features


For these athletes, the board is their field

By Poorva Singal | May 11, 2007, midnight | In Features »

Senior Max Lockwood doesn't need a large field or a court to play his sport. Nor does he need to run a few laps to warm up. All he needs is a cup, a three by six foot felt mat, a table to put the mat on, some small colored disks called winks and a shooter disk called a squidger for his choice sport: tiddlywinks.


BLAIR PAIR: part deux

By | May 7, 2007, midnight | In Features »

Quirky Tiddlywink-er seeks a girl who understands him. Will these two Blazers play by the same rules? Max Lockwood, senior, and Lily Ross, sophomore


Principal and parents

By Priyanka Gokhale | May 4, 2007, midnight | In Features »

In the center of the empty choral room, several parents met with Principal Phillip Gainous this morning. Over coffee, cookies and danishes, the group discussed Gainous's possible resignation and its repercussions. One by one, the parents – including PTSA co-President Dave Ottalini— asked questions of Gainous.


With Mike Street, it's bon appetit

By Josie Callahan | May 3, 2007, midnight | In Features »

Senior Mike Street swallows a nervous lump as he ties an apron around his waist. He surveys the immaculate personal cooking station before him, registering the raw chicken broccoli, and rice. To his right are spices, seasonings and vegetables; and to his left, cooking utensils and appliances. With one hour and 58 minutes to go, he seizes a handful of flour with one hand and a slab of raw chicken with the other, and begins the race for the title Best Teen Chef 2007.


A guide to Edline

By Boris Vassilev | April 30, 2007, midnight | In Features »

For more than two years, Montgomery County has been testing a program for student-school interface, Edline, at several Montogomery County schools with the aim of making it the standard for all public schools in the area. Edline works much like BEN does, providing students with a way of checking their classes and homework as well as emailing their teachers and keeping track of school events.


Temp-ing for Blazers

By Priyanka Gokhale | April 24, 2007, midnight | In Features »

They're here every day. Writing on the board, typing on the computer and assigning worksheets, they look just like the myriad of other teachers at school, save for one key difference – when the day ends, they leave…for good.


Blair parent ISO quillow?

By Eve Gleichman | April 24, 2007, midnight | In Features »

PTSA Silent Auction co-chair Donna Beausoleil stands at the ready, yellow highlighter in hand. There are fifteen seconds to go in section B.


On your mark, get set, fire

By Miriam Ragen | April 23, 2007, midnight | In Features »

"We thought it was a real bullet," junior Ben Simon says. "Luckily it wasn't." While in the sixth grade, Simon was hit by a bb pellet in the stomach, making the looming threat of bb gun injuries closer than ever before.


Slam dunk for aspiring poets

By Eve Gleichman | April 20, 2007, midnight | In Features »

Three minutes. No props. Original poetry only. The rules are clear for Blair's second annual Poetry Slam, which took place in the media center tonight as part of the Blair Fair festivities.


Linked by a pink ribbon

By Audrey Kubetin | April 19, 2007, midnight | In Features »

Her grandmother died from it. Her grandfather, too. But when her mother received a breast cancer diagnosis in 1995, junior Catherine Rogers was too young to realize what it meant. "My mom just told me that she had a 'boo-boo' and the doctors were trying to fix it," Rogers remembers. "I guess I was too young to think that she could die from it."


A passion to dance about

By Josie Callahan | April 18, 2007, midnight | In Features »

Inside the walls of the Dance Exchange studio on Maple Ave., more than muscles are hard at work. Juniors Sarah Rothman and Suzanna Vaughan, along with six other teenage girls are deep in thought as they fan out onto the shining studio floor. The girls divide in two groups of four and each begin to talk and move to a mellow techno beat. After ten minutes of brainstorming, the girls have choreographed a 30 second dance. "Show me what you got!" says their instructor. With a confident smile, Rothman urges one of the younger dancers to begin. Taking the first of many risks, the young dancer allows Rothman and Vaughan to lift her into the air.


SGA plans a month of events

By Boris Vassilev | April 17, 2007, midnight | In Features »

As fourth quarter flies past, the school year may be slowing down, but the Blair SGA is certainly not winding down. With a host of activities planned for the coming two months, the SGA plans to end the school year with a bang. Here is a look at what the SGA has planned for Blazers during that time.


Raising the stakes

By Pia Nargundkar | April 16, 2007, midnight | In Features »

As the final minutes of the Georgetown versus Ohio State Final Four game wind down, junior John Winters grapples with a difficult dilemma: whom he wants to win. Winters has to choose between a team he genuinely likes (Georgetown) and a team that will win him money. In the end, Winters decided he was happy that Ohio State won. After all, he was itching to win this year's March Madness pool.


