In which we get all terpsichorean

Been playing around in most of the venues. For the Scarswegians, there’s the question of squeezing out some VPF single flights on Saturday. We don’t have enough pure VPF judges to pull it off, but there are a few impure adjudicators out there, hiding among the NPF or other divisions. Thanks to a little pool juggling, we should be able to pull it off no problem.

Single flights are usually a boon to the tab room. With double flights, you’re usually hard-pressed to move from last ballot in to next round out, schedule-wise, a pressure that normally doesn’t exist with singles. They’re also a boon to judges. Let’s face it. If it’s doubles, and you’re in most rounds, you’re going to judge a lot more than if it’s singles, even if you judge every round. Occasionally we have more PF judges than we know what to do with, but that is not a regular occurrence. For the most part, no division ever has more than enough judges, and we make the best of it. That—making the best of what we have—is, in fact, what tab does to earn its princely or princessly albeit imaginary salaries.

Scarsdale also has the tradition of varsity LD judging novice LD. I’ve always thought this is a great idea, but over the years I’ve noticed some schools simply not doing it, with debaters who are nevertheless more than capable of judging novices. I’ve always wondered if they just haven’t gotten the memo, or if they’re trying to grab some competitive advantage, on the assumption that the judging debaters will be too tuckered out to compete at their best. I know from experience that this will not be the case, but that’s just me. And, of course, I’ve always been a strong proponent of student judging, insofar as it broadens the scope and improves the maturity value of one’s career in high school debate (which, of course, is the guiding value underlying Scarsdale’s system at their invitational). Hell, I’ve even encouraged students who only wanted to judge. Why not? Better that than hanging around in the mall, or wherever it is people hang out nowadays. Some people feel otherwise, I guess. But some people ain’t me…

As for the Pups, I’ve published a revised schedule, slipping in the ideas that, A) we’ll have judge calls in LD and B) you’re obligated through doubles. I will further concentrate on those as we get closer to the event.

Down in Philadelphy (where the fellas chew tobaccy and the women wicky wacky woo—there’s a deep cut for you), one pig in the boa is a contingent of about a billion or so Chinese PF teams, which the school wants to accommodate. Nice, in many respects, and I’m all on board with it, although I’ve alerted the BenFs that they’d better acquire a whole extra slew of judges to handle them.

The Gem, meanwhile, is dragging its feet, but since it always drags its feet, I’m not worrying about it. We’ve been in touch and all systems are go, as much as they ever are there.

And, of course, next week there’s Wee Sma Lex, where I don’t have to do much but hope and pray that, when he set up the tournament, CP made some bonehead mistake so that I can do happy dance. Last year he missed assigning one of the room pools, which sent all the kids into the Lexwegian equivalent of Room 101—heh heh heh. Happy dance, happy dance. Heh heh heh. Oh, yeah. Tabroom is so easy even a dead parrot can do it. Happy dance! Happy dance!

(You know, even for me, this post has been an especially rich collection of hidden and/or not-so-hidden cultural references. And let me tell you, trying to find images for happy dance that are not Pharrell-related? There's a mug's game for you!)