California, oh man — land of opportunity, of sunshine, of warm sandy beaches, of snow-capped peaks. California. Land of vast cities, quiet suburbs, quaint rural farming communities. California, California, oh man, California. Land of smoke, land of fire. Land of citizens scattered about the state, homes burned to the ground, ashes gently swooping down like charred bird feathers from the monotonous grey sky. My name is Liam Hancock, and I once lived in that postcard California. That kind of place where crystal clear lakes could thrive with colorful little fish, or where ocean waves could roar into salty air. But that was a while ago, I suppose. Back then, I was only nine, ten years old with nothing to worry about but grade school crushes and particularly bothersome video game trends. 2017. Three years ago, California was thrown into a caliber of disaster that it hadn’t faced in nearly one hundred years since the San Francisco Earthquake. Nearly 3 million citizens—real, living people—plunged into chaos. We waved goodbye to any sense of normalcy we’d ever had before, along with any manageable AQI. Beautiful wine country and many other significant locations were set ablaze. I watched as cities I’d once loved burned to nothing but ash in the matted dirt. And the smoke – there was ample smoke, and not the good kind either. Not the midnight-on-a-fantastic-camping-trip-campfire kind of smoke. The kind of smoke that hovered midair and tainted everything grey and dried out my throat and filtered it’s stench of char and gasoline anywhere it could manage to. 2017 left thousands of lives and homes destroyed beyond repair, and even though it has been voided from news networks, the effects are still real here in California. It takes years and years of intense effort for both the environment and the people to mend their scars, if only that. Unfortunately, nature waits for nothing and 2020 has thrown us yet another curveball. Just last week, my sister and I were awoken to a recently off-limits sight here in the suburbs of San Francisco—lightning. It was an indescribable feeling to watch sheer electricity arcing across a morning sky. We ate up almost all of our morning in an attempt to catch video or photo evidence so our parents couldn’t disprove us. Not soon after, though, we heard the wail of sirens racing down the main avenue adjacent to our townhome. “Maybe it’s just a police call,” I said after a moment of uncomfortable silence. My sister chewed her lip, eyes glued to the sky. “Yeah,” she replied after an even longer period of even more uncomfortable silence. “Yeah, maybe that’s what it is.” A good couple minutes later, our parents arose and herded the two of us back inside. The entire day, I sat riveted near our french window as the smoke reliably fell from the sky along with thick grey ashes. I repeatedly checked the fire location feeds on my tablet throughout the day to discover that we were soon to be completely surrounded by wildfires. Complexes, they call them, aroused by the recent lightning strikes throughout California. And my family is in the red. And so are the millions of other families around us. People. Living, breathing people. Once again, our lives are all at risk. Our lives are in the red. So this is a plea from California. And if you’re reading this, then you can help. You already have. States from across the nation have sent in their own brave teams of firefighters to aid ours in the complex nearest to me, the SCU Complex, which has now scorched nearly 35,000 acres of my own county and counties nearby. My name is Liam Hancock, full name Liam Patrick Hancock. Call me Liam for short, it’s a bit less of a mouthful. I love to write, perform, and sing. I have a special fascination with roller coasters, all shapes and sizes (although I’m way too scared to ride most of them). I’m twelve years old, almost thirteen, but of course it doesn’t quite feel like it yet. I’ve got two pets, a dog and a cat, and I both love them till the ends of the earth. That’s my own story, but don’t be fooled. There are countless other stories that need to be read, that need to be appreciated. Preserved. So I beg of you to remember that there are people in the red. California isn’t just a land mass, it isn’t just a state on fire. There are people on fire here as well. Maybe not physically, but we’re watching the places we know and love be destroyed. We’re on fire. We’re putting up our strongest fight possible, and we know you are putting up yours. So, in support of our firefighters, of our stories, of the families in The Red Zones – please spread this message to the folks you know. Because, after all, every single person can make a difference. All you have to do is post: #RedZoneStrong on your own social media accounts to keep our days bright regardless of the AQI. There it is: #RedZoneStrong is all it takes to keep us going. Go right now, share it with the world. This is a plea. A plea from California.
Young Bloggers
Mad World 2020, a poem inspired by a song by Emma Hoff, 8
Emma Hoff, 8Bronx, NY Mad World 2020 Emma Hoff, 8 Locked In your own head, In fear That the grass will Turn different The minute You open the Door. That Flickering lights And a cloak Will greet you And everything Will attack your mind At once When you see What’s happening To other people. ‘Children waiting for the day they feel good’ And nothing seems right As everyone Cries Stressed Scared Or alone, as if floating. ‘Their tears are filling up their glasses’ And no one Comes along to comfort them, Because no one Is there. Everyone is holed up in their homes Out of trouble. ‘And I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take. When people run in circles it’s a very, very, mad world.’ Emma’s poem was submitted to our Weekly Flash Contest #20: to write a poem inspired by a song. It refers to Mad World, originally written and performed by Tears for Fears (1983) and covered by many other artists since.
Exploring Madame Tussauds
Everyone should know that Madame Tussauds is the best museum ever. It’s very popular because it’s in big cities and has creepy wax figures of famous people from history and famous people that are still alive. I know this even though I’ve been dead since 1850. I’ve seen everything and I’m glad that people continued what I started and my work because I’m the person who started Madame Tussauds. My name is Marie Tussaud. I can tell you all about the Madame Tussauds museums because I have seen what’s inside of them as a ghost. It’s a good thing no one believes in ghosts or the paranormal. If they did I would have scared them. I was born in 1761 in France. I was an artist and loved making wax sculptures. In 1777 I created my first wax sculpture of Voltaire. In 1835 I created a permanent exhibit in London which became the first Madame Tussauds museum. This museum has sculptures of famous people from history. The major attraction was a chamber of horrors. I died in 1850 at the age of 89. I got very sick; today you would call it pneumonia. And that’s how I became a ghost. In 1883 they moved my London museum to a bigger space. Although it was damaged by fire and again by German bombs in World War II, that museum still exists today. They didn’t build another museum until 1970. Today there are Madame Tussauds museums in four continents and in 25 locations. There are 10 in Asia, 7 in Europe, 7 in North America, and 1 in Australia. To my surprise, they still make the wax figures the same way I did 200 years . If the person is still alive, they would come in for measurements. Otherwise, pictures are used. The head and body are molded out of clay. Then a plastic cast is created around the clay. Once dry, the cast is cut and the clay is removed. Hot wax is poured into the hollow cast and allowed to dry. After this, the cast is removed and you have a wax figure. Next, it goes to hair and coloring. They use thousands of strands of real human hair inserted one at a time. The skin is painted with oil paint. The entire process takes four to six months to get the wax figures to look like real life. The Washington DC museum has all 45 US presidents. There are also five first ladies: Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Reagan, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Melania Trump. The museum in Hollywood usually focuses on movie stars. These include classics like Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn all the way up to modern stars. Some examples include Iron Man, Lady Gaga, Zoe Saldana, and Jennifer Lopez. I thought that JLo’s outfit was kind of inappropriate for my tastes. My favorite wax figures are from Ghostbusters: Answer the Call in the New York museum. They have the underground tracks from the New York City subway, the basement of the Aldrige mansion, the lobby of the Mercado Hotel, and the Ghostbusters’ lab. Gertrude Aldridge is a ghost like me. Her painting comes to life and screams. I’m just glad the wax Ghostbusters figures are not real so they can’t suck me into their ghost trap. I’m happy that my name lives on with all the museums around the world. Citations Madame Tussauds Website: https://www.madametussauds.com/ Wikipedia for Marie Tussaud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Tussaud The making of Adele: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8J8VWzfYbA
