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Pop the

Culture

Written by: Melissa Lam, Jasmine Lee,

Vi Nguyen, Lezlie Allyn Plaza, Hannah Richman,

and Cynthia Thurairajah

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

A Dream Wedding ….Pg. 5

TV Dinner ….………....Pg. 17

I Want to Be Famous .………...……Pg. 27

Belle Femme’s Beauty Secret ……....Pg. 37

A Man’s Health …….Pg. 47

Y.O.L.O ……………….Pg. 55

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One day, a mother and daughter sat

down to spend their daily 20 minutes of

family time together. The TV turned on

right when the popular show “Keeping Up

with the Kangaroos” ended with Kim crying

as usual.

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Rachel began to flip through the chan-

nels, passing “Shoobie Shore” and coming

across “Say Yes to the Dress”.

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“Wow, look at her. She looks beautiful!

But the dress is a bit too long; it’s all the

way down to her thighs,” said Rachel.

Rachel’s mom looked up from her phone

and scoffed, “Is that what wedding dresses

look like nowadays?”

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“Here, watch our wedding video!” said

Rachel’s mother. She popped the tape in

and Rachel said, “Wow, it’s on a VHS, how

ancient is that?”

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“At my wedding, I wore a beautiful white

gown, the white cake was three tiered, and

my wedding song was “Beautiful in White”.

White was the new white.”

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“Ew, gross. Really? That sounds like a boring wedding. I want to have a classy

wedding, so “Thrift Shop” by Macklemore will be my wedding song. I’ll go to the thrift

shop with $20 in my pocket. My dream dress will be skintight with my entire back

open. Maybe I’ll get some moccasin some-body’s been walking in or even better some

green gator shoes.”

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“But why should I spend money? Maybe

I’ll just take Grandpa’s style, take his plaid

button-up shirt, his flannel zebra jammies,

and his leopard mink. I’ll look

incredible! My first dance will be to “I’m

Sexy and I Know It”. Do you think Mack-

lemore would come if I invited him?” asked

Rachel.

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“I don’t know honey. You can always try,”

said Rachel’s mom who was visibly wor-

ried.

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The clock just chimed nine o’clock. From the kitchen, Mrs. Bond yelled, “Dinner

time! Your five minutes to eat starts now!”

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Stumbling to the kitchen, Elle groaned,

“Mom… I was doing something important.”

Mrs. Bond interjected, “Ooh, have you

finished your homework already?”

Elle scoffed, “Homework is not im-

portant. The newest edition of my maga-zine just came out. Now that’s important

and isn’t it too early for dinner?”

Mrs. Bond responded, “Elle, go tell your

brother and father that it‘s dinnertime.”

Elle shouted, “Dad, come to the dinner

table and you too Arod.”

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Everyone sat down at the dinner table, each absorbed in their own world while the

dog laid nearby. Arod was reading baseball stats, Elle was reading her magazine, Mr.

Bond was watching baseball on TV, and

Mrs. Bond was sewing her scarf.

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Mrs. Bond questioned, “So how is the

food?”

Elle, giving her food to the dog, shouted,

“Mmm, this is yummy!”

SO H

OT

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Mrs. Bond asked, “How is the lemonade?”

Arod said, “Sweet, keep this pitcher.”

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Mrs. Bond murmured, “I bought the

salmon for fifty dollars!”

Her husband exclaimed, “Wow, that’s a

nice catch!”

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Mrs. Bond gushed, “Isn’t this a lovely

dinner? We’re talking to each other and

enjoying the food. I love our family because

we’re so close!”

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I WANT TO BE

FAMOUS

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Every morning Carly wakes up and heads downstairs to the living room to

watch the world news with her family. To-day, E! News was covering a story about

her idol, Lindsay Lohan, who was heading to a trial once again. Her parents rolled

their eyes, but Carly’s eyes were glued to

the TV.

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Carly had seen every movie Lindsay was in and just like Lindsay, she wore pink

on Wednesdays. Her room was plastered with magazine headings, movie posters and

collectables all starring Lindsay.

