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Sunshine Li ‘26
As autumn settled in and October drew to a close, students felt the thrill of Halloween all around campus. With spider webs and mummy wrap making their way into each dormitory, and the buzz of last-minute creative costumes filling the air, Halloween on William’s Hill brought a special energy. It was more than just a night of trick-or-treating with Horizons students–although that was certainly a highlight for myself and many others – it was a week-long celebration where the community came together to enjoy both the playful and eerie sides of this much-loved holiday. From pumpkin carving on Keyes porch to the notorious Sixth Form haunted house, this year’s Halloween celebrations began on the weekend of October 25th and extended throughout the week with lots of on-campus activities and off-campus visits, giving us plenty of opportunities to spread seasonal spirit and fun. My favorite Halloween festivity this year was the van trip to Lake Compounce. On a Saturday evening five days before Halloween, Mrs. Hall drove fourteen Westminster students to Bristol to experience Lake Compounce’s annual Phantom Fall Fest. And, boy, was it a blast. Forty-degree weather? Check. Four different haunted houses? Check. Scare actors decked out in elaborate costumes and makeup? Check. The world’s #1 wooden roller coaster five times? Check, check, check, and check! Avery Grey ‘26 and I caught the tail end of a queue that stretched beyond an unassuming entrance sign to the Boulder Dash ride – a wooden roller coaster that wraps around mountain terrain and boasts nearly 5000 feet of track. We shivered our timbers on thrilling rides and while waiting in the cold night. With a pretzel in one hand and a churro in the other (and two harrowing refills of free Pepsi soda), Avery and I stood in line for over an hour as darkness crept upon us: we watched our breaths cloud in the crispy air, sang a couple of songs start-to-finish, and had a very productive conversation. Needless to say, the Boulder Dash itself was a thousand percent worth the wait, and, with that, we concluded our equally wonderful and terrifying excursion. We Martlets braved the Halloween frights and chilly weather at Lake Compounce in a night I will never forget. As the costume contest prizes were awarded and the final spiders taken down from the staircases, Halloween at Westminster leaves behind much more than candy wrappers and jack-o-lanterns. It reminds us of the community we share, where we can laugh, scream, and celebrate together, no matter how hectic our schedules may get. For many students, Halloween here becomes a cherished memory – a highlight of the school year, marked by creativity, camaraderie, and a touch of October magic.
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Chip Genung ‘25 (Co-Editor in Chief)
Kids love their games, and, for most kids, including Westminster students, the simpler the better. Block Blast, fits this bill precisely. Often confused with Tetris, Block Blast involves moving colorful geometric shapes to get a row – either horizontal or vertical. When you manage to clear the board, you receive bonus points, and each time you complete your inventory of three shapes, a new one appears that you must use. If you run out of space for your shapes, you lose. Intense, I know. My high score is about seven thousand, but I have heard of a few Westminster students with a high score upwards of twenty or thirty thousand. As with most games, those who play longer, develop the necessary strategies to do better. Regardless, it is still a simple game fundamentally. This leads to a larger point about culture at Westminster, and among most teenagers; there is always a new game everyone is obsessed with. Sometimes, just within Westminster, and sometimes nationally or even globally. These games always have certain things in common: they are mobile games we can play on our phones or computers, and they’re fast and extremely simple. One primary example of this before Block Blast was Get MIT, a game based on the game 2048, where one merges blocks representing colleges, working up the ladder of prestige to MIT. Similar to Block Blast, it involved minimal effort and thought and could be done while one enjoys their favorite TV show or listens to music. But as with the games themselves, their trendiness is fast as well. Block Blast will most likely fade, just as its predecessors of Get MIT and what is simply known as Watermelon, another mobile game. But, for now, Block Blast reigns as the go-to phone game, prized by Westminster students for its simplicity. Caroline Breslav ‘26
Project Hail Mary is a science fiction book about a man named Ryland Grace who is the sole survivor of a last-chance mission to save the fate of humanity – only, he doesn't know it at the beginning. Grace wakes up alone in a mysterious white room with two corpses next to him and has to figure out where he is and why he is there in the first place. The book switches between the past and present situation, revealing the mystery of what Ryland is doing in this room in the first place. I don't want to spoil the book – but, along the way, a heartwarming cross-species friendship is formed. You might have heard the name Andy Weir before since he is the author of The Martian, a book that turned into a multimillion-dollar movie starring Matt Damon. The Martian is another of my favorite books: it is funny, thrilling, and it contains some serious science. The reader follows Mark Watney’s – the main character – thought process as he solves problems to get back home to Earth. One criticism of The Martian is its lack of feeling: some think it is too light-hearted, and the main character Mark Watney shows little to no emotion when he is the only person on a planet and might never see his friends or family again. However, the less well-known Project Hail Mary has all the funny, intriguing, and ‘sciencey’ parts of The Martian while also having the emotional and heartwarming parts that The Martian lacks. I am not a fan of re-reading books, and I don't give out five-star reviews frequently (last year out of the 70 books I read I gave 9 five-star reviews: around 13%) but Project Hail Mary deserves every single star, and I would re-read it in a heartbeat. You will laugh, learn, and you most definitely will cry a lot. Andy Weir can combine comedy science and heartwarming friendship all in one book for you to enjoy. Chloe Zhao ‘28
