“Hot or Not” is written by a pair of witty, snarky and opinionated girls (this issue, Megan Maughan and Gina O’Neill). We’ll let you know what’s hot or not in pop culture, current events and in real life, and why it’s hot or not. This list will be updated regularly, and if you want us to comment on something particular, e-mail us at [email protected].

some students were skeptical about the decision.  What was fun when we were in elementary school didn’t sound too appealing to some sixteen and seventeen year olds, and definitely not a good way to spend a Friday night.  However, we found that our expectations were much too low.  Aside from the good food, Medieval Times proved to be a really fun experience even for the upperclassmen.  After we decided to relate the entire experience to Hamlet, we spent the night crying out for our knight whom we lovingly named “Horatio” and making toasts to Denmark.  Even for those who can’t relate the performance to Shakespeare, Medieval Times draws in even the most skeptical teenagers with a battle scenes and a fun storyline and an overall good two-hour experience.  (Megan)

People who join in the middle of conversations: You know who I’m talking about: it’s not until you’re in the thick of a conversation with other people that these people decide to pay attention.  It’s not necessarily that you don’t want to include these people in a conversation, but just that an intrusion on an already developed conversation is annoying.  These people interrupt, say something along the lines of, “Wait, what?” and expect to be fully updated on what you’ve been talking about.  And if you don’t know what I’m talking about … you’re probably that person.  (Megan)
“The lab”: Hearing the dreaded words “we’re in the lab,” not only signals a nice project is on the way, but it also means that absolutely no work will be done – pretty much guaranteeing a hoard of homework and a last minute PowerPoint scramble. The lab is just a bad news bear waiting to take everyone’s food and leave their social lives in ruins for the next week.  (Gina)
Blizzards at lunch: Seeing those blue and red cups stacked together reminds me of how wonderful the world is. Honestly, after running the 12-minute, nothing seems better than pre-packaged cups of ice cream. Once you remove the lid, however, you realize you were wrong before. Just breathing in the treats that resemble smooth, snow-covered mountains filled with thick rocks of Reese’s bits instantly cools your mood and your flustered, sweaty face. No cheap, imitating styrofoam-cup “ice cream” can ever match up to that, even if it is french vanilla that day.  (Gina)
Bathroom spiders: Nothing is more cringe-worthy than hopping into the shower – in my most vulnerable state – turning on the hot water and then realizing I have an unwelcome visitor perched on the shower curtain. No, no this is not what you’re thinking – I don’t have a pack of smurphs chilling under my sink, filing into the shower. It’s worse: bathroom spiders. Their beady eyes, yellow, brown or green spindly legs and shiny bodies make my whole body freeze even though the hot water is still running. It wouldn’t be as bad if they were on the street or in an open area, but when these arachnids chill in a small, closed room where I have no way of escaping, I feel threatened, like they are invading my privacy. What’s even worse is when they try to fight back. I finally gather up the courage to throw a shampoo bottle at them, and they charge at me when I miss. And if I decide to leave the spider alone because it’s just in a corner, it always comes back to haunt me when I go in the bathroom the next day, and the corner is vacant. I always want to believe the spider just up and left because it knew it wasn’t wanted, but then it’s on the shower head the next morning, staring me down. I just can’t win.  (Gina)
This year’s French T-shirts: Although I am formally accusing the Spanish club of copying the French club’s T-shirt design idea, both of the T-shirts and sweatshirts still rock. The French apparel is so popular that I even see it while working at JC Penney in Woodfield – people are wearing the clothes in public, which means it has to be good. While wearing this T-shirt or sweatshirt, I feel like I’m part of both an intense football league en France due to the logo and an elite but large group of awesome people who love French. I’m actually wearing it as I’m writing this, and it’s giving me supernatural typing speed as well … 90 GWAM! That’s fast for me, at least. So the “world languages” should continue to have other people design these T-shirts for their clubs because Bonhomme on top of the Eiffel Tower wasn’t selling (it was still cute!). (Gina)
Haircuts: When my color guard instructors told us in late June that we couldn’t get any major haircuts until the end of the band season, I didn’t think it was a big deal; in fact, I was pretty happy about it.  I got to tell my mom that I had a reason to grow my hair longer than usual without her bugging me to get it cut, and I knew our band show would look cool with our hair whipping around (hairography, anyone?).  But as the band season drew nearer to its end, all I could think about was how much I wanted to chop off my hair.  What started off as a fun challenge manifested into a monster of bad hair days, split ends and out-grown bangs.  Now, I can’t wait until I get to watch three inches of hair fall to the floor in disgusting clumps as my hair dresser rids me of the monster that’s been clinging to my head for months, and I will never take getting haircuts for granted again.  (Megan)
Milk: I realize that I am going to be denounced of all credibility as soon as this catches the eyes of moms and the school nurse, but I’m just going to say it: milk sucks.  I can’t fathom how people can pour a glass full of milk and just “drink” it because they “want” to.  Most of my childhood encounters with milk were spent sitting at a table staring at a Winnie the Pooh glass full of the opaque liquid and waiting for my mom to leave the kitchen so that I could dump it.  I don’t care how strong it will make my bones and how healthy it is for me; it just tastes “awful.” Celebrities’ pictures with painted-on milk mustaches plastered on the cafeteria wall cannot sway my opinion on consuming cows’ bodily fluids, and as for my health, I’ll just stick to calcium-infused orange juice.  (Megan)