COUGARS TIMES April 2015 WINCHESTER HIGH SCHOOL Tornadoes What is a tornado? A tornado is a moving, destructive vortex of rotat- ing winds having the appearance of a funnel-shaped cloud. There are several warning signs that show a tornado is coming. Those signs are a dark, often green, sky, wall clouds or an approaching clouds of debris, even if a funnel is not visible, large hail that often is in the absence of rain, the wind may die down and the air might become very still before a tornado strikes, and a loud roar similar to a freight train may be heard. The safest place to go when a tor- nado hits is a basement, and if your house doesn’t have one go to a room with no windows. If you live in a mobile home when a tornado hits you must get out and go to the safest building closest to you. Tornado Season runs from early spring through mid-summer but a tornado can happen anytime of the year if the conditions are right, which is any time when warm and cool air masses collide. A tornado can reach 300 miles per hour. Damage paths of a tornado can be in excess of one mile wide and 50 miles long. They usually strike during the late afternoon and early evening but can occur at any hour. Kaylie Horrer Spring This year spring began on March 20th and will end June 21st. Every year we all look forward to spring, because it means winter is finally over and summer is near! In the spring time we spring our clocks forward an hour. Flowers also begin to bloom. Hate rain? Too bad because we will be having “spring showers.” This year at the beginning of this month there were tornados spotted up north by Rochelle, IL, with a result of only one person being killed. Scott and Morgan County were under tornado watches and warnings. We got strong, damaging winds, a lot of rain, and hail. According to NOAA.com, between April 26th-April 29th of last year a large scale of severe weather and strong violent tornados, and flooding had occurred. This year it looks like our spring weather is going to be mostly around 70 degrees with thunderstorms and rain. Now let’s look forward to our May flowers that our April showers are bringing! By Brooke Bartmann Page 2 COUGARS TIMES Easter is Christianity’s most im- Easter portant holiday. Easter celebrates Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead. It has been called many things one being the moveable feast, because Easter has no set date like most holidays. The Christian churches in the west celebrate Easter on the first Sunday, following the full moon after the Vernal Equinox on March 21. So, Easter takes place between March, 22 and April, 25 every year. Orthodox Christian’s will rely on the Julian calendar to calculate when Easter will occur. There are many sources that believe the word Easter came from Eostre, a teutonic goddess of spring and fertility. Other sources trace Easter to the Latin term hebdomada albaor white week, which is an ancient reference to Easter week and their white clothing worn by people who were being bap- tized during that time. Through, a translation error, the term Easter later appeared as Esostarum in Old High German. In Spanish Easter is known as Pascua and in French, Paques. Easter may be a religious holiday, but it also has a commercial side, such as the mounds of jelly beans and marshmallow chicks that appear in stores each spring. As like Christmas, over the centuries various customs and pagan traditions, including Easter eggs, bunnies, baskets, and candy have become a standard part of the holy holiday. -Kaitlyn McEvers Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is the official mascot of The Walt Disney Company. In 1928 Mickey was created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at the Walt Disney Stu- dios. Mickey Mouse typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves. Mickey has a girlfriend named Minnie Mouse who generally appears beside him in many cartoons and he also has a pet dog named Pluto. His best friends are Donald Duck and Goofy. Mickey first was seen in a test screening of Plane Crazy. Mickey later starred in the short film Steamboat Willie in 1928, one of the first cartoons with sound. He went on to appear in over 130 films, including The Band Concert in 1935, Brave Little Tailor in 1938, and Fanta- sia in 1940. Mickey appears mostly in short films, but also he also appears in some feature-length films. Ten of Mickey's cartoons were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and in 1978 Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Mickey was voiced by Walt Disney himself and his friend Donald Duck was voiced by Clar- ence Nash. The 1983 short film Mickey's Christmas Carol, Mickey was voiced by Wayne Allwine and he continued to be the voice of Mickey until his death in 2009. Mickey Mouse is a character that the world will remember for many more years to come. Katelyn Chavez COUGARS TIMES Page 3 Rainbows What is a rainbow? A rainbow is an arch of colors that is formed in the sky in certain circumstances. It is caused when the refrac- tion and dispersion of the suns light by rain or other water droplets in the atmosphere. There are seven colors in a rainbow. Those colors, in order, are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. One of the best ways to remember the colors is ROY G. BIV. Sometimes you see a double rainbow, which is a brighter rainbow with a dimmer one on top of it. The dimmer rainbow is produced in the same way as the brighter rainbow, but instead of the light reflecting once inside the raindrop, it's re- flected twice. If you look carefully, you'll see that the colors in the second rainbow are in the reverse or- der of the other rainbow. Kaylie Horrer Spring Bass Fishing Early spring bass fishing is the best time to catch big bass. Most southern states can start fishing earlier than us who live in Illinois, but most big bass will be caught between February and May. The reason for this is all the female bass come into shallow waters to for spawn. Catching bass is easier in shallow water rather than deeper water because you can present a lure more effectively. One good tip for catching big bass is using big lures. There are many lures you can use during the spawn because the females are very protective of their eggs. The top 3 lures for spring time are spinner baits, crank baits, and soft jerk baits. You will need to stop by a local store to get your fishing license. You can get yours at Scotty’s gas station in Winchester, Illinois. I asked Colin Slagle where he likes to fish for bass at? He said “I fish in more farm pounds around Winchester be- cause I don’t have a boat to go out on the lakes.” Some local lakes around Winchester are Pittsfield Lake and Jacksonville Lake. The largest bass ever caught in Illinois was 13 pounds 1 ounce. Edward Walbel caught it in 1976 at Stone Quarry Lake. Un- til next time, stay focused, stay warm, and keep the line tight. By: Tyler Strohecker COUGARS TIMES Page 4 Cookies Cookies, as they are called in the United States and Canada, is a relatively small and flat baked treat that consist of flour, eggs, sugar, and butter or cooking oil. In other English speaking countries, they are called biscuits. In some of these countries, cookies are a plain bun. Cookies have been around since baking has, but they didn’t have the sugar of the other ingredi- ents such as chocolate chips, raisins, etc… They were more like a hard waffle that so popular because they travel well. They were originally founded in Persia when using sugar for the cookies became pop- ular in the 7th century. By the 14th century, cookies were popular in all levels of society because of their cheapness to make, and their popularity for being able to solve the sweet teeth of kings. There are nine classifications of cookies and over one hundred twenty variations of flavors. Some of the most popu- lar flavors are Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate Macadamian Nuts, Peanut Butter, Oatmeal Raisin, and Iced Sugar. Cookies have been a delicious sugar snack for kings, all the way down to peasants. Now cookies satisfy presidents down to the low income homesteads of people. Baking cookies, is also a great pastime for many people as you can make many different shapes, sizes, and flavors you can design. -Jachob Barnes Two Directions One Direction is a British boy band of five. Recently, Zayn Malik has left the band so now there is only four boys left. There was a scandal that Zayn had been cheating on his girlfriend, Per- rie Edwards. A few days after that, he left the band. People think there are different reasons on why he left. One is that he just quit. He said in an interview he was just doing what “felt right.” Another possibility is that he got fired. There had been rumors that Zayn had cheated on Perrie before. No one knows exactly. By: Linsey Alred COUGARS TIMES Page 5 West Central Softball Have you ever wondered what it was like in the head of a softball player? This week I decided to interview two of the West Central softball players, Mackenzie Evans and Kaitlyn Wade.