The Driftwood

Mercury is in retrograde from April 1-25!

Aries (March 21 – April 19)
Beware the Mercury Retrograde’s impact on your sign. Mind your words, think before speaking, and keep emotions in check to avoid conflict.

Taurus (April 20 – May 20)
Stay alert for adversaries, Taurus. Keep calm, pursue peace, and consider the chance of making amends.

Gemini (May 21 – June 20)
Your social circle may shift, exposing fake friends and negativity. Rumors might sow doubt, but stay alert: shady actions won’t stay hidden. Prioritize real friendships, let go of negativity, and stay open to new connections.

Cancer (June 21 – July 22)
Exercise added caution, be mindful of your language and tone, as innocent remarks could be misinterpreted. Pay close attention to project details and contemplate delaying final deliveries until after the retrograde passes.

Leo (July 23 – August 22)
Be ready for debates that may lead to arguments. Stay patient and open-minded, respecting differing opinions.

Virgo (August 23 – September 23)
April 2024 brings focus and drive for Virgo. Shine in your career with your sharp skills. Communicate openly in relationships. Be wise with finances. Stay diligent for success this month.

Libra (September 23 – October 21)
In this Mercury Retrograde, relationship issues may arise but it’s a chance to address them. Focus on clear communication and active listening to resolve conflicts and strengthen bonds.

Scorpio (October 22 – November 21)
April 2024 brings transformation for Scorpio. Embrace change, trust your intuition, and dive into self-discovery.

Sagittarius (November 22– December 21)
Embrace adventure and growth. Explore new career paths, strengthen personal bonds through communication, and stay grounded. Reflect on goals during the Full Moon and approach the journey ahead with optimism and courage

Capricorn (December 22 – January 19)
Prepare for a month of self-reflection and inner growth. Prioritize self-care and listen to your intuition. Trust that the universe is guiding you towards your goals

Aquarius (January 20 – February 18)
Throughout this Mercury Retrograde, make it a priority to spell-check your messages and check your spam folder regularly. Communication mishaps abound, resulting in missed calls, overlooked emails, and unintended ghosting. Stay mindful and thoughtful when communicating to prevent misunderstandings and ensure clear interactions

Pisces (February 19 – March 20)
This April invites you to tap into your creativity and intuition. Embrace your dreams and aspirations, as the universe supports your journey towards manifesting your desires. Stay open to unexpected opportunities that may arise, and trust that your intuition will guide you towards the right path.

Human civilization has been around for over 8,000 years! Within that time, a lot of things have happened. There is not a single day that goes by that is not the anniversary of some event throughout human history. Maybe it’s the end of a war or the publishing of an important book or even the birth of a celebrity. No matter the day, there is always something, so without further ado, here is …

This Week in History

April 12
● 1861: The Civil War begins with the Confederate’s attack on Fort Sumter
● 1954: Bill Haley and His Comets record their hit song “Rock Around The Clock”
● Birthdays: Brendon Urie, Saoirse Ronan, Tiny Tim

April 13
● 1870: The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City
● 1928: First nonstop flight from Europe to North America
● Birthdays: Thomas Jefferson, Ty Dolla Sign, Ron Perlman

April 14
● 1865: President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
● 1910: President William Howard Taft becomes the first president to throw a first pitch at an MLB game
● Birthdays: Robert Carlyle, Brad Garrett, Abigail Breslin

April 15
● 1912: The “unsinkable” Titanic sinks
● 1947: Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American player in MLB history
● Birthdays: Emma Watson, Leonardo Da Vinci, Seth Rogen

April 16
● 1929: Cleveland becomes the first MLB team to display numbers on the back of jerseys
● 2018: Kendrick Lamar becomes the first rapper to win the Pulitzer Prize
● Birthdays: Sadie Sink, Chance the Rapper, Anya Taylor-Joy

April 17
● 1970: Apollo 13 returns to Earth
● 2002: General Hospital airs its 10,000th episode
● Birthdays: Jennifer Garner, Victoria Beckham, Phoebe Dynevor

April 18
● 1983: Joan Benoit wins her second Boston Marathon with a time of 2:22:43
● 2014: Mt. Everest sees its deadliest day ever due to a large avalanche
● Birthdays: Kourtney Kardashian, America Ferrera, David Tennant

