Recidivists and ribbon clerks, terminal haranguing, volunteerism, please take young children by the hand

The cutting of the ribbon clerks has definitely begun. Apparently a few of them (who, frankly, hardly looked like debaters to me, and I do believe that there is a debate look, and that Policians look different from LDers) have gone over to the Speecho-American side. But we’re finally down to manageable numbers that should remain constant henceforth. That does not, however, account for the recidivists, who seem to fill half the upperclass population these days. People who haven’t debated since the Harding administration are suddenly showing up, some because it will look good on their resumes (and I applaud such forthright explanations), some because they just like to get out of the house, some because I may be the only person they know who regularly makes throwaway jokes about postmodernism. Whatever. The room is full no matter how you slice it, and will remain so for a while.

Last night with the plebes we began with my annual read-the-Times bit, where I explain how to do it (including pointing out the page 3 hottie, which is as Star as the Times ever gets, if you know what I mean and I think you do) and threaten terminal haranguing (terminal insofar as I harangue them until I get tired of doing it). Then we went into the good old V/C discussion, as always concentrating on the minivan and the convertible. Then as the elders came in we segued into logical fallacies, which was sort of fun, but most of the night it was just me talking, and that’s starting to get a little old, plus I worked on this whole plebe introduction to logic that I forget to print up for the Cur, so I had the odd bit of starting friction (and so much for owning 4398 printers). Next week we’ll have a new resolution; much more fun than a lecture, although part one of the meeting will be the Hillary Duff. Which reminds me: there is now a coachean glossary on this page. As new members are inducted into the VCA, they may be at a loss to understand VBD we’re talking about. This will help, or discourage them immediately from ever coming back. Either result is fine by me.

We didn’t get any new Bump parent volunteers, which isn’t good. Dave will be pounding the pavement to enlist a few, especially in the judges’ lounges and in the contributions area. We did have leftover money from last year, which won’t hurt (leftover, if you don’t recall, because we were blizzarded out in ’05). At least for now our honchos all have experience one way or the other, so ’06 is as secure as it can get. I think I’ll go to Bora Bora for ’07. I’ve heard from the grammar school, and they’re on the case with room lists, thanks to our Hardware Engineers, past and present. High school should be forthcoming. Registrations continue apace; there’s a bunch in my mailbox I haven’t looked at yet.

And, oh yeah, Kt and I have begun the heavy lifting for WDW. We now have a Google calendar and a TUG website, and we’ve already committed what would otherwise be the outright heresy of planning MK for the last night instead of the first, but as it turns out the last night, a Saturday, will be a very long day (open till midnight, I think), so it can be a slam-bam finale. V&A is moved to mid-vacation. Aloha fills in for Hoop, since we haven’t been since Kt was 5 or so; she’s older now. More details as they become available. Feel free to join us for the trip; the more the merrier. And I need someone to sit with on the roller coasters.