Let’s do this. OK, there were controversies: The Study Days Debacle, the Meal Plan Shitshow, the McBain Conflagration ’10, Gender Neutral (Open) Housing, another possible SSN breach, the gross things living in Pinnacle; there were new friends: the Vag, coyotes, Sarkozy, falafel (everywhere!), a new beau for Hawkma; there was an insane snowball fight, a huge pillow fight, a big old speed bump for Manhattanville, a bonafide Snow Day, a former Wu Tang member hanging out on Low Plaza…we could go on, and we do in our breakdown of August 2009-May 2010 below. Bwog hopes you had a wonderful year, and we hope you have fun taking a trip down memory lane (in links and pictures) with us below.

Allow us a meta-moment before we do: Bwog wants to say thank you. Thank you for reading, thank you for commenting (please be nice to each other on the web, dudes!) and thanks for hanging out with us this year. We’ll still be here over the summer, posting when there’s something good to post. As always, that depends mostly on you: use our tip form to let us know what’s going on both in Morningside and wherever your summer takes you.

August: Fresh-faced 2013ers (now known colloquially as “sophomores”) showed up; we provided some Orientation Schadenfreude and told them how to make friends.

September: After an exhausting round of Lit Hum Bingo, we spotted Ted Kennedy outside Am-Ap and switched GChat for texting in Music Hum. The semester officially began, and your professors said funny things about it. We started a strange friendship with the Hot Dog Machine, got free hot water (!!!!!) from Butler Cafe, and Columbia discovered YouTube. Things broke, people lost keys, and the Ref room became the new 209. Westboro protested, people got married on the Steps, we answered questions about the close-door button and talked to Mrs. HamDel. Phew!

October: Stuff happened in October! First, two masked undergrads set $400 QuAM balloons free, Book Culture was sort of cloned, and the Lions destroyed the Tigers in football. We caught up with our campus contortionist, resident Rubik’s Cube Master, the Footbag Queen, and the infamous Sir Mike of Carman. And  hark! One of the year’s true controversies began: The Great Study Days Debacle! Scandalous, in a different way: Ghostbusters doesn’t pay to keep the lawns green. We tell the NYPost to STFU, we’ll take our classes on Columbus Day thankyouverymuch. Spec’s online mishaps peaked with a Spectacle for the books, and we all sang about Balloon Boy. Columbia grad and potential prof Kian Tajbakhsh was sentenced to 12 years in Iranian prison. Foodie news abounded: we gleefully spent $25 on pancakes when Community re-opened, learned that in John Jay Dining Hall, turkey burgers magically become vegan and Roti Roll employees love you but get a little sick of mopping up green sauce at 2 AM. We wrapped up with non sequiturs: we explained why SEAS doesnt take the swim test, we found this weird thing in Milbank, and Clippy won the Halloween Costume Contest.

November: Election day wasn’t really as fun as last year, but we stuffed ourselves with $1 food and saw Ice-T outside 1020 so everything was OK. Lerner turned 10, Hawkma returned, we chatted with Pascale from JJ, Hewitt Grillmaster Benny, American hero Raj from Butler Cafe, and laughed both with and at Bob Saget. Then November got serious: Gender Neutral Housing entered our vocabulary (that’s Open Housing now, kids) and Postcrypt was shuttered. We forgot about everything for four blissful days known as Thanksgiving weekend: we ate lots of Morningside turkey sandwiches and made a Turducken in a McBain kitchen, and were thankful.

December: MiMoo made her big debut at the Tree Lighting Ceremony. Verdict: adorable! Then the Dallas Mavericks practiced in Dodge, and that was really weird. Then a real thing happened: Manhattanville faced a major obstacle when the New York Supreme Court ruled that the state could not use eminent domain to secure swaths of West Harlem for Manhattanville. Stay tuned for the appeal decision on June 1, and read up on some MVille background here. Chomsky visited IAB, and everybody went fucking nuts. It snowed, because it was December. Adults found the notion of Gender Neutral Housing deeply scary. We heard the first whispers of the Meal Plan Shitshow. M2M made its fries bad for a hot sec, and then changed them back to the tempura-deliciousness we like. Whispers about the Meal Plan became vague official shouts, Barnard students shouted back, and the Barnard admin tried to explain. La Negrita got a new name, John Jay flooded, and we caught up with campus hero Wilma. Then, suddenly, the semester was over, and your professors noted it. We reflected on the end of a decade, explored the Grant Houses uptown, and went to Orgo Night. Finals week ascended from Hades and it was time for requisite above-average anxiety. Then that wonderful snowball fight happened, and we forgot about everything for a night. Then we woke up and remembered the Study Days Debacle, and you vented. We made a holiday wish list, and went home for a four-week nap.