In today’s ever-changing fashion world, fast fashion has become a wardrobe staple for many consumers, attracting young people who seek affordable and stylish clothing. Major retailers like Zara, H&M, and Forever 21 enable customers to keep on trend without breaking the budget. However, it is also noted that this convenience carries a huge environmental cost. Fast fashion refers to the rapid production of inexpensive clothing that replicates the latest runway trends, making them available to consumers in record time. The emergence of fast fashion gained prominence in the 1990s with Zara, a Spanish fashion retailer, pioneering a rapid production model that enables garments to swiftly transition from design to retail within a mere two-week timeframe. This renovative strategy allows companies to profit by perpetuating an endless cycle of consumption, while resulting in wasteful production and widespread environmental damage. The United Nations Environment Programme considers the fashion industry the world’s second-largest user of water, accounting for about 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Just one single cotton shirt would consume approximately 700 gallons of water, while for a pair of jeans the number would be 2,000 gallons. Textile dyeing— a key step in fast fashion— stands as one of the largest global polluters of water. Dangerous dyes and chemicals in the wastewater find their way into the rivers and streams, impacting aquatic life and local communities. The proliferation of microplastics is another hidden consequence of fast fashion. Many fast fashion items are made with synthetic materials like polyester and nylon, materials that shed tiny plastic fibers every time they’re washed. These microplastics may find their way into the deepest ocean and the highest glacier peaks, and because over 60 percent of modern synthetic materials are non-biodegradable, they persist indefinitely. The cycle of fast fashion produces not only pollution but also waste. An average American generates around 82 pounds of textile waste annually, and the majority of this waste ends up in landfills. Fashion trends shift rapidly, and as the trend drastically changes, fast fashion items quickly lose their appeal and get disposed. Additionally, fast fashion products are often low in quality, making them prone to wear and tear, which further accelerates their disposal. And through frequent product updates and sales, retailers are fueling this process. About 85% of all textiles are discarded annually, adding to the mountain of waste in landfills worldwide. Fast fashion’s impact is not only environmental but also social. Many fast fashion garments are made in developing countries where labor laws are often lax. Low wages, poor working conditions, and even forced labor are common, particularly among young women, who make up the majority of the workforce. One of the most tragic incidents occurred in 2013 with the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, which killed over 1,100 workers and injured 2,500 more. And this was not an isolated incident–though being the most severe one. Between 2006 and 2012, more than 500 Bangladeshi garment workers lost their lives in factory fires, highlighting the unsafe working conditions pervasive in the industry. Despite the damage that fast fashion perpetuates, it is now accompanied by a number of solutions: “slow fashion,” being one of them, involves consuming less and placing emphasis on quality and sustainable brands. Brands such as Patagonia, Everlane, Stella McCartney, and Reformation have ethical labor standards, sustainable materials, and durable products. All in all, they are all reputed to practice sustainable business. ThredUp, Poshmark, and several other similar platforms have also begun to gain popularity among consumers for their second-hand purchases and sales, consequently lowering the demand for new items. Simultaneously, clothing rental services like Rent the Runway offer an alternative to buying items for temporary use, allowing consumers to enjoy trendy items without contributing to waste. References How Fast Fashion Is Destroying the Planet. (2019, September 3). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/books/review/how-fast-fashion-is-destroying-the-planet.html Putting the brakes on fast fashion. (2023, March 17). UNEP. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/putting-brakes-fast-fashion World Economic Forum. (2020). These facts show how unsustainable the fashion industry is. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2020/01/fashion-industry-carbon-unsustainable-environment-pollution/ By Kimi Weng ’24Photos below: on the left by Carolyn Cheng, top photo at right by Mr. Leary and bottom right by Mr. Van Dolah.  We see the sun and the moon almost every single day, and they are the symbols of day and night, respectively. But did you know that the sun and moon can appear at the same time at the same location?
