In which the room spreadsheet resembles the pink elephants on parade sequence in Dumbo

Putting together the room pools for Penn is quite a chore. There are more buildings than you can shake a stick at, and not all of them are for the full days. There’s overlap, with VLD and Policy alternating with VPF in the same spaces on Saturday, with, I feel, a special need to keep them as closely supervised as possible so that policy people, and LDers for that matter, don’t decide to go off into critiques longer than the rounds. Each day is different, with different buildings and different time availabilities. I’ve already had people whining about the odd schedule, which allows the most people the most debates in the spaces available. The alternative would be to drop a division or two. Which ones would you drop?

Anyhow, I did Friday night yesterday. Today it will be the Saturday rounds. Catholic Charlie has already marked up the speech rooms. Kid’s stuff. All in roughly one place, no time limits. CC’s cat could have done that. 

I continue to pull people off the waitlists. We’re getting maybe 2 drops a day. At this rate, the debate waitlists should be cleared by Memorial Day. People keep asking, I keep saying I don’t know. I am sort of expecting a few schools to go off in a huff when they don’t get their full contingent, which should open up more slots for the more stalwart. We’ll see. I’ve already had people in a huff complaining that they didn’t get in in the first place. Needless to say, they’re the ones who registered last week, for a tournament that opened registration 12/1. 

Sigh. 

In which we come up with our word for the day

There is some joy, when a person complains about a certain aspect of a tournament, to be able to point out the email they ignored that, in fact, negated that aspect of the tournament. I do write a lot of emails before a tournament, but this is not because I like to hear myself type. An invitation is posted months in advance. Shockingly, life can intervene between that posting and the tournament itself. We know that most people do not thoroughly read the invitations. We also know that a lot of people don’t really pay attention to emails either, especially judges. And then they wonder why there were in the wrong place at the wrong time and why are they paying $100 as a fine as a result. When you can point to the date of your email—and maybe even the date of your second confirming email—that they ignored, well, it is a pleasant feeling. 

Yes, I know this is sanctimonious. Number it among my many flaws. 

Baby Bump is now closed. It’s small but viable. And I can practically walk there. Sadly I won’t have Marty Meat, JV or Catholic Charlie there, as each has other obligations. We’ve often said that BB has be best tab room staff in the country, when all it really needs is a few index cards. Oh, well. We’ll (mostly, excluding JV) be together again at the BenF. Speaking of which, when CC and I were working on the rooms Saturday, I went to the school’s website to track down campus maps. There is a rich supply of them, including specialized maps of the school’s historical sites, its statues, and its lactation stations. How the world has changed: They didn’t have lactation when I went to college. 

My next chore is shoring up the Penn judging. The BenFers have been hiring away, and now they need to go into tabroom. Mindless work, of course, except that lately tabroom has been showing its exceptions as Friday, Sunday and Saturday, in that order. I challenge anyone not to get the Sundays and Saturdays mixed up at least once. I wish more people handled this on their end, rather than writing a note like “No Friday rounds” and expecting us to do it. This is especially true when the note is vestigial from a tournament here years ago, and there are no Friday rounds at the tournament you’re running. 

Ah, sanctimony!

In which we report on the Gem of Harlem

And another Columbia is in the record books.

There wasn’t a lot of hoo-ha with the tabbing. The only issue over the weekend was that PF didn’t pair up as well as usual. There were a lot of pullups, perhaps because of the imbalance of the topic (hint: Go con). For whatever reason, we would get maybe 10 pullups, and the thing was, way too many of them were double pullups that didn’t have to happen. Catholic Charlie and I were able to make them all go away, or more to the point, make them all single pullups (we did have no-flip side restraints). Why tabroom let them happen in the first place is a puzzlement. 

