We’ve got some (potentially) sad news, folks. Hawkma’s reign over freshmen, upperclassmen, and faculty alike may have come to an end in the wee hours of the night. Though we can’t say for sure whether this is merely a Hawkmimposter, the slain bird does seem to resemble our robust, bloodthirsty friend.

Tipster Ze’ev Gebler sent in the following photo, and it doesn’t look good:

Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Bwog’s son Hawkma...

Rest in peace, sweet prince.

The city elections wrapped up with a surprisingly small winning margin for Mike Bloomberg. Democrats took pretty much everything else in the city, while Republicans snagged two gubernatorial seats nationwide. (NY Times)

Around 5:30AM yesterday a now identified NYU junior jumped to his death in Bobst Library. The library was reopened and tours resumed around 9AM. (Gothamist)

Turns out Columbia released a financial report right before we wrapped for break – hiding the good news? (Spec) 

We wrap it up: Columbia ranks 4th in the nation according to Trojan Condoms’ Sexual Health Report Card, behind Stanford, USC, and UConn. (Brown Herald)

One term-paper, gift wrapped with a yellow bow, coming right up from a wannabe Columbia senior. (The Boston Phoenix)

The New York Post warns of subway delays this weekend, accuses MTA of keeping it all under wraps. (NY Post)

If you’re still in the neighborhood, you have approximate five hours to say goodbye to Morningside Books, which closes tonight at midnight. The New York Times spent some time at the store recently, and yesterday detailed both the store’s lively final days, and its financial struggles, along with a slideshow.

Many neighborhood residents talked about their disappointment over the store’s closure – one resident said, “it’s not like losing a finger. It’s like losing an arm.” Apparently, the store owners received over $60,000 in donations to pay the store’s rent (approximate $9,000 a month, according to the Times).

But the story also notes just how fiscally untenable the store’s position was: $158,000 owed in rent, and the owners finally threw in the proverbial towel in April, after several revenue-increasing options (including opening a coffee shop inside the store) fell through. It’s unclear what the space’s future will be–the owner of Book Culture has entered a proposal to buy it, continuing the fifty-year streak of it being an independent bookstore–but for now, we are just sad it had to end.

In our last post before we switch to summer mode (more on that tomorrow), we present the Senior Wisdom of our graduating Bwog staff (sniff). Finally providing their own answers are former daily editors Anna Corke, John Klopfer, David Iscoe and Sara Vogel, and editors emerita Katie Reedy and Lydia DePillis. We’ll miss you.

Claims to fame:

Anna: Former Bwog/Hawkmadinebwog editor, former B&W literary editor, cellist and webmistress of the Bach Society.

David: Was the editor of Jester, was in Egg & Peacock and KCST spring shows, and played in garbage time at a few water polo tournaments. I also can speak loudly at times, which helps people remember me.

John: If you asked ten people you would get ten different answers, none of them interesting. also wrote for Bwog. That’s why I’m on this.

Sara: Being on good terms with the good people of the Spectator, the Blue and White, and the Columbia Political Review simultaneously. Also, knowing about half of this year’s freshman class.

Katie: Naming the War on Fun; former managing editor of the Blue and White, Bwogger; Buffalonian.

Lydia: Bwog Editor 2007

Post-grad plans:

ALC: Fish husbandry/developmental neurobiology in a lab at the University

of Washington, making pictures like this.

DHI: That’s up in the air. I’m training to be an EMT and writing video scripts for the Onion, but I need a job. But I’m in New York, I have a sweet apartment for a year.

JBK: Working on switching St. Kitts & Nevis over to electric cars.

SEV: Teaching for America

KER: Young American in the Foreign Service

LBD: Lowly positions at Slate.com and then The New Republic in DC. Read more…

A sign posted in the window of Morningside Books this morning informs many a sad, staring pedestrian that their beloved local bookstore will be closing in June. As in, next month. 

If you take the time to read the announcement sign in the window, it will tear your heart out.  There is no way to prepare yourself for the sweet, forlorn, and perfectly phrased lament of a quirky little corner bookstore. “We wanted to be the little bookstore that could,” the sign reads. “We couldn’t.”

In the end, the sign informs us, “it’s about money – we never had enough.” At least the management thanks not only the neighborhood but Columbia as well, so we can all feel a little less guilty about every purchase we ever made at the Columbia Bookstore or at Book Culture.

What will we do without Morningside Books? Where else could you be sure to find a reasonably priced Aeneid only thirty seconds’ walk from your LitHum class? Where will you find the newest addition to your “Books to read for fun, eventually” collection? And where, where, oh where, will we buy our vintage anti-Bush paraphernalia?

Here’s to you, Morningside Books. The last surviving truly independent neighborhood bookstore will be sorely missed.

Bwog Expert on all things cold and creamy Jon Hill discovered that a Mr. Softee truck has broken down right outside the Broadway gates on 116th. Unconfirmed reports are that the engine seized after absorbing the collective sad nostalgia of studying students who had flashbacks to childhood upon hearing the jingle. Let’s all pray the freezer breaks, forcing the driver to give away all his ice cream…

-Via motivatedphotos.com

Graduates + Job Market = Sadness

Morningside Heights – La Negrita = Awfulness

The Books / Poor Publicity = Confusion and Regret

Dartmouth * Not Losing = Depression 

You mean there’s someone else screwing over West Harlem too?

