A tipster noticed a custodian removing every poster for The Matching Game from the Hamilton bulletin boards. Naturally we had questions. Why doesn’t PrezBo want us associating him with Lady Gaga? Have you ever seen the two of them in the same place at the same time? Is PrezGa the new Ke$ho? Would they make a good match?

Caught in a bad FB marketing scheme

It will be difficult to reform this gelatinous mess into one gelatinous brick

Sarah Palin officially announced she will not be running for president but still has plans to ride around in her tricked out bus. (WashingtonPost)

The Occupy Wall Street protests are spreading; similar protests have sprung up in DC, Boston, LA, Chicago, Iowa, Salt Lake City, Connecticut, Philadelphia, and Cleveland. (WashingtonPost, The Daily Iowan, The Salt Lake Tribune, North Branford Patch, Fox, NBC)

After a helicopter spiraled out of control and crashed into the East River, New York officials are reviewing helicopter traffic laws. Hopefully they make one against spiraling out of control and crashing into the East River. (ABC, CBS)

Columbia Medical school professor, Dr. Goluboff, allegedly committed fraud against Medicare “by overbilling and by billing for unneeded tests.” (Chronicle of Higher Education)

John Law (and Order)

Floridita (you know, that Cuban restaurant that was relocated due to Manhattanville expansion) is suing Columbia University for moving it to a building contaminated with asbestos. This isn’t the first of Columbia’s asbestos-related issues. (Village Voice)

Starbucks’ new 31-ounce Trenta cup can hold an entire bottle of wine. Oh, the possibilities! (Eater)

A Connecticut pot grower inadvertently turns himself in the the police when he calls 911 to ask “how much trouble you can get in for [growing] one plant.” This is, like, totally not fair. He was just wondering… (Daily Intel)

Sarah and Bristol Palin are looking to trademark their names. Apparently, a successful trademark “could also prevent the misuse of the women’s image on things like bobblehead dolls and sex toys.” Aw, shucks. (ABC)

Yesterday afternoon, hundreds convened in Times Square in a protest to promote Egyptian democracy. Here are some photos. (Gothamist)

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

After years of just one Manhattan branch in Harlem, IHOP is finally coming to Times Square. Tourists rejoice! (Gothamist)

Two men are accused of attacking a Queens imam in a subway and shouting racist and anti-Muslim epithets. (NY Daily News)

Sarah Palin plans to visit Haiti—probably because she can’t see it from her house. (HuffPo)

These are ludicrous times at Columbia University. Bwog’s very own Eliza Shapiro tells it how it is. (Capital)

Nobel Peace Prize winner and Chinese dissident Liu Xiabo was not permitted to attend the prize ceremony. His medal was awarded to an empty chair. (NYT)

The Political Science Department has no comment on Professor David Epstein’s arrest, and the University is unable to comment on continuing police investigations.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

All of the puns regarding Governor Paterson’s push for a state soda tax have been made already, but the whole thing is still rather silly. (NY Post)

Someone you might actually look up to spars with ex-girlfriend on Page 6. (NY Post)

Graffiti on the High Line – juvenile rebellion or historic artifact? (City Room)

According to the judge, former NYC Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik did some bad stuff. According to WABC 7′s Bill Ritter, this “Top Cop” is now a “Top Cock.” (NY Times, Gothamist)

Despite a previous cat fight, the ladies will try to show maturity and poise when Sarah Palin appears on The Oprah Winfrey Show. (Drudge Report, Oprah.com)

Nothing like a nice reasoned, mature discussion about the existence of God… on a subway platform? (CNN)

A fair number of you politically inclined tipsters have sent us the CNN story about Palin’s mention of Rashid Khalidi’s relationship with Obama. (Good to know you aren’t harboring a grudge against CNN!)

Anyway, Palin characterized MEALAC Professor Khalidi — whom she noted was a “political ally” of Obama’s — as a “former spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization” — a claim refuted by both Barack Obama and Khalidi himself. 

Palin denies that this is negative campaigning, claiming that it “is not negative campaigning to call someone out on their record.”

McCain and Co. have also recently demanded that the Los Angeles Times release a videotape of Khalidi’s going-away party at the University of Chicago, a party Obama attended and allegedly featured a woman reading a poem that was critical of the Israel-US relationship.