The most interesting moment was when someone came to us to plead the case for a team that had gotten a forfeit. The round was across the street from the building in which they were hanging out. I had sent a message to all coaches earlier in the week with a link to campus maps. This team was notified of the round location a half hour before start time. They arrived twenty minutes after start time. In other words, it took them fifty minutes to walk across the street. I was accused of not being lenient. I have to admit being somewhat flummoxed that this conversation was even taking place. How many hours would have to pass between notification and their arrival before they merited a forfeit? God only knows.

I did gently suggest to one judge—a highly preffed experienced ex-debater—who was avoiding starting on time and ending on time that I would eat his spleen with fava beans and chianti if he didn’t perhaps speed things up a bit on his end. Throw in a couple of 0-4 flights, and apparently he managed to find religion for the rest of the tournament. And those 0-4s got a 1 in a late round. Everybody won, sort of.

I also gently suggested to a couple of young guys who came into tab while Charlie and I were plugging away on those weird pairings that, since they refused to go away after I told them that we were busy now and we’d address their issue as soon as possible, and they refused to stop talking, and persisted and persisted—well, I just got up and pointed to my chair and told the talkative one, Please, you finish tabbing, and I’ll go take care of your insignificant problem instead of running the tournament, as the needs of the one far outweighed the needs of the many. He finally slunk away. At the first opportunity, I called the judge in question and asked about the round. “Oh, no,” the judge said. “I entered the decision correctly. The girls won hands down.” As it had said clearly on the ballot. I texted my interlopers and gave them the good news; I mean, well, good to me. At least they accepted it graciously. 

Then there’s the flip-phone judge who back in December had moved into tab at Princeton for a couple of hours to write a single ballot. At Columbia, we had to lift this person out of the tab room with a backhoe. The underlying problem, aside from the tech, was that the Barnard guest wifi was dicey at best. Usually people just go to their phones if that's the case. But when your phone was handmade by Alexander Graham Bell, that’s not so easy. 

Speaking of tech, Catholic Charlie and Jeremy the Congress Capo both had PCs the size of Cleveland. I got a hernia just looking at them. 

Otherwise, not much to report. CC and I got a lot of work done on the Penn rooms, which was really good. I managed to get a little more space, and that tournament is as good as it’s going to get. Although I will admit that I have subsequently been in communication with one person who wants me to readjust the schedule completely because that person finds it inconvenient. Needless to say, I intend to comply one thousand percent. 

In which the rug pulls the room together

Well, that was fun.

I got the list of rooms from the Gem kids who got it from their administration in plenty of time. I mean, we had until tomorrow. I worked on it this morning. The fun part is that some of the Friday night rooms aren’t available until 7:00. Which means that we can’t start with PF and then go to LD as planned, with one round of each that night. I had to switch them around.

Oops.

Seriously, it’s not that big a deal. Almost all the schools have teams in both events, and all it really does is readjust peoples’ dinner plans. I just posted the change to the registrants. I can predict a couple of nasty responses from the usual suspects, none of whom, by the way, run college tournaments with ditzy administrations who keep the room info to themselves until a day or two before the tournament. Fortunately, I have thick skin. I can appreciate the privileged position of those who think they’re entitled to a perfect tournament according to their definition of perfect. I can abide. I mean, yeah, well, you know, that's just like, uh, their opinion, man. 

Otherwise we’re all set. I also polished up the tabroom setup for a little event at the Bronx, what they call their Winter Local, during Penn weekent. This is the same kind of tournament I tabbed for them while I was at Wee Sma Lex. Catholic Charlie, who will no doubt have nothing to do with it, given that he’ll be up to his coconut in Penn Speech tab, was quick to volunteer me to do the honors. We only have a hundred debate events to handle at the BenF. 

This will not stand, ya know, this aggression will not stand, man.

In which we say, I mean, seriously people

1. First of all, don't tell me you signed up on December 1. I can see you signed up on Jan 15th.

2. When I say there's no room, that means, shockingly enough, that there's no room. It does not mean that if you keep asking, suddenly rooms will appear out of the ether. Would you like to look at my room spreadsheet? It has sent stronger folks than you into a state of permanent depression.

