As the weather warms up, you might be looking for a frozen treat. Here are five places to check out.

Rita’s

Whether a person’s favorite flavor is mango, root beer or Swedish Fish, Rita’s has Italian ice to suit everyone’s desires. This year, Rita’s has added or will add marshmallow and peanut butter ice, chocolate chip cookie dough ice, Strawberry Starburst ice, and new sundaes and candy mix-ins. Also, check out the new Rita’s Ice App and rewards program.

Where: 351 Loucks Road, Manchester Township; 3000 E. Market St., Springettsbury Township; 901 S. Queen St., York; 617 Lombard Road, Windsor Township; 466 Shrewsbury Commons Ave., Shrewsbury; and 1082 Carlisle St., Hanover

Sweet Frog

Sweet Frog offers 14 flavors and 60 toppings at their new location in York Township. (File photo)

Sweet Frog locations have been popping up all over York County and have become increasingly popular since the fall. Their premise of filling a cup of frozen yogurt and then adding toppings at one’s discretion sets this frozen-yogurt shop apart

Where: 2071 Springwood Road, York Township , 14605-C Mount Airy Road, Shrewsbury; and 141 Wilson Ave., Hanover

The Meadows Original Frozen Custard

Some people looking for a step up from ice cream enjoy The Meadows’ frozen custard. The Meadows’ frozen custard is made fresh everyday. They also serve Italian ice, gelati, sundaes, shakes, Artic Swirls, smoothies and more.

Where: 1193 Loucks Road, York

Snow Palace

With more than 75 flavors of Italian Ice and hundreds of combinations, the Snow Palace is a hot spot for a cool treat. One frequent customer, Abby Kling, 16, of Spring Grove said, “I like going to Snow Palace because it’s a nice cool treat on a hot day. Their snowballs are really good, probably the best I have ever had. My favorite thing to get is rainbow, that’s multiple flavors combined.”

Where: 360 S. Richland Ave., York

Papertown Dairy Bar and Restaurant

Popular among the locals, this Spring Grove restaurant has been around since 1957. In addition to regular menu items, the Dairy Bar serves soft-serve vanilla, chocolate and raspberry, hard ice cream, and Italian ice.

Where: 267 N. Main St., Spring Grove

“Oz the Great and Powerful.” Well, sort of. The Land of Oz has returned with Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire’s prequel to beloved movie “The Wizard of Oz.”

“Oz the Great and Powerful” tells the story of Oscar Diggs (James Franco), Oz, a circus magician who believes that he has a real spark for magic and should be performing in front of thousands of people. After an unexplained rampage by the “strong man” of the circus, Diggs flees in a hot air balloon right into the heart of a tornado. Diggs, like Dorothy in the original story, is thrown by the tornado into the colorful world of Oz. Diggs is quickly discovered by Theodora (Mila Kunis) among the flashy Alice-in-Wonderland-esque animations. Theodora insists that Diggs is the man her father prophesied would come and rid the Land of Oz of the Wicked Witch.

The cast of “Oz the Great and Powerful” does a decent job in this prequel of “The Wizard of Oz.” Franco is a believable conman who eventually becomes convinced that he isn’t the terrible man that he thinks himself to be. The supporting cast also does a fairly good job as witches, a china-girl, a monkey and every other creature found in Oz. Unfortunately, their acting does not carry the movie.

“The Wizard of Oz” sets the scene in 1939 as feel-good story classic riding on the values of friendship, kindness and simple morals. “Oz the Great and Powerful,” however, almost completely removes the morals of goodness so strongly portrayed in the original “Oz” movie.

