Nostrum?

I realize that not every member of the VCA is a grizzled veteran. We also have some grizzled raw recruits in there too. And when I mention something like Nostrum, the younger grizzlies look at each other with a perplexed expression wondering what in the nation of tar I’m talking about. So, for the sake of those who are unfamiliar with the place "where deontology is more than just an idea, it's a rebuttal," a trip down—what will be for the rest of us—memory lane.

Once upon a time there were two guys, Jules O’Shaughnessy and the Nostrumite. They set a mission for themselves, to write and publish a debate soap opera in weekly installments. These were the tales of Nighten Day School and Veil of Ignorance High School and, of course, Manhattan Lodestone (a magnet school), home to the Original Vaganza Tournament (“All other vaganzas are extra”). They introduced characters like Tarnish Jutmoll and Seth B. Obomash (coaches; can you say “anagram”?), Cartier Diamond and Hamlet P. Buglaroni and the Maru sisters (debaters), and the never-to-be-forgotten Vitelli Mafia family. Yes, what debate saga would be complete without the Mafia? The stories were filled with adventure, romance, crime, punishment, etc. They were, if anything, more interesting even than the real debate world.

Episodes appeared every Tuesday, published on the ld-l listserver, to a regular resounding response from the listserver subscribers saying, one way or the other, STOP SPAMMING US. But Jules and the Mite were undeterred. In addition to publishing their episodes, Jules wrote a weekly epistle updating their Nostrumian fans of their own comings and goings. Over the years we learned of their jobs and their lack of jobs, their dog (the Nostrumutt), and the Nostrumite’s bride, AKA the Nostrumate. We lived through their happy wedding and their sad divorce… Tears flowed, let me tell you.

And then the series stopped. No more episodes. No more epistles. It was over. We learned years later that the Nostrumite remarried and is now teaching in Boston at Tennessee Williams HS, and that Jules had gone off to claim the Moravian throne, never to be heard from again. Life, in other words, went on.

A couple of years ago, while trolling on archive.org, I did a search and found all the original episodes. Having time on my hands, I tracked down the Mite and got his permission to perform them as a podcast. I did about 75 or so of them before pooping out. I also posted the texts online. Then I meticulously cleaned up the next 25 for text-only posting, and then I pooped out on that too. A few days ago I realized that I still had all the old html files, so doing no cleanup whatsoever, I just linked those to my Nostrum page as well, thus bringing the world the full, all-inclusive Nostrum saga. These last pages contain a lot of dated references, the sort that I updated when I was doing the podcast, but, well, I was done, so what they are is what they are.

What I didn’t do is post the epistles from Jules. I do, actually, have these, but only in hard copy. The Mite, while cleaning out a room for the baby, dug up a box of them and sent them over to me. Someday when I really don’t have anything to do, I’ll scan them in and post them. Or maybe I’ll ask Cruz to do it. If he has time to scan in ballots from 1776, he ought to be able to find time for these.

Anyhow, that’s what Nostrum is all about. You might still find it entertaining. I would recommend starting with the podcast. The first couple are sort of creaky, but I quickly got the hang of it. One or two of them MUST be read rather than listened to (like the legendary episode: “Hand Me De Construction Paper / Papier De Hand Me De Construction / Paper De Hand Me Of Construction,” where the story is printed first in English, then in literal translation to the French, then back to English, a la Jumping Frog), but most are fine for podcast entertainment. If you’re hooked after the podcasts run out, you can read the rest.

To my knowledge, no one else has ever attempted what Jules and the Mite did, to create a fictional world of debate. Granted, it was the 90s, and some of it might seem passé, but most of it is roughly the same.

Check it out.