By Kayla Gahagan

Mike Kenton (director of support services at the Rapid City school district) was probably annoyed with how many times I called him last week to keep tabs on how the district was preparing for the storm.

While two days of classes were cancelled and students stayed at home warming their toes by the fire, Kenton’s crew was hard at work plowing, preparing buses, and de-icing.

The buses all got to their routes with no mishaps and the students were all in school safely Wednesday. Our hats go off to all the people who made that happen.

Â

By Kayla Gahagan

Was I smarter in high school than I am now?

When I was in high school, I fell in love with my English classes and grew to loathe my math classes. If I could have written essays all day and skipped four years of math equations, I would have done it. Yes, I was a writing nerd, even back then.

So, I was suprised, and a little embarrased when I spent some time in a Central High English class last week and read a vocabulary list students were studying from and it included: trousseau, obstreperous, guilelessness, apoplectic, philippic, and interdict - words that are familiar to me, but not enough that I could have passed a spelling or definition quiz on them.

So, in true writing geek form, I looked them up for you. I feel a little bit smarter already.

trousseau - a bride’s collection of clothing and personal items

obstreperous - uncontrollably noisy or defiant

guilelessness - without craftiness

apoplectic - of relating to, or causing a stroke

philippic - a discourse or declamation full of bitter condemnation

interdict - an ecclesiastical penalty which (temporarily) bars a specific person or group of people from receiving the sacraments