If you’re looking for a whole new kind of experience this Halloween, I highly suggest going on an actual ghost tour.

“The Ghosts of St. Charles,” by Dr. Michael Henry. Photo courtesy of Google images.

This past weekend I decided to do something completely outside my comfort zone and went on the St. Charles Ghost Tour.  I love watching scary shows and movies, but at the same time I am the biggest baby in the world when it comes to the paranormal.

I’ve had several friends try to talk me into staying at the Lemp Mansion but just the thought has given me anxiety.  What I liked about the idea of the St. Charles ghost tour was that it was an outdoor walking tour.  Something about being outside in the open helped give me the courage to actually go through with it.

Now when it comes to St. Charles, there are countless legends and tales of its being haunted, especially when it comes to Main Street.  Most college students think of one thing when it comes to Main St. and that’s partying.  However, it is hard to ignore how old the town of St. Charles is and the sense of creepiness when you can look past the boozing students of Lindenwood University.

“Sheriff’s Corridor,” courtesy of Trip Advisor.

Just driving to the location my palms began to sweat and slip off the steering wheel while the combination of my GPS giving me terrible directions and my nervousness began to make my heart race.

Should I just turn around now?  Do I ditch the tour entirely and go dress up for Halloween and party like the rest of the people my age?  No, no; I had already told too many people about this now to reveal I had chickened out.

It wasn’t until I had the opportunity to have a private conversation with the tour guide before the actual tour started that I started to feel more at ease.

Dr. Michael Henry, of St. Charles Ghost Tours, has been running this tour for seven years now, but has been a paranormal investigator for 30 years.  He told me about how he was the opposite of the guys on TV that go into haunted places expecting them to be haunted and trying to prove it.  Henry instead describes himself as a skeptic and goes into places assuming there’s nothing there unless he finds enough evidence.

Dana Janssen holding a camera on the tour.

The tour takes you along a stretch of S. Main St., beginning at the St. Charles Historical Society at the corner of Jefferson and S. Main.

Dr. Henry stops at several different locations along the way and gives a brief history and tells what kind of paranormal activity has been (or still is) experienced there. People are encouraged to takes lots of pictures and video to try and capture any kind of mysterious manifestations. 

Henry will also usually bring along a couple EMF (electromagnetic field) detectors and lend them out for people to use during the tour.

While I was on the tour another paranormal investigator, Dr. Michael Lynch, had brought along some of his equipment including a special camera he had made for capturing activity such as orbs.  He allowed me to hold it at one location, where Sheriff Ebenezer Curtis committed suicide after assisting in two of St. Charles’ final executions (executions took place in St. Charles as late as 1908).

The Sheriff had reportedly shot himself up on the balcony of his apartment, but apparently did not do a good enough job because he was able to drag himself all the way downstairs into a corridor, where he finally died.

Dr. Henry in the Lost Graveyard. Photo courtesy of Trip Advisor.

EMF detectors are known to go off frequently near the gate of this corridor, even though there is no electrical system near the gate; our tour was no exception.  Both EMF detectors were wildly buzzing and one man even claimed to see a shadow with a hat walk by at the end of the corridor (Curtis is reportedly often seen wearing a cowboy hat).

I held the camera, pointing it down the corridor.  After seeing nothing after about five minutes I was almost convinced that nothing was nearby when I had a rather large orb fly right toward me. Needless to say it freaked me out.  I quickly shoved the camera back to Lynch and had him review the tape, which he confirmed I had just captured an orb— too cool.

One of the most famous stops along the way is at the Lost Graveyard. A graveyard about the size of nine blocks once stood in this location and was moved in 1831, although many of the bodies were not indeed moved.  Because the poor were often buried without grave markers, it is believed that there are still several bodies left behind.

Construction in 1915 and a private excavation in 1981 actually uncovered some human remains, including casket fragments and tombstones that dated around 1820. Legend has it a young mother who was buried in her wedding dress is still seen a few times a year, always at dusk and almost always standing in the same place.

