Here at the Bwog, we're fans of the underdog, the little guy, you know, the little train that could so to speak. So when it comes to consumerism, corporations and all that jazz, we support locally-owned independent businesses. As detailed in the current issue of The Blue and White, Morningside Heights unfortunately has succumbed to the fetters of the chain gang in recent years.

But today, November 22nd is America Unchained Day, a holiday celebrating locally-owned businesses that have remained free from corporate conquest. No holiday, however, can be properly celebrated without an obligatory sale. You've heard of Memorial Day sales, you've heard of Independence Day sales, you've heard of Labor Day sales, but today Book Culture brings you something new - an America Unchained Day Sale! From now until 8 PM, Book Culture, is hosting a special one day sale and book event: 10% off everything in the store, excluding text books and periodicals!

The sale offers an excellent way to get started on your holiday shopping and at the same to make the most of your money. And the best part is this is conscientious consumerism: you'll be supporting (and injecting potentially millions more dollars) into the local economy. Tis the season, after all.

Don't forget, you can also embrace the spirit of the holiday at other locally owned Morningside Heights establishments, like Janoff's, Mondel's Chocolate and if you're feeling particularly charitable, the Morningside Bookshop.

In which we imitate Monday through Friday: CU, vaguely, is whispered about in the real world.

We found fuel cells.

(Ed.- wrong Columbia)

You found a corporate sponsor.

He found dirty money.

Mom found a "neo-con".

They found a sweet quartet.

And a top of the Monday to you, Bwogophiles. We begin today's headcount with a pictorial update on one of Fair Alma's proudest and most rankling traditions: making sure South Lawn is closed all the time, no matter what, virtually year-round. Indeed, nothing says "long, depressing winter" quite like the antiseptic layer of tarp that carpets the south end of campus three months out of the year, exiling off-season frisbee-ers to Riverside Park, and heralding endless weeks of general gloom.

But cheer up, Columbians! According to the mobile isolation chamber currently parked outside of Broadway Pres., it's like, 75 degrees in the Carribbean! And American Airlines can fly you there ! The habitat-on-wheels--replete with plastic santa, cardboard travel guitar, mosquito torch and digital newscrawl advertising fares from JFK to San Juan--strikes Bwog as a pretty desperate cry for attention, what with JetBlue's recent attempts at making itself Columbia's airline of choice. Their marketing approach is heavy on the free shit and short on the kitsch; on top of which, the American Airlines traveling Carribbean whatever-the-fuck-it-is looks like a set piece for the weirdest psych experiment EVER.

And in the world of legitimate journalism: you might have read something in the Spec the other day about a New York Civil Liberties Union complaint on behalf of a Columbia grad student of South Asian descent who was detained by the NYPD for taking pictures in a subway station. Important to be sure, but you wouldn't think that it deserves a staff edit in the New York Post, would you? Well, you, reader, are wrong. Further proof that the 'bloids just can't resist the combination of Columbia, liberals, and protest, or, in this case, just can't resist the combination of Columbia with, well...anything.

-ARR