The Panther VoiceVolume XLX Issue 4 • 2012 • Ardsley High School • 300 Farm Road • Ardsley, New York 10502

The Panther Voice - April/May 2012 Page 1

By Dima Chaar

Have you ever heard of a plant that not only talks and sings, but also grows at an enormously fast rate? Well, what about one that also survives off of human blood? No? Well, I hadn’t either until I went to Ardsley High School’s produc-tion of The Little Shop of Horrors, a play based off of a 1960s movie. The show began with a sing-ing trio of street ragamuffins, Crys-tal, Ronette, and Chiffon, played by Emily Trias, Alyssa Cohen, and Emily Blumen-thal, respectively, who continued to act as the play’s narrators. The girls were always stationed outside of Mushnik’s Skid Row Florists, a run-down, broken flower shop owned and run by Ms. Mushnik played by Alanna Gins-

berg. Ms. Mushnik had two main employees: Seymour and Audrey, played by Nick Beldoch Rachel

Langton– and Seymour is des-perately in love with Audrey, who always dated the bad guys, like the sadistic dentist played by Oren Barkow. One day, Seymour buys an exotic plant that looks like a venus fly trap to the shop. The plant imme-diately draws cus-tomers. However, Seymour soon discovers that the plant is only satis-fied when it has human blood as food! The plant, played by TJ and Teddy Lyons,

becomes the main focus of the play, as Seymour works to first keep it alive and then tries to destroy it.(continued on page 3).

Inside This Issue...Opinion..................pg. 2Arts.........................pg. 3News...................pg. 4-7Sports..................pg.7, 8

From left to right: Dr.Rosenfeld, with Dr.Sicconi, Jarir Chaar and Dima Chaar, having a post-presentation

discussion.

Illustration by Heather Sommer

The Drama Club Presents: Little Shop of Horrors

By Emily Shapiro

A Tale of Two CountiesBy Ilana Goldstein The Habitat for Humanity Chapter of Ardsley High School de-serves substantial recognition for its hard work this year and years past.

Why? It’s simple. This club is one of the most active clubs in the West-chester division because members attend builds at least two to three times per month – more than most Westchester chapters. At builds, volunteers work together to demol-ish, rebuild, and beautify homes for those who cannot. In addition to the aesthetic, we aid people finan-cially: homes touched by Habitat

for Humanity are cheaper to main-tain, thanks to smart ideas and green technology. While there are many ben-

efits to being a volunteer, the most obvious is experience with con-struction work.(continued on page 3).

AHS’s Habitat for Humanity volunteers at 127 Hawthorne Street

Last year on Jeopardy!, people everywhere dropped what they were doing and became mes-merized by the spectacle that was Watson outperform humans in the game show. At the time, the super-computer caused quite an uproar – from raising man versus machine questions to creating admiration for how far mankind has advanced. A year later, little has been brought up regarding Watson. In our fast-paced world where a song released a month ago is considered “old” and news comes and goes in a blink of an eye, Watson disappeared off the media

map and was tucked back away in the confines of IBM. Little did we know, IBM has been busy at work figuring out real-world applications for the supercomputer and the role Watson could play in the future. On April 18th, the Bioethics Club hosted a special event where Dr. Roberto Sicconi of the IBM Watson team came to speak about the phenomenal supercomputer, as well as preview some of the applica-tions IBM is enabling with Watson’s technology. Dr. Sicconi began by ex-plaining the architectural overview of the Watson system making hy-

potheses on the “meaning” of the words used, validating the hypotheses and rank-ing the candidate answers, and then finally returning the results with an associ-ated confidence score. In the simplest terms, the machine uses algorithms to pick apart the Jeopardy! question, search for key words, filter possible correct answers and then answers the question with the most appropriate choice. Sounds foolproof,

right? When Watson was asked for the name of a U.S. city, it answered “Toronto”. How could it have gotten such a seem-ingly easy question wrong? Unlike its human contestants, Watson could not take into consideration the category when an-swering the question. This example shows that the machine is not right one hundred percent of the time. How would you feel about such a fact if your life were in the hands of a supercomput-er like Watson? Dr. Sicconi indulged our curiosity in the future of Watson in the second part of his presenta-tion, which explored its capabilities in the Healthcare and Medical Di-agnostics. Watson could work with doctors in organizing health records to create medical “contexts” to help physicians decide about diagnosis and treatments. During his presenta-tion, we all pondered whether we would want to be examined and diagnosed by a machine, or given a

physical by a doctor spoken to over a headpiece by a supercomputer. Would medicine become depersonal-ized? What if these computers made an error that might lead to a patient’s death? How likely is such a com-puter error in comparison to human error?As we edge toward the future, more and more questions will arise. Noth-ing can pacify progress, but nothing can pacify these questions as well. What is important is that we do not create a divide between man and machine, but instead supplement the incredible human brain with the potential capabilities of supercom-puters.

