In which we plan for the worst

Well, the Pups came and went without me. It was strange not being in New Haven that weekend for the first time in about twenty years. I gather there was a tabroom outage but otherwise, predictably, everything went fine. Meanwhile I chezzed it up, working on other things entirely.

The problem of the tabroom outage got me thinking, though. The Bronxwegians have been biting their nails over this, ever since we had trifling issues at Byram Hills. But the idea of a full-fledged disaster plan is a bit daunting. Not that it can’t be done, but the issue is, is it worth it? That is, if tabroom goes kablooey, will it come back quicker than your offline recovery? If it does, you just go back to it. If it doesn’t, well, your plan goes into effect. And there you are. I spent a lot of time on Sunday poking around, looking for the tools that would enable disaster recovery. Apparently Kaz was doing the same, as she wrote me from her bus yesterday with her thoughts. We’re going to put together a document, which we’ll have, just in case. I will, of course, share it in the toolkit. I’m hoping it’s like bringing an umbrella on an iffy day: preparedness acts as a deterrent, in that it never rains if you give in and lug the umbrella along, and it always rains if you chance venturing forth without it. A talisman, then, in other words. And a plan, if necessary. Come to think of it, the last time tabroom went down badly was also at the Pups. Maybe it just needs a little more choking the engine every year to get it started. Nobody knows.

Things are definitely heating up for Rather Large Bronx. Catholic Charlie has been enlisted to work with us in debate, rather than wasting himself on speech. We need him more than they do. Numbers are still high, and I got into a brief Fb conversation with B Manuel about the clash of big numbers vs not clearing enough teams. I always get the impression that most schools care more about getting lots of slots than getting into elims, until, of course, their down-2s don’t clear. But at tournaments that have the capacity, I guess it does become a caveat emptor situation. If there’s 240 teams, 6 rounds does not clear all the 4-2s into triples. Not even close. But there are plenty of tournaments where that’s the norm, at least in PF, and it doesn’t seem to stop anyone from registering 10 teams, if they’ve got them. It sort of pits one sort of greed—getting a lot of slots—against another sort of greed—getting a lot of trophies. Damned if you do, etc. There’s not much solution to this, I think. There’s only so many hours in the day.

Speaking of big numbers, the Tiggers is nearing ignition. We’ve definitely decided to go with e-ballots for LD. The Tigs claim they have the staff to manage the buildings, and if not now, when? Kaz says she spent some quality time Friday night explaining to the odd bonehead cool kid the value of hitting the start button in a reasonable fashion. As I’ve said, I think obdurate judges are a bigger problem than befuddled newbies. We’ll see.

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