Month: March 2025

March 17, 2025

The Rise of Socks and Sandals

Socks and sandals, once thought to be the ultimate fashion faux pas, have made a delightful arrival in 2025! What was previously seen as a dad-on-vacation look is now proudly embraced by fashion-savvy Gen Z and millennial trendsetters alike. From celebrities to influencers, people are enjoying the fun of pairing everything from sporty slides to chunky platform sandals with vibrant, patterned socks. This trendy combination has transformed from a style mistake into a celebration of comfort, individuality, and that effortlessly cool vibe we all love.

Luxury brands and streetwear designs are bringing socks and sandals into the spotlight, showcasing them in their fabulous runway shows. Brands like Balenciaga, Prada, and even Crocs have given this trend a stylish, high-fashion twist. Plus, athleisure culture is in the mix, as more people are embracing that comfy, casual vibe that socks and sandals deliver.

Social media platforms like TikTok are really embracing this trend, with users proudly displaying their stylish looks featuring colorful, logo-emblazoned socks peeking out from their sandals. This change shows a larger movement in fashion where comfort and self-expression are taking center stage over strict style rules. What was once laughed at is now a shining example of carefree confidence, showing us that in fashion, even the most surprising trends can emerge into the spotlight!

March 17, 2025

Wandering Wikipedia: Hot Dog Buns

This week I was hungry, so I went to the lunch room and ate a hot dog. I thought to myself, “This would make a great article, the classic hot dog.” Then I thought, “The hot dog would not be complete without the humble bun, to keep one’s fingers from being covered in grease or burnt by the hot dog.” So, I pulled up Wikipedia and looked up hot dog buns.

While the term “‘hot dog”’ was coined in the late 19th century by Americans joking that German sausages looked suspiciously like their dachshunds, the bun itself was invented slightly before that. Interestingly, one man on Coney Island during the 1870s claimed to have invented the hot dog bun, but the earliest evidence we have comes from 1904, at the St. Louis World’s Fair. Here, a German concessionaire¹ started a sausage stand that sold hot sausages called “Frankfurters” after his hometown of Frankfurt, Hesse.²

At first, the man loaned gloves to his customers to hold the sausage in order to protect their hands., However, his gloves were not being returned after customers had finished their sausages. Thus, the man went to his brother, who happened to be a baker, looking for a solution. From there, his brother made some rolls that were longer, thinner, and able to be easily be split down the side for easy insertion of frankfurters. This was the earliest evidence we have of hot dog buns.

And that’s all the random knowledge we have for you this week. Tune in next issue for another edition of Wandering Wikipedia.

Footnotes

1. One who sells concessions.
2. A state in central Germany.

March 17, 2025

Meme of the Week: The Life and Death of Duolingo

When you learn a new language, it can be hard to keep up with lessons without proper motivation. Thankfully, Duolingo has you covered. With over 100 million monthly users, Duolingo has helped many people all over the world. One of the major reasons was because of the insane characterization of Duo’s Keyshauna Renee Lingo, otherwise known as the Duolingo Owl.

Usually, a language app is nothing special, but Duolingo has a unique way of connecting with its users. There have been plenty of screenshots of the Duolingo Owl casually threatening the app’s users when they haven’t done their lessons. Sometimes the threats are passive, like “You know what happens now,” but other times they are direct, such as “Do it, you vermin.” The threats became got so popular that the official Duolingo account made an announcement on April 1st, 2019 to their Twitter and Instagram accounts saying that they will start offering “in-person notifications,” meaning that someone will physically tell you to do your lessons. All of these threats have helped the app to grow.

But on February 11th, 2025, the official Duolingo account announced that their lovely bird mascot has passed away. He was hit by a Cybertruck and died from his injuries. As the users of Duolingo were mourning his death, a few weeks later on February 26th, the Duolingo Owl came back from the dead. He explained that he faked his death because he was trying to impress his crush Dua Lipa and to grab the attention of the app’s users. While many people are thankful the Duolingo Owl is alive, a handful of them are upset at him for lying.

I was sent an Instagram reel about this whole situation, and all of a sudden, the Duolingo Owl was all over my feed. A lot of people are drawn to the shenanigans of this owl and how he knows every single language under the sun. Most of the Duolingo memes come from how unhinged the lesson reminders are, making the Duolingo Owl a force to be reckoned with. If you see this green owl plastered on your screen, please pay attention to it … because you never know what he may do next.

