All posts by HPSH Plaid Line

Clubs and Activities

New club at Highland Senior High

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By: Maya Breininger

Do your hobbies include the culinary arts? Do they revolve around cooking, or baking? If so, feel free to read up on a new student-led culinary arts club, one that was started by a student with a passion for cooking.

The club was created from scratch, and was made possible from the people who made donations and volunteered their time to help.

The process of making a club from scratch is not an easy one. Although it seems like a fun and happy concept, in retrospect, the actual physical labor and financial struggle is prominent for those in charge. Covering all of the ingredients and materials necessary for the club, ended up being a total of around 200 dollars. It was an expense that the club president was happy to pay, but the financial struggle to get the club started was, well, a struggle.

The first club meeting was held on Thursday, November 3rd, from 3:10 to 4:40. The club opened with a slideshow, and an explanation of the club and materials. Then, the recipe was introduced, and teams were formed.

By working together and trusting each other through the process, the club was successful in making our first recipe; pumpkin muffins with cheese cream frosting. It was an easy recipe with instructions that the club could understand, and was a fun activity to do with friends after school.

Although it was a wonderful first time experience, and many people tried their hardest to adhere to the rules, there were a few bumps and hiccups along the way that could be easily fixed with proper procedure.

Firstly, an organized clean up group that takes time to spiffy up the club room will be essential for the next meeting. Last time may have been a good start, but we will need to stay consistent with our cleaning regimen if we want to continue the club.

Secondly, although the idea of putting students into groups was a good starting idea, next time the club will need to have more organized steps and directions so that members do not get lost or confused. For example, when making muffins, there should be one group at the dry ingredients station, and one group at the wet ingredients station so that it doesn’t get chaotic.

Once these things are accurately worked on, and we are able to improve the stability and consistency of the club, I’m sure that it will be able to go off without a hitch!

Welcoming a new club into Highland Park was an exciting experience, and I’m excited to expand my culinary knowledge with other students.

Basketball

Florida Gators basketball season preview

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By: Toby Martin-Kohls

The college basketball season kicked off on Monday, November 7th, and with that, a new era of Florida Gators basketball. Florida, picked to finish 8th in the SEC, by the media poll, is coming off a 20-14 season in which its head coach left the program for SEC rival Georgia. 

Kentucky is poised to win the SEC this year, placing No. 4 in the Preseason Top 25 rankings. The Wildcats return 2021’s Wooden Award winner, given to the nation’s best player, Oscar Tshiebwe. He is currently the favorite to take home the same award this year, and if he does, he would become only the second-ever player to win the award twice and in back-to-back seasons. Ralph Sampson in 1982 and 1983 for the Virginia Cavaliers is the only one to do so.

Even with the bluebloods like Kentucky favored atop the conference, Florida is still expected to do well and make the NCAA Tournament come March. The roster has been heavily overhauled following Mike White’s departure, as new coach Todd Golden takes over. Golden is coming off a head coaching gig for the San Francisco Don’s in which he took them to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1998. Golden is a young mind, and at 37 years old he is by far the youngest coach in the SEC.

His predecessor lasted 7 seasons in Gainesville, leading the Gators to four NCAA Tournament appearances and an Elite 8 appearance. However, fans were upset about the handling of the program after White failed to make the NCAA Tournament in 2021 and only advanced to the NIT. 

Golden has a lot of pressure on his shoulders, as Florida is still a solid program in the sport, having more wins than every SEC team, except for Kentucky, since 1990, and winning the most NCAA Tournament games this century, except for Kentucky. 

Golden has brought in one of the best transfer classes in the country. Kyle Lofton highlights the point guard position. Lofton comes to the Gators as a super senior from St. Bonaventure where he was a 4-year starter who led the Bonnies to the NCAA Tournament and earned All-Atlantic 10 honors on 2 occasions, including 1st-team honors in the 2020-21 campaign.

Golden has also brought in a former 4-star prospect from LSU, an All-Ohio Valley player in Will Richard of Belmont, and a dynamic scoring guard in Trey Bonham of Virginia Military Institute. 

The Gators are projected to be a very strong defensive team under Golden, with his new shiny transfers and a defensive-minded head coach. The Gators should be at least a top-40 defense this year. With that being said, this team’s ceiling very much depends on how well they shoot. Last year they shot just 30.3% from behind the arc which ranked 317th in the country. That year they attempted the 22nd most attempts, which is clearly an issue to address.

