Office hours: they’re the best! For the latest in our ongoing series of professor interviews, Sam Schube spoke with old Bwog favorite Bruce Robbins. While you might know him from that one essay you skimmed for University Writing (that’d be “The Sweatshop Sublime”), Robbins is a man of many interests—chief among them plumbing and the plight of the New York Knickerbockers.

Just to settle a personal bugaboo, you’re not the Bruce Robbins who pitched for the Detroit Tigers in the late ’70s, are you?

I’m not. I actually threw four no-hitters in my last year of Little League, and if that had gone further, I would not be here today. I would have much preferred it, frankly, but everyone else kinda grew a lot faster than I did. I threw my best fastball and just watched it disappear. End of career.

I remember you made a subtle basketball reference in class early this year—likening an authorial choice to a “non-call” by the referee. Are you a basketball fan?

Yeah, I’m a Knicks fan. It’s a hard time to be a Knicks fan. But the future…

You think so?

Well, the tricky thing is, does LeBron James want to come to a team that looks as feeble as the Knicks? Anyway, they need somebody with serious low-post moves. Read more…

Photo via Wikipedia

New York wants you to eat better. (NY Post)

Women’s basketball defeats Yale! (Spec)

Kyle Merber CC ’12 breaks Ivy League record. (CU Athletics)

A tipster reports that fire alarms blared in Schapiro last night/this morning at approximately 3:14 a.m. Turns out that there was no fire, but only a flooded urinal.

Photo: www.gocolumbialions.com

And just like that, Columbia football is off the schneid, snapping their five-game losing streak with a convincing 30-20 win over Cornell. The team took care of the ball when they had it (just one turnover in an area that’s plagued the team all year) and forced an impressive six turnovers on defense, including four key second-half interceptions that prevented Cornell from keeping it close. Neither M.A. Olawale nor Sean Brackett, who split duty at quarterback, put up overwhelming statistics, but both did just enough to keep the Lions out front. Olawale, typically the team’s starter, entered the game in the second half and provided a crucial spark, rushing for two touchdowns, the latter padding the team’s lead and insuring a victory. The team will host Brown next Saturday for the final game of the season. More news after the jump.

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During our time at Columbia, most of us meet one or two group leaders, student government presidents, star athletes, and the like. But there are many Columbians whose profiles are lower, yet their talents are just as (or even more) awesome. Here’s our recurring feature devoted to those students: this time, we present Taylor Chaintreuil, a world-class footbag competitor.

Watching Taylor Chaintreuil, CC SEAS 2013, “footbag” is like watching an exquisite dancer. Her movements are quick and extremely athletic, but also rhythmical and very graceful. At the beginning of the semester, before the cold set in, passers-by outside of John Jay thought she was dancing to her own imaginary rhythm. But the real explanation starts with Taylor, a bored freshman in high school, Googling “hacky sack,” and finding herself stunned by the skills of some of the masters, “busting the biggest craziest moves you’ve ever seen.” After researching more about footbag, the technical term for hacky sack, she decided it was what she wanted to do.

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Does anyone actually know what anthropology is?

What does Evo love more: nationalization of oil or speaking at Columbia? 

Should GS deans be chosen in the same way as GS students–far too late?

Did you know that, like, East 116th is TOTALLY less gentrified than, like, Columbia?  I think she actually saw a poor person!

Can Columbia sports only win through not telling anyone about injuries to players?

Bwog’s Friday Sports Roundup is back!

Football: After so many close defeats to start the season, the Columbia Lions won their first Ivy league game in two years last Saturday, 21-13 against Dartmouth. In the wind and rain, quarterbacks Shane Kelly and Millicent Olawale powered an offense that put up almost 400 all-purpose yards, while the defense stepped up to hold Dartmouth’s passing game to only 79 yards (partly thanks to Andy Shalbrack and Adam Mehrer’s interceptions). Olawale (7-7 for 111 yards) was named Ivy League offensive player of the week for his efforts. This weekend, the Lions take on Yale in New Haven. The game will be televised on the YES network – Bwog finds it ironic that the one game available on Columbia’s cable system is during the weekend many Columbia students are not on campus.

Cross Country: The men’s and women’s cross country teams finished second earlier today in the Ivy League Heptagonal Championships in Van Cortlandt Park. The women finished second to heavily-favored Princeton, who set a new championship record with only 17 points. But Columbia’s women outpaced the rest of the pack, with special congrats going to senior Megan Lessard, who finished 8th. The men’s team came even closer, losing out to Princeton by only 3 points. 7 Columbia runners finished in between 10th and 20th. On November 15th, the Lions will compete in the NCAA Northeast Regionals, also held in Van Cortlandt Park. Read more…

Aint nothing better than people behind mics (Religion!) (Education!)

Next stop Bonnaroo

Harvard, Brown, Penn > Princeton, Cornell, Yale

Fun with euphemisms (this ran yesterday)

Is that a banana in your costume? Or are you really a banana?

