Ray of Light

SJND’s Literary Zine Takes Off


Julie Park
Photo by Al Wright

Students at St. Joseph Notre Dame High School with the urge to publish their prose can attempt it in the school’s literary magazine, Prisms, now in its 15th year.
    Quality is key, says Elizabeth Peláez Norris, the Spanish and literature teacher who oversees the magazine. “We are very selective about what we put in the magazine,” she says. The result is a fine volume of verse, fiction, music, translations and art, produced every year and distributed to all the families of SJND.
    “We’re very proud of it,” says Lynn Kane Meza, communications director of SJND. Circulation has been growing; Prisms has won awards and acclaim among other high school publications over the years.
    Now the talented student contributors of Prisms have an even higher goal. If they get their work published or win a writing contest, they are eligible for the Star Society of Creative Writers, SJND’s elite group for published writers, begun in 2004. Students, faculty, staff and alumni are eligible, as long as they have been published in Prisms and elsewhere. Members receive a star-shaped pin at the induction ceremony held in June. This year, eight new members will join the Star Society.
    Norris says of Prisms, “I’ve watched it grow and excel year after year, which I attribute to the talent of our students. I really want to showcase that in the community. We can’t keep our light under a bushel.” 


Guilty Pleasures, Honored Traditions


Dig into Some Juicy Summer Reading


Nick Petrulakis

Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big by Jose Canseco (Regan Books, 2005, 290 pgs., $25.95)

Baseball’s steroid controversy is being fueled by the publication of Jose Canseco’s Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big. It’s a sprawling mess of a book, but one you can’t put down. Is this ex-Oakland Athletic delusional, as Jason Giambi alleges? Of course, but in ways you wouldn’t expect. Did you know that Canseco and John F. Kennedy were equally feared because they saw “the future earlier than others”?
    Though Canseco may not have penned Juiced himself, the insights are all his, like who took steroids (Bonds, yes, Giambi, yes, McGwire, yes), along with some Canseco-only observations (if you realize you actually have feelings for some floozy you met on the road, “that kind of thing tends to damage your marriage”).
    But the book is a fascinating mix of gossip and remarkably cogent questions. Suppose Major League Baseball’s owners decided that bigger players meant more—and longer—home runs, which meant more—and happier—fans. Should President George W. Bush then be challenged for slamming steroid use, since it was obvious his players, like Canseco, used them when Bush owned the Texas Rangers? In the end, Juiced is a pleasure to read. A guilty pleasure, certainly, like a quart of Tucker’s ice cream, but just as enjoyable on a hot summer day.

Good Luck Life: The Essential Guide to Chinese American Celebrations and Culture by Rosemary Gong (HarperResource, 2005, 270 pgs., $14.95)

Good Luck Life: The Essential Guide to Chinese American Celebrations and Culture, is an eminently readable, fact-filled but chatty book by Rosemary Gong. As the older members of Gong’s family began to pass away, she realized that many of the explanations behind the Chinese traditions she took for granted were being lost forever.
    It’s a quandary faced the world over. The torch held by our elders is often not tended by the younger generation—we’re too busy, uninterested or just lackadaisical. After Gong started questioning her aunts and uncles and started researching at the San Francisco Public Library, she suddenly had the answers to her questions and more. The book explains the fascination behind the color red (it’s associated with brightness and life energy) and why Chinese shy away from the number four (it sounds the same as “death” in Cantonese). The narrative is brimming with recipes given to Gong by many of her relatives.
    And there’s a very good reason why Gong chose eight images to adorn the cover of the book, but to find out why, you’ll have to read Good Luck Life for yourself.