6

What Christmas Carol would you use to se-duce that special someone?

Sierra: Wow, this question is just so in-teresting. There are many Christmas carols out there, but I’m going to skip past the most stereotypical one, “Santa Baby,” and go with “Baby it’s Cold Outside.” No explanation neces-sary.

Chase: Well, as opposed to the boring Sierra, I actually p u t

thought into my answer.... I would like to use “The Christmas Song” (of ‘Chestnuts roasting on a fi re’ fame) to seduce any and everyone that I desire. Even when it isn’t the holiday season, the sexy calming voice of Nat King Cole has great powers of seduction. Clearly, given my striking resemblance to Nat King Cole, I should be able to recreate the seductive properties of this song without breaking a sweat.

What is the biggest pet peeve you have about the opposite sex?

Sierra: My biggest pet peeve about males is when they are chauvinistic. Some guys have the false impression that women are inferior to men and should be treated as such. I'm not say-ing that some females don’t do the same to men, because they do. I just feel that both sexes should respect each other as equals.

Chase: The biggest issue I have with fe-males is their fascination with physical appear-ances. Not just how they look, but how their actions will change how everyone sees them. It seems shallow to me.When you get dressed in the morning, what is your thought process?

Chase: I’m pretty stereotypical here; I throw on the clothes that are most accessible to me, and that are the cleanest (hopefully). I do favor nicer clothes though, since it makes it easier for me to pretend that I’m an individual.

Sierra: When getting dressed in the morn-ing, I think about comfort, warmth and then style. I enjoy looking nice and presentable, and sometimes I do choose clothing just because it’s a crazy sweater or something. So sometimes I choose for the fun of wearing the clothing, but most of the time I try to dress as comfortable and warm while still looking nice.

Would you rather… - Marry and start a family -Have a professional career (assum-ing you can’t have both)

Sierra: I would rather marry and start a family. Many might say that this is the stereo-typical female answer, and perhaps it is. I per-sonally care more about relationships and true happiness, and a career is something that would be nice, but the happiness and love that comes with having a strong family is more important to me.

Chase: Seeing as having a career is primar-ily in order to provide for your family, this is a very tough question. I shouldn’t have pulled it off the internet! I suppose I would have to agree with Sierra, and say that I would want a family. This is because I think that having a family will be one of the better parts of my life, hopefully.

Designed By Aloe Gillmore

When Georgetown, Colorado received a staggering 63 inches of snow – more than fi ve feet. the “winter blues” were fi rst diag-

FEATURES

As a teenager, it’s a must to be in con-tact with your friends at all times, even if it means you have to shift your attention from the teacher to the phone underneath your desk. An occasional glance seems com-pletely harmless, but what happens when you give in to the urge to check it every single time it goes off?

A teenager sends an average 3,400 text messages per month; that’s 60 mes-sages per day. Girls take the lead as most frequent texters with 100 texts per day versus a boy’s 50, even though the boys were responsible for a greater increase since 2009. People might ask, “Well what’s wrong with having a social life?” The answer is noth-ing, but when you allow yourself to get distracted so many times that you lose your original train of thought, it’s become a problem.

In the workplace, recieving and asn-wering emails and phone calls are big parts of the job; but according to a survey carried out by TNS Research, constant interrup-tions like your phone reduce your produc-tivity and leave you feeling tired and le-thargic (the same as losing a whole night’s sleep), and can lower your intelligence. The results showed a temporary 10-point drop in IQ for those who got distracted by a text or e-mail during the test; that’s over double the amount of points dropped after smoking a joint of marijuana.

This all leads to the main question: is multitasking bad for us? How many of

you have opened up your laptops or phones to surf social networks while doing your homework or something else that requires focus? Our generation has grown up multi-tasking and we’re fi nding it diffi cult to con-centrate on one thing at a time. In the 20th century, a man named Franz Kafka started to write “The Judgement” (a 15-page short story) and fi nished it just eight hours later; and Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak com-pleted and delivered a working game -

Breakout - to Atari. Our computers are more advanced than any technology used by any of those men during those times, yet we still still take longer to do the same things. Why? The computers we use now readily do more than one thing at a time and we can eas-ily drift away from our work to blog

about our day or chat with a friend online. In the long run, multitasking has

mostly negative effects. We are unable to focus on one thing at a time and it comes into play differently for different situa-tions. It takes us longer to do homework and it makes socializing face-to-face awk-ward when one is on their phone the entire time.But on the road, drivers are constantly getting into accidents from being on their phones when they’re suppose to be looking at the road and these often result in deaths. Nothing can really stop people from mul-titasking; it’s an extremely diffi cult habit to break and it’s even considered a skill to some.

