May 10, 1999 9 Pages

I don’t have much to say here. I apologize for putting in last issue’s front page article that Mark Ferraguto wrote an article that Mike Ferraguto actually wrote. I have a major announcement – The Paper should be coming out on a weekly basis starting now! The 8^th grade tenure at BACS is coming to a close, and there will be a seventh grade trial issue coming up soon as the key to The Paper, along with the Word template, FTP passwords, FrontPage 98 software, and other things. That’s all I have to say. Here it is.

Drew Vanderburg

Yes! It's finally the end of another long year! Although this is not the year-end issue, there are a lot of events that need to be mentioned. Specifically, the Spring Concert, adjudication, and the Dance. It may be hard to cram all of these happenings into one article, but since all of them except the Concert are still in the future, I hope I can manage.

The Annual Spring Concert was a smashing success. As usual, we earned a standing ovation from the crowd. I think we all need to congratulate Mr. Dunn and Mr. Policelli, as well as ourselves. Although things were looking gruesome on the Monday night rehearsal of that week, especially movement III, we pulled ourselves together for the Wednesday night rehearsal, and clearly were on the right track. However, the fact that both rehearsals went twenty minutes overtime showed that it was not easy to do so well. And that was true. Brahms's "German Requiem" was definitely the hardest piece that we've ever done. It was also the longest, its 92 pages shattering the previous record of 89, set by the "Te Deum" back in my 5th grade days. But hard work doesn't go unrewarded, because Thursday and Friday were 12:00 days thanks to the concert, and that in part may've contributed to our stunning performance.

No! I've spoken of the dreaded word! The "A" word! Yes, adjudication has begun to tighten its evil claws around each student in the school once again. Soon, piano lessons will convene in DiGiovanni instead of the piano room, and before you know it you'll be sitting at the piano bench on the night of May 25th practicing for the first time the piece which you must perform tomorrow in front of the whole school! But unlike the winter adjudication, this one has two events connected with it. If you pull off an A- or higher you get to play in the recital on June 9th, but if you get an A or better, you get to play in front of a church full of people at the graduation ceremonies, June 11th. It is a matter of opinion as to whether it is good or bad to get into the events, but there is no dispute that it is an honor. So, I guess the only thing to say before the fact is to get practicing!

In contrast to the other events mentioned here, I'd be a bad author if I neglected to mention the upcoming dance. We all remember the dances of last year and of last January. Whenever there is a dance it really stirs up the place, and you can bet that (especially with those involved in the schoolwide Shannon issue) the dance will be the favorite conversation topic for the rest of the year. This dance for the 7th and 8th grades will officially run from 7-10 PM this Friday the 14th. However, the doors open at 6:30 and we need some people to set up the chairs and drinks and stuff. And we'll also need a quick clean up crew at the end, but since everyone will already be there, that won't be a problem. A very important thing is that you have to BRING A BOTTLE OF YOUR FAVORITE DRINK. A few people also need to bring snacks, but there have always been too many snacks so we only need a very few this time. And maybe breath mints (ha, ha). When it comes to requesting songs, you can do that right at the dance. This time, it has nothing to do with me. And we only have three chaperones, so if your parents are cool, please ask them to come. The price will be between $6.50 and $7.00 depending on how many people come. This must be paid in advance this week. Girls are free, and there will be plenty, courtesy of Fallon McDavitt. Rest assured that if you come to this dance you will have a fun time. Just make sure that your soon-to-be girlfriend doesn't give her phone number to a certain younger guy. Take it from me…

So, all in all, the big wrap up of this year is going to be great. I didn't even mention any of the retreats that are coming up, and those can only add to the fun. If all goes well, the last issue of the paper will be bigger and better than ever, the school year will close on a happy note, and my class will go out with a bang!