A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the sun and the Earth and blocks the sun from the perspective of the Earth. There are two main types of solar eclipses: a partial solar eclipse and a total solar eclipse. A partial solar eclipse, as its name suggests, is when a part of the sun is covered by the moon. On the other hand, a total solar eclipse is when the entire sun is covered by the moon and is accompanied by sunset effects and brief darkness. Although a total solar eclipse is not a super rare occurrence, you will only be able to see a total eclipse at the same location once in your lifetime. Recently, a solar eclipse occurred in North America, and fortunately, the path of total solar eclipse, or totality, also crossed the contiguous United States. According to NASA, the next time we will be seeing a total solar eclipse in the contiguous United States will be in 2044. As the totality was expected to pass through the United States, lots of people who were near the path wanted to take a glimpse of this spectacular phenomenon. And of course, Westminster will not miss this chance either. On April 8, 2024, a group of Westminster faculty took a group of students on a trip to St. Johnsbury, Vermont to watch the total solar eclipse. As I am currently returning from the trip at 10 p.m. on a Monday, past check-in, I decided that this is the perfect topic for a newspaper article. But before I get started, I want to give a huge thanks to the excellent planning of Mr. Leary, Mr. Van Dolah, Mrs. Urner-Berry, and Mrs. Keough; because of them, 22 students were able to embark on this once-in-a-lifetime trip to witness the total solar eclipse. At 7:45 a.m., the air was filled with excitement as two buses departed the Westminster campus under a clear sky. However, we encountered somewhat severe traffic from the “solar eclipse rush” and road construction. Together with two pit stops for bathroom and lunch (a random couple came up to us during one of the pit stops and gave us three Moonpies), the road trip there was almost seven hours. We arrived at St. Johnsbury, Vermont at around 2:30 p.m. Under the instructions of Mr. Leary, we assembled the binoculars and tripods with solar filters. After he handed special filter glasses to each one of us, we started observing the sun and noticed that the lower right section of the sun was already covered by the moon. The solar eclipse had begun. As more of the sun was covered by the moon, we noticed that the temperature was decreasing and the surroundings were slowly getting darker. We also did a fun little experiment where we made small holes with our fingers and observed the shadows. Due to the special shape of the sun, the small opening of our hands allowed light to pass through and form a small crescent in the shadow. At around 3:30 p.m., the moment that everyone had been waiting for arrived. We saw sunset effects in all directions and the sky turned dark. A total solar eclipse was happening. The moon completely covered the sun. A ring of glare quietly sat in the sky. The sun’s corona, the outer atmosphere, revealed itself in front of us. Since the sun was fully covered by the moon, everyone took off their filter glasses and enjoyed the magnificent phenomenon. The total solar eclipse lasted about two to three minutes, but the most surreal experience came after totality, as the sun was unveiled. The sky turned bright again, but it was nothing like a normal sunrise. The light that initially shone on Earth was so concentrated that we felt as if we were under stage lights. The grass that we were standing on, the mountains behind us, and the entire world felt artificial because our brains were so used to the normal conception of day and night. Roughly 10 minutes after the totality, the sky returned to its normal brightness, and it marked the end of the climax of this trip. After moments of sharing our excitement, we were on the road and ready to leave at 4:30 p.m. However, the fun part of this trip didn’t end there. I would also like to highlight the bus ride back to campus, as it was also a memorable experience. Due to the continuation of the traffic caused by the solar eclipse, we did various things on the bus to kill time, including reading, watching movies, singing karaoke, passing snacks across the toaster, and sharing our longest travel experiences (not knowing that this would become one of them). We also stopped at a plaza in Vermont to get dinner, and this is when it started to get interesting. Some of my friends and I couldn’t resist the lure of Five Guys and decided to wait in a relatively long line for some burgers. What we didn’t know was that we would be spending the next hour in Five Guys, holding everyone else on the bus back. It was the busiest Five Guys I have ever seen in my life. There were so many milkshakes ordered that the person making them was losing his voice from yelling numbers. He shouted, “The spinner in the milkshake machine is not spinning anymore.” Eventually, we got our burgers. The rest of the road trip happened in the dark. Everyone was tired, but the March Madness game between UConn and Purdue kept us excited. We returned to campus at 11:45 p.m., slightly later than we originally planned due to the unexpected traffic. The commitment of Mr. Van Dolah and Mrs. Urner-Berry driving for the entirety of this trip is truly impressive, and this trip wouldn’t have happened without them. After approximately 13 hours of being in a toaster, I think this field trip might have broken the record for most time spent in a Westy toaster in a day. Even though the time spent on the road seemed daunting, if I were asked to go see the total solar eclipse again, it would be a yes without any second thought. Witnessing a total solar eclipse is truly an amazing event that you will remember for the rest of your life. https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/what-to-expect/ https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/types/ By Margee Mahoney ’242024. Our civilization has never been more developed; we are integrating Artificial Intelligence into our daily lives with ever more information at our fingertips. Humans are stronger, faster, and smarter than ever before. Yet, millions, more than 28 million, according to Vanity Fair, are hopelessly ensnared in the simple pleasure (or overwhelming frustration) of the New York Times games.
