The Waltonian

Names like Chloe Kim, Shaun White, Scotty James, Mark McMorris and Kelly Clark may sound familiar to you. These Olympic winter sports icons face the cold and wind and contort their bodies in jumps and on rail gardens to wow the audience and put up a high score but on a different stage.

The Winter X Games debuted in 1997 at Big Bear Mountain Resort in California. Since 2002, Aspen, Colorado’s Buttermilk Resort has played host to this action sports event.

Snowboarding was a pioneer sport of the Winter X Games in 1997, with variations of the sport developing throughout the years. Skiing was added later on in 1998. Skiing and snowboarding are the two primary sports for X Games Aspen.

Winter X Games events include men’s and women’s divisions of ski and snowboard SuperPipe, ski and snowboard Big Air, ski and snowboard Slopestyle and ski and snowboard Street Style.

A fairly new X Games event called Knuckle Huck, whose snowboard division debuted in 2020, has been the focus for the 2024 contest. Female skiers and snowboarders got the chance to compete in Knuckle Huck for the first time this year. The challenge tests skiers’ and snowboarders’ skill and creativity using the knuckle—the knoll of snow that the ramped big air jump sits on top of. Athletes must “pop” off the knuckle and land in transition from a flat surface to a steeper decline, according to the official X Games website.

The winner of this year’s men’s snowboard Knuckle Huck contest was a shocker; Canada’s Liam Brearley upset American Zeb Powell to take X Games gold. Powell is considered one of the best in Knuckle Huck creativity and was the favorite for the competition.

However, an American did see victory in the men’s ski Knuckle Huck, as Colby Stevenson walked away with a gold medal. Chloe Kim was another American to win an event; she took home first place hardware for the women’s snowboard SuperPipe event. This was Kim’s seventh X Games SuperPipe gold medal, tying her with legend Kelly Clark. Kim was also the first woman to land a Cab 1260 in a women’s halfpipe competition.

Red Gerard, an American who resides not far from Buttermilk Resort, claimed gold in the men’s snowboard Slopestyle event, finishing just one point ahead of veteran Mark McMorris from Canada. Gerard threw together a clean final run to secure his first X Games Slopestyle gold medal.

Some other victors include Australian Scotty James in the men’s snowboard SuperPipe event, China’s Eileen Gu in the women’s ski SuperPipe, France’s Tess Ledeux in the women’s ski Big Air and Canadian Olivia Asselin in the women’s ski Knuckle Huck.

A full list of this year’s X Games Aspen results can be found on the X Games website.

Sources: BleacherReport, X Games

“We have a task before us which must be speedily performed. We know that it will be ruinous to make delay.”

This sounds familiar. Urges to curl up in bed and rot, catch up on some much-needed sleep, play a board game with some friends or doom scroll take over our need to do the tasks life presents us with. We know that we shouldn’t procrastinate doing our duties, that we should get our work done, that we shouldn’t put it off until the last minute.

“Tomorrow arrives, and with it a more impatient anxiety to do our duty, but with this very increase of anxiety arrives, also, a nameless, a positively fearful, because unfathomable, craving for delay.”

We go on procrastinating anyway. We want to see ourselves suffer. We put ourselves under pressure. We want to wait to submit that paper until 11:59 p.m.. Why?

Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Imp of the Perverse” is written almost as a guide, a psychological explanation for why we are drawn to do things that we shouldn’t do. Poe’s “perverse” is a spirit, an instigating force. It has “many uncounted victims” that don’t heed their voice of reason and “impetuously approach it.”

After the psychological analysis, the narrator tells his own story of falling into the clutches of the perverse. The narrator kills a man, but this is not when he feels the temptation of the perverse. It’s when he’s wondering if his crime will be revealed that he feels the pull.

“For a moment, I experienced all the pangs of suffocation; I became blind, and deaf, and giddy; and then, some invisible fiend, I thought, struck me with his broad palm upon the back. The long-imprisoned secret burst forth from my soul.”

Poe personifies the perverse, as we read in the paragraph above. The physical sensations of guilt and wrongdoing are harrowing; these emotions smother us and make us physically ail with stress and anxiety.

