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While I’m delayed here in nEWaRk I’ll try to make up for some of my non-blogging adventures. I just haven’t had the time to sit down and write, and as a consequence have forgotten most everything not written down somewhere. And I’m not even sure where I wrote anything.

It’s been a crazy week of early mornings (catching the train in from Mike-land in Denville, NJ) and free-flowing food and drink. I last left you, lonely reader, after visiting UPenn.

WVU notched up a couple fantastic victories at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday and Thursday, becoming the 2007 NIT champions. I was there for both games. Tuesday’s game was won by a buzzer-beating three-point shot which landed in the basket I was three rows behind, courtside. That was fun. My torso, but not my face, made the ESPN highlight reel (if you freeze the frame just right) when the Miss. St. player careened into the stands with 2.1 seconds left. Mike’s beard did make it on TV, and I’m jealous.

Wednesday, I started my visit to Columbia with some apartment viewing. The housing situation is much, much better than I would have expected, thanks to some eminent domain skulduggery and being in a slightly unfashionable neighborhood. I could see myself living around there. The reception that night had a ridiculous, dim-lit club setting… very stereotypical. Admissions staff were great schmoozes.

The next day was the “real” event at Columbia. The morning pep talk from the Dean brought with it a moment of hilarity so sublime that I can’t really put it in words, but I’ll try. Long story short: name-dropping endless questioner in the back of the audience with an eye-patch (names dropped were Goldman Sachs and CMU EE program… repeatedly), supposed CEO of own company, disbanding it to go to law school—but he doesn’t want to be a lawyer, no!—“concerned” about technological illiteracy in the law. To solve this problem, he offers (whipping it out of a jacket pocket and waving it around… literally, I don’t write the clichés, I just watch them) a TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR check to Columbia Law School to establish a “tutoring position” to “share [his] expertise” with the new 1L class.

Credible rumor has it that he’s waitlisted and was trying to buy his way in (and was escorted out, instead, for invading the admitted student sanctum). Too bad Columbia probably lights cigars with ten thousand dollar checks. That’s about a quarter of tuition and certainly isn’t hiring anybody, even to staff an outsourced help desk. Yawn. Go come up with an exponentially bigger amount and donate a few new floors for the building, and then maybe they’ll think about it.

The rest of the day was a bit more boring. I was definitely impressed by the public interest panel, where some people seemed to actually be excited to be there. NYC does seem to offer a lot of opportunities, especially for in-school public interest within reach of public transport. Combined with the nicer living situation, I’m considering Columbia much more than I thought I’d be.