Meanwhile, you ask, what else is new in the world?
Let’s see. Princeton is opened and packed to the gills (and
then some). The warnings have gone out that TBAs will disappear on Monday. This
always requires lots of warnings, because, well, we really mean it, and once
they’re gone, they’re gone. I have found that this part of the process does a
good job of cutting out the ribbon clerks. What isn’t so easy to cut out is the
waitlisted camp and independent entries. The invitation is clear that the tournament is open to
official school entries only, but I guess hope springs eternal.
Penn just opened yesterday. That always seems early to me,
but whatever. We worked with it last year. I’ve cleaned up the spreadsheet I
used last year to track numbers and I’m ready to start breaking hearts any
minute, although it won’t be for a couple of weeks. Probably the biggest
problem is that there are always a lot of local Philadelphia schools that don’t
understand that they can’t just waltz in at the last minute and expect slots.
We totally filled up last year and expect to do so again this year. Where do
they think those slots are coming from?
JV has been refining the Scarsdale tournament. My only fear
there is the inexperienced tab room staff. Can Kaczmarek, Page, Menick and
Sloat actually do this job? Of course, it’s comparable to the tab room at Baby
Bump, of Menick, Vaughan, Page and Sloat. Somehow these tournaments manage to
happen, despite our efforts to the contrary.
Kaz has started sending out messages about Wee Sma Lex.
There seems to be about a hundred divisions happening all at the same time. It’s
always fun, even if it is wee sma. Key this year will be e-ballots. As I’ve
said at various times, a tournament that is not all E reaps few benefits of E
other than not having to enter some of the ballots. That’s some benefit, but
the speediness of an e-tournament is lost. That’s a big one.
Other than that, there’s Ridge of course. Lexington and I
are staying at some new place in the wilds of New Jersey. Be prepared to send
out the hounds.
My tournament calendar year winds up with the Christmas
Chlassic, or the Kristmas Klassic, or whatever you want to call it. The
Holiday Hasidic? The Xmas Xic? The KwanzaaVaganza? Pick one. Then we put our
little feet up and rest for a while.
Whew.
