All Together Now

“All Together Now” is O’C’s favorite Beatle song, or close thereto. We listened to it 33 times in a row at ALJ. I have to admit to liking it myself, at least the first 20 times or so. After that, it does get a little old.

ALJ was much as expected. Members of the VCA know well that O’C and I are strong supporters of local debate, and ALJ is a classic local tournament. Back in the Dark Ages I used to judge the woman who is now coaching the team (and you thought I already felt old, although at least the good news is that she’s still comparatively young, so I don’t need the walker just yet). She’s an old Bronx Scientology alum, as O’C points out every time he speaks to or about her. (“Hey, Kristin, Bronx Science 2002, which direction is the cafeteria?”) She has taken over at ALJ for Bill Cooper, who is now trying to figure out where Tim Averill hid the Manchwegian Sacred Lobster. The tournament was inaugurated by Cooper last year, so it’s still brand spanking new by any criteria. We got a very nice sized field with a good mix of schools, all of whom, with the exception of the usual suspects up in the frigid folds of Monticello, braved the non-existent snow to participate. A nice judge pool, including a bunch of Kristin’s former college debater friends (my favorite adjudicators, because they understand debate and have no particular connections to high schoolers or their peccadilloes), balanced things out. Capping things off, having O’C tell me Great Tales of Debate Adventure that brought tears to my eyes didn’t hurt either. (Hmmm… Tales of Great Debate Adventure. That’s probably what I should do with that material!)

The one problem that I would suggest anyone running a tournament think about was that tab and ballots were very far away from judges and competitors. We’ll fix that next year. Given that the number one priority at any tournament is making the rounds happen, bridging great distances in aid of that priority is not good. Often there’s nothing to be done about it, for instance, at Big Jake, where the combination of numbers and physical plant is prohibitive, or at the college tournaments, where everyone is flung far out into all of creation in different buildings entirely. But as I say, at ALJ we’ll be able to solve the problem, and will. I did note that one judge was complaining that his slice of pizza was not heated to his liking, which somehow conflicted with his valiant effort to redeem the tournament from the brink of disaster into which tab had been threatening to sink it, but I’m happy to report that, in fact, there were no particular tabbing issues (except my usual inability to get the rooms straight in breaks) and, as far as the food was concerned, never once did the Panivore come to me demanding more aspic in the foie gras, so I’m not quite sure what that was all about, nor, I must admit, do I actually care. I only point it out in case you were wondering.

Anyhow, I’m looking forward to Kristin building the tournament in the coming years. If she can keep the blizzards from happening as she establishes it (after all, it is the first week of January), it will become a standard event. There’s a nice picture of her and Cooper that O’C took in tab. It’s good to see a program stay alive after a coach moves on, with amity on all sides. It should be ever thus.