Dangers of MultitaskingBY MELINA NIELSEN

The results showed a temporary 10-point drop

in IQ for those who got distracted by a text or e-

mail during the test; that’s over double the amount of points dropped after smoking a joint of mari-

juana.

Working at a desk will not be, I’m fairly sure. Thank god this is just a theoretical situation, it would be quite unfortunate to only be able to have one.

What is the point of a conversation for you?Chase: This is a rough question to answer,

seeing as every conversation a person has is dif-ferent from the last, even if it is only a slight dif-

ference. For me, the point of an ideal conversation

is to make a positive memory. For me, or for them.

Sierra: The point of a con-versation, for

me, defi nitely depends

on the situation, like anything else. Generally, I would say the point of a conversation is to exchange ideas and feelings, and come away a more enlightened individual. I love seeing new perspectives and talking out existential ques-tions, but I also love to talk; to talk for humor, or to share experiences, or to simply pass the time. I also really love getting to know people better, and a conversation can really do a lot in that department.

If you could only give or receive gifts, which would you pick?

Sierra: I would most defi nitely choose to only give gifts. I absolutely love the feeling I get when I give to others, whether that’s through service, or a physical gift. If I could only give gifts, I would spend a lot of time paying atten-tion to those around me, and fi nding out who truly needs something this holiday season. The smiles on the faces of the recipients are some of my favorite gifts, so I would be receiving as well, just in a less direct way.

Chase: I am willing to be immature and say that I would want to receive gifts! I love the feeling of giving as well as receiving, but a Christmas without getting a gift would be de-pressing. Though so would a Christmas without giving. Damn you, either/or questions!

What is the most attractive characteristic in a male/female?

Sierra: Well, the most important character-istic to me is a kind and sweet demeanor. But initially, I would be more attracted to his good sense of humor. When a guy laughs, it makes them seem much more attractive.

Chase: I am going to stick to physical characteristics, since other aspects of a person become obvious over time, not immediately. The most attractive physical characteristic to me is their smile. I mean, most guys would get sexual here, but if they can’t smile...or look hid-eous when they do...that just isn’t attractive!

Would you rather… -Appear to be attractive to everyone, but fi nd no one attractive yourself -No one fi nds you attractive, but you fi nd everyone to be attractive

Chase (answering in far too acidic of a tone): I would defi nitely want to fi nd everyone attractive, and it would be acceptable if they didn’t fi nd me attractive. I mean, sometimes a change in life is good, and this scenario would be the direct opposite of what I have had to live my life like so far ;)

Sierra chose not to respond, because Chase beat her to the punch!

he said she saidBY SIERRA JOHNSON

BY MEGAN G. MILLER

Ms. Jan Macrae has been in school for a big part of her life.

But she wasn’t always a teacher . She was, like all of us, a student. “I

really was shy, but the most fun I had was being in drama class and in plays and go-ing to theater contests,” said Ms. Macrae. Macrae said that she originally wanted to be a drama teacher, but discovered that she had more talent in writing and litera-ture and therefore teaching came out of her love for books.

She has many likes and only a few dislikes in teaching. Macrae says that “it’s fun” work-ing with kids and she laughs at least “once a day” while teaching. She also enjoys it when students appreci-ate the help she gives them. The few dislikes she named are having a heavy paper load to grade and when students don’t take responsibility for their actions.

Ms. Macrae originally taught for four years out of college, and did a lot of jobs relat-ed to teaching for

The Ballad of a book lover: Ms. Macrae14 more years. She also used to be an As-sistant Editor for a travel magazine called Diversion.

Macrae was born in Renton, Washing-ton and moved to the Bay Area in Califor-nia when she was in third grade. In junior high, she moved to Kansas City, Missouri . Later on she moved to New York, to the west, back to New York and fi nally to Eu-gene where she attended college at the U of O.

When asked what she would be doing if she wasn’t a teacher, she said that she would probably still be an editor/writer and continue with those types of jobs.

