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As promised, we've reviewed those silly holiday sandwiches for the benefit of the consumer- you! Correspondent Dena Yago offers the following appraisal. Religious culinary politics, a pre-eminent topic this time of year, has revealed itself not so subtly on behalf of the $5.
50 Holiday Sandwiches sold around campus. My experience with these creations left me unscathed, if eleven dollars poorer in my much-guarded freshman points. Where to begin?
Unaware of the conflict I was about to incite, I simultaneously purchased the Chanukah sandwich, made of corned beef brisket on a potato roll with "Jewish" mustard and pickled cabbage, and the Kwanzaa wrap, made of roasted sweet potatoes with caramelized onions and cranberry chutney. The Christmas sandwich could only be eaten a day later, as Cafe 212 ran out of the hot commodity, and it refused to comment on its mdash; ahem mdash; segregation.
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Professor Karl Kroeber is restless of mind, the sort of academic who likes pioneering new fields and then abandoning them.
The loquacious and sagacious fellow, brother to Ursula Kroeber Le Guin [see right], currently teaches the ever-popular children's lit course. He talked to us about growing up, "the business of imagining," why he hates Disney, coming to terms with cancer, the Navy, and just about everything else. BW: You keep your robes on your coat-rack?
Can you tell us how you ended up here? My father..
. was an academic in the 19th century. And I came to Columbia- I grew up in California- at the end of the second war.
I was in the Navy. I was [also] a radio announcer; I came to New York, went to a little school and got a job out in Iowa. I got pretty good at it, and I came back to New York because this is where you had to go (this is about '49-'50).
I got into an interesting situation, a very lucky situation. Being a radio announcer is not hard work; it's very easy if you're glib like I am and have a California accent and most of the people [in the business] are drunks and I could go ahead..
. But, I said, "there's nothing in this life for me." Congratulations on the semi-centennial of your PhD.
[This year marks the 50th anniversary of Kroeber's doctorate.] (Laughs) I've been around a long time. I had a job out in Wisconsin, at Madison, for 15 years.
Lovely place, swell place to bring up kids and all that. We had a beautiful house in Madison. Next to [University of California at] Berkeley, it was the place that had the most trouble in the 60s.
This was a school that admitted four thousand freshmen a year and they eliminated freshman composition. You couldn't teach there. I had to come back here, and I had three kids.
We didn't want to live in the suburbs. My wife's a sculptor- you can't sculpt in an apartment. We bought a brownstone in Brooklyn for a few thousand dollars.
Best investment I think I ever made. There is way too much going on in Butler these days to be remotely bored. A sampling of the cracked out goings on: Elevator Dance Party!
At around 8:30 PM, four kids rocked out with their iPod speakers to standard indy and classic rock favorites, riding the rightmost elevator next to the computer lab to different floors where they picked up and dropped off fellow unorthodox study breakers. Seasonal Sandwiches! You may have noticed a new offering in the Butler cafe: for $5.
50, you can purchase a Christmas Sandwich (honey baked ham with grilled pineapple and sweet red peppers) a Kwanzaa wrap (roast sweet potatoes, caramelized onions and cranberry chutney), or a Chanukah wrap (corned beef brisket on potato bread with jewish mustard and pickled cabbage). Bwog contributor CML suggests something less God-fearing: "An atheist sub might contain shredded meats to represent what is being done to the moral fiber of our country, and large amounts of tofu to symbolize the lack of any ethos implicit in said doctrine. It would be nasty, short, and brutish, with CML also expresses the hope that one of the pre-packaged repasts would exhibit an image of the Virgin Mary or Koranic symbol, similar to the one he discovered in the a slice of Koronet's recently.
Reviews will be posted soon! UPDATE 3:36AM: Apparently, Bacchanal Events paraded through Butler around 11:30, cheerfully distributing candy and stressballs while wearing Santa hats and shouting "Happy Finals!" The masses roared studious approval.
If you are a typical broke college student mdash; you know, the one who has reached the point of sneaking Tupperware into campus study breaks and gotten into the habit of scrounging for paid psychology experiments mdash; chances are you're having trouble fulfilling the financial obligations of the holiday season. Luckily, our very own Columbia Bookstore is a burrow of cheapness just waiting to be explored (conveniently, most parents don't check whether your Flex dollars are going towards textbooks or trinkets). Not exactly Bloomingdales, but who has the time to fight the Madison Avenue matrons?
Here are a few of Bwog holiday contributor Maryam Parhizkar's suggestions on what to check out in the holiday treasure trove below Lerner Hall. 
Window decals. Last holiday season I thought my father was being generous when he gave me a hefty sum of cash for Christmas.
I found out a week later that this was his very subtle way of saying, "Guess what you got this year: another semester of a college education!" This year, I am buying my father a Columbia University decal to put on the back of his car as a way of thanking him for his very considerate gift last year. These babies go from $2.
48 to $5.98, depending on size and quality. Neuhaus Chocolate Bars.
These 45-gram chocolate bars from Belgium are a bit of a splurge at $3.50 if you're on a tight budget, but they are quite the treat for that special person in your life. There's a wide assortment of gourmet flavors, but I personally recommend the crispy gianduja (hazelnut) white chocolate bar.
If you're feeling especially generous, take your pick of three and stack them together with a ribbon on top. Find them at the front of bookstore by the cashier's desk. 
Columbia Pencils (3-pack).
