[News] On May 5, members of the Gunn community lost one of its members, junior Jean-Paul (JP) Blanchard, who was killed by a Caltrain commuter train around 8:20 a.m. at the East Meadow Drive crossing.—Wen Yi Chin
[News] On April 21, savetheplasticbag.com sued Palo Alto for passing a plastic bag ban in grocery stores throughout the city. The city passed the ban on March 16, but it will not be put into effect until Sept. 18. —
[News] The Tall Tree Fest took place May 22 at the ampitheater and was open to all Palo Alto students. —
[News] The Gunn Robotics Team (GRT) held their Capitol Steps fundraiser in Spangenberg Theater on May 17 at 4 and 7 p.m. The event was open to the public.—
[News] InClass shut down on the weekend of April 24 to 26 due to a backup malfunction, affecting teachers and students alike. Although the district regularly backs up all of the information, InClass shut down when the backup did not work properly and corrupted data, Instructional Technology Manager Darlene Feldstein said. —Nicola Park
[News] Due to a senior gaining unauthorized access to SASI, the permanent grade database, and changing his own grade and that of another student, the administration once again reminded the staff of the appropriate boundaries for Teaching Assistants (TAs) during the staff meeting on May 21.—Wen Yi Chin & Joyce Liu
[News] On May 23, Youth Community Service (YCS)/Interact club chaperones sent Gunn’s Relay For Life (RFL) team home from the event at midnight due to student behavior issues. —Emily Zheng
[Sports] The Oracle staff interviews new football coach Bob Sykes.—Stephanie Kennel
[News] The harsh reality is that time never stops. No matter how much we yearn to press rewind or hit the pause button, it cannot be done. What’s done is done, and we can only make the best out of the situation. —Joyce Liu
[News] The Oracle compiles a list of resources for teens seeking help with depression. —Emily Glider
[News] Suicide has a blurred history when it comes to the question, “Why?” “People who commit suicided are generally depressed or experiencing a distressing personal response to stressors in their life to an extreme degree, or a combination of the two,” school psychologist George Green said. “Not everyone responds the same to personal stressors and some individuals are at risk for suicide when responding to traumatic events or personal stressors whereas others may be at no risk at all.”—Rupali Raju & Carissa Ratanaphanyarat
[Sports] Gunn staff members went head to head in their heated annual softball game on May 28. Teachers from various departments split up into two teams and took the field ready to bat and field grounders. —Annie Shuey
[Sports] Although rowing is not as popular here as it is on the East Coast, more and more students have started participating in crew according to NorCal womens’ varsity coach Jenifer Aguire. “Crew is an amazing sport,” Aguire said. “Unfortunately, not many people take the opportunity try it out.” Crew is a club sport, so teams are made up of students from many schools in the Bay Area. Junior Natan Reddy rows for the Palo Alto Rowing Club. “Most of the people there are from Homestead [High School],” Reddy said. “Gunn students also practice with Stanford Rowing Club and NorCal Crew, which is the big one in this area.” —Rupali Raju
[Sports] Strap on your skates and get ready to twirl and leap. Sophomore Noosheen Javadi started figure skating when she was 4-years-old and she now skates competitively. “[Ice skating] is such an amazing sport,” Javadi said. “It’s artistic and graceful and at the same time takes physical strength and lots of focus. It’s both a sport and an art, really, which is what I like about it.”—Matthis Pluska-Renaud
[Sports] The Oracle staff recaps spring sports. —Shaya Christensen, Kevin Gao, Tiffany Hu, Annie Shuey & Alice Yu
[Sports] Recent trends show that the number of sport athletes getting injured as a result of overtraining has risen, but it’s not just a school phenomenon—it’s also a nationwide issue. “Overtraining is when kids play multiple sports in the same season or practice every day for multiple hours,” athletic trainer Lynn Castro said. “They basically don’t allow their body to recover from each.”—Annie Shuey
[Entertainment] The Oracle freaks out for fresh frozen yogurt. —Eugenah Chou & Elaine Liu
[Entertainment] Sock tan, farmer’s tan, shorts tan, goggle tan—you name it, and I’ve probably had it at some point in my life. —Joyce Liu
[Entertainment] The Oracle staff interviews French teacher Marcel Losier and English teacher Julie Munger about their surfing experiences. —Joyce Liu