I think that the Gators project as a dark horse SEC team that should make the NCAA Tournament and will outperform their SEC Media Day projection. It will definitely be hard to unseat Kentucky, but in such a deep conference you never know what can happen.

Movies/TV/Theaters

‘One of Us is Lying’

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By: Kaylen Fuentes

*Warning: contains spoilers*

The television show ‘One of Us is Lying’ first premiered October 7th, of 2022. The series is based on Karen M. McManus’ book ‘One of Us is Lying’ which was published in May of 2017, followed by the sequel ‘One of Us is Next’ published in January 2020.

Season 2 of ‘One of Us is Lying’ premiered October 20th, 2022. After leaving off on a cliffhanger at the end of season 1, fans had been waiting a little over a year for the release of season 2.

The TV series ‘One of Us is Lying’ follows the story of 4 high schoolers who were framed for their classmate’s death after being the only ones left alone with him moments before he died of an allergic reaction. The show follows them trying to figure out what happened to their classmate and who framed them for his death. However, this season, after figuring out who was responsible for their classmate’s death, they try to cover up another and keep their secrets hidden.

At the beginning of season 2, a new antagonist is introduced by the name of Simon Says. Simon Says knows the club’s secrets and what really happened to their classmate Jake. The group killed Jake out of self defense and vowed to keep their heads down, tell no one, and not speak to each other to look less suspicious because they knew the police would suspect them, and they didn’t want to get into even more trouble. Which is where last season ended off. But this season, Simon Says comes out saying that they have proof of the club’s involvement with Jake’s murder. All through this season, Simon Says makes the group do dares which if they don’t go through with, they will have secrets they don’t want revealed out, They also blackmail them into doing some of their work to make the club look even more guilty.

I’ve seen many people on social media confused on why season 2 doesn’t follow the entirety of the book ‘One of Us is Lying’. My thoughts are that season 2 follows what happens between the ending of the first book and what happens in the sequel ‘One of Us is Next’ following different kids from the same high school as the students from ‘One of Us is Lying’.

This season deals with romance, discovery and of course mystery. One of my favorite plot points this season was getting to learn more about a newer member of the club, Janae. They open up about their gender identity and how they don’t feel like a boy or a girl, as well as letting their girlfriend and the rest of the club know how they feel. I think this representation is important because it gives others who are watching this show insight on how to deal with your emotions and feelings as well as learning about how to deal with friends who open up to you about their gender identity. 

However, one thing I didn’t like about this season is it was slow paced, as well as the unnecessary plot points that did little to nothing for the story. One example of this is there was an entire episode dedicated to a character: Vanessa. Vanessa is the club’s number one enemy, she used to be Addy’s best friend until in the first season the secret was revealed that Vanessa’s boyfriend TJ, cheated on her with Addy, and ever since Jake’s “disappearance” Vanessa has always linked the club to it. In Vanessa’s episode, it is told from her point of view, of her figuring out a ton of things we (the watchers) already know. To me this felt unnecessary because there could have been much more interesting things happening other than rewatching and learning about things we already knew.

The season ends very abruptly and of course on a cliffhanger which sets the show up for a season 3, leaving many fans asking what happens next because many people don’t see how the cliffhanger connects to a possible 3rd season. This season was slower paced, in my opinion, and there were a few plots that didn’t make sense and didn’t do much for the story. 

Overall, I rate the 2nd season of ‘One of Us is Lying’, 3.5/5 stars.

‘One of Us is Lying’ season 1 and 2 are now available to watch on Peacock.

COVID-19, Science/Nature

What is RSV, the third disease in the rumored “triple-pandemic?”

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By: Ann McMullen

RSV refers to respiratory syncytial virus. This illness shares some similarities with the flu: they both affect the respiratory system (nose, throat, and lungs) and generally occur during late fall through early spring.

Who does this virus affect?

Anyone can be infected, but RSV is the most common and dangerous in children under two years old.

How do I know if I have RSV? Is there a cure?

The virus often presents itself as a cold, with symptoms such as fever, cough, and congestion. However, it can lead to more severe conditions. In fact, RSV is the leading cause in young children of pneumonia and bronchiolitis – a lung inflammation disease quite similar to bronchitis.

Patients can be tested for RSV, but there is no cure for it and antibiotics do not help treat the virus. Thankfully, it tends to clear up by itself within a week or so.

And, what is this “triple-pandemic?”

