49ers punt returner Kyle Williams after fumbling the ball on a key return.Super Bowl XLVI: New England Patriots vs. New York Giants

San Fran has much to be proud of, but won’t participate in an exciting Super Bowl

An upsetting loss. That was all to be said after the disappointing loss to the New York Giants at Candlestick park last Sunday. The 49ers came up empty when it mattered most. After taking the red-hot Giants to overtime, tied 17 all, the Niners defense came up with a big stop, but the offense could not make anything out of it. After forcing the Giant’s offense to cough up the ball again, the 49ers received the punt. However, everything went wrong when punt returner Kyle Williams had the ball stripped out of his hands, allowing the Giants to jump on the ball and take advantage of a short field. Soon after, New York kicker Lawrence Tynes sent the ball through the uprigts to send the Giants to their second Super Bowl in five years.

Some may blame Williams, who fumbled earlier in the game as well, for the tough loss. However, I see it like this: the defense kept the 49ers in the game, but the offense could not pull away. Despite the loss, a lot of positives can be taken away from this game. The Niners have proven they are a tough team, racking up 13 wins and clinching the NFC’s number two seed. In an offensive dominated era, they proved that defense can still win games. Either way, 49ers fans should not be disapointed – with the offseason approaching, the Niners can surround quarterback Alex Smith with offensive weapons , and ultimately look forward to a successful 2012-2013 season.

Now to the Super Bowl. This 2007 rematch, between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, should live up to all the hype. The Super Bowl, taking place in Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, is filled with great story lines. Giants’ QB Eli Manning will be playing in the stadium his well-known brother, Peyton, built. Meanwhile, Peyton’s arch-nemesis, terrific Tom Brady, will be facing his brother. The last time these two teams met in the Super Bowl, New York bested New England 17-14 in a nail-biting thriller. This year, with the Giants defense playing as well as any defense in the NFL, and the Partriots offense exploding with Tom Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowski, it will be a hord-fough battle. Don’t’ forget about Eli Manning either – he’ll have a great game against a Partriots defense that has not been played great throughout the season. However, I have to side with the four time Super Bowl champions. My Prediction:

28-23, Patriots.

By Eswar Dhinakaran

On January 28, 2012, speech and debate team, along with advisor Mrs. Hull, competed at IE 3, a tournament at Lowell High School in San Francisco. Their competition was an assortment of speech teams from Northern California. Viking competitors were Yilin Du (freshman), Kelsey Ichikawa (freshman), Rohit Dilip (freshman), Kathleen Chen (junior) and Jessica Hsueh (senior).

Speech tournaments consist of different divisions based on skill levels and also different forms of speech that range from memorized speeches that require written preparation to impromptu speeches that give competitors two minutes to prepare a 5 minute speech on predetermined topics.

Vikings took several awards at the tournament. In OI, an event where competitors perform a speech that was delivered to the public, Kelsey Ichikawa and Kathleen Chen won 2^nd and 4^th place, respectively, in the novice division. In the novice division of impromptu, Rohit Dilip won 1^st place.

When asked how he felt about his victory, Dilip said, “It was actually kind of unreal; I mean, I felt like asking ‘What? Really? Talking about me there?’ Still, it was really exciting, even though I was freaking out when they announced the winners.”

According to competitors, the tournament was both educational and entertaining. Kathleen Chen said, “I felt i did well, but there’s always room for improvement. The tournament was fun because I met a lot of cool, new people from all different places. Honestly, I wish I’d joined speech and debate earlier.”

Captain and junior Pallavi Sherikar commented, “”In my three years of being part of the IHS speech and debate team, I have never seen a group of members so motivated. Going to San Francisco ready to compete early in the morning after a week of stressful finals and bringing home so many awards shows not only true dedication to the team, but tremendous talent. I couldn’t be prouder to say I’m there captain.”

Photo: Mr. Dilip

Photo Caption: Rohit Dilip waits on the stage for his first place trophy.

Before the opinion begins, let’s get this out of the way. All my life I have respected Martin Luther King Jr. I admired his courage and verbal message he delivered, and I’m still impressed with what he stood for.

That being said, many don’t consider this question every year: why is Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday?

True, he did lead marches and sit-ins to fight segregation and bring across equal protection. But didn’t so many others? Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, and Ida B. Wells were just some of the remarkable civil rights leaders who contribute to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Why should King himself be recognized when so many others, African-American and Caucasian alike, promoted the African American Civil Rights Movement? New Hampshire seemed to think this when they celebrated “Civil Rights Day” until 1991 when it was changed. But what’s wrong with “Civil Rights Day”? It carries the same message King did in his life: equality for all.

King is not below commemoration; I admit that. But don’t the others deserve some recognition too?

On January 13, 2012 sixty-seven Irvington High School students departed during lunch, making their ways to a memorable weekend. DECA is a business-oriented club that caters to the career prospects of high school students. The conferences provide a stimulating environment for students to compete, learn, and expand their networks. Irvington’s DECA membership has grown by more than fifty members compared to its last year’s membership.

Junior Mohit Asthana explains that DECA “helped [him] learn the fundamentals of marketing and business and has helped narrow the choices of [his] future careers.”

On Friday, the students took various hour-long tests based on the business clusters they competed within. On Saturday morning and noon students competed in their role-play events and presented their written reports to panels of judges. Saturday night the students let loose with a dance, only to wake up Sunday morning for the awards ceremony.