Aside from teaching, Ms. Macrae has a va-riety of hobbies that most of us may not know about. She likes hiking and camp-ing. She also loves playing Scrabble and other word games. Cooking is a favorite activ-ity and watching movies, reading, spending time with her friend are also a favorite. But above all Macrae enjoys spending time with her two dogs Conga and Didi.

8Designed By:Aloe Gillmore

Why do people kiss under the “mistletoe” if it is a poisonous plant? There's no logical reason for this, but what else is new? According to Norse

legend, it was all a plan of Loki's to kill the god Baldr. Baldr had visions of his coming death and his mother Frigg, the goddess of love, made all living things a n d inanimate objects swear an oath not to hurt her son. But she was unable to get the mistletoe plant to swear an oath because "it seemed t o o young." Baldr is slain by his brother, the blind god Höðr, by L o k i ' s giving him an arrow made of mistletoe wood and having him shoot at Baldr. Go ahead, make something romantic out of THAT.

Yes, it IS poisonous, although birds seem to be able to eat the seeds but soon defecate them. The sticky seeds attach them-selves to bark and dig in. There are only nine instances of parasitism in the plant world. Mistletoe is one of them.

Don't you DARE tell anyone you're kissing under p a r a -sites.

In 2001, there was some interest in using mis- t le toe extract as an anti-cancer agent when an actress touted it on television, along with her exercise machine. But no s t u d -ies, either then or more rigorous ones later, have EVER s h o w n any good effect. The idea for its being a cure was basically the Medieval idea that if a plant LOOKED like a liver, it must be a CURE for liver problems (as in "liverwort"). The d ense mistletoe balls of foliage LOOK LIKE cancer, so it MUST be a cure. Yeah. Sure. Medieval medicine just didn't work then either.

When Christianity came into northern Europe, they tried to make an "easier conversion" by adopting customs from the older religions. The Celtic Samhain became the Halloween before All Saints Day, Brighid of Norse lore became "St. Bridget" and so on. Kissing under a sprig of mistletoe to show you would not poison your love, and plucking off a white (poisonous) berry for each kiss, was a good symbol for kissing. The very early Christians believed in everyone kissing (men kissing men too) as a religious showing of "group love" or in Greek, "agape" (one of SIX Greek words for love, covering other things such as caring love, romantic love, erotic love, parental love for children and vice-versa, etc. We have one word for love but many words for hate. Go fi gure.

Of course, with the kiss-and-then-pluck process, ardent kissers had to keep moving to new sprigs of mistletoe. If you plan on doing the old customs and having a long eve-ning, you need to plan on hanging a lot of greenery over doors.

So, a "Christmas Custom" which has actually nothing to do with Christmas. This is not uncommon for the holiday.

What does a Christmas tree represent and why? The "Christmas Tree" has absolutely NOTHING to do with a celebration of the birth

of Christ. That was an event in early March of 4 BC, during the reign of Herod the Great (who died in 4 BC). In northern Europe, the days keep growing shorter until December 23rd, when the Sun stops "moving south" (the Winter Solstice) and by the 25th, it's obvi-ous the days are getting a bit longer, the Sun is higher in the sky, and Spring WILL come again.

To celebrate and symbolize this, colored red balls were put on the only trees that were still green, the pines and fi rs, to symbolize that fruit would again be coming to this cold, snowy land.

At the Council of Nicea in AD 325, called by the Eastern Roman Emperor Con-stantine, to settle some doctrinal problems in the early Christian church, several things were accomplished: questions of doctrine were settled, the Bible was pared down to the books we now have, from all the other books written by Christian writers of the time, the date of Easter was settled to match the Festival of Ishtar (fi rst Sunday after the fi rst full moon after the Vernal Equinox), and Christmas was moved from March to December 25th in order to compete with "Yule" in the north and a similar Solstice celebration among

the Romans, Saturnalia. Too many people were trying to celebrate the holidays for Chris-tianity AND their old religion. A party is a party.

The tree symbolizes trees becoming green and bearing fruit in the warming spring. Since all Indo-European languages have a word for "apple", red apples on green trees are the source for the "Christmas Colors"

What do wreaths represent and why?Wreaths have a LONG history in western culture.

F o r example, the "laurel wreath" put on the head of an Olympic vic- tor in ancient Greece symbolizes the crown of laurel worn

by Apollo (and laurel wreaths smell like bay leaves, since those are laurels too). A "poet laureate" should wear a laurel wreath on his/her head.