IBM Watson: From Jeopardy! to Biology

The Panther Voice - April/May 2012 Opinion Page 2

The Panther VoiceArdsley High School • 300 Farm Road • Ardsley, NY 10502

Phone: (914) 693-6300 ext. 2454 • Fax: (914) 693-8340Website: www.ardsleyschools.org Email: panthervoice@gmail.com

Dr. Lauren Allan, Superintendent •Dr. James Haubner, Principal • Mary Gorman, Assistant Principal

• Tiffany Moleski & Gina Cooperman, Advisors

Panther Editors: Editors-In-Chief: Dima Chaar and Andrew Joung Managing Editor: Mike Wachs Editorial Editor: Emily Shapiro News Editor: Victoria Sheridan Business Editor: Lizzie Grant Feature Editor: Felice Segall Arts & Entertainment Editor: Becca Leibowitz Sports Editor: Mike Wachs

Romney and Obama Face Off as November NearsBy Jon Sklar Former Governor of Mas-sachusetts Mitt Romney has all but clinched the Republican nomi-nation for president, as former Senator Rick Santorum, Libertar-ian Congressman Ron Paul and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich have suspended their campaigns and endorsed Romney. Romney won a hard-fought campaign, with big primary wins

in the states of Florida, Michigan, Ohio, and Arizona. The former governor must now focus on beat-ing his opponent, President Barack Obama, in the presidential election in November. Obama has made news recently after becoming the first U.S president to support same-sex marriage. The announcement came after Vice President Joe Biden announced his support for same-sex marriage on May 6th. Now, the issue will not decide the general election, but a Rasmus-sen poll recently gave Governor Romney his largest lead ever over President Obama, 50% to 43%, re-spectively. This has to do with the economy, as the unemployment rate is still at 8.1%, only falling due to the amount of people who have stopped looking for work. If the economy would continue to stay on its slow pace to recovery, the president may be in trouble as the economy will be the biggest issue this summer.

Governor Romney, though, has his own issues. Many critics have argued that the governor is out-of touch with the Ameri-can people, as Romney has a net worth of over a quarter of a billion dollars. Also, during his time as governor, the state of Massachu-setts ranked 47th out of 50 states in job growth. Romney refutes this claim, by mentioning the hundreds

of thousands jobs gained when Romney was investing in com-panies such as Staples and Sports Authority during his time at Bain Capital. However, President Obama has a lot of issues as well. The incumbent president has no problems with his appearance or personal life, but rather the state of the country and his policies. The unemployment rate is still at a staggering 8.1 %, down from 10.6 % at the height of his term. There has been job growth over the last several months, but the President wants to raise the deficit by $1.3 trillion, which is unaffordable. The President has called for the so called 1% to pay higher taxes, so the deficit would be lowered. How-ever, in his budget, the President not only calls for taxes to be raised, but for the deficit to go up $1.3 trillion. Countries in Europe such as Greece and France have gone through awful economic down-turns, due to spending too much

money, and not calling for auster-ity to kick in. Gas prices are rising, even though it is debatable as to wheth-er a president has a direct impact on them. The war in Afghanistan is getting more violent, along with countries like Syria, Egypt, and Libya in turmoil. Also, his main foreign policy issue is Iran, which is currently devolving a nuclear

weapon. The state of Israel has said that it will take action if Iran completes a bomb, which could subsequently lead to a nuclear war. This election will be an important one for our country. And the state of the economy will most likely impact President Obama’s chances for reelection.

Photos: Google Images

Contributors: Skyler Brivic, Justin Cheung, Ilana Goldstein, Abby Golfo, Nina Joung, Jon Sklar Illustrators: Anthony Kim, Heather Sommer

*Disclaimer: Content that appears in The Panther Voice does not necessarily represent the views of the paper or of Ardsley High School.