Drew Vanderburg

One thing I wish I had mentioned in the last issue but didn't was that back issues of any or all previous releases of "The Paper," "What's Up?" or "The BACS InCHOIRer" can be obtained through me. This is so that those who did not keep all of the old papers from last year can still compete in my "Find the Stuff Contest." Also, especially 5th graders, if you're just interested in the old papers or never got to see them, this is a good way to get access to them. Since I print my back issues in weekly batches, you may need to allow 1-2 weeks for delivery. And also, the third issue ("What's Up?" format) is lost information. I somehow didn't keep a copy of that one, so it can't be ordered as a back issue unless I find one from another source. But don't worry, nothing from that issue is included in the "Find the Stuff Contest." To order these back issues just ask me personally. Back issues are a good idea because, like ABC says, "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you!"

Drew Vanderburg

Congratulations to John E. Connors of Medford, MA who won the CD of his choice from Newbury Comics for submitting the new name for my movie comic! The name of my movie comic will now be, (for the last two issues), "The Hazey Screen." I was close to choosing "How to Eat a 50

Pound Steak- By Ebert," which was also from the brilliant mind of Mr. Connors, but I didn't think many people would understand it. I am also obligated to send out a good word for our runners-up, Robert Hayes and Kevin Dacey, for giving me a tough decision.

Drew Vanderburg

As the year comes to a close, so does this paper. In my class's case, that means forever. So now that my class has contributed fully to this legacy which will be left for the school, there may be a few articles or comics strips which stand out in your mind. Now, let us know which those are. Drop a note in my music box (#15) or personally, but I prefer e-mail: [email protected]. You may vote in the following categories:

Favorite Column, Favorite Comic Strip, Favorite Writer, Favorite Artist, Favorite Article, Favorite Issue Favorite Comic, and Favorite Contest

Your votes have to be in by May 28th so that I have time to write the results in the final issue of the paper. I'll also try to reprint all of the winning articles, contests, and comics so that they can be read and enjoyed again!

Robert Hayes

Lets travel back in time to the year 1988. Back to the time when must of us were only 3 or 4 years old. The most difficult thing wasn’t doing homework or studying for tests, but rather trying to control yourself not to throw mashed potatoes across the table at your siblings. While we were taking our first steps and learning how to speak, BACS was in its 25^th year of existence. While we were trying to reach the cookie jar, BACS students were trying to reach a high A on the descants. While we were reading The Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, BACS students were reading out of the textbooks and hymnals. Let’s take a closer look at BACS in the 1980’s.

The Faculty No Mr. Schmidt, no Fitzy, no Mr. Cristofani, no Mr. Policelli, no Mrs. Vermeer, no Mr. Dudas, no Mr. Moll, no Mrs. Pursell, and no Mrs. Christina! Wow! Mr. Dunn was the principal and music director. Sister Kathy was the vice-principal, social studies teacher, and math teacher. Father Fratic was still a piano teacher. Ms. Yeoman taught language arts, history, and art. Miss Miller taught French and language arts. With the exception of Mr. Dunn and Sister Kathy, the faculty was pretty much the same except for the fact that there were more teachers.

One of those teachers was Father LaFontaine (aka Father La). He was not only the religion teacher, but also the assistant choir director! Another teacher went by the name of Mr. Ploss. What makes him so special is that he taught 5 subjects: science, math, computer, recorder, and bell choir! (Could you picture Mr. Schmidt conducting bell choir or Mr. Policelli teaching about the anatomy of a cell?)

The Classes Back in 1988, students experienced the same classes that we do now plus two others. The first "other" is a creative writing coarse taught by Sister Mary Chanel. The second "other" was a high school examination tutor coarse headed by Sister Catherine Foley.

This is only a small fragment of what I found out about BACS in the 1980’s. In the last few issues, look for more installments of "Things Most Students Don’t Know About BACS."

Contest: Name the 3 current BACS teachers that have been teaching here the longest. The winner will get an authentic piece of BACS history that they will treasure forever! (Trust me.) All you have to do is e-mail or tell me in person who you think the 3 teachers are. The winner will be announced in the next issue!