Clearly the act of murder is perverse. However, to Poe, it is the guilt of committing that crime that weighs more heavily on the soul than the action of the crime itself. It’s not the action but the reaction that is susceptible to the spirit of the perverse. (Maybe another time we can unpack why Poe thinks that admitting to murdering someone is worse than the murder itself.)

Poe is attuned to the psyche in “The Imp of the Perverse” more than any of his other stories. The in-depth assessment of the psychology of procrastination aligns with his time. In the mid-1800s, modernity is blooming, and revolutions in medicine, science, technology and psychology are making their way to America. Poe is a part of that revolution. Poe’s acknowledgement of the way anxiety and stress physically affect the body is a distinctly modern thought.

Many of Poe’s short stories could be considered, in our contemporary language, psychological thrillers. Though “The Imp of the Perverse” is not necessarily a thriller, it taps into elements of the brain that make us question our nature as human beings. Are we truly drawn to things that are directly bad for us? Poe, recognizing the power of temptation on the human mind, says yes.

The modern notions of acquiring excess, constant seeking of success and desire to discover lead the human race into the pit of perverseness. Instead of flourishing and seeking things that are good, this inherent need to embark on the quest of knowing and having more is humanity’s downfall.

The “perverse” is a devilish spirit that draws us away from things that we ought to do, but, like temptation to the imprudent human, it is irresistible. Poe’s awareness of the effects of modernity on the human mind lends him to explain why we put important duties to the back of our minds and opt for distraction, or worse.

By: Marin Dremock

I have always disliked Valentine’s Day. I know it sounds awful, but I never had a strong liking for all the sappy cards and quite frankly fake sentiments handed out by the hundreds in elementary/middle school.

Don’t get me wrong: I had a lovely Valentine’s Day last year, and what my partner and I did for each other was more than meaningful. I just don’t like the arbitrary nature of choosing one day to appreciate your loved one.

I recognize that there are people who take this day to give their best friends a call, remind their dog how much they love them or shower their significant other with gifts they have budgeted for this time of year. However, because of the number of disturbingly toxic relationships that exist in the world today, Valentine’s Day is often noted as a day to take advantage of the material aspect of a probably unhealthy relationship.

While this phenomenon likely occurs during most immature (high school…) relationships, they are relationships nonetheless that form what young people think about love and significant others as they grow older. If their partner is cruel to them every day of the year except on holidays, especially Valentine’s Day, young people are brought up thinking that all relationships are like this, that love and affection are only needed on special occasions.

Why else do you think your TikTok feed is flooded with videos of 20-something-year-old women being surprised that their current partners are affectionate, loving and kind on the daily, rather than just on the 14th of February?

If your partner shuns or chastises you on the 13th but then acts like you are the most precious gem out of a thousand on the 14th, there may be a problem.

There has always been a stigma around Valentine’s Day as a couple’s holiday. What about single people? How are they supposed to enjoy a holiday when they’re constantly bombarded with coworkers, classmates or acquaintances bragging about what their partner did for their “special day?” They’re not. I’m sure it feels upsetting.

People have tried to make Valentine’s Day for everyone, with trends like Galentine’s Day. However, let’s be honest; when the basis of the holiday is to buy buy buy for husbands, wives, boyfriends or girlfriends, it’s sort of hard to just enjoy a day with your friends. And, to my earlier point, why can’t you appreciate your gals on days other than this one? Hence, arbitrariness.

To the lovers of Valentine’s Day, I can see your point. Pink and red are nice colors. Having a couple days a year to look forward to some bigger dates, gifts or plans is helpful for a lot of couples who need to budget their time and money. Single friends may enjoy getting to celebrate their singleness together on this one day by watching Rom-Coms and eating takeout.

But other than the potential option for Thai food, your besties (if you have any single ones anyway) and a Matthew McConaughey heartbreaker, what is Valentine’s Day but a chance to sell greeting cards and bad candy?

