52 Comments
Ah, Thanksgiving break, the time for turkey, family, pie, and untimely assigned papers. Surprisingly, Bwog has a family too, so posts may be a bit sparse for the next few days. But before we binge on pecan pie, in the vein of traditions, Bwog gives credit where it’s due. Through a very long e-mail thread, Bwog has gathered a list of what our staffers are thankful for. It’s a little long, at times convoluted, but it comes with all the best intentions.
My tuition
The extermination of the bedbugs on Schapiro 12
Claremont security guards
Barnard shuttle
Simon, the swipe desk guard in McBain
Edibles and drinkables
Vegan cupcakes
Pinkberry
Bars with free pizza
CrackDel
Spicy special
M2M cheeseburger combo
$2 cans of Red Bull from the 116th St. kiosk
Sip’s half off Mondays
Westside market
Free cheese samples at Westside
Free coffee and cookies in Dodge and Lewisohn
Tea and cookies in the Philosophy lounge
Meredith’s Bread (from the farmer’s market)
99 cent cans of Arizona iced tea
Pumpkin beer/soup/bread
Trader Joe’s Beer
Robert’s American Gourmet Potato Flyers with Balsamic Vinegar and Sea Salt
Soy bacon
Haagen Dazs’ cake hotline
3.3 lb tubs of cookie dough from West Side for $7
Academia
Peter Bearman
David Yerkes
Richard Bulliet
Eric Foner
Everything about Nicholas Dames
Jstor
Deadline extensions
Bruce Robbins
Bruce Robbins’ academic scarves
p/d/f
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Contemporary Civilization
Beau, my hip-hop T.A.
Ian, my 20th century comp lit T.A.
The smaller things
Almost being 21
Old high school friendships
Roommates who let you slip a pair of pants into their load of laundry
The little boy i saw last week on 114th who was holding his sister on a leash
Swingsets
Getting to see your pets during break
Cowboy boots finally being over
6 year olds breakdancing
Dollar stores
No subway fare increases
Parental largesse
Bicycles
My rice cooker
Technology
g-chat emoticons
Credit card machines in taxis
Google Maps/Reader/Alerts
Mac geniuses
Skype
Non-controversial stem cell research
oink (r.i.p)
Super Mario Galaxy on wii
Mac sticky notes
Battery life
Sirius satellite radio on the internet
Clocks that automatically change themselves for daylight savings time
Scrabulous
Tab browsing
The world beyond the gates
The Manhattan Greenway
BAM
McCarren Park Pool
The Williamsburg bridge
Amtrak
The D train
Campus activists who go abroad in spring
Vamoose bus
Zipcar
Culture
Morton Feldman
The Approval Matrix
The Coen brothers
In Rainbows
Weeds
Heroes
Frank O’Hara poems
Free concert tickets of various sorts
People who understand Flight of the Conchords references
Marcel Duchamp
Miranda July
Balkan folk music (and the boyish, floppy-haired hipstaaas who now make it)
A Prairie Home Companion
This American Life
Slate
Wendell Berry
My Bloody Valentine reuniting
Jakob and Julia
Mary Oliver
Ryan Adams/DJ Reggie
McSweeney’s lists
Malcolm Gladwell resumes blogging
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Bwog!
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52 Comments
@Iam thankful FOR HAVING AN ANONYMOUS OUTLET FOR MY ANGER
GS must be dismantled
@I am thankful for Rage Against the Machine.
@i am not thankful for all those fucking professors who’ve given me so much work over this weekend.
BASTARDS.
@i too am thankful for lamont doherty earth observatory.
@WHAT?!! I (along with, presumably, every single other person who has ever taken his classes) will take you down for that comment.
@conservative senior I am thankful that I am graduating in May so that I will no longer have to deal with everything turning into an annoying political issue like the discussion above.
But I am also thankful that I have had the opportunity to spend 4 years here with a bunch of really amazing and highly opinionated people.
@thankfulness You’re thankful for the opinionated people, but at the same time not so thankful, from what I gather.
@o_O Malcolm Gladwell blogs?
@Senior Nicholas Dames is vastly overrated. Try Erik Gray for a real English class.
@CML Gray is on leave, though, isn’t he? Dames, on the other hand, wrote the following in an e-mail:
“…Big Lebowski is, in fact, the best movie ever made, and I never listen to any contrary argument.”
@10 foot pole i.e. what I don’t want to be touching a debate on whether or not to support our soldiers with. Hate the policy, hate the war, but don’t hate the kids who are eating their turkey and then going back out on duty.