Henry makes several others stops along the tour, which can run anywhere from 90 minutes to four hours, depending on how much activity there is that night.

Even if you don’t catch an orb on video, or capture a misty photograph, the tour is historically interesting at the least.

“My favorite part of the tour was how it had lots of history with a few eerie twists when you least expected it,” said Jaimee Ferraro, one of the women on the tour that night. “I didn’t begin to feel uneasy or expect anything to happen until all the bars closed and it was just us out on the street.  That’s when a strange silence came over the tour and I started to feel like something could happen at any moment.”

Three days after the tour I am still constantly checking behind me and having a minor heart attack at each and every shadow I see; I’m also still shamefully sleeping with my lamp on.  But isn’t that the point of Halloween?   To have some interesting adventures and get the crap scared out of you?  It is for me at least, and I look forward to finding more tours to go on soon.

The St. Charles Ghost Tour costs $20 and is conducted every weekend all year long on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., 9:30 p.m. and midnight, if there’s enough demand. Reservations ARE required and fill up quickly.  Special tours can also be arranged for groups of six or more.  For more information you can visit http://www.stcharlesghosts.com/ or email info@stcharlesghost.com.  You can also check out Dr. Henry’s book, “The Ghosts of St. Charles,” which gives a history and summary of the ghosts in St. Charles, Mo.

The post Historic St. Charles Ghost Tour Awakens Spirits appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

Cars can easily get stuck in winter elements. Make sure you're not one of them.

While the allure of the holidays and snow during the winter are appealing, the winter months are the harshest on almost everything.  From our bodies to our houses and cars, the winter weather is hazardess to many things.  If the proper precautions are not taken in preparing your car for the winter, the repercussions can be dangerous.

Here are a couple of quick tips to help ensure that your car survives winter. Most of them take five minutes and can be done at home in your very own garage.

Check your antifreeze.

• Antifreeze is essential to keep your engine from overheating and in the winter it keeps the water in your radiator system from freezing. Open your hood and find the coolant reserve container; it’s usually a clear plastic tank and you’ll see hoses connected to your radiator. Check your antifreeze/coolant ratio and level. It should be about a 50/50 mix and the tank will have lines on it to indicate low/high fluid levels. ONLY check these levels while your engine is cool!

Check your battery.

• In the winter your battery must work harder to start your car, also making the battery more vulnerable for dying. Being stranded with a dead battery in the bitter cold can be dangerous and deadly. Most auto parts stores will check your battery for free.

Inspect your lights.

• Having a tail light, headlight or brake light out can be dangerous because other cars cannot see you as well, not to mention it’s illegal and you can get a ticket for it. Plus we just set our clocks back an hour for daylight savings time so it’s getting darker faster, which means your lights will be used more. Bulbs are fairly inexpensive and can save your life, or at least save you from a run-in with a cop.

Wax your car

• Nothing is worse on your car’s paint job than rain, snow and salt. Put a coat of wax on your car to create a barrier between your paint and harsh elements. Make sure to wash your car and completely dry it before waxing. It is also helpful to wax in the shade. Use a damp sponge and squirt about a tablespoon of wax onto it. Rub the wax over every section in a clockwise and circular motion, squirting more wax onto the sponge when necessary. Once you’ve covered the whole car go back to your starting point where the wax should be dry by now. Use a soft cloth and rub in the opposite direction to buff off the wax. Make sure you’re flipping the cloth around so that you don’t end up putting wax back onto your car’s surface. It is highly recommended to go back once more with another clean towel to make sure you got all the wax off because after just a couple hours the wax can damage your paint job.

Add an ingredient to your wiper-fluid

• Slush, salt and ice can cover your windshield, decreasing your visibility. Buy a windshield wiper fluid that contains de-icer to help keep your windshield from freezing when you need to clean it off while driving, or to help speed up the de-icing process early in the morning. It also is never a bad idea to get new wiper blades, another inexpensive precaution.  