This past weekend seven of Irvington’s students returned with prizes. Considering that Irvington is one of the few schools that participates and does not have a DECA/Business class, its students performed well. Juniors Japjot Bal and Trisha Vijay placed third in their Finance Role-play. Junior Samira Agarwal placed first in her Accessories and Apparel Role-play. These three ladies also placed third for their Fashion Merchandising Written Plan. Freshmen Mingze went on stage as a finalist for his role-play. Sophomore Simon Mo placed second for his role-play and went on stage as a final for his ENW written. Seniors Sruthi Bonda and Naeha Lakshmanan placed second overall for their Buying and Merchandising role-plays.

The Vikings are proud. We have great hopes for Irvington’s DECA members, especially with the States Conference less than a month away.

We’ve all seen them. Those glorious, overrated movies playing on every major channel during this time of the year are hard to miss. People don’t want to miss them either; they are a source of enjoyment for millions of Americans nationwide. But what do these holiday movies really give us? Aside from an idealistic and completely unrealistic portrayal of what this holiday “should” be like, not much.

These movies continuously reinforce Americans’ view and desire for an unrealistic holiday season. After seeing Kevin McCallistar outsmart two criminals continuously and ingeniously, it’s no wonder the average American will feel somewhat unsatisfied with his/her own life and activity during this season. They then proceed to watch more and more of these “seasonal” holiday movies, hoping to live their dreary lives through these movies. The saddest part? These pitiful beings actually believe they are being festive after watching an 8-hour long marathon of holiday movies.

Holiday movies are the exact equivalent of fairy tales. They give everyone who watches them a portrayal of an idealistic holiday season, which is also an extremely unrealistic portrayal, which is quite reminiscent to the infamous “Prince Charming.”

On December 3^rd-5^th, more than 400 chess scholastic players gathered for the annual California K-12 chess class championships. Among the talent youth playing were our very own freshman Telvin Zhong, Michael Lu, and chess club vice president Kevin Hui. Telvin and Michael dominated the freshmen n the competition, beating out the rest to win the first place trophy for Irvington. Individually, Kevin Hui won 2^nd place for grade 11, and Michael and Telvin won 2^nd and 4^th place for freshmen, respectively.

Our school team has officially been the top ranked chess club in all of northern California, after winning the NorCal division online chess league tournament last school year. The club will also meet this year to play in the league and hopefully reclaim the title for the second year in a row. Regardless of how the team does this year, it is safe to say that the players are simply kings and queens of the 64 squares.

1.              Santana Row

Already quite popular throughout the year, Santana Row draws in even more people with its remarkable holiday lights and decorations. Jubilant holiday music fills the streets as people can shop, or simply walk around and enjoy the beautiful sight.

2.              Union Square

San Francisco’s Union Square showcases Macy’s Great Tree, which is lit during Macy’s annual Tree Lighting Ceremony. Families can have fun ice skating in the Union Square Holiday Ice Rink, while children can visit Santa in Macy’s.

3.              Crippsmas Place

Families can either stroll through or slowly drive by Cripps Place at a local Centerville neighborhood to enjoy spectacularly decorated homes. Shrouded with lights, inflatable holiday characters, including Santa, and plenty holiday decorations, these houses make for a great holiday night out.

4.              San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker

San Francisco Ballet’s annual Nutcracker production proves a success each year as it helps bring about the holiday spirit. For two hours, families can enjoy the remarkable cast, surrounded by an extraordinary set and an over-sized Nutcracker.

5.              Radio City Christmas Spectacular

The world-famous Radio City Rockettes can showcase their 100 America’s first Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Santa guides a magical ride through his workshop. As toys come to life, there is a reenactment of the very first Christmas in the “Living Nativity”.

The latest to be featured in the Black Box, CCA juniors’ immigration quilts and Art 2’s iconic cut-out panels deck the walls of the gallery from December 5 through December 9.

The CCA juniors, taught by Mrs. Hillier and Mrs. Skolnik, created a total of three huge “quilts”, each containing an immigration story across a time span of three historical immigration waves.

“We decided to use the medium of quilting for storytelling. Quilting has always been a way of storytelling and communicating, especially for those who were illiterate, such as slaves,” said Mrs. Hillier.

Under the artistic instruction of Ms. Holmberg, the students illustrated the immigration accounts of the German, Italian, Irish, Chinese, Lithuanian, Mexican, Russian, Scandinavian and Japanese; the illustrations were pasted on top of an expansive cover painted to resemble a brick tenement. According to the short description adjacent to the massive work, the quilting concept is based on artist Faith Ringgold’s work, which “utilizes symbols to convey historical meaning.”

On the opposite wall, Art 2 students created intricately detailed black-and-white panels of famous figures who passed away starting from 2009, including Steve Jobs, Leslie Nielsen, Amy Winehouse, Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson.

Christmas time is here and so is the time to give gifts to your younger siblings. Yet most of us older siblings are stuck with the task of getting the present under the tree without our young siblings finding out that Santa does not exist. Here are few ways to just kill their dreams and tell them that, sadly, Santa Claus is not real.

1. Sit them down and explain to them nicely that Santa does not exist and that parents have been lying to us. We need to be the good kids and tell the truth, right?
2. Hand the reigns over to your parents. Obviously they know what to do
3. Give them a present but instead of putting Santa’s name on it, put yours. Simple and easy, though they might cry afterwards.
4. Softly tell them that Santa is not real and walk away. Let them figure it out on their own. Everyone needs time to cope after hearing such a shocking fact.
5. Scream, “Santa does not exist!” in their little faces. Yeah, you will feel bad and your parents will get mad at you, but at least the act is over now.

So go, do whatever you want to tell your siblings that Santa Claus does not exist. It’s a sad day for all of us so we should get over it soon enough. And then, we can enjoy our presents.