BUFFALO CHICKEN PIZZA 

Maddie 

I’ll admit, I’m a pizza fanatic. I never say no to the opportunity to indulge in a savory slice or two of pizza. There is one exception though: Buffalo Chicken Pizza. You will never see me ordering a buffalo chicken pizza with ranch from the infamous Monte Cello’s. 

Unlike most pizzas, which have a consistent flavor in each bite, buffalo chicken pizza does the very opposite. With one bite, you’ll get a mouthful of what appears to be just buffalo sauce with a hint of cheesy bread to complement.  And the very next bite has a high chance of tasting like crispy grilled chicken, hard to chew compared to the well-cooked dough.  Ask me anytime, but my answer will always remain the same–PASS!

Hannah

Buffalo Chicken Pizza is one of my favorites. It’s a great pizza to have when you decide to indulge, and its texture, although strange, is satisfying. You get a nice variety of flavor and texture which helps to keep the pizza interesting. If someone were to ask me to eat some Buffalo Chicken Pizza with them, I’d be glad to do so.

STRANGER THINGS

Maddie

I can honestly say that gave the popular TV series a fair shot at earning a thumbs up from me. Feeling left out from the Stranger Things craze that was sweeping across my social media platforms, I finally gave in. I booted up Netflix on my phone and watched the first season from start to finish. At the end of the first season, I vowed to never recommend Stranger Things to a friend. In other words, I sincerely did not enjoy watching the show. Watching every episode felt like a dreadful chore. 

I did give the show a second chance with the release of the second season, though. Unfortunately, I disliked the second season just as much as the first — if not more. Having been hyped up online by millions of people, I expected something different than other shows out there. Instead, I watched what was at best mediocre acting and an exaggerated plotline filled with irrelevant, pointless scenes. 

Hannah

When I first watched the show after its release in 2016, I could barely get through a single episode. Now, though, I have watched all of the seasons and thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. The storyline is impeccable and follows the true nature of young kids as they grow and become teenagers. The show creates a perfect amount of drama and hope and has enticing characters that garner loyalty from their fans — Alexi, Jim Hopper, Eleven and Mike are fan favorites.

BABIES/KIDS

Maddie

I absolutely love kids, given that they are asleep, quiet, and content with their current situation. But, as cute as kids may look, don’t be fooled. They’re all adorable until they start crying, whining, and complaining about the tiniest thing. No matter what you do or how hard you try, they just don’t stop crying! Children, particularly babies and toddlers, are highly dependent on help from others for just about everything you can imagine in a day to day life. Just think about it. Babies can’t even sit up by themselves without relying on us.

Additionally, children are extremely messy. I’m not just talking about making a mess on the floor with their toys. I’m talking about all the stinky and not so pleasant surprises babies so gracefully gift us. In all honesty, it comes down to my lack of personal patience to deal with children. 

Hannah 

Children are one of the greatest things that can happen to a person. Since children aren’t naturally born knowing when to cry, scream, run, and so forth, it becomes the person’s responsibility to teach that child such values. Babies are new to this world and don’t know how to react, so of course, they will be bound to cry when they need attention and assistance. They rely on adults to take care of them because they do not know how to do it themselves. Being able to have a child, regardless if you’re adopting or not, means being able to have patience and know that you were in the same position long ago. Babies and kids are cute and fun to hang around, but for some, kids are annoying. But, with age, one may begin to recognize the time and patience needed to raise and a child and know they aren’t bad.

COUNTRY MUSIC

Maddie

I couldn’t tell you what my favorite type of music is because I generally listen to a wide variety of different genres and songs. But, if you ask me what my least favorite type of music is, I could answer in a heartbeat. Without a doubt, my ultimate least favorite music is country music. My distaste for country music is based solely on the fact that I find all the songs that fall under this category to be highly derivative. 

When I listen to country songs, I continuously hear the same story told by different artists with different lyrics. There’s just no variety in storyline or singing style. It gets really old after a while — continuously hearing about cheating, getting revenge, and finding some good old’ country love. 

Hannah 

Everyone hates country music. I understand that there’s the running joke that if you play a country song backward then you get everything back. In my own humble opinion, once you move past your stereotypical country music, you actually find some good, windows-down-and-singing-out-to-the-wind-worthy, songs.

You don’t even have to be someone from the ‘country’ to like country music. Listening to country is a nice break from hearing songs about what a person wants to do to a girl they met in a night club, or how they’re crying in a Lamborgini. Country music can bring someone down from the clouds of “luxury” and recognize their true human values. A famous country song named Chicken Fried by the Zac Brown Band talks about the simplicity of life and recognizes the patriotism of the United States. One lyric that brings a striking difference between pop music and country music is when Zac Brown sings out, “not where you live, what you drive or the price tag on your clothes. There’s no dollar sign on a peace of mind, this I’ve come to know.” Making the meaning of the whole song comes down to how simple life is when you take away the pressures of trying to gain wealth.

PICKLES

Maddie

I consider myself a generally good eater in the sense that there aren’t a lot of foods I don’t eat or aren’t willing to at least try, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t certain foods that I absolutely hate. I’ve been continuously told not to use hate because it’s a strong word but there are certain foods I feel that deserve to be hated, pickles being one of them. 

There’s no other word to accurately describe pickles other than odd. You take cucumbers, a vegetable, mind you, and combine them with vinegar. Yes, vinegar. I’m not really a person who is affected by texture when it comes to food, but I just can’t seem to bring myself to overcome the texture that pickles have. Something about pickles just isn’t right. If I had the final say, I would say to abolish pickles. They shouldn’t exist.

Hannah 

Pickles are, in fact, a cucumber soaked in vinegar and then eaten. Personally I find them to be very tasty when I eat them with hotdogs, burgers, or just about anything BBQ related. They also help with pre and post-workout cramps. The texture is actually not very different at all. The only difference is that it’s soaking in vinegar. Many athletes have used pickles and their juice as a healthy way to recover. Pickles should not be abolished. They should be praised. Besides, we live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Heinz started the pickle business to begin with.