The Berkeley Carroll Blotter is proud to present its 8th weekly newsletter of the 2025-2026 school year! This edition features the standard “5 in News” by Rory O’Connor (‘26) and a piece about BC’s fall athletic teams’ historic season by Genevieve Eisner (‘26). Later, Dylan Angel (‘26) presents a piece on A$AP Rocky’s new album delay and how it reflects a broader trend in the music industry, and Mikaela Gerstenhaber (‘26) writes about how the critical thinking central to our curriculum appears in our conversations. Photos from BC’s photographers are throughout. As always, we thank you for interacting with The Blotter.
Happy reading!
Genevieve Eisner and Cleo Logan, co-editors
Rory O’Connor (‘26)
Masked burglars, using a basket lift attached to a truck, stole “priceless jewels” from the Louvre Museum in Paris just last week. The heist only took eight minutes. The police force began an intense, intricate investigation, in which they found the stolen jewelry on the street by the museum. They have arrested seven suspects so far. French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez labeled the theft as “a major, highly organized operation” by a “very experienced team that acted extremely quickly.”
On October 13th, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Trump Administration could deploy National Guard troops in Portland, Oregon, which lifted a previous, temporary block by Judge Karin J. Immergut of the Federal District Court for the District of Oregon. This ruling allowed National Guard troops to station themselves outside of Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in Portland.
Japan recently elected their first-ever female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi. She is a 64 year-old conservative who has years of experience in the political field. A few weeks after being elected as prime minister, Takaichi was appointed head of the Liberal Democratic Party, which she plans to make more right-leaning by enforcing stricter immigration policies and advocating for an anti-espionage law.
A 2015 medical study concluded that introducing peanut products to children aged 0 to 3 years old would drastically reduce their likelihood of developing a peanut allergy later in life. And in 2017, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases recommended that parents introduce their children to peanut products from a young age. A new study, published just last week, revealed that “food allergy rates in children under 3 fell after those guidelines were put into place--dropping to 0.93 percent between 2017 and 2020, from 1.46 percent between 2012 and 2015. That’s a 36 percent reduction in all food allergies, driven largely by a 43 percent drop in peanut allergies.”
Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated Instagram post that featured him “dumping fecal matter on ‘No Kings’ protesters from an F-18 fighter jet”. The post featured singer Kenny Loggins’ song “Top Gun” from his track “Danger Zone”. Nearly a week after the post was released, Loggins denounced the post, critiquing Trump by stating “I can’t imagine why anybody would want their music used or associated with something created with the sole purpose of dividing us. Too many people are trying to tear us apart, and we need to find new ways to come together.”
Genevieve Eisner (‘26)
The fall athletics season is over, and the Berkeley Carroll teams have had historic seasons. Five teams made it to the championship, and three teams won the ACIS league.
Starting with Girls and Non-binary Soccer, the team won their third championship in a row, shattering school records. The team beat Avenues in a thrilling game that went into overtime and a penalty shootout, where fans remained on their toes until on the eighth penalty kick when an Avenues soccer player kicked the ball into the post. The team had their biggest fan showing yet, and it wasn’t just parents and teachers. Ackiee B. ‘26 who went to the game told me, “There were a whole bunch of us students. We were lucky enough to see the end of the double overtime and penalties, and it was such a tense moment. Since a lot of us are basketball players, those are the moments we live for.” As a person in attendance, I can attest that this moment was not for the weak, as we all held our breaths until the last moment.
As for BC’s volleyball program, the Girls and Non-binary JV Volleyball won their second ACIS championship in a row. They finished the season as regular and postseason champions. The team has dominated their league for the past two years, and there’s no sign of this changing anytime soon.o one can deny that our volleyball program has blossomed into one of the most successful programs here at BC. Although Varsity Volleyball did not win the ACIS championship, they made it to the finals and had a very good season. It may not seem like it, especially because the team won the ACIS championship in 2023 and 2024, but the program is constantly growing. The Varsity Volleyball league is getting increasingly more difficult to compete in, as Avenues has now joined the league for playoffs after previously being in a higher one, and other schools like Dwight have improved drastically. As a member of this team, when I think back on our season, instead of thinking about our loss in the championship against Avenues, I think of our incredibly nerve-wracking and thrilling semifinals match against Dwight which we won in the fifth set after about two and a half hours.
