik, Age 12
Photo courtesy of californiasolarschools.org
Four students who were playing Uno in
the auditorium saw one card move without any of the players touching it. Sandra,
Gabby, Danny, and Joey thought, “This
is crazy!” because some of them didn’t
believe in ghosts.
Then they decided to investigate. They
asked the ghost to tell them if it was a
girl or a boy by moving one of two skateboards. If the left skateboard moved, then
it was a girl. If the right skateboard moved,
then it was a boy. The left one moved.
When they got outside to play, even
more strange things kept happening!
They saw another student throwing a
grocery bag in the air. The bag was floating up to the roof, then all of a sudden
as Sandra said, “Baggie! Baggie! Baggie!”
the bag starting falling down through
the air towards her.
Under these bizarre circumstances,
Sandra decided to interview some people
to find out if Presidio Middle School was
haunted.
Ms. Yang, the language arts teacher,
told Sandra a story. “People say that a
long time ago, a girl ditched class to go
swimming and ended up drowning. Now,
there’s some strange sounds in my room
late at night. Some things fall, but they
never break,” Mrs. Yang said.
Ms. Daly, the dance teacher, offered
supporting evidence, “Sometimes, my
room smells like chlorine...but we no
Beauty’s Bagels Rise
continued from p. 6
longer have a pool here at Presidio.”
Later that day, Gabby started having
visions of how another girl died. She saw
images of a girl’s boyfriend breaking up
with her, and then later that day, images
of the same girl stabbing herself. She
thought maybe this could be another
ghost. These affairs all took place close to
room 222, where Sandra has homeroom.
Mr. Wong, Sandra’s old teacher, said,
“Sometimes there is a smell of burning
plastic in my room, next to the board.”
After hearing all of these stories,
Erika and Sandra were convinced that
a ghost haunts Presidio Middle School.
Then they were in the bathroom alone.
Suddenly, they heard whistling. They
both asked “Who was that?”...but neither
of the girls had whistled. ✺
LS: When did bagels become a big part
of Amy’s life?
BJ: Amy’s not Jewish, so bagels weren’t
quite as important to her family as they
were to mine, but bagels were always
eaten as she grew up. I would say now is
when bagels have become a big part of
her life.
LS: What do you feel about rabid chinchillas with rabies?
BJ: Can you eat them?
LS: Ha ha ha! (creepy hearty laugh)
Apparently, Blake likes food! But
seriously, I think you’d die if you ate a
rabid chinchilla with rabies.
Okay. Now you want one. The shop
isn’t open yet, but you can go to Wise Sons
delicatessen some Saturday mornings to
get one! Or, if you are sitting in a chair
in 826 Valencia, listening to me read this,
please,
get up and get a bagel!
Shark Finning
Sadly,
that’s all I have to tell you today
continued from p. 3
about
Beauty’s
Bagels. But just please
sinks to the bottom of the sea.”
And of course, such brutality to nature remember, never eat a rabid chinchilla
will sooner or later be banned completely. with rabies. ✺
Shark finning being very cruel is now
B ay- F a r e r C o n t r i b u t o r s
on its way to ending. But there is still a
long way to go before it is abolished and
illegal everywhere. People around the
world are talking about how cruel and
evil it is. There is still hope for the sharks
because many anti–shark fin agencies
exist and are working hard to ban shark
finning.
Hopefully soon, shark finning will be
an international ban, so sharks can live
in peace all around the world. We will
all benefit. The balance of nature will be
normal. Sharks will not be endangered.
And most of all, the cruelty of hacking
off innocent sharks’ fins will vanish from
this world! ✺
Emmett Cohen
Brianna Galvez
Diana Galvez
Albert Liu
Calista Nicholson
Ian O’Haire
Lucy O’Haire
Andrea Ramos
Sydney Sadler
Fatima Santos
Michelle Santos
Sandra Solyanik
Lucy Stoll
Katya Taran
Roland Wang
Rosalyn Wang
Rebecca Beeson
Connor Buestad
Sean Conroy
Shannon David
Sabrina Eldredge
Erin Ferguson
Lili Katz
Julia Peppiatt
Janine Trame
Miranda Tsang
Anna Walters
B ay- F a r e r e d i t o r s
De signer
Tim Ratanapreukskul