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The Viking Times

Feb. 2016
Edited by Steven Milner

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Deadpool Movie Review

By Steven Milner

Deadpool is an interesting character; Im a comic book fan, but Ive

never really been a huge fan of Deadpool. He can sometimes be really
funny, but most of the time his humor in the comics usually falls flat for me.
However, the movie Deadpool is the exact opposite. The movie was funny
all the way through, with fun fourth-wall breaking jokes that are funny for
all viewers, and more clever jokes that only a more observant fan may get.
Not only was the movie funny, but it also knew how to be a little more
serious when it needed to be. And there are some very serious scenes in
this movie that work incredibly well to enhance the story and keep the
movie moving. Deadpool was also very well cast; with developed and
likeable side characters, an incredibly hateable villain, and Ryan Reynolds
who was the perfect choice to play Deadpool. The side characters really
blend with the story well; when I heard there would be X-men in the movie,
I was afraid they would take away from the scenes with Deadpool. But,
there were only two X-men in the whole movie, and both of their
characters worked really well as a contrast for Deadpool. The action
scenes in Deadpool were fun, energetic, over the top, and super violent. I
also appreciate how they kept the action to a smaller scale. Ive grown
tired of superhero movies that end with an hour long city-destroying
scene, but the action in Deadpool, while it was still over the top, didnt
overstay its welcome, and didnt go overboard with the amount of
destruction. Overall, Deadpool is a fun, action packed, hilarious movie
that I highly recommend. I give it four and a half stars out of five.

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Torah Portion of the Month

By Ethan Jach
This weeks parsha is Parashat Ki Tisa. This parsha tells the story of the
golden calf. Moses went up on mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights.
During this time, bnai Israel was scared. They have been with Moses
leadership for so long, and felt uncomfortable by themselves. They started
to think that God had left them, so they built a cow made out of pure gold
in order to represent God. This made God very angry. So he punished
them. He killed all who participated in the idol worship, 3,000 people died.
There are so many lessons that we can learn from this story, but tonight I
want to just focus on one: trust. Trust is very important in each of our
lives. We trust each other with small things such as paying for food and
giving rides, and big things such as being there for eachother when we
are in need. Bnai Israel did not have this trust in God. Although God was
always there for them, he went 40 days without communicating with Bnai
Israel. Bnai Israel panicked and sinned, resulting in the death of 3,000
people. However, if Bnai Israel trusted in God, they would have known
that he would be there to help them, and would never abandon them. This
applies for us today. No matter how bad it gets, no matter how little calls
or texts you get from your friends, you all HAVE to know and TRUST that
we are all there for you, and we will ALWAYS have your back.
Now, I want you all to look at the person next to you (if you are odd
then come next to me). And I want you to tell them that no matter what
happens, no matter how distant we become, or how bad it gets, I will
ALWAYS be there for you, and you will never, ever be alone.
This past week we lost one of our good friends, Alex Baumann. I
want to take a moment of silence to remember her, and all that she did for
our community.
Thank you, I hope you have a good week.

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Saucy Circle: A Qualitative Analysis of an Unbalanced Pizza

By: David Baratt

Let me preface this article by stating that I am a rather simple man. I

usually like my pizza plain or pepperoni. Also worth mentioning that
Vocelli is my preferred brand. However, when I found out about all the
customization options that Pizza Hut offers I knew I had to break my
loyalties and try it out.
I decided that I was going to go all out on this pizza. It was gonna be the
meatiest, manliest pizza I ever had. For the body of the pizza I order
pepperoni, italian sausage, bacon, with a bit of buffalo sauce. For the
crust, I had it cheese-stuffed and covered in their "garlic buttery blend",
which is exactly what sounds like.

Anyway, I finally get the pizza and it smelled amazing. Sure, pizza always
smells good. But this thing was on another level. So at this point I'm fairly
hyped. I finally got to work on the pizza and the first slice goes down
pretty well. It's super delicious. I take the second one much more slowly to
full appreciate the flavor. Here's where things start to get worse.

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I start off with just observing the non-crust part of the pizza. I could not
taste the cheese. I seriously tried to find the taste but it wasn't there. All I
tasted was hot, salty, spicy, meat. I wouldn't necessarily say that it is a
BAD thing, but it certainly isn't amazing or pizza-like. It tasted as if a
bunch of different meats were grounded up, compounded into a ball,
dunked into a cup of buffalo sauce, splashed with a bit of marinara, and
then served. It was still somewhat enjoyable dont get me wrong, but it
wouldnt feel right to call it a meat pizza.

Surely, one could argue that I simply ordered too much on my pizza. One
could also say that buffalo sauce holds a powerful flavor and that it
naturally dominates others; thus my sub-par experience is my fault. Such
points bear some validity, however, I as a consumer should be able to
expect Pizza Hut to not put such a ridiculously large amount of sauce and
such low cheese. Balancing ingredients is one of the most important parts
of preparing any food, especially pizza. There is no excuse for why Pizza
Hut can allow such a culinary injustice.
If you thought that the crust would compensate for this travesty of a pizza
then you are mistaken. The crust was similar to bread sticks as they were
soft, oily, and smelled like garlic. This part was enjoyable, but the cheese
that was embedded within the crust was a huge detriment. It turned out
that rather than using a blend of cheeses or something that would
compliment the flavor the pizza, Pizza Hut used pure mozzarella for this
part. By itself I wouldnt mind the crust. However, along with the main
body of the pizza it didnt bode well.

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As soon as I bit into the crust I was shocked. The sharp contrast of flavors
was not satisfying to the tongue. Independently they are both decent, but
together it is awful. The pizza abruptly went from a spicy, meaty flavor to a
savory/starchy one. The crust and body of the pizza should work
synergistically, not against each other. In case you are wondering what I
am talking about when I say this, imagine that you are drinking soda and
milk simultaneously. Thats kind of what I felt when I was eating this pizza.
All in all I must say that my pizza was disappointing. I came in with such
high hopes but the pizza I got was sloppy, awkward, and unprofessional.
The taste was overall subpar, it didnt feel the way a pizza should, and it
left much to be desired. Its hard to accurately express a food experience
numerically, but if I had to rate this pizza I would feel confident giving it a
5.5/10.

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Cross Word Puzzle By Matthew Ost

Theme: BBYO