March 17, 2025

Fantasy Fight Club: Wile E. Coyote vs. Captain Boomerang

Welcome to another rendition of Fictional Fight Club, where two random characters FIGHT TO THE DEATH! We have some fun fights coming up between two different character pairs who may have more in common than you think. Before we get into the main event, let’s start off with a battle of villains that rely on weapons. For the opening fight, we introduce Wile E. Coyote from Looney Tunes and Captain Boomerang from The Flash! 

Both fighters are known for chasing speedsters using weapons, yet they always fail. To start, Wile E. Coyote uses various ACME products to attempt to catch the Roadrunner. From hydration boulders to jet-fueled skates, these weapons should be able to nab a single speedy bird. But for some reason, no matter what Wile E. Coyote tries, the traps always blow up in his face. It’s surprising that he hasn’t sued for false advertising yet.

In the other corner, we have Captain Boomerang. Also known as George “Digger” Harkness, Captain Boomerang’s main goal is has been to commit a heist while taking down the Flash in the process. The Australian uses boomerangs to his advantage and has come very close to killing the Flash and Batman. Time after time, he has failed on his one goal, usually caused by his boomerangs.

You’d think this would be an easy win for Captain Boomerang, right? Well, Wile E. Coyote has one more trick up his sleeve that can cause the tides to turn — defying gravity.

The Coyote has the magical ability to bend the laws of physics. Every time he runs off a cliff, he can hang out in the air for a long period of time. He eventually hits the ground, but miraculously survives. From what we have seen, Wile E. Coyote has faced death and survived on multiple occasions. Captain Boomerang, on the other hand, has died before at the hands of various rogues. He has seen the other side, only to come back and then die again.

Due to the fact that Wile E. Coyote seemingly cannot die at all, we are going to give him the win to him. It doesn’t mean that Captain Boomerang won’t put up a fight. I think that the two of them should team up with ACME and create a device to finally capture and kill the Flash and the Roadrunner.

Speaking of which, let’s go on to the main event. Give it up for the Roadrunner and the Flash!

March 17, 2025

Fantasy Fight Club: The Flash vs. Roadrunner

Are you ready to rumble? This week’s headline fight has two of the fastest folks in fantasy put head-to-head, or rather, head-to-beak. That’s because this week, we have something a little more cartoony, something a little more looney-toons.

Standing at 6’1” and 175 lbs, we have The Flash, or when he’s investigating the latest crime scene, Barry Allen. He has various speed-related powers, such as super speed, incredibly quick thinking, and even the ability to vibrate fast enough to pass through matter. While this does make him a rather formidable opponent, his challenger has been known to outwit many a foe.

Now, in the blue corner, we have an absolute icon of speed, smarts, and silliness. Beep! Beep! It’s the Roadrunner! Now, you may be wondering, shouldn’t this bird be foiling a coyote’s plan somewhere? Don’t worry, he did, and then he zoomed so fast he tore a hole in the fabric of space and time and ended up here.

While this lone bird may be powerless, it always seems that any plans to do it harm backfire in some way. This is exactly what happened to The Flash as he attempted to take on this devious bird. He first attempted to simply rush the bird, but it dashed out of the way. Barry attempted to back it into a corner, and it escaped between his legs. As The Flash stood there, panting and out of breath, he tried to think of a more clever solution, and then it hit him. He’s probably faster than this bird.

He started to run circles around the ring, trapping the bird, but then the outside of his foot landed on a stray feather causing him to slip, fall, and hit his head. He was unconscious the second he hit the mat. Our victor of today’s battle is the Roadrunner!

March 17, 2025

Fantasy Fight Club: D&D Version!

In this edition of The Quill, we are seeing a big fight happening between two iconic speedsters, The Road Runner from Looney Tunes and The Flash. These characters have extreme feats of agility in their original media, but how would you translate that into a playable Dungeons and Dragons character? Sit down, grab your dice, and pull up a character sheet, because you might just have your next joke character with today’s edition of Fight Club: D&D Version!

Character Name: The Road Runner

If you are trying to make a Road Runner-inspired chara

cter, you’ll have to take some liberties from the typical D&D rules. For your character’s race, you may want to pick a bird-like race like Aarakocra (see photo above), which is a handy choice — especially since you naturally get +2 for dexterity! Speaking of dexterity, that’s the stat you’ll want to dump all your points into. Whether you’re playing with point buy or rolling for stats, you’ll want to make sure to pick the highest possible stats for dexterity. Typically, a playable D&D character maxes out their stats at 20 points, but that won’t be nearly enough to portray the amount of speed your Road Runner has. You’ll want to get the very rare item, the Manual of Quickness of Action to boost your dexterity all the way to 22!