January: Somehow, Pinnacle’s ten thousand health violations were surprising, but we guess we all need something to talk about over Winter Break. The semester began with genuine tragedy: Michael Sinnott, GS ’10, and John David Fernandez, CC ’12 passed away in the same week. The Vag (which sounds like vagina) opened and it was awesome. Bwog introduced Boringside Heights; Brooklyn Lager became a buck more expensive at 1020. Your professors smoked doobies and ushered in the new semester. Lounge chairs went missing in Wien; admin opened your doors to seek truth and justice, which are synonymous with “lounge chair,” apparently. Uris and Butler got bougie, scary new vending machines, respectively. Shedding alcohol and free popcorn, Postcrypt soldiered on. The SSNs of 1,400 Columbia affiliates were possibly breached. Um!

Jump for four more months and a ton of pictures.

February: Life was a rollercoaster: the Arts Initiative took at 30% budget cut, the Vag officially opened, Anna Quindlen was there!!, and there were free berets. The Vag’s Event Oval (Barnard, you are relentless!) hosted DSpar and the Meal Plan Forum, which didn’t make Barnardians happy, despite the ironic free food. Glass House…waaait for it…rocked! Different, yet similar: Lou Reed came to Miller. Then a COYOTE showed up outside Lewisohn. DG yelled! The impossible happened and Columbia gave us a Snow Day: Peter Awn was wry, campus went appropriately nuts, and igloos were built. We swooned for Valentine’s Day, we swooned for Hamilton, and we swooned for Vincent Aurora. Pandit and Bhakti helped us relax, a new dorm made us woefully optimistic about housing; we found out shortly thereafter that Gender Neutral Housing wouldnt exist for 2010-2011. Sophomores survived the McBain Conflagration ’10 relatively unscathed.

March: We told John McCain how many times you can actually graduate from Columbia and discovered the DSpar can speak backwards. The JJ’s staff told us their favorite songs, and we talked about sex (baby). We welcomed the Dosa Cart and told you the craziest things that have passed through the Package Center. GS’s diplomas remained in English, not Latin, and debate ensued. We went on Spring Break, and when we came back it was actually spring. Psychology professor Christoph Wiedenmayer passed away, and you shared memories about him. Chris Elizondo became ESC Pres, Feniosky shared his love for Shakira, Double “Denburg” D shared her love for Simon and Garfunkel, and Columbia switched to the Common App. Mysteries were revealed: what the grass looks like under tarps, the CC Class Day Speaker, the answer to the problem of inequality, and what Healthcare means for us. Study Days went corporate, we prepared to swipe at JJ’s and Ferris, and Sarko visited campus (all in one day!)

April: April began as any productive month must: with a long meeting about logistics that didn’t change anything. Having thrown up our hands over the Study Days Debacle for what we foolishly thought would be the last time, we made some new friends: spring, the iPad, Chewbacca and the gang, the Squirrel Whisperer, Maoz, and Nom^3. We checked in from Death Row, gorged ourselves on engineered Mimi Truffles, and got some realtalk about Obama’s years at Columbia. We all took a deep breath and wrangled the beast that was Suite Selection 2010 to the ground– we were with you every millisecond of the way, comrades. There were about as many lurking admins as students at 40s on 40, but 2010 still got tipsy with style. Advice was given, battles raged: Kia of Cafe 212 fame reminded us not to buy the grapes, and your favorite professors answered the question everyone wanted to ask: why can’t we have class outside? Senioritis led to delicious things, but 2010 were still bummed that they couldn’t register for “Plants II” next fall. Learned Foote and Stand Columbia won CCSC Exec Board, Sean Manning Udell became CC 2011’s President, Amanda Tan won 2011 ESC President, Lara Avsar won SGA President, and Reni Callister became BC Senior Class President. Wiz Khalifa left an unopened box of condoms in Kent, your classmates danced in diapers with Of Montreal, Columbia crowdsurfed its way through Chewbacchanal, and woke up in time for Holi and WBAR-B-Q. The month ended as it began: with a meeting about logistics, but this time we finally got something like a solution to the Study Days Debacle.

May: It all happened so fast! 2010 gave us their Senior Wisdom, V116 left us feeling warm and fuzzy, as did seniors’ 209 pranks. Your professors had a thing or two to say about the year’s end, and we all dreamed big, beautiful dreams of Lerner 4’s future. There was much giggling at Orgo Night and fluffy pulverizing at the Pillow Fight. While trying to decide between EC, Heights and Campo, we learned that Gender Neutral Housing had a new name and a new goal, and spotted Mario and Luigi in Butler. We survived finals week and marched alongside our strong, beautiful, smart, talented, wonderful and generally inspiring GS, SEAS, BC, and CC Classes of 2010 at Class Days and at Commencement.

Take an out-of-context, anachronistic visual walk back through the last year.