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Mount Hood

Wolves take on Vikings in Monmouth

Lake Larsen | Sports Editor

In their first major test of the season, the Wolves faced off at home with the 15th ranked Western Washington Vikings on Dec. 1. Coming into the match, Western had picked up an easy win against conference opponent Simon Fraser in the previous night. After the double digit home win, Western hoped to keep up their momentum with their next conference match.

Western Washington wasted no time jumping to a quick six point lead over the Wolves with back to back three pointers. But despite this early showing, the Wolves retook the lead and held a tight lead for the majority of the half.

As the seconds dwindled down in the first, the Wolves and Vikings continued to trade blows. With the game staying within a single score, the Wolves clung to the lead before a quick flurry of offense paved the way for Western to take a nine-point lead.

A strong push by the Wolves out of the gates in the second half helped Western reach a double digit lead early in the second, but this lead was soon swept away. Western Washington fought back to tie and eventually overtook the Wolves for the lead. With only a few minutes left in the half, the lead was traded back and forth before the buzzer sounded to a 70-70 tie.

This tight game play continued into overtime. Western jumped to a quick lead but the Vikings were never too far behind. This narrow lead stuck until only seven seconds were left on the clock. After a foul by the Wolves, Western Washington sank back to back free throws to tie the game back up at 80-80.

Neither team seemed to give an inch to each other in the second overtime period. The Vikings took the lead over the Wolves with less than two minutes left in the game, but this was the last lead they would see. One last offense push from the Wolves helped seal a win for Western at home.

The final score was 96-88 and the double overtime shootout came to a close with another Wolves win.

 

Contact the author at howlsports@wou.edu

This week in completely made up horoscopes

[fruitful_tabs type=”accordion” width=”100%” fit=”false”]

[fruitful_tab title=”Aries 3/21-4/19″] Everything is fine. It definitely wasn’t a bad idea to start all your assignments for your online class during finals week. [/fruitful_tab]

[fruitful_tab title=”Taurus 4/20-5/20″] Power through, Taurus. Pain is temporary, grades are forever. [/fruitful_tab]

[fruitful_tab title=”Gemini 5/21-6/20″] One more final ‘til freedom. We believe in you. YOU’VE GOT THIS. *Insert studying montage with “The Final Countdown” by Europe playing in the background* [/fruitful_tab]

[fruitful_tab title=”Cancer 6/21-7/22″] Let’s play a drinking game. For every procrastinated assignment this term, take a drink! Yep, that’s all there is to it, but that’s all it will take. (Note: The stars want you to please drink responsibly). [/fruitful_tab]

[fruitful_tab title=”Leo 7/23-8/22″] You can make cooked bread by carefully inserting raw bread into a toaster. Make sure to have adult supervision. [/fruitful_tab]

[fruitful_tab title=”Virgo 8/23-9/22″] Are you ready to head back home for break? Don’t you just miss the family time, the home cooked meals, the curfews, the chores, the barrage of questioning and the overly-loud family get togethers? Feels good to be home. [/fruitful_tab]

[fruitful_tab title=”Libra 9/23-10/22″] The stars think it’s a good time to remind you that multiple cups of caffeinated beverages do not technically count as a meal. [/fruitful_tab]

[fruitful_tab title=”Scorpio 10/23-11/21″] Cereal is not a type of soup, and anyone trying to tell you that is a liar. [/fruitful_tab]

[fruitful_tab title=”Sagittarius 11/22-12/21″] Pro tip: playing holiday music while you study makes finals week merrier. [/fruitful_tab]

[fruitful_tab title=”Capricorn 12/22-1/19″]Cereal IS a type of soup, and anyone trying to tell you otherwise is a liar. Live your best life, Capricorn. [/fruitful_tab]

[fruitful_tab title=”Aquarius 1/20-2/18″] Brain. Fried. Wake the stars up in three weeks when Winter Term starts. We need our break, too. [/fruitful_tab]

[fruitful_tab title=”Pisces 2/19-3/20″] FINALS. FINALS. FINALS. SO BUSY, HALF OF THE STAFF FORGOT TO DO THEIR HOROSCOPES KINDA FINALS. INCLUDING. PISCES. BUT NICE JOB, NONETHELESS! [/fruitful_tab]

[/fruitful_tabs]

 

All is bright: Western hosts 51st Annual Holiday Tree Lighting

Bailey Thompson | News Editor

Gathering together despite a cold and rainy evening, a crowd eagerly anticipated the 51st Annual Tree Lighting — a Western campus and community tradition that ushers in the holiday season. Decked with colored lights and a star on top, the Giant Sequoia was set to light up after a parade of student groups and local businesses had made its way down Main Street and Monmouth Avenue.

Some of the businesses and organizations who participated in this year’s parade included Monmouth Police and Campus Public Safety, Western’s Greek organizations, the 2018 Homecoming Royalty, local elementary schools, WOU Drumline, WOU Dance Team, Polk County Fire District and many more.