Check engine belts and hoses

• If the rubber on your belts and hoses is frayed or cracked it can easily completely give out from extreme temperatures. Belts and hoses only cost about $10. Always better to be safe than sorry.

Tire tread and pressure

• It is vital to have suitable tread on your tires for traction with icy and snowy road conditions. To check for the proper tread, stick a penny head-first in between the treads; if you can see the top of Lincoln’s hair then it’s time for a new tire. Also, tires are more at risk to losing pressure in cold weather, so use a tire gauge to check the pounds per square inch (PSI). The PSI rating that is stamped on the sidewall of your tire is actually the maximum safe rating by the tire manufacturer. Make sure to check the sticker on the inside of your driver-side door for the vehicle’s recommended PSI. Also make sure your spare tire is properly equipped and that you have the right tools to change a flat.

Keep an emergency kit

• Last but not least, make sure to keep an emergency kit in your car in case something does go wrong. An ice scraper, flashlight, fresh batteries, blanket, jumper cables, bottled water, Fix-a-Flat, flares, shovel, kitty litter (for traction if your tire gets stuck in snow), first aid kit, boots, gloves and of course a cell phone are a few simple items that could save your life.

The post Primp Your Ride appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

Courtesy of Google Images

 New Year’s Eve the movie was just like New Year’s Eve the holiday usually ends up being – extremely disappointing.

This movie was based around the same premise that previous movies Valentine’s Day and He’s Just Not That Into You had: put a lot of big-named actors/actresses in it and it’s bound to be a success. Wrong. Now, I actually didn’t mind Valentine’s Day or He’s Just Not That Into You, in fact I really enjoyed them. They were cute, funny and had everything unexpectedly connect at the end. However, New Year’s Eve seemed to be full of choppy, meaningless sub-stories that didn’t seem to connect at all. And the few stories that did connect were totally expected and cheesy.

For having a lot of famous actors and actresses in it, none of them really wowed me. Ashton Kutcher played his usual scrubby, but trying to do it in a cute and sarcastic way, character, while Michelle Pfeiffer’s character, Ingrid, didn’t meet the attempt at trying to be awkward in a cute and hopeless kind of way. She was awkward in a creepy and hard to watch kind of way instead.

There were a few characters that I actually enjoyed watching such as Halle Berry as the caring Nurse Aimee who almost brings you to tears as her character is truly revealed towards the end and Sofia Vergara, hilarious as always, played a crazy  (and gorgeous) celebrity-obsessed sous-chef. She’s pretty much the only character that actually made me laugh.

My favorite part of the movie was the Buncha CRUNCH and Sno-Caps that I ate while suffering through it. I suggest doing the same thing for the movie and for the real New Year’s Eve: save your money and time and just stay home. It’s way safer and won’t be a huge let down.

Overall grade: D

The post New Year’s Eve Review appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

Robert Downey, Jr., charming as ever, returns as Sherlock Holmes and Jude Law also returns as his colleague, best friend and voice of reason. Jared Harris plays the villainous Professor Moriarty. Famous Swedish actress, Noomi Rapace impresses playing Madam Simza, a mysterious gypsy who allies with Holmes, in her first English-speaking role.

The special effects were even more outstanding than in the first Sherlock Holmes and kept you on the edge of your seat throughout the movie. Of course I did get a small headache by the end of the movie from the squinting of my eyes from thinking so hard. Following along with this movie can be a little bit hard for some people, especially when it’s all in British accents which can make it that much harder to understand at times. Overall this was a terrific, action-packed movie that is a must see on the big screen. Not to mention the surprise ending will have your jaw dropping no doubt!

Overall Grade: A

The post Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Review appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

Breakup Ornament

Breaking up is hard to do. And what is the best way to get through tough times? Many would say friends, family, chocolate and probably some alcohol. But we can’t ignore the famous saying of “laughter is the best medicine”.