Paul Riley

The first round of the playoffs has come to a close, and what an exciting first round it was. In the Eastern Conference, there was only one sweep, and that was the number 7 seed Buffalo killing the number 2 seed Ottawa. And that is not a big surprise since the Sabres have Dominic Hasek in net. The number 1 seed was also eliminated in seven games by the number 8 seed the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens didn't have Jagr for the first five games, but were still able to get the job done. We all know the Bruins beat the number 3 seeded Carolina in six games. I will get to that a little later. The last series in the East was between number 4 Toronto, and number 5 Philadelphia. Although the Flyers jumped out to a 1-0 series lead, the Maple Leafs were able to come back and take the series 4-2. The Maple Leafs were the only team of the top four in the East to advance.

In the West the top three guns, Dallas, Colorado, and Detroit all took their series with ease. The Stars and the Wings both swept their series, while Colorado took theirs in six. The other series between the Phoenix Coyotes and the St. Louis Blues went to seven games, in which the Blues took it. The Blues were the only team out of the bottom four in the west to move on. So that shows you how different the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference are.

The Boston Bruins have done it! They have moved on for the first time since 1994 when the beat the Canadiens in the first round, and then went on to lose to the Devils in round two. We are hoping that is not what happens this time. In the second round, the B's have to face the Sabres and Dominic Hasek. If they want to move on they will have to be able to solve the Dominator. Here are the second round matchups:

Eastern Conference

4. Toronto Maple Leafs vs. 8. Pittsburgh Penguins

6. Boston Bruins vs. 7. Buffalo Sabres

Western Conference

1. Dallas Stars vs. 5. St. Louis Blues

2. Colorado Avalanche vs. 3. Detroit Red Wings (Must see series).

GO BRUINS!!!!!!

Robert Hayes

"We are a very young team and it is going to take some chemistry to get better," said Antoine Walker, who averaged a team-best 18.6 points per game. "We already have the offense, now we need to be consistent on the defensive side." "Every day we go into the arena to play or practice, you just have to look up and see all those championship banners, retired numbers, and Bob Cousy commentating on the sidelines. It’s hard not to get caught up in the rich tradition of the Boston Celtics and hopefully, one day, it will be my retired number up in the rafters next to a few more championship banners," said Paul Pierce, the former NBA "Rookie of the Month" and the #10 pick in last year’s draft. So when will Paul Pierce and the rest of Boston see another championship banner high within the rafters of the Fleet Center, will the Celts need a rocket scientist to fix their chemistry in order to win more games next season, and how will the Celtics improve so that next year they will finish above .500? After some heavy thought, here are my answers to these important questions.

This season, the Celtics finished in a disappointing 5^th place in their division with the 7^th worst record in the NBA. Out of the Celtics’s whole roster, only 2 players shot a field goal average above .500! Out of the Celtics’s whole roster, no one shot a 3-point field goal average above .500! So the first improvement the Celtics have to make is learning how to shoot the ball better. During the season, one third of the team did not have more than 75 points! Improvement #2 should be, give the ball to the person that can handle and shoot the ball well. The next improvement goes without saying, get the best possible players that you can. I think the Celtics’s coaches could have found a better back-up center than a guy with the nickname, "The Ukraine Train." Sure he may be tall, but you what they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And the final improvement the Celtics should make, they should find a leader. Antoine Walker is to busy with his CyberAntoine commercials, his shoe, and many other non-NBA related things, while basically the rest of the team are a bunch of rookies. So whom should the team look to as their captain? How about the newly acquired Kenny Anderson? Sounds good to me!

So, it seems whenever there is talk about the Celtics’s season it is bad news, but they did accomplish something that they haven’t done in a long time. They finally beat the Bulls! Ha!

Robert Hayes with Drew Vanderburg

Like any other newspaper, the writers and editors of "The Paper" want to know what you, the reader, thinks. In the latest sports poll, the questions were "What is your favorite sport to play?" and "What is your favorite sport to watch?" I appreciate everyone who took the time out of their busy schedule to e-mail or tell me in person their response. I am also very pleased to announce that this is, with a doubt, the biggest sports poll response ever! On to the results!

