Saturday was the NYCFL meeting. Nothing came out of it to shatter the earth, but it did make it feel that there was forensics in the late summer air.
Everything in the schedule went about as expected, although we moved the Christmas Debate CFL to 12/22 because of conflicts at Regis, our regular venue. This might be good, keeping down the numbers slightly, as some folks will have tootled off to their estates in the Highlands or whatever. Given that last year's Christmas CFL was the debacle that brought about the rules changes, that can't be a bad thing. Loyal members of the VCA will recall that this was the tournament where some poor schlub novice got three byes in a row, thus bringing me to the decision to shut it down after round three, and go ballistic on the folks who had no idea who on their teams was present and/or accounted for. Henceforth we began finializing registrations on the morning of the MHLs, and it turned out to be not a slap on the wrist but a step towards greater efficiency in the electronic age. Who knew? Anyhow, the rules will be changed similarly for the CFL in the debate world, and no doubt before long in the speech world as they transition completely to tabroom.com.
Much of Saturday's discussion was about congress. I have heard people claim that congress is sort of dull. I can't speak to that, but I can attest to the fact that discussing congress, at least at NYCFL meetings, makes dull look like Coney Island. Seven of the coaches in the midst of the discussion swore a suicide pact and cut one another's throats before we'd even gotten around to the question of reusing legislation. I'm suggesting that next year, to protect what throats are left, congress be discussed separately from everything else. Somewhere else. Far away. Of course, one of the great highlights of meetings past was the discussion of the use of your old OOs by someone else's Declaimers. For those of us who have judged OO, ninety percent of which is suicide pact material and the other ten percent of which is just teeth-gritting stuff, the idea that they're being reprocessed into Dec speeches, two hundred percent of which are suicide pact material, is beyond imagining. That was the second most painful discussion ever. Number One? Buy me a drink and I'll tell you in person.
Ari P was there for the first time. I managed to stay his hand right when he was finishing his stropping and singing loudly "Raise your razor high, Sweeney." Ari wants to learn to tab, and we're going to throw him into the Pups with me and Palmer. Given that we have two pretty large divisions, that should help things enormously, as well as provide a little baptism by northeast fire to the lad. Good tabbing requires a lot of skills that are pretty useless as a general rule, so we'll see how he likes it. A couple of other folks were new to the group, with teams they were just putting together, and JV and I made sure that they showed up at the MHL Workshop with whatever noobs they can dig up.
Pups in less than two weeks? Wow. And first meeting tomorrow night at the school. It occurred to me to look at the calendar: there are enough Jewish holidays, and days off from school, over the next few weeks to choke a goat. Much dancing around will ensue. So it goes.
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