There’s a hot new rapper walking the halls of this small town high school.  He goes by vitamin G and he has a truly unique voice.  He’s gritty and real and has serious flowww.  This young man freestyles with the best of them.  You may know of Vitamin G as his alias, Ajax Cofax.

This summer the world was held captive by Michael Phelps as he won a record-winning 8 gold medals. After the Olympics, Phelps received a hero’s welcome in The United States. Phelps was given the rock star treatment and had adoring fans following his every move. Phelps is being referred to as the greatest swimmer who’s ever lived. I think it’s safe to say he came away from Beijing as the King of the Olympics.

But let’s get real, we all saw the races. Every couple of minutes the camera couldn’t help but zoom in on Mama Phelps sitting in the bleachers, peeing her pants with excitement. She was riveting and radiant in her son’s glory. I think I may have seen about four interviews all about Ms. Debbie Phelps. It’s impossible to deny that she’s a fascinating woman.

In fact I’d go as far as to say that the real star in the Phelps family is Debbie Phelps. The only thing that Michael brings to the table is his swimming. He’s one-dimensional which gets very boring after a while. Debbie has so much more to offer. Even when team U.S.A. was featured on the season premier of the “Oprah Winfrey Show”, one of the first things that Oprah mentioned was that the person she was most looking forward to talking to was Ms. Debbie Phelps. To me, that speaks volumes.

Paul Marshuk ‘11 seems to share my sentiments. He says, “Michael Phelps is a star in his own league, but Deb is in a different galaxy. I think I speak for everybody when I say that she is a strong, beautiful woman. I didn’t see a Mr. Phelps anywhere…”

Well, a boy can dream. Ms. Phelps has a diverse and widespread fan base from young men like Paul to average moms. On the other hand, many Americans can either take Michael Phelps or leave him. To put it short, I think a star was born at the Water Cube in Beijing this year, and it was Debbie Phelps.

Men in Black (1997) is the perfect action packed comedy. It stars Tommy Lee Jones as K, the straight-faced veteran of a top-secret division of the CIA. The division keeps an eye on aliens that live on earth and keeps humans from knowing about them. K says it’s because, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it”. K recruits Will Smith to the MiB as his new partner and give up his identity to defend earth.

The movie shows that anyone from Al Roker and Sylvester Stallone to the guy down the street could be a masked alien. They usually live among us humans peacefully, but an alien specie resembling a huge cockroach gracelessly takes over the body of a redneck named Edgar. The alien comes to earth in search of a small galaxy that contains sub-atomic power, but the government of that galaxy would sooner self-destruct, destroying earth in the process, than fall into the wrong hands.

More importantly, audiences will go bananas for the mind-blowing special effects and fall out of their seats laughing at the comedic dream team of Jones and Smith as they fight aliens. Men in Black is a timeless film that everyone should pick up the next time they’re in the mood for big laughs.

Hopkins Academy has seen several changes this year; AC in every room, remodeled bathrooms by the gym, and new teachers, but the change that I’m most excited about is the introduction of the chipwich to the selection of the ice cream available in the cafeteria for lunch and snack. The new addition is delicious and a huge hit which is hopefully here to stay.

If you are ever in need of a delicious meal for a great value I highly recommend Hometown Buffet in West Springfield.  For about $8 a person you can eat whatever you want as much as you want.  Salad, dessert, fried chicken, ham, steak, soup, drinks, and the list goes on.

One thing I dont like about traditional restaraunt setting is how long it takes to actually get your food.  At Hometown Buffet you just need to pay at the door, pick a table, grab your food, chow down, and then go back for some more food.

Hometown Buffet is the definition of family friendly with the price and environment.  There are Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post covers blown up to poster size all over the walls.  If you havent been there already I highly reccommend you check it out because you will never be dissappointed there at Hometown Buffet.

BBC has new one hour documentaries every so often and they are very interesting. One was about men who paid around $7000 for extremely realistic custom designed dolls and treated them like real girlfriends. Another was about people who buy monkeys and treat them like their children until the monkeys get violent and bite them. There was one about people in Britain who were too afraid to go to the dentist and their teeth were so bad they could barely even eat without experiencing horrible pain. The latest one is similar to the doll epidose. It’s about people who buy extremely life-like baby dolls and treat them like real babies.

This week Peta wrote a letter to THE Ben and Jerry and had an interesting suggestion. Peta writes that they recently heard about a great way to get milk without making cows suffer from Sweden. Human Milk! Peta can’t think of why no one thought of this sooner. So if your Phish Food tastes a little strange, don’t worry, you’re just eating frozen breast milk. If the ice cream giants take Peta’s advice you can feel better in knowing that a cow wasn’t milked for your own selfish wants.

Attention citizens! If you haven’t tried Taco Bell’s Frutista Freeze, you need to. This cold treatis a smooth slushy that nobody who has one can get enough of. The beverage is offered in your choice of mango or strawberry and both flavors come with all natural strawberries drizzled on top.Your taste buds will be in for a tasty surprise whether you decide on strawberry or mango because they’reboth perfectly delicious. If you’re still curious about the other flavor go ahead and invest in another because they are an amazing bargain at less than $2! Frutista Freezes come in such a satisfying serving they only come in one size. Quite simply, when you sip this sweet nectar you can go to a beautiful Mexican resortwithout even leaving your local Taco Bell.

We can all agree that summer is great. it is a sacred time for all children from the time they start school to when they graduate college. When school is out, it gives students 2 and a half months of carefree freedom and beautiful, hot weather to enjoy. Now, that time of year is coming around again and it’s obvious that for the past couple weeks everyone’s been anxious to get out of the oven that the building has become and start their vacation. The beaches are calling! The school year is finally coming to an end and people could not be happier.

On Memorial day around 6 I went to see Indiana Jones 4 with my little brother.  We got there and bought the tickets.  I was so excited to see the movie that I forgot to snag some movie-watching snacks beforehand.  I had exactly a minute before the movie started and I was already standing right there.  So, I decided to get in line and purchase candy and something to drink.

I know movie theaters are famous for ripping people off on food, but to actually be there and see the numbers right in front of you is eye opening.  An average sized bottle of vitamin water:  $3.50!  Candy that you could normally get for .75 is $3.  Who do these people think they’re fooling into thinking it’s actually worth that much?  It’s not even like it’s a little bit more expensive.  Prices are more than doubled in some cases. Things have gone too far and this is truly outragrous.