The Panther Voice - April/May 2012 News Page 3

I have worn on several oc-casions what we call in the business “marshmallow suits.” Despite the name, the suit looks rather apoca-lyptic with a white full body suit with a mask, but suc-cessfully protects us as we clear out mold and other detritus that threatens peo-ple’s health. Regard-less, since all builders put blood, sweat, and tears into each and every aspect of the day’s project, the demolition is an unforgettable and fun experience. With all the grime of building, ridding an area of vines, shrubs, and other unwanted greenery, and watching it turn into something beautiful and clean, is one of the greatest moments of satisfaction I have known. And this is not work that supports long-term goals, whose ends we’ll never see realized; this is work that helps people, in the here and now. As Jessica Tilles, a senior and president of the club, said “Habitat helps you to learn that you can make a difference.” Perhaps more than that as Molly Caccia, a

junior and vice president, said “it is a call to arms – a call to do some-thing to help others.” Both leaders believe that the organization does more than

create homes but also allows raises awareness towards the reality of Westchester: within one of the wealthiest counties in the richest country in the world, people live in desperate poverty. Tilles, Cac-cia, and Westchester

Habitat division leader Jim Killoran believe that the organization makes volunteers appreciate their lifestyles and understand the differences in the various areas of the county. And so long as there are these dis-crepancies in lifestyles, and people who care for those who are less fortunate, there will be a Habitat for Humanity. We are a tight-knit and strong community, meeting with other chapters every first Thursday to foster this sense of community. Please join this community. We are always open to new members who want an experience and a chance to make a real difference.

Drama Club’s Little Shop of Horrors Takes Ardsley By StormThe AHS production was done very well. As always, the set was ex-tremely realistic: the audience really felt like they were inside the flower shop! The props, including the dif-ferent stages of the plant’s develop-ment, were extremely convincing – one little kid in the audience even became scared when the plant be-gan to sing too loudly and when it ate people! Hats off to TJ Lyons for sitting in the sweaty, large costume for more than half of the play! As terrific as the set and the props were, they don’t compare to the performance of the cast. Ev-ery character was casted perfectly: Teddy Lyons was able to portray a creepy, impatient character in his singing and acting of the plant; Ra-chel Langton was perfectly poised and always depressed as Audrey; Alanna Ginsberg was a hilarious, downtrodden and hopeless boss,

and Nick Beldoch was a fabulous, flustered employee. Even every single minor role was cast very well! The chemistry between the mem-bers of the cast was so great that the audience could feel everything that the characters felt and experienced. Although during rehearsals the play suffered some major set-backs, the cast and the crew really pulled together and put on a great performance. After losing their valuable director and producer, Mrs. Doyle, to an injury, the cast and the crew had to figure out how to work together and still put on a great quality show. Maria Gallagh-er, the stage manager, said, “It was a lot of hard work, but it was com-pletely worth it on opening night to see how well it turned out.” Maria, we couldn’t agree more – it was a fabulous performance!

photos: Facebook and Google images

Continued from pg. 1

A Tale of Two CountiesContinued from pg. 1

AHS’s Habitat for Humanity volunteers Jess Tilles, Allie Cammisa and Kim Rivera working at 127 Hawthorne Street

The Panther Voice - April/May 2012 News Page 4

By Skylar Brivic For a change of pace, I de-cided to head over to a steakhouse in White Plains called Benjamin’s. There are two Benjamin Steakhous-es: one in New York City, and one in White Plains. Until a few years ago, at the White Plains location, there used to be another steakhouse with fairly expensive prices, called Mighty Joe Young’s. Perhaps, Benja-min’s is brave, financially and culi-narily adroit, or stupid, but regard-less, Benjamin’s opened at the same location of another failed steakhouse with prices nearly as expensive as Mighty Joe Young’s. Its expensive prices had stopped me from wanting to go there in the past, but I felt that I should at least give it a try. Upon arriving, the valet im-mediately took my car away to park it, and also took our coats to a coat room in the back. Afterwards, the

friendly staff quickly took our order and brought out our first dishes. For an appetizer, I had the lobster

bisque. To say that the soup was rich would be an understatement, it was luxuriously creamy, and had a soft seafood note along with it. The next thing we got was the creamed spinach sauce and mashed potatoes. Both as satisfying as the soup. The

mashed potatoes in particular were excellent: airy, fluffy, and luscious. Finally, the actual entrée’s

came. I had ordered a filet mignon, rare. For those that have cooked steak, one would think that it is a simple matter. While it may take a connoisseur to select the best steaks, what challenge exists in sprinkling some salt and pepper, and then let-

ting it sit in a pan for some time? There must be an art to this, because my steak was perfection. The steak was well-seasoned and the grill had imparted a smoky flavor. Cooked rare, the steak was incredibly juicy. It may have been the best part of the meal, and it was certainly one of the best steaks I’ve had in a while. After all the plates were cleared away, the dessert was brought out. The tiramisu I ordered had the taste of a cake that was slightly creamier and more moist than most other cakes, which closed out what had already been a meal of savory foods. All in all, I would recom-mend going to Benjamin’s steak-house for a slightly expensive, creamy dinner, which will leave everyone happy.

