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Good morning and welcome to Kid News.
I'm Kim.
Today is Wednesday, November 19th, 2025.
And we begin with the northernmost town in North America, saying so long to the sun for the next 64 days.
Utqiagvik, formerly known as Barrow, sits at the northern tip of Alaska, about 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
Due to Earth's tilt on its axis, the sun set yesterday at 136 in the afternoon and won't rise above the horizon again until January 22 2026.
For its nearly 5000 residents, that means polar night, two months of almost total darkness, except for a smattering of pale blue light just before dawn.
But the gloom is temporary.
From mid-May through August, it's just the opposite.
The sun never sets.
It's bright even at midnight, in the season known as endless daylight.
Fun fact Utqiadvik is also home to the Whalers, the only American high school football team that plays above the Arctic Circle.
Frequent flyers, a riddle.
When is a window seat not a window seat?
That seemingly easy question is now at the heart of a class action lawsuit.
Some unhappy air travelers say the answer is obvious enough, when there's no window.
United and Delta, however, disagree.
The airlines say just because someone pays extra for a window seat, that's no guarantee of a view.
Due to the configuration of some planes, window seats sometimes have no windows, just a wall, and that, the airlines argue, is good enough.
According to lawyers for the passengers, had the travelers known they were buying windowless window seats, they would not have selected them, much less paid extra for them.
United and Delta are trying to get the suit tossed.
If they're not successful, it'll go to trial in 2027.
We're kind of tired of all the words of the year out there right now, but this one has some legs.
Cambridge Dictionary's choice is inspired by Taylor Swift or really any celebrity that we may fixate on to the point where we think we know them when we don't.
The word is parasocial.
It was coined back in 1956 by two sociologists describing how TV viewers developed relationships with on-air personalities.
Today, the phenomenon is on the rise and expanding to include social influencers and even AI chatbots.
Cambridge University professor Simone Schnall seconds the choice of the word, calling parasocial relationships unhealthy, intense and completely one-sided.
Music.
The 99th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is just eight days away and its larger-than-life balloons are getting plumped and prepped in anticipation.
On Monday, organizers put their newest addition, the K-pop Demon Hunters, to the test.
Before that, Buzz Lightyear, Shrek...
Pac-Man and Mario also took practice flights at MetLife Stadium in nearby New Jersey.
The balloons are massive.
It takes between 80 and 100 people to hold on to each one during the two and a half mile parade route through Manhattan.
And while the biggest blowups will get most of the attention, some is sure to go to the smallest.
Goldfish, the orange snack cracker, is rolling out the tiniest float to appear in the parade ever.
How little?
It's just 14 crackers long.
The parade kicks off Thanksgiving morning at 8.30 Eastern Time and will be broadcast live on NBC.
Are you ready for your Thanksgiving getaway?
Thousands of years ago, Julius Caesar and Spartacus also had to pack their bags and hit the road from time to time.
Our resident sailor and junior journalist, Briggs Kossman, is just back from Rome, where he saw their favorite freeway firsthand.
Hi, Kid News.
This is Briggs and on the start of a busy holiday travel season, I'm bringing you a story from what historians consider the world's first highway, the Appian Way in Italy.
Nicknamed the Queen of Roads, the Appian Way stretches from Rome to Brindisi Italy, covering a distance of approximately 350 miles.
This first of its kind road was completed in 312 BCE.
That means this road is over 2000 years old and was used by ancient Romans like Julius Caesar and Spartacus.
Nowadays, the first 10 miles is preserved and you can see the remains of the ancient structures, including churches and catacombs.
The rest of the Appian Way and early connecting roads have been updated for modern use.
But here's a fun fact.
One section of the ancient road remains preserved under a McDonald's just outside of Rome.
The reason?
Three burial spots were discovered during construction and couldn't be disturbed by law.
The solution was to build the McDonald's above the section of roadway, with a transparent floor for viewing, and protect the historical site below.
Today, you can visit this location and walk along a piece of highway history while eating your french fries.
Past meets present on this Roman road trip.
Safe travels, Kid News listeners.
Great report.
Thanks, Briggs.
Still to come, deputies in Indiana hand out tickets to kids who just can't shake their 6-7 habit.
But first, today's Kid News quiz.
How long until the town of Utqiagvik, Alaska sees the sun again?
64 days.
A class action lawsuit is in the works over what airplane issue?
Windowless window seats.
Cambridge's word of the year is what?
Parasocial, meaning the unhealthy one-sided relationship some people have with celebrities.
How big is the smallest float in the upcoming Macy's parade?
The goldfish float is 14 crackers long.
In today's Kid News Kicker, can you be ticketed for excessive use of 6-7 in one tiny Indiana town?
Yes.
The Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Office recently sent deputies to a local school to hand out citations for violating the town's new 6-7 ordinance, which they joked was passed to keep parents sane.
In a cheeky video posted to Facebook, the officers hit up classrooms and cafeterias to catch kids in the act, explaining to one student that it's now against the law to use the words six and seven, unless it's for a math problem or someone's age.
Did police intervention and fake tickets make a difference?
Not a bit.
But two students wanting a squeaky clean record successfully vacated their violations the old-fashioned way, by offering the officers a box of donuts.
It's shout-out time for our teachers, Mr. Stahl and his Tigers at Tyler Run in Powell, Ohio.
Mrs Stephenson and her Wildcats at Blair Taylor in Blair Wisconsin, and to Michigan for Mrs Anderson and her Panthers at Kolb in Bay City, and Mrs Foxman, Mrs McGinnis and Mrs Vallemont and their Myers Tigers, who know that when they make good choices, good things happen at Myers in Grand Blanc.
Thanks for listening.
Have a great day, and we'll see you back here for more kid news tomorrow morning.