BLAIR PAIR: 2007

By | April 13, 2007, midnight | In Features »

Calling all Blair bachelor(ette)s! Are you on the lookout for love? Praying for the perfect prom date? Searching for that special someone to make your spring spectacular?


Running on empty

By Johanna Gretschel | March 28, 2007, midnight | In Features »

Where only first names appear, names have been changed to protect the identities of the sources. Willing herself to finish a suicide sprint at practice, Jane, a senior, clutches her throbbing temple. Her concerned teammates' blurry faces bob before her eyes. Her legs stagger, then buckle as she loses consciousness. When she comes to a few seconds later, Jane's mother is standing over her with a popsicle in hand. Jane consumes the popsicle and feels her blood sugar spike back up, replenishing some of her energy and relieving not a case of dehydration, but malnutrition; Jane had eaten nothing but a pear that day.


The worrying world of Blair

By Kate Harter | March 26, 2007, midnight | In Features »

With the third quarter winding down (phew) and AP exams just around the corner, we're all feeling stressed and irritable. First come the re-take quizzes (after which you wish you'd actually studied so you hadn't failed the first time around), the 16 tests jammed into the last week before grades are entered, and all those after school hours of spring sports: you can't go home and sleep after a dreadful day of three math re-takes and a Latin oral; instead you have to lace up your cleats and head out to softball or lacrosse or Tiddlywinks.


Puzzling through the day

By Lois Bangiolo | March 23, 2007, midnight | In Features »

Seated at a table in the Media Center, two students quietly write in numbers on partially completed Sudoku puzzles. Piled on the table around them are stacks of blank puzzles, waiting for students to come by and fill them out. The pastel sign above the students announces the presence of one of the media center's newest features, the Puzzle Place.


A public affair

By Pia Nargundkar | March 19, 2007, midnight | In Features »

When social studies teacher Lansing Freeman came to school last Monday, he knew that people would be talking about him – students, fellow teachers, even people he didn't know. The day before, Freeman appeared in The Washington Post's "Date Lab" column. Date Lab, a weekly feature published in The Washington Post Magazine, sets up two metropolitan-area singles on a blind date and chronicles their reactions afterwards.


Once a Blazer, always a Blazer

By Priyanka Gokhale | March 16, 2007, midnight | In Features »

In the fall of 1991, Emanuel Charles entered Blair as a freshman. Four years and 12 sports seasons later – in 1995 – he graduated. Never in a "million years" did Charles think that one day he'd return to Blair.


Exposing lawbreakers

By Lingfeng Li | March 14, 2007, midnight | In Features »

Where only first names appear, names have been changed to protect the identities of the sources. In the Blair network on Facebook, 22 people have alcohol, smoke or an ambiguous plastic cup in their profile pictures, visible to anyone who searches for them. In March 2006, a Maryland high school freshman was suspended for online photos, and colleges have reportedly denied admission after reading applicants' online profiles.


The green scene

By Josie Callahan | March 9, 2007, midnight | In Features »

With St. Patrick's Day weekend just a wee bit away, its time to get started planning for the holiday that makes everyone feel Irish if only for a day. Whether you enjoy tapping your toes to an Irish fiddle, cheering on a spirited parade or diving into a dish of Irish cuisine, this guide to local Celtic fun is sure to bring out the inner green in you.


Not-at-homework

By Josie Callahan | Feb. 28, 2007, midnight | In Features »

On Jan. 27, Peace Studies teacher Joanne Malone positioned herself in the midst of a crowd of approximately 500,000 anti-war demonstrators, on the side street of the National Mall where she promised her first and third period peace studies students could find her. But for the students in Malone's Peace Studies classes, attending the protest was more than a show of expression; it was a homework assignment.


The BSA: scoring big time

By Gus Woods | Feb. 26, 2007, midnight | In Features »

In senior Jose Nieto's sophomore year, his GPA rose from 0.85 to 2.71. Now, he says, he has maintained a 3.0 since. His secret? The Blair Sports Academy.


Senior pranks: battle of the sexes

By Pia Nargundkar | Feb. 25, 2007, midnight | In Features »

When senior Garret Jones tickled his friend at lunch one day, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. The seemingly innocuous gesture caused the friend, fellow senior Sarah Kovar, to fall out of her chair. "I was really mad and I knew I had to get him back," Kovar says. And with that, the school-wide prank war had begun.


Flagging down inclusion

By Gus Woods | Feb. 22, 2007, midnight | In Features »

Upon returning to school from winter break, Blazers were greeted by a series of flags of the countries represented at Blair. But some students have expressed disappointment with the absence of their flag in the new cultural showcase. Now, the administration and the Media Center specialists who helped collect and mount the flags are requesting that students voice their concerns with them.

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