Our tribute to seafood!

My goodness.

First of all, I think that, once I turn on the microphone for TVFT, I immediately get even grumpier than usual. Last night I couldn’t find myself saying anything good about anything, which is ridiculous, because I am the ultimate Mary Sunshine. I’ll work on that.

CP wrote a long comment on the TVFT college tournament show (all of this can be seen over at the TVFT blog). The subject remains interesting, but I think one thing needs to be clarified: the presence of CP at the universities that he godfathers has been a strong positive factor in making those tournaments not only run better, but run better every year, with an institutional memory (CP’s) that might not otherwise exist. A big problem with universities that he has solved has been that institutional memory. Pre-CP, every year many of them would start all over again from scratch with new directorates, and not only make new mistakes, but revisit classic mistakes of the past. The presence of CP limits them to new mistakes and deliberated improvements. Of course, there are a lot of universities that do have admins in place for the duration, e.g., Harvard, where the problems are entirely different. And God knows, you don’t have to be a college to screw up a tournament or a league.

There’s a couple of things that need to be in place in order to get past my general biliousness. First and foremost, good intentions. We all start out ignorant. I have my own history of forensic lunacy. But what is our goal? If we aim to do the right thing, we can practice aiming until we do. Second, concerned use of power. This may be my chief gripe with the activity, the installed power bases, sometimes quite isolated, sometimes overarching, who misuse that power for whatever reason. Third, people who don’t change, who don’t learn, who think they’re right. Do I think I’m right? Of course I do. One hundred percent of the time. The VCA is well aware of that. Can I learn that, in fact, I was wrong? Of course I can. As often as necessary. The VCA is well aware of that too. Do I make mistakes? Sure. Do I admit it and correct them? No, I blame O’C and have him correct them, but that’s roughly the same thing. My point is, if you think you know what is best for, well, anybody, you may be right, but I would advise you to keep wondering. One never knows, does one?

Speaking of correcting mistakes, it turns out that Bietz thinks I’m anti-Asian for foisting cheese steaks on them, as if I’m responsible for their lactose intolerance. Which is, needless to say, pretty anti-Hindu on his part, what with all those steaks (although I’m not so sure that cows, or for that matter, any predictable farm animal, is the source of some of those “steaks”), not to mention his obvious disregard for the gluten intolerant (I’ll venture a guess here that this is mostly Methodists, a group that seldom gets its fair share of abuse, if you ask me). And he has the nerve to attack me? Jeesh. Let me make it clear that I am attacking the language of cheese-free cheese steaks, not the concept of cheese-free cheese steaks. You want to be Asian? Don’t let me stop you. But a cheese-free cheese steak is not a cheese steak. I’m sorry, but there’s principles involved here, and I’m sticking to them.

One last note. As usual, the message and the messenger are once again totally confused. Let me explain this for the millionth time. Jules O’Shaughnessy and the Nostrumite write Nostrum. The wrote Nostrum: TOS and they’re writing Nostrum: TNG. I simply host it on my website. My performances of the episodes arise from my need to keep busy: I am like a forensic shark that never sleeps. (All right, maybe not a shark. I’m more like a forensic halibut that never sleeps, but you get the point.) I ask that you do not confuse creator and publisher, so to speak.

Jim Menick, forensic halibut. Why do I think they’ll put that on my gravestone?

(And by the way, don't try this at home. Oh, wait, you already do.)