Besides stats, however, there are a few complications when playing a character based on the Road Runner. You can only speak in “beep beeps!” meaning that you are not allowed to speak any language. This creates a few complications without homebrew intervention, as that means you aren’t allowed to play any spell-casting class. At least you’ll be the most dangerous and speediest rogue this world has ever seen!

The Flash is a legendary speedster who warps the very fabric of reality with how fast he moves — so how do we put that into a D&D character? Well, first, you’d want to pick the human race, which gives you a +1 stat increase in your ability scores, as well as options for feats like Charger. The Charger feat lets you make a melee attack during the dash action, which will represent the lightning-quick attacks The Flash is able to make. Similar to the Road Runner, you’ll want to focus heavily on your dexterity stat and related skills. Just having high dexterity doesn’t quite exemplify being The Flash, though, which is why you’ll want to pick a sensible class. For The Flash, you might want to go with a class that has access to electricity-based spells, or you might want to go with Monk (see photo above) for the ability to deliver rapid punches. You’ll also want to continue picking out feats that increase mobility, like Mobile, which lets you dash on tough terrain as well as increasing your speed. With all this in mind, you’ll be able to create a character who can run and punch all over the place!

March 17, 2025

D&D, Why? The Open-Gaming License Controversy

The popular tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is taking advantage of the tail end of what many are calling the “Golden Age of TTRPGs” by releasing a new suite of books. It would seem, however, that not much has changed with the more controversial elements of the publisher’s business model.

Wizards of the Coast, the publisher of D&D, has been accused of questionable market practices in the past. Its most recent scandal has been the attempted revocation of a previous version of what’s called the Open Game License (OGL). OGL 1.0 enabled fans to create and sell their own content based on WotC’s intellectual properties that would normally fall under copyright. This allowed fans to publish their own “homebrew” content as full-fledged supplements to the game. The OGL is sometimes credited as starting the Golden Age of TTRPGs, as new content was released at a steady rate, including even entire new systems based off of the fundamental rules of D&D.

Proposed changes to the OGL centralized derivative content under Wizards of the Coast, requiring publishers to provide WotC a full 25% of revenue if the company was above a certain threshold. The proposed license, OGL 1.1, would also require all content published under the license to be clearly marked. Most importantly to the controversy, however, is that any content made under OGL 1.1 would be property of Wizards of the Coast and could be used for official products without the creator’s consent or even notification, and without payment.

In the aftermath, OGL 1.1 was struck down, and OGL 1.0 would not be revoked. However, no further product produced by Wizards of the Coast will fall under OGL 1.0’s license. The new suite of books are the first not to use the OGL since the controversy. The revisions are mostly rules many players had already used in practice, and WotC has been accused by some as quickly getting the new content under the new SRD license and pushing players away from the previous books still under OGL 1.0.

March 17, 2025

The Angie Hammond Case

Unsolved mysteries are fascinating because they often leave so many questions unanswered. Our case this week embodies that perfectly. Coming out of Clinton, Missouri, this spine-chilling case involves a young woman who is abducted from a payphone by an unknown assailant and is never seen nor heard from again.

On the evening of Thursday, April 4, 1991, 20-year-old Angela “Angie” Hammond and her fiancé, Robert “Rob” Schafer made plans to meet up once Rob’s parents came home from a night out. In the meantime, Angie wanted to spend some time with her close friend, Kyla Angerman. She picked Kyla up from her home, and the two drove together around downtown Clinton. They spent a little more than an hour together before Angie decided to call it a night and dropped Kyla off at her home at approximately 11:15 p.m. Feeling exhausted, Angie wanted to head home to relax but knew she’d have to cancel her plans with Rob first. She didn’t have a cell phone, nor did she have a landline at home, so she stopped at one of two payphones located outside a nearby supermarket on 210 South 2nd St. At 11:23 p.m., Angie called Rob and talked to him for at least 15 minutes.

As the couple spoke, Angie began to express concern over a truck she saw circling the area around the gas station. She told Rob that she didn’t recognize it and couldn’t get a good look at the driver. When asked to describe the vehicle, Angie said it was a green 1960s-70s Ford pickup truck, with a decal of a fish jumping out of water covering the rear window. After giving this description to Rob, Angie saw the truck drive away, and the two went back to their conversation. However, it quickly returned, and this time, it pulled into the lot, causing Angie to express even more concern. A man got out and walked into the phone booth right next to her. A short time later, the man walked back to his truck and produced a flashlight, appearing to look for something inside the vehicle.

