By Lucas Fredette There can't be a new NFL season without Tom Brady being talked about. But it's not his on-the- field play being talked about this time. Tom Brady and his wife Gisele Bündchen are going through a rough patch in their marriage. This isn't the first time their marriage was in the news, but this definitely the worst it's been , and divorce rumors are circulating.
Brady has been playing football since 2001, and is 45 years old. Bündchen believes that Brady should finally be a husband and a father to their three kids. Brady is undoubtedly an all-time great football player, but he is in his dad years. Bündchen has been seen herself putting down her foot and moving out the house. Brady has definitely been affected by this and has shown many emotions in his game. Brady has already been in many altercations with his teammates. Brady was also seen attending Robert Kraft's wedding last week without his wife Bündchen. Bündchen and Brady have both hired divorce lawyers, and this can really affect someone's mindset especially when you're a professional athlete. Having the spotlight on you isn’t ideal for you when you're trying to run a family and are having marriage problems. Running a family, not football, is exactly what Bündchen wants, but it's hard to take someone like Tom Brady out of their passion.
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By Manny Villa
If you are an avid stargazer or own a telescope, you might have noticed something odd in the past few nights. In the night sky there was an extremely bright star. You may have thought it was just the northern star; however, this star was in the east. This was in fact not a star but was actually Jupiter. Jupiter at its farthest is 600 million miles away from the Earth, but on Monday September 9, 2022, it was only 367 million miles away. That distance is nearly half the distance of when Jupiter is farthest. This happens because usually Earth and Jupiter have differing orbits. However, on Monday they came close to each other, which rarely happens. However, this is not the only reason Jupiter was so visible. The other reason is an event called opposition. So, what is opposition? Opposition is when a planet is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun, meaning you can draw a straight line from the sun to the Earth to, in this case, Jupiter. Jupiter's opposition happens every 13 months. If Jupiter had been in opposition but 600 million miles away on Monday, it would not have been very visible. The fact that Jupiter was so close to the Earth and the opposition event created the perfect opportunity to see Jupiter at its biggest and brightest. The last time this occurred was in 1963. The next time Jupiter is this close to Earth won’t be until about 2129 which is in 107 years. By Diego Campbell The Halloween Season has officially begun. The decorations are hung, Spirit Halloween is back in business, and Vons has started carrying the jumbo bags of mixed candy. Pop-culture today is full of Halloween costume inspirations, but back in the olden days there were only a few monsters for the people to pick from. However, not everyone knows the origins for these classic creatures who can be considered the cornerstone of Halloween mythology. Here are the origins of some of the most iconic titans of terror. Then (left) photo via websites.umich.edu, and Now (right) photo via Wikipedia When someone hears the word “Zombie” today, they think of “The Walking Dead” or “World War Z.” Zombie plagues and brain eaters are all zombies are known for now. But originally, they had nothing to do with brains or world-wide diseases. They didn’t even have the letter “e” in the name. Zombies originally come from Haiti, a Caribbean Country with a large population of former African slaves. They were the products of voodoo doctors called “bokors.” Zombies were creatures that were made to do labor, usually for plantation owners. They were brainless, and could be put to work for long periods of time without breaks for food or water. In fact, what little food they were given was designed to extend the period of zombification. Of course, none of this would be possible without the slaves and other unwilling victims the bokors would turn into zombies. To live a life eternally working for little food and rest with no will to fight back, that was the worst nightmare a Haitian slave could possibly have. Zombies didn’t rise in popularity until a book called “The Magic Island” was published in 1929. It took place in Haiti and described voodoo cults and strange, lifeless creatures called “zombi.” From then on, zombies were a cornerstone of the horror genre, inspiring horror movies, post-apocalyptic stories, and video games. Then (left) photo vis Wikipedia, and Now (right) photo via Disney's Hocus Pocus Witches can be imagined as wart-nosed old ladies with pointy hats and magic brooms. They could be defined as magic users who form covens. But witches actually have some of their oldest roots layered in the Bible. In 1 Samuel 28, King Saul and his kingdom are under attack. The Lord was ignoring his cries for help, so Saul sought out someone with the ability to summon the dead and find the Prophet Samuel to ask for aid. The Bible refers to these kinds of characters as ”mediums,” but the Hebrew version has a special name for the lady Saul managed to find: “The Witch of Endor.” In later centuries, the term for witches evolved into a new meaning. Heresy was becoming a major problem in Christianity. According to English Heritage, “constant attempts to defeat heresy brought to light a number of figures who were difficult to reconcile with Christianity. Such figures were typically created without reference to witchcraft at all, but led to the creation of the figure of the heretic witch.” From there, the idea of an evil witch expanded into a woman who had close connections to Satan. If she felt like it, she could plague houses and magically plunge people into poverty. The Salem Witch Trials, held in Salem, Massachusetts, were caused by superstitious panic whenever things went wrong. 19 women and one man, all of whom were innocent, were killed whenever enough “evidence” was brought against them. The Grim Reaper is quite literally the most deadly character in literature. A black robed figure with a skeletal body, he wields his infamous scythe to reap the souls of the dead. When it comes to death, this character is the final thought. Interestingly, the Grim Reaper’s appearance has stayed very consistent over the years, something that few characters are able to do. Their first appearance in history was in Western Europe during the fourteenth century, when an infamous epidemic called the Black Death killed off a third of the continent. With people falling left and right, it’s not a surprise that the survivors had their thoughts focused on the final unknown. To characterize it, they imagined the black robes from funeral services, the scythe that reaps crops when their time on earth is over, and the skeletal figure that all the dead bodies would become. No matter how people see him, the Grim Reaper will never be seen as the life of the party. When it appears, viewers will always know that their time is up.
According to Britannica, “Skeletons are symbolic of death, representing the human body after it has decayed.” Death is an important theme in Halloween, because one of the greatest phobias is the fear of the unknown; and there is nothing more unknown than what lies beyond human life. That’s why some of the most prominent Halloween monsters (zombies, ghosts, skeletons, etc.) are undead. Other monsters like werewolves, vampires, and Frankenstein’s monster (who deserve their own background checks) represent, to some extent, the fear of change or difference. Ultimately, that’s the point of a monster: to represent a fear in some way in order to scare. The next time someone says Halloween is a joke, remember that these monsters are not messing around. |
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