HIGH LIFE A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Laguna Hills High Wins Decathlon

Laguna Hills High School won the 10th-grade Academic Decathlon with Sunny Hills finishing second and Dana Hills third at the daylong competition last week at Valencia High.

Top individual winners were Joey Sparacio of Laguna Hills, Jae Kang of Sunny Hills and Todd Faurot of Laguna Hills.

Fifty teams competed in the contest, with points available in the areas of essays, fine arts, health, interviews, language and literature, math, science, social science, speech and Super Quiz.

The Laguna Hills team was coached by Kathy Lane and Roger Gunderson, who also led the school’s 11th- and 12th-grade team to the county championship earlier this year.

The freshman Academic Decathlon competition is set for May 13.

In Cecil Adams’ column “The Straight Dope,” which has appeared in alternative newspapers since 1973, he answered the following letter:

Is there really such a thing as quicksand? If it does exist, where is it usually found, can it actually pull you down and under, and how can a person escape from it?

“Quicksand is the name given to a mass of sand particles that are supported by circulating water rather than by each other,” Adams replied. “It can be found wherever sand and water can be found--especially near streams, beaches and the mouths of rivers. Quicksand cannot suck you down and under--its density is greater than the density of most things, including human bodies; in other words, you can float in it. If you struggle, you’ll only succeed in digging yourself deeper in.

“If you get caught in quicksand, keep yourself still until you stop sinking (you will). Use slow swimming motions to get yourself into a horizontal position and then roll yourself to terra firma.”

“I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something.”

--Jackie Mason, comedian