NEWS OF CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT #4. Entertainment Weekly (November 25, 2005) listed cult movie Better Off Dead (1985) as #27 in its list of great sports films on DVD. Explained Dalton Ross:

Well, name one other film that features a Japanese drag-racing Howard Cosell impersonator, a big wet smooch at Dodger Stadium's home plate, and a climactic ski race in which a lovable loser (John Cusack) goes up against both the local legend and a psychotic bike-riding paperboy on the formidable K12—on one ski! And of course, this underrated teen gem also shares the most basic of sports film themes—it's all about the underdog. And what best-of list can't use a good underdog?

Playing French exchange student Monique Junot was Diane Franklin, who played Princess Joanna in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. Many years later, she also sang the national anthem at Dodger Stadium. Here's the Diane Franklin bio at her charming Official Fan Site, which also has a photo page.

In other exciting news, congrats are due Benjamin Pollack and Abhinav Khanna on being National Team Winners in the 2005-06 Siemens Westinghouse Competition! Their saucy subject: Sexual Selection in Drosophila: A Behavioral, Morphological, and Geographic Study.





















December 5, 2005, (NEW YORK) - Left to right: Lead judge Dr. Constance Atwell, consultant and former Director for Extramural Research, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at The National Institutes of Health; Benjamin Pollack and Abhinav Khanna, Plainview, New York, Winners of the $50,000 Team Prize in the 2005-06 Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science & Technology, America's premier high school science competition; Jack D. Bergen, President, Siemens Foundation; Bettina von Siemens, Siemens AG.

Credit: Greg Kinch