Newark

Newark has always been a good tournament for Hen Hud, combining as it does an invitational with an MHL, giving ample opportunity for anyone to try their hand at the old debate game. When I first started going, the invitational was much smaller than it is now, and we were dumb enough to come home late Friday night and go back again on Saturday, putting us into a state of virtually complete catatonia. Then I learned about the hotel. It was also one of the first tournaments I tabbed, and I can remember showing Dario the ropes as much as I knew them. I also remember what really happened those years everyone thinks Noah won the tournament, but I'll keep all that to myself.

This year I once again missed the invitational part in favor of the MHL, since I do have to run the latter. Four of the Sailors' finest managed to escape the clutches of the school by the skin of their teeth, and McLean managed to break his way through to Octos. As for the MHL, NoShow managed to take tin, and even showed up at the awards ceremony to pick it up! Talk about your never-ceasing wonders. This is the problem: these Mets people just have different priorities from the rest of us. Sometimes, like BenT, they even have different wardrobes. They inevitably have different email addresses, like ILOVEMETS, which looks to me like "I love 'em: ETs," but that's just me... I haven't been to a Mets game since the year they were formed, which was down at the Polo Grounds (am I remembering that correctly?). Since then I have been to a Yankees game and a Brewers game, one every twenty years without fail, and if Rose J-T ever comes back, I may even go to some other game, if my companions can ignore the kicking and screaming in the car driving over. Once I get there, just give me a hot dog and I'll shut up.

Then again, I shouldn't complain about sports. For the second year in a row I won the office SuperBowl pool. I am obviously quite the expert at picking blank boxes, a skill no debate coach should venture forth without.

Prior to rooting for my blank boxes last night, I worked up the Districts letter and sent it out, which is one more chore out of the way for the year. We did finish the final MHL of the year Saturday on a high, with some money in the bank and everybody geared up for next year. I love having the various UDL teams there; they do fill up a division! Of course, they also send in a new registration almost every day, but then again, no one sends in as many registrations per tournament as O'C. I've got my email filter set to automatically delete all but the last one unless there's abject apologies; we let the normal apologies go unnoticed, but the abject apologies are dipped in bronze and stored for the future, to be given away as double-octos awards.

Update: I saw Stefan and Lakeland now is looking at the first weekend of December for their all-policy tournament, alternating with Weston. This would be fine, as there would be no conflict with anyone; LDers could head down to Princeton.

Tomorrow night I give the famous (or what will become the famous) business lecture, and we begin brainstorming juvenile justice. Seems like old times, eh? I briefly looked over my old topic notes, which are voluminous. Who needs Victory Briefs when you've got a big hard drive? What do they charge over there at JD central, anyhow? I'll undercut 'em. Nobody beats our prices for old ideas and bad case positions! Send checks, cash, money orders, Muppet stamps, whatever. The only thing that's changed since the last time was the recent court decision, the one where certain SCOTUSians went ballistic over the idea that it was an accepted practice around the globe not to send children to sit on the lap of Old Sparky. Doesn't make it any more right or wrong, though. And you can commit a violent crime without mandating capital punishment. Anyhow, I'll go over all the old notes in detail tonight. Ah, the memories...