“Oz the Great and Powerful” is based on one man’s, Oscar Diggs’, wish for fame and riches. Diggs enters the Land of Oz and immediately cons the first person he runs into, Theodora, who just happens to be strolling through the blindingly colorful woods a good two-day walk from the Emerald City. Soon Diggs tricks a talking monkey into a signing a life-debt to himself. Once in the Emerald City, Diggs discovers that, as king, he will be given riches beyond his wildest dreams as soon as he kills the evil witch who is plaguing Oz. Diggs continues to masquerade himself as a true wizard until he realizes that magic is real in Oz. He immediately attempts to back away from the responsibility and confesses to Glinda, the good witch, that he isn’t the wizard Theodora’s father prophesied about. Glinda doesn’t cast him out as a fraud, though, believing that he can save Oz anyway. She tricks everyone in Oz into believing that Diggs is the man who will save Oz and in the end, Diggs, with the help of many creatures, defeats the wicked witch through trickery and becomes king to rule over Oz and the Emerald City.

“Oz the Great and Powerful” is simply an undeserving hero’s story of a man who wishes for something and manages to get what he wishes for without changing himself. Unlike the original story, where we care deeply for Dorothy and her companions as they journey to find a way to get Dorothy home, in “Oz the Great and Powerful” we feel very little for Diggs. The movie does a decent job of keeping the viewer interested using flashy colors, beautiful animations and large explosions. However, the story of “Oz the Great and Powerful” is certainly no “Wizard of Oz” and one shouldn’t watch it hoping to find any underlying message other than “conning can get you what you want.”

“Oz the Great and Power” definitely isn’t going to be the movie of the year. However, if you are looking to entertain a younger audience, this movie will do the trick.

My vacation is stretching out before me and I intend to milk it for all it’s worth.  I plan to look for a job wherever I can find it, and to finally get my license.  I also intend to catch up on my writing for this blog site (I understand I’ve been a little lax lately).    In my spare time, I will keep my eyes open for the odd adventure.  Maybe I’ll go to the pool.  I will also watch a lot of movies, read a lot of books and listen to a lot of music.  Bliss.

Later this month, I’ll have to participate in some graduation ceremonies at school, but as for now, I plan to get a little R&R and just chillax.  I’m a free man and I’m gonna bask in my freedom.  I feel that I deserve it, having completed my entire high school career.   

Darcy moves to Sanditon, California, to launch Pemberley Digital’s new app, Domino. There she finds warring forces: the advocates for “New Sanditon,” who wish to commercialize the seaside town, opposing the townspeople who push against the reform.

Gigi’s journey has just started– check out the first video:

By Brady Achterberg,
Susquehannock High School

A lot of people argue that health is your responsibility and not some company’s, which is true, up to a point. Here is where that point gets passed by:

Let’s suppose you’re the provider for a family, including children. Their aversion to your provisions is vicious, and is matched only by your determination to make them eat. What do you do?

You could remove some of the extra food from the cabinets, so that when dinnertime approaches the kids can’t rely on snack binges to survive.

You could challenge the kids to buy all the food that doesn’t come from your cooking pot themselves (with no way to make enough money to match real store prices, they’ll have to eat what you give them).

You could, well, get deranged (this is where the allegory breaks down), and hire some food scientists to ingrain your dishes with habit-forming substances. Nothing serious, nothing so addictive it cannot be broken, just something to keep the kids coming back for more.

Now, suppose the kids had a good reason for avoiding the food you were fixing. It doesn’t taste bad, necessarily – it just has as much nutritional value as wax paper, and they realize it.

Suddenly this sounds like a bizarre case of child abuse. And junk food companies have reached the point where they have as much responsibility for their customers as parents have for their children.

The fast food industry spends about $10 billion each year on advertising directly to kids and young teens (http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/fast-food-marketing-strategies-2489.html). This includes TV commercials, product placements, and coupons via text messages that aim for the younger demographic. Children spend a ridiculous amount of their time watching TV; a substantial amount of that time is spent looking in on a world where a brand of food is idolized in flashing, blaring colors.

