The Tusker Tribune The Student Newspaper of Somers Middle School

Issue Number 21 http://somersschools.org/domain/995 Winter 2019 Big Bucks Spent on Valentine’s Day!!!! By Natalia Tellez Not only is Valentine’s Day great for people Tusker Tribune Staff to have fun but it’s an amazing boost for compa- How much money do you think is nies and their sales. 1-800 Flowers have over 1 spent on Valentine's Day? $80? More? million costumers each February 14th and to keep Less? You will up with the demand, be really surprised at Purchase Percent Billions Spent hires 6,000 extra work- how much people spend Candy 55% $1.8 ers. This year will be for their loved ones and Greeting cards 44.9% $1.0 very helpful for this how much companies Evening out 35.2% $3.7 business because 60% have to make to be Flowers 35.6% $2.0 of men and 15% of ready for sales. Jewelry 19% $4.7 woman are expected to An average per- purchase flowers as a son buys candy, cards, gifts, and much gift. more that add up to the amount of Hallmark creates around 1,400 Val- around $130 during Valentine’s Day! entine's Day greeting card designs. Hershey’s company makes Last Valentine’s Day it was Hall- more than 8 million pounds of Kisses mark’s second biggest day of the year and sells more than 800 million indi- with 144 million people purchasing vidual Kisses for Valentine’s Day. their cards. Necco manufacturers a That’s a lot of money and candy! popular candy called Sweet tarts and Valentine’s Day is not only a are very popular to give to friends fun holiday full of love, but also a big because they have short messages amount of money. It contributed about relating to friendship and love. $19.6 billion in 2018 to the economy. Necco manufactures 8 billion The people doing more of the spending Sweethearts per year and approxi- are men with, $196. That is twice as mately 100,000 pounds of candy much as a woman. Of course, younger hearts are sold each day during the people participate more in this six-week period between January 1 amount than others. Nearly two-thirds of those and Valentine's Day. between the ages of 25 and 34 celebrate the holi- As you can tell Valentine’s Day is signifi- day, and also 60 percent of those between 18 and cant to company's sales and economics every- 24 years old. The most popular gifts include can- where. That doesn’t mean that you should stop dy, flowers, jewelry, food, and cards while the celebrating or buying gifts but don’t spend more least bought are clothing ($1.9 billion) and gift than what is needed. Enjoy this special holiday cards ($1.4 billion). and Happy Valentine's Day! NJHS Sets a High Standard

By Ruby Ellison and Sophia is a great honor for your present and future life. Mancuso Not only does NJHS make you push Tusker Tribune Staff yourself to be the best you can be, but RE: For people who it also helps other people in need. missed the news, Nation- SM: Only the best try to get in. The al Junior Honor Society (NJHS) is a ones who try the hardest to succeed! club to show you are hardworking and The ones who work hardest to dedicated to accepting a challenge to achieve their goals. The ones who be a better person and helping the step up their game to win that sweet community. Not many people are up to feeling of victory after awarded a cer- the task of volunteer work but, it is tificate of being accepted into NJHS. worth it. Being a member of this club Continued on Page 2 The Tusker Tribune Page 2 The Student Newspaper of Somers Middle School The Tusker Tribune The Tusker Tribune Commentary: Staff Last Year’s Super Bowl was Better! Co-Editors Jesse Manginelli from 42 yards away. The Rams Noah Volkman Joseph Melillo Tusker Tribune Staff punted on all 6 possessions in the Super Bowl LIII, or first half and it was the second low- Feature Editor Super Bowl 53, was a bit up- est scoring half in the Super Bowl. setting to most. The final By the 3rd quarter, the score Samuel Sanz score was 13-3 with the Patriots was 3-3. The Rams finally got on Sports Editor coming out on top. the board with a 53-yard Super Bowl made by Greg Zuer- Jesse Manginelli 53 was held in the lein. Photography Editor Mercedes-Benz The final Stadium in Atlan- quarter was where Allison O’Connor ta, Georgia. It was the game started to