What better way to initiate that recent applicant into Columbia life than with their very own set of old-school wooden Columbia school supplies? Besides, they're much more subtle than a sweatshirt, so if April notifications don't go their way at least you won't feel as awkward. These are also ideal for that kid in your Calc class who always asks you for a writing utensil and never returns it.
Columbia fat pens also available. $1.98.
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Is that an alcohol-dispensing Rube Goldberg machine??
Stephanie Quan writes in with an account of the chem department's winter show, a Varsity Show-type extravaganza featuring off-key musical tributes to favorite professors sung by second-year grad students with department secretaries on keyboard.
But in the esteemed words of R. Kelly, "after the party show, it's the after party." Stephanie says the fun really started with five hours of chemically induced revelry in the lounge.
The ethanol flowed from twelve standard kegs and a massive punch dispenser, photographed here next to Stephanie's friend Terrence. 
Aah, reading week--that grey area between class and finals, when you know you should be studying but really probably aren't. Looking for ways to pep it up?
Bwog is here, in the form of a Seth Flaxman e-mail, to help. 1. Watch movies!
(Prep for Sundance) According to the Columbia University , An unprecedented five feature films and nine short films by Columbia University students and alumni will screen at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, which will take place in Utah from January 18 to 28. That's fourteen! Oh em geee!
We are so cool. For reals. 2.
Have your fortune told! (Transfer to Barnard) 
Stop by upper level Mac today on Barnard's campus to participate in the festivities of "Ye Olde Stress Free Day," going on until 4 PM. Rumor has it there's free food, a magician, face painting, crown making (because we are all Columbia Royalty!
) and, Bwog's favorite, a tarot card reader. Just don't ask whether or not you're going to pass your exams. 3.
Give in to your desires! (Lead me not into temptation) covered this a few months ago, but Sunday's picked up the story as well: a couple of researchers at Columbia Business School have recently come out with a study stating that when all is said and done, people who give in to day-to-day vices end up happier than those who don't. In the words of Professor Ran Kivetz, the man behind the study, Bwog has found a new mantra: "Guilt is quick to rise, and quick to fall.
" Thanks to Chris Szabla, Avishai Gebler, and Owain Evans for the tips. Bwogger Katie Reedy overheard the phone conversation of a dorm security guard..
. 
"I know. I know, I was like 'oh damn' too.
.. Yea, and so I asked her, I said, 'Girl, how do you know it's mine.
' And she said, 'I didn't ever do it with anyone else.' And I was like, 'What?!
Girl, I need to know this is for real - I need to know that this is not just some Maury shit.' I said, 'I am not a statistic!!
'" Just make sure that at Thanksgiving dinner 20 years from now, you don't let him know he was an accident. Bwog knows that hurts.
Voyage Across Broadway, or How I Visited Burke Library and Lived to Tell the Tale
With Butler filled to the brim with exam-tide holiday cheer (not to mention unshowered overachievers) you may be seeking an alternative study spot, any study spot, whether on campus...or slightly, vaguely off.
With that in mind Bwog follows correspondent Zack Hoopes inside the ghoulish, gothic depths of Burke Library at the Union Theological Seminary...
I arrive at 121st and Broadway, the entrance to UTS. I don't know where I'm going, and an awkward stare-down with the security guard ensues. He tells me (with a gesture over his shoulder) that the library is "over there.
" I walk over there. A sign says 'Burke Library' with an arrow pointing down a very, very, long hallway. The floor is made of some sort of brown tile/paneling/dried animal feces, with the greasy shine and unevenness of something that has been rubbed way too much over a very long time.
This appearance is not exclusive to the floor. The ambiance of this building can only be described as that which gives you 'the willies.' It's a labyrinth in here, and not a fun one.
I expect to run into David Bowie. Unlike Butler, there is no guard to tell me I can't bring my sandwich into the building so they can sell me a sandwich inside. As I walk through the security scanners, the alarm goes off.
The guy at the desk says "It's probably just broken. The only time it should go off is if you actually had a book from here." Apparently circulation at Burke is low.
I ask for the pamphlet I've requested from the desk guy. He appears to be a model, upstanding hipster. One of those guys whose personal convictions you're always afraid you'll offend with a crass comment about God or saving the whales or some shit like that.
In which Bwog contributor Michael Snyder regains faith in Broadway. Go see Spring Awakening-- 
About two months ago I discovered that I don't actually like musical theater. I found this out in a conversation with several dear friends who do, in fact, like musical theater.
We were comparing favorite shows and my end of the conversation went something like this: "Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park, Company, Cabaret, Chicago, West Side Story." My friend asked me if I liked anything that hadn't been written by Sondhiem, Kander and Ebb, or Bernstein. I said that I have a soft spot for Rent.
It occurred to me then that for every musical that I love (and the ones I love I really do love) there are at least four that make me want to vomit all over myself. This is not an exaggeration.
So, for me at least, there's very little new musical theater to get excited about.
These days, there seems to be very little in musical theater that can be called new at all. There are the revivals, some of which are truly brilliant (John Doyle cannot be praised enough), there are the 'new' shows that emulate musicals of the 1940s, there are the bubonic plague-like Disney blockbusters (I include Wicked in this category), and there are the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals that refuse to go away (I am convinced that, in the event of a nuclear holocaust, The Phantom of the Opera would continue to play for packed houses of cockroaches.
Keywords: Burke Library, Columbia University, Christmas Sandwich, New York, Holiday Sandwiches, Chocolate Bars
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