The invention of breakup ornaments began back in 1991 when one of the creators of breakup ornaments was separated from his spouse. While decorating his Christmas tree that year he pulled out the renowned “Our First Christmas Together” ornament and immediately chucked it into his trashcan. He then thought up the idea in laughter as he thought about having an “Our Last Christmas Together” ornament. He partnered with another St. Louis entrepreneur in 2009 who had also previously experienced break ups in the past and they decided to help out others by selling these ornaments to help get a little bit of funny, but harmless revenge on their exes.

These not only make great gifts to your friends or family in their time of need, but they also make hilarious pranks to send to your ex. Bashing an ex on Facebook or Twitter is way overused and expected. Imagine the look on your ex’s face when they open a package in excitement to only realize it’s a huge diss.

You can even get a breakup ornament for political figures as well. These features items such as t-shirts and ornaments with a picture of President Obama and Uncle Sam with their backs turned away from each other.

Breakup ornaments can be purchased for $8.50 on the company’s website. They’re made out of ribbon and metal so that they’re guaranteed not to shatter like your ex’s heart.

The post An Ornamental Breakup appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

Comm 363: Research and Strategy

There is something different going on in Kernaghan 3136. Dr. Barb DeSanto, professor in communications, has decided to try out a new teaching strategy in her Strategic Communications 363 Research and Strategy class, and she may have just caught on to something special.

“The entire class is structured and taught like a real-world communication agency operates, complete with a real-life client,” says Dr. DeSanto.

In this class the students are working to put together a campaign for a real-life client, CharacterPlus. The class’s goal is to help CharacterPlus expand their WHEELS program. WHEELS is a program that helps teach bus drivers and school administrators how to prevent bullying on the school bus. The program has been wildly successful in the Missouri and Illinois regions in decreasing office referrals and increasing test scores and as a result has gained interest from schools across the country.

“I look forward to having the sense of helping CharacterPlus provide a good service.  I like the idea of using positive reinforcement to enhance the character of children’s lives,” says student, Christine Seevers.

This class meets like a typical class, twice a week in a classroom, but as far as normalcy goes this is where it stops. The class contains just a small group of nine girls that sit in a circle for each “meeting”.

“In our class we sit in a circle and have discussions and not only learn from our teacher but from each other,” says senior Kristen Wann. “Instead of sitting in a classroom and being shown a PowerPoint presentation and talked at we are actively engaged and taking part in our learning.”

Sitting in this format allows for the girls to interact with every person in the class more easily.

“Everyone is ready to contribute, to bring relevant client project information into each class, share it, and work as a team, Dr. DeSanto says.  “Students come to each class ready to identify and volunteer to work on the project pieces they identify with.  And it’s been amazing that each student has contributed to the group in every class and not let the group down.”

The class even has representatives from CharacterPlus come in to take part in discussions.

The students will be working step by step to help create a campaign for the client. Already they have been working on steps such as performing a situation analysis and a list of key publics and stakeholders in order to help form their overall goal for the company.

“The things we are doing for CharacterPlus provides each student a chance to see what it like to work on a project utilizing skills that professionals use every day at work,” says Seevers.

The biggest difference when it comes to the way Dr. DeSanto is conducting her class is the grades policy: there are none. Well, not exactly that is.

“Students submit weekly billing sheets containing the hours and projects they worked on, along with their own description of what they “learned” each week.  This helps them realize that the client work they are used to being graded on will be evaluated in the workplace,” says Dr. DeSanto.

Students will be evaluated at the end of the semester instead receiving traditional grades throughout the project after every assignment.

“Dr. Barb is providing our class an excellent opportunity to really focus on CharacterPlus’s requirements instead of our academic grade. Moving forward, our class should now be able to concentrate on doing a better job for CharacterPlus,” says Seevers.

But the question is do students feel this is fair?

“With such a small class, we already know each other and Dr. Barb pretty well,” says Wann.  “I have full confidence in Dr. Barb’s decisions towards our grades; I know that she will give credit to those that pull their weight and contribute and not give credit where credit isn’t due.”