I, for one, am thankful for turkey and mashed potatoes, especially the mashed potatoes, friends in tough times, family in tougher times, and both in happy times, fall foilage, the godless wind tunnel that is 115th and Riverside for giving me a good wakeup every now and then, sunday mornings, cups of tea, and happy memories, even if they seem a bit bittersweet.
Remember the good times, appreciate the little things, and don’t sweat the small stuff. I, on the other hand, need to sweat the gigantic 20-page seminar paper I haven’t written yet. Eep. I guess I’m also thankful for CLIO and BorrowDirect.
@here we go I am thankful for:
-Furries and the constant lolz they bring
@123 I am thankful for all the assholes in this world. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t realize how great of a person I am.
@I'm thankful for being at home with my family.
@man i looked at the comments from last year’s thanksgiving post and it was a lot more fun than this. boo politics.
@guys This is a day for love and thanks, not hatred! As a man more brilliant than I once said, “Come together, right now, over me”. Totally man!
@wow This school is off the deep end. I am a liberal democrat with family members in the armed services and people like Laffo make me sick. “I’m capable of defending my own nation, thank you very much.” I’d bet a pretty penny that you would not have the gall to say that to ANY man or women who has ever served. You are despicable and I can’t wait for you to grow out of columbia’s bullshit bubble of self-importance and become a stock broker. You probably sparknoted the entire core, you moronic ass. gobble gobble
@Anonymous Actually, whether you disagree or agree with him or her, I would bet that a thoughtful survey of every author in the core, especially in CC, would reveal a deep and well-reasoned mistrust of a standing army and war in general.
Oh yes, and the U.S. Army also agrees with his stance, since they only accept volunteers. Obviously the country believes that a draft is not necessary for the nation to defend itself. Plus, if he or she ever buys goods or services in the United States, he pays for armed services salaries and equipment with his taxes, which suggests tacit approval of them. Finally, I didn’t see him or her condemn anyone outright, he or she merely said that he or she didn’t care what the armed forces did as long as they didn’t engage in atrocities. I think even the most rabid anti-military fools would agree with that stance.
So in short, I’m thankful for trolls and the people they get a rise out of.
@amd This post is nice and all, but I think BWOG should investigate the sex video of a Columbia (female) ex-track runner circulating the internet…
It’s pretty much the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.
@Me I’m thankful that the girl of my dreams no longer exists only in my dreams. Life is sweet people.
@aww too adorable.
@I really, really like this picture.
@rjt I’m thankful for commenters who feel that every Bwog post is a platform for their political rants! B-)
Happy Thanksgiving!
@bull two girls 1 finger as well
@hip-hop&y'dontstop Beau is awesome!
@thanks electric blankets at home, turkey leftovers, knowing that everything will turn out ok even though it might not seem like it, being in love.
@I'm thankful for ... INTO THE WOODS
NOVEMBER 29 8PM
NOVEMBER 30 3PM and 8PM
ROONE ARLEDGE
$5 CUID
TIX IN LERNER BOX OFFICE
@List Three Things I’m Thankful For:
Two Girls, One Cup.
@Haha 2 girls 1 cup
&
2 girls 1 finger
@zach condon there are old men with trumpets, gusles, and other such things who make balkan folk music too. admittedly, their hipster counterparts are more visually appeasing.
@aaand... being alive/healthy again.
@is... that Yelena? Just a guess.
I am thankful for guys at HamDel.
@and... Free New York Times
Christmas lights on college walk
No more hunger strikers!
PresBo
Butler Cafe employees
@xxx another vote for xavier sala-i-martin
@WiiAddict I concur, Super Mario Galaxy for Wii is definitely something to be thankful for!
@sacks looks like mark wahlburg here
@eew YES Super Mario Galaxy is the best thing that could possibly ever happen to me, and possibly the worst thing to ever happen to my gpa.
@ttan I’m thankful for being in the midst of a commodities and resources boom whilst the US enters recession. Muwahahaha!
@Represent! I love Beau too. Which one of my fellow hip-hop enthusiasts writes for Bwog? There are only 23 possibilities. Unless Beau is thankful for himself.
@cccccccc oi! soy bacon!
@how about the soldiers of the u.s. military, many our age, who let us worry exclusively about pinkberry, google maps and modern art?
@Dear Mr. O’Reilly, please get over your fixation with our university and leave us alone!