[Entertainment] After releasing their multi-platinum album American Idiot in 2004, Green Day seemed to be on a hiatus from recording. But they are back with their eighth studio album entitled 21st Century Breakdown. Within three days of release, the album became the number one bestseller on the Billboard Top 200. —Kevin Gao
[Entertainment] Fox’s newest series Glee delivers a show stopping pilot that plays like a combination of High School Musical, The Breakfast Club and Hairspray. Created by Ryan Murphy, who is noted for his work in Nip/Tuck and Popular, Glee was highly publicized and advertised by promos following American Idol in an attempt to increase the number of viewers. The first episode of Glee offers a surprisingly charming mix of sarcasm, wit and insightful comments.—Elaine Liu
[Entertainment] Situated on the corner of High Street and University Avenue, and hidden behind a garden-like trellis, Junnoon, an upscale Indian restaurant, is thriving. Unlike my previous experiences with Indian cuisine, which all consisted of small buffets in the middle of nowhere, Junnoon offered a very different experience.—May Wu
[Features] The Oracle staff interviews junior Grace Choi. —Henry Gens
[Features] The Oracle staff interviews new Student Body President Daljeet Virdi. —Nicola Park
[Features] Out of all the things that secretarial supervisor Norma Street will miss about the Gunn community, the one that stands out is the people. “I will miss the students and teachers at Gunn,” Street said. “They are all wonderful and they make Gunn the wonderful school it is.”—Tiffany Hu
[Features] After 30 years of working as an intercity registered nurse and 14 years at Gunn, nurse Rose McGinnis is retiring. “It is my time to play and have a series of prep periods everyday,” McGinnis said.—Tiffany Hu
[Features] When students and staff were asked about English teacher Linder Dermon, the compliments were unending and faces lit up with smiles as memories came to mind. Words like “caring, enthusiastic, unselfish, patient and passionate” were repeated without hesitation and the response proved to be unanimous. “I have never met a teacher who cares more about her students, both as people and as students,” English teacher Tim Farrell said. “She forges such wonderful bonds with her students.”—Linda Yu
[Features] The Oracle staff takes a look at some teacher engagements of this year. —Tiffany Hu, Emily Zheng & Alice Yu
[Features] The Oracle staff takes a look at teacher weddings of this year. —Sophie Cheng, Eugenah Chou, Alvin Man, Mati Pluska-Renaud & Hannah Plank-Schwartz
[Centerfold] Ancient Egyptians revered the dung beetle, believing that the divine scarab rotated the world like a giant dung ball. But in rural Thailand, the insect has traditionally been valued for its more functional uses, primarily as a culinary delicacy. In the past, Thai farmers were known to stake claims to buffalo droppings as their private property to protect the valuable beetles burrowing away inside. Dung beetles are best eaten as pupae, the inactive state, or as adults, after they have been purged in water for a few hours. With the advent of mass tourism in Thailand, dead dung beetles have become a popular souvenir item, sold for as much as 400 baht (nearly 10 dollars). —Emily Zheng
[Centerfold] Crickets usually live under rocks and logs in meadows, in pastures or along the roadside. Known for their chirping, male crickets produce their signature songs by rubbing together their forewings, which have a modified vein that contains 50 to 300 ridges. Each song leads to one thing: mating. Crickets are eaten in some African and Asian cultures, where they are considered a delicacy. In Cambodia, crickets are captured by the pounds to be fried with spices and sold in street markets. Demand for crickets worldwide has skyrocketed lately as crickets are an inexpensive source of protein. Most of the time, crickets are deep fried before eaten. Put the crickets in hot oil, cook them until they’re crisp and sprinkle them over anything or eat them by themselves—Anne Hsiao
[Centerfold] Tessaratomidae nymphs make their home in most woody areas of northeast Thailand and breed during the rainy season. There, they are a highly coveted delicacy and are prepared with typical seasonings like salt and pepper. Nymphs belong to the same family as stink bugs, and while lacking in the same kind of protective mechanism, are similar in build with relatively large bodies and small heads. They have flat thick bodies, and have hard shells for protection (and extra crunch!). Nymphs live off of the sap from young shoots of vegetables. Although they have wings, nymphs are not very gifted fliers, and instead use their wings to scare away smaller insects.—Eugenah Chou