PrezBo fears for his life, sucks his thumb at night.

Barnard has no money or teachers, but SIPA goes on carving?

Columbia accepts corporate sponsorship, billboards will go up on low steps. 

-Photo via Biojobblog.com

How bad is the economy? Even the coffee lackeys are going to be out of work. For the 2009 internship season, companies are hiring almost 21 percent fewer interns. In a double shaft to college students everywhere, the number of applicants for these positions has increased by around the same percentage. That leaves far more people vying for far fewer positions.

If you are truly, truly desperate for an internship (and loaded), the WSJ reports that parents have been forking over thousands of dollars to buy internships for their children. Also, the bizarrely named University of Dreams will guarantee you an internship, if you pay them $5,000 to $9,000 dollars, that is.

The glimmer of hope is that the pay rates for internships have actually gone up for this year, but, even if you nab a high paying internship, you will still have this to contend with.

 -DJB

Photo Via the New York Times

Although Core-crunched Columbians may not realize it, collegiate study of the humanities has suffered through an acute downturn, with fewer and fewer undergrads opting for degrees in the liberal arts. In a recent Times article, Professor Andrew Delbanco, who has had a lot to say about education as of late, put in his two cents on the subject.

“Although people in humanities have always lamented the state of the field, they have never felt quite as much of a panic that their field is becoming irrelevant,”  he told the Times.

But fear not, Delbanco adds, for the humanites have a savior: Barack Obama.

“He [Obama] does something academic humanists have not been doing well in recent years…He makes people feel there is some kind of a common enterprise, that history, with its tragedies and travesties, belongs to all of us.”

Our newish President will have to add saving academia to his to-do list, right after staving off economic collapse.

-DJB

- Photo by LDP

It seems that Nussbaum will not be accepting your CUID as payment for breakfast this morning, so best go start looking for that 5-spot in your other jeans. 

According to the nice people behind the counter, this was not an act of Flex-deserting a la everywhere else, but a simple case of a broken machine.

Unfortunately, no information is available on when (or *gasp* whether) the machine will be fixed. 

Here’s to a quick recovery, Nussbaum Flex, and to daddy paying for that bagel.

- Photo via Columbia College Today

As the calendar hits the end of Februrary, Columbia’s favorite early spring ritual approaches. No, not actaully using the lawns – it’s Housing Lottery time! According to this year’s calendar, Greek rosters and LLC registration are next week, while room selection registration runs from March 7-11.

For those of you trying to decide what dorms to target and what groups to form, Bwog’s archive has numerous housing reviews, including Claremont, Nussbaum, EC, Wien, Ruggles, and Woodbridge. There’s even a debate about just giving up and living off campus.

However, some dorms had specific floors renovated, so it will be worth gunning for those as the housing process progresses. The full list of changes is on the housing website, and most are rather minor and/or cosmetic.  Michael Novielli of Student Auxillary and Business Services told Bwog that “While the language is in the future tense since [the list] was written last year, all of this work has already been completed.” Regardless, it’s a lottery: most are bound to be disappointed.

-DJB

God knows its finals season. This afternoon from around 2 PM to 6 PM, the juxtaposition of the moon, Venus and Jupiter will form a frowny face in the south-south-western sky.

Bwogger and astronomy-tipster Hans Hyttinen believes that optimal viewing time will be after the sun sets at 4:20 PM. Fiddle around with the stars and planets to get a better sense of this planetary optical illusion here, and read about yesterday’s heavenly smiley face, which proved rather feeble due to misalignment and weather problems.

Also: We want your sky portraiture! If you get a good shot of the sad face this afternoon, send it to bwgossip@columbia.edu. 

More photos after the jump.

Read more…

In recent months, Bwog readers have risen from limerick-fearing philistines to haiku-handy aesthetes…and just in time for Poetry Month! And after all, rainy April is the perfect time for indoor sports like contemplation and reflection.

For a gentle night on the town, consider this listing of poetry events. For the heavy-hearted and heavy-handed who can’t bear to click the link, a few highlights, after this link:

Read more…

In which Bwog Arts correspondent Daniel D’Addario watches MTV so you don’t have to. Promise him you won’t.

This is the worst thing ever to happen to America. I am stuffing my face with Westside Market cheddar on crackers to smother my feelings; from next door, the smell of pot reminds me that hope is still possible. I’m moments into the Video Music Awards, precious time I could have spent writing a novel or teaching children to sing or crying softly into my pillow.

The show begins with a close-up shot of Britney Spears’s weave – not artfully done, Brit – and my fantasies that she’d go bald for the show seem to have evaporated. Moments later, I’ll be fantasizing that Britney Spears were standing upright, walking in a straight line, and not using “slowly shuffling like Linus Van Pelt” to simulate “dancing.” I’ve given more compelling performances while singing “Like a Prayer” in the shower. She lies down; her backup dancers try to lift her up; they struggle. I stop eating the cheese. Britney lipsynchs (need it be said?) terribly the line, “I still want more.” Indeed.

Reaction shots: 50 Cent, nonplussed. Rihanna, cracking up. Dan D’Addario, smiling wistfully at memories of “Umbrella,” through unshed tears.

Read more…