Americans are referring to influenza, COVID-19, and RSV as a “tripledemic,” as all three of them are quite prevalent in the United States right now. Flu cases always spike in the fall, but they’re even higher than usual this year. With COVID restrictions now greatly loosened, cases are expected to rise in the coming months. RSV wasn’t much of an issue for the past two years because a large portion of people still wore masks. This year, however, cases are greatly increasing, which is more than likely also a result of the lifting of COVID restrictions and people using less caution towards viruses overall.

To best protect yourself from RSV, the CDC advises that you should thoroughly wash your hands, cover your cough, and avoid close contact with people who appear to be ill.

For more information on RSV and the triple-pandemic, please visit

Books/Art

‘Chalice of the Gods’, let’s talk about it

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By: Abisola Dosunmu

On October 18, 2022, Rick Riordan posted on his blog the new book he’s planning on releasing sometime next year, ‘Chalice of the Gods’. The book plans on following the original trio (for the first time since 2010) from Percy’s POV, and Percy’s quest to get into college. This plot only makes sense when Rick Riordan writes it.

As many PJO fans know,  there’s an upcoming live action adaptation to the Percy Jackson series (featuring Walker Scobell as Percy, Leah Jeffries as Annabeth, and Aryan Simhadri as Grover). This book release is a direct tie to that, as Rick himself admitted to.

Many readers have varying opinions about this new book. Some fans are excited about this new book. PJO fan always-reading-fantasy wrote: I’m so glad we’re getting another book from Percy’s point of view because I’ve really missed seeing the random things that go through his head sometimes lol.

Some are more skeptical about it. Another PJO fan olympusrox wrote: Riordan. I love you. But please stop blasting out books in the pjo universe unless it’s either a continuation of the Daughter of the Deep book, a short mcga novel or a short kane chronicles novel. Stop putting Percy in unnecessary situations. We have fan fiction for that.

Some fans would claim it’s a publicity grab, and they would be right as Rick himself confirmed it. Over a decade later, however, he writes, I figured such a book would not only be fun to write once again — it would promote the show and vice versa. Everybody would win!  He finished on his blog with news Chalice will be coming out shortly before the PJO adaptation starts.

This isn’t the only book Rick plans on releasing. This spring, ‘The Sun and the Star’, a Nico di Angelo and Will Solace novella, will be released.

I get where a lot of fans come from with being mad about the “publicity grab” and that’s valid, but I don’t think it’s that bad. I mean, it happens a lot in the media when there’s an on screen adaptation about to be released, and it’s a good idea since it catches the attention of the fans and makes them more excited to watch the show. Rick isn’t the first to do it. He won’t be the last.

For more PJO related news, please visit:

Editorials/Student Voice

How many conspiracy theories are rooted in anti-semitism

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By: Irene Cohen

Anti-semitic hate crimes have almost tripled since 2015 after being on the decline for 15 years up until 2016. Even though these anti-semitic conspiracies have been around for hundreds of years, the hate being millenia old, something has popularized them so much, so the Jews in America, and all over the world, are being directly affected by this rhetoric.

The most prevalent trope among these conspiracies are that a tiny portion of the population, Jews, run the world. Antisemites believe that Jews are controlling the media, economy, government, and politics overall. In broad strokes, they believe Jewish people have gained money by being greedy and only interacting/doing business with other Jews. A large example of this is the Rothschild conspiracy. This conspiracy says that the wealthy Rothschild family, and Ashkenazi banking family, runs the global economy and manipulates politics into whatever they want it to be.

These conspiracies have not only originated in modern day times. In the 14th century, the conspiracy of Jewish people poisoning water wells to cause the Black Death was spread. Jewish people are often blamed for world tragedies as a scapegoat.

A phrase that is often used when describing this so called power that Jews have over the world is “hidden hand”. This is a phrase that more or less states that Jewish people are the puppetmasters of world events. This is one of the main rhetorics that allowed the Nazi party to take control of Germany. Antisemites believe that Jewish people are above them in a social/economic place in the world, yet they also believe them to be subhuman. This attitude allows them to think they are being righteous when punching down on Jewish people.

Be careful when looking into conspiracy theories. It’s easier to fall down that rabbit-hole of anti-semitism than you think.

For more information, please visit:

Movies/TV/Theaters

HYBE: New girl group NewJeans

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By: Stephanie Caballero Benitez

K-pop, is a music genre that has gained lots of attention and popularity. In this article I will be discussing the newest group of HYBE: NewJeans. 