3. You think that you might not be obligated on Sunday? For round 6? I'm sure your teams suck, but still...

4. How dare I delete your TBAs after only 3 messages warning you that I was going to delete your TBAs? Oh, wait a minute. Your school is expensive. My mistake.

5. If I ask you to tell me X, do not tell my Y - Z, as X does not extrapolate from this. In other words, when I ask you a direct question, please answer that question. Or, after a long, fruitless email exchange, go to the TDs with yet another dialogue that even Beckett would have thought was absurd on top of the one we've already had, making things even more confusing. Should I wonder which of us is the debate coach working with children to make them effective communicators?

6. I am running or tabbing 6 tournaments over the course of 7 weeks. So what you might want to do is, when you send me an email, tell me which tournament you're talking about and, if I wouldn't know you from Job's turkey, what school you represent. You may not believe this, but I have not kept up my dues in the Make America Psychic Again association.

7. Do not ask me if you will get off the waitlist. Ask the people ahead of you if they're planning to drop their entries. They know better than I do.

8. Does the fact that this is a high school tournament have any bearing on your decision to register your middle school?

9. Yes, the fact that instead of registering as your school you registered as some made-up organization that, when I googled it (which, yes, I do when a registration looks bogus), I found nothing, is why I didn't accept your registration.

10. Oh. You're a "concierge coach" who's taken on the job of registering people as if they're representing their schools when in fact the school hasn't the foggiest notion that little Kermit is on the road that weekend. Of course I put you on the top of my list. Of course.

11. Send me a nasty email and make a whole bunch of demands. That always works.

12. I am now going out to the movies after 6 hours of tournament work. I've earned a little time off.

In which the weekend is looking fine

Coming up is Columbia, the Gem of Harlem. What a long strange trip it's been.

To begin with, the team told us that they weren't getting their usual rooms. The Gem has been notorious for getting rooms at the last minute over the years, but this time that wasn't the case. No rooms at the inn, period. After much discussion, we all agreed that the best thing to do was eliminate the IE events. This was a major deal. After all, the tournament has for years acted as an easily accessible Big League event for the locals. It was like flying to a tournament without having to get on an airplane. So much for that. Fortunately, Ridge is holding its annual one-day speech contest that day, so for those willing to trek out to the wilds of New Jersey, all was not lost, at least on the contender side. On the Columbia side, it was a big deal. Colleges around here conduct their tournaments usually as fund-raisers for their own teams (except for Penn, which contributes their earnings to local school forensics programs). I see our role in this, i.e., the Traveling Tab Room's, as moderators to keep them honest, making sure that their tournaments are value for the money. After all, those who have been reading this blog for a while know that I would never choose a college tournament over a high school tournament back when I was coaching. One must have one's priorities straight. College tournaments aren't intrinsically evil, but head-to-head against a high school tournament, you've got to be kidding. I know that everyone doesn't feel this way, but that's because they're wrong and I'm right. But the VCA is well aware of that, as it applies to, well, everything.

Meanwhile, we narrowed the Gem down to PF, LD and Congress. The numbers are good, and in the debate events, eminently bid-worthy. I will admit that I still don't have all the rooms, but they've been promised to arrive tomorrow. Catholic Charlie and I will be doing the honors in person, with Marty Meat handling Congress from afar. (Which reminds me: I need to remind Marty Meat that he's handling Congress from afar.) Kaz, our usual co-conspirator, will be braving the elements down in Georgia.

So, for the most part, all systems are go. The weather should be okay, and we'll be on our way. I'll let you know how it works out.

In which we duck out at the first opportunity

Bigle was, well, different.

Friday night we had a nice dinner: myself, Catholic Charlie, Kaz and CP. Charlie being of the not-drinking-much persuasion, I had a designated driver, something I am always fond of. Good food and wine and friends—what's better?