Preview to the protest

Fight! for your right! to… Project Runway!

A mysterious tipster clues us in…

Our men’s club water polo team won the New York State Championship today, huzzah!  On the way, we beat Syracuse and, yes, NYU.

As fourth seed, we beat Army (West Point) 7-4.  This means that Columbia gets to go to club championships in Ohio.

This news comes two years to the day as Bwog last reported the team’s triumphs.

 More photos after the jump.

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You read the title correctly – sports coverage on Bwog. Stop pointing at the pigs above us. We know they’re there.

With the start of a new school year, we felt it was time to turn over a new leaf in the Bwog-sports relationship. In the past, we’ve generally only reported on sports either as champions or, more often, as a punchline. There are hundreds of our classmates practicing day after day, though, and there’s a lot of great stuff to cover in their efforts. We’ll be doing our best to give them some coverage, and we ask that you do your best to help us in our occasional ignorance at the intricacies of some of the less well-known sports. On to the what’s up this week in the land of sport.

Football: The Lions open their season tomorrow at home against Fordham. The teams have split the last two games, with coach Norries Wilson winning his debut 37-7 in 2006, but then losing in 2007 27-10. To win, the Lions will have to do better on the ground, both on offense with the running back duo of senior Jordan Davis and junior Ray Rangel, and from the whole defense, which gave up 353 yards last year against Fordham.

Unfortunately, the team may be without junior wide reciever Austin Knowlin (led the team with 988 yards and 11 TDs in 2007) and junior linebacker Drew Quinn (second in tackles in 2007) – both have been left off of the starting lineup in the media guide. For a more in-depth preview of the team and the rest of the Ivy League, the Spec has a football supplement.

Read more…

“I can’t say it was the best decision”

Press releases: an overworked reporter’s best friend

Homelessness: nobody’s best friend

School spirit: still sort of lacking (unless it’s for water polo)

Plus: Columbia’s Safire on pimple-toms and booby caresses!

Bwog’s a little late with this item, but we didn’t want any more time to go by without congratulating the Columbia men’s soccer team on their 3-1 victory yesterday over UC Santa Barbara, who were ranked 6th in the country (and who won the national title two seasons ago).

Despite being outshot 22-7, the Lions held on to bounce back from their Friday night loss to SUNY Stony Brook. Sophomore Bayo Adafin (pictured at right in a photo by Columbia University Athletics) scored all three goals, and has recieved several national and regional awards, including being named to the College Soccer News National Team of the Week.

The team’s next game is at LaSalle on Wednesday, and their next home game is on the 26th against Quinnipiac. Also, we recommend Adafin get in touch with some European clubs – some of them could use forwards for the Champions League this week. 

As those who watch the Olympics closely know, it abounds with the more obscure sports that only the Ivy League has enough money to field teams in. Not surprisingly, then, the Ivy League has fielded its fair share of Olympians over the years, even as other conferences have taken over the role of being the NBA and NFL’s minor leagues. There are enough, in fact, that somebody out in the Internets decided they deserve their own blog. Even less surprisingly, the historical medal count indicates what many a Columbian could have already guessed: Columbia has contributed only 35 Olympians and 13 medalists, significantly below the next lowest, Brown (51 Olympians and 25 medalists).That’s waking the echoes of the Hudson Valley. Still, Bwog wishes best of luck to the Columbians competing in dressage, the 400 meters, and, of course, fencing. Hopefully some of their events will actually be on in prime time.

In honor of the Yankee Stadium’s final season, this year’s MLB all-star game will take place in the Bronx on Tuesday. To remember some of baseball’s most interesting historical moments, Bwog Film Rental Analyst Brandon Hammer suggests you check out one (or two or three) of the following movies. 

The Pride of the Yankees (1942):  

Those who yearn for the glory days of the Bronx Bombers will find comfort in this 1942 film. Starring Gary Cooper in the lead role, The Pride of the Yankees is a beautiful biopic about Columbia’s own Lou Gehrig, whose endurance to last 2,130 consecutive games (the equivalent of more than 13 baseball seasons) brought him the nickname the “Iron Horse.” Cooper’s performance is powerful; he captures the essence of a man who was known for his kindness and humility, a man who, though his life and career were cut short by a terrible disease, considered himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” The film also features and intriguing performance by Babe Ruth as himself, as well as a reenactment of Gehrig’s famous speech of July 4, 1939. 

Read more…

It’s official, Bwog tipster Jarid Maged informs us: 

“about 2 minutes ago, columbia won the ivy league title in baseball. 7-5 over dartmouth in game 3 of the ivy league championship series in hanover. i am not making this up. tried snapping a shot of the pile after the game, but my stupid computer wouldn’t allow anything from windows media player. but damn. they won something huge in sports for once. now they move on to the ncaa tournament.”

Congratulations, boys.

Licensed music and university lectures!

 CC and GS…

CCSC and overblown controversy.

University Writing essay and travel photography!

Columbia and losing…again….