A band of revelers led by a wildly gesticulating Santa Claus made waves across Columbia this afternoon, prompting several tipsters to ask "wtf?". The possibly drunk, underweight Saint Nicholas and his six disciples marched across campus twice today, interrupting classes, being mistaken for CUMB, and playing, among other things, a rousing rendition of It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing). We may never be intended to understand their full purpose, but we do know that they are part of the Bread & Puppet theater group, based in Vermont and currently on tour in New York for three weeks. They just started their second week of performances, all of which are at 8:00 pm at the Theater for the New City downtown.

- DHI, photo by ZVS

Woah. Hold on a second. Did anyone else know that Vermont had plans to secede from the Union? Bwog certainly didn't—although, in all probability, neither did the vast majority of the residents of Vermont. The plan is being discussed in the forthcoming First North American Secessionist Convention, organized by The Middlebury Institute, which is expected to attract...well...maybe fifty people.

Despite the diminutive scale of the conference's following, however, Columbia professors are, as always, planted firmly in the know; two of them, Eric Foner and Todd Gitlin, are quoted in today's New York Sun giving their opinions on possible secession. Sadly, neither is in favor.