@EAL, C '09 If you believe anyone who supports the United States military is a Bill O’Reilly type, then I feel very sorry for you. Your ignorance is really quite extraordinary. #4 is right on the money. I may not have supported the invasion of Iraq, but that does not diminish my support for the brave men and women brave enough to spend their lives defending our country. Spend time with veterans, listen to their stories, and maybe you’ll appreciate what these people are doing and what drives them to do it. Supporting our soldiers and veterans isn’t a question of left and right, or Democrat and Republican; it’s simply about loving your country and thanking God for the freedoms you are able to enjoy. It does not mean that one must be an extreme ideologue who is intolerant of other countries of the world. But I feel that if we are lucky enough to be attending such a great institution, we should never forget the other things in this country that we too often overlook. Reducing patriotism to mere partisan dialogue is silly and childish. I should think that as Columbia students, we should be above such petty arguments.
I do not care for Mr. O’Reilly either, because I believe that his show too often presents opinions as facts. Am I a conservative? Well, compared to most Columbia students, yes. But that should not matter; I’ve voted for both parties in the past. Yet I still feel that on this Thanksgiving, so long as we continue to have a military (never mind where they are or why they’re there), we should give thanks to these people. And so I echo #4’s sentiment, and hope that people like you, #5, will eventually learn to overcome their naivete.
@hey this is a good post.
and it’s spot-on, too. soldiers do not decide on US foreign policy. if you hate our foreign policy then hate our foreign policy but soldiers are just taking orders from their superiors. and they are fucking brave. i cannot imagine myself in actual combat.
@Laffo I support the US and its citizen soldiers (citizen first, soldiers second!), but only as long as its policies are acceptable. I don’t support idiotic actions or the idiots who support idiotic actions. Therefore, I don’t really care what the volunteers “defending” me are doing on Thanksgiving, as long as they’re not killing innocent civilians, they’re free to pay for their education or fix their lives or whatever the fuck it is those people do. I’m capable of defending my own nation, thank you very much.
I’m tired of this support the troops shit on holidays. Let’s keep Thanksgiving what it’s meant to be: Generic Autumn Harvest Festival # 2 – Subsection A (Subsection A denotes a fixation with the killing and co-opting of indigenous peoples)
@support You’re an idiot. I’m afraid I don’t think you’re likely to hear that very often here. But it’s true, and you should spare the rest of us the retarded crap that comes out of your mouth.
@"Support" This list is what we’re thankful for.
Not what we’re worried about.
That goes for you and #4. No, when I think about soldiers in Iraq, gratitude is not up there on my list of emotions. Worry, and fear, and concern, and anger at the people who put them there- how can anyone be thankful for a victim?
@Sorry I don’t believe that everyone who supports the military is a Bill O’Reilly type, but here is what I’ve observed. I watched as one political party in this country co-opted the idea of “supporting our troops” to use it as a political war cry. I’ve watched as they’ve framed their political opponents (as you are doing now) as a bunch of douchebags who don’t care about the welfare of those who have chosen to serve. (Yes, I take great offense to this, asshole.) I’ve watched as they’ve used this intricately painted argument and beautiful slogan to retain political support and sway the moderate base in 2004, which ultimately has resulted in more American soldier deaths.
Ever since the right wing coopted the idea of “supporting our troops” and turned it into their own political war cry, most moderates and lefties have a hard time being as vocal with their support. Yeah sure, it really kinda sucks, we would love to be more vocal, but perhaps we feel that it probably does much more service to the troops to keep the cauldron of jingoism at bay and avoid another conservative leader who might drive more of them out to die for no good cause and the rest of the country further down the road to hell.
To the conservatives out there, if you’re going to throw out “support the troops,” I have a bone for you to chew on:
While you’re sitting there stuffing your face with the significantly discounted fruits of minority labor, perhaps you should also consider that it was your ideology that has resulted in 3800+ American soldier deaths and countless many critical and disfiguring injuries. Perhaps you should be thankful that you’ll never have to look any of their family members in the eye and explain why you elected and then re-elected the foolish man who is responsible for their loss.
No sir, I do not “support the troops” because I do not support broken conservative ideology and it’s slick marketing. I’ve watched in horror over the past seven years as this country has rapidly fallen from a global symbol of freedom, democracy and a bright future to a dangerous and unpredictable rogue state. I RESPECT the solidiers and in some ways pity them, as their goodwill, desire to serve and die for their country, and welfare have been completely squandered by the conservative juggernaut that maintained it’s power thanks to coopting ideals and slick slogans like “support our troops.”
@Anonymous Hear, hear!
@couple more... kenneth jackson
xavier sala-i-martin
@apow who put wendell berry?!
@Matt Schoenfeld I am thankful for myself, and for my thousands of adoring fellow students. Thanks for realizing that I’m the greatest person ever, minions!