It's time today to say goodbye to the New York Sun, which has been a diligent and dedicated chronicler of the life and times of Columbia and its faculty. Come, let's relive the memories.

Way back in 2006, the Sun dutifully reported on the Joseph Massad and Nadia Ab El-Haj Tenure Battles. And then the following year, there was extensive coverage of the visit a certain Iranian President, which included some rather unflattering pieces about Coatsworth & Friends.

Then was that time that 70 prominent professors published a "statement of concern" in the paper, accusing your President Bollinger of stifling academic freedom.

Current-founder Bari Weiss, CC '07, writes in the (possibly ill-fated) New York Sun today about the 19 incoming Columbia GS first-years who had previously served in the Armed Forces.

(According to Weiss, GS was created in 1947 partly as a response to the high number of ex-soldiers returning from WWII.)

Weiss spoke to a number of the 19 first-years about the differences between military life and academic life, and reactions range from confident about success ("You sit down next to these girls who are 18 years old and they've got plastic jewelry from Claire's and they're trying to understand the rise and fall of the USSR. They can do it; but we've seen dictators rise and fall") to thankful for the ability to appreciate the civilian life: "I'm just happy to be alive. I'm ecstatic here."

Bwog has just been alerted to some curious news. It seems that the bastion of journalistic integrity that is the New York Sun ran a very informative piece about CU by a certain Columbia Alum and Republican District Leader Christopher Lanzillotti.

According to this article, it was almost precisely two score years ago when a group of renegade students overtook some buildings of this very campus (urinating out of windows) and protested commencement with "loud rock music" and used "intoxicating substances." It's a good thing that none of this tomfoolery persisted on campus! Lanzillotti seems relatively pleased that the campus was able to overcome this "tumultuous" time and now student activism is no longer an important part of campus life. Apparently, we have been tamed!

-JJV

Bwog was puzzled when news of a delegation of Columbia professors going to Iran to apologize to President Ahmadinejad for PrezBo's performance in September appeared in our inbox yesterday. The article by the government-sponsored Mehr News agency cited only one anonymous source and seemed completely improbable, Bwog brushed it off as Iranian propaganda and went about its day.

The New York Sun, however, ran a whole article (followed by a pro-PrezBo comment signed as CB9 chair Jordi Reyes-Montblanc) about the "visit," which also made it into the pages of such reputable news outlets as the New York Times and Michigan Daily, as well as a handful of blogs. No professors confirmed the story, Richard Bulliet didn't know anything about it, and a Columbia spokesman said the university "has no knowledge or information about the claims being made in the Iranian media." Now City Room has a fat post on the non-story, consisting of multiple denials of the rumor and a rehash of the whole affair.

If any professors are planning to head east, they might not be professors for much longer, since PrezBo apparently banned official visits last month. Bwog suggests a telegram.

- LBD