Like, honestly, what the heck is a candy heart? Candy hearts are the opposite of cute. They’re creepy and taste like chalk. I would never want to receive a tiny piece of powdered rock that says “KISS ME” from a strange man in my seminar on James Joyce. Unless that strange man isn’t strange at all, and he’s my boyfriend. I digress. I still don’t like candy hearts.

It’s not that I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. I do. It’s partly because I somewhat feel the pressure from those around me to celebrate, but I know that shouldn’t mean anything to me and my boyfriend’s relationship. Nonetheless, it can be a great time to especially appreciate the one you love. However, don’t forget to show your partner or friends a little extra love on days that aren’t Feb. 14 as well.

By: Marin Dremock

According to the Golf Channel, in past editions of the USGA’s Rules of Golf, the “Modified Rules for Players with Disabilities” had always been separate from the official Rules of Golf. These rules were placed under the Local Rules section, leaving it up to the committee of a competition to adopt them if necessary.

These modifications, which include equipment accommodations such as motor-driven golf carts, longer golf clubs or allowing a caddy to line up a blind golfer, are now fully included in the playing rules under Rule 25, applying automatically to all eligible players.

This addition is a huge step for accessibility and inclusivity in golf. Players of all abilities can fairly compete against other players in the field, regardless of their ability. It also takes the decision out of the individual competition committees’ hands, removing the ambiguity of one disabled golfer being able to play in one tournament but not another.

Even though there is a league called the U.S. Adaptive Golf Alliance (USAGA) that holds annual tournaments for people with disabilities, the modified USGA rules would lessen the complications that these players would have in general golf tournaments.

Along with the USGA making these steps toward accessibility, the USAGA, as mentioned above, has spotlighted disabled folks in their endeavors to be successful at the game of golf. There are official rankings and standards that USAGA members can use to track their progress and compete in official USAGA tournaments. One of these Adaptive Golf tournaments was even aired on the Golf Channel, normalizing the USAGA as a valid league of golf for people with disabilities, just like the PGA and LPGA highlight and validate professionals.

According to a study done by Indiana University along with Clemson University, 10% of people with disabilities now play golf, 22% of people with disabilities played golf before incurring their disability and 35% of people with disabilities are interested in learning the game of golf. The USAGA helps these percentages increase.

But the USGA’s new rules might just make these numbers spike a little higher. When disabled folks can see that they will be fairly included in the game of golf, they might be more incentivized to try it. According to the USAGA website, people have said that “being out here helps [them] feel normal.” When people feel like they can overcome their disability by playing a sport and without scrutiny or difficulty with accommodation, that’s how you know that the game of golf has really grown.

The USGA’s new rules, along with the USAGA already in place and growing, make the game of golf less elite, less negatively stereotyped, and more inclusive. However, despite new rules and increased coverage, individuals and companies still need to make efforts to destigmatize disabilities in golf and truly make the game more welcoming.

Sources: Golf Channel, Sky Sports, USAGA, USGA

By: Marin Dremock

While reading James Joyce’s Ulysses, I came across the mention of a sport that I’ve never heard of. It’s called hurling, and it’s Ireland’s oldest and fastest game.

Hurling is a combination of field hockey, lacrosse and baseball, according to the website Experience Gaelic Games. It involves two opposing teams trying to bat the ball, the sliotar, between the other team’s goalposts.

The hurley, or camán in the Irish Gaelic, is like a flattened out field hockey stick that has more of the effect and look of a paddle. It is the instrument used to hit the sliotar either between the posts for a point or into a net under the crossbar to score a goal, which is worth three points.

Players can advance the sliotar by catching it and carrying it in their hand, hitting it while it’s in the air or hitting it while it’s on the ground (sort of like polo, field hockey or golf). Experience Gaelic Games says that the sliotar can travel up to 180 kilometers per hour over the course of a hurling game, giving the sport its reputation as the “fastest game on grass” and “the most skillful game in the world.”

Similarly to football (soccer, in our American dialect), there are a number of fouls that a player can commit, resulting in a free hit for the other team. Some fouls are, according to Traditional Sports, “pushing, kicking, holding, jumping on the opponent, blocking the opponent with the hand or arm.” Also, players can be awarded with yellow or red cards for the severity of these fouls.