Dr. DeSanto got her idea from a journal article that talks about the idea of intuition. “I reviewed a journal article submitted to the Journal of Public Relations Review that talked about how to teach with intuition, what the authors called a “Sixth Sense.”  Textbooks and most classes focus on the logical, rational processes of problem-solving,” says Dr. DeSanto.

Her goal is to find out if intuition can truly be taught in order to prepare them for the workplace after graduating. If successful, it could close the gap between academic education and professional practice that some students struggle so badly with.

“I’m always thinking about how each of my classes applies to the many different worlds that students currently work in or hope to work in. I’m not just giving you a fish, I hope I’m teaching you how to fish, “says Dr. DeSanto.

This experience seems like it’ll deliver a win-win for students, professor and CharacterPlus.

“I think this experiment is a great idea. This is the kind of learning and classroom environments that I think set Maryville apart, says Wann.  “I hope to be able to take what we do in class and apply it to my future career. I wouldn’t trade this classroom experience for anything,”

The post Teaching Intuition appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

Compare the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S

The iPhone 4S was released Oct. 14, 2011 (available for preorder Oct. 7) with some new improvements. While this iPhone isn’t the most innovative of Apple products, it does offer some great improvements from the iPhone 4.

The iPhone 4S’s outside is identical to the iPhone 4’s. It was rumored and expected that the new iPhone would have a bigger screen and thinner body but this is not the case this time; the 4S has the same 3.5 inch screen with 640×960 retina display.

Most of the new features on the iPhone 4S are due to the new iOS5 software, which is available for download on the iPhones 4 and 3GS. iOS 5 features new improvements such as iCloud, which allows you to sync your phone wirelessly with all your other iOS products as well as back-up your data to the web. Because of these iCloud features you can now also own an iPad, iTouch or iPhone without having a Mac or PC.

 iOS 5 also has a notification center that is simply reached by swiping down from the top of the screen. In the notification center you can see all of your new notifications in one place including new texts, emails, friend requests, weather and stocks. While you’re on your iPhone, new notifications will briefly appear at the top of the screen so that they won’t interrupt what you’re doing, but you can choose to click on them if you’d like to see.

iMessage is also available on iOS 5. iMessage allows for you to message other iOS5 users on iPad, iTouch and iPhones. You can send unlimited text messages through Wi-Fi or 3G. iMessage is built in with the Messages app so that it’ll be right there with your regular text messages.  

You will also notice the new Newsstand app on your iOS 5 device. Newsstand simply puts all of your newspaper and magazine subscriptions in one convenient place. It even alerts you and updates the little icon when there’s a new issue out.

Twitter is also now integrated right into iOS 5 so that you can tweet directly from Safari, Photos, Camera, YouTube or Maps by just signing in once in your settings. Contacts even apply your friends’ username and profile picture so that you can simply just start typing a name and let iOS 5 do the rest.

While you can’t receive the better 8 megapixel camera that the iPhone 4S has on your updated iOS 5 iPhone 4, you can still use many of the new conveniences that iOS 5 has to offer. You can now access your camera more quickly from the lock screen and click the volume-up button in order to snap the photo. You can also use grid lines and single-tap focus and exposure to enhance you photo qualities quickly, and with photo stream (enabled through iCloud) your pictures with automatically be downloaded to all your iOS devices. You can also edit pictures right in the Photo app by cropping, removing red eye, rotating and enhancing.

The most talked about thing on the iPhone 4S is its new personal assistant feature, Siri. Like the Android phones, Siri can take any demand such as looking up a phone number or reading a message aloud to you.  However, unlike the Androids, Siri can understand natural phrases as well. For example, you could say “I’m in the mood for Indian food” instead of the Androids where you must present firm commands.

Below are a few of the basics by comparing the iPhone 4 against the new iPhone 4S.

My Simple Review:

Like all Apple products, the new iPhone 4S and iOS 5 have countless new attributes. Even by making just a few small changes, the iPhone 4S truly has endless possibilities. What I like about Apple and the iPhone the most is that when they come out with new products they offer many of the changes through their operating systems so that even if you have the old model, you can still acquire many of the cool new features.  While the iPhone 4S does have some tempting characteristics such as the nicer camera, faster processor and Siri, I think it is worth the wait until I have an upgrade available through my carrier to get a new iPhone. I think most of the new things about the iPhone 4S are obtainable through iOS 5 which I have downloaded on my iPhone 4.

