In which we discuss what we did instead of the Blowout

Not much shaking on the home front. Or chez front, I guess, to be more precise. We cancelled the Blowout relatively early in the game, when it was apparent that not enough people were coming. Given the costs associated with running a tournament, like custodians, for instance, you can’t just do this stuff willy nilly. How much money should the Bronx pay to debate the Bronx ended up being the big question.

As I indicated yesterday, I’m about done with the MHL. It has served its purpose well for many years, but its purpose no longer needs the MHL to serve it. If there’s an active UDL circuit in the city, and if they’re willing to accept the MHL folks, then I say go with it. Of course, the VCA knows that I have often bemoaned the lack of support of local debate we often see. Local debate around here allows people to enjoy the benefits of forensics without the commitment of offering the sacrifice of their firstborn, when the time comes. Debate as part of a healthy diet, in other words, rather than an entire diet consisting of nothing but debate. For those hearty souls who enjoy that monolithic diet, have fun. There’s a $ircuit out there just waiting for you. But for everyone else, the alternative of doing just some debate seems reasonable. That’s why I moved over from LD to PF. I got tired of losing students who couldn’t stomach the harsh diet. Unfortunately there are a lot of $ircuit opportunities around here, and they command most of the attention. So it goes, eh?

Having no tournament to go to on Saturday allowed me to attack a very big chunk of the Nostrum repurposing. I had hoped to get the Kindle edition out last Fall, but I underestimated the size of the thing and the amount of work necessary. It’s now all in one file, and it’s about 1800 pages. Do you have any idea how much writing that is? Jeesh! What was I thinking? Anyhow, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. There’s only a couple more chapters to edit, and it will be done. Or at least The Original Series will be done, and I can get that volume out. It will solely consist of the (occasionally annotated) original episodes. Volume 2 will be the Epistles of St. Jules to the Forensicians, the lost Tennessee Williams High School Chronicles, Nostrum Series 2 (The Next Generation) with the Julean epistles in their proper positions, and finally, the unpublished Nostrum Series 3. If anything, Volume 2 will be more fun to put together. I look forward to going over the old Epistles. They were often more entertaining than the episodes, if you ask me, and they haven’t seen the light of day since the 90s.

With all this toying around with old content, I’m thinking of using CL as a vehicle for republishing some of it serially, the way it should be published. I can really see something like “Nostrum Fridays” coming down the pike. If you’re following CL via RSS, you might want to get out now while the getting’s good.