Hurling is said to have been played by the ancient Celts, but a league was officially formed in Ireland in 1887, when the Gaelic Athletic Association encouraged games to be worked around a common set of rules. Since then, championships have been played almost every year.

Hurling has advanced its play to areas of the world like Australia, North America and other parts of Europe. It was even featured as an unofficial sport in the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis, Mo. As the unique game grows, it’ll be interesting to see if it ever comes to the Olympic games as an official game.

Sources: Experience Gaelic Games, Traditional Sports

By: Marin Dremock

If one has ears to hear or eyes to see, let them hear or let them read, as I recite and write the spookiest opening stanza in American poetry.

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, / Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore… / While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, / As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. / ‘’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, ‘tapping at my chamber door… / Only this and nothing more.’”

Source: Image quest/ Science photo library

If the opening lines of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” aren’t a dreary (I love that adjective) reflection of your college experience like they are mine, at least let it encompass the very aesthetic of Halloween, the dark academic’s favorite holiday.

“The Raven” is set in a dark chamber room with one door, one window, the bust of Athena and one “velvet-violet” armchair, in which the speaker is reading and napping in the beginning of the poem. If any room exudes Halloween, it’s this one.

How many Halloween decorations have you seen of a crow or raven sitting atop a tombstone or other marble sculpted structure? (Just say, “A lot!” because it’s true.) The Raven flies through the open window and perches atop the bust of Athena above the speaker’s chamber door. It stays there, speaking one word, “Nevermore.” Creepy.

But what’s fascinating and what brings me to describe this poem as the beginning to an aesthetic of the strange and bizarre are the following lines: “But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling, / Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door…”

Although horrified, the speaker sits intently in front of the Raven and is curious as to what its single word means. The speaker ponders the Raven as they had previously pondered the books they were reading.

Doesn’t this sound like our experiences watching horror movies or reading scary stories? We are terrified, yet we attend to these phenomena because we want to know. Know what? The supernatural? The strange? That’s exactly the mystery and the aesthetic of Halloween.

Alright. If “The Raven” doesn’t aesthetically represent Halloween for you, at least let the poet and author Edgar Allan Poe do the deed.

In addition to Poe’s pioneering of the mystery and macabre short story and poem, the man was mysterious himself. It takes one to know how to write one. Almost all of the women in his life, such as his wife, mother and adoptive mother, died of tuberculosis. Most interestingly, the Poetry Foundation says, he was discovered in a state of semi-consciousness on Oct. 3, 1849 and died four days later, never having the lucidity to explain what happened during those four days.

While this is incredibly sad, it’s also incredibly on brand for Poe. For someone who writes about someone bricking a guy up in the walls of a wine vault, someone burying a heart underneath floorboards and a talking bird summoning the narrator’s lost love, it is fitting to die with some mystery and horror. Of course, also, he dies in October.

Plus, just look up a picture of this man’s face. He looks like your local mortuary business’s funeral director. It feels like he could be the unnamed narrator of every story or poem he writes.

Edgar Allan Poe and his poems and short stories are the epitome of Halloween. A close second for me is Stephen King, who I definitely feel is the present-day Poe. Authors whose minds work in scary ways bring out the best of the October holiday.

This Halloween season, celebrate by reading “The Raven,” “The Cask of Amontillado” or “The Tell-Tale Heart.” And don’t forget to make sure the ones you love don’t contract tuberculosis.

Sources: PBS, The Poetry Foundation

By: Marin Dremock

If you use Tik Tok for any reason, let that reason be to discover the Savannah Bananas. The Savannah Bananas are a baseball team in the Coastal Plain League, a summer collegiate baseball league in the Southeastern U.S. The Bananas, based in Savannah, Ga., make baseball fun.

I first discovered the team through their Tik Tok account, @thesavbananas. I came across a video of the team performing a dance on the field either before the game, after the game or during the middle of an inning. I laughed (rather hard), liked the video and continued scrolling.

