Happening right now on the Lerner Ramps, CCSC is giving away free grilled cheese, Capri Sun, and Reeses and other candy as part of their “Recess with Reeses” study break. Apparently, this is what you kids ate all the time in elementary school. This and tomato surprise:

Midterms do not always bring out the best in us. It is common knowledge that Aeneas was knee-deep in exam season when he killed Turnus, “aflame with rage.” And on Carman 12, no stranger to shenanigans, the primal urge to tear things down from bulletins boards has been indulged without mercy.

Perhaps if you ask really nicely, they will do your feet. Probably not, though.

It’s been a very stressful week—sophomores made major decisions, everyone except for seniors chose 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or none of their best friends to live with. Oh, and in case you haven’t noticed from all of our trite “Midterms are here!” ledes, midterms are here.

We’ve brought you Brocrastination, kept you up-to-date on current events, and even tried to reduce the overall amount of bitterness and angst in Butler with a series of adorable photos.

But in case you’re still stressed—and let’s face it, you are—the CU American Medical Students Association will be hosting a Midterm Mental Health event today from 12 to 4 pm at Low Plaza.

So take a break from Butler! Go hang out with the pre-med student hosts who probably have harder midterms than you do! Get a massage! Smash something! Make your own trail mix! Or get a massage while smashing the trail mix you’ve just made! Whatever. Just please stop camping.

Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The next few weeks will be full of essays (humanities people), textbook cramming/rapid calculator movement (SEAS), and Butler Bingo (procrastinators) as midterms fast approach. But before the 209 camping begins, we’ll try to make you smile by showing you some images of tiny and adorable children we’ve spotted around Morningside Heights.

What's smaller than a freshman, reads more books outside of CU buildings than a philosophy major, and needs a stepladder to get down?

More cuteness after the jump!

There was a full rainbow stretching from Hamilton to Low (and seen all around campus) just a few minutes ago. Lovely! We hope you are done with midterms. Thanks to Ryan Mandelbaum for the first photo.

It’s time to take midterms. The weather knows that. Thanks to Pauline Baudon for filming.

Never fear, ye of too many midterms, Cooking with Bwog is back again. Read on to see how culinary god Matt Powell teaches you how to keep yourself alive during this most unfortunate of times.

As the seasons change, it is panic that fills that reminds us that midterms are again upon us. During this period, there is little time for cooking, but the need for filling food is ever-present. The two recipes this week require little time commitment (about 30 minutes each), and they can use leftover ingredients—feel free to substitute as you see fit. Plus, each recipe makes enough for about 3-5 servings, which should last you several meals!

Pasta with Arugula and Sun-dried Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1 lb. spaghetti

1/3 lb. pancetta, thinly sliced

1/3 lb. prosciutto, thinly sliced

1 onion, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

½ C sun-dried tomatoes, sliced into strips

¼ C heavy cream

1 large handful of arugula

Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

Fresh basil

Read more…

Saturday morning midterm ritual: wake up, brush teeth, stretch, walk down the hall back to 209 to continue studying, procrastinate by checking Saturday Morning Cartoons, feel meta.

Cartoons by Abigail Santner

A semester goes, and a semester comes, but the odd behavior of Butlerites during exams remains forever.

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Just trying to make everyone jealous of your nook, are you?

Camping out has begun! Notice the toothbrush and toothpaste.

Driven to madness, someone took a bite out of this Butler 6 toilet seat!

Name the tag quote!

Photos by David Hu, Eliza Shapiro and Alexandra Angelo

AMSA is set up on the Steps, giving out free massages. Passer-bys are also encouraged to take a bat or rock and smash a cardboard box or balloons that read “I get 12 hours of sleep a night” or “I know exactly what I’m doing this summer.” Genius! Thank heavens for you, brave pre-meds.

There were also a brigade of Boar’s Head employees driving carts around 116th Street. Their mission is unclear, but we welcome them to Morningside Heights.

The approach of midterms week means Dante’s Inferno is to be found in the sweaty hands of freshmen this week. Urban Spelunker Gavin McGown was not content to simply flip pages: he was jonesing to explore! Mudd’s basement is a dark and terrifying world Dante surely would have assigned to heathens and traitors.

Huddled as it is against the northeast corner of campus, the unapologetic Seeley W. Mudd Hall extends itself many stories aboveground, a bulwark against ignorance, home to generations of Columbian engineers. Its characteristic miner of shrewd and pinched face embodies the literal and figurative steel of the structure, casting a disapproving sneer at those filing in and out of the building at whose entrance he stands attendant, as if he sensed in them intellectual pursuits directing them towards weak disciplines (gender studies, pure mathematics, political “science”).

Finding myself, however, at that unaesthetic edge of the campus, I ignored the statue’s contemptuous glare that seemed to counsel me to abandon all hope, and marched brazenly on through the doors that opened, supermarket-like, at my advance. No Limbo eased the passage between light and darkness: I crossed, so to speak, the river Acheron (descending a staircase infected with the sound of an unceasing and ominous mechanical whirring), and found myself immediately confronted by a dusty and dreary vision as the first of many basements, bathed in a sallow light, extended on before my eyes.

Read more…

Saturday morning is upon us once again. Bwog brings Butler-goers a bad omen as midterms begin.

Dante(lla) Attacked by a She-Wolf (in Butler)

Cartoon by Abigail Santner

The whole nation is talking about swine flu, but that great pestilence known as midterms has once again been inflicting its ills upon Columbia. There are many strains of this disease, each with its own unique symptoms and varying degrees of severity. In an attempt to encourage responsible self-diagnosis, treatment. and an almost certain hypochondria pandemic, Bwog Self-Medication Bureau Chief Emily Ahn presents a selection of the most communicable, debilitating, humiliating exam-related ailments, and some of the cures.

Carpal tunnel syndrome: According to Web MD, “Carpal tunnel syndrome causes pain, tingling, and numbness in your hand from pressure on the median nerve in your wrist. Illnesses, pregnancy, and obesity can cause carpal tunnel syndrome. Rest and exercises relieve symptoms.” That’s right, go out and PLAY! But don’t have too much fun: excessive Guitar Hero may will aggravate this. See tendonitis.

Cervical radiculopathy: Disk compression in the neck, often caused by repetitive cradling of a phone on the shoulder…or hunching over your notes for an excessive period of time.

Deep vein thrombosis: Inactivity and dehydration (your study schedule prevents proper hydration) raises chance that clots will form in your leg veins. Sometimes, they happen to dislodge and travel to your lungs, causing a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism. So drink something (non-alcoholic, pal!) and save yourself an IV (which would take away study time) or a stroke (in which case you have larger worries than your Econ midterm). Read more…

We know that, judging by the crowds at Butler far into Friday and Saturday evening this weekend, midterms week has been in earnest for many of you, and that some of you have been in midterm-induced struggles-ville since last week. The powers that be, familiar as always with the realities of undergraduate life, have scheduled the first “midterm date” for today. 

In that spirit, we’ll direct to you to the libraries’ website, which has links to all Columbia’s study spots, and inform you that until Friday, 301 and 310 Butler will be open 24/7. Huzzah! Best of luck in all your mid-semester endeavors. Four days and counting until spring break. 

Before many of us have taken our first midterm, SSOL throws us yet another curveball: finals schedules are up!

You can now peruse your exam schedule online and start making plans for a quick escape from Morningside Heights into summer vacation. Finals go from May 8 to May 15. Although the weather may make you feel like nothing could be farther away, its never too early to start studying. To Butler!