The post iPhone 4S Review appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

Fall 2011 is full of some great new shows and the return of many of our favorites. Students especially look forward to the new fall lineup each year as a way to relax in between class, homework and jobs.

“I’m really excited for season six of Dexter to start! But I would say that the new show I’ve been looking the most forward to watching has been New Girl and from what I’ve seen so far it’s been really good!” says senior Maryville student, Allison Gagnon.

Here are some of the new shows that seem to be the most popular so far and have gotten good reviews.

New Girl (Fox)

Premiered: Sept. 20, at 8 p.m.

Zooey Deschanel stars in this show as the peculiar cute girl, as usual, only this time she plays Jess, a recently dumped girl who moves in with three bachelors. The boys only take her in as a roommate because her best friend is a model but of course grow to love her quirkiness and decide to help her start dating again.

2 Broke Girls (CBS)

Premiered: Sept. 19 at 8:30 p.m.

TV Guide calls this hilarious new show a modern Laverne and Shirley. The show is about, obviously two broke girls, who work as waitresses in New York. There’s Max, a smart-mouthed girl who works two jobs (she’s also a nanny) and has a gift for baking cupcakes, and then there’s Caroline, an uptown heiress whose family is in trouble after her wealthy dad gets sent to jail. The two become unlikely friends who decide to start saving up their tips to start their own cupcake business.

Pan Am (ABC)

Premiered: Sept. 25 at 9 p.m.

Christina Ricci takes off as the star in this show that feels like a “Catch Me if You Can” spinoff. The show centers on stewardesses in the ‘60s working for the famous Pan Am Airlines. However their lives are not as glamorous they may appear as we watch them deal with love and other obstacles. The show’s executive producer is Nancy Hult Ganis, a real former Pan Am stewardess. Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times says that Pan Am shows the past in a little bit more attractive light than say shows like “Mad Men”. “The series is a paean to a more prosperous and confident era; even an airline terminal looks like a movie dream sequence about 1960s heaven,” says Stanley.

The Playboy Club (NBC)

Premiered:Sept. 25 at 9 p.m.

The Playboy Club is the other drama series set in the ‘60s and even premiered the same night and at the same time as Pan Am. The show is exactly what it sounds like; it follows Bunnies working in a Playboy club. Newbie Bunny, Maureen (Amber Heard) must get help from club keyholder and shady lawyer, Nick (Eddie Cibrian) after she kills a mobster in self-defense.

American Horror Story (FX)

Premieres: Oct. 5 at 9 p.m.

So many of us are suckers for horror films, so why not have a horror show? This horror-mystery series that stars Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton is about a couple, Ben and Vivien Sherman, who move to Los Angeles and end up in a home that has something lurking in the basement. Rumor also has it that a few of the characters may not exactly be alive…

Prime Suspect (NBC)

Premiered: Sept. 22 at 9 p.m.

Maria Bello shines in this show adapted from a British series about Jane, a detective trying to make it in the crime-fighting, male-dominated world. However Jane is not your usual bad-ass female cop who turns into a perfect housewife as soon as she gets home. Nick McHatton of TV Fanatic calls Jane “a dark character, filled with bright spots of dark humor and crudeness. She is interested in doing her job well and going over every angle, not closing the case as quickly as possible and getting a beer with the fellas after work.” McHatton says Bello’s depiction of Jane makes Prime Suspect “must-watch status” and gives it a four out of five star rating.

Ringer (CW)

Ringer was actually originally developed for CBS but ended up being picked up by CW. It features ex Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar but this time she plays two characters, identical twins Bridget and Siobhan. Bridget is a recovering alcoholic on the run so decides to claim she’s actually her wealthy twin sister. The twist is that her sister is thought to be dead and she inherits plenty of more problems when she takes on her identity.

