And I'm not eating until Columbia changes the names engraved on Butler Library!

Meetings with Professor Philip Kitcher and the Committee on CC vs. not eating. Yup, similar tactics.

There are people starving in Africa who aren't getting so much media coverage.

In case you're not hunger-striking...

Animal house!

Bwog was passing by the Barnard gates when something caught our eye. A baby squirrel tumbled off of the top of the gate and onto the pavement. Two security guards rushed over and picked up the little guy. His nose was bleeding and he seemed to be in shock. Efforts were made to put him back on the side of the gate, so that he might be able to climb back up. At press time, the squirrel was still on the ground, the men were still trying to help it back to its home, and Bwog is terribly, terribly depressed. Sighs.

Everybody is talking about animals now, according to three separate things that three separate people said. IT IS ABSOLUTELY TRUE THAT THREE OF ANYTHING MAKES A TREND!

First, a pair of professors:

"Sex with animals...it doesn't seem like something we might do today. But in a rural world, it does happen!"

- Professor Alfred MacAdam, Latin American Literature in Translation, on One Hundred Years of Solitude

"Everyone here loves camels. They are beastly, beastly mean animals."

- Professor George Saliba, Contemporary Islamic Civilization, on the Safavid Empire

...and then, a student continues the trend:

"... and that would be fine, except that I'm allergic to scorpion blood."
- Girl in McIntosh in between bites of (hopefully scorpion-free) sushi

Overheard by Juli Weiner

- DHI

First-year Neha Shende killed in car crash. R. I. P.

---

Edwards one block away from Columbia (satisfied, commenters?), uses MLK Day event to rip Bush, cynicism

15 GS students attend gay outreach party; few are gay

CTV's Gates retools: copies 80s, Spanish telenovelas... and wins lots of money

Your dog doesn't love you, but it sure looks cute when its c-fibers are stimulated

'Primordial Ooze' Blessed by Church, and Reindeer; Bwog, However, Wants to Know Where Bwog Can Buy Its Very Own Screeching Piglet

University Administrators, Luminaries, Quip, Joke, Tease Their Way into Trustee Pocketbooks

"It's Easy to Blame That Man-Slut For Fucking You Over"

Columbia Lends Hand to Estonia, Spec Opinion Hopes Estonia Will Lend Hand Back. Soviet Union No Longer in Tact

And in Sports, Aggressive Defense is the Only Way to Win, But if Only It Wasn't for That Stagnant Offense!

In animal cruelty, actually. The eminently reasonable, not-shrill-at-all People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has ranked the Worst 10 College Laboratories, and Columbia comes in 10th, behind places like Harvard and Johns Hopkins (well, we beat Yale). At least the Columbia monkeys have people on their side, (watch out for the ominous voice of Alec Baldwin as you enter the site) which is more than can be said for animals languishing in cages at the other nine schools.

Thanks to California Bwog reader Anna Couturier, CC '10 (!), for the tip.

116th and Amsterdam may never have seen this many farm animals since, well, there were farms here. Throw in picnic food, facepainting, raffles, toy and clothes sales, and one giant inflatable firetruck, and you might just forget about that 20-page paper due on Monday.

Sorry for reminding you. More photos after the jump.

Overheard near Hamilton: A young girl, and a grown man with a dog.

Man with dog: Hey, how are you?
Girl: I'm good, how are you?
Man: Fine.
Girl: What's your dog's name?
Man: Chloe.
Girl: Hey, Chloe! [girl pets dog]
Man: Say hi, Chloe. [dog is quiet] Come on Chloe! Say hi!

[Dog does nothing]

Man: She's not in a very good mood today.
Girl: Why not?
Man: She just found out she has cancer.
Girl: (awkwardly) Oh?
Man: Yeah.

[pause]

Girl: Well...talk to you later!
Man: Ok, see you!

Bwog Correspondent Jim Williams reports:

An unfortunate typo (or, rather, what I hope was a typo) in today's Spec article about the Center for Broken Thought's inaugural event claims that the movement is "inspired by thinkers like Nietzsche, Bataille, Artaud, and Shamu." Yes, Shamu. The whale from Free Willy.

Had the mistake been caught and fixed prior to publication, the article would have referenced Iranian poet Ahmad Shamlu, whose work bears resemblance to the ideas presented in The Breaking.

Those interested in more information would be well advised to do a comparative study of the two illustrious figures' respective websites, shamlu.com and shamu.com. Each, in its own way, is tremendously enlightening.

This weekend the Bwog's John Shekitka interviewed Peter Capainolo, a curator of ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History and a licensed falconer. That's right, he's a licensed falconer!

How did you first become interested in falconry?

I grew up in eastern Long Island, which at the time had all oak forests and farms. As a kid I hunted, fished, and collected insects in little jars. Gradually, I got interested in sketching all these things and making watercolor paintings. Then my mother paid for some taxidermy lessons, so I learned how to preserve skin and mount birds. I was always particularly interested in birds. I had a pigeon coop and belonged to club that raced homing pigeons. This one time, a hawk came down out of the woods and ate one of my pigeons on the lawn, and rather than being horrified, I was intrigued.

What with the cockroaches, and mice, and bedbugs, Columbia seems to have a real pest control problem.

Luckily, Housing is taking care of those sea critters in Hartley the best way they know how. Oil spill!

Picture and tip courtesy Mark Holden

Overheard in the Carman elevator:

"You can't fight a tiger and win."

Cindy Horowitz, didn't anyone ever tell you you can't keep pets in dorms?

Still, the Bwog is a big fan of baby animals so we'll direct our readers to your Craigslist ad. Someone needs to adopt the hamlettes.

Full text of ad after the jump.

Last Weekend B&W staffers Lydia Ross and Brendan Ballou talked with Mimi Vang Doren, the pre-eminent pet portraitist of the East Village. Ms. Vang Doren has traveled around the world as a pet portraitist—here she talks about her inspirations, her clientele, and the fall of the New York art scene.

What are your influences?
Every painting I ever looked at, I suppose [laughs]. And I grew up in New York so I always had the advantage of going to museums.

I started with family portraits. I started because my father was a photographer in the Bronx, he had studio there for 55 years, he did portraits of people. But I think I just carried it a step further...I've done about a hundred [portraits] of people in their environment. Families with their pets in their environments. But then seeing so many pets out on the street here in New York in the village I started to do some pet portraits... I've been to Barcelona to paint three cats. I've been to California. Switzerland.