Nothing major

As in, not much happening except odds and ends.

As my request for novices to send paragraphs explaining their aff and neg positions for Mar-Apr proved almost frightening, I went on to request simple sentences on each side. Still scary. It would seem that our Sailors think mostly that juveniles are inherently guilty of all crimes with which they are charged, and should be hung by the thumbs in the public square. And the reason for this, which is what I've been trying to get at? Your guess is as good as mine. Debate them this weekend at Fordham; maybe you'll find out. When you do, let me know. Curiously enough, the negs all think that these wacky kid criminals (of the rez, not the Sailors) are somehow different from adults. Wouldn't the aff argument be, logically, that they are somehow NOT different from adults, and all you'd have to do is pick a somehow? But what do I know? I'm only the coach.

These novices are a pretty scary group, all told. And speaking of which, there seems to be some Speecho-American newbie who is just signing up for the Speech listserver now, and who doesn't know how to sign up for tournaments. Or so say his plaintive emails. And I thought our folks were unique... I told him to go to a meeting and talk to someone. Good advice, but who knows if he'll follow it?

I started moving paper around last night for Districts. I've got to figure out what, exactly, the HH entry will be. The judging is pretty damned thin on the ground, and I haven't been able to hire anyone other that CLG and maybe half of Justin, so it's going to be tough to cover much of anybody, much less extras for the tournament as a whole. Dave will judge, though, so that helps. I'm afraid it will be up to Scarsdale and Iona to fill up things up to the rafters. You'd think the promise of a day off from school would do the trick for the Jolly Tars, but not even that seems to be working except for a couple of the more cognoscenti delinquents.

The chez tonight will mostly be on the floor, since Kt the Spamless Goddess of Silence took half the furniture. No more futon (I almost typed no more tofu). No more red comfy chair. Hard times, indeed. On the bright side, that will encourage them to leave early...

There's a round robin up in the Brandeis area toward the middle of April. I'd go if it were, well, not up in the Brandeis area toward the middle of April. The problem with post-Districts stuff is that, for all intents and purps, the year is over, and one isn't all that motivated to go to unexpected new venues. As it is, I don't think I'll be able to swing going to CatNats if we do qualify anyone, but I am going to try. We'll see. Then again, the qual does come first, eh?