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From the PrezBo article in the Times : The Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper, recently published an editorial skewering the Bollinger administration for what it characterized as dishonest dealings in its quest to acquire that land, as well as in addressing graduate students seeking to unionize. "In the not-too-distant future, Columbia might become the next Enron," the editorial charged. Mr. Bollinger, knowing where to pick his battles, would say only, "I think The Spectator is terrific."

If you'd like to eat a salad but you're not feeling the whole lettuce and greens vibe, perhaps you'd enjoy a tomato and bread salad. Chop up tomatoes (I'd go with plum tomatoes as they seem to be the heartiest in the Northeast right now; you definitely don't want mushy tomatoes for this), chop up a softish loaf of bread, add some minced red onions, olive oil, and a mix of white balsamic and rice vinegars. Spring some fresh basil and oregano and grated hard cheese on top, toss, and let it sit for 17 minutes or so. Then, eat.

For a while (say, the start of May until last week), there were chalked in shadows all over the sidewalks of Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens. By chalked in shadows I mean that someone would go around and draw chalk outlines of anything that cast a shadow on the sidewalk. This provided crucial information as to whether a given mailbox was a vampire, a reverse-vampire , or worse. I documented it halfheartedly, thinking that with all the Bloggists in the neighborhood (hell, I've got one in the next room ), not to mention the Gothamist prowling the area, someone must have written them up already. But Google says no, so I guess this is a 34 exclusive. With the rains this weekend came an end to chalked in street art (Ellis G. should have chosen a less ephemeral medium for his street art), so I guess that's the end of that.

A lot of times a plane will crash a mile from where I am. This is why I stay off the beach.

A Hamburger Today is a blog about hamburgers (when?) today. I like hamburgers. If you've been following AHT for any period of time, which I really haven't, but I can read the archives, you'd have been surprised that they only got around to an In-N-Out posting today. Blue 9 Burger , the closest I've had on the East Coast to In-N-Out, was reviewed a few weeks ago. Their take on the employees of the two burger joints: "In place of Blue 9's 'troubled teens messily running our store' vibe, In-N-Out is a vision straight out of Happy Days." Ryan is totally Richie Cunningham. I've meant for a while to check out the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park; now that they're open late for summer hours I'll hopefully get the chance. And I'll take a picture of my burger there, since I seem to take a picture of everything nowadays.

Effective early September, all of my posts criticizing David Brooks will magically become super-premium content, and you'll need to pay me a couple of bucks to read them. Then you'll have to pay $50 more to read the offending column . The charge is wiaved for readers who maintain a physical friendship (well, not [necessarily] physical , but not electronic) with me, unless I find out that you've been talkin' shit about me or something. Then it's so on.

Well, shocked as I was to discover that Alice has a blog , the discovery that my roommate Adam now has a blog takes the cake. Nice job goading him into it, Dave. Tales of a 25th Grade Nothing (nice underlying URL) is promising because we like Adam and are confident in his ability to write entertaining bloggages, or at least post pictures of his upstate estate, and the literary allusion in the blog title bodes well. My guess is that he's going to write a lot about The Arcade Fire , as "Funeral" has been officially declared the "album of the summer"; a few months early, but still. Or he might just be angling for his own Blogger shirt .