—Payton Rhyner

Passover Facts

• Passover is the oldest and most celebrated holiday in Jewish history. It commemorates the Israelites fleeing Egypt to gain freedom from slavery.
• Passover is celebrated with a meal called the seder. The table is decorated with a seder plate that holds, traditionally, six ceremonial foods that represent the hardships their ancestors faced in Egypt. In the 1980s, a seventh food was added by less traditional families to represent support of LGBTQ+ and other marginalized groups in the Jewish community. The seventh food is an orange to signify fruitfulness and acceptance in the Jewish faith. Spitting out the seeds is a gesture of spitting out hate and discrimination.
• Maxwell Coffee House started printing the Haggadah, a Jewish text that contains prayers and the story of Exodus, as a marketing campaign in 1932 to promote Passover coffee. That version of the English-Hebrew Passover Haggadah has become the most widely distributed in the United States.
• Matzah bread is the only bread that can be eaten during Passover because it does not have any leavening ingredients. Israeli slaves did not have time to wait for their bread to rise before they fled Egypt, and this tradition is still followed to honor their ancestors.
• The wheat in matzah bread cannot encounter water until it is ready to bake. Once combined, the bread only has 18 minutes to be baked. After this, the fermentation process begins, and the matzah becomes inedible during Passover.
• No chametz, or products with a leavening agent, can be owned or sold during Passover. They are supposed to be “sold” to non-Jewish friends for the week but remain sealed out of sight in the corner of the house waiting to be picked up by the buyer. After the Passover, the buyer, per tradition, decides they want the deal annulled. The night before Passover, families “search for the chametz,” which is where you use a candle and feather to search for any bread or leavened products of yours that you may have missed in the pre-Passover cleaning.
• Since no chametz can be owned or possessed during Passover, the state of Israel “sells” whole factories, bakeries, kitchens, and storerooms to Arab Israeli citizens. For the last 20 years, Hussein Jabar has ceremoniously spent a huge sum to purchase everything just to have the deal annulled a week later. The finance manager, chief rabbinate, and Jabar all meet up to sign a contract that transfers ownership of all businesses that handle chametz to Jabar. If individuals do not have friends to sell their leavened products to, they can include theirs with this sale as well. He puts down a deposit and has until the end of the week to come up with $300 million or the deal is null and void. Jabar gets his deposit back and ownership is transferred back to the original owners. He says he is always happy to help with happiness.
• In 2010, the largest matzo ball on record was created at the Jewish Food Festival in Tucson, Arizonia. 1000 eggs, 25 pounds of chicken fat, and 125 pounds of matzo meal came together to create a matzo ball that weighed 488 pounds and was 106 inches in diameter.
• Yellow-capped Coca-Cola bottles that are marked with Hebrew writing are approved for Passover. These Coke products are made with a fermented molasses and cottonseed oil excluding the high-fructose corn syrup. These tweaks to the formula make the Coke kosher and okay to drink during Passover.

—Tiffany Jablonowski

Article sources available on the Driftwood blog. 

Useless knowledge we dug up this week.

Italian Sounding

It’s a tale as old as time: You’re a college student on a budget. Looking to pick up some meals for the week, you head to the frozen food section … but what to grab? Tater tots? Mixed vegetables? Pizza? Sure, that $1 frozen pizza with an Italian flag on the label is about as Italian as Mario and Luigi, but pizza’s pizza, right? Not if the Italians have anything to say about it. You’ve just fallen victim to Italian Sounding.

“Italian Sounding” is a term created by the Italian government to describe a global marketing phenomenon in which non-Italian manufacturers attempt to pass their goods off as “Made in Italy” (or related to Italy at all). While a good number of Italian “knock-off” products—parmesan cheese, for example—were in fact invented by Italian migrants, Italy estimates that it loses almost $60 billion in revenue annually to counterfeits of Italian products. The products counterfeited the most? Get ready to feel hungry: Parmigiano Reggiano, gorgonzola, salami, prosecco, asiago, pecorino, Chianti, and prosciutto. And don’t even get them started on frozen “pizza” … The United States may never be forgiven for its crimes against Italian cuisine.

Helpful and Fun YouTube Videos

These YouTube videos are meant to help with school work, stress and anxiety, and give us
students a break from classes and test our knowledge.

YT1: College Writing Tips + Writing Your Best College Essay
With the end of the year approaching, we students are writing more papers and struggling to edit their work properly. This video, made by the Harvard Admissions team, provides helpful information on editing and writing essays for college students.

YT2: 6 Daily Habits to Reduce Stress and Anxiety
With the end of the year and finals coming up, we students are becoming increasingly stressed, and our anxiety levels are rising. This video demonstrates different ways of reducing anxiety and stress.

YT3: Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader
Some of us enjoy general knowledge quizzes, right? Well, here is a recent general knowledge quiz for pure enjoyment and to expand your knowledge on things you may not know or may have forgotten about

—Kelsey Vanderpool, YouTube Editor

Top 10 Most Recommended Books for Mental Health

There are many books in this world about mental health, but these are some of the most recommended ones on the internet to help get through the rough times.

1. 1. Mind Shift: it Doesn’t Take a Genius to Think Like One by Erwin Raphael McManus.
2. The Anger & Aggression Workbook: Self- Assessments, Exercises, and Educational Handouts by John J. Liptak and Ester R.A. Leutenberg. Edited by Carlene Sippola.
3. The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt.
4. The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy: Healing the Social Brain by Louis Cozolino.
5. Selecting Effective Treatments: A Comprehensive, Systematic Guide to Treating Mental Disorders by Lourie W. Reichenberg and Linda Seligman.