Kaz had spent a lot of time paring down the tournament to a one-dayer. It mostly went off without a glitch. Unfortunately, the room pools were a bit off in round one, but that was on the back end, and by this point, I can room whisper till the cows come home. (Yes, I've even gotten out of the habit of sending out pairings without any rooms at all, although I think CP might have written code that keeps that from happening just to protect me from myself). We got it all sorted out quickly enough, and things went fine. The key thing was getting rounds started and ended without any hoo-ha. This happened, and that's because the participants were behaving nicely. Of course, I do harangue them with endless pokes, which I'm sure is annoying, but if you haven't started your round, you are unable to cast the Defense Against Annoyances spell.

There were all kinds of novice and varsity debates. Catholic C and I did the LD ones. Novice just had as many rounds as could fit. Varsity had 5 breaking to octs, to accommodate a quarters bid. When all was said and done, the numbers still warranted that bid, as did the competition. We lost some strong local schools, but all the distance travelers had flights that bracketed the storm, so they were not deterred.

We had originally planned to come back on Sunday, but the forecast was pretty icy for driving. I kept looking at the weather, and eventually found a gap in the precipitation from around 6 to 10, so Charlie and I made a run for it. We would have liked to join the Saturday night party at the Marriott but sleeping in one's own bed, and not having to attach skates to the car on Sunday morning after chipping off the iceberg surrounding it was even more likable. For most of our trip it wasn't doing anything and the roads were clear. Near the end the snow started, but the traffic was light and we made it without incident. Along the way we listened to Audible's Bob Newhart talk show, and since we're both fans (although, unlike CC, I haven't memorized all the albums and TV shows and movies), it made the time pass easily.

In the end, I don't think Sunday was all that terrible, but Kaz made the right call. And, probably, all the local schools that would have come probably made the right call based on the info that they had at the time.

And thus another Bigle X goes into the books.

In which we prepare for the Icepocalytic Bigle X

What a mess.

The forecast is for hell freezing over on Sunday, which is not good news for a tournament that runs from Saturday morning to Monday afternoon. As the entrants were dropping like flies, Kaz made a decision to run an abbreviated one-day tournament with lots of strange scheduling. I'm a little unclear how she plans to do it, but I'll let you know. It should be interesting. Catholic Charlie and I are driving up after lunch and will catch up with her in the early evening to go over the details. I have to admit, while there is nothing like a well-oiled, perfectly run ginormous college tournament, it is much more exciting to pull off an event where everything is conspiring against you, there's not enough time, not enough space and not enough coffee, although it's a fairly short trip to the nearest Starbucks from the high school so at least that won't be a problem. The good news is that in addition to me and Charlie, Marty Meat and Pennsylvania Jeff will both be there, so we have a good staff, although I'll miss working with JV, as this is our only LD gig together during the year. Anyhow, as I say, I'll let you know.

Columbia freezes fees today. The waitlists have pretty much evaporated, probably because those unaccepteds were throwing off the judge obligations in tabroom. Anyhow, the numbers are nice, and we should have a straightforward event, barring any unforeseens.

Penn TBAs disappear today. I've posted a schedule (a bit of a wonder, I must say), and topped off all the lists as best I could. More slots should open today, and when there's a chance tomorrow, I'll have at them.

And finally, Baby Bump seems to have settled well. 80 teams spread around in different divisions. That's about what's expected in a region where a whole bunch of schools seem to ignore their young students in favor of—what? Who is the god of shortsightedness, anyhow?

Oh, well.

In which joy is jumped for

We got rooms at Penn. Not as many as I would like, but enough. I can start clearing the waitlists and, most importantly, open up the JV divisions. To make everything kosher, what I need to do, and will do as soon as I finish typing this, is start working on the room whispering. I have a list of what we have. Now it's time to apply rounds to them.

Whew.