HYBE is currently one of the biggest ruling companies in the K-pop industry. HYBE was founded in 2005 by the current chairman Bang Si-Hyuk. HYBE, back then known as “Big Hit Entertainment” was a very unsuccessful company. The company only started gaining popularity in the year 2015 with their K-pop group BTS which is a worldwide known boy group. Since then the company has taken many talented people and turned them into what are called “K-pop group Idols”. 

The group NewJeans debuted on July 22, 2022. This girl group began their pre-debut around October of the year 2019. After 3 years of training, HYBE began to announce the debut of their new group. Their debut song “Attention”, for the album ‘New Jeans’, came out on the same day as their debut, July 22. 

The song “Attention” gained popularity quickly just as the group did. Some people believe that this is because of the company they are under. Others believe that they have talent and gained their platform by their own talent. With people stating their opinions online on the group it had begun to gain more popularity.

Later on, more songs for their debut album ‘New Jeans’ came out. It consisted of 4 songs: 

  • Attention
  • Hype boy
  • Cookie
  • Hurt 

Out of all of the songs in the album “Hybe Boy” and “Attention” have done the best as they were used by K-pop fans on ‘Tik Tok’ which made them well known. Their songs made it to the Billboard Global chart with “Attention” at No. 82 and “Hype Boy” at No. 116. 

NewJeans consists of 5 members: Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein. This group is made out of girls with a wide range of age, with their youngest member being 14 and their oldest 18. 

Just as other K-pop groups, NewJeans sold a physical album. Theirs was a little different as it didn’t come in a box but instead in a bag that came in colors red, white, and black. Their album bag consists of the bag, a pin-up book, a CD, and photo cards. 

Overall, this girl group has done very well in the K-pop industry considering their age and how short of time their pre-debut was.

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Volleyball

Overview of the Highland Park Volleyball season

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By: Grace Blumer-LaMotte

Image taken from: HPSH Volleyball Instagram

The Highland Park volleyball season started on August 22nd, 2022. It continued until October 18th, 2022, when they lost in the semi-finals against Two Rivers High School. 

Varsity consisted of these players: Grace Blumer-LaMotte (Senior, #10), Grace Adrian (Senior #12), Sunshine Vang (Senior #3)), Bella Kottke (Senior #18), Ayana Bougie (Senior #13), Leila Hagedorn (Senior #27), Kate Reubish (Junior #11), Alyssa Ramos (Junior #2), Molly Hanley (Junior #9), Ella Johnson (Junior 1), Mary Koch (Sophomore #14), Ella Sutherland (Sophomore #6). Varsity is coached by Sonje Odegard (Head).

The Two Rivers game was the end of the great season that Highland had. They lost the match 3-1. 

Highland went the season with 14 wins and 11 losses. 

Team Attack Stats: Highland got a combined total of 722 kills throughout the whole season. They had 432 attack errors, 2,330 total attack attempts, hit a .124 hitting percentage, and had 6.4 kills per set.

Team Serve Stats: Highland had a total of 217 service aces, 129 service errors, 1.9 service aces per set, and a .917 service percentage.

Team Defensive Stats: Highland got a combined total of 1,121 digs, averaging 9.9 digs per set.

General Team Stats: Highland had 12 ball-handling errors and played 113 sets.

Bella Kottke, the starting middle hitter, had a total of 233 kills this year, the highest number of kills on the team. Kottke also had 81 attack errors. She hit a .303 attack percentage and averaged 3.1 kills per set. She also had 21 service aces.

Kate Reubish, a right-side hitter, had a total of 130 kills this year, 104 attack errors, a .059 hitting percentage, and averaged 1.8 kills her set. She also had 17 service aces.

Molly Hanley, a right-side hitter, had a total of 121 kills this year, 104 attack errors, a .038 hitting percentage, and averaged 1.6 kills per set. She also had 41 service aces.

Mary Koch, another middle hitter, had a total of 95 kills this year, 48 attack errors, a .164 hitting percentage, and averaged 1.3 kills per set. She also had 3 service aces.

Ella Sutherland, an outside hitter, had a total of 59 kills this year, 43 attack errors, a .054 hitting percentage, and averaged 1.1 kills per set. She also had 3 service aces.

Ayana Bougie, the setter, had a total of 46 kills this year, 10 attack errors, a .228 hitting percentage, and averaged 0.6 kills per set. She also had 41 service aces.

Ella Johnson, another outside hitter, had a total of 27 kills this year, 31 attack errors, and averaged 1.0 kills per set.

Grace Adrian, another outside hitter, had a total of 8 kills this year, 6 attack errors, a .061 hitting percentage, and averaged 1.0 kills per set.

