Headline of the Month: Legislators and Voters Alike Prepare For Midterm Elections This November By Sal DiMaggio It’s November and you know what that means. Midterms! No, no, not the tests. Don’t worry, those aren’t until January. But the midterm elections are important, and here’s why: The midterm elections are held every four years, right in the middle of a presidential term. Every member of the U.S. House of Representatives is up for reelection, as their terms are two years each, as well as 35 Senators, whose terms are six years. Some states also have their elections for governors during the midterms. Currently, the Republicans (R; GOP) have a 235-193 lead in the House, as well as a slight majority in the Senate, 51-49. They are hoping that they can keep this majority for the next two years. The Democrats (D), on the other hand, are looking to topple this control. These are the outcomes of both of those results: If the Republicans remain in power, Congress will most likely still be able to work with ​ President Trump, who is also a Republican. This will result in many things on the Republican agenda to be accomplished. The Republicans aim to crack down on illegal immigration and to lower taxes in the next few years to come. Along with this, they plan to protect gun rights and denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. If the Democrats gain control, Congress and the president will often clash, as they will disagree ​ ​ on most issues, and few of the things on Trump’s to-do list will get done. But the Democrats have a lot of things they want to get done, including investigating certain claims about the president and the new Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault. The Democrats will also try to enforce gun control laws and support abortion and equality rights. As of this writing, the Democrats have the lead, but not by much. Polls show that near fifty percent of people would vote Democratic, while forty percent would vote for Republicans. The other ten percent is undecided. Let’s take a look at some of the races in New Jersey: U.S. Senator from New Jersey- Sen. Bob Menendez (D) ​ ​ vs. Bob Hugin (R) Incumbent Senator Bob Menendez is up for reelection against Bob Hugin, a former Marine, and a businessman. The polls have Menendez in the lead, although his chances may be hurt by his indictment trial for corruption charges. As a result, the race is closer than most people expected, as New Jersey is a generally Democratic state. Representative for New Jersey’s Sixth Congressional District- Rep. Frank Pallone (D) vs. ​ ​ Rich Pezzullo (R) Current long-time representative Frank Pallone is being challenged by Rich Pezzullo, who used to be in the Army reserves and is currently a technology specialist. Pallone is a ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The polls have Pallone winning by a huge majority, getting around seventy percent of the vote. Pallone has been holding this position since 1993, while Pezzullo has never had any political experience. As election day nears, politicians are trying harder and harder to make sure they get elected, and voters are scratching their heads as who to vote for. Next month I’ll go over the results and the political consequences they might have. As is stands now, it looks like the Democrats might take control, but then again, anything could happen. Thanksgiving Football By Matthew Fedorco After a long, succulent meal consisting of turkey (or ham), mashed potatoes slathered with gravy, cornbread, stuffing, and a stomach full more of food, a lot of people like to curl up on the couch to watch some traditional Thanksgiving Football. Or, they might have their own game of football in the freezing cold and mud with their families. For a lot of people, football is a major element of Thanksgiving. But how did this tradition come to be? In 1934, the first NFL Thanksgiving game was played by the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Bears. The owner of the Lions, George A. Richards, knew that the local people had their focus set on Detroit’s baseball team, the Tigers, who were in the middle of a deep postseason run and ended up losing in the world series that year. Anyway, knowing that the main focus of Detroit sports was the Tigers, Richards elected to schedule a game on a day he knew the Tigers wouldn’t be playing on, Thanksgiving. Also, this particular game was a huge matchup between two mammoth teams, the Lions of course (who were 10-1), and the 11-0 Bears. In addition, this was the second to last game of the season and would put the Lions in first place. So with the Tigers not playing, and this game having such a big stake, people were all the more willing to leave their homes on Thanksgiving and go to the Lions game. The tickets sold out, but the Lions lost. However, the success of the game’s sales inclined Richards to make the same matchup the next year with the Bears, on the same day. This year, the Lions did beat the Bears to win the division title, and after coming off a loss after the last year, that made the victory even sweeter. Since then, the Lions have been on the football field every Thanksgiving day with the exception of 6 seasons. So when you are curled up on the couch, half asleep, half watching football with a stomach ache, you remember that the reason this wonderful tradition started because of George A. Richards. National Novel Writing Month By Sal DiMaggio National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, as it is commonly called, is a month-long writing challenge during the month of November. Hundreds of thousands of people all across the world participate each year. The event starts on November 1, and the challenge is to write 50,000 words by 11:59 p.m. on the night of November 30. The event has gained immense popularity across the globe, which is why I have decided to feature it in this issue. NaNoWriMo started out small in July 1999, with only 21 people taking part in it. But as the years went on, word of mouth got around and things started to look up for the program. In 2017, 402,142 people participated in NaNoWriMo. 95,912 of these people took part in the Young Writers Program, which is a program for children under 17 to set a goal more for their lifestyle. Schools with grades kindergarten through twelfth also take part in the program, encouraging their students to improve and practice their writing skills. There have been plenty of authors who have published books that they wrote during NaNoWriMo. The most famous example of this is Taran Matharu, a British university student with a passion for writing. He began his first fantasy book, The Novice of the ​ ​ Summoner series, on the social writing platform Wattpad. ​ Although he didn’t complete his novel within the month of November, within four months of writing, his book had hit a million reads. He landed publishing deals in multiple countries, including Macmillan in the United States, and soon enough, The Novice appeared on The New York Times Best Sellers list. Another author is ​ ​ ​ ​ Sara Gruen, who’s book Water for Elephants was on the bestsellers list for a year and was filmed ​ ​ as a movie starring actor Reese Witherspoon. There are plenty more writers who have had their works published, traditionally and self-published, but way too many to list here. Will you participate in NaNoWriMo this November? I know I will. Email me at [email protected] if you are, and I’ll feature you in next month’s issue! Good luck to all, ​ and happy writing! Entertainment Review: Music By Matthew Fedorco YSIV- Logic This brand new hip-hop album is created by artist, Logic. His 1-800-273-8255 suicide prevention song blew up in the past year, going certified 5x platinum and saving millions of lives. Despite Logic’s first hit song being a more pop-centric track, he looked to show off his rapping ability when he released a trap mixtape earlier in the year entitled Bobby Tarantino II, which went number 1 on the Billboard charts. While this tape was a major success commercially and featured some of his best hip-hop “bangers” to date, like “44 more”, “Contra”, and “Midnight”, this mixtape failed to strike a certain chord with Logic’s hardcore audience. Looking to show his appreciation to his hardcore fans, he has released his 4th studio album and 4th installment of his “Young Sinatra” series, YSIV. His previous 3 mixtapes in the series being “Young Sinatra”, “Undeniable”, and “Welcome to Forever”. These mixtapes are what broke out Logic onto the scene and got his hardcore fans hooked to his music. These mixtapes had more of an old school, “boom-bap” type feel of rap, and focused more on bars than catchy hooks. Therefore, Logic had a mindset to capture that same feel with this new album. He also has said that this is his best album to date, which puts a lot of weight on his shoulders to bring back that nostalgic feel to old listeners. With having some time to sit with this album, it is certainly not his best album (my favorite being Under Pressure) and is also not his best installment in the Young Sinatra series (my favorite being Welcome to Forever.) Although, it does successfully have that nostalgic feel of his old mixtapes.