photos: Google images

Benjamin Steakhouse Serves Up Rich Foods

Hunger Games Series Hits the Screens With the Odds in its FavorBy Felice Segall They said “the world will be watching”. It did. The Hunger Games became the 3rd largest opening weekend grossing movie after The Dark Knight and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two with $155 billion in sales! The movie, directed by Gary Ross, is an adaption of the popular book of the same name by Suzanne Col-lins. The next book in the trilogy includes Catching Fire which Lion-sgate plans to release in November 2013. Movie adaptions of books always have to cut out details, characters and scenes but consider-ing that an almost 400 page book was converted into a two and a half hour long movie, the movie did a fair job of translating the essence of the book, into visual theater. Even if you did not read the book, the plot was understandable and simple to follow. Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen in my eyes flawlessly, recreating Katniss’s fierceness and determination to protect her little sister, Prim-rose (Willow Shields), by offering herself as “Tribute” to the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games are a televised competition where 24 tributes from the 12 districts of the dystopian country of Panem fight until only one survives. The Capitol created the games to punish the remaining districts for a past rebel-lion. Katniss’s fellow tribute from District 12 (her home district) is Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). The tributes are brought to the wealthy, lavish, and strange Capitol where the residents are obsessed with the Games, which they treat like a reality TV show. For a few days before the games begin, the

tributes are stylized for public ap-pearances, mentored, trained and interviewed. Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) District 12’s mentor keeps emotion filled scenes fresh with funny and witty remarks. The pre Hunger Games scenes are lighter, reminding me more of a fairy tale than a dystopian film, with characters like Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci). In comparison, the actual game scenes are filled with intensity, fierce competition, near death experiences and other trib-utes like Cato (Alexander Ludwig) and Foxface (Jacqueline Emerson). The movie also intertwines the games with scenes of President Snow (Donald Sutherland) of the Capitol and the Gamemakers with the head Gamemaker, Seneca Crane, controlling the games, add-ing to the fear you feel for Katniss facing their wrath. A love triangle develops between Katniss, Peeta and Gale (Liam Hemsworth, Katniss’s best friend and hunting buddy from home). However, just because of the time restraint, Gale had less screen time. I felt like this contrib-uted to the movie favoring Peeta in the Peeta vs. Gale debate, similar to the Jacob v. Edward debates. Also, in the book, the backstory of the mockingjay pin was different, involving another character who was cut from the movie as well as a few other characters being cut off. Overall, the edits did not take away from the plot. I was a little disappointed that the songs on the soundtrack were not played during the movie, but The Hunger Games; Songs from District 12 and Beyond includes art-

ists like Kid Cudi, Ar-cade Fire, The Decem-berists, and Taylor Swift and captures the essence of the film. As a biased Taylor Swift fan, my favorite songs are “Safe & Sound” (with the folk music duo The Civil Wars whose song “King-dom Come” also is a favorite of mine) and “Eyes Open”. I’m gonna admit that I cried two times during the movie. But at other times I was on the edge of my seat or wincing away from the screen of blood and gore. While some movie reviewers criticized the film’s camera techniques as being shaky and unedited, I thought that this added a vicarious element to the film. Although the movie was not in 3-D, I felt like I was experienc-ing the games right next to Katniss. The settings, costumes and scenery in the movie captivated the images, spirit and pictures that I found in the book. The colors of the Capi-

tol residents’ hair were so vivid. District 12’s coal mining town was as bleak and desolate as I remem-ber reading about. The trees, plants, and rivers of the wilderness were enchanting yet mysterious and frightening. This movie is a must see for everyone, whether you’ve read the book or not, with mes-merizing cinematography and an innovative and engaging plot. The odds are definitely in your favor!

Similar to when Teams Jacob and Edward formed as a result of “Twilight”, Teams Gale and Peeta have formed as a result

of the “Hunger Games”.