In addition, the science behind the taste of food is exacting to the point of hilarity. Clinically, nothing will taste better than blueberry yogurt from a plastic tube. That mushy substance is the product of extensive research and chemical experimentation – and the result is something disgusting to some but infinitely tasty to the mind embroiled in food-pop-culture. People, young and old alike, can’t easily walk away from food that fits their taste buds like fatty chips, sugary soda and candy.

Any company aiming to bring America salivating to its door has some responsibility for what it provides. And some companies are changing for the better – you hear this a lot about McDonalds, which has been retooling its food to up its public image ever since “Super Size Me” came out in 2004. Many people suggest this is a trick to improve PR, but any company that makes its food healthier (whatever the motive) gets a pat on the back from me. Of course, that pat is really a prod between the shoulders – “Keep on moving,” I say. “We’re almost there.”

Con: Food companies can’t take all the blame

By EVELYN WAGAMAN,
Spring Grove Area High School

If you’ve ever eaten from a bag of your favorite potato chips, you know how addicting snack foods can be. So, if snack foods ruin your health, whose fault is it, anyway?

Unfortunately, no matter how delicious that salty, crunchy, potato-based bag of goodness, it’s still yours. Well, mostly.

Food companies work hard to make their company the most tempting on the market. They spend millions of dollars testing new combinations of ingredients, recruiting taste testers and analyzing consumer data to fine-tune their products so you will buy them.

Take, for instance, the effort put in to formulate Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper. In order to find consumers’ “bliss point” — or the most pleasing combination of colors, flavors and textures — Cadbury Schweppes prepared 31 diet and 30 regular test versions of the new product. Consumers at nearly 4,000 taste tests answered a barrage of questions about each sample, together providing the company with 135 exhaustive pages of data, graphs and analysis (nytimes.com, “The Extraordinary Science of Junk Food”).

It’s over the top, and it’s pretty low from a moral standpoint. But it’s how the business works, and to expect otherwise is unrealistic.

It’s an unspoken rule that when you go to the store, every brand name on the shelves is competing for your business. Every processed, oily, delicious snack food is yelling, “Buy me!” After all, it was expertly designed to do so.

However, if you remain sentient of this fact, if you are circumspect in your eating choices, you can ultimately take control of your own health before you are addicted to snack food. Potato chips might be delicious, but they are definitely not as addictive as cigarettes in small amounts; you can indulge every once in a while without allowing your eating to get out of hand.

There are a few easy ways to keep your junk food habit in check. First, don’t go to the grocery store hungry. This tip cuts down on impulse buys, which are frequently some of the most unhealthy. Second, check ingredient lists. With a little effort, you can find versions of your favorite foods without many of those unpronounceable additives and the food manufacturers’ best friend, corn syrup.

However, if you are worried that your junk food consumption is already at dangerous levels, don’t panic. To start eating healthier, gradually cut back on the most nutrient-deficient foods you consume and replace them with unprocessed snacks, like raw vegetables or nuts, that will keep you full longer. The process might take time, but you will eventually become used to more natural foods.

For more health tips and recipes for healthier snacks, visit the York Daily Record’s wellness blog No Sweat, York.

Take a listen below to “I’d Contribute More Dead,” undoubtedly my favorite track on the EP. For more music by You, Me, and Everyone We Know, check out his website linked here.

Amanda Chan is a senior at Central York High School this year. She’s also a member of the Teen takeover staff here at YDR, and, in addition to that, she’s awesome.

Unfortunately, I haven’t met Amanda very many times. Most of the communication I’ve done with her has been over Facebook. Still, it’s fairly clear that Amanda is awesome.

This year, Amanda launched a campaign asking that Central York’s high school graduation gowns and caps no longer be colour-coded based on gender. It didn’t get off to a very pleasant start– arguing on Facebook, gossiping at school. But there was success. After meeting with the principal and doing a write-up on why the graduation ceremony should no longer be gender-segregated (Is it truly a community, one big graduating class, if it’s separated by gender?), the school administration agreed that the gowns would be all-black this year.

