Continuing apace

There's been a lot of back-and-forth lately about LDEP stuff with Smilin' J and company. I guess the goal is to have something by TOCs (an obvious and important goal). It's hard to report what exactly is happening, but it doesn't look bad. I keep pushing for short, sweet and simple. Then again, I always push for simple. People always understand simple. And all things can be presented with simplicity it you work hard enough at it. When news breaks, anyhow, I'll let you know.

I thought I'd do Districts last night but I did Mr. Businessman. So sue me.

A new schedule is flying around the circuit, with dates of all of next year's tournaments, mostly. There's a couple of confusing areas, but we're closer than we usually are, and at a much earlier date. I did, at some point, almost commit to hosting a division of Pffft at Bump. I was thinking of taking up to 10 rooms at the high school and seeing how that works. Of course, I'd be taking them at the expense of policy, but so it goes. Local policy these days is so far down to seeds and stems that cutting back their numbers at Bump actually makes sense. I mean, there will be plenty of slots for the teams that are still extant, but simply put, I can make more money with a room of double-flighted Pffft than I can with a room of single-flighted Policy. Do the math. Plus a flurry of correspondence not that long ago among the policy honchos didn't exactly make me want to be their happy host ad infinitum. Curiously enough, they complain that the northeast has no policy TOC bids. I've run a tournament with 40 or so Varsity teams for 10 years, regular as clockwork. Work with me? Na'ah. I'm the enemy. So, I'll be the enemy. You heard it here first: in the not too distant future, I foresee a Bump with three divisions: Varsity LD, Pffft, and a nice big Novice LD division (as Newburgh used to have). Not in 2006, but 2007? (Yeah, I know, I should keep my mouth shut about this stuff, but when have I ever done that?)