Did I mention that the Benfers applied for the spaces back in October? In other words, no feet were dragged on their end. What is it with these universities, anyhow? If they're not stonewalling on rooms, they're stonewalling on something else. Sigh. There isn't much we can do about it, except piss and moan. And that doesn't really get us anywhere.

Meanwhile, I've been closely following the weather forecasts for this weekend for Bigle X. It looks like we'll get there okay, but we may never leave. In any case, it wouldn't be the first time that, after our arrival in Massachusetts, the snow decided to fall. As often as not the first thing in the morning one is out there shoveling off the car, and there was one year when my car froze up so badly that we were only able to barely open the back hatch, and had to send in a scout to turn on the engine and warm things up for the rest of us. Keep in mind that the buildings at Lex are on the California Plan, i.e., separate, with a need for students to walk outside during the day to get to different classes. Why the California Plan? Apparently the town founders weren't quite sure of their geography. After all, there is, or more to the point was, a Lexington in the Golden State. Quoting from Wikipedia, "Lexington, California, is a ghost town in Santa Clara County, now submerged by the Lexington Reservoir."

Could the same thing happen in Massachusetts? Maybe. I'll be bringing my galoshes, just in case. 

In which we continue moaning

The soap opera that is BenF Rooms continues. 

Last week I managed to figure a schedule that works, albeit sort of weirdly, with the fewest number of spaces that I had been advised we might have. I was all ready to go Friday, letting in a few more folks and opening the gates to a small but lively pair of JV divisions. But the BenFers demurred, still not sure they’ll even get their minimum roomage. 

Oy.

Needless to say, I’ve been regularly needled by registrants who apparently think that I’m deliberately holding back on letting their little angels into the tournament. As if this were a possibility. I want happy customers, not grumps. I want to create good tournament experiences. That’s why I do this. Unless I have a personal vendetta against you (and that’s very few schools, only a couple dozen at most*), I want you in, I want you competing, and I want you to think happy thoughts so that you’ll return next year. Also, I don’t want a lot of emails that I always wish to respond to by telling them how to run their team: has no one ever heard of reserving rooms at a hotel and cancelling them within a reasonable timeframe, has no one ever heard of not making unrefundable reservations before getting off the waitlist, or not purchasing plane tickets months in advance and then, for some reason, not signing up for the tournament until a month after registration opened? Sigh.

Anyhow, we’ve set the bell to go off on Wednesday, at which point we’ll know better about roomage. Last Friday, in an attempt to stave off further questions, I sent out a very nice email telling people to hold their horses a few more days. At least one person read this as meaning they got all their entries in. Do they teach reading comprehension to high school teachers these days? Or is it too late? I mean, I may have my failings, but writing unclear prose isn’t one of them. 

Meanwhile, it’s looking like clear sailing for Bigle X this week. What’s not to like about a tournament where all I have to do is sit in the tab room and press a lot of buttons? 

*That's a joke. At the moment, there are no schools on my vendetta list. 

Wednesday Arts (it's like Friday Arts only on Wednesday, but I guess you figured that out)

Not having been around for much of December, I haven't made a lot of additions to the Menick Tab Room playlist. BTW, the playlist is perfectly acceptable for road trips as well as round pairing. Perhaps more so. (https://open.spotify.com/user/jimmenick/playlist/1CzrLTz52lXBVAGs4GNG1p)

Tumbling Dice, Linda Ronstadt, Simple Dreams — I have a friend who was a big Ronstadt fan, who played for this for me at top volume when it first came, daring me to dislike it. I don't know. I never actually took to her, but this one recently popped up at random and I have to admit it's a goody. I've added the whole album for future consideration. Meanwhile, I will admit to liking her work with Parton and Harris, but I'm a sucker for harmony. Still, there's something about her voice that bugs me. I especially don't like her Nelson Riddle stuff. I just don't believe her when she sings those songs.

