In which we tie up a few loose ends

I guess I should be updating you on the Tiggers, but we’re at the least interesting part of the process. I sent out the usual instructions on conflicts and MJP this morning, and got back a few responses like, What in tarnation you talkin’ ‘bout, you young whippersnapper, or, Please change this judge for that judge on Saturday only in the library with the lead pipe. Mostly it’s just diddly changes this late in the game, or coaches wanting me to somehow wheel and deal in their direction. I usually don’t (shocking!) but they do get points for trying. Meanwhile, if I can just get one more sick kid to drop in VLD, I’ll be able to let in my last hanging waitlister. What’s holding me back is space, the final frontier. There are now exactly enough debaters to fill the rooms, and exactly enough rooms to hold the debaters. So if one more kid gets the yaws or whatever, some other lucky kid gets to visit beautiful downtown Tiggerville in that kid’s place.

Ain’t life swell?

The weather for the upcoming weekend looks decent. This time of year, anything can happen. In the past we’ve been blizzarded, or frozen by arctic winds, or roamed around in our shirtsleeves. The same holds for the following week, the original Bump weekend, now the Ridge weekend. Ridge will be much easier for me than the Tigger weekend; the Ridgidians do all the work of running the thing, and all I have to do is tab and occasionally yell at some judge who is taking too long. I can do those things easily enough.

Meanwhile, it still looks as if Donald Trump is going to be our commander-in-chief. I have to admit that while I like the idea of burying myself in a hole for four years, a possibility that my inherent privilege would easy allow, that doesn’t seem to be the way to go. So suddenly I find myself twittering up a storm. Complacency in the face of evil is unacceptable. Do I really think Trumpie is evil? I’m not sure. I do think he endangers human rights, however, in many many ways. I guess that is one definition of evil, come to think of it, even if more than anything it’s motivated by ignorance and indifference. And on top of that, I find his family really scary. I know that families are supposed to be off-limits, but he’s the one bringing them in, not me. Whenever I see them I can only think of one thing, The Village of the Damned. You should see that movie (the original). Or better yet, read the book, The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. If you haven’t read Wyndham, you’re in for a treat.