It started with Wordle’s exponential growth in popularity, which provided pandemic-ridden citizens with a sense of normalcy, routine, and connection. “Did you get the Wordle today?” became a much-needed conversation starter for many whose social skills were inadequate after months of isolation. The addiction to the New York Times’s perfectly challenging yet doable game quickly spread to the Mini and, in 2023, Connections. Similar to Wordle, the Mini is equally challenging yet doable. It’s the perfect bite-sized activity for crossword lovers, with options to tailor the difficulty to the player's liking, such as enabling auto-check. Players can race against each other, hoping to beat their personal record (mine is 23 seconds) or one of their peers. These two games provide a wonderful start to one’s morning or a perfect unwinding activity in the evening, an opportunity to challenge your mind and connect with friends. Speaking of connecting, one New York Times game seems completely obvious yet incredibly confusing: Connections. The perfect storm, Connections is both incredibly satisfying and intensely infuriating. There is no in-between; you will either complete connections in less than a minute or wish to throw your phone across the room. As @apoclpsestudent on Twitter pointed out, “NYT Connections is bold enough to say, ‘If these words were different words, they would be related.’” An incredibly true and illogical observation: the simple challenges of the Mini and Wordle are nothing compared to the insurmountable trial of a difficult connection group. But, sadly, it is too late for the millions of participants who look forward to the NYT games each morning or evening. We are trapped in an endless cycle of challenges, satisfaction, and perhaps sometimes rage, and I look forward to it every day. By Chip Genung ’25Photo by Yoon Byun  Stickball, a time-honored Westminster tradition dating back to the school's founding in 1888. It has changed throughout the years, but the premise has stayed the same. Still, despite almost a century and a half of this tradition, last year was a subpar year for the sport with only a few games being played and a low community involvement in the activity. On top of that, with the unfortunate departure of Ms. Kennedy, we have lost our commissioner.
But this year, Westminster has the opportunity to bring Stickball back and make it better than ever. Tyler Arsenault, the gym instructor, is the new commissioner and is excited to lead Westy into a great season. I had the chance to sit down and talk with him about his plans for Stickball. At the end of last year, Tyler was asked by Ms. Kennedy to be the new commissioner, and he enthusiastically responded yes. He was “excited and delighted to take part in such a fun community event,” and he already had some ideas. One of these ideas is to have all the games on the same one or two days of the week to make it easier and more fun for more students to get involved, as he said, “the more people, the better it will be.” He is also striving to instill more communication not only between himself and the students but also between the students and other students in their halls. Tyler and the entire community are very excited to see what is in store for Stickball this year, and it seems that this will be the best year yet. By Camilla Norton ’25Below, Madame Ariane Barrillon with her family. Photo courtesy of Madame Barrillon.  For the past eight years, Madame Ariane Barrillon has been a consistently positive member of the Westminster community. As a teacher, an advisor, and the overseer to the Martlet Francais, Madame Barrillon has contributed greatly to our community.
