Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Debate: In which we end up in the beans

It seems that one way to turn the notification feature in tabroom, and all the automatic posting features for that matter, from occasional niceties to normal life is to do them pretty much everywhere every time. CP concurs. Granted that in some venues (e.g., Scarsdale), the likelihood of getting cell service is virtually nil, except for that one spot next to the elevator on the third floor, and only if you’re standing on one leg and rubbing your belly and patting your head at the same time and there happens to be an AT&T truck driving by at just that moment. It will spread as more people use it and pass the word along. At the Tiggers, we were complaining that it seemed difficult to set up, and then some kid walked along and demonstrated that you click here and here and that’s all there is to it.

)(*#^%^% kid!

Anyhow, that will be the mantra (using the automated features, not swearing at that wiseass kid at Princeton). We’ll start at Ridge.

Met with the Sailors last night. I think that the newbies were rather shocked that we’re onto a new topic (Jan-Feb) before they’ve debated the present topic (Nov-Dec). Downside of Modest Novice? Actually, I think it’s more like inattention on their part. Time moves quickly in the debate universe. If you’re not paying attention, half the year can go by and you’re lucky if you’ve gotten more than 4 rounds in. Not good. Fortunately, Jan-Feb at the novice level isn’t terribly off the orthodoxy scale, with all kinds of underpinnings of social contract and the like. Of course, I’m much more interested in the more serious issues of imprisonment, which I often allude to with posts in the Coachean Feed. The prison system, and criminal justice in general, is ludicrous in the US. There are an amazing number of approaches to the rez, if one wants. In my original post on this year's topics, I gave this a 7 out of 10. I like it, although I have some reservations about its durability for the Jan-TOC span. We’ll see, or more to the point, you’ll see. I’ll be in tab.

As for the Pffft topic, I think I like it. On the one hand it forces students to get a grasp of campaign spending in general, and the history of CU and McCain-F and so forth, and then it asks for very specific research on the effects. This can probably be combined with interesting analytics for pretty good arguments, and people will learn a lot. That’s good. More topics should be like this.

I did give a sneak preview of a couple of the topic areas for this Christmas season’s episode of Bean Trivia. No Disney categories? The look of astonishment on their little faces was startling. Of course, they never know the Disney answers, which means that they have to text O’C or the daughter as lifelines, and they know them all upside down, so what's the point? Anyhow, new areas include dogs, the American Songbook and fill in the Beatles blank only it isn’t the Beatles. Some other group, about the same vintage as the Fab Four. (Real tough, huh? Duh. I promise no classics from "Their Satanic Majesties Request.") Also introducing side bets on the lifelines, where everyone else can parlay a few extra beans into a bowl of chili by guessing if either of the above or our illustrious speech coach can answer the question correctly. Hmmm. Put your beans where your mouth is, I always say.

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