Read more…

Cooped up in the decidedly warm and dry comforts of its dorm room today, Bwog noticed on this most spooky and rainy of autumn afternoons that the jokesters at the Fed have published their third (and equally eerie) issue of the semester. 

Prez-Bo-Hef likes Halloween parties, digs Kanye even more.

Find yourself at Ricky’s? Not your typical Sarah Palin Halloween costumes.

Columbia twenty-four years hence, it’s not a pretty picture.

The Fed‘s November 4th guide to understanding non-voters.

A long-anticipated and much-needed scientific treatise on the mediocrity of the food at John Jay dining hall.

True fact: Sarah Palin doesn’t eat babies.

Cars don’t run into you in Riverside Park.

The stock market crashed!  Now what?

Fight Club was released nine years ago.  Don’t you feel really old?  Like, over nine years old?

Columbia wants to demolish and rebuild in every direction!  Watch out Lincoln Center.

Columbia students may not like lines in John Jay, but they sure do like to spend their parents’ money!

Bwog’s guide to Movie Rentals has returned! We’re not sure where you’re going to actually rent these films (Butler?), but we hear the Internet has a nice selection for downloading. Film correspondent Mark Hay reports.

Every time I launch Firefox, I cannot escape the face persistently plastered all over my homepage. Sarah. Palin. Palin, Palin, Palin. She’s inescapable. So, in light of the media’s constant attention to the good Governor and her life: Three Movies Sarah Palin Might Want to Ban from Your Video Store (or, a list to get yourself on the bad side of every College Republican).

Limbo (1999): Welcome to rural Alaska, home in our minds to stunning vistas, independent living, and Governor Sarah Palin. Oh boy! A movie about small-town Alaskan life! How folksy; how rugged; how American spirit-esque! Except that’s not the picture Director/Writer John Sayles creates in this unexpected saga of intertwining lives, stagnation and tragedy.

Sayles uses the blossoming romance between Joe (David Strathairn), a local boy ground down by a harsh life leading nowhere, and Donna (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a struggling singer hitting rock bottom, to reveal a grim Alaska of flailing industry hidden from tourists behind the thin veil of trees left by the lumber giants. And then all romance and commentary grind to a halt with the arrival of Joe’s brother Bobby (Casey Siemaszko).

Read more…

A School of the Arts third year writing student named David Harrington is receiving some attention today from the New York Daily News in response to his famous internet invention, the Sarah Palin Baby-Name Generator. The Daily News loved their new Palin names so much that certain reporters even used them as bylines.

Bwog played around with this thing by entering in several of Columbia’s most recognizable names. Here’s what happened:

• Lee Bollinger: Shaver Razorback Palin
• Bruce Robbins: Steak Leather Palin
• James Franco: Moose Roadster Palin
• Roaree Lion: Snooker Hinge Palin
• Austin Quigley: Recoil Mush Palin
• Gayatri Spivak: Plop Hero Palin
  

Plus, it’s not just random: entering in the same name twice will result in the same Palin name both times. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Bwog’s actually quite partial to our Palin name: Ladel Torque Palin.

How to lose friends and alienate people

Oh Sarah Palin, is there anything to which you are not tangentially relevant?

The first of a two-part series on truck-based dessert foods.

Reading doesn’t count unless someone sees you doing it.

Why try to forget about all the fun stuff you missed out on when you could relive the disappointment?

eyePod!

With a mere 63 days left until the Presidential election, the blogosphere has lit up with speculation about the personal life of Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.  While the daughter of Alaska’s favorite hockey mom may be five months pregnant and questions abound about her readiness to lead the nation should she find herself a 72-year old heartbeat away from the Presidency come November, rumors about Columbia’s favorite son have come up as of late courtesy of the New York Sun.  See what our downtown colleagues have to say about Obama’s days at old alma and perhaps why none of his personal information from his days here have been leaked.  While previous presidential candidates have unabashedly released personal records from their university days, Obama’s have been tightly sealed.  Does good old Bams have something to hide about his “monkish” days buckling down in Butler?

In other political news, IvyGate spoke today with Lauren Salz BC ’11 about life as Executive Director of the College Republicans.  While Salz may take issue with the current state of political life on campus, Bwog can just sense the ghost of Chris Kulawik bursting through the seams of this piece.