In the never ending saga that is the UPenn’s tournament’s search for a tournament weekend, they seem to have finally lit on 10/18, which means they will neither conflict with Scientology nor Manchester-Under-the-Sea. This is the weekend of the first-timers’ MHL in 2008, but that doesn’t look like any real conflict. 2009 has yet another twisty calendar, but at least this will hold them for a while. So, the battle of the Wolverines vs the Quakers won’t transpire after all. Which means that, in the end, I looked up the Scientologists’ mascot for no reason. Although I am still left with the oxymoronic fighting Quakers. Such is the life of a debate coach.
At Scarsdale we did sort out what we could of next year’s twisty calendar with Catholic Charlie, and then we kicked around ideas for the Northeast Championships this April. O’C has been drumming up business hither and yon, as is his wont, and we have put him in charge of the tournament’s pomp and circumstance, which is his other wont. He won’t want for wonts, in other words. The goal of the tournament is to provide one last end-of-year blowout at all levels of debate, where the best and brightest from all around get together and duke it out. We figured any interested school could enter up to 4 contestants in a division, and we calculated a bunch of possible awards, including a sweeps for small programs: there’s not much point in awarding trophies to schools just because they’re big. We also committed to getting a good pool of judges, which is a make-or-break at any and every tournament. We decided to use the TOC topics (for LD and PF), which means that while younger students would be sharp on the old Jan-Febs and not have to address a new topic for one tournament, TOC-bound students, if any, would be polishing up one last time before hitting their old Kentucky home away from home. More details on the event will come shortly, but the weekend is 4/11-12, so mark it now so that you don’t go off to on some expedition to Kuala Lumpur by mistake.
I’ve begun updating Caveman in earnest. As for the text, it’s mostly little touches here and there (I’ve learned a few things since I originally wrote it), but then there’s the new addition of illustrations. I figured some of the stuff people need to see, and some of it is just window dressing, but an attractively illustrated pdf is better than one that is all text. I mean, what good is a book without pictures and conversations in it? At least I’ll have the pictures. I wish I could figure a way to illustrate the lecture while I’m giving it, but I don’t really have access to the equipment at HH, and while I could sic a hardware engineer on it, that might be the end of hardware engineering as we know it. And Peanuts is such a good hardware engineer that I would hate to give him a task beyond his abilities. I believe in hanging on to good hardware engineers when they come along; their appearances along life’s path are rare, in my experience.
Finally, at the moment the weather is frightening, and I may end up postponing tonight’s Pffft Chez. Sigh. I’ll have to watch television instead, which I never do on Tuesdays. Warm up the cathode ray, Ma; I’m a’ comin’ home early.
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