Copy Editors a slow game, to say take off. Patriots the least. At the running back Sony William Underkoffler end of the 1st quar- Michel scored from Michael Aiello ter, the game was two yards away from Reporters tied at 0-0. The Pa- the end zone. triots’ kicker The Rams Natalia Tellez Ruby Ellison missed a field goal from 46 yards could have come back but lost pos- Jesse Manginelli away and the Rams totaled 29 session. Stephen Gostkowski then Noah Volkman yards. kicked a 41-yard field goal to win Sophia Mancuso At the end of the 2nd quarter, the game. Final score was 13-3. Luke Cukaj Andrew Fasone the score was 3-0 Patriots. Stephen I'd say the best part was Arjun Ojha Gostkowski, who missed his last when SpongeBob performed in the Benji Cutler field goal attempt, made this one halftime show.

OKC Making Waves in the NBA

By Luke Cukaj OKC’s top scorer is Paul Tusker Tribune Staff George who averages 28 points, 8 re- The Tusker Tribune is the online Somers Middle School Student In the NBA, the OKC/The bounds, and 4 assists per game. Newspaper. It is published weekly Thunder have been having an Another player named Russell (except during school vacations) on rd the Somers Middle School Website. amazing year in 3 place in Westbrook who is the main play mak- It is entirely student-written by the western er on the thunder averages 6th, 7th and 8th grade students conference and a 37-19 25 points, 11 rebounds, and from: Somers Middle School record. They re- 10 assists per game. 250 Route 202 cently have come off a Most recently, he put Somers, NY, USA. Any SMS student is eligible to two-game winning up 21 points, 14 assists and 11 write stories. If interested, please e- streak, defeating the rebounds to set an NBA record mail with his 10th straight triple- Advisor Dean Pappas at 126 to [email protected] 117 and 132 to 122. double, passing Wilt Chamber- lain.

NJHS paid for what you have done. From Page 1 Another one of the tasks you must com- plete is asking one teacher and one adult for a rec- SM: Volunteering is all about helping others. If ommendation letter saying whether you are eligi- you volunteer to help someone or something, you ble (having good behavior in and or out of class) to are choosing to take time out of your day to do be accepted into NJHS. The third and final task of that. You can’t just be a member of NJHS. You the National Junior Honor Society is to maintain must show your inner self and interest toward an overall average of a 92.0% or higher. this society. For example, you must complete RE If you are all about helping others, going out of your comfort zone, and ready to be a role model tasks in order to quality. for people to follow then NJHS is the right club for The first task is to put 7-15 hours of service you. After reading this, have you considered ap- towards your community. An example of commu- plying to NJHS? If so, meet all the requirements nity service is helping at our local animal shelter needed to be a member and you will be on the or helping in the Somers library without being right path to success! Good luck! The Tusker Tribune Page 3 The Student Newspaper of Somers Middle School Heard of ‘Fun Facts’? Try ‘Sun Facts’!