After the parade and tree lighting, spectators were invited to participate in a number of events that were held in the Werner University Center. Upstairs, students and families had the opportunity to meet Santa Claus, witness the cookie baking and tree decorating competitions, color a variety of holiday pictures and visit an informational display that provided information about the numerous holidays that are celebrated by different cultures around this time of year. Moving downstairs, attendees could hear the music of a local school choir concert that was open to the whole community.

Additionally, just down the road, “Wine, Warmth and Music at the Historic Gentle House” was a free event that featured a variety of holiday food, wine tasting for those 21 or over, live music, free portraits and cookie decorating.

When reflecting on her years attending the Holiday Tree Lighting, senior education major Natalie Sassaman shared that she appreciated sense of unity that the event offered.

“My favorite aspect of the Monmouth tree lighting is the community from Monmouth, Independence, and (Western) coming together to celebrate an incredible tradition,” said Sassaman. “Even with cold rain, everyone was able to come together to enjoy watching the parade and tree light up.”

Similarly, Erin Roan, another senior education major, valued the fact that this event — which occurs between Week 10 and Finals Week — gives students the chance to slow down and focus on positive things in the midst of a hectic time.

“I loved going to the tree lighting for the fourth year in a row because it’s such a great time to see the WOU community come together in the middle of a busy, stressful time,” said Roan.

If students missed this year’s Holiday Tree Lighting, they still have the opportunity to witness the tree’s beauty each night during the holiday season.

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Kyle Morden (Car) & Ashlynn Norton (Tree)

Aid for Super Typhoon Yutu survivors

Bailey Thompson | News Editor

On the morning of Oct. 25, a super typhoon with Category 5 sustained winds of 180mph hit the Northern Mariana Islands in the U.S Pacific territory, according to NPR. Impacting the islands of Saipan and Tinian, meteorologists at Weather Underground affirmed that Super Typhoon Yutu has been the strongest storm anywhere in the world for 2018.

“Roadways were littered with downed power poles and tree branches,” stated journalists for the Washington Post. “Parked cars were smashed by debris, some overturned by the powerful winds. What used to be buildings were reduced to haphazard piles of tin and wood.”

Hearing about this at Western, ASWOU decided that it was important to give students the opportunity to help those in Saipan and Tinian who are currently without electricity and water and have had their homes destroyed.

“ASWOU was contacted by two students who are from the Island of Saipan and wanted to see if there was a way to set up a fundraiser to donate items that are needed to join the bigger efforts in Salem,” said ASWOU president Evelyn Guzman. “Since students directly contacted us asking for help we found it of importance to help out in whatever form we could.”

For two weeks up until the end of November, ASWOU placed a donation bin in the Werner University Center for people in the Western community who wanted to help those impacted by Super Typhoon Yutu. Some of the items that people were encouraged to donate were bottled water, canned food, clothing, hygiene products, mosquito coils and flashlights, among other things.

At the end of the month, the donations were collected by the larger efforts in Salem so that they could be sent to the islands that were affected.

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton

Deciphering election results

Bailey Thompson | News Editor

On Nov. 28, a group of Western’s faculty and staff filled the lecture hall of the Health and Wellness Center to hear from professionals about the implications of the 2018 Midterm Election. By the time that the presentation started, a number of students even stood in the back of the room since so many people were in attendance.

Dividing the presentation up by first focusing on Oregon ballot measures and then looking at the larger cultural shifts that were suggested by the national results, Dr. Earlene Camarillo and Dr. Ed Dover shared insights with the community.

Starting off, Dr. Camarillo, a political science professor at Western who is a specialist in American government, spoke about each of the five ballot measures that were voted on in the most recent election and what Oregonians should glean from these results. Camarillo looked first at a few of the measures that failed which she saw as being more straight-forward: Measures 104, 105 and 106.

Then, after addressing the reasons why each of these failed, she went on to address the more confusing of the failing measures: 103, which proposed banning a tax on groceries.

“We often see a lot of similar pieces of legislation come through Oregon and Washington — often similar values — so it’s kind of curious as to why Washington passed this, and Oregon didn’t,” said Camarillo. She hypothesized, however, that one reason why this might be the case is that the purpose and extent of the measure was unclear to a number of Oregonians.

“There is no grocery tax in Oregon, and so I think that confused a lot of voters. They didn’t see why it was necessary,” said Camarillo. She added that people generally vote no on measures that they don’t fully understand, since they don’t want to be stuck with the negative consequences of an ambiguous law.

Camarillo also touched on Measure 102, the only passing measure which was successful due to the bipartisan support it received.

All in all, Dr. Camarillo shared that even though this year had comparatively fewer measures on the ballot, they were largely issues of national importance, which led to a significant investment of 11 million dollars from out-of-state donors being invested in them.