Like to Get to Know You, Spanky & Our Gang, Greatest Hits — Well, this is pure bubblegum, but I have a nostalgic liking for it. Spanky was, apparently, not the real Spanky's daughter. McFarland vs. McFarlane. Anyhow, once again, harmony. Nothing wrong with that. I didn't actually listen to the whole Greatest Hits album. I guess I should, if I want to be a 60s completist.

Route 66, Glenn Frey, After Hours — Can anyone ruin this song? It probably doesn't belong in the playlist as it's constructed, but it's a nice break from, I don't know, three Blue Cheer songs in a row (and no, there's no Blue Cheer in the list, after "Summertime Blues" somehow snuck in but then got caught and summarily expelled). Again, this just came up at random. Go fig.

New Orleans, Gary U.S. Bonds, Birth of a Legend — Another random popup. Thank God for random popups.

Half a dozen or so Crowbar and King Biscuit Boy songs from various albums — I just went on a jag with these guys. So sue me. They were never popular in the States, as far as I can remember, and I just happened to acquire an album at a secondhand record shop (that I happened to manage, giving me droit de seigneur over the used bin). Anyhow, if you can drive your car to their music and not get pulled over for speeding, you have one level head, my friend.

It Ain't the Meat It's the Motion, Maria Muldaur, Waitress in a Donut Shop — I've been late putting Muldaur songs on the list, but I'm a big fan. She is one of the great music archivists, and seems to always have been. She knows her roots, in other words. The role call of contributors to this album is pretty remarkable. Even Linda Ronstadt (see above) showed up. And Dr. John, among many many others, but there was a period (the last 50 years) where old Mac R seemed to show up on every album released in the US. This was a good thing.

Battle is Over But the War Goes On, Levon Helm, The Midnight Ramble Music Sessions Vol 2 — If I have to explain why Levon gets onto the playlist, you need to ask yourself if there isn't some Barry Manilow playlist you could be listening to.

(The New Way of) Grievin' and Smokin', The Gourds, Ghosts of Hallelujah — I went back to the beginning with these guys. This is their second album. When I'm creating the lists of things to audit for the playlist, it's sort of by name association. So after a Levon album, of course one would think of the Gourds. No, they're not The Band, but they're pretty good. This is mostly a country album, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Nothing from the "Stay Awake" album of odd Disney interpretations (e.g., Sun Ra does "Pink Elephants on Parade"), mostly because they're all medleys. Nothing from Collective Soul (eponymous) because they're pretty boring; "Heaven Let Your Light Shine Down" is more than enough, I guess.

Finally, I've been listening to The Beatles, AKA the White Album, remixed, with scads of extras. The music sounds great, and the extras (many of which are new to me) are very entertaining. I probably won't replace any White Album songs already on the playlist, but when I'm in a mood for this album in the future, this is the version I'll be listening to, either the original or the alternate comprising the extra cuts.

In which we go into IT mode

Photos sucks. The Mac app, that is. I've done all sorts of things to get it back to fighting trim on my Mac Mini, and the best I can say is that it now takes about a minute to delete a single photo as compared to freezing at the thought of deleting a photo. I come from the school that film is cheap and its cost should not limit your profligacy in taking as many varied shots as it takes to get one good one. The arrival of digital photography and the end of film (I used to travel on a week vacation with dozens of film cartridges) has been a joy. But at the point where you can't really work with them, not so much. I've cleaned the library, deleted the recently deleted, and most lately, launch in Safe Mode. Sooner or later, something will work. Curiously, I have no problems with my MacBook or, for that matter, my iPhone. Could the release of the new Mini have somehow triggered problems with the old one? As a rule, all appliances die roughly one day to one week after they're out of warranty. Why should Macs be any different.