The Panther Voice - April/May 2012 News Page 5

On March 16, 2012, after almost two years, the case against Dharun Ravi, the Rutgers student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate, finally came to a close. Although the jurors found Ravi was convicted of 15 criminal counts against him because they found him guilty on at least one question on each main count. The most serious charges are for invasion of privacy and bias intimidation –a hate crime that car-ries a sentence of up to ten years in prison. Ravi rejected a plea deal that would have spared him jail time or deportation, but would have put him on probation and required community service. Three weeks into their fresh-man year at Rutgers, Ravi’s room-mate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide by jumping off of the George Washington Bridge. Clementi had dis-covered that Ravi secretly videotaped him during an intimate encounter with another man on September 19, 2010,

and had invited friends on Twitter to see a second viewing. A “hate crime” is defined as a crime, in which the perpetrator targets the victim due to an actual or perceived race, religious, and, in this case, sexual orientation. In his

defense, Ravi argued that once he learned that Clementi asked for a room change on September 21, Ravi sent Clementi a message saying that he knew Clementi was gay and did not have a problem with it. It was not clear whether Clementi ever read

the message before he committed suicide on September 22, 2010. In addition, he argued that the cameras were placed because he feared that his roommate would steal something. The verdict has drawn praise and criticism. Under New Jersey’s privacy laws, it is illegal to collect or view images of someone in an intimate act and then distribute the recording without their permission. The case has started anti-bullying campaigns and celebrities have spoken out against bullying. But others have disagreed with the verdict and said the incident was nothing more than an immature prank. Author Brett Easton Ellis called the decision “outrageous” and “vaguely racist.” In addition, for many lawyers this represents a watershed moment: youth is no longer immunity. Sentencing is expected for May 21, 2012, and because Ravi is here from India on a green card, he could be deported. Ravi’s attorney has said he will appeal the decision.

By Emily Choi Should there be a reason to fear for your life if you’re walk-ing down the street in a hoodie? For 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on the night of February 26th in Sanford, Florida, there was. Mar-tin, an African American teenager, left his father’s fiancée’s home to get a snack at a local 7-Eleven. As he was coming back with a bag of Skittles and iced tea, George Zim-merman, a 28-year-old Hispanic man on neighborhood watch said that Trayvon looked suspicious. Zimmerman had reasons to be suspicious: in the gated community where he was keeping watch, there had been several thefts and break-ins. He began following Martin. After following him for a little while, Zimmerman called 911. In the calls to the police, Zimmer-

man decided that he was going to follow the boy who had seemed to be “up to no good.” This was contrary to the advice of the 911 dispatcher who, when Zimmer-man explained he was following Martin, responded “We don’t need you to do that.” Zimmerman then

said that Trayvon attacked him and claimed that as the two were wrestling on the ground, Zimmer-man’s gun became visible and that Trayvon tried to get it. But before Trayvon could, Zimmerman pulled out the pistol and shot Trayvon in the chest, instantly killing the boy. Some neighbors disagree with Zimmerman’s claim, saying that it looked as if Zimmerman was on top of the boy, and that he did not appear to be injured. Since, Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder, rather than a lesser man-slaughter charge, and faces a mini-mum of twenty five years in prison if convicted. While he awaits trial, Zimmerman is held at an undis-closed Florida jail. His lawyers says he will not plead guilty.

The Florida police did not, or rather could not, arrest Zim-merman due to the “stand your ground” law. This law states that if a citizen feels that his/her life is being threatened, then he/she can take action with deadly force rather than do nothing. In comparison,

traditional self-defense laws require that an officer of the law take every available avenue of escape, and only when he/she cannot escape, or if by escaping leaves others in danger, can deadly force be ap-plied. Although Martin did not have any weapons on him, Zim-merman claimed to have acted in self-defense, and said that Trayvon attacked him first. Since the “stand your ground” law has been passed, the number of people using the law to their advantage has shot up, say Florida prosecutors. Zimmerman, his family, and his lawyers claim that Martin attacked him first and that all he was doing was defending himself. On the other hand, Martin’s fam-ily and lawyers believe that it was racial profiling. This case has caused a na-tional dispute: even Barack Obama, the president of the country, voiced his concern. Speaking quite per-sonally, President Obama stated, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” The President also asked that a full investigation be undertaken.

Unfortunately, we will never know Martin’s side of the story because, of course, his young life was taken on that fateful night. Bill Lee Jr., the head of the Sanford police department, was forced to step down from his position due to the heavy criticism flying at him from all directions. In cases like these, it is hard to know who to trust, especially because of the two people involved in the case, only one is still alive, and his story could be biased. Self-defense murder cases are always hard to sort out. Sadly, in the end, there are no real winners. Trayvon Martin might be remembered as the easy-going boy who went to the 7-Elev-en to pick up some snacks and a drink, but he is still dead. While George Zimmerman may get off free, he receives death threats and hate mail, and has had to go into hiding for his own safety. As it is in so many other issues facing the country today, at the root of this case is the perpetual struggle involving race and possession of guns.

Trayvon Martin Case Underway

Protestors take to the street, calling for inquiry into Trayvon Martin’s death in Florida.

