Q.What is the smallest part of the body you can specialize in as a doctor?

A. Maybe the pituitary gland that regulates the endocrine system, but there are so many specialties and subspecialties that I honestly couldn’t give you a truthful answer at the moment.

Q. What do you do to counter the sadness of being a Swansea fan?

A. Being in the second division of any competition is quite depressing especially with the relegation parachute payments about to disappear. Solid squad, but the American owners are a bit questionable sometimes in their decision making. I counter that sadness by choosing other teams that are far more successful in other leagues. Those two teams are Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid. They still aren’t the elite of the elite (mostly because they don’t get oil money directly infused into their bank account through sketchy sponsorships), but they still provide good quality football, although the two sides play completely contrasting styles of football (or soccer).

Q. What will you miss (about Country Day)?

A. I guess I’ll miss the place. I don’t share the emotional attachment to the campus and school that I think a lot of other people do, but I’ll certainly miss the people around me and going to college and spending 9 months with completely new people in a completely new location and the environment will be very different from now. It’s a momentous life moment because the people at school are people who I’ve spent many years with for nearly half of my life so it’s going to be quite shocking when I leave the environment I used to live in.

Q. What is your favorite word?

A. I don’t have a favorite English word. I think that’s kind of a strange thing to ask. I think sometimes there are some catchphrases that I use quite often in some stints, some of it picked up from listening to a lot of people from other English-speaking countries like the UK, Australia, and South Africa. The one word off the top of the head is the word banter. In American English it’s got a very formal connotation, in contrast to Australia and the UK, where they use the word much more informally. In an informal context, the English and Aussies don’t use the strict lexiconal pronunciation or spelling. One particular usage is where there is increased emphasis on the (ban) and the -er sounds more like an -a. E.g (There’s plenty of banta involved when you’re playing cards, but it doesn’t turn to abuse.) 

Q. Taco Bell or Taco Bueno? That is the real question. Why the heck would somebody name a restaurant a Bell?

A. Never been to either, but maybe it’s time to find out which one is better. (Now that’s some quality foreshadowing.)

Q. What is the proper response to howdy?

A. Gig ‘em

Q. How are you, Ben? Is online school beating you down?

A. Yes it sucks a lot. It would be nice to go back to school in person, but there’s still a high risk I think when it comes to having school in-person at this point. It’s still depressing because I don’t get out a lot because of corona so yes, things can get dull at times. However,  I’m surviving and I think I can make it through. You have to make something of it at the end of the day and I think I can.

Q. Heya Ben. I’m a long time reader from Tannu Tuva and I just wanted to ask you if the girl thing has improved?

A. I’m locked down so that’s kind of hard to do anyway. I’m worrying about this whole thing a lot less through a combination of thinking about other things and just moving on with life. Whatever happens happens. 

Q. Dad?

A. Wrong person.

Q. Why did Upper School stay online for three weeks when everyone else went back to school on time?

A. According to US Division Head Alexis Stern and Head of School Eric Lombardi, The Upper School was the most logistically challenging division to implement the necessary social distancing measures to keep the school safe. There is a lot of movement between different buildings as part of the Upper School schedule compared to the Middle and Lower School so that makes instituting social distancing measures very difficult. The Upper School is also the easiest division to hold online courses compared to the other two divisions so it wasn’t the worst scenario to have the Upper School online for a little bit while the campus was being modified. 

Q. What is your least favorite food?
A. Shrimp, pate, and fried chicken. I don’t like the taste of shrimp at all so I dodge anything that has shrimp in it. Pate is disgusting because it comes from animal livers and also it tastes disgusting for me. And finally, the only reason I really dislike fried chicken is the bones. I don’t know why I hate the bones so much, but I do.

