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In This Issue

• The Colombia Daily Spectador Front Page
• Spec: Cabinet Secretaries Disappointed With Their Careers
• Spec: Hugs for the Homeless Hopes To Be A Success
• Spec: Unrecommended Student Requests Letters of Recommendation
• Grilled Cheese Honored
• Elliot Spitzer = Sex Machine
• Here's a Fairy Tale That Cracks Us Up
• The Colombia Spec Op-Ed Section
• Spec Op-Ed: Juicy Campus is seriously the Best Thing Ev-ar!
• Spec Op-Ed: I Don't Care About Manhattanville
• Spec Op-Ed: Staff Editorial -- We Have Opinions
• Spec Op-Ed: Letters to the Editor
• They Watch
• The Staff of 23.6

It is a travesty that the Columbia Cooking Club has not garnered more press on campus. Maybe my bosses at the Spec think this story has less journalistic glamour than a hunger strike, but the story of this club’s humble beginnings and its tenacious rise to power rival that of Molly Brown, Fidel Castro, and even Miley Cyrus. Surely this club will be as historic as 1968, as valuable as a good football team, as relevant as Core Curriculum changes, and as covered on NPR as boring aspects of Hurricane Katrina recovery. Right? Th is recently-renamed gem on campus, now called “Flour Power,” (which, the club’s president remarked, “Totally gets its name from the 1960s popular phrase... ‘Bomb, bomb, Vietnam.’”)

Although the Columbia “Flour Power” club does not conform to a 1960s theme, the members decided upon the name “Flour Power” because the members use “flour” in its baked goods. The club denied to comment on whether the word “power” referred to the inherent, Aryan supremacy of flour over other ingredients. But these chefs are certainly cooking up quite a storm.

The members meet each Sunday night at 9 o’clock in a member’s dorm kitchen. Some would say that Sunday night is a bad time to meet; as we all know that after mass, Catholics turn into Werewolves. However, these club members don’t seem to mind at all. In fact, they have to compete with the Earthworm Society, which meets during the same time block. The chefs first decide a theme for the night. Past themes have included “vega-licious,” “sprinkles,” and “things that rhyme with “auliflower” Then, the students work together to dish up several courses which they then eat together. One student told me about a heated argument that occurred on “things that rhyme with auliflower” night. “We had a huge fight over whether we could make whiskey sours or not,” she told me.

While eating, the club members sometimes play music in the background that helps create a festive atmosphere. However, the music is never too loud to drown out the conversation. “That’s the best part,” another member told me. “We all like cooking so we have so much to talk about!? The members dish secrets about finding the freshest ingredients, and share cooking mishaps, boiling over in laughter. Sometimes they talk about their favorite cooks like Martha Stewart and Carl’s Junior. After eating their delicious dishes, the club members wash the dishes. They take turns at the sink. Then it’s time to leave. The Flour Power members fold and pack away their aprons, resuming their civilian attire. They say their good-byes. Until next week, it’s back to the meal plan at John Jay.

The author thinks that Wilma’s omlettes are overrated and that more hunger strikes would solve food shortages.