Monday, July 15, 2013

The world continues to twirl

Summer is getting away from me. Since we were away for a couple of weeks in June, and the weather while we were away was rather cool, my brain is somewhere about a week before the end of Spring, but meanwhile, my body is in the depths of New York heat doom and my calendar is crazy booked up through August, and the next thing you know, it will be Christmas.

(Listening to Three Dog Night on Pandora. Note to self: How come there’s no TDN on my iPod? Too many versions of “it’s a small world” taking up all the space? Then again, “Mama Told Me Not to Come” is Randy Newman, and I do have him singing it. There is some salvation available.)

(Then again, why is Three Dog Night playing on my British Invasion Pandora station? Wasn’t there a Revolutionary War? Is there any hope for iRadio?)

The first peeps of the new season are beginning to be heard. For one thing, we’ve rebranded the MHL Workshop, running it under the combined auspices of the MHL, the NYCUDL and the NYSDCA. We’ve always used it as an opportunity to get NYSDCA board members together to hatch this or that; last year we agreed on details of Academy Debate. Eric Fogel, the head of the NYCUDL, whose real name I think is Eric!! Fogel!! (his liberal use of exclamation points is legendary) got in touch and we all put heads together. We’re trying to coordinate MHL and UDL events a little better, and there’s one at Brooklyn Tech that looks like it will get a lot of MHL business, and the UDL will be probably be hitting Monticello and Wee Sma Lex, etc., plus Eric asked that we include IPPF at the Workshop, a subject about which I know nothing but it seems like a good idea, so we will. Can’t hurt, right? I’ll say one thing. With the interwebs and information sitting out there readily available, it makes planning for a season a lot easier than it was back in the Dark Ages. You know when things are going to be, and you know the details, and there you are. No great reason for not knowing when a tournament will be or what it offers; this has to be helpful to new forensics coaches, but hell, it’s helpful for old ones too. Whatever it takes.

Also the colleges are already kicking in. The Pups of course opens registration 8/1, and we’re set with LD; I’ve enlisted the aid of Matt Dunay in tab, since he is one of those weird people who actually seems to like the idea of tabbing. The Tiggers are collecting their staff, and I’ve even had the odd conversation with the Gem of Harlem. UPenn has gotten a TOC bid in LD, which is a very nice development, and proof positive that there is life outside of Cambridge on President’s Weekend. Moving to that weekend was a risk, but it has proven out over time. CP was right. It would develop slowly, but it would develop. We offered solid facilities and tabbing, the students running it are great, and it just keeps building. I love going there; if nothing else, the tournament hotel is great, and you take this underground trolley to the university and it’s handled professionally and it’s fun. And it doesn’t take four days. A small team like the Sailors doesn’t get lost there. What can I say?

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