This past Monday, francophiles and French citizens celebrated Bastille Day. And since gossiping about President Sarkozy and his wife is no way to celebrate the holiday -- and Film Forum is no longer featuring its wonderful series on Godard -- here are a few suggestions for some French films worth renting.

The Rules of the Game (1939):
Directed by Jean Renoir, the son of the Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste and a man regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time, the film is an incendiary satire of the self-absorption within France's bourgeoisie on the eve of World War II. The film only slowly reaches the point at which the viewer sees that the nation's elite are feuding with each other over sex while their country faces imminent war. The movie was so powerful that a man set fire to a newspaper at its premiere in an attempt to burn down the theater, while the French government (and later the occupying Nazi regime) banned the film. The Rules of the Game survived and remains both a cinematic achievement ad well as a relevant social critique.

So yesterday the Empire State Development Corp. voted to approve Columbia's $6.28 billion expansion expansion into Manhattanville.

In doing so, the state designated the area as blighted, which is necessary in order to invoke eminent domain.

The decision came as a result of a blight study by AKRF Inc., which found that Manhattanville consisted of "aging, poorly maintained and functionally obsolete industrial buildings with little indication of recent reinvestment to revive their generally deteriorated condition."

It's on to MIT for outgoing Dean of Student Affairs Chris Colombo, where he will serve as the Dean for Student Life.

How excited is Colombo about the new position? He'll tell you how excited: "It is with very mixed emotions that I share with you that I have accepted the position of Dean for Student Life at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "

While sad Colombo is in Massachusetts, Associate Dean of Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger will take over as Interim Dean of Student Affairs.

Full email after the jump

Good morning, Columbia, hope you're all set for some more Madonna Constantine updates. Oh good, let's get started. First, according to last night's AP report, Constantine has decided to appeal her termination, claiming that she was fired because of the noose incident and that the plagiarism charges are "baseless."

And speaking of nooses, it's finally time for the Village Voice's sequel to its exciting series on "Knotty Noose Problems". When we last left off, a bunch of people accussed Madonna Constantine of plagiarism, so she made one of them organize some stuff in her office over winter break, which was mean. Meanwhile, Darlene Bailey, VP of Academic Affairs at TC, launched counter-investigations against a women who wanted to look into the allegations against Constantine.

So now that we're all caught up, on to this week's article, and we've once again distilled everything you need to know in reader-friendly bulletpoints.

Tickets.com is showing that two titans of music will be sharing Miller Theater next March 27th. We were excited until classical scholars pointed out that Shostakovich (the Harry Potter-ish fellow on the left) is probably unavailable, since he's been dead since 1975. Perturbed by the mystery, and determined to prevent any music-related heart attacks, we consulted the fount of all knowledge to find Miller Theater's much fuller explanation: it's not Radiohead and Shostakovich, but some dude playing Shostakovich and Radiohead, in addition to several other classical composers and rock bands. More specifically, it's Christopher O'Riley, who already has released several albums along similar lines (the second one received a generally meaningless rating of 6.2 from Pitchfork.) He is also known for hosting the NPR show From the Top, where insufferably young and talented musicians show off how awesome they are.

- JCD

Apparently overjoyed with his previous New York sojourn, our overseas pal Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (we even remember how to spell that from the last go-around!) is returning to our fair city to attend the U.N.'s General Assembly in September.

According to Mahmoud himself, he's coming around to "defend Iran's rights" and remedy the "unjust" Western way of administrating international organizations.

There's trouble afoot on the internet today, namely over at right-wing web blog/apparent Matthew Arnold fanzine Sweetness & Light. It seems they've taken none too kindly to a certain magazine's Controversial cover image -- and it's not the cover image (or the magazine) you're thinking of!

No, their bone to pick is with the Jester, specifically the cover of its "Tragedy" issue, which memorably features the Titanic crashing into the World Trade Center. Says S&L: "Granted college humor is normally juvenile and often in bad taste. But this is somewhat beyond that."

Commenters chime in with hilarious noose jokes, while others point out that the cover is obviously a reflection of Columbia's "socialist" and "pro-Islam" bias.

UPDATE 6:32 PM: We receive an exclusive statement from Jester's press attaché: "The staff of the Jester would like to issue our sincerest apologies. We have no idea how this offensive image was not caught by our art staff, layout editors, publisher, editor in chief, printer, or distribution staff. As a token of our true regret, please accept one free humor magazine."

We've gotten like 1,000 emails this morning (Columbia, you're quite partial to the Weddings Section!) about the New York Times marriage announcement of PrezBo's son, who is also named Lee C. Bollinger and looks exactly like him. (Speculates one friend of Bwog, "Obviously PrezBo has really powerful genes.")

Lee C. Bollinger the younger, or Young Bo, was married on Friday to a one Ms. Jennifer Ellis. Ellis teaches elementary school in Illinois and attended Western Michigan Univeristy and then DePaul University. Her parents have very nice and respectable-sounding jobs, but whatever, on to the bridegroom's family.

Spawn of Bo is an intellectual property lawyer who attended UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, and Washington Sq.-based archenemy NYU.

And oh look wow, his father is the president of Columbia University! His mother, the elusive Lady Bo (or "Jean Magnano Bollinger"), is an artist.

