Like a phoenix, Columbia rises from the ashes of defeat. CML reports. 

On Friday evening, thousands of faithful Columbia students poured into Levien gymnasium to watch the Lions take on conference powerhouse Penn. Despite losing the best player in recent Ivy League basketball history, Ibrahim Jaaber, to graduation, Penn came into the game with a 2-0 conference record, which recalled their three consecutive league titles, as well as the brief lead they held in the second half against Texas A&M in the tournament last year. A raucous rooting section, consisting of a squadron of cheerleaders, a smidgeon of a marching band, and a few regular Penn students were also in attendance. The Quakers had entered enemy territory.

For the first ten and the last thirty minutes, Columbia dominated the game. Penn’s once-respected perimeter D proved to be about as effective as the Maginot Line as K.J. Matsui and Niko Scott jacked up three after three. Meanwhile, the Quaker offense was fittingly pacifistic, missing almost all of its long-ranged shots and meeting with little more success as it closed in towards the basket. The Lions led by as many as 15 in the first half, and by halftime, it was 38-29. Read more…

Far be it from us to shill for the Columbia Dems, but they did have some big news this weekend–the national College Democrats of America named them Chapter of the Year, beating out George Washington (which has its eyes on the prize for next year). To land the accolade, they put together a slick little report touting their accomplishments and presented before the CDA board as well as officials from the Democratic National Committee (quick background: CDA is the official arm of the DNC, which is run by erstwhile presidential candidate Howard Dean). And now they almost have a slick little website to go with it.

In the cheerful press release that now accompanies anything the Dems do or say, president Josh Lipsky preened: “This award belongs to every college democrat and young progressive in this country who firmly believes it is their time to lead.”

Really guys? You going to turn over that plaque?

The Dems also officially approved their first candidate group for the ’08 presidential campaign: Students for Obama. It’s the first of a flotilla of umbrella groups that the Dems intend to start for every issue out there, from civil liberties to health care.

Our guess is that Students for Gravel won’t be one of them…

- LBD

UPDATE 11:55 AM EST: Full press releases included, as requested, after the jump.

UPDATE 10:07 PM EST: We have been informed that the College Dems of New York–the president of which just graduated from Columbia, and is now leading the New York arm of Living Liberally–were named third place for State Federation. 

In other news, the College Republicans had one too… Read more…

Two months after hundreds of kids set out for their one crack at stealth warfare, one team has emerged alive: C-Unit, composed of MCPants (Max Czapanskiy, SEAS ’09, also with the most kills), Der Meister aus Deutchland (Luis Quinteros, SEAS ‘09), Doublestuf (Oriana Isaacson, C ’09), and PollockandLoad (Alex Rudnicki, SEAS ’10, who, for the record was supposed to be PolackandLoad). The two fencers, Czapanskiy and Rudnicki, had a legacy to live up to. Flush with victory, they and Quinteros sat down to relive the war.

Bwog: What have the last 55 days been like, and how do you feel with it having ended?

AR: Stress. It was just stressful.

MC: He just moved into our suite after a certain period of time.

LQ: He’s just been living there and sleeping in Max’s bed. Showering there, everything.

AR: I did lead a normal life. I went out every weekend, pretty much, but it was just heightened paranoia.

MC: The worst thing was someone was out running, and you could hear them behind you. You would just freak out and slam your back up against a wall.

So you [Quinteros] got killed earlier, right?

LQ: I was the second one dead.

MC: Luis really came through for us. That one weekend. Everyone on disavowed, right?

LQ: My whole team was gone, for two days, it was just me.

MC: Because we had a fencing tournament then. Ivies, right?

LQ: The night they got back, I happened to run into Rob Trump on my way home, through the falling snow. I immediately recognized him, I knew he was on the disavowed list, so I just walked up behind him coolly and shot him.



You are a snow killer, aren’t you?

MC: Yeah, he got you [Bwog] ten minutes later…that morning, he got two more kills, four kills in 14 hours, and that kept us off the disavowed list.



Was there a gradual ramp up in tension as the numbers dropped?

AR: Yeah, I think so. When it got down to the top third, it felt like the game was ending. Everybody was after you. When the game got down to the top ten, even though there were less people, it felt like someone was going to be around the next corner. Read more…