Soccer - 11 votes Football - 16 votes

Football - 7 votes Baseball - 11 votes

Basketball - 7 votes Hockey - 10 votes

Baseball - 6 votes Wrestling - 7 votes

Hockey - 6 votes Basketball - 3 votes

Volleyball - 3 votes Soccer - 2 votes

Kickball - 1 vote Mud Wrestling (!?!) - 2 votes

Skiing - 1 vote Extreme Sports - 2 votes

Swimming - 1 vote College Basketball - 1 vote

Street Hockey - 1 vote Auto Racing - 1 vote

Golf - 1 vote Ice Skating - 1 vote

Lacrosse - 1 vote Roller Blading - 1 vote

Mountain Biking - 1 vote Curling - 1 vote

Roller Blading - 1 vote Bowling - 1 vote

Sailing - 1 vote

Wrestling - 1 vote

Winner #1 via 4 goals: Soccer! Soccer is not only the world’s most popular sport, but it is also BACS’s favorite sport to watch! Winner #2 via 1 field gold and a safety: Football! No surprise that football won in an all boy school. Please notice that there are several strange categories such as mud wrestling and curling, but that just shows how diverse our school really is!

This issue’s sports poll question is "Who is the greatest baseball player in major league history?". Also, if anyone has any suggestions for what next issue’s sports poll question should be, just tell "The Paper" and we will happily take it into consideration. Also check out Sports Poll #2 in this issue’s paper.

Robert Hayes

Like any other newspaper.... Oh never mind with the introduction because the NHL playoff fever has swept through the halls here at BACS. For the first time ever in one issue of "The Paper", there are two sports polls. Last issue’s second sports poll question was "Who do you think will win this year’s NHL Stanley Cup?". What would be a sports poll without me mentioning that I appreciate everyone whom took time out of their busy schedules to e-mail or tell me in person their response. The votes are in and all tallied up so on to the results!

Boston Bruins: 19 votes (47.5 %)

Detroit Red Wings: 6 votes (15%)

Colorado Avalanche: 3 votes (7.5%)

Dallas Stars: 2 votes (5%)

Buffalo Sabres: 2 votes (5%)

New Jersey Devils: 1 vote (2.5%)

New England Patriots (!?!): 1 vote (2.5%)

Wasn’t Sure: 6 votes (15%)

Winner via hometeam support: The Boston Bruins! Most people I talked to favored the Bruins because they are the hometeam, they are due for a championship sooner or later, and their great goalie, Byron Dafoe. If you haven’t already checked out, please read Sports Poll #1, which was the biggest sports poll in "The Paper’s" history.

Dude! Awesome movie! Big shoot 'em up action and amazing special effects, combined with an original storyline makes for a fun movie-going experience! The special effects were in fact so good that they will definitely earn this movie an Oscar for best special effects of the year. Although this movie was rated R, there was no profanity or adult content, just a lot of violence. I think they could've gotten away with rating it PG-13. The only problem with this movie was that if you really thought a lot about the concept that it was trying to put across, you would be able to find a lot of problems. But who really thinks about one of these kinds of movies anyway?

The basic plot of the movie was really interesting. Keanu Reeves played the role of Neo, a computer whiz and hacker who, as well as running an underhanded black market business, was trying to find this guy named Morpheus. Neo was one of the few people who knew about The Matrix, but was not sure exactly what it was. He was searching for this Morpheus dude because Morpheus was the leader of a group of people who seemed to be able to bend space and time so that they could do things like dodge bullets and jump buildings and stuff. However there was this other group of guys, obviously the bad guys, who were reminiscent of the MIB. They surpassed the strength and agility of Morpheus and his band of rebels. When Neo finally caught up with Morpheus and his people, he was given a choice. If Neo ate the blue pill, he would wake to find himself warm in his bed with no recollection of all of his ordeals so far. If he ate the red pill, he would learn what The Matrix was. He took the....

