T-5 minutes. You leap from a moving vehicle, slam the door shut and join the herd making its way toward the entrance. Once inside, you confront a new set of obstacles: From the slick floors to the confusing maze of halls, the journey promises to be difficult. But before you reach your destination, a chime overhead seals your fate. It's 7:25 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, and another day at Montgomery Blair High School has begun.
It's March: The temperatures are finally rising, the Mardi Gras king cake is long gone and the only holiday to look forward to is St. Patrick's Day, right? Wrong. March offers a slew of holidays and observances so wacky you won't even have time to ask, "What exactly is the Great American Meat Out (March 20)?" Starting with Pig Day (March 1) and ending with Bunsen Burner Day (March 31), the third month really does have it all. Here are a few Chips-tested ideas on how to celebrate our favorite March observances.
Ah, Montgomery Blair High School. What's more romantic than the overcrowded halls, the disappointing football games or the sweaty homecoming dances? It doesn't get much more picturesque than meeting "the one" at a table in the SAC littered with styrofoam Cup O'Noodles.
With restaurants already spread across five different continents, Nando's Peri-Peri finally brings its cultural flavor to Downtown Silver Spring. Its famous Peri-Peri Flame-Grilled Chicken, which has delighted worldwide, is a fusion of Portuguese and Mozambican cuisine.
When an educator brings up school reform, the words "achievement gap" are never far behind. In a time when a dismal half of low-income students graduate high school, the need for dramatic educational reform has never been more urgent.
With Halloween just around the very dark and spooky corner, we're starting to see more and more of our favorite ectoplasm-filled friends: ghosts. But while we know where to find ghosts in the horror movie section of the video store, finding ghosts in our own city is a bit more challenging. As any reporter tasked with a local ghost hunt will agree, oftentimes the paranormal apparitions are less than willing to be found. But while many employees at D.C.'s supposedly haunted hotspots are quick to assure you that the only thing haunting their buildings are tourists searching for a scare, some research digs up lore about the capital's ghoulish history. The one place willing to dish out a ghost story, a Silver Spring auto parts retailer, isn't exactly a tourist destination, but still a good place to point out as a spooky spot when you're driving by. Who knows, maybe with some luck, a little bit of faith and an Electromagnetic Field Detector, you'll have more luck finding a ghost at one of these rumored sites.
Oleg Ledvekov is trying to steal American secrets for the Russians. He has an accomplice with dangerous access to important American secrets, and she's prepared to spill if her price is met. The only people standing between the Russian spies and top-secret American intel are your trusty entertainment editors. Our mission? SlyFox.
The knife block was ready, the ingredients from a quick trip to Safeway were arrayed on the table and the griddle was sizzling. Natalie and Eli crouched in anticipation in front of Eli's refrigerator. Silver Chips's own version of "Top Chef" - in a decidedly less glamorous Chevy Chase kitchen - was about to begin, and emotions were running high. The timer sounded, and the reporters-turned-cheftestants were off to Eli's six-burner stove to whip up the best bites this side of Bravo.
D.C.: it's the metropolis in our backyards, the site of our field trips and the destination of our Metro rides. The city boasts great monuments, restaurants, museums, festivals and concerts - all the typical markers of a lively city. But, really, what tells us that our beloved neighbor D.C. has made it? That's right, the only honest indicator of success we have left today: reality television.
It happens all the time: a friend is over-energized, a teacher loses his train of thought, a peer drinks one too many Red Bulls before class. It's easy to jokingly blame attention deficit disorder (ADD) and move on with the conversation. But for some students who actually cope with ADD, other learning disabilities and physical handicaps that make schoolwork challenging, it's no laughing matter.
The Takoma Park basement is quiet for an instant before junior Jack Naden springs into action. The drum set vibrates under Naden's flying sticks, filling the room with music.
A team hailed as one of the best in the county protects the halls of Blair everyday. Clad in blue uniforms, they roam the hallways, ready to jump into action whenever trouble arises.
In eighth grade, Steven Sugar happened upon the first book of the cult comic "Hellboy." Four years later, he would give Mike Mignola, the creator of "Hellboy," a copy of his own comic at the San Diego Comic-Con.
With the recession and rising college tuition costs, more and more people are turning to cheaper education venues, particularly online ones. But educational experts have questioned the quality of online postsecondary education since it first began, and students must decide whether they are willing to give up a traditional education for a cheaper online alternative.
In 2008, Blair students took 1,708 Advanced Placement (AP) exams, according to a February 2009 memorandum from the MCPS Office of Shared Accountability, while in 2009, Blair students took 1,998 exams, according to Jody Leleck, chief academic officer for Montgomery County schools. The number of exams increased by approximately 17 percent from 2008 to 2009.
2009 witnessed the wild success of music artists fresh out of high school. From Taylor Swift to Drake, 2009 has seen young artists from multiple genres topping the charts and capturing Blazer attention (in a random lunchtime poll of popular '09 songs conducted by Silver Chips).
Roald Dahl has style. His beloved children's books are sprinkled with eccentricities like obese characters and supernatural events and saturated with his characteristically dark humor. So, it's only fitting that visionary filmmaker Wes Anderson, of "The Royal Tenenbaums" fame, direct the film adaptation of Dahl's "The Fantastic Mr. Fox."
Two buttons adorn Shirley Schlosser McCarthy's plaid lapel. One is five decades old and the other is brand new. Both bear the same message: "BEAT B-CC."
Girls' varsity soccer (8-1), with the best record among all Blair teams, beat Sherwood 2-0 in a match that showed skilled passing technique. Blair dominated possession of the ball by keeping it in Sherwood's half of the field for most of the game, and attempted several close goals.
Sonia Sotomayor is a high school valedictorian, a Princeton and Yale graduate, a veteran of 30 years in the courtroom and the "savior" of baseball who ended the 1994 Major League Baseball strike. And on Aug. 6, Sotomayor took on her most important role yet: the first Latina Supreme Court justice.
In their fifth game of the season, boys' varsity soccer (2-3) lost to the Springbrook Blue Devils 2-0 after a tough second half.
American author Dorothy Parker said, "The only 'ism' Hollywood believes in is plagiarism." In their new animated feature "9," producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov are guilty of reusing stale ideas. But in spite of a tired plot, "9" is entrancing due to its realistic computer graphic animation.