Fall Edition 2022
Gobble gobble Needham High!
We hope you have had a restful and reflective Thanksgiving. Congratulations on summiting the great feat that is Quarter 1 – only 3 more to go!
This fall has been a whirlwind, but we are back with another edition. Want to learn about Hollywood nepotism, test optional college application policy, or how to reflect on the artists we support, it’s all here. You’ve got this, 19 school days until winter break!
♡,
RES
Courtesy of The Guardian
By Julia Most
“Separate the art from the artist” is a saying that has been created in light of celebrities and artists being accused of, or found guilty of, various wrongdoings. It means what it sounds like: don’t connect an artist with the music they produce. Whether or not you choose to separate the art from the artist is a personal decision, and there is no right or wrong answer.
Courtesy of Glamour UK
The argument whether nepotism is “fair” or not has never really been settled: one side believes that the sole reason that nepotism babies, kids of famous people who get jobs in the industry, are getting hired is because of their last name, and they do not possess any talent or unique qualities about them, while the other side argues that nepotism babies who choose to pursue a career in entertainment are simply taking advantage of their opportunities, and they in particular have to work twice as hard to prove that they deserve to be in the industry, since people question if they are deserving or not.
Courtesy of Galin Education
By Hadas Duchin
Some may argue that the only positive aspect that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic was that many universities and colleges announced that they are now “test optional.” Ideally, this means that students are no longer required to submit their SAT and/or ACT scores in their applications, and that universities will consider them equally to students who did submit their standardized test scores. However, this brings up the new question, is test optional really test optional?
Courtesy of Sophia D'Amelio
At a school of nearly 2000 people, one would think that school spirit comes with the package. As I was disappointed to learn upon entering Needham High last year, that assumption is far from the truth. ... To say the least, homecoming made me want to do just that: go home.
Courtesy of Champlain College
You’d be hard pressed to go an entire year at Needham High without hearing talk of pre-college programs: Brown, Yale, Harvard, the list continues. ... But, there is important subtext missing--these programs are for those elite students whose parents can facilitate a summer experience for the hefty cost of thousands,if not tens of thousands, of dollars. Even more insidiously, there is another implicit message: We want rich kids to have another advantage over less-privileged contenders in the college application process.
Courtesy of Spotify
By Amelie Zosa
I can’t speak for anyone else, but Midnights was not what I was expecting at all. This made listening to the album for the first time all the more exciting. I wouldn’t place Midnights among my top five favorite Taylor albums, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think it has many great songs on it.
Courtesy of The National WWII Museum
By Lucy Mackey
All year long, people of different ages should work to be involved in the democratic process. Although many adults argue that youth under 18 are not yet mature or responsible enough to vote, listed below are five reasons why young people aged 16 and 17 deserve the right to vote.
Courtesy of NPR
By Emma Zhang
Protests in Iran have been raging for a while, mostly because of the restrictive laws regarding women that the Islamic Regime has published after the Islamic revolution in 1979. One major law is that women need to wear hijabs or headscarves and modest, loose-fitting clothing to maintain their modesty and privacy from men. This was pretty relaxed because oftentimes, women would wear veils with some of their hair showing, but right now, it is a huge problem.
Courtesy of Pitchfork
By Owen Woo
I have returned to review music once again for the esteemed NHS Hilltopper and I’m ready for an even better year. While I plan to return to the format used last year, I decided to switch it up a little bit for the first edition of the Music Report. In this article I will be ranking the last five albums I listened to for the first time, and break down each of them individually. ... I also want to preface this ranking by saying I have listened to some pretty good albums in the past few weeks, and the rankings will certainly change over time.
Courtesy of Katherine Calton
By Amelie Zosa
Happy November! This month, our fashionista is of the youngest generation in our school. She loves a good pair of jeans and was nominated for fashionista by the NHS freshies of Charles River Ballet Academy. Please welcome first-year Katherine Calton to the Needham High fashionista community!
Courtesy of Hello Magazine
For many of us, the beginning of fall means that it’s officially Gilmore Girls rewatch season. The familiar tune of ‘There She Goes’ as the first episode begins is a comforting reminder that while school and the chaos that comes along with it cannot be avoided, Gilmore Girls is always there to show us the good parts of fall, school, and, well, life.
Courtesy of Youtube
By Owen Woo
In Pusha T’s song “Brambleton” from his album It’s Almost Dry, he raps, “had a million answers, didn’t have a clue why Michael kissed Fredo in Godfather 2.” Well I’m here to clear things up for you, Mr. T. ... The kiss of death can be traced back to the Sicilian mafia, and was a practiced tradition back in the time when the mafia ran the island of Sicily: the kiss of death symbolizes that one has been marked for death by the mob.
Courtesy of UGA
By Owen Woo
Often when talking about Needham High School’s competitive teams, the immediate focus goes to athletics, like the football team. Academic teams like Speech & Debate and Model U.N. often get overlooked. Even within this subset of clubs, there is one that I believe that gets little to no attention.
Courtesy of Sophia D'Amelio
Psychs are the clothes and outfit themes that teams, often in highschool, pick to wear each game day to let people know about their game and raise team spirit and excitement for it. They can be seen practically every day at Needham High, with nearly every team having the same roster of psychs that they rotate throughout the season-- it is pretty much always a guarantee that someone in your class will be wearing something wacky on any given day.
By Lily Katz
Needham High School’s SAMD (Students Acting to Make a Difference) will be putting on a production of The Addams Family! SAMD is a student-led theater company that produces a full scale musical every fall, with the goal of collaborating with and raising money for a different nonprofit organization each year.