Something else about this movie that was really cool was the way that the soundtrack was fit in to each scene. There was one scene where there was a huge gunfight, and like each gun fired to the beat of the music. The bullet shells falling onto the floor fit the rhythm of the song. It was really cool. You may want to consider getting that soundtrack if you're a fan of bands like KoRn, Limp Bizkit, and Marilyn Manson.

So, what IS the Matrix anyway, you ask? Well, you heard the preview; "No one can be told what the Matrix is. You must see it for yourself..."

Drew Vanderburg

Classic: 6th Edition - Woah!

In 1993 when the game of Magic came out, there were two original sets of the same 301 black bordered cards, called Alpha and Beta. Once the game began to expand, new cards were printed in more expansions. In a while, the game began to stabilize and it became obvious that some cards were much too powerful and threw the game off balance. So new versions of the original set were printed which were made up of all the original cards, except the overpowered cards were not included. Once there were a lot of expansions out there, there were too many cards in the tournament environment. So, Wizards of the Coast, Magic's production company, decided to take several expansions out of print. Each time this was done, a large portion of those cards were reprinted in a following revised version of the basic set. Each version is modified a lot, fixing typos, misprints, removing too weak cards, too strong cards, even unpopular cards. Fourth Edition was based strongly on Legends and The Dark. Fifth Edition was based very strongly on Ice Age and Fallen Empires. Now that, upon the release of Urza's Saga, Mirage, Visions, and Weatherlight have gone out of print, Sixth Edition is strongly based on those sets. Many cards from the 5th Edition are in 6th, as well as cards that were added in from the following: Ice Age, Mirage, Alliances,

Homelands, Visions, Weatherlight, and even Tempest ad Stronghold! If you're familiar with Fifth Edition, you must now be wondering what exactly is going to be different. Well, let me tell you.

First of all, I should let you know that a lot of really famous cards have one out of print. These include the following: Necropotence, Shivan Dragon, Winter Orb, Stasis, Nevinyrral's Disk, Lhurgoyf, Lord of the Pit, Jester's Cap, Incinerate, Drain Life, Dark Ritual, Librart of Leng, Sylvan Library, Colossus of Sardia, and Fireball. Many others, of course, but nobody cares about those. But secondly, lots of good new cards were added in, like the following: Balduvian Horde, Browse, Maro, Hammer of Borgardan, Relentless Assault, River Boa, Grinning Totem, Necrosavant, Vampiric Tutor, and Storm Cauldron. Needless to say, we've lost more than we've gotten. There were also some rules clarifications made, but they are minor and only make gameplay more efficient. A big thing that I like is that this will be the first basic set to have and expansion symbol. A Roman Numeral six (VI) will be found between the picture and text, with gold, silver, and black indicating rarity. That system, introduced since Fifth (in Exodus), is why they made an expansion symbol this time. All interrupts are now instants but still work the same way. There is no such thing as an interrupt anymore. And another thing: Usually, creatures say "summon dragon" or "summon goblin" or whatever, but now that will be changed. It never made much sense anyway, and the new, more logical way will be this: "creature-dragon" or "creature-goblin." And the final thing that is a given in each new basic set: new artwork. Although some cards will have the same art, some will have new art just for fun.

So, as a matter of opinion, this expansion has added some and subtracted some from the game and from the tournament environment. I think that I liked 5th edition better because so many of the best cards are no longer legal or in print. Classic has really thrown the world of Magic for a loop. But don't get me wrong. That's not to say that you can't use them when you're just playing your friend next door. This is just for tournaments. Only 6th Edition, Tempest, Stronghold, Exodus, Urza's Saga, and Urza's Legacy are allowed in any tournaments. However, that will change on June 7th. Why? Do you want to know why? Well I'll tell you why. Because it's a bird, it's a plane...No! It's Urza's Destiny is heading this way, and it looks exciting...

If you want an entire list of the Sixth Edition cards, what any or all of them do, or what was added and subtracted, contact me and I'll provide.

And now, two pages of comics by our own artists, Drew and Mike!