By Andrew Fasone Here’s another example: if 65 million light Tusker Tribune Staff years away there were some advanced creatures The sun is the closest star to earth that had powerful telescopes, they would be able only thanks to the sun, life as we know it to see dinosaurs walking on earth or rather mak- exists. Its light hits the surface of the plan- ing their last steps because that’s when they went et making it warm enough for living organisms to extinct approximately. develop and live on. The sunlight reflected Plants converts so- by earth would need 65 million lar energy into chemical years to reach the creatures’ energy. They give us oxy- eyes or whatever they use to gen to breathe, so you can see things. As we know, noth- go to the beach and have a ing, literally nothing in the tan. But what would hap- universe, can travel faster than pen if the sun disappeared light so right after the sun dis- right now? What do you appeared, it would take 8 think? Well, I don’t know, minutes for this good news to but let me take a wild reach us. guess and say, umm, it Even the gravitational would get dark? pull that the sun has on our Would we even no- planet would also end only in tice that? How would we be eight minutes. So, the earth able to survive without the would continue orbiting the sun? Would it be cold spot where the sun had been as enough for the Russians to if nothing happened but for on- consider moving to a differ- ly 8 minutes. ent planet? After that, our planet I decided to take a would start to fly in a straight look at this hypothetical line and that’s when mass pan- situation and imagine what ic would probably start as peo- it would be like to live on earth without the sun. ple try to return those solar panels they just had Therefore, let’s go to the dark side. We would have installed. It would be very dark. In addition, the no idea at first. Seriously, the sun is 8 light other planets would disappear into the darkness minutes away from earth. That means it is a dis- as there would have no sunlight to reflect other tance that light can travel in one minute. planets. For example, if you were on Mars and your On top of all of that, it would be extremely friends were here on Earth, imagine that you both cold. Without any source of heat, Earth would cool have good enough eyes to see each other. If you down very quickly. Within just the first week, the wave to your friend, he/she would see you only in Earth’s average temperature would be right at the about 30 minutes, depending on how far Mars freezing point. After a few years, it would be too would be at the moment. cold to live on, and we would slowly die off. Minor League Football? It’s Coming!

By Jesse Manginelli los, Salt Lake Stallions, San An- Tusker Tribune Staff tonio Commanders, and the San Many people be- Diego Fleet. lieve there should be a The Alliance of American minor league for foot- Football or the AFF, debuted on ball. Now this day has come. Saturday. Many former and cur- The Alliance of American rent NFL players joined the AFF. Football is the new minor league Some familiar names include football league. There are eight Christian Hackenberg and Josh teams. Johnson, who played for the Red- They are the Arizona skins in the 2018 season. Hotshots, Atlanta Legends, Bir- The league has eight mingham Iron, Memphis Express, Orlando Apol- teams and focuses on showing local talent. Continued on Page 5 The Tusker Tribune Page 4 The Student Newspaper of Somers Middle School Soulja Boy’s Lasting Impact

By Noah Volkman straight to each Tusker Tribune Staff other. He Ever since his first viral videos (Soulja Boy)’s a took over the Internet, Soulja Boy has pioneer.” been an influential figure in hip-hop. Part of With the release of his debut album what made Souljaboytellem.com in 2007, Soulja Boy helped Soulja Boy an create the blueprint for a whole generation of rap- instant topic of pers both in terms of his DIY sound and his Inter- conversation net presence. was his sound, “I was livestreaming and doing all this ten both in terms of years ago, and now y’all wanna make money off his flow and his YouTube and I was being shunned upon and DIY instrumen- laughed at,” he said in an interview. tals. “I did Soulja Boy’s early music started getting “Crank That,” popular on sites like Soundclick and MySpace, right?” he said. but it was LimeWire that really helped him make “On this pro- “Crank That” his breakout hit. “Then they’ll go gram called Fruity Loops.” Fruity Loops is now they’ll download that song for free like I’m finna more commonly known as FL Studio. “Probably get 50 Cent “In da Club,” they hit download hit took me like ten minutes to make it. And every- play, it go YOUUUU they like what is this? But body know I made like $10 million.” then by probably like a minute in they like this And Big Draco’s homemade style on FL hard!” Studio even influenced other producers (including And it worked. In September 2007, “Crank myself), like Metro Boomin. In an interview, Met- That” peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and ro said “I had followed Soulja Boy, and I knew stayed there for almost two months. As “Crank that’s what he was using. I knew 9th Wonder had That’s” popularity grew, so did its streams. In used it too, and that a lot of EDM and dubstep early 2008, the song broke the record at the time was being done through it. for the most digital downloads. And the track was Tracks like his self-produced club anthem even nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Song. “Donk” with its energetic claps lent itself as the Soulja Boy’s tactics got him some attention. beat behind classics like Nicki Minaj’s 2009 cut Shortly after Soulja Boy blew up, we started see- “Itty Bitty Piggy.” And in recent news, Soulja ing rappers like the Bay Area’s Lil B take com- Boy’s sonic influence has become the topic of con- mand of his own online audience, and today we versation, after he claimed in January 2019 that see that kind of thing all the time. stole his flow on the 2010 track, “Miss Me.” In an interview in December 2018, indus- His comments on the alleged stolen flow on The try insiders behind acts like Lil Pump detailed Breakfast Club (now memed to the extreme) what they call “the Pump Plan” to help rappers were, “Draaaaake?! That’s Soulja. That’s my bar. get attention online and go viral, saying they use He copied my whole ******* flow.” Just a few “social-media influencer campaigns, meme-ing days later, Soulja Boy took to Twitter to accuse the artist, Musical.ly placements, World Star pro- Ariana Grande of using his flow on her recent motions, and something called “controversy pro- track, “7 rings.” jects.”” Meaning that they stage drama online. And it’s not just his flows. Several phrases But Soulja Boy maintains that he was the he first popularized have also found a permanent first to really place in the culture. Like his 2008 cut, “Turn My figure out how Swag On.” His dance moves don’t seem to be go- to blow up ing anywhere any time soon, either. And his online and then reach has even made it around the world. Several use it to spark a rappers have shared their support for the south- music career. ern MC and his contributions. Everyone from sea- Mr. Collipark, soned MCs like Juicy J and Meek Mill have said president of something about Soulja Boy. And the younger Collipark Music generation of rappers like Houston’s Tay-K have said that “those had a lot to say, too. kids didn’t need While it’s been more than a decade since the radio sta- Soulja Boy first took over the Internet, he’s still tions or the DJs more than happy to let you know all about his in the clubs impact. “Now this is what everybody is glorifying they use the In- is making money off social media what I created ternet to go and started. Y’all gotta stop playing with me.” The Tusker Tribune Page 5 The Student Newspaper of Somers Middle School

