God knows its finals season. This afternoon from around 2 PM to 6 PM, the juxtaposition of the moon, Venus and Jupiter will form a frowny face in the south-south-western sky.

Bwogger and astronomy-tipster Hans Hyttinen believes that optimal viewing time will be after the sun sets at 4:20 PM. Fiddle around with the stars and planets to get a better sense of this planetary optical illusion here, and read about yesterday's heavenly smiley face, which proved rather feeble due to misalignment and weather problems.

Also: We want your sky portraiture! If you get a good shot of the sad face this afternoon, send it to bwgossip@columbia.edu.

We just wanted to take a quick minute to thank you, the reader, for reading.

We've had an exciting fall, with pageviews numbering just below 2 million/month for October and November (our highest since April '08 by about 400k).

So again, thanks for reading -- we're humbled and grateful that you do.

There was much uproar in response to our Shocking Revelation that next fall, the traditional Reading Week will morph into a tiny, hellish creature known as "Study Day." Is there anything to be done about the unfortunate calendering? CCSC offers up a resounding "maybe!"

According to 2010 VP Sue Yang, who's point person on the Study Day Project, the following two options are the most viable:

1. "Move the last day of classes from Monday Dec 14 to Friday Dec 11. This, of course, would require faculty who would normally teach those Monday courses to shift their schedule for this one day. Students who normally have classes and recitations on Friday may incur some conflicts too. This would, however, add not only that Monday to the reading period, but also provide the weekend as study days free of the worry of classes.
2. Keep the class schedule the same, but hold exams on Saturday and Sunday (as some universities do) so that we can shift the start of the exam period from Wednesday Dec 16 to Friday Dec 18. Students would then have a normal reading period of Tuesday - Thursday."

Bwog receives a lot of emails. Still, even Gmailers as jaded as we were curious about the following anonymous correspondence, the subject line of which was "giant vagina in carman elevator! 2:30ish am, Dec 1"

We were hoping there would be an explanatory picture, and oh, was there ever.

No further context was provided, and you know what, we're okay with that.

Columbia, welcome to no man's land.

For the next two weeks, life will most likely not be fun. You are stuck in the in-between holiday purgatory, having just left home and not far from returning. You must somehow fit what now seems like a lifetime of paper-writing and furious studying into this short amount of time.

Bwog isn't really going to suggest you do anything during finals week except sigh loudly, complain with your friends and have occasional nervous breakdowns, but until the second week of December, we suggest that you punctuate your finals-induced misery with one or a few of the many lovely free mostly-holiday-themed events taking place in our fair city. A full listing after the jump.

The Barnard Leadership Initiative becomes the Barnard Leadership Institute, results of this switch remain a little fuzzy

A new month, a new proposal for gender-blind housing

Wait, what grade inflation? That's only in Cambridge, silly Spec!

Broadway and Amsterdam are different avenues, and different people frequent them.

The first of December heralds in finals season, holiday anticipation, and a 1,200-word epic poem by Columbia's favorite Twelve, Stephan. Seriously.

Things slow down before reading week, but there's plenty of winter cheer and music to look forward to.

Monday

Crash Test Dummies: We all love those slow-motion videos of dummies in cars, but what about the science of engineering for safety? 11:00 AM @ Davis Aud, Schapiro.

Tuesday

Columbia Classical Performers: Morningside's musicians come out of the woodwork to give another splendid concert. 6:30 PM @ Philosophy Lounge.

Thursday

Tree Lighting and Yule Log Ceremony: Columbia's annual winter traditions are back. Hot chocolate, shiny lights, and Quigley's Quaint Countdown. 5:45 PM @ College Walk.

Look which local bookshop has made New York Magazine's recent quasi-advertorial article thing about how to be "independent": it's Morningside Books! Says New York:

The Crowd: Caters to the Upper West Side's erudite collectors (with first editions from Jimmy Breslin, Updike, etc.) as well as cost-averse Columbia students (a wall's worth of Penguin Classics).
Sample Find: A vintage 24-volume Charles Dickens set.
What's Selling? Toni Morrison's A Mercy. 2915 Broadway; 212-222-3350.

In other news, per New York, Sunday dinner is the new Sunday brunch. Act accordingly.

New Hawkmadinebwog contributor Courtney Douds takes us on a vicarious five-minute hike across campus, satisfying the urge for a walk in the woods without requiring anyone to get too cold.

Most photographs of Hawkmadinejad depict more than just one fascinating species. For the arboreal enthusiasts whose interests have thus far been ignored, here is a map of the large trees on campus, species by species.

Today's New York Times Sunday Book Review includes a letter to the editor from philosophy and English professor Philip Kitcher, in which he masterfully corrects Slate overlord Jack Shafer. The latter had hypothetically asked in last week's review of Roy Blount, Jr.'s Alphabet Juice: "Who before Blount thought to construct a complete conversation using only English vowels?"

Writes Kitcher: "The answer is James Joyce. Almost. The conversation Shafer cites, with the five vowels in order, has a precursor in a sentence from 'Ulysses.' In Chapter 9, Stephen Dedalus is meditating on his debt to the writer George Russell, whose pseudonym was AE. Stephen concludes his musings with a five-letter sentence: A.E.I.O.U."

The thirteens are coming (really, they are), and everyone is taking notice.

Thirteens cometh, thirteens goeth:

Because without a scholarship, we're far too expensive.

And there's always those pesky test scores to stop people.

And the oh so quotable:

Chalfie: "I basically tickle worms."

CU Neurosurgeon Richard Anderson: "Since there are a million different types of hair accessories, why wear something that poses a risk?"

An outsider and literalist: "I was astonished. My jaw was dropping."

While you were relishing waking up in your bed at home yesterday, Bwog joined the vast crowd of Manhattanites who schlepped downtown in the cold early Thursday morning to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The procession of giant balloons—an enjoyable if odd holiday ritual, when you think about it—included a few new characters among the more than 40 oversized inflatables marching down Central Park West. Buzz Lightyear, a Smurf, Horton the Elephant, and a Keith Haring tribute figure debuted this year in the parade, which also featured elaborate floats, countless high-steppin' marching bands, and Santa Claus.

Aside from a small brush against a building by the SpongeBob balloon, everything appeared to go according to plans. No lampposts were knocked over or balloons accidentally popped, although Bwog kept hoping they would release the balloons like they did back in the 1920s.

Oh, and all of that helium the parade uses? All 200,000 to 300,000 cubic feet of it? This year marks the first that workers for the parade's helium supplier, Linde North America, recovered and recycled the gas at the end of the route.

More photos after the jump.

Shoppers thronging the streets outside of Macy's

Whatever happens in the final accounting, the crowds out shopping Friday in Manhattan were horrendous.

Many stores opened at 5 a.m. to hordes of bargain-hungry shoppers pouncing on deals like Butler Library pigeons on bagel scraps, and the flagship Macy's in Herald Square was no exception.

Photos and more after the jump.

Bwog will be taking it easy today in deference to Thanksgiving and hope you will be too. And as per our tradition, we've compiled a list of everything and everyone for which/whom we're thankful.

People
Andrew Sarris
Lil Wayne
Michelle Obama
Alan Brinkley
Giambattista Vico
Andrew Revkin
Robby the Vending Machine
James Franco (and the hope of running into him at Dodge)
Eric Foner yelling passionately in lectures
The Terrible Twelves
Nate Silver: Ultimate nerd dreamboat