According to my calendar, I have this weekend off (really
off, since my car is going hiking with my daughter), and the next weekend
seeing Eddie Izzard in Providence, and then it’s Labor Day, and summer is over.
Around here, schools usually open after Labor Day, but this year, with the
first Monday of September being the seventh day of the month, the doors are
swinging wide in advance of the long weekend. And then the games will begin.
I’m happy to have Byram to kick things off. It will allow me
to shake a little of the tabroom.com dust off. Every time you open the thing it
has new features, and while I’ve been opening it a hundred times a day lately
for setups, I haven’t run anything since the NYSDCA Finals last Spring. So,
lots of dust. And the numbers of Byram aren’t bad at all, and ought to hold up
nicely. Plus it’s not far from the chez, and they apparently have wonderful
wifi (as compared to the old days, when the computers all went home on Friday
night, taking the internet with them, and Kaz and I had to go through the halls
with a dousing rod to try to find a signal from her phone, in a building that
is notoriously nasty about eating cellphone batteries). BenK has been managing
the event fine, and I haven’t done much of anything except provide occasional
advice. Piece of easy pie, in other words.
I do love high schools. As a rule, they have someone totally
in charge, and all I have to do is show up and plug in the music and wave my
hands around and look useful.
The Pups have a bustling team of overseers, and aside from
endless advice and waitlist responsibilities shared with JV, I don’t worry
about it much. Although I have to admit, I have some thoughts about the size of
the thing. Given the idea of fairly sharing slots, and our limited number of spaces,
it’s way too tight. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of our furthest travelers
ultimately opt to stay home. The basic LD bargain is a guarantee of breaking
all 4-2s for a quarters bid. And a visit to an Ivy, for those in the market for
such things. Compare this to PF, where you get a visit to an Ivy, but the field
is ginormous, and there’s no guarantee of much of anything except breathing
Connecticut air (although I do know a good shwarma place not far from their
venue). But that seems to be the fate of PF fields at the moment, and no one
seems visibly upset by the prospect. I do think that the PF folks are as
cutthroat as any debate people when push comes to shove, but they’re still
feeling their way into the national universe and spend most of their time
feeding off one another rather than launching into the tournament directors.
Bronx remains a special case, only because they are under
interim management. This is the first time ever that JV and I have had this
much of a role in things this early on. You’ve got to think about this, though.
Kirby and Robert haven’t been involved in debate for well over a decade.
Consider just the last few years, and the changes therein. They’re up to the
task, though, I’ll give them that. But what a task. Their big accomplishment has been
finding space that was previously unavailable to the tournament, which has
allowed seriously good limits (6 in LD vs 3 at the Pups), which should enhance
the tournament’s status. And 7 rounds assures all 5-2s break. So it’s worked
out well. But, of course, there’s all the other stuff that they have to do:
food, water, functioning lavatories, guaranteeing the presence of Mr. Softee,
etc. They’ve got a tournament easily twice as big as what they used to run, and
probably more. Talk about valor! As I told Kirby yesterday, those of us in tab
have the easy job. When anything goes wrong, we know who we’re going to be
pointing to to get a solution.
Let’s enjoy these last few unencumbered weekends.
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