In which we start our debate season and wonder about the Pup backlog

We interrupt this WDW reverie to report on debate stuff.

Last night was the first meeting of the returning Hendronauts. Well, four of them, anyhow. A few were AWOL, and a couple were looking at colleges. We argued a bit about LD, my feeling being that a case should show that organ procurement is a social good, and therefore a part of a just society, versus the idea that a case should define a just society in such a way that organ procurement fits in. That just seems backwards to me. Then we listened to much whining about the PF pro, which no one seems to like from Stefan B on down, although intuitively I feel there must be something there. I uncharacteristically committed to doing some research. The thing is, I always think that the debaters should be doing the research, in that it’s part of their education and, to tell you the truth, I actually already know how to research and am not looking to improve my skills in that area. Shouldn’t I be training them to research for themselves? Silly me. Of course, I know a lot of coaches who disagree with this, who cut cards and whatnot. More power to them. I just feel that it’s not my job. Next thing you know, they’ll want me to write their cases for them! That’ll be the day.

We also ran through a little exercise. Shades of Soddy: I wanted them to do “Modern Major General.” The ones who read their email were shockingly good at it. I need to raise the ante a bit. “Getting Married Today”? After that we ran through some Robert Burns. If patter doesn’t get ‘em, the Scots will.

And it turns out that there are new Nostrumians among the Sailors. Great Googly Moogly! Who knew?

Meanwhile, the Pup waitlists in PF and LD remain larger than the accepteds. If you’re a reader of this blog, I would strongly suggest that sending me an email asking me to do something about that is a waste of energy. You’re better off emailing everyone else on the list and convincing them not to come. Hell, you’re a debater. Argue them out of coming. The thing is, most people think that

• coming from a great distance
• being the best debater since the creation of the human animal
• living really close and always thinking that of all the Ivies, Yale is the best
• demanding to speak to my manager
• acting real friendly to me, buddy buddy (as if I can remember names and faces two minutes later)
• slipping me fifty bucks (well, actually one’s offered to slip me fifty bucks, so that might actually work, if anyone wants to try it)

will somehow convince me to take other people out of the tournament and put them in. Or maybe they expect me to run up and construct an extra building or two? Beats me. Hope springs eternal, however. We should get a bit of a lurch next week when we drop TBAs, but as CP points out, most people will just fill in names of some sort. Most but not all, methinks.

We'll find out soon enough.