Leila Hagedorn, another right-side hitter, had a total of 3 kills this year, 5 attack errors, and averaged 0.4 kills per set.

Grace Blumer-LaMotte was unfortunately out for the season due to a season-ending injury to her shins.

Fashion/Make-Up

Iris Van Herpen’s debut couture collection

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By: Emilia Moberg

Iris Van Herpen is a Dutch designer, born in 1984, in the small town of Wamel, Netherlands. In her youth, she enjoyed painting and dance before being introduced to fashion as an art form in high school. During those formative years, Van Herpen learned the building blocks of fashion design, which inspired her to pursue an education at the Artez Institute of the Arts Arnhem. Her influences include Alexander McQueen and Claudy Jongstra, whom she interned for before starting her own brand in 2007. 

Since then, Van Herpen’s style has been defined by a futuristic, fantastical, sci-fi use of non-conventional materials, including 3-D printed garments. She has collaborated with a variety of other designers, artists and choreographers whom have further inspired her unique sensibility. Her work has been featured in the MET in New York City and the Royal Museum in Toronto, and has received various other accolades. 

One of the notable collections out of her repertoire is her debut couture collection, Capriole. It was presented during Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2011. The show contains highlights from previous collections, but the heart of the show revolves around 5 new designs. These designs are intended to convey the feeling one experiences “Just before and during a free-fall parachute jump”. 

The first of these designs is a tangled knot of black plastic tentacles formed into a the shape of a mini dress. According to Van Herpen, the piece is a representation of one’s state of mind before skydiving. The three dresses to follow utilize geometric shards of black and translucent plastic material, which sculpt and expand from the models body. The collection’s final dress, called “The Skeleton Dress”, was created through 3-D printing technology. The dress loosely follows the structure of a human skeleton, with abstract ribs, spine and hip bones. Van Herpen likens the garment to the feeling of being “turned inside out” while falling through the air. 

Advice/How To

What type of guitar should you buy?

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By: Domingo Basso

Okay, so you might be planning to buy a guitar at some point in the future but you have no idea what to buy because of the sheer variety of them. Well, hopefully after reading this you’ll at least have a little bit of a better Idea of what you might buy. 

First things first, we gotta start from the beginning, that being: what type of guitar you even want. Whether that is an acoustic, electric, bass, there’s a bit to unpack here. So, let’s go over what each of these different types of guitars even are and what separates them from each other.

The main types of guitar are: Classical guitar, Acoustic guitar, Electric guitar, and Bass guitar.

A quick disclaimer beforehand: all of these instruments can be modified and can vastly vary in sound and shape due to the sheer variety of them, but I’ll tell you what each instrument ‘typically’ is like.

The Acoustic guitar is a guitar that typically has 6 metal strings. It is known for being unlike most other guitars in the sense that it requires no electricity or power of any sort to play properly. This also makes it one of the cheapest and least maintenance options for a guitar due to you not needing to worry about as many parts to keep the guitar functioning properly.

The Classical guitar is very similar to the acoustic guitar in many ways including the fact that it too requires no external power in order to operate properly. But, what separates this from the acoustic guitar is the fact that the strings are generally made of nylon (a type of plastic) giving it its own unique sound from the acoustic.

Right from the get go, you’ll probably be able to tell that the bass guitar is the oddest out of the bunch, even from just its appearance alone. Bass guitars typically have only 4 thick strings and are noticeably lengthier than other guitars. But, what truly differentiates them from the other guitars is the type of sound that they produce and how you typically play them. Bass guitars are known for having a lower end sound like a WAY lower pitched sound, hence why the strings are so much thicker than those of other guitars. You also play bass guitars a little differently from other guitars in the sense that you usually play individual notes rather than multiple at once. This allows the bass to be a pretty solid instrument to start off with from a difficulty standpoint, but trust me when I say that mastering this instrument will still be just as challenging as the others.

Finally, the electric guitar. The electric guitar is the guitar with the most reputation and it deserves most of the credit that it gets. The electric guitar is one of the most versatile instruments on the planet due to the fact that it is built similarly to the acoustic but because of its electronic properties, it can create a much more assertive sound. It also has the ability to play mellower sounds giving it a very dynamic range. The only drawback really, for this instrument, is the monetary cost of maintaining it and purchasing the necessary parts.

I hope that my insight on each of these instruments will help you at least a little bit in deciding what to buy (and as a bass player I’m not telling you to buy the bass guitar buuuut I totally am telling you to do that so go buy a bass ASAP).

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