—Mackenzie Hebert

Can Reading Benefit Your Mind and Body?

The short answer is yes. Personally, reading has benefited my mental health tremendously. The first thing I did when I was struggling mentally was to pick up a book and read it. When I did this, I felt my mind transport itself into the storyline, and all my stress essentially melted away. With the stress going away, my body could relax and recover. Reading can have different effects and benefits for everyone. Below, I will talk about the benefits, in hopes of encouraging you to start reading.

Lower Blood Pressure: When you start reading, your body relaxes, which then means your respiratory and heart rates slow down. And both of those things lead to lower blood pressure because your body isn’t working overtime due to stress.

Heals The Brain: Reading gives the complex thinking/action parts of your brain a good healthy workout, which rewires your brain, making you a more empathetic person. It also helps improve memory function and keeps your brain functioning more properly and effectively as you age. The major benefit is that reading slows down cognitive decline, which helps slow down the development of diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Enhances Communication Skills: Reading has been known to increase a person’s vocabulary. It can open your mind to different options and choices that you may not have thought of or considered before in certain situations. Reading can also expand our knowledge of different types of people, places, and things, which leads us to better understand people’s perspectives when having a conversation with them.

Supports Mental Health and Well-Being The act of reading lowers your heart rate, which reduces tension throughout your body both mentally and physically. It also reduces stress by refocusing your mind, which essentially takes attention off the issues that are causing mental health problems. Reading helps foster a very relaxing environment, helping you avoid any negative or sad stressors to your mental health. Along with healing the brain, reading has great effects on improving cognition and reducing rates of depression and anxiety-related problems.

Reading is a healthy escape for your mind and body. The benefits talked about previously will look different for everyone. Just because you don’t see immediate results doesn’t mean you should put the book down. Find a book that really piques your interest and get to reading. This is a great step to take on your self-love and self-care journey.

—Cheyenne Schreiner, Self-Care Editor

Influential Athlete: Simone Biles

Simone Biles is the influential athlete for this edition. She’s a gymnast for the USA Olympic team. Simone has partnered with the Friends of Children charity. The organization works with youth who have been exposed to a great deal of adversity. Friends of the Children provides children with a professional mentor that is knowledgeable about working with kids that have severe trauma. The full-time job of these mentors otherwise called “friends” is to uplift, support, and empower youth and their caregivers. Friends of The Children partners with local community organizations, schools and foster care systems to help identify children between the ages of 4-6 who would benefit the most from a mentor. Simone was a child in the foster care system which put her in similar shoes to most of these children. Due to her past, she was very motivated to partner with this charity. She wanted these kids to get the resources that she never really had access to. She has hosted multiple events with this charity in various states. At one of her events in Houston, she stressed the importance of education and goal setting and how it can help these children improve their lives.

—Cheyenne Schreiner

Photo by an unknown photographer, licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND. 

Women’s March Madness

Women’s college basketball March Madness is just like the men’s where they play in this big tournament and are seeded and are trying to win every game to win the whole tournament. They see how they are doing and how far some of these girls got. There is more about march madness in (previous driftwood that had march madness in it).

Teams in the Women’s March Madness
South Carolina, Presbyterian, North Carolina, Michigan State, Oklahoma, FGCU, Indiana, Fairfield, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Oregon State, E. Washington, Ole Miss, Marquette, Notre Dame, Kent State, Texas, Drexel, Alabama, Florida State, Utah, S. Dak. State, Gonzaga, Uc Irvine, Tennessee, Green Bay, NC State, Chattanooga, Iowa State, Maryland, Stanford, Norfolk State, Iowa, Holy Cross, West Virginia, Princeton, Colorado, Drake, Kansas State, Portland, Louisville, Middle Tenn, LSU, Rice, Creighton, UNLV, UCLA, Cal Baptist, USC, TX A&M-CC, Kansas, Michigan, Baylor, Vanderbilt, Va. Tech, Marshall, Syracuse, Arizona, UConn, Jackson State, Duke, Richmond, Ohio State, Maine.

There have been many games played from March 22- April 1 in this big tournament, and there have been many losses and wins. I want to share who has made it through to the final four and who will make it to the championship game: South Carolina vs. NC State and Iowa vs. UConn.

These were the results: The NCAA championship game—a highly anticipated matchup between South Carolina and the Caitlin Clark-led Iowa Hawkeyes—brought in more viewers than the men’s final for the first time in history. The Gamecocks took home the W for Women’s March Madness. They spun a season of perfection, capped Sunday with a third national championship after defeating the Hawkeyes. South Carolina, which entered the women’s NCAA Tournament as the overall No. 1 seed, marched through March Madness with what looked like relative ease.

 —Mackenzie Hebert, Sports Editor