Hey, guess what this is! It’s the "weekly" newsletter. Yup, I know when I wrote the first one, I had planned for it to be a weekly thing, but hey, I’ve been busy!

• Meri Kiernan turned 18 years old on January 15!
  
• All three Choirs have a concert on Friday, January 17 at Central Baptist Church. I’m not sure exactly which one it is, but it’s in the center, and it’s not St. Mary’s. Apparently, it’s on Academy.
  
• Children’s Play will be Jack and the Beanstalk, as creatively adapted by John Gates, Jessica Loyer, Jon Martin, Steve Phillips, among others. (Sorry if you’re one of the others, but I don’t know who else there is.) We will perform it on Valentine’s Day and the day after. One month away!
  
• A (very belated) congratulations to the Marching Band for being the coolest band in London.
  
• Good luck to everyone on the lengthy academic "Hell Week" that fast approaches. Similar to the Hell Week at many colleges, students must perform many tasks that they really don’t want to while being judged by people older (and supposedly wiser) than them. The only difference is that in colleges, if you pass all the rituals, you get to hang out with a cool group of people who think they’re Greek (We all know that S really stands for Stavroula). In high school, if you pass these rituals, you get to hang out at school for the rest of the year, until you do it again! (only with Finals, you get rewarded with vacation.)
  
• To the Swimming and Diving team, I’m sorry you didn’t win, but good luck next time!
  
• With the Super Bowl fast approaching, I’d just like to know how many people didn’t think that the Patriots would make it? Oddly enough, it’s been exactly 10 years, and the weirdest part is that in ‘86 it was in New Orleans also. I think if the Patriots really want to keep winning, they shouldn’t move them away from Foxboro, but the Super Bowl should be moved to New Orleans.
  
• Okay, here’s a question for everyone. Think back to 2 weeks ago, on New Year’s, when you made resolutions. Now, how many of them have you broken so far?
  
• By new decree of the City of Oakland, I have been mandated to have an official Ebonics section in this newsletter. So, I will translate the above: "Yo, I gots a lil’ sumpin’ fo’ all da boyz an’ da ladeez. Be thinkin’ ‘bout da 2 weeks ‘roun’ da time wit’ the year be changin’ ta 1997. Doze tings datchu sed youz wuz gon’ be not be doin’, you dun be doin’ dem?"
  
• By the decree of the rest of the world, I have been mandated to apologize profusely for the above, and to take full responsibility for all IQ points lost by anyone who read it.
  
• As everyone may well realize, there are three dances coming up:
  January 25: Beach Party Dance hosted by the seniors at CHS from 7-11
  February 1: Winterfest Snowflake Ball hosted by St. Mary’s YM at St. Mary’s from 7-11
  February 8: Valentine’s Dance hosted by the juniors at CHS from 7-11
  
• GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE ON ALL EXAMS AND STUDYING!!!!!!!!
  

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Writer's Notes:
The following notes were not included in the original newsletter. They are intended to explain to the reader some of what was meant by various items in the newsletter.
"weekly" is in quotes because at that point, it was meant to be weekly, but it wasn't.
The concert turned out to be at the church in the center of Chelmsford where Academy St. intersects with Westford St., at the far corner of the town common.
In addition to the mentioned writers, Rachel Fichtenbaum and Rob Killeen also worked on the writing staff of Jack and the Beanstalk.
Marching Band was invited to perform in the New Year's Parade in London, England. They also got to visit Chelmsford, England. They left the day after Christmas and returned the day after New Year's.
In this section, the line "We all know that S stands for Stavroula" appears. The "S" was formerly a sigma, since she is Greek and one day, in a parody of "The Artist" formerly known as "the artist formerly known as (stupid design) formerly known as the artist formerly known as Prince", she used a sigma in place of her name. In the original newsletter, I used a Greek font and had an actual sigma in place of the S.
Swimming and Diving didn't win their meet.
The three dances mentioned went off well. The Feb. 8th one was postponed to Narch 1st, since there were the three in a row. We hired "Kid David" from KISS 108 to deejay it, and it was fun.