This is a great time to look at the night sky. From now until the end of January, you can see all the planets. Do you know their names in English? The planet nearest the sun is Mercury. The second and brightest planet is Venus. We live on the third planet, Earth. Mars is the red planet. Jupiter is the largest planet. Saturn is also large and has rings going around it. The seventh planet is Uranus, and the eighth planet is Neptune. For the next few nights, you can find most of the planets in the south and southwest sky after sunset. You can see Venus, Mars, and Jupiter with the naked eye, but you will probably need binoculars or a telescope to see the other planets. (128 words) You can send me a comment or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

The three best essays in the junior high and the high school divisions have been chosen. We also picked some essays in each division for honorable mention. I will be sending out the essays on Thursday and Friday each week from now until the middle of March. First, I will start with the high school essays. Then, at the end of February, I will send out the junior high school essays. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as we, the judges, did!

The National Baseball Hall of Fame is a special place. Every player in Major League Baseball dreams of going there. On Tuesday, they chose the players that will enter the Hall of Fame in 2025. Three players were chosen this year, but Ichiro was the favorite. He got almost 100% of the votes! He will join other great players like Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson in the Hall of Fame in July. It wasn’t a surprise choice. Ichiro is one of the greatest hitters of all time. During his career in Japan and America, he got more hits than any other baseball player in history. Congratulations, Ichiro! You really deserve to get in! (113 words) You can send me comments or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

In English, we have a name for animals and a different name for the meat. For example, we say cow for the animal, but we say beef for the meat. Sheep is the name of the animal, but the meat is called mutton. A pig is an animal, but the meat is called pork. How did this happen? The animal names are old English names, but the names of meat came later from French. Korean is similar. It has a word for live fish and a different word for the fish meat that we eat. Mulkogi is the word for live fish, and sengson is the word for fish meat. The first is an old Korean word, and the other came later from Chinese characters. (125 words) You can send me comments or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com

When should you eat a banana? When it is a little green, when it is all yellow, or after it starts to get brown? That depends on the person. I heard about a couple who had a banana problem. The husband kept eating all the bananas. His wife never ate any. Finally, he asked her why she bought bananas if she didn’t like them. She said that he ate all the bananas before they were ripe. He liked bananas that were still a little green, but she wanted the bananas to get a little brown so that she was sure they were sweet. Now they understand each other, and he leaves some bananas to get ripe for his wife. (119 words) You can send me comments or your own story at jaremaga@gmail.com