NBA All-Star Weekend: Something for Everyone

By Arjun Ojha dunkers in the NBA. There are five judges that Tusker Tribune Staff have cards with numbers between 1 and 10. After During the weekend of February the dunker does his dunk, the judges rate the 16th, there will be NBA All-Star Weekend. dunk. The first event is the 2019 Taco Every year, there are some creative dunks. Bell Skills Challenge. It will air on TNT at 8 pm For example, in 2011, won the slam on February 16th. The Taco Bell Skills Challenge dunk contest by jumping over a KIA. Also, one of is a series of challenges such as passing the ball the most famous dunks was in 1988. Michael Jor- through a hole, skill past fake players and at the dan jumped from the free-throw line. He ended up end, making a 3 pointer. The first person to make winning it that year. The participants for this the 3 pointer wins that round. The participants year are Dennis Smith Jr., , for this event are Jayson Tatum, Trae Young, Lu- and John Collins. Last year’s win- ka Doncic , Mike Conley, Kyle Kuzma, De’Aaron ner, , was not selected. Fox, Nikola Jokic and Nikola Vucevic. Last year’s winner, Spencer Dinwiddie, is unable to defend NBA All-Star Game his title due to injury. The fourth and final event is the NBA All- Mountain Dew 3 Point Conference Star Game. This year is the 68th Annual All-Star Game. This event will take place on February 17th The second and 8 pm. The NBA All-Star event of the NBA All- Game is were all the NBA Stars Star Weekend is the play. The players this year were Mountain Dew 3-point selected by NBA fans all around Conference. The 3- the world. The two most voted point contest is just players every year are chosen to simply how it sounds. be the captains of each team. A 3-point contest. In This year, the captains are the 3-point contest, LeBron James of the Los Angeles there is 25 shots taken Lakers and Giannis Antetokoun- in total. The shots are mpo (An-Tet-O-Koun-Po) of the taken in the corners, . There is really the wings and the cen- no defense played throughout ters of the court. You this game. On Team LeBron, the shoot five balls with the last one on each rack be- starters are LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kyrie ing the money ball. The rack of your choice is the Irving, Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. On money ball rack. You have all money balls. Money their bench, they have , Klay balls are worth 2 points each. Thompson, Ben Simmons, LaMarcus Aldridge, The contestants for this competition are Karl-Anthony Towns, and Dwyane Devin Booker, Seth Curry, Stephen Curry, Danny Wade. Green, Joe Harris, Buddy Hield, , For team Giannis, they have Giannis Ante- Khris Middleton, Kemba Walker and Dirk tokounmpo, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, Paul Nowitzki. The defending champion Devin Booker George, Kemba Walker, Khris Middleton, Nikola is participating to try and defend his title. Jokic, Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin, D’Angelo Russell, Nikola Vucevic, Kyle Lowry and Dirk AT&T Contest Nowitzki. Both Dwayne Wade and Dirk Nowitzki were added by commissioner Adam Silver because The third event of NBA All-Star Weekend of their extraordinary contributions as iconic NBA is the AT&T Slam Dunk Contest. The Slam Dunk champions and beloved ambassadors and in recog- Contest is a competition between the four best nition of their All-Star Careers.

