Ahmadinejad at Columbia circa 2007

It began innocently enough. The Columbia International Relations Council and Association (CIRCA, formerly known as Model UN) announced to their members that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (who gave a speech at Columbia in 2007), in town for the United Nations General Assembly, had invited them to a dinner on September 21st (the logistics of this invitation are unclear). Bwog has obtained a copy of the email sent to the CIRCA listerv. Here’s an excerpt:

II. DINNER WITH IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD
When: Wednesday, September 21
Time: 6:30 PM
Where: Midtown
Why: To learn about Iran from her president! Noting high demand for
this event, will be accepting names of interested CIRCA members on a
first-come-first-serve basis. We cannot guarantee spots. Please email
CIRCA Vice President of Academics, Tim Chan (timars.chan@gmail.com),
with your name, school, and class year. If you are a veteran CIRCA
member, please briefly list your involvements with the club.

Soon after, Spec wrote a story about the planned meeting, which did not make clear whether or not the meal was actually confirmed, or simply a possibility. Their article, like everything else relating to this situation, was not without controversy. The Spec article includes a quote from Tim Chan, CIRCA’s Vice-President of Academic Affairs. Rhonda Shafei, CIRCA’s president, tells Bwog that Chan tried to retract his comments before the story was published in the print edition of the paper (although the story had been published online for over a day), but Spec refused. Otherwise, CIRCA had no comment on the story.

Spec’s article brought the planned dinner to the attention of national media, including Fox News and The New York Post, who accused Columbia students of “dining with a madman” and being desperate for attention.
Read more…

The start of Reading Week means the end of the Spectator. But not the end of the world! With finals looming and storm clouds brewing, what will we talk about to lift our spirits? Duh. Swine flu.

In Mexico the spread is slowing, the restaurants are reopening, and everyone’s sneezing into their sleeves.

Is the need for a UK flu leaflet campaign encouraging? No. Is the cover of the UK flu leaflet hilarious? You decide.

China doesn’t discriminate against Mexicans. It quarantines everybody.

Self-medication won’t help, unless it’s the suddenly super popular Tamiflu.

The hell with your swine flu, it’s Cinco de Mayo!

The Spectator is on a midterm schedule this week, which means Columbia’s favorite daily is temporarily an every-other-daily. Have no fear-New York’s other publications are still going strong.

The Times grapples with our jigsaw puzzle of a budget while crushing on Shakespeare the pinup.

Citing the rising costs of both jet fuel and hamburger buns, the Wall Street Journal foretells the deaths of air travel and McDonalds.

The Daily News cautions us to beware of Russian Sarah Palins and playing chicken with U.S. Navy ships. Which article mentions skivvies?

New York Magazine chats with a Morningside Heights alum and names a Morningside Heights bar as one of the best.

The Post doesn’t want to hear about your poker-faced tranquility or your Yankees-Red Sox brewing bromance.

Spec is still hibernating, so today we’re giving you the best of the rest of the New York print media.

The Booker Prize goes to a student with a Columbia connection!  Move over Orhan, we’ve got a new novelist in town.

The WSJ opines that the nationalization of the banks might actually work, at the same time it reports that profs at the B-school and the Econ department also favor avoiding a depression.

The Daily News thinks that for McCain, Nam is nothing compared to Long Island. 

NY Mag reports that Trader Joe’s is putting on a fur coat and moving to the UWS.  Cheap beer and pasta to abound.

NY Post tells us that maybe Michael Martin Chalfie doesn’t deserve this Nobel.  Bwog suspects this might be a case of sore-loser-syndrome.

Earlier this weekend, Culture Editor Tony Gong attended Liga Filipina’s inaugural “Taste of the Philippines.” Between bites of crispy lumpiang and creamy flan, Tony found a few golden moments of serenity brought on by an atmosphere that could only have been: the Philippines, a.k.a., Lerner Party Space.

Never one to pass up an inexpensive meal or a chance to broaden my cultural lens beyond M2M (no offense, M2M – you my dawg), I decided to check out “Taste of the Philippines,” the first Liga Filipina (translation: league of Filipinos) event of the semester.

For those readers who are not as good at navigating Wikipedia as I am, the Philippines is a collection of thousands of islands that constitute a small country in Southeast Asia, known for its unique confluence of Hispanic, Indian, Chinese, urban, and indigenous cultures. Its vice president is Noli De Castro.

…And my favorite dish, after the jump!

Read more…

Bwogger Lydia DePillis noticed that attempting to reach the Spec‘s website now brings one to the following message:

Ruh-roh. Has Spec not been footing the bill’s for its web presence? Or perhaps it simply went the way of the Barnard Bulletin, whose foray into the world of the Internet was all too brief.

Today, Bwog heads to Bogota to catch up with The Spectator’s latino cousin, El Espectador.  Que Guay! 