Another popular one in many cultures was the Harvest Wreath, made from stalks of wheat laden with the newly harvested grain (before threshing — knocking off the seed heads to recover the grain to grind for fl our).

The circle shape symbolizes the "turning of the year" when there was a time to sow, and a time to reap. The northern Europeans used the evergreen wreath to

show the circle of the year as it reached the Winer Solstice, heading back into warm times of more greenery.

Early Christians would use evergreen wreaths placed on the graves of Christians to symbolize the "return to life" of the depart-ed, once in the afterlife.

In the 16th century, evergreen wreaths with candles helped children count off the days to Christmas in an "Advent Wreath."

So, the wreath of evergreen branches symbolizes the "wheel of life", the "wheel of the year" and plants that stayed green all year.

Where did the idea of Santa originate from? A number of places. One COULD say it was the Bishop of Myra (now in Turkey), in the 4th century, who became St. Nich-olas, based on his miracles of giving coins to poor people and resurrecting small children from stewpots where an innkeeper had chopped them up so he could serve his guests "ham" during a time of famine. Or, you could go to the Norse god Odin (also called Jölnir) who rode around on a Yule (Jöl) winter's night on his eight-legged

horse Sleipnir. Odin had a long white beard and a blue cap. Yule was the source of the whole Christmas tree celebration (see Question 2 above). But, the Dutch with their Sin-terklaas was the source of most American Santa Claus ideas, although we didn't get his gray horse he rode on nor did we get "Zwarte Piet" ("Black Peter") a small black helper who gave out gifts or lumps of coal or stone. This happened on December 6th, not 25th. It was moved to that date later.

We DID get the NSA-like logbook for who's been "naughty or nice" from Piet, how-ever. Almost everything in details comes from Clement Clark Moore's poem that begins, "Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house . . . "

As for the picture you have in mind with big belly, red suit trimmed in white fur, and the like, that was the 1863 invention by Thomas Nast, a famous newspaper cartoon-ist, who also invented the Democratic Donkey and the Republican Elephant, during the 1800s.

A trivial side note: despite the mostly male names given by Moore, the ONLY reindeer (caribou) that still have antlers in December are the female ones. O.K., "Vixen" counts. Can you remember the rest of the names? How about the seven dwarves?

So, from where did the idea originate? Many places. But the idea of someone who watches kids to make sure they've been "good" and rewards the ones who have, certainly seems to be the idea of a harried parent or two. But the IDEA of someone who just gives out toys and goodies at Christmas is a good one anyway. An excuse to bring some joy into the lives of people at ANY time of the year works for me. But perhaps the coldest part of winter is when it is most needed.

legend, it was all a plan of Loki's to kill the god Baldr. Baldr had visions of his coming death and his mother Frigg, the goddess of love, made all living things a n d inanimate objects swear an oath not to hurt her son. But she was unable to get the mistletoe plant to swear an oath because "it seemed t o o young." Baldr is slain by his brother, the blind god Höðr, by L o k i ' s giving him an arrow made of mistletoe wood and having him shoot at Baldr. Go ahead, make something romantic out of THAT.

Yes, it IS poisonous, although birds seem to be able to eat the seeds but soon defecate them. The sticky seeds attach them-selves to bark and dig in. There are only nine instances of parasitism in the plant world. Mistletoe is one of them.

Don't you DARE tell anyone you're kissing under p a r a -

In 2001, there was some interest in using mis- t le toe extract as an anti-cancer agent when an actress touted it on television, along with her exercise machine. But no s t u d -ies, either then or more rigorous ones later, have EVER s h o w n any good effect. The idea for its being a cure was basically the Medieval idea that if a plant LOOKED like a liver, it must be a CURE for liver problems (as in "liverwort"). The d ense mistletoe balls of foliage LOOK LIKE cancer, so it MUST be a cure. Yeah. Sure. Medieval medicine just didn't work then either.

When Christianity came into northern Europe, they tried to make an "easier conversion" by adopting customs from the older religions. The Celtic Samhain became the Halloween before All Saints Day, Brighid of Norse lore became "St. Bridget" and so on. Kissing under a sprig of mistletoe to show you would not poison your love, and plucking off a white (poisonous) berry for each kiss, was a good symbol for kissing. The very early Christians believed in everyone kissing (men kissing men too) as a religious showing of "group love" or in Greek, "agape" (one of SIX Greek words for love, covering other things such as caring love, romantic

The tree symbolizes trees becoming green and bearing fruit in the warming spring. Since all Indo-European languages have a word for "apple", red apples on green trees are the source for the "Christmas Colors"

What do wreaths represent and why?Wreaths have a LONG history in western culture.