Minor League Bill Polian. They are TV partners with CBS and From Page 3 NFL Network and other smaller companies. Some other former NFL players are also This will most likely be played for every participating in this league like Matt Asiata, Gar- offseason of the NFL. What makes this different ret Grayson, and Trent Richardson. The AAF al- from other football leagues is that this league ready has a whole season planned that will be gets the publicity it needs. Players will be given a three-year contract for $250,000 which means televised. It was founded by Charlie Ebersol and they will receive about $84,000 annually. The Tusker Tribune Page 6 The Student Newspaper of Somers Middle School ’s Best Take to the Court Sunday

By Benji Cutler Tusker Tribune Staff Team Lebron: The NBA All-Star Starters: Game, on February 17, is Kevin Durant right ahead. Recently, the All- James Harden Star Game Draft took place, Kyrie Irving televised this year, unlike last year. Kawhi Leonard The two players with the most All-Star votes, LeBron James from the Reserves: Western Conference and Giannis An- LaMarcus Aldridge tetokounmpo from the Eastern Con- Bradley Beal ference, select the All-Stars for their Anthony Davis team. LeBron got to select a player Damian Lillard every other turn, as well as Giannis. Ben Simmons Last year was the first year they used Klay Thompson this format, and it worked out very well. Before Karl-Anthony Towns then, it was the Eastern Conference versus the West. Special Ros- Since last ter Addition: season, the NBA All- Star Game has been Along played for charity. with the spe- Each team captain cial roster ad- will select a charity ditions, there or national organiza- was more his- tion located in Char- tory that was lotte, where the made this year. game is being played, where donations will be used As I said earli- to support local efforts. er, this was the They each got to pick four other starters, first ever tele- someone who’s representing either conference, one vised NBA All-Star Draft, and this was the year of by one. Then, they each got to pick 7 reserves, rep- the first ever All-Star trade. Russell Westbrook of resenting either conference as well, which were Team LeBron was traded to Team Giannis for Ben voted in by head coaches. Also, this year, they add- Simmons. All-Star Weekend will be very exciting ed just before the draft a special roster addition, to watch. Now that I’ve told you about the new one from each conference, dedicated to people who NBA All-Star Game, you’ll be prepared for the are soon retiring and have had incredible careers. spectacular game that will be played Sunday, Feb- These two players were Dirk Nowitzki and Dwya- ruary 17, 8:20 P.M. on TNT. ne Wade. Now that I got that out of the way, I will show you the 2 teams that will be battling against each other on Sunday, February 17.

Team Giannis: Starters: Stephen Curry Joel Embiid Kemba Walker

Reserves: Blake Griffin Next Nikola Jokic Issue: Kyle Lowry February Khris Middleton 28! D’Angelo Russell Russell Westbrook Enjoy the Break! Special Roster Addition: Dirk Nowitzki