In which State keeps marching on

Well, if the State tournament doesn’t drive me crazy, nothing will.

I have been sucked into the vortex and seem to be answering questions nonstop. As always, most of the questions are the ones that are answered in the invitation (which I rewrote and distributed) or in the last email that I just sent, but since when does that stop anybody? Favorite question: What if my judges don’t feel like coming on Sunday? Favorite answer: I’ll go their hovels and drag them out of their mangers by their hangnails and bring them to Stuyvesant myself.

Jeesh.

The tournament is in quite good shape, actually, although I had to pull judge hiring out of the mix. I just don’t have the resources or the time at this late juncture. Having all the crowned heads of NY in one place will also be good for things like planning next year’s MHL activities, which I think I’ve mentioned I want to meld into the very lively NYUDL. Ne pourquois pas, eh? Whatever floats the forensic boat, as they say, whoever they are. Probably the same people who make all those decisions in tab that everyone is always talking about. “They say there won’t be any break rounds.” “They say that next December we collide with Mars.” “They say all the PF judges are obligated to judge 6 additional rounds of Policy." As, theoretically, one of the alleged they, I never have figured out where this stuff comes from, or why people believe it. Whatever.

The tab room this weekend is something of an All-Star Game. Vaughan, Kaz, Semple, Palmer, myself, plus a few extra hands like Mama Bendi. Aubrey was hesitant to run tabroom.com, which he’s never done before, partly because the whole CAT thing threw him off (an older tabbing system that we don’t use). When I told him CP would be there, it sort of alleviated any of his concerns. If CP can’t train him on the system, who can? Of course, I don’t mean this rhetorically. I mean, what if CP can’t train him. Does CP even know how to run this thing? Oy!!!

As for food at the tournament, we’re telling people to get outside and get some fresh air and, while you’re there, also get a knish or something. Speaking of which, we’ll probably use whatever fees we collect to buy knishes for the judge lounge. Talk about playing it by ear. But we do have the trophies on their way; JV and Kaz took care of that last weekend.

So, as I said, it’s coming together. It’s been a rough week for everyone, but we all seem to be schlepping through it. What else can we do?