Although Madame Barrillon has always loved teaching and being a teacher, what drew her to Westminster was her “dream to teach French in the United States” and to share her culture as well as her love for teaching her native language. Additionally, she admired that Westminster was an independent school because it meant smaller class sizes, which would allow her to get to know students more personally and to understand and read them better. While teaching here, Madame Barrillon has had many highlights and positive experiences. Specifically, she enjoyed getting to know her students in class and during advisory. Consistently having an advisory of only four members has allowed her to form close connections with her advisees. She admired being able to watch the progress and growth of so many of her students over the years and looks forward to seeing and hearing about what they have done within and soon beyond Westminster. Although feeling bittersweet about departing, she is excited to “start a new adventure, discover a new place, and make new friends.” While reflecting on her Westminster career, she mentions that “30 years ago, I would never have expected to be teaching at this level, and I want to thank the support I got here. I've positively evolved so much in terms of my personal growth and teaching confidence because of the support I got from everyone, including the administration, colleagues, and students.” She urges current Westminster community members to “never give up” since she never expected herself “to get to a level full of so many opportunities and so much support” that has come from her time at Westminster. By Chip Genung ’25Third-party presidential bids are common but never successful. Some of the closest attempts at winning the White House include former President Theodore Roosevelt with his Bull Moose Party run in 1912, with 27 percent of the popular vote, and Ross Perot, who won 19 percent of the vote in 1992. But no third-party candidate has reached nearly those numbers in the 21st century, even with the Libertarian and Green parties always running candidates, who, combined, often won less than 5 percent of the vote. Still, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. thinks he has a chance at it.
Kennedy is the nephew of the 35th President, John F. Kennedy, and son of former attorney general and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy. Surrounded by politics virtually his entire life, he decided to continue the family trend of public service by working as an environmental and children’s rights lawyer. Through his work, he has taken up environmental cases against major companies and organizations, and he managed to win many. Initially, he ran for the 2024 Democratic bid for president, but, after seeing no path to victory against President Biden for the nomination, he launched an independent bid for the White House. Though polls vary, RFK is currently polling somewhere around 13 percent, which is impressive given the current political climate. This is, in part, thanks to his name Kennedy, which he has utilized greatly and is his best hope of making real progress. Given the domination the Kennedys had over the Democratic Party and American politics at large in the late 20th century, it is no surprise that RFK is utilizing the name and finding success with it. While Kennedy likely has no path to victory, he still is a player in this election. This is because he raises the question of whether he will take more votes from Trump or Biden? Biden might be the obvious answer, given Kennedy’s only recent departure from the Democratic Party, and the fact that the name Kennedy holds weight to far more Democrats than Republicans. However, this is not necessarily the case once one looks at his policies. His beliefs on health care, specifically vaccines and the federal reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, are very attractive to conservatives. He has also taken a stand for securing the southern border more to lower illegal immigration, while supporting the expansion of systems to increase legal immigration. These policies, coupled with his environmental stance and his family's prominence in the DNC, make him a viable contender to attract both Republicans and Democrats, and he will continue for the foreseeable future to take voters from both sides, considering his ample funding. This is, in part, thanks to his new vice president pick, philanthropist and lawyer Nicole Shanahan, who is also the ex-wife of a Google co-founder. This has not only given Kennedy enough capital to continue his campaign but has made the ticket appealing to more demographics since Shanahan is 38 (young for politics) and is the daughter of a single immigrant parent. Ultimately, we probably won’t see another Kennedy in the White House anytime soon, but a candidate as versatile and interesting as RFK Jr. has the power to affect who will end up on Pennsylvania Avenue. By Finn Seeley ’25March Madness is comprised of 68 of the year’s best Division I college basketball teams. Some teams can get automatic bids by winning their conference tournament, while others are chosen by the NCAA selection committee based on their record and strength of schedule. It is a riveting single-elimination tournament in which many of the teams have never competed against each other before. This lack of familiarity adds an element of unpredictability and suspense to each game. It has grown immensely in popularity since its inception in 1939 and is now one of the most followed college sporting events every year.
March Madness 2024 was yet another incredibly exciting event. This year’s tournament was unbelievable on both the men’s and women’s sides, with UConn and NC State sending both their men’s and women’s teams to the Final Four for the first time in March Madness history. It has been fun to watch the UConn men’s team dominating their opponents and winning their games by an average of 27.7 points. On the women’s side, Caitlin Clark has been finishing her groundbreaking season stupendously with an average of 29.5 points per game. So far it has been an epic way for her to complete the season where she passed the all-time scoring record for any college basketball player. The Big Dance really is One Shining Moment to end every season. |
