he's ready to turn up

Does this look like the face of free booze

Okay, it doesn’t have to be booze. But it can be! Today is the day that your inbox has been reminding you of for weeks – the #WheresRoaree Student Scavenger Hunt! Today, Columbia Athletics will be giving away $325 worth of gift cards to Fairway Market, Morton Williams, and The Heights. There will be Roar-ee bobbleheads hidden all over the Morningside Heights campus. Approximately every half hour, starting at noon, Roaree Lion (through his Facebook page) will be delivering trivia clues to help you find them. (Weirdly, his profile calls him Roaree, but other promotional material calls him Roar-ee. We think it’s time to see his birth certificate.) Once you locate the bobblehead, you have to take a selfie with the doll at the location where you found it, and a shadowy figure from the Columbia administration will give you a gift card. The full rules of the event can be found here.

Since this is run through Athletics, we can assume that the trivia questions will be more about Columbia sports than the academic history of the FM radio (but if that is a question, the answer is almost definitely Philosophy Hall). Here are a few tips:

  • There will be, and we are willing to bet money on this, a hint about Lou Gehrig. The answer will probably either be this exact spot on the South Lawn, or the Lou Gehrig Lounge on the third floor of Dodge Fitness Center.
  • If you’re dedicated, try to pick a good spot to wait for the hints. While South Campus will probably be a popular place for bobbleheads, a waiting area like Lerner or Butler might be too far south if you have to get to a bobblehead from Dodge.
  • Consider going to the Athletics offices and pestering administrators for early hints. If Public Safety comes to drag you away, ask them for assistance, too.
  • While the hints are supposed to come out every half hour, they might actually show up a few minutes before they’re “supposed” to. Be quick on the refresh button, or click “Get Notifications” on Roar-ee’s Facebook page. Either way, always have Facebook open.
  • One of the gift cards will be worth $100. It won’t come out too soon in the day, so if you’re not down to search for the whole day, wait until about 3 pm for the big money.
  • We don’t actually know what the Roar-ee bobbleheads will look like. That photo is from 2007, and the bobbleheads are not currently stocked online in the Lion Store. Expect some of that familiar light blue, but otherwise, anything goes for the design of the dolls.

Good luck, Bwog readers, and happy searching!