Although the team did not win the ACIS championship, the Boys and Non-binary Soccer team had another historic season. They made it to the finals for the first time in about fifteen years, and qualified for NYSAIS for the first time in twenty five years. Their game was directly after the Girls and Non-binary Soccer game, so the team also had their largest fanbase yet. The game ended with Saint Ann’s winning 3-1. There was a huge shift in the energy of the game that both the fans and the players noticed. “A lot of our players were playing with serious injuries,” Orson D. ‘26, one of the captains of the team, told me. “After the first fifteen minutes, which we dominated, they scored two quick fire goals. We thought we could get back in the game after that, but our motivation ran out when we stopped for several minutes after Jack got fouled and couldn’t get back up.” As an athlete myself, moments like these can be detrimental to the outcome of a game. Once players have to pause their momentum, and especially when a very key player on a team gets injured, it changes the mood, and can alter the team’s chemistry for the rest of the game. Despite this loss, the team made it to the NYSAIS tournament, and competed hard, ending their season on a high note.
Varsity Cross Country, one of the strongest programs here at BC, to no one’s surprise, had (and is still having!) an amazing season, with the Boys and Non-binary team winning the ACIS championship for the third year in a row. This program in particular has grown over time into the strong team it is today, and they will continue their season next week, in the NYSAIS tournament, where they hope to advance far into the competition. Although the Girls and Non-binary team did not win the championship, they too had a great season. In the ACIS finals, they placed third, and showed, more importantly, incredible sportsmanship when one of their key players fell and got injured. As for the boys, their championship win was written in the stars. As Ms. Moore wrote in her email, “No other runners were even in sight when the top two finishers, Isaac J. ‘26 and Sam F. ‘27 crossed the finish line!” I spoke to Josh S. ‘26, a runner on the Boys team who told me, “Despite our two hour late arrival, not being able to warm up, and the race director having to delay the competition for us, the boys did great. We won by almost forty points, which puts us in a great spot to potentially win NYSAIS for the first time ever.” This team’s season is far from over, so make sure to stay updated on the NYSAIS competition.
Anne Gunning, Assistant Athletic Director told me, “It’s been amazing and so much fun to see the growth and success across all of our teams this fall. With multiple teams reaching championship games, and at least two bringing home titles, there’s a growing sense of BC pride and excitement in the school. The hard work and dedication of our student-athletes and coaches has really elevated our athletics program. From Middle to Upper School, the future looks bright for BC athletics.” This is definitely true, as our BC teams continue to shatter school records, win championships, and compete on a high level. Keep up the good work, athletes!
Dylan Angel (‘26)
A$ap Rocky’s Don’t Be Dumb album has been delayed numerous times, which has led to him losing the trust of many of his frustrated fans. This is no longer an uncommon occurrence in the music industry: artists often postpone their album release dates in a way that rarely happened just a couple of decades ago. While artists are certainly still constricted by their labels, fans no longer seem to be their top priority.
Rocky has cited several reasons why this project has been set back so many times, one of which being his role alongside Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s upcoming film, Highest 2 Lowest. This is the same excuse many artists have used for not making music; we have seen an increasing number of rappers attempt to shed that label because they want to be seen as a jack of all trades. They use their fame in the music industry as a tool when they start entering into the other industries, like acting.
Different aspects of popular culture are beginning to fuse together. Rappers are prioritizing acting, and previous actors are pursuing full-time careers in music. The lines, when it comes to a career as a celebrity, are increasingly blurred within fame. Previous Disney Channel actress Sabrina Carpenter just sold out five separate nights at the Garden. Gone are the days of categorizing and boxing in artists and celebrities.