At this point, Angie described the man to Robas a dirty, Caucasian man with a beard and a mustache who wore overalls, a dark baseball-style hat, and black-rimmed glasses. After getting this description from Angie, Rob heard a sharp scream and shouted out to Angie  but got no response. Instinctually, Rob bolted out of the house and into his truck before speeding to the phone booth. On the way to the payphone, he saw the headlights of a pickup truck coming towards him and heard a female’s voice scream “Robbie!!” as it passed him. Running on adrenaline, Rob quickly spun his truck around and slammed on the gas pedal to catch up to the truck. He was able to pursue the vehicle for approximately two miles, until his own truck stalled due to a damaged transmission. All he could do then was watch in horror as the truck and Angie disappeared into the night. Rob quickly notified the Clinton police, who later contacted the FBI for help after making no progress in their own investigation to find Angela. Thirty-four years have passed since her abduction, and the FBI has yet to locate Angela Hammond.

For more information on this case, refer to episode #61 of the Trace Evidence podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Angela Hammond, contact the Clinton Police Department at (800) 877-3452 or FBI at (800) 225-5324

March 17, 2025

Ecological Footprints or,Today, We are Giants 

An ecological footprint is a way of visualizing how what we choose to consume impacts our environment. Basically, our ecological footprint illustrates how much land is needed to sustain our current level(s) of consumption. Often, nearly every aspect of our daily lives is taken into account.

Ecological footprints include our choices in diet, transportation, consumption of goods, and use of appliances. For each section of our ecological footprints, land has to be added to create the things we use (pasture and farmland for food, for instance). Then, more land has to be added to show the ecosystems around us that provide clean air and water and suck carbon back out of the atmosphere. The more we consume, the larger our ecological footprint.

Ecological footprints can be calculated at any level. Individual people can calculate or find a website to calculate their ecological footprint, but similar calculations can and have been done for regions, countries, and the world. As a general rule, the more developed a country, the larger its ecological footprint. Developed countries use more fossil fuels for farming, transportation, heating, cooling, etc. The U.S. has one of the largest ecological footprints in the world; to supply everyone in the world with enough resources to match the lifestyle of someone in the U.S. or Europe, we would need about six Earths.

Calculating your own ecological footprint is a great starting place to find ways to lower your individual impact. To get you started, try this Ecological Footprint Calculator. One thing I’ve discovered, however, is that a large part of my ecological footprint as a Wisconsin citizen comes from my use of electricity — not because I use too much electricity, but because Wisconsin relies heavily on coal as a source of electrical power.

Keep in mind that you can only do so much as an individual and be kind to yourself. Personally, I know that while I don’t really eat meat, giving up cheese and butter is not something I have the willpower to do. Look for the things that you can do something about and don’t feel guilty about things you can’t or aren’t ready to tackle yet.

The Quill is our new student-centered e-newsletter for the Applied Writing & English (AWE) department at UW-Green Bay. We’ll bring you tips for navigating life as a writing or English major. And we’ll give you suggestions for entertaining yourself when you’re not reading or writing.

Student Editors

• Tiffany Jablonowski: Co-Editor-in-Chief
• Ginger Knauer: Co-Editor-in-Chief
• Sierra Nyokka: Marketing & Engagement Manager
• Sylvie Cavros: The Nerd Zone Co-Editor
• Clover Cicha: Local Favorites Editor
• Kendall Cox: TV Editor
• Shane Ewig: Anime Editor
• Jenna Fintelmann: Self-Care Editor
• Katie Frank: Video Games Editor
• Aiden Gervais: Editor
• Julia Hahn: The Nerd Zone Co-Editor
• Alex Lopez: Fictional Fiance Editor
• Neesa Peak: Eco-Actions Editor
• Mia Perez-Behringer: The Quill’s Flame Editor
• Payton Rhyner: Music Editor
• Brooke Schoening: Book Quiz and Movies Editor
• Cheyenne Shull: Today’s Trends Editor
• Noah Spellich: Books Editor
• Seth Van Ess: True Crime and Sports Editor
• Karrie Wortner: Book Travel Editor

The Quill Advisor: Tracy Fernandez Rysavy

Interested in being on The Quill and Northern Lights staff? Enroll in ENG 224: Practicum in Literary Publishing, available every spring.

Questions or News Items? Contact The Quill’s advisor, Tracy Fernandez Rysavy.