Terra Nova (Fox)

Premiered: Sept. 26 at 7 p.m.

The long-awaited Steven Spielberg dinosaur drama series has finally arrived. Terra Nova is about the Shannon family who travels back in time to prehistoric Earth in order to try and save the human race. The premise is that by the 22^nd century the planet has been so mistreated by humans that it is dying, so people go back in time to live in a compound, Terra Nova, so that they can start over. The Shannon’s are fugitives on the run at first because in present time they have broken the law of having a third child. Of course living in this utopian-like compound couldn’t go 100 percent right and the Shannon’s and other humans are forced to battle with dinosaurs. David Hinckley of the New York Daily News says that “the dinosaur special effects are impressive and clearly hark back to executive producer Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” roots.”

Revenge (ABC)

Premiered: Sept. 22 at 9 a.m.

This show is a drama starring Emily VanCamp as Emily Thorne, a girl out for revenge on the people who destroyed her family. Emily sets off to the Hamptons and seduces Daniel (Joshua Bowman), who’s the son of Victoria (Madeline Stowe), the woman responsible for her devastation.  TV Guide calls it “a contemporary re-telling of The Count of Monte Cristo, but Emily Thorne makes for a much prettier little liar than Edmond Dantes.”

The X Factor (Fox)

Premiered: Sept. 21 at 7 p.m.

Simon Cowell’s hugely successful U.K. show has been adapted for the U.S. Cowell and Paula Abdul return as judges where the biggest prize in television history will be given out, $5 million. This show is not identical to Cowell and Abdul’s former show they judged on, American Idol. This competition is open to age groups 12 and up as well as groups. There will also be judge mentors, including L.A. Reid and Nicole Scherzinger for contestants, similar to The Voice.
 

The post Ready, Set, Record! appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

A tasty drink that'll warm you right up.

Cinnamon Toast (pictured)

This simple recipe is not only festive and delicious but also served hot; perfect for sitting around a bonfire.

2 oz of spiced rum

2 oz hot apple cider

Mix and pour into a glass with cinnamon sugar on the rim and garnish with an orange slice.

Peach Champagne

The bitters soaked sugar cube will not only give the drink an extra kick of flavor but will keep the champagne fizzing while you drink.

1 oz peach flavored vodka

3 oz champagne

Pour into champagne flute with a sugar cube soaked in bitters.

Candy Apple Martini

This is an adult spin on a favorite childhood treat.

1 oz Stoli cranberi vodka

½ oz butterscotch schnapps

1 oz Sour Apple Pucker

1 oz red or white cranberry juice

Shake ingredients in ice-filled martini shaker and strain in sugar-rimmed glass

Pink Tickle

This fruity drink is delectable and also perfect for breast cancer awareness month (October).

2 oz X-Rated Fusion Vodka

Champagne

Pour 2 oz of X-Rated Fusion Vodka into champagne flute then fill the rest of the glass with champagne.

Bellini Mocktail

This non-alcoholic drink will satisfy your taste buds just as well as the alcohol ones!

¼ cup peach nectar

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Chilled apple cider

Mix peach nectar and lemon juice in a glass then top off with chilled apple cider and stir. Serve in a champagne flute.

The post Campfire Cocktails appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.

Alumni Relations assistant, Francesca Mattina, says that the Young Alumni Bash is the event of the weekend. “A lot of young alumni that have attended in the past are looking forward to the Young Alumni Bash. Between word of mouth and alumni looking forward to a fun night of revisiting, this event has become the most popular,” said Mattina. 

The Young Alumni Bash will consist of all sorts of fun like a live deejay, raffle prizes, a photo studio and of course lots of yummy food and drinks including marinated shrimp, sushi, beer, wine and of course the Maryville signature drink!

If you have any questions regarding Alumni Weekend you can contact the Alumni off at alumni@maryville.edu or by calling 314-529-9338.

The post Alumni Weekend 2011 Preview appeared first on Maryville Pawprint.