Last night, Bwog procrastinated from its various papers by conducting another Bwog Asked on unsuspecting library-goers, this time asking the ambiguously ominous question, “What keeps you up at night?” Here’s a sampling of some of our results, along with an unexpectedly detailed conversation about grease.
- Boy constructing cheatsheet in 210: Wet dreams. Get it?
- 209 A: Stimulants.
- 209 B: Remembering how much work I have to do.
- Girl on Facebook in 202: Thinking about all of the work I should be doing instead of sleeping. My sleep schedule is pretty reversed right now. I’m basically nocturnal.
- Boy in 303 with a million papers in front of him: This is going to sound boring, but work.
- Girl in 303 working on a lab report: Too much silence or too much noise. Either/or.
- 303b alcove denizen: *taps coffee cup*
- Two boys studying in 3rd floor hallway: 1: Caffeine. 2: Prospects of failing out of college.
- Ref room A: I took a 4-hour nap.
- Ref room B: I just work better at night.
- 310 alcove A: Caffeine.
- 310 alcove B: Studying.
- Girl studying in stairwell: Finals.
- Two girls in 4th floor study room: 1. Music and giggles. 2. Starbucks mocha frappuccinos and prayer.
- Very sweet boy in 403: I have an exam tomorrow morning and a presentation in the afternoon, so I feel like I should stay up and prepare for it. How many finals do you have left?
- 5th floor boy in a room all to himself: Just caffeine.
- Very sweet girl in 504: (giggles) I’m almost failing everything! How about you?
- Two 6th floor studious girls: 1. Coffee. 2. Having this due tomorrow!
Two loud-speaking senior boys in the lounge:
“Grease.”
[Bwog] “Like the country or the musical?”
“I meant the grease in this [HamDel] sandwich. But I guess also the country. He actually lived in Greece for a while (points to other guy)”
[Bwog] “Like the country or the thing?”
“Like sandwich grease. I put him in a vat of grease for a while. That keeps me up at night.”
From here the conversation evolved to points including, but not restricted to:
- The apartment they stayed in over the summer in Astoria, run by a paranoid old Greek woman, where they lived in literal grease and were forced to sing Rudolf the Red-Nose Reindeer. She keeps them up at night sometimes. They’re convinced she’s still following them and listening to everything they’re saying. That keeps them up at night.
- Leitmotifs. The leitmotif of grease in this conversation. Studying music. The papers they’re writing about Proust (and music). Leitmotifs keep them up at night sometimes.
- Puccini is really anti-feminist. [that’s keeping Bwog up right now] Weezer’s Pinkerton album (it’s a concept album based on Madame Butterfly). Not understanding entirely how Pinkerton the album relates to B.F. Pinkerton (the Butterfly character) keeps them up at night. How weird Rivers Cuomo is keeps them up at night.
- One of their aunts. She’s “fine.” Just “fine.” She keeps him up at night sometimes.
- Religion. Raising children the right way so it doesn’t backfire. This keeps them up at night sometimes.
- One of them just applied to grad school. Those applications kept him up at night for a bit.
- Not caring about these papers because they’re seniors. That keeps them up at night sometimes (both the apathy and the fact that they have to finish these papers).
- But, essentially, it’s the HamDel grease.
Just for reference, Bwog’s answer to our own Bwog Asked is water. And cockroaches.
Greece/Grease/no clue via Shutterstock
20 Comments
@Anonymous The Greek church begat islam and communism because they rejected original sin.
@I kneel before you and....lecture/plead/dunno anymore pretty please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
with sugar on top
and one of those candy cherries
ignore my linguistic sins
we can bend those rules
of form
they call it
I think
spelling
a social construct really
(cue Why Can’t the English from My Fair Lady)
As good ol’ Bernie Shaw himself said:
“The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. They spell it so abominably that no man can teach himself what it sounds like. It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him. German and Spanish are accessible to foreigners: English is not accessible even to Englishmen.”
So, I’m a… victim of an awful system really.
@misandrist dribble Check your rape culture, privilege
@The sun is a dick Grease is a real problem, my stomach is so slippery
@puccini lover he’s not so anti-feminist! like minnie in fanciulla del west don’t need no man, shiii
@Alexandra Please. Minnie don’t need no man till Dick Johnson shows up and then all she cares about is needing a man.
@puccini lover not until he vows to change his ways, and she still fights like a badass to save his life. i’m just sayin’, i think puccini gets underestimated when it comes to the ladies. like, tosca? can’t tell me she’s not fierce as hell.
@Alexandra I totally thought that too (and still love her to death), but check out an essay called “Mi chiamano Mimi: The Role of Women in Puccini Operas” for arguments on Tosca (and Butterfly/Mimi/Turandot). Of course, of course, you can counterargue that Tosca gets to be a rounded character with full spectrum of emotions while Scarpia etc. are basically 1D men with life only in politics, but the article still has some good points.
Anyways, I’m gonna go listen to Vissi d’arte now and channel some Callas fortitude into studying. If you ever wanna go see/talk about opera, hit me up. Good luck to you and thanks for a nice distraction!
@puccini lover I will definitely read that article, and I am always looking for people who want to go see/talk opera, excellent.
I had just finished a 25pg paper on Puccini when I left those comments and I didn’t feel like trying to be articulate or anything, which I regretted as soon as I had posted. Thanks for treating my lazy opinions as valid, Columbia can be such an argumentative place, so that’s my finalstime thank you.
Hope your Callas-like fortitude pays off, I am attacking this next paper with Leotyne-like determination (so that I can later can get drunk with Pavarotti-esque relish) Good luck to you as well!
@check your privilege
@Anonymous I’m cringing at the cockroach part. I have a really clean room this year (John Jay). Does it really get that bad?
@Jeff EVERY DAY THEY BE ALL UP IN MY GRILLLZ
@Anon Just wait for McBain :)
@FYI Just wait for JJ’s Place.
@Interested Who are these excellent boys? I would like to meet them.
@QUEEMNS BOYNS theyre the boys from queems
@Anonymous this is clearly ivan
@What Is it just my fatigue or does the last part of this post really messed up?
@anonymous does it?
@What oops, does=is sometimes, maybe?