F o r example, the "laurel wreath" put on the head of an Olympic vic- tor in ancient Greece symbolizes the crown of laurel worn

by Apollo (and laurel wreaths smell like bay leaves, since those are laurels too). A "poet laureate" should wear a laurel wreath on his/her head.

Another popular one in many cultures was the Harvest Wreath, made from stalks of wheat laden with the newly harvested grain (before threshing — knocking off the seed heads to recover the grain to grind for fl our).

The circle shape symbolizes the "turning of the year" when there was a time to sow, and a time to reap. The northern Europeans used the evergreen wreath to

show the circle of the year as it reached the Winer Solstice, heading back into warm times of more greenery.

Early Christians would use evergreen wreaths placed on the graves of Christians to symbolize the "return to life" of the depart-ed, once in the afterlife.

In the 16th century, evergreen wreaths with candles helped children count off the days to Christmas in an "Advent Wreath."

So, the wreath of evergreen branches symbolizes the "wheel of life", the "wheel of the year" and plants that stayed green all year.

Where did the idea of Santa originate from? A number of places. One COULD say it was the Bishop of Myra (now in Turkey), in the 4th century, who became St. Nich-olas, based on his miracles of giving coins to poor people and resurrecting small children from stewpots where an innkeeper had chopped them up so he could serve his guests "ham" during a time of famine. Or, you could go to the Norse god Odin (also called Jölnir) who rode

Ask AdamsCOMPILED BY REESE BLATCH

Okay, this is it. My whole future de-pends on the essay I am about to write, and I don’t know if I am going to make it. My parents have shut me into the basement until I fi nish writing. It is so hot in here, it is truly stifl ing. The furnace sometimes belches out black smoke, and when I am lucky, it coughs up a bird or two. With the furnace as my sole companion, I embark upon the journey of writing a college ap-plication essay.

I read the prompt, it is something about the defi ning moment of my life, and how it helped me reach adulthood. First off, adulthood? What makes them think I am an adult? I am a seventeen year old kid without a clue about what to do with his life. But that is hardly the most vexing issue proposed by the prompt. I spent the next

Of Worms and Men: Ruminations on College Essay WritingCHASE STOWELL

Columnist

thirty minutes contemplating what my de-fi ning moment could have been, because I was not sure if my victory in the state belly fl op contest was something to brag about.

Suddenly, as if the Holy Ghost had came upon me, I knew exactly what to write. I set my pen to the paper, and what follows is inspired:

As a child, I used to aspire to being the best musician ever. At fi ve years old, I played the Moonlight Sonata for a major record label. They kept the recording, and made millions off of it. I never even saw a cent, seeing as I had signed a waiver that I was still too young to read. After that, I be-came one of the select few to always read the terms and conditions before agreeing to anything.

I wasn’t lying too much. After all, I did

play the piano at age fi ve. However, it was a family friends’ grand piano. I then vom-ited into the piano, and my parents have yet to speak to the friend, as far as I know. Embellishment isn’t a crime, right? And besides, if I wasn’t admitted to college, it’s possible that my parents might commit a few criminal acts against me. I knew that in a perverse way, this was the right thing to do. So I put my pen to the pad and con-tinued on.

I have frequently pondered the com-plexities of life. When I was younger, I would study the ecological cycle of life from my backyard. My studies were rarely interrupted, and I would continue for days on end, with brief breaks for meals. I be-came so devoted to my studies that I was able to fi nd food to nurture me from the en-

vironment. I think that this was a crucial period of growth in my life, which contrib-uted greatly to the man I am today.

Honestly, I had never imagined I could have made my habit of playing in the mud and eating worms such a positive thing. My mom had told me at the ripe age of 13 that I should stop eating worms. I ignored her, though I have stopped in the past year. Maybe I ought to start my ‘ecology studies’ again, they sound so refi ned on paper.

After tacking on a bogus conclusion about how my interest in music and ecol-ogy have led me to a focused approach to life, I was fi nished. I basked in the glorious heat of the furnace, dreaming of the accep-tance letter that I would certainly receive. I then went out and dug up some worms, essay writing can be damn exhausting.

BillieBehind