Colombia’s got Controversy too: La Homofobia

El Espec swims in journalistic riptide too:  The Challenges of Periodismo Moderno

They’re prudish too:   What percentage of Colombians are virgins?

Colombia remembers too: Los Recuerdos de 1968 

Mannhattanville in Colombia? Estudiantes like to protest too

Bwog’s favorite publication, the Spectator‘s poetry-and-photography spin-off, 116, is baaack! In case you haven’t had enough of the “not quickspec” tag today, here are some more links to click.

Look at these people, they are hip!

And look at the things they do with their fancy cameras!

- Thing 1

- Thing 2

- Thing 3

Girls have feelings! Golf clap.

- Girl 1

- Girl 2

- Girl 3

…and Spec EIC avows, “but I am no poet.”

Join Bwog this morning in welcoming a new publication to the Quick process. The Columbia East Asia Review prints scholarly articles by undergrads on a myriad of East Asian topics. There’s something for every Columbia type!

The kid who watches the NBA playoffs while you try to study!

The human rights crusader meddling in foreign arenas!

The comp lit hipster who’s into translation theory and speaks fluent Norwegian and Chinese!

The history fiend who talks your ear off about bureaucracies of yore!

The Korea buff who uses the word “Korean” an average of 3 times per sentence!

The Japanese Christian?

Spectator’s done but the rest of the world keeps spinning, so Bwog brings you links to Columbia related news. Today is unusually dry, so there will be a special emphasis on links to blogs, things only tangentially related to Columbia, and stories that have already been covered to death (no need to tip us on BlondMinkGate ever again, thank you).

Gas into stone? A Columbia professor invents the new alchemy.

Matt Sanchez (dreamy as ever) knocks the J-School and its limpwristed liberal “theory” (contrast with hard-earned, hard-abbed “experience”).

For avid fans of campus poster culture, a preview of Friday’s look. And for avid fans of Barack Obama, something to do on Friday.

Still more coverage (i.e. absolutely nothing new) on the most amazing scandal of reading week.

We know you miss your daily dose of the Spec, and we’re here to help. Some more highlights from the “Columbia University” Google Alerts pile of the last week.

More Murdoch-owned news outlets report in on the Lohan coat scandal

Columbia physicist lays out the exorbitant cost of reducing CO2 emissions

San Diego State kids know how to party; nerdy Columbians provide statistical evidence

Sachs and Bhagwati bringin’ their usual game 

Ben Bernanke was here a couple days ago to accept an award

Chronicle of Higher Ed editorial proposes universities buy ailing publications, which the Bwog hinted at a week or so ago

As the spring semester came to a screeching halt all too quickly yesterday, levying reading week and an ignominious batch of finals upon Columbia students quite eager to enjoy the pre-summer sunshine, Columbia Daily Spectator production also came to a halt yesterday, with an equally cheery promise to resume coverage in the fall.  While Bwog has very much enjoyed offering you a daily dose of Spec this year, sadly today there is no Spec over which Bwog editors may voraciously pore. 

Therefore, in lieu of QuickSpec this morning, Bwog invites you to have a gander at its very own Columbia news roundup trawled from a Gmail inbox chock-full of Columbia University Google Alerts.  Speaking of Google, Bwog also recommends that readers check out Google’s device called Google Reader to stay caught up with and organize all of the blogs, news, and gossip that might ever suit your fancy.

Wait, Columbia doesn’t already own the NYT?

How hard is it to get a Columbia degree?

City Journal is still silly over 1968. 

Graduate!  It’ll do the economy good.

Superhumans and Columbia’s supercomputer.

Save water to avoid eating your neighbor.

Did Lindsay Lohan steal your $11,000 coat?

No power struggles with new Provost, says PrezBo.

Noteworthy politician who previously liked to turn us down, to speak on Class Day.

Two hours, nine judges, and PrezBo’s haircut.  It all comes down to this?

Hey! something new: Columbia hates ROTC.

Hobsbawm revises revisionist history, again. 

The topics for these opinions were chosen specifically because they were not timely.  Something tells Bwog that Aristotle would not have enjoyed his name next to this picture.

We’re all part of Columbia!  Yay!

Wait up guys, John Adams was President?  Somebody should publicize this fact on an HBO miniseries! 

The words of a sage: “This is part of a general theme: the administration generally does what it wants. Sometimes that coincides with the Council’s wishes.”  

People have strong opinions about gentrification in West Harlem?  No…

Even though Bwog has midterms too, it’s still trudging along. No QuickSpec today, but perhaps these Ivy League-related stories will brighten up your stay in Butler.  

Look on the bright side, Carman may be infested with Natty Ice cans, but at least there’s no scabies.

To be fair, professor housing is really nice. 

Nudity- not just a Brown phenomenon.

How-to eat out… Wait, didn’t the Belle Jar cover this already?

Maybe a facebook poke will be more seductive than an e-mail.