Of course, because of all of the tailored-content algorithms out there, I came across more of the Savannah Bananas’ videos on Tik Tok and on Instagram. Naturally, I decided to follow them.

Let’s face it: baseball can get boring. Nine (or more) long innings of watching a pitcher go through his warm-up routine, waiting for them to throw and watching a batter take 50 practice swings is, at times, tiring. It’s not tiring because it’s hard to follow. It’s tiring because it doesn’t fight to keep your attention, even for baseball fans like myself.

But the Savannah Bananas keep your attention. They’re entertaining! They play in black and yellow plaid kilts, announce themselves as they walk up to bat and dance around the field during the game. They spice up baseball.

For example, according to the Bananas’ website, their dances are choreographed, but you never know which one they are going to perform at each game. They not only introduce themselves as they walk up to bat, but they can be escorted by a band or create another fun way to step up to the plate. Their scoring celebrations and post-game interviews are unique and one of a kind. They lift up a “Banana Baby” and reenact The Lion King every game. They have a group called the Banana Nanas, their senior citizen dance squad.

The Bananas are not just a wacky, outlandish summer league baseball team. They are also a team dedicated to their fans. Their stadium, Grayson Stadium, is the first ever ad-free ballpark. They personally respond to social media posts, and they even sell and send merchandise worldwide, with free shipping across the U.S.

In this new year, get away from the negativity that social media might bring by flooding your For You page on Tik Tok or Instagram home screen with yellow, blue and green. But mostly yellow. The players’ and team’s interaction with fans over social media and in person is such a personal touch to an otherwise distanced sport. Like they say, the Bananas make baseball fun, and they definitely do not disappoint.

My newest travel bucket list destination: Grayson Stadium, Savannah, Ga., for a Savannah Bananas baseball game.

Sources: The Savannah Bananas

By: Marin Dremock

On Sunday, Sept. 25, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa took a hard hit by Buffalo Bills linebacker Matt Milano. According to the NFL, the Dolphins announced it as a head injury, and Tagovaiola left the game. He was observed stumbling and struggling to regain his balance as he got up. Tagovaiola later returned to the game.

On Thursday, Sept. 29, just four days later, Tagovailoa left the game against the Cincinnati Bengals with apparent head and neck injuries after a sack by Josh Tupou. The quarterback lay on the turf “with his arms outstretched, contorting his fingers, somewhat like a boxer or fighter after a knockout in what is referred to as a fencing response,” according to the NFL. Tagovailoa was stretchered off the field and admitted to a Cincinnati hospital.

On Sunday, Oct. 8, the NFL and its players’ union agreed to change the league’s concussion protocol “because Tagovailoa’s return to the field was not what was intended by the rules covering the evaluation of brain injuries,” according to the New York Times. The new protocol prohibits players from returning to the game if they exhibit impaired balance and coordination caused by nerve or brain damage.

Allegedly, concussion protocol was followed, and Tagovailoa was cleared to play in both the rest of the Sunday game and all of the Thursday night game.

As you’re reading this timeline of events within the past month in the NFL, you should notice some red flags. It’s shocking that league and team physicians let a player who clearly displayed, what the president of the NFL Players’ Association JC Tretter called, a “no-go” symptom back onto the field.

Even if Tagovailoa had cleared concussion protocol, second-impact syndrome, which is, according to Sports MD, another more severe brain injury that is at risk when athletes return too early to play, is still very possible.

And even if Tagovailoa’s apparent stumbling was attributed to another injury, like the back aggravation that the team physicians claimed it was, an impact event that could very well cause a brain injury still occurred. Plus, he left the game with an announced head injury!

With the baseline concussion protocol that is conducted on NFL sidelines, likely bred for efficiency with special interest in returning the star player to the game, I have little reason to think that the physician team conducted as thorough an evaluation as they could have.

Tua Tagovailoa shouldn’t have had to suffer this nearly career-ending injury at the hands of careless protocol. Thankfully, future situations like this in the NFL are likely to be avoided due to the new protocol.