Not that you care about any of this. But I want you to know where I've been wasting most of my time. That and cleaning up the home office. To begin with, I brought home tons of crap from the DJ office, despite the fact that even there I was tossing stuff with great abandon. But I should have greatly abandoned more than I did, I think. Oh, well. A box went out to the garbagemen this morning. They can look forward to more boxes, I'm sure. Good stuff will go to the Vets. Really good stuff (if any, other than a Nikon DSLR that both my daughter and I thought were with her but turned out to be anything but) will be adjudicated in an appropriate manor.

Tomorrow I delete Gem TBAs, We've got some more rooms for Saturday, but only from 8-4, which is sort of punk, if you know what I mean. That gives me maybe three rounds. Better than nothing, but not perfect. I've asked if they can make that 4 a 9. That would be ideal.

Onwards.

In which we make excuses

I don't think I've figured out this whole retirement thing yet. I was all ready to start blogging again last week, and I did a lot of stuff worth discussing, and yet...

Time management. That's my problem. I need to set up a daily schedule. So far I've been working on big issues unrelated to the interesting side of things (like why Photos on my Mini is practically dead in the water—very time consuming). But I've also addressed some debate issues as well. And haven't reported on them. My bad.

The big issue is two tournaments, the Gem of Harlem and the BenF, which are sadly lacking in that little thing called rooms. With Columbia, we've already cut the thing to shreds by removing the speech events, and we're still not where I would like to be. At one point I was considering triple-flighting on Friday due to lack of space. Kaz thinks that's the worst idea since I suggested eliminating Policy at Bigle X, but one does what one has to do. Anyhow, I'm hoping not to have to do it (and no, I really didn't suggest eliminating Policy at the Bigle, but I did intimate that we might not miss it at Penn, to a stern bout of Kazsplaining me out of the idea).

Penn, on the other hand, has all its events still intact, except JV LD and JV PF, neither of which I've even pretended will happen vis-a-vis the waitlist. But over the weekend I went to Catholic Charlie and he worked out a Vaughan-approved plan that gave me about 15 more rooms, so now I'm pretty sanguine that we can pull the damned thing off. It's up to the Penn folks now to make it happen. A word of advice to them: in the future, get all your rooms squared away in September. At the latest.

Finally, I stoked the ashes a bit and got Bump off the schneid. I emptied all but one of the waitlists in a reasonable fashion, and can get even more reasonable when Bronx puts in its entries. How, you may ask, do I guarantee attendance at the home stadium? Well, first of all, I think a one-dayer for the kiddies is a good idea, and secondly, you don't come to my tournament, I don't tab yours. Extortion? I don't know. After all, if I do tab your tournament, there's a chance I might delete the odd round here and there. You just have to weigh the pros and cons of the thing yourself. I can't do that for you.

In which we return

I've been away since the day following the Regis Sinvitational (AKA the Kristmas Klassik, AKA the Christmas Chlassic, AKA the Xmas Xic), visiting the family in the UK. For all intents and purposes, I disconnected from everything except for Instagram, where I posted a bunch of pix, and that was about it. But, now I'm back. And making lists of things to do, while not exactly doing anything.

Upcoming tournament todos: Columbia. Bump. Penn. These are the ones for which I have some responsibility. I will sort all by the end of the week. (I just got back yesterday, for Pete's sake. Give me a minute.)

I am also now embarking on fairly full unemployment, having officially retired from the DJ as of yesterday, my theoretical last day. I have no intentions of cutting back tournament work, and in fact, I've told Kathy S that next year I wouldn't mind working a little bit with her PFers, although I draw the line at taking them to tournaments or anything requiring that I assume official responsibility for them. I mean, that's why I retired from coaching in the first place. But I miss working on topics and cases, and now that the DJ won't be (justifiably) sucking all my juice, I'll be able to give it the time it deserves.

But that is in the future. For the time being, it's a question of getting over jet lag and sorting out all sorts of todos that have nothing to do with debate.

First thing I've noticed: it is nice not hearing an alarm the first thing on a weekday morning.