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Her friends dreamed of becoming singers and actors to achieve fame, but Carly did-

n’t. She was the only one who had done her research and knew exactly how to

achieve the fame that Lindsay had. She could skip all the hard work of school or

acting classes and just get the media to recognize her. Then, everyone would love

her.

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After school she decided to take her shot at fame. Carly went to her room, turned on

her laptop and started vlogging.

“Those stupid police officers don’t even

know Lindsay like I do, she would never do drugs! Just look at her, she’s an angel!

Those police officers won’t know what’s

coming when I get to them….”

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After a half hour of trash talking police officers and making countless death

threats to protect her idol, she uploaded her video to YouTube. A few days later she

heard a knock at the door and ran down the stairs.

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Two police officers walked in, along with a camera crew from Channel 10 News.

Carly, kicking and screaming, knew that all her friends would be watching.

She would make the front page, finally be-coming famous.

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“When I get out of here in two years, I’ll be so popular. Plus I’m on the front page

right now.”

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Belle Femme’s Beauty Secret

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Belle Femme was just an average girl. On

the outside, she seemed very happy.

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But on the inside, she was actually very

sad.

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Belle hated the way she looked. Whenev-

er she turned on the television, she would

see fashionable celebrities and she wanted

to look just like them. She wanted their

shoes, hair, and makeup.

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While doing her homework one day, Belle

came up with a plan. All she needed was

her emergency credit card and a trip to the

nearest mall. She could do her homework

later on; her appearance was much more

important.

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When Belle returned home from the mall,

she was carrying twenty full shopping bags

and had a new haircut.

“Well, I think this is a pretty decent start

for my new look. I should probably try

some of the clothes on,” she decided, for-

getting about her homework.

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After Belle put on her new feather dress and applied matching makeup, she ex-

claimed, “Wow! I look just like that singer. I

feel gorgeous!”

“Those celebrities really know how to dress themselves. I have to keep up to date

with what they’re wearing all the time

now,” said Belle.

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And so, Belle continued her life by spending all of her time planning outra-

geous outfits and bold faces. She fully em-braced her artificial beauty, and she was

absolutely ecstatic.

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Once upon a time, there was a very ill, old man in the hospital. The doctors said he

only had a few more days to live.

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Concerned for his grandfather, Jake visited him in hopes of offering comfort during

such a difficult time.

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“Hey Pop, how are you feeling?” Jake

said.

“Not well at all!” Grandfather gasped as he

coughed up a lung.

“You don’t sound too good. Let me get the

nurse-”

“No, forget her!” Grandpop interrupted,

“Get the IT guy, the remote ain’t working.

Also, I need my Men’s Health magazine!”

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“You should be worrying about your own

health, Pop,” Jake said.

“Justin Bieber is on the cover of the new issue and I need it now! I’ll die if I don’t get

it!” Grandpop said as he uttered his last

breath.

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Yolo

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On a Saturday morning at the park,

there was a group of young children play-

ing together. Sam, a seven-year-old, was

riding his bike without his helmet, knee

pads, and elbow pads. “Hey guys, look! I’m

riding my bike without my training wheels

– YOLO! I bet you can’t do this! I can feel

the wind in my hair.” yelled Sam as her

struggled to keep up with the old lady.

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Tim, his arch nemesis, was jealous because Sam could

ride his bike; he didn’t like Sam at all. He thought Sam was always doing dangerous

stuff and plus he always said that stupid slogan YOLO. Since Sam had one life, he

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Sam always thought that Tim was ruining the fun for everybody. Sam felt that since

you only live once, nobody should let life go to waste.

“Hey guys, let’s go play on the swings and

slides!” screamed Sam.

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Instead of going towards the swings or slides, Sam ran towards the monkey bars.

When Tim saw this, he shouted, “STOP! You can’t go on the monkey bars. My mom-

my said that it’s too dangerous! Forget YO-

LO!”

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“Tim, going on the monkey bars is the whole point of life! I can never forget YO-

LO! It’s not like I’m going to break my arm!”

Sam replied.

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Sam fell from the monkey bars. “OW! My

arm hurts. Get my mommy!” cried Sam.

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“I bet you’re glad you went on the mon-key bars. Look where that got you!”

mocked Tim.