After postponing his album multiple times, Rocky is now refusing to give fans a tentative drop date, stating that it’s “about quality, not the calendar.” The level of freedom that the icons of our day have can be irritating when counting down the days for your favorite artists’ next release, but I believe that the blurred lines of fame will lead to more collaboration, more opportunities for talent exposure, and hopefully more genuine works of art. So while you can no longer count on your favorite rapper to be just a rapper, you may find that they are also your favorite actor in the best movie you’ve ever seen.
Mikaela Gerstenhaber (‘26)
There’s something at Berkeley Carroll that turns almost everyone into a philosopher, whether they reveal it to their peers or not. I’m not saying every – or even any – BC student goes home and reads Socrates for fun, but smaller mundane questions are dissected and stretched constantly in conversation.
A few weeks ago during my history class, Seb C. and I were working together to come up with a definition of both ‘globalism’ and ‘culture.’ This was a task completely on par with the American West course curriculum, yet somehow we fell into a tangent. I don’t remember the stream of thoughts that led us from culture to talking about what age humans were really supposed to live to, but we were invested. Class ended and our conversation was still not over. Seb and I continued arguing our separate opinions on the matter while walking to the Atrium. Although our conversation was extremely random, spectators were itching to know what we were discussing. One by one, students tuned in to the conversation, either digesting or contributing. This is when the conversation really took a turn. Two of the most outspoken voices in the conversation— James K. and Linus R.– somehow turned our original conversation into a broader one about the universe. To quote James, “Everything that happens in this universe is planned. If you don’t believe that, I don’t know what to tell you. There are 100% alternate universes where events occurred differently, but that’s how you know everything is planned. There’s a standard blueprint, but this universe has planned out this specific trajectory.” The next tangent was Linus explaining how the physics of life actually proves this theory. At this point I tuned out his speech because frankly, I could not understand it. That being said, I’m unsure if his statement had definite truth to it, but ultimately I chose to exit the rabbit hole of the conversation I had started.
That conversation is just one example of the many that take place at Berkeley Carroll. This doesn’t just occur within smaller groups of friends, but once the conversation is brought to a public BC space, anyone feels entitled to join in.
In mid-October, I was working outside of Cousin John’s enjoying my last taste of warm weather. At the picnic table next to me were eight boys in the eleventh grade. I don’t personally identify as nosy, and technically I didn’t have to be, because luckily for me Spencer G. did the job for me. He went up to the group and asked Jasper G. what they were discussing. These boys were participating in a very heated, yet simultaneously calm (confusing, I know) conversation. Jasper and Emille C. took different stances on a political discussion and were definitely irritated by the others’ “ignorance.” Yet, they stayed surprisingly calm. I overheard the end of Spencer and Jasper’s interaction where Jasper told him, “Yeah, we have these kinds of debates everyday.” I have seen zero out of the eight members of that group in any of my debate classes, yet they pursue their ponderings elsewhere.
Berkeley Carroll has not necessarily implemented this trait in us, but trained our minds to internalize it. Teachers promote the idea that everything in writing has a purpose, like when we dissect commas in English and even play a comma (as a character) during The Essay. They have us question every system ever invented in our history classes. The great thing is that being surrounded by people who think this way and people whose minds are constantly growing into this framework makes our community so rich and unique. Participating in what sometimes seems like a ridiculous conversation is so much more interesting than surrounding yourself with people who would not dream of getting a PhD in philosophy.
Monday 11/3:
Cross Country (Varsity) NYSAIS Meet (Away)
2:00 PM (Boys/NB), 2:30 (Girls/NB) Van Cortlandt Park
Monday: Co-Curriculars
Tuesday: Affinity Groups
Wednesday: G Block
Thursday: Grade Meeting
Friday: Senior Speakers
Sadie Weaver
Jaron Schlesser
Aaron Griffith
Soraya Gibson
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