And then this happened. That article probably got the more responses than any previous article on Teen Takeover’s blog. And it makes a great point.

Amanda is not just a cool person who shares my love for the perfect shade of yellow that is mustard and cute stockings.

She is a person who stands up. Senior year is the time to take action, right? That’s what Amanda did this year, and what she continues to do.

And in case you aren’t convinced of Amanda’s awesomeness, here’s a list of things that are proof of it:

She’s really cute. Quite nice. Also outgoing. Likes mustard (the colour). Unafraid of nasty Facebook trolls. Expresses anger at Quizlet succinctly. Is awesome.

I’m sure Amanda will continue to do awesome and be a total babe wherever she ends up. You know you want to join the club.

You finally think it’s all over: you’ve got your acceptance letters, you’ve committed to your dream college. But now it’s time for scholarships.

While more applications are the last things you want to see during May of your senior year, they are a must for anyone paying college tuition. Each year tuition rises, and if you’re like most families, any type of grant or scholarship you might receive is important and helpful. But filling out applications at your school can be difficult and time consuming because not all scholarships offered apply to you or your interests.

That’s why http://edu.fastweb.com makes finding scholarships easy. By simply signing up for FastWeb’s free membership, you will be matched with hundreds of scholarships that actually apply to you. FastWeb asks for your interests and course of study, and from there matches you with scholarships that companies and associations from across the country offer. FastWeb takes the searching out of the scholarship application process, because it will personally email you any scholarship matches the site has found for you. The value and types of scholarships offered on FastWeb vary, so there’s something for everyone. Some scholarships don’t even require an essay, or the essay prompt is unique, for example: if you could have a superpower what would it be? Or what was the craziest thing that you ever did to save money?

While FastWeb might be directed toward high seniors, it also offers thousands of essay contests and scholarships for freshmen, sophomores and juniors.

Do:

-Use Quizlet as a last minute refresher

-Break it down by the century

-Take a timed practice test before hand

Don’t:

-Cram for tests during the year because then you have more to relearn for the exam

-Just focus on the significant events; Instead look at time periods as a whole.

-Over think the multiple choice questions; go with your gut and move on.

I am certainly no expert seeing that this was my first exam. With that being said, I would love to hear other people’s Do’s and Don’ts for AP tests that they have taken.

1. iTunes. This popular online media player was first launched in 2001. Before iTunes, we had to rely on good old fashioned music stores to get the latest album. There wasn’t any instant download that we know, and love, today.

2. The iPod touch. Speaking of popular Apple products, the first iPod touch was released in 2007. It seems amazing to think that, just about seven years ago, we had no idea what it was like to use a touch screen to listen to music. When the iPod touch came out, Walkmans and iPod Classics soon went out of style. Hmm… I wonder why?

3. Smartphones. These fancy phones are still pretty new to us. It wasn’t that long ago that the coolest phone to have was a Razor. Flip phones were the hippest. In less than five years, we’ve upped our cellular phone technology from Razors to Samsung Galaxies and Androids. Can you imagine the kind of advanced phones they’ll have in twenty to thirty years? They’ll make Siri and the iPhone 5 seem like nothing.

4. Wi-Fi. This one seems like a bit of a shocker. I can still remember the times when hotel receptionists would look at you, with a confused expression, when you asked if they offered Wi-Fi. To my kids, this is going to sound like an apocalypse. A world without instant internet connection wherever you go? Oh, the insanity!

5. Flat screen TVs. These things keep getting thinner and thinner. Before we know it, televisions are just going to be a hologram. I grew up with, and embarrassingly still have, a three foot deep TV. It’s just a one hundred pound box of wires that produces a semi satisfying image. Compared to the LED and HDTVs of today’s standard, I might as well be watching a television with antennas and a black and white screen.

It’s funny to think about what my kids will find incredible when I tell them stories about my childhood. I can’t even begin to imagine what the future of technology will offer for them to tell their kids.