[Centerfold] Larvae. They are the immature, wingless form of bugs before they become adults. In other words, the teenage bug. Pick any bug, and someone has eaten or continues to eat its larvae. In the first century in his Historia Naturalis, Pliny wrote that Roman Aristocrats ate beetle larvae prepared in wine and flour. In fourth-century Greece, Aristotle detailed the harvest of cicada larvae. Even to this day, larvae decorate plates around the world. For example, Chinese beekeepers consume bee larvae, and Japanese foodies enjoy aquatic fly larvae sautéed in sugar and soy sauce. —Shaya Christensen
[Centerfold] The thought of even touching a worm can cause a person to squirm, let alone the concept of eating them. America portrays the worm as a slimy pink object whose sole value is to help fertilize dirt. The idea of eating something that eats dead organic material disgusts many people. However, in Thailand, locals consume bamboo worms, the larvae of moths that feed on bamboos, as a delicacy. These worms give the same amount of nutrients as meat, are low in fat, and are extremely high in protein and fiber and may help manage alergies and several immune disorders. —Sophia Jiang
[Centerfold] When people think of snails, they usually do not think of the extravagant ancient cuisine, but rather the pesky munchers that ooze their way around the garden, destroying plants and eating dead animals. They are covered in mucus and the nasty crunch after you step on one gives most people shivers. However, most of these small edible land mollusks have found themselves on plates throughout history. The French butter the snail, the Spanish cook them in special sauces and soups and the Greek cook them within casseroles. I consumed these snails like an oyster within their shell, raw and fresh. My mom cooked these snails just like how she ate them in her childhood. By boiling the snails and adding vinegar and soy sauce, I had the opportunity to get a peek into my mother’s childhood.—Joseph Lin
[Centerfold] Creepy crawlers pack a nutritous punch—Stephanie Kennel
[Forum] Alleged war crimes ignored during Bush era should be investigated under Obama—
[Forum] Childhood is supposed to be a time of innocence and lightheartedness. Kids nowadays, however, are growing up too fast. They are prematurely pressured by society to leave their toys behind and move to adulthood. They accelerate in every aspect of life—educational, social, mental and physical. —Jazreel Cheung
[Forum] Dogs have often been called man’s best friend, and the Obamas’ new Portuguese water dog Bo is no exception. However, publishing a series of books (see Bo: America’s Commander in Leash by Naren Aryal) based on this new addition to the presidential family is simply excessive publicity. Mass exposure in the media has turned what began as a harmless human interest story into full-blown commercialism. —Sophie Cheng
[Forum] Possibility of reviving 1949 policy that grants equal air time to both sides of disputes debated—Emily Glider
[Forum] Possibility of reviving 1949 policy that grants equal air time to both sides of disputes debated—Annie Shuey
[Forum] The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a supposed “safeguard” to our health, was established to provide protection against contaminated food and medicines. However, the recent spike of product recalls has put the health of numerous citizens at risk and called the FDA’s dependability into question. The health of the nation should be a top government priority. In order to prevent potential contaminations, such as salmonella, from infecting the food and health products we consume every day, the FDA must establish stricter regulations.—Niki Mata
[Forum] Decent people wear clothes to cover themselves up. Girls who wear too little clothing and show too much skin are the target of negative feedback. “Slut”, “skanky” and “whore” are just some adjectives commonly hurled at scantily clothed women. Frankly these are not words anyone would want to be associated with. So girls, cover up! —Alvin Man
[Forum] Some people wonder about the meaning of life. Others wonder what happens when you die. Well, I also sit and ponder late into the night over a single question: why do guys sag their pants? It is a question to which I’ve never received a satisfactory answer. Okay, I definitely don’t waste valuable sleeping time over it. But haven’t most “non-saggers” wondered at some point? Whenever I ask guys why they sag, they respond with “gangsta” and “reppin’ da hood.” —Sarah-Jean Zubair
[Forum] Gentlemen of Gunn High School! I am here to give the rallying cry for those of us who call ourselves true men. We have a crisis on our hands—a clothing pandemic so sinister, it threatens to change our common identity as upstanding males. The threat is clear to the collective dignity we hold dear! I speak of sagging pants.—Casey O'Connell