Q. Where do you think Messi will move to and where do you want to see him play?

A. According to sources, it appears that Messi’s favorite destination is Manchester City. It seems likely for a few reasons. Manchester City has the financial capabilities to afford Messi although there are some complications involving Financial Fair Play, but I think more importantly Messi would also be reunited with top-tier head coach Pep Guardiola. Both Guardiola and Messi were at their peak when they were at Barcelona in the late 2000s and early 2010s so it would make sense for Messi to be reunited with Pep. It appears like his most likely destination, but it is one of the last places that I want him to end up. I don’t have a problem with any of the current Premier League teams except for Manchester City. I respect them for their quality of play, but their financials are extremely sketchy and they should’ve been punished more harshly for their obvious infringement of FFP. My preferred team would actually be Inter Milan. I would very much want to see Messi go at it with Ronaldo in the same league again and Inter are a team that are back on the rise from their peak in 2010. I think with Mauro Icardi and Latuaro Martinez up front the addition of Messi would make Serie A much more intriguing. There will be questions tactically when it comes to Conte’s usage of Messi, but it’s still a long lost dream that I still hope can happen.

Q. How do u pronounce gif? What about fig?

A. Gif according to the Merriam Webster dictionary can be pronounced two ways either \’gif\ or \’jif\ Fig is just pronounced \’fig\ so i don’t know what your problem is with that one.

Q.What does a deer see when he sees my headlights?

A. Probably just a blur of light before you screech to a halt in front of him and then he sees your terrified face before he promptly scampers off.

Q. Opinions on Arsenal?

A. Arsenal has been lacking direction for quite a while as they lack the financial backing from their owner Stan Kroenke and lacked tactical modernization under either Wenger, Emery, or Ljungberg. They have good attacking options up front, but they lack stability at the back due to a lack of a strong center back. Arsenal has never committed to spending good money effectively on the best defensive players although they have just recently invested money in Gabriel Magalhaes for a solid price. Arsenal needs to do more to also make good value purchases. The signing of Nicholas Pepe last summer for £72 M/ $96.3M is a good buy if he becomes a world class attacker down the road, but I don’t think it was a good purchase at the time and it still doesn’t look like the most practical decision now. They could’ve bought former Ajax attacker Hakim Ziyech for £30M/$40M last year who is arguably far more skilled right now and polished compared to Pepe, while saving additional cash for a world-class defender instead of dishing out scraps to an aging and out-of-form David Luiz. Things are not about to get any easier for the upcoming season as the teams that are still at their level are still improving. Manchester United, Tottenham, Chelsea, Everton, and Wolves are making significant strides financially and on the pitch. Additionally, the competitiveness of the league has been amped up even more as more top managers are flocking to the league and thus attracting more talent and money towards the league. Arsenal needs change and improvement fast under Mikel Arteta to keep up with the other premier league teams.

Q. Is AUX safety app tracking our location (to be safe from the school, answer no for yes and yes for absolutely)?

A. Not my problem so have fun with that. Anyways any location tracking that the AUX safety app does will probably not harm you.

Q. How do you feel about the new free period style?

A. I can never have a free period last or first but we get a half day every 4 days so I can’t really complain. It helps to break up the long 5 day stretches of constant work throughout the week with an occasional break. I wouldn’t mind if this schedule continues after the pandemic has subsided, but that’s just my opinion. Also they’re studies

Q. How would you respond to North Korea’s recent cyber thefts given that they are already under full sanctions from the UN?

A. First and foremost we have to up our cybersecurity protections across the country to prevent an attack from North Korea attacking us in the future. We should be doing that first and foremost before we worry about getting revenge against North Korea because unfortunately there’s not much we can do. We can apply as many sanctions as we want, but there’s always an issue with the North Korean companies changing their name to subvert these sanctions that implicate their name. Also it sucks because China, in spite of their frosty relationship with North Korea, really does not want North Korea to collapse or fall apart because that means capitalist democratic South Korea, a key US ally, will creep up to China’s borders and that creeps out China the most. So if we were to do anything beyond what we’re doing now in relation to North Korea, then we would get ourselves in a deep geopolitical conflict that we really don’t want to get involved in at the moment (to put it lightly).

Q. Who will take your place once you have graduated?

A. To be determined. I haven’t really thought about it. Maybe it will die out along with my graduation. Who knows, I’ll make a decision a lot later.

Q. Should the UEFA Champions League continue a single game knockout format?

A. Probably not. The UEFA Champions League has too much prestige for one match to be heavily favored towards one side for having home field advantage. I think the old format is perfectly fine although I think UEFA should consider scrapping the away goal rule.