After discussing these local implications, Dr. Dover, a retired political science professor from Western, talked about the national trends that were highlighted through various congressional races.

He stressed that it is important to not only look at the number of seats that each party currently has, but also how many that they had before, in order to get a fuller understanding of the way that beliefs are shifting. In this sense, the democrats were very successful both with governor seat and representative seats, as they experienced a net gain of 40 in the house of representatives alone.

The biggest shift that can be observed, Dover claimed, is in the realignment of the way that a lot of women are choosing to vote.

“College-educated women in urban and suburban areas have moved overwhelmingly to the Democratic Party. It is significant, and it is what caused most of the change in this particular election,” said Dover.

Keeping this shift in mind, Dover predicted trouble for President Trump in the 2020 election.

“Donald Trump has not really gained any support from what he had before — people who were against him are generally still against him and some of the people who were for him have turned against him,” said Dover.

All things considered,  it will be interesting to see how these trends play out as the United States moves toward the 2020 election cycle.

 

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Bailey Thompson

Pet preparedness

Rebecca Meyers | Lifestyle editor

As students continue their adjustment to life as an adult, many are drawn to the idea of having a pet. Cats and dogs especially are popular choices, and it’s obvious why: animals can be a good source of comfort and friendship, especially when feeling stressed out. Most animal lovers have or want some kind of pet for this reason. While adopting a pet can bring a lot of positivity to our lives, it’s also important for both the sake of the owner and the animal that the owner fully understands all the responsibilities to consider that come with it.

First off, pets can quickly become expensive, especially for those who are already on a budget. The costs don’t stop at the adoption fee; they will require being able to constantly purchase food, and in the case of a cat, litter. 

Then, there’s also the supplies that come with it and any medical bills the animal might require. Puppies and kittens are popular to adopt, but may require medical care during and after getting fixed. Many places will do this free of charge, but the process is not always without complications that may need to be resolved. A friend of mine explained to me once that her cat had ripped her stitches after getting fixed and had to get her belly restitched.

There’s also always the chance that sudden medical issues can pop up that can be very expensive to treat. Obviously, it would be inhumane to allow a pet with a critical medical issue to go untreated, so it’s important to take this into consideration before adopting, especially if the animal is going to be allowed outdoors unsupervised regularly.

On top of this, other factors to consider include the time and effort commitments. Some animals are much lower maintenance than others, but this sometimes can lead people to be overconfident in their ability to properly care for an animal. Budgeted time commitment for any animal should also include making sure the owner is fully informed. For example, I recently heard someone wondering if they should declaw their cat. Declawing, which is often considered a quick fix for scratching cats, actually involves removing much more than the nail, including tendons and bone. Humanesociety.org notes that in humans, it would be comparable to cutting off a finger at the knuckle and that the cruelty of the process has gotten it banned in some countries.

Many people who have owned a pet will attest that they have a positive effect on their daily lives. However, this only emphasizes the fact that a successful pet adoption goes smoothest when the owner is fully prepared to do so. It doesn’t take much effort to decide whether investing in a pet is the right choice.

 

Contact the author at howllifestyle@wou.edu

Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton

The best nearby Christmas tree farms

Rebecca Meyers | Lifestyle editor

The calendar has officially flipped to December, meaning that many people can agree that it’s time for the holidays to start happening. For those Western students who will be remaining in Oregon for the holidays, luckily, there is an abundance of you-cut Christmas tree farms nearby perfect for getting into a festive mood.

 

Bigfoot Christmas Tree Farm

Located in Dallas, Bigfoot Christmas Trees is a small yet festive place to find the perfect tree. Their selection includes the usual variety of trees, which include Nordman firs, Douglas firs, Noble firs and Grand firs. They sell wreaths as well, and the experience includes a cozy fire pit sitting area.

Location: 12120 Clow Corner, Dallas

Hours: 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

 

Vollstedt Farms

This Albany farm is another great place to find a variety of different trees. Their wagon rides take visitors to the tree-filled fields, and then returns them to a warm greenhouse where visitors can enjoy hot chocolate, cider, cookies and some Christmas decorations for sale

Location: 451 NW Quarry Rd, Albany

Hours: 12 p.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

 

Palmer’s Christmas Trees

This family farm in Salem was voted the Statesman Journal’s Best Christmas Tree Farm for both 2016 and 2018. It boasts a wide range of tree types, including the usual four, Norway Spruces, Turkish firs and more.

Location: 4716 Poinsettia St NE, Salem

Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.

 

Santiam Canyon Christmas Trees

A small family farm near Stayton, Santiam Canyon Christmas Trees is full of holiday cheer such as a gift shop, free treats, wagon rides and photo opportunities. Visitors can pick from the four traditional types of trees here as well.

Location: 17300 N Santiam Highway, Stayton

Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

 

Contact the author at howllifestyle@wou.edu

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