The Mountain Eagle . . Wednesday, November 24, 2010 . . Page B2 The video game Pac-Man was introduced in 1980. The only known perfect score of 3,333,360 was set in 1999 by 33-year-old Billy Mitchell. It took him six hours to go through all 256 screens, gobbling up every dot, energy blob, ghost and fruit — without losing a single life! “I’ve always been a physical comedian. I’ve always been the gangly goofball who is awkwardly taller than everybody and will do anything to get a laugh.” — “iCarly” actor Jerry Trainor on tv.com. — World Almanac for Kids A chat with the popular actress/singer NEWSDAY We met up with Miranda Cosgrove, 17-year-old pop recording artist and star of Nickelodeon’s “iCarly” to ask her a few questions. Now that you have established yourself as a singer, do you like all the cheering when you’re performing? A Yeah, when I’m performing onstage it’s so different from when I’m on the set — because we don’t have an audience on “iCarly.” ... So it’s real exciting being onstage and having people in front of you and being able to jump up and down and have the crowd jump with you. C H R I S WA R E / M C T What got you started in acting? A When I was 3, I was in a restaurant with my mom and dad, and an agent just asked them if I wanted to join their agency. And my mom was like, no, that’s weird, no thanks. And then she looked into it, and I ended up just trying it out, and I loved it. It’s kind of funny because I can’t see myself doing anything else, but in a way I just fell into it. If you had to choose between acting or singing ...? A If I had to pick right now, I’m really into singing because it’s so new to me. It’s just such a cool experience. Do your song ideas come from real situations? A Sometimes, it’s things that happen to my friends. ... but usually it’s something that happened to me. Like with “Kissing You,” the single, I wrote that about a guy I really like, and it’s about a real person. Balancing movies, “iCarly” and recording, how does schoolwork get done? A It’s probably the hardest thing finishing school work. Because I have a tutor on set and I don’t go to regular school. ... I’m terrible in pre-calculus. It’s scary. ... What is your favorite part about being a star and being on tour? Do you like being recognized in public? A I love when people come up to me and talk about episodes they like about Carly or they say “Oh, I love your song, I love this.” ... It’s cool, too, when parents say they don’t mind watching the show with their kids. It’s always nice. What do you like better, your TV show “iCarly” or “Drake and Josh”? A It’s hard to pick because I don’t have any siblings. Drake and Josh are literally like my brothers. I just went to Drake’s concert in L.A., ... and I see Josh all the time. ... I have seen him six times in Yogurtland in the last three months. And also, I run into him at the movies all the time. I feel like I’m stalking him. ... But, yeah, those guys are the best. ... It’s just hard to pick between the two (shows). Since you are a role model to kids, who is your role model? A Thanks. My mom or Gwen Stefani because they’re so much alike. Just kidding. Gwen Stefani is awesome; I love her. Who is your favorite on “iCarly,” and what is your favorite episode? A It’s so hard to pick my favorite character because, well, actually this season, Gibby (Noah Munck), he’s a regular. ... He’s really funny. ... And then Jerry (Trainor), who plays my brother on the show; he is the best. He gave me my first driving lesson, and he’s totally crazy, so I love him. Everybody on the show is so much fun and Nathan (Kress), Jeannette (McCurdy) and I go see movies all the time. We hang out. But my favorite episode is probably “I Saved Your Life” where Carly likes Freddy. That’s one of my favorites. I (also) love the Halloween episode. I got to wear this crazy bug suit. ... I was 13, and I remember I had to walk around in that bug suit for a week ... And Jerry kept grabbing the back because it had a stinger ... He kept grabbing it and spinning me in circles. So that was pretty fun. The war on bedbugs “Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite!” It’s a silly thing to say. But it’s a real problem. Bedbugs hide in headboards, mattress seams and furniture. They come out to find food. Like mosquitoes, bedbugs eat human blood. In the 1950s, a chemical called DDT almost wiped out bedbugs. But a few critters hid, ate and survived. Now they’re back! And DDT is no longer used, because it’s bad for the environment. The common bedbug has been found in “all 50 states and around the world,” says Jeff White, star of the Internet show “Bed Bug TV.” Two out of three people react to bedbug bites. They may mistake the itchy, red welts for mosquito bites. The good news is that bedbugs don’t fly or spread diseases. But they do upset people. “They’re creepy,” AC T UA L S I Z E White explains. ➤ FAST FACTS ● Newly hatched bedbugs are light tan in color, nearly transparent and about the size of a poppy seed. Adult bedbugs are rusty red in color, with flat, oval bodies. They are about the size of an apple seed. ● Signs of a bedbug infestation include small, dark spots; red stains; live bugs; and tiny, white eggs. They can be found on headboards, box springs, and mattress seams and tufts. The bugs also live in baseboards, upholstered furniture, and crevices and cracks in furniture. ● To protect against bedbugs in the home, the Environmental Protection Agency recommends reducing clutter, using special mattress and boxspring covers and inspecting secondhand furniture before bringing it inside. ● An adult bedbug can survive 550 days without food. ● Bedbugs love warm, dry climates. But they like cold weather too. They have been found in the northwest woods of Canada. In Alaska, infestations have risen 800 percent over the past five years. — David Von Drehle © 2010 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved. TIME FOR KIDS and Timeforkids.com are registered trademarks of Time Inc. What are bedbugs’ favorite flowers? Spring flowers! Where can a bee find a bathroom on the go? The BP station! What do you call two spiders who just got married? Newlywebs! — MCT Mind-boggling Rubik’s Cube is back, in class Seven-year-old Emma Bahr’s eyes lit up when she got close to piecing together a solid side on her Rubik’s Cube. “Ms. Sullivan helped me, but I am getting better,” said the second-grader at Raven Stream Elementary in New Prague, Minn., as she held up the brightly colored cube. “My hands hurt, but I think it’s really cool.” Once thought of as a puzzle that only geniuses could solve, the basic 30-year-old toy is making a comeback in classrooms across the country, from elementary to high schools. Interest has been spurred by the company’s new school-oriented initiative called You Can Do the Cube, but teachers say the three-dimensional cubes teach kids KidNews is sponsored by math skills as well as how to manage their frustration. “I think it’s really just invaluable,” said teacher Margaret Sullivan, who uses the cubes to show spatial reason- G L E N S T U B B E / M I N N E A P O L I S S TA R T R I B U N E / M C T Lain Chapman, Kylee Chromy, Adam Hillstrom and Tanner Paden had fun learning the techniques to solve the Rubik’s Cube. ing using the squares’ different positions. “The kids just love it. If they can touch it and move it, then it becomes more meaningful for them.” But the lessons get far more complex, as well. David McMayer, an algebra teacher at Southwest High School in Minneapolis, used the cubes to teach transformations and functional analysis. “When you’re holding the cube, you have to look ahead at the three or four modifications you’ll be doing next, so it gets complicated,” he said. “It’s kind of an ‘Aha’ moment for them.” At Burnsville (Minn.) High School, the cubes got enough attention in Chuck Croatt’s geometry class that he decided to start a Rubik’s Cube club last spring, dedicated to solving the puzzle and having informal, inter-club competitions. “I just brought it up and kids got really excited about it,” said Croatt, who has taught entire classes to solve the puzzle layer-by-layer, based on the approximately 10 basic algorithms needed to achieve consistent results each time. — Amelia Rayno, Star Tribune (Minneapolis) Premier Elkhorn Coal Co.