Q. How can we know that all dinosaurs were brown?

A. There’s conflicting evidence supplied by multiple groups of scientists as to the common color spectrum shared by the dinosaurs.

Q. Do you and Donald Trump have any common eating habits?

A. Trump’s rumored eating habits:

-Orders steak very well-done and eating it with ketchup.
No. He needs the ketchup because there’s no juice left in a well-done steak. I don’t know why he does it that way. I guess he doesn’t like steak juices.

-Orders Burgers with only one bun.
No. I understand getting no buns, but why would you only get one when it just is more practical to eat them with two buns.

-Eats KFC with knife and fork (likely staged for media photo op. but who knows)
I don’t like KFC, but when I’ve had it I don’t eat it with a knife and fork. I truly think it was staged, but it was quite an odd photo to take.

-Scrapes the pizza toppings off the pizza and eats everything besides the dough.
What’s the point in eating pizza without the dough? That’s the best part.

-Eats New York Pizza with a knife and fork
I don’t understand the issue with that. Those slices are massive. Neapolitan pizza (as made at the pizza shop Cane Rosso off of Magnolia) is very similar to New York pizza because they are large slices and are thin. It’s in fact normal to at least eat part of the pizza with a knife and fork before you shove the rest of it into your mouth. So yes I have done that. 

-Drinks a Dozen Diet Cokes a day.
I drink way less soda than that a day anyway. Also having excessive amounts of artificial sweetener isn’t any better than drinking the real thing. It’s better for you if you drink it occasionally, but they pump a lot of that into the drink.

Q. How do eels reproduce?

A. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Q. What has been the thing you missed most during quarantine?

A. Being able to live normally.

Q. Has senioritis kicked in yet?

A. I’m not into college yet, so no.

Q. What’s your personal legend?

A. I don’t know what it is yet. As much as The Alchemist is trying to affix a destiny on me, I don’t know what that destiny is. From that you can probably inference how I feel about the book.

Q. Which candidate would you prefer in the White House?

A. Biden. Such woes as to having a two-party system.

Q. What is your hot General Election 2020 take?

A. The Presidency, Senate, and House will not all be won by the same party. Essentially what this means is that there is still a massive stall when it comes to major legislation being passed at a federal level as the only means a “law” can be passed is through an executive order because the House and Senate would be deadlocked.

Q. Do french fries get lonely?

A. I bet they get really lonely in my stomach.

Q. How does a Country Day student become their true inner falcon?

A. You have to keep flying higher because falcons don’t sink or swim. You must soar like a falcon above the skies. Soar above the skies in spite of obstacles. Also falcons fly higher, together.

Q. Do you like green eggs and ham?

A. Green eggs sound disgusting.

Q. When sheep fall asleep do they count us?

A. No, they probably count the number of family members they’ve lost.

Q. Which is better (NBA)2K or Madden?

A. I don’t like either of them really that much right now. The last Madden I got was Madden 16 and that was pretty decent, but it’s evident from the gameplay I’ve watched from future Maddens that the gameplay has really gone downhill from there. No one cares about a street football yard game if the gameplay mechanics are trash. But then again it’s the current-gen version of the game so I expect it to be underwhelming, but don’t get your hopes up for the next-gen version. I’d give the same review for the NBA2k series which is also laughably as bad and financially corrupt as the Madden series, although I have a lot more experience with the NBA2K series as a whole. I have bought 2K16, 2K17, and 2K20 and the first two editions were vastly better than the 2K20 edition. Once again the current-gen video game seems underwhelming and decision should be withheld until the next-gen version comes out. At the end of the day, both franchises are poor as they practically hold a monopoly over their respective domain and the only thing they care about is money instead of the consumer. The only thing that will lead to change is more competition within their fields, which is unlikely, or a withdrawal of support from its consumers, which is just as unlikely.

Q. Who is the most famous country dayer on TikTok?

A. I have no clue. I don’t really follow anyone from Country Day on TikTok so I’ve got no clue who is the most famous or best TikToker. You guys probably know better so vote in the poll below.

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