Sources: New York Times, NFL, NPR, Sports MD

By: Marin Dremock

One of my favorite fall activities takes place in the early months of autumn. It’s a local fair that everyone in my area of Pennsylvania flocks to attend. The Bloomsburg Fair is the biggest fall event of the year. From food vendors like the Benton Cider Mill, Vance’s Apple Dumplings (with Penn State Creamery Ice Cream!) and Denny and Pearl’s Pizza to agricultural and horticultural harvest prizes, the Bloomsburg Fair is a collection of autumn awesomeness. My family and I have a tradition of guessing the weight of the first prize pumpkin in the horticulture building. The Fair is nostalgic for me; as a kid, I loved specific animals and areas of the fair. These loves carried over to my adulthood. My favorite animals to see as a kid were the goats, and I still gravitate to the goats when I get to the livestock section of the fairgrounds. Sadly, I wasn’t able to go to the fair this year, but I will make a conscious effort to find out when Fair Week is and attend as much as I can in the future.

That being said, any time there is a local fair or fair-type food, I recommend you attend the fair or get some food. There is nothing better than a hot or cold cup of apple cider and a funnel cake with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Fall is fair season, and every autumn I want to go back to my roots and experience the joys of the Bloomsburg Fair. The sounds, smells and sights of the Fair are the aspects of fall I enjoy the most.

By: Marin Dremock

Don’t be mad. I’m reviewing two-thirds of a Marvel TV show. But this isn’t any basic Marvel TV show, and it most definitely isn’t a current multiverse installation. I’m reviewing and strongly recommending “Daredevil,” an unconventional Marvel show that ran from 2015–2018.

The show follows Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer with exceptional “sixth sense” abilities, and his friends in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City. In a sort of Batman-esque way, the character lives one life as lawyer Matt Murdock and another as Daredevil, a vigilante crime-fighter who doesn’t want to see his city suffer.

This Marvel show is one of the most unique creations I’ve seen the comic-book company put on the screen. The character development, real-world implications and gruesome depictions make “Daredevil” unlike the run-of-the-mill Marvel superhero show.

Even though I have only seen the first two seasons, I am confident in basing my review of the show thus far on the portion I have seen.

I must begin with the character of Matt Murdock himself. He has a pretty generic origin: a tragic backstory that leads to proficiencies in other senses/powers. Involved in a car accident, a young Murdock is completely blinded by toxic acid. His father passes away, and he is put in an orphanage, where he is then sought out by Stick, a blind martial arts master. Young Murdock learns how to fight from Stick, thus developing an exceptional proficiency in his other senses.

But Matt is complicated. As he grows older, he experiences tragedy, college, heartbreak and violence because of his chosen life as Daredevil. Matt doesn’t make the best choices. He sacrifices friendships, relationships and civilian life to live his vigilante life.

Yes; it seems like all superheroes do this. But because of how involved Matt’s friends are with both of his lives, as a lawyer and Daredevil, his choices affect them directly. Although I hate the conflict between Matt and his friends and the questionable relationship he chooses to have, I love the show as a whole because of it.

A lot of Marvel TV shows take place in the real world, but otherworldly things usually take over. This eventually happens in “Daredevil”, but for the first one and a half seasons or so, the show is so grounded in real life Hell’s Kitchen, New York City.

As a lawyer, Matt defends real clients affected by large financial crime schemes and finds out more that is under the surface of some of these crimes. As Daredevil, he enacts vigilante justice on some of these same clients because there is something more dangerous going on in Hell’s Kitchen.

This contrast makes the show appealing to me; someone who knows the law by heart because of his occupation still feels the need to take it into his own hands as a vigilante. It seems like a genuine concern; the law is not enough to stop all the bad things in the world from happening. If lawyer Matt Murdock can see fault in the law, indeed we all should.

A word of caution for the faint of heart or stomach; the show gets graphic. It was unexpected, especially for Marvel. However, the grit, blood and gore that is depicted make the show’s messages sink in. It was a risky choice for Marvel, for sure, but a purposeful one.

I definitely recommend “Daredevil” to anyone looking for an unconventional Marvel watch that will wholly grab their attention.