OCR Text |
Show Volume XXX Issue VI The Ogden Valley News Page 13 November 1, 2023 ----- Skyhawks of the Month ----October’s Most Cooperative! ---------- 20 Years Ago ---------Eight-year-old Produces Giant Pumpkins By Shanna Francis Early this spring, eight-year-old Sean Meek of Huntsville grew two pumpkin plants from seeds out back in the family garden. This fall, the plants produced two giant pumpkins. The largest weighed in at a whopping 125 pounds, the second—90 pounds. Sean stated that it took two people and a wheelbarrow to move each pumpkin from the garden to the front porch where the pumpkins are being used as part of the holiday motif greeting visitors at the front door at the home of Sean’s parents—Carolee and Scott Meek. The family is still debating whether or not to turn the giant squashes into Jack-o-lanterns—a king sized job for sure. A beginner gardener, Sean admitted that his watermelons didn’t do quite as well. Hoping he would share with me his best-kept secret for cultivating oversized pumpkins, Sean just shrugged his shoulders, and stated that he didn’t do anything special but check on them almost every day. “Heck,” he said, he didn’t even fertilize them! Sean needn’t worry about melons; he definitely has a future in pumpkins! Valley Students Visit Christa McAuliffe Space Center By Zola Lott, Valley Elementary Student Reporter Shown above are October’s Super Skyhawks of the Month—the Most Cooperative! Back Row: Kendyl Rowe, Oakley Udy, Mya Erickson, Allyson Schields, Remi Verhaal, and Shelby Walker. Front Row: Addy Gerritson, Claire Davenport, Benjamin Wright, Paisley Pierce, and Sophie Montgomery. Not pictured are Indira Georgi and Carson Hill. The entire Valley Elementary 6th grade got the amazing opportunity of going to the Christa McAuliffe Space Center in Pleasant Grove, Utah. It was an opportunity to let creativity spark. The crazy part is that the space center is in an Elementary School, but they never get to go on the activities. Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Nguyen to Visit Weber State Award-winning and bestselling author Viet Thanh Nguyen will deliver a public reading Nov. 14 at 7:00 p.m. in the Shepherd Union Wildcat Theater. A reception in his honor will be held at 6:30 p.m. Nguyen will also hold a reading Nov. 13 at 7:00 p.m. at the Monarch, located at 455 25th St. in Ogden. Both events are hosted by the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities Hurst Artist-in-Residence program and are free to the public. Nguyen may be best known for his debut novel, The Sympathizer, a New York Times bestseller and multiple award-winning book, including the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He is the Aerol Arnold Chair of English, and a professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity, and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. Nguyen’s other works include the short story collection, The Refugees, and The Committed, a sequel to The Sympathizer. The Sympathizer is currently being made into an HBO miniseries co-produced by Robert Downey Jr. During his visit to campus Nov. 13–15, Nguyen will also meet with students and discuss his new memoir, A Man of Two Faces. “Viet Thanh Nguyen has emerged as one of the literary world’s most prominent public intellectuals in the United States and beyond,” said Michael Wutz, English professor at Weber State University. “If most readers know him for his debut novel The Sympathizer, he has since released an equally astonishing cluster of works that have remapped the American literary imagination in the same way they have helped reframe global discussions about what it means to be an immigrant. Erudite, empathetic, and profoundly personal and public at the same time, his work reminds us to put the human at the center of the humanities and to recognize the plight of refugees the world over, as they search for stability and security, home, and peace.” Hosted by the Lindquist College, Nguyen’s visit is funded through the generosity of an endowment from Dean and Carol Hurst. Each year, the Hurst Artist-in-Residence program offers students an opportunity to learn from and work with a prominent figure from different artistic disciplines. Thinking of Christmas Gifts? Why not a subscription to The Ogden Valley News. Subscriptions are only $18 annually. Send payment with mailing address to: The Ogden Valley News PO BOX 522, EDEN UT 84310 Valley sixth-grade students recently visited the Christa McAuliffe Space Center located in Pleasant Grove, Utah. SAFE AMERICANS cont. from page 12 more democratic than you were taught. They put it to a vote. So, Beard is basically bunk… and Zinn…. And it’s not really about Madison and Federalist 10 (you don’t make your most compelling, important argument in your tenth paper). It’s actually about National Security and geography and geostrategy. That’s George Washington’s Constitution. And, unfortunately, it was more pro-slavery…. But then, it became an anti-slavery Constitution with Abe Lincoln. So, more pro-slavery than we were taught, alas. More democratic than what we were taught— and there’s nothing bad about the word democracy. It’s basically the same as republic…. The simulators were my favorite part of the experience. You got to go onto spaceships in small groups then you got a training session on the computer. After that, you figured out what your mission was. Our mission was to go to a different planet and figure out what was happening to all the children. Parents and teachers can watch from the outside of the simulator on cameras. After the spaceship simulation, we got to go to the planetarium where we talked about space, and at the end we got to look at the stars and see shapes. You might get a little dizzy, but it is fun. Kalea Barker thought that the bus ride was fun because she got to sit by her friends. She also thought that the spaceship simulators were cool. And she really liked our captain, Prestyn. Overall, she thought that the planetarium was fun. Mara Lowe didn’t like the bus ride, but she liked trying to be the captain while she was the navigator. She thought that the planetarium was decent, and it was better than going to school. Miss Hinds thought that the bus ride was pretty good, and everyone stayed in their seats. She liked hearing all the conversions. She liked watching everyone on the spaceship simulators and thought it was a great experience for us. Miss Hinds liked the planetarium as well with the laser pointer they had. She got a little dizzy, but she liked the music they put on. Note: The Christa McAuliffe Space Center started as a classroom experiment, and was founded by Victor Williamson. On November 8, 1990, the first simulate known as the Voyager was opened. Since that time, the Space Center has served thousands of children in the state of Utah. For more information, visit https:// spacecenter.alpineschools.org/. So, it’s more democratic. It’s, unfortunately, more slavocratic. It’s more about National Security.” But foremost, the Constitution is the people’s document, a document that has stood as a model for hundreds of other countries around the world. But even more important, it is the document—its’ words—that has held this country together since its inception, since the founders of this nation disembarked from Great Britan and embarked on the great American Experiment. It is the duty of all Americans to ensure this ship stays righted by being anchored in our nation’s governing document—the U.S. (us, as one) Constitution. |