Good old Rippin' and a bottle of plonk

And then the NSDA went virtual…

No surprise there, of course. And I wish them all success with it since, as indicated earlier in the week, I am starting to believe that there is a possibility of real tournaments being conducted online as a matter of course in some not so distant future, but using resources provided by a team’s school and not individuals. Eliminating travel costs would open forensics to almost everyone. The possibility is fascinating. Whether as a community we will ever do this depends on us, but I do think people might start looking in that direction after the dust clears on covid-19.

I do have doubts about some of the interp activities, though, at least at the moment. I have seen enough performances to know that the physical aspects of them, not to mention the intimacy of performance in person, are pretty much beyond the average person’s computer camera and earpod mic. It’s hard enough for professionals to capture live performance; for the rest of us, it may just not be possible. At worst, a set of performances could be skewed competitively by the quality of one’s hardware, which of course brings us back to the money talks side of the business. Again, solutions can probably be created, but they are more likely to come from within a high school rather than at home. 

But, as I say, I wish NSDA well. They are the glue of our activity, the thing that unifies us however much we may disagree with this or that particular aspect of it. (I’m looking at you, coinflip.) 

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I spent an endless amount of time today getting Delta to provide a credit for my May trip to the UK, but it finally happened. What I would like to do is go in September, but I’ll go whenever as soon as I can. I have a granddaughter to corrupt!

On the entertainment front, since I’ve been home for over a year and developed a pretty set daily routine, I haven’t been put out as much as some others by the quarantine. So I haven’t been digging deep into the archives to find things to pass the time any more than usual. Having just finished reading Wolf Hall, I thought I’d take a break to snack on some Rumpole of the Bailey stories by Emily Mortimer’s father. The only problem with these stories is that there is not enough of them. Each one is a perfect little gem. And anyone who ever saw the TV series with Leo McKern has him way in the front of one’s mind as one reads, although I don’t think that’s an essential requirement. If you haven’t tried them, they get my highest recommendation. 

WAIT A MINUTE! WHAT??? BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH IN A RADIO VERSION??? The bind moggles. You never know what you'll find looking something up on Amazon. I also just found a late novel about the legendary Penge Bungalow murders. My fingers have never jumped on a Kindle download so quickly.