Baton Rouge Tournament Cancelled, Again
Well, at the end of the day, Joe Edley had his way. Here's a notice composed by Helen Joffe, who would have been the tournament director.
>Subject: [ospd] 2/11/06 Tourney CancellationThe great and powerful OZ hath spoken -- no, wait, it was the NSA
"Advisory Board." I was advised (in an exceptionally nice e-mail) that due to insufficient notice the 2/11/06 tourney could not be fully rated, but could be rated on a 1/3 basis, as a Local Club Tournament. Technically, this would be a rules violation also, because the tournament would have had participants from at least three different Louisiana clubs whose members do not play at more than one club, but that is beside the point.After polling those who had expressed interest in having the tourney
prior to the ruling, it was determined that proceeding would be "too much shufflin of de dishes for de fewness of de food." In other words, there is insufficient interest in attending a one-third rated tournament to justify the time, expense, and effort to hold said tournament.On a more positive note Lila Crotty, to whose capable hands I turned
over the reins of directing Club 541 about a year ago, has advised that she TENTATIVELY plans to have a New Orleans tourney the third weekend in May, provided she can secure sufficient hotel room reservations for expected out-of-town participants. Lila can be depended on to properly dot the i's and cross the t's required to ensure that the tourney is fully rated, advertised, and promoted, which is a good thing.My sincerest apologies to those disappointed by cancellation of the
2/11/06 tourney; you may rest assured I won't muck up like this ever again. I resign fully and finally from directing and hope to improve my playing abilities so that I can once again derive the pure enjoyment from playing this game that led me to become involved in tournaments in the first place.Helen Joffe
I guess that means I won't be able to play a tournament before the new word list kicks in on March 1.
That means I've got to learn those new words (and unlearn the expunged words like EMF), and get accustomed to the possibilities of QI and ZA. No more Q-sticks!
Hey Mike,
Glad to see you back. I'm glad some normalcy has returned for you and your scrabble insight and advice has returned for me. Although I have no tournament experience, I thought I would take a minute to express my agreement with your points. Certainly this would be a time to bend the rules if ever there was one, particularly a rule whose necessity is questionable. In any case, keep of the good work and thank you again the help and inspiration you have unwittingly provided me.
Randy,
San Luis Obispo, CA
Thanks Randy, I really appreciate your comments.
I can't say that the hurricanes really dismantled my life like it did for people in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast areas, but I guess they did make me question the value of not only playing Scrabble, but also the value of blogging about playing Scrabble.
So in a sense, me getting back into playing and blogging Scrabble is a return to normalcy, but it could be just as easily be interpreted as a return to abnormality.