Inaugural Thoughts

• Watching the inauguration with the crowd at Columbia was fun, though cold. I know, I know, not nearly as cold as I would have been had I been in D.C.—but also not nearly as historic. Though I did get to hear Bollinger speak for like five seconds, which was a nice bonus. Negative points for Bollinger's comment that said something to the effect that Obama's inauguration is more important for Columbia than for anyone else and for the blue-and-white pom-poms, which would have been a nice touch except that it's hard to see a TV screen when people are waving pom-poms in front of your face.

• Real-time transcription must be incredibly hard. I recognize that, really. But all the same, if you were going to transcribe one of the most historic moments of our time, don't you think you'd go in knowing how to spell the names of the new president's children (Melia?)? The closed captioning was, um, not exactly accurate. My favorite gaffes: "shopping in heaven" instead of "shouting in heaven" and some mumbo jumbo instead of Obama's name when he took the oath of office. (Not that the oath of office wasn't flubbed anyway.)

• As for the moment itself, I have nothing to say that hasn't been said better elsewhere. It was historic. It was fantastic. It was exciting.