A final Sterling Scholar update

Last night was the awards ceremony for the 2008 Utah Sterling Scholars. In each of the 13 categories, a winner and two runners up were announced. Jared Andersen, one of the eight finalists from Viewmont and also this paper's News Editor, was named a runner up in the Science category. I thought it necessary to announce because Jared wouldn't by himself and it's a big deal. Congratulate Jared if you see him--he deserves it.

If you're still interested after two of my posts on the subject, you can check out all the winners and runners up here.

Who is going on the field trip with whom?

Ah, the power of the dying word, whom. For those of you who are hyper-active about grammar, this will be an eye opener.

Who is subjective, while whom is objective. Mwahaha most of you have almost no clue about what that last sentence meant...do you? While who is rapidly replacing whom, there are those (like myself) who strive to use whom correctly in their everyday language. Let's put this in laman's terms, who can be replaced by he or she or I or they or we or you.

For example, who is going on the field trip? We can reorder the sentence to read: I am going on the field trip, he is going on the field trip, she is going on the field trip, they are going on the field trip, we are going on the field trip, you are going on the field trip.

Now for whom. Whom replaces me or him or her or them or us or you. Again, an example of this is. That is for whom? The sentence can be rearranged to read: that is for me, that is for him, that is for her, that is for them, that is for us, or that is for you.

I leave you at this time once again, hopefully you have gained some form of knowledge that you did not know before, although you might not use it. Choose now whether to let whom slowly die out of the english language forever, or keep it living for another generation! (Notice the wonderful use of the exclaimation mark for emphasis.)

Please, please, use whom and no longer say, "who is going on the field trip with who?"

Happy rearranging,

-Russell Lowe

What color is YOUR toothbrush?

Seeing the ways students promote themselves in a student body election this week has really opened my eyes.

For instance, one candidate boasts that she has a pink toothbrush...
However, anyone can get one of those, they aren't rare. If thats our basis for voting than Obama should fill his bathroom full of pink toothbrushes!

Anyone of her opponents could also own a pink toothbrush! What makes her pink toothbrush superior to my orange and blue one? At least mine has a complementary color scheme! Those toothbrush makers put a little more thought into my toothbrush, I should run for student body office!

I know I shouldn't be worried about these school elections, they wont effect me, I'm a senior. But I'm worried for our youth! Their future high school activities could be run and planned by people who care only for the race of one's toothbrush!

What happened to caring about our SBO's character? Their people skills? Their ability to handle stress? Last year I wanted a SBOs who could relate to all sorts of people, regardless of what color they like to clean their teeth with!

Not only am I worried for the future Vikings, but maybe this election reflects what is really going on in the world. Do we care more about things that shouldn't matter in an election (ex: ones race, sex or religion)? Or do we simply not care at all? Are we more distracted and effected by the next American Idol (which receives more votes than our elections do, coincidently) than we are by our future president; the person that is supposed to represent the people in our country?!

Maybe Jordin Sparks should be our next president, but don't forget to check out her toothbrush first।

-Cassi Githens

Shameless Self Promotion

Viewmont has its season opener lacrosse game at Woods Cross on Friday, March 14. The J.V. game is at 5:30 and the varsity game starts at 7:00 under the lights. We've got a great team this year and would really appreciate any support we can get. If you haven't been to a lacrosse game before, you'll really enjoy it; it's fast paced, hard hitting, and pretty easy to understand. See you there.