UPDATE:

Philosophy professors Philip and Patricia Kitcher's son Charles was also married this weekend to fellow Columbia law graduate Sue-Yun Ahn. The wedding was held at the Columbia Club.

Charles is a law clerk but leaving his job to become a laywer in D.C., Sue-Yun Ahn is also a law clerk who's on the brink of starting to clerk for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

A bunch of you have sent us this Jezebel-by-way-of-other-blog post about how old-timey folks conducted surverys that assumed Barnard was full of hussies -- just like you kids today joke about!

The newspaper clipping tells the story of how one time, probably in the 20s, the Jester published a "Purity Survey", in which the gals of Barnard were asked sordid, old-timey things like if they've "soul kissed" and "Have you ever been tight?" With respect to that latter question, there were 38 nays and 32 yeas, and "of those answering in the affirmative, 14 said they had been tight once, 14 said they had been tight often, and four said that they were 'usually tight.'"

Eww. Wait, what?

Anyway, it was apparently "too hot to print" and was banned and then unbanned, and afterwards no one ever implied anything about the promiscuity of Barnard students ever again.

In honor of the Yankee Stadium's final season, this year's MLB all-star game will take place in the Bronx on Tuesday. To remember some of baseball's most interesting historical moments, Bwog Film Rental Analyst Brandon Hammer suggests you check out one (or two or three) of the following movies.

The Pride of the Yankees (1942):

Those who yearn for the glory days of the Bronx Bombers will find comfort in this 1942 film. Starring Gary Cooper in the lead role, The Pride of the Yankees is a beautiful biopic about Columbia's own Lou Gehrig, whose endurance to last 2,130 consecutive games (the equivalent of more than 13 baseball seasons) brought him the nickname the "Iron Horse." Cooper's performance is powerful; he captures the essence of a man who was known for his kindness and humility, a man who, though his life and career were cut short by a terrible disease, considered himself "the luckiest man on the face of the earth." The film also features and intriguing performance by Babe Ruth as himself, as well as a reenactment of Gehrig's famous speech of July 4, 1939.

A quick look at the calendar has reminded us that today is 7/11, a date identical to the name of wonderful convenience store 7 Eleven. In honor of this extraordinary annual coincidence, 7 Eleven is giving away free 11 oz. Slurpees, all day, to you.

The easiest 7 Eleven to get to is probably on 48th and 8th, though there are also a couple on the Upper East Side. (See the map after the jump or the store locator for further investigation.)

All Slurpees come with a free iPhone 3G.

The New York Daily News is reporting that Toby Cohen, a 25 year old student at the College of Dental Medicine, has been missing for two days. He hasn't been seen since Sunday, when he left his girlfriend's apartment, went to the ATM, and made his way home towards his apartment in Washington Heights.

According to the Daily News, "[his parents] are especially worried because he left his wallet and the medication he takes to control a life-threatening medical condition in his apartment. Anyone with information should call the 33rd Precinct, (212) 927-3200."

UPDATE: Happy ending! Toby Cohen is no longer a missing person.

Maybe you made some new friends at your internship or job over the summer, how nice for you. Professor to the Stars Jeffrey Sachs has made some new best friends and oh, they are awesome. Here's our Jeff Sachs (right) with famous people John Mayer (he of smoldering stare on the left), and Jennifer Aniston (center), hanging out and probably talking about sustainable development and Brad Pitt and the like. Scholarly journal Us Weekly reports that the photo was taken at dinner for Sachs' Millennium Promise project.

Oh, and just for good measure there's a photo thrown in of Sachs with old friend Angelina Jolie, who is neither famous nor good-looking enough to merit a larger photo.

Bwog's dreams of a Columbia presidential matchup died with the candidacy of Mike Gravel -- we thought. Now a new challenger, while falling short of the Alaska senator's genius in television advertising, may actually take the 2008 cycle's stranger-than-fiction cake: self-proclaimed "King of Vegas" Wayne Allyn Root, CC '83 and classmate of Sen. Barack Obama (and Marcus Brauchli!), is running as the Libertarian Party's nominee for vice president.

Root is not your average Columbia success story. After being pushed through college by his father, the political science major ran unsuccessfully for Congress, and then turned to his true passion: sports handicapping. As founder, president, and CEO of WinningEdge, he made something of a name for himself in the world of professional gambling, which he leveraged this year into a run at the Libertarian presidential nomination (described in hilarious detail here). He made it onto the ticket through a last-minute deal with former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, who was trailing in delegates at the convention, making for a somewhat awkward pairing (in classic libertarian form, however, Root still maintains a separate website).

Will the Ron Paulites come out to support a proud alum? Will Root's erstwhile mullet prove an asset or a liability? Who knows! Anything can happen in this race, folks!

The New York Times is reporting some big news for Marcus Brauchli, the positively dapper gentleman pictured to your right. Brauchli, CC '83 and Spec alum, is on the brink of being named the executive editor of the Washington Post. He was formerly the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal but resigned in April.

In other masthead turnover news, fellow Spec alum Andrew Martin, CC '08, and some other kid from Brown are the next up in IvyGate's roster of rotating summer editors. Martin and Kid From Brown are replacing Nina Shield and Kid From Harvard.