By Victoria SheridanRutgers Webcam Spying Trial Ends in a Guilty Verdict

Ravi, the Rutgers student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate, being escorted out from the courtroom after his case.

Photos: Google Images

The Panther Voice - April/May 2012 News Page 6

One Direction Infection—The Next Bieber Fever?By Zarah Shabir “If we follow God, He will lead us on the straight path. One path, one direction…” “ONE DIRECTION!!!” Amena screamed. A few months ago at my religion school I thought my friend Amena had actually gone crazy. But by the end of the day, I could only confirm one thing—I love One Direc-tion. Five guys, four brits, three single, two words, One Direction. The recent teen sensation, One Direction, is a pop rock British-Irish boy band. The five boys auditioned separately for the British TV show The X Factor in 2010. The judges, including the fa-mous ex-American Idol judge Simon Cowell, agreed they were all too good to let go but could not be individual singers, and put them together in a

band. Meet the guys—Eighteen and the youngest is “The Flirt,” Harry Styles. Niall Horan, 18, is the blonde Irish and “The Funny One.” Liam Payne, 18, is “The Smart One” and often shows off plaid. Nineteen and considered the most reserved, Zayn Malik “is vain.” Finally Louis Tomlin-son, 20, is known to be the wackiest and branded “The Leader” because there are no positions left, the band members joke. The boys’ careers took off when they launched their famous hit single, “What Makes You Beautiful,” in the UK September of last year. As of March 28, 2012, the music video has over 81 million views on You-Tube, and this past February they won a Brit Award for Best British Single “What Makes You Beautiful.”

But the guys have much more to offer than a catchy single, which is where some thought that it would end. Their first album Up All Night, released Novem-ber of last year in the UK, was the fastest-selling debut album on the UK

Albums Chart of 2011, and in the top ten in 19 other countries. Jason Lipshutz from Billboard, an inter-national newsweekly magazine, believes their album, “demon-strates an originality in sound that was neces-sary for the revitaliza-tion of the boy band movement.” As for music, “the electro pop currently dominating Top 40 radio is seam-lessly weaved into the pop harmonies made standards by ‘N Sync, Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees.” Going on tour in Europe, they had no idea what was in store elsewhere. The boys admit they didn’t know how big they were until they came to America a few months ago to be the opening act on Big Time Rush’s ‘Better With U’ Tour. After receiving so many fans and support at concerts that weren’t even theirs, it seemed One Direction was becoming glob-ally massive, especially after hitting the United States. In fact, a few weeks ago, Up All Night went straight to number one on the US Billboard 200, making One Direction the first U.K.

group to debut at number one with their first album in the US. Even the Beatles didn’t do that! They’ve got-ten a whole new rep now for making this record, and ultimately seem to be the trailblazers for a new wave of boy bands. They’ve even been compared to the one and only Justin Bieber, as both acts have, out of the blue, been able to beguile millions under their pop spell, and not to mention boyish charm. So maybe you’ll look up their hit single and like it. But it’s not an obsession. I mean, Bieber Fever? Give me a break. But after buying Up All Night and memorizing every word of every song…could it be…One Direc-tion Infection?

Free can of soda or bottle of water for all Ardsley Students - just show the ad and your School ID card for purchases $10 and over!

The Panther Voice - April/May 2012 Sports Page 7

Photo: Google and Facebook

Knicks Finish Off the Season After Some Ups and DownsBy Mike Wachs If some idiot had said that the Knicks would have one of the deepest teams in the NBA before December 25—Opening Day of the shortened 2011-2012 NBA Season—people would have laughed. If some fool had said that a guy named Jeremy Lin would be a key to the team’s suc-cess, people would have laughed. If anyone had said that Carmelo Anthony would have one of his worst statistical seasons of his ca-reer for much of the season and rumors of him demanding a trade

would surface, people would have scoffed. But now, sixty games into the season, all of that has hap-pened.There is no single word that can be used to describe the season the New York Knicks have had so far. Going into it, expectations were high. In Anthony’s second year, chemistry between him and Stoudemire, and by extension the team, was only expected to im-prove. With the acquisition of big man, Tyson Chandler, the Knicks defense—one of the worst in the league—could not get any worse. All in all, there was no reason not to believe that a team that had been the six-seed the season be-fore would not make a push in the East. Christmas Day marked

a great start to the season, as the Knicks were able to pull out a good win over the Boston Celtics—a team that had sent them packing after just four games in the first round of the playoffs last season. That was followed by a 22-game stretch, during which the team won just seven games, including a six-game losing streak. Change was desperately needed. On February 4, after los-ing eleven of their last thirteen, change did come. As the team struggled against the cross-town

Nets, Coach Mike D’Antoni, in a move of pure desperation, called on Jeremy Lin to step in as point guard. For 35 minutes, Lin amazed the crowd, dribbling past defenders, completing no-look passes with ease, and showing his skill as he made beautiful lay-ups. He finished the game with 25 points and seven assists, leading the team to a much-needed 99-92 win. Lin and the Knicks did not stop there. Even without Carmelo Anthony, due to an injury, and Amar’e Stoudemire, mourning his brother’s death, for multiple games, the team would go on to win their next six games, includ-ing a win against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers, and a game against the Raptors, during which Lin would hit a buzzer-beater.

With Jere-mey Lin’s ca-reer blazing hot, the media created and christened the term “Linsan-ity”. People were putting the Knicks atop the East-ern Confer-ence with the Bulls and Heat.

New York fans, excited about basketball for the first time since the Opening Day win over the Celtics, donned shirts with his picture and all sorts of “Linisms”—it was truly “Lincredible”. After going 10-3 during the Jeremy Lin Era and finally reaching .500, however, the Knicks went on six-game losing streak. The team was 18-24. After rumors surfaced of Car-melo demanding that either

him or D’Antoni be sent out, the coach resigned on March 14. Assis-tant coach Mike Woodson, who had been brought in at the start of the season to im-prove the team defensively, was named the interim head coach. That night, the team would defeat the Trail Blaz-ers by an impressive 121-79 score. Under Woodson, the team thrived, winning eight of his first nine games. How-ever, tragedy would strike the team again. Both Stoudemire (13 games) and Lin (final 17 games and the start of the

playoffs) went down with injuries. Yet again, the Knicks would need a new game plan. Without Lin and Stou-demire, Carmelo stepped up and, for the first time this sea-son, showed the Knicks why he was worth trad-ing for. He led the team to a 12-5 record over the final seven-teen games, and in April, scored 29.8 ppg to bring home the Player of the Month honors. T h e Knicks finished the shortened season with a 36-30 record—seventh in the East. This sets them up for a dif-ficult first round showdown with the Miami Heat. It is difficult to know what to take from this past season. Because of various inju-ries, the team rarely played with all their pieces, and with a coach-ing change midway through, it is unclear what they would have been at full strength and with the proper practice. Stoudemire was not as good as he was in the past,

but did show signs of improve-ment as the season progressed. Melo struggled early, but finished strong. Tyson Chandler and rookie Iman Shumpert proved to be very important on the defen-sive side of the ball. Steve Novak and J.R. Smith provided a spark off the bench and are lethal scor-ers when they get hot. And in Jer-emy Lin, the team may have found a point guard. The problem is, we still do not know how well these pieces actually fit together, and the question about whether or not Melo and Amar’e can find a way to play together still has not been answered. In the end, while the Knicks were exciting to watch at times, their season was a disappointing

one. However, the motto of any Knicks fan is “There’s always next year” and unlike years previous there actually maybe credence to that. For once, it may be the case that all the pieces to this impos-sible jigsaw puzzle have appeared. Perhaps for once, the pieces will come together, a picture and team will emerge, and the Knicks will rise to the top. But we’ll wait until next year for that.

In above picture: Jeremy Lin

Above: Carmelo Anthony

The Panther Voice - April/May 2012 Sports Page 8

Senior Player Profile: Samantha Lee

On 480 BCE, a small force of Greek soldiers, headed by the elite Spartan warriors led by King Leonidas, faced off against the entirety of the Persian army at a narrow pass called Thermopylae. While pop culture has reduced the Greek army to only 300 Spartans, and ancient historians like Herodotus inflated the Persian army to 2.6 million, the lesson of this story has always been understood: elite troops, led by strong leaders, form powerful armies. This lesson has been extended to the modern-day. The concept behind Special Operations units is born from the truisms on display at the Battle of Thermopylae. The ide-

als forged from the Hell fires of that battle, created not only Special Opera-tion Task Forces like SEAL Team VI, but also highly-trained and elite local units—Academic Challenge teams. In Ardsley, the Leonidas of Academic Challenge is none other than Captain Ryan Rosenberg. A member since freshmen year, Ryan Rosenberg was there last year when Ardsley’s Academic Challenge team won $1,000 and second-place at the National Academic Challenge Compe-tition. He stood at its helm as Ardsley rampaged through its adversaries, winning $10,000, a serenade by the host Jared Cotter, and MSG Varsity’s “The Challenge”, a tri-state competi-

tion. Finally, Ryan Rosen-berg replicated the Spartan’s feat at Ther-mopylae, by heading to Washington D.C. to take part in the Na-tional History Bowl—alone. Out of 136 var-sity four-man teams, Ryan Rosenberg reached the round of 16. However, a

great general needs troops of peerless quality. Alongside Ryan on A-Team, Rohan Pitre, Bet-tina Cheung, Josh Berlowitz, and Adam Gross fought their way to the top, crushing the hopes and dreams of count-less other Academic Challenge teams. When asked why he has stuck with Academic Challenge for so long, he replied that other than his tremendous capacity to dominate at it, it also allows him to pursue other areas of interest. Ques-tions in Academic Challenge range from the hard sciences and mental math to esoteric literature and art. Particularly with art, Ryan admits that Academic Challenge has compelled him to read up on his art history. This love of learning is what inspires both the teammates and friends of this UNC-bound scholar. As Samantha Lee told the Panther Voice in an exclusive interview, “Ryan Rosenberg is unpar-alleled in both the depth and breadth of his knowledge. I hold few in higher esteem and am proud to call him a friend.” Ryan Rosenberg admits that the future is a little less steady.

Whereas in the past, seniors gener-ally filled the ranks of A-Team, next year the team seems to mostly consist of juniors and sophomores. Though Ryan sees great potential in the exist-ing members, he worries that many are too intimidated to join Academic Challenge. “I just want to dispel the notion that only straight-A students can be here” Ryan told me, “anybody can walk in - and if they put in the effort and time - become top of the line Academic Challenge members.” In fact, for such a high performing team, the Club meets only a few times a week after-school. I followed up by asking, “can they become as good as you, Ryan?” He laughed and replied, “Maybe.”

By Andrew Joung A hush. Suddenly, steel swirls through the air, clanging against each other. One combatant moves back, her weapon whistling through the air as she pulls it back. Attacks assail her and she continues to fall back, but she is untouched. Except now, a small barely perceptible opening appears. The other seizes the opportunity, ea-gerly and hastily. The trap is sprung: she falls back slightly, parries the at-tack, and launches a lightning-fast ri-poste. Touché. This is the world of Ardsley fencing: a fast-paced battle of agility and stratagem. It is a game, in which Samantha Lee is a master. Along with her co-Captains Kimmy Fishman and Jason Glass, and coaches Diane and Kathleen Reckling, a powerful moth-er-daughter duo, Samantha Lee has

led Ardsley’s Fencing team’s domina-tion of their league, year after year. However, Samantha is not just a local powerhouse, but also nation-ally ranked. While she might brush off those who would shower her with ac-colades, she has the attention of scouts from the nation’s top schools. She plans to fence for Duke’s Blue Devils, a Division I fencing team, and has a strong chance at starting as a fresh-man. Where does her passion for fencing come from? I recently sat down for an interview with Samantha Lee. She explained that “I hated team sports. I work well alone and while I enjoy the pressure of competition, I never enjoyed the pressure of other’s relying on you” This one-woman, wolf-pack

mentality is not the only reason she enjoys fencing. As she went on to explain further, “Instinct is impor-tant in fencing, but less so than other sports. I do not have an Olympian physique. Instead, I rely on strategy to win.” This qual-ity in her athlet-ics has clearly translated well in to her academics.

A strong student, she has the admiration of many se-niors. Ryan Rosenberg told Panther Voice that “I ad-mire Samantha Lee’s intel-lectual agility. Few have the rhetorical and intellectual dexterity of Samantha Lee” Samantha Lee has made it clear that it does not matter if the pen is mightier than the sword, if you can dual-wield both. Sadly, despite talented fencers like Samantha Lee and rising stars like Kimmy Fishman, Jason, Glass Emily Jiang, and Shaw Schiappicase, Ards-ley Fencing still practices in the caf-eteria. The Ardsley Fencing team has consistently been a magnet for college scouts at the highest levels of learning,

yet receives among the poorest treat-ment. “We win our league every year, and we send kids to extremely selec-tive schools. Still, we practice in a caf-eteria?” exclaimed Samantha Lee, “It’s ridiculous” Perhaps, in these tough budgetary times, Ardsley High School should invest in a sport that pays clear and large dividends.

Shown above: The Ardsley High School Fencing Team

Fencer, Samantha Lee, prepping for a match

Academic Athlete: Ryan RosenbergBy Andrew Joung

Photo: Google and Facebook

